The Mansion of E by Robert M Cook :: chapter summaries
Robert M Cook's own synopsis page, which ties events in to individual strips rather than chapters, can be viewed here.
Note that this page provides a detailed analysis of each chapter, with comments on everything that happens and how it relates to events in other chapters. If you just want a brief summary with which to locate particular sections of the story, you will find one here.
The series progresses along several different tracks, each covering multiple threads. The main story mostly centres around the doings of the Eman family, of a Human bodyguard named Rosemary and of a Gnoll named Comshaw. However, there are also secondary series which deal mainly with the doings of more minor characters in the Basement under the eponymous Mansion, and with the lives of Gnolls who live and work in a region of deep-underground machinery known as the SubShafts and, later, with the adventures of the Fuzz Frizzlegarb and a tiny robot, who are both living in an area called the Hollows in the far future relative to the rest of the strip. Originally, the main strip appeared on weekdays, the Basement strips on Saturdays and the SubShaft and later the Hollows ones on Sundays. There are also sequences of special holiday strips which show life among the tiny Smyts, scenes from other countries etc.
These different series are very confusing to follow in the way they were posted, all mixed up together. They also don't always march in sequence with each other. I therefore separated them out onto separate pages. However, whilst the Sunday in the Hollows series exists in its own future time period, the Sundays in the SubShafts and the later Saturdays in the Basement series more or less run in parallel with the main series and sometimes cross-reference with it, so it's as well to pay attention to the dates of each section, and the links to the parallel strips which are provided underneath the chapter headings. You may want to read a chapter of the main strip, then the matching Basement and SubShaft chapters, back and forth. The plain contents list and the contents list with brief summaries have links directly to the matching strips.
If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
Part One: The Pots Room [16/07/2003 – 13/06/2004] 01: The New Arrival [16/07/2003 – 13/08/2003] Sylvester Eman, 23rd Earl of E, is seen performing a kind of mechanical ritual, pressing letters on a touch-screen in a sequence set out in a book, in order to keep the family home, the Mansion of E, healthy. One of the results is that many disembodied eyes appear on the touch-screen (a fourth-wall breach reference to the fact that we, the audience, are watching him), which is a new thing Sylvester finds alarming, but he greets them as instructed by the official Task Book, after flicking through it and ending up on 12th/13th April (we will learn later that it's the 12th). His brother Mortimer joins him: he has brought home a professional bodyguard named Rosemary Ripley to the Mansion. While they are getting introduced, a slavering monster called a Dornbeast appears, half T. rex and half squid, which leads Sylvester to assume Mortimer has left the door to the Basement open. Rosemary kills the Dornbeast with a vase, and the brothers cook and eat part of it. Their joy at having a monster to eat suggests that they are quite poor, despite living in a vast building. The rest of the beast is rendered down for parts in a machine made by Ludwig, the 18th Earl, and those organs which can't be used will be sold to Old Man Larssen in the village (later a major character). Rosemary is surprised that they appear to only have "a" guest room in a place this size (we will learn that they don't so much inhabit the Mansion as camp uneasily in parts of it), but astonished by the luxury of being given a room with its own bath and writing desk and an actual flush toilet (and, for no obvious reason, a picture of a skunk in a tutu, or maybe it's a rubber flotation ring), but puts off writing to her Aunt Eva because she finds it difficult to admit to what she's done. We will later learn that she has gone AWOL from a respected security firm called Hack 'n' Slash, but for the moment we just see that she is a thief and fugitive who has travelled a long way by some mysterious means which have resulted in her not knowing where on the continent she is, except in the east. She thinks of it as warm, but we will learn that it's quite far north: it must have a benign microclimate. We see that events are being monitored on a bank of screens by a white-haired figure in a chair. The screens show events we have already seen from Rosemary's arrival, and also what we will later learn is a female Gnoll (possibly Mimsy); the Great Chasm; the elevator; the Scary Lady (Sylvester's great-aunt: we learn much later that her name is Myrrh) with a stack of crockery balanced on one hand; Arthur the Weirdo, a sort of Court Jester, operating a sinister-looking pterodactyl-like puppet while being watched by a small creature called a Smyt; and an unknown door edged by a vertical line of what we will learn are Panegate-style security locks. Later we will learn that the watcher is named Mr Hand. The next morning, Rosemary starts a clear-out and tidy of the Mansion, beginning with chasing out a lot of small critters. She tells the brothers to remove an amphibious beaver shark from the Mansion's wading pool. The ideas of an amphibious shark is not ridiculous, incidentally: in real life young epaulette sharks are able to walk up the beach, newt-style, using their fins like feet, so this is a fairly credible extension of that. Sylvester (who claims to hate animals, his only unlikeable characteristic) sends Mortimer to do it. Mortimer tries, and it chases him: we see them run past the window as Sylvester is explaining to Rosemary that they are aristocracy. Rosemary measures the windows for heavy shutters: Sylvester assumes (wrongly) that it's for storms. With reference to the size of the place, Sylvester says you can get anywhere you want from here without going outside: through a window we see a tropical scene. This must have been the inception of the idea of the Panegate. Sylvester takes Rosemary to the top of a tower and shows her the view: they discuss the fact that the Earls of E used to own all the countryside around, until the 20th Earl, Philbert, spent all their money on philanthropic projects. 02: In Storage [14/08/2003 – 12/09/2003] Mortimer is still being chased by the shark. Rosemary decides to set up a system for pouring boiling oil on intruders, and persuades Sylvester to go along with this on the grounds that it will repel bill collectors and salesmen. She and Sylvester go in search of a suitable large pot. The Mansion has dozens, maybe hundreds of rooms for storing specific things. We see several of them (some of them very odd, including a Pointy Stick Room which is quite dangerous), and meet Sylvester's great-uncle Frederick (complete with double-headed axe) and his partner (a.k.a. the Scary Lady) and their neighbour Amos Grubb. Frederick and the Grubbs apparently do not get on (although we will learn later that they were friends over sixty years ago, when they were all twenty-ish). He and the Scary Lady are incredulous at the idea of Sylvester with a girl. We see an ancient device which is ticking down towards zero – Sylvester plans to be out of the area when it hits 000000000. Rosemary tries to meddle with it, and it shocks her. The come to the Pot Room, but it turns out to contain one enormous pot which was a relic sacred to the Mansion of S, captured and brought home by Angus, 16th Earl of E – there is a suggestion that E may have destroyed S conclusively. The pot is so large that the room had to be built around it. The pots they want are in the Pots Room, plural, which is in the Basement, so they have to collect mining helmets and other equipment such as a backpack for Sylvester and a sword and shield for Rosemary: this equipment is stored in the only storage room without a label. Items in the room include a dead specimen of what we will learn is a Spindizzy, preserved under a glass dome. Rosemary gets a helmet with wings on it, and they also see one that belongs to Mortimer and looks like a propeller beanie. Sylvester points out that they are going into great danger and that they could just buy a pot at a chain-store called World o' Pots in the local village – but neither of them has any money. Still being chased by the shark, Mortimer flees to the forest, where his flight is watched by two male Nomes (like small Humans with pointed ears) sitting on a branch. Later we will learn that they are called Frotz and Gnusto, and that they are "harvesters": a wide area around the Mansion, or more properly around a nearby architectural feature called The Spire, is circumscribed by a magical barrier which prevents most of the sapient-but-non-Human species in the area from leaving, but items of interest still cross in from the outside, and harvesters collect them. Meanwhile the Gnoll (like a spindly bipedal baboon) community leader Comshaw tracks the Dornbeast to the Mansion, comes up through the door from the Basement and meets Rosemary and Sylvester heading down. He learns of the beast's fate from them and is disturbed and frightened: using a kind of organic telephone called an Aurilnode he reports the fact that these dangerous, monster-devouring creatures may be the infamous creatures called "Human" to the Basement's inter-species Council, who claim to already know. He also tells his partners Camora and Niddle, and Camora says she is going to tell "someone who can really help". Rosemary is surprised to learn that Gnolls in this area can talk. Meanwhile, believing Humans to be monsters about to invade the Basement, Comshaw and his male partner Niddle set out for the forest to see Comshaw's cousin Louch, looking for a refuge, while their female partner Camora goes looking for assistance from a powerful ally. We will later learn that Gnolls come in two types, regular and Finagler. Their equivalent of a marriage consists of a male and female pair plus a male Finagler, while the female Finaglers have special tasks elsewhere. Niddle, we will later learn, is Comshaw and Camora's Finagler, and Comshaw is a "Poker" – a kind of investigator-cum-knight errant who carries a sort of singlestick cum crook. 03: Going Down [15/09/2003 – 31/10/2003] We learn that there are dangerous (and very alien) creatures called Sneeches in the Basement: Comshaw leads Niddle from the Basement out to the forest by a route that avoids them. From the Mansion, as far as the Humans know there are two ways down – one which leads through Sneech territory and across the Great Chasm, and one which involves a lift/elevator. They don't know about the route Comshaw used. The entrance to Sneech territory is via an arch with a devil-mask over it: through the arch can be seen flames and spikes and a Cthulhu-like shadowy figure. The elevator looks like a normal machine. Sylvester seems very nervous of the elevator, but the Sneeches are alabaster ones, with six arms and eye-beams, and his anti-Sneech stick is a cheap knock-off version. They take the elevator: but the lift operator is a devil/Demon. Sylvester is so scared of him he falls to the floor, but Rosemary doesn't turn a hair. Comshaw and Niddle head for the forest along an underground passage, accompanied by a small yet heavy creature of unknown species called Digger Odel: Digger is so short that for years we only see the top of his hard hat. He had been trying to go the same way as them, but a new guard wouldn't let him by. Meanwhile Rosemary and Sylvester learn that the demon Operator is confined to the lift by a curse (although Rosemary doesn't believe him). He plays cards with Rosemary, then tries to hypnotize her, saying she's just what he's been looking for. We will learn that Rosemary, despite her mental strength, is quite hypnotically susceptible. Sylvester appears to be terrified and in the Operator's control, but then knocks him out with a cold-iron frying-pan. Mortimer, still fleeing the shark, nearly falls victim to a killer tree, bristling with concealed wepaons, which tries to lure him to climb it. Meanwhile Niddle tries to carry Digger, in order to speed up their progress, but Digger is so heavy that Niddle hurts his back, and has to be Poked better by Comshaw. We learn that Sylvester was genuinely terrified – if he had been faking the Operator would have known – but still poised to take action when the Operator was distracted by Rosemary, who is reluctantly impressed. As they leave the lift, an adult male Trog (bird/lizard-like tailed humanoid) with dementia tries to eat them and Rosemary kills him: at the same time, Mortimer finds a normal tree to climb. Camora meanwhile seeks aid from the Shallow Wyrm (like a tiny, wingless dragon) mob-leader Nevus, but an Eyebolt (a stocky biped with its braincase and mouth in its torso and a long neck ending in antennae and a single eye) receptionist called Faldstool and two adult Trog guards named Mulch and Grind say he is unavailable, so she declares she will stop the "rampaging Humans" herself. We learn about The Weirdo Who Lives in the Attic (a kind of Court Jester, with a proper Weirdo Guild), who is visiting the Basement, and we see him and his glove puppet/ventriloquist's dummy/alter ego Fantod. The passage Comshaw and co. are taking was dug on the Council's orders to allow for population expansion, with one branch leading up to the Mansion (which is how Comshaw got there) and the other out to the forest. Without it, they would be heading for war again, as the population in the Bsement is growing and they are hemmed in by impassable geological features and taboo zones. Mortimer climbs ae normal tree and encounters a Nome named Nitfol, then is attacked by a Tree-Squid. He has lost his left shoe by this point. Rosemary and Sylvester go round a time twistpoint which causes them to see their own recently-past selves. 04: The Hall of Achievement [01/11/2003 – 22/01/2004] Rosemary and Sylvester come to the Hall of Achievement where they see evidence of the historic successes of the Earls of E – which have become less impressive of late. However, the gag about Quincy, Sylvester's grandfather, being known for having tied his shoes by himself was later turned into a serious point, about Quincy showing great endurance and walking home from a long way away without the assistance of servants, after being caught out in a foreign country by the catastrophe known as the Crash, when most magical devices failed. In the tree, Mortimer is grabbed by the Tree-Squid, and Nitfol, who is safe because Tree-Squid are allergic to Nomes, seems callously disinterested about the fact that it will eat him alive over a period of days. But then the beaver shark chops down the tree. Comshaw and Niddle discuss the possibility of war, and Sylvester won't say whether he got his intellect from his mother, in case she somehow finds out, even though she was on another continent when last heard from. Sylvester correctly guesses that Rosemary is an orphan, raised on a remote farm by a slightly mysterious older relative; but – contrary to his guess – her Aunt Eva (who we will later learn is a professional gambler) is very much alive. They trace an annoying beep to the Djinnoscope, a device built by Luwig, 18th Earl and mad scientist. Initially the Djinnoscope is covered by an unexplained poster of a giant cogwheel: this may be more significant than the throwaway joke it seems, as we will later learn that a cogwheel is the symbol of the rulers of a place called Spire City. The tree topples, and Nitfol, Mortimer and the squid fall clear of it, tangled up together (and Nitfol loses his hat, which will turn out to be culturally significant as Nomes almost always wear hats). Faldstool thinks about what Camora said about rampaging Humans. Sylvester tells Rosemary that the Djinnoscope (which is coin-operated, using an obsolete coin which Rosemary finds on the floor) scans you and then gives you what you most need at that moment. They can't market it, because its idea of what you need is unpredictable: on at least one occasion, it was a swift, painless death. The squid grabs a branch of the tree with a tentacle, but the weight of Sylvester and Nitfol on the other end stretches it like a rubber band. We learn that the tunnel from Basement to forest twists and turns and serves as a boundary between hostile groups, but even so Comshaw and Niddle come on two parties firing arrows at each other. As boys, Mortimer and Sylvester played with the Djinnoscope (no explanation of how they got down there, since we will later learn that the Operator has been trapped in the elevator for nearly eighty years: maybe the Djinnoscope used to be upstairs): Mortimer got a yo-yo, and Sylvester got "a swift kick in the butt". Rosemary feels she has to try it, brushes dust off the chair and sits down under a helmet, but it gives her nothing, as far as she can tell. The Tree-Squid's elastic tentacles first nearly drop Nitfol and Mortimer into a mixed group of three Pales (ant-like bipeds) and two Forest Gnolls who we will later learn are Comshaw's cousin Louch and his friend Scrof, then catapult them into the air: Nitfol hangs on because (as we will later learn) Nomes and Gnolls dont get on. The warring sides in the tunnel run out of arrows. A light on the Djinnoscope says it's worked, so maybe it gave Rosemary something intangible. It's still charged up because it hasn't been used for a long time: the Basement folk don't use it because it's only calibrated for Humans (the dust Rosemary brushed off was a non-human user that the machine killed). We will later learn that the non-Human inhabitants of the Basement call this place the Death Hall. Meanwhile Niddle makes the mistake of telling the warring tribes they could just throw rocks, and Digger says it's time to run. Rosemary is upset that Sylvester let her try the Djinnoscope without first checking that she was Human, so she orders him to try it himself. This was strip #100, so in the background a Pale in a hat bobs out from behind a panel with a sign saying "100!! Woo hoo!" Meanwhile Mortimer and Nitfol hang in the air long enough to have a conversation. For the first time we see the common graffito "FNORD WAZ HERE". Rosemary says that after all Sylvester doesn't need to sit in the chair, in case he gets hurt, but he's curious too. It moulds something rugby-ball-shaped and the size of a cricket ball, and spits it out: it will turn out that this is what both Sylvester and Rosemary need. Meanwhile Niddle tries to pacify the warring sides, and gets badly hurt. The ball-thing lands in Sylvester's hand: it has a tag saying "Yank me", so he does, and it covers them both in dough. They are laughing about this when someone interrupts them. Mortimer and Nitfol are still in the air, and Mortimer says the last time "this" happened there were explosions and Nomes running about screaming, even though nobody died. The foot on which Mortimer still has a shoe briefly changes, although that may just be an error. The interruption is a party of Ghast soldiers (three-eyed but otherwise Humanoid slime-moulds), sent by the Council to hunt for Humans. Rosemary and Sylvester, covered in dough, now look like Ghasts, including the little wings the females have on their heads, so Rosemary drops her sword and they pretend to be Ghasts and misdirect the soldiers. Sylvester asks why Rosemary didn't fight them and she says a sword wouldn't work, so unless Sylvester has a flame thrower in his pack.... He looks inside and says "Uh. No." We will later learn that he has a one-shot taser. Meanwhile Comshaw drags Niddle to the Helipath (like a flying octopus with a helicopter rotor) doctor Telic. Rosemary and Sylvester head in the opposite direction from the Ghasts, although the Hall of Achievement is so big that they are still inside it. The Ghasts meanwhile assume that the couple they just met were "Squimming", but that they were perverts because they didn't have Fleebs (little pyramid-shaped creatures used as currency, a.k.a. triblots) and a fugehorn. Nitfol realises that he and Mortimer have been in the air too long. Rosemary and Sylvester pass many famous paintings, done by Ernest, the 19th Earl, artist and art-forger. They pass a vast (about 30ft high) statue of Audra, the only official female Earl, and evidently very vain. Rosemary is wearing her helmet. There is a one-eyed, horned skull in the corner, from something about as big as a rhino. Meanwhile, in the Basement, Camora meets the Pale in the hat: except that the hat turns out to be a live creature called a Fixit, wearing and controlling the Pale. He, the Fixit, whose name we will learn is Hax, works for "God" (not a divinity in this case, just a really powerful leader) who sent him to hold up the sign in the Hall of Achievement, and now he has to go juggle rabid Fleebs on the edge of the Great Chasm. Due to a misunderstanding Rosemary injures Fern, an intelligent giant carnivorous plant (who we will later learn is sustained by the Tree), but Sylvester is able to heal her. She was grown by Linus, the 14th Earl, described by Rosemary as a combat botanist. Protus the Willigig, a time-traveller (a bit like a baboon in sunglasses floating on a cloud), appears to Nitfol and Mortimer and addresses Mortimer, angrily, by name. Rosemary asks why the Ghasts called them "rogue" Humans, and Sylvester says he has the impression that something in the Mansion is keeping the family alive. Niddle is barely alive, but Comshaw and Digger drag him to join the long queue for Telic's services, which includes an Ecadem (like a small pilot whale with feet) with a damaged tail and a male Nome called Rezrov with his arm in a sling. We will later learn that Rezrov is in some kind of S&M relationship with a female Trog named Hogminny. Sylvester says sometimes dangerous things would come up from the Basement, the family would hide, and the whatever-it-was would somehow not be there when they came back. But Rosemary being there changes things. We see the old guy with the monitor screens, thinking "Oh, how it changes things." Protus, very angry, says he supposes Mortimer thinks he's clever, then gives him a small gadget called the HJ42 while shouting about a witch and her slimy little friend (probably the Scary Lady and Frowgler, whom we haven't met yet). Mortimer has never seen him before. Sylvester says the Basement folk are too busy ganging up on each other to gang up on the Humans: we see two male Trogs chasing a Gobule. Somehow, they end up walking along a long, curving tunnel, which we will later learn is the remains of an Ettin particle accelerator (the Ettins were the ancient aliens who built much of the Mansion), where they encounter a giant wine bottle, about 12ft tall. The wary politeness between Rezrov and Comshaw leads to a conversation about a past Nome/Gnoll war, which Digger Odel witnessed, and in which Comshaw's grandfather Compline was a famous military commander. We learn that Digger is thirty and that this is three Gnoll generations. The giant wine bottle is labelled in Manglish, a Basement script which Sylvester can read. It says "Official Council penalty wine, do not upen under further penalty". At this point Rob belatedly introduced the Ghast "Little Floaty Things", personal sigils which hang above their heads and identify them. The Ghast soldiers find the dead Trog by the elevator, the Operator unconscious and an iron frying pan. They fear this means Humans are real, and Sepfrbfrx is sent to warn the Council. Two are sent to check up on a sentinel, Dpxbfo, and the leader, Hpthbvtw a.k.a. Hepthbav, stays by the elevator. People pile around Digger, demanding to know more about Compline, enabling Comshaw and Niddle to jump the queue. Nitfol tells Mortimer that "that guy" was a Willigig and a time manipulator – at which point they fall out of the sky. Rosemary learns that the Eman family used to own Moe Vineyards, producer of appallingly bad plonk, although they have since sold the company. Their wine is so bad that Rosemary hits Sylvester with her sword hilt, then apologises and says it was reflex action. Sylvester thanks her for not using the pointy end – and for not insisting on opening the mysterious bottle. As they walk away, we see that there are two small demons, Chauncy and Edgar, suspended in the bottle: they seem to know Rosemary by name and are impressed to see her. The scene switches to the Barter Hall, a Basement market. Hax, the Pale-riding Fixit (did Rob really call his ant-alikes "Pales" just to make a joke about the Pale rider?) speaks to an Eyebolt at an information desk, and trades information for information: he seeks the whereabouts of a Gnoll named Wratch (later spelled Ratch), and shares that Nomes make good Spyder (at this stage still spelled "spider") bait. He meets with Wratch to buy Fleebs, but Camora interrupts and says maybe God can help, even though he's not on the same level as Nevus. In the background we glimpse an unidentified Helipath (flying septopus), and an Eyebolt riding on a Gobule (a bit like a Pacman with legs): we will later learn that these latter two are called Fidginfain (the Eyebolt) and Doss. Rosemary and Sylvester come to a sign which says "No loitering, by order of the Council". They loiter under it, then continue along the tunnel. Ludwig tried to work out what it was and thought it was for studying the collisions of sub-atomic particles, but Sylvester dismisses that as gibberish. Meanwhile, a Helipath (called Rubrak although we don't learn that until much later) and a Jibjib (called Snipe, a largeish, and in the Basement sapient, bird like a cross between a chicken and a mallard) lose control of a heavy weight and drop it right in front of the "No loitering" sign. At the elevator, Hpthbvtw is accosted by two Gobules called Gorp and Phiga who want to eat the dead Trog. They decide they want to eat, or at least taste, the unconscious Operator, but this will be an important Eating Event so they need witnesses. Hpthbvtw wants to stop them. Comshaw tells Telic's receptionist, an Eyebolt named Gosypiboma, that he is calling in favours owed by both Telic and Gosypiboma in order to barge in without an appointment. Telic says Niddle is badly damaged but should live, that Gnolls are durable and have a fascinating internal structure, and that he regrets not having had more opportunity to dissect fresh specimens. Comshaw asks if s/he's ever felt tempted to speed up the process? Telic says if s/he did that patients would stop coming: Comshaw says Telic has amputated hir sense of humour, but we will learn later that Telic isn't joking. Meanwhile, Mortimer and Nitfol land in a giant Spyder's web (and the foot on which Mortimer has a shoe changes again). Camora tells Hax that maybe Humans are just myths but Comshaw's been running tests for the Council, and "those things" up above killed and ate a Dornbeast. Hax says he will report it to God. Then he trades Wratch or Ratch the sheet of paper with Woo Hoo on it for a sack of rabid Fleebs: she thinks he's a sucker, because paper is very valuable. 05: Le Tree [23/01/2004 – 13/06/2004] Rosemary and Sylvester duck into a hole in the wall of the particle-accelerator tunnel, where Sylvester expects to find a limb of the Tree, a mysterious, fruit-bearing plant which pervades the Basement and parts of the Mansion and provides general life-support, powered by heat and magic below and sunlight above. But they are met by a male Motihaul (Motihauls are green humanoids: the males have chicken-like wattles and the females have crescent horns, and like frogs they can breathe in fresh water) named Snoot, who turns out to be the Maître d' of a restaurant owned by the gang-boss Nevus, who has laid claim to this local branch and has opened a restaurant called Le Tree, selling Treefruit. Treefruit is generally available free throughout the Basement but the quality varies, and this branch, as they will learn, produces especially good fruit. Sylvester is incensed because as Earl, he arguably owns the Tree, not Nevus, and he gets into an argument with Snoot about it. Two disreputable Gobules called Mingent and Ningle turn up at the elevator to witness the Eating Event. Hpthbvtw can't be a witness because Ghasts don't eat, except to lick certain species of fungi or moss off the walls (he denies that they lick, but they are known pejoratively as wall-lickers). Two thuggish Gobules named Nugent and Chuw join them and want to claim the body (and the kudos which eating it brings) for the Gobule gang-boss Guttle. Telic says s/he can either have Niddle rest in the infirmary, or get him on his feet fast, on the understanding that he will crash after a few hours: the infirmary turns out to be run by Comshaw's mother, so he tells Telic to get Niddle up fast, as he doesn't want his mother's ideas affecting Niddle. Telic uses Loomboggle's Lightning Horsepurge and Life Elixer, invented by the eccentric genius Loomboggle (who we will later learn was a female Eyebolt healer). The Spyder, whose complex mathematical calculations Mortimer and Nitfol have interrupted by landing in his web, rejects Mortimer as "gristle and string" and flings him from the web, in favour of going after Nitfol, drooling. The shoe is back on Mortimer's right foot. In Le Tree, Rosemary is accosted by Protus, who recognises her, and asks where Mortimer and Sylvester are. When Snoot sends for a Boogieman (giant humanoid with white facial hair and wolf-like pricked ears) called Percy to beat Sylvester up, Rosemary intervenes. Meanwhile, Hax looks for an aurilnode from which to 'phone God. He has never met God, but takes orders from him, or from sombody of equivalent power if they aren't who they say they are. Camora and Hax/the Pale walk past a tailor's shop where one of the customers, a Trog Candle Monk (one of many religious sects in the Basement) named Fratch, freaks out when he sees them and starts shouting about the Evil One. Phiga tries to tell Hpthbvtw to leave but he couldn't even if he would, for the way is blocked by more Gobules (including a female called Speck) and an Ooze (amorphous giant slug) named Splore. While Guttle's enforcers and the rest are squaring off, Ningle sneaks off on his own to taste the still-unconscious Operator's tail. Meanwhile Mortimer crashes down through a tree, still wrapped in strands of web. Telic ties a rope to Niddle's leg, then gives him the medicine: Niddle jerks awake and reflexively tries to run off. Telic asks Comshaw for a new favour, to bring him some clingweed from the forest (s/he has forensically worked out where the Gnolls were heading), and Comshaw's mother asks him to do her a favour too, and dance and spit on his father's grave. He says that after the mob got through with his father's body, he's scattered across half the forest. Percy breaks Rosemary's sword, then takes the stump from her and eats it, so she bashes him with her shield (even though she has to jump in the air to reach his head) and takes him down. One of the wings on her helmet gets bent in the process. Hax speaks to his bosses by aurilnode and they tell him he needs to work with Camora. He tells her he'll need to ride on her head: she agrees. As soon as Hax leaves the Pale, s/he shouts "FREE!" (an anomaly, as Pales are later established as being silent) and runs off, only to be attacked by the rabid Fleebs which s/he had been carrying. Ningle bites the Operator's tail, causing a huge explosion heard throughout the Basement and even up in the Mansion, where we see the Scary Lady react. Hax tries to take control of Camora, but she is resistant, and says she'd have been disappointed in him if he hadn't tried. Snoot calls for reinforcements named Smyth, Gill, Mslissa and Fang: we see an Ichyoid (giant humanoid lobster-thing), a Queen Snake (huge serpent), an Ecadem and an Ooze come striding past. We will learn later that Smyth is the Ecadem and Gill the Ichyoid. Mslissa must be the Queen Snake, so Fang is the Ooze. Protus has a word with a Jibjib waiter and then vanishes. A terrible fight, which Rosemary and Sylvester are losing, is halted and they are seated at a table and told that Protus is picking up their tab. The Jibjib waiter says that "It's impossible to be angry at friends of Mr. Protus. One can only be amused by their charming little eccentricities". We see the Scary Lady rise from the bed she shares with Frederick and consult an electronic crystal ball to find out what the explosion was: she isn't happy at the result. Rosemary tells Sylvester about meeting Protus. They trade questions. Sylvester saks how long before the army which is chasing Rosemary turns up: she says best case, never; worst, case, about six months (if they travel fast, say forty miles a day, that puts them about seven thousand miles away): and no, it's not the official, government army. Sylvester says she can stay, as they need her more than she needs them. She asks him about the letters she saw him pressing when she arrived, and he explains that there are certain tasks which have to be performed at certain times and which make the Mansion run properly, and that some of them work better when performed by a woman. `We see the Gnoll Sprocket and the Helipath Flange at the edge of the Great Chasm, working on Project Y. The machine they are building is infested with slimegrubs chewing the wires and they need a small predator to go inside and clear them out. The purpose of Project Y is tied in with having open vents in an Ettin-looking unit. The fugitive Pale falls past them and crash-lands (probably dead), and they prepare to pick off the rabid Fleebs. Crumpton, a Motihaul Candle Monk, tells an Ooze abbot that the Evil One is back, and the Ooze says they must go forth. Niddle has revived and Digger has evaded his fan club, so they set off up the tunnel again. Sepfrbfrx, a.k.a. Sepferb, tells the Eyebolt Witherward, a Council receptionist, that he needs to see the Council, and she opens a hatch and drops him down a tunnel. He tells the Council that Humans are real and back and are able to use cold-forged iron, and Wunk, the Gnoll Council member, starts to panic. Then Mondegren, the Council's Eyebolt assistant, tells them there's been a large explosion near the elevator. The other Gobules see it as "Ningle won another Eating Event". But at least one Gobule, Chuw, is dead, and presumably Ningle is dead too, and Hpthbvtw is mortally injured: he dies regretting that he never told the Ghast officer Hpobfvfr how he felt about her. A scruffy Gnoll named Faddle greets his friend, a Gobule named Bung who sits and grows mushrooms on his skin. Later we will learn that Faddle has the Finagler talent, but chose not to be one. We will also learn that despite their rough manners and their work as garbage cleaners, many Gobules become peaceful and rather sedentary philosophers. Bung tells Faddle what's been happening (including the fact that the explosion has started a huge and spreading fire), but Faddle thinks he's kidding. Faddle had a beetle on a stick – Bung swipes it with his tongue and eats it, stick and all. Bung gives him a mushroom for it and tells him to go do something with it somewhere else: Faddle wonders whether he can sell it in Barter Hall, and rapidly finds that people are interested. Sylvester tells Rosemary that he and Mortimer pretty-much live on Treefruit, which is edible and nutritious, though not delicious. These fruits in Le Tree are much bigger, and this branch of the Tree is also a lot bigger than it used to be: possibly Nevus has earned the right to sell them by cultivating them. They cautiously try this new variant fruit and it's delicious, almost worth dying for. Comshaw and co. are finding the tunnel a bit complicated because it goes through a point where the way is twisted and knotted: possibly in the twistpoint sense. Afterwards, briefly, Comshaw sees that Niddle has a long, large crystal (which glows, but which is not the usual star-shape of a Glowgem) in his hand, but it disappears. Above them on the ceiling, farmer-Oozes grow giant mushrooms. Hax settles down on Camora's head and establishes silent, telepathic contact. She is alarmed by his plans, which seem to involve getting close to the Humans, but when she hears they're at Le Tree she says they have good taste. A crowd pass her, heading from right to left, running to set up a bucket chain to fight the fire, but then another crowd pass by going the other way, looking to bid on Bung's mushroom in Barter Hall. She considers letting the Humans "run selectively amuck". The strip jumps back a bit, and we see the Ghasts who were sent to check on Dpxbfo, finding him, and saying there's only one place left to look for the Humans. Then they smell smoke. They pass by Hpobfvfr/Hopobefever and a Deep Wyrm (like a big snake with a human face) named Tabo whom she sends to summon her squad. In the Council chamber the chairbeing (Preznit, an Eyebolt) suggests letting the fire burn out as the only things nearby are the Death Hall and the time twistpoint. But the female Motihaul Gavzada reminds them that the fire might damage the bottle containing Chauncy and Edgar: an idea which causes immediate alarm. We see a male Motihaul named Izchak, who sells sharp and pointy things. Two Gnolls, Clochard (who is quite elderly) and Troat, come to buy weapons. Mortimer bounces from tree to tree and lands some distance away, so that he no longer knows exactly which tree he started from or where he is relative to the Spyder. A Saur (like a small theropod) named Snerk approaches Mortimer where he hangs in a tree, then the web strands snap and Mortimer ends up in a heap on the floor. Mortimer, who tends to be slightly confused at the best of times and has been dazed by his fall and by the encounter with Protus, is rambling (to the point that Snerk thinks he's either mad or a performance artist): on the one hand Nitfol didn't help him with the Tree-Squid, but on the other hand it's partly his fault that Nitfol's tree got chewed down and Nitfol was now probably being eaten by a Spyder, so maybe he should try to rescue him. Sylvester is afraid that if he and Rosemary eat more Treefruit they may become addicted. They should leave, also before anything else happens: but then three of Hpthbvtw's Ghasts (Dpxbfo, Apvbsx and another) appear to arrest them on Council business. Snoot appears with his heavy squad and says that Mr. Nevus has made his feelings about the Council clear. Comshaw and co. run into an enormous Boogieman named Bertrum, but Digger says Bertrum isn't the tunnel guard. Then they meet a scruffy Gnoll called Furphy who says that none of them are there and this isn't happening, and that maybe none of them exist (and then says the same to Bertrum). The bucket chain, panicking about Chauncy and Edgar, runs past an alcove in which sit a Gobule named Tuft and a Gnoll named Dap. Dap is piling pebbles into an elaborate spire. They find this panic boring and hope for "an all-new apocalypse". Two male Trogs, whom we will later know as Grik and Grak, feel that it's a lot of fuss about nothing as there's no fuel for the fire, but then it flares up and they run to find buckets. At the end of the bucket chain a very scared Gnoll named Niff, and a female Motihaul (later identified as Kulma), have to request permission to use a well from an Ichyoid guard (who grants it). Mortimer makes up his mind to find and save Nitfol, but then Agita (female Motihaul). Guttle (Gobule) and Nevus (Shallow Wyrm, carried on a covered plate by the Gnoll Mimsy) arrive. They and Snerk are there for an auction (Snerk is acting for a new power in the forest). Agita doesn't recognise Mortimer's species, and tells him to go away, this is private. She carries an umbrella with a blade that extends from the tip, with which she threatens him. But Nevus speculates that Mortimer is their auctioneer. Sylvester and Rosemary sneak away from the budding row between the Ghasts and the Le Tree security squad. Apvbsz tries to follow them, but is flattened (temporarily) by the Ooze (Fang – it's established later that Gill is the Ichyoid and Smyth the Ecadem, and I'm assuming Mslissa is the Queen Snake). Meanwhile, Hax and Camora lurk in an official Lurking Alcove near Le Tree. Hax extends antennae. A Gnoll named Sina, a party organiser, passes Tuft and Dap in their alcove. She is carrying a large puffball-type fungus called a cakeshroom, which she traded for two shiverroots in Barter Hall, and is taking to a party for a Gnoll named Catmorlo. However, nobody is at the party except her friend, a Gobule named Nosh, as everyone else has joined the bucket chain (Gobules have no hands). Nosh means to eat the cakeshroom, but Sina takes it to share with the bucket-chain. As violence continues behind them, Rosemary and Sylvester sneak past a very large, dead Ecadem (presumably Smyth) only to run into Snoot, who seems able to appear from thin air. He asks if they enjoyed their meal: then there's a huge bang and clouds of smoke, and a panicked crowd runs past them. Sylvester asks whether Snoot wants them to recommend Le Tree to their friends, and he says they may as well, as he'll be needing new customers. They praise his Treefruit but say it's sticky and the place could use some paper napkins: he gives them a stony look and tells them to wait there, with such authority that they do. Comshaw and co. come to a fork in the tunnel: one side goes up to the Mansion, and one goes to the forest. An adult male Trog runs past them, yelping, evidently scared by the guard on the forest side. The guard is an arrogant young Gnoll Poker named Skoil, who assumes the Council have sent Comshaw to "deal with him" (when Niddle starts to say otherwise, Digger stamps on his foot), as somebody other than the Council hired him to block the tunnel. We will learn later that he was hired by Guttle in relation to security measures for the auction. Comshaw Pokes him with his single-stick and takes him down easily, and Digger treads on him. Clochard calls on his friend Nitid, a Helipath sign-painter. Nitid has begun working on a cartoon-strip of hir own, but few people see it. S/he wishes that aurilnodes could transmit pictures. Clochard tells hir what's been happening. Nitid will later become quite a major character. Mortimer gabbles an explanation of how he got past the auction security perimeter; Tree-Squid; Willygig; Spyder and all. Nevus, grinning, says "Why didn't we think to cover that possibility?" Agita says they all received invitations, and what does Mortimer have to sell? He shows them the HJ42. She asks what it does. Mortimer presses a button and it beeps and then prioduces a huge fountain of bright energy that makes a sound like "ZORP". Frotz and Gnusto, the two Nomes we saw in the tree when Mortimer was first fleeing the beaver shark, are walking through the forest, talking about a squabble between the Gnolls and the Pales: they see the Zorp, assume it's a weapon and don't want to see what would happen if the two sides got really mad with each other. Niddle asks if Comshaw heard a noise? No, but he heard one earlier (probably the boom while Sylvester and Rosemary were leaving Le Tree). The crystal reappears in Niddle's hand, but they don't notice. The male Gnoll Snerd (mate of Sina's sister Shona), the female Trog Wrawa and a male Motihaul named Hiblehoy argue about whether to run the bucket chain through a twistpoint or through Crazy Rhid's laboratory. Rhid owes Comshaw a favour, but a male Gobule named Spot tells them Comshaw isn't there. Neither are Nevus, Guttle and Agita. The Council would just put up a notice. They need an organiser: which is when Sina arrives and asks why they're just standing there. Hpobfvfr gathers her squad – two Deep Wyrms, two male Trogs and a Gobule – and tells them that the Council and Hpthbvtw's gang are up to something and now they've gone into Le Tree, and she wants to know what they're up to. The Gobule smells smoke. Camora sees Hpobfvfr and one of the Deep Wyrms entering Le Tree: she tells Hax that Hpobfvfr is dangerous, because she notices things, and she listens when you talk. She considers her "second-tier". She herself and Comshaw are first-tier. Second-tier is Hpobfvfr, Telic, Skibble, Bung. Third-tier is people like Sina who could be second-tier if they exerted themselves. In Le Tree, the Queen Snake and some Ghasts at least are still alive (so, it will turn out, are the Ooze and the Ichyoid, and Percy is alive but unconscious). Hpobfvfr and her squad turn up and Rosemary and Sylvester direct them to the Ghasts. Hpobfvfr demands to know what the two of them are. Sylvester starts to tell her, when they are interrupted by a crash and a scream. She tells them to wait there, and goes to investigate. Rosemary starts looking for a weapon. She says the Mansion is weird: she's read about Boogiemen in books but they haven't been seen elsewhere for a hundred years, the Jibjibs she knows don't talk and she's never heard of anything like Ecadems or Helipaths (later we will learn they both came from elsewhere). Mortimer wakes up, stunned and confused, in the forest but the sky is different and there is an unknown Human man with slightly Far Eastern features and a triangle-in-circle mark on his palm, lying dead. Rosemary turns up, but she's dressed a bit like a Roman soldier, although still with Audra's helmet (which Mortimer hasn't yet seen her in in his own time). She's carrying a pole weapon with a hooked end, and talking about "playmates" who were supposed to keep him from wandering off. The dead man is an enemy they will need to bury. Suddenly a second Mortimer with a tall wizard's hat appears, carrying an umbrella and accompanied by a female Motihaul and a human woman with smooth, dark hair cut like a helmet. Second-Mortimer says he remembers first-Mortimer (so he is in the future) and not to let the HJ42 meet— but then first-Mortimer fades back to his own time. Back in his own time, the Basement folk are dazzled and Snerk says undergrounders don't handle bright lights well, and why don't he and Mortimer come to a private agreement? Agita grabs him and says some handle it better than others. Comshaw confirms to Niddle that he gets into a lot of duels, and then he explains what the outside is like, since Niddle has never seen the sun, or the sky. Digger is going to dig a tree, with a pickaxe. Sina starts organising the bucket chain, sending the Wyrms to the front because they're fireproof, and telling Wrawa to round up some adult Trogs. Sepfrbfrx turns up to take charge for the Council, and Sina just tells him to guard her cakeshroom: but then the cakeshroom is snatched by Gorp and Phiga. A Trog named Mowder thinks Crazy Rhid and Tunktal the bucket-maker started the fire, and wants to get up a lynch mob. Meanwhile, back at the Mansion Amos lies in wait for Frederick with an axe, but it's the Scary Lady who emerges, with an umbrella which looks like the one future!Mortimer had. She says she's going for a walk. Nellie, Amos's wife, says someone out there is in a heap of trouble. Nellie – who we will later learn was part of a group of magic-adjacent friends pre-Crash, although she herself has little power – says some event is coming, and strange things have been happening, including the hinges on a door switching back and forth between left and right (this kind of transformation of the physical background will become significant later). Hpobfvfr takes command over the surviving Ghasts in Le Tree and tries to restore order. The Ooze, Fang, backed by Gill and Mslissa, says the Council keeps sending them lousy material to work with. She says "until now" and beats them up. She asks if anyone else has anything to contribute, and the Jibjib waiter bombs her with a Treefruit. Sylvester suggests going back home and trying for a pot another day, and Rosemary says OK. She wants to build a flame-thrower. They start to leave but Tabo, one of the Deep Wyrms from Hpobfvfr's squad, tries to stop them, and coils himself around Rosemary. Snoot arrives and puffs a powder in his face which make him relax and stare at his own tail, clearly stoned out of his gourd. Snoot says Mr. Spatchcock (who we will learn is an Eyebolt who manages Le Tree) wants to speak to them. Part Two: Time and Space and Fleebs [14/06/2004 – 11/10/2005] 01: An Intermission [14/06/2004 – 06/09/2004] The Weirdo reports on the Mansion's creatures and cultures to a shadowy female figure in pointed shoulder-pads and a hood with two floppy little points (possibly the cloak is intended either for a female Motihaul or for a type of messenger we will later learn is called a Flittermouse, and who wears a bat-like costume), who comes from the capital. His report includes Protus the Willigig, who seems to know the Weirdo from the future. He is unable to discuss the Operator, for reasons he can't or won't reveal. There's a bit of a red herring at this point, because he says that the Operator is "the only member of his race currently in or under the Mansion": but the Scary Lady has gone out, so she's not in the Mansion right now. Comments are made on the fact that fleebs just sit around and stare (they're said not to eat, which doesn't fit with the rabid Fleebs biting the Pale: and are they related to Fixits?). We hear that things "Out West" (which we will learn just means the west of their own country, not the continent) are going badly, and could reverse the rebuilding their group has done since the Crash, that fleebs are involved somehow (although perhaps only as an indicator of unexplained contact between east and west) and that someone called Tulip, a friend of the Weirdo's, has been killed: also that events at the Mansion are of great importance. They discuss the fact that fleebs from the east turned up in the west at the same time that a woman obviously from the west (Rosemary) turned up in the east, but are interrupted by evidence of surveillance. Before they part, Arthur gives her a drawing of Rosemary to check up on, and says Rosemary (whom he describes as a "sword bunny") is dressed like a Chroman Initiate but she clearly hasn't taken Chroman vows. Rosemary's outfit at this point consists of a plain white T-shirt with short sleeves and a V-neck, and an ankle-length pale-blue skirt. Agita is angry with Snert and says that rule-breaking leads to screaming, blood-drenched anarchy and almost no-one wants that: Mortimer protests that the fact that screaming, blood-drenched anarchy tends to follow him doesn't mean he wants it. Agita also says the winner of the auction will get an 80-count head-start. In the forest tunnel, Comshaw's party encounter the remains of a "Metalmin", a man-shaped robot. It's probably a corruption of "metal man" and the old ones were Ettin-made, so they're around six hundred years old. After the party have gone their presence partly activates the Metalmin but then its head falls off and explodes, provoking a small war among some tiny sapient creatures called Smyts (a bit like sparrow-sized Trogs) and Fuzzes (balls of brown fur with hands and feet), until the Fuzzes are eaten by the predatory, beetleish arthropod called a slimegrub. Rob was still working out the sizes: in later strips, slimegrubs would be slightly smaller than Fuzzes, but this one is hundreds of times bigger. This was the first anniversary of the strip, so we see Rosemary and Sylvester talking about days that seem to last a year, and Snoot thinking that all his days feel like that. A Gnoll called Blit and an Ooze (a bit like a slime-mould but the size of a large dog) called Noet discuss signs and portents indicating that this may be the day that changes the world, and try to persuade a Ghast called Vipthiboo of this, in a theological sense, but he thinks the idea is stupid – not noticing a burst of energy which washes over them. Vipthiboo is searching for a lost Dornbeast pup: a fact which causes Blit and Noet to run away. Blit and Noet then accidentally activate an electronic idol to the evil monkey-god Kaylu, which has been set up to operate as a form of fairground entertainment, and find the Dornbeast: Noet thinks it's cute. We learn that Furphy reports to Nevus, and see Faldstool receiving an aurilnode report about events at Le Tree. `We will learn later that there was a fairly recent Human attempt to set up a brutal fascist dictatorship in the name of Kaylu. Gorp and Phiga report to a battered, half-blinded but very authoritative Gobule elder called Maw, who wears a prosthetic right foot and a crown made of jawbones, and makes a grave and dignified speech about the spiritual implications that eating has for his species; but they are pursued by the Ghast Sepferb from whom they stole the cakeshroom. Maw and his squabbling assistants Twiz and Devura (who are really trying his patience) return the cakeshroom to Sepferb (who more or less works for the Council but also may be involved in a secret project). In the process we see a pile of boxes and other items which includes a stuffed creature that looks like a rabbit with antennae instead of ears, and a box marked M.U.L.E. MK 2: later we will learn that mules are small workhorse robots, one of whom will become a significant character. We learn that a long time ago Maw ate a Ghast who was some kind of charismatic political troublemaker, and the Ghasts are more grateful than offended. That was how Maw got to be so battered, and also a respected leader. Maw lectures his cohorts about cooperation, but as we cut away to the viewpoint of the unknown watcher, on his viewscreens we see them attacked by unidentified assailants (later named as being led by someone called Nash: we don't know who Nash is, but they are a renowned contestant in the Hurler's Cup – but that need not necessarily mean Nash has hands, as we will learn that the Gobule Spot has won the Tosser's Cup three times, using his tongue; also there's a suggestion that the Hurler's Cup might be for projectile vomiting). Also on the watcher's screens we can see Hpobfvfr making a failed grab for the Jibjib waiter at Le Tree; the still-stoned Wyrm Tabo talking about how he and Percy and Skibble used to go Glowgem hunting; and Sina organising everybody. The watcher, now identified as male and moustachioed and referred to as the Overseer (or at least an Overseer – we will later learn that he is called Mr Hand), has a sarcastic Metalmin butler called Hector who is in a poor state of repair. The Overseer seems to live on alcohol, especially the low-grade products of the Mansion's former Moe Vineyard. A strange octopussy creature with a stalk on its head, called a Scalpsucker, is clinging to the Overseer's face, but he peels it off and chucks it aside. There is a reference to the Overseer hiring two mechanics to install a replacement scanner – the same two, Flange (Helipath) and Sprocket (Gnoll), who were working on Project Y. Meanwhile Hector can't fix the existing scanner because a damaged filament is preventing him from accessing his tech-repair data. Inside a hatch on Hector's back is a repair manual in the Overseer's handwriting but which he doesn't remember writing: this may have been forged by Hector who then wiped the memory. The Overseer sends his agents Sprocket and Flange to get a spare part for Hector from the wrecked Metalmin in the tunnel. We meet some little sapient arthropods called Sciencebugs, religious fanatics in tiny space-suits who are trying to cross the Overseer's office to reach the shrine of a beetle-deity, a figure of what we will later learn is a character in a comic called Roshambo the Warrior-Beetle, along with Frowgler the Horned Frog, without being zapped by a bug-zapper. One is killed in a religious dispute, and some philosophical Smyt monks eat the remains. One of the monks is able to understand Human speech, which of course is very loud and deep to them. We learn that long ago the Overseer was friends with a short and (by Hector's estimate) short-lived person named Drax, from the name probably a Fixit but quite short-lived from what Hector says, and that it was the Overseer who was spying on the Weirdo, and wants to find out who his contact from the capital is. He has programmed Hector to pester him and make sure he gets things done. Watching the screens we see again that the drugged Wyrm (Tabo) at Le Tree is an old friend of Percy's and they have another friend called Skibble, not present: the screens also show sinister half-seen faces in the dark, probably The Gibber, which we will later learn is a kind of group psychic entity made up at least partly of Gnolls. The overseer fears that Arthur the Weirdo has been "very very naughty". He finds the Scary Lady to be "wonderfully, deliciously naughty". Hector takes the Scalpsucker and deposits it down a chute into a tank where more are being bred. On his way to the chute, Hector passes alcoves containing strange things – a mummified king on a throne, sitting next to a dial saying Yes, No, Cheese (Yes is selected); a strange mechanism plugged into the Tree; and a chained Trog running on a treadmill, trying to grab a lure in the form of a Gnoll doll. As the Scalpsucker crashes down the chute we glimpse a hatted Smyt who seems to have multiple arms like a Hindu deity, or perhaps who is juggling and whirring its two arms so they seem like many, accompanied by something like a cross between a spider and a slime grub. When the Scalpsucker arrives in the breeding tank and starts mating, the vibrations shake loose a literal Bad Penny, an evil coin, which is then at least partially eaten by little sapient creatures called Biters: tiny cousins of the Gobules, but they all have horns or feelers on their heads, which are rare in full-size Gobules. We see that Hector has a three-eyed robot dog called Nunsuch. Hector wakes a Boogieman whose job is to beat the Middle Gong, which tells Sylvester that the day is half over. 02: The Grand Tour [07/09/2004 – 29/11/2004] Snoot takes Sylvester and Rosemary to meet the manager of Le Tree, an Eyebolt called Spatchcock. On the way Sylvester shows Rosemary a sort of small menagerie set up by Nevus, with creatures in glass cases. One of the exhibits is an energy being called an ABOL (a sapient Amorphous Ball of Light), and the others are a large "Tribbletongued" hamster and a sapient house-plant resembling a Ficus. These are cameos from other ComicGenesis comics – the ABOL from Reasoned Cognition, the hamster from Furmentation and the plant from Station V3. Sylvester tells Rosemary that the ABOL is sapient and she touches its case with a view to releasing it, and gets a severe electric shock. After they leave we see that all three exhibits are sapient and the hamster means to escape: he has a set of pirate gear hidden in his cage. Sylvester and co. also pass a strange multi-tentacled thing which looks like a plant which is imitating an insect, with "eyes" which open up like flower-buds to reveal two small sapient creatures resembling Shallow Wyrms but attached to the plant at the tail, and called Ahz and Skiv. We later hear this plant-thing called The Growth. A passing flutterby appears to explode when it gets too close to Snoot. While they wait to see Spatchcock, Rosemary pokes a Gnoll who is hiding in a large vase (we will learn that he or she is called Dyte), spying on them, and we briefly catch up on the other groups. We see a group of very regimented Eyebolt clerks, one of whom is arrested for Weirding – which seems to involve the imagination and astral manifestation of imagined objects. We see a young flutterby (like a very tough dragonfly) fooling around, imitated by a young Smyt. The young female Trog Wrawa recruits two mature male Trogs called Leny and Kronk to assist Sina in persuading Crazy Rhid to let them run the bucket chain through his home/laboratory. The loss of mind by older Trogs is discussed, and Trog friends or acquaintances of Kronk's called Yurd and Hamble are mentioned, who committed suicide by jumping into the Chasm when they felt their minds going. We see Leny try to eat a flutterby but it is, literally, too strong for him – it prises his jaws open and flies off. We learn that while male Trogs invariably develop progressive dementia after reaching full adulthood, 90% of female Trogs just die. Leny is very cheerful, despite his loss of functuon, because he was never very bright and so for him the dementia isn't a huge change. The auction for Protus's gadget escalates. We are introduced to SuperSmyt and his unassuming alter-ego Clur, defending three civilian Smyts from a giant Fuzz. Three Gnoll soldiers who are called Frag (who has a spiked helmet and an even spikier club), Forfind and Blem head to the defence of Le Tree, having been summoned by Nevus and Faldstool. Two Gobules, one of them named Cram, plan to attack Maw and Nash while they are distracted by fighting each other, on the instructions of an unnamed boss. A Deep Wyrm called Yaypo overhears the two Gobules plotting an attack, and decides to head for the Hot Zone, where it's safer. There he meets fellow Deep Wyrms Syth and Gybb. Gybb hunts talking rocks: he smashes all the speaking rocks he meets, until he encounters one much bigger than he is, which batters him. We see a pebble break loose and become independently sapient. It meets an "old codger" rock (later dubbed GeezerRock), then falls to the glowing, molten surface of the Hot Zone (which we will later learn is a crust over some powerful, deep-down machine), where it is nearly melted. It then crashes through a hatch into a deep zone below the crust, where we see the skeleton of a Human, a dead Mansion security guard. In this zone there are Nome workers, Kulkad and Fizmo, wearing space suits, who are monitoring something to see if it changes. If it does, they're been told (probably by Frowgler, although we don't learn that till later) to press a button and run. Kulkad picks the rock up and shows it to Fizmo, who is very frustrated because other things have changed – this is the third rock to come through the hatch this week, there are mysterious sounds and it's getting hotter – but the thing they're watching stays the same. The pebble (later known as SuperRock) grows legs and runs away, and hides behind the Human skeleton while the Nomes search for it. It gets into the airvents where it is unfazed by pest-control systems, including a semi-sapient Verminator Metalmin which it induces to break down a barrier. In doing so the Verminator damages the air-shaft mechanism so badly that it self-destructs, causing an explosion which blows the SuperRock back out through the crust and onto a stalactite which it begins to climb, and causes Fizmo, one of the space-suited workers (a very talkative one), to quit. Stalactites hang above the molten surface of the crust and stalagmites and stone pillars protrude from it: one of the pillars has a vertical row of lights up it. Comshaw, Digger and Niddle reach the gate that keeps Spyders and Tree-Squids out of the tunnels. Comshaw is anxious to find out who blocked the tunnel by hiring Skoil. They venture out into the forest, and Niddle is overcome by the sight of the sky. At this point, the crystal is consistently staying in his hand. They meet a Saur (who we will later learn is called Buzz and works for a mysterious Boss, probably Frowgler the "real life" horned frog, whom we will meet later) and two Pales. The Saur passes on a message that their world is ending, and about decisions Comshaw will need to make to minimize the damage. A great evil is rising in the Basement and if he turns back he may be able to stop it, but if he does he will miss a meeting in the forest which is even more vital. Buzz points him towards the forest, where he will find three old friends (Agita, Nevus and Guttle) who hired Skoil. The killer tree (the same one that tried to catch Mortimer) has a good feeling about the approach of Digger Odel and thinks he is lunch. 03: The Nome War [30/11/2004 – 10/01/2005] Digger Odel undermines and brings down the killer tree, watched by a Nome called Umboz, a squid-coaxer (we learn later that this means he persuades Tree-Squids to position themselves around his home village to protect it), and his daughter Vezza. Umboz is wrongly credited by other Nomes with killing the tree, and so clearing a path to a neighbouring North Gnoll village. Koyeeb, the local Nome mayor, proposes attacking the Gnoll villagers who are currently occupied with the Pales, and orders Umboz to lead the expedition. Umboz, fearing he is being set up because he is a political dissident, flees with Vezza. He mentions "Uncle Frotz and his friend Gnusto" who are out harvesting: these must be the two male Nomes whom we have twice seen in the forest. Frotz is Vezza's uncle and Umboz's brother. Umboz tells Vezza about a war between mining Nomes and Gnolls in the Basement several generations ago. Overcrowding frayed everybody's tempers, and then there was an explosion in a Nome mine which was attributed to the Gnolls, although it was really set off by a "monster" or Demon (who was probably a Human – in fact, almost certainly Mortimer, as he has referred to himself as having done something in the past which annoyed a lot of Nomes). The Nomes attacked the Gnolls in retaliation and the Operator stoked the war by handing out weapons. The Nomes lost the war because they had a hereditary leader called Zabern who wasn't much good. The Gnoll leader was Compline, who had survived serious childhood injuries and had been persuaded to lead the Gnoll army by his mate Caytid. Caytid was able to use magic, as both Gnolls and Nomes had been able to do in the distant past, and she brought other female Gnolls into the war as archers. Evidently both Gnoll and Nome society are slightly sexist, or maybe just fight in ways that rely heavily on muscle, as females fighting was a new thing for Gnolls, and also surpising to Vezza. A few mining Nomes were given refuge underground with other species but most ended up fleeing the Basement and living in the forest alongside the forest Gnolls. The Nomes who fled to the forest were helped by the Pales there, but then some of the very alien Sneeches emerged in between the enemy lines. Both sides disengaged and fled, blocking off that part of the Basement where the Sneeches were by plugging the tunnels to the forest on one side, and pulling down all but one of the Human-made bridges across an underground chasm on the other, trapping the Sneeches in a narrow zone. [This is why the Council had to make a new tunnel from their side of the Basement to the forest.] Pales sometimes sneak back down through Sneech territory and across the one remaining bridge to trade, but they don't always make it back alive. Umboz says that unlike all the other intelligent species, "Sneeches aren't people". Zabern was succeeded as Nome leader by his brother Gizgum, who was quite good at it, but rule then passed to Gizgum's son Tinsot and grandson Kaleeb, who weren't. Vezza, whose mother is dead, advises her father to marry a female Nome Healer called Piu, who pretends to hate him but secretly likes him. At this point they are interrupted by a battered Nitfol (who has lost his obligatory hat, and is still quite gummed-up with strands of Spyder web) and two Pales. They do not seem to be the pair we saw with Buzz: both groups consisted of a Pale with a flag and one carrying a tool, but the flagstaff and tool are different shapes in each group. Nitfol tells Umboz and Vezza to come with him to the Pale village, because "Glorf and the rest of the Mayor's goons" are probably coming for them. He agrees to pick up Piu on the way as well, in case the Mayor persecutes her for her connection with Umboz. 04: CROSSOVER: The Zayfaring Stranger [13/01/2005 – 15/03/2005] A Human man called Zay, who is dimension-hopping to try to find a lost colleague named Phil, crashes through a dimension gate into the Mansion. Frederick's partner the Scary Lady takes Zay to a Panegate, a fixed inter-dimensional portal, and sends him on his way. While they are walking to the Panegate we learn that the walls of the Mansion sometimes rearrange themselves; and get to see some strange bits of the Mansion, including a sort of amusement arcade called Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where the Scary Lady acquires a balloon; and meet a G455 Guardinator Bot, which zaps Zay but not the Scary Lady, who gives it a false name, Melvin Dwamish, presumably the name of some family member or servant from generations ago. The bot is guarding a room holding Ernest, the 19th Earl's, secret stash: we don't get to see what the stash is, but from Zay's reaction, probably sex toys. We meet Nellie Grubb, Amos's wife, whom Myrrh calls Prunella and with whom Frederick was once in love, although another man won her. We hear about the Crash, the sudden loss of magic, which occurred when Prunella was young (the Scary Lady speaks as if she was a small child, but we will later learn she must have been about twenty-five because she was already a student some years before the Crash) – later established as having taken place about fifty years previously. We see that Frederick's partner, a.k.a. the Scary Lady, can still do at least some magic, enough to modify memory – she makes Prunella forget their meeting, after Prunella wrongly assumes she and Zay are having an affair, and threatens to tell Frederick (who in fact probably wouldn't care if she were). We also see a magical lift-shaft which you levitate up after telling a musical crystal ball what door you want to get to, and some unspecified creatures (just the eyes in darkness, and clawed hands with four fingers and a thumb) hiding behind a barred opening in the lift shaft, who call the Scary Lady "the Destroyer" and are there to watch what she does and prevent her from breaking through the bars. If she does they must send a message "back home". One of them "flibbles" a GOBOL to get it working again: flibbling is a running joke because we're never told exactly what it is but it seems to be some kind of quasi-sexual act which some people do as a job, and others try to suppress. At the Panegate, the Scary Lady rescues a millipede-like trundlebug which was in danger of being zapped by the gate's security system. Zay is rude and sneers at her for showing compassion, so she decides not to tell him there are many different Panegates, and instead sends him somewhere difficult and filled with tentacles The balloon from the Landing o' Family Fun turns out to be strangely significant. Although the Scary Lady lets go of the string and allows it to float off soon after she acquires it, we see at the end that it is sentient, and is following her like a pet. 05: Business Dealings [17/03/2005 – 19/07/2005] We start by seeing the same trundlebug that the Scary Lady saved, as it flees from a slimegrub, falls down a shaft and is swept through the bowels of the Mansion to bounce off a pile of rubbish and land ultimately on Rosemary's helmet – by which point it has shrunk to less than half its original size, as a result of being teleported by anti-vermin filters. It's supposed to regain its full size after a few minutes, but doesn't quite. Rosemary and Sylvester are discussing chocolate, a great rarity, while they wait to see Spatchcock. We learn that Rosemary was an undercover hired guard for merchant caravans "Out West", pretending to be a travelling juggler while in fact working for a big security firm called Hack 'n Slash. Again, Human society, at least in the West, must be mildly sexist as a woman warrior was unusual (which made her better at not being suspected of being a guard). She mentions juggling triblots, which Sylvester hasn't heard of (we will learn they are fleebs). People in the west travel in caravans for safety, owing to widespread social disintegration. There are also small caravans in the Mansion area, groups of peddlars that travel around selling things such as medical supplies for which there isn't enough demand for a fixed shop in each village. Meanwhile, Snoot is assisted by a Gnoll named Erud, and the Saur Snerk, acting for his employer, wins the bidding for the HJ42. Agita says she is engaged in "appalled speculation" as to where Snerk was keeping the sack of fleebs which he suddenly produces: in fact we will learn later that Frowgler leant him a Poke Kit (a sort of other-dimensional suitcase). Comshaw and Niddle set out rather vaguely to find the "three friends" mentioned by Buzz: Comshaw figures it means the three bigwigs and he wants to know what they're up to out here in the forest. Along the way they capture a small Scalpsucker, and we learn that Comshaw had a dead friend named Boffin who was brother to Wunk, the panicky Gnoll who is on the Council. They meet a female Gnoll called Shona, the sister of Sina and also Nevus the Wyrm's assistant, who is waiting for the auction to finish so she can get through the security perimeter and give Nevus a message from Mr Faldstool (about the fight in Le Tree). The Trog Wrawa and her adult friends Leny and Kronk discuss a male Trog called Villipend who jumped into the Great Chasm when he felt his mind going, and Kronk says that was a good thing, he's glad Villipend is dead. A friend of Kronk's called Yurd who also jumped is mentioned, and a friend of Leny's called Grum who has gone to visit the forest (he was the Trog we saw running away from Skoil). Wrawa bullies Tuft and Dap (who is building pebble towers for fun) into calling Odum, a male Trog friend of theirs, whom she then recruits to join Sina. Dap seems to have some kind of alarm-switch he can summon help with. Rosemary and Sylvester are interviewed by the Eyebolt called Spatchcock, the manager of Le Tree, while carnage continues beyond his office window, and a Boogieman looms behind them, but so far in the shadows that he's hard to spot. Spatchcock wants to talk to them because they mentioned paper napkins, and paper is a great rarity in the Basement: the restaurant was actually planning to introduce them but this is a great secret so he assumes they are industrial spies. He scans them with his antennae and decides that they are forest Nomes from somewhere near an architectural feature called The Spike, who were sent by a rival restaurant called Le Gnollhole. Sylvester plays along with this, and inadvertently describes the appearance of Comshaw, the only Gnoll he knows, as being that of the Gnoll who sent him. Spatchcock then thinks that Comshaw, and the Council, are spying on Le Tree, which can only add to the tension between the Council faction and Nevus. We learn that the Earl is considered to be a "fairytale monster". Snoot, who knows the two are Humans, spies on part of this conversation, then goes to the Growth and extracts from it a small, stroppy Shallow Wyrm called Squeeb, Nevus's brother in law, who is studying Ahz and Skiv. Snoot sets Squeeb to infiltrate Sylvester's backpack and spy on him: Ahz and Skiv are pleased to see Squeeb go. Sprocket and Flange reach the wrecked Metalmin in the forest tunnel, and find Skoil, the young Poker whom Comshaw duelled, still lying unconscious or perhaps even dead. Mortimer tries to call off the auction because the Zorper is too dangerous to sell, but Snerk grabs it. Back with Comshaw and co., they talk about Comshaw's other grandfather Bivit, who went to the forest to hunt Scalpsuckers, and came back changed. We learn that Gnoll reproduction requires a mated male/female pair plus an extra male called a Finagler, possessed of some mysterious psychic and/or manipulative ability. Shona is due to marry a mate Snerd and a Finagler Wubb, but she is concerned that Wubb may not be up to the job and her and Snerd's children will grow up delinquent or deranged. Niddle, normally quite vague and submissive, takes charge to give Shona advice about Finagling, and also flibbles her. Shona and Comshaw watch a type of banded flutterby called a Vagabond, short-lived but able to fly beyond the world (we will learn later that this means leaving an area cented on The Spire and circumscribed by some kind of magical force-field). Vagabonds will be significant later. We also learn that Comshaw and his friend Boffin were in an accident in which something fell on them, and Boffin died: Boffin, who was the second-best Poker after Comshaw, saw a Vagabond leave the world when somebody hired him to go to the edge of the world, but he never said who hired him. Now Skoil is second-best. We see Thrash and two other Pales corner Niddle against a tree. It is possible they are the three Pales on whom Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed when they were clinging to the Tree-Sqiid, although if so not just the design of their bodies but of their tools/weapons has changed a lot. 06: Crazy Rhid [22/07/2005 – 23/08/2005] We learn that Crazy Rhid hates Wyrms because they can visit the Hot Zone and he can't. Sina's party locates him in the hallway outside his home, carrying an explosive plant-bomb. They discuss why he almost alone among Gnolls wears clothes, and why other species do or don't. We learn that he used to be a Candle Monk, which is why he still has a robe, but he was kicked out for blowing things up. He keeps the robe for its pockets. Rhid knocks out Sepferb with something from his pockets, and Sina talls hm she wants to hire him. They are interrupted by a ghost cat (a crossover from another strip), which Rhid dismisses as a side effect of the time twistpoint. Sina says she wants him to go away and eat the cakeshroom but he refuses, knowing she's trying to get him out of the way. He refuses to let them run the bucket chain through his home, and sets off munitions which injure Sepfrbfrx and blind Sina, and when Sina summons the Trogs and tries to intimidate him he kills Leny with the bomb, saying with apparent pride that he is a terrible person, and Wrawa then violently attacks him and causes him to flee, leaving the coast clear. Her voice changes into something terrible. 07: Le Tree Lecture Series [25/08/2005 – 11/10/2005] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Le Tree: as they do so Snoot plants Squeeb in Sylvester's backpack in order to spy on them and find out what they are, but Squeeb is zapped by something he finds in the pack (we will learn that it is a taser). Rosemary and Sylvester smell smoke in the air. They discuss the life-support Tree which runs throughout the Basement and Mansion, providing air, food and light without apparently needing to be fed, and with a root which goes deeper into the Hot Zone than even Wyrms can follow (so it may be connected to whatever Fizmo was watching). Sylvester says it's kept the system going for nine generations and people who attack it come to a bad end. Rosemary finds it rather sinister. The trundlebug is still on her helmet. They pass the display cases which used to hold Cap'n Hamster, the plant and the ABOL, but which are now broken: a bonus strip shows us that they have escaped, and have sailed away down an underground stream in a small wind-up toy boat called the SS Pretty Lady. They talk about the fact that Nomes are closely related to Humans, and other bipeds aren't: Rosemary has seen inside a Motihaul's ribcage (killed by somebody esle). They also talk about conditions in the west and we learn that there is a Motihaul Semi-Autonomous Region (SAR), plus a colony of Nomes who act as go-betweens, and near it is a very large, sinister, smoking machine or factory called the Infernal Engine. We also learn that although Ghasts are normally peaceful, there's a colony called Ghastvale where they are murderous to other sapients, and it blocks a mountain pass and forces traders to go through the Motihaul SAR instead. Sylvester knew about it even as a child because Frederick used it as a scary campfire story. They discuss Sylvester and Mortimer's money-grubbing sister Lenore, and an old flame of Rosemary's called Edwird is mentioned. It's established that Sylvester also has an old flame, not named (we later learn she's called Nimue), and that Mortimer is highly successful with the opposite sex and makes a habit of bringing home strange and dangerous women. As they leave the restaurant they are accosted by a very frazzled Hpobfvfr, who is then attacked by Frag and others of Nevus's forces: there seems to be a pitched battle going on between Nevus's forces and the Council. Speck, one of the Gobules who was present when the Operator flamed, warns them about the fire at the elevator. She refers to Gorp and Phiga as Gorphiga, rather like couples in fandom. Sylvester and Rosemary decide to go the long way back to the Mansion, through the Sneech den and past many dangers, rather than face an angry, flaming Operator. Camora and Hax emerge from their alcove and offer to guide them. Part Three: The Widening Gyre [12/10/2005 – 14/07/2007] 01: Strangers in the Night [12/10/2005 – 19/10/2005] We see the woman to whom the Weirdo, Arthur, was reporting earlier. High up in the Mansion she runs into Protus, who addresses her as Yasmine Fotheringby – we learn she has a strong accent and comes from a place called Shibolith. She asks him the quickest way to get down to the forest so he creates a rupture in space and pushes her through it, causing her to fall out into a ruined building in the forest, close to where Comshaw is searching for Niddle. We learn that Protus cannot walk – so the time-machine thing he sits in may be part of him – and that he is working with structures called time pylons, at least one of which is in the Mansion. 02: Frowgler the Horned Frog [20/10/2005 – 02/11/2005] In the woods Shona meets a talking frog called Frowgler, who possesses horns and a dragonish tail, both retractable. We will learn later that "Frowgler the Horned Frog" is the name of a guru figure in a popular local action comic, along with Roshambo the Warrior Beetle, whom the Sciencebugs worship. Shona associates the fact that Frowgler's horns are retractable with the way Nomes "tree-warp" in order to create Tardis-like bigger-on-the-inside homes in tree-trunks, a method which Nevus uses to hide his hench-Trogs Mulch and Grind: Frowgler refers to this as "tiny extra worlds". We will later learn that he has a Poke Kit (an extra-dimensional pocket) although that probably isn't where he keeps his horns. Frowgler seems to dislike Nevus, and tells Shona that there's no future in working for him, and she should work for Comshaw instead. He slightly implies that he might be a Demon, which makes Shona nervous: after she has departed to give her message to Nevus, Frowgler regrets having told her his name. He knows the names of her and her sister Sina. 03: Auction Aftermath [03/11/2005 – 20/11/2005] Knowing that the other three bidders at the auction will only allow him a brief head-start, Snerk the Saur flees with the HJ42. Agita is overbearing to Mortimer so he distracts her by kissing her, causing her to recoil in horror. The three fall out: Guttle threatens to eat Agita and Nevus, and Mimsy tricks Guttle into trying to eat a booby-trapped bauble created by Crazy Rhid and then hidden in her fluffy hair, and which ties him up in tendrils. We see a bearded Gnoll, a Gobule with four little tentacles on his head and a blindfolded Trog (we learn later that Trogs are very sensitive to sunlight) spying on the outcome of the auction – they seem to be henchbeings of the three bosses. The Gnoll we will later learn is called Agorn, and works for Agita , the Gobule is called Capper and the Trog is named Orfis and works for Nevus. Orfis, despite the blindfold, can smell the presence of a nearly-but-not-quite Nome, and the Saur running past them. Mortimer tries to sneak away in the other direction, carrying his sack of fleebs, and falls down a hole. Snerk collides with Shona, who is coming with her message for Nevus: the collision sets off the HJ42 again and it goes PROZ. 04: Good Rhiddence [21/11/2005 – 15/12/2005] Crazy Rhid runs away, passing the bucket chain, and Snerd goes to find Sina and get an update. Sina, who has been blinded by a blast set off by Rhid just before he killed Leny (but this isn't a major handicap because, like a dog, she is more scent-oriented), tells him that Leny is dead and the Ghast Sepferb, the same one who retrieved the cakeshroom from Maw's den, is badly hurt. Sina sends a very reluctant Snerd to tell the Ghasts so they can bring help for Sepferb, and sends Kronk the Trog to pursue Rhid. Kronk mentions that he was present – a long time ago – when Digger and a Trog named Yurd tried to saved the world, and from the sound of it people died. Noone present knows who Digger is. Sina also sends a Deep Wyrm called Ploot to organise other Wyrms, and a Motihaul called Hiblehoy to help Wrawa dispose of Leny's body, so the Gobules don't eat him. Ploot is very keen to help stop the fire getting to the Bottle, because Chauncy and Edgar visited the Hot Zone for two extended periods when they were loose before. Clochard speaks to a female Motihaul named Nugabela, who has children by Izchak, and has bought Bung's toadstool from Faddle. They see the Candle Monks massing to confront the Evil One and Clochard follows them, hoping for a show. 05: Guidance [16/12/2005 – 03/01/2006] Outside Le Tree, Hax prompts Camora to ask Rosemary and Sylvester to pay her for guiding them: Sylvester pays her with paper, already scribbled on on one side (Rosemary's To Do list) and she is glad to get it. A fountain with toxic fluid is mentioned. Sylvester pretends they are forest Nomes but Hax assures Camora they are Humans: we see a flashback in which Sylvester and the Scary Lady were involved in some trouble in the Basement. We learn that the Basement dwellers call the Mansion "God's Cactus" and that "God" in this context is not a deity but a wealthy, elderly man. The Candle Monks see the party and proclaim the Evil One: meanwhile in the background we see Frag with his club and helmet. Camora will guide them to see Izchak so Rosemary can get a new weapon. 06: Thrash [05/01/2006 – 18/02/2006] Still carrying the Scalpsucker, Comshaw sets out to track Niddle. As he does so he hears the sound "PROZ" made by the HJ42 firing. He encounters a Saur called Ig who used to know him and his late friend Boffin: Ig tells Comshaw he saw Niddle with a group of Pales, one of whom is called/has the job-title Thrash because he winnows out problems. Thrash has a double head-spike and a pale diagonal stripe across his chest, which must be painted on as later we see him without it. There is a mention of an Eyebolt called Preznit who is on the Basement Council, and wants to save the world. Ig says that Buzz's Boss – presumably Frowgler – appeared on the scene only recently and works with the Pale government, called the Nexus. Comshaw also learns from Ig that there had been an earlier explosion which went "ZORP", so the two were symmetrically matched. Ig and Comshaw come to a mound dotted with bare, dead-white tree-trunks: the top of this mound is called The Pit, and it normally performs some action which is currently quiescent. They hear a loud click and then a rainbow-striped pillar of magical Fire shoots out of the top of the mound, before switching off with another click. Comshaw guesses Niddle set it off by accident. Ig and Comshaw discuss some aspects of Pale culture, especially the carrying of flags with mysterious holes in, and we learn that in the past Comshaw, in his rôle as Poker, "brought down" a pair of rogue Trogs called the Raver brothers, and killed Crudbean – a sort of Triffid accidentally created by Crud, one of the protagonists in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They find Niddle and the Pales, who had been knocked off the hill by the Fire blast. Comshaw gets their attention by throwing the Scalpsucker at them, but is amazed to find how unimpressed by him Thrash is. The Scalpsucker first knocks down the one with the flag, then Comshaw confrints Thrash and demands to know where Niddle is and Thrash simply points behind him, to where Niddle appears, then turns and walks away. As he goes he picks up the flag, then peels the Scalpsucker away from the flag bearer and tosses it behind him – where it lands on the antler bearer, who chucks it into the forest. 07: The Hole Thing [20/02/2006 – 01/04/2006] Mortimer, who still has one shoe (on his right foot), and is still looking for Nitfol, finds himself at the bottom of a deep, crumbling pit created by the HJ42 blast. This sort of thing evidently happens to him a lot. A mongoose-like creature called a tunnel rat and a thing like a small eyeless Saur, called a Lurker, try to attack him but end up fighting each other (in the dark, he doesn't even see them). He asks a friendly female Scalpsucker (not the individual from the forest) to go for help, but then a small landslide, preceded by mechanical noises, reveals a door and he and the Scalpsucker go through it. They find themselves in the Basement storage-area of a pre-Crash branch of a Walmart-like superstore called World o' Pots (whose stock includes the self-sealing stembolts from Deep Space Nine), where Mortimer, still clutching his sack of fleebs, upends a crate of sphagnum dust over himself. There they encounter a scary-looking but well-meaning and slightly malfunctioning robot which Mortimer is able to semi-control by invoking a "Herediscan" which shows him to be an Eman, and which showers him with free samples of a fruit-flavoured dessert called Sploo and with little sweets called Yummysticks. Mortimer's brother Rufus then appears on the scene. The scalpsucker waits in the doorway, looking neglected. 08: Sittin' in a Tree [02/04/2006 – 27/04/2006] We see Piu, the Nome Healer (the one who Vezza previously said fancied Umboz), sprinkling things into a bowl: it's not clear whether she's mixing up what's in the bowl or feeding it, as an amorphous, grasping purple hand emerges and she whacks it with a wooden spoon. Umboz calls on her, and they semi propose to each other. He tells her that Mayor Koyeeb tried to have him killed, and she decides to run away with him, because she was already disaffected from Koyeeb's government as the number of Nomes in the village is dropping due to a low birth-rate, and Koyeeb is doing nothing about it. Mention is made of old stories about "Bugs" (Ettins) who were wiped out in a war. Piu gets out a brown ring, too big to be a finger-ring, that symbolises that she is betrothed: she also has a hat put away for their eventual marriage. The ring appears to be a hair-band, as up to this strip her hair is held back in a pony-tail by a mauve band, and after it, by a brown one. She is alarmed when Umboz tells her that they two, plus Vezza and Nitfol, have all been invited to visit the local Pale hive, since Pales are normally very reclusive: and a bit alarmed to hear that a beaver shark brought down Nitfol's hometree. Umboz agrees that if the Pales have invited them, it's because the Pales want something from them, but he can't think of a better way of hiding from Koyeeb. As they leave, in the background we see first one of a pot of ornamental carnivorous plants, and then the jelly monster in the bowl, trying and failing to eat a small flutterby: these things look as though they might be smaller, non-sapient relatives of Fern and the Oozes, just as there are non-sapient, livestock versions of Jibjibs and Trogs. Note that Piu controls the thing in the bowl with a designated Whacking Spoon, while we will learn that Ghast reproduction involves a pool of undifferentiated Ghast material and a Stirring Spoon. Glorf and the Mayor's goons are already at the window, and hear the clatter caused by the unsuccessful hunt. We see what Shona and Frowgler discussed, that Nomes live by creating Tardis-like spaces which are bigger on the inside, and which are apparently anchored to more than one tree, so that they can be entered and exited not just through the tree where the home is situated but through neighbouring trees (which is how they evade Glorf). Piu and Umboz rejoin Nitfol, a prattling Vezza and the Pales, and Piu gives Nitfol her emergency hat, kept for patients in need and made especially ugly so they won't steal it. As they set out Comshaw's Scalpsucker lands behind them. 09: Back and Forth [28/04/2006 – 20/05/2006] Propelled by the firing of the HJ42, Snerk the Saur and Shona the Gnoll find themselves fifty years in the past in the local Human city of Eetown three months prior to The Crash. They encounter a young, green-haired woman called Ilsa who is aggresively rude and calls them vermin, and one with long dark hair who seems to be the Scary Lady when young. These two are fighting about the Eman family because the Scary Lady is loyal to the Earl Philbert's brother, Frederick, and Ilsa hates the Earl and is part of some revolutionary group (we also see somebody in dark glasses, carrying a bomb). The Scary Lady realises that Shona and Snerk are out of their place and tries to use a magical 'fluence on Shona, but Gnolls are highly resistant to that sort of thing, so she grabs Shona physically and then is transported back to the future with her and Snerk. Snerk runs off, still clutching the HJ42. The Scary Lady tries unsuccessfully to remove her necklace/collar – this coincides with and may be the cause of the eruption of Fire from The Pit. Shona is aware that the town they were transported to had a feeling in the air like that of the River of Fire, and she'd like to feel it again. She believes she just went through a twistpoint, and isn't clear that where they went was in the past. The Scary Lady meets Frowgler and they discuss the collar, which is magical, is tied in to the power of the Mansion and was put on her by Frederick. It still gives her access to some power even in this future where magic has failed, although she's going to have to make some tweaks to the Mansion's magical systems. Frowgler warns her about the Crash about to happen three months ahead in her own time, and that she has to ensure that Frederick and his brother Quincy, Sylvester's future grandfather, survive it so Quincy can father children, in order to preserve causality. She might not care about the world ending if causality unravels, but she would care about Frederick ending, even though he was the one who trapped her. As confirmation that he's telling the truth Frowgler tells her that when she returns to her own time she will learn that Philbert is dead and Quincy is now the Earl. She refers to Frowgler as being "dressed like" a horned frog, so she knows him as something else. We learn that she is some sort of dangerous nihilistic demon whom the young Frederick and his friends summoned by accident and then couldn't banish again, so Frederick used up all his own power to create the collar that controls her. She hated him, yet grew also to love him. This must have taken some time, and Prunella was already a student when they did the summoning, which is why I say she must have been about twenty-five at the time of the Crash. Returned to her own time, the Scary Lady learns that Philbert is in hospital after a serious crash. She uses mind-control to co-opt Ilsa to assist her, reasoning that Ilsa will need a new purpose now that Philbert is about to die, and we see that a comic book called The Return of Frowgler is on sale. 10: Candle Monks [28/05/2006 – 09/06/2006] Rosemary, Sylvester, Camora and Hax confront the Candle Monks and we learn that Camora is the "Evil One" – because two weeks previously she accidentally knocked over their Eternal Candle while dodging a rack of lesser candles knocked over by Niddle. Rosemary scares them off by being commanding, but we learn that their theology is fairly sensible – they light candles because they don't like being solely dependent on The Tree for so much, including light. Camora tells the Humans about various religious sects in the Basement: we see what we will later learn are Bloomers, and she lists Beeblers, Ears of the Brush (we see a Helipath with an ear trumpet), Doomsayers, the Spelling Guild and her own group, the Ludwigites. They worship the great scientist Ludwig who rebuilt the world after the wicked Earl-monster tore it in two, apparently without realising either that he was Human or that he was the heir of E and eventually became the 18th Earl himself. They believe he was a Gnoll. Rosemary thinks it very progressive of the Candle Monks to have a male leader, the Ooze called Father Tartuf, because she's used to Oracles being female. Camora mentions that Comshaw has said that Nomes have male priests. We see that the Gnoll Clochard has been tailing them – and that he reports to Digger Odel. 11: Dropping Out [10/06/2006 – 16/07/2006] Camora, Rosemary and Hax go to visit a lavatory (known as a drophole) leaving Sylvester waiting outside. Protus appears to him (initially upside down) and says he needs to speak to him in private, and they are not alone (probably because of Squeeb hiding in Sylvester's backpack). He jumps Sylvester through a region of what looks like computer code to some kind of hyperspace cul-de-sac where Humans can survive (although Sylvester first forgets what his eyes are, then is able to see his own skeleton), and where Protus goes in order not to be overlooked by his employers (unspecified, but with eyes everywhere). Protus's world is in full colour, therefore full of magic. We learn that Protus has lost a very valuable object. He needs Sylvester's help to find it because he has special abilities – Faddle is mentioned as also having these powers, but not as much, and Mr Hand is mentioned as a nuisance to Protus. After turning on his helmet lamp, and a moment of confusion in which Protus appears enormous, Sylvester is able to see images generated by machinery which Protus has set up: he sees Mortimer wearing a pink outfit including a pointy hat and an umbrella, which is clerly the same outfit Mortimer saw himself in when he was Zorped forwards in time. This Mortimer is flying hand in hand with a kind of Superwoman figure in what seems to be an Eman family uniform, as it has a big E on the left shoulder. She is probably the woman Mortimer saw himself with in the future, as she has the same distinctive hairstyle, although her hair looks a bit lighter in colour. Then he sees Rosemary fighting a woman who is wearing some sort of leather gear and a magic glove, who we will learn is called Tansy, and who has the triangle-in-circle sign on her arm. He sees brief images of the male Motihaul Izchak, vending pointy things; of Crazy Rhid; and of an adult male darkpelter Trog, and he mentions that Humans in Wirtvale breed Trogs – probably less intelligent ones – for leather. He sees snapshots of three villagers: the local Oracle, Threnody; Saffron Stout the innkeeper; and Old Man Larssen. Then he gets glimpses of Angus's giant pot which is stored in the Mansion and of what looks like some Sneech growths, then of an old lorry (which he calls an auto) of a kind we will later see driven by Fixits working beneath the River of Fire. The driver of this one seems to have horns, or possibly a horned hat, and there is a big E on the front above the driver's cab. Protus says the lorry is the thing he's looking for. [Note: the only horned sapient species we know of are demons and Wendigoes; the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Protus then sends Sylvester back to outside the drophole, then reappears from further in the future to thank him for his help in recovering the lorry/auto. Rosemary, Camora and Hax then emerge (Rosemary says it was the second-nicest one she's used in a year, presumably after the flush toilet at the Mansion) and Camora can tell by scent that Protus has been there and has taken Sylvester out of time. She mentions that on a previous occasion Protus took Skibble out of Time Hall, and advises Slvester to describe what he saw before it fades, so he tells Rosemary about seeing her fighting a woman in a glowing glove, although Camora says the future isn't necessarily fixed. 12: Bad Rubbish [18/07/2006 – 04/09/2006] [End overlaps start of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions] Sina's team scatter to their tasks: Kronk to track down Rhid; Snerd to summon a Ghast Healer; and Hiblehoy to help Wrawa deal with Leny's body. Sina herself (still blind) takes the Deep Wyrms Ploot and Voog to break off a big metal fire-bowl from its plinth outside Rhid's place and chuck it through the door to set off any booby-traps. They are joined by the Gnoll Skuy from the bucket chain (who ducks when she hears all the bangs, but Sina doesn't flinch). Rhid's hall proves to be large and empty, but with alcoves along the walls some of which contain further booby-traps. They know there has to be a workshop elsewhere, for which Rhid is probably making. Ploot and Voog discuss Wyrm politics – their need for Telic (the healer) and someone called Hesper (who we later find out is a Helipath armourer) and for Coldzoners generally, a separatist Wyrm politician called Mother Byng who Ploot thinks is becoming senile (saying which could earn him a visit from a sort of secret police called Cousins) and trouble in the Burn Zone and with the sapient Rocks, which may cause them to need Rhid's weapons. The oppressive rule of families in Wyrm society is one of the reasons they come up to the Coldzone. We learn in passing that Skuy lives in a warren off Helignoll Hall with eleven other Gnolls. Voog, probing the alcoves, is injured by a booby-trap, which causes Sina to have a crisis of nerve about her leadership skills, but Skuy appeals to her desire to impress Comshaw. She leads her troops (Skuy the Gnoll, Spot the Gobule, Mowder the Trog and Fosic the Helipath) in setting off traps by throwing rocks: Spot is especially good at this, using his tongue, and reminds them that he is three-times winner of the Tosser's Cup. In the process Voog gives away the fact that some Hot Zone rocks are sapient and aggressive, causing Sina to promise herself never to go there. They need to press ahead because the smoke from the elevator is getting worse. They clear the way to the exit at the far end, but find it is blocked by a mysterious web linked to little glowing glass bulbs, and there is a burning pot of Trog Repellant which makes Mowder throw up. Mowder retreats, and Sina asks him to send any Ghasts forwards as she wants information about Dornbeasts. Meanwhile, Wrawa and Hiblehoy take Leny's body to Bowel Hall to be rendered down, because he wanted to be useful, and Rhid is seen fleeing past Tuft and Dap. We see Hpobfvfr, accompanied by a sled-mounted flame-thrower (not hers), interrogating Speck about Hpthbvtw's presence at the elevator explosion; the Council babbling in alarm; Nevus's Eyebolt secretary trying to get the flame-thrower recalled, so evidently it is part of Nevus's armoury; Digger doing whatever Digger does; Fizmo still climbing stairs; and Nitfol and co. still walking. Note that the title of this episode is a riff on the saying "Good riddance to bad rubbish". 13: After Thrash [05/09/2006 – 30/10/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1112–#1154] Comshaw, Niddle and Ig meet up by The Pit: Niddle still has his coming and going crystal, and close exposure to the Fire from the pit has left him with some extra clairvoyant knowledge of recent events. He mentions Mortimer, and Comshaw recognises the name as that of a supposed demon who caused an explosion which started the Nome–Gnoll war, and we learn that Compline and Caytid disappeared during a Sneech attack at the end of the war. We learn that Comshaw's father Comfrey tried to do something in the forest which Comshaw, his mother and the late Clerihew, Comshaw's parents' Finagler, spent their lives trying to live down. We also learn that the forerunners of Finaglers were called Schemers, now rare in the Basement but still common in the forest; that Ig has a forest Gnoll friend called Splat who won't tell him what Schemers do; that people come to the family home to get Finagling advice from Niddle when Comshaw and Camora are out; and that Comshaw and Camora are regarded as the best mated Gnoll couple. Sina and her intended, Sprocket, are the next best, although they argue because Sina has a crush on Comshaw, and Sprocket is used to relating to unconscious machines and his sexless Helipath partner Flange. Ig gives relationship advice to Comshaw. There is mention of a beautiful but too quiet Gnoll named Mimsy who was Comshaw's girlfriend before Camora. Mimsy is the Gnoll who now carries Nevus. Niddle warns Comshaw that the Pales were told by somebody (Comshaw assumes the Nexus, but it was probably Frowgler) to steer him away from the Pit; that Thrash is dangerous, angry and scared; and that Pales communicate supersonically although a few other people, including some Schemers and Finaglers, can hear them. We learn that forest dwellers call the Mansion of E "The Stump". Niddle recounts the vision he had when the Fire brushed past him – basically he saw scenes from all the things going on around them, and now he fills Comshaw in on them. The minds of Shona and Snerk felt good, as if something nice had happened to them (despite their trip to the past having been scary): maybe they picked up some magic. He has seen various Nomes, including a male priest and the party who are travelling to the Pale camp. We learn that the two Pales who are accompanying the Nome group are called Fetch and Stepit: Stepit seems to be the FlagPale. Niddle knows that the Pales think of their home as the Camp. Niddle saw Nellie Grubb – Frederick's neighbour – heading to the village. He knows where Mortimer currently is (under World o' Pots), so Comshaw decides to go and speak to Mortimer and find out what the Humans want. Ig comes too to see if anything entertaining will happen. As they walk they are talking about Metalmins, which Comshaw thinks of as some old Human thing. After the party sets off we see a Metalmin or some other robot (we only see part of the head – it's definitely not Hector) come into view near The Pit; Glorf standing in Piu's house (behind him the Ooze-like thing seems to be crawling away, taking its bowl with it); Shona talking to Nevus and Mimsy; Snerk finding a dead Spyder (actually, the same one which earlier attacked Nitfol and Mortimer); and the white-haired, oldish version of the Scary Lady, accompanied by the apparently sentient balloon from the Zayfaring Stranger incident. Woman and balloon pass what seems to be a topiary Gobule, labelled Znutar, and come to a golden glow which causes the Scary Lady to think that "it's time for that again already". Possibly she is seeing the light from The Pit through a window and remembering that she saw it from close up when she was fifty years younger. 14: Rufus [01/11/2006 – 27/12/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1161–#1195] Mortimer and Rufus discuss the family – they have sisters Lenore and Lil and a daredevil brother Ace. A few weeks ago Mortimer received a postcard from their mother and Lil sent from a place called Oongawa (the capital of Kuzco, near the Deep Jungle). Lenore is in their capital, and her last letter was very rude about someone or something. Ace was last heard of Out West, working for Grandpa Mundivagant. There is mention of Quincy having had an accident due to not tying his shoelaces. We learn that World o' Pots is 60% owned by assorted Pale shareholders (Pales from a sub-country called Shibolith, not the local ones): Pale communities are very competitive but the ones in Shibolith can't afford to ride to actual war on Titanbugs, so they compete over stocks and shares. Pre-Crash, Human weaponry had been leaning towards magic-powered zappers (we see a tank built by Griff in the Hall of Achievement, and we're told the brothers used to play on it – again, how did they get down there?), so the Pales did well out of The Crash because Human soldiers suddenly needed to buy their non-magical weapons, and it took a while for Human armourers in Wirtwam to step in and begin inventing non-magical weapons technology. There is mention of an unknown something lurking under the Barrier Peaks to the north. But the Pales also suffered many losses in The Crash so it's unlikely they engineered it, and their own country (Yurpsland, although readers weren't told that initially) also did well, because of Wirtwam, and because they already had a province named Isdanlia that built sailing ships, and that fact gave them a head start after the Crash so that now they have the most powerful navy in the world. The brothers pass through a cloakring designed to prevent magical snooping, although it gives Mortimer a bad feeling (he doesn't know yet that he has magic). Rufus thinks someone is watching him, but won't talk about it until they are inside the cloakring. It is mentioned that Mortimer is an expert lock-picker. Rufus wears gloves, and tells Mortimer not to touch anything. There is still a World o' Pots in the village but this pre-Crash one was vast and its basement is full of extraordinary things, some of them previously intended for shipment to the Far Eastern Shore, including a box of darkness, food supplies on which Rufus lives (and which include chocolate frogs, sasquatch and Soylent Grey), and a demon-trap bottle which Rufus had the shopbot install in case the unknown watcher is a demon, and which requires an extensible ceiling to fit it in, made by the Hammerspace Company, which specialised in extra-dimensional products including "Poke Kits" – weightless portable storage space. In the in-universe comic which featured Frowgler the demon frog and Roshambo the warrior beetle, Frowgler gave Roshambo a Poke Kit. The demon-trap worked best as a sort of tapered bulb, but since it naturally fills with liquid some marketing department decided to make it look like a wine bottle. We also learn about a massacre at a place called Thricklefork in Florin, after "an idiot at the Royal Academy of Magic" summoned demons. Rufus gets whacked by one of his own defensive booby-traps, but they make it to Rufus's room. Rufus says that for a year he has seen mysterious comings and goings from the Mansion of E (not the Basement), things being delivered or removed, and that the culprits are not Frederick, the Grubbs, Schmedley (the ageing butler) or Arthur the Weirdo. He believes it is down to Mr Hand, living high in the Mansion. Mr Hand is very old – believed to be the already-old wizard who locked the Operator in the elevator nearly eighty years ago – may or may not be Human, and has a Metalmin servant named Hector, which means he is the Overseer whom we have seen watching screens. There is a drawing of Hector on the wall. While they discuss Mr Hand, a shadowy figure is watching. This proves to be a woman named Eunice, who has a similar clubbed hairstyle to that of the Superwoman figure Mortimer was flying with in Sylvester's Protus-induced vision (but is probably not the same woman because her hair is lighter, and gets lighter still in later drawings), but wears gloves like Tansy, the woman he saw Rosemary fighting. Eunice stuns Mortimer with some sort of electric prod and tells Rufus, who has apparently known her for years, that she and the other villagers, including Threnody the Oracle, all work for somebody more important than Mr Hand. She works for God (the old rich guy, not the deity), and if Rufus comes with her, God will give him the answers he seeks. She dismisses Mr Hand as "a senile old fool". 15: Snerk Meets the Boss [28/12/2006 – 05/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions in between strips #1195–#1221] Snerk, the Saur who won the auction, is nibbling on the dead Spyder when Frowgler appears. Frowgler is looking a bit rough and has lost the tip of a horn: we don't actually know why because he looked OK when last seen with the Scary Lady. Either he has been elsewhere (or elsewhen), or the Scary Lady's return to her own time was more violent at his end than at hers. [Later we will learn that Frowgler has probably been damaged in an explosion which hasn't happened yet.] It was Frowgler who put him up to bidding for what he calls the Zorper – the HJ42. Snerk tells Frowgler that the Zorper fired – which Frowgler isn't concerned about – and gives Frowgler both the Zorper and a Poke Kit containing extra fleebs, which Frowgler had loaned to him. Frowgler dismisses Snerk, telling him to go lay low at headquarters for a few days, and to tell people called Lumpy and Buzz (presumably the Saur who gave Comshaw a message about the end of the world when he first emerged from the tunnel) he hopes to be back at headquarters tomorrow – but then he says goodbye to Snerk's departing back as if he expects never to see him again. Left alone, he speaks as if he has seen the Zorper before, refers to "your glowing friend", presumably the wandering crystal that Niddle has, then activates it. To do so he extends not only retractable claws but what looks like a button with a "3" and two dots on it, set into the palm of his right hand and resembling the writing on the buttons on the device (or perhaps it's a coin: it's not wildly different from some coins with the E on). This time the Zorper goes "OZPR", violently enough to worry Snerk. [Latr we will learn that this sets off the explosion in which Frowgler has been/will have been damaged.] 16: Closing In [06/01/2007 – 25/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1221–#1235] Clochard asks Bung where Digger Odel is, and Bung says Digger is returning after being hired by a mysterious personage to bring down the killer tree (remember that the killer tree coming down is significant because it cleared the way for Mayor Koyeeb to lead an assault on the North Gnoll village). Meanwhile Rosemary's party are heading for Izchak's weapons shop, and Hpobfvfr is seen fleeing, apparently because the flame-thrower is about to explode. Rosemary and Sylvester pass an official notice saying "DO NOT PAINT THIS WALL BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL", on which somebody has painted "ZARK OFF N DIE". Camora explains Basement politics as she sees them – how the Ghasts encouraged the formation of the Council as a peaceful alternative to the gang bosses Agita, Nevus and Guttle, because they need a stable environment in which to maintain their breeding-pools and reproduce. The Council had wanted Comshaw to be the Gnollish representative, but Camora didn't permit it. Camora regards the Council as meddlers, except that they did bring down and confine the demons Chauncy and Edgar. She despises Preznit, the Council leader, in part because he wears a hood and gloves and a fake voice and pretends not to be the Eyebolt everyone knows he is. The Helipath and Jibjib (Rubrak and Snipe) are trying again to raise the heavy weight in front of the "No loitering" sign. Hpobfvfr gets mixed up with Sina's bucket chain as a result of a misunderstanding – she is looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw and hears that there is an injured male Ghast near Crazy Rhid's place, but in fact it's Sepfrbfrx, now one of Sina's team. 17: Conflagration [26/01/2007 – 26/03/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1242–#1297] Rosemary and Sylvester come to Time Hall, the centre of the Basement complex, where there is a poisonous fountain (which spews a different fluid every hour) and a levitating Ettin-made clock. They proceed to Sidestep Hall, the Motihaul village, which is divided by sex: the fact that Rosemary and Sylvester already know that it will be leads to a conversation about Motihauls elsewhere, what a swamp is, and the existence in the Basement of Nubby's Crogogator Pit (Camora says that Nubby really got into his work). Hpobfvfr isn't interested in Sepfrbfrx, and in any case says she can't help him and he needs a Porta-Pool. She can smell that it was Rhid who damaged him, and can smell the Trog repellant, and she suspects Dornbeast bulbs are also present. She dismisses Skuy as of no interest, and asks Sina about a Ghast by the elevator. They are somewhat at cross purposes because Sina thinks Hpobfvfr is the Ghast that she sent for for help with Dornbeasts. It seems that the web across Rhid's exitway is a Dornbeast net. Rhid wanted an exit leading towards the elevator and the Fringes but that meant there were adult Trogs and Dornbeasts out there, hence his choice of a Dornbeast net and Trog repellant at the door. That means it is Hpobfvfr's quickest way through to the elevator. The net is made of Scalpsucker tendons and when pulled it sets off bulbs of sphagnum grit, which Dornbeasts find very irritating (although the ones which guard the breeding-pools are conditioned to ignore it). Some of the bulbs turn out to have explosive in them, not just grit, so Hpobfvfr slashes the net with a cutting claw concealed in the flesh of her finger. It was put there when she was a child, and it's painful. Sylvester's party have a certain amount of difficulty getting past the Motihaul guards, Smatchet and Gunsel, and Rosemary has to sneak up on them and disarm Gunsel. She tells them to either get some training or get a different job, and that Snoot will need a cleanup team at Le Tree. As the party leaves, the guards comment to each other that they have seen a "hat" like Camora's before, on somebody called old Mumchance. Rosemary didn't keep Gunsell's spear because she's done with stealing, and also it wasn't very good. Camora tells Hax, quietly, that the person to see for the best weapons is Hesper. Although Rosemary has a sense of unease, the party don't realise they are being overlooked by hidden seige engine controllers, including an officer we will later learn is called Upernavik. Meanwhile, the Scary Lady is still wandering around the Mansion with her sentient balloon, summoning it by whistling, Sina calls the bucket-chain into line to run through Rhid's place, and Hpobfvfr exits from the now open doorway and goes to the elevator looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw, where the Operator, now conscious and suspended in the fire, tries to hypnotise her. Meanwhile we see the Scary Lady, upstairs in the Mansion and still accompanied by her balloon, looking at the doorway which leads to Sneech territory and being concerned that it is silent when there should be a sound of screeching. Flames of magic flare out from the Operator, flowing through everybody nearby, incorporating the arm of a female Motihaul named Kulma which is then unnaturally stretched through a doorway to carry the power to touch the Jibjib Snipe and his Helipath friend Rubrak, who have just managed to secure their weight. It causes Rubrak to drop a hooked tool, just as the Scary Lady reaches the top of the elevator, presses a button and by doing so forces the Operator back into his lift and puts out the flames. As he feels his inescapabale task pull him back he grabs Hpobfvfr and drags her into the elevator with him, and the retracting lash of the Operator's energy and the Motihaul's arm throws the dropped tool and pings it against Chauncy and Edgar's containment bottle. 18: Chauncy & Edgar [27/03/2007 – 24/04/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1304–#1325] The people in the bucket chain who were caught up in the energy flow have been knocked down by it and are a bit dazed, apart from the Gnolls such as Niff, Folla and Wittol who are all still standing. Sina wants everybody to go home, now, because she feel something much worse than fire was involved, then it stopped for no reason so it may well re-emerge from the elevator. The Motihaul Kulma knows that her arm was stretched somehow and that it touched a Jibjib. Spot is being Spot and seeing how far he can stick his tongue into something. Meanwhile the demons Chauncy and Edgar, who are extremely polite and careful with each other (in a way which involves a quote from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, about staying on your own side of a division), investigate the damage to their bottle, where they can sense a tiny hole. We learn that they fear the Caged King (the devil in the elevator) and something called the Burning Eye (later comments suggest this is the light near the top of The Spike, a tall thin tower near the Mansion) very much, and the Scary Lady somewhat less so. Chauncy temporarily detaches one of Edgar's horns to use as a chisel to break their way out through the side of the bottle. Folla tells Niff that something weird is happening by the bottle, and Skuy and Voog can feel that Hpobfvfr was taken away. Sina is already telling everyone to clear the area when Niff goes to check on the bottle, sees it breaking and yells to everybody to run: note Niff and the bottle are not near enough to Sina for her to hear him. Both the Operator and the Scary Lady hear it blow. Once they are free, Edgar, the more Human-looking one, tries to set off on his own, but Chauncy (who resembles a woodlouse) won't let him. They kill the weight-lifting Helipath (who we only later learn was called Rubrak), who was knocked down by the energy surge – Chauncy cuts hir and then Edgar drops the heavy weight (which seems to be levitating, since most of it stays up after the rope is cut) on to hir. But Edgar is less murderous than of old, and turns down the chance to vivisect Rubrak's working partner, the Jibjib Snipe. We learn that Chauncy and Edgar were sucked through some kind of hole from their own dimension, where they were under such constant threat that they had no time to take names or to think, and when they arrived they kept up the same level of violence. Now as prisoners they have had time to calm down, and just killing more local life without gaining any new information from it seems pointless, at least to Edgar. They are aware of Rosemary, who passed by their bottle an hour or two beforehand: they can tell that she is of this dimension, not a heavyweight being like the Operator or the Scary Lady, but still she feels different and they go in search of her to dissect her and find out why. Meanwhile we see the Gobule Bung wake from deep sleep, apparently with clairvoyant knowledge of the demons' escape, and send two Jibjib henchbirds names Spuza and Snurt out with some kind of message or mission. 19: Remnants [25/04/2007 – 21/05/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1332–#1353] Sina, who deosn't yet know that Chauncy and Edgar are out, takes a mourning leave of the missing Hpobfvfr, standing in front of the closed elevator and apologising for leaving her. Many of her surviving forces disperse to home and/or safety, and Smyts move in to devour the dead. Sina speaks to a female Trog called Maggle who is a darkpelter (has a dark coat and pale hair) which is associated with resistance to Trog repellant: Sina sends her to take the buckets back to Tunktal the bucket maker, who is regarded with revulsion. Rhid's hidden workshop was blown open and exposed when Hpobfvfr disposed of the booby-traps: Sina and Skuy go to tell the Council about it, leaving Ploot and Voog (who had started to go home, then felt guilty about it and came back) to guard the workshop and prevent Rhid from returning. They don't actually enter the workshop, because it's booby-trapped (Skuy drops to the floor when exploding arrows start flying about), and the things in it might be useful so they don't want to just blow it up. Voog doesn't want to talk politics, and says if Ploot keeps talking about Mother Byng being senile he'll be tossed in the Squirmpit. Ploot can feel change coming. There is a twistpoint nearby which causes Sina and Skuy to see a vision (of the falling whale and bowl of petunias from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Rhid had told Sina about the twistpoints, with reference to the ghost cat we saw before: she says that he was dangerous not because he lied (he never did as far as she knows) but because of the truths he knew; that she wishes she'd had a chance to talk to him under safer circumstances; and that yes, he's a terrible person but a person can be both terrible and great. She wonders how many people Comshaw has killed (we know of at least three, if the Crudbean counts as a person). They head for the Council and to get help for Sepferb, still lying injured on the floor. On the way they meet Catmorlo, who collects her cakeshroom (accompanied by Nosh, who is eager to eat it) – Catmorlo gives them all a chuunk of the cakeshroom and Sina thinks that if she hadn't intervened they would all still have been standing around arguing about how to organise the bucket chain, no-one would have died or been injured and the fire would have stopped anyway (this may or may not be true: it depends on what the Operator would have done). She tosses the no-longer-needed tray away, hitting Nosh off-screen. No, she doesn't know why it's called a cakeshroom. Then they hear an explosion and meet a female Motihaul named Asota who warns them that Nevus and the Council are fighting, and Chauncy and Edgar are loose. 20: The Lady and the King [22/05/2007 – 09/06/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1360–#1367] By pressing a button the Scary Lady has summoned the Operator to open the upstairs doors of the lift: he asks if she's called him because she wants to know about the Sneeches and she tells him it's because he was having too much fun with the fire etc. and she had been contractually obliged to intervene, although various distractions conspired (possibly literally) to delay her in so doing. The Operator tries to tempt her to break her contract and let him do as he pleases, and in return he will restore both her and Frederick's full power and youth, maybe send them through a Panegate to a place where they can be the god Ghu Himself. Then he realises that Frederick-the-magician died (that is, ceased to exist) just after summoning her, so it was Frederick-without-magic that she fell in love with and she won't want the magician back; but still, he can give them both eternal youth, instead of her having to watch Frederick decline with age. He calls her "my child", and partway through this conversation his little uniform hat metamorphoses into a crown, the little tags on his shoulders grow into full military-style epaulettes and his uniform develops brass buttons and a medal, but she rejects his offer. He mentions creatures he calls "poor Shades" who refer to her as The Destroyer – presumably the ones we saw watching her from behind a grille as she escorted Zay to the Panegate. She mentions him standing on a balcony being cheered by a crowd (in Zark, as we will later learn), but he lost his power and now he's "locked in a box at the ragged end of reality" because nothing lasts forever: he says "including boxes". After she leaves, the Operator/King comments to himself that she was feeling unexpectedly hopeful and he wants to find out why. He reaches through the dimensions to touch one of Protus's time pylons: it gives him a shock but he hangs on and scrolls back through the Scary Lady's recent experiences. He sees a mask, then the pillar of Fire, then Prunella, then Zay, all of whom he dismisses as sources of hopefulness before coming to an unbreachable barrier. If these scenes are running in order then her hopefulness must relate to whatever happened when she went out earlier in the day. He believes she has seen whatever Protus is hiding among his time pylons, but doesn't know it. He wants to call her back some time soon to speak to her again, and we learn that he has engineered a test for Rosemary (floating above his hand is a vision of Rosemary's winged helmet and the horns of Chauncy and Edgar), and if she passes he will want her back too – but it depends on his gaining control over Hpobfvfr, who is still resisting his attempts to take over her mind. Meanwhile, something the Operator said has led the Scary Lady to assume there's something up with the Sneeches. She takes up her Sneechstick and prepares to go through the archway which leads to the route which runs through the Sneech den – so she will presumably be going down the route that Sylvester and Rosemary will eventually be coming up. 21: No Gnoll is an Island [11/06/2007 – 14/07/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1374–#1409] We see brief snapshots of the various groups – Skuy talking urgently to Ploot and Voog; people throwing stones at Chauncy, who is menacing Frag and a Trog; Kronk storming along, being watched by Clochard; Agita and Nevus and their assistants leaving the auction; and Ig, Niddle and Comshaw striding out. Then we cut to Comshaw's team in the forest. Comshaw is saying that Metalmins don't move: Niddle is just insisting that he saw a vision of an active, moving Metalmin when they hear the "OZPR" noise made by the HJ42 as Frowgler activates it. This is followed by a burst of purple light from behind the trees, and Comshaw says this is far more violent than and of a different quality from the previous such event (by which he means when it went "PROZ" after Shona and Snerk collided). He compares the previous event to the light-show in the Cavern of Serene Shimmering (which has something to do with marriage/reproduction), which isn't as bad as the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave. While they are talking an enormous boulder is thrown through the air, narrowly missing them. Niddle is thinking of going to check out the site of the explosion when Ig smells something (which he recognises but the Gnolls don't) and tells them to run. Something is growling offstage left and even flutterbys are fleeing. They climb up onto the ruins of an old Human fountain, and Ig tells them what's coming is a skunk shark, which can't climb, and isn't as bad as a beaver shark. Once beaver sharks lock onto a prey they never give up, but skunk sharks lose their sense of where you are and wander off if you climb up high. They're called skunk sharks because they smell, although neither Ig nor Comshaw know where the word "skunk" originates. Niddle is still clutchuing the glowing crystal but nobody notices or comments on it: not even him. Ig and Comshaw talk about the skunk sharks, whom Ig calls "growfers", useful omnivore which graze and thin out the saplings to create open woods and grassland. They don't go to the deep forest to the north, and that's why it is deep forest. They tend to graze in a circle which is "East of the Ravine. South of the Deep [forest]. West of the Stump North of the Edge. The important stuff." This circle is probably centred around The Spire, and doesn't include the Mansion (the Stump). The shark will go away eventually but Ig can't say how long that is because he doesn't know what an hour is and can only count to forty-two. This leads them to a conversation about maths and inifinity (we see the Eyebolt mathematicians Poyndext and Suscalva, arguing). Comshaw says he can count to a million, which is about how many leaves there are in the world, and Niddle says he's wildly underestimating. They have to hang around on top of the fountain's plinth for a couple of hours, talking, until the shark has gone. Comshaw tells Ig how they divide up the day into twenty hours, and they know about sunrise and sunset because The Tree extends above ground and responds to sunlight, and the GBOLs (Glowing Balls of Light), the lights powered by The Tree, are dimmer at night. The Basement-dwellers got the idea of a twenty-hour day from the Ettin-made clock in Time Hall which, like a lot of other Ettin artefacts, they wrongly believe to have been made by Humans. Comshaw has decided not to visit Louch after all, so while they wait they break out the beetles. Then Comshaw climbs to the top of the fountain (which is about 8ft tall, not counting the base) in order to get a good view all around. Part Four: The Road Less Travelled [16/07/2007 – 26/02/2010] 01: Izchak [16/07/2007 – 30/08/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1416–#1451] Sylvester's party come to a Motihaul-owned shop called Izchak's Sharp n' Pointy. Izchak is a bit annoying, and tries to sell them sharp twigs, Nome picks and then a machete-like sword which he says belonged to Othar. Rosemary is attracted by a weapon like a halberd with a weighted butt and a kind of hooked crescent end. She doesn't know it, but this is the same weapon Mortimer saw her carrying when he was briefly flashed forwards in time after he pressed the button on the HJ42 during the auction in the forest. Behind her back Izchak tells Sylvester and Camora it's not for sale because it's trapped in an "airbox", an Ettin-made forcefield which the Basement dwellers wrongly attribute to Humans, and which neither he nor Sprocket and Flange have been able to open. However, if he was telling the truth then something Rosemary does, or some change in conditions, causes the airbox to open and the weapon comes freely to Rosemary. As Rosemary is speaking to Izchak, Chauncy and Edgar carve their way in through the wall. They want to dissect Rosemary and Sylvester to see how they differ: Chauncy says that the walls in Rosemary's head have "only traces of extra paint on them", while Sylvester's are "thickly encrusted". They know who Rosemary is because they heard about her from another demon named Scratch whom she encountered before. Rosemary thrashes Edgar with her new weapon and then tells him that his victims felt similar pain, and until the magic comes back he's stuck here so he has to learn how to live here. Edgar it transpires is not callous or brutal: rather, because the Human world is so flimsy in comparison with his own he had believed that the world and the creatures in it weren't real, but something like a video game. Now that she has shown him that these are real people he doesn't intend them harm. We learn that Rosemary did something similar in the past with Scratch: she got him to pay attention to her, then advised him to go away, find a new place and learn how to live there peacefuly. We learn some background information. Demons in this world communicate with each other long-distance by a process called "tapping the lines". Chauncy and Edgar would have left long ago but they are constrained by some kind of barrier around the local area (it does seem to be local, not the planet's magnetic field). It surrounds the tunnels, the plant life outside and the Burning Eye, which is probably The Spire. Edgar can tell that Sylvester is closely connected with the Scary Lady (his great aunt), and Sylvester tells the two demons to go ask her to help them to get away. They say she has forbidden them from ever going upstairs again, but then Chauncy senses that she is on her way down, so they go in search of her. Before they leave, Chauncy asks Rosemary to strike him too so he can feel it, and she does so but nearly breaks her wrists, because he is so solid. Chauncy agrees that that was unpleasant and he'll think about the implications. Edgar, who seems to be a nice boy at heart, thanks Rosemary and says he will talk to the others. Then they simply carve their way through solid rock to go see the Scary Lady. After they have left, Rosemary pays Izchak, and starts looking for a suitably grand romantic name for her new pole weapon. Sylvester dubs it "the Can-Opener". He finds it supicious that the airbox just opened and let her take the weapon, as if it had been set up for her to take. He learned about airboxes at the University: they all have some specific trigger to open them, but it could be anything. We see sample airboxes containing a little machine with three "eyes" and two arms or horns; a statuette of Cthulhu/a winged Ichyoid; and a pipe with a flared end. As they come away from Izchak's shop Camora smells something, and a voice shouts "HALT!" 02: Upernavik [31/08/2007 – 26/09/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1458–#1479] As they come away from Izchak's place, Sylvester's party encounter a group of male Motihaul soldiers armed with cold-forged iron weapons (which was what Camora could smell: and Sylvester can tell that they are cold iron, which implies he might have some magic himself), inbound to tackle Chauncy and Edgar, and are warned by their officer, Matagam, to leave the area. The clever and devious head of male Motihaul security, Upernavik, is listening through bugging devices: he must have heard the confrontation between Rosemary and Edgar, because he has "Scratch" written on his notepad. He sets Whisp (a dark-pelted female Trog) to tail Rosemary, Camora and Sylvester, then orders his side-kick called Knumdrot (a play on the Patrician's secretary Drumknot in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels) to lock down their whole Hall, saying that the sellers might object but their spokesmotihaul just had his shop ripped apart by two demons and a giant killer Nome. Knumdrot refuses, citing a Contract which states that a Full Hall Lockdown requires the prior consent of both Upernavik and his female counterpart, Angmagslika. Upernavik regards consulting with Angmagslika as a dire ordeal – but he doesn't need to meet her after all because he receives a message from her telling him to initiate Lockdown. A horn is honked to alert two male Motihauls called Notserplib and Nagolder, who are dozing in a very cozy flat or office full of ornaments and games. We see the sound travel down pipes past a Smyt graffiti-artist ("Fnord wuz ere") and a Trundlebug who is looking at something like a Pacman monster. The two Motihauls have a pet tunnel rat called Hackit who is sleeping on Nagolder's stomach, and has to be lifted up with defensive gloves and placed in a box decorated with a moon and stars (it doesn't work without them) to control him. His job is to protect them from slimegrubs. Once Hackit has been safely boxed, they swim down a well-shaft to an underwater capstan which they turn to close off the Hall: they are able to breathe underwater, so long as it's fresh water. Nagolder, we learn, is a friend to Cully, the young Gnoll who was banished to SubShaft 44f. Shut outside in Time Hall, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that he considers her to be only the second most frightening woman he knows – after his great-aunt the Scary Lady. 03: The Gibber [27/09/2007 – 01/11/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1486–#1515] Rosemary starts to tell or ask Sylvester something about the Scary Lady, but Sylvester interrupts to talk to Camora about the fact that they are heading for the Riddle Grotto. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their upbringing – Sylvester's parents were loving but absent, his father a twit who died young, his mother always a traveller, literally and figuratively, so he was raised largely by the Scary Lady. Rosemary, whose parents we know drowned in a maritime accident, was raised by her Aunt Eva and by Eva's former bodyguard Zeke. We see a vignette of Eva teaching Rosemary how to pick locks. Heading towards the long way out, they pass a group entity called The Gibber, guarded and assisted by an elderly female Gnoll (the grandmother of Mimsy), a Poker called Anathama. Helignoll Hall is a major home site for Helipaths and Gnolls: some years previously they started to open up a side chamber called Helinew, but then seven years ago a group centred around a male Gnoll called Altholen, inspired by stories of the magic-users Caytid the Gnoll and the male Motihaul explorer Othar, used "Sneech squeezings" and the underground River of Fire (= magic) in an attempt to reawaken the magic in the world. Instead, they caused a cataclysm called the Breach which extended right up into the Mansion, where it caused sparks or similar to shoot out of the Tree. In the Basement it killed a large number of Ecadems and generated many new twistpoints. Camora's sires' Finagler Twitchel helped to seal it again: her sires Buccula and Choller also claimed credit for sealing the Breach. Some of this information comes from Camora, and some from Anathama who says that Buccula and Choller just got in the way, and it was the Trog Yurd and co. who fixed it. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Anathama they are forest Nomes, but Anathama as a youngster saw the young Sylvester and the Scary Lady fleeing a running fight with some Trogs in the Basement and she knows that they are Human, although she doesn't comment. One of the effects of the Breach was to bring The Gibber, a cloud of half-seen faces in the darkness beyond a hole in the wall, into being in their own pocket of reality, overlaying what had been Helinew Hall. The Gibber have great knowledge and always tell the truth, so they function as an oracle. The Gibber knows their names – Sylvester Winston Humphrey Eman (but they hesitate over the Eman and say that some things are truths and not truths) and Rosemary Imogene Ripley, who they know arrived in an instant. In the past they told the truth to Camora, that she was going to mate with Comshaw: neither she nor Anathama were happy about it, since Anathama thought he would mate with her granddaughter Mimsy. Now they tell truths to Rosemary and Sylvester, which they later tell Anathama were among the greatest truths they have ever given. To Rosemary they say "What you stole is even more dangerous and precious than you know. In the end, you will fly away and live forever, and you will leave the world shattered in your wake." To Sylvester: "You will return to where you started, and you will become what you hate. And in doing so, you will restore the world to what it was". After Rosemary and co. have left, The Gibber tell Anathama that they are dying – the power source which maintains them has failed (which suggests they are powered by the Sneeches). She is quite upset by this. She tells them that her duty with them has not been onerous, especially considering some of the things she has done in the past – we see her crawling through a tunnel to collect Glowgems – and she mentions somebody called Bokonon who was "Sent into the SubShafts, and then..", which was somehow Digger's fault. This was connected with some necessary but personally risky thing that a group she belonged to, along with Bokonon and Digger and unspecified others, was and are doing. She needs to find Digger and tell him that Humans are back. Digger has never been to The Gibber to hear his truth. 04: Hop Skip and Several Jumps [02/11/2007 – 08/01/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1520–#1581] Bung's Jibjib messenger Snurt goes to Maw – who is just wrapping up winning a battle against his assailants – and warns him that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. Cram and his colleague, who were planning to attack both Maw and Nash, have been defeated: Cram is fleeing and the colleague is dead. One of two tiny Fuzzes is unimpressed by Chauncy and Edgar, qua world-destroying giants, as they've seen bigger. The people at Rhid's place arm themselves with the remains of his Dornbeast-repellant globes, ready to fling them at the demons. Sprocket and Flange 'phone Mr Hand and tell him they have his Metalmin filament and now they're going home: they don't tell him they have seen Nevus and Agita returning to the Basement. Mr Hand tells them to drop the filament off first. Nevus speaks to Frag and is surprised to find that in his absence his forces have gone to war against the Council, in his name and claiming his authorisation. The Nome party – Vezza, Piu, Umboz and Nitfol – and their Pale escort cross a rope bridge across the Ravine en route to the Pale camp. A chain of Pale lookouts send a signal to the Camp by waving flags and tools: at the Camp they have a telescope set up to watch for the signal. We see their supersonic voice being sent from the telescope operator to the The message is "She is coming", so presumably it's either Piu or Vezza they want (unles it refers to Fizmo who will join them later). The message passes by somebody who is being showered (or maybe fumigated). The Nexus him or herself, the ruler, is apprehensive and says that "she" may not be "the one", and the outcome will prove "Frogmask" – presumably Frowgler – right or wrong. We see a frog on a lily-pad near a Pale boatman: apparently it's a real frog. The boat is a punt, and there are fish in it. The action cuts to the high thin tower called The Spike, on the edge of a lake somewhere near the Mansion, where a high-ranking male Fixit called Cox is using a mesmerised Pale mount to listen to Pale communications. Cox speaks to a Human called Dorian who has lived in The Spike for forty-two years. Dorian is being ridden by a Fixit but it seems that Dorian is the one doing the talking, and is in a position of authority. Dorian says that somebody called Kelso is "finally bringing in her pet idiot" – presumably Rufus. We will learn that Kelso is Eunice's surname. Cox floats down through the tower, using artificial levitation devices, until he meets a female Fixit called Vix who is riding a controlled Nome girl, and pushing a gurney holding industrial supplies. During the chapter headed Thrash, in the 900th strip which in real-time appeared almost two years before this one, a light message saying "900 WOO HOO" was seen shining from the top of The Spike. In-universe, this of course was earlier the same afternoon, and Vix says that the "wooflare" has drained some resource which the supplies on the gurney will help to stabilise, but Cox calls her away to walk with him. We learn that Cox is significantly older than fifty and witnessed the Crash. He talks to Vix about the Crash and the Human cities he once saw. Vix doesn't think she will ever ride a Human and visit such places, as she's never even been DownSpike: Cox says he was there when she was brought up from the pens. There is a reference to a shield around the area, and to a new Human being brought in to The Spike, presumably Rufus. Protus, he thinks, has some vast plan – he first appeared five years beforehand and since then there have been more wooflares, both in the Spike and the SubShafts (a fourth-wall breach reference to the dawn of the comic, although it only became an organised web-comic four and a half years earlier), and more twistpoints. Mr Hand has been passing on reports from the Hot Zone observers, which also suggest imminent events: so Mr Hand is in some way allied with The Spike. Protus finds Mr Hand mildly annoying but nothing they know of will make him angry: but he could still crush them all in passing. There is also a female enemy Out West who some people fear might be involved with Protus, although Cox doubts it, and so does a leader called the Topspike, who may be the same as God. Cox says that before the Crash he was sent to Rowen, the capital of Lune, to bring back an airbox (maybe the one in which the Can Opener was kept?), but he should have dumped it and fled, and Vix should do the same if she gets the chance: flee the Spike, and go anywhere except Out West. Meanwhile, within sight of the Spike but some distance away, Frowgler crawls out of the crater left by the OZPR event – he seems mildly disappointed that it didn't kill him. He has the broken horn: is it possible that within his own timeline this is happening before he met Snerk and received the Zorper from him? Perhaps going OZPR sent him around in a circle. At the Mansion, the Weirdo, grieving for his dead friend Tulip (said to have been "hauled off to the Pole", a euphemism for death), has got roaring drunk, climbed up to the roof terrace, set off a siren called the Mugwump Alarm (although there are no longer any Mugwumps in the area and they are believed to be extinct) and passed out. Amos Grubb comes to shut off the alarm – which requires complex instructions from a code book (he seems to be the Mansion's librarian) – and has a conversation with Fantod, the Weirdo's ventriloquist's puppet, in which Fantod speaks as if he is an independent entity. Fantod never met Tulip, because Arthur won him in a Skipjack game after he left the Weirdo Academy. Fantod tells Amos about some events he and the Weirdo witnessed by the elevator, and refers to Rosemary as a "sword bunny" (an expression previousy used by Arthur – of course). They seem to be regular visitors to the Basement (again, how do they get down there?). Amos assumes that Rosemary must have arrived via the village, and that Nellie will hear some gossip about her while she's in town. Note that on the human side of the door, the door is marked in formal print "ROOF mind the gargoyles", and on the gargoyle side it's marked in scrawl "NOT RooF MIND THE HooMANS". The Weirdo having sobered up a little, Amos advises him to go to the Temple in the village and ask the Oracle, Threnody, to light a candle for Tulip. he and Amos walk down many stairs within the Mansion, and we glimpse a Panegate which opens into a world of yellow light and busy Helipaths. We see strange machinery, cables and pipes and Tree branches in the walls; Schmedley's room; the Scary Lady's electronic crystal ball; and a device called Ludwig's Vent Tapper 3000, which seems to be trying to tickle a magical flame into life by going beedle beedle with a mechanical hand. A limb of the tree connects into the Vent Tapper, then leads all the way down into the Basement where we see a female Gobule called Gulch teaching three baby Gobules called Gif, Glub and Gip, and telling them about the Tree, and about how they chew on bones and then make torches from the bigger ones, and about great bones within the ground, which they sometimes dig up. We see in cross-section that a ceiling GBOL light in the tunnels is connected to a huge, buried bone. Buried near it we see the head and claw-hand of a Metalmin, who died clutching a Glowgem. 05: Skibble's Place [09/01/2008 – 01/03/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1594–#1636] Rosemary threatens to hit Sylvester if he tells anyone her middle name is Imogene; he tells her that Mortimer's are Nigel Mundivagant. We learn from Camora that Mortimer was the "demon" who caused the Nome War, and from Sylvester that his parents chose their children's names from a very pompous and very long classic book called Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. Ironically the Mortimer in the book pulls wings off flutterbys, while we will later learn that Mortimer Eman has a strong connection to the things. Boogiemen choose their names from a secret Human book; Gnoll names are chose by their parental Finagler. Rosemary is alarmed by the idea of eternal life – she says she'd get really bored after the first thousand years. Sylvester is less alarmed by the idea of becoming what he hates, since he hates some quite harmless things, including his brothers sometimes, and the trick is to make the prediction work for you: Camora grudgingly admits (mainly sub-vocally to Hax) that she is happy with Comshaw. Sylvester comforts Rosemary by interpreting her prediction as eternal fame rather than eternal life. They come to Skibble's place (not Skibble, just his place), guarded by a male Gnoll called Cerbis, who peers through a slot in the door and offers to lend them a token with an "E" on it and a string hanging off it, to be used to activate a device to summon the Great Riddler through whose territory they must soon pass. He says they'll owe Skibble a favour for it (favours are traded as a kind of currency), and the string is so that after they've used it to pay the Summoner device they can pull it back out, as Cerbis has a limited supply of them. Sylvester turns the offer down. They discuss the aurilnode on the wall outside Skibble's Place: it was invented by a Helipath called Auril and Sylvester is impressed and disturbed by the level of sophistication it shows, and also by the spectacular magical event caused by Altholen, which wasn't a stupid idea as such even though he failed in his purpose, and which suggests outside help (whether to set it up or to fail isn't clear). He tells Camora about magic and the Crash, before which Humans too had telephones. He describes it as a huge magical surge which blew all the magical systems and tools and killed most of the magickers. Sylvester wonders whether Auril used Sneech squeezings in hir work. Camora says s/he was too sane to do so, and this leads to a discussion about genius and eccentricity – about Rufus, who takes dangerous scientific risks, and Rosemary's friend Edwird, who likes to swim in ice water, and Telic the doctor, who operates on hirself. Sylvester is sure that Auril used either knowledge or material from the Sneeches, which makes him want to get out of there even more. Camora realises that Rosemary and Sylvester just want to get home, and she wants to take them to the Council's tunnel soo they can leave, but Hax says this is a bad idea as it would give an invading force an easy way in. They set off for the Riddle Grotto, with Whisp trailing them. On the way they talk about family: Rosemary is an only child, since her parents got pregnant with her on their honeymoon and then died when she was six months old, but Sylvester is one of six. And yes, he loves Lenore, even though he doesn't trust her. Camora, who loathes her own brother, doesn't understand this. Camora tells them about Skibble, who first made a name for himself by unexpectedly winning the Stacking Cup at the Games, then became a gemhunter, but the dialogue trails away as they move on. It's a running joke that we never find out what species Skibble is. Meanwhile Shona, returning from the forest, realises her sister Sina is in trouble and goes in search of her, as does Sprocket (who expects that he and Flange will have a lot of work doing repairs). Shona has already reported to Nevus and told him about Frowgler and the "tall Nomes", but Nevus, Mimsy and a couple of male Gnoll soldiers, Frag and Blem, are still stuck trying to fight their way through to Nevus's office (which is in or off Crescent Hall). Nevus is having nearly as trying a day as Snoot. Agita is also back, and meets with her assistant Flibbergib the Eyebolt, who is riding on a Gobule and has been sent by a Mr Foolscap to warn her about the fighting, and to complain about Weirders. Agita comments on the fact that Flibbergib is upRooted, which suggests that while Camora may have been exaggerating about Eyebolts fusing with their seats there was a grain of truth in it. Guttle, delayed by the tangle he was caught up in, and still partially wrapped in tendrils, comes stamping down the tunnel, dismissing Skoil from his service as he tramples him underfoot. We see a scarred Rhid, still trailed by Kronk and contemplating desperate measures. We see the scuttly little sapient rock still trying to climb out of the Hot Zone, but having trouble coping with the distances involved. We see the Scary Lady and her balloon venture into the Sneech den, thinking that something is very wrong: Frederick half wakes and thinks of following her to make sure she doesn't do anything drastic, then falls back asleep. Clochard and Anathama meet up, both looking for Digger, and exchange dire news (the Council and Nevus at war, The Gibber dying, Humans returning, Kronk chasing a burned Rhid) which is trumped by one of Bung's Jibjibs, Spuza, warning them that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. They discuss the fact that Anathama saw Sylvester in the Basement fifteen years before, along with the "Clawblaster" – evidently the Scary Lady – and now he's with Rosemary, and with the pole weapon which Anathama has seen before, and although he's older he's far from old which tells Anathama that Humans have much longer lifespans than Gnolls. Anathama herself was whelp when she saw Sylvester (a.k.a. "Eyeplates") and the Clawblaster, and that was fifteen years ago, so she's sixteen or seventeen, and she says she's unusually old for a gnoll. Meanwhile, two Trog raiders wait at the mouth of the tunnel, planning to mug the next person through: it's about to be Guttle. They don't even notice Digger passing them by. 06: The Three Great Riddles [03/03/2008 – 04/06/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1643–#1725] Camora is telling Rosemary and Sylvester about Skibble – it's not clear what species Skibble is but he's a sort of Trickster and is friends with someone called Blitz who is probably a Gobule. Camora's story involves the words "So Skibble eats all of them!" Rosemary replies "But you just said Skibble is a—", and Camora waves her hand and says "Yeah, yeah, he probably got Blitz to eat them." The implication is that Skibble is something with a very specialised diet: so probably a Ghast, Ooze, Helipath or Ichyoid. Heading for the Riddle Grotto they pass a sign warning of a defence system called Death Doors, which are doors which attack any non-Human trying to open them, as with the Djinnoscope. They pass a door labelled Pots Room without stopping. Sylvester mentions the Djinnoscope, Camora asks about it and he describes the Hall of Achievement to her – but she knows it as the Death Hall, and the Djinnoscope as the Death Machine: Sylvester jokes about sub-committes in charge of naming. He explains that the Djinnoscope is called that because it can grant boons, like a Djinn. It's believed to have been a Djinn who taught people (he means Humans) how to tap into magic. They come to the Riddle Grotto and find themselves on a jetty at the side of a deep pool. Theoretically no one can cross without authorisation because the Riddler lives in the water and is fantastically fast (as they see when they toss a rock into the water, from a handy bowl of rocks provided for that purpose), but a Jibjib called Speedy once flew across on a bet with someone called Shilpit. Othar the magical Motihaul explorer is mentioned again. They prepare to say goodbye to Camora: she again wants to tell them about the tunnel (and is hearing voices), but Hax dissuades her. We learn that the Three Great Riddles were named by Dorn, 10th Earl of E, who also created the Dornbeasts (initially known as siegebeasts) as battle-mounts, and ended up being eaten by them. Sylvester has two large and one small E tokens in his pocket: he'll tell her what the small one is for later. Camora notices that the cabinet which holds the Summoner has changed shape (from a kind of squat bullet-shape to a straight-line oblong) since they first came into the grotto, but Rosemary and Sylvester have seen no change, which suggests that either their memory or the time-line is being tampered with. Sylvester says it's always been as it now is – and that it reminds him of something he saw with Protus (although it just looks like a dark oblong Protus took him though). Hax invades Camora's mind – previously they were just sub-vocalising – and takes it over, saying that he must follow his orders and she would find it distressing to be aware of what those orders are, and her mind and her sanity are precious and must be preserved. Rosemary and Sylvester are only aware that she went blank for a moment. Having been taken over, Camora now says she was foolish to suggest that the cabinet had changed, but Sylvester refers to his great-great-uncle Hindenburgh the wizard, who also witnessed things changing. Sylvester inserts a token into the Summoner and it sets off a siren (playing the Jaws theme, very loudly) which summons the Riddler himself – a giant Ichyoid about 60ft high, older than the Earldom of E and speaking a Human/Ichyoid pidgin represented as Futhark runes (occasionally upside-down Futhark runes). He starts by asking them their business, and addressing Sylvester by name, and expressing sorrow at his father Willoughby's death. Willoughby had a knack for making friends. Sylvester introduces Rosemary as "non-family – staying?" The Riddler replies that she is dangerous. Sylvester asks if he, Rosemary and their possessions may pass over, and the Riddler asks if "Fixit Gnoll" wants to cross too, but they don't understand what he means. He asks for information on Frowgler, but Sylvester only knows about the comic-book character and explains that he is a two-dimensional representation drawn by somebody called Linderhoff. We learn from Rosemary that Roshambo, and his talking sword Slasher, and the frog-wizard Frowgler, and other characters including Naif and Arax, are hugely popular cultural icons and the comic's been running since before the Crash, although Sylvester later comments that the quality of the comics has declined since then. Sylvester recalls Mortimer complaining that one of his Roshambo action figures had been damaged – this may relate to the Sciencebugs who were worshipping a Roshambo figure on Mr Hand's desk, or perhaps Frowgler measured a Frowgler action toy to get his impersonation right, although the comic-book Frowgler has a more elaborate tail-tip than the "real" one does, and his horns are yellow. The Riddler finds their information about Frowgler interesting, and gives them permission to cross. Sylvester warns Camora not to try to follow them as she doesn't have permission to cross, gives her the second half of her paper payment, admits to her that they are Humans and promises to try to come back and speak formally to Comshaw and the Basement authorities, and to try to make things better for everyone – but it's not Camora they are speaking to now. Rosemary and Sylvester are both aware that Camora has changed, but they don't know why. Note that the three Great Riddles aren't really riddles at all, but questions: how to get the Riddler to pay you benign attention; how to understand what he says to you; and the third one is a request for information, in this case about Frowgler. A pontoon rises and rotates into position, enabling Rosemary and Sylvester to cross the pool. Sylvester thinks the inefficiency of all this is a feature, not a bug, to make people reluctant to disturb the Riddler. There used to be a lot of ways in and out of the Basement but they were gradually all closed off except two – Rosemary reckons there must be at least one more to explain the various appearances and disappearances, and that Arthur the Weirdo uses it (OK, how does he avoid being noticed as a Human?). The pontoon's action is so jerky that as they get to the far side they fall in a heap and Rosemary jokily tries to kiss Sylvester. Hax thinks he senses someone, but can't make out who (it's Whisp). He walks Camora away. Sylvester had kept some things from Camora, such as the fact that the bridge stays in place for a couple of hours, and that he didn't need the token to operate the Summoner, because he's an Eman. We learn about Herediscans, security devices which identify members of the E family, and that the family used to manufacture reverse-engineered Ettin-style robots and sell them under the brand name Factor E. Some of the scanners accept new people: some only accept family, and because of the dilution of the family's DNA over the generations, some now won't open at all. Rosemary and Sylvester have one more Herediscan to get through, and he has to be alive to operate it. Sylvester doesn't like comics because he feels they have declined in scope and presentation and aren't nearly as good as before the Crash. But he knows he is privileged to be able to worry about such things, after society came so close to total collapse. Rosemary's Aunt Eva was close to starving but she later ended up as a professional Skipjack card-player: hence the bodyguard, who also watched out for creative cheaters while Eva concentrated on the game. Sylvester is boggled that people just went back to playing Skipjack after the world nearly ended. Rosemary says that in the town of Nye some card-games played right through the Crash. She herself has never been to Nye: Sylvester wants to know how she got from Out West to Audravanaia without going through Nye, but she ducks telling him, for now. Aunt Eva refused to teach Rosemary to play Skipjack: Sylvester thinks she's too impatient to be good at such a slow game. He says she followed in Zeke the bodyguard's footsteps instead. She says she's not a bodyguard: she's an explorer and Sylvester is her native guide. Meanwhile, Hax uses some kind of electrical charge from his antennae to open a secret door in the corridor wall. He walks Camora through the door into some sort of control centre (although the scene is domestic enough to include a fish in a bowl). He wonders about calling Mr Hand to confirm his orders, but decides not to. It sounds like he is planning to kill Rosemary and Sylvester. Whisp doesn't see Camora disappear into the wall, but does note that Camora's scent just stops. However, she was told to follow the "Nomes", not Camora. 07: Decisions Decisions [05/06/2008 – 05/07/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1732–#1760] Chauncy and Edgar locate the Scary Lady in the Sneech Den and ask her to help them get through the barrier: they do not want to go home because they have become used to having names. She agrees to help them. Sprocket and Flange place the filament from the old Metalmin, contained in what looks like an empty GBOL globe, into a service hatch, whence it is collected by an Ichyoid. Hiblehoy and Wrawa leave Leny's body in Bowel Hall to be rendered down. They are paid in Glowgems: Wrawa tells Hiblehoy to take half for himself and give the other half to Telic to research why the Trogs develop dementia. Her eyes look a bit strange so she, like Sina, may had been blinded by the explosion. Tomorrow she means to track down Rhid, but right now she crashes out and has to be carried home to bed by Hiblehoy: as they leave they see the Gnoll Forfind rallying Nevus's troops to the attack. We see Thrash and his two as-yet unnamed associates (later they will be called Scrawl and FlagPale) striding past the ruins of Eetown. Thrash finds Frowgler, slightly singed after the OZPR event, and picks him up. The other two withdraw so Thrash and Frowgler can talk privately. Frowgler says that he knows Thrash doesn't like him, and he's not going to tell him his story because it's so odd even he doesn't believe it, but that he means to see that the Pales get what they want. It's not his problem whether or not they'll still want it once they've got it. Frowgler says that he is neither so clever as the Nexus nor so powerful as the ruler in the Spike but still he is the most important person Thrash has ever met. He understands that Thrash may feel resentful because he's here in the forest herding Gnolls such as Niddle instead of escorting the Nome party to see the Nexus, which is evidently a prestigious job, but Thrash is here because Frowgler wanted him here, because Frowgler is the msot important person he's ever met, even if he's not as intelligent as the Nexus or as powerful as "our friend" in The Spike. Now Thrash can choose to help him or kill him. Thrash tosses him up in the air and catches him again, like a tennis ball, then lets Frowgler point him in the direction he and his companions should head. We see the forest Gnolls Scrof and Louch, who had been out on a foraging/raiding party and got caught in all the strange events of the day when Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed on them, after which Louch ran off. Louch, a cousin of Comshaw's, couldn't cross over the usual bridge because Pales were watching it (these were the lookouts waiting for Nitfol's party), and had to go north and use an even more precarious and minimalist bridge just called The Rope, and consisting of just three cords. Coming back he saw The Spike wooflare, and the Fire from The Pit, and at least two explosions from the Zorper. Now he is tired and wants to go back to their village, the northernmost of a pair, which is just a big communal warren. Louch is fed up with how poorly they live and wants to learn to read like his mother, and better himself. He thinks he will ask Umboz the Nome to teach his people how to cultivate crops, or go down in the Basement and ask Comshaw for help: but we see the Nome mayor Koyeeb saying that Umboz is a traitor, and ordering Umboz's brother Frotz to regain the family honour by leading a dawn raid on Louch's village. In the Basement, we see a male Gnoll, Bung's friend Faddle, heading home with a plant in a pot, and Niff and Folla from the bucket chain looking for somewhere to hide from the fighting, and instead running into the newly returned Shona. They start to tell her about Chauncy and Edgar: she doesn't believe them, but then they overhear two female Motihauls talking about it, and about Sina setting up a safe zone in Crazy Rhid's place (because of the weaponry there). Shona thinks that a safe zone at Rhid's place is an oxymoron, but Niff and Folla tell her that Sina has driven Rhid off. They all head for Rhid's place. 08: The River of Fire [07/07/2008 – 26/11/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1767–#1899] Deep underground, overlooking the River of Fire, is a bridge or gantry of some kind protruding from a pueblo-style adobe building. In this building we see a male Gnoll called Blit, with a bandaged leg (possibly injured in the fighting: he looks like a Gnoll we glimpsed having a bad day at Le Tree, but that one had a scratch on the left cheek), and a male Motihaul named Gongoozle discussing the fact that this is meant to be The Day That Changes Everything but it seems to be change for the worse, and the Gobule Lairs are all now at war with each other. A female Trog called Espy (who we will later learn is or used to be a primary-school teacher of young Trogs, and who is remarkably old-looking for a Trog and yet still mentally sharp) summons Blit to go downstairs to see someone called the Observer, and sends Gongoozle away because he is not on the Observer's staff and they are closing the observatory to outsiders. Blit goes downstairs by a complex route of lifts and stairs and corridors, passing other workers: a nameless Gobule squatting on a box labelled "IMPORTANT SECRET MYSTERIOUS STUFF"; two Eyebolts called Poyndext and Suscalva doing mysterious scientific calculations; and two Gobule labourers called Ottus and Piterbult. Ottus drives a heavy-goods-lift using a treadmill: between them the two are transporting heavy loads of "River Signs" up to Poyndext and Suscalva for analysis, as they have been doing for at least five years. Because of the lack of paper in the Basement, the signs are on what appear to be clay tablets. Piterbult, who pushed the tablets in a cart and has a curiously flat rear, is subversive in a jokey way. Blit then passes in sequence a sophisticated door with brass hinges and handle and a sign saying "CHANGE YOUR MIND"; a wooden gate with "STOP POKING AROUND" written vertically on the planks; a doorway closed by a ragged curtain with "LAMENT FOR THE DEAD" on it; a knotted climbing-rope; and an open doorway through which we can see a stone with "POINT OF NO RETURN" written on it. A short watch-being of unknown species called Wences (of whom we just see eyes, in a hatch near the floor) tells him the Observer wants him, and it's alright but not OK. Blit is caught by a booby-trap and catapulted through the air above the River to land in a padded cart partway out along the gantry, and operated by a Helipath called Lucint and two Jibjibs. He has actually crashed through the roof of a covered walkway along the gantry: the Jibjibs go to repair it with strands of leaves, so at least it's not very solid. The gantry has an amorphous block (the observation pod) hanging off the end with a small crane on it, and a cord, perhaps an autilnode wire, connects the gantry to the far side of the River. Lucint carries a stunned Blit down to the observation pod. Blit is just making "eep" noises, but Lucint evidently interprets them as comments about Piterbult, because he says that "that" (either the subversion or the flat back, we don't know) often results from direct exposure to Fire, and that "he", presumably Piterbult, has been pushing the Sign-report cart so often that he can now literally do it with his eyes shut. There may be an especially weird fourth-wall-breach joke going on here. When we first see Piterbult his back appears flat because the frame of the strip is cutting him off, but then he walks into the shot and we see that he really is that flat. Fire is magic in this universe but it's also colour and the hand of the artist, so he's flat because he conforms to the frame the artist (Fire) drew for him: a bit like the "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" joke in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. At the observation pod they meet two pink female Oozes, using artificial cradle-supports. The lower-down one of these is the Observer, and has OBSVR written on her side in Manglish (perhaps self-generated as it moves around). She tells Blit to tell her what he saw and he exclaims "GREEN!" although he says he doesn't know what the word means. Are Gnolls red-green colour blind, like dogs? Now he's said it he can talk again: maybe he was dazed because he saw a colour his eyes nromally can't process. The Observer tells him that different species react differently to proximity to the River of Fire. As an Ooze she herself has become stiff and less able to change shape (the Ooze stationed higher up is the Observer-to-Be, a trainee). It is rapidly harmful to Motihauls; Helipaths have to wear goggles to keep from going dizzy; Ghasts have to wear tinted lenses otherwise they go mad; and Wyrms can't go near it at all lest they become hypnotised and jump in. Eyebolts, Gobules, Jibjibs and Trogs are hardly affected, and Gnolls, especially mated trios of Gnolls, are affected in some way but also affect the Fire back, disturbing its flow (or perhaps affect the Observer's perception of the flow: she isn't sure which). The Observer has summoned Blit to look at the fire and see what he can see, because the River is behaving strangely. She mentions other Days That Changed Everything but says this one is especially odd, with an unexplained reference to a Nome called Rejov who did something which caused a similar event. The Obsever trundles her wheeled cradle out of the way and Blit looks down through a viewing hatch into the River. He sees images of a cactus – almost certainly "God's Cactus", the Mansion of E – and of a "fancy pot", then letters telling him two Humans are about to cross the Grotto Bridge. Meanwhile, at the edge of the Riddler's Grotto Sylvester lectures Rosemary about what Humans have learned about magic from Ettin writings. In their world it seems to function like magnetism – it's generated in or by the planet's core, sprays out from the South Pole in a series of leylines resembling lines of longitude and then dives back in at the North Pole. These leylines have been much fainter since the Crash. There are also random magical upwellings called tricklepoints which are still active and useable, and there's one at the source of the River of Fire. Not far away to the south, the Forest of Burzee contains an even bigger tricklepoint. The forest is peaceful and used for quiet contemplation. Different tricklepoints behave differently and are good for different things: the ones in Agraba and Akbar are good for summoning Djinn, the one in Plinth is good for cold-forging iron, and the one under the Mansion is being squeezed by something down in the Hot Zone, causing the River to be sprayed out of it. The female Earl Audra, mother of Ludwig, investigated it, dug exploratory mines right down deep into the Hot Zone and in doing so triggered a cataclysm which greatly enlarged the Great Chasm. We can see that Audra built a shaft down through a pillar – this is the pillar with a line of lights up it that we saw during the sequence with the sapient rock, and probably also where the stair which Fizmo climbed is – which connected to a series of chambers, which explains why there was a dead E security guard in the chambers where Fizmo and Kulkad were working. He was probably killed by the blast which Audra set off. Audra used this Hot Zone research station to send down a probe which triggered the explosion, so the thing Fizmo and Kulkad were watching for might be a resurgance of this force, rather like watching the magma chamber of a volcano for signs of swelling and upwelling. The River itself isn't dangerous unless you physically touch it. Audra's father Angus threw condemned prisoners into the River of Fire, and Chauncy and Edgar probably entered the world through it. The Operator, however, came to town by tram. Sylvester warns Rosemary to expect to see visions as they approach the River, and they set off. Whisp, who is evidently blazingly fast and agile, watches them from the far side of the Grotto and then crosses the Pool by bounding across the sinking bridge and dodging the Riddler's lightning-fast claws, although she suspects him of not really caring whether or not anyone crosses the Pool. Rosemary hears movement behind them but Sylvester assures her it's just the bridge sinking. Sylvester tells Rosemary that witches and wizards – thaumslingers – used to wear magic-concentrators called thaumtappers inside their pointy hats, which killed most of them when the Crash came. The batteries in their helmets run on small thaumtappers and Rosemary sees coloured lights and "horrible shapes" when she switches her helmet light on so close to the River, but it only happens if you're wearing the helmet at the time. Rosemary is concerned that if another Crash comes their helmet battereis could blow up and kill them, but Sylvester says that if the Brush sends them a second Crash on the one day they're wearing thaum battereies then so be it, and at least neither of them is carrying a high-powered magical item which really would kill them if it blew up. Rosemary smiles brightly and tries not to think about the Can-Opener. Sylvester does not literally think that the Brush caused the Crash, and it certainly wasn't the Wrath of the Brush as a hardline Oracle (Omega, although we don't hear her name until later) said when he was a child: he believes that the Brush set the world up, but that it has no interest in mere mortals (i.e. he's a deist). [The Brush that coloured in the world is their local version of a Creator Deity, represented by a symbol rather like a rake, and we also see that the more magic is present, the more saturated is the colour of the images in the strip.] We learn that he is not very devout, and has private reasons for not going to the Temple every week, and that the local temple of the Brush was moved from the Mansion to the local village of Eetown after an Earl called Ernest (father of Philbert) quarrelled with an Oracle called Purity. Ernest was a forger and died in a dramatic way. A new, large Temple was built just outside Eetown, which at the time was a thriving town, but being magically-powered it was wrecked in the Crash and a new new Temple was built from the ruins. As they approach the River they start to see externally-manifested visions of people from their pasts. Sylvester sees Dirge, a thuggish man from the village (actually the current Oracle Threnody's guardian), threatening to hit him. Rosemary sees her tutor and friend (not lover, Rob has said their relationship was platonic, and he was a lot older than her) lover, Edwird, and a respected bodyguard colleague called Baldy. She apologises to Edwird for having hurt him by leaving him in an emotionally clumsy way, and swears to make it up to him if she ever gets the chance; and expects Baldy (whose real name is Milburn Aloysius Aldershot) may be her enemy now because she went AWOL from a job they were both working on. The vision of a "Pyrite" appears, with a parrot on his shoulder – the pirate, who was someone Rosemary was once on a course with, dissipates when swiped with the Can-Opener but the parrot seems to be real and flies away. She has a theory that it was the parrot who was doing the course, and the pirate was just its mount. Sylvester sees Shackleforth Ferule, the family lawyer, who administers the trust which pays for the eldest in each generation of Emans to go to university. [In an out-take to mark the death of Paul Newman we see Forfind and another Gnoll on watch for "Council phiizzers".] Sylvester borrows the Can-Opener to wave away the vision: as he does so we see a symbol scratched on the bulky end, which Rob said is some kind of spoiler. It looks a bit like a coat-hanger with three bent wires hanging off it. Sylvester admires Mr Ferule because of his honest dedication to his job and his competence, even if he's a cold dry stick. Sylvester teaches Rosemary how to conjure shapes out of the magic-saturated air at will (he's good at it, but not as good as Mortimer) and tells her that Ludwig studied them, and said that they were connected in some way with the distance between Eyebolts (something we have seen managers of Eyebolt clerks worrying about, and these shapes resemble those conjured by Eyebolt Weirders). We learn that brilliant Ludwig had an almost equally brilliant common-law wife called Penelope who acted as his tech-writer (though they never "jumped in the Pool" to marry). They come to a flight of steps down, which is where the visions used to start before they spread out. As they approach the River it starts to show them what they most want to see. Rosemary sees a half-formed vision of her dead parents, without mouths because they died before she could talk to them, and Sylvester sees a naked, busty, willing Rosemary – the real Rosemary is quite flattered. We learn that for some reason Sylvester cannot or may not marry anyone from Eetown: he was expected to find a bride at university, but was too busy studying and none of his girlfriends fancied life in the arse-end of nowhere. We learn that the species in the Basement and in the area around the Mansion represent all the known intelligent species in the world, except Mugwumps (believed extinct) and Wendigoes. Rosemary wants to know why the Mansion isn't known as a tourist attraction, or as a draw for research teams as the Infernal Engine is: not even before the Crash, when Eetown was a busy and major stop-off point for airships to the Far East across the ocean. But Sylvester says there are similar but more impressive buildings elsewhere, and the Basement dwellers at the time were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now..", and neither Ernest nor Philbert was interested in the Basement. But he agrees it's still strange. If he means that the Basement dwellers were still confined to their individual species-specific habitats in Philbert's time, fifty years ago, that would mean that everyone except the Gnolls, Gobules and Eyebolts was shut up when Audra and Ludwig went down there. But other things he says later suggest that he just means they were confined to the Basement, not roaming around the Mansion and the surrounding woods. Rosemary and Sylvester recognise and acknowledge that they are already friends, and see a vision of Nimue Fayling, Sylvester's girlfriend from university (and Rosemary sees a naked Sylvester, but doesn't let on). They come to the start of a bridge across the River. Sylvester says that something's changed since he was last there. A magical surge envelops them and Rosemary (only) sees a vision of the Tree personified as a sort of Ent (although initially she thinks it's Death personified). It says that it is "an aspect minor" of "the system entire". It tells her that she is carrying the seeds of some important thing, an Egg and a Claw of it: the Can-Opener is the claw, and the egg is whatever Rosemary carries with her (presumably the Zorper/HJ42: we don't learn that until later, but we see crackles of energy from her pocket) and which she refers to as having brought her there. Presumably, this is the same thing that she stole. It says that Sylvester is less connected, and only has a Torch. Rosemary is becoming connected to "the system entire", the setup that runs the world and of which the Tree is a part, and which touches "the sky; the water; the earth and the fire; the magic; the prince in his high tower". Rosemary apologises for having distrusted it before, and speaks as if it is a god. It says she must turn the system entire upside down. She is concerend that that will hurt it, literally or metaphorically: it says that it will but "for the garden to grow roots must touch the sky". It wants to help but it lives on too slow a timescale to do much. It gives her another seed – this one actually looks a bit like a real seed – which she understands that she will need to plant at the end. We find out that she carries a Poke Kit for small items, but suddenly she understands it much better, without a manual, and is able to generate a secured SubPocket to keep the seed in with a 21-digit security code: 314159265358979323846. She is upset because she knows she won't remember this meeting. As Rosemary wakes from the trance she forgets who she was talking to, but just before she wakes the Tree starts to tell her she will remember when she needs to. She tries to tell Sylvester about what happened and ask whether she can trust what she saw, but it slides out of her mind. He will need to remember what little he saw, and remind her when the time comes. Meanwhile, Whisp is still stalking them, the parrot is still flying overhead, and Hax uses Camora to collect a sort of blunderbuss from a cupboard in the hidden control centre where he took her. 09: Loose Ends (Basement Edition) [27/11/2008 – 07/01/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1906–#1939] Shona, Folla and Niff climb a stair in the background and Forfind flees from arrows and rocks as Faddle brings Bung a flower in a pot as a thank-you for the profit he made from selling Bung's toadstool. We learn that Bung is quite an important political or merchantile player and are reminded that he knows Digger. One of his Jibjibs returns – she has been warning "folks" about Chauncy and Edgar (and she doesn't know who Digger is). We learn that Faddle is a failed or partial Finagler – and that this entails being a good psychological observer, so he knows that Bung has lots of contacts but no friends, and thinks the plant will be a friend for him. Anathama and Clochard are in some kind of long-standing political conspiracy with Digger, and are searching for him: Clochard is tempted to call out his name, but Anathama says he mustn't. They talk of going to Location Zero to wait for him, but it might be days before he turns up. He finds them (and it is mentioned that it is Clochard's job to ask questions he doesn't want the answers to, and that he hangs out with Izchak for information but doesn't much like him) and takes them much deeper underground. They have to cross a gap marked "mind the gap" in Ettin script. They come to a comfortable bedroom cum office which has artificial lights – so the Tree can't see what goes on there. As with the room Hax took Camora to (although this isn't the same one) there's a fish in a bowl, and also a big domino, which may be significant because even bigger dominoes turn up in Rhid's place. There they meet their old friend the male Gnoll Bokonon, an elderly Finagler whom they had believed had been lost in the SubShafts a long time ago: he had last been heard of in SubShaft 44f, compiling a report on Crud, the developer of the Crudbean (and one of the main characters in Sundays in the SubShafts), which was just after Comshaw killed the Ravers and Nevus started Le Tree. Bokonon believes the Tree is esssentially on the same side as them. Digger says they need to survive what is happening, which will bring the birth of a new order, and "ours will be even newer and even less orderly". Digger goes back out to see what he can do or learn about the fighting and about Chauncy and Edgar, leaving the three Gnolls behind to gossip in Gnoll jargon. Clochard and Anathama make the most of what time they have in this dangerous local situation, and go off together to make love. Bokonon, as a former Finagler, offers to help but they turn him down. Meanwhile, we see the Scary Lady and her sentient balloon escorting Chauncy and Edgar to a Panegate which opens on a desert area: perhaps Agraba or Akbar, where the Djinn live (but it's labelled "HOWDY buckarooclass panegate" in Ettin, which suggests it's some equivalent of Arizona). Nevus, Guttle and Agita resume command of their forces: Nevus orders Faldstool to get Preznit on the 'node (='phone); Guttle plans to attack both of them; and Agita correctly tells Flibbergib what both the others are doing, although she herself is busy still scrubbing off Mortimer's kiss. Two Ghast medics are en route to collect Sepferb from outside Crazy Rhid's place and place him in a restorative Porta-Pool: on the way they pass Hiblehoy, carrying an exhausted, sleeping Wrawa, and they advise him on her care and warn him she may be in an erratic mental state when she wakes up. Hiblehoy can't get home because Sidestep Hall is in lockdown, so a Trog called Mowder lets him and Wrawa into Rhid's place, where Sina is trying to organise an emergency demon-proof camp. Maggle has not succeeded in getting through all the fighting to return the buckets to Tunktal. The Wyrms Voog and Ploot have identified a source of water in one of the side-rooms off Rhid's place but there is machinery in the way. Sprocket and Flange turn up and are set to dismantle the machines. Maggle and Flange discuss the level of sexual tension between Sina and Sprocket, and whether they've chosen a Finagler yet. Variously in the background we see Timf, Delfa, possibly Satyrsong, and the Helipath Fosic. Meanwhile a New Year out-take shows Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party walking past some large Human ruins, with the Spike in the background. 10: Loose Ends (Mansion Edition) [08/01/2009 – 02/03/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1946–#1995] Amos Grubb puts Arthur the Weirdo and his hand-puppet Fantod to bed in their attic room: we see Arthur has a soft-toy Wendigo, which seems to be this world's equivalent of a teddy-bear. We see a system of lifts and pulleys within the walls of the Mansion: this is used to deliver to Hector a box containing the spare piece which Sprocket and Flange earlier salvaged from the defunct Metalmin. On his way back from collecting the box Hector passes a talking machine (which spits out phrases relevant to the death of Patrick McGoohan, but they include "The tree plants a seed!"); a Panegate (labelled "ALOHACLASS VIEWGATE"); a gun (?) in a case marked "In case of Ludwig, break glass"; and then preserved specimens of a Mugwump (with "NEVER" written above it) and a Wendigo ("AGAIN") and a painting of one of the titanbugs which the Pales use as war mounts ("OR ELSE"). Reaching his own quarters he takes the spare part out of the box and dumps the box down a chute, then goes to Mr Hand – on the way passing the Trog on the treadmill, who is now flaked out asleep. This time we see a sweep of the whole corridor. From right to left, heading in the direction Hector is walking, we see a lift with a half-seen label starting "Zark" (which is where the Operator is from); piles of boxes; a door labelled "WINE 'CELLER'" (with quotes round the misspelling); the exhausted Trog on his treadmill, under a sign saying "P.O.C. TESTING PREP"; a door labelled "EMERGENCY WAR THRONE-TOP STORAGE"; and the weird mechanism connected to a limb of the tree, only this time we can see a label above its alcove saying "TREELINK", which may be how Mr Hand is doing his snooping. Mr Hand, siting in a chair labelled a warthrone, with a massive mechanical hood on top which hides most of his face, talks about everyone being "back behindscenes and accounted for" except for "young Gill", the Ichyoid at Le Tree, who has been killed or injured by Hpobfvfr. He is eager to talk to Hax the Fixit. He swaps the spare part into Hector, who jokes that now his filament has been replaced he can proceed with his mission to "DESTROY ALL HUMANS!!!" (although you get the impression he kind-of wishes it was true). Mr Hand is very amused by the visual images this conjures up: Hector reminds him that he himself is human, and Mr Hand replies "Only just". Hector then repairs Mr Hand's scanners. Hand looks at pictures from around the Basement (although he can't scan near the River of Fire) and comments on the non presence of The Gibber, which may connect to something the Sneeches have done (left?). He tries to track Rosemary and Sylvester but can't see them because they are close to the River, so he sends Hector to talk to the Riddler. He has a special interest in and wariness of Rosemary, and mutters that she might be another test sent down from— As Hector leaves, Mr Hand is 'phoned by some colleague for a conference, and he mutters "Speak of the Zarkite and he appears", meaning that the person who has called is the one who sets him tests. Hector passes the dead king on his throne: the dial is now at "No". A label above his alcove says "EARLSCOPE". Amos goes outside onto a bridge and observes unusual activity in the Tree, which is labouring to clear the air in the Basement of smoke. He lets himself into the Ivory Tower and goes to a cupboard labelled "IMPORTANT BOOK AND STAIRWAY CANDLESTICK SECURITY CABINET", replaces a book and gets out a candle which he lights by magic, but Nellie catches him and tells him off for taking the risk, as she fears a second Crash which might kill him if he's using magic at the time. Amos is a former thaumslinger (so is she, although we don't learn that till later). Nellie has brought back from the village a large young man called Patrick, the local sheriff, who has come for a report. As a child he used to come to read, but no longer does. Amos reports to Patrick about Rosemary, and Nellie talks about the Pit Flare, which she saw on her way to town, but Amos didn't know about. Patrick and his colleagues watch the Earl and are aware that Rosemary arrived without seeming to pass through the surrounding area. Amos reassures him she's not from another world. Patrick wants Sylvester to report to him. Amos and Nellie give him a book on wine-making for someone called Saffron in the village (we will learn that she is the innkeeper), and a Willy the Wendigo book for his son, and he strides off back to the village. 11: Loose Ends (Forest Edition) [03/03/2009 – 21/04/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2002–#2044] Umboz, Vezza, Piu and Nitfol and their Pale escort arrive at the Pale camp, a kind of amorphous but high-tech. (with e.g. gas-lighting), pueblo-type castle. The local Pales seem very curious to see them. There they meet a Pale diplomat called Zpeaker, with two head-spikes (both large and dark, unlike Thrash who has one large dark spike and a second, small and pale one) and a larger and more prominent jaw than most Pales, whose job is to project sounds that other species can hear, in order to talk to them. We learn that Umboz is a squidcoaxer and Vezza is training to be, Piu is a healer and Nitfol is unemployed; and that Nitfol had been rescued from the Spyder by their two Pale escorts, who presumably killed the Spyder and who took him to Frowgler. Frowgler told him that he had sent the Pales to save him, and now he, Nitfol, had to save Umboz and Vezza. He wants to speak to Frowgler, but he's not currently at the Camp. Nitfol asks to see the Nexus, the Pale leader, since Zpeaker says he's the only one who knows what Frowgler is, but the other three Nomes prefer to go and eat and rest. Frowgler has told the Pales they will benefit by helping these Nomes: Umboz is afraid they want him to open a breach in his village's squid-based defences but Zpeaker says not. What the Pales hope for is a way to breach the barrier which they, and the Nomes, experience as keeping them bound within this local area. Frowgler told them Umboz and co. could help, and so far everything he's told them has come true (this must be what Frowgler meant when he said that he meant to see that the Pales got what they wanted, and whether or not they still wanted it once they'd got it wasn't his concern). The Nexus is old enough to remember before the barrier existed, when magic flowed freely, so before the Crash: so possibly the appearance of the barrier is connected with the Crash (and Philbert' death and the Basement-folk escaping their habitats also happened around that time). We learn that after the Nome/Gnoll war, the Nomes taught the Pales how to tree-warp (opening a Tardis-like space within a tree-trunk). They have used these skills to set up comfortable quarters for their Nome visitors inside a large tree which abuts their main building, with a bedroom upstairs up a ladder, and a drophole down below. Zpeaker doesn't get the chance to use his voice skills very often; the rest of the time he helps to grow giant fungi called Tower Caps. We learn that now that Piu and Umbuz are getting married, she will be the one making the decisions, according to Nome custom. Vezza, having eaten a lot, crashes out on a sofa. Umboz and Piu discuss how to get rid of Mayor Koyeeb, and who should replace him: Nitfol, returning, volunteers. The others reluctantly agree, as he's clever and the destruction of his home tree by the beaver shark gives him a non-conspiratorial excuse for seeking a new lifestyle. Nitfol says he doesn't hate everyone, just holds people in contempt, except the Nexus who really impressed him, and who already made the points Piu and Umbuz are making. The Nexus and Nitfol have a multi-stage plan of campaign worked out. The first stage will involve "some really stupid blobwarts, a five-meter pole, and three liters of Raviner ichor". To persuade Raviners (which are weird land-crab-like things) to spew ichor will involve the collection of strange and difficult substances from the deep forest. Meanwhile, the skunk shark is still chewing its way through the bushes, much to the alarm of Snerk, and Comshaw and co. are still roosting on top of the ruined fountain. We see Yasmine Fotheringby waking up dazed and regaining her composure in the ruins where Protus dropped her – in fact, the above-ground bit of the same ruined branch of World o' Pots where Mortimer fell into the underground storage area. She takes off a mask within the hood: we still cannot see her face or species, but she thinks of herself as Human, and remembers being sent by someone named Tara to find out about fleebs. She knows that she belongs to the Weirdoes' Guild. She sets off to rejoin her horse but then hears a sleeping Mortimer coughing inside a building guarded by a not very effective Sneech security device, and goes to investigate. Mortimer wakes up wondering why Pales, who like deserts, also live here in the forest. Meanwhile, Niddle is teaching Ig to play a complicated rock-stacking game, and Comsahw is impatient to leave. 12: Urwyn and the elevator [22/04/2009 – 03/08/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2051–#2149] Shona, Niff (the male) and Folla arrive at Rhid's ex place, where the male Trog Mowder is now the gatekeeper: the gate in question is being constructed by Fosic the Helipath. Mowder believes that Rhid's former place, under Sina's leadership, will become a new multi-species Hall offering greater opportunities for individuality and personal advancement than the existing Halls, and might maybe even start a trend for many new Halls springing up around the fringes of the old ones. Shona wants to see Sina, her sister, but Sina sends her a message telling her to go home. Mowder suggests that she come in anyway and report to Catmorlo to be assigned a job, thus becoming Sina's employee instead of Nevus's, but Shona walks away, passing Kulma and Timf who are busily at work carrying things. Mowder isn't worried that Shona will rat them out to Nevus as he doesn't reckon Nevus respects her opinion. We meet a tiny, diffident Shallow Wyrm called Urwyn (of the Inner Ring of the Circle of the Dunktyn Stone, although we don't learn that until later). He volunteers to help with the new Hall, and Mowder sends a male Gnoll called Satyrsong to carry Urwyn to Catmorlo. Satyrsong has an extreme hairdo which he cultivates for effect. Delfa gives Satyrsong a piece of found tech. to add to their stockpile: it looks Ettin-made (and is based on the USB symbol). Maggle, Flange, Kulma and Timf and others offstage are milling about carrying out tasks assigned by Catmorlo: Urwyn notices that the new piece of unknown eqipment which Satyrsong has brought in sends out a trail of energy to another piece, but no-one listens to him when he tries to tell them about it. Skuy appears with a message from Sina, saying they need somebody inconspicuous to keep an eye on the elevator. Urwyn is assigned to stay out of sight and watch. As Skuy carries Urwyn towards the elevator they pass a group of Flange, a Gnoll named Krink from the bucket chain, a Jibjib and Prandia the Gobule, who are building some kind of electronic gateway which involves toggling a bim. They encounter Voog, who is instructing Niff and Folla on sniffing some boxes to see if the contets are OK. Voog examines Urwyn to see if he has to "eat" him, which is actually a metaphor for some sexual element of the relationship between the large Deep Wyrms and the little ones. This leads to a conversation in which Skuy says she will never use a Finagler: she was in love with Cully who was exiled to SubShaft 44f by Nevus (whom Urwyn believes and hopes doesn't know he exists). Skuy takes Urwyn to meet Sina, who is in Rhid's laboratory where Sprocket is clearing out the most dangerous stuff. Wrawa has been left to sleep and a Gnoll Healer named Kottle is assigned to keep an eye on her. The Trogs called Grik and Grak have appointed themselves as Sina's bodyguards. Sina's sight is returning, and she is kept very busy organising everybody. Hiblehoy is sent to make up beds – we learn that it is difficult, but not impossible, for male and female Motihauls to work together. Pergola warns them about a "thing" spewing goo and is sent to tell Sprocket. There is some conversation about Rhid's obligatory stuffed crocagator: Nubby kept a pool of live ones at the far end of the Basement, but Urwyn has never been to see them because there's no [unspecified secret thing he doesn't want to name], plus it's a long journey for someone his size. We are reminded that Rhid used to be a Candle Monk but got thrown out, and told that he was trained by a Gnoll wizard (? probably a wizard) called Burtgum who died in some kind of accident. Grak won't let Sina approach the elevator. Urwyn will summon help, if he needs it, by pinging a glass ball. A Gnoll called Finimbrun, who is interested in similar stuff to Rhid but is sane, is to be that help. Finimbrun takes Urwyn to meet somebody called Huff and they all get caught up inside a mechanical Kraken, a Human-made advertising float which Rhid had acquired somewhere, which changes from green to purple and which is labelled "Eat at Shub's". Finimbrun gets control of the arms and uses them to fumble around: one of the things he finds lying nearby is a Pokemon ball labelled "Rhid Find lightning rod before opening again!-Rhid". Huff's species isn't given but his or her dialogue font looks like Jibjib. The Kraken's long arm is used to transport Urwyn to a position where he can watch the elevator from behind a nearby door jamb. There he meets another Shallow Wyrm, a friend of his called Zugo, who is doing some kind of foraging work for "the Circle". We learn that Urwyn is the Wyrm equivalent of a pampered aristocrat but he wants to be useful and do work, and would give up his position and work like and with Zugo, but Zugo's work colleagues would kill him for Breaking the Rings. Zugo, who is the equivalent of working-class, is also unusual in that he will talk to Urwyn. Urwyn asks Zugo to warn "the innerest Ring" that Rhid has been ousted: he expects that if anybody in that Ring notices that he, Urwyn has left, they'll be glad to be rid of him. Meanwhile, Flange has created a device called a bim toggler with which s/he has opened a false wall to reveal a sequence of rooms beyond. Some walls havve a symbol on them which indicates that there is space behind them that can be access with such a device. S/he believes there may be other large rooms left sealed by the Humans. An alarmingly gungho female Motihaul called Othara, granddaughter of the famous Othar, turns up and volunteers to explore the new space, which Sina hopes will relieve overcrowding in the Halls. Urwyn (or possibly Zugo) thinks he hears something, but doesn't realise the floor-dial on the elevator has moved. Sina realises she forgot to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, but at that moment the elevator doors open and Hpobfvfr appears, red-eyed and controlled by the Operator. Urwyn tells Zugo to leave. Hpobfvfr still hates the Operator but he has nevertheless convinced her that he is her superior officer, by knowing Level Three passwords: the way the Operator speaks of different levels of passwords suggests Hpobfvfr may operate in some artificial way like a Metalmin and her mind can be hacked into. The Operator sends her to fetch Sylvester's cold iron frying pan: although it hurts the Operator to touch it, he holds it and uses it to probe the boundaries of his cage. He sends her to gather up the remains of Hpthbvtw (Hepthbav), which he thinks he can use: but when he realises that Hpobfvfr has a strong emotional link to Hpthbvtw, and that this is weakening his hold over her (her eyes get noticeably less red), he orders her back into the lift. He tells her that he too had a mate he was "rather fond of", and offspring, and he doesn't know if he will see them again but in the very long term he will "literally move heaven and earth" for the chance to do so. Skuy comes to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, and Urwyn tells her she's already appeared: she goes off again to tell Sina. Meanwhile, the Operator does something to Hpobfvfr's physiology which causes a red flicker around her head, and then tells her to track and kill Rosemary and Sylvester – a task she takes to with enthusiasm. In fact, the Operator is seeking to test Rosemary against a less malleable opponent than Chauncy and Edgar, because he has a use for her if she wins. Ploot, the large Deep Wyrm from Sina's team, comes to speak to Urwyn about what he has seen. In the foreground, a Smyt summons a trundlebug and rides it like a horse. Urwyn comments on the fact that Ploot is the first Deep Wyrm he's met who didn't examine him to see if he needed to "eat" him. Ploot says he's just not very interested in that kind of thing – it's a powerful and necessary drive but a small minority just don't have it. They see an externalised Vision, or what Ploot calls a "Glimpse" (actually celebrating the strip's sixth birthday). Ploot tells Urwyn he stays up high (for a Wyrm) in the Basement because he doesn't want to breed and also because times are changing, as the Vision suggests, and he wants to help people who are trying to smooth the transition and set up a new society etc.. Urwyn mutters that he isn't sure he'd mind if Ploot wanted to Eat him.... Another Shallow Wyrm called Kryt of the Ring of the Celestial Observation Slit, who has been secretly watching this exchange, goes to some kind of communication station and starts to give a secret report about the Operator to some Wyrm authority. There seems to be a small colony of the little Shallow Wyrms living around this communication point. Meanwhile a large flutterby, a banded Vagabond, dazed by crashing into light globes, flies past them and down into the depths, where it is struck by the radiator of a large lorry or armoured car, being driven deep undergound. 13: The Great Chasm [04/08/2009 – 26/02/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2158–end] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips start–#2348] On the lorry are two very amusing, characterful Fixits, a male and a female who call each other "Age" and "Beauty" and who seem to be working partners, both riding unconscious Gnoll mounts. They mention an engineer called Tix who had been complaining that the "Sneechtaps" were all offline. They come to an underground building which looks a bit like a smaller version of the Mansion of E upside-down and has levitating lifts, where they report to a very bossy female Fixit called Grix. It is mentioned that there is a schedule which Nevus and the Council have pre-empted by attacking each other. They bear a message saying that Mr Hand wants to see Hax urgently. Grix reveals that Hax has a history of getting into scrapes (nearly as bad as Mortimer) and has just spent almost ten years relegated to the (breeding?) pens in the mountains. He was given Project Y duty that very morning (which suggests he was told to take fleebs to the Great Chasm in order for Sprocket and Flange to end up with them) and Grix isn't surprised to hear that he ran into trouble. Grix summons a female Ichyoid called Igor (which seems to be a job title not a name) who brings in boxes of what we later learn are delicate, increasingly-hard-to-obtain Pvatskin Triggers vital for the maintenance of the underpinnings of the River of Fire. The partners are despatched to take these boxes to the Chasmside Covert Observation Station: after they have left, Igor wishes to discuss Rufus, apparently as a replacement for Mr Hand, but this is so secret a matter that Grix tells her they must know nothing about it ever. The two partners are sent on another long lorry journey to deliver the boxes (which one of them finds unsettling). With them in the lorry are other consignments, including lunch for their journey and a cage containing a larger-than-usual (hamster-sized), amaranth-coloured Fuzz which sings in notes coloured in the same rainbow colours as the River of Fire, underneath which they pass (and we see a massive pillar supporting it). This may be an indication that someone in this group has contact with the city of the Spires in Mechana where, as we will later learn, they breed Fuzzes for size, appearance and singing ability. The female Fixit expresses moral doubts about what they are doing by controlling their mounts. En route they pass the Quarentine [sic] Alcove of Forbidden Objects, which contains strange things such as a statue of an Ichyoid and a giant, broken statue of Kaylu with wires hanging out of it. When they reach the Chasmside Covert Observation Station (which is decorated with a crowned human figure playing a trumpet) they unload in a large, open hangar and then report to Fixits called Apix and Birux. We learn that one of the things they are doing down here is repairing the undershield of the River of Fire, but it's getting more difficult, in part because it's getting harder to get hold of the hardening foam triggered by the Pvatskin Triggers. Apix says that Nevus and Preznit (for the Council) have called a cease-fire. He is aware of Sylvester and of Rosemary, whom he calls "regrettably proactive". The male of the two partners then goes up to an observation deck where he talks to a Fixit called Peex (riding on/fused with an Eyebolt) and they discuss Project Y, the same thing Sprocket and Flange were working on earlier. Project Y will give their employers much more effective surveillance but may not be finished in their lifetime. There is a suggestion that their current surveillance system involves the Tree. Project Y will result in much better surveillance, and then Mr Hand won't need as many of them to snoop for him. The action cuts to Rosemary and Sylvester, who are discussing Rosemary's Poke Kit, which was a going-away present from Aunt Eva, and the E family library in the Ivory Tower, and books they have read about Erewhonian anthropology, and night creatures. We learn that Amos Grubb is the Mansion's librarian and Nellie Grubb is the gardener. As Rosemary and Sylvester climb the steps leading away from the far side of the River there are no more visions, just an odd smell of marshberries (which leads to a discussion about the different berries available in different regions, and Audravania growing pudding plants). They reach a lighted area, and Rosemary becomes temporarily hypnotised after looking at a spinning light. She is amazed to discover that the Can-Opener fits inside her Poke Kit, which previously had only been able to hold small objects: Sylvester attributes this to the power of the tricklepoint. Pre-Crash folk heroes named Readman and Billsmith are mentioned, who carried a whole library and an arsenal in Poke Kits. If you take a Poke Kit into a low-magic area it spits out what was inside it. Their local trickle-pont is between the Mansion and the Spire. Sylvester talks about the Spike (and at least some bits of the Mansion, since e.g. the Panegates have the same characteristic writing on them as the Spike) having been built by Ettins, and about the ancient war between Ettins and Sneeches, which killed all the Ettins and most of the Sneeches. We learn that the Ettins sent a mission to the Moon to investigate artefacts of unknown origin there, and they used durasteel construction plates. The Ettins had less of a presence Out West. The West was Sneech terriory, although most of them died in the war and they now mainly live in Wirtvale. Sylvester says that the Sneeches in the Basement usually allow travellers through their territory if they stick to the main road and don't engage with anybody. They occasionally give travellers gifts, which may be beneficial, dangerous or both: Audra's cost her a hand but she said it was worth it. Latterly, Sneech gifts are usually either thrown away or stored in the Quiet Room (a magic-deadening space upstairs in the Mansion). The new Earl has to walk through the Sneech colony alone, but Sylvester saw no Sneeches when he did so. In the context of how unusual it is to have one Pale village with no other Pales nearby to fight, Sylvester talks about the zoo which the Ettins set up in the Basement, before Humans arrived in the area. The habitats were self-sustaining and most still work: Nubby's Crocogator Pit is in the Motihaul swamp, and the Chamber of Extreme Aridity was for the Pales. Most of the local sapient species were exhibits – except the Sneeches, who were prisoners of war and research subjects; the Gnolls, who were free-lance "vermin" living where they chose; and the Gobules and Eyebolts, who were on the staff of the zoo. There's a dating problem there. Previously Sylvester said that most of the nonHumans in the Basement were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now.." in Philbert's time – which extended right up to three months before the Crash, fifty years ago. Now he says of the Pales that "Like all the other species, after the Ettins were gone, they eventually got out of their habitat. Started roaming the Basement." where they set up a mixed-species society. But "after the Ettins were gone" is in the time of the 1st Earl. Definite dates start with Milo, the 9thEarl, 350 years ago, but since then they've averaged twenty-five years per reign so the 1st Earl would probably have been around 550 years ago. Five hundred years is a very long "eventually". Perhaps what happened was that soon after the Ettins died their habitats became open and they could "start roaming", but they mostly stayed in their own environments where they were comfortable, until a combination of rising numbers and the disruption caused by Audra eventually led them to start spreading out. Or perhaps he just means that up to fifty years ago they were still confined to the Basement, not spreading out into the countryside: especially as he says that the Pales left the Basement and settled in the ruins of Eetown after the Crash. This probably has something to do with the presence of a large, ultimately Pale-owned World o' Pots in Eetown. The Ettins seem to have had no contact with Humans (presumably until their final end, when the 1st Earl supposedly fought them) as their records never mention them. Sylvester knows a lot about all this because if he'd had his choice he would have liked to be an archaeologist. Humans came into the country from across the sea in large numbers from Tiranog via the Sea of Shells and into a region called Abalone, and took over the area. Tiranog is on the same continent, and not all that far away, so this reinforces the idea that the Ettins only lived in what is now Yurpsland, otherwise they could hardly have failed to meet Humans. There were already older Human colonies in Yurpsland, in Shibolith, south-east of Abalone, who got there by a different route, overland from Thekla in the south. They had conflict with the Pales in Shibolith and so never spread, and they now speak a very different dialect from the rest. However, the language spoken locally is very widespread because Sylvester says his mother can just about understand the locals in Agraba, which is on the other side of the whole big continent, nearly four times the whole width of Yurpsland away. Even before the colonies in Shibolith, the insular, hostile tribal Human group called Haroons were brought into Alfibay (the far north-west of Yurpsland) by someone or something. Sylvester mentions Ilsa Lundquist, who was head housekeeper at the Mansion for years, and whose mother was a Haroon. This must be the same green-haired, Earl-hating Ilsa whom Snerk and Shona met when the HJ42 went PROZ and jumped them back to Eetown shortly before the Crash. Ilsa had a distracted air – probably because the Scary Lady was controlling her in some way – and eventually retired to the village. The Mansion still has a very old, almost mummified butler called Schmedley. They used to have all sorts of servants, including an hereditary string-measurer: the last incumbent choked to death a week and a half before the Crash, and some people thought the Crash happened because the post was vacant. Rosemary has plans for reviving the Mansion's fortunes, and is already referring to "our" and "we" in this context. At the very least, she can mind the place while Sylvester goes to Glome, the provincial capital, where he can get more current information. We learn that King Yorik III and his children died in the Crash. The current king Yancy II is a figurehead: the Bureaucracy really governs. Sylvester follows the fortunes of various factions in The Times (which stuck out here he can only get hold of weeks after publication) and has plans for playing the stockmarket. The stories in The Times are often slanted in a way that gives away the various jockeyings for position between government agencies and between companies. There is a long discussion about the fact that the government's bureaucracy is fragmented into multiple agencies and factions, and about the politics of the various neighbouring countries, including a place called Blefusco which is clearly equivalent to France. The country just south of Yurpsland is called Thekla, and south of that are Incana and Blefusco. Incana and Thekla are sabre-rattling: Blefusco is neutral, but if it gets dragged in it could lead to war between multiple countries including theirs. As they approach the top of the stairs, the hypnotic lights go out. They talk about the various habitats in the Basement ex-zoo, the death of the Wendigoes in the failed arctic exhibit (no loss, according to Sylvester), and the Willy the Wendigo books, and Sylvester's obligation to produce an heir (although given how many siblings he has I would have thought a nephew or niece would have done) and birth-control failures (they chew a plant called stiflebloom, but occasionally it doesn't work), and the pointlessness of Rosemary's crush on Baldy because he was "a homguy". We learn that the Helipaths and Ecadems were probably brought in by the Ettins through a Panegate. Sylvester believes that the Panegates open into alternate heres, rather than other planets. We learn that Rosemary's parents drowned in a maritime accident, and that there were terrible Dawn Wars before the Ettins and Sneeches came along. The combatants were inimical races called Wilfs/Wifts and Gobblems/Gobble'Ems, who are now known in this world only from bone framgments and fairy tales but who still exist beyond one of the Panegates. For whatever reason, the Panegates only show worlds a long way diverged from this one. The 12th Earl, Lemuel, investigated the Panegates and was probably killed by one: the controls are difficult and dangerous to operate, but there are a few simple ones which do work and part of the rite of passage of the new Earl is to go through one to e.g. the Forest, or yo Charlotte's Cave (which is halfway up the side of a nearby mountain). The Panegates also sometimes prompt the formation of brief portals to strange and distant places. We see an image of one through which we can glimpse Snoopy on his doghouse, and are shown an incident where two frog-creatures from the Station V3 webcomic emerged in the Mansion and were dealt with by the Scary Lady. I would suggest that Frowgler came through such a portal after one connected to the Roshambo comic, but he has said elsewhere that he isn't the Frowgler, just a Frowgler. Rosemary starts to ask about the Scary Lady, but then they reach the Great Chasm. Mr Hand watches them on his monitors, but disclaims all knowledge to somebody on the 'phone. Ludwig installed railings and bridges over the Chasm: there is a gap in the rails opposite the door they emerge from, but no bridge. It's not just any gap, but delineated by posts with E finials: it looks like it was built for a bridge that's no longer there, or perhaps as a boarding-point for airships. They establish that Rosemary is not scared of heights, and actively enjoyed working in the rigging of a sailing ship. The Chasm, is lit by daylight (and hence only in daylight) by reflectors installed by Ludwig. Walking along a ledge to get to the actual bridge, they sample the local treefruit, pass a gap where the rail is simply broken, then encounter an elderly male Gobule called Theophan the Recluse. Theophan is one of a long series of Theophans, the Founder, the Mighty and the Rotund, who were all famous mentors (passing the name through mentoring, not blood relationship). Gobule young are self-supporting and non-sapient, like baby guinea-pigs. They scatter in large numbers to grow or die. Those that live, become sapient: some of those become mere scavengers around the fringes but the luckiest are taken on by a mentor and educated. This Theophan was a student of Theophan the Rotund, along with Maw, Bung, Cram and Guttle. We learn that Gobule mentors occasionally mentor other species: Sylvester seems to be considering using one for his own future children. We hear about a Jibjib boss called Flap who runs an expensive ferry service across the Chasm, and learn that Theophan has chosen to stay beside the Chasm because it goes all the way down to the Hot Zone and he feels there's something terribly important down there, and not just the Treeroot. He tastes the Can-Opener and thinks it is made of Sneech squeezings, or something similar. He doesn't want to know their names, which are arbitrary labels, so they use the code-names Twit and Warrior. We learn that Theophan also stays by the Chasm to provide a sort of impartial counselling service to male Trogs who come to the Chasm to kill themselves by taking the Plunge before they lose their minds. A traditional location is used for this: it looks like another possible airship-jetty, like the one they passed earlier. After Rosemary and Sylvester have left we see Whisp still trailing them, then two baby Gobules emerge from a hole and talk to Theophan. Interestingly Theophan seems to have taught them the wrong meaning of the word "hobnob" as one baby says it means "fighting with", and Theopan replies "With teeth or with words, Yes." It actually means something between being pally with and conspiring with: a British brand of biscuit is called Hobnob because of the cosy image it conjures up. We learn that those Nomes who still live in the Basement live in Root Hall with the Eyebolts. Rosemary disapproves of the fact that Theophan doesn't try to stop the Trogs from killing themselves, but Sylvester understands it, and says he might do the same if he developed Darnay Syndrome (their equivalent of Alzheimer's). Rosemary is aware of Whisp following them. As they approach the Plunge point, trying to lose Whisp, they are passed by Crazy Rhid coming the other way, with Kronk still on his trail some way behind him. Sylvester thinks he's seen Rhid before, but doesn't realise it was in the images shown to him by Protus. We get to see the Plunge Point as seen from across the far side, so that we can see that there is a lighted panel below the lip facing out into the Chasm, lending weight to the idea that these were docking points for something. Nearby, we see the male Ghast Sopovefe from the bucket chain, waiting for "the little zorper" (so probably Frowgler, although if "zorper" is being used just as profanity he might mean Digger or some Shallow Wyrm), and Hpobfvfr passing by behind him, presumably looking for Rosemary and Sylvester: Sopovefe glimpses her and seems to realise something is odd about her. A shot is fired (by Camora, with the blunderbuss, under Hax's control, from a high vantage point), striking Rosemary on the helmet and dazing her: in her confusion she exclaims "I told them not to ring your bell, Dandelion..", Dandelion being the name of the Oracle where she grew up. Kronk pushes her aside in order to pursue Rhid, and she and Sylvester fall into the Chasm. Rhid and Kronk pass Whisp, who can smell that Rosemary and Sylvester went over the Plunge, and also smells Camora's presence nearby. Rhid, in the lead, then passes Theophan, and then a Trog juggler who we later learn is called Stonwal, and then the doorway that leads to the River, and then is rescued by Digger Odel, who pulls him in behind a concealed panel. Whisp traces Camora's scent and works out that she emerged from a spot in a corridor wall (not the point she disappeared behind before), tracked to the ledge above the Plunge site and then returned. She wonders if it's a transporting twistpoint, like one in Helignoll Hall, then works out that it's a concealed door, and leaves to report back to Upernavik and Knumdrot. Meanwhile we see Hpobfvfr go to the edge of the Plunge and peer over, then turn back. Behind the panel Hax disengages from Camora. He believes he has contained her memory and delayed her awakening, but she wakes instantly, with full memory, and tries to grab him. He escapes down a letterbox-sized slot in the rock, scraping his front surface badly in the process, with Camora shouting THIS IS NOT OVER!" behind him. We see gaps and tunnels in the rock containing odd bits of struts and tools and what looks like a Smyt-sized pink racing car, then a cavern where four bats are roosting. One bat bat wakes and flies through wider fissures towards the outside. Part Five: Mechanisms in the Dark [27/02/2010 – 16/07/2013] 01: Sitting in a Tree [27/02/2010 – 04/06/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2355–#2443] Now that it is getting dark Comshaw, Niddle and Ig see the bat fly past them and finally feel safe to come down from the ruined fountain. Ig is now wearing/carrying Niddle's backpack. We also see a distant, unidentifed Saur, possibly Snerk but the colour looks darker, lurking in a tree, watching a bat go past. Yasmine enters the ruined building where she heard coughing, and discovers Mortimer, lying on a makeshift bed and still coming round from having been stunned by Eunice. He has a note from Rufus on his chest but we aren't told what it says. He correctly identifies Yasmine, who seems familiar to him although she doesn't think they've met, as a Weirdo – which she finds amazing, apparently because it suggests a degree of clairvoyance not seen since the Crash. He also identifies the building as Dorian's old hut (presumably the Dorian who now lives in the Spike), but seems confused: when Yasmine mentions Protus as the Willigig currently living in the Mansion, Mortimer recalls being somewhere near the Basement at some point and Skibble, who seems to be a friend of his, turning up "like he usually does" (which makes it unlikely he's an Ichyoid, so we're down to Ghast, Ooze of Helipath) and mentioning Protus to him, but he doesn't coherently connect this with the Willigig who gave him the HJ42 after the incident with the Tree-Squid earlier in the day – although he then refers to Protus as "really grumpy", so he must have made the connection subconsciously, even if he has forgotten the meeting consciously. Yasmine claims she is there to conduct an official Weirdo's Guild review of Arthur's performance. Mortimer smells strongly of sphagnum dust and sploo. Yasmine sets off again to find her horse, and Mortimer again sets out to find Nitfol and rescue him if still alive. He is briefly distracted by a flutterby and calls it to his finger: Yasmine sees this and is again amazed by his psychic talent. Agita's henchgnoll Agorn overhears them talking, and we see Mortimer's Scalpsucker messenger still only halfway up the side of the shaft. The flutterby flies round her and she falls asleep: it seems Mortimer sent it to tell her to stand down. Yasmine and Mortimer get along well and he tells her about all the odd things which happen to him. They talk about Mortimer and Sylvester doing their duty and Sylvester still getting scorned by the villagers, about chaos theory and flutterbys and how one flutterby might some day make a difference, and she tells him to tell Frederick about the odd things. Thinking of what Protus showed her, but not saying it, she tells Mortimer she expects to be back some day and when she returns she expects him to have made some progress with his situation. As Yasmine leaves, Mortimer gives her his sack of fleebs, and Agorn watches from behind a wall. Agorn, who is carrying a spear, wonders whether to follow one or the other, go home and report or go run off and join the Spikefolk, who carry out strange rites involving doing a Metalmin dance and getting blasted with Spikeglow. He appears to decide to follow Mortimer. Ig, Comshaw and Niddle are trying to locate Mortimer by smell but they smell something odd as well that Ig has never smelled before, metal and skin, wet and burnt – Niddle says this smell was all over the mound that the Fire came out of earlier ("The Pit"). The way they describe the smell, it probably relates to either Frowgler or the Meltalmin which we glimped earlier near The Pit: we will find out later that it's Frowgler, which implies that Frowgler smells of metal (is it possible that Frowgler in some way is the Metalmin?). They can also smell that there have been a lot of Pales about, not just Thrash's party and the two with Buzz. Niddle says the metal/skin/wet/burnt smell was all over the hill where The Pit is, then suddenly gone. Again there is mention of a barrier which Humans live beyond, as if there's some sort of cordon keeping the Basement folk in. Niddle is pleased that he was exposed to the Fire and saw visions, as he thinks this will prove to be important, and he says it will now be a Finagler thing which he will spread at the next Conclave. Having parted from Jasmine Mortimer is a bit lost (and we see he is now completely barefoot: evidently Rufus and/or Eunice removed his remaining shoe when they put him to bed), but then he encounters Frowgler, Thrash and the two other Pales we will later know as Flagpale and Scrawl, although for the moment Frowgler calls them Flaghelper and Antlerhelper. Frowgler is sitting on a branch of a tree against which the Scary Lady's pink umbrella is leaning. Mortimer recognises Frowgler as a comic-book character but Frowgler says that he is "not THE Frowgler. Just.. A Frowgler", and saying that his parents called him that is a close enough approximation. Frowgler comments that the local Pales call their fort "The Camp" because they expect it to be temporary, and advises Mortimer on how to find the closest Spyder web, and that he'll know he's near it when he sees smoke. He claims to be in a similar position to his fictional counterpart, in that he has come to assist the Good Guys against powerful evil forces, much bigger and more powerful than mere demons. Mortimer and Thrash are both Good Guys, and so are most of the people they know. Mortimer asks if Yasmine was right to tell him to talk to Frederick, and Frowgler thinks she probably was. Mortimer says he needs to be ready "when she gets back" – probably meaning Yasmine. Thrash tacitly agrees to convey Frowgler on to his next stopping point. As Frowgler and the Pales leave, Mortimer notices the umbrella. It doesn't belong to anyone in Frowgler's party, so he keeps it. Agorn watches the bat catching flutterbys, then realises that Comshaw's party are behind him, and hides. He overhears Comshaw sniffing out the fact that the Human, Mortimer, went one way and the Pales and the metal-smelling thing went another. So the metal-smelling thing must be Frowgler. They decide to continue following the Human. Agorn is impressed, but in a kind of patronising way: he sees Comshaw as a young fellow with potential. The space-suited worker who earlier quit the Hot Zone observation station climbs out of a hatch in one of the ruined buildings (with a sign over the door saying "GONE TO EARTH"), takes off her helmet and reveals herself to be a female Nome called Fizmo. She mentions having been taken below from a different entrance by someone called Fogorner, who she believes was working for the group in the Spike. She is afraid she might have come up beyond the Edge of the World, where the giants (Humans) are. She attempts to treewarp her way through the door, but it doesn't work because she doesn't have "the glowgems or the blivit any of the rest of the phizz". In the end she forces her way out of the locked building through a crack high in the stonework, in her underwear but taking with her a pruning hook she found in the locked building. She lands in "puffbloom bushes", which seem to be the local version of hydrangea. She meets Frowgler, who is sitting on a ruined wall and whom she knows – he had advised her not to take the subterranean job. Now he says going back down would be the safest thing for her, but not the best thing. Learning that she admires Nitfol for his independence, he suggests she go with Thrash to the Pale camp where Nitfol now is, and she agrees. She is initially alarmed by Thrash, whom Frowgler introduces as the Nexus's strong right hand, then she casually calls him "whatsyergob". As a reward for not forcing him to force her to agree, Frowgler opens his Poke Kit and gives her a very smart hat made by the posh Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine, since Nomes hate to be bareheaded, but he warns her to examine hats from other sources carefully: to look inside them, and if they're one of the unsafe kind she'll feel the urge to swear and whack them with her pruning hook. It is clear he is warning her about Fixits, and that Fogorner is controlled by a Fixit. He also warns her that the beaver shark – of which there is only one – is loose nearby, and that he is trying to stop Koyeeb doing something which will destroy the Nome village (presumably, attacking the Gnolls). He is sending her away from the village because she's worth saving. He tells Thrash to tell the Nexus that if they don't hear from him, "that stopgap we discussed will be necessary". Frowgler denies being a demon and says he was put on earth to do what he is doing. He goes down the tunnel Fizmo came out of, saying that he needs to see an old friend, and she goes off with the Pales, talking at them about a Nome who built a prototype plane which crashed, and her ideas about hot air balloons (adding that she is a natural source of hot air). We see a flat-topped tower among the ruins, made of Ettin durasteel plates and with a label that starts "Ludwig automatic..." Inside the top, surrounded by windows, is a giant crystal which collects sunlight and directs it underground and down a channel with mirrors in it to steer it around corners. The light-beam passes by a lorry in some sort of workshop, and a buried, humanoid but four-armed Metalmin: either the Metalmin is huge or the lorry is Smyt-size, because the entire lorry is only slightly bigger than the Metalmin's head. The beam from the crystal connects to the lights which channel daylight to the Great Chasm, and we see Rosemary and Sylvester falling: he thinks that he is dying Mortimer's death and his family will never know what happened to him, but then they land in a peculiar fluffy outgrowth of the Tree. Rosemary, still dazed from the blow to the head, identifies Rhid whom they have just seen as one of the people Protus showed to Sylvester, and thinks that the woman he saw her fighting – whom she calls Tansy – is about to show up, since Rhid did. Her helmet light is damaged, and Sylvester's helmet is missing, caught in the Tree high above them. Rosemary apologises to the Tree and then whacks it, causing the helmet to fall into range. Sylvester manages with some difficulty to catch it, so that they have light and can proceed. 02: Lying in a Hole [05/06/2010 – 16/09/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2450–#2548] Mortimer passes an enormous boulder in its own fresh mini-crater: it's not the one that nearly hit Comshaw earlier, but probably comes from the same explosion. Watched by a trundlebug, Rosemary and Sylvester slip through the layer of fluff onto a more normal, solid branch of the Tree. Sylvester thinks the padded branches below the Plunge point are there to stop Trogs killing themselves, or at least, like Theophan, to give them time to reconsider. Rosemary tears her skirt – which is stolen, presumably from a Chroman Initiate – to make ties to keep their helmets on. She admits to having killed three Humans, presumably in combat. Meanwhile, Comshaw, Niddle and Ig are following close behind Mortimer. The pre-existence of Wyverns, a kind of extinct dragon, is mentioned. If this is designed to save Trogs, or at least give them the chance to change their minds, why have none ever made it back to tell Theophan about it? Sylvester's theory that it's all there to save Trogs is born out when they find a burning pot of Trog Repellant, which herds any Trogs who land in the Tree towards a narrow spur bridge leading out over the abyss (made by a very reputable construction firm). Meanwhile, Agorn passes more debris, buried in the ground by the force of the last blast, the OZPR. The spur across the Chasm ends with a bracket with a crab or spider drawn on it, and then a long tube-like chute which they are sucked in by, and which takes them to a padded landing-site in a room within the cliff on the far side of the Chasm, which contains a broken office cabinet which has "The Threshold" written on it, and which moves about under its own power. On the wall is written "MAKES HAMBLE SUMTHING SUMTHING", among other things. They meet a thing called a Lurker – a cave-creature like a blind, bald, sub-sapient Saur. Dog-like, it wants them to follow it: Rosemary thinks it's leading them into an ambush. Following it, they come to a place which looks like the Ettins' artificial Trog habitat, except sterile and dead, without the moss and fresh water etc. of the zoo exhibit. Sylvester feels that he and Rosemary are both acting rather wildly, and that this is due to exposure to energy bubbling up from the Hot Zone. They come to an archway labelled "Serene Cavern of Blissful Relaxation", beside which is a slightly sick poem about the death of Yurd ("Yurd ran far and wide // 'Til his mind began to slide // So he took the Great Plunge // Now he is in a hole all covered with gunge"). Within are the people the Lurker, Blinky, was reporting to – two male trogs called Villipend and Hamble. Both are less flat-faced and probably mentally sharper than Kronk, but Villipend is paranoid and deranged, and his hair (or crest or whatever it is) is styled like a crown. Hamble tries to calm him but he is sure that Rosemary and Sylvester are the "Tormentors" who keep him trapped there, and it doesn't help that he smells his enemy Kronk (who brushed past them at the Plunge point) on them. There are bones in the background which look like those of a Trog. When Sylvester says he doesn't know where the exit is, Villipend throws a weapon which Rosemary fends off with the Can-Opener, which Villipend calls a Sneech claw. Rosemary and Villipend fight and Villipend manages to get in a kick which throws her against the wall. Sylvester intervenes, warns him grimly that he is the terrible Earl of E and fires a primitive taser which he has in his backpack, and which fires over his shoulders when he hits a trigger on his chest – but Villipend dodges and it is Hamble who is struck and apparently killed. The act of firing the taser also throws Squeeb out of the backpack and onto the floor, unnoticed. Villipend is impressed by the taser but annoyed because he wanted to kill Hamble himself. He threatens Sylvester so Rosemary slashes him with the Can-Opener and he hides in the dark. Sylvester finds a door operated by a Herediscan which identifies him as a member of the E family and lets him through: next to it on the wall is written "THE BRUSH IS PERFECT BUT THE PAINT RUNS". He tells Villipend (now clinging to the ceiling) he will leave the door open. Mortimer thinks that he is searching the woods to find out what happened to Nitfol. Then he finds the Spyder's head, detached and smoking, and thinks "OK, now it's just morbid curiosity". Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their weapons training (and we learn that at the bodyguard training-school she went to, the fencing master was a Mr Montoya). She is concerned that she may not be able to stop Villipend if he attacks again, because he's in peak condition and she has no practice with the Can-Opener. Comshaw's party reach the dead Spyder head. Ig can tell that it wasn't Mortimer who killed the Spyder, and begins to discover the joys of cooked meat. As they move away from the Hot Zone vents, Rosemary becomes calmer. Sylvester tells her about the SubShafts, a tangle of tunnels which are greatly affected by the Hot Zone. The Eyebolts who worked for the Ettins lived there, then the mining Nomes as well. After an upheaval when Sylvester was a teen (presumably the Gnoll/Nome war, so Mortimer was about twelve or fourteen when he did whatever he did) they all moved out, the Eyebolts to elsewhere in the Basement, the Nomes to the Forest, and now it's mainly Gnolls who live in the SubShafts. [We seen an outline of Cully, Chunner and Crud, all heavily armed – Cully with a flame-thrower, Chunner with a blunderbuss and Crud with something similar to the Can-Opener.] They come to an area of large engineering works and spiky pylons, like metal tree trunks with short jagged branches, at the start of a walkway or bridge at the edge of a long drop. Mortimer comes to the huge, smoking crater caused when Frowgler set off the HJ42, and wrongly assumes Nitfol and the Spyder were both blown up. He climbs down into the crater and retrieves the HJ42, then Comshaw, Niddle and Ig arrive at the edge of the crater and engage him in conversation about the goals of Humanity. They all conclude that Comshaw needs to speak to Sylvester (hearing that Sylvester is the Earl, Comshaw assumes he must be very scary). The thing Niddle has been carrying in his hand all day, which he found in the tunnel and which is similar to but not the same as a Glowgem, starts radiating energy, and Comshaw notices it for the first time since the tunnel. Niddle says he can almost hear it speak, it's waited a long time and now it's almost time for some unspecified meeting: probably between it and the HJ42. This must be the meeting future!Mortimer told present!Mortimer to prevent. Suddenly the Saur Snerk falls into the crater with them. He had run into the beaver shark and it fixated on him and began chasing him. The beaver shark appears looming over the edge of the crater and then crashes down amongst them. Niddle starts counting down 5...4...3... Mortimer orders the others to run: using his pink umbrella like a baton he summons a large crowd of flutterbys, who distract the shark by crashing against its face. Then Niddle's count reaches zero, and the energies of the HJ42 and the crystal link and set off a silent magical fireball, a huge dome of white light, which is felt by the Operator, the Scary Lady, Frowgler and a mechanical alarm near Hector. Back underground, Rosemary and Sylvester are considering a vertical ladder when Villipend jumps them, wrests the Can-Opener from Rosemary and tries to force Sylvester to go back downstairs and close the door to Villipend's domain, so he can continue to trap other Trogs there. Sylvester is willing to jump into the Chasm rather than do so. Mortimer and the shark are transported into open underground space by a twistpoint and fall down to where Rosemary and Sylvester are. The letters PZOR appear, indicating that the not-Glowgem and the HJ42 interacted to create the twistpoints, burst of light etc.. The shark bites Villipend, killing him, and Rosemary retrieves the Can-Opener and pushes both of them off the edge and into the deep. Comshaw and Niddle are jumped through another twistpoint back to their own home, where Camora is brooding. [They have a skimgibber in a bowl.] Niddle crashes out, as Telic had warned that he would, burbling about the fact that Mortimer has the same haircut as him, and something about a window. Camora tells Comshaw about Hax. He decides to go back out to warn everyone, leaving her to care for Niddle, but first Camora, who is feeling overwrought, declares that she loves Comshaw and they have an unspecified erotic session. Comshaw is happy to see that Niddle has some clingweed wrapped round his feet, since he promised some to Telic. Ig is twistpointed to outside the home of his ex girlfriend Nerda, the mother of his as-yet unhatched children. He offers her the stuff in Niddle's backpack so she lets him in. Snerk is less lucky. As a result (or cause) of an unspecified backlash he is dumped into the middle of a high-tech. experimental facility of some kind being run by two Ghasts. He is pinned in some uncomfortable, scary machinery which may be examining him or may be cleaning and immunising him – it's not clear which – and then pushed through a hatch (which he sort-of recognises because "the boss" told him about doors) labelled "#2540 SAUR HABITAT, WOODLAND" into an artifical woodland habitat designed especially for Saurs. He wonders if it is underground, then thinks that he has been twistpointed to a real forest far away. He wishes to leave a.s.a.p. in order to report to Frowgler. There are other Saurs there, all of them (including Snerk), wearing a bracelet on the right wrist and with a three-digit number on their left side. He meets a dozy girl called Dizel and a much more sensible, very large female called Zil who tells him that if he can find a way out she's coming with him: he learns from her that there's a day/night cycle here, but no proper sun. We learn of the existence of big, dim, agressive Saur relatives called Sawtooths, but there are said to be none in this habiotat. There are however Gnolls – who may be there unofficially. Why was Snerk sent here? Comshaw, Niddle and Ig were sent to their mates, so is Zil Snerk's future mate? The shark certainly didn't go to its mate but we've been told it was the only beaver shark, so probably it had no mate: instead it followed Mortimer on whom it was fixated (it possibly followed Snerk because he had licked Mortimer's foot and so smelled of him). Mortimer went to his brother and Rosemary, but we will be told Rosemary is not his mate, and certainly he is currently fixated on Yasmine. I do not think Yasmine can be Rosemary looped through time, even though we will learn that she is somebody whom people in the area might recognise, because Rosemary wouldn't need a report on Mansion critters. Meanwhile, the not-Glowgem falls back into the crater, and the HJ42 falls through a crack in the floor of the crater [the parallel strip Sundays in SubShaft 44f tells us that it ends up with the rebel Gnoll mechanic Tuttle, who is in league with Digger Odel and passes it to Skuy's boyfriend Cully]. Agorn investigates and sees that the hole which has opened up contains a ladder. He can smell Sneeches in the depths. 03: Spanner in the Works [17/09/2010 – 15/01/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2555–#2926] Sylvester identifies their location as the Ettinworks investigated by Krell, Earl Griffington's assistant. Sylvester, Mortimer (still smelling peculiar due to the sphagnum dust, still with umbrella) and Rosemary set out along the walkway: lights, electric crackles and deep rumbling noises come on as they walk, destroying the ladder they were comsidering before. R&S talk over Mortimer and largely ignore what he is trying to tell them about the umbrella. Sylvester talks about the differences between the SubShafts and the Ettinworks, as electricity crackles on and off around them. Rosemary has a sense that the Can-Opener may do exciting things around electrical discharges, and puts it in the Poke Kit. No Human that Sylvester knows of has been down there since the Crash: and of course after their tumble down the Chasm they are now much lower-down than they had intended to be, vis-á-vis the Sneech den. They come to an unusually passive Sneech plant-machine growth which is blocking the walkway. Similar to the Tree, Sneech dens are built from vast networks of linked, plant-like growths which maintain all forms of life-support, information processing and defence, and can be dangerous if threatened. They are far below the level of the Sneech nest, but Mortimer recounts comments by Skibble suggesting the Sneeches are expanding their territory. He tells Sylvester that Comshaw wants to talk to him. They edge past the growth: Mortimer insists on taking the lead as he is the most expendable. The other two have been ignoring Mortimer and rather treating him like a small child but they begin to realise their mistake. Having passed the Sneech growth they come in sight of an Ettin underhub – a lighthouse-like tower which stretches from the floor below where they are, through the open cavern of the Ettinworks to the ceiling of the cavern, which is the floor of the shallower levels overhead, with a row of windows ringing the tower up near the ceiling. Sylvester talks of a network of underground roads and haulage lorries and buildings which was wrecked and sealed off when Audra poked the Hot Zone and caused the Chasm to spread – it is clear this is the system now being opened up and used by the Fixits. So Yurpsland already had self-powered lorries about 140 years ago, or ninety years before the Crash. The tunnels were used to train and supply armies, but after the Breach the less martially-minded Ludwig sealed them off rather than repairing them (these must be the extra space Fosic is now unsealing with his bim toggler). They go into the underhub and prepare to climb a spiralling internal ramp, and have a conversation in which Rosemary is amazed to learn that a famous, ancient philosopher named Milo, who wrote a very famous work called The Intricate Balance, was the 9th Earl of E. Rosemary's Aunt Eva won it in a Skipjack game among a job-lot of eleven books. They discuss chess, in which Milo was very interested: Rufus is the family champion (after Myrrh). They find a signpost written in a Human script and recently annotated in the handwriting of Nirvana Clepe, former Taskmistress of the Mansion, who retired eight years ago when her wife died, and supposedly now lives in Noodle, three days' ride away. They can tell that the writing is quite new, not weathered by the sea air. Mortimer is showing clairvoyance – he knows that the Sneeches have never been inside the underhub. There is a discussion about Threnody the local Oracle, whom Sylvester fancies (Dirge is her Guardian), and who sometimes helps with the female Tasks now they have no Taskmistress, if Nellie doesn't feel up to it. Presumably the Scary Lady isn't Human enough. Mention is made of two main Brush sects, Mainstream and Throwbacks. The interior of the underhub is full of concealed twistpoints – as they climb, the interior changes illogically and it's possible to go up and end up lower down, or find a door to the outside that should have been visible from the outside, but wasn't (meaning it's 180° rotated from where it appears to be). There are a series of signposts to guide them, and they have to follow the lower numbers on the signs (assuming the top of the underhub to be #1) even when they look like they're going the wrong way. Talking about twistpoints leads them to realise that they each met Protus today. Mortimer talks about the Zorper, about Yasmine, and about ending up in Dorian's old hut. He recalls Dorian as a hermit from his childhood, although Dorian has been working for the group in the Spike for forty-two years, and Mortimer's father was born less than fifty years ago and Mortimer is his third child, so he's not much more than twenty-five. The Dorian we see in memory was already wearing the Fixit he wears now, so he was dividing his time between the Spire and the forest (unless at some point in the future he and his Fixit are going to be sent back to twenty years ago). Sylvester is sure Yasmine was lying about being there to review Arthur, unless the Guild have changed the rules without telling him, because the Guild's assessor is called Jack Kench. Employing a Weirdo, we learn, is a requisite part of being an aristocrat, and being an aristocrat still has its uses. They come to a group of elongated, slope-sided pillars labelled "do not touch". After they have passed on without touching them, we see that they are local Panegates. A window open in one to show the dining room at the Mansion, then two female Gnolls, Dandilli from the SubShafts and probably Dipsoma, gossiping (Dandilli has a flutterby on a string), then a Dornbeast. The Dornbeast tries to come through and is electrocuted. Frowgler, looking rough, emerges from the Dornbeast one although the Dornbeast itself cannot pass. He goes back through another, smaller window and we hear a voice speaking to him which says "ya" and "yer" instead of "you" and "you're", but the font is disguised. Frowgler asks if they are "back up and running" and the voice says yesno, if you don't twist out right aw— then comments that Frowgler is damaged. Frowgler says he met one of Protus's new friends, possibly referring to Thrash tossing him up like a ball. Signs in there say "NO HURRICANES BEYOND THIS POINT" and "STAY HOME CUZ YER WELL". Meanwhile, Nevus's troops are at Comshaw's door, believing he sent Sylvester and Rosemary to spy on Le Tree, but they are facing gthe wrong way, expecting him to be coming from the forest. He emerges behind them and duffs them up with his Poking stick, then tells one of them, a young male Trog called Skradt, to take him to Nevus. They pass Le Gnollhole, which is closed for the duration. Skradt is interested in learning to be a Poker himself. The Basement is now very quiet – most people are hiding, although we glimpse Fanga lurking in a doorway with her bow. The twistpoints in the underhub aren't mentioned in the Mansion's records, suggesting they are newly formed: or rather, since they are so organised, the Ettins set the system up, but it was switched off. Sylvester thinks the Ettins' devices were built to shut down in the event of a Crash, and are now waking again, and in the process turning other stuff from hundreds of years ago back on. They discuss the Crash, and what they could do before it – still far less than the Ettins did. They had a high-level tram which took a week to cross the country: the Ettins went to the moon. They come to another pillar labelled "touch". In order to get past a twistpoint and go up again Mortimer touches it with his umbrella, again considering himself the most expendable, and a ray from the ceiling strikes the other two. Sylvester loses nearly all his memory – although he recalls Nimue – and Rosemary loses some of her intelligence, regresses emotionally and starts acting like an eager-to-please, extremely literal-minded five-year-old with no conversational filters. Rosemary's memory is intact and she realises what has happened and warns Mortimer he will have to tell her what to do. This is a double-edged sword as she is now extremely hypnotically susceptible: when Mortimer says "Stop" to her she actually freezes up. Mortimer still trusts the signs, since touching the pillar, as the sign said, seems to have protected him. He has a crisis of nerve about being the leader, but Sylvester decides to trust him. Following Mortimer's instincts, they hold the umbrella together and touch the pillar again, and this time a levitating lift called a Woosher arrives. The Woosher carries them up inside the tower, and while they are on it the ramps that were there before disappear. 04: Closing Out an Era (The Ettinworks) [18/01/2011 – 04/06/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2674–#2807] As they ride the Woosher Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer discuss the fact that there must be "some rich guy with horrible mutant tastebuds" keeping Moe Wines in business (there is, of course – Mr Hand). They discuss the fact that Sylvester is the Earl (which he has forgotten) and the succession: Mortimer is terrified of having to be Earl if Sylvester doesn't get his memory back, but in any case Ace is older (and equally unsuitable). Lil is dreamy like Mortimer, Lenore is smart but too harsh and self-interested, and Rufus is brilliant but not good with people. They pass an unknown woman in brown, with blonde hair with a pink bow on top – Rosemary calls her Mz Teree – who seems to be marking the signs, but who isn't Nirvana Clepe. Hpobfvfr is still trailing them, and climbing upwards, so either she or the Operator must know about the Trog-catcher in the Chasm, and that going over the Plunge point need not mean that they are dead. When they disembark, higher up, the tower changes again (because they have stepped through an invisible twistpoint to a different section, not because the tower itself has changed) and they find more ramps. It is mentioned that they need never have gone down to look for the Pots Room, because Mortimer knows where there is a supply of seige pots in a disused barracks. Rosemary's bodyguard training is still sharp even if the rest of her isn't. They discuss twistpoints, and confirm that it is possible to walk down a ramp, then back up the same ramp, and end up somewhere different from where they started. Sylvester can remember a scary female teacher at university who taught him about tesseracts in this context, and a night where he and Nimue stood on a high tower looking down at the lights of the city. One of the new signposts they come to is decorated with a heart with "N C + A S" written in it: they think this may be Nirvana Clepe and the Mz Teree woman (meaning Mz Teree's initials are A.S.). With more down-and-up twists they arrive at the level of the wide, round room with the bank of windows, up against the roof of the cavern where the Ettinworks are, and just under the floor of the upper part of the Basement. At this point they are probably back at about the level of Le Tree, or maybe a storey or two below it. As they walk Rosemary burbles, and starts to speak about Tansy – who she thinks is the woman Sylvester saw her fighting when Protus showed him visions – and a word beginning "Qu". The view from the windows looks out into the Ettinworks, and the room is dotted with many pillars and blocks. Meanwhile, Comshaw and Skradt come to the Council entrance, which is heavily defended. An Eyebolt receptionist called Witherward admits them by dropping them down a shaft. They arrive in the midst of a full meeting, including Twiz, acting for Maw; Snerd, acting for Sina; Commander Chumley (the Council's Chief of Security) for the Boogiemen; and Hptwfvth, a Ghast "Stirrer", some kind of high ceremonial functionary relating to how the Ghasts reproduce (they have to use special breeding pools within their home base and are unable to set up more outside it), who is in some way not physically present (or more probably, is physically present but not officially so). On the Council are Doyen, a female Trog; Gavzada, a female Motihaul; Wunk, a male Gnoll; Aprat, a Helipath and Chairbeing Preznit, a male Eyebolt, although he tries to hide his species behind a mask and robes. Doyen cricizes the presence of Skradt, since he is known to work for Nevus, but Comshaw says that Skradt is thinking of becoming a Poker and is there to observe his typical working day. Snerd has brought a message from Sina saying her team at their new hall fully support the Council, and the Council can send an observer if it likes, but they're not leaving. Twiz is very interested in the new hall Sina is setting up, which may be what his group needs (whether as a new place to live after their lair was attacked, or just a place where they can get the contract to do the cleaning, isn't clear). The Council is concerned about Rhid and what he may do next, and whether Sina is a safe person to be a leader. Gavzada is keen on anything which keeps Othara occupied, and they are cautiously positive so long as Sina and her engineer Fosic build walls to keep people away from the Operator. Comshaw then strikes a Fixit from the head of a female Gnoll called Widdendreem, who seems to be the Council's record-keeper. He wants to catch it alive but Widdendreem, freed from the Fixit, pounces and kills it. Widdendreem is angry that she now owes Comshaw a debt, and concerned by the fact that she has killed a person. She tells them the name "Fixit" and that the dead one was a female called Snurfix or Snufix, reporting to a male nicknamed Slinker. Snurfix had crept onto her head while she slept; was herself not really kept informed, other than that the Fixits work for "God"; and didn't try to make Widdendreem do anything, except to pay attention to records and transactions which Snurfix wished to know about. We learn that young Fixits are raised in cages "beyond the Spikeshield", which must be the barrier others have spoken of. Chumley, as security chief, takes command and sends Widdendreem to write down all she recalls about the Fixits, while Comshaw tells the Council what he knows about them – leaving out Camora's name. Chumley decrees that no one in the Council Chamber shall wear a hat – all the Councillors drop their hoods and Preznit, whose brain is in his torso, strips to his socks. Wunk appears slightly boggled by whatever Preznit has in his crotch, which we don't actually see. The Council agrees to tell all the key players – Maw, Agita etc. – whilst trying to prevent the knowledge of the Fixits from spreading generally for the moment, for fear of what God might do when he learns his spy network has been blown. They want all the leaders warned, and preferably to have caught a live Fixit, before God takes any action. Comshaw is sent to tell Agita about the Fixits, but before he leaves he tells them about the Humans, and Sylvester being the Earl, but he doesn't know if he is the Earl. The Earl "tore the world in two fighting Yurp, the Demon King": Yorik Yurp is the king who founded Yurpsland where they live, and the Earl in this case is evidently Audra, who fought a war with Yurp and caused the Chasm to spread. Comshaw plans to go speak to Sylvester tomorrow, if he can find the Mansion: Hptwfvth tells him it's "God's Cactus". Comshaw assures the Council that "his" Humans aren't in league with God, so far as he can tell, and passes on the message that Nevus will be "in non-violent touch". Comshaw, Skradt, Snerd and Twiz head for the exit, discussing the reproduction of various species, and Trog education (here we learn that Espy is a teacher, and that Skradt can read both Manglish and Human script), and that the Ghasts keep paper records. Back with Sylvester's party, Mortimer tells the other two (neither of whom is functioning reliably yet) not to go to look out of the windows, for fear of triggering another dangerous event by accidentally touching one of the many close-set pillars and blocks scattered around the room. We see that leading up from the window room is a flight of stone steps going up into the body of the rock above them. There is also an Ettin-style door, like a triangle with the top cut off, which has a gap about 10" high underneath it. Mortimer peers underneath and sees a triangular space with two Human-type doors set into Ettin-style apertures, leading off from this Ettin control tower. Two roundish objects, possibly shoes, and what seems to be a tapered board made from three slats lean against one wall (although Mortimer later refers to seeing "posts"), but a little metal sign saying "KEEP OUT" falls down in front of him, with the letters cut out of it as holes. Sylvester feels that there are Humans behind the door right now (perhaps this is where Nirvana and the msyterious AS are living?), but when he turns his back it's a non-Human-looking hand, crackling with magic, which retrieves the "KEEP OUT" sign. It doesn't look like Frowgler's hand (and anyway we will learn that he is elsewhere): it actually looks like the hand of one of the mysterious creatures we saw before who called the Scary Lady "The Destroyer", although if so Rob has changed his mind about how many fingers they have. [Note: could be a Wendigo hand, but the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Rosemary asks whether she is bodyguard to both of them: Mortimer says just to Sylvester, and that he himself will have to take care of himself. They set off up the stone steps towards the Sneech den. Rosemary and Sylvester are starting to improve. There is some oblique discussion about R&S going to Nellie and Amos for help if anything happens to Mortimer, about Sylvester not telling Rosemary the Scary Lady's name, then about Mortimer's friend the scalpsucker (and the fact that some scalpsuckers nowadays can talk) – Mortimer remembers falling down the hole leading to the old World o' Pots storeroom but doesn't seem to recall meeting Rufus. They come to a door opened by number pad, leading to a double-doored Sneech-lock with a Sneechstick in it. Mortimer can sense that there are no Sneeches nearby. Emerging, they pass an alcove containing an entrance to the elevator, or at least an elevator. Mortimer steers them past it, looking alarmed, and writing on the wall says "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW", but they should be on the opposite side of the Chasm from the lift with the Operator in it. Maybe they have passed through the stone of the roof above the Great Chasm: it's true that at Mansion-level the elevator and the entrance to the Sneech den are fairly close together. Past that is a round room at the bottom of a shaft, with a crystal on a stand in the middle, playing a popular song called Girl from the Limphopho: this is the same mechanism the Scary Lady used to levitate Zay, but not the same shaft, as hers was square in cross-section. Sylvester confirms that there are several of these lifts throughout the Mansion, all playing the same tune There are also double metal doors, closed, and stairs leading up and down. Mortimer hopes to use the stairs but finds the ones going up are labelled "Operation Certain Death" and the ones going down, "Slimegrub Breedpits". The down-flight shows signs of recent flooding, which ties in with floods which occur in the related < href="MoE_SubShaft_44f_2.htm">Sundays in SubShaft 44f strips. On the first landing down are a large Glowgem and a discarded stick which is probably somebody's wand: Mortimer retrieves the Glowgem, which has a socket just right for fitting it onto the point of his umbrella. Rosemary seems slightly hypnotised by it. They plan to go upstairs, towards Operation Certain Death, but then they hear something big and loud crashing downstairs towards them. Comshaw's party slide down a chute and land in a corridor by the battered-looking Gobule Mingent, who is eating debris from the battle. Twiz has a piece of the dead Fixit in his mouth to take to Maw – they tell Mingent if he smells anything like it, to bite it. Twiz runs off, and Mingent fills Comshaw in on what happened at the elevator. Comshaw thinks Snerd should go on working for Sina but Snerd says Shona wouldn't like it, and he loves Shona. Comshaw and Skradt set off together. They encounter a Jibjib called Schrik being ridden by a Fixit, and try and fail to take the Fixit alive. The Fixit has been using Schrik to spy on Flap's ferry across the Great Chasm. An important Boogieman ruler called Crispin is mentioned: Schrik has a basket to take him but doesn't know if he dremed it, as the Fixit has left him very confused. Comshaw sends Schrik to take the dead Fixit to Sina and then work for her. Skradt reveals that he joined Nevus hoping for an early death in battle, so he wouldn't have to choose to take the Plunge. But Comshaw has given him a vision of something more useful, plus he wants to learn to fight as well as him. Frowgler, watching through a crack in the wall, thinks they make a good team. As the loud noises approach Rosemary draws the Can-Opener, which Sylvester calls a Paleslicer, but thinks better of it. They use the singing crystal thing to levitate them up to a higher floor, but Rosemary is grabbed and held back, floating, by what proves to be an enormous, female relative of Ahz and Skiv, called Tand (who is as big as a Titanoboa, has some difficulty adjusting her voice to the right level, and has tentacles on her head which terminate in hands). Tand can smell that Rosemary has been near Ahz and Skiv and believes, wrongly, that she knows who they are, so after some initial problems adjusting her voice to Human levels, she tells her to tell them to get a move on with their allotted task of growing a garden, a task for which they were all sent here by someone else. Tand says Rosemary is not like any other Human she's met, and one of the other two (has to be Mortimer) is sparkly like a lot of Humans used to be but haven't been for a while – apparently she is sensing him as a magic-user. Tand has to leave because she is literally over-stretched Iimplying that her tail is rooted, somewhere up the "Certain Death" stair) and the torch she is carrying is going out. She is afraid to meet, in the dark, a male "horrible mask-thing" who can go anywhere – this may be Frowgler, since the Pales call him Frogmask. Released, Rosemary floats up to the boys. She feels herself to be now entirely back to normal (although later events will show that this isn't quite true). Sylvester recognises the name Tand from his records, but still hasn't wholly regained his memory. 05: Closing Out an Era (The Sneech Den) [06/06/2011 – 16/12/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2814–#2994] Sylvester, Mortimer and Rosemary pass another large inactive Sneech node and several smaller ones, and some graffiti relating to dragons – although we're not told whether they are a legend or, like wyverns, a real if possibly extinct animal: like the one they saw before, these Sneech growths are far less active than normal. Rosemary would like to talk to Tand again, but not right now. There is a conversation about Mortimer's history of failed relationships with scary women, and mention is made of a disastrous relationship with someone named Olga, and of Ace's success with women. He tells Rosemary that his relationship with her will be strictly business while she is staring bug-eyed at the hypno-Glowgem, and he reveals that he has the hots for Yasmine. Sylvester is also affected by the Glowgem, although not as much. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt come to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base off Time Hall, where Agita (a Motihaul) has her office. They have a complicated system of clearances in which Comshaw ranks quite high, and several zones. An Eyebolt called Philodox admits them to the UnRooted Area, but security is tight due to the events of the day. While waiting to be seen they observe that two of the Eyebolt clerks, Giddhom and Frampold, are wearing Fixit-type hats but they seem to be just hats. Giddhom says thay are in fashion because some people claim they help you to think. Weirding is discussed, and the fact that the Eyebolts in scritchpods perform endless computations but don't say why, and the eccentricities of various species – we learn that Helipaths refuse to cross the Great Chasm to Sneech side even though Sneeches get on OK with them, and that the Trog juggler at the edge of the Great Chasm is Skradt's cousin Stonwal. The hatted clerks are Scrutineers, recording and preserving everything visitors say – Skradt wishes to be recorded as a future Poker who did something useful with his life. Rosemary is in command over Sylvester because that's part of her job as bodyguard. The Sneech growths would normally be lighted but most here aren't: there is a lot of discussion of Sneech races and technology, living walls etc. When they get to the area where even the floor is a living Sneech growth Mortimer doesn't want to walk barefoot on it, so takes off his shirt (which was ruined by the sploo and the sphagnum dust anyway) so Rosemary can make rag boots for him and mittens for all of them so they don't have to touch the Sneech material. Mortimer makes a bad pun ("Make it sew"): he passes his umbrella to Sylvester while he takes off his shirt, and sees that the Glowgem glows much less brightly when Sylvester holds the umbrella. Rosemary has absorbed the hypnotic lesson that her relationship with Mortimer is strictly business. In the context of rag boots there is some discussion of Rosemary's poor origins on Gnomin. Comshaw borrows Giddhom's hat so Fixits will think he's controlled: Skradt sticks a claw into the buckle to kill it if the buckle should chance to be an eye. They are escorted to see Agita by an Eyebolt called Peripatet riding in a special buggy labelled VEU (Visitor Escort Unit), which has different numbers each side, possibly due to damage sustained during an eventful visit by Strode, the aggressive female Motihaul in the pumpkin-head mask who appears in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They must enter the Rooted Zone at some point as they are there in their next scene. Following a trail of fresh air through the tunnels of the Sneech den, R&S&M come to a bridge over a moderate drop, guarded on either side by relatives of Fern's The intelligent plants are wary of Rosemary because they communicate (probably via the Tree) with Fern and know that Rosemary injured her, but they agree to disarm her and carry the Can-Opener across the bridge themselves for her to collect on the far side. Rosemary reveals that she assumed Fern was dangerous because there are similar plants in Moonin, smaller and not intelligent but very aggressive: we see what are clearly just bigger versions of the plants Piu was growing in a pot. As they get to the far side the Gnoll Agorn falls while trying to climb down from the crater above, and lands at their feet. Agorn hasn't noticed, but Niddle's apearing and disapearing gem (hereafter the Hitchhiking Gem) is now attached to his spear, but as with Niddle it initially comes and goes and is there only some of the time. Mortimer asks if he is there to scrounge Sneech leavings and he agrees. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt pass more clerks one of whom, Ogdoad, is wearing a Fixit. As the Human trio prepare to leave the cave of the sapient plants, the plants confirm that they're heading the right way and then one of them delays them and asks – by spelling with its tongue – that they be given names. Sylvester names them after the Founding Oracles, a group of women who spread the religion of the Brush – Violet, Daisy, Joice, Jenny, Kathryne, Hettie, Evangeline, Vivian and Petunia. Sylvester promises to visit them again: as the Humans leave we see the plants talking amongst themselves by some rapid means, and wishing they had had the chance to eat Agorn. Agorn has scarpered: Rosemary wrongly thinks he might have been the person who was tailing them earlier (Whisp). Sylvester criticises Mortimer for handing Agorn a ready-made excuse. They discuss the fact that for the Earl, every public conversation is a little war, and Sylvester keeps Mortimer, and now Rosemary, around because he can simply talk to them. The Humans come to the main corridor through the Sneech den, which is studded with tall, light-bearing tree-like things. Comshaw, Skradt and Peripatet leave the Rooted Zone for the Grafted Zone. We learn that the Eyebolts in Root Hall distrust the GBOLs, and therefore presumably the Tree, and make their own lights. Comshaw and Skradt come to Agita and her Eyebolt clerk Flibbergib (at one point mistakenly called Flittergib), and Agita gives them apples. Agita has large plants, an aquarium and a special "Meeting with an Important Eyebolt" table. She has with her her young daughter, Rishathra, and a Gnoll guard called Termagant. Agita and Comshaw catch up on the events of the day, and Comshaw gets her to summon Ogdoad, and also supply Skradt with a large bowl. [Around here we have a Labor Day out-take showing local man Arlen and his daughter Juniper, digging a ditch at the back of a hedge near the village of Eetown. The hedge has the rusted remains of a pre-crash vehicle incorporated into it.] Agita tells Comshaw what was auctioned (although she doesn't really know what the Zorper is). They speculate on whether this Mortimer is old enough to be the one who started the Nome War (after somehow falling through into a mine). Meanwhile. Sprocket is upset to see that Crazy Rhid's ex place connects to large areas of still-working giant machinery – the only machinery that good outside the SubShafts – and Rhid, if he knew, didn't tell anyone. The large machine he is looking is something he found (behind a gate marked with the E symbol) when he traced back the thing Pergola reported as spewing goo while Urwyn was being recruited. [We glimpe Rhid sitting on a box, looking traumatised, in a dusty, cobwebby room.] Sina now has a makeshift office, an Eyebolt receptionist called Nikhedonia (who has a non-Fixit hat on the back of her chair) and Maggle acting as gopher. Sina and Sprocket decide to marry, right now – Wittol, who will be their Finagler, has already anticipated this and started to make arrangements. We learn that Niddle has had experiences which make him a perfect Finagler – so perfect he may be a whole new thing. We learn that Gnoll marriage customs involve a receptacle called a Tweebowl (but a bucket will do), a Tool and a Blossom and, at some point before they have whelps, a visit to the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave, and without a Finagler things go badly wrong for mated pairs. Yet, some couples such as Niff and Folla, and an old couple called Mafick and Lepid, live unofficially, without a Finagler, and manage fine. Sprocket, Wittol and Sina have a hasty ceremony, with Skuy and Flange as witnesses and the possibility of a more formal one later. Afterwards Snerd turns up and thinks Nikhedonia's hat is a Fixit, although it's just a hat. As he is explaining, Schrik turns up with an actual dead Fixit. Maggle and Kronk are sent out to show the dead Fixit around and kill any live ones they find, and Snerd returns to his mate Shona and Finagler Wubb. Flange reminds Sprocket of their obligations to their employer Mr Hand, and tells him about Rubrak being killed by Chauncy and Edgar. Sprocket and Flange will probably cease to be partners now (and Snipe will be looking for a new job). Sprocket talks privately to Sina about Mr Hand and the job (and Wittol withdraws because he says they don't yet know him well enough to share dangerous non-Finagler secrets with) – he has realised that the female Motihaul who put him in touch with Mr Hand was wearing/worn by a Fixit, and therefore Mr Hand must be something bigger and stranger than the "Crescent Hall nob" they had assumed, and works (grudgingly) with God. Mr Hand has had them installing devices called Y-nodes which look like Sneech growths (and Sprocket is rich as a result of how many clients he has), and which produce ultrasonic sound only small creatures can hear. Fleebs in the presence of a Y-node turn to face it and stare. Sprocket sees Mr Hand as ruthless and controlling but constructive rather than destructive in his intentions. They agree to tell Comshaw about it, then get on to the serious business of their wedding night. Meanwhile Snerd returns to Shona. Ogdoad arrives at Agita's office and insists on a promise of safe conduct before he will come in. He has some involvement with another Eyebolt (?) called Tribblerig and some scheme involving Sneech squeezings, which he assumes is what Agita wants to talk about, but as he enters the office Comshaw baps the Fixit, called Endix, off his head and Skradt traps him under the bowl, but Endix somehow commits suicide. Ogdoad is terribly distressed, for he and Endix had become at least semi-partners, and being meshed gave him stereoscopic vision. He is rather horrible and gloats over the fact that God will destroy them. Agita dismisses Comshaw and Skradt and takes Ogdoad with her to see a female Motihaul accountant called Marritza who is wearing a Fixit named Arnix. Agita threatens Arnix with the knife-point ferule of her umbrella, then tells him that the gaff regarding God and the Fixits is well and truly blown, and offers him the chance to ride on Ogdoad and act as a liason officer between herself and God. Arnix and Ogdoad both agree. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt leave the Grafted Zone, and Root Hall itself, via the Egress Zone, and are quizzed as they leave by an Eyebolt who assumes it's all to do with Ogdoad and Tribblerig scheming over Sneech squeezings. As they come away from Root Hall they pass through the Deep Egress Zone, then go by a lettered sign, where another Eyebolt opens the centre of a letter and watches them leave. They pass the male Nome called Rezrov, still with his arm in a sling, leading, on a string, a very flirtatious-looking female Trog named Hogminny. Both are smeared with green paint, and Rezrov's clothes are torn. We are told that some Nomes and some Trogs have a "thing", and learn that Skradt tentatively fancies Maggle. Comshaw 'phones the Council and tells them he has delivered their message to Agita, and he has a message for them from Root Hall saying Ogdoad is involved with a Sneech squeezings scheme but they'll handle it. Comshaw takes Skradt home with him and Camora and Niddle are quite welcoming, although if he's staying they may need to move to a bigger apartment. All sleep, exhausted. As a final wrap-up, we see Snoot bitching to Izchak (who is evidently his room-mate) about his bloody awful day; the SuperRock pausing to rest and to talk to GeezerRock who can talk, but not walk, and who asks it whether it's just going to sit there; Digger reporting to Frowgler that things are going to plan and he has no questions to ask; and Frederick preparing to serenade the Grubbs on a Fugehorn. I think this is the point at which the strip revealed (although Rob mentioned it off-strip before) that Digger is a Boogieman with dwarfism, because we can see that his face is covered with white fur, behind the goggles. 06: Twilight [17/12/2011 – 09/06/2012] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3001–#3174] Agorn encounters Hpobfvfr, who is trailing the Humans. She blasts her way through a wall into Sneech den, then addresses him as if he is two people – she senses the sentient (and possibly sapient) Hitchiking Gem which Agorn doesn't know he is carrying. Sylvester and co. enter the main corridor, which is again unnaturally quiet – we learn there should be trilobite-thingies scuttling about trailing organic wires etc.. Sylvester mentions that he didn't find out about his father's death until after the funeral. While discussing a performing troupe who once came to the local village, Mortimer accidentally causes Rosemary to fixate on the Glowgem in his umbrella, and gives her two hypnotic commands – "Go to sleep, but act like you're still awake!", "Take a note! I am not going to keep making these mistakes with women!" – and then a third one, "Do as you're told! Stay in your place! Speak only when spoken to! The Brush wills it!", when he and Sylvester discuss the overbearing previous Oracle Omega. Trailed at some distance by Hpobfvfr, the Human party pass a Sneech tower which is at the edge between Human and Sneech territory and is labelled "NO INTERRUPTIONS", then emerge into an empty area leading towards the entrance. They then come to a neon sign saying "OUR TRAJECTORYS DIVERGE PAYMENT FOR YE ASSISTANCE" (although Sylvester doesn't know what assistance is meant). This disintegrates, leaving a squat obelisk which moves when it is touched (by Sylvester, with strips of shirt round his fingers), and which Rosemary names the Dohickey. The Sneeches themselves have gone, and Sylvester doesn't know what assistance they're talking about. The obelisk steers them around a hole in the floor, which proves to be the hole which Chauncy and Edgar left when they exited Izchak's shop looking for the Scary Lady. Matagam the Motihaul soldier and, later, a Boogieman called Geoff climb out of the hole, checking where Chauncy and Edgar went (and plan to return back down via the Council tunnel, having learned from the Human party where it is they've emerged). Mortimer hurries his party away. Heading for the Mansion proper, Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester emerge into an elaborate vestibule decorated with ornamental fake stalagmites and flaming braziers, which is the scary-looking room they see from the Mansion when they look through the arch inderneath the devil mask. Here they notice a new opening in a side wall. This is the entrance to the tunnel put in by the Council to monitor the Humans: that is, the upper end of the tunnel that also goes from the Basement to the forest. From there they exit through the archway under the mask to a plain downstairs room containing the entrance to the elevator and a small extension of the Tree, and with "BEWARE MR FLIP" written on the wall. Mr Flip is a character we meet in Sundays in SubShaft 44f, but Mortimer says the graffito has been there his whole life. To get further they need to go down a short corridor and through a locked door, the key to which Sylvester dropped while falling into the Great Chasm. Matagam and Geoff head for the Council tunnel and are passed by Hpobfvfr coming up, who corners the Humans against the locked door. Mortimer senses that her mind has been tampered with and speaks to her sympathetically, incidentally getting between her and her intended targets. Then we see in flashback that Sopovefe, the male Ghast she passed just before Rosemary and Sylvester fell into the Chasm, realised that something was wrong and went and fetched help (we see him run past Rezrov and Hogminny: this time Hogminny is holding the leash). Hpthvo, the officer in charge of a party of Ghast soldiers who have come up via the hole which Hpbfvfr bashed through into the Sneech den, orders Hpobfvfr to stand down, and this breaks the Operator's hold over her. Hpobfvfr and one soldier leave (passing the elevator, where Hpobfvfr wishes death on the Operator), while Hpthvo and the other soldier stay to interrogate the Humans. Hearing Rosemary address Mortimer by name, Hpthvo queries this and he says he is "Mortimer Eman.. because we're going to be all.. formal..": in doing so he inadvertently gives Rosemary another hypnotic command. Having confirmed Mortimer's name and that he might be the one who started the Nome War, and having learned that they are Human, Hpthvo wants to arrest the trio, but great aunt Scary appears in the doorway (with balloon) and scares them off. Somewhere, she has acquired a flower which she is now wearing tucked into the v-neck of her dress. After the Ghasts leave the rest go through into the house, and Scary cures Sylvester's memory problems. He is very reluctant to ask her to do anything which will put him under an obligation to her. Scary tries to touch the Sneech obelisk, but it fizzes a shock at her. Meanwhile Sylvester has realised something is still wrong with Rosemary, and when she starts addressing Mortimer as "Mr Eman" because "We are being all formal" Sylvester realises that she is following Mortimer's commands literally. Mortimer tries to snap her out of it by giving her a ridiculous command to "be a dog" but she goes down on all fours and starts growling. Scary is detachedly impressed by his power, and thinks there is a real risk Rosemary will become permanently enthralled. Alarmed, Mortimer tries to order Rosemary to be herself, preempting Scary who was about to intervene, and commands her to take orders from noone, although she can listen to their advice. In the short term it seems to have worked, but it remains to be seen whether she has internalised any of his commands. Sylvester takes control of the Glowgem for now and gives it to Rosemary to go in her Poke Kit, and Mortimer goes off to speak to Frederick. Restored to normal function, Rosemary is introduced to the Scary Lady, whose name we finally learn to be Myrrh (and it is confirmed that she sent Chauncy and Edgar to a desert zone). The two go off for a private chat in which it is revealed that Rosemary knows Myrrh to be not Human, and that Myrrh loves and protects Frederick to the point of being willing to kill anybody who threatens anybody he cares about, such as his nephews. It is mentioned in passing that Rosemary's encounter with Scratch was before she joined Hack'N'Slash. Myrrh agrees that Rosemary should be independent, as Mortimer told her, and can sense that she's already met a lot of powerful locals who tried to influence her, people Myrrh calls "local dignitaries": we see Protus; the Operator; the Tree; the Djinnoscope; Tand; the Gibber; and the Great Riddler. She repeats to Rosemary what Mortimer told her about living her own life and dreaming her own dreams, just to make it stick, and magically straightens the bent wing on her helmet. The same minituarised trundlebug who fell onto Rosemary's helmet earlier in the day is revealed to be still lurking in her broken lamp, and Myrrh rescues it, then goes off to see what's happened to the Sneeches, after commenting that the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer will spoil his intended date with Sharona Stout in the village. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss Myrrh, and how Frederick summoned her by accident while trying to get a Djinn. He spent his energy on a collar to control her and stop her from running wild and killing bystanders, as Demons had done in the past, but now she wears the collar voluntarily and uses it to assist her own magic in some way, as Frowgler had suggested to her when she met him while time-slipped (although he may have suggested it because he'd already seen her future self doing it). She has been a good partner to Frederick and a good great-aunt to his family, and Sylvester is loyal to her and will protect her if necessary. Rosemary reluctantly agrees, but wants to keep the knowledge of the Can-Opener from her. Sylvester schedules a talk about Rosemary's recent history for the next day but he fears to be overheard, so they must go somewhere secure. They prove to each other that they are Human by checking each other's ears (Sylvester's ears are apparently jaw-droppingly strange, but not pointed) and discuss the origins of Demons and Djinn and the possibility that since Myrrh answers questions and helps people, maybe Frederick wasn't so far off the mark when he tried to summon a Djinn and got her – or maybe they are, after all, just people and all individual. Straightforward Demons like Chauncy and Edgar and Scratch come from Fratz; Human-like Demons and the Djinn come from Zark. Demons in the Snowgrass area are more like rock/tree things (is the Tree one? later we will see that one visited the Spire City in Mechana). and Demons in the Deep Jungle are more animal and strange. Sylvester realises something about Frederick and why he hid books on Demons which he feels foolish not to have realised before, which leads to a conversation about a duel which Rosemary lost to a woman named Haruka Sol in a way which made her realise her own mortality and how dangerous her job was, and they take the Sneech obelisk towards the Quiet Room. Meanwhile Mortimer passes the countdown thing, which now reads 0315313091 (it was 315342639 when Rosemary and Sylvester passed it that morning, so it's counted down by 29,548 in about half a day, suggesting it will take about fourteen years to reach zero), but he tells it he's not in the mood. Mortimer goes to speak to Frederick. On the way he meets Nellie, who recognises the umbrella he is carrying (formerly Myrrh's) and seems shocked by it. She is concerned, generally, for Mortimer's safety and well-being, and for that of her own husband Amos although he is sitting quietly doing some book-binding. Mortimer believes Rosemary and Sylvester might now be an item: Nellie expects him to be jealous but he doesn't seem to be. Meanwhile, Myrrh enters the Sneech den and speaks to Frowgler, who is crawling out of the top of the shaft created by Chauncy and Edgar. Within Myrrh's subjective timeline they seem not to have spoken to each other for fifty years, since she was flashed forwards from just before the Crash, but are on good terms. [For Frowgler it was probably a few hours ago, although as the Frowgler Myrrh met during the flash-forwards was a pre-explosion Frowgler whose horn had not yet been broken it's hard to be sure.] Myrrh says Frederick is going to be upset about something Frowgler has done (probably arranging for Mortimer to get the umbrella-wand). Frederick, who is playing his Fugehorn into some kind of vaguely tree-like amplifier in a vast and high chamber, tells Mortimer that he's a wizard and that there's a wand built into the umbrella, but he won't help Mortimer to learn magic because he thinks it brings only misery. we learn that Frederick actually plays the Fugehorn very well, and that Amos actually enjoys his music. Amos and Nellie discuss the danger Mortimer is in, or represents, and Amos promises to be careful. Meanwhile Sylvester and Rosemary listen to Frederick's playing as they steer the Dohickey towards the Quiet Room, and Sylvester tells her that what Frederick is playing is a well-known lament called Threnody for the Victims of the Crash, which is where the local Oracle, Threnody, and her Guardian Dirge got their work-names. We learn that Ernest, the Earl who was an art forger, was also a genuine patron of the arts and built a whole wing of the Mansdion, called the Party Palace, for theatre and other performing arts. That's where Frederick's tree-like amplifier is. The Quiet Room is more of a gap in the Mansion than an actual room. As they approach it Rosemary's Poke Kit shrinks and begins to disgorge its contents, so Sylvester goes alone to deposit the Sneech Dohickey. The Quiet Room contains among other things the Dark Crystal; a Triforce symbol from the Zelda stories; a clockwork monkey (made by the Kaylu cult) playing cymbals; a statuette of Cthulhu; a flower in a pot; and a crescent thing which looks like the head of another Can-Opener-type pike. Rosemary says "I can hear you ralking in there.." 7'0150; it looks as though she means she can hear Sylvester, but we will learn that she means she can hear the Dohickey. After Sylvester leaves, all these objects begin to glow with magic and the crescent speaks and greets the Dohickey. Sylvester and Rosemary go to find a sword for her and to change the lock on the Basement door, since he has lost his key in the Basement. They find a powerful taser called a Zap Trident, much stronger than the one Sylvester tried to use on Villipend: Rosemary says Hack'N'Slash have offered a big reward for a working one, but they leave it where it is because it's probably only its proximity to the Quiet Room which is keeping it from exploding, and they would ahve to take it all the way to REowan to find an Hack'N'Slash office big enough to hand it in. Still, it's a source of future cash if they ever get that depserate. Sylvester says that the things in the Quiet Room are dangerous, that destroying them in the Great Chasm would lead to earthquakes (we see that the three-eyed thing from the airbox was tossed in) and that left in the Quiet Room those that are Sneech gifts gradually fade away, and in any case they usually switch off when the recipient dies. The crescent thing is not known to be dangerous – just annoying. They meet up with Mortimer, and Sylvester assures him he hadn't known that he was a wizard. If he had done, Mortimer would have left and gone after Yasmine. Sylvester thinks perhaps he should go after her anyway, but Mortimer hopes she will return to the Mansion. Sylvester fears this could lead to a division of loyalties, depending on what it is the Weirdos are plotting. He thinks their father may also have been an unknown wizard. Mortimer describes his encounter with Frowgler, who he has realised gave him the umbrella surreptitiously, and Sylvester believes him because the Great Riddler also mentioned Frowgler. They intend to debrief each other the next day but not now, because Rosemary feels they may be overheard. She meanwhile is planning to fetch a siege-pot from the barracks. Mortimer goes off and heads up the North Tower: on the way he prods a door-sign that says "SIGNS OF CHANGE" with his umbrella, and it clicks. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the Weirdos, who are a combination of jester, priest and counsellor. We learn that Oracles (but not Weirdos) carry out midwifery – and euthanasia. Sylvester feels that he no longer knows what's going on around his home. We learn that there are seige-engines mounted on the Main Tower and also that Rosemary can't act, as they discuss the plays which used to be put on at the Mansion, and the history of Kaylu – a fascist-style movement which introduced a country called Tomania to a crazed, murderous empire-building cult which worshipped a two-tailed monkey god, and was destroyed by the Crash. The Crash had an extreme effect on the Infernal Engine. Having collected the necessary materials they board up the door to the Basement, using an Ettin-made "length" and a mechanical nail-planter which could be valuable if they can find somebody to replicate it for sale. They leave the door unbarred for Myrrh, and Sylvester declares their business with the Basement is done for the day, although he will keep his promise to call on the Ferns again, and his plans for the rest of the evening require Rosemary to retain her (Audra's) helmet. We see Frederick return to the suite of rooms he shares with Myrrh, and gaze nostalgically at a photograph of his younger self and other youths in wizard gear. They are Nellie, Amos, a curly-haired woman whom Nellie will later name as "poor Mamie" (who died in the Crash), and the future Old Man Larssen. 07: Career Paths [11/06/2012 – 16/02/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3181–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips start–#03424] We see Agorn emerge, with relief, from a partially-blocked tunnel mouth partway up a rock-face near a bridge across the Great Chasm. He edges along a narrow ledge with his back to the wall, past Furphy (who we will later learn is his son) who is keeping some Jibjib eggs warm, and aross a gap which he has to jump, and comes to a bridge with a checkpoint at either end, although this one at the Sneech end is deserted. He can smell that the Ghast party went past earlier. The bridge is long and has no railings, but it's fairly safe as it's about 12ft wide. The far end is lit by bone torches. He crosses and speaks to a Gnoll border guard called Varuna, and an Ichyoid guard named Argus, and tells Varuna to warn her "vile employer" (probably Nevus or Guttle) that if the nobs keep poking in the Sneech den the Sneeches will some day poke back. He thinks that the entrance to Crescent Hall, which looks out on the bridge, is in the line of fire, and that his boss isn't stupid enough to live there. He talks to another Gnoll guard called Scibile who doesn't let him in because of the lockdown, but fills him in on what he knows of the events of the day, including the fact that something strange is happening at the Observatory, then he walks into a maze of dark, much-graffitoed stone passages and stairs. The Hitchhiking Gem falls from his spear with a clunk and he spots it, assumes he picked it up by accident in the Sneech den and posts it down a metal hatch. As he (or the gem) leaves some sort of small device which had been sticking up from a rock retracts, with a trickle of magic. The gem clangs down into a chain of pipes heading towards the SubShafts, and we see that the pipes pass by an odd kind of sculpture or device consisting of coloured spikes almost like giant coloured pencils, with single letters on them, mainly vowels. This may have to do with the religion of the Brush that coloured in the world. On top of these spikes sits a small red-brown Fuzz, clutching a flaming torch. Agorn, meanwhile, keeps going until he comes back out into Time Hall and the other side of Cresent Hall, but it's all unnaturally quiet. He goes to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base, and speaks to a male receptionist called Enchiridon. He is left waiting for a long time while a female Scrutineer called Hypothimia records his every word and action. She is stressed and angry because with all that's been going on – the fire, Chauncy and Edgar on the loose etc. – she wants to be with her mate Brimborion and their children but instead she is stuck here in this petty desk job. Peripatet arrives in his wheeled chair to collect Agorn but before Agorn goes he tells Hypothimia that he himself has been parted from his mate (he seems to have only one) and his child has been lost through some sort of mental transformation (he went away but left his body behind: we will learn that this is Furphy), but all you can do is pick yourself up and try to change things for the better. As Agorn and Peripatet proceed through Root Hall we learn that Peripatet has a girlfrind called Glossolalia, and Agorn sniffs out (literally) that Skradt is now with Comshaw. They pass various official messages on the walls but one seems like a religious or political statement – "Remontado decided she had had o nuff shaft folderol so off she went and uprooted us all". As they pass the door to Scritchpods 205–214 a female Eyebolt in a wheeled chair passes them going the other way, wearing what may be a normal hat or may be a Fixit, and a wave of "weirding" hallucinations emanates from behind the closed door. This Eyebolt is carrying a box on her cart, and the cart is labelled CTV: possibly Computation Transport Vehicle. Peripatet takes Agorn to a door behind which is a dark space containing dark, sinister-looking objects, perhaps Ettin machinery, glowing with dull red lights. Agorn refuses to enter. An unseen, probably male presence (Agorn addresses it as "Mr Muckymuck") behind a hatch dismisses Peripatet, who leaves at speed – the presence says that Peripatet does well at clandestine cart-races. It wants to discuss Agorn's boss, and says that "some of us" are aware of, and broadly approve of, what "you all" are doing. Consequently Agorn has been given Class Eight clearance, which means he can now come and go unescorted through most areas of Root Hall. The presence is somebody Agorn has had indirect contact with or knowledge of, but has never spoken to directly before: it asks him to supply any useful information he comes across in return, and Agorn tells him that Humans are real. The presence starts to half tell Agorn about Fixits but Agorn appears not to be receptive to the idea of hats being significant, and leaves. Meanwhile the chit for Agorn's new clearance is transferred by a cart-driving messenger (later named as Symposiarch) who reads the first message, destroys it, writes another and drops it down a pneumatic pipe system to a clerk (later named as Pulvinar) who reads it and then eats it and replaces it with another which he writes himself. He is monitoring something on a small screen. Agorn goes to the "Grafted Zone" of Root Hall and speaks to Flibbergib, Agita's Eyebolt receptionist, who again tries to tell him about the Fixits, not very clearly. Meanwhile we see various characters sleeping, including the Shallow Wyrm Squeeb, asleep in the Trog pen deep down on the side of the Chasm, and Bung's friend Faddle the Gnoll, who is very much awake. He is trying to evade somebody, but is rounded up by a hunting party of female Gnolls. Next we see him and four females, all wearing collars with glowing buckles on the front and all with white hair like a Finagler's, sleeping together in a large nest. We will learn later that this is the Place No One Talks About and that these are the Placettes, who are the female version of Finaglers. Agita arrives and Agorn shows her a written note saying that he's been promoted to Class Eight. We see a flashback to the aftermath of the auction, and Agita sending Agorn to trail Mortimer. Agorn reports the basics of the toing and froing he has seen surrounding Mortimer, Rufus, Eunice and Yasmine, saying he followed Mortimer's scent to a hole, then saw him carried out unconscious by two Humans (Rufus and Eunice) some time later. Agita fundamentally misunderstands what Humans are – she knows they are like big Nomes so she thinks they are a local mutation caused by the Spike, and gradually spreading through the local forest. Agorn says that there were repeller poles all around the hut where Mortimer was placed, and that most of the Humans just walked past them but that the female Human who then arrived (Yasmine) "did the usual spit-test" on one. Does this mean Yasmine is related to the Emans and passed a Herediscan, or was she just proving she was Human? Agita shows Agorn a written note (written on clay and then wiped) warning him about the Fixits – which suggests she doesn't want to speak out loud in front of Flibbergib, or fears others may be listening – and telling him to lie low until tomorrow and then spear any hats with eyes on sight, even if worn by her. As Agorn leaves Root Hall he notices that there are fewer Eyebolt watchers on duty than there usually are. The last one usually hides inside a free-standing stone sign outside the exit, but there is no-one there, and what looks like blood on the spy-hole. The "blood" is a trick with fruit-juice to get him to stop and look, and he is narrowly missed by an arrow fired from an overhang by Fanga, one of two dark-haired female Gnolls (the other is Shabash), who had momentarily mistaken him for somebody else (Bromir, who looks a lot like him). Agorn slides over the edge onto a ledge to avoid the archer, takes a back route and lets himself into a concealed bedsit room behind a panel out in the Fringes. In the dust on a table, someone has drawn an arrow and written "She thought you were someone else", surrounded by what look like Smyt footprints: we later learn that messages on the table are a regular thing and usually correct, and the marks on the table are referred to as flipper marks, although they look a bit small to be Frowgler's. Digger comes in – it's his pad – and Agorn addreses him as "Boss". We see that Agorn and Digger have known about the Fixits for some time. Agorn reports the day's activities to Digger, giving him more detail than he told Agita. He was already familiar with Mortimer at one remove as somebody Skibble talked about. Although he didn't tell Agita, he followed Mortimer into the basement under World o' Pots and saw a lot of working Human tech, which they'll need "if we've lost all of Rhid's stash", and saw the cloakring, which made him feel odd. He says that "Yas-meen" came from the direction of the Spike (no, there isn't room under her hood for a Fixit) and was different in some way. He didn't tell Agita that he saw Mortimer speaking to Frowgler: he didn't hear what they said but says he supposes Digger could just ask Frowgler, and Digger agrees. He feels that something nudged him to get him to go down the hole in the crater, which led him to the Ferns. We see that they have been watching the Humans, drawing them and giving them descriptive nicknames (Arthur the Weirdo with his ventriloquist's puppet Fantod is "Snoop two-head", Rufus is "Snoop one-head", Sylvester is "Eyeplates" and Myrrh is "Clawblaster"). Agorn would like to bring Comshaw into their conspiracy, or whatever it is, but Digger vetoes the idea. Agorn could tell by smell that Mortimer, "Silvester" and Rufus were littermates, and that Rosemary is something different, a "hardcase" like Comshaw or the two-spiked Pales. Agorn sketches the three Human women he saw, then sets out to see to some personal matters, but as he leaves Digger points out that when "Muckymuck" at Root Hall said that he and others were broadly pleased with what Agorn's boss was doing he may have meant Digger himself and their conspiracy-whatever, not Agita, whose schemes serve only herself. Agorn is alarmed at this idea, and thinks that "our enemy" may have made Eyebolt enemies. Coming away from Digger's bedsit he meets a Gnoll called Bromir who looks a lot like him and believes himself to be the target of the assassins, who were hired by Sooterkin at Root Hall. Bromir refers to Agorn having been given higher clearance by Fuglemin, who may therefore be Agorn's Mr Muckymuck. Agorn heads back towards the Sneech side of the Great Chasm. At the bridge he tries to chat up the Gnoll guard Varuna and invites her to come fishing with him some time: she turns him down, although the Ichyoid guard Argus thinks she should have said yes. He comes on Furphy and his eggs again and we learn that Furphy is actually Agorn's son. The mother was called Awen and she and Agorn are estranged, though not bitterly so. A Denthir is mentioned who was probably their Finagler but is now dead. Furphy has had some kind of relationship with Dandilli (who went to the SubShafts) and will take no other mate, possibly because she put him off from doing so. Father and son talk, and Furphy says that the reason he thinks nothing is real is that that morning he saw that the physical world had changed but most people can't see it (this is a fourth-wall breach, because Rob changed aspects of the design of the area), and he's not the only one who sees it because the Observer also sees Change. Agorn is semi-willing to consider this and means to tell Digger about it tomorrow. Furphy is guarding the eggs for two Jibjibs named Snurge (presumably male) and Scumble (female), to whom he owes a favour. Two other Jibjibs called Ruck (male) and Smew (female) fly overhead in the dark, and we see them enter a hole in a sort of complex, compound stalactite formation, which we will learn is called the Uppermost Spire, and settle on a nest there. Ruck is carrying Urwyn's friend, the comparatlively large Shallow Wyrm Zugo, although the Jibjibs don't know his name. Zugo slithers off into a crack, telling the Jibjibs to wait there for him. These two Jibjibs regularly carry a secretive group of Shallow Wyrms whom they refer to as Clients, transporting them around a widespread network of "rings" which run right through the rocks and whose purpose the Jibjibs don't know. Nevus is an outlier by being a Wyrm out in the open on his own. They get snuggly in the nest, although Smew does not wish to have eggs. We see a Shallow Wyrm named Sneckdraw who seems to be spying on a ring, or at least on a tunnel used by a ring. Sneckdraw is detected and chased through the tunnels by helmeted guards named Vim, Crot, Ang and Diet, and escapes by jumping off an underground cliff onto the back of a tame (or sapient?) bat. Ang gets Ruck to fly him in pursuit with a view to killing them: Ruck queries this but when Ang assures him that Sneckdraw is not officially a member of any ring, and therefore not a Client, Ruck is OK with it. They follow the bat's scent trail – Ang is especially good at this – but Sneckdraw and the bat dodge into a narrow tunnel which Ruck can't fit into. We see another Wyrm, too distant and small to identify, behind a kind of wooden screen in this tunnel. They come to a place where there is a graffitoed sign on the wall saying "Ring of the Newborn Word": Sneckdraw, who seems to be a freelance spy, dismounts and is challenged by guards called Conspue and Fream, armed with a zap trident. They pay Sneckdraw with a food item and he (the guards referred to him as "he", even though he seems to have the eyelashes Rob uses to indicate femininity) reports on Zugo of the Dunktyn Stone's presence at the Uppermost Spire. Conspue either doesn't know or won't say why Zugo is important. Fream conveys Sneckdraw's message to a female superior whom we don't see, and then goes to speak to a female tuneller or miner called Glink, on whom Fream seems to be sweet, and who is listening in secretly on people farther down the tunnel. We see Sina giving the cleaning contract for the new hall to Maw and his crew. At Kronk's suggestion, Sina names the new group Leny Hall, although Maggle and Grik, and the Gobules, all seem to know something mildly disreputable about Leny. At or near Leny Hall, Pergola is investigating plants in a narrow tunnel. Tracking the tunnel higher, we see a male Fixot named Slix ascending a slope to report to a female Fixit named Astex, who sits on a rock in a tunnel filled with plants and fungi. She seems to be fishing in a stream which flows alongside her rock. Slix, who has been sent by a female commander called Poinx, comes to speak to her and get her observations – he calls her "our resident". Astex, who seems to have a cynical attitude to her own kind, says that the shield around the Spike area that "keeps the evil monsters out. Or in, as the case may be." was breached for a second or so, causing panic. It was very noisy – she probably means the OZPR event. Slix runs off before she can tell him about the Sneeches leaving. We learn that Astex is acquainted with Frowgler. We see Mortimer speaking about wizardry to Amos Grubb, who is himself a wizard, but who retired pre-Crash, having thrown his wand away after the incident with Myrrh. He says that Sylvester has some magic, although not as much as Mortimer, and their father Willoughby could have been a wizard if he hadn't been so frivolous. He believes there are still some schools of magic in operation somewhere, but he kept the fact of Mortimer's magic from Mortimer as a favour to Frederick and Nellie, and because it's so dangerous. Magic tends to run in families and other members of the E family also have at least some magical talent (which is why their mother is so good at overhearing things). Mortimer confirms that he found the umbrella-wand: he wouldn't accept a gift from Myrrh "after what heppened last time!" They discuss the fact that Mortimer got the wand from Frowgler, who didn't feel like Myrrh (i.e. not like he came from Zark or Fratz), and the fact that Frederick and Amos were trained by Sylvester and Mortimer's great-great-uncle Hindenburgh. Amos says that Nellie has very little magic (even though she is one of the people in Frederick's photo'). [Amos says he threw his wand away "sixty-odd years" ago, and he was still a wizard in that photo', which means that Nellie was already at least about eighteen eleven years before the Crash, making Myrrh's statement that she was very young at the time even stranger.] If Mortimer practises as a magician he may get hassles from the Oracles of the Brush, and from the villagers, who are now so anti-magic they nearly torched the library. We learn that wands should preferably be handled only by the owner, and Mortimer half remembers the vision of his future self flying, and thinks about using telekinesis to open locks. They discuss the nature of mind-reading and mind-control, which is far easier for Sneeches, Demons and Djinn to perform than other races, and Rosemary's susceptibility; magic-users on the other hand are very resistent to mind-control. They set off in search of Rosemary so Amos can get to know her. The scene cuts to the Nomes at the Pale camp. They are discussing the fact that if Nitfol becomes mayor he'll need a wife. He says that the only girl he found tolerable disappeared. Then Fizmo, the Hot Zone worker, appears and she and Nitfol get talking: she is apparently the girl whom he liked before. She has switched her allegiance to Frowgler and now refers to him as her boss. Nitfol is working with Frowgler too. Umboz and Piu leave them to talk and go off to make love. Then we cut to The Spike, where Eunice Kelso and Rufus are talking. It seems Eunice is a villager who had been posing as Rufus's friend for a long time, but really watching him for God. In notes we learn that the Spike is Ettin-made and that before the Crash, Humans used it to moor airships. Rufus has recently had a talk with "God", or possibly with Dorian (who is not God), which left him briefly unconscious and rubber-legged, but he seems to have agreed to play an important role in God's organisation. This is only the third time Eunice has been in the Spike, and she plans to leave via a service tunnel leading towards the village. Rufus is behaving in quite a commanding, confident way, and speculating about what "God" and his henchman Dorian plan for Eunice next: her job is over and she has important information, so maybe they were hoping he'd kill her. After some edgy verbal sparring Eunice more-or-less agrees to be Rufus's new assistant and bodyguard. Rufus tells her to see what Dorian offers her first, and if she turns down both of them she should go, and get as far as way as possible: but they both know she mustn't go "Out West". Eunice assures him that her hat doesn't have an eye and that she would never let "one of those little creeps" get on her head. She was recruited to God's service by an "old posh lady" named Miss Wentworth whom she met in Noodle: this has been brewing since before Rufus and Eunice were born. How long ago is that? Rufus's father Willoughby was the son of a post-Crash refugee, so Willoughby was born not more than about forty-eight years ago. Let's say Willoughby was about twenty when he and Dorothea had Sylvester, so that's twenty-eight years ago. Rufus is from their fifth pregnancy, so even if Dorothea cranked out one pregnancy a year Rufus is only twenty-four. So the conspiracy is twenty-five-plus years old. 08: The End of the Day [18/02/2013 – 16/07/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips #3431–end] We see Rosemary and Sylvester coming out of gender-specific lavatories which are delineated by male and female statues carrying a real spear and shield. They discuss finding Rosemary some better clothes so she can be properly introduced to Nellie and Amos, although Sylvester is wary of telling her what to wear because of the hypnosis incident. He gets his own clothes from Genrick Gaberdine, an excellent tailor in Eetown, who will be mentioned several times in future strips. The female clothes they are about to see are out of date (mostly collected between fifty and eighty years ago by the wives of Ernest and Philbert), but Sylvester tries to keep stylish because it makes a good impression as Earl. Rosemary is tested by an Ettin-built electronic panel on the wall which confirms she is compatible with the house and can perform its ceremonies. Sylvester offers formally to employ her as Taskmistress, partly for real and partly as cover, and she is given an E-family uniform (which is the same two shades of periwinkle blue we later see on Winnifrite habits and shrines), although she picks the big E off the breast for the moment, and keeps her old clothes in the Poke Kit and later in a drawer. Sylvester warns her that most of the lavatories are shut off to save water and to limit baths to one a day because they get their water from the roof. Once they are both respectably dressed they go and introduce Rosemary to Nellie, although Sylvester tells Nellie that Rosemary's name is Rosemary Aurora Dapple, not Rosemary Imogene Ripley. It is important to impress Nellie because she has Views, and is popular in the village (while Myrrh is unpopular, having "cut quite a swath" before the Crash, as we saw in her collision with Ilsa's anti-Earl group). If possible Rosemary should avoid telling Nellie that she has killed Humans (but killing non-humans is evidently OK) and it would help if she can assist Nellie in her garden. Nellie keeps most of the garden produce for herself and Amos, but there is a commercial orchard they all help with, even Myrrh, and whch helps to fund the Mansion. The Grubbs have a nice homely sitting-room, with a picture on the wall of a winged waffle and an egg with legs. Nellie has already worked out that Rosemary arrived without passing through the village, and is angry about Mortimer being encouraged/allowed to learn magic, although Sylvester says not only that Mortimer needs to do this, but that he may need Mortimer to do this, because of what's happening "downstairs". He tells her that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress, making it sound as if he intentionally summoned her to the Mansion for that purpose, and also that she killed a monster and now there's meat and tallow in the Low Kitchen. Quizzed about her origins Rosemary mentions the three beacons in the Bay of Runes, "big and scary and beautiful", and also that people in Moonin hunt Saurs (who are presumably non-sapient, and are bigger than the Mansion ones – so probably what the Mansion Saurs call Sawtooths). They allow Nellie to assume that Rosemary learned to fight mainly because she was a Saur-hunter although she admits that she has "some training" with the sword, and Nellie warns Sylvester that the Sheriff wants to meet Rosemary. Nellie opens up and talks about the group of which she, Amos and Frederick were a part prior to the Crash. She came from Zebedee, Frederick and Amos were locals, and it's later hinted that Olaf came from elsewhere. Amos and Frederick were old friends who were learning magic from Hindenburgh, and Mamie must have learned from somebody as she had a magicker hat (Olaf didn't and nor did Nellie). Nellie had to choose between Frederick and Amos and chose Amos, and Mamie was with Olaf. But then Fredrick accidentally summoned Myrrh and lost his magic, and Amos renounced magic, so only Mamie had the hat when the Crash came, and only Mamie died. Amos, Nellie and Ilsa became servants at the Mansion (and Olaf, we will later learn, became the local vet). Amos and Nellie had a son, Arlen. who is now the local Hedgemaster. Sylvester warns Nellie about some of the recent developments in the Basement, and the fact that the River of Fire can affect things even up here in the Mansion. As he talks we see vignettes of Chumley the Boogieman presiding over a growing collection of dead Fixits; the blonde woman with the pink bow, whom Rosemary called Mz Teree, reporting distressing changes in the Basement to someone who addresses her as Annabelle (and who has been waiting impatiently for her: possibly Nirvana); and Frowgler telling Myrrh about the conversation Rosemary and Sylvester are currently having with Nellie. Sylvester leaves Rosemary and Nellie alone to talk about contraception, and we learn that there is a "Women's Circle" at the local Temple, where such things may be discussed. Here, such things are only discussed between women, at the Temple, because in the past there have been men in the area who tried to stop women from using Stiflebloom. The Women's Circle preserved their freedom and all women are allowed to attend: even outsiders; even Myrrh if she wanted to. Eunice is a member. In Moonin they talk about Stiflebloom freely, even though they are sexually uptight and not like the more sex-positive Morlock or Abalone. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester leave together, talking about local leaders – an impromptu lady mayor named Saffron Stout who runs an inn, and Patrick Skragg, the Sheriff. The Earl has warily polite relationships with both. Both Nellie and Sylvester mention Olga, Mortimer's ex, who seems to have been a disaster. Rosemary says the position of "strange and dangerous woman" is now filled. Sylvester formally introduces Rosemary to Frederick. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester agree to conceal her true identity and membership of Hack n' Slash, in case she's on a "wanted" list. They meet up with Amos and Mortimer and Amos, as a former wizard, comfirms that Mortimer no longer has psychic influence over Rosemary. Amos can still see people's mental structures, which vary a bit by region, and he can tell that she is from Out West. Amos and Sylvester exchange news of the day, including some things Sylvester didn't tell Nellie, like about the Sneech gift, and about Tand – Sylvester thinks he has seen Tand mentioned in the records and Amos promises to look her up. Sylvester learns about The Pit flaring. We learn that "Pit" stands for "Pulse-Ignition Thaumnode" and that it was a booster device used to power-up airships heading for the Far Eastern Shore, to save on fuel. The effect is like a small version of the Daynight (a rainbow aurora witnessed by the first Prime Oracle, although we don't learn that till later), which evidently did something drastic, at least to people near it. Mortimer finds The Pit creepy. After Amos leaves to go home, Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer go to the Basement of the barracks, fetch a siege pot and set it up on the top of the West Tower over the main entrance. Mortimer goes off to find clothes (his shirt having been shredded to make makeshift gloves and boots in the Sneech den) and leaves Sylvester and Rosemary discussing the definition of "mansion". He tells her about the Spike, which he has never tried to climb because it's one big, churning Ettin machine and very dangerous. He can see that somebody is living there because it's been more active (in terms of lights etc.) since the Crash, but it's out of the Mansion lands and as far as he knows nobody now officially owns it. They discuss the aftermath of the Crash – which wasn't nearly as bad in the poor rural area where Rosemary comes from, because hardly anybody there used magic anyway – and the ownership of land and property left vacant after the previous owners died in the disaster. Eva was affected, but that was because she was in Nye on the mainland. Now Eetown, once a thriving metropolis, lives by catching Tooterfish for their oil. They go off to eat and we see a series of vignettes. Myrrh has arrived in the Sneech den proper, but hasn't encountered any Sneeches. Amos collects a package of Dornbeast-liver from the processor and takes it to Nellie, and discusses Rosemary with her: Nellie isn't sure she likes Rosemary but feels she can trust her, and Amos says they haven't been told the full story about how she got there but they're in no position to complain about people withholding information. Mortimer gets cleaned up (but even after a bath he still smells of sphagnum dust). En route to a dinner of last night's Dornbeast tendrils, Rosemary and Sylvester pause to look at a Panegate which leads elsewhere on their own world, into open grassland on the Thembrian Steppes, with the occasional distant horseman. Sylvester says that such local Panegates are especially hard to open, possibly because the Ettins double-locked them against Sneech incursions. Behind them is a statue of Pratchett's Discworld. Mortimer joins them at table and says he has put the umbrella aside until such time as he may decide to take up magic. They discuss re-opening access to a nearby beach so they can gather fish and seaweed, now that Rosemary is there to fend off any Ichyoids who might object, then they sign Rosemary into the Mansion's official staff record-book, still under the false name Dapple. Sylvester goes off to write up the day's events, and Mortimer goes and tries on various formal outfits, but doesn't seem to like the look of them, and picks a blue t-shirt with a star on the chest. Rosemary gets Amos to show her the library. Coming away with a stack of books on history, anthropology and moral philosophy, she experiences a psychic tweak which calls her to go to the Quiet Room and speak to (apparently) the Sneech Dohickey, which she can hear because she touched it, although she remains outside the locked door. She says that it and she are both protecting Sylvester, and suggests it should watch the Basement door, or the Weirdo. As the new Taskmistress she threatens the devices, saying that if any of them causes trouble she'll chuck them all into the Great Chasm. As she walks away we see Frowgler sitting by the foot of the door – he speaks to the Dohickey as if they are old aquaintances. Myrrh, with her balloon in tow, descends to the Ettinworks using the musical levitating lift in the shaft where Rosemary met Tand. Returning to the Guest Room, Rosemary rearranges the furniture so she can sit facing the door, writes to her aunt and takes a bath. She falls asleep but immediately wakes into a dream which seems to be some kind of objectively real astral projection. She passes Skuy and Spot, who are arguing, because Skuy is keeping people away from the elevator: Skuy at least seems to be also asleep and also taking part in the astral projection. Rosemary goes to the elevator and meets the Operator, who has summoned her and tries to hypnotise her, but she says that will never happen again and whacks him with a mallet, which she then hands over to Skuy: the physically real Operator is aware of and intrigued by what has just happened to his astral equivalent. We see an overview of various couples sleeping: Nellie and Amos; Umbuz and Piu (in bed together, so their relationship is progressing fast!); the Gobules Gorp and Phiga. Then we see Mortimer and Yasmine, who would like to be a couple but aren't yet: Mortimer lying awake, and Yasmine sitting by a camp fire, staring at a Fleeb. Myrrh goes to the same doorway off the underhub where Sylvester and co. were passed the metal "KEEP OUT" sign. She is passed a similar cut-out message, this one saying "IN HER" with an extra "E" drawn or painted on to make it "IN HERE". The extra "E" is done in the style of the emblem of the Earls of E. The door opens and she goes through into the corridor of doors we saw before. A distant door is open to receive her but all we see through it is several floating lights – possibly ABOLs. More vignettes: Eunice talking to Cox, in front of Ettin signs or graffiti saying "shake hands" and "onebig onion", and tells him Rufuis says they're lucky that "this phizzpile hasn't imploded and fallen in the swamp". She probably literally means the Spike collapsing. Hector talks to Nunsuch and says that "sir" wishes Nunsuch and another character called Penfold to interface with the Spindizzies: Nunsuch indicates some Ettin text which appears on a screen beside them and which changes gradually from the old font to the new. This text, which says "remote spike extrusion", triggers Hector to engage a "revised schedule" which he says is twenty years late. Sylvester gives up on his paperwork and collapses into bed. Meanwhile Myrrh leaves the room of lights and returns to the Mansion, where she bars the Basement door and puts a ward on it telling Basement dwellers to keep out. She opens a Panegate into a lush jungle and sets the balloon floating off into that jungle carrying the rescued Trundlebug, who lands in a bush where it meets a new friend (probably of the opposite sex, if Trundlebugs have sexes). She goes and reassures Frederick that although the magic umbrella is hers she didn't directly give it to Mortimer, and they start flirting. The scene shifts to the Trog holding area where Villipend and Hamble were formerly imprisoned, and we see that Hamble has survived electrocution. In his former life, before the Plunge, he was a simple fungi farmer, but proximity to the Hot Zone seems to have done something to reverse the mental decline which caused him to jump into the Great Chasm in the first place, and he is now very clever and very ambitious. He half rescues, half kidnaps Squeeb, and works out how to get out of the habitat. He snifs out, literally, a hidden door behind which is an emergency bolthole room with stocked provisions, and which opens out above the chute. He sets off to walk along the top of the chute-tube with Squeeb strapped to his arm, seeking a new dawn which will be his. We learn on the way that Squeeb, who is Nevus's brother in law, belongs to no ring, and despises the idea of doing so. Finally we see two vignettes. In one, a male soldier reports on Rosemary's disappearance to a female commander, the Tansy whom Rosemary saw in a vision. Tansy is working for some outfit or political party whose emblem is a triangle within a circle: it appears on her desk and on her helmet. It appears to belong to her: the office she is occupying has a sign outside saying "ABBOT'S OFFICE" but then a big "T" and the triangle-and-circle sign have both been drawn on it using the same red paint. She vows to find Rosemary wherever she has gone – and clearly with hostile intent. In the other, we see Sylvester's sister Lilith and their mother Dorothea, talking in the darkness at the edge of a banquet in the Deep Jungle somewhere. The mother would have liked to have stayed, but she has received a psychic impression that they need to start heading back to E. Part Six: On My Way to Town [28/07/2013 – 16/11/2018] Note that from 03/05/2015, the Saturdays in the Basement strips show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with the action above ground. 01: Rise and Shine [28/07/2013 – 26/11/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips start–#3698] The sun has just risen over the Mansion. The brothers are already awake: Sylvester resumes doing his paperwork, but Mortimer stands gazing out of a window, clutching the umbrella he said he wouldn't pick up again unless and until he decided to take up magic, and thinking of himself as having "set out" – and that the world itself has also changed. Rosemary emerges and rings the bell for Schmedley, the butler, attracting Mortimer's attention. He introduces her to Schmedley, who tells her how to find Sylvester (and who speaks very quietly). Schmedley is not surprised to hear that Mortimer is a wizard. We see Arthur the Weirdo feeling the worse for wear. Sylvester explains the hierarchy of the Mansion's servants to Rosemary. Nellie and Amos are officially retired, and Myrrh retired when Ilsa, the Head Housekeeper, did (he evidently doesn't know Myrrh was controlling her!). When the main posts are all filled the rank from top down goes Regent and Estate Manager (Frederick); Head Housekeeper; Butler; Taskmistress; then the Head Gardener and Head Librarian and then all the small fry. As Taskmistress Rosemary stands fairly high. One of her duties is, at least potentially, to find and hire a new sign-writer (if official and full-time, called a Notification Artificer). Sylvester's next task is in three days and Rosemary's in five. He shows Rosemary her new official quarters and office, which she is quite stunned by. Her quarters command a view of the ocean, which leads to a discussion about Panegates and the fact that no known Panegate leads to another continent, although some lead to alternative realities for the location of the Mansion. They move on to discussing why the villagers don't all move into the much-more-comfortable Mansion, and Rosemary's dream about the Operator. Sylvester didn't share it but we see a flashback to what must be his own dream, in which he, Rosemary and Nimue are attending a university lecture given by Protus, accompanied by three frogs, two sitting with the girls in the audience and one sitting with Protus, and Sylvester is aware that his own frog is missing (or has gone to Protus). We see a rusted, land-locked churnboat which Philbert had been going to convert into a building, the Boathouse, and access to which is heavily restricted; and a wizwitch detector which detects Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss security clearances, and local legends relating to a scruffy local folk-hero called Frizzlegarb who Sylvester thinks might have been a surviving Wilf, and who is associated with a symbol that looks like a waffle with wings. Legends say Frizzlegarb founded Glome, grew the first pudding plant and planted the acorn which became the Forest of Burzee. They also say that he swam through a pool and there met what sounds like a Willigig. [Later we will learn that Frizzlegarb was a Fuzz from the far future, presumably dislocated in time by the Willigig.] Sylvester is still having trouble with the fact that Willigigs are real. He shows Rosemary round her apartment and gives her a mechanical pocket-watch, then they get out Mortimer's Glowgem and test it on a sort of battery-tester invented by Griffington. They are quite rare. although there are some in the Infernal Engine, and in deep shafts under the Brushspire Peaks, and in Paydon, and the university had some big ones brought back by the Bradstreet Expedition. No-one really knows what they are, but they're not alive, they come in various types which feel slightly different, and they store power, and they didn't explode in the Crash. We see an outtake of the Tribbletongued Hamster (in pirate getup), the plant and the ABOL escaping together in their toy boat, sailing along an underground tunnel: a sign in the background points towards the sea. This is a colourised but othwerwise only slightly different version of the drawing we saw the previous day whem Rosemary and Sylvester were coming away from Spatchcock's office, but the sign pointing to the sea is new, so they've made progress. This Glowgem is highly charged. The Mansion has a few others whose charge has almost run down: they can be recharged by dipping them in the River of Fire for a few days. They used to do that from a bridge station over the River, but it collapsed in the Crash: we see that the Observatory in the Basement is adapted from the ruins of it. Sylvester mentions that the Mansion used to have a "wizwitch", a magic-wielder, as a regular member of staff and he supposes it now has one again. The scene cuts to Mortimer, who is talking to a strange wall of purple electrical spikes labelled "CURED ELECTRO-SPIKES" and filled with littl wires, telling it he is going to go and celebrate the fact that he has grown up and got a job. He goes to Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where there are various amusements and places to eat. Back with Rosemary and Sylvester, he asks her about Hack & Slash's Commandant Spangler (who Rosemary had said was the only person she had previously met who had a private office). This segues into a conversation about their respective grandparents. Rob has said elsewhwere that Quincy died in 5398, and it's now 5423, and Sylvester says here that Quincy died when he was five, so Sylvester is now twenty-nine or thirty. Rosemary's parents died on their way back from her grandmother's funeral, when she was a baby. Rosemary runs through her fake history, although we know from a bonus strip of her family that she has kept their names and just changed her father's surname to match her new, false surname Dapple. She discusses the remote possibility of using Protus to go back in time and save her parents – for whom she has little feeling – at the cost of giving up her own exciting future and getting stuck as a farm-girl (and refers to Haroons in passing as Leafheads). Meanwhile we see Frederick and Myrrh set out to do something – unspecified but involving hand-holding – "properly". Get married, probably. Sylvester tells Rosemary about the demand there used to be for apartments linked to this private corridor for senior administrators: Amos could have had a smart Head Librarian's apartment here, but he and Nellie chose to live down in the Storage Halls next to Frederick and Myrrh because of their long history [Olaf lives in the village]. There used to be a separate cottage for the Head Gardener but it was damaged in the Crash. They discuss the fact that in the past, pre-Ludwig, the Earls were at risk of being assassinated just for being the Earl. Rosemary goes off at a tangent about a fluffy-seeming female called Miss Gritz who was a traveller on the caravan Rosemary was guarding, and whom she suspects of being her apparent boyfriend's very high-powered personal bodyguard. Sylvester shows Rosemary round the official, ceremonial offices for himself and his secretary (but not his official chambers, which are untidy). The offices are designed to be intimidating, and with security in mind: there is a round thing on the wall that Sylvester says is the remains of a robot security system. The fact that attention is drawn to it suggests to me that we will find out Mr Hand can access it and it's not as broken as it purports to be, but Rosemary taps it and it doesn't do anything visible. Meanwhile, we see Eunice, wearing a rucksack, emerge from a concealed entrance in a rock with a spy-eye on top. Yasmine arrives on horseback at a sign that points to Eetown in one direction and Noodle in another (forking rather than diametrically opposed), and thinks that in another hour she'll be far enough away to take her hood off. So she is somebody who might be recognised. Her spark of attraction with Martimer suggests that a) she too is in the twenty-five to thirty-five range and b) she isn't Lenore, even though the Shibolith accent could be fake. We learn that the Mansion has an actual throne. Audra was the last Earl to use it and since then it's been reserved in case the king should visit – this nearly happened fifty years ago, when Yorik III had planned a visit, but the king ws killed when his flagship airship The Velvet Glove went down during the Crash, and the current king tends to stay in the capital. We learn that the Mansion has a High Tower, which seems to be the turret off the main tower, and access to which is blocked: Rufus tried to get in there, before he wandered off, but as far as Sylvester knows he was unsuccessful. Possibly Mr Hand lives there. Sylvester says Rufus likes to wander but he doesn't go far: Sylvester tried to get him to go to university but Rufus felt that the area around the Mansion was where he was going to be. Sylvester doesn't know where Rufus is now: Mortimer hasn't told him, or perhaps being zapped and PZORed and meeting Yasmine scrambled his memory. Sylvester shows Rosemary an escape hatch under the desk (which itself is made of near-impregnable Ettin lengths), leading to a panic-room which used to be well-equippped but is now almost empty. There used to be guards down there, but not since the Crash: and no, they didn't really need guards after the Crash, because they had Myrrh. We learn that in the early days the Earldom was passed on by mortal combat. Milo was the last Earl of E officially to kill his predecessor and the first to pass the Earldom on by blood although his grandson, Dorn II, may have been murdered by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, who then ruled in her husband Lemuel's stead while he got on with his Panegate research. We also learn that in those days the Earldoms of E and S were friends. Sylvester doesn't know as much about his mother's family, the Mundivagants, who are grand and grudging industrialists. Neither he nor Lenore would ever ask their maternal grandfather Humphrey Mundivagant for a favour. Their brother Ace works for the Mundivagants. Rosemary's family were all farmers with a long tradition, but they have died out. The Mansion has mangonels and mini airships which could probably be got to work. Rosemary asks about a sign saying "Gargoyle pits" and Sylvester tells her that there are creatures called Gargoyles and Spindizzies which were bred or manufactured by the Ettins to service and repair the buildings in which they live, so the Mansion behaves like a semi-living thing, a sort of colonial organism, even though there's no central personality such as there is at the Castle of the Combynes. Gargoyles deal with the exterior and Spindizzies with the interior, especially service machinery behind the walls and in the BaseCore, which is "one giant inaccessible churn of zappy machinery". The Mansion is slowly running down. Sylvester and Rosemary speculate about the possibility of finding still-surviving Ettins who could restore it. They come to a corridor where an end-wall has moved aside, giving access to a platform looking out into a vast service-space, so Sylvester takes Rosemary to meet the Spindizzies, warning her to get the Can-Opener out first and not tell anybody about the Poke Kit. In the empty space we saee lines of force, with the first appearance of the little Ts and Fs which become a common motif. 02: Fishing Around [27/11/2013 – 22/03/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3704–#3810] The scene opens with an Ichyoid about under water, wearing some sort of equipment on his chest which seems to be intergrated into his body, and surrounded by sea-life, including two eyes looking out of a hole with "THAT'S A MORAY" written round it. We return to Sylvester, telling Rosemary that the BaseCore of the Mansion, which they are looking down on, and the space around it is malleable and in a state of flux. Sylvester warns Rosemary that the Spindizzies share new information indiscriminately, but may assume you already know old things you aren't aware of. Two Spindizzies appear: they have grey, hairless humanoid upper bodies trailing away into wormy tails, and pterosaur-like wings. The males have brown wing-muscles and the females blue. They speak like intelligent but literal-minded computers but are friendly and kind, very concerned when they hear that Rosemary is taking over as Taskmistress in case that means Prunella has died, and perhaps a little disappointed that she isn't Sylvester's love-interest, since they want him to produce another male Task-performer. Sylvester agrees to bring in supplies (antimony) which they request, and ask them if they can tell what the Can-Opener is made of, but they can't, although they may be able to duplicate it (by which they mean, construct a look-alike pattern). When they are analysing something, little lines hang in the air, some similar to the marks on the Can-Opener, s0me more like distorted letters. Every Human (or in Myrrh's case, humanoid) in the Mansion has a designated Spindizzy who communicates with them: Horace and, newly, Emily are matched to Sylvester and Rosemary. As Taskmistress Rosemary will need to talk to Emily weekly. They live about as long as Humans, so if you have a personal Spindsizzy you always have somebody who's happy to talk to you. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the Ettins, and the moving walls (which the Spindizzies can influence if they are nearby, even though they can't leave their chamber): Sylvester thinks the Mansion with its Panegates and moving walls wasn't intended as a residence but as some other sort of facility. They wonder whether there are any surviving Ettins – and if so, how they would react to finding Humans living in their laboratory, or whatever it is. The Ettins are myths to the Spindizzies too – scary, tyrannical myths. We learn that the Spindizzies are mortal flesh-and-blood creatures but they reproduce in a mechanical incubator, and are assigned mates on a very scientific basis: and that Motihauls reproduce by the female laying an egg and then the male handing her a bottle of sperm. We learn that one of Ludwig's assistants, James Neil Pakson, went far enough down into the depths to visit the Spindizzy incubator, and his granddaughter Nicole visited the Far-Eastern Shore on the other side of the ocean from the Mansion. There were Human colonies there which may or may not have survived the Crash, about which the Spindizzies know nothing. They also don't know about other Ettin-made edifices, or about the things no-one is sure who made: the Infernal Engine, the Beacons, the Sandwall, and a range of actual big rock candy mountains. Meanwhile we see vignettes of other characters. Mortimer is breakfasting on a Spyder-burger at the Landing o' Family Fun, and visiting the Fish Museum there. He has aquired a little purple-and-green party version of a wizard's conical hat. Eunice Kelso is seen leaving the woods and heading for Eetown, with her rucksack: she passes a retired Guardian called Mr Flem, who warns her that the woods are dangerous. Terin Flem, whom we will meet again, is a semi-retired pig-farmer who used to be the Oracle Omega's Guardian Finale, and sits on a rock near the village alongside his dog Byron, apparently whittling wood. Nelly is feeding (non-sapient) Jibjibs while Amos wears goggles as he uses tongs to hold up a rod with a star on the end which isn't Mortimer's Glowgem (too many points). It appears that he is making, or restoring, a wand. Arthur the Weirdo is taking a bath; Myrrh is looking out from her and Frederick's flat, looking a bit suspicious (perhaps because she senses the presence of Frowgler); and Schmedley is being addressed by somebody off-screen and short (probably Frowgler). The chamber where Rosemary and Sylvester and the Spindizzies are all meeting is a sort of holo-deck, in which the Spindizzies successfully produce a useable mock-up of the Can-Opener which is only real in this environment, a quasi-humanoid sparring-partner for Rosemary to practise with, a chair for Sylvester to sit in and watch, and some background scenery including a bad, Escheresque reproduction of part of a monument called the Citadel of the Hugging Squirrels, one of the Sculpted Isles in Isdanlia. This reproduction was commissioned by Dorn I for his mother Nettana, who came from that area. The Sculpted Isles date back to a mysterious Dawn Era, probably that of the Wilfs and Gobblems. Sylvester dozes in a chair, leaving Rosemary to her sparring, but in fact she talks to the Spindizzies instead of fighting, and runs them through the tools they have patterns for: Human Tool #1 is a stick. She learns that they have patterns for Ettin tools as well as Human ones, but most of the Ettin ones are encrypted: one that isn't encrypted is a 3D version of the USB symbol, and they would love to get hold of a real one (there was a broken one on the sea floor where we saw the Ichyoid). She encrypts the pattern for the Can-Opener so only she and Sylvester can see it. It seems that any "productive individual" can come in and encrypt personalized tools. She learns that the Spindizzies could in principle find out what the Can-Opener is made of but their access to data is blocked beyond a certain level, although they don't know by whom. Rufus might be able to fix it. They tell her that Rufus is at Semi-Autonomous Research Structure #00001. Rosemary doesn't want to spar now because she hasn't the time, but she takes the time to walk up the imaginary sky. She starts to ask Emily the Spindizzy whether she knows that she, Rosemary, is currently... then changes the subject, which may or may not have been important. Then she wakes Sylvester and tells him where Rufus is, which he translates as the Spike. He isn't pleased, and says that the Spike is very dangerous, partly because the machines there have no built-in safety systems, but doesn't intend to go rescue him as he assumes Rufus knows what he's doing: he doesn't know about the Fixits etc. The information about Rufus came from a high-ranking Spindizzy called Tanith who was Nirvana's contact, but they have lost contact with Nirvana. Meanwhile a Valentine's Day out-take shows Sheriff Patrick Skragg giving a flower to his wife Halcyone, while their son Stephen reads a Willy-the-Wendigo book. Sylvester informs the Spindizzies about the departure of the Sneeches, and asks them what they know about Willigigs. They have been aware of Protus's presence for around a month (37.77 days – are Mansionverse months forty days?) but haven't spoken to him. They are not aware of Frowgler. Sylvester and Rosemary take their leave of them: Sylvester promises to bring them some antimony which they have asked for, and which he has in store. After they leave we see that the Spindizzies penetrate right down into the Basement and see Sprocket the Gnoll engineer, holding a Glowgem in a wrench, opening conversation with a male Spindizzy. Rosemary and Sylvester set off to go fishing. They discuss the Mansion's mineral stores, including gold, and Rosemary tells Sylvester what she learned from the Spindizzies while he was asleep, about the data block which Rufus might be able to fix. Sylvester suggests that the same person deliberately planted the Can-Opener with Izchak for Rosemary to find, and prevented the Spindizzies from investigating it: he fears he is being too paranoid but Rosemary, being profesionally paranoid, suggests there may be two conflicting secret factions at work. For the moment, Sylvester is not telling the Spindizzies about the return of Nirvana, the previous Taskmistress: he means to return to the Ettinworks once he has researched Tand, and will allow Nirvana and "Mz Teree" (Annabelle) to explain themselves before making a decision about them. They make their way down to a sea-level room where there are storage lockers for fishing gear and for beach leisure gear, and a small boat, and a door to the E family's private – and artificially-enhanced – fishing beach. [Here an out-take shows Sylvester's mother Dorothea and sister Lilith visiting the Irish-analogue nation of Tiranog at some point in the recent past.] They used to have a proper boat-house etc. but much of it has fallen into ruins. Ichyoids don't like large-scale commerical fishing and cut large fishing nets, so before going outside they look though a security periscope and see only gulls. There is a suggestion that many Ichyoids died in the Crash. Sylvester also talks about what he considers to be the remote possibility of somebody from the Basement making their way up to the beach (suggesting that part of it is below sea-level), and at that we see the hamster and his crew in their miniature pirate ship, approaching the open air. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss boats, and an explorer called Semidemela, and then go outside, where they stand side by side on the beach and agree that their feelings for each other are brother/sisterly rather than romantic (although acknowledging that this could change). It's mentioned that Audra had an entire fleet, and that they have a private, secure marina, but without magic it takes too much effort to open. They catch fish and gather seaweed and then go inside to cook them. Meanwhile we see a small boat propelled by a magic-powered outboard motor, and piloted by a skinny, elderly male villager. This is Olaf Larssen, the village vet, whom we saw before when Protus caused Sylvester to have a vision of a selection of villagers (among other things), and who was part of Frederick's pre-Myrrh magical team. His boat is named Mamie, after his partner who died in the Crash. The hamster and his pirate crew in their tiny wind-up clockwork boat approach and order Olaf to stand to and prepare to be boarded, and he thinks that all Tribble-Tongued Hamsters are insane. Compared to a Human, Cap'n Hamster is more like a large gopher in size. 03: A Change in the Scene [24/03/2014 – 12/07/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3817–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips start–#3915] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips start–#3921] From this point on, the parallel activity in the Basement splits away into a series of separate strips, until Sylvester and co. re-enter the Basement in Part Eight. The scene above-ground opens with Nitfol, Fizmo and three Pales (Thrash and his team, although they are all wearing or carrying shields and Thrash doesn't have the stripe on his chest that he had before) about to enter a wood tangled with brambles, in search of whatever Nitfol needs for his bid to become mayor. Nitfol says that Fizmo's presence isn't absolutely neccessary to his plans (knowing that this expedition will be dangerous) – but she has her own agenda. Then we see Yasmine riding through a wood. She is just about to take off her hood, now she is far enough from the Mansion, when she feels a vibration in her bag of Fleebs. She opens it and the Fleebs leap out, although they do not appear rabid. Meanwhile we see the E family make breakfast. Amos and Nellie bring non-sapient Jibjib eggs (their cockerel is called Zoroaster), Sylvester and Rosemary have fish and edible seaweed, and Mortimer brings a bottle of a magically-active drink called Yurple Juice. He won it by playing a game called Star Board at Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, and feels he may have cheated magically. The Weirdo (seriously hungover) and Fantod arrive and are introduced to Rosemary. Then Myrrh and Frederick arrive, dressed as if for a very fancy trip to a smart restaurant or theatre, and Myrrh announces that they are now retiring from their work to keep the family alive. Although they don't state so explicitly, they are planning to go away on a trip (we were told when we first met him that Frederick likes to go on long journeys). Myrrh also satisfies the Weirdo and Fantod's curiosity by dropping her glamour and revealing to them that she is a Demon. Mortimer is now Sylvester's Regent, his understudy – about which he is less than thrilled. Sylvester tells him just to do what Rosemary tells him, when Sylvester himself isn't there. Since the Mansion will now be less secure, Sylvester offers Amos and Nellie the chance to retire to the village, but they refuse. Instead, Amos will teach Mortimer magic. Meanwhile Sylvester, Rosemary and Mortimer need to go to the village to update Saffron, the lady mayor, on what's been happening, to sell Dornbeast parts and to attend the Temple. The Dornbeast parts are ready-wrapped in a refrigerator or stasis unit next to Ludwig's monster-processing machine. We learn later that the wrappings alone will keep meat fresh for a week, and if wrapped and in the cabinet it will keep for months. Mortimer wants to go to the Temple (he starts to ask whether he can go with them, then states that he is going) to light a candle for Nitfol, whom he believes to be dead through his fault, and then find the forest Nomes and tell them what happened to him. This leads to a discussion about Deep Jungle Nomes, who live in normal tree-houses, and about tree-warping. You can do the same with stone on a small scale, and we see Mulch and Grind tucked into a pocket in the wall behind Faldstool, just as Shona discussed with Frowgler. Because the Poke Kit won't work so well away from the Mansion's magic tricklepoint, Rosemary and Sylvester go to the Barrackstack to deposit the Can-Opener in a vault and collect other equipment. Meanwhile Mortimer goes to take antimony to the Spindizzies. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Ludwig's machines still work, and why this might be; and the fact that Ludwig left whole shelves' worth of notes which haven't been properly catalogued [an ideal job for the Ludwigites]. Ludwig was never intentionally unkind, but his thought processes weren't necesarily like those of most other people. Rosemary thinks that the Weirdo is ill or hungover but competant, and has had military training. Knowing that the Weirdo is conspiring with Yasmine in some way, Sylvester says they should lock their doors at night. Only the "cactus" part of the Mansion is Ettin-made: the other buildings were constructed by various Earls, although sometimes using Ettin salvage. The Barrackstack, which contains some Ettin elements but was mainly built by Angus and Audra, goes down as far below ground as above (about eight storeys each way). It was originally an impregnable fortress, but after the wars were over and "the Mugwumps all died.. or whatever.." Ernest and Philbert added stairs. There are sealed-off escape tunnels from the barracks which open into places which are now inside Eetown. A sign points to the Party Palace, built by Ernest, and describes the attractions on offer there. Rosemary is alarmed to see "Quincunx Den" on there: we will later learn that to her, the Quincunx is a paramilitry outfit Out West. Here it's a very complex card-game. We see a board laid out with cards in which there seem to be five suits: asterisks; circles; crosses (shaped like a Christian cross); little flowering plants (which I'm betting are called blooms); and anchors. They also discuss some kind of game which involves magically-powered equipment and is played by couples (together as a team) in an Underwear Arena: possibly that means the game is called Underwear. Whatever it is long-married couples are especially good at it (which suggests it might involve listing your partner's physical or sexual quirks), and people called Shrouders – the reverse of nudists – cannot play it. All the local villagers are informally Shrouders. Sylvester and Nimue won a silver medal at this game at University. Rosemary wants to play, with Sylvester as her partner, but the only team they could play against would be Nellie and Amos who would win because they've been married over fifty years, so Rosemary wants to get Yasmine back so they can play against her and Mortimer. Mortimer takes the antimony to his Spindizzy contact, Charles. Charles recognizes the umbrella as a "thaumalogical flow enhancer and regulator" and already knew Mortimer had wizard potential. The scene cuts to a female Spindizzy, Clementine, who is talking to Sina, Sprocket and a half-seen male Trog, probably either Mowder or Grak. Sina is quizzing Clementine about her claim to have met the Earl. Sylvester opens a weapons-vault to keep the Can-Opener in: like military exercises the vaults have random names. This one contains a wide range of good spears and swords over which Rosemary exclaims. We learn that there are official family weapons on display in the Gatestone, but they haven't been used in anger since Dorn II. They put the Can-Opener into a safe, then enter Rosemary into the Herediscan system. They discuss Griffington – his collection of obscene limericks, his management of the Factor E and his possession of three minions, Krell (who investigated old devices), Drowpole (who built new ones), and Strauhatt (who marketed what they made). Rosemary is now Sylvester's minion, after Nirvana, who was the first. They see a statue which purports to be of an Obsidian Sneech, but is more sinister than accurate, and collect all the gear Rosemary will need to maintain her sword. This area of the Mansion, which is actually of great military importance, is dotted with signs which suggest that only boring things happen there. As with the Barrackstack, much of the Ettin-built part of the Mansion is underground, even before you get to the Basement. Arthur and Fantod are sitting by the counting-down machine, now at 000315311089. Fantod, who seems to be an actual creature because his eyes move and widen expressively, still looks stunned after their encounter with Myrrh's demon form. Arthur says he assumes that "she knew all along" – perhaps a reference to Yasmine – and he plans to take Amos's advice (to go to the Temple and get Threnody to light a candle for Tulip). Sylvester and Rosemary reach a document-storage area under the library, and Sylvester gives Rosemary an instruction manual for the Poke Kit. She reads about secured sub-pockets and has a half memory of the Tree giving her a secret seed, but it slips her mind again. She experiments with taking the Glowgem in and out, and then looks around warily and makes a secret pocket, into which we will later learn she moved the HJ42. Sylvester meanwhile asks Amos for Obadiah Wuttgutt's Cyclopedia of Night Beasties but they don't have a copy – only Rosemary's memory of reading it. Amos asks Sylvester to tell Olaf in the village that he and Amos need to talk. Rosemary's Glowgem seems to be attracted to one of the supposedly deactivated surveillance devices (like the one in Sylvester's office suite) on the wall: the swirly pattern on it starts throbbing and Rosemary stares at it, but she is no longer vulnerable to being hypnotised. She finds the whole sub-pocket idea creepy, because there could be anything in there, and without the assistance of an official service engineer she wouldn't know it and might accidentally say a password which would cause something dangerous to erupt. They can't empty it by taking it into the Quiet Room, as that might damage it. Rosemary has written to Aunt Eva but she has described where she is, and Sylvester is concerned that her enemies might get it out of her aunt. Sylvester advises her to send another less specific letter via his lawyer, Mr Ferule. They discuss Tansy's army which is chasing Rosemary, and which is called the Quincunx (like the complex game: they don't know if there's a connection). If the Quincunx finds out where Rosemary is and comes as an army it would take them six months to get to E, but it's possible they could send an assassin, or hire a local one by wire; albeit that at present they don't know Rosemary's name. There's no possibility of Tansy giving up and neither will Rosemary: she thinks about Protus showing Sylvester "that poor Gnoll" (Rhid) and then her and Tansy fighting. There's a hint that the thing which Rosemary stole from the Quincunx was whatever she used to travel instantly to the east. The Quincunx are currently in the Nodnol/Lawnrock Peninsula, farther west around the Bay of Runes from Moonin. Being about to leave to walk to the village, they discuss a thing at the entrance called the Gatestone, believed to have been moved there by Ettric, the 2nd Earl. It's an artefact which might predate the Ettins. We see Mortimer waiting for them in an official Assembly Alcove, and being joined there by Arthur the Weirdo and his puppet Fantod, who congratulate him on becoming Regent. They ask about the umbrella, and Mortimer leads them to believe it's just an umbrella, to keep off the rain and sun. Mortimer still smells of sphagnum dust, and this leads to a discussion of Arthur's days at the Weirdo Academy. Arthur is heading to the Temple to have a candle lit for his friend Tulip. 04: Barriers and Gates [14/07/2014 – 27/11/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips #3922–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #3925–#4053] We see the Saurs Buzz and Ig meeting by the ruins of a museum in Eetown. Ig has a Glowgem which was in Niddle's pack: he doesn't know what it is, just that it's pretty. Buzz wants Ig to tell him about what has become of Snerk: Ig says Buzz wouldn't believe him but Buzz, who has been working with Frowgler, says Ig would be surprised what he believes these days. Mortimer and Arthur discuss whether Weirdos are allowed to marry. Opinions vary: Swithinites thing they shouldn't, and Bonavenites think it's OK. Of the family's previous Weirdos, Captain Tin-Throatwobbler was a Swithinite, but Sarah Bellum was a widow. They discuss a girl named Melba who lives in the village, and with whom Fantod implies tnat Arthur has a "thing": she's a friend of Mortimer's sister Lilith's, and quite eccentric, but Arthur says she is too frivolous to make an official Weirdo. Sylvester joins the others at the assembly point. Trailing behind him, Rosemary surreptitiously deposits several items from her Poke Kit – her Poke Kit instruction booklet, plus the lantern and bottle of blade-oil which Sylvester gave her in the Barrackstack – in a large urn. It is one of several artistic and archaeological artefacts which grace the hallway. The main door of the Mansion is set into the Gatestone, a huge boulder which "soaks up light, spreads it around". It may be natural as there are others elsewhere, but it was transported there. The main doors are kept closed, with a small door let into them. It leads to a walled outside area, still strewn with post-Crash rubble. From there, the main gates have been deliberately blocked with rubble to prevent mass invasion, again with a small door next to them. The party discuss the fortifications erected by previous earls, and the early earls themselves (the name of the first earl is not known), and why the village was renamed Eetown instead of Etown (Shibolith is under military rule because of the tensions with Thekla to the south, and there's a fortess/military base there called ETown). The fortifications are now a bit gappy – in fact they use a hole in the wall as a back door – and electronic repellers are used to keep out wild animals. These also protect the orchard and the main path to the village. These are the things Yasmine got past by spitting on them. Sylvester and Mortimer, Rosemary, Arthur and Fantod walk towards Eetown, discussing how the area came to be renamed Audravania instead of Northwoods, after Audra's death, and the vast lands which Audra had ruled before her fatal decision to poke the Hot Zone. Audra had made a voluntary marriage, albeit a political one, but prior to her many future Earls had been forcibly betrothed as children. Plenty of women at university wanted to marry Sylvester for his title, even though he was a poor scholarship boy. Sylvester could, even now, become a gold-digger and find a rich woman who would marry him for his title. Rosemary makes a point of saying she supposes he hates that sort of person: she's probably thinking that marrying for money may be how he will become what he hates. We learn that while at university Sylvester attended the coronation of the king and queen, Yancy and Fluer. Amos has visited the capital with Frederick, but Nellie has never been outside Audravania, except on her honeymoon, when they went to a town called Rowen which was fashionable before the Crash. This leads to a discussion of an island off Eetown, called Alwin, which belongs to the Earls but which they allow honeymooning couples from the village to use. Mortimer says that this arrangement is important to the villagers, which leads to him telling Sylvester what's going on there at the moment – including a break-in at Genrick's tailor shop, where stuff was taken overnight, but money was left for it, for more than the stolen clothes were worth. Possibly this was Frowgler, taking the hat he later gave to Fizmo: but the reference is to "some clothes", so if it was Frowgler what else did he take, and why? Rufus's friend Eunice is mentioned as one of a number of people who have recently moved into the area (and Mortimer doesn't seem to remember that she zapped him): the village is growing and there is a debate, known as the Inside-Out fight, as to whether or not to expand it beyond the boundary hedge. Peter Nigultrum (a half-Polarite) is engaged to Ida, and Mortimer mentions a couple called Hooper and Pandowny who both seem to be male, and says it would help if Sylvester could be there if and when they marry. Evidently there is a small amount of prejudice against same-sex couples. They meet and speak to the pig-farmer Terin Flem and his dog Byron, sitting on a rock outside the village, whittling. This is the same Mr Flem we saw with Eunice before, who comes from the same area (Moonin) as Rosemary and who used to be Guardian to the hardline Oracle named Omega, whom Sylvester didn't get on with. Flem asks Mortimer to ask young Dirge (the current Guardian) to come by, and Fantod mentions "rarebits" he has promised to Byron, or prhaps vice versa. They pass a sign indicating the town dump and Bechdel, which is Mr Flem's pig farm,and the surname of his son in law. He was married while a Guardian. Omega treated him as an afterthought: her original Guardian died in the Crash. Omega preached doom and hellfire and opposed education and change, which still has a lingering effect on the attitudes of the villagers. She was at least not a hypocrite, and was fiercely honest and dutiful and a proficient healer. Sylvester and Mortimer have an obscure private conversation about change: Mortimer wants to do more and different, things he should have done while Omega was alive but didn't, but Sylvester tells him to keep it quiet for the moment as they shouldn't spring too many changes on the villagers at once, and they are still anti-magic. They can't keep it secret forever, though, as Nellie is a gossip. We see an image of Mortimer's future self with the female Motihaul and the woman with clubbed hair. Meanwhile Rosemary talks to Arthur and Fantod. Arthur tries to quiz Rosemary about how she got there but she evades the question and instead asks him about what Weirdos do. They are jesters who "speak truth to power". Their original accents are trained out of them (Arthur is from Alfibay), which raises more questions about Yasmine. Arthur, Fantod and Rosemary discuss the new, safer denizens' tunnel from the Mansion to the Basement, and the disappearance of the Sneeches. Meanwhile the party arrives at the outskirts of the village and Sylvester shows Rosemary the irrigation ditches and other features. They come to the Temple, which was made from the remains of a much grander one ("about the fanciest one east of Rowen") which was destroyed in the Crash, and which lies just outside the hedge which surrounds the village, rather than at the centre of town as would be the norm. Omega had it built there so that, post Crash, people approaching could see a sign that this was an outpost of civilisation, and she trusted the Brush to keep it safe. The town's previous Temple had been destroyed (and the previous local Oracle, Riverbend, had been killed), and so had the town in Wirtwam where Omega was posted previously. She built this Temple out of stones from the old one, and it's actually rather nice. We learn that Sylvester and Mortimer's father had been partially responsible for, and died in, some kind of accident involving a circus and a stampeding elifinos in a nearby town called Noodle, known as the Noodle Incident and so famous that even people Out West know about it. Their father wasn't entirely or solely to blame, but he made a good scapegoat. The Eman family is unpopular in Noodle, not just because of the Incident but because Sylvester promotes the interests of the Eetown tooterfisheries and cuts into the profits of the Noodle Fish-Mongers Association. They meet a little girl called Juniper, who is the granddaughter of Amos and Nellie and tells them "everyone" is in the Temple. Her father Arlen is Hedgemaster and her mother keeps bees. She has a special friendship with Fantod. The group go through a sensory ritual – watch the flames, smell the blossoms, taste the water, touch the earth (in the form of a giant stone, originally at the Mansion's private Temple and personally blessed by Violet) and listen to the Brush. The last is done by sitting on a bench made of rare and precious materials (this one is made of a sort of pourable, durable Ettin-made plastic): Arthur and Mortimer are the only ones who feel the need to do so. It is mentioned that the tree will bloom in a month or so (we are reminded later that it's currently mid April). To mark Hallowe'en we see a raiding party of Nomes, including Umboz's brother Frotz who is desperate to get out of it, probably creeping towards the north Gnoll village. They are scared off by a pumpkin-headed spectre which is really Frowgler in costume (possibly borrowed from the female Motihaul Strode, although it doesn't have crescent-horn-holes), using some kind of glowing magic or technology to fly. Rosemary and Juniper discuss where various people come from, and Rosemary manages to give the girl a very strange idea of what a walrus looks like. They talk with Sylvester about Inuit-equivalents called Tunits, who live on the Iceshore north of Alfibay in the west of Yurpsland, and the secretive, hostile Haroons who live in forest between the Iceshore and Alfibay, and the harsh, uninhabited and uninhabitable northen shore called Skralland, to the north of Audravania, which might or might not have been named after someone called Skral who is even less well-documented than Frizzlegarb. Aside from army bases, Eetown and the Mansion are now the most northernmost Human habitations on the east shore. We learn that there used to be a secretive underground nation called the Great Underearth Empire of the Northern Pole, colloquially known as the Polarites, but their society was destroyed in the Crash. They used to have an exit tunnel in northern Audravania, for trade and called the Gate of Commerce, because Eetown was booming and they hoped to trade with the Far East Shore; as well as the famous Gate of Diplomacy in Paydon and the Gate of Remembrance on the Iceshore north of Alfibay. But the Gate of Commerce was destroyed by the Crash after only five years. In Paydon a "Salvagetown" grew up around the ruins of the Gate of Diplomacy, challenged by surviving Polarites who were away from home when the Crash hit. There are people in Eetown of half Haroon (Ilsa Lundquist) or half Polarite (Peter Nigultrum) ancestry, and they can't ever go home. Since Ilsa's mother left the tribes she would be treated as a stranger by the Haroons, despite her green hair; and Peter's father's Polarite home no longer exists. Meanwhile, Arthur and Mortimer sit on the bench and ask for divine assurance that they are doing the right thing, and both receive it, more or less. Fantod and Juniper talk about her hopes for a more interesting career than hedging, and how she'd like to see more of Nellie and Amos, and how sorry she is for Peter and Ilsa that they can't go home. We see an out-take for Thanksgiving, in which Myrrh and Frederick are about to start on a feast. I have left this in the time-line, as well as putting it with the Christmas cards etc., because it fits with the idea that they have gone on a second (or, strictly speaking, first) honeymoon, and it leads into subsequent episodes where they are at the Spires. Myrrh is using weird cutlery that fits onto rings on her forefinger and thumb, to eat Demon-specific foods. We learn later that they are not yet at the Spires here, but elsewhere. 05: Eetown – The Temple [28/11/2014 – 25/08/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #4060–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips start–#4323] The party from the Mansion enter the Temple, where Sylvester introduces Rosemary to the Oracle Threnody and various town worthies. Sylvester assures the townsfolk in the Temple that despite his family's recent history in such matters Rosemary is Human, and fully qualified to be Taskmistress, "highly qualified, physically and mentally". We see an image of Myrrh, and of a mad-looking Human woman wielding a rolling pin, who is evidently a recentish Mansion employee who turned out not to be emotionally qualified: perhaps this is Olga. He informs them that Frederick has retired as Regent and Mortimer will be taking over. Sheriff Patrick Skragg quizzes Rosemary as to whether she is a fugitive from the King's Law. She swears that she isn't, then sends the child Juniper off with the Weirdo and Fantod to show Fantod how she's been practising some skill he's been helping her with. Once they are out of earshot she tells the rest that she is also taking over Myrrh's duties as bodyguard and will be wearing a sword. Threnody is dubious about Rosemary's past use of violent force, but accepts that it may have been necessary. The Sheriff provisionally accepts Rosemary's offer of help with the town milita [sic]: there isn't one, as such, but he says he could use another trained deputy, aside from Dirge. But Waldo Weequash, head of the Eetown Guild of Fisherfolk and Octopus Wranglers, thinks Rosemary is a vagabond who will bring a criminal element into the town. Saffron Stout, innkeeper and impromptu mayor, points out that Rosemary will mainly be at the Mansion and agrees with the Sheriff that they should give her a chance, and asks Sylvester to call on her privately later. She asks after Frederick's health, and whether Sylvester knows anything about the Pit flare. He says that as far as he knows none of his household were involved, except insofar as his great-great-uncle helped build it: that must be Hindenburgh. Threnody – who is emergency backup Taskmistress – quizzes Rosemary about her Temple attendance, and Rosemary promises to make sure Sylvester goes to Temple more often. The last Temple Rosemary attended was in Jonetown East and Threnody thinks that Blackbird, the Oracle there, might some day be Prime Oracle. Outside the Temple, the townsfolk discuss Rosemary privately. The Sheriff is planning to check up on her in police records, just in case, but they agree she seems an improvement on Myrrh. They discuss the fact that non-Humans are allowed to join the religion and are treated equally (although Sylvester suggests that that's the official position but not always adhered to) and some Nomes and Motihauls have been ordained as Oracles, but other non-Humans (Pales are shown as an example) resisted conversion. Sylvester mentions that he has heard that the Nomes have a male priest, and Threnody is interested in meeting him. Mortimer and the Weirdo remain at the Temple to light memorial candles to speed the passage of the dead, the Weirdo for his friend Tulip, and Mortimer for Nitfol whom he wrongly believes to be dead. Threnody assumes that Arthur learned of his friend's death through the post, and Sylvester, who has worked out that Arthur probably learned about it from Yasmine, signals to Mortimer not to contradict her. While Mortimer and the Weirdo are praying, Rosemary and Sylvester look at the Temple's paintings of the various founding Oracles, and discuss their favourites. Rosemary follows Hettie, who carried a light in the darkness and made the dark and the unknown part of the Brush, and Sylvester likes Joice, who stood for inspiration. Mortimer passes on a message to Dirge, the current Guardian, that Finale, the previous Guardian (=Terin Flem), would like to speak to him: Dirge doesn't seem happy about it. Mortimer wants to ask about why Sylvester shushed him, but feels that the time is not yet because somebody might overhear. The group go and stand by a large boulder outside the town gates ("The Town Rock") where they won't be overheard, and discuss Yasmine and the Weirdos generally. Mortimer is able to pick them out because he can sense their mind shapes. They discuss the fact that Rosemary has not been taught any magical theory, because she was educated at the Hack & Slash Academy whose purpose was to produce effective H&S employees and they very rarely encounter magic-users these days. Also H&S is riddled with factions: they used to have a Wizwitch Brigade and Rosemary suspects it may still exist but is being kept a secret, even from other factions in H&S. We learn that the Weirdo Academy is very ancient. It's in a town called Marksburg, which is in Fredonia, and is where the E boys' mother came from. Nowadays Marksburg has a stodgy reputation, but it has a lively history. In the past there were several Weirdo schools and Weirdos went by several names, such as Tomfool. Milo was the first Earl of E to hire one. The Trio fall to discussing the various worthies they met at the Temple. Sylvester fills Rosemary in on the background to the various individuals, and village issues such as the need to bring in a full-time Healer, since at the moment the Oracle, Threnody, is both healer and teacher, and as the village population grows it's getting hard for her to cope. Better to bring in an outside Healer, as thanks to Omega's influence the village would never pay for a separate teacher. Sylvester's only friends in the village are Peter Nigultrum the solicitor, and a fisherman called Captain Tugwart: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting because they would be discussing Sylvester. Weesquash resents him because Sylvester has more power than him and has set policies which benefit him, thus obliging him to feel grateful. They discuss who is and isn't local. People who were born in the village are accepted as local even if their parents were foreign, as is the case with Peter. Anyone not born there is a foreigner. The exceptions are the Oracle and Guardian, and Old Man Larssen. If Rosemary stays fifty years they will still be annoyed if she marries a local (other than one of the E boys) and she'll still be "The Mooninite" because she wasn't born in Eetown. She says she'll earn a more distinctive label than that, thinking of herself as some sinister dark queen with a flaming sword. Guardians are often specifically trained for specific areas (we see images of Guardians with a zap trident, a Ghast ceremonial spoon and a bat on a leash). Rosemary can tell that Dirge is combat-trained and wonders why the High Temple thought Eeetown needed him. This leads to a discussion about how the Spyders and Tree-Squids got into the area; and about things called Raviners or Hill Crabs, which people in Moonin sometimes eat, and which may be able to be provoked into producing a useful ichor; and the fact that the E family used to grow and sell the killer trees. Mortimer would like to talk about the events of the previous day but they don't have time. As they approach the entrance to Eetown proper they discuss various Oracles Rosemary has met on her travels. In a brief out-take, we see Schmedley placing a black arm-band on the flipper of the statue of the world-turtle which we glimpsed before, to commemorate the death of Terry Pratchett. Sylvester and co. discuss the defences of Eetown, with drawbridges put in after the Crash. These were scrounged from houses in Crestheights, a posh district near the Masion, destroyed in the Crash. The defences are not very good, and post-Crash the town had some trouble with raiders until Myrrh got back. She, Frederick and Quincy had been holidaying in Aruba (an island without magic) when the Crash hit. It was on their way back that Quincy met Agnes, his future wife. Meanwhile the town made a defensive wall out of crashed cars, and then grew a hedge over and through them. We see an ancient wand-tree called an Oakapple (nothing to do with real oak apples) which grows just inside the hedge. Post-Crash, the rallying point for local survivors was a pub called the Moose and Squirrel. Because it was a cheap outfit which didn't use much magic it survived the Crash relatively intact. The innkeeper, Simon, had acquired the place by dubious means, but he became impromptu mayor and did a good job of coordinating disaster relief. Sylvester and co. head for the local administrative offices, but as they pass by the fountain in the (unpaved) main square they become aware that they have an audience. Sylvester lectures Rosemary about the layout of the town, where the bathhouse is etc., trying to sound confident and impress the watchers. The town has a watch tower, but these days it's mainly used as a love-nest. They speak to the townsfolk who have been watching them, and Rosemary (under the false surname Dapple) is introduced to everybody. Most striking, perhaps, is a young mother called Silence Krenshaw whom Sylvester knows very well, and had considered hiring as Taskmistress. We will learn that she and Sylvester were childhood playmates. They discuss Rosemary's duties, and that Sylvester wants Rosemary to serve as a Mature and Responsible Adult, a formal title which seems to mean that she will somehow help him to find a wife. He does not fancy Rosemary herself. Silence says that there is somebody out there for Sylvester. Mortimer meanwhile talks to an adoring fanclub of young girls. They ask him about his umbrella and he says you never know when a storm might blow up. One of them, possibly named Hanna, is evidently psychic and she realises both that he is speaking metaphorically, and that a metaphorical storm is indeed coming. Sylvester and co. head for Government House, followed by a gaggle of children. They discuss the pudding plant, a local cash crop which only grows well in Audravania. Rosemary has never eaten a fresh one. Rosemary wonders why so small a town has a bank. Sylvester explains that it gives them independence from the Noodle Fish-Monger's Association, and lists the conditions required in order for them to have an official bank, and its personnel (the village blacksmith Sheldon doubles as a nominal guard, but it does have a real assistant clerk, Permelia). It is illegal for an agent of the King's Law, such as the Sheriff, officially to work for a bank. The town government is full of bickering and back-biting. The bank manager is Peter Nigultrum, who also helps the sub-literate to write letters because it's a rustic area and some people can barely read and write. Rosemary says you haven't seen rustic till you've seen the deep back-woods of Moonin: we see a man wearing antlers, a woman wearing wings, a child with a staff, and a standing stone with a skull on top. As they approach the bank they meet Peter's fiancée Ida. Ida and Rosemary discuss Rosemary's home district of Moonin and the presence there of the Beacons, three shimmering offshore monoliths believed to date back to the Dawn Wars. Ida seems unaware that the Mansion is equally interesting and almost equally historic. The first Prime Oracle, Daisy, came from Moonin, but Rosemary feels that Daisy was ashamed of her humble origins. The most important local Oracle is Jackstraw in Glome. They meet Peter, the half-Polarite bank manager, who works out that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress from her clothes. They tell him that Frederick and Myrrh have retired, and that Mortimer is a wizard. The only bit that surprises Peter is that Myrrh is able to retire. We glimpse Myrrh at some sort of hotel, apparently amusing herself by wrestling robots, and Ida gossiping about having just met them. Peter predicts that Mortimer's newfound wizard status will lead to trouble. We see Dirge, the current Guardian, and Terin Flem, the previous one, discussing the changes in personnel at the Mansion, and saying that Dirge has a decision to make: apparently, whether or not to report Mortimer to the authorities. Thirty years post-Crash, when Flem first saw signs that Mortimer was a wizard, magic was regarded as evil. He should really have told Omega that Mortimer was a wizard, but then somebody would have come and taken the boy away, and Flem liked Mortimer, so he kept quiet. An officious government clerk named Appleby also failed to report Mortimer – Flem thinks he just never noticed what was going on because he was stuck behind his desk. Dirge will tell Threnody about Mortimer, but won't call someone to collect him unless Mortimer wants him to. Flem tells Dirge about Eunice being out in the woods again. After Dirge has left, Flem tells his dog Byron that he hated Omega. Peter tells Mortimer there may still be a magic school which Threnody could help him find if Amos turns out not to be a good teacher. They discuss Polarite technology and social structures: Peter's father was in security, relatively low-status but with access to information. Peter had thought of contacting the surviving Polarites in the capital, but Sylvester says they would scorn him for having facial hair. The Polarites were divided into three regions, Bism, Mahar and Symm. The Vril Undercroft, a sub-group of the Symmites and the group to which Peter's father belonged, were allowed to open a Commerce Gate in northern Audravania, where they to some extent went native and became more open and sociable than most Polarites. That was why Peter's father was able to be wandering around on the surface without any magical machinery when the Crash hit, and so survived. The Polarites seem all to have worn one to six (the more, the higher the rank) wiggly wires with glowing balls on the tip, set into the back of their hair: these are reminiscent of the antennae we will later see Spire folk wearing. Surviving Polarites in exile often have short versions of the wiggly wires, but without the glowing tips. Sylvester and Rosemary give Peter a highly edited version of Rosemary's life story (and she has a flashback of hiding from Tansy). Peter knows the Mansion and its dangers well – he even has his own Spindizzy, Alfred. [An out-take at this point celebrates the legalization of gay mariage in the US by showing Baldy with a slightly younger – and much hairier – boyfriend, looking at rainbow Vagabond flutterbys.] Peter tells Sylvester they have some paperwork to go over [Ipcress files!], so Sylvester asks Mortimer to take Rosemary away and introduce her to Shadrik, an ox-like Metalmin. Sylvester and Peter then discuss Peter's upcoming marriage to Ida. Peter says Sylvester will never marry a local girl because they aren't academically stimulating enough – not even Ida or Silence – whereas he himself was looking for somebody who was restful to be with. Sylvester will be his best man. Sylvester trusts Peter so much that he tells him at least the gist of Rosemary's true story, including that Dapple isn't her real surname (although not what is). Peter will look out for people looking out for Rosemary, and send the signal Rose, Pine, Apple through "the usual channel" if he can safely do so. Sylvester doesn't want to marry Rosemary because she's not intellectual or educated, but she's a perfect Taskmistress – so perfect he suspects somebody is interfering in his life, and sent her to him. [Out-take: to celebrate the strip's twelfth anniversary: we briefly see the pirate hamster and his crew approaching an island which has a sapient tree. The tree thinks that it has been twelve years: in-universe, probably since it last saw the plant, since the plant swears to itself when it sees where they are.] We see that Eunice works in the pub, apparently as a cook (and Frowgler is lurking behind some sacks on a shelf, watching her). Rosemary and Mortimer are given free sausages by the town's Sausage Stroller. Mortimer is feeling very guilty about having accidentally magically hypnotised Rosemary the day before, so she punishes and absolves him by giving him a light bonk on the head, but says that being hypnotised by him was mostly quite enjoyable. They talk about the fact that he has only left the area a few times (and was in Noodle when his father died there), and comes across as rather sheltered, but now responsibility has been thrust on him and he will meet it. Rosemary talks about the relatively safe life she left to become a bodyguard, and the fact that her home village had an ancient ruined tower built by Gobblems, and which she used to climb. She later travelled to most of the places she could see from up there, but many of the towns were a bit same-y because they were rebuilt at the same time, after Unification. Talking about education and the E-family tutor causes Mortimer to realise there's something about Rufus and Eunice which he is forgetting. They look at Shadrik, which/who is a haulage Metalmin who is fairly bright but doesn't speak, and lives in a former stable. Sadrik living in a shed leads to a mention of Dorian Ingersoll the hermit who used to live in a hut. Dorian's history is confusing: we've been told he's lived in the Spike for forty-two years, but here we're told he lived in the forest when Mortimer was a child, and we've seen the ruins of his hut when Yasmine came across them. He obviously shared his time and wasn't in the Spike full-time. Shadrik's battery is flat but Rufus is working on recharging it: even when he's working only the Earl, the Mayor and the Sheriff can give him orders. Rosemary works out that Sylvester just wanted her and Mortimer out of the way so he could speak to Peter privately. To kill time she suggests they climb the local watchtower, so she can survey the terrain. To get to it they go through a warehouse used to store apples, which has been altered and added to till it's almost as complex as the Mansion (one of the doors is lanelled "STILL ALIVE KEEP IN"). They are passed by some sort of functionary (beginning with a B) who wears false Nome ears and costume wings. It's possible the B stands for Batgirl, especially as she lives in the Belfry "like usual". Mortimer is wafted a note, possibly left by the Batgirl, to say that the writer has their eye on Eunice and Rufus, who are up to something. 06: Eetown – The State [26/08/2015 – 20/11/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4330–#4421] From the tower Rosemary and Mortimer look down on the village square, which includes a fuzzball court. Mortimer points out various districts of the town, and they see Old Man Larssen's place outside the town hedge, although he has a hedge of his own. Rosemary is pleased to be able to see the Specific Ocean, which was on her To-Do List. They discuss a range of wonders Rosemary hopes to see (including The Running of the Clams in Woldercan, which may be a clams-got-legs B.C. reference), many of which have already been visited by Mortimer's mother and sister, although they were unable to get into a place called Sybola where there is some kind of secret Rosemary wishes to solve. They visited the Spires of Mechana and Sylvester's sister Lil said they were "really creepy". Rosemary thinks the main thing on Mortimer's To-Do List right now should be to learn how to use the wand-umbrella. A Labour Day out-take shows various kinds of labour in Eetown, including the Batgirl who is writing or drawing at an easel, and Violet wrestling with a piglet. Rosemary and Mortimer meet Sylvester outside the bank and he refers to the Batgirl as "our Flittermouse". Sylvester takes them to meet Sherman P Gray, the new(ish) government Clerk of Eetown. The previous clerk, Hubert Appleby (who didn't get on with Omega) died at his desk eight years previously. Sherman has a telegraph machine (loathed by Omega) run off batteries re-charged by a hand-turned charger, and many duties, one of which is to register new arrivals like Rosemary. He is also postman and tax-collector, and has a form for Mortimer to register as the new Regent of E. [In a brief out-take, we see the pirates (hamster and co.), having landed at Piratestash Island, recruit a resident gull to the crew. The stunted but sapient tree on the island implies that the Plant is being punished by being required to stay with the crew.] We learn about the unofficial but influential Tome of Royal Succession, a kind of Debrett's Peerage. The Keepers of the Tome will want to know about changes to Sylvester's "official retinue": not only about Mortimer becoming Regent, but about Rosemary becoming Taskmistress. We are reminded of the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setup by the fact that Rosemary is impressed that the Post Office pigeon-holes have doors, garnered from post-Crash architectural salvage. While Sylvester is checking his postal Inbox it is confirmed that it is now 14th April 5423HC ("Historical Counting"). Sherman sees from her form that Rosemary comes from an island called Dyngusmyles, which has a reputation for having wild, backwoods people, and has strange weather and biology because it's close to the Beacons, which before the Crash attracted research parties from the university in Azimuth. We see that the lights from the Beacons are a bit similar to Eyebolt Weirding. Sherman himself comes from a frost-mining area in Thull. They compare weather: Sherman was surprised to find that though Eetown is farther north than the frost mines of Crag Sinsoss that he came from, it has a milder local climate. Sylvester warns Sherman that Rosemary is a fighter and will be wearing a sword as part of her duties. Sherman OKs this but says that while they are in his government office weapons must be deposited in a special receptacle, and Mortimer promptly puts his umbrella in it. Sherman fills Sylvester in on various items of news, including the fact that a ship from a far-off region named Coradine has visited the port of Woldercan in the west of Yurpsland. Coradine is part of the same continent as the Mansion but it's a group of islands as far west as it gets, beautiful but quite reclusive and ritualistic, and many of its inhabitants are Motihauls. To get to Woldercan the Coradine ship would have had to sail round the edge of a region called Kadath, which is inhabited by Wendigoes, and past an island called Honaly (as in Puff the Magic Dragon) where there are [Human?] Viking-type sea-raiders whom we see sailing a ship whose sail bears the image of the hamster pirate captain, then right across the north coasts of Thembria, Upper Slubovia, Ruratana and Tiranog. It's possible they came for Yurple Juice, a wildly popular and expensive drink with magical properties. After posting Rosemary's letter to Aunt Eva (in the guise of an official letter from Sylvester) the party take leave of Sherman, promising to return later to set up a post-box for Rosemary and collect the newspaper. Mortimer and Sylvester share a post box but Frederick and the staff each have their own: we see Frederick receiving a skull-faced box with a bow on top, Amos receiving book-binding supplies and Schemdley apparently receiving a love letter. There is a mention of the previous day's magical Pit-flare being a reoccurring event, and of the recent finding of a dead Ichyoid washed into the harbour. As they come away they talk about the fact that Sherman's girlfriend in nearby Obtown married someone else. Sylvester says that Myrrh is listed in the Official Threats Compendium, but since she hasn't killed anybody it's not worth anyone's while to go to the trouble of trying to banish her. Behind them, in his office, Sherman looks up Mortimer's umbrella in the Official Threats Compendium, and finds it. We learn that there's a series of Government departments with harmless-sounding names – Redundancy, Secondary Overlap, Tertiary Retainment – which process information and look for interesting connections. They discuss rural pubs. Rosemary is an expert on awful pubs: we see one whose sign is a hand choking a Jibjib; one whose sign appears to be a jellyfish on toast, with a female Motihaul collapsed drunk outside with flies buzzing round her and a rat on her knee; and one where recalcitrant customers were thrown into a pit of wild Saurs. Rory Vinsmith, the innkeeper in Moonin with the Saur pit, was executed for murder and the pub was re-named The Saur Pit in his honour. In the west he is famous, but now they are so far from her home that nobody's heard of him, which makes Rosemary realise how big Yurpsland is. Big news does travel, however: Rosemary had heard about the Noodle Incident, and Sylvester had heard about the Drumshambo Massacre. Saffron, the local innkeeper at The Moose and Squirrel, may have heard of Vinsmith, and Sylvester quietly warns Rosemary that Saffron may also have heard of her Aunt Eva, the gambler. There is a pale grey cat wandering along a window ledge at the ront of The Moose and Squirrel. They enter the pub and meet Sharona, Saffron's niece, who is Mortimer's semi-girlfriend with whom he had a date on the coming Friday (it's currently Monday), and the daughter of Sheldon the blacksmith. She is overcome by the smell of sphagnum dust coming off Mortimer. They meet Mavis, one of the barmaids, and then Saffron. Eunice Kelso is also one of her barmaids, along with Mavis Mossett and Flossy Efflore, and there's a cook called Gormind Trencherman and a bouncer and stablehand called [Chauncy?] Hobson. Mention is made of people in Moonin distilling a spirit from muckroots: the distillery seems to be called Fancy Rat Spirits, with a logo of a rat in a monocle and a straw boater. Characters called : Wendell and Ricky, who we will learn are the town's odd-jobbers, are also mentioned: Wendell is prone to sudden wild enthusiasms . Sharona is repelled by the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer, and dumps him for being too unreliable and accident-prone (he feels guilty, because she had slipped his mind until he saw her). Saffron takes a bottle of Pudding Liquor, just uncorked that day, from a shelf: something grey, probably Frowgler's nose, is glimpsed poking out from behind an adjacent bottle. They drink from it, and Sylvester immediately passes out, while Rosemary begins seeing imaginary glowing flutterbies. Mortimer seems unaffected. 07: Revelations [30/11/2015 – 27/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4428–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips start–#4602] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. We begin, therefore, with the eyes of various small creatures, including Smyts, being dazzled and impressed by the glowing tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Rosemary and Sylvester wake, very groggy, to find themselves lying on a jetty on Alwin Island, the honeymoon destination, accompanied by the grey cat who had been outside the pub. The island will prove to be littered with large stone sculptures, mostly of non-Human animals. They agree that they must have been drugged (there is mention of glitterberries, which seem to be this world's equivalent of magic mushrooms, although that's probably not what was used), not just drunk, and discuss possible culprits. Presumably it's somebody who wants to embarass Sylvester, not kill him. Neither of them really thinks it was Saffron, and this is confirmed by a brief view of Mavis the barmaid discovering Saffron herself collapsed behind the bar and asking for a shot of clingweed tonic (the same plant Telic asked Comshaw to bring him). Permelia Weesquash might, but she doesn't frequent the pub or know anyone who works with herbs except Threnody (we see Threnody with tongs, about to pluck a glowing berry from the "tongue" of one of the small carnivorous plants). Sylvester's main suspect is Old Man Larssen, the town vet, who is very educated but also obsessive and secretive, a bit like Crazy Rhid – even so Sylvester doesn't really think he did it. He half suspects Eunice, who comes from Noodle, passes as a non-entity and could be an agent of his enemies the Noodle Fishmongers' Association. But we glimpse Eunice thinking that she has no idea what just happened in the bar but she'd better report it anyway. No other visitors are expected – nobody comes there except newlyweds, or about-to-be-weds preparing the venue. There is however a rowing boat concealed on the island. They manage to stagger to their feet in order to go find the boat, but Rosemary thinks they are still both too stoned to steer and suggests that since they were planning to have a private talk anyway, now is a good time and place. Sylvester shows Rosemary some of the sights of the island, since as Taskmistress she will be expected to oversee the team of respectable village matrons who prepare the honeymoon cabin for weddings. They return to the dock (and the cat) to sit and talk, on the far side of the island from the village. Further out they can see Scraggy Island, which holds a lighthouse and the town graveyard. The lighthouse keeper is Dougal Izzard. His wife Selene Perkins left but their daughter Shelby stayed, married Grumby the carpenter and had a son Edson who is apprentice lighthouse-keeper. The hobby of Cloudmapping is mentioned. Sylvester sits on a bench on the pier but Rosemary declines to sit next to him. Instead, the cat does, but he shoves her off when she tries to sit on his knee. Here there is an outtake scene showing Frederick and Myrrh playing chess with two men called Jebidiah and Jones, who are wearing formal dinner suits. These are based on Angus Scrimm and David Bowie, who died that week, and a poster of Grabthar's Hammer on the wall commemorates Alan Rickman, also lost. In the background, visible over the top of a stone wall, we can see the Spires of Mechana, which are more of an upright sausage shape than pointy. Sylvester talks Rosemary through the history of the area, beginning with creation by the Brush (it is mentioned that there is also life on Perelandra and Barsoom) and the first civilization, the Wilfs and Gobbblems (Dreamers and Builders), who erected wonderful buildings and even had colonies on the moon before destroying each other in the Dawn War. Sylvester has glimpsed what seemed to be a Wilf and a Gobblem through a Panegate, so it may be that there are survivors in other realities, but that Panegate is in a part of the Mansion which is only periodically accessible, and won't be again for fifteen years. Then came the Ettins and Sneeches, who may have already existed but been suppressed, and who now built up another high-tech civilization and then again destroyed it in war, after which Humans and Nomes moved in, spreading from jungles in the south. Before that destruction, the Ettins built the main towers of the Mansions of E and S. The Tower of S was so-called because of an S-shaped mark on the walls, so the Scions of S made that their symbol, but the Mansion of E is a corruption of the Tower of Ett(in)s – their names were later changed from Tower to Mansion for some beaurocratic reason. Their symbol was originally a serif E with a tall tail on the bottom bar, crossed by two short horizontal lines to make an ETT monogram, but over time the crossbars got lost. The Ettins also built the Spire and "one or two other things" – we see a tangle of spikes, which might be branches, each tipped with a glowing light. The Ettin/Sneech war largely passed Audravania by, leaving it with these fairly intact Ettin buildings. According to the Spindizzies the Ettin name of the Mansion is PRFO4223. We learn that nomadic Humans who didn't even have agriculture reached the Towers late in the Human diaspora, at a time when the country of Ackbar, in the south-west of the continent, already had quite an advanced Human civilization along the banks of the Refutation (De Nial). The name of the first Earl isn't known but he led his tribe into the valley and died while storming the Tower: the exact wording of the legend is "the Earl stormed the heights, and the heights broke with thunder, and none ever came back down". Legend also says he fought and defeated living Ettins but this is unlikely given their advanced technology. A lone Ettin skull was later found in the Tower. The first Earl's descendants avoided the interior of the Tower for generations afterwards but they set up camp and built new buildings around its foot. The area was rich in resources and they had to fight off generations of would-be invaders. Sylvester gives Rosemary a detailed run-down of the various Earls, which you can find summarised on the background page. The most salient points are that agriculture began to be established at the time of Ettrath, the 5th Earl, and so did neighbouring fiefdoms: the Scions of S to the north, Myways to the west and Obtund to the south. S was eventually destroyed by Angus, the 16th Earl. Myways and, for a couple of generations, Obtund were defeated and made vassals of E: Myways was destroyed in the Crash and there's nothing there now but a coaching inn, but the Obtunds are still around, with their own Duke, and are friendly neighbours. Many of the early Earls of E were villains and slave-traders who came to power by murdering their predecessors, until they got to the brilliant philosopher and strategist Milo, the 9th Earl, who severed the family's links to the slave trade, converted to the new religion of the Brush, moved into the Ettin-built Tower and made contact with the Spindizzies. What they know about the earlier history of the family is just what was written by Milo – quite possibly the first Earl to be able to write – and may not be 100% accurate. Milo's mother, Persafone, was a slave who had been an educated aristocrat before being enslaved, and came from an advanced culture between what are now Paydon and Thull, but at the time were called Pay Downs and Hoar Hull. She deliberately trained Milo up to be a successful warrior who would murder Milo's father, Frake, at her urging, knowing Milo would help her to survive her intended coup against Frake. Milo had ambivalent feelings about her: as Earl he kept her in elegant comfort but well away from any decision-making. He was seen as weak because he was educated, so as soon as he became Earl the Mansion was attacked by Myways and Obtund, but he soundly defeated them and made them pay tribute. Milo was established and confident enough to travel, and met his future wife Nettana in the Forest of Burzee. She was an aristocrat from the Iridescent Kingdom of Southern Kroke in what is now Isdanlia, but at the time was an advanced but fragmented region. She was intelligent, stylish, determined and he was intelligent, brave, forthright, tall, athletic and had nice hair His heart was more in intellectual learning than bloodshed and after his wife died he abdicated in favour of his son, and sailed away to explore new lands. Milo's son Dorn I was scientifically-minded and bred the Dornbeasts for use as living siege engines. They were named in his honour after he was kiled by one, but he called them Siegebeasts and they were bred up from swamp-dwelling Chompbeasts, non-sapient distant relatives of the Ettins. Selling Siegebeasts marked the beginning of the rise of E as an economic power. After he was killed by one his wife Aimee became Regent for their son Dorn II, who unfortunately was a shallow sports jock obsessed with Starball and hunting, although he did continue to breed and sell Dornbeasts. Dorn II was mostly gay and apart from getting an heir with his wife Olivia Obtund his sexual partnership (of a sort, since Dorn wasn't very highly sexed) was with a guy named Heffston, who was a much better strategist and ruler than Dorn. Heffston was from a humble background but worked to educate himself, and laid the foundation for the E-family library. It was another century before an Oracle named Brittlebush legalised gay marriage. In an aside, we see Arthur and Fantod talking to village children. They seem to believe Rosemary and Sylvester are still in the inn with Saffron. Village gossip evidently has Sylvester and Saffron getting married. Dorn II was killed, possibly by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, an ambitious local girl who had a loving but quarrelsome relationship with Dorn's son Lemuel, the Panegate expert. Lemuel eventually abdicated in favour of his daughter Wilhelmina, who was aided and defended by her step-grandfather Heffston. By so doing, Heffston both atoned for not having paid enough attention to Lemuel as a boy, and got revenge on Charlotte for her suspected role in the death of Dorn II, by turning her daughter against her. Charlotte was banished to a set of apartments inside a cave on Mount Ett, and Lemuel drove his carriage up there every evening to spend the night with her. Wilhelmina just called herself W for most purposes and was considered ceremonailly male, to the point of wearing a false beard. Her reign was peaceful and prosperous: she was no more interested in being Earl than her father had been, but she was more skilled at picking good subordinates to whom she could delegate. She had some magic, strong but restricted to manipulating stone, and was a prolific sculptor who made a lot of money by travelling to other stately homes to perform tricky bits of stonework. She visited the Sculpted Isles and there met her husband Alwin, then returned with him and deposed her parents, despite the fact that her mother Charlotte had sort-of promised her in marriage to Shaw IV, Scion of S: this, along with economic rivalry. led to the falling-out between E and S, and the destruction of S about a century later. Alwin's health had been damaged by Wyvern Pox as a child and he was "a lazy gadabout pretty-boy" but W loved him, and he was a good father to their twins. After Alwin's death, twenty years after their marriage, W unofficially abandoned ruling in favour of obsessively covering Alwin Island with sculptures. One of her younger sisters became a very famous and scary witch called Arianya of the Brackens, who moved West and is now the best-known of the E family. W committed suicide by allowing a large block of stone to fall on her, and was succeeded by her son Linus, the combat botanist. Linus went on an expedition to the jungle and married a Zanduan woman named Padma who had a vicious sense of humour and was his intellectual and magical equal, and with whom he had five daughters and two sons. He was the first Earl to wear glasses, and got up a consortium of local nobles to bring thaumnodes to the area. He and Padma explored the Basement (at a time when most of the species down there were still shut into enclosed habitats) and put in lights. We see him and his team looking at a little gadget with two arms and three glowing red lights, apparently in an Ettin airbox. [We have seen this object before as an example of what an airbox is, when Rosemary and Sylvester were discussing the Can-Opener.] He built a conservatory for his plants, and to give Padma a jungle to shelter in during the winter. Linus it was who bred The Tree which made Basement society possible outside their controlled habitats. Meanwhile his sister Marcia married a noble in Svan and became a cartoonist. 08: Naming Names [30/05/2016 – 23/12/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4609–#4812] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. The chapter therefore opens with a group of above-ground Smyts celebrating their version of Memorial Day. Sylvester continues to talk about his ancestors, and how after Padma died, Linus took the Seed of the Tree deep into the Basement and never came home, so in a sense he committed suicide like his mother. [We know that Rosemary also carries a Seed of the Tree, which she brought up from the depths, but had forgotten.] He talks about Griffington, the 15th Earl, who was very intelligent but had his mother's nasty sense of humour and was only interested in making money, at which he was very successful. Griffington went on an expedition to the Infernal Engine, which was smaller in those days (so it's still growing), and to Mechana to look at their technology. He and other techs of the period managed to make their own basic robots and restore some of the much better Ettin ones – one of the latter, Akillhees, works in mathematics at the university – and he also invented battle tanks, a few of which still work. Along with someone called Drowpole he set up the Factor E factory, and he and Struahatt sold their devices commercially and made a lot of money. We see him and his assistant Krell probing the same device in the airbox that we saw Linus looking at. He had a lot of commercial enemies and rivals, including the Scion of S. He and Krell died in an industrial accident (or maybe not an accident). He had to wear smoked lenses to protect his eyes: a problem inherited by Lenore. Griffington was succeeded by his son Angus and Angus's loyal and more cunning brother Cyrus. Angus went on a tour, like his ancestor Milo, but he took an army with him and conquered S and other neighbouring states although some of them, such as Rowen, gave as good as they got. When Angus and Cyrus were young, Cyrus married Cassandra Grayflint and they had a son Artston. Griffington sent Angus to visit the Infernal Engine to broaden his mind, and as a result he fell for a very wild, rough but highly-sexed female labourer named Syn (rhymes with tie-in) who had spent her life up to that point inside the Engine. She needed thick glasses and a bath, and had to be taught to wear clothes, but she had a talent for technology and a happily iconcoclastic attitude to everything, including herself, and the religion of the Brush to which she did not belong. She somewhat resembled Myrrh, refused to marry Angus but became his consort, and died in childbirth giving birth to Audra. Audra grew up at loggerheads with her uncle Cyrus, who had distrusted her mother. In later life Angus's conquests ground to a halt and he died peacefully in bed – and Cyrus promptly tried to seize the earldom for himself and his son. Audra thrashed Cyrus in combat and convinced him to become her loyal follower. Together they conquered Rowen and then consolidated their holdings and formed the Northwoods Alliance. Audra contracted a loveless political marriage with the intellectually brilliant John Harfang, with whom she had a son, Ludwig. The Northwoods Alliance stood against the advancing army of Yorik Yurp, later Yorick I, and lost, despite the best efforts of John Harfang who, under the alias "The Frost Fox", served as a secret agent and was killed while on a mission (and later became the subject of a series of lurid spy thrillers). Audra protected Ludwig by hiding him away as a child and then sending him to the university under an assumed name, while getting Flitch, one of Cyrus's grandchildren (so Ludwig's second cousin), to pretend to be Ludwig in order to draw Yorik's fire. The Northwoods Alliance eventually lost the war, in part because high-tech Wirtwam decided that Yorik was the lesser of two evils and Hyacinth of Wirtwam married him. But the war was long and bloody and forced the pace of technological development. Audra and Cyrus were probably looking for a technological edge when they poked the Hot Zone and were killed, or failing that for a more honourable death than execution, but their deaths really finished the Alliance. Yorik crushed their last resistance by destroying the town of Glome (and incidentally probably killing the fake Ludwig), then re-built it, and any local nobles who were willing to swear allegiance were grafted into the new Yurpsland hierarchy. The real Ludwig was one of them – the Yurpsland troops didn't know who he was, and in any case had known Audra as the head of the Northwoods Alliance, not as the Earl of E. The Alliance used a different symbol, not the E: a W with an arrow on the central point, designed by Linus's sister Marcia for Linus's thaumnode-purchasing cartel. Ludwig's politically astute partner Penelope Orrery from Gilad (a Temple-administered neutral state) coached him on how to pass as a harmless minor aristo. Sylvester isn't sure whether Yorik was really fooled over Ludwig, or knew who he was but decided to spare him. Ludwig was a super-genius who enjoyed university and made many friends there; he was very popular with the girls and could have had his pick of the local beauties, but preferred the slightly plain Penelope for her brains. Ludwig didn't graduate because he went home to help his mother with the war effort; Penelope worked out his real identity somehow, and followed him (and reached E before he did). It was because Ludwig never graduated that the fund set up to pay for his tuition was never wound up, and remained available to pay future heirs' university fees. Ludwig tried to stop his mother from poking the Hot Zone but she did it anyway, and died, and he and Penelope were left holding the reins. They actually did very well, since Ludwig was able to sell his inventions – materially assisted by Yorik's conquest of the whole area, which had resulted in a unified trading and patent system. He and Penelope built the Ivory Tower, and lived there. It is mentioned that vamphyrs don't really exist but zombies do (but only when animated by a wizwitch, and only briefly as they tend to explode), that many of Ludwig's devices were one-off prototypes and that Yorik I wrote his own memoirs. These memoirs are little known because his son wasn't that interested in promoting them, and besides they weren't very well-written. But they deal extensively with Audra, whom Yorik rather admired – it was he who re-named the province where E is situated Audravania. He decided against trying to conquer Thekla, which had a similar technology and power level to his own forces, or the Polarites, who were enormously more powerful and advancsd. [Out-take for Talk Like a Pirate Day – Captain Hamster, the crew of the Pretty Lady and the newly-recruited gull are all getting drunk on grog. The Plant, very drunk indeed, has decided it loves them all.] Ludwig died of pneumonia after getting soaked while walking in the rain. His son Ernest, hedonist, (consensual) philanderer and forger, took over. His parents were disappointed because he wasn't interested in science, or all that bright, but he was very interested in plays and a reasonably good actor himself, when he could be bothered. He married Lucidia Penderghast, gold-digger, fashion victim and amateur actress, and they nearly deserved each other. He was the first Earl to marry by the new ritual involving the Pool at the Temple. At university Ernest discovered that he was good at maths, history and a proficient if uninspired kind of art. He did a certain amount of commercial graphics work and a lot of art forgery, although the latter was really just a hobby. He was a fairly successful playwright, although not great at dialogue – his best play was probably Bracken, about his five-greats-aunt Arianya – and was very good at improving other people's scripts. He and Lucidia fought a lot but seemed to enjoy it, and they had three sons, Philbert, Hindenburgh the wizard, and Valentin, who was the one to whom the Djinnoscope gave a clean death. Ernest was fatally stabbed by, or over, one of his lovers. Philbert married the artist Hepzibah Kelly and founded a chain of "Lovelace" orphanages, using Kelly's mother's maiden name. He helped preserve the Forest of Burzee as a public park instead of letting it be carved up into private estates. He supported many smaller charities and was a faithful husband. But Sylvester believes he did these things to rebuild the family's post-Ernest reputation, not because he really cared. The couple had sons, Quincy and Frederick, and presumably at least one more as Frederick refers to "my brothers". [Later we learn there was a younger brother called Jasper.] Philbert was killed in a motor-racing accident a month before the Crash (this is an error by Sylvester, because we've already establisahed that his accident was three months before the Crash, and it isn't that Philbert hung on in hospital for two months before he died, because Sylvester says he was killed instantly) and was succeeded by his son Quincy. Quincy was not very bright, but he was genuinely caring and scraped through university by hard work. His Hall of Achievement entry just says that he tied his own shoes, but this turns out to be fairly serious: he kept walking, kept trying, and held the Mansion area together after the Crash. He survived the Crash because he, his brother Frederick and Myrrh were in Aruba, which uses no magic. Afterwards they had to walk hundreds of miles home – hence the importance of the shoes. On their way they picked up another survivor, Agnes Bloggett, who married Quincy. Hepzibah, who had stayed home because of health problems, died in the Crash. Quincy eventually died after falling from one of the Mansion's towers. Quincy's son Willoughby attended university where he met his future wife, Dorothea Mundivagant. Both were very vague but possibly magically gifted. Sylvester thinks that it was wrong of Frederick not to tell Mortimer that he, Mortimer, was a wizard – but it was probably a good decision not to tell Willoughby that he was. They had six children – Sylvester, Ace, Mortimer, the twins Lilith and Lenore, and Rufus. Rufus was conceived because the local contraceptive Stiflebloom plant had failed. Because Willoughby was so lazy and detached it was really his uncle Frederick and Myrrh who ran the earldom. After Willoughby died in the notorious Noodle Incident, Frederick became official Regent until Sylvester finished at university, and Dorothea became even vaguer and more preoccupied than before, and set off in search of something unknown. Sylvester fears he won't ever see her again. Sylvester did well at university and made friends, especially Bertrum W Skinknottle (who fell for and married Honoria Clemens – these names are PG Wodehouse references) and Nimue Fayling. The students were divided into Houses: the male houses were named after dangerous animals and the female ones after pretty things, but they were otherwise equal. Nimue was in training to take over the family business, growing oranges. She and Sylvester dated, but split up because neither would give up their family responsibility. Bertie and Honoria married and went back to Bertie's home in Lagado, but he's not sure where they are now because Bertie recently got a new job (souds like preparation for him to pop up). Sylvester went home alone and took over the Earl's duties. He found a job for Ace with their uncle Dalton Mundivagant. His mother Dorothea inherited cash from her mother, and she and Lil went travelling. Mortimer and Rufus stayed around, and Mortimer started bringing home strange women, most notably Olga Q Bonmarrow, a drifter with mental health issues who was in love with Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Basement society has come along tremendously in a highly technological way during Sylvester's lifetime (so post-Crash), and the idea that the Sneeches might be behind this. Sylvester forgot to ask Myrrh what she saw in the Sneech den, and now they don't even know where she is. We see that she is in a bakery (or maybe café) with a sign saying Kato Bread on the wall, and where there are a lot of cats whom she is talking to as if they understand each other. This cat-filled place is presumably in the Spires, since we will learn that the arena where she was wrestling robots is there. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss whether the Dohickey thank-you gift was for Sylvester or for his whole family, and Rosemary points out that the first Earls were meant to have killed off the Ettins who were holding the Sneeches prisoner. Whether they did or not, the Sneeches may believe they did. They discuss the fact that Sneeches do have childen, and whether or not they have intelligible emotions. Finally, Rosemary says that eveything else can wait, and that she will follow Sylvester's plans. He says he can't make plans until he knows what it is that Rosemary stole. She agrees to show it to him, but tells him to cover his eyes and ears while she gets it out of the Poke Kit, so he doesn't learn any codes which he might later be forced to reveal. 09: Wreaking Havoc [26/12/2016 – 07/07/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4818–end] Rosemary produces from the Poke Kit an oval object which she says is called the HJ42, but she thinks it's also a mythological object called the Chaos Key. This is clearly the same item which has been being passed around among the Basement folk – not just another of the same model but this actual one, because HJ42 is the designation of a specific instance of this gadget which was collected by an anthropological expedition, and Protus called it the HJ42 when he gave it to Mortimer. Either it's looped through time to appear twice in the same area at the same time, or when Rosemary thinks it's safely tucked away in her Poke Kit, it isn't. As the Chaos Key it has been used to open various kinds of metaphorical and literal doors, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Rosemary studied its semi-legendary history in the libraries of Hack'n'Slash. It may have been implicated in the Thricklefork Demon Massacre. It caused strange events – including a giant man-eating flower – at a place called Bellona. It was passed around the clans of Erewhon, trailing odd happenings. It was used to rob a bank, then disappeared from view, only to reappear among the artefacts brought back from the Infernal Engine by the Hendrick-Joost Expedition. At this point Rosemary puts it back in the Poke Kit and she and Sylvester agree not to mention the name "Chaos Key" again if they can avoid it, but just to refer to it as the HJ42. The Hendrick-Joost Expedition came from the High University of Azimuth and visited the Infernal Engine in Yurpsland. There were protests about them taking items from Yurpsland back to Azimuth, and eventually they returned some of them, including the "HJ-42". These returned items were parcelled out between various Yurpsland museums and collectors, and #42 went to an Erewhonian noble named Cuddlup, who passed it on to an Erewhonian sect called the Chromans. The Chromans were great collectors and displayers of curios which demonstrated the wonders of the world – some of which were magically active. The most dangerous were kept in an offshore fortress which went into meltdown during the Crash. The HJ42 was put on display in various places but it made people nervous, so it was moved to a medium-level facility in a place called Gowplace at the tip of the Lawnrock Peninsula. After the Crash, Gowplace was re-named Chroma and became the Chromans' capital, and the HJ42 dropped out of sight again for several decades. About ten years ago, or forty years after the Crash, it resurfaced as part of a travelling Chroman display for which H&S provided security, and eventually it caused some alarming effect, although Rosemary's security clearance wasn't high enough to find out what. It was put back into storage, but at this point rumours about it began to be passed around. It was also at this point that Rosemary first heard about it and began to research it – and so, unfortunately, did Tansy Rugan, the leader of the Quincunx, a kind of sinister private army. Rosemary started to suspect the Quincunx were searching for the HJ42, and knew it would be a seriously Bad Thing if they found it. She couldn't get H&S to take her concerns seriously enough, so she went AWOL, rode all the way to Chroma and stole the HJ42 herself. Two hours later the Quincunx arrived and started hunting her (and killing Chromans). She did her best to evade them but eventually Tansy cornered her. One of the buttons on the device was glowing so in desperation Rosemary pressed it, thinking that it might cause an explosion which would take out Tansy and her 2inC Nathan Holn along with Rosemary herself. Instead, it teleported her to the forest near Eetown. At first she wasn't sure whether she'd been moved through time or space, but then she met Mortimer and realised from his accent that she had shifted a long way to the east. She was very dazed and disoriented and just followed Mortimer home. They talk for a while about how Rosemary ended up with Hack'n'Slash in the first place. Bored with farming muckroots and lobster-fishing, she became a crew-woman on a boat called the Oshinoxtra. From there she went to the mainland and worked on a large farm, and even served as a minion on a Saur hunt (presumably, like the domesticated Trogs, these were less sapient than the ones in the Basement). Once she'd saved up enough money she went to see the nearest city, Jonetown. Everything there was far more expensive than she'd expected but as luck would have it she was in the right place to rescue Edwird Soloman, a retired bureaucrat who was being harrassed by louts. She and Edwird hit it off and became firm friends, and he gave her a place to stay. She became his bodyguard and housekeeper, read his books and reached an uneasy accommodation with his girlfriend, Mrs Rumble. Sometime later, Rosemary and some friends were scavenging in a scrapyard when they encountered the demon Scratch, and Rosemary managed to overcome him to the point where he was willing to discuss his situation and behave reasonably. This caused unpleasantness between the neighbours and Edwird, and brought Rosemary to the attention of Hack'nSlash, who recruited her. While they are tidying up conversational loose ends, Rosemary tells Sylvester about a hermit she met in the SAR (where there are many hermits, but this one is The Hermit), and who was probably a wizard, or possibly a demon: he will only ever say that he's a person. This is true even if he is a Demon: we see a brief glimpse of the Operator gazing rather sadly at an image of what is presumably his partner. They establish that demons can communicate over long distances via leylines, hence Edgar learned Rosemary's name from Scratch, and Myrrh could arrange visits from friends (two demon visitors are shown: one of them is Jones, from the Spires, and the other is Marilith). Rosemary is reluctant to ask Myrrh to pass along messages, as her favours have to be paid for. Sylvester assures her Myrrh can keep a secret. They discuss Ilsa, who has a very able illegitimate daughter, Druscilla, who works for the big bank in the capital. Ilsa writes to her with local gossip, so news of Rosemary's presence will soon reach the capital. Ilsa is half Haroon, and the Haroons do not worship the Brush, much, or care what the Oracles think about having children out of wedlock. Sylvester is trying to modernise the village, with some cooperation from the current Oracle, Threnody, who is a great improvement over her predecessor Omega. He hopes to bring in not only a teacher but a glass-blower. It is mentioned that opposite Frederick and Myrrh's old room there is a door labelled "Gwen's stuff", but neither of them knows who Gwen is or was. Sylvester has never investigated it, but assumes Myrrh will have done so. They discuss the fact that when Sylvester met with Protus he saw visions of Rhid and Villipend, whom they then met, so evidently he was seeing the future. He also saw Rosemary fighting a woman with a glowing glove, and that may be a true vision too. Rosemary thinks from the description that it is Tansy Rugan, who has a magic shock-glove, so they will have to meet and fight some time soon. At least she'll probably have the Can-Opener, but she doesn't have it with her now. Sylvester wants them to have regular conferences, but he's not going to say where the next one will be, in case of eavesdroppers (from what we see, through the Panegate that connects to the edge of the Crystal Thicket). He had intended to hold this one on the Commons, well away from anyone not a goat. They discuss Rosemary's old teachers, and whether Myrrh and Frederick are gone for good: Rosemary probably hopes they are. We glimpse Frederick being given an Ides of March cake by a waitress wearing antennae ending in grey bobbles, confirming they are at the Spires: they are in an underwater café with a seal peering in through a porthole. We also glimpse Mortimer in the woods, with a scratch on his face and what looks like more web draped across his shoulders. Sylvester wishes for an alternative to the rowboat, since he'll have to pay someone to row it back. Olaf Larrsen, the village vet, turns up in his motorboat Mamie (Rosemary and Sylvester agree that Sylvester also wishes for a million Simoleons in a secure bank account) and is introduced to Rosemary, who he is glad to see is not a "demon, Bonmarrow or Flibbler". Flibblers, whatever they are, are everywhere. Olaf agrees to give them a lift in return for information and a discount on the organs of the Dornbeast Rosemary killed the night she arrived (less than two days ago). Sylvester half regrets returning to the stresses of being the Earl. Olaf takes the couple and the cat back to the mainland. En route they discuss the reorganisation at the Mansion, and the Crash – Olaf used to build thaumtools, before the Crash, and has been able to measure the fact that magic is very slowly returning. He made a motor for his little boat, but none of the local fishermen would let him fit one to theirs even if there was enough magic to power something that big. He thinks the local Ichyoids are up to something. He tells them about the hamster pirate captain, who has now ceased to be an out-take and become part of main canon, and that he has met Protus, who was talking about someone named Winnifred (presumably the founder of the future Winnifrite sect). The only Winnifreds they know are somebody Sylvester was at univesity with, and a now-dead old woman Rosemary knew in Moonin. Sylvester warns Olaf that Nirvana Clepe may be back in the area (Olaf looks a bit alarmed). It's mentioned that Olaf hasn't married: evidently he and Mamie didn't get that far. Sylvester asks Olaf whether he has seen Frowgler – he hasn't – but we cut away to see Frowgler talking to the village Flittermouse in her tower. She is assessing livestock, which involves little toy figures. Frowgler says he is always there to get done what needs doing, and she says it makes her speculate on who he really is "behind that mask". She tells him that her name is Vyon Ward Parkin, an orphan who was taken in by the Flittermice after she was shunned because her family had died in a "Spew" from the Infernal Engine, and peoople feared she might be contaminated. We see that the Flittermice have a universal presence, at least in Yurpsland, and use actual bats as messengers. The Flittermice are an Order, whose job is to "flit into the dark places and do the mucky jobs that need to be done" – which they agree is also Frowgler's job. Vyon herself was literally posted to her new position in Eetown, in a box: or possibly ceremonially pretended to have been posted. It's a lonely job and she appreciates Frowgler's company, but she could have left if she wanted to, and did not: there's a suggestion that Frowgler's own role is not voluntary. He gives her a "laughter marble", which she seems to have been waiting for, and says that some day everyone will know who he is (or was) behind the mask, then he leaves via an artificial tunnel which looks as if it was made for the purpose, and which takes him to water. Unlike a real frog, he appears to have gills. As Frowgler swims away, we see him pass a tank containing an octopus named Aloysius. Violet Hopkirk lures Aloysius to the surface and milks him of ink. She overhears people gossipping about Frederick's retirement. We overhear two of her employers talking about her and how she has the talent to work on a "Wrangrig", but it isn't safe for girls. Cut to Sylvester and co. in the boat, discussing Wrangling Rigs, aka octopus inkpull platforms, and the fact that it's "not safe" for girls because it's thought to be bad luck, locally, to have a woman on board. Violet, who has a reputation for not talking, overhears more gossip, quizzes a local boy and learns about Sylvester's party going into The Moose and Squirrel and not coming out. She goes to the inn to talk to Eunice Kelso about it. Eunice doesn't know where the party went, and shoos Violet away, after saying there are no Human-sized underground ways out: we see what looks like a Frowgler-sized way out. Violet returns to her mother, Helena, and they gossip about Rosemary. Violet is mulling over the idea of Myrrh and Frederick retiring. She sits to clean blobwarts with her feet on a stone marked 44: this number seems to recur. Sylvester greets a trapper in another boat, name of Rod, and his young son Ash[ley]: these are the father and brother of Violet. Ash is very interested in Rosemary: their conversation reveals that Flibblers from Moonin don't have a Moonin accent. Mention is made of the Sky Trek, a walk across the country due in five years, and of a Mobile Confectioners' Guild, whose members include salesmen called Lollipop Perambulators. Sylvester finds Ash refreshing – too many people treat him with either scorn or fear because of his position. Olaf tells Ash to tell his friend Aloysius (not the octopus!) to stay out of his garden, because it's magic. Sylvester tells him to spread the word that there is going to be a meeting at the Temple to formally introduce Rosemary. Rod and Ash in their boat sail past an islet with a distance marker on it, then we see a gull try to land on the islet, and be scared away by a green, snakey-looking thing which says "Boo" in Ichyoid runes. This is one of the same tentacled things (perhaps the same individual) which we saw in the Basement, rescuing Shabash from a reservoir. Rob and Ash come to shore and we see Ash gossipping with his friend Aloysius on the dockside – both boys look about ten years old. A gull – perhaps the same one that was chased off by the tentacled thing – is sitting near Aloysius. Ash passes on Olaf's message about the magic garden, and Sylvester's about the Temple meeting. As they walk past the Spewing Wall – a forum for graffiti – the Flitttermouse's Laughter Marble hits the ground behind them, and Aloysius picks it up, hides it and tells Ash it's just a rock. The gull flits in and out of shot near them. They pass Fantod and the Weirdo having an adult conversation with Melba Corrigan and her whimp-pig Wilbur. Ash and Aloysius tell Fantod that they are planning to go to a haunted ruin tomorrow, and he warns them it might fall down, then Fantod warns Aloysius, specifically, to be careful with"whatever it is yer doin' all of a sudden". We then see the Oracle Threnody, in a medical office listening to a man's chest with a stethoscope; Mayoress Saffron Stout sitting behind her desk; and the Flittermouse, scoring things off a list on a notice board. Written on the corner of the board (not part of the list) is a note saying "Tell truth ——— Seek fortunes". She has a sort of umbrella stand which has various sorts of pole in it, including a Sneech stick. Next to it is a truncated green cone which has sticking out of the top a T with an extra, sometimes slanting crossbar, a distortd Ŧ, which became a recurring motif. 10: Into the Woods [10/07/2017 – 03/11/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips start–#5125] To start with we see Myrrh, who seems not to need to breathe or to be wearing anything except her collar, strolling through an undersea forest in the Sea of Plinths. The Ŧ with the slanting crossbar appears sticking out of a green growth. She wonders which way to go: a flatworm points its arrow-shaped head upwards, so she surfaces. Frederick is still being served food by the waitresses in antennae, who are amazed at how much he can eat, and suggest that their chef has failed because Fredrick was able to eat the whole meal. They are a mixed bunch, ethnically, and we will later learn that the Spires recruit orphans from all over. A female Eyebolt who has "Shmelcathy" on a screen by her desk (but we will later learn this isn't her name, just something or someone she is monitoring) is working at her desk. Other women in deely-boppers/antennae (all this culture wear them, or at least all the women) are monitoring Frederick on a screen, under the command of an older woman with fluffy, puffy white hair: they too are amazed by how much Frederick can eat and remain upright. They talk about his Herediscan – he is related to previous test subjects (we see Dorothea and Lilith on screens) – and the waitresses say he must be a thaumaturge to stay conscious, yet he isn't setting off their magic-detectors. The blonde waitress, Svetlana Rostova, is told to stay with him and answer his questions. Myrrh, meanwhile, arises from a water-filled tube into a sort of domed cockpit, in which there is a plant-covered floor dotted with flowers, and a Lizhopper, one of the little mini-Trog-like creatures which we saw Rosemary chasing out of the Mansion at the start of the story. Frederick and Svetlana talk, initially in front of a drawing on the wall of the moon on a stick, and we learn that they are in the Zamyatin Spire, a very high-tech-looking place. Zamyatin Spire residents are all women, but other Spires are for men only, or mixed. The Spires have a vaguely Soviet, very controlled culture: Svetlana refers to native Spire residents as "assets". As Myrrh – with the Lizhopper riding on her head – presses a button in the flowery cockpit, Frederick and Svetlana discuss Yurpsland politics, which involve a ceremonial, hereditary king and a separate political ruler who seems to be self-appointed (although they see it as "chosen by the Brush") rather than elected. Also the fact that Frederick is a demithaumaturge, and that the Spires are on a major tricklepoint (although the one in the Sybola jungles may be bigger, which may relate to whatever mystery is in Sybola), so were not much affected by the Crash and still have working pre-Crash technology. Myrrh climbs up some sort of stair or ladder to a room where there is a naked male musician named Jones (who is clearly based on David Bowie/Jones, and is a fellow demon), whom we saw earlier with his human partner Jebidiah, and who plays the flute for her. Spire trechnology involves some enormous gears which were built by an unknown society from before the Ettins. Svetlana is impressed to learn that Frederick's family have their own library, in which he read about the Spires. When Myrrh is mentioned, Svetlana surmises that Myrrh is Frederick's wife, because he wouldn't have been allowed into Zamyatin Spire if he didn't have a spouse (meanwhile Jones continues to play his flute for Myrrh). Frederick and Svetlana discuss the arrangements for straight women like her who wish to find a mate when they live in an all-female Spire, and see an agent of sorts, holding a giant needle like a dagger and trying to arrest somebody for smuggling Fuzz jars (Svetlana says this woman isn't police, but something they don't discuss). Singing Fuzzes are a big fad in the Spires and are bred for size, intelligence and voice, which suggests that this could be the past of Frizzlegarb's future world of Hollows and Fuzz communities (especially as we see one in a tank which seems to have embryonic tuft-antennae of the kind later seen on Purple Zoners). Special barriers prevent Fuzzes from being moved from one Spire to another, except in jars (which might explain why the future Fuzzes find it difficult to move from one Hollow to another, and might also have something to do with the barrier which surrounds the Spire in Audravania). Frederick and Svetlana end up on a balcony which Svetlana calls a Bubble-viewing Recreation Platform, overlooking a hall where large coloured bubbles with blurry images inside well up, but Frederick says it's a Spindizzy interface chamber, but with no visible Spindizzies and no apparent way of summoning them. We learn that The Spire community has a low birthrate and takes in orphans from elsewhere, but Svetlana was born there, in Platohov Spire, and trained in Burdekin Spire, and her paternal grandmother told her about legless, truthful flying beings who could have been either Spindizzies or Helipaths. She is not sure whether The Spire city belonged to the Ettins or the Sneeches, originally – only that the Sneeches say it was contested between the two species. Frederick describes ancient weaponry – the Ettins used city-smashing Doombombs and the Sneeches used Tangles, giant vines which could infitrate and wreck Ettin machinery. Frederick has worked out that something was meant to happen to him in the restaurant where Svetlana works, but she assures him he wasn't intended to die. Solzhenitsyn Spire is about death and he mustn't go there, but Zamyatin is all about collecting and hoarding information. Frederick wants to go ask the nearest archivist about Spindizzies. Svetlana is unnerved by this, as asking questions is discouraged. They discuss the fact that Frederick is still collecting information which may be useful to his family, even though he is retired, and that Myrrh may or may not decide she has retired as others would understand it, and we see the woman with fluffy white hair monitoring their conversation. Fredrick says he is filling in time until Myrrh gets back from "whatever you all have her doing", and at this point we see Myrrh pressing her claws into a set of holes on a control that opens a round purple door on the wall of Jones's chamber. Cutting back to Eetown, we see Olaf's boat pulling in to his private dock, and Captain Hamster's crew sleeping off a binge-drinking session, and Mortimer, with umbrella but sans strands of Spyder web, waking in the deep dark woods (to which he was evidently transported from the pub, in the same way that his brother and Rosemary were transported to the island) with the sense that some sort of revelation has slipped away from him, and then encountering Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party in the woods. This, we will later learn, is a flashback which must have happened around when Rosemary and Sylvester were waking on Alwin Island, and hour or so before we glimpsed him with web on his shoulder. From here until It All Comes Together, Mortimer's and Sylvester's storylines are out of phase by an hour or two. Once on shore, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Olaf knew Mortimer was a wizard, but didn't tell him. Olaf is fairly benign but generally acts out of self-interest. We see that Olaf has a fenced-off telegraph pole topped with magical gadgets, so dodgy-looking that Sylvester says that in this case Omega (who hated Olaf and vice-versa) might have had a point about the dangers of technology. Mortimer is very relieved to see that Nitfol survived the Spyder, but ashamed that he had accidentally led the beaver-shark to destroy Nitfol's home tree. Fizmo realises that Mortimer owes Nitfol a favour and can take them beyond the "Edge of the World", but Mortimer doesn't know what she means. At this point we get some portraits of various characters – Ilsa's and Saffron's parents; characters from the Willy the Wendigo books (Willy himself, in a bow tie; a pink and blue spider; a rock with eyes; something like a green female Nome (but may be meant to be a Gobble'em); and a male Wift/Wilf); some past E Weirdos; and the E family's tutor. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, discussing Olaf's thaum measurements. Sylvester thinks he has a second agenda – perhaps an attempt to bring back magic, which even the High University of Azimuth has been unable to do. Sylvester thinks this is a good idea, because he wants Humanity to explore the other planets in the system, and doesn't see much future in steam power. Mortimer, Nitfol and Fizmo establish their frames of reference. The Nomes' world can be walked across in a day or two (but they're smaller than Humans, and on rough ground, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles), and is bounded by a wall of mist you can't push through, and centred on the Spike – Fizmo's father Foblub was an explorer, but even he didn't manage to walk all the way around the edge. Mortimer remembers a Spindizzy called Charles telling him about a solid haze. Myrrh stands in a place where there are striped, rugby-ball-shaped lights, and gazes up at an enormous bust of a bearded, humanoid male demon wearing a medal. This last image is a Hallowe'en special, but also part of the canonical sequence: it's actually an image of the Operator. Sylvester shows Rosemary a road which leads south to a place called E Isles where there are offshore islands and a ferry across the River E, but no city because the nearby shore is too rocky for a port, and then on to Obtown. He points out Olaf Larrsen's house and then they head back towards the woods – as they do so they pass Aloysius hiding behind a bush near Larssen's place, with the gull next to him. 11: New Openings [06/11/2017 – 02/02/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5132–#5215] Rosemary tells Sylvester there was a kid hiding behind the bush they just passed, and Sylvester identifies him as Aloysius Culpepper, an orphan who lives with his uncle and aunt. We see Aloysius and the gull sneak into Olaf Larrsen's place and poke about in the fields, before using an upturned bucket to climb through a shed window, after testing that a magic-emitting plant on a shelf inside is safe by throwing a stick at it, then wedging the window with another stick in some unclear way. The shed contains various odd machines and hanging mobiles. He doesn't touch a gadget that's labelled "LINE #1 TERMINUS ——— DON'T TOUCH", but instead winds up a clockwork figure of a running man (later referred to as the Flailer, so probably its feet are meant to pound grain), and the noise attracts Olaf, who is carrying a fishing net with a hole in the bottom. He tells Aloysius to follow him or go home, so Aloysius (who is barefoot) and the gull follow him. They go to the main house where they are greeted by Olaf's housekeeper (who asks if he's caught anything, then sees he's caught Aloysius) – we see Sylvester telling Rosemary that this is Ilsa Lundquist, who used to work at the Mansion. Ilsa asks Aloysius what the gull's name is, but Aloysius says gulls only have names when they are flying. She takes the hats from Olaf and Aloysius without touching them, on the end of a baton, and comments that she doesn't suppose gulls ever wear hats. We see a scene of three gulls by the seashore, including one wearing a hat, who is part of Cap'n Hamster's crew, and still looks hungover. We return to Mortimer, talking to the Nomes. Nitfol doesn't know what Spindizzies are but he does know about the Mansion, because his father was a scholar who owned two and a half books. We see Nitfol's father with two books, one labelled "Socks", the other "Cookiedice", which is the name of one of the Hollows where we see Fuzzes living in the future. Mortimer mentions the library at the Mansion – Fizmo doesn't believe such a thing is possible, but Nitfol has heard stories of large book collections in the past, or at least scroll collections. We see a shadowy image of a female Nome filing scrolls on big racks. Mortimer describes the library as being in the Ivory Tower, which leads to a long digression about behemoth teeth (if behemoths are really elephants, Mortimer has a very confused idea of what they look like), and he mentions that there is an apartment at the top, with a pool, but nobody lives in it now, "most of the time". He mentions that the tower was built by Ludwig, which leads to a very muddled conversation, because the Nomes know Ludwig as a cult figure worshipped by some people in the Basement. Mortimer manages to explain about the Spindizzies and how literal they are, and how he once told Charles he felt trapped and Charles told him about the mist barrier. Mortimer thinks the Spindizzies might know how to bring the barrier down: Fizmo thinks this is fantasy, but Nitfol wants to meet them. Nitfol and Fizmo go off to confer, while Thrash seeks to attract Mortimer's attention to something, and Mortimer wonders aloud whether this is the same Pale (Thrash) he met yesterday with Frowgler – it is – and he can tell that Thrash senses something wrong. We return to Zamyatin Spire, where Svetlana is disturbed by Frederick's whistling, because music is discouraged except in the gym and at culture festivals. She takes him to a stern-looking Senior Archivix, who wasn't expecting them – Frederick tells this woman his name, but says she doesn't need to know Svetlana's. In Eetown, Aloysius gives a wall-eyed look to a stuffed gull. Ilsa brings cocoa (which he has never had before) for Aloysius, herb tea for Olaf and tripewater for the gull. Olaf says he's not a nice person (echoing Rhid) but he's an old man and he has had to keep his books locked away because Omega didn't want people to see them, but now she's gone and her influence is waning, he has been hoping for someone like Aloysius to come along. He told Ash to tell Aloysius to stay away from the magic because he knew it would lure him in. Aloysius correctly surmises that Olaf wants him as an apprentice. Olaf says his only love Mamie, after whom his boat is named, died fifty years ago (in the Crash), so if Aloysius comes every day he can, and learns magic and veterinary medicine, when Olaf dies he will leave his house and all his money to Aloysius, aside from a bit for Ilsa. Olaf tells Aloysius that no wizwitch could channel all the forms of magic, but some were generalists who could do a little of a lot, and some, known as Hedgewizwitches, could do only one thing but did it very well. Mamie was one, because all she could do was heal, but very well, even though she didn't have a very nurturing personality. Aloysius is another – an "Animal Empathist", hence his link with the gull. Mortimer is still talking to Thrash, and shows him his umbrella. He tells the Pale that he is a wizard and asks if that's the problem, and Thrash shakes his head. Meanwhile Nitfol tells Fizmo he isn't going to go off with Mortimer immediately, but he will at some point, because Zpeaker and the Nexus also thought the barrier could be brought down, and if Nitfol's political plan fails they will at least have a means of leaving. Thrash draws Mortimer's attention to the fact that Spyders are creeping up on them. Frederick speaks to the Senior Archivix, whose name is Anushka Zhdanov. She tells him he is allowed to access archives up to Level Three, but won't say how many levels there are above that. He asks for information on Spindizzies. She asks if he is a Yurpslander, and when he says he is, she calls for someone named Snegurka and sends her to fetch a file (calling her a lackwit). Olaf tells Aloysius that neither of them is a full wizard, but that in theory if you make the right thaum machine you can mimic any power. However, there isn't enough energy around post-Crash, so animal empathy is impossible to mimic and no one will be "horning in" on Aloysius's skill. There are no other empaths in the area, but there are a few other wizwitches of other kinds – some who know what they are (we see Myrrh, Amos Grubb and Mortimer) and some who don't (we see a teenage boy in a soft baggy hat, who is probably Ricky of the famous Ricky and Wendell, and a short teenage girl with a lot of long, bushy hair) and who he doesn't think could handle being told. 12: The New Level [05/02/2018 – 01/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5222–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips start–#5299] At the start of the chapter we see Melba Corrigan's blobwart-vending cart and her pet pig Wilbur sitting in front of a large bush. Her hat is lying on the bush, and two butterflies (not flutterbys) fly up from behind it. They represent sex and/or kisses, and she is behind the bush with Arthur the Weirdo. Faint words on the hedge appear to spell out "Nutella weather person" – I've no idea why. Rosemary and Sylvester arrive back at Eetown's South Road Gate. Sylvester would rather go home, but Rosemary reminds him that he needs to collect the post, and says that it probably wasn't a villager in a boat that took them to Alwin. They both think it was probably Mortimer, by magic, which means he has immense innate power and the potential to be "quite something". Meanwhile, Mortimer's party start to back away from a Spyder, which begins to spew thick ropes of web at them, while another one boxes them in from behind. But Thrash slashes their web-ropes with his sickle and beats down the one in front of Mortimer. It's not clear whether he has killed it or not, but he probably has, as later they will pass a dead one in that direction. Meanwhile, Senior Archivix Anushka offers Frederick a chair and a cup of tea while he waits for his file. Svetlana is impressed and concerned, as teachairs are only offered to important guests, and she isn't authorised to associate with important guests, but doesn't wish to leave. The Archivix gives Frederick permission for Svetlana to stay and have tea too, but Svetlana says it's not Anushka's decision to make. Olaf thinks Aloysius can handle being told he has magic, but also that an empathist can't do much harm (but they can do some: we see a silhouette of a bear being sicced on somebody). He warns him not to tell anyone else about his magic, because there are people – the picture implies it's official, government people – looking to capture functioning wizwitches. It's possible that Aloysius may have other, minor talents as well as his main one – Mamie did (including, it's implied, skin-stimulation during sex) – and there are tests for this, but Olaf can't administer them. Amos and Frederick both could, but Frederick won't. Rosemary suggests that if Mortimer is going to be "something" so will Sylvester, since Mortimer obeys him. As they talk, a Vagabond flutterby – a creature with which Mortimer has a strong affinity – comes to them with a scrap of cloth tied around it, bearing a message apparently written in blood. Back to Mortimer's party. We will later learn that the timeline is disjointed, because these scenes with Mortimer must have happened while Rosemary and Sylvester were on Alwin Island. The Pales are fighting off the Spyders, and kill at least one behind Mortimer, but the Spyders keep coming and keep flinging web at them. Prompted by Nitfol, Mortimer has a moment of crisis where he decides he will no longer be either a follower or a causer of problems, and he shoots magical force from his umbrella-wand, declaring that there will be no more killing or dying (and gives himself an electric shock). The surviving Spyders run off, and we see two Spyders discussing the fact that they had thought all Human wizwitches had been killed in the Crash, and that this raises the possibility that there may still be Humans who are able to "talk" (perhaps this means Aloysius's animal empathy) and they must call a conclave to discuss this. Svetlana confirms to Frederick that it is her boss (or at least, the person who told her to watch Frederick) who decides whether she may stay and drink tea or not. She has a number as well as a name – 23-42-5258.8. Frederick addresses the security bugs in the walls and asks for Svetlana to be made his guide, stating her name and number, and since nobody answers with an objection, Svetlana is officially promoted to that role. She isn't sure what she thinks about this, as she had enjoyed being a waitress, but eventually she makes a firm decision to sit down and embrace her promotion, and she does quite like her cup of tea. Olaf tells Aloysius that Amos gave up being an active wizard before the Crash (although we see old!Amos lighting a candle with magic) – we know this was to do with Myrrh, but Olaf will only tell Aloysius about it if Aloysius agrees to be trained. Amos has already asked Olaf to come to the Mansion to discuss something, so he will take Aloysius with him, but Aloysius shouldn't mention his possible apprenticeship etc. to Amos's wife Nellie. They have a complex misunderstanding about what "having views" means, which leads to mention of an apparently blind woman called Gretta Weed, who in the metaphorical sense sees further than Nellie. Gretta is brighter than Nellie, and Saffron brighter than Gretta, but Olaf is more concerned with their open-mindedness to new possibilities. They discuss the fact that once he is trained, Aloysius will have the choice to stay in Eetown or to move elsewhere: we see an image of him as an adult healing horses for Nimue in Abalone. Once they have found a private spot, Sylvester reads his message, which says "Open Training Gate. Urgent." This refers to one of the Panegates at the Mansion. Sylvester still has to complete business in town but will rush through it. We see him ask the sausage vendor, Claudia, what people are talking about – which is really all the news from the Mansion. She has been selling(?) a lot of sausages because people are anxious/excited about the changes, and warns them that Saffron is "in a mood". Fizmo and Nitfol are surprised and impressed that Mortimer is a wizard, and reveal in conversation that Fizmo works for Frowgler, and Nitfol sort-of does too. We see Frowgler underground, talking to a Shallow Wyrm named Parkin who is guarding the Circle at the World's End. Fizmo says Frowgler can see the future (which Mortimer cannot), and warned her about a job she took. We see her underground in her hazmat suit, looking at a little creature similar to a Shallow Wyrm but probably not one (no head crest), which is growling at her. Mortimer says Frowgler gave him good advice, but he works for his brother Sylvester, not for Frowgler. He tells them Sylvester is a sort of mayor, avoiding the charged word "Earl" by chance or design. Svetlana reveals that she prefers kvass to tea, although this is against her culture. The Spire folk drink actual tea, but tea in Yurpsland is usually brewed from other plants. Frederick himself drinks – cautiously – things brewed by Myrrh. They get onto discussing Yurplejuice – neither Svetlana nor Anoshka has tasted it, because it's restricted, and even in Yurpsland it's regulated. Olaf tells Aloysius about the other half of his business – the first half is treating sick animals, the second half is making and selling thaum-powered gadgets. He has always refused to make magical weapons – Zap-Tridents – partly out of morality and partly in case someone buys one and then kills him to prevent him making any for anyone else. In any case they only work at Tricklepoints, such as the one under the Mansion. To make his own gadgets work away from a Tricklepoint he has built big, cumbersome energy collectors. Aloysius shows Olaf the Laughter Marble, and Olaf says it does party tricks, which he will show him in the workshop. 13: Thicket [02/05/2018 – 16/11/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5313–#5502] Sylvester says Claudia will be shifting a lot more sausages, because more changes are coming, because he is planning to be more pro-active. He and Rosemary discuss Mayor Saffron's temper: "in a mood" isn't so bad, it's when she's "in a snit" you need to worry, but it was her father who could really make her angry. Mortimer says he arrived here (in the woods) by accident, but now he's here he will help the Nomes. He asks why they are there and Fizmo says they are going to "that Crystal Thicket". We will learn later that they are looking for a flower that grows only there, which can be used to induce Raviners to spew ichor, which they need for whatever takeover scheme Nitfol cooked up with the Nexus. Nitfol is initially angry with her for telling, but Fizmo says that if Mortimer (with his evident magical power) is working for Mayor Koyeeb they're all dead anyway. Nitfol discusses good and bad leaders with Mortimer (we see an outline of what might be an assassination being prepared), and Mortimer correctly concludes that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb. He is still willing to help, on the understanding that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb for an ethical reason (i.e. because he is very bad at his job) and that he isn't planning to kill him. He knows where the Crystal Thicket is. Frederick tells Svetlana and Anoshka about Yurplejuice, which he hasn't had since the funeral of Mariah, the Mansion's groom, when they still had horses. He doesn't seem to know he just missed sharing some at breakfast that morning, when he and Myrrh announced their retirement and didn't sit down to share what the family were eating and drinking. It's made in Wirtvale, and the stuff which Yurpsland exports is second-rate, but the best brands are wonderful. This leads to a conversation about funerals: the Spire folk file their dead on shelves in a catacomb, but they do have a ceremony (and their elderly do get to retire in comfort, so they're not a totally brutal society). They talk about the fact that Spire folk are trained for their jobs, but Frederick had to muddle through as both wizard and Regent, and didn't do a terrific job, in his own opinion. We see Myrrh emerging from a hole in a rocky floor, into a cavern where there are many pink stalactites and stalagmites (probably artificial: they look too smooth to be natural). She is preceded by a butterfly – perhaps signifying that she and Jones have had sex. In the cavern is a giant Metalmin who knows what she is – it addresses her as "zarkette" – and challenges her to a game of Warboard, the local version of chess. We see the woman with puffy white hair watching Myrrh and the Metalmin on a screen: this is the same woman who was earlier seen overseeing the team who were discussing the fact that Frederick wasn't being knocked out by what they had fed him. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, still discussing Saffron Stout, and Saffron's father, who died when Sylvester was five, and her mother, who kept small yappy dogs. Neither was at all communicative about their past. Mention is made of Wendell's fish-fermenting scheme, which evidently stank the village out and made everybody angry. Mortimer tells the Nomes that even though the forest completely surrounds the Thicket, there is a magical way of getting where they're going and skipping the forest part. He tries to compare Panegates with the treewarping the Nomes do, which requires planning and equipment. Nitfol knows about twistpoints, but Mortimer says Panegates are safer, and there's one that leads to the edge of the Thicket. He has to explain that it's Panegate, not Paingate. Yes, Nitfol and Fizmo can both read, and they know what window-panes are, although Fizmo says only nobs like the mayor and Piu can afford them. Mention is made of Fizmo's married sister Fweep. Meanwhile, Frederick says that Spire folk who do badly at their jobs get sacked. Yurpsland is a young, recently unified (134 years ago) country which hasn't worked out how to do things yet, whereas the Spire regime is 400+ years old, when the city was built (although not entirely completed) by Dmitri I. He speaks about a Yurpslander named Owen Gregiry, who wrote a study on the Spires, and they discuss various Spire monarchs: Feodore II, who began the Great Expansion; Feodore III who "obtained" the Outer Shoals; and the famous Ivana III, who fought off the Wendigoes. Frederick is more interested in Vasily II, who wanted to introduce changes. We flash to Violet Hopkirk, telling her mother she's going out but will be back in time for supper. Young Ash, her brother, offers to help make supper while she's out. We see the Flittermouse in her tower, watching Violet through a telescope as she sets out: she has a Juneteenth flag on one of her mailbags. Then we see Eunice calling Ricky and Wendell, the odd-jobbers, to come out from a hole surrounded by a wooden structure, because Saffron needs them: they are doing something which involves bags of coloured liquid. Then we see former Guardian Terin Flem, sitting on a rock talking to his grandchildren Stephan and Sparrow. He is going to wait at the rock until he sees the Mansion party come by on their way out of the village. We see Rosemary and Sylvester discussing the mayor of her home town, how as an orphan she was a problem for him, and how her Aunt Eva came home, and Zeke persuaded her to take her orphan niece in. Eva was also seen as a problem because she had run off to the wicked big city (Nye), picked up foreign ways and then returned rich. There are things Rosemary wonders about Eva's return, but she's not going to talk about it in town where there are potential eavesdroppers. Mortimer and the Nomes agree that it would be as tedious to trek to the Mansion to find the Panegate as it would be to go to the Thicket on foot, and as far as Mortimer knows they won't be able to locate the Panegate at the Thicket end, or open it from that side if they could find it. He assumes they are going to the Thicket to find a particular flower. He tells them not to tell him their plans, so he can't inadvertently give the game away. We cut to Sylvester's brother Ace, with spear and rucksack, walking through an unknown town (later we will learn that it's called Jagger Junction) in the west of Yurpsland and meeting up with a blonde Nome woman wearing a long skirt and a hat with a flower in it. He shows her a similar flower – which he was reluctant to wear in his hat. As he is Ace, she takes the nom de guerre Diamond (Ace suggests Joker, and says if she doesn't want to be called one she shouldn't dress like one). As they walk through the town, in the background we see a very odd face, or maybe a mask, with slanted oval eyes, watching them from some sort of battlement, and they pass a poster with a kind of alien face on it: or perhaps a safety mask. Other, more Human faces peer round corners at them wherever they walk. Ace comments on the fact that they are being followed, and asks if they are friends of Diamond's, or at least allies. Cut to the Mansion's butler Schmedley, standing in front of a large, open book and holding a cake with candles, to celebrate fifteen years since the strip began. There are twelve candles on the cake, and three flutterbys flying around it. A Fuzz watches from a trunk of the Tree. Frederick and Anushka discuss rules of succession. In the Spires the rulers are matched by a Matriarch or Patriarch of opposite sex to the ruler, and who bears the mystic Gear until it's time to hand it on to the new ruler. Vasily II the would-be change-maker died young (as did Yorik II, who drowned while swimming in Lake Laputa), and Frederick suggests that his death was suspiciously convenient. The village fishermen are deeply interested in Rosemary's hat. Coming from where she does, she is able to discuss fishing with them. One called Tom even invites them for a drink, but she and Sylvester have too much to do, and Sylvester says later in private that having the Earl in the inn would be a buzz-kill – nearly as bad as an Oracle in the pub. Fizmo is curious about the smell of sphagnum dust which still hangs around Mortimer. She and Nitfol discuss the birth of Fizmo's niece Faift, in a way which implies that Nomes can choose the gender of their foetus – although Nitfol denies it when Mortimer asks. Fizmo is horrified to realise she is now an auntie, and remembers she needs to ask the village healer Piu for Stiflebloom. Nitfol is an only child. We see an image of him as a boy, holding a thin staff which is the Ŧ with the slanted crossbar. Diamond says that Ace is an object of great local interest, which is why people are spying on them: some of the spies are "allies of temporary convenience" and others are enemies. We see a graffito which says "IN THE NAME OF THE" and then a circle with three small circles or holes in it. Ace identifies Diamond as being a Nome with dyed-blonde hair. She asks whether there was another option, and he says there are always options (we are shown that he is thinking of Myrrh, so of people who are in disguise and might not be what they superficially appear) but sometimes all the options are bad, and he learned that from "you people". "You people" could be the organisation for which Diamond works, or just people "here" (later described as "Out West"), where Ace has been for a while. Ace comes from "Back East": the boundary between the two is Nye, the gamblig den. Diamond regards people from the East as posh, privileged and soft. Diamond came to Jagger Junction from somewhere "much, much worse" than here, which makes Ace say he questions her Nomishness. When Ace says he doubts her Nomishness he probably means that the only places he knows of that are much worse than this are Zark and Fratz, but it is later heavily hinted that Diamond was a slave-labourer who escaped from the Infernal Engine. They are watched by a young male Nome, standing in a doorway: we will later learn that he is called Uffer. Ace and Diamond come to a plain, unmarked door in a wall, which Ace says people must only come to if they are already welcome there. It opens before them. Frederick tells Anushka that he ended up taking over running his "Spire" and training his successor (Sylvester) because the official leader (Willoughby) was no good at it. We see him training Sylvester to deal with a machine that has the Ŧ sticking off it. Willoughby died in the Noodle Incident, which the Spire folk haven't heard about. Frederick says he would have thought everyone to the ends of the known world would have heard of it, and this leads to a discussion of an island called Solla Sollew, which Svetlana says is the island at the farthest edge of the Revealed World, and which Frederick says an explorer described as "alive and burning". Anushka says that Solla Sollew isn't the farthest place from the Spires, just hard to reach because of magic-storms from the Glow Confection mountain range: the farthest point is the Biloka Penninsula on the far side of the Deep Southeastern Jungles. Frederick does not know why the town of Noodle is called Noodle, but the Noodle Incident is the most interesting thing that ever happened there, and they even have a museum about it. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the local fishermen. Tom Bawcock, the senior fisherman, is unmarried but has a thing going with Gretta Weed. Rosemary thinks one of the fishermen, Ernie Corrigan, is cute, and the feeling appears to be mutual. It's OK for Mansionites other than the Earl to hang out in the local pub, and many have done so, but not Nirvana for unspecified reasons. Sylvester goes to collect post from Mr Gray. Mortimer's party, discussing Stiflebloom, pass what looks like a dead Spyder. Fizmo left their village because Nome girls were being encouraged to get pregnant instead of taking Stiflebloom. She talks bout how she and Kulkad were hired to go down into the Hot Zone in suits. She couldn't see much through the helmet, and can't really describe what they were monitoring. Mortimer says Sylvester will want to know, and Nitfol should want to know too if he's going to be a leader, so Fizmo says the thing they were watching was a sort of stone growth. Ace and Diamond pass two guards, and climb stairs to visit a Mr Shadwell, Diamond's boss. Ace fusses about the lack of a handrail, and Diamond says he reminds her of Algernon Jones, the hero of Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. At the top of the stairs, they find Mr Shadwell seated dead at his desk, with some kind of wound on his chest. Frederick wasn't present at the Noodle Incident and didn't hear about it till days later, because they didn't have a Sparkwire – a telegraph system. Sparkwire operators seem to be all women, who wear antennae like the ones the Spire people wear, although in the Spires they signify citizenship. The Spire ones seem to be implants – at least, they're not just attached to a band like the ones worn by Sparkwire operatives. In Noodle there is a museum about the Incident, but it isn't very accurate. In the Spires, Solovyov Spire is all museums, and they're accurate (we see a display case with the Ŧ on top), but some can only be visited by people with a high security clearance. Svetlana has been to the ones she's allowed to see: Frederick says "And the exhibits gave you no reason to doubt their accuracy?" and Svetlana replies "Negative", which is ambiguous. While Sylvester is talking to Mr Gray, some village children ask Rosemary how she, Sylvester and Mortimer got out of the inn without anybody seeing them go. She says they used a one-time magic door. [Cut to Cap'n Hamster, talking to the sapient sea plant on Piratestash Island about how they are both rare life-forms, and how he bounces from ship to gaol (his cage in Nevus's collection) and back, and how he was swept to this location by a freak wave, and the fact that his parents (who had a ship named Grenache) told him that somewhere across the waves there would by a pirate girl for him, and he will search till he finds her.] Fizmo tells Mortimer that when she was down in the Hot Zone, she had a button to push (and then run away) if the thing she was watching started to move. Technology doesn't work well down there, which was why they needed live watchers, but the button was shielded. Fizmo says she saw a rock grow legs and walk. Nitfol asks if it talked – she says no. Nitfol is not surprised by her story, because he has heard stories from when Nomes called Hotdiggers used to mine down close to the Hot Zone. Diamond says she will pay Ace (who seems to be some kind of bodyguard, like Rosemary) to help her get away from the town, as she was Shadwell's "little mascot" and probably won't survive him for long if she stays. Ace agrees on condition that she doesn't lie to him, and that she tells him where the thing he came to collect is. She opens a wall safe and gives Ace a sort of snow globe thing with a figure in it – a long-robed figure juggling the numbers 007. Frederick has never been to the Noodle museum, or the ones in the Spires, but has heard testimony he believes (from Sylvester, about Noodle, and Svetlana about the Spires). He leaves it open whether he trusts the Spire museums or not. Svetlana starts to say "Is not what I am denying! Am saying you should not be—" and then glances nervously at the walls and says it's nothing. Frederick says Willoughby set off some kind of chain reaction which badly damaged much of Noodle, but no-one except Willoughby died. The incident happened in part because of poor maintenance in Noodle, but that part of the story was hushed up. Mr Gray is concerned that there may be things which, unofficially, Sylvester should tell him about. They have a verbal skirmish in which Sylvester avoids telling him anything. He collects his post, rejoins Rosemary and says it may have been a tactical error for Mortimer to let people see that his umbrellla could be used as a weapon – Mr Gray is of course a government agent, and after Mortimer placed his umbrella in a weapons-holder he looked it up in the Compendium of Official Threats, so now he suspects that Mortimer is a wizard. Nitfol says that one of his ancestors, Nikmo, found a talking rock in the deeps, although most of the records of what it said were lost. Nikmo brought the rock home to the surface, but it stopped talking and he was ridiculed for saying it had. Family history says Nikmo later snuck the rock back into the deeps and it came back to life. He told his daughter Margi about it. Margi became a famous adventuress and had a son, Jindak (mobile hanging over cradle, with Ŧ). Margi told Jindak that she thought Nikmo went back later to visit the rock, but she herself could never find it. Mortimer asks about the surviving records of what the rock said, and Nitfol says that the rock said it had been broken off from a larger boulder during a natural upheaval. We see Violet sneaking past behind Terin Flem, who is still keeping a lookout: later comments suggest he really isn't of her creeping through the trees behind him. She walks to the Mansion's gardens, where she startles Nellie Grubb, in her role as gardener. Ace tells Diamond to place another globe, called a Zoinkglobe, into the safe. He had arranged to give Mr Shadwell this one in return for the one with the juggler, and now Shadwell's heirs can have it. He tells Diamond not to steal stuff from the safe unless they need it to survive, so she takes a small plaque with Shadwell's sigil on it, used to show that the bearer is in his favour. Ace comments that Louis and Buddy, the security guards, had let him up there with a spear and an unsearched pack, so they are either incompetent or part of whatever is going on. Silhouette of railing decorated with Ŧ. We return to the Spires, where Frederick is talking about the official enquiry into the Noodle Incident. The Spires have official enquiries too – Svetlana says "Except when conditioned by circumstances", Frederick replies "Like when a gal happens to be carrying a big needle?" and Anushka says they don't talk about that here. Frederick says that what he has said came from his own experience, not from Svetlana. He says that Willoughby was scapegoated (although he really was somewhat to blame) – then a woman named Snegurka arrives with a file which was requested earlier (presumably the one on Spindizzies). Part Seven: Seats of Power [19/11/2018 – 01/12/2021] 01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion. Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle. Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking. Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him. Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both). Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree. Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly. Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out. Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer". Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled. 02: Entangled [05/02/2018 – 03/05/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5584–#5661] Mortimer and the two Nomes wonder nervously what will happen if the Pales don't return from squid-chasing. The scene switches to the Pale camp, where Zpeaker is telling Vezza how the Pales grow their tools. The tools do not grow from plants but are in some way related to the Pales themselves and this is critical information, so he will need to ask the Nexus for permission to show her. Vezza, being young, can hear the Pales' supersonic voices: Zpeaker says all their communication is sonic "except Zcopers". [Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.] Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee. Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor. Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting. The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket. We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts. Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back. Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are. Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood. Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect. Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head. 03: No Turning Back [06/05/2019 – 01/08/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5675–#5752] Mortimer's party progress, keeping together. Mortimer, being taller, can see a large, distant rock which he thinks is near the Panegate. Nitfol says one direction is as good as another, and Mortimer says the direction of the Thicket (the jumble of crystals) is bad. Another Ŧ on a rock in the distance. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as. Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been". We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother. Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before. Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed. For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt. Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling. Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ. Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle. Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock. Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could. Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters. He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them. 04: Fallout [02/08/2019 – 30/10/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5759–#5848] Not-Shmelcathy tells Myrrh she doesn't see the point of clothes unless it's exceptionally cold: then admits that's the default state in the Spires for a third of the year. Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of". Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was. We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin. Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible. Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon. According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl". Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic. Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice. Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach. Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her. Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them. Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington. Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers. Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business. Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!" Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that. 05: Going Home [04/11/2019 – 27/12/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5855–#5899] The Eyebolt formerly known as not-Schmelcathy says that her name is Simplicity (despite the name on the screen by her desk). She is bubbling with answers to questions Myrrh doesn't want to ask (demons are sensitive about favours and counter-favours). She says "we" (presumably the Eyebolts) can sense auras and that it's important that Myrrh know what she is confronting. Myrrh assumes she is talking about the Operator. There is a side conversation about Jones, who we see apparently getting clothes from Alena and Idita. Simplicity says that the Operator is much more powerful than either Myrrh or Jones, and he has visited the Spires, but he's still only part of the problem. We see an image of the Operator having a power-bar about two and a half times Myrrh's, but it's like a small stream compared to a raging river when measured against the Power Simplicity is thinking of. Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one. Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt. The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers. Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one. Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question. Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped. 06: Diplomacy [30/12/2019 – 13/02/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5909–#5958] Comshaw reveals that when they found the door to the Mansion open, the Council had deliberately aimed a Dornbeast through the door to test what would happen. Sylvester confirms that they are Human and that he is The Earl. Rosemary is his trusty assistant, and Skradt is Comshaw's. Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.] Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing. Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home. Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock. Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome. Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin". An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree. 07: Exit Strategies [24/02/2020 – 26/06/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5986–#6084] Ivana takes Frederick and Svetlana to a Diplomatic Quarantine Facility, for guests who are important but disruptive. There are covered plates of cakes: one of the covers has a Ŧ on it. Frederick will not be allowed to interact with anyone else, except Svetlana whose duties are not yet complete. Frederick assumes this will be so until he goes back to the docks, but Ivana says he's never been at the docks. Svetlana asks if he walked from Yurpsland, but Ivana says he and Myrrh didn't appear via any known entrance, which is part of why he's interesting. Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can. Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees. Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach. Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond". Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way. Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished. Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open. Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave. Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip. Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen. Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl. Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her. Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear. We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar. Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation. Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well. An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist. Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises. They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years). They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough). After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole. At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires. 08: High Level Meetings [29/06/2020 – 09/10/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6098–#6188] Diamond is very concerned that she hadn't known Blas was in town: it suggests her situational awareness is slipping, and that's dangerous. If she had known, she might or might not have told Shadwell, who sometimes had people killed, but only when absolutely necessary: Ace says his employers are the same, except more genteel about it. Wooden Ŧ among planks behind them, and metal one acting as a sort of tap. Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap. Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket. Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat. A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them. Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived. At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket. Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch). Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs. In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home. Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background. An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting. Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall. They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ). More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX. Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded. 09: It All Comes Together [13/10/2020 – 19/02/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6202–#6318] Svetlana agrees that she will go with Frederick to Audravania. At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres. We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together. A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar. Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown. Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes. Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade. Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos. Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower. Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire. Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something". Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings. Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs. In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits. Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement. The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went. 10: Unexplored Territory [22/02/2021 – 28/05/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6325–#6416] This chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Unexplored Territory, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto. We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm. The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect". Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it. Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing). Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles. Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned. Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself. It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought. Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat. Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality. Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock. 11: New Clothes [01/06/2021 – 03/09/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6423–#6514] Diamond and Ace have moved out of the trace left by the Infernal Engine, and Ace can feel the difference. He wants to know how Jagger Junction ended up this rough (Diamond doesn't know or care), and says if in the future there's anything he can do to fix it, he will. A fairly large Fuzz, maybe cat-sized, is lurking in a small dustbin. Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia. This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine. They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned. Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns. Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in. Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it. Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears. Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree. Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol). Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future. 12: Advice and Council [07/09/2021 – 01/12/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6521–#6577] Rosemary advises Fizmo to really listen to what other people say and to not talk – or swear – much during the Council meeting. Outwith that meeting, she should definitely tell Nitfol what she thinks, about everything. Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works. Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette. Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves. Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers. Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end. Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction. Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: The New Arrival [16/07/2003 – 13/08/2003] Sylvester Eman, 23rd Earl of E, is seen performing a kind of mechanical ritual, pressing letters on a touch-screen in a sequence set out in a book, in order to keep the family home, the Mansion of E, healthy. One of the results is that many disembodied eyes appear on the touch-screen (a fourth-wall breach reference to the fact that we, the audience, are watching him), which is a new thing Sylvester finds alarming, but he greets them as instructed by the official Task Book, after flicking through it and ending up on 12th/13th April (we will learn later that it's the 12th). His brother Mortimer joins him: he has brought home a professional bodyguard named Rosemary Ripley to the Mansion. While they are getting introduced, a slavering monster called a Dornbeast appears, half T. rex and half squid, which leads Sylvester to assume Mortimer has left the door to the Basement open. Rosemary kills the Dornbeast with a vase, and the brothers cook and eat part of it. Their joy at having a monster to eat suggests that they are quite poor, despite living in a vast building. The rest of the beast is rendered down for parts in a machine made by Ludwig, the 18th Earl, and those organs which can't be used will be sold to Old Man Larssen in the village (later a major character).
Rosemary is surprised that they appear to only have "a" guest room in a place this size (we will learn that they don't so much inhabit the Mansion as camp uneasily in parts of it), but astonished by the luxury of being given a room with its own bath and writing desk and an actual flush toilet (and, for no obvious reason, a picture of a skunk in a tutu, or maybe it's a rubber flotation ring), but puts off writing to her Aunt Eva because she finds it difficult to admit to what she's done. We will later learn that she has gone AWOL from a respected security firm called Hack 'n' Slash, but for the moment we just see that she is a thief and fugitive who has travelled a long way by some mysterious means which have resulted in her not knowing where on the continent she is, except in the east. She thinks of it as warm, but we will learn that it's quite far north: it must have a benign microclimate.
We see that events are being monitored on a bank of screens by a white-haired figure in a chair. The screens show events we have already seen from Rosemary's arrival, and also what we will later learn is a female Gnoll (possibly Mimsy); the Great Chasm; the elevator; the Scary Lady (Sylvester's great-aunt: we learn much later that her name is Myrrh) with a stack of crockery balanced on one hand; Arthur the Weirdo, a sort of Court Jester, operating a sinister-looking pterodactyl-like puppet while being watched by a small creature called a Smyt; and an unknown door edged by a vertical line of what we will learn are Panegate-style security locks. Later we will learn that the watcher is named Mr Hand.
The next morning, Rosemary starts a clear-out and tidy of the Mansion, beginning with chasing out a lot of small critters. She tells the brothers to remove an amphibious beaver shark from the Mansion's wading pool. The ideas of an amphibious shark is not ridiculous, incidentally: in real life young epaulette sharks are able to walk up the beach, newt-style, using their fins like feet, so this is a fairly credible extension of that. Sylvester (who claims to hate animals, his only unlikeable characteristic) sends Mortimer to do it. Mortimer tries, and it chases him: we see them run past the window as Sylvester is explaining to Rosemary that they are aristocracy. Rosemary measures the windows for heavy shutters: Sylvester assumes (wrongly) that it's for storms. With reference to the size of the place, Sylvester says you can get anywhere you want from here without going outside: through a window we see a tropical scene. This must have been the inception of the idea of the Panegate.
Sylvester takes Rosemary to the top of a tower and shows her the view: they discuss the fact that the Earls of E used to own all the countryside around, until the 20th Earl, Philbert, spent all their money on philanthropic projects.
02: In Storage [14/08/2003 – 12/09/2003] Mortimer is still being chased by the shark. Rosemary decides to set up a system for pouring boiling oil on intruders, and persuades Sylvester to go along with this on the grounds that it will repel bill collectors and salesmen. She and Sylvester go in search of a suitable large pot. The Mansion has dozens, maybe hundreds of rooms for storing specific things. We see several of them (some of them very odd, including a Pointy Stick Room which is quite dangerous), and meet Sylvester's great-uncle Frederick (complete with double-headed axe) and his partner (a.k.a. the Scary Lady) and their neighbour Amos Grubb. Frederick and the Grubbs apparently do not get on (although we will learn later that they were friends over sixty years ago, when they were all twenty-ish). He and the Scary Lady are incredulous at the idea of Sylvester with a girl.
We see an ancient device which is ticking down towards zero – Sylvester plans to be out of the area when it hits 000000000. Rosemary tries to meddle with it, and it shocks her.
The come to the Pot Room, but it turns out to contain one enormous pot which was a relic sacred to the Mansion of S, captured and brought home by Angus, 16th Earl of E – there is a suggestion that E may have destroyed S conclusively. The pot is so large that the room had to be built around it. The pots they want are in the Pots Room, plural, which is in the Basement, so they have to collect mining helmets and other equipment such as a backpack for Sylvester and a sword and shield for Rosemary: this equipment is stored in the only storage room without a label. Items in the room include a dead specimen of what we will learn is a Spindizzy, preserved under a glass dome. Rosemary gets a helmet with wings on it, and they also see one that belongs to Mortimer and looks like a propeller beanie. Sylvester points out that they are going into great danger and that they could just buy a pot at a chain-store called World o' Pots in the local village – but neither of them has any money.
Still being chased by the shark, Mortimer flees to the forest, where his flight is watched by two male Nomes (like small Humans with pointed ears) sitting on a branch. Later we will learn that they are called Frotz and Gnusto, and that they are "harvesters": a wide area around the Mansion, or more properly around a nearby architectural feature called The Spire, is circumscribed by a magical barrier which prevents most of the sapient-but-non-Human species in the area from leaving, but items of interest still cross in from the outside, and harvesters collect them.
Meanwhile the Gnoll (like a spindly bipedal baboon) community leader Comshaw tracks the Dornbeast to the Mansion, comes up through the door from the Basement and meets Rosemary and Sylvester heading down. He learns of the beast's fate from them and is disturbed and frightened: using a kind of organic telephone called an Aurilnode he reports the fact that these dangerous, monster-devouring creatures may be the infamous creatures called "Human" to the Basement's inter-species Council, who claim to already know. He also tells his partners Camora and Niddle, and Camora says she is going to tell "someone who can really help".
Rosemary is surprised to learn that Gnolls in this area can talk. Meanwhile, believing Humans to be monsters about to invade the Basement, Comshaw and his male partner Niddle set out for the forest to see Comshaw's cousin Louch, looking for a refuge, while their female partner Camora goes looking for assistance from a powerful ally.
We will later learn that Gnolls come in two types, regular and Finagler. Their equivalent of a marriage consists of a male and female pair plus a male Finagler, while the female Finaglers have special tasks elsewhere. Niddle, we will later learn, is Comshaw and Camora's Finagler, and Comshaw is a "Poker" – a kind of investigator-cum-knight errant who carries a sort of singlestick cum crook.
03: Going Down [15/09/2003 – 31/10/2003] We learn that there are dangerous (and very alien) creatures called Sneeches in the Basement: Comshaw leads Niddle from the Basement out to the forest by a route that avoids them. From the Mansion, as far as the Humans know there are two ways down – one which leads through Sneech territory and across the Great Chasm, and one which involves a lift/elevator. They don't know about the route Comshaw used. The entrance to Sneech territory is via an arch with a devil-mask over it: through the arch can be seen flames and spikes and a Cthulhu-like shadowy figure. The elevator looks like a normal machine. Sylvester seems very nervous of the elevator, but the Sneeches are alabaster ones, with six arms and eye-beams, and his anti-Sneech stick is a cheap knock-off version. They take the elevator: but the lift operator is a devil/Demon. Sylvester is so scared of him he falls to the floor, but Rosemary doesn't turn a hair.
Comshaw and Niddle head for the forest along an underground passage, accompanied by a small yet heavy creature of unknown species called Digger Odel: Digger is so short that for years we only see the top of his hard hat. He had been trying to go the same way as them, but a new guard wouldn't let him by.
Meanwhile Rosemary and Sylvester learn that the demon Operator is confined to the lift by a curse (although Rosemary doesn't believe him). He plays cards with Rosemary, then tries to hypnotize her, saying she's just what he's been looking for. We will learn that Rosemary, despite her mental strength, is quite hypnotically susceptible. Sylvester appears to be terrified and in the Operator's control, but then knocks him out with a cold-iron frying-pan.
Mortimer, still fleeing the shark, nearly falls victim to a killer tree, bristling with concealed wepaons, which tries to lure him to climb it. Meanwhile Niddle tries to carry Digger, in order to speed up their progress, but Digger is so heavy that Niddle hurts his back, and has to be Poked better by Comshaw.
We learn that Sylvester was genuinely terrified – if he had been faking the Operator would have known – but still poised to take action when the Operator was distracted by Rosemary, who is reluctantly impressed. As they leave the lift, an adult male Trog (bird/lizard-like tailed humanoid) with dementia tries to eat them and Rosemary kills him: at the same time, Mortimer finds a normal tree to climb.
Camora meanwhile seeks aid from the Shallow Wyrm (like a tiny, wingless dragon) mob-leader Nevus, but an Eyebolt (a stocky biped with its braincase and mouth in its torso and a long neck ending in antennae and a single eye) receptionist called Faldstool and two adult Trog guards named Mulch and Grind say he is unavailable, so she declares she will stop the "rampaging Humans" herself.
We learn about The Weirdo Who Lives in the Attic (a kind of Court Jester, with a proper Weirdo Guild), who is visiting the Basement, and we see him and his glove puppet/ventriloquist's dummy/alter ego Fantod.
The passage Comshaw and co. are taking was dug on the Council's orders to allow for population expansion, with one branch leading up to the Mansion (which is how Comshaw got there) and the other out to the forest. Without it, they would be heading for war again, as the population in the Bsement is growing and they are hemmed in by impassable geological features and taboo zones.
Mortimer climbs ae normal tree and encounters a Nome named Nitfol, then is attacked by a Tree-Squid. He has lost his left shoe by this point. Rosemary and Sylvester go round a time twistpoint which causes them to see their own recently-past selves.
04: The Hall of Achievement [01/11/2003 – 22/01/2004] Rosemary and Sylvester come to the Hall of Achievement where they see evidence of the historic successes of the Earls of E – which have become less impressive of late. However, the gag about Quincy, Sylvester's grandfather, being known for having tied his shoes by himself was later turned into a serious point, about Quincy showing great endurance and walking home from a long way away without the assistance of servants, after being caught out in a foreign country by the catastrophe known as the Crash, when most magical devices failed.
In the tree, Mortimer is grabbed by the Tree-Squid, and Nitfol, who is safe because Tree-Squid are allergic to Nomes, seems callously disinterested about the fact that it will eat him alive over a period of days. But then the beaver shark chops down the tree. Comshaw and Niddle discuss the possibility of war, and Sylvester won't say whether he got his intellect from his mother, in case she somehow finds out, even though she was on another continent when last heard from.
Sylvester correctly guesses that Rosemary is an orphan, raised on a remote farm by a slightly mysterious older relative; but – contrary to his guess – her Aunt Eva (who we will later learn is a professional gambler) is very much alive. They trace an annoying beep to the Djinnoscope, a device built by Luwig, 18th Earl and mad scientist. Initially the Djinnoscope is covered by an unexplained poster of a giant cogwheel: this may be more significant than the throwaway joke it seems, as we will later learn that a cogwheel is the symbol of the rulers of a place called Spire City.
The tree topples, and Nitfol, Mortimer and the squid fall clear of it, tangled up together (and Nitfol loses his hat, which will turn out to be culturally significant as Nomes almost always wear hats). Faldstool thinks about what Camora said about rampaging Humans.
Sylvester tells Rosemary that the Djinnoscope (which is coin-operated, using an obsolete coin which Rosemary finds on the floor) scans you and then gives you what you most need at that moment. They can't market it, because its idea of what you need is unpredictable: on at least one occasion, it was a swift, painless death.
The squid grabs a branch of the tree with a tentacle, but the weight of Sylvester and Nitfol on the other end stretches it like a rubber band. We learn that the tunnel from Basement to forest twists and turns and serves as a boundary between hostile groups, but even so Comshaw and Niddle come on two parties firing arrows at each other.
As boys, Mortimer and Sylvester played with the Djinnoscope (no explanation of how they got down there, since we will later learn that the Operator has been trapped in the elevator for nearly eighty years: maybe the Djinnoscope used to be upstairs): Mortimer got a yo-yo, and Sylvester got "a swift kick in the butt". Rosemary feels she has to try it, brushes dust off the chair and sits down under a helmet, but it gives her nothing, as far as she can tell.
The Tree-Squid's elastic tentacles first nearly drop Nitfol and Mortimer into a mixed group of three Pales (ant-like bipeds) and two Forest Gnolls who we will later learn are Comshaw's cousin Louch and his friend Scrof, then catapult them into the air: Nitfol hangs on because (as we will later learn) Nomes and Gnolls dont get on. The warring sides in the tunnel run out of arrows.
A light on the Djinnoscope says it's worked, so maybe it gave Rosemary something intangible. It's still charged up because it hasn't been used for a long time: the Basement folk don't use it because it's only calibrated for Humans (the dust Rosemary brushed off was a non-human user that the machine killed). We will later learn that the non-Human inhabitants of the Basement call this place the Death Hall. Meanwhile Niddle makes the mistake of telling the warring tribes they could just throw rocks, and Digger says it's time to run.
Rosemary is upset that Sylvester let her try the Djinnoscope without first checking that she was Human, so she orders him to try it himself. This was strip #100, so in the background a Pale in a hat bobs out from behind a panel with a sign saying "100!! Woo hoo!" Meanwhile Mortimer and Nitfol hang in the air long enough to have a conversation.
For the first time we see the common graffito "FNORD WAZ HERE". Rosemary says that after all Sylvester doesn't need to sit in the chair, in case he gets hurt, but he's curious too. It moulds something rugby-ball-shaped and the size of a cricket ball, and spits it out: it will turn out that this is what both Sylvester and Rosemary need. Meanwhile Niddle tries to pacify the warring sides, and gets badly hurt. The ball-thing lands in Sylvester's hand: it has a tag saying "Yank me", so he does, and it covers them both in dough. They are laughing about this when someone interrupts them.
Mortimer and Nitfol are still in the air, and Mortimer says the last time "this" happened there were explosions and Nomes running about screaming, even though nobody died. The foot on which Mortimer still has a shoe briefly changes, although that may just be an error.
The interruption is a party of Ghast soldiers (three-eyed but otherwise Humanoid slime-moulds), sent by the Council to hunt for Humans. Rosemary and Sylvester, covered in dough, now look like Ghasts, including the little wings the females have on their heads, so Rosemary drops her sword and they pretend to be Ghasts and misdirect the soldiers. Sylvester asks why Rosemary didn't fight them and she says a sword wouldn't work, so unless Sylvester has a flame thrower in his pack.... He looks inside and says "Uh. No." We will later learn that he has a one-shot taser. Meanwhile Comshaw drags Niddle to the Helipath (like a flying octopus with a helicopter rotor) doctor Telic.
Rosemary and Sylvester head in the opposite direction from the Ghasts, although the Hall of Achievement is so big that they are still inside it. The Ghasts meanwhile assume that the couple they just met were "Squimming", but that they were perverts because they didn't have Fleebs (little pyramid-shaped creatures used as currency, a.k.a. triblots) and a fugehorn. Nitfol realises that he and Mortimer have been in the air too long.
Rosemary and Sylvester pass many famous paintings, done by Ernest, the 19th Earl, artist and art-forger. They pass a vast (about 30ft high) statue of Audra, the only official female Earl, and evidently very vain. Rosemary is wearing her helmet. There is a one-eyed, horned skull in the corner, from something about as big as a rhino.
Meanwhile, in the Basement, Camora meets the Pale in the hat: except that the hat turns out to be a live creature called a Fixit, wearing and controlling the Pale. He, the Fixit, whose name we will learn is Hax, works for "God" (not a divinity in this case, just a really powerful leader) who sent him to hold up the sign in the Hall of Achievement, and now he has to go juggle rabid Fleebs on the edge of the Great Chasm. Due to a misunderstanding Rosemary injures Fern, an intelligent giant carnivorous plant (who we will later learn is sustained by the Tree), but Sylvester is able to heal her. She was grown by Linus, the 14th Earl, described by Rosemary as a combat botanist. Protus the Willigig, a time-traveller (a bit like a baboon in sunglasses floating on a cloud), appears to Nitfol and Mortimer and addresses Mortimer, angrily, by name.
Rosemary asks why the Ghasts called them "rogue" Humans, and Sylvester says he has the impression that something in the Mansion is keeping the family alive. Niddle is barely alive, but Comshaw and Digger drag him to join the long queue for Telic's services, which includes an Ecadem (like a small pilot whale with feet) with a damaged tail and a male Nome called Rezrov with his arm in a sling. We will later learn that Rezrov is in some kind of S&M relationship with a female Trog named Hogminny.
Sylvester says sometimes dangerous things would come up from the Basement, the family would hide, and the whatever-it-was would somehow not be there when they came back. But Rosemary being there changes things. We see the old guy with the monitor screens, thinking "Oh, how it changes things." Protus, very angry, says he supposes Mortimer thinks he's clever, then gives him a small gadget called the HJ42 while shouting about a witch and her slimy little friend (probably the Scary Lady and Frowgler, whom we haven't met yet). Mortimer has never seen him before.
Sylvester says the Basement folk are too busy ganging up on each other to gang up on the Humans: we see two male Trogs chasing a Gobule. Somehow, they end up walking along a long, curving tunnel, which we will later learn is the remains of an Ettin particle accelerator (the Ettins were the ancient aliens who built much of the Mansion), where they encounter a giant wine bottle, about 12ft tall.
The wary politeness between Rezrov and Comshaw leads to a conversation about a past Nome/Gnoll war, which Digger Odel witnessed, and in which Comshaw's grandfather Compline was a famous military commander. We learn that Digger is thirty and that this is three Gnoll generations.
The giant wine bottle is labelled in Manglish, a Basement script which Sylvester can read. It says "Official Council penalty wine, do not upen under further penalty". At this point Rob belatedly introduced the Ghast "Little Floaty Things", personal sigils which hang above their heads and identify them. The Ghast soldiers find the dead Trog by the elevator, the Operator unconscious and an iron frying pan. They fear this means Humans are real, and Sepfrbfrx is sent to warn the Council. Two are sent to check up on a sentinel, Dpxbfo, and the leader, Hpthbvtw a.k.a. Hepthbav, stays by the elevator.
People pile around Digger, demanding to know more about Compline, enabling Comshaw and Niddle to jump the queue. Nitfol tells Mortimer that "that guy" was a Willigig and a time manipulator – at which point they fall out of the sky.
Rosemary learns that the Eman family used to own Moe Vineyards, producer of appallingly bad plonk, although they have since sold the company. Their wine is so bad that Rosemary hits Sylvester with her sword hilt, then apologises and says it was reflex action. Sylvester thanks her for not using the pointy end – and for not insisting on opening the mysterious bottle. As they walk away, we see that there are two small demons, Chauncy and Edgar, suspended in the bottle: they seem to know Rosemary by name and are impressed to see her.
The scene switches to the Barter Hall, a Basement market. Hax, the Pale-riding Fixit (did Rob really call his ant-alikes "Pales" just to make a joke about the Pale rider?) speaks to an Eyebolt at an information desk, and trades information for information: he seeks the whereabouts of a Gnoll named Wratch (later spelled Ratch), and shares that Nomes make good Spyder (at this stage still spelled "spider") bait. He meets with Wratch to buy Fleebs, but Camora interrupts and says maybe God can help, even though he's not on the same level as Nevus. In the background we glimpse an unidentified Helipath (flying septopus), and an Eyebolt riding on a Gobule (a bit like a Pacman with legs): we will later learn that these latter two are called Fidginfain (the Eyebolt) and Doss.
Rosemary and Sylvester come to a sign which says "No loitering, by order of the Council". They loiter under it, then continue along the tunnel. Ludwig tried to work out what it was and thought it was for studying the collisions of sub-atomic particles, but Sylvester dismisses that as gibberish. Meanwhile, a Helipath (called Rubrak although we don't learn that until much later) and a Jibjib (called Snipe, a largeish, and in the Basement sapient, bird like a cross between a chicken and a mallard) lose control of a heavy weight and drop it right in front of the "No loitering" sign.
At the elevator, Hpthbvtw is accosted by two Gobules called Gorp and Phiga who want to eat the dead Trog. They decide they want to eat, or at least taste, the unconscious Operator, but this will be an important Eating Event so they need witnesses. Hpthbvtw wants to stop them.
Comshaw tells Telic's receptionist, an Eyebolt named Gosypiboma, that he is calling in favours owed by both Telic and Gosypiboma in order to barge in without an appointment. Telic says Niddle is badly damaged but should live, that Gnolls are durable and have a fascinating internal structure, and that he regrets not having had more opportunity to dissect fresh specimens. Comshaw asks if s/he's ever felt tempted to speed up the process? Telic says if s/he did that patients would stop coming: Comshaw says Telic has amputated hir sense of humour, but we will learn later that Telic isn't joking.
Meanwhile, Mortimer and Nitfol land in a giant Spyder's web (and the foot on which Mortimer has a shoe changes again). Camora tells Hax that maybe Humans are just myths but Comshaw's been running tests for the Council, and "those things" up above killed and ate a Dornbeast. Hax says he will report it to God. Then he trades Wratch or Ratch the sheet of paper with Woo Hoo on it for a sack of rabid Fleebs: she thinks he's a sucker, because paper is very valuable.
05: Le Tree [23/01/2004 – 13/06/2004] Rosemary and Sylvester duck into a hole in the wall of the particle-accelerator tunnel, where Sylvester expects to find a limb of the Tree, a mysterious, fruit-bearing plant which pervades the Basement and parts of the Mansion and provides general life-support, powered by heat and magic below and sunlight above. But they are met by a male Motihaul (Motihauls are green humanoids: the males have chicken-like wattles and the females have crescent horns, and like frogs they can breathe in fresh water) named Snoot, who turns out to be the Maître d' of a restaurant owned by the gang-boss Nevus, who has laid claim to this local branch and has opened a restaurant called Le Tree, selling Treefruit. Treefruit is generally available free throughout the Basement but the quality varies, and this branch, as they will learn, produces especially good fruit. Sylvester is incensed because as Earl, he arguably owns the Tree, not Nevus, and he gets into an argument with Snoot about it.
Two disreputable Gobules called Mingent and Ningle turn up at the elevator to witness the Eating Event. Hpthbvtw can't be a witness because Ghasts don't eat, except to lick certain species of fungi or moss off the walls (he denies that they lick, but they are known pejoratively as wall-lickers). Two thuggish Gobules named Nugent and Chuw join them and want to claim the body (and the kudos which eating it brings) for the Gobule gang-boss Guttle.
Telic says s/he can either have Niddle rest in the infirmary, or get him on his feet fast, on the understanding that he will crash after a few hours: the infirmary turns out to be run by Comshaw's mother, so he tells Telic to get Niddle up fast, as he doesn't want his mother's ideas affecting Niddle. Telic uses Loomboggle's Lightning Horsepurge and Life Elixer, invented by the eccentric genius Loomboggle (who we will later learn was a female Eyebolt healer).
The Spyder, whose complex mathematical calculations Mortimer and Nitfol have interrupted by landing in his web, rejects Mortimer as "gristle and string" and flings him from the web, in favour of going after Nitfol, drooling. The shoe is back on Mortimer's right foot.
In Le Tree, Rosemary is accosted by Protus, who recognises her, and asks where Mortimer and Sylvester are. When Snoot sends for a Boogieman (giant humanoid with white facial hair and wolf-like pricked ears) called Percy to beat Sylvester up, Rosemary intervenes. Meanwhile, Hax looks for an aurilnode from which to 'phone God. He has never met God, but takes orders from him, or from sombody of equivalent power if they aren't who they say they are. Camora and Hax/the Pale walk past a tailor's shop where one of the customers, a Trog Candle Monk (one of many religious sects in the Basement) named Fratch, freaks out when he sees them and starts shouting about the Evil One.
Phiga tries to tell Hpthbvtw to leave but he couldn't even if he would, for the way is blocked by more Gobules (including a female called Speck) and an Ooze (amorphous giant slug) named Splore. While Guttle's enforcers and the rest are squaring off, Ningle sneaks off on his own to taste the still-unconscious Operator's tail. Meanwhile Mortimer crashes down through a tree, still wrapped in strands of web.
Telic ties a rope to Niddle's leg, then gives him the medicine: Niddle jerks awake and reflexively tries to run off. Telic asks Comshaw for a new favour, to bring him some clingweed from the forest (s/he has forensically worked out where the Gnolls were heading), and Comshaw's mother asks him to do her a favour too, and dance and spit on his father's grave. He says that after the mob got through with his father's body, he's scattered across half the forest.
Percy breaks Rosemary's sword, then takes the stump from her and eats it, so she bashes him with her shield (even though she has to jump in the air to reach his head) and takes him down. One of the wings on her helmet gets bent in the process. Hax speaks to his bosses by aurilnode and they tell him he needs to work with Camora. He tells her he'll need to ride on her head: she agrees. As soon as Hax leaves the Pale, s/he shouts "FREE!" (an anomaly, as Pales are later established as being silent) and runs off, only to be attacked by the rabid Fleebs which s/he had been carrying.
Ningle bites the Operator's tail, causing a huge explosion heard throughout the Basement and even up in the Mansion, where we see the Scary Lady react. Hax tries to take control of Camora, but she is resistant, and says she'd have been disappointed in him if he hadn't tried.
Snoot calls for reinforcements named Smyth, Gill, Mslissa and Fang: we see an Ichyoid (giant humanoid lobster-thing), a Queen Snake (huge serpent), an Ecadem and an Ooze come striding past. We will learn later that Smyth is the Ecadem and Gill the Ichyoid. Mslissa must be the Queen Snake, so Fang is the Ooze. Protus has a word with a Jibjib waiter and then vanishes. A terrible fight, which Rosemary and Sylvester are losing, is halted and they are seated at a table and told that Protus is picking up their tab. The Jibjib waiter says that "It's impossible to be angry at friends of Mr. Protus. One can only be amused by their charming little eccentricities". We see the Scary Lady rise from the bed she shares with Frederick and consult an electronic crystal ball to find out what the explosion was: she isn't happy at the result.
Rosemary tells Sylvester about meeting Protus. They trade questions. Sylvester saks how long before the army which is chasing Rosemary turns up: she says best case, never; worst, case, about six months (if they travel fast, say forty miles a day, that puts them about seven thousand miles away): and no, it's not the official, government army. Sylvester says she can stay, as they need her more than she needs them. She asks him about the letters she saw him pressing when she arrived, and he explains that there are certain tasks which have to be performed at certain times and which make the Mansion run properly, and that some of them work better when performed by a woman. `
We see the Gnoll Sprocket and the Helipath Flange at the edge of the Great Chasm, working on Project Y. The machine they are building is infested with slimegrubs chewing the wires and they need a small predator to go inside and clear them out. The purpose of Project Y is tied in with having open vents in an Ettin-looking unit. The fugitive Pale falls past them and crash-lands (probably dead), and they prepare to pick off the rabid Fleebs.
Crumpton, a Motihaul Candle Monk, tells an Ooze abbot that the Evil One is back, and the Ooze says they must go forth. Niddle has revived and Digger has evaded his fan club, so they set off up the tunnel again. Sepfrbfrx, a.k.a. Sepferb, tells the Eyebolt Witherward, a Council receptionist, that he needs to see the Council, and she opens a hatch and drops him down a tunnel. He tells the Council that Humans are real and back and are able to use cold-forged iron, and Wunk, the Gnoll Council member, starts to panic. Then Mondegren, the Council's Eyebolt assistant, tells them there's been a large explosion near the elevator.
The other Gobules see it as "Ningle won another Eating Event". But at least one Gobule, Chuw, is dead, and presumably Ningle is dead too, and Hpthbvtw is mortally injured: he dies regretting that he never told the Ghast officer Hpobfvfr how he felt about her.
A scruffy Gnoll named Faddle greets his friend, a Gobule named Bung who sits and grows mushrooms on his skin. Later we will learn that Faddle has the Finagler talent, but chose not to be one. We will also learn that despite their rough manners and their work as garbage cleaners, many Gobules become peaceful and rather sedentary philosophers. Bung tells Faddle what's been happening (including the fact that the explosion has started a huge and spreading fire), but Faddle thinks he's kidding. Faddle had a beetle on a stick – Bung swipes it with his tongue and eats it, stick and all. Bung gives him a mushroom for it and tells him to go do something with it somewhere else: Faddle wonders whether he can sell it in Barter Hall, and rapidly finds that people are interested.
Sylvester tells Rosemary that he and Mortimer pretty-much live on Treefruit, which is edible and nutritious, though not delicious. These fruits in Le Tree are much bigger, and this branch of the Tree is also a lot bigger than it used to be: possibly Nevus has earned the right to sell them by cultivating them. They cautiously try this new variant fruit and it's delicious, almost worth dying for.
Comshaw and co. are finding the tunnel a bit complicated because it goes through a point where the way is twisted and knotted: possibly in the twistpoint sense. Afterwards, briefly, Comshaw sees that Niddle has a long, large crystal (which glows, but which is not the usual star-shape of a Glowgem) in his hand, but it disappears. Above them on the ceiling, farmer-Oozes grow giant mushrooms.
Hax settles down on Camora's head and establishes silent, telepathic contact. She is alarmed by his plans, which seem to involve getting close to the Humans, but when she hears they're at Le Tree she says they have good taste. A crowd pass her, heading from right to left, running to set up a bucket chain to fight the fire, but then another crowd pass by going the other way, looking to bid on Bung's mushroom in Barter Hall. She considers letting the Humans "run selectively amuck".
The strip jumps back a bit, and we see the Ghasts who were sent to check on Dpxbfo, finding him, and saying there's only one place left to look for the Humans. Then they smell smoke. They pass by Hpobfvfr/Hopobefever and a Deep Wyrm (like a big snake with a human face) named Tabo whom she sends to summon her squad.
In the Council chamber the chairbeing (Preznit, an Eyebolt) suggests letting the fire burn out as the only things nearby are the Death Hall and the time twistpoint. But the female Motihaul Gavzada reminds them that the fire might damage the bottle containing Chauncy and Edgar: an idea which causes immediate alarm.
We see a male Motihaul named Izchak, who sells sharp and pointy things. Two Gnolls, Clochard (who is quite elderly) and Troat, come to buy weapons.
Mortimer bounces from tree to tree and lands some distance away, so that he no longer knows exactly which tree he started from or where he is relative to the Spyder. A Saur (like a small theropod) named Snerk approaches Mortimer where he hangs in a tree, then the web strands snap and Mortimer ends up in a heap on the floor. Mortimer, who tends to be slightly confused at the best of times and has been dazed by his fall and by the encounter with Protus, is rambling (to the point that Snerk thinks he's either mad or a performance artist): on the one hand Nitfol didn't help him with the Tree-Squid, but on the other hand it's partly his fault that Nitfol's tree got chewed down and Nitfol was now probably being eaten by a Spyder, so maybe he should try to rescue him.
Sylvester is afraid that if he and Rosemary eat more Treefruit they may become addicted. They should leave, also before anything else happens: but then three of Hpthbvtw's Ghasts (Dpxbfo, Apvbsx and another) appear to arrest them on Council business. Snoot appears with his heavy squad and says that Mr. Nevus has made his feelings about the Council clear.
Comshaw and co. run into an enormous Boogieman named Bertrum, but Digger says Bertrum isn't the tunnel guard. Then they meet a scruffy Gnoll called Furphy who says that none of them are there and this isn't happening, and that maybe none of them exist (and then says the same to Bertrum).
The bucket chain, panicking about Chauncy and Edgar, runs past an alcove in which sit a Gobule named Tuft and a Gnoll named Dap. Dap is piling pebbles into an elaborate spire. They find this panic boring and hope for "an all-new apocalypse". Two male Trogs, whom we will later know as Grik and Grak, feel that it's a lot of fuss about nothing as there's no fuel for the fire, but then it flares up and they run to find buckets. At the end of the bucket chain a very scared Gnoll named Niff, and a female Motihaul (later identified as Kulma), have to request permission to use a well from an Ichyoid guard (who grants it).
Mortimer makes up his mind to find and save Nitfol, but then Agita (female Motihaul). Guttle (Gobule) and Nevus (Shallow Wyrm, carried on a covered plate by the Gnoll Mimsy) arrive. They and Snerk are there for an auction (Snerk is acting for a new power in the forest). Agita doesn't recognise Mortimer's species, and tells him to go away, this is private. She carries an umbrella with a blade that extends from the tip, with which she threatens him. But Nevus speculates that Mortimer is their auctioneer.
Sylvester and Rosemary sneak away from the budding row between the Ghasts and the Le Tree security squad. Apvbsz tries to follow them, but is flattened (temporarily) by the Ooze (Fang – it's established later that Gill is the Ichyoid and Smyth the Ecadem, and I'm assuming Mslissa is the Queen Snake). Meanwhile, Hax and Camora lurk in an official Lurking Alcove near Le Tree. Hax extends antennae.
A Gnoll named Sina, a party organiser, passes Tuft and Dap in their alcove. She is carrying a large puffball-type fungus called a cakeshroom, which she traded for two shiverroots in Barter Hall, and is taking to a party for a Gnoll named Catmorlo. However, nobody is at the party except her friend, a Gobule named Nosh, as everyone else has joined the bucket chain (Gobules have no hands). Nosh means to eat the cakeshroom, but Sina takes it to share with the bucket-chain.
As violence continues behind them, Rosemary and Sylvester sneak past a very large, dead Ecadem (presumably Smyth) only to run into Snoot, who seems able to appear from thin air. He asks if they enjoyed their meal: then there's a huge bang and clouds of smoke, and a panicked crowd runs past them. Sylvester asks whether Snoot wants them to recommend Le Tree to their friends, and he says they may as well, as he'll be needing new customers. They praise his Treefruit but say it's sticky and the place could use some paper napkins: he gives them a stony look and tells them to wait there, with such authority that they do.
Comshaw and co. come to a fork in the tunnel: one side goes up to the Mansion, and one goes to the forest. An adult male Trog runs past them, yelping, evidently scared by the guard on the forest side. The guard is an arrogant young Gnoll Poker named Skoil, who assumes the Council have sent Comshaw to "deal with him" (when Niddle starts to say otherwise, Digger stamps on his foot), as somebody other than the Council hired him to block the tunnel. We will learn later that he was hired by Guttle in relation to security measures for the auction. Comshaw Pokes him with his single-stick and takes him down easily, and Digger treads on him.
Clochard calls on his friend Nitid, a Helipath sign-painter. Nitid has begun working on a cartoon-strip of hir own, but few people see it. S/he wishes that aurilnodes could transmit pictures. Clochard tells hir what's been happening. Nitid will later become quite a major character.
Mortimer gabbles an explanation of how he got past the auction security perimeter; Tree-Squid; Willygig; Spyder and all. Nevus, grinning, says "Why didn't we think to cover that possibility?" Agita says they all received invitations, and what does Mortimer have to sell? He shows them the HJ42. She asks what it does. Mortimer presses a button and it beeps and then prioduces a huge fountain of bright energy that makes a sound like "ZORP". Frotz and Gnusto, the two Nomes we saw in the tree when Mortimer was first fleeing the beaver shark, are walking through the forest, talking about a squabble between the Gnolls and the Pales: they see the Zorp, assume it's a weapon and don't want to see what would happen if the two sides got really mad with each other.
Niddle asks if Comshaw heard a noise? No, but he heard one earlier (probably the boom while Sylvester and Rosemary were leaving Le Tree). The crystal reappears in Niddle's hand, but they don't notice.
The male Gnoll Snerd (mate of Sina's sister Shona), the female Trog Wrawa and a male Motihaul named Hiblehoy argue about whether to run the bucket chain through a twistpoint or through Crazy Rhid's laboratory. Rhid owes Comshaw a favour, but a male Gobule named Spot tells them Comshaw isn't there. Neither are Nevus, Guttle and Agita. The Council would just put up a notice. They need an organiser: which is when Sina arrives and asks why they're just standing there.
Hpobfvfr gathers her squad – two Deep Wyrms, two male Trogs and a Gobule – and tells them that the Council and Hpthbvtw's gang are up to something and now they've gone into Le Tree, and she wants to know what they're up to. The Gobule smells smoke. Camora sees Hpobfvfr and one of the Deep Wyrms entering Le Tree: she tells Hax that Hpobfvfr is dangerous, because she notices things, and she listens when you talk. She considers her "second-tier". She herself and Comshaw are first-tier. Second-tier is Hpobfvfr, Telic, Skibble, Bung. Third-tier is people like Sina who could be second-tier if they exerted themselves.
In Le Tree, the Queen Snake and some Ghasts at least are still alive (so, it will turn out, are the Ooze and the Ichyoid, and Percy is alive but unconscious). Hpobfvfr and her squad turn up and Rosemary and Sylvester direct them to the Ghasts. Hpobfvfr demands to know what the two of them are. Sylvester starts to tell her, when they are interrupted by a crash and a scream. She tells them to wait there, and goes to investigate. Rosemary starts looking for a weapon. She says the Mansion is weird: she's read about Boogiemen in books but they haven't been seen elsewhere for a hundred years, the Jibjibs she knows don't talk and she's never heard of anything like Ecadems or Helipaths (later we will learn they both came from elsewhere).
Mortimer wakes up, stunned and confused, in the forest but the sky is different and there is an unknown Human man with slightly Far Eastern features and a triangle-in-circle mark on his palm, lying dead. Rosemary turns up, but she's dressed a bit like a Roman soldier, although still with Audra's helmet (which Mortimer hasn't yet seen her in in his own time). She's carrying a pole weapon with a hooked end, and talking about "playmates" who were supposed to keep him from wandering off. The dead man is an enemy they will need to bury. Suddenly a second Mortimer with a tall wizard's hat appears, carrying an umbrella and accompanied by a female Motihaul and a human woman with smooth, dark hair cut like a helmet. Second-Mortimer says he remembers first-Mortimer (so he is in the future) and not to let the HJ42 meet— but then first-Mortimer fades back to his own time.
Back in his own time, the Basement folk are dazzled and Snerk says undergrounders don't handle bright lights well, and why don't he and Mortimer come to a private agreement? Agita grabs him and says some handle it better than others.
Comshaw confirms to Niddle that he gets into a lot of duels, and then he explains what the outside is like, since Niddle has never seen the sun, or the sky. Digger is going to dig a tree, with a pickaxe.
Sina starts organising the bucket chain, sending the Wyrms to the front because they're fireproof, and telling Wrawa to round up some adult Trogs. Sepfrbfrx turns up to take charge for the Council, and Sina just tells him to guard her cakeshroom: but then the cakeshroom is snatched by Gorp and Phiga. A Trog named Mowder thinks Crazy Rhid and Tunktal the bucket-maker started the fire, and wants to get up a lynch mob.
Meanwhile, back at the Mansion Amos lies in wait for Frederick with an axe, but it's the Scary Lady who emerges, with an umbrella which looks like the one future!Mortimer had. She says she's going for a walk. Nellie, Amos's wife, says someone out there is in a heap of trouble. Nellie – who we will later learn was part of a group of magic-adjacent friends pre-Crash, although she herself has little power – says some event is coming, and strange things have been happening, including the hinges on a door switching back and forth between left and right (this kind of transformation of the physical background will become significant later).
Hpobfvfr takes command over the surviving Ghasts in Le Tree and tries to restore order. The Ooze, Fang, backed by Gill and Mslissa, says the Council keeps sending them lousy material to work with. She says "until now" and beats them up. She asks if anyone else has anything to contribute, and the Jibjib waiter bombs her with a Treefruit.
Sylvester suggests going back home and trying for a pot another day, and Rosemary says OK. She wants to build a flame-thrower. They start to leave but Tabo, one of the Deep Wyrms from Hpobfvfr's squad, tries to stop them, and coils himself around Rosemary. Snoot arrives and puffs a powder in his face which make him relax and stare at his own tail, clearly stoned out of his gourd. Snoot says Mr. Spatchcock (who we will learn is an Eyebolt who manages Le Tree) wants to speak to them.
Part Two: Time and Space and Fleebs [14/06/2004 – 11/10/2005] 01: An Intermission [14/06/2004 – 06/09/2004] The Weirdo reports on the Mansion's creatures and cultures to a shadowy female figure in pointed shoulder-pads and a hood with two floppy little points (possibly the cloak is intended either for a female Motihaul or for a type of messenger we will later learn is called a Flittermouse, and who wears a bat-like costume), who comes from the capital. His report includes Protus the Willigig, who seems to know the Weirdo from the future. He is unable to discuss the Operator, for reasons he can't or won't reveal. There's a bit of a red herring at this point, because he says that the Operator is "the only member of his race currently in or under the Mansion": but the Scary Lady has gone out, so she's not in the Mansion right now. Comments are made on the fact that fleebs just sit around and stare (they're said not to eat, which doesn't fit with the rabid Fleebs biting the Pale: and are they related to Fixits?). We hear that things "Out West" (which we will learn just means the west of their own country, not the continent) are going badly, and could reverse the rebuilding their group has done since the Crash, that fleebs are involved somehow (although perhaps only as an indicator of unexplained contact between east and west) and that someone called Tulip, a friend of the Weirdo's, has been killed: also that events at the Mansion are of great importance. They discuss the fact that fleebs from the east turned up in the west at the same time that a woman obviously from the west (Rosemary) turned up in the east, but are interrupted by evidence of surveillance. Before they part, Arthur gives her a drawing of Rosemary to check up on, and says Rosemary (whom he describes as a "sword bunny") is dressed like a Chroman Initiate but she clearly hasn't taken Chroman vows. Rosemary's outfit at this point consists of a plain white T-shirt with short sleeves and a V-neck, and an ankle-length pale-blue skirt. Agita is angry with Snert and says that rule-breaking leads to screaming, blood-drenched anarchy and almost no-one wants that: Mortimer protests that the fact that screaming, blood-drenched anarchy tends to follow him doesn't mean he wants it. Agita also says the winner of the auction will get an 80-count head-start. In the forest tunnel, Comshaw's party encounter the remains of a "Metalmin", a man-shaped robot. It's probably a corruption of "metal man" and the old ones were Ettin-made, so they're around six hundred years old. After the party have gone their presence partly activates the Metalmin but then its head falls off and explodes, provoking a small war among some tiny sapient creatures called Smyts (a bit like sparrow-sized Trogs) and Fuzzes (balls of brown fur with hands and feet), until the Fuzzes are eaten by the predatory, beetleish arthropod called a slimegrub. Rob was still working out the sizes: in later strips, slimegrubs would be slightly smaller than Fuzzes, but this one is hundreds of times bigger. This was the first anniversary of the strip, so we see Rosemary and Sylvester talking about days that seem to last a year, and Snoot thinking that all his days feel like that. A Gnoll called Blit and an Ooze (a bit like a slime-mould but the size of a large dog) called Noet discuss signs and portents indicating that this may be the day that changes the world, and try to persuade a Ghast called Vipthiboo of this, in a theological sense, but he thinks the idea is stupid – not noticing a burst of energy which washes over them. Vipthiboo is searching for a lost Dornbeast pup: a fact which causes Blit and Noet to run away. Blit and Noet then accidentally activate an electronic idol to the evil monkey-god Kaylu, which has been set up to operate as a form of fairground entertainment, and find the Dornbeast: Noet thinks it's cute. We learn that Furphy reports to Nevus, and see Faldstool receiving an aurilnode report about events at Le Tree. `We will learn later that there was a fairly recent Human attempt to set up a brutal fascist dictatorship in the name of Kaylu. Gorp and Phiga report to a battered, half-blinded but very authoritative Gobule elder called Maw, who wears a prosthetic right foot and a crown made of jawbones, and makes a grave and dignified speech about the spiritual implications that eating has for his species; but they are pursued by the Ghast Sepferb from whom they stole the cakeshroom. Maw and his squabbling assistants Twiz and Devura (who are really trying his patience) return the cakeshroom to Sepferb (who more or less works for the Council but also may be involved in a secret project). In the process we see a pile of boxes and other items which includes a stuffed creature that looks like a rabbit with antennae instead of ears, and a box marked M.U.L.E. MK 2: later we will learn that mules are small workhorse robots, one of whom will become a significant character. We learn that a long time ago Maw ate a Ghast who was some kind of charismatic political troublemaker, and the Ghasts are more grateful than offended. That was how Maw got to be so battered, and also a respected leader. Maw lectures his cohorts about cooperation, but as we cut away to the viewpoint of the unknown watcher, on his viewscreens we see them attacked by unidentified assailants (later named as being led by someone called Nash: we don't know who Nash is, but they are a renowned contestant in the Hurler's Cup – but that need not necessarily mean Nash has hands, as we will learn that the Gobule Spot has won the Tosser's Cup three times, using his tongue; also there's a suggestion that the Hurler's Cup might be for projectile vomiting). Also on the watcher's screens we can see Hpobfvfr making a failed grab for the Jibjib waiter at Le Tree; the still-stoned Wyrm Tabo talking about how he and Percy and Skibble used to go Glowgem hunting; and Sina organising everybody. The watcher, now identified as male and moustachioed and referred to as the Overseer (or at least an Overseer – we will later learn that he is called Mr Hand), has a sarcastic Metalmin butler called Hector who is in a poor state of repair. The Overseer seems to live on alcohol, especially the low-grade products of the Mansion's former Moe Vineyard. A strange octopussy creature with a stalk on its head, called a Scalpsucker, is clinging to the Overseer's face, but he peels it off and chucks it aside. There is a reference to the Overseer hiring two mechanics to install a replacement scanner – the same two, Flange (Helipath) and Sprocket (Gnoll), who were working on Project Y. Meanwhile Hector can't fix the existing scanner because a damaged filament is preventing him from accessing his tech-repair data. Inside a hatch on Hector's back is a repair manual in the Overseer's handwriting but which he doesn't remember writing: this may have been forged by Hector who then wiped the memory. The Overseer sends his agents Sprocket and Flange to get a spare part for Hector from the wrecked Metalmin in the tunnel. We meet some little sapient arthropods called Sciencebugs, religious fanatics in tiny space-suits who are trying to cross the Overseer's office to reach the shrine of a beetle-deity, a figure of what we will later learn is a character in a comic called Roshambo the Warrior-Beetle, along with Frowgler the Horned Frog, without being zapped by a bug-zapper. One is killed in a religious dispute, and some philosophical Smyt monks eat the remains. One of the monks is able to understand Human speech, which of course is very loud and deep to them. We learn that long ago the Overseer was friends with a short and (by Hector's estimate) short-lived person named Drax, from the name probably a Fixit but quite short-lived from what Hector says, and that it was the Overseer who was spying on the Weirdo, and wants to find out who his contact from the capital is. He has programmed Hector to pester him and make sure he gets things done. Watching the screens we see again that the drugged Wyrm (Tabo) at Le Tree is an old friend of Percy's and they have another friend called Skibble, not present: the screens also show sinister half-seen faces in the dark, probably The Gibber, which we will later learn is a kind of group psychic entity made up at least partly of Gnolls. The overseer fears that Arthur the Weirdo has been "very very naughty". He finds the Scary Lady to be "wonderfully, deliciously naughty". Hector takes the Scalpsucker and deposits it down a chute into a tank where more are being bred. On his way to the chute, Hector passes alcoves containing strange things – a mummified king on a throne, sitting next to a dial saying Yes, No, Cheese (Yes is selected); a strange mechanism plugged into the Tree; and a chained Trog running on a treadmill, trying to grab a lure in the form of a Gnoll doll. As the Scalpsucker crashes down the chute we glimpse a hatted Smyt who seems to have multiple arms like a Hindu deity, or perhaps who is juggling and whirring its two arms so they seem like many, accompanied by something like a cross between a spider and a slime grub. When the Scalpsucker arrives in the breeding tank and starts mating, the vibrations shake loose a literal Bad Penny, an evil coin, which is then at least partially eaten by little sapient creatures called Biters: tiny cousins of the Gobules, but they all have horns or feelers on their heads, which are rare in full-size Gobules. We see that Hector has a three-eyed robot dog called Nunsuch. Hector wakes a Boogieman whose job is to beat the Middle Gong, which tells Sylvester that the day is half over. 02: The Grand Tour [07/09/2004 – 29/11/2004] Snoot takes Sylvester and Rosemary to meet the manager of Le Tree, an Eyebolt called Spatchcock. On the way Sylvester shows Rosemary a sort of small menagerie set up by Nevus, with creatures in glass cases. One of the exhibits is an energy being called an ABOL (a sapient Amorphous Ball of Light), and the others are a large "Tribbletongued" hamster and a sapient house-plant resembling a Ficus. These are cameos from other ComicGenesis comics – the ABOL from Reasoned Cognition, the hamster from Furmentation and the plant from Station V3. Sylvester tells Rosemary that the ABOL is sapient and she touches its case with a view to releasing it, and gets a severe electric shock. After they leave we see that all three exhibits are sapient and the hamster means to escape: he has a set of pirate gear hidden in his cage. Sylvester and co. also pass a strange multi-tentacled thing which looks like a plant which is imitating an insect, with "eyes" which open up like flower-buds to reveal two small sapient creatures resembling Shallow Wyrms but attached to the plant at the tail, and called Ahz and Skiv. We later hear this plant-thing called The Growth. A passing flutterby appears to explode when it gets too close to Snoot. While they wait to see Spatchcock, Rosemary pokes a Gnoll who is hiding in a large vase (we will learn that he or she is called Dyte), spying on them, and we briefly catch up on the other groups. We see a group of very regimented Eyebolt clerks, one of whom is arrested for Weirding – which seems to involve the imagination and astral manifestation of imagined objects. We see a young flutterby (like a very tough dragonfly) fooling around, imitated by a young Smyt. The young female Trog Wrawa recruits two mature male Trogs called Leny and Kronk to assist Sina in persuading Crazy Rhid to let them run the bucket chain through his home/laboratory. The loss of mind by older Trogs is discussed, and Trog friends or acquaintances of Kronk's called Yurd and Hamble are mentioned, who committed suicide by jumping into the Chasm when they felt their minds going. We see Leny try to eat a flutterby but it is, literally, too strong for him – it prises his jaws open and flies off. We learn that while male Trogs invariably develop progressive dementia after reaching full adulthood, 90% of female Trogs just die. Leny is very cheerful, despite his loss of functuon, because he was never very bright and so for him the dementia isn't a huge change. The auction for Protus's gadget escalates. We are introduced to SuperSmyt and his unassuming alter-ego Clur, defending three civilian Smyts from a giant Fuzz. Three Gnoll soldiers who are called Frag (who has a spiked helmet and an even spikier club), Forfind and Blem head to the defence of Le Tree, having been summoned by Nevus and Faldstool. Two Gobules, one of them named Cram, plan to attack Maw and Nash while they are distracted by fighting each other, on the instructions of an unnamed boss. A Deep Wyrm called Yaypo overhears the two Gobules plotting an attack, and decides to head for the Hot Zone, where it's safer. There he meets fellow Deep Wyrms Syth and Gybb. Gybb hunts talking rocks: he smashes all the speaking rocks he meets, until he encounters one much bigger than he is, which batters him. We see a pebble break loose and become independently sapient. It meets an "old codger" rock (later dubbed GeezerRock), then falls to the glowing, molten surface of the Hot Zone (which we will later learn is a crust over some powerful, deep-down machine), where it is nearly melted. It then crashes through a hatch into a deep zone below the crust, where we see the skeleton of a Human, a dead Mansion security guard. In this zone there are Nome workers, Kulkad and Fizmo, wearing space suits, who are monitoring something to see if it changes. If it does, they're been told (probably by Frowgler, although we don't learn that till later) to press a button and run. Kulkad picks the rock up and shows it to Fizmo, who is very frustrated because other things have changed – this is the third rock to come through the hatch this week, there are mysterious sounds and it's getting hotter – but the thing they're watching stays the same. The pebble (later known as SuperRock) grows legs and runs away, and hides behind the Human skeleton while the Nomes search for it. It gets into the airvents where it is unfazed by pest-control systems, including a semi-sapient Verminator Metalmin which it induces to break down a barrier. In doing so the Verminator damages the air-shaft mechanism so badly that it self-destructs, causing an explosion which blows the SuperRock back out through the crust and onto a stalactite which it begins to climb, and causes Fizmo, one of the space-suited workers (a very talkative one), to quit. Stalactites hang above the molten surface of the crust and stalagmites and stone pillars protrude from it: one of the pillars has a vertical row of lights up it. Comshaw, Digger and Niddle reach the gate that keeps Spyders and Tree-Squids out of the tunnels. Comshaw is anxious to find out who blocked the tunnel by hiring Skoil. They venture out into the forest, and Niddle is overcome by the sight of the sky. At this point, the crystal is consistently staying in his hand. They meet a Saur (who we will later learn is called Buzz and works for a mysterious Boss, probably Frowgler the "real life" horned frog, whom we will meet later) and two Pales. The Saur passes on a message that their world is ending, and about decisions Comshaw will need to make to minimize the damage. A great evil is rising in the Basement and if he turns back he may be able to stop it, but if he does he will miss a meeting in the forest which is even more vital. Buzz points him towards the forest, where he will find three old friends (Agita, Nevus and Guttle) who hired Skoil. The killer tree (the same one that tried to catch Mortimer) has a good feeling about the approach of Digger Odel and thinks he is lunch. 03: The Nome War [30/11/2004 – 10/01/2005] Digger Odel undermines and brings down the killer tree, watched by a Nome called Umboz, a squid-coaxer (we learn later that this means he persuades Tree-Squids to position themselves around his home village to protect it), and his daughter Vezza. Umboz is wrongly credited by other Nomes with killing the tree, and so clearing a path to a neighbouring North Gnoll village. Koyeeb, the local Nome mayor, proposes attacking the Gnoll villagers who are currently occupied with the Pales, and orders Umboz to lead the expedition. Umboz, fearing he is being set up because he is a political dissident, flees with Vezza. He mentions "Uncle Frotz and his friend Gnusto" who are out harvesting: these must be the two male Nomes whom we have twice seen in the forest. Frotz is Vezza's uncle and Umboz's brother. Umboz tells Vezza about a war between mining Nomes and Gnolls in the Basement several generations ago. Overcrowding frayed everybody's tempers, and then there was an explosion in a Nome mine which was attributed to the Gnolls, although it was really set off by a "monster" or Demon (who was probably a Human – in fact, almost certainly Mortimer, as he has referred to himself as having done something in the past which annoyed a lot of Nomes). The Nomes attacked the Gnolls in retaliation and the Operator stoked the war by handing out weapons. The Nomes lost the war because they had a hereditary leader called Zabern who wasn't much good. The Gnoll leader was Compline, who had survived serious childhood injuries and had been persuaded to lead the Gnoll army by his mate Caytid. Caytid was able to use magic, as both Gnolls and Nomes had been able to do in the distant past, and she brought other female Gnolls into the war as archers. Evidently both Gnoll and Nome society are slightly sexist, or maybe just fight in ways that rely heavily on muscle, as females fighting was a new thing for Gnolls, and also surpising to Vezza. A few mining Nomes were given refuge underground with other species but most ended up fleeing the Basement and living in the forest alongside the forest Gnolls. The Nomes who fled to the forest were helped by the Pales there, but then some of the very alien Sneeches emerged in between the enemy lines. Both sides disengaged and fled, blocking off that part of the Basement where the Sneeches were by plugging the tunnels to the forest on one side, and pulling down all but one of the Human-made bridges across an underground chasm on the other, trapping the Sneeches in a narrow zone. [This is why the Council had to make a new tunnel from their side of the Basement to the forest.] Pales sometimes sneak back down through Sneech territory and across the one remaining bridge to trade, but they don't always make it back alive. Umboz says that unlike all the other intelligent species, "Sneeches aren't people". Zabern was succeeded as Nome leader by his brother Gizgum, who was quite good at it, but rule then passed to Gizgum's son Tinsot and grandson Kaleeb, who weren't. Vezza, whose mother is dead, advises her father to marry a female Nome Healer called Piu, who pretends to hate him but secretly likes him. At this point they are interrupted by a battered Nitfol (who has lost his obligatory hat, and is still quite gummed-up with strands of Spyder web) and two Pales. They do not seem to be the pair we saw with Buzz: both groups consisted of a Pale with a flag and one carrying a tool, but the flagstaff and tool are different shapes in each group. Nitfol tells Umboz and Vezza to come with him to the Pale village, because "Glorf and the rest of the Mayor's goons" are probably coming for them. He agrees to pick up Piu on the way as well, in case the Mayor persecutes her for her connection with Umboz. 04: CROSSOVER: The Zayfaring Stranger [13/01/2005 – 15/03/2005] A Human man called Zay, who is dimension-hopping to try to find a lost colleague named Phil, crashes through a dimension gate into the Mansion. Frederick's partner the Scary Lady takes Zay to a Panegate, a fixed inter-dimensional portal, and sends him on his way. While they are walking to the Panegate we learn that the walls of the Mansion sometimes rearrange themselves; and get to see some strange bits of the Mansion, including a sort of amusement arcade called Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where the Scary Lady acquires a balloon; and meet a G455 Guardinator Bot, which zaps Zay but not the Scary Lady, who gives it a false name, Melvin Dwamish, presumably the name of some family member or servant from generations ago. The bot is guarding a room holding Ernest, the 19th Earl's, secret stash: we don't get to see what the stash is, but from Zay's reaction, probably sex toys. We meet Nellie Grubb, Amos's wife, whom Myrrh calls Prunella and with whom Frederick was once in love, although another man won her. We hear about the Crash, the sudden loss of magic, which occurred when Prunella was young (the Scary Lady speaks as if she was a small child, but we will later learn she must have been about twenty-five because she was already a student some years before the Crash) – later established as having taken place about fifty years previously. We see that Frederick's partner, a.k.a. the Scary Lady, can still do at least some magic, enough to modify memory – she makes Prunella forget their meeting, after Prunella wrongly assumes she and Zay are having an affair, and threatens to tell Frederick (who in fact probably wouldn't care if she were). We also see a magical lift-shaft which you levitate up after telling a musical crystal ball what door you want to get to, and some unspecified creatures (just the eyes in darkness, and clawed hands with four fingers and a thumb) hiding behind a barred opening in the lift shaft, who call the Scary Lady "the Destroyer" and are there to watch what she does and prevent her from breaking through the bars. If she does they must send a message "back home". One of them "flibbles" a GOBOL to get it working again: flibbling is a running joke because we're never told exactly what it is but it seems to be some kind of quasi-sexual act which some people do as a job, and others try to suppress. At the Panegate, the Scary Lady rescues a millipede-like trundlebug which was in danger of being zapped by the gate's security system. Zay is rude and sneers at her for showing compassion, so she decides not to tell him there are many different Panegates, and instead sends him somewhere difficult and filled with tentacles The balloon from the Landing o' Family Fun turns out to be strangely significant. Although the Scary Lady lets go of the string and allows it to float off soon after she acquires it, we see at the end that it is sentient, and is following her like a pet. 05: Business Dealings [17/03/2005 – 19/07/2005] We start by seeing the same trundlebug that the Scary Lady saved, as it flees from a slimegrub, falls down a shaft and is swept through the bowels of the Mansion to bounce off a pile of rubbish and land ultimately on Rosemary's helmet – by which point it has shrunk to less than half its original size, as a result of being teleported by anti-vermin filters. It's supposed to regain its full size after a few minutes, but doesn't quite. Rosemary and Sylvester are discussing chocolate, a great rarity, while they wait to see Spatchcock. We learn that Rosemary was an undercover hired guard for merchant caravans "Out West", pretending to be a travelling juggler while in fact working for a big security firm called Hack 'n Slash. Again, Human society, at least in the West, must be mildly sexist as a woman warrior was unusual (which made her better at not being suspected of being a guard). She mentions juggling triblots, which Sylvester hasn't heard of (we will learn they are fleebs). People in the west travel in caravans for safety, owing to widespread social disintegration. There are also small caravans in the Mansion area, groups of peddlars that travel around selling things such as medical supplies for which there isn't enough demand for a fixed shop in each village. Meanwhile, Snoot is assisted by a Gnoll named Erud, and the Saur Snerk, acting for his employer, wins the bidding for the HJ42. Agita says she is engaged in "appalled speculation" as to where Snerk was keeping the sack of fleebs which he suddenly produces: in fact we will learn later that Frowgler leant him a Poke Kit (a sort of other-dimensional suitcase). Comshaw and Niddle set out rather vaguely to find the "three friends" mentioned by Buzz: Comshaw figures it means the three bigwigs and he wants to know what they're up to out here in the forest. Along the way they capture a small Scalpsucker, and we learn that Comshaw had a dead friend named Boffin who was brother to Wunk, the panicky Gnoll who is on the Council. They meet a female Gnoll called Shona, the sister of Sina and also Nevus the Wyrm's assistant, who is waiting for the auction to finish so she can get through the security perimeter and give Nevus a message from Mr Faldstool (about the fight in Le Tree). The Trog Wrawa and her adult friends Leny and Kronk discuss a male Trog called Villipend who jumped into the Great Chasm when he felt his mind going, and Kronk says that was a good thing, he's glad Villipend is dead. A friend of Kronk's called Yurd who also jumped is mentioned, and a friend of Leny's called Grum who has gone to visit the forest (he was the Trog we saw running away from Skoil). Wrawa bullies Tuft and Dap (who is building pebble towers for fun) into calling Odum, a male Trog friend of theirs, whom she then recruits to join Sina. Dap seems to have some kind of alarm-switch he can summon help with. Rosemary and Sylvester are interviewed by the Eyebolt called Spatchcock, the manager of Le Tree, while carnage continues beyond his office window, and a Boogieman looms behind them, but so far in the shadows that he's hard to spot. Spatchcock wants to talk to them because they mentioned paper napkins, and paper is a great rarity in the Basement: the restaurant was actually planning to introduce them but this is a great secret so he assumes they are industrial spies. He scans them with his antennae and decides that they are forest Nomes from somewhere near an architectural feature called The Spike, who were sent by a rival restaurant called Le Gnollhole. Sylvester plays along with this, and inadvertently describes the appearance of Comshaw, the only Gnoll he knows, as being that of the Gnoll who sent him. Spatchcock then thinks that Comshaw, and the Council, are spying on Le Tree, which can only add to the tension between the Council faction and Nevus. We learn that the Earl is considered to be a "fairytale monster". Snoot, who knows the two are Humans, spies on part of this conversation, then goes to the Growth and extracts from it a small, stroppy Shallow Wyrm called Squeeb, Nevus's brother in law, who is studying Ahz and Skiv. Snoot sets Squeeb to infiltrate Sylvester's backpack and spy on him: Ahz and Skiv are pleased to see Squeeb go. Sprocket and Flange reach the wrecked Metalmin in the forest tunnel, and find Skoil, the young Poker whom Comshaw duelled, still lying unconscious or perhaps even dead. Mortimer tries to call off the auction because the Zorper is too dangerous to sell, but Snerk grabs it. Back with Comshaw and co., they talk about Comshaw's other grandfather Bivit, who went to the forest to hunt Scalpsuckers, and came back changed. We learn that Gnoll reproduction requires a mated male/female pair plus an extra male called a Finagler, possessed of some mysterious psychic and/or manipulative ability. Shona is due to marry a mate Snerd and a Finagler Wubb, but she is concerned that Wubb may not be up to the job and her and Snerd's children will grow up delinquent or deranged. Niddle, normally quite vague and submissive, takes charge to give Shona advice about Finagling, and also flibbles her. Shona and Comshaw watch a type of banded flutterby called a Vagabond, short-lived but able to fly beyond the world (we will learn later that this means leaving an area cented on The Spire and circumscribed by some kind of magical force-field). Vagabonds will be significant later. We also learn that Comshaw and his friend Boffin were in an accident in which something fell on them, and Boffin died: Boffin, who was the second-best Poker after Comshaw, saw a Vagabond leave the world when somebody hired him to go to the edge of the world, but he never said who hired him. Now Skoil is second-best. We see Thrash and two other Pales corner Niddle against a tree. It is possible they are the three Pales on whom Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed when they were clinging to the Tree-Sqiid, although if so not just the design of their bodies but of their tools/weapons has changed a lot. 06: Crazy Rhid [22/07/2005 – 23/08/2005] We learn that Crazy Rhid hates Wyrms because they can visit the Hot Zone and he can't. Sina's party locates him in the hallway outside his home, carrying an explosive plant-bomb. They discuss why he almost alone among Gnolls wears clothes, and why other species do or don't. We learn that he used to be a Candle Monk, which is why he still has a robe, but he was kicked out for blowing things up. He keeps the robe for its pockets. Rhid knocks out Sepferb with something from his pockets, and Sina talls hm she wants to hire him. They are interrupted by a ghost cat (a crossover from another strip), which Rhid dismisses as a side effect of the time twistpoint. Sina says she wants him to go away and eat the cakeshroom but he refuses, knowing she's trying to get him out of the way. He refuses to let them run the bucket chain through his home, and sets off munitions which injure Sepfrbfrx and blind Sina, and when Sina summons the Trogs and tries to intimidate him he kills Leny with the bomb, saying with apparent pride that he is a terrible person, and Wrawa then violently attacks him and causes him to flee, leaving the coast clear. Her voice changes into something terrible. 07: Le Tree Lecture Series [25/08/2005 – 11/10/2005] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Le Tree: as they do so Snoot plants Squeeb in Sylvester's backpack in order to spy on them and find out what they are, but Squeeb is zapped by something he finds in the pack (we will learn that it is a taser). Rosemary and Sylvester smell smoke in the air. They discuss the life-support Tree which runs throughout the Basement and Mansion, providing air, food and light without apparently needing to be fed, and with a root which goes deeper into the Hot Zone than even Wyrms can follow (so it may be connected to whatever Fizmo was watching). Sylvester says it's kept the system going for nine generations and people who attack it come to a bad end. Rosemary finds it rather sinister. The trundlebug is still on her helmet. They pass the display cases which used to hold Cap'n Hamster, the plant and the ABOL, but which are now broken: a bonus strip shows us that they have escaped, and have sailed away down an underground stream in a small wind-up toy boat called the SS Pretty Lady. They talk about the fact that Nomes are closely related to Humans, and other bipeds aren't: Rosemary has seen inside a Motihaul's ribcage (killed by somebody esle). They also talk about conditions in the west and we learn that there is a Motihaul Semi-Autonomous Region (SAR), plus a colony of Nomes who act as go-betweens, and near it is a very large, sinister, smoking machine or factory called the Infernal Engine. We also learn that although Ghasts are normally peaceful, there's a colony called Ghastvale where they are murderous to other sapients, and it blocks a mountain pass and forces traders to go through the Motihaul SAR instead. Sylvester knew about it even as a child because Frederick used it as a scary campfire story. They discuss Sylvester and Mortimer's money-grubbing sister Lenore, and an old flame of Rosemary's called Edwird is mentioned. It's established that Sylvester also has an old flame, not named (we later learn she's called Nimue), and that Mortimer is highly successful with the opposite sex and makes a habit of bringing home strange and dangerous women. As they leave the restaurant they are accosted by a very frazzled Hpobfvfr, who is then attacked by Frag and others of Nevus's forces: there seems to be a pitched battle going on between Nevus's forces and the Council. Speck, one of the Gobules who was present when the Operator flamed, warns them about the fire at the elevator. She refers to Gorp and Phiga as Gorphiga, rather like couples in fandom. Sylvester and Rosemary decide to go the long way back to the Mansion, through the Sneech den and past many dangers, rather than face an angry, flaming Operator. Camora and Hax emerge from their alcove and offer to guide them. Part Three: The Widening Gyre [12/10/2005 – 14/07/2007] 01: Strangers in the Night [12/10/2005 – 19/10/2005] We see the woman to whom the Weirdo, Arthur, was reporting earlier. High up in the Mansion she runs into Protus, who addresses her as Yasmine Fotheringby – we learn she has a strong accent and comes from a place called Shibolith. She asks him the quickest way to get down to the forest so he creates a rupture in space and pushes her through it, causing her to fall out into a ruined building in the forest, close to where Comshaw is searching for Niddle. We learn that Protus cannot walk – so the time-machine thing he sits in may be part of him – and that he is working with structures called time pylons, at least one of which is in the Mansion. 02: Frowgler the Horned Frog [20/10/2005 – 02/11/2005] In the woods Shona meets a talking frog called Frowgler, who possesses horns and a dragonish tail, both retractable. We will learn later that "Frowgler the Horned Frog" is the name of a guru figure in a popular local action comic, along with Roshambo the Warrior Beetle, whom the Sciencebugs worship. Shona associates the fact that Frowgler's horns are retractable with the way Nomes "tree-warp" in order to create Tardis-like bigger-on-the-inside homes in tree-trunks, a method which Nevus uses to hide his hench-Trogs Mulch and Grind: Frowgler refers to this as "tiny extra worlds". We will later learn that he has a Poke Kit (an extra-dimensional pocket) although that probably isn't where he keeps his horns. Frowgler seems to dislike Nevus, and tells Shona that there's no future in working for him, and she should work for Comshaw instead. He slightly implies that he might be a Demon, which makes Shona nervous: after she has departed to give her message to Nevus, Frowgler regrets having told her his name. He knows the names of her and her sister Sina. 03: Auction Aftermath [03/11/2005 – 20/11/2005] Knowing that the other three bidders at the auction will only allow him a brief head-start, Snerk the Saur flees with the HJ42. Agita is overbearing to Mortimer so he distracts her by kissing her, causing her to recoil in horror. The three fall out: Guttle threatens to eat Agita and Nevus, and Mimsy tricks Guttle into trying to eat a booby-trapped bauble created by Crazy Rhid and then hidden in her fluffy hair, and which ties him up in tendrils. We see a bearded Gnoll, a Gobule with four little tentacles on his head and a blindfolded Trog (we learn later that Trogs are very sensitive to sunlight) spying on the outcome of the auction – they seem to be henchbeings of the three bosses. The Gnoll we will later learn is called Agorn, and works for Agita , the Gobule is called Capper and the Trog is named Orfis and works for Nevus. Orfis, despite the blindfold, can smell the presence of a nearly-but-not-quite Nome, and the Saur running past them. Mortimer tries to sneak away in the other direction, carrying his sack of fleebs, and falls down a hole. Snerk collides with Shona, who is coming with her message for Nevus: the collision sets off the HJ42 again and it goes PROZ. 04: Good Rhiddence [21/11/2005 – 15/12/2005] Crazy Rhid runs away, passing the bucket chain, and Snerd goes to find Sina and get an update. Sina, who has been blinded by a blast set off by Rhid just before he killed Leny (but this isn't a major handicap because, like a dog, she is more scent-oriented), tells him that Leny is dead and the Ghast Sepferb, the same one who retrieved the cakeshroom from Maw's den, is badly hurt. Sina sends a very reluctant Snerd to tell the Ghasts so they can bring help for Sepferb, and sends Kronk the Trog to pursue Rhid. Kronk mentions that he was present – a long time ago – when Digger and a Trog named Yurd tried to saved the world, and from the sound of it people died. Noone present knows who Digger is. Sina also sends a Deep Wyrm called Ploot to organise other Wyrms, and a Motihaul called Hiblehoy to help Wrawa dispose of Leny's body, so the Gobules don't eat him. Ploot is very keen to help stop the fire getting to the Bottle, because Chauncy and Edgar visited the Hot Zone for two extended periods when they were loose before. Clochard speaks to a female Motihaul named Nugabela, who has children by Izchak, and has bought Bung's toadstool from Faddle. They see the Candle Monks massing to confront the Evil One and Clochard follows them, hoping for a show. 05: Guidance [16/12/2005 – 03/01/2006] Outside Le Tree, Hax prompts Camora to ask Rosemary and Sylvester to pay her for guiding them: Sylvester pays her with paper, already scribbled on on one side (Rosemary's To Do list) and she is glad to get it. A fountain with toxic fluid is mentioned. Sylvester pretends they are forest Nomes but Hax assures Camora they are Humans: we see a flashback in which Sylvester and the Scary Lady were involved in some trouble in the Basement. We learn that the Basement dwellers call the Mansion "God's Cactus" and that "God" in this context is not a deity but a wealthy, elderly man. The Candle Monks see the party and proclaim the Evil One: meanwhile in the background we see Frag with his club and helmet. Camora will guide them to see Izchak so Rosemary can get a new weapon. 06: Thrash [05/01/2006 – 18/02/2006] Still carrying the Scalpsucker, Comshaw sets out to track Niddle. As he does so he hears the sound "PROZ" made by the HJ42 firing. He encounters a Saur called Ig who used to know him and his late friend Boffin: Ig tells Comshaw he saw Niddle with a group of Pales, one of whom is called/has the job-title Thrash because he winnows out problems. Thrash has a double head-spike and a pale diagonal stripe across his chest, which must be painted on as later we see him without it. There is a mention of an Eyebolt called Preznit who is on the Basement Council, and wants to save the world. Ig says that Buzz's Boss – presumably Frowgler – appeared on the scene only recently and works with the Pale government, called the Nexus. Comshaw also learns from Ig that there had been an earlier explosion which went "ZORP", so the two were symmetrically matched. Ig and Comshaw come to a mound dotted with bare, dead-white tree-trunks: the top of this mound is called The Pit, and it normally performs some action which is currently quiescent. They hear a loud click and then a rainbow-striped pillar of magical Fire shoots out of the top of the mound, before switching off with another click. Comshaw guesses Niddle set it off by accident. Ig and Comshaw discuss some aspects of Pale culture, especially the carrying of flags with mysterious holes in, and we learn that in the past Comshaw, in his rôle as Poker, "brought down" a pair of rogue Trogs called the Raver brothers, and killed Crudbean – a sort of Triffid accidentally created by Crud, one of the protagonists in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They find Niddle and the Pales, who had been knocked off the hill by the Fire blast. Comshaw gets their attention by throwing the Scalpsucker at them, but is amazed to find how unimpressed by him Thrash is. The Scalpsucker first knocks down the one with the flag, then Comshaw confrints Thrash and demands to know where Niddle is and Thrash simply points behind him, to where Niddle appears, then turns and walks away. As he goes he picks up the flag, then peels the Scalpsucker away from the flag bearer and tosses it behind him – where it lands on the antler bearer, who chucks it into the forest. 07: The Hole Thing [20/02/2006 – 01/04/2006] Mortimer, who still has one shoe (on his right foot), and is still looking for Nitfol, finds himself at the bottom of a deep, crumbling pit created by the HJ42 blast. This sort of thing evidently happens to him a lot. A mongoose-like creature called a tunnel rat and a thing like a small eyeless Saur, called a Lurker, try to attack him but end up fighting each other (in the dark, he doesn't even see them). He asks a friendly female Scalpsucker (not the individual from the forest) to go for help, but then a small landslide, preceded by mechanical noises, reveals a door and he and the Scalpsucker go through it. They find themselves in the Basement storage-area of a pre-Crash branch of a Walmart-like superstore called World o' Pots (whose stock includes the self-sealing stembolts from Deep Space Nine), where Mortimer, still clutching his sack of fleebs, upends a crate of sphagnum dust over himself. There they encounter a scary-looking but well-meaning and slightly malfunctioning robot which Mortimer is able to semi-control by invoking a "Herediscan" which shows him to be an Eman, and which showers him with free samples of a fruit-flavoured dessert called Sploo and with little sweets called Yummysticks. Mortimer's brother Rufus then appears on the scene. The scalpsucker waits in the doorway, looking neglected. 08: Sittin' in a Tree [02/04/2006 – 27/04/2006] We see Piu, the Nome Healer (the one who Vezza previously said fancied Umboz), sprinkling things into a bowl: it's not clear whether she's mixing up what's in the bowl or feeding it, as an amorphous, grasping purple hand emerges and she whacks it with a wooden spoon. Umboz calls on her, and they semi propose to each other. He tells her that Mayor Koyeeb tried to have him killed, and she decides to run away with him, because she was already disaffected from Koyeeb's government as the number of Nomes in the village is dropping due to a low birth-rate, and Koyeeb is doing nothing about it. Mention is made of old stories about "Bugs" (Ettins) who were wiped out in a war. Piu gets out a brown ring, too big to be a finger-ring, that symbolises that she is betrothed: she also has a hat put away for their eventual marriage. The ring appears to be a hair-band, as up to this strip her hair is held back in a pony-tail by a mauve band, and after it, by a brown one. She is alarmed when Umboz tells her that they two, plus Vezza and Nitfol, have all been invited to visit the local Pale hive, since Pales are normally very reclusive: and a bit alarmed to hear that a beaver shark brought down Nitfol's hometree. Umboz agrees that if the Pales have invited them, it's because the Pales want something from them, but he can't think of a better way of hiding from Koyeeb. As they leave, in the background we see first one of a pot of ornamental carnivorous plants, and then the jelly monster in the bowl, trying and failing to eat a small flutterby: these things look as though they might be smaller, non-sapient relatives of Fern and the Oozes, just as there are non-sapient, livestock versions of Jibjibs and Trogs. Note that Piu controls the thing in the bowl with a designated Whacking Spoon, while we will learn that Ghast reproduction involves a pool of undifferentiated Ghast material and a Stirring Spoon. Glorf and the Mayor's goons are already at the window, and hear the clatter caused by the unsuccessful hunt. We see what Shona and Frowgler discussed, that Nomes live by creating Tardis-like spaces which are bigger on the inside, and which are apparently anchored to more than one tree, so that they can be entered and exited not just through the tree where the home is situated but through neighbouring trees (which is how they evade Glorf). Piu and Umboz rejoin Nitfol, a prattling Vezza and the Pales, and Piu gives Nitfol her emergency hat, kept for patients in need and made especially ugly so they won't steal it. As they set out Comshaw's Scalpsucker lands behind them. 09: Back and Forth [28/04/2006 – 20/05/2006] Propelled by the firing of the HJ42, Snerk the Saur and Shona the Gnoll find themselves fifty years in the past in the local Human city of Eetown three months prior to The Crash. They encounter a young, green-haired woman called Ilsa who is aggresively rude and calls them vermin, and one with long dark hair who seems to be the Scary Lady when young. These two are fighting about the Eman family because the Scary Lady is loyal to the Earl Philbert's brother, Frederick, and Ilsa hates the Earl and is part of some revolutionary group (we also see somebody in dark glasses, carrying a bomb). The Scary Lady realises that Shona and Snerk are out of their place and tries to use a magical 'fluence on Shona, but Gnolls are highly resistant to that sort of thing, so she grabs Shona physically and then is transported back to the future with her and Snerk. Snerk runs off, still clutching the HJ42. The Scary Lady tries unsuccessfully to remove her necklace/collar – this coincides with and may be the cause of the eruption of Fire from The Pit. Shona is aware that the town they were transported to had a feeling in the air like that of the River of Fire, and she'd like to feel it again. She believes she just went through a twistpoint, and isn't clear that where they went was in the past. The Scary Lady meets Frowgler and they discuss the collar, which is magical, is tied in to the power of the Mansion and was put on her by Frederick. It still gives her access to some power even in this future where magic has failed, although she's going to have to make some tweaks to the Mansion's magical systems. Frowgler warns her about the Crash about to happen three months ahead in her own time, and that she has to ensure that Frederick and his brother Quincy, Sylvester's future grandfather, survive it so Quincy can father children, in order to preserve causality. She might not care about the world ending if causality unravels, but she would care about Frederick ending, even though he was the one who trapped her. As confirmation that he's telling the truth Frowgler tells her that when she returns to her own time she will learn that Philbert is dead and Quincy is now the Earl. She refers to Frowgler as being "dressed like" a horned frog, so she knows him as something else. We learn that she is some sort of dangerous nihilistic demon whom the young Frederick and his friends summoned by accident and then couldn't banish again, so Frederick used up all his own power to create the collar that controls her. She hated him, yet grew also to love him. This must have taken some time, and Prunella was already a student when they did the summoning, which is why I say she must have been about twenty-five at the time of the Crash. Returned to her own time, the Scary Lady learns that Philbert is in hospital after a serious crash. She uses mind-control to co-opt Ilsa to assist her, reasoning that Ilsa will need a new purpose now that Philbert is about to die, and we see that a comic book called The Return of Frowgler is on sale. 10: Candle Monks [28/05/2006 – 09/06/2006] Rosemary, Sylvester, Camora and Hax confront the Candle Monks and we learn that Camora is the "Evil One" – because two weeks previously she accidentally knocked over their Eternal Candle while dodging a rack of lesser candles knocked over by Niddle. Rosemary scares them off by being commanding, but we learn that their theology is fairly sensible – they light candles because they don't like being solely dependent on The Tree for so much, including light. Camora tells the Humans about various religious sects in the Basement: we see what we will later learn are Bloomers, and she lists Beeblers, Ears of the Brush (we see a Helipath with an ear trumpet), Doomsayers, the Spelling Guild and her own group, the Ludwigites. They worship the great scientist Ludwig who rebuilt the world after the wicked Earl-monster tore it in two, apparently without realising either that he was Human or that he was the heir of E and eventually became the 18th Earl himself. They believe he was a Gnoll. Rosemary thinks it very progressive of the Candle Monks to have a male leader, the Ooze called Father Tartuf, because she's used to Oracles being female. Camora mentions that Comshaw has said that Nomes have male priests. We see that the Gnoll Clochard has been tailing them – and that he reports to Digger Odel. 11: Dropping Out [10/06/2006 – 16/07/2006] Camora, Rosemary and Hax go to visit a lavatory (known as a drophole) leaving Sylvester waiting outside. Protus appears to him (initially upside down) and says he needs to speak to him in private, and they are not alone (probably because of Squeeb hiding in Sylvester's backpack). He jumps Sylvester through a region of what looks like computer code to some kind of hyperspace cul-de-sac where Humans can survive (although Sylvester first forgets what his eyes are, then is able to see his own skeleton), and where Protus goes in order not to be overlooked by his employers (unspecified, but with eyes everywhere). Protus's world is in full colour, therefore full of magic. We learn that Protus has lost a very valuable object. He needs Sylvester's help to find it because he has special abilities – Faddle is mentioned as also having these powers, but not as much, and Mr Hand is mentioned as a nuisance to Protus. After turning on his helmet lamp, and a moment of confusion in which Protus appears enormous, Sylvester is able to see images generated by machinery which Protus has set up: he sees Mortimer wearing a pink outfit including a pointy hat and an umbrella, which is clerly the same outfit Mortimer saw himself in when he was Zorped forwards in time. This Mortimer is flying hand in hand with a kind of Superwoman figure in what seems to be an Eman family uniform, as it has a big E on the left shoulder. She is probably the woman Mortimer saw himself with in the future, as she has the same distinctive hairstyle, although her hair looks a bit lighter in colour. Then he sees Rosemary fighting a woman who is wearing some sort of leather gear and a magic glove, who we will learn is called Tansy, and who has the triangle-in-circle sign on her arm. He sees brief images of the male Motihaul Izchak, vending pointy things; of Crazy Rhid; and of an adult male darkpelter Trog, and he mentions that Humans in Wirtvale breed Trogs – probably less intelligent ones – for leather. He sees snapshots of three villagers: the local Oracle, Threnody; Saffron Stout the innkeeper; and Old Man Larssen. Then he gets glimpses of Angus's giant pot which is stored in the Mansion and of what looks like some Sneech growths, then of an old lorry (which he calls an auto) of a kind we will later see driven by Fixits working beneath the River of Fire. The driver of this one seems to have horns, or possibly a horned hat, and there is a big E on the front above the driver's cab. Protus says the lorry is the thing he's looking for. [Note: the only horned sapient species we know of are demons and Wendigoes; the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Protus then sends Sylvester back to outside the drophole, then reappears from further in the future to thank him for his help in recovering the lorry/auto. Rosemary, Camora and Hax then emerge (Rosemary says it was the second-nicest one she's used in a year, presumably after the flush toilet at the Mansion) and Camora can tell by scent that Protus has been there and has taken Sylvester out of time. She mentions that on a previous occasion Protus took Skibble out of Time Hall, and advises Slvester to describe what he saw before it fades, so he tells Rosemary about seeing her fighting a woman in a glowing glove, although Camora says the future isn't necessarily fixed. 12: Bad Rubbish [18/07/2006 – 04/09/2006] [End overlaps start of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions] Sina's team scatter to their tasks: Kronk to track down Rhid; Snerd to summon a Ghast Healer; and Hiblehoy to help Wrawa deal with Leny's body. Sina herself (still blind) takes the Deep Wyrms Ploot and Voog to break off a big metal fire-bowl from its plinth outside Rhid's place and chuck it through the door to set off any booby-traps. They are joined by the Gnoll Skuy from the bucket chain (who ducks when she hears all the bangs, but Sina doesn't flinch). Rhid's hall proves to be large and empty, but with alcoves along the walls some of which contain further booby-traps. They know there has to be a workshop elsewhere, for which Rhid is probably making. Ploot and Voog discuss Wyrm politics – their need for Telic (the healer) and someone called Hesper (who we later find out is a Helipath armourer) and for Coldzoners generally, a separatist Wyrm politician called Mother Byng who Ploot thinks is becoming senile (saying which could earn him a visit from a sort of secret police called Cousins) and trouble in the Burn Zone and with the sapient Rocks, which may cause them to need Rhid's weapons. The oppressive rule of families in Wyrm society is one of the reasons they come up to the Coldzone. We learn in passing that Skuy lives in a warren off Helignoll Hall with eleven other Gnolls. Voog, probing the alcoves, is injured by a booby-trap, which causes Sina to have a crisis of nerve about her leadership skills, but Skuy appeals to her desire to impress Comshaw. She leads her troops (Skuy the Gnoll, Spot the Gobule, Mowder the Trog and Fosic the Helipath) in setting off traps by throwing rocks: Spot is especially good at this, using his tongue, and reminds them that he is three-times winner of the Tosser's Cup. In the process Voog gives away the fact that some Hot Zone rocks are sapient and aggressive, causing Sina to promise herself never to go there. They need to press ahead because the smoke from the elevator is getting worse. They clear the way to the exit at the far end, but find it is blocked by a mysterious web linked to little glowing glass bulbs, and there is a burning pot of Trog Repellant which makes Mowder throw up. Mowder retreats, and Sina asks him to send any Ghasts forwards as she wants information about Dornbeasts. Meanwhile, Wrawa and Hiblehoy take Leny's body to Bowel Hall to be rendered down, because he wanted to be useful, and Rhid is seen fleeing past Tuft and Dap. We see Hpobfvfr, accompanied by a sled-mounted flame-thrower (not hers), interrogating Speck about Hpthbvtw's presence at the elevator explosion; the Council babbling in alarm; Nevus's Eyebolt secretary trying to get the flame-thrower recalled, so evidently it is part of Nevus's armoury; Digger doing whatever Digger does; Fizmo still climbing stairs; and Nitfol and co. still walking. Note that the title of this episode is a riff on the saying "Good riddance to bad rubbish". 13: After Thrash [05/09/2006 – 30/10/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1112–#1154] Comshaw, Niddle and Ig meet up by The Pit: Niddle still has his coming and going crystal, and close exposure to the Fire from the pit has left him with some extra clairvoyant knowledge of recent events. He mentions Mortimer, and Comshaw recognises the name as that of a supposed demon who caused an explosion which started the Nome–Gnoll war, and we learn that Compline and Caytid disappeared during a Sneech attack at the end of the war. We learn that Comshaw's father Comfrey tried to do something in the forest which Comshaw, his mother and the late Clerihew, Comshaw's parents' Finagler, spent their lives trying to live down. We also learn that the forerunners of Finaglers were called Schemers, now rare in the Basement but still common in the forest; that Ig has a forest Gnoll friend called Splat who won't tell him what Schemers do; that people come to the family home to get Finagling advice from Niddle when Comshaw and Camora are out; and that Comshaw and Camora are regarded as the best mated Gnoll couple. Sina and her intended, Sprocket, are the next best, although they argue because Sina has a crush on Comshaw, and Sprocket is used to relating to unconscious machines and his sexless Helipath partner Flange. Ig gives relationship advice to Comshaw. There is mention of a beautiful but too quiet Gnoll named Mimsy who was Comshaw's girlfriend before Camora. Mimsy is the Gnoll who now carries Nevus. Niddle warns Comshaw that the Pales were told by somebody (Comshaw assumes the Nexus, but it was probably Frowgler) to steer him away from the Pit; that Thrash is dangerous, angry and scared; and that Pales communicate supersonically although a few other people, including some Schemers and Finaglers, can hear them. We learn that forest dwellers call the Mansion of E "The Stump". Niddle recounts the vision he had when the Fire brushed past him – basically he saw scenes from all the things going on around them, and now he fills Comshaw in on them. The minds of Shona and Snerk felt good, as if something nice had happened to them (despite their trip to the past having been scary): maybe they picked up some magic. He has seen various Nomes, including a male priest and the party who are travelling to the Pale camp. We learn that the two Pales who are accompanying the Nome group are called Fetch and Stepit: Stepit seems to be the FlagPale. Niddle knows that the Pales think of their home as the Camp. Niddle saw Nellie Grubb – Frederick's neighbour – heading to the village. He knows where Mortimer currently is (under World o' Pots), so Comshaw decides to go and speak to Mortimer and find out what the Humans want. Ig comes too to see if anything entertaining will happen. As they walk they are talking about Metalmins, which Comshaw thinks of as some old Human thing. After the party sets off we see a Metalmin or some other robot (we only see part of the head – it's definitely not Hector) come into view near The Pit; Glorf standing in Piu's house (behind him the Ooze-like thing seems to be crawling away, taking its bowl with it); Shona talking to Nevus and Mimsy; Snerk finding a dead Spyder (actually, the same one which earlier attacked Nitfol and Mortimer); and the white-haired, oldish version of the Scary Lady, accompanied by the apparently sentient balloon from the Zayfaring Stranger incident. Woman and balloon pass what seems to be a topiary Gobule, labelled Znutar, and come to a golden glow which causes the Scary Lady to think that "it's time for that again already". Possibly she is seeing the light from The Pit through a window and remembering that she saw it from close up when she was fifty years younger. 14: Rufus [01/11/2006 – 27/12/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1161–#1195] Mortimer and Rufus discuss the family – they have sisters Lenore and Lil and a daredevil brother Ace. A few weeks ago Mortimer received a postcard from their mother and Lil sent from a place called Oongawa (the capital of Kuzco, near the Deep Jungle). Lenore is in their capital, and her last letter was very rude about someone or something. Ace was last heard of Out West, working for Grandpa Mundivagant. There is mention of Quincy having had an accident due to not tying his shoelaces. We learn that World o' Pots is 60% owned by assorted Pale shareholders (Pales from a sub-country called Shibolith, not the local ones): Pale communities are very competitive but the ones in Shibolith can't afford to ride to actual war on Titanbugs, so they compete over stocks and shares. Pre-Crash, Human weaponry had been leaning towards magic-powered zappers (we see a tank built by Griff in the Hall of Achievement, and we're told the brothers used to play on it – again, how did they get down there?), so the Pales did well out of The Crash because Human soldiers suddenly needed to buy their non-magical weapons, and it took a while for Human armourers in Wirtwam to step in and begin inventing non-magical weapons technology. There is mention of an unknown something lurking under the Barrier Peaks to the north. But the Pales also suffered many losses in The Crash so it's unlikely they engineered it, and their own country (Yurpsland, although readers weren't told that initially) also did well, because of Wirtwam, and because they already had a province named Isdanlia that built sailing ships, and that fact gave them a head start after the Crash so that now they have the most powerful navy in the world. The brothers pass through a cloakring designed to prevent magical snooping, although it gives Mortimer a bad feeling (he doesn't know yet that he has magic). Rufus thinks someone is watching him, but won't talk about it until they are inside the cloakring. It is mentioned that Mortimer is an expert lock-picker. Rufus wears gloves, and tells Mortimer not to touch anything. There is still a World o' Pots in the village but this pre-Crash one was vast and its basement is full of extraordinary things, some of them previously intended for shipment to the Far Eastern Shore, including a box of darkness, food supplies on which Rufus lives (and which include chocolate frogs, sasquatch and Soylent Grey), and a demon-trap bottle which Rufus had the shopbot install in case the unknown watcher is a demon, and which requires an extensible ceiling to fit it in, made by the Hammerspace Company, which specialised in extra-dimensional products including "Poke Kits" – weightless portable storage space. In the in-universe comic which featured Frowgler the demon frog and Roshambo the warrior beetle, Frowgler gave Roshambo a Poke Kit. The demon-trap worked best as a sort of tapered bulb, but since it naturally fills with liquid some marketing department decided to make it look like a wine bottle. We also learn about a massacre at a place called Thricklefork in Florin, after "an idiot at the Royal Academy of Magic" summoned demons. Rufus gets whacked by one of his own defensive booby-traps, but they make it to Rufus's room. Rufus says that for a year he has seen mysterious comings and goings from the Mansion of E (not the Basement), things being delivered or removed, and that the culprits are not Frederick, the Grubbs, Schmedley (the ageing butler) or Arthur the Weirdo. He believes it is down to Mr Hand, living high in the Mansion. Mr Hand is very old – believed to be the already-old wizard who locked the Operator in the elevator nearly eighty years ago – may or may not be Human, and has a Metalmin servant named Hector, which means he is the Overseer whom we have seen watching screens. There is a drawing of Hector on the wall. While they discuss Mr Hand, a shadowy figure is watching. This proves to be a woman named Eunice, who has a similar clubbed hairstyle to that of the Superwoman figure Mortimer was flying with in Sylvester's Protus-induced vision (but is probably not the same woman because her hair is lighter, and gets lighter still in later drawings), but wears gloves like Tansy, the woman he saw Rosemary fighting. Eunice stuns Mortimer with some sort of electric prod and tells Rufus, who has apparently known her for years, that she and the other villagers, including Threnody the Oracle, all work for somebody more important than Mr Hand. She works for God (the old rich guy, not the deity), and if Rufus comes with her, God will give him the answers he seeks. She dismisses Mr Hand as "a senile old fool". 15: Snerk Meets the Boss [28/12/2006 – 05/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions in between strips #1195–#1221] Snerk, the Saur who won the auction, is nibbling on the dead Spyder when Frowgler appears. Frowgler is looking a bit rough and has lost the tip of a horn: we don't actually know why because he looked OK when last seen with the Scary Lady. Either he has been elsewhere (or elsewhen), or the Scary Lady's return to her own time was more violent at his end than at hers. [Later we will learn that Frowgler has probably been damaged in an explosion which hasn't happened yet.] It was Frowgler who put him up to bidding for what he calls the Zorper – the HJ42. Snerk tells Frowgler that the Zorper fired – which Frowgler isn't concerned about – and gives Frowgler both the Zorper and a Poke Kit containing extra fleebs, which Frowgler had loaned to him. Frowgler dismisses Snerk, telling him to go lay low at headquarters for a few days, and to tell people called Lumpy and Buzz (presumably the Saur who gave Comshaw a message about the end of the world when he first emerged from the tunnel) he hopes to be back at headquarters tomorrow – but then he says goodbye to Snerk's departing back as if he expects never to see him again. Left alone, he speaks as if he has seen the Zorper before, refers to "your glowing friend", presumably the wandering crystal that Niddle has, then activates it. To do so he extends not only retractable claws but what looks like a button with a "3" and two dots on it, set into the palm of his right hand and resembling the writing on the buttons on the device (or perhaps it's a coin: it's not wildly different from some coins with the E on). This time the Zorper goes "OZPR", violently enough to worry Snerk. [Latr we will learn that this sets off the explosion in which Frowgler has been/will have been damaged.] 16: Closing In [06/01/2007 – 25/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1221–#1235] Clochard asks Bung where Digger Odel is, and Bung says Digger is returning after being hired by a mysterious personage to bring down the killer tree (remember that the killer tree coming down is significant because it cleared the way for Mayor Koyeeb to lead an assault on the North Gnoll village). Meanwhile Rosemary's party are heading for Izchak's weapons shop, and Hpobfvfr is seen fleeing, apparently because the flame-thrower is about to explode. Rosemary and Sylvester pass an official notice saying "DO NOT PAINT THIS WALL BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL", on which somebody has painted "ZARK OFF N DIE". Camora explains Basement politics as she sees them – how the Ghasts encouraged the formation of the Council as a peaceful alternative to the gang bosses Agita, Nevus and Guttle, because they need a stable environment in which to maintain their breeding-pools and reproduce. The Council had wanted Comshaw to be the Gnollish representative, but Camora didn't permit it. Camora regards the Council as meddlers, except that they did bring down and confine the demons Chauncy and Edgar. She despises Preznit, the Council leader, in part because he wears a hood and gloves and a fake voice and pretends not to be the Eyebolt everyone knows he is. The Helipath and Jibjib (Rubrak and Snipe) are trying again to raise the heavy weight in front of the "No loitering" sign. Hpobfvfr gets mixed up with Sina's bucket chain as a result of a misunderstanding – she is looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw and hears that there is an injured male Ghast near Crazy Rhid's place, but in fact it's Sepfrbfrx, now one of Sina's team. 17: Conflagration [26/01/2007 – 26/03/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1242–#1297] Rosemary and Sylvester come to Time Hall, the centre of the Basement complex, where there is a poisonous fountain (which spews a different fluid every hour) and a levitating Ettin-made clock. They proceed to Sidestep Hall, the Motihaul village, which is divided by sex: the fact that Rosemary and Sylvester already know that it will be leads to a conversation about Motihauls elsewhere, what a swamp is, and the existence in the Basement of Nubby's Crogogator Pit (Camora says that Nubby really got into his work). Hpobfvfr isn't interested in Sepfrbfrx, and in any case says she can't help him and he needs a Porta-Pool. She can smell that it was Rhid who damaged him, and can smell the Trog repellant, and she suspects Dornbeast bulbs are also present. She dismisses Skuy as of no interest, and asks Sina about a Ghast by the elevator. They are somewhat at cross purposes because Sina thinks Hpobfvfr is the Ghast that she sent for for help with Dornbeasts. It seems that the web across Rhid's exitway is a Dornbeast net. Rhid wanted an exit leading towards the elevator and the Fringes but that meant there were adult Trogs and Dornbeasts out there, hence his choice of a Dornbeast net and Trog repellant at the door. That means it is Hpobfvfr's quickest way through to the elevator. The net is made of Scalpsucker tendons and when pulled it sets off bulbs of sphagnum grit, which Dornbeasts find very irritating (although the ones which guard the breeding-pools are conditioned to ignore it). Some of the bulbs turn out to have explosive in them, not just grit, so Hpobfvfr slashes the net with a cutting claw concealed in the flesh of her finger. It was put there when she was a child, and it's painful. Sylvester's party have a certain amount of difficulty getting past the Motihaul guards, Smatchet and Gunsel, and Rosemary has to sneak up on them and disarm Gunsel. She tells them to either get some training or get a different job, and that Snoot will need a cleanup team at Le Tree. As the party leaves, the guards comment to each other that they have seen a "hat" like Camora's before, on somebody called old Mumchance. Rosemary didn't keep Gunsell's spear because she's done with stealing, and also it wasn't very good. Camora tells Hax, quietly, that the person to see for the best weapons is Hesper. Although Rosemary has a sense of unease, the party don't realise they are being overlooked by hidden seige engine controllers, including an officer we will later learn is called Upernavik. Meanwhile, the Scary Lady is still wandering around the Mansion with her sentient balloon, summoning it by whistling, Sina calls the bucket-chain into line to run through Rhid's place, and Hpobfvfr exits from the now open doorway and goes to the elevator looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw, where the Operator, now conscious and suspended in the fire, tries to hypnotise her. Meanwhile we see the Scary Lady, upstairs in the Mansion and still accompanied by her balloon, looking at the doorway which leads to Sneech territory and being concerned that it is silent when there should be a sound of screeching. Flames of magic flare out from the Operator, flowing through everybody nearby, incorporating the arm of a female Motihaul named Kulma which is then unnaturally stretched through a doorway to carry the power to touch the Jibjib Snipe and his Helipath friend Rubrak, who have just managed to secure their weight. It causes Rubrak to drop a hooked tool, just as the Scary Lady reaches the top of the elevator, presses a button and by doing so forces the Operator back into his lift and puts out the flames. As he feels his inescapabale task pull him back he grabs Hpobfvfr and drags her into the elevator with him, and the retracting lash of the Operator's energy and the Motihaul's arm throws the dropped tool and pings it against Chauncy and Edgar's containment bottle. 18: Chauncy & Edgar [27/03/2007 – 24/04/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1304–#1325] The people in the bucket chain who were caught up in the energy flow have been knocked down by it and are a bit dazed, apart from the Gnolls such as Niff, Folla and Wittol who are all still standing. Sina wants everybody to go home, now, because she feel something much worse than fire was involved, then it stopped for no reason so it may well re-emerge from the elevator. The Motihaul Kulma knows that her arm was stretched somehow and that it touched a Jibjib. Spot is being Spot and seeing how far he can stick his tongue into something. Meanwhile the demons Chauncy and Edgar, who are extremely polite and careful with each other (in a way which involves a quote from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, about staying on your own side of a division), investigate the damage to their bottle, where they can sense a tiny hole. We learn that they fear the Caged King (the devil in the elevator) and something called the Burning Eye (later comments suggest this is the light near the top of The Spike, a tall thin tower near the Mansion) very much, and the Scary Lady somewhat less so. Chauncy temporarily detaches one of Edgar's horns to use as a chisel to break their way out through the side of the bottle. Folla tells Niff that something weird is happening by the bottle, and Skuy and Voog can feel that Hpobfvfr was taken away. Sina is already telling everyone to clear the area when Niff goes to check on the bottle, sees it breaking and yells to everybody to run: note Niff and the bottle are not near enough to Sina for her to hear him. Both the Operator and the Scary Lady hear it blow. Once they are free, Edgar, the more Human-looking one, tries to set off on his own, but Chauncy (who resembles a woodlouse) won't let him. They kill the weight-lifting Helipath (who we only later learn was called Rubrak), who was knocked down by the energy surge – Chauncy cuts hir and then Edgar drops the heavy weight (which seems to be levitating, since most of it stays up after the rope is cut) on to hir. But Edgar is less murderous than of old, and turns down the chance to vivisect Rubrak's working partner, the Jibjib Snipe. We learn that Chauncy and Edgar were sucked through some kind of hole from their own dimension, where they were under such constant threat that they had no time to take names or to think, and when they arrived they kept up the same level of violence. Now as prisoners they have had time to calm down, and just killing more local life without gaining any new information from it seems pointless, at least to Edgar. They are aware of Rosemary, who passed by their bottle an hour or two beforehand: they can tell that she is of this dimension, not a heavyweight being like the Operator or the Scary Lady, but still she feels different and they go in search of her to dissect her and find out why. Meanwhile we see the Gobule Bung wake from deep sleep, apparently with clairvoyant knowledge of the demons' escape, and send two Jibjib henchbirds names Spuza and Snurt out with some kind of message or mission. 19: Remnants [25/04/2007 – 21/05/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1332–#1353] Sina, who deosn't yet know that Chauncy and Edgar are out, takes a mourning leave of the missing Hpobfvfr, standing in front of the closed elevator and apologising for leaving her. Many of her surviving forces disperse to home and/or safety, and Smyts move in to devour the dead. Sina speaks to a female Trog called Maggle who is a darkpelter (has a dark coat and pale hair) which is associated with resistance to Trog repellant: Sina sends her to take the buckets back to Tunktal the bucket maker, who is regarded with revulsion. Rhid's hidden workshop was blown open and exposed when Hpobfvfr disposed of the booby-traps: Sina and Skuy go to tell the Council about it, leaving Ploot and Voog (who had started to go home, then felt guilty about it and came back) to guard the workshop and prevent Rhid from returning. They don't actually enter the workshop, because it's booby-trapped (Skuy drops to the floor when exploding arrows start flying about), and the things in it might be useful so they don't want to just blow it up. Voog doesn't want to talk politics, and says if Ploot keeps talking about Mother Byng being senile he'll be tossed in the Squirmpit. Ploot can feel change coming. There is a twistpoint nearby which causes Sina and Skuy to see a vision (of the falling whale and bowl of petunias from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Rhid had told Sina about the twistpoints, with reference to the ghost cat we saw before: she says that he was dangerous not because he lied (he never did as far as she knows) but because of the truths he knew; that she wishes she'd had a chance to talk to him under safer circumstances; and that yes, he's a terrible person but a person can be both terrible and great. She wonders how many people Comshaw has killed (we know of at least three, if the Crudbean counts as a person). They head for the Council and to get help for Sepferb, still lying injured on the floor. On the way they meet Catmorlo, who collects her cakeshroom (accompanied by Nosh, who is eager to eat it) – Catmorlo gives them all a chuunk of the cakeshroom and Sina thinks that if she hadn't intervened they would all still have been standing around arguing about how to organise the bucket chain, no-one would have died or been injured and the fire would have stopped anyway (this may or may not be true: it depends on what the Operator would have done). She tosses the no-longer-needed tray away, hitting Nosh off-screen. No, she doesn't know why it's called a cakeshroom. Then they hear an explosion and meet a female Motihaul named Asota who warns them that Nevus and the Council are fighting, and Chauncy and Edgar are loose. 20: The Lady and the King [22/05/2007 – 09/06/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1360–#1367] By pressing a button the Scary Lady has summoned the Operator to open the upstairs doors of the lift: he asks if she's called him because she wants to know about the Sneeches and she tells him it's because he was having too much fun with the fire etc. and she had been contractually obliged to intervene, although various distractions conspired (possibly literally) to delay her in so doing. The Operator tries to tempt her to break her contract and let him do as he pleases, and in return he will restore both her and Frederick's full power and youth, maybe send them through a Panegate to a place where they can be the god Ghu Himself. Then he realises that Frederick-the-magician died (that is, ceased to exist) just after summoning her, so it was Frederick-without-magic that she fell in love with and she won't want the magician back; but still, he can give them both eternal youth, instead of her having to watch Frederick decline with age. He calls her "my child", and partway through this conversation his little uniform hat metamorphoses into a crown, the little tags on his shoulders grow into full military-style epaulettes and his uniform develops brass buttons and a medal, but she rejects his offer. He mentions creatures he calls "poor Shades" who refer to her as The Destroyer – presumably the ones we saw watching her from behind a grille as she escorted Zay to the Panegate. She mentions him standing on a balcony being cheered by a crowd (in Zark, as we will later learn), but he lost his power and now he's "locked in a box at the ragged end of reality" because nothing lasts forever: he says "including boxes". After she leaves, the Operator/King comments to himself that she was feeling unexpectedly hopeful and he wants to find out why. He reaches through the dimensions to touch one of Protus's time pylons: it gives him a shock but he hangs on and scrolls back through the Scary Lady's recent experiences. He sees a mask, then the pillar of Fire, then Prunella, then Zay, all of whom he dismisses as sources of hopefulness before coming to an unbreachable barrier. If these scenes are running in order then her hopefulness must relate to whatever happened when she went out earlier in the day. He believes she has seen whatever Protus is hiding among his time pylons, but doesn't know it. He wants to call her back some time soon to speak to her again, and we learn that he has engineered a test for Rosemary (floating above his hand is a vision of Rosemary's winged helmet and the horns of Chauncy and Edgar), and if she passes he will want her back too – but it depends on his gaining control over Hpobfvfr, who is still resisting his attempts to take over her mind. Meanwhile, something the Operator said has led the Scary Lady to assume there's something up with the Sneeches. She takes up her Sneechstick and prepares to go through the archway which leads to the route which runs through the Sneech den – so she will presumably be going down the route that Sylvester and Rosemary will eventually be coming up. 21: No Gnoll is an Island [11/06/2007 – 14/07/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1374–#1409] We see brief snapshots of the various groups – Skuy talking urgently to Ploot and Voog; people throwing stones at Chauncy, who is menacing Frag and a Trog; Kronk storming along, being watched by Clochard; Agita and Nevus and their assistants leaving the auction; and Ig, Niddle and Comshaw striding out. Then we cut to Comshaw's team in the forest. Comshaw is saying that Metalmins don't move: Niddle is just insisting that he saw a vision of an active, moving Metalmin when they hear the "OZPR" noise made by the HJ42 as Frowgler activates it. This is followed by a burst of purple light from behind the trees, and Comshaw says this is far more violent than and of a different quality from the previous such event (by which he means when it went "PROZ" after Shona and Snerk collided). He compares the previous event to the light-show in the Cavern of Serene Shimmering (which has something to do with marriage/reproduction), which isn't as bad as the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave. While they are talking an enormous boulder is thrown through the air, narrowly missing them. Niddle is thinking of going to check out the site of the explosion when Ig smells something (which he recognises but the Gnolls don't) and tells them to run. Something is growling offstage left and even flutterbys are fleeing. They climb up onto the ruins of an old Human fountain, and Ig tells them what's coming is a skunk shark, which can't climb, and isn't as bad as a beaver shark. Once beaver sharks lock onto a prey they never give up, but skunk sharks lose their sense of where you are and wander off if you climb up high. They're called skunk sharks because they smell, although neither Ig nor Comshaw know where the word "skunk" originates. Niddle is still clutchuing the glowing crystal but nobody notices or comments on it: not even him. Ig and Comshaw talk about the skunk sharks, whom Ig calls "growfers", useful omnivore which graze and thin out the saplings to create open woods and grassland. They don't go to the deep forest to the north, and that's why it is deep forest. They tend to graze in a circle which is "East of the Ravine. South of the Deep [forest]. West of the Stump North of the Edge. The important stuff." This circle is probably centred around The Spire, and doesn't include the Mansion (the Stump). The shark will go away eventually but Ig can't say how long that is because he doesn't know what an hour is and can only count to forty-two. This leads them to a conversation about maths and inifinity (we see the Eyebolt mathematicians Poyndext and Suscalva, arguing). Comshaw says he can count to a million, which is about how many leaves there are in the world, and Niddle says he's wildly underestimating. They have to hang around on top of the fountain's plinth for a couple of hours, talking, until the shark has gone. Comshaw tells Ig how they divide up the day into twenty hours, and they know about sunrise and sunset because The Tree extends above ground and responds to sunlight, and the GBOLs (Glowing Balls of Light), the lights powered by The Tree, are dimmer at night. The Basement-dwellers got the idea of a twenty-hour day from the Ettin-made clock in Time Hall which, like a lot of other Ettin artefacts, they wrongly believe to have been made by Humans. Comshaw has decided not to visit Louch after all, so while they wait they break out the beetles. Then Comshaw climbs to the top of the fountain (which is about 8ft tall, not counting the base) in order to get a good view all around. Part Four: The Road Less Travelled [16/07/2007 – 26/02/2010] 01: Izchak [16/07/2007 – 30/08/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1416–#1451] Sylvester's party come to a Motihaul-owned shop called Izchak's Sharp n' Pointy. Izchak is a bit annoying, and tries to sell them sharp twigs, Nome picks and then a machete-like sword which he says belonged to Othar. Rosemary is attracted by a weapon like a halberd with a weighted butt and a kind of hooked crescent end. She doesn't know it, but this is the same weapon Mortimer saw her carrying when he was briefly flashed forwards in time after he pressed the button on the HJ42 during the auction in the forest. Behind her back Izchak tells Sylvester and Camora it's not for sale because it's trapped in an "airbox", an Ettin-made forcefield which the Basement dwellers wrongly attribute to Humans, and which neither he nor Sprocket and Flange have been able to open. However, if he was telling the truth then something Rosemary does, or some change in conditions, causes the airbox to open and the weapon comes freely to Rosemary. As Rosemary is speaking to Izchak, Chauncy and Edgar carve their way in through the wall. They want to dissect Rosemary and Sylvester to see how they differ: Chauncy says that the walls in Rosemary's head have "only traces of extra paint on them", while Sylvester's are "thickly encrusted". They know who Rosemary is because they heard about her from another demon named Scratch whom she encountered before. Rosemary thrashes Edgar with her new weapon and then tells him that his victims felt similar pain, and until the magic comes back he's stuck here so he has to learn how to live here. Edgar it transpires is not callous or brutal: rather, because the Human world is so flimsy in comparison with his own he had believed that the world and the creatures in it weren't real, but something like a video game. Now that she has shown him that these are real people he doesn't intend them harm. We learn that Rosemary did something similar in the past with Scratch: she got him to pay attention to her, then advised him to go away, find a new place and learn how to live there peacefuly. We learn some background information. Demons in this world communicate with each other long-distance by a process called "tapping the lines". Chauncy and Edgar would have left long ago but they are constrained by some kind of barrier around the local area (it does seem to be local, not the planet's magnetic field). It surrounds the tunnels, the plant life outside and the Burning Eye, which is probably The Spire. Edgar can tell that Sylvester is closely connected with the Scary Lady (his great aunt), and Sylvester tells the two demons to go ask her to help them to get away. They say she has forbidden them from ever going upstairs again, but then Chauncy senses that she is on her way down, so they go in search of her. Before they leave, Chauncy asks Rosemary to strike him too so he can feel it, and she does so but nearly breaks her wrists, because he is so solid. Chauncy agrees that that was unpleasant and he'll think about the implications. Edgar, who seems to be a nice boy at heart, thanks Rosemary and says he will talk to the others. Then they simply carve their way through solid rock to go see the Scary Lady. After they have left, Rosemary pays Izchak, and starts looking for a suitably grand romantic name for her new pole weapon. Sylvester dubs it "the Can-Opener". He finds it supicious that the airbox just opened and let her take the weapon, as if it had been set up for her to take. He learned about airboxes at the University: they all have some specific trigger to open them, but it could be anything. We see sample airboxes containing a little machine with three "eyes" and two arms or horns; a statuette of Cthulhu/a winged Ichyoid; and a pipe with a flared end. As they come away from Izchak's shop Camora smells something, and a voice shouts "HALT!" 02: Upernavik [31/08/2007 – 26/09/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1458–#1479] As they come away from Izchak's place, Sylvester's party encounter a group of male Motihaul soldiers armed with cold-forged iron weapons (which was what Camora could smell: and Sylvester can tell that they are cold iron, which implies he might have some magic himself), inbound to tackle Chauncy and Edgar, and are warned by their officer, Matagam, to leave the area. The clever and devious head of male Motihaul security, Upernavik, is listening through bugging devices: he must have heard the confrontation between Rosemary and Edgar, because he has "Scratch" written on his notepad. He sets Whisp (a dark-pelted female Trog) to tail Rosemary, Camora and Sylvester, then orders his side-kick called Knumdrot (a play on the Patrician's secretary Drumknot in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels) to lock down their whole Hall, saying that the sellers might object but their spokesmotihaul just had his shop ripped apart by two demons and a giant killer Nome. Knumdrot refuses, citing a Contract which states that a Full Hall Lockdown requires the prior consent of both Upernavik and his female counterpart, Angmagslika. Upernavik regards consulting with Angmagslika as a dire ordeal – but he doesn't need to meet her after all because he receives a message from her telling him to initiate Lockdown. A horn is honked to alert two male Motihauls called Notserplib and Nagolder, who are dozing in a very cozy flat or office full of ornaments and games. We see the sound travel down pipes past a Smyt graffiti-artist ("Fnord wuz ere") and a Trundlebug who is looking at something like a Pacman monster. The two Motihauls have a pet tunnel rat called Hackit who is sleeping on Nagolder's stomach, and has to be lifted up with defensive gloves and placed in a box decorated with a moon and stars (it doesn't work without them) to control him. His job is to protect them from slimegrubs. Once Hackit has been safely boxed, they swim down a well-shaft to an underwater capstan which they turn to close off the Hall: they are able to breathe underwater, so long as it's fresh water. Nagolder, we learn, is a friend to Cully, the young Gnoll who was banished to SubShaft 44f. Shut outside in Time Hall, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that he considers her to be only the second most frightening woman he knows – after his great-aunt the Scary Lady. 03: The Gibber [27/09/2007 – 01/11/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1486–#1515] Rosemary starts to tell or ask Sylvester something about the Scary Lady, but Sylvester interrupts to talk to Camora about the fact that they are heading for the Riddle Grotto. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their upbringing – Sylvester's parents were loving but absent, his father a twit who died young, his mother always a traveller, literally and figuratively, so he was raised largely by the Scary Lady. Rosemary, whose parents we know drowned in a maritime accident, was raised by her Aunt Eva and by Eva's former bodyguard Zeke. We see a vignette of Eva teaching Rosemary how to pick locks. Heading towards the long way out, they pass a group entity called The Gibber, guarded and assisted by an elderly female Gnoll (the grandmother of Mimsy), a Poker called Anathama. Helignoll Hall is a major home site for Helipaths and Gnolls: some years previously they started to open up a side chamber called Helinew, but then seven years ago a group centred around a male Gnoll called Altholen, inspired by stories of the magic-users Caytid the Gnoll and the male Motihaul explorer Othar, used "Sneech squeezings" and the underground River of Fire (= magic) in an attempt to reawaken the magic in the world. Instead, they caused a cataclysm called the Breach which extended right up into the Mansion, where it caused sparks or similar to shoot out of the Tree. In the Basement it killed a large number of Ecadems and generated many new twistpoints. Camora's sires' Finagler Twitchel helped to seal it again: her sires Buccula and Choller also claimed credit for sealing the Breach. Some of this information comes from Camora, and some from Anathama who says that Buccula and Choller just got in the way, and it was the Trog Yurd and co. who fixed it. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Anathama they are forest Nomes, but Anathama as a youngster saw the young Sylvester and the Scary Lady fleeing a running fight with some Trogs in the Basement and she knows that they are Human, although she doesn't comment. One of the effects of the Breach was to bring The Gibber, a cloud of half-seen faces in the darkness beyond a hole in the wall, into being in their own pocket of reality, overlaying what had been Helinew Hall. The Gibber have great knowledge and always tell the truth, so they function as an oracle. The Gibber knows their names – Sylvester Winston Humphrey Eman (but they hesitate over the Eman and say that some things are truths and not truths) and Rosemary Imogene Ripley, who they know arrived in an instant. In the past they told the truth to Camora, that she was going to mate with Comshaw: neither she nor Anathama were happy about it, since Anathama thought he would mate with her granddaughter Mimsy. Now they tell truths to Rosemary and Sylvester, which they later tell Anathama were among the greatest truths they have ever given. To Rosemary they say "What you stole is even more dangerous and precious than you know. In the end, you will fly away and live forever, and you will leave the world shattered in your wake." To Sylvester: "You will return to where you started, and you will become what you hate. And in doing so, you will restore the world to what it was". After Rosemary and co. have left, The Gibber tell Anathama that they are dying – the power source which maintains them has failed (which suggests they are powered by the Sneeches). She is quite upset by this. She tells them that her duty with them has not been onerous, especially considering some of the things she has done in the past – we see her crawling through a tunnel to collect Glowgems – and she mentions somebody called Bokonon who was "Sent into the SubShafts, and then..", which was somehow Digger's fault. This was connected with some necessary but personally risky thing that a group she belonged to, along with Bokonon and Digger and unspecified others, was and are doing. She needs to find Digger and tell him that Humans are back. Digger has never been to The Gibber to hear his truth. 04: Hop Skip and Several Jumps [02/11/2007 – 08/01/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1520–#1581] Bung's Jibjib messenger Snurt goes to Maw – who is just wrapping up winning a battle against his assailants – and warns him that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. Cram and his colleague, who were planning to attack both Maw and Nash, have been defeated: Cram is fleeing and the colleague is dead. One of two tiny Fuzzes is unimpressed by Chauncy and Edgar, qua world-destroying giants, as they've seen bigger. The people at Rhid's place arm themselves with the remains of his Dornbeast-repellant globes, ready to fling them at the demons. Sprocket and Flange 'phone Mr Hand and tell him they have his Metalmin filament and now they're going home: they don't tell him they have seen Nevus and Agita returning to the Basement. Mr Hand tells them to drop the filament off first. Nevus speaks to Frag and is surprised to find that in his absence his forces have gone to war against the Council, in his name and claiming his authorisation. The Nome party – Vezza, Piu, Umboz and Nitfol – and their Pale escort cross a rope bridge across the Ravine en route to the Pale camp. A chain of Pale lookouts send a signal to the Camp by waving flags and tools: at the Camp they have a telescope set up to watch for the signal. We see their supersonic voice being sent from the telescope operator to the The message is "She is coming", so presumably it's either Piu or Vezza they want (unles it refers to Fizmo who will join them later). The message passes by somebody who is being showered (or maybe fumigated). The Nexus him or herself, the ruler, is apprehensive and says that "she" may not be "the one", and the outcome will prove "Frogmask" – presumably Frowgler – right or wrong. We see a frog on a lily-pad near a Pale boatman: apparently it's a real frog. The boat is a punt, and there are fish in it. The action cuts to the high thin tower called The Spike, on the edge of a lake somewhere near the Mansion, where a high-ranking male Fixit called Cox is using a mesmerised Pale mount to listen to Pale communications. Cox speaks to a Human called Dorian who has lived in The Spike for forty-two years. Dorian is being ridden by a Fixit but it seems that Dorian is the one doing the talking, and is in a position of authority. Dorian says that somebody called Kelso is "finally bringing in her pet idiot" – presumably Rufus. We will learn that Kelso is Eunice's surname. Cox floats down through the tower, using artificial levitation devices, until he meets a female Fixit called Vix who is riding a controlled Nome girl, and pushing a gurney holding industrial supplies. During the chapter headed Thrash, in the 900th strip which in real-time appeared almost two years before this one, a light message saying "900 WOO HOO" was seen shining from the top of The Spike. In-universe, this of course was earlier the same afternoon, and Vix says that the "wooflare" has drained some resource which the supplies on the gurney will help to stabilise, but Cox calls her away to walk with him. We learn that Cox is significantly older than fifty and witnessed the Crash. He talks to Vix about the Crash and the Human cities he once saw. Vix doesn't think she will ever ride a Human and visit such places, as she's never even been DownSpike: Cox says he was there when she was brought up from the pens. There is a reference to a shield around the area, and to a new Human being brought in to The Spike, presumably Rufus. Protus, he thinks, has some vast plan – he first appeared five years beforehand and since then there have been more wooflares, both in the Spike and the SubShafts (a fourth-wall breach reference to the dawn of the comic, although it only became an organised web-comic four and a half years earlier), and more twistpoints. Mr Hand has been passing on reports from the Hot Zone observers, which also suggest imminent events: so Mr Hand is in some way allied with The Spike. Protus finds Mr Hand mildly annoying but nothing they know of will make him angry: but he could still crush them all in passing. There is also a female enemy Out West who some people fear might be involved with Protus, although Cox doubts it, and so does a leader called the Topspike, who may be the same as God. Cox says that before the Crash he was sent to Rowen, the capital of Lune, to bring back an airbox (maybe the one in which the Can Opener was kept?), but he should have dumped it and fled, and Vix should do the same if she gets the chance: flee the Spike, and go anywhere except Out West. Meanwhile, within sight of the Spike but some distance away, Frowgler crawls out of the crater left by the OZPR event – he seems mildly disappointed that it didn't kill him. He has the broken horn: is it possible that within his own timeline this is happening before he met Snerk and received the Zorper from him? Perhaps going OZPR sent him around in a circle. At the Mansion, the Weirdo, grieving for his dead friend Tulip (said to have been "hauled off to the Pole", a euphemism for death), has got roaring drunk, climbed up to the roof terrace, set off a siren called the Mugwump Alarm (although there are no longer any Mugwumps in the area and they are believed to be extinct) and passed out. Amos Grubb comes to shut off the alarm – which requires complex instructions from a code book (he seems to be the Mansion's librarian) – and has a conversation with Fantod, the Weirdo's ventriloquist's puppet, in which Fantod speaks as if he is an independent entity. Fantod never met Tulip, because Arthur won him in a Skipjack game after he left the Weirdo Academy. Fantod tells Amos about some events he and the Weirdo witnessed by the elevator, and refers to Rosemary as a "sword bunny" (an expression previousy used by Arthur – of course). They seem to be regular visitors to the Basement (again, how do they get down there?). Amos assumes that Rosemary must have arrived via the village, and that Nellie will hear some gossip about her while she's in town. Note that on the human side of the door, the door is marked in formal print "ROOF mind the gargoyles", and on the gargoyle side it's marked in scrawl "NOT RooF MIND THE HooMANS". The Weirdo having sobered up a little, Amos advises him to go to the Temple in the village and ask the Oracle, Threnody, to light a candle for Tulip. he and Amos walk down many stairs within the Mansion, and we glimpse a Panegate which opens into a world of yellow light and busy Helipaths. We see strange machinery, cables and pipes and Tree branches in the walls; Schmedley's room; the Scary Lady's electronic crystal ball; and a device called Ludwig's Vent Tapper 3000, which seems to be trying to tickle a magical flame into life by going beedle beedle with a mechanical hand. A limb of the tree connects into the Vent Tapper, then leads all the way down into the Basement where we see a female Gobule called Gulch teaching three baby Gobules called Gif, Glub and Gip, and telling them about the Tree, and about how they chew on bones and then make torches from the bigger ones, and about great bones within the ground, which they sometimes dig up. We see in cross-section that a ceiling GBOL light in the tunnels is connected to a huge, buried bone. Buried near it we see the head and claw-hand of a Metalmin, who died clutching a Glowgem. 05: Skibble's Place [09/01/2008 – 01/03/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1594–#1636] Rosemary threatens to hit Sylvester if he tells anyone her middle name is Imogene; he tells her that Mortimer's are Nigel Mundivagant. We learn from Camora that Mortimer was the "demon" who caused the Nome War, and from Sylvester that his parents chose their children's names from a very pompous and very long classic book called Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. Ironically the Mortimer in the book pulls wings off flutterbys, while we will later learn that Mortimer Eman has a strong connection to the things. Boogiemen choose their names from a secret Human book; Gnoll names are chose by their parental Finagler. Rosemary is alarmed by the idea of eternal life – she says she'd get really bored after the first thousand years. Sylvester is less alarmed by the idea of becoming what he hates, since he hates some quite harmless things, including his brothers sometimes, and the trick is to make the prediction work for you: Camora grudgingly admits (mainly sub-vocally to Hax) that she is happy with Comshaw. Sylvester comforts Rosemary by interpreting her prediction as eternal fame rather than eternal life. They come to Skibble's place (not Skibble, just his place), guarded by a male Gnoll called Cerbis, who peers through a slot in the door and offers to lend them a token with an "E" on it and a string hanging off it, to be used to activate a device to summon the Great Riddler through whose territory they must soon pass. He says they'll owe Skibble a favour for it (favours are traded as a kind of currency), and the string is so that after they've used it to pay the Summoner device they can pull it back out, as Cerbis has a limited supply of them. Sylvester turns the offer down. They discuss the aurilnode on the wall outside Skibble's Place: it was invented by a Helipath called Auril and Sylvester is impressed and disturbed by the level of sophistication it shows, and also by the spectacular magical event caused by Altholen, which wasn't a stupid idea as such even though he failed in his purpose, and which suggests outside help (whether to set it up or to fail isn't clear). He tells Camora about magic and the Crash, before which Humans too had telephones. He describes it as a huge magical surge which blew all the magical systems and tools and killed most of the magickers. Sylvester wonders whether Auril used Sneech squeezings in hir work. Camora says s/he was too sane to do so, and this leads to a discussion about genius and eccentricity – about Rufus, who takes dangerous scientific risks, and Rosemary's friend Edwird, who likes to swim in ice water, and Telic the doctor, who operates on hirself. Sylvester is sure that Auril used either knowledge or material from the Sneeches, which makes him want to get out of there even more. Camora realises that Rosemary and Sylvester just want to get home, and she wants to take them to the Council's tunnel soo they can leave, but Hax says this is a bad idea as it would give an invading force an easy way in. They set off for the Riddle Grotto, with Whisp trailing them. On the way they talk about family: Rosemary is an only child, since her parents got pregnant with her on their honeymoon and then died when she was six months old, but Sylvester is one of six. And yes, he loves Lenore, even though he doesn't trust her. Camora, who loathes her own brother, doesn't understand this. Camora tells them about Skibble, who first made a name for himself by unexpectedly winning the Stacking Cup at the Games, then became a gemhunter, but the dialogue trails away as they move on. It's a running joke that we never find out what species Skibble is. Meanwhile Shona, returning from the forest, realises her sister Sina is in trouble and goes in search of her, as does Sprocket (who expects that he and Flange will have a lot of work doing repairs). Shona has already reported to Nevus and told him about Frowgler and the "tall Nomes", but Nevus, Mimsy and a couple of male Gnoll soldiers, Frag and Blem, are still stuck trying to fight their way through to Nevus's office (which is in or off Crescent Hall). Nevus is having nearly as trying a day as Snoot. Agita is also back, and meets with her assistant Flibbergib the Eyebolt, who is riding on a Gobule and has been sent by a Mr Foolscap to warn her about the fighting, and to complain about Weirders. Agita comments on the fact that Flibbergib is upRooted, which suggests that while Camora may have been exaggerating about Eyebolts fusing with their seats there was a grain of truth in it. Guttle, delayed by the tangle he was caught up in, and still partially wrapped in tendrils, comes stamping down the tunnel, dismissing Skoil from his service as he tramples him underfoot. We see a scarred Rhid, still trailed by Kronk and contemplating desperate measures. We see the scuttly little sapient rock still trying to climb out of the Hot Zone, but having trouble coping with the distances involved. We see the Scary Lady and her balloon venture into the Sneech den, thinking that something is very wrong: Frederick half wakes and thinks of following her to make sure she doesn't do anything drastic, then falls back asleep. Clochard and Anathama meet up, both looking for Digger, and exchange dire news (the Council and Nevus at war, The Gibber dying, Humans returning, Kronk chasing a burned Rhid) which is trumped by one of Bung's Jibjibs, Spuza, warning them that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. They discuss the fact that Anathama saw Sylvester in the Basement fifteen years before, along with the "Clawblaster" – evidently the Scary Lady – and now he's with Rosemary, and with the pole weapon which Anathama has seen before, and although he's older he's far from old which tells Anathama that Humans have much longer lifespans than Gnolls. Anathama herself was whelp when she saw Sylvester (a.k.a. "Eyeplates") and the Clawblaster, and that was fifteen years ago, so she's sixteen or seventeen, and she says she's unusually old for a gnoll. Meanwhile, two Trog raiders wait at the mouth of the tunnel, planning to mug the next person through: it's about to be Guttle. They don't even notice Digger passing them by. 06: The Three Great Riddles [03/03/2008 – 04/06/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1643–#1725] Camora is telling Rosemary and Sylvester about Skibble – it's not clear what species Skibble is but he's a sort of Trickster and is friends with someone called Blitz who is probably a Gobule. Camora's story involves the words "So Skibble eats all of them!" Rosemary replies "But you just said Skibble is a—", and Camora waves her hand and says "Yeah, yeah, he probably got Blitz to eat them." The implication is that Skibble is something with a very specialised diet: so probably a Ghast, Ooze, Helipath or Ichyoid. Heading for the Riddle Grotto they pass a sign warning of a defence system called Death Doors, which are doors which attack any non-Human trying to open them, as with the Djinnoscope. They pass a door labelled Pots Room without stopping. Sylvester mentions the Djinnoscope, Camora asks about it and he describes the Hall of Achievement to her – but she knows it as the Death Hall, and the Djinnoscope as the Death Machine: Sylvester jokes about sub-committes in charge of naming. He explains that the Djinnoscope is called that because it can grant boons, like a Djinn. It's believed to have been a Djinn who taught people (he means Humans) how to tap into magic. They come to the Riddle Grotto and find themselves on a jetty at the side of a deep pool. Theoretically no one can cross without authorisation because the Riddler lives in the water and is fantastically fast (as they see when they toss a rock into the water, from a handy bowl of rocks provided for that purpose), but a Jibjib called Speedy once flew across on a bet with someone called Shilpit. Othar the magical Motihaul explorer is mentioned again. They prepare to say goodbye to Camora: she again wants to tell them about the tunnel (and is hearing voices), but Hax dissuades her. We learn that the Three Great Riddles were named by Dorn, 10th Earl of E, who also created the Dornbeasts (initially known as siegebeasts) as battle-mounts, and ended up being eaten by them. Sylvester has two large and one small E tokens in his pocket: he'll tell her what the small one is for later. Camora notices that the cabinet which holds the Summoner has changed shape (from a kind of squat bullet-shape to a straight-line oblong) since they first came into the grotto, but Rosemary and Sylvester have seen no change, which suggests that either their memory or the time-line is being tampered with. Sylvester says it's always been as it now is – and that it reminds him of something he saw with Protus (although it just looks like a dark oblong Protus took him though). Hax invades Camora's mind – previously they were just sub-vocalising – and takes it over, saying that he must follow his orders and she would find it distressing to be aware of what those orders are, and her mind and her sanity are precious and must be preserved. Rosemary and Sylvester are only aware that she went blank for a moment. Having been taken over, Camora now says she was foolish to suggest that the cabinet had changed, but Sylvester refers to his great-great-uncle Hindenburgh the wizard, who also witnessed things changing. Sylvester inserts a token into the Summoner and it sets off a siren (playing the Jaws theme, very loudly) which summons the Riddler himself – a giant Ichyoid about 60ft high, older than the Earldom of E and speaking a Human/Ichyoid pidgin represented as Futhark runes (occasionally upside-down Futhark runes). He starts by asking them their business, and addressing Sylvester by name, and expressing sorrow at his father Willoughby's death. Willoughby had a knack for making friends. Sylvester introduces Rosemary as "non-family – staying?" The Riddler replies that she is dangerous. Sylvester asks if he, Rosemary and their possessions may pass over, and the Riddler asks if "Fixit Gnoll" wants to cross too, but they don't understand what he means. He asks for information on Frowgler, but Sylvester only knows about the comic-book character and explains that he is a two-dimensional representation drawn by somebody called Linderhoff. We learn from Rosemary that Roshambo, and his talking sword Slasher, and the frog-wizard Frowgler, and other characters including Naif and Arax, are hugely popular cultural icons and the comic's been running since before the Crash, although Sylvester later comments that the quality of the comics has declined since then. Sylvester recalls Mortimer complaining that one of his Roshambo action figures had been damaged – this may relate to the Sciencebugs who were worshipping a Roshambo figure on Mr Hand's desk, or perhaps Frowgler measured a Frowgler action toy to get his impersonation right, although the comic-book Frowgler has a more elaborate tail-tip than the "real" one does, and his horns are yellow. The Riddler finds their information about Frowgler interesting, and gives them permission to cross. Sylvester warns Camora not to try to follow them as she doesn't have permission to cross, gives her the second half of her paper payment, admits to her that they are Humans and promises to try to come back and speak formally to Comshaw and the Basement authorities, and to try to make things better for everyone – but it's not Camora they are speaking to now. Rosemary and Sylvester are both aware that Camora has changed, but they don't know why. Note that the three Great Riddles aren't really riddles at all, but questions: how to get the Riddler to pay you benign attention; how to understand what he says to you; and the third one is a request for information, in this case about Frowgler. A pontoon rises and rotates into position, enabling Rosemary and Sylvester to cross the pool. Sylvester thinks the inefficiency of all this is a feature, not a bug, to make people reluctant to disturb the Riddler. There used to be a lot of ways in and out of the Basement but they were gradually all closed off except two – Rosemary reckons there must be at least one more to explain the various appearances and disappearances, and that Arthur the Weirdo uses it (OK, how does he avoid being noticed as a Human?). The pontoon's action is so jerky that as they get to the far side they fall in a heap and Rosemary jokily tries to kiss Sylvester. Hax thinks he senses someone, but can't make out who (it's Whisp). He walks Camora away. Sylvester had kept some things from Camora, such as the fact that the bridge stays in place for a couple of hours, and that he didn't need the token to operate the Summoner, because he's an Eman. We learn about Herediscans, security devices which identify members of the E family, and that the family used to manufacture reverse-engineered Ettin-style robots and sell them under the brand name Factor E. Some of the scanners accept new people: some only accept family, and because of the dilution of the family's DNA over the generations, some now won't open at all. Rosemary and Sylvester have one more Herediscan to get through, and he has to be alive to operate it. Sylvester doesn't like comics because he feels they have declined in scope and presentation and aren't nearly as good as before the Crash. But he knows he is privileged to be able to worry about such things, after society came so close to total collapse. Rosemary's Aunt Eva was close to starving but she later ended up as a professional Skipjack card-player: hence the bodyguard, who also watched out for creative cheaters while Eva concentrated on the game. Sylvester is boggled that people just went back to playing Skipjack after the world nearly ended. Rosemary says that in the town of Nye some card-games played right through the Crash. She herself has never been to Nye: Sylvester wants to know how she got from Out West to Audravanaia without going through Nye, but she ducks telling him, for now. Aunt Eva refused to teach Rosemary to play Skipjack: Sylvester thinks she's too impatient to be good at such a slow game. He says she followed in Zeke the bodyguard's footsteps instead. She says she's not a bodyguard: she's an explorer and Sylvester is her native guide. Meanwhile, Hax uses some kind of electrical charge from his antennae to open a secret door in the corridor wall. He walks Camora through the door into some sort of control centre (although the scene is domestic enough to include a fish in a bowl). He wonders about calling Mr Hand to confirm his orders, but decides not to. It sounds like he is planning to kill Rosemary and Sylvester. Whisp doesn't see Camora disappear into the wall, but does note that Camora's scent just stops. However, she was told to follow the "Nomes", not Camora. 07: Decisions Decisions [05/06/2008 – 05/07/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1732–#1760] Chauncy and Edgar locate the Scary Lady in the Sneech Den and ask her to help them get through the barrier: they do not want to go home because they have become used to having names. She agrees to help them. Sprocket and Flange place the filament from the old Metalmin, contained in what looks like an empty GBOL globe, into a service hatch, whence it is collected by an Ichyoid. Hiblehoy and Wrawa leave Leny's body in Bowel Hall to be rendered down. They are paid in Glowgems: Wrawa tells Hiblehoy to take half for himself and give the other half to Telic to research why the Trogs develop dementia. Her eyes look a bit strange so she, like Sina, may had been blinded by the explosion. Tomorrow she means to track down Rhid, but right now she crashes out and has to be carried home to bed by Hiblehoy: as they leave they see the Gnoll Forfind rallying Nevus's troops to the attack. We see Thrash and his two as-yet unnamed associates (later they will be called Scrawl and FlagPale) striding past the ruins of Eetown. Thrash finds Frowgler, slightly singed after the OZPR event, and picks him up. The other two withdraw so Thrash and Frowgler can talk privately. Frowgler says that he knows Thrash doesn't like him, and he's not going to tell him his story because it's so odd even he doesn't believe it, but that he means to see that the Pales get what they want. It's not his problem whether or not they'll still want it once they've got it. Frowgler says that he is neither so clever as the Nexus nor so powerful as the ruler in the Spike but still he is the most important person Thrash has ever met. He understands that Thrash may feel resentful because he's here in the forest herding Gnolls such as Niddle instead of escorting the Nome party to see the Nexus, which is evidently a prestigious job, but Thrash is here because Frowgler wanted him here, because Frowgler is the msot important person he's ever met, even if he's not as intelligent as the Nexus or as powerful as "our friend" in The Spike. Now Thrash can choose to help him or kill him. Thrash tosses him up in the air and catches him again, like a tennis ball, then lets Frowgler point him in the direction he and his companions should head. We see the forest Gnolls Scrof and Louch, who had been out on a foraging/raiding party and got caught in all the strange events of the day when Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed on them, after which Louch ran off. Louch, a cousin of Comshaw's, couldn't cross over the usual bridge because Pales were watching it (these were the lookouts waiting for Nitfol's party), and had to go north and use an even more precarious and minimalist bridge just called The Rope, and consisting of just three cords. Coming back he saw The Spike wooflare, and the Fire from The Pit, and at least two explosions from the Zorper. Now he is tired and wants to go back to their village, the northernmost of a pair, which is just a big communal warren. Louch is fed up with how poorly they live and wants to learn to read like his mother, and better himself. He thinks he will ask Umboz the Nome to teach his people how to cultivate crops, or go down in the Basement and ask Comshaw for help: but we see the Nome mayor Koyeeb saying that Umboz is a traitor, and ordering Umboz's brother Frotz to regain the family honour by leading a dawn raid on Louch's village. In the Basement, we see a male Gnoll, Bung's friend Faddle, heading home with a plant in a pot, and Niff and Folla from the bucket chain looking for somewhere to hide from the fighting, and instead running into the newly returned Shona. They start to tell her about Chauncy and Edgar: she doesn't believe them, but then they overhear two female Motihauls talking about it, and about Sina setting up a safe zone in Crazy Rhid's place (because of the weaponry there). Shona thinks that a safe zone at Rhid's place is an oxymoron, but Niff and Folla tell her that Sina has driven Rhid off. They all head for Rhid's place. 08: The River of Fire [07/07/2008 – 26/11/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1767–#1899] Deep underground, overlooking the River of Fire, is a bridge or gantry of some kind protruding from a pueblo-style adobe building. In this building we see a male Gnoll called Blit, with a bandaged leg (possibly injured in the fighting: he looks like a Gnoll we glimpsed having a bad day at Le Tree, but that one had a scratch on the left cheek), and a male Motihaul named Gongoozle discussing the fact that this is meant to be The Day That Changes Everything but it seems to be change for the worse, and the Gobule Lairs are all now at war with each other. A female Trog called Espy (who we will later learn is or used to be a primary-school teacher of young Trogs, and who is remarkably old-looking for a Trog and yet still mentally sharp) summons Blit to go downstairs to see someone called the Observer, and sends Gongoozle away because he is not on the Observer's staff and they are closing the observatory to outsiders. Blit goes downstairs by a complex route of lifts and stairs and corridors, passing other workers: a nameless Gobule squatting on a box labelled "IMPORTANT SECRET MYSTERIOUS STUFF"; two Eyebolts called Poyndext and Suscalva doing mysterious scientific calculations; and two Gobule labourers called Ottus and Piterbult. Ottus drives a heavy-goods-lift using a treadmill: between them the two are transporting heavy loads of "River Signs" up to Poyndext and Suscalva for analysis, as they have been doing for at least five years. Because of the lack of paper in the Basement, the signs are on what appear to be clay tablets. Piterbult, who pushed the tablets in a cart and has a curiously flat rear, is subversive in a jokey way. Blit then passes in sequence a sophisticated door with brass hinges and handle and a sign saying "CHANGE YOUR MIND"; a wooden gate with "STOP POKING AROUND" written vertically on the planks; a doorway closed by a ragged curtain with "LAMENT FOR THE DEAD" on it; a knotted climbing-rope; and an open doorway through which we can see a stone with "POINT OF NO RETURN" written on it. A short watch-being of unknown species called Wences (of whom we just see eyes, in a hatch near the floor) tells him the Observer wants him, and it's alright but not OK. Blit is caught by a booby-trap and catapulted through the air above the River to land in a padded cart partway out along the gantry, and operated by a Helipath called Lucint and two Jibjibs. He has actually crashed through the roof of a covered walkway along the gantry: the Jibjibs go to repair it with strands of leaves, so at least it's not very solid. The gantry has an amorphous block (the observation pod) hanging off the end with a small crane on it, and a cord, perhaps an autilnode wire, connects the gantry to the far side of the River. Lucint carries a stunned Blit down to the observation pod. Blit is just making "eep" noises, but Lucint evidently interprets them as comments about Piterbult, because he says that "that" (either the subversion or the flat back, we don't know) often results from direct exposure to Fire, and that "he", presumably Piterbult, has been pushing the Sign-report cart so often that he can now literally do it with his eyes shut. There may be an especially weird fourth-wall-breach joke going on here. When we first see Piterbult his back appears flat because the frame of the strip is cutting him off, but then he walks into the shot and we see that he really is that flat. Fire is magic in this universe but it's also colour and the hand of the artist, so he's flat because he conforms to the frame the artist (Fire) drew for him: a bit like the "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" joke in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. At the observation pod they meet two pink female Oozes, using artificial cradle-supports. The lower-down one of these is the Observer, and has OBSVR written on her side in Manglish (perhaps self-generated as it moves around). She tells Blit to tell her what he saw and he exclaims "GREEN!" although he says he doesn't know what the word means. Are Gnolls red-green colour blind, like dogs? Now he's said it he can talk again: maybe he was dazed because he saw a colour his eyes nromally can't process. The Observer tells him that different species react differently to proximity to the River of Fire. As an Ooze she herself has become stiff and less able to change shape (the Ooze stationed higher up is the Observer-to-Be, a trainee). It is rapidly harmful to Motihauls; Helipaths have to wear goggles to keep from going dizzy; Ghasts have to wear tinted lenses otherwise they go mad; and Wyrms can't go near it at all lest they become hypnotised and jump in. Eyebolts, Gobules, Jibjibs and Trogs are hardly affected, and Gnolls, especially mated trios of Gnolls, are affected in some way but also affect the Fire back, disturbing its flow (or perhaps affect the Observer's perception of the flow: she isn't sure which). The Observer has summoned Blit to look at the fire and see what he can see, because the River is behaving strangely. She mentions other Days That Changed Everything but says this one is especially odd, with an unexplained reference to a Nome called Rejov who did something which caused a similar event. The Obsever trundles her wheeled cradle out of the way and Blit looks down through a viewing hatch into the River. He sees images of a cactus – almost certainly "God's Cactus", the Mansion of E – and of a "fancy pot", then letters telling him two Humans are about to cross the Grotto Bridge. Meanwhile, at the edge of the Riddler's Grotto Sylvester lectures Rosemary about what Humans have learned about magic from Ettin writings. In their world it seems to function like magnetism – it's generated in or by the planet's core, sprays out from the South Pole in a series of leylines resembling lines of longitude and then dives back in at the North Pole. These leylines have been much fainter since the Crash. There are also random magical upwellings called tricklepoints which are still active and useable, and there's one at the source of the River of Fire. Not far away to the south, the Forest of Burzee contains an even bigger tricklepoint. The forest is peaceful and used for quiet contemplation. Different tricklepoints behave differently and are good for different things: the ones in Agraba and Akbar are good for summoning Djinn, the one in Plinth is good for cold-forging iron, and the one under the Mansion is being squeezed by something down in the Hot Zone, causing the River to be sprayed out of it. The female Earl Audra, mother of Ludwig, investigated it, dug exploratory mines right down deep into the Hot Zone and in doing so triggered a cataclysm which greatly enlarged the Great Chasm. We can see that Audra built a shaft down through a pillar – this is the pillar with a line of lights up it that we saw during the sequence with the sapient rock, and probably also where the stair which Fizmo climbed is – which connected to a series of chambers, which explains why there was a dead E security guard in the chambers where Fizmo and Kulkad were working. He was probably killed by the blast which Audra set off. Audra used this Hot Zone research station to send down a probe which triggered the explosion, so the thing Fizmo and Kulkad were watching for might be a resurgance of this force, rather like watching the magma chamber of a volcano for signs of swelling and upwelling. The River itself isn't dangerous unless you physically touch it. Audra's father Angus threw condemned prisoners into the River of Fire, and Chauncy and Edgar probably entered the world through it. The Operator, however, came to town by tram. Sylvester warns Rosemary to expect to see visions as they approach the River, and they set off. Whisp, who is evidently blazingly fast and agile, watches them from the far side of the Grotto and then crosses the Pool by bounding across the sinking bridge and dodging the Riddler's lightning-fast claws, although she suspects him of not really caring whether or not anyone crosses the Pool. Rosemary hears movement behind them but Sylvester assures her it's just the bridge sinking. Sylvester tells Rosemary that witches and wizards – thaumslingers – used to wear magic-concentrators called thaumtappers inside their pointy hats, which killed most of them when the Crash came. The batteries in their helmets run on small thaumtappers and Rosemary sees coloured lights and "horrible shapes" when she switches her helmet light on so close to the River, but it only happens if you're wearing the helmet at the time. Rosemary is concerned that if another Crash comes their helmet battereis could blow up and kill them, but Sylvester says that if the Brush sends them a second Crash on the one day they're wearing thaum battereies then so be it, and at least neither of them is carrying a high-powered magical item which really would kill them if it blew up. Rosemary smiles brightly and tries not to think about the Can-Opener. Sylvester does not literally think that the Brush caused the Crash, and it certainly wasn't the Wrath of the Brush as a hardline Oracle (Omega, although we don't hear her name until later) said when he was a child: he believes that the Brush set the world up, but that it has no interest in mere mortals (i.e. he's a deist). [The Brush that coloured in the world is their local version of a Creator Deity, represented by a symbol rather like a rake, and we also see that the more magic is present, the more saturated is the colour of the images in the strip.] We learn that he is not very devout, and has private reasons for not going to the Temple every week, and that the local temple of the Brush was moved from the Mansion to the local village of Eetown after an Earl called Ernest (father of Philbert) quarrelled with an Oracle called Purity. Ernest was a forger and died in a dramatic way. A new, large Temple was built just outside Eetown, which at the time was a thriving town, but being magically-powered it was wrecked in the Crash and a new new Temple was built from the ruins. As they approach the River they start to see externally-manifested visions of people from their pasts. Sylvester sees Dirge, a thuggish man from the village (actually the current Oracle Threnody's guardian), threatening to hit him. Rosemary sees her tutor and friend (not lover, Rob has said their relationship was platonic, and he was a lot older than her) lover, Edwird, and a respected bodyguard colleague called Baldy. She apologises to Edwird for having hurt him by leaving him in an emotionally clumsy way, and swears to make it up to him if she ever gets the chance; and expects Baldy (whose real name is Milburn Aloysius Aldershot) may be her enemy now because she went AWOL from a job they were both working on. The vision of a "Pyrite" appears, with a parrot on his shoulder – the pirate, who was someone Rosemary was once on a course with, dissipates when swiped with the Can-Opener but the parrot seems to be real and flies away. She has a theory that it was the parrot who was doing the course, and the pirate was just its mount. Sylvester sees Shackleforth Ferule, the family lawyer, who administers the trust which pays for the eldest in each generation of Emans to go to university. [In an out-take to mark the death of Paul Newman we see Forfind and another Gnoll on watch for "Council phiizzers".] Sylvester borrows the Can-Opener to wave away the vision: as he does so we see a symbol scratched on the bulky end, which Rob said is some kind of spoiler. It looks a bit like a coat-hanger with three bent wires hanging off it. Sylvester admires Mr Ferule because of his honest dedication to his job and his competence, even if he's a cold dry stick. Sylvester teaches Rosemary how to conjure shapes out of the magic-saturated air at will (he's good at it, but not as good as Mortimer) and tells her that Ludwig studied them, and said that they were connected in some way with the distance between Eyebolts (something we have seen managers of Eyebolt clerks worrying about, and these shapes resemble those conjured by Eyebolt Weirders). We learn that brilliant Ludwig had an almost equally brilliant common-law wife called Penelope who acted as his tech-writer (though they never "jumped in the Pool" to marry). They come to a flight of steps down, which is where the visions used to start before they spread out. As they approach the River it starts to show them what they most want to see. Rosemary sees a half-formed vision of her dead parents, without mouths because they died before she could talk to them, and Sylvester sees a naked, busty, willing Rosemary – the real Rosemary is quite flattered. We learn that for some reason Sylvester cannot or may not marry anyone from Eetown: he was expected to find a bride at university, but was too busy studying and none of his girlfriends fancied life in the arse-end of nowhere. We learn that the species in the Basement and in the area around the Mansion represent all the known intelligent species in the world, except Mugwumps (believed extinct) and Wendigoes. Rosemary wants to know why the Mansion isn't known as a tourist attraction, or as a draw for research teams as the Infernal Engine is: not even before the Crash, when Eetown was a busy and major stop-off point for airships to the Far East across the ocean. But Sylvester says there are similar but more impressive buildings elsewhere, and the Basement dwellers at the time were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now..", and neither Ernest nor Philbert was interested in the Basement. But he agrees it's still strange. If he means that the Basement dwellers were still confined to their individual species-specific habitats in Philbert's time, fifty years ago, that would mean that everyone except the Gnolls, Gobules and Eyebolts was shut up when Audra and Ludwig went down there. But other things he says later suggest that he just means they were confined to the Basement, not roaming around the Mansion and the surrounding woods. Rosemary and Sylvester recognise and acknowledge that they are already friends, and see a vision of Nimue Fayling, Sylvester's girlfriend from university (and Rosemary sees a naked Sylvester, but doesn't let on). They come to the start of a bridge across the River. Sylvester says that something's changed since he was last there. A magical surge envelops them and Rosemary (only) sees a vision of the Tree personified as a sort of Ent (although initially she thinks it's Death personified). It says that it is "an aspect minor" of "the system entire". It tells her that she is carrying the seeds of some important thing, an Egg and a Claw of it: the Can-Opener is the claw, and the egg is whatever Rosemary carries with her (presumably the Zorper/HJ42: we don't learn that until later, but we see crackles of energy from her pocket) and which she refers to as having brought her there. Presumably, this is the same thing that she stole. It says that Sylvester is less connected, and only has a Torch. Rosemary is becoming connected to "the system entire", the setup that runs the world and of which the Tree is a part, and which touches "the sky; the water; the earth and the fire; the magic; the prince in his high tower". Rosemary apologises for having distrusted it before, and speaks as if it is a god. It says she must turn the system entire upside down. She is concerend that that will hurt it, literally or metaphorically: it says that it will but "for the garden to grow roots must touch the sky". It wants to help but it lives on too slow a timescale to do much. It gives her another seed – this one actually looks a bit like a real seed – which she understands that she will need to plant at the end. We find out that she carries a Poke Kit for small items, but suddenly she understands it much better, without a manual, and is able to generate a secured SubPocket to keep the seed in with a 21-digit security code: 314159265358979323846. She is upset because she knows she won't remember this meeting. As Rosemary wakes from the trance she forgets who she was talking to, but just before she wakes the Tree starts to tell her she will remember when she needs to. She tries to tell Sylvester about what happened and ask whether she can trust what she saw, but it slides out of her mind. He will need to remember what little he saw, and remind her when the time comes. Meanwhile, Whisp is still stalking them, the parrot is still flying overhead, and Hax uses Camora to collect a sort of blunderbuss from a cupboard in the hidden control centre where he took her. 09: Loose Ends (Basement Edition) [27/11/2008 – 07/01/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1906–#1939] Shona, Folla and Niff climb a stair in the background and Forfind flees from arrows and rocks as Faddle brings Bung a flower in a pot as a thank-you for the profit he made from selling Bung's toadstool. We learn that Bung is quite an important political or merchantile player and are reminded that he knows Digger. One of his Jibjibs returns – she has been warning "folks" about Chauncy and Edgar (and she doesn't know who Digger is). We learn that Faddle is a failed or partial Finagler – and that this entails being a good psychological observer, so he knows that Bung has lots of contacts but no friends, and thinks the plant will be a friend for him. Anathama and Clochard are in some kind of long-standing political conspiracy with Digger, and are searching for him: Clochard is tempted to call out his name, but Anathama says he mustn't. They talk of going to Location Zero to wait for him, but it might be days before he turns up. He finds them (and it is mentioned that it is Clochard's job to ask questions he doesn't want the answers to, and that he hangs out with Izchak for information but doesn't much like him) and takes them much deeper underground. They have to cross a gap marked "mind the gap" in Ettin script. They come to a comfortable bedroom cum office which has artificial lights – so the Tree can't see what goes on there. As with the room Hax took Camora to (although this isn't the same one) there's a fish in a bowl, and also a big domino, which may be significant because even bigger dominoes turn up in Rhid's place. There they meet their old friend the male Gnoll Bokonon, an elderly Finagler whom they had believed had been lost in the SubShafts a long time ago: he had last been heard of in SubShaft 44f, compiling a report on Crud, the developer of the Crudbean (and one of the main characters in Sundays in the SubShafts), which was just after Comshaw killed the Ravers and Nevus started Le Tree. Bokonon believes the Tree is esssentially on the same side as them. Digger says they need to survive what is happening, which will bring the birth of a new order, and "ours will be even newer and even less orderly". Digger goes back out to see what he can do or learn about the fighting and about Chauncy and Edgar, leaving the three Gnolls behind to gossip in Gnoll jargon. Clochard and Anathama make the most of what time they have in this dangerous local situation, and go off together to make love. Bokonon, as a former Finagler, offers to help but they turn him down. Meanwhile, we see the Scary Lady and her sentient balloon escorting Chauncy and Edgar to a Panegate which opens on a desert area: perhaps Agraba or Akbar, where the Djinn live (but it's labelled "HOWDY buckarooclass panegate" in Ettin, which suggests it's some equivalent of Arizona). Nevus, Guttle and Agita resume command of their forces: Nevus orders Faldstool to get Preznit on the 'node (='phone); Guttle plans to attack both of them; and Agita correctly tells Flibbergib what both the others are doing, although she herself is busy still scrubbing off Mortimer's kiss. Two Ghast medics are en route to collect Sepferb from outside Crazy Rhid's place and place him in a restorative Porta-Pool: on the way they pass Hiblehoy, carrying an exhausted, sleeping Wrawa, and they advise him on her care and warn him she may be in an erratic mental state when she wakes up. Hiblehoy can't get home because Sidestep Hall is in lockdown, so a Trog called Mowder lets him and Wrawa into Rhid's place, where Sina is trying to organise an emergency demon-proof camp. Maggle has not succeeded in getting through all the fighting to return the buckets to Tunktal. The Wyrms Voog and Ploot have identified a source of water in one of the side-rooms off Rhid's place but there is machinery in the way. Sprocket and Flange turn up and are set to dismantle the machines. Maggle and Flange discuss the level of sexual tension between Sina and Sprocket, and whether they've chosen a Finagler yet. Variously in the background we see Timf, Delfa, possibly Satyrsong, and the Helipath Fosic. Meanwhile a New Year out-take shows Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party walking past some large Human ruins, with the Spike in the background. 10: Loose Ends (Mansion Edition) [08/01/2009 – 02/03/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1946–#1995] Amos Grubb puts Arthur the Weirdo and his hand-puppet Fantod to bed in their attic room: we see Arthur has a soft-toy Wendigo, which seems to be this world's equivalent of a teddy-bear. We see a system of lifts and pulleys within the walls of the Mansion: this is used to deliver to Hector a box containing the spare piece which Sprocket and Flange earlier salvaged from the defunct Metalmin. On his way back from collecting the box Hector passes a talking machine (which spits out phrases relevant to the death of Patrick McGoohan, but they include "The tree plants a seed!"); a Panegate (labelled "ALOHACLASS VIEWGATE"); a gun (?) in a case marked "In case of Ludwig, break glass"; and then preserved specimens of a Mugwump (with "NEVER" written above it) and a Wendigo ("AGAIN") and a painting of one of the titanbugs which the Pales use as war mounts ("OR ELSE"). Reaching his own quarters he takes the spare part out of the box and dumps the box down a chute, then goes to Mr Hand – on the way passing the Trog on the treadmill, who is now flaked out asleep. This time we see a sweep of the whole corridor. From right to left, heading in the direction Hector is walking, we see a lift with a half-seen label starting "Zark" (which is where the Operator is from); piles of boxes; a door labelled "WINE 'CELLER'" (with quotes round the misspelling); the exhausted Trog on his treadmill, under a sign saying "P.O.C. TESTING PREP"; a door labelled "EMERGENCY WAR THRONE-TOP STORAGE"; and the weird mechanism connected to a limb of the tree, only this time we can see a label above its alcove saying "TREELINK", which may be how Mr Hand is doing his snooping. Mr Hand, siting in a chair labelled a warthrone, with a massive mechanical hood on top which hides most of his face, talks about everyone being "back behindscenes and accounted for" except for "young Gill", the Ichyoid at Le Tree, who has been killed or injured by Hpobfvfr. He is eager to talk to Hax the Fixit. He swaps the spare part into Hector, who jokes that now his filament has been replaced he can proceed with his mission to "DESTROY ALL HUMANS!!!" (although you get the impression he kind-of wishes it was true). Mr Hand is very amused by the visual images this conjures up: Hector reminds him that he himself is human, and Mr Hand replies "Only just". Hector then repairs Mr Hand's scanners. Hand looks at pictures from around the Basement (although he can't scan near the River of Fire) and comments on the non presence of The Gibber, which may connect to something the Sneeches have done (left?). He tries to track Rosemary and Sylvester but can't see them because they are close to the River, so he sends Hector to talk to the Riddler. He has a special interest in and wariness of Rosemary, and mutters that she might be another test sent down from— As Hector leaves, Mr Hand is 'phoned by some colleague for a conference, and he mutters "Speak of the Zarkite and he appears", meaning that the person who has called is the one who sets him tests. Hector passes the dead king on his throne: the dial is now at "No". A label above his alcove says "EARLSCOPE". Amos goes outside onto a bridge and observes unusual activity in the Tree, which is labouring to clear the air in the Basement of smoke. He lets himself into the Ivory Tower and goes to a cupboard labelled "IMPORTANT BOOK AND STAIRWAY CANDLESTICK SECURITY CABINET", replaces a book and gets out a candle which he lights by magic, but Nellie catches him and tells him off for taking the risk, as she fears a second Crash which might kill him if he's using magic at the time. Amos is a former thaumslinger (so is she, although we don't learn that till later). Nellie has brought back from the village a large young man called Patrick, the local sheriff, who has come for a report. As a child he used to come to read, but no longer does. Amos reports to Patrick about Rosemary, and Nellie talks about the Pit Flare, which she saw on her way to town, but Amos didn't know about. Patrick and his colleagues watch the Earl and are aware that Rosemary arrived without seeming to pass through the surrounding area. Amos reassures him she's not from another world. Patrick wants Sylvester to report to him. Amos and Nellie give him a book on wine-making for someone called Saffron in the village (we will learn that she is the innkeeper), and a Willy the Wendigo book for his son, and he strides off back to the village. 11: Loose Ends (Forest Edition) [03/03/2009 – 21/04/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2002–#2044] Umboz, Vezza, Piu and Nitfol and their Pale escort arrive at the Pale camp, a kind of amorphous but high-tech. (with e.g. gas-lighting), pueblo-type castle. The local Pales seem very curious to see them. There they meet a Pale diplomat called Zpeaker, with two head-spikes (both large and dark, unlike Thrash who has one large dark spike and a second, small and pale one) and a larger and more prominent jaw than most Pales, whose job is to project sounds that other species can hear, in order to talk to them. We learn that Umboz is a squidcoaxer and Vezza is training to be, Piu is a healer and Nitfol is unemployed; and that Nitfol had been rescued from the Spyder by their two Pale escorts, who presumably killed the Spyder and who took him to Frowgler. Frowgler told him that he had sent the Pales to save him, and now he, Nitfol, had to save Umboz and Vezza. He wants to speak to Frowgler, but he's not currently at the Camp. Nitfol asks to see the Nexus, the Pale leader, since Zpeaker says he's the only one who knows what Frowgler is, but the other three Nomes prefer to go and eat and rest. Frowgler has told the Pales they will benefit by helping these Nomes: Umboz is afraid they want him to open a breach in his village's squid-based defences but Zpeaker says not. What the Pales hope for is a way to breach the barrier which they, and the Nomes, experience as keeping them bound within this local area. Frowgler told them Umboz and co. could help, and so far everything he's told them has come true (this must be what Frowgler meant when he said that he meant to see that the Pales got what they wanted, and whether or not they still wanted it once they'd got it wasn't his concern). The Nexus is old enough to remember before the barrier existed, when magic flowed freely, so before the Crash: so possibly the appearance of the barrier is connected with the Crash (and Philbert' death and the Basement-folk escaping their habitats also happened around that time). We learn that after the Nome/Gnoll war, the Nomes taught the Pales how to tree-warp (opening a Tardis-like space within a tree-trunk). They have used these skills to set up comfortable quarters for their Nome visitors inside a large tree which abuts their main building, with a bedroom upstairs up a ladder, and a drophole down below. Zpeaker doesn't get the chance to use his voice skills very often; the rest of the time he helps to grow giant fungi called Tower Caps. We learn that now that Piu and Umbuz are getting married, she will be the one making the decisions, according to Nome custom. Vezza, having eaten a lot, crashes out on a sofa. Umboz and Piu discuss how to get rid of Mayor Koyeeb, and who should replace him: Nitfol, returning, volunteers. The others reluctantly agree, as he's clever and the destruction of his home tree by the beaver shark gives him a non-conspiratorial excuse for seeking a new lifestyle. Nitfol says he doesn't hate everyone, just holds people in contempt, except the Nexus who really impressed him, and who already made the points Piu and Umbuz are making. The Nexus and Nitfol have a multi-stage plan of campaign worked out. The first stage will involve "some really stupid blobwarts, a five-meter pole, and three liters of Raviner ichor". To persuade Raviners (which are weird land-crab-like things) to spew ichor will involve the collection of strange and difficult substances from the deep forest. Meanwhile, the skunk shark is still chewing its way through the bushes, much to the alarm of Snerk, and Comshaw and co. are still roosting on top of the ruined fountain. We see Yasmine Fotheringby waking up dazed and regaining her composure in the ruins where Protus dropped her – in fact, the above-ground bit of the same ruined branch of World o' Pots where Mortimer fell into the underground storage area. She takes off a mask within the hood: we still cannot see her face or species, but she thinks of herself as Human, and remembers being sent by someone named Tara to find out about fleebs. She knows that she belongs to the Weirdoes' Guild. She sets off to rejoin her horse but then hears a sleeping Mortimer coughing inside a building guarded by a not very effective Sneech security device, and goes to investigate. Mortimer wakes up wondering why Pales, who like deserts, also live here in the forest. Meanwhile, Niddle is teaching Ig to play a complicated rock-stacking game, and Comsahw is impatient to leave. 12: Urwyn and the elevator [22/04/2009 – 03/08/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2051–#2149] Shona, Niff (the male) and Folla arrive at Rhid's ex place, where the male Trog Mowder is now the gatekeeper: the gate in question is being constructed by Fosic the Helipath. Mowder believes that Rhid's former place, under Sina's leadership, will become a new multi-species Hall offering greater opportunities for individuality and personal advancement than the existing Halls, and might maybe even start a trend for many new Halls springing up around the fringes of the old ones. Shona wants to see Sina, her sister, but Sina sends her a message telling her to go home. Mowder suggests that she come in anyway and report to Catmorlo to be assigned a job, thus becoming Sina's employee instead of Nevus's, but Shona walks away, passing Kulma and Timf who are busily at work carrying things. Mowder isn't worried that Shona will rat them out to Nevus as he doesn't reckon Nevus respects her opinion. We meet a tiny, diffident Shallow Wyrm called Urwyn (of the Inner Ring of the Circle of the Dunktyn Stone, although we don't learn that until later). He volunteers to help with the new Hall, and Mowder sends a male Gnoll called Satyrsong to carry Urwyn to Catmorlo. Satyrsong has an extreme hairdo which he cultivates for effect. Delfa gives Satyrsong a piece of found tech. to add to their stockpile: it looks Ettin-made (and is based on the USB symbol). Maggle, Flange, Kulma and Timf and others offstage are milling about carrying out tasks assigned by Catmorlo: Urwyn notices that the new piece of unknown eqipment which Satyrsong has brought in sends out a trail of energy to another piece, but no-one listens to him when he tries to tell them about it. Skuy appears with a message from Sina, saying they need somebody inconspicuous to keep an eye on the elevator. Urwyn is assigned to stay out of sight and watch. As Skuy carries Urwyn towards the elevator they pass a group of Flange, a Gnoll named Krink from the bucket chain, a Jibjib and Prandia the Gobule, who are building some kind of electronic gateway which involves toggling a bim. They encounter Voog, who is instructing Niff and Folla on sniffing some boxes to see if the contets are OK. Voog examines Urwyn to see if he has to "eat" him, which is actually a metaphor for some sexual element of the relationship between the large Deep Wyrms and the little ones. This leads to a conversation in which Skuy says she will never use a Finagler: she was in love with Cully who was exiled to SubShaft 44f by Nevus (whom Urwyn believes and hopes doesn't know he exists). Skuy takes Urwyn to meet Sina, who is in Rhid's laboratory where Sprocket is clearing out the most dangerous stuff. Wrawa has been left to sleep and a Gnoll Healer named Kottle is assigned to keep an eye on her. The Trogs called Grik and Grak have appointed themselves as Sina's bodyguards. Sina's sight is returning, and she is kept very busy organising everybody. Hiblehoy is sent to make up beds – we learn that it is difficult, but not impossible, for male and female Motihauls to work together. Pergola warns them about a "thing" spewing goo and is sent to tell Sprocket. There is some conversation about Rhid's obligatory stuffed crocagator: Nubby kept a pool of live ones at the far end of the Basement, but Urwyn has never been to see them because there's no [unspecified secret thing he doesn't want to name], plus it's a long journey for someone his size. We are reminded that Rhid used to be a Candle Monk but got thrown out, and told that he was trained by a Gnoll wizard (? probably a wizard) called Burtgum who died in some kind of accident. Grak won't let Sina approach the elevator. Urwyn will summon help, if he needs it, by pinging a glass ball. A Gnoll called Finimbrun, who is interested in similar stuff to Rhid but is sane, is to be that help. Finimbrun takes Urwyn to meet somebody called Huff and they all get caught up inside a mechanical Kraken, a Human-made advertising float which Rhid had acquired somewhere, which changes from green to purple and which is labelled "Eat at Shub's". Finimbrun gets control of the arms and uses them to fumble around: one of the things he finds lying nearby is a Pokemon ball labelled "Rhid Find lightning rod before opening again!-Rhid". Huff's species isn't given but his or her dialogue font looks like Jibjib. The Kraken's long arm is used to transport Urwyn to a position where he can watch the elevator from behind a nearby door jamb. There he meets another Shallow Wyrm, a friend of his called Zugo, who is doing some kind of foraging work for "the Circle". We learn that Urwyn is the Wyrm equivalent of a pampered aristocrat but he wants to be useful and do work, and would give up his position and work like and with Zugo, but Zugo's work colleagues would kill him for Breaking the Rings. Zugo, who is the equivalent of working-class, is also unusual in that he will talk to Urwyn. Urwyn asks Zugo to warn "the innerest Ring" that Rhid has been ousted: he expects that if anybody in that Ring notices that he, Urwyn has left, they'll be glad to be rid of him. Meanwhile, Flange has created a device called a bim toggler with which s/he has opened a false wall to reveal a sequence of rooms beyond. Some walls havve a symbol on them which indicates that there is space behind them that can be access with such a device. S/he believes there may be other large rooms left sealed by the Humans. An alarmingly gungho female Motihaul called Othara, granddaughter of the famous Othar, turns up and volunteers to explore the new space, which Sina hopes will relieve overcrowding in the Halls. Urwyn (or possibly Zugo) thinks he hears something, but doesn't realise the floor-dial on the elevator has moved. Sina realises she forgot to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, but at that moment the elevator doors open and Hpobfvfr appears, red-eyed and controlled by the Operator. Urwyn tells Zugo to leave. Hpobfvfr still hates the Operator but he has nevertheless convinced her that he is her superior officer, by knowing Level Three passwords: the way the Operator speaks of different levels of passwords suggests Hpobfvfr may operate in some artificial way like a Metalmin and her mind can be hacked into. The Operator sends her to fetch Sylvester's cold iron frying pan: although it hurts the Operator to touch it, he holds it and uses it to probe the boundaries of his cage. He sends her to gather up the remains of Hpthbvtw (Hepthbav), which he thinks he can use: but when he realises that Hpobfvfr has a strong emotional link to Hpthbvtw, and that this is weakening his hold over her (her eyes get noticeably less red), he orders her back into the lift. He tells her that he too had a mate he was "rather fond of", and offspring, and he doesn't know if he will see them again but in the very long term he will "literally move heaven and earth" for the chance to do so. Skuy comes to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, and Urwyn tells her she's already appeared: she goes off again to tell Sina. Meanwhile, the Operator does something to Hpobfvfr's physiology which causes a red flicker around her head, and then tells her to track and kill Rosemary and Sylvester – a task she takes to with enthusiasm. In fact, the Operator is seeking to test Rosemary against a less malleable opponent than Chauncy and Edgar, because he has a use for her if she wins. Ploot, the large Deep Wyrm from Sina's team, comes to speak to Urwyn about what he has seen. In the foreground, a Smyt summons a trundlebug and rides it like a horse. Urwyn comments on the fact that Ploot is the first Deep Wyrm he's met who didn't examine him to see if he needed to "eat" him. Ploot says he's just not very interested in that kind of thing – it's a powerful and necessary drive but a small minority just don't have it. They see an externalised Vision, or what Ploot calls a "Glimpse" (actually celebrating the strip's sixth birthday). Ploot tells Urwyn he stays up high (for a Wyrm) in the Basement because he doesn't want to breed and also because times are changing, as the Vision suggests, and he wants to help people who are trying to smooth the transition and set up a new society etc.. Urwyn mutters that he isn't sure he'd mind if Ploot wanted to Eat him.... Another Shallow Wyrm called Kryt of the Ring of the Celestial Observation Slit, who has been secretly watching this exchange, goes to some kind of communication station and starts to give a secret report about the Operator to some Wyrm authority. There seems to be a small colony of the little Shallow Wyrms living around this communication point. Meanwhile a large flutterby, a banded Vagabond, dazed by crashing into light globes, flies past them and down into the depths, where it is struck by the radiator of a large lorry or armoured car, being driven deep undergound. 13: The Great Chasm [04/08/2009 – 26/02/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2158–end] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips start–#2348] On the lorry are two very amusing, characterful Fixits, a male and a female who call each other "Age" and "Beauty" and who seem to be working partners, both riding unconscious Gnoll mounts. They mention an engineer called Tix who had been complaining that the "Sneechtaps" were all offline. They come to an underground building which looks a bit like a smaller version of the Mansion of E upside-down and has levitating lifts, where they report to a very bossy female Fixit called Grix. It is mentioned that there is a schedule which Nevus and the Council have pre-empted by attacking each other. They bear a message saying that Mr Hand wants to see Hax urgently. Grix reveals that Hax has a history of getting into scrapes (nearly as bad as Mortimer) and has just spent almost ten years relegated to the (breeding?) pens in the mountains. He was given Project Y duty that very morning (which suggests he was told to take fleebs to the Great Chasm in order for Sprocket and Flange to end up with them) and Grix isn't surprised to hear that he ran into trouble. Grix summons a female Ichyoid called Igor (which seems to be a job title not a name) who brings in boxes of what we later learn are delicate, increasingly-hard-to-obtain Pvatskin Triggers vital for the maintenance of the underpinnings of the River of Fire. The partners are despatched to take these boxes to the Chasmside Covert Observation Station: after they have left, Igor wishes to discuss Rufus, apparently as a replacement for Mr Hand, but this is so secret a matter that Grix tells her they must know nothing about it ever. The two partners are sent on another long lorry journey to deliver the boxes (which one of them finds unsettling). With them in the lorry are other consignments, including lunch for their journey and a cage containing a larger-than-usual (hamster-sized), amaranth-coloured Fuzz which sings in notes coloured in the same rainbow colours as the River of Fire, underneath which they pass (and we see a massive pillar supporting it). This may be an indication that someone in this group has contact with the city of the Spires in Mechana where, as we will later learn, they breed Fuzzes for size, appearance and singing ability. The female Fixit expresses moral doubts about what they are doing by controlling their mounts. En route they pass the Quarentine [sic] Alcove of Forbidden Objects, which contains strange things such as a statue of an Ichyoid and a giant, broken statue of Kaylu with wires hanging out of it. When they reach the Chasmside Covert Observation Station (which is decorated with a crowned human figure playing a trumpet) they unload in a large, open hangar and then report to Fixits called Apix and Birux. We learn that one of the things they are doing down here is repairing the undershield of the River of Fire, but it's getting more difficult, in part because it's getting harder to get hold of the hardening foam triggered by the Pvatskin Triggers. Apix says that Nevus and Preznit (for the Council) have called a cease-fire. He is aware of Sylvester and of Rosemary, whom he calls "regrettably proactive". The male of the two partners then goes up to an observation deck where he talks to a Fixit called Peex (riding on/fused with an Eyebolt) and they discuss Project Y, the same thing Sprocket and Flange were working on earlier. Project Y will give their employers much more effective surveillance but may not be finished in their lifetime. There is a suggestion that their current surveillance system involves the Tree. Project Y will result in much better surveillance, and then Mr Hand won't need as many of them to snoop for him. The action cuts to Rosemary and Sylvester, who are discussing Rosemary's Poke Kit, which was a going-away present from Aunt Eva, and the E family library in the Ivory Tower, and books they have read about Erewhonian anthropology, and night creatures. We learn that Amos Grubb is the Mansion's librarian and Nellie Grubb is the gardener. As Rosemary and Sylvester climb the steps leading away from the far side of the River there are no more visions, just an odd smell of marshberries (which leads to a discussion about the different berries available in different regions, and Audravania growing pudding plants). They reach a lighted area, and Rosemary becomes temporarily hypnotised after looking at a spinning light. She is amazed to discover that the Can-Opener fits inside her Poke Kit, which previously had only been able to hold small objects: Sylvester attributes this to the power of the tricklepoint. Pre-Crash folk heroes named Readman and Billsmith are mentioned, who carried a whole library and an arsenal in Poke Kits. If you take a Poke Kit into a low-magic area it spits out what was inside it. Their local trickle-pont is between the Mansion and the Spire. Sylvester talks about the Spike (and at least some bits of the Mansion, since e.g. the Panegates have the same characteristic writing on them as the Spike) having been built by Ettins, and about the ancient war between Ettins and Sneeches, which killed all the Ettins and most of the Sneeches. We learn that the Ettins sent a mission to the Moon to investigate artefacts of unknown origin there, and they used durasteel construction plates. The Ettins had less of a presence Out West. The West was Sneech terriory, although most of them died in the war and they now mainly live in Wirtvale. Sylvester says that the Sneeches in the Basement usually allow travellers through their territory if they stick to the main road and don't engage with anybody. They occasionally give travellers gifts, which may be beneficial, dangerous or both: Audra's cost her a hand but she said it was worth it. Latterly, Sneech gifts are usually either thrown away or stored in the Quiet Room (a magic-deadening space upstairs in the Mansion). The new Earl has to walk through the Sneech colony alone, but Sylvester saw no Sneeches when he did so. In the context of how unusual it is to have one Pale village with no other Pales nearby to fight, Sylvester talks about the zoo which the Ettins set up in the Basement, before Humans arrived in the area. The habitats were self-sustaining and most still work: Nubby's Crocogator Pit is in the Motihaul swamp, and the Chamber of Extreme Aridity was for the Pales. Most of the local sapient species were exhibits – except the Sneeches, who were prisoners of war and research subjects; the Gnolls, who were free-lance "vermin" living where they chose; and the Gobules and Eyebolts, who were on the staff of the zoo. There's a dating problem there. Previously Sylvester said that most of the nonHumans in the Basement were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now.." in Philbert's time – which extended right up to three months before the Crash, fifty years ago. Now he says of the Pales that "Like all the other species, after the Ettins were gone, they eventually got out of their habitat. Started roaming the Basement." where they set up a mixed-species society. But "after the Ettins were gone" is in the time of the 1st Earl. Definite dates start with Milo, the 9thEarl, 350 years ago, but since then they've averaged twenty-five years per reign so the 1st Earl would probably have been around 550 years ago. Five hundred years is a very long "eventually". Perhaps what happened was that soon after the Ettins died their habitats became open and they could "start roaming", but they mostly stayed in their own environments where they were comfortable, until a combination of rising numbers and the disruption caused by Audra eventually led them to start spreading out. Or perhaps he just means that up to fifty years ago they were still confined to the Basement, not spreading out into the countryside: especially as he says that the Pales left the Basement and settled in the ruins of Eetown after the Crash. This probably has something to do with the presence of a large, ultimately Pale-owned World o' Pots in Eetown. The Ettins seem to have had no contact with Humans (presumably until their final end, when the 1st Earl supposedly fought them) as their records never mention them. Sylvester knows a lot about all this because if he'd had his choice he would have liked to be an archaeologist. Humans came into the country from across the sea in large numbers from Tiranog via the Sea of Shells and into a region called Abalone, and took over the area. Tiranog is on the same continent, and not all that far away, so this reinforces the idea that the Ettins only lived in what is now Yurpsland, otherwise they could hardly have failed to meet Humans. There were already older Human colonies in Yurpsland, in Shibolith, south-east of Abalone, who got there by a different route, overland from Thekla in the south. They had conflict with the Pales in Shibolith and so never spread, and they now speak a very different dialect from the rest. However, the language spoken locally is very widespread because Sylvester says his mother can just about understand the locals in Agraba, which is on the other side of the whole big continent, nearly four times the whole width of Yurpsland away. Even before the colonies in Shibolith, the insular, hostile tribal Human group called Haroons were brought into Alfibay (the far north-west of Yurpsland) by someone or something. Sylvester mentions Ilsa Lundquist, who was head housekeeper at the Mansion for years, and whose mother was a Haroon. This must be the same green-haired, Earl-hating Ilsa whom Snerk and Shona met when the HJ42 went PROZ and jumped them back to Eetown shortly before the Crash. Ilsa had a distracted air – probably because the Scary Lady was controlling her in some way – and eventually retired to the village. The Mansion still has a very old, almost mummified butler called Schmedley. They used to have all sorts of servants, including an hereditary string-measurer: the last incumbent choked to death a week and a half before the Crash, and some people thought the Crash happened because the post was vacant. Rosemary has plans for reviving the Mansion's fortunes, and is already referring to "our" and "we" in this context. At the very least, she can mind the place while Sylvester goes to Glome, the provincial capital, where he can get more current information. We learn that King Yorik III and his children died in the Crash. The current king Yancy II is a figurehead: the Bureaucracy really governs. Sylvester follows the fortunes of various factions in The Times (which stuck out here he can only get hold of weeks after publication) and has plans for playing the stockmarket. The stories in The Times are often slanted in a way that gives away the various jockeyings for position between government agencies and between companies. There is a long discussion about the fact that the government's bureaucracy is fragmented into multiple agencies and factions, and about the politics of the various neighbouring countries, including a place called Blefusco which is clearly equivalent to France. The country just south of Yurpsland is called Thekla, and south of that are Incana and Blefusco. Incana and Thekla are sabre-rattling: Blefusco is neutral, but if it gets dragged in it could lead to war between multiple countries including theirs. As they approach the top of the stairs, the hypnotic lights go out. They talk about the various habitats in the Basement ex-zoo, the death of the Wendigoes in the failed arctic exhibit (no loss, according to Sylvester), and the Willy the Wendigo books, and Sylvester's obligation to produce an heir (although given how many siblings he has I would have thought a nephew or niece would have done) and birth-control failures (they chew a plant called stiflebloom, but occasionally it doesn't work), and the pointlessness of Rosemary's crush on Baldy because he was "a homguy". We learn that the Helipaths and Ecadems were probably brought in by the Ettins through a Panegate. Sylvester believes that the Panegates open into alternate heres, rather than other planets. We learn that Rosemary's parents drowned in a maritime accident, and that there were terrible Dawn Wars before the Ettins and Sneeches came along. The combatants were inimical races called Wilfs/Wifts and Gobblems/Gobble'Ems, who are now known in this world only from bone framgments and fairy tales but who still exist beyond one of the Panegates. For whatever reason, the Panegates only show worlds a long way diverged from this one. The 12th Earl, Lemuel, investigated the Panegates and was probably killed by one: the controls are difficult and dangerous to operate, but there are a few simple ones which do work and part of the rite of passage of the new Earl is to go through one to e.g. the Forest, or yo Charlotte's Cave (which is halfway up the side of a nearby mountain). The Panegates also sometimes prompt the formation of brief portals to strange and distant places. We see an image of one through which we can glimpse Snoopy on his doghouse, and are shown an incident where two frog-creatures from the Station V3 webcomic emerged in the Mansion and were dealt with by the Scary Lady. I would suggest that Frowgler came through such a portal after one connected to the Roshambo comic, but he has said elsewhere that he isn't the Frowgler, just a Frowgler. Rosemary starts to ask about the Scary Lady, but then they reach the Great Chasm. Mr Hand watches them on his monitors, but disclaims all knowledge to somebody on the 'phone. Ludwig installed railings and bridges over the Chasm: there is a gap in the rails opposite the door they emerge from, but no bridge. It's not just any gap, but delineated by posts with E finials: it looks like it was built for a bridge that's no longer there, or perhaps as a boarding-point for airships. They establish that Rosemary is not scared of heights, and actively enjoyed working in the rigging of a sailing ship. The Chasm, is lit by daylight (and hence only in daylight) by reflectors installed by Ludwig. Walking along a ledge to get to the actual bridge, they sample the local treefruit, pass a gap where the rail is simply broken, then encounter an elderly male Gobule called Theophan the Recluse. Theophan is one of a long series of Theophans, the Founder, the Mighty and the Rotund, who were all famous mentors (passing the name through mentoring, not blood relationship). Gobule young are self-supporting and non-sapient, like baby guinea-pigs. They scatter in large numbers to grow or die. Those that live, become sapient: some of those become mere scavengers around the fringes but the luckiest are taken on by a mentor and educated. This Theophan was a student of Theophan the Rotund, along with Maw, Bung, Cram and Guttle. We learn that Gobule mentors occasionally mentor other species: Sylvester seems to be considering using one for his own future children. We hear about a Jibjib boss called Flap who runs an expensive ferry service across the Chasm, and learn that Theophan has chosen to stay beside the Chasm because it goes all the way down to the Hot Zone and he feels there's something terribly important down there, and not just the Treeroot. He tastes the Can-Opener and thinks it is made of Sneech squeezings, or something similar. He doesn't want to know their names, which are arbitrary labels, so they use the code-names Twit and Warrior. We learn that Theophan also stays by the Chasm to provide a sort of impartial counselling service to male Trogs who come to the Chasm to kill themselves by taking the Plunge before they lose their minds. A traditional location is used for this: it looks like another possible airship-jetty, like the one they passed earlier. After Rosemary and Sylvester have left we see Whisp still trailing them, then two baby Gobules emerge from a hole and talk to Theophan. Interestingly Theophan seems to have taught them the wrong meaning of the word "hobnob" as one baby says it means "fighting with", and Theopan replies "With teeth or with words, Yes." It actually means something between being pally with and conspiring with: a British brand of biscuit is called Hobnob because of the cosy image it conjures up. We learn that those Nomes who still live in the Basement live in Root Hall with the Eyebolts. Rosemary disapproves of the fact that Theophan doesn't try to stop the Trogs from killing themselves, but Sylvester understands it, and says he might do the same if he developed Darnay Syndrome (their equivalent of Alzheimer's). Rosemary is aware of Whisp following them. As they approach the Plunge point, trying to lose Whisp, they are passed by Crazy Rhid coming the other way, with Kronk still on his trail some way behind him. Sylvester thinks he's seen Rhid before, but doesn't realise it was in the images shown to him by Protus. We get to see the Plunge Point as seen from across the far side, so that we can see that there is a lighted panel below the lip facing out into the Chasm, lending weight to the idea that these were docking points for something. Nearby, we see the male Ghast Sopovefe from the bucket chain, waiting for "the little zorper" (so probably Frowgler, although if "zorper" is being used just as profanity he might mean Digger or some Shallow Wyrm), and Hpobfvfr passing by behind him, presumably looking for Rosemary and Sylvester: Sopovefe glimpses her and seems to realise something is odd about her. A shot is fired (by Camora, with the blunderbuss, under Hax's control, from a high vantage point), striking Rosemary on the helmet and dazing her: in her confusion she exclaims "I told them not to ring your bell, Dandelion..", Dandelion being the name of the Oracle where she grew up. Kronk pushes her aside in order to pursue Rhid, and she and Sylvester fall into the Chasm. Rhid and Kronk pass Whisp, who can smell that Rosemary and Sylvester went over the Plunge, and also smells Camora's presence nearby. Rhid, in the lead, then passes Theophan, and then a Trog juggler who we later learn is called Stonwal, and then the doorway that leads to the River, and then is rescued by Digger Odel, who pulls him in behind a concealed panel. Whisp traces Camora's scent and works out that she emerged from a spot in a corridor wall (not the point she disappeared behind before), tracked to the ledge above the Plunge site and then returned. She wonders if it's a transporting twistpoint, like one in Helignoll Hall, then works out that it's a concealed door, and leaves to report back to Upernavik and Knumdrot. Meanwhile we see Hpobfvfr go to the edge of the Plunge and peer over, then turn back. Behind the panel Hax disengages from Camora. He believes he has contained her memory and delayed her awakening, but she wakes instantly, with full memory, and tries to grab him. He escapes down a letterbox-sized slot in the rock, scraping his front surface badly in the process, with Camora shouting THIS IS NOT OVER!" behind him. We see gaps and tunnels in the rock containing odd bits of struts and tools and what looks like a Smyt-sized pink racing car, then a cavern where four bats are roosting. One bat bat wakes and flies through wider fissures towards the outside. Part Five: Mechanisms in the Dark [27/02/2010 – 16/07/2013] 01: Sitting in a Tree [27/02/2010 – 04/06/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2355–#2443] Now that it is getting dark Comshaw, Niddle and Ig see the bat fly past them and finally feel safe to come down from the ruined fountain. Ig is now wearing/carrying Niddle's backpack. We also see a distant, unidentifed Saur, possibly Snerk but the colour looks darker, lurking in a tree, watching a bat go past. Yasmine enters the ruined building where she heard coughing, and discovers Mortimer, lying on a makeshift bed and still coming round from having been stunned by Eunice. He has a note from Rufus on his chest but we aren't told what it says. He correctly identifies Yasmine, who seems familiar to him although she doesn't think they've met, as a Weirdo – which she finds amazing, apparently because it suggests a degree of clairvoyance not seen since the Crash. He also identifies the building as Dorian's old hut (presumably the Dorian who now lives in the Spike), but seems confused: when Yasmine mentions Protus as the Willigig currently living in the Mansion, Mortimer recalls being somewhere near the Basement at some point and Skibble, who seems to be a friend of his, turning up "like he usually does" (which makes it unlikely he's an Ichyoid, so we're down to Ghast, Ooze of Helipath) and mentioning Protus to him, but he doesn't coherently connect this with the Willigig who gave him the HJ42 after the incident with the Tree-Squid earlier in the day – although he then refers to Protus as "really grumpy", so he must have made the connection subconsciously, even if he has forgotten the meeting consciously. Yasmine claims she is there to conduct an official Weirdo's Guild review of Arthur's performance. Mortimer smells strongly of sphagnum dust and sploo. Yasmine sets off again to find her horse, and Mortimer again sets out to find Nitfol and rescue him if still alive. He is briefly distracted by a flutterby and calls it to his finger: Yasmine sees this and is again amazed by his psychic talent. Agita's henchgnoll Agorn overhears them talking, and we see Mortimer's Scalpsucker messenger still only halfway up the side of the shaft. The flutterby flies round her and she falls asleep: it seems Mortimer sent it to tell her to stand down. Yasmine and Mortimer get along well and he tells her about all the odd things which happen to him. They talk about Mortimer and Sylvester doing their duty and Sylvester still getting scorned by the villagers, about chaos theory and flutterbys and how one flutterby might some day make a difference, and she tells him to tell Frederick about the odd things. Thinking of what Protus showed her, but not saying it, she tells Mortimer she expects to be back some day and when she returns she expects him to have made some progress with his situation. As Yasmine leaves, Mortimer gives her his sack of fleebs, and Agorn watches from behind a wall. Agorn, who is carrying a spear, wonders whether to follow one or the other, go home and report or go run off and join the Spikefolk, who carry out strange rites involving doing a Metalmin dance and getting blasted with Spikeglow. He appears to decide to follow Mortimer. Ig, Comshaw and Niddle are trying to locate Mortimer by smell but they smell something odd as well that Ig has never smelled before, metal and skin, wet and burnt – Niddle says this smell was all over the mound that the Fire came out of earlier ("The Pit"). The way they describe the smell, it probably relates to either Frowgler or the Meltalmin which we glimped earlier near The Pit: we will find out later that it's Frowgler, which implies that Frowgler smells of metal (is it possible that Frowgler in some way is the Metalmin?). They can also smell that there have been a lot of Pales about, not just Thrash's party and the two with Buzz. Niddle says the metal/skin/wet/burnt smell was all over the hill where The Pit is, then suddenly gone. Again there is mention of a barrier which Humans live beyond, as if there's some sort of cordon keeping the Basement folk in. Niddle is pleased that he was exposed to the Fire and saw visions, as he thinks this will prove to be important, and he says it will now be a Finagler thing which he will spread at the next Conclave. Having parted from Jasmine Mortimer is a bit lost (and we see he is now completely barefoot: evidently Rufus and/or Eunice removed his remaining shoe when they put him to bed), but then he encounters Frowgler, Thrash and the two other Pales we will later know as Flagpale and Scrawl, although for the moment Frowgler calls them Flaghelper and Antlerhelper. Frowgler is sitting on a branch of a tree against which the Scary Lady's pink umbrella is leaning. Mortimer recognises Frowgler as a comic-book character but Frowgler says that he is "not THE Frowgler. Just.. A Frowgler", and saying that his parents called him that is a close enough approximation. Frowgler comments that the local Pales call their fort "The Camp" because they expect it to be temporary, and advises Mortimer on how to find the closest Spyder web, and that he'll know he's near it when he sees smoke. He claims to be in a similar position to his fictional counterpart, in that he has come to assist the Good Guys against powerful evil forces, much bigger and more powerful than mere demons. Mortimer and Thrash are both Good Guys, and so are most of the people they know. Mortimer asks if Yasmine was right to tell him to talk to Frederick, and Frowgler thinks she probably was. Mortimer says he needs to be ready "when she gets back" – probably meaning Yasmine. Thrash tacitly agrees to convey Frowgler on to his next stopping point. As Frowgler and the Pales leave, Mortimer notices the umbrella. It doesn't belong to anyone in Frowgler's party, so he keeps it. Agorn watches the bat catching flutterbys, then realises that Comshaw's party are behind him, and hides. He overhears Comshaw sniffing out the fact that the Human, Mortimer, went one way and the Pales and the metal-smelling thing went another. So the metal-smelling thing must be Frowgler. They decide to continue following the Human. Agorn is impressed, but in a kind of patronising way: he sees Comshaw as a young fellow with potential. The space-suited worker who earlier quit the Hot Zone observation station climbs out of a hatch in one of the ruined buildings (with a sign over the door saying "GONE TO EARTH"), takes off her helmet and reveals herself to be a female Nome called Fizmo. She mentions having been taken below from a different entrance by someone called Fogorner, who she believes was working for the group in the Spike. She is afraid she might have come up beyond the Edge of the World, where the giants (Humans) are. She attempts to treewarp her way through the door, but it doesn't work because she doesn't have "the glowgems or the blivit any of the rest of the phizz". In the end she forces her way out of the locked building through a crack high in the stonework, in her underwear but taking with her a pruning hook she found in the locked building. She lands in "puffbloom bushes", which seem to be the local version of hydrangea. She meets Frowgler, who is sitting on a ruined wall and whom she knows – he had advised her not to take the subterranean job. Now he says going back down would be the safest thing for her, but not the best thing. Learning that she admires Nitfol for his independence, he suggests she go with Thrash to the Pale camp where Nitfol now is, and she agrees. She is initially alarmed by Thrash, whom Frowgler introduces as the Nexus's strong right hand, then she casually calls him "whatsyergob". As a reward for not forcing him to force her to agree, Frowgler opens his Poke Kit and gives her a very smart hat made by the posh Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine, since Nomes hate to be bareheaded, but he warns her to examine hats from other sources carefully: to look inside them, and if they're one of the unsafe kind she'll feel the urge to swear and whack them with her pruning hook. It is clear he is warning her about Fixits, and that Fogorner is controlled by a Fixit. He also warns her that the beaver shark – of which there is only one – is loose nearby, and that he is trying to stop Koyeeb doing something which will destroy the Nome village (presumably, attacking the Gnolls). He is sending her away from the village because she's worth saving. He tells Thrash to tell the Nexus that if they don't hear from him, "that stopgap we discussed will be necessary". Frowgler denies being a demon and says he was put on earth to do what he is doing. He goes down the tunnel Fizmo came out of, saying that he needs to see an old friend, and she goes off with the Pales, talking at them about a Nome who built a prototype plane which crashed, and her ideas about hot air balloons (adding that she is a natural source of hot air). We see a flat-topped tower among the ruins, made of Ettin durasteel plates and with a label that starts "Ludwig automatic..." Inside the top, surrounded by windows, is a giant crystal which collects sunlight and directs it underground and down a channel with mirrors in it to steer it around corners. The light-beam passes by a lorry in some sort of workshop, and a buried, humanoid but four-armed Metalmin: either the Metalmin is huge or the lorry is Smyt-size, because the entire lorry is only slightly bigger than the Metalmin's head. The beam from the crystal connects to the lights which channel daylight to the Great Chasm, and we see Rosemary and Sylvester falling: he thinks that he is dying Mortimer's death and his family will never know what happened to him, but then they land in a peculiar fluffy outgrowth of the Tree. Rosemary, still dazed from the blow to the head, identifies Rhid whom they have just seen as one of the people Protus showed to Sylvester, and thinks that the woman he saw her fighting – whom she calls Tansy – is about to show up, since Rhid did. Her helmet light is damaged, and Sylvester's helmet is missing, caught in the Tree high above them. Rosemary apologises to the Tree and then whacks it, causing the helmet to fall into range. Sylvester manages with some difficulty to catch it, so that they have light and can proceed. 02: Lying in a Hole [05/06/2010 – 16/09/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2450–#2548] Mortimer passes an enormous boulder in its own fresh mini-crater: it's not the one that nearly hit Comshaw earlier, but probably comes from the same explosion. Watched by a trundlebug, Rosemary and Sylvester slip through the layer of fluff onto a more normal, solid branch of the Tree. Sylvester thinks the padded branches below the Plunge point are there to stop Trogs killing themselves, or at least, like Theophan, to give them time to reconsider. Rosemary tears her skirt – which is stolen, presumably from a Chroman Initiate – to make ties to keep their helmets on. She admits to having killed three Humans, presumably in combat. Meanwhile, Comshaw, Niddle and Ig are following close behind Mortimer. The pre-existence of Wyverns, a kind of extinct dragon, is mentioned. If this is designed to save Trogs, or at least give them the chance to change their minds, why have none ever made it back to tell Theophan about it? Sylvester's theory that it's all there to save Trogs is born out when they find a burning pot of Trog Repellant, which herds any Trogs who land in the Tree towards a narrow spur bridge leading out over the abyss (made by a very reputable construction firm). Meanwhile, Agorn passes more debris, buried in the ground by the force of the last blast, the OZPR. The spur across the Chasm ends with a bracket with a crab or spider drawn on it, and then a long tube-like chute which they are sucked in by, and which takes them to a padded landing-site in a room within the cliff on the far side of the Chasm, which contains a broken office cabinet which has "The Threshold" written on it, and which moves about under its own power. On the wall is written "MAKES HAMBLE SUMTHING SUMTHING", among other things. They meet a thing called a Lurker – a cave-creature like a blind, bald, sub-sapient Saur. Dog-like, it wants them to follow it: Rosemary thinks it's leading them into an ambush. Following it, they come to a place which looks like the Ettins' artificial Trog habitat, except sterile and dead, without the moss and fresh water etc. of the zoo exhibit. Sylvester feels that he and Rosemary are both acting rather wildly, and that this is due to exposure to energy bubbling up from the Hot Zone. They come to an archway labelled "Serene Cavern of Blissful Relaxation", beside which is a slightly sick poem about the death of Yurd ("Yurd ran far and wide // 'Til his mind began to slide // So he took the Great Plunge // Now he is in a hole all covered with gunge"). Within are the people the Lurker, Blinky, was reporting to – two male trogs called Villipend and Hamble. Both are less flat-faced and probably mentally sharper than Kronk, but Villipend is paranoid and deranged, and his hair (or crest or whatever it is) is styled like a crown. Hamble tries to calm him but he is sure that Rosemary and Sylvester are the "Tormentors" who keep him trapped there, and it doesn't help that he smells his enemy Kronk (who brushed past them at the Plunge point) on them. There are bones in the background which look like those of a Trog. When Sylvester says he doesn't know where the exit is, Villipend throws a weapon which Rosemary fends off with the Can-Opener, which Villipend calls a Sneech claw. Rosemary and Villipend fight and Villipend manages to get in a kick which throws her against the wall. Sylvester intervenes, warns him grimly that he is the terrible Earl of E and fires a primitive taser which he has in his backpack, and which fires over his shoulders when he hits a trigger on his chest – but Villipend dodges and it is Hamble who is struck and apparently killed. The act of firing the taser also throws Squeeb out of the backpack and onto the floor, unnoticed. Villipend is impressed by the taser but annoyed because he wanted to kill Hamble himself. He threatens Sylvester so Rosemary slashes him with the Can-Opener and he hides in the dark. Sylvester finds a door operated by a Herediscan which identifies him as a member of the E family and lets him through: next to it on the wall is written "THE BRUSH IS PERFECT BUT THE PAINT RUNS". He tells Villipend (now clinging to the ceiling) he will leave the door open. Mortimer thinks that he is searching the woods to find out what happened to Nitfol. Then he finds the Spyder's head, detached and smoking, and thinks "OK, now it's just morbid curiosity". Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their weapons training (and we learn that at the bodyguard training-school she went to, the fencing master was a Mr Montoya). She is concerned that she may not be able to stop Villipend if he attacks again, because he's in peak condition and she has no practice with the Can-Opener. Comshaw's party reach the dead Spyder head. Ig can tell that it wasn't Mortimer who killed the Spyder, and begins to discover the joys of cooked meat. As they move away from the Hot Zone vents, Rosemary becomes calmer. Sylvester tells her about the SubShafts, a tangle of tunnels which are greatly affected by the Hot Zone. The Eyebolts who worked for the Ettins lived there, then the mining Nomes as well. After an upheaval when Sylvester was a teen (presumably the Gnoll/Nome war, so Mortimer was about twelve or fourteen when he did whatever he did) they all moved out, the Eyebolts to elsewhere in the Basement, the Nomes to the Forest, and now it's mainly Gnolls who live in the SubShafts. [We seen an outline of Cully, Chunner and Crud, all heavily armed – Cully with a flame-thrower, Chunner with a blunderbuss and Crud with something similar to the Can-Opener.] They come to an area of large engineering works and spiky pylons, like metal tree trunks with short jagged branches, at the start of a walkway or bridge at the edge of a long drop. Mortimer comes to the huge, smoking crater caused when Frowgler set off the HJ42, and wrongly assumes Nitfol and the Spyder were both blown up. He climbs down into the crater and retrieves the HJ42, then Comshaw, Niddle and Ig arrive at the edge of the crater and engage him in conversation about the goals of Humanity. They all conclude that Comshaw needs to speak to Sylvester (hearing that Sylvester is the Earl, Comshaw assumes he must be very scary). The thing Niddle has been carrying in his hand all day, which he found in the tunnel and which is similar to but not the same as a Glowgem, starts radiating energy, and Comshaw notices it for the first time since the tunnel. Niddle says he can almost hear it speak, it's waited a long time and now it's almost time for some unspecified meeting: probably between it and the HJ42. This must be the meeting future!Mortimer told present!Mortimer to prevent. Suddenly the Saur Snerk falls into the crater with them. He had run into the beaver shark and it fixated on him and began chasing him. The beaver shark appears looming over the edge of the crater and then crashes down amongst them. Niddle starts counting down 5...4...3... Mortimer orders the others to run: using his pink umbrella like a baton he summons a large crowd of flutterbys, who distract the shark by crashing against its face. Then Niddle's count reaches zero, and the energies of the HJ42 and the crystal link and set off a silent magical fireball, a huge dome of white light, which is felt by the Operator, the Scary Lady, Frowgler and a mechanical alarm near Hector. Back underground, Rosemary and Sylvester are considering a vertical ladder when Villipend jumps them, wrests the Can-Opener from Rosemary and tries to force Sylvester to go back downstairs and close the door to Villipend's domain, so he can continue to trap other Trogs there. Sylvester is willing to jump into the Chasm rather than do so. Mortimer and the shark are transported into open underground space by a twistpoint and fall down to where Rosemary and Sylvester are. The letters PZOR appear, indicating that the not-Glowgem and the HJ42 interacted to create the twistpoints, burst of light etc.. The shark bites Villipend, killing him, and Rosemary retrieves the Can-Opener and pushes both of them off the edge and into the deep. Comshaw and Niddle are jumped through another twistpoint back to their own home, where Camora is brooding. [They have a skimgibber in a bowl.] Niddle crashes out, as Telic had warned that he would, burbling about the fact that Mortimer has the same haircut as him, and something about a window. Camora tells Comshaw about Hax. He decides to go back out to warn everyone, leaving her to care for Niddle, but first Camora, who is feeling overwrought, declares that she loves Comshaw and they have an unspecified erotic session. Comshaw is happy to see that Niddle has some clingweed wrapped round his feet, since he promised some to Telic. Ig is twistpointed to outside the home of his ex girlfriend Nerda, the mother of his as-yet unhatched children. He offers her the stuff in Niddle's backpack so she lets him in. Snerk is less lucky. As a result (or cause) of an unspecified backlash he is dumped into the middle of a high-tech. experimental facility of some kind being run by two Ghasts. He is pinned in some uncomfortable, scary machinery which may be examining him or may be cleaning and immunising him – it's not clear which – and then pushed through a hatch (which he sort-of recognises because "the boss" told him about doors) labelled "#2540 SAUR HABITAT, WOODLAND" into an artifical woodland habitat designed especially for Saurs. He wonders if it is underground, then thinks that he has been twistpointed to a real forest far away. He wishes to leave a.s.a.p. in order to report to Frowgler. There are other Saurs there, all of them (including Snerk), wearing a bracelet on the right wrist and with a three-digit number on their left side. He meets a dozy girl called Dizel and a much more sensible, very large female called Zil who tells him that if he can find a way out she's coming with him: he learns from her that there's a day/night cycle here, but no proper sun. We learn of the existence of big, dim, agressive Saur relatives called Sawtooths, but there are said to be none in this habiotat. There are however Gnolls – who may be there unofficially. Why was Snerk sent here? Comshaw, Niddle and Ig were sent to their mates, so is Zil Snerk's future mate? The shark certainly didn't go to its mate but we've been told it was the only beaver shark, so probably it had no mate: instead it followed Mortimer on whom it was fixated (it possibly followed Snerk because he had licked Mortimer's foot and so smelled of him). Mortimer went to his brother and Rosemary, but we will be told Rosemary is not his mate, and certainly he is currently fixated on Yasmine. I do not think Yasmine can be Rosemary looped through time, even though we will learn that she is somebody whom people in the area might recognise, because Rosemary wouldn't need a report on Mansion critters. Meanwhile, the not-Glowgem falls back into the crater, and the HJ42 falls through a crack in the floor of the crater [the parallel strip Sundays in SubShaft 44f tells us that it ends up with the rebel Gnoll mechanic Tuttle, who is in league with Digger Odel and passes it to Skuy's boyfriend Cully]. Agorn investigates and sees that the hole which has opened up contains a ladder. He can smell Sneeches in the depths. 03: Spanner in the Works [17/09/2010 – 15/01/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2555–#2926] Sylvester identifies their location as the Ettinworks investigated by Krell, Earl Griffington's assistant. Sylvester, Mortimer (still smelling peculiar due to the sphagnum dust, still with umbrella) and Rosemary set out along the walkway: lights, electric crackles and deep rumbling noises come on as they walk, destroying the ladder they were comsidering before. R&S talk over Mortimer and largely ignore what he is trying to tell them about the umbrella. Sylvester talks about the differences between the SubShafts and the Ettinworks, as electricity crackles on and off around them. Rosemary has a sense that the Can-Opener may do exciting things around electrical discharges, and puts it in the Poke Kit. No Human that Sylvester knows of has been down there since the Crash: and of course after their tumble down the Chasm they are now much lower-down than they had intended to be, vis-á-vis the Sneech den. They come to an unusually passive Sneech plant-machine growth which is blocking the walkway. Similar to the Tree, Sneech dens are built from vast networks of linked, plant-like growths which maintain all forms of life-support, information processing and defence, and can be dangerous if threatened. They are far below the level of the Sneech nest, but Mortimer recounts comments by Skibble suggesting the Sneeches are expanding their territory. He tells Sylvester that Comshaw wants to talk to him. They edge past the growth: Mortimer insists on taking the lead as he is the most expendable. The other two have been ignoring Mortimer and rather treating him like a small child but they begin to realise their mistake. Having passed the Sneech growth they come in sight of an Ettin underhub – a lighthouse-like tower which stretches from the floor below where they are, through the open cavern of the Ettinworks to the ceiling of the cavern, which is the floor of the shallower levels overhead, with a row of windows ringing the tower up near the ceiling. Sylvester talks of a network of underground roads and haulage lorries and buildings which was wrecked and sealed off when Audra poked the Hot Zone and caused the Chasm to spread – it is clear this is the system now being opened up and used by the Fixits. So Yurpsland already had self-powered lorries about 140 years ago, or ninety years before the Crash. The tunnels were used to train and supply armies, but after the Breach the less martially-minded Ludwig sealed them off rather than repairing them (these must be the extra space Fosic is now unsealing with his bim toggler). They go into the underhub and prepare to climb a spiralling internal ramp, and have a conversation in which Rosemary is amazed to learn that a famous, ancient philosopher named Milo, who wrote a very famous work called The Intricate Balance, was the 9th Earl of E. Rosemary's Aunt Eva won it in a Skipjack game among a job-lot of eleven books. They discuss chess, in which Milo was very interested: Rufus is the family champion (after Myrrh). They find a signpost written in a Human script and recently annotated in the handwriting of Nirvana Clepe, former Taskmistress of the Mansion, who retired eight years ago when her wife died, and supposedly now lives in Noodle, three days' ride away. They can tell that the writing is quite new, not weathered by the sea air. Mortimer is showing clairvoyance – he knows that the Sneeches have never been inside the underhub. There is a discussion about Threnody the local Oracle, whom Sylvester fancies (Dirge is her Guardian), and who sometimes helps with the female Tasks now they have no Taskmistress, if Nellie doesn't feel up to it. Presumably the Scary Lady isn't Human enough. Mention is made of two main Brush sects, Mainstream and Throwbacks. The interior of the underhub is full of concealed twistpoints – as they climb, the interior changes illogically and it's possible to go up and end up lower down, or find a door to the outside that should have been visible from the outside, but wasn't (meaning it's 180° rotated from where it appears to be). There are a series of signposts to guide them, and they have to follow the lower numbers on the signs (assuming the top of the underhub to be #1) even when they look like they're going the wrong way. Talking about twistpoints leads them to realise that they each met Protus today. Mortimer talks about the Zorper, about Yasmine, and about ending up in Dorian's old hut. He recalls Dorian as a hermit from his childhood, although Dorian has been working for the group in the Spike for forty-two years, and Mortimer's father was born less than fifty years ago and Mortimer is his third child, so he's not much more than twenty-five. The Dorian we see in memory was already wearing the Fixit he wears now, so he was dividing his time between the Spire and the forest (unless at some point in the future he and his Fixit are going to be sent back to twenty years ago). Sylvester is sure Yasmine was lying about being there to review Arthur, unless the Guild have changed the rules without telling him, because the Guild's assessor is called Jack Kench. Employing a Weirdo, we learn, is a requisite part of being an aristocrat, and being an aristocrat still has its uses. They come to a group of elongated, slope-sided pillars labelled "do not touch". After they have passed on without touching them, we see that they are local Panegates. A window open in one to show the dining room at the Mansion, then two female Gnolls, Dandilli from the SubShafts and probably Dipsoma, gossiping (Dandilli has a flutterby on a string), then a Dornbeast. The Dornbeast tries to come through and is electrocuted. Frowgler, looking rough, emerges from the Dornbeast one although the Dornbeast itself cannot pass. He goes back through another, smaller window and we hear a voice speaking to him which says "ya" and "yer" instead of "you" and "you're", but the font is disguised. Frowgler asks if they are "back up and running" and the voice says yesno, if you don't twist out right aw— then comments that Frowgler is damaged. Frowgler says he met one of Protus's new friends, possibly referring to Thrash tossing him up like a ball. Signs in there say "NO HURRICANES BEYOND THIS POINT" and "STAY HOME CUZ YER WELL". Meanwhile, Nevus's troops are at Comshaw's door, believing he sent Sylvester and Rosemary to spy on Le Tree, but they are facing gthe wrong way, expecting him to be coming from the forest. He emerges behind them and duffs them up with his Poking stick, then tells one of them, a young male Trog called Skradt, to take him to Nevus. They pass Le Gnollhole, which is closed for the duration. Skradt is interested in learning to be a Poker himself. The Basement is now very quiet – most people are hiding, although we glimpse Fanga lurking in a doorway with her bow. The twistpoints in the underhub aren't mentioned in the Mansion's records, suggesting they are newly formed: or rather, since they are so organised, the Ettins set the system up, but it was switched off. Sylvester thinks the Ettins' devices were built to shut down in the event of a Crash, and are now waking again, and in the process turning other stuff from hundreds of years ago back on. They discuss the Crash, and what they could do before it – still far less than the Ettins did. They had a high-level tram which took a week to cross the country: the Ettins went to the moon. They come to another pillar labelled "touch". In order to get past a twistpoint and go up again Mortimer touches it with his umbrella, again considering himself the most expendable, and a ray from the ceiling strikes the other two. Sylvester loses nearly all his memory – although he recalls Nimue – and Rosemary loses some of her intelligence, regresses emotionally and starts acting like an eager-to-please, extremely literal-minded five-year-old with no conversational filters. Rosemary's memory is intact and she realises what has happened and warns Mortimer he will have to tell her what to do. This is a double-edged sword as she is now extremely hypnotically susceptible: when Mortimer says "Stop" to her she actually freezes up. Mortimer still trusts the signs, since touching the pillar, as the sign said, seems to have protected him. He has a crisis of nerve about being the leader, but Sylvester decides to trust him. Following Mortimer's instincts, they hold the umbrella together and touch the pillar again, and this time a levitating lift called a Woosher arrives. The Woosher carries them up inside the tower, and while they are on it the ramps that were there before disappear. 04: Closing Out an Era (The Ettinworks) [18/01/2011 – 04/06/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2674–#2807] As they ride the Woosher Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer discuss the fact that there must be "some rich guy with horrible mutant tastebuds" keeping Moe Wines in business (there is, of course – Mr Hand). They discuss the fact that Sylvester is the Earl (which he has forgotten) and the succession: Mortimer is terrified of having to be Earl if Sylvester doesn't get his memory back, but in any case Ace is older (and equally unsuitable). Lil is dreamy like Mortimer, Lenore is smart but too harsh and self-interested, and Rufus is brilliant but not good with people. They pass an unknown woman in brown, with blonde hair with a pink bow on top – Rosemary calls her Mz Teree – who seems to be marking the signs, but who isn't Nirvana Clepe. Hpobfvfr is still trailing them, and climbing upwards, so either she or the Operator must know about the Trog-catcher in the Chasm, and that going over the Plunge point need not mean that they are dead. When they disembark, higher up, the tower changes again (because they have stepped through an invisible twistpoint to a different section, not because the tower itself has changed) and they find more ramps. It is mentioned that they need never have gone down to look for the Pots Room, because Mortimer knows where there is a supply of seige pots in a disused barracks. Rosemary's bodyguard training is still sharp even if the rest of her isn't. They discuss twistpoints, and confirm that it is possible to walk down a ramp, then back up the same ramp, and end up somewhere different from where they started. Sylvester can remember a scary female teacher at university who taught him about tesseracts in this context, and a night where he and Nimue stood on a high tower looking down at the lights of the city. One of the new signposts they come to is decorated with a heart with "N C + A S" written in it: they think this may be Nirvana Clepe and the Mz Teree woman (meaning Mz Teree's initials are A.S.). With more down-and-up twists they arrive at the level of the wide, round room with the bank of windows, up against the roof of the cavern where the Ettinworks are, and just under the floor of the upper part of the Basement. At this point they are probably back at about the level of Le Tree, or maybe a storey or two below it. As they walk Rosemary burbles, and starts to speak about Tansy – who she thinks is the woman Sylvester saw her fighting when Protus showed him visions – and a word beginning "Qu". The view from the windows looks out into the Ettinworks, and the room is dotted with many pillars and blocks. Meanwhile, Comshaw and Skradt come to the Council entrance, which is heavily defended. An Eyebolt receptionist called Witherward admits them by dropping them down a shaft. They arrive in the midst of a full meeting, including Twiz, acting for Maw; Snerd, acting for Sina; Commander Chumley (the Council's Chief of Security) for the Boogiemen; and Hptwfvth, a Ghast "Stirrer", some kind of high ceremonial functionary relating to how the Ghasts reproduce (they have to use special breeding pools within their home base and are unable to set up more outside it), who is in some way not physically present (or more probably, is physically present but not officially so). On the Council are Doyen, a female Trog; Gavzada, a female Motihaul; Wunk, a male Gnoll; Aprat, a Helipath and Chairbeing Preznit, a male Eyebolt, although he tries to hide his species behind a mask and robes. Doyen cricizes the presence of Skradt, since he is known to work for Nevus, but Comshaw says that Skradt is thinking of becoming a Poker and is there to observe his typical working day. Snerd has brought a message from Sina saying her team at their new hall fully support the Council, and the Council can send an observer if it likes, but they're not leaving. Twiz is very interested in the new hall Sina is setting up, which may be what his group needs (whether as a new place to live after their lair was attacked, or just a place where they can get the contract to do the cleaning, isn't clear). The Council is concerned about Rhid and what he may do next, and whether Sina is a safe person to be a leader. Gavzada is keen on anything which keeps Othara occupied, and they are cautiously positive so long as Sina and her engineer Fosic build walls to keep people away from the Operator. Comshaw then strikes a Fixit from the head of a female Gnoll called Widdendreem, who seems to be the Council's record-keeper. He wants to catch it alive but Widdendreem, freed from the Fixit, pounces and kills it. Widdendreem is angry that she now owes Comshaw a debt, and concerned by the fact that she has killed a person. She tells them the name "Fixit" and that the dead one was a female called Snurfix or Snufix, reporting to a male nicknamed Slinker. Snurfix had crept onto her head while she slept; was herself not really kept informed, other than that the Fixits work for "God"; and didn't try to make Widdendreem do anything, except to pay attention to records and transactions which Snurfix wished to know about. We learn that young Fixits are raised in cages "beyond the Spikeshield", which must be the barrier others have spoken of. Chumley, as security chief, takes command and sends Widdendreem to write down all she recalls about the Fixits, while Comshaw tells the Council what he knows about them – leaving out Camora's name. Chumley decrees that no one in the Council Chamber shall wear a hat – all the Councillors drop their hoods and Preznit, whose brain is in his torso, strips to his socks. Wunk appears slightly boggled by whatever Preznit has in his crotch, which we don't actually see. The Council agrees to tell all the key players – Maw, Agita etc. – whilst trying to prevent the knowledge of the Fixits from spreading generally for the moment, for fear of what God might do when he learns his spy network has been blown. They want all the leaders warned, and preferably to have caught a live Fixit, before God takes any action. Comshaw is sent to tell Agita about the Fixits, but before he leaves he tells them about the Humans, and Sylvester being the Earl, but he doesn't know if he is the Earl. The Earl "tore the world in two fighting Yurp, the Demon King": Yorik Yurp is the king who founded Yurpsland where they live, and the Earl in this case is evidently Audra, who fought a war with Yurp and caused the Chasm to spread. Comshaw plans to go speak to Sylvester tomorrow, if he can find the Mansion: Hptwfvth tells him it's "God's Cactus". Comshaw assures the Council that "his" Humans aren't in league with God, so far as he can tell, and passes on the message that Nevus will be "in non-violent touch". Comshaw, Skradt, Snerd and Twiz head for the exit, discussing the reproduction of various species, and Trog education (here we learn that Espy is a teacher, and that Skradt can read both Manglish and Human script), and that the Ghasts keep paper records. Back with Sylvester's party, Mortimer tells the other two (neither of whom is functioning reliably yet) not to go to look out of the windows, for fear of triggering another dangerous event by accidentally touching one of the many close-set pillars and blocks scattered around the room. We see that leading up from the window room is a flight of stone steps going up into the body of the rock above them. There is also an Ettin-style door, like a triangle with the top cut off, which has a gap about 10" high underneath it. Mortimer peers underneath and sees a triangular space with two Human-type doors set into Ettin-style apertures, leading off from this Ettin control tower. Two roundish objects, possibly shoes, and what seems to be a tapered board made from three slats lean against one wall (although Mortimer later refers to seeing "posts"), but a little metal sign saying "KEEP OUT" falls down in front of him, with the letters cut out of it as holes. Sylvester feels that there are Humans behind the door right now (perhaps this is where Nirvana and the msyterious AS are living?), but when he turns his back it's a non-Human-looking hand, crackling with magic, which retrieves the "KEEP OUT" sign. It doesn't look like Frowgler's hand (and anyway we will learn that he is elsewhere): it actually looks like the hand of one of the mysterious creatures we saw before who called the Scary Lady "The Destroyer", although if so Rob has changed his mind about how many fingers they have. [Note: could be a Wendigo hand, but the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Rosemary asks whether she is bodyguard to both of them: Mortimer says just to Sylvester, and that he himself will have to take care of himself. They set off up the stone steps towards the Sneech den. Rosemary and Sylvester are starting to improve. There is some oblique discussion about R&S going to Nellie and Amos for help if anything happens to Mortimer, about Sylvester not telling Rosemary the Scary Lady's name, then about Mortimer's friend the scalpsucker (and the fact that some scalpsuckers nowadays can talk) – Mortimer remembers falling down the hole leading to the old World o' Pots storeroom but doesn't seem to recall meeting Rufus. They come to a door opened by number pad, leading to a double-doored Sneech-lock with a Sneechstick in it. Mortimer can sense that there are no Sneeches nearby. Emerging, they pass an alcove containing an entrance to the elevator, or at least an elevator. Mortimer steers them past it, looking alarmed, and writing on the wall says "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW", but they should be on the opposite side of the Chasm from the lift with the Operator in it. Maybe they have passed through the stone of the roof above the Great Chasm: it's true that at Mansion-level the elevator and the entrance to the Sneech den are fairly close together. Past that is a round room at the bottom of a shaft, with a crystal on a stand in the middle, playing a popular song called Girl from the Limphopho: this is the same mechanism the Scary Lady used to levitate Zay, but not the same shaft, as hers was square in cross-section. Sylvester confirms that there are several of these lifts throughout the Mansion, all playing the same tune There are also double metal doors, closed, and stairs leading up and down. Mortimer hopes to use the stairs but finds the ones going up are labelled "Operation Certain Death" and the ones going down, "Slimegrub Breedpits". The down-flight shows signs of recent flooding, which ties in with floods which occur in the related < href="MoE_SubShaft_44f_2.htm">Sundays in SubShaft 44f strips. On the first landing down are a large Glowgem and a discarded stick which is probably somebody's wand: Mortimer retrieves the Glowgem, which has a socket just right for fitting it onto the point of his umbrella. Rosemary seems slightly hypnotised by it. They plan to go upstairs, towards Operation Certain Death, but then they hear something big and loud crashing downstairs towards them. Comshaw's party slide down a chute and land in a corridor by the battered-looking Gobule Mingent, who is eating debris from the battle. Twiz has a piece of the dead Fixit in his mouth to take to Maw – they tell Mingent if he smells anything like it, to bite it. Twiz runs off, and Mingent fills Comshaw in on what happened at the elevator. Comshaw thinks Snerd should go on working for Sina but Snerd says Shona wouldn't like it, and he loves Shona. Comshaw and Skradt set off together. They encounter a Jibjib called Schrik being ridden by a Fixit, and try and fail to take the Fixit alive. The Fixit has been using Schrik to spy on Flap's ferry across the Great Chasm. An important Boogieman ruler called Crispin is mentioned: Schrik has a basket to take him but doesn't know if he dremed it, as the Fixit has left him very confused. Comshaw sends Schrik to take the dead Fixit to Sina and then work for her. Skradt reveals that he joined Nevus hoping for an early death in battle, so he wouldn't have to choose to take the Plunge. But Comshaw has given him a vision of something more useful, plus he wants to learn to fight as well as him. Frowgler, watching through a crack in the wall, thinks they make a good team. As the loud noises approach Rosemary draws the Can-Opener, which Sylvester calls a Paleslicer, but thinks better of it. They use the singing crystal thing to levitate them up to a higher floor, but Rosemary is grabbed and held back, floating, by what proves to be an enormous, female relative of Ahz and Skiv, called Tand (who is as big as a Titanoboa, has some difficulty adjusting her voice to the right level, and has tentacles on her head which terminate in hands). Tand can smell that Rosemary has been near Ahz and Skiv and believes, wrongly, that she knows who they are, so after some initial problems adjusting her voice to Human levels, she tells her to tell them to get a move on with their allotted task of growing a garden, a task for which they were all sent here by someone else. Tand says Rosemary is not like any other Human she's met, and one of the other two (has to be Mortimer) is sparkly like a lot of Humans used to be but haven't been for a while – apparently she is sensing him as a magic-user. Tand has to leave because she is literally over-stretched Iimplying that her tail is rooted, somewhere up the "Certain Death" stair) and the torch she is carrying is going out. She is afraid to meet, in the dark, a male "horrible mask-thing" who can go anywhere – this may be Frowgler, since the Pales call him Frogmask. Released, Rosemary floats up to the boys. She feels herself to be now entirely back to normal (although later events will show that this isn't quite true). Sylvester recognises the name Tand from his records, but still hasn't wholly regained his memory. 05: Closing Out an Era (The Sneech Den) [06/06/2011 – 16/12/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2814–#2994] Sylvester, Mortimer and Rosemary pass another large inactive Sneech node and several smaller ones, and some graffiti relating to dragons – although we're not told whether they are a legend or, like wyverns, a real if possibly extinct animal: like the one they saw before, these Sneech growths are far less active than normal. Rosemary would like to talk to Tand again, but not right now. There is a conversation about Mortimer's history of failed relationships with scary women, and mention is made of a disastrous relationship with someone named Olga, and of Ace's success with women. He tells Rosemary that his relationship with her will be strictly business while she is staring bug-eyed at the hypno-Glowgem, and he reveals that he has the hots for Yasmine. Sylvester is also affected by the Glowgem, although not as much. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt come to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base off Time Hall, where Agita (a Motihaul) has her office. They have a complicated system of clearances in which Comshaw ranks quite high, and several zones. An Eyebolt called Philodox admits them to the UnRooted Area, but security is tight due to the events of the day. While waiting to be seen they observe that two of the Eyebolt clerks, Giddhom and Frampold, are wearing Fixit-type hats but they seem to be just hats. Giddhom says thay are in fashion because some people claim they help you to think. Weirding is discussed, and the fact that the Eyebolts in scritchpods perform endless computations but don't say why, and the eccentricities of various species – we learn that Helipaths refuse to cross the Great Chasm to Sneech side even though Sneeches get on OK with them, and that the Trog juggler at the edge of the Great Chasm is Skradt's cousin Stonwal. The hatted clerks are Scrutineers, recording and preserving everything visitors say – Skradt wishes to be recorded as a future Poker who did something useful with his life. Rosemary is in command over Sylvester because that's part of her job as bodyguard. The Sneech growths would normally be lighted but most here aren't: there is a lot of discussion of Sneech races and technology, living walls etc. When they get to the area where even the floor is a living Sneech growth Mortimer doesn't want to walk barefoot on it, so takes off his shirt (which was ruined by the sploo and the sphagnum dust anyway) so Rosemary can make rag boots for him and mittens for all of them so they don't have to touch the Sneech material. Mortimer makes a bad pun ("Make it sew"): he passes his umbrella to Sylvester while he takes off his shirt, and sees that the Glowgem glows much less brightly when Sylvester holds the umbrella. Rosemary has absorbed the hypnotic lesson that her relationship with Mortimer is strictly business. In the context of rag boots there is some discussion of Rosemary's poor origins on Gnomin. Comshaw borrows Giddhom's hat so Fixits will think he's controlled: Skradt sticks a claw into the buckle to kill it if the buckle should chance to be an eye. They are escorted to see Agita by an Eyebolt called Peripatet riding in a special buggy labelled VEU (Visitor Escort Unit), which has different numbers each side, possibly due to damage sustained during an eventful visit by Strode, the aggressive female Motihaul in the pumpkin-head mask who appears in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They must enter the Rooted Zone at some point as they are there in their next scene. Following a trail of fresh air through the tunnels of the Sneech den, R&S&M come to a bridge over a moderate drop, guarded on either side by relatives of Fern's The intelligent plants are wary of Rosemary because they communicate (probably via the Tree) with Fern and know that Rosemary injured her, but they agree to disarm her and carry the Can-Opener across the bridge themselves for her to collect on the far side. Rosemary reveals that she assumed Fern was dangerous because there are similar plants in Moonin, smaller and not intelligent but very aggressive: we see what are clearly just bigger versions of the plants Piu was growing in a pot. As they get to the far side the Gnoll Agorn falls while trying to climb down from the crater above, and lands at their feet. Agorn hasn't noticed, but Niddle's apearing and disapearing gem (hereafter the Hitchhiking Gem) is now attached to his spear, but as with Niddle it initially comes and goes and is there only some of the time. Mortimer asks if he is there to scrounge Sneech leavings and he agrees. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt pass more clerks one of whom, Ogdoad, is wearing a Fixit. As the Human trio prepare to leave the cave of the sapient plants, the plants confirm that they're heading the right way and then one of them delays them and asks – by spelling with its tongue – that they be given names. Sylvester names them after the Founding Oracles, a group of women who spread the religion of the Brush – Violet, Daisy, Joice, Jenny, Kathryne, Hettie, Evangeline, Vivian and Petunia. Sylvester promises to visit them again: as the Humans leave we see the plants talking amongst themselves by some rapid means, and wishing they had had the chance to eat Agorn. Agorn has scarpered: Rosemary wrongly thinks he might have been the person who was tailing them earlier (Whisp). Sylvester criticises Mortimer for handing Agorn a ready-made excuse. They discuss the fact that for the Earl, every public conversation is a little war, and Sylvester keeps Mortimer, and now Rosemary, around because he can simply talk to them. The Humans come to the main corridor through the Sneech den, which is studded with tall, light-bearing tree-like things. Comshaw, Skradt and Peripatet leave the Rooted Zone for the Grafted Zone. We learn that the Eyebolts in Root Hall distrust the GBOLs, and therefore presumably the Tree, and make their own lights. Comshaw and Skradt come to Agita and her Eyebolt clerk Flibbergib (at one point mistakenly called Flittergib), and Agita gives them apples. Agita has large plants, an aquarium and a special "Meeting with an Important Eyebolt" table. She has with her her young daughter, Rishathra, and a Gnoll guard called Termagant. Agita and Comshaw catch up on the events of the day, and Comshaw gets her to summon Ogdoad, and also supply Skradt with a large bowl. [Around here we have a Labor Day out-take showing local man Arlen and his daughter Juniper, digging a ditch at the back of a hedge near the village of Eetown. The hedge has the rusted remains of a pre-crash vehicle incorporated into it.] Agita tells Comshaw what was auctioned (although she doesn't really know what the Zorper is). They speculate on whether this Mortimer is old enough to be the one who started the Nome War (after somehow falling through into a mine). Meanwhile. Sprocket is upset to see that Crazy Rhid's ex place connects to large areas of still-working giant machinery – the only machinery that good outside the SubShafts – and Rhid, if he knew, didn't tell anyone. The large machine he is looking is something he found (behind a gate marked with the E symbol) when he traced back the thing Pergola reported as spewing goo while Urwyn was being recruited. [We glimpe Rhid sitting on a box, looking traumatised, in a dusty, cobwebby room.] Sina now has a makeshift office, an Eyebolt receptionist called Nikhedonia (who has a non-Fixit hat on the back of her chair) and Maggle acting as gopher. Sina and Sprocket decide to marry, right now – Wittol, who will be their Finagler, has already anticipated this and started to make arrangements. We learn that Niddle has had experiences which make him a perfect Finagler – so perfect he may be a whole new thing. We learn that Gnoll marriage customs involve a receptacle called a Tweebowl (but a bucket will do), a Tool and a Blossom and, at some point before they have whelps, a visit to the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave, and without a Finagler things go badly wrong for mated pairs. Yet, some couples such as Niff and Folla, and an old couple called Mafick and Lepid, live unofficially, without a Finagler, and manage fine. Sprocket, Wittol and Sina have a hasty ceremony, with Skuy and Flange as witnesses and the possibility of a more formal one later. Afterwards Snerd turns up and thinks Nikhedonia's hat is a Fixit, although it's just a hat. As he is explaining, Schrik turns up with an actual dead Fixit. Maggle and Kronk are sent out to show the dead Fixit around and kill any live ones they find, and Snerd returns to his mate Shona and Finagler Wubb. Flange reminds Sprocket of their obligations to their employer Mr Hand, and tells him about Rubrak being killed by Chauncy and Edgar. Sprocket and Flange will probably cease to be partners now (and Snipe will be looking for a new job). Sprocket talks privately to Sina about Mr Hand and the job (and Wittol withdraws because he says they don't yet know him well enough to share dangerous non-Finagler secrets with) – he has realised that the female Motihaul who put him in touch with Mr Hand was wearing/worn by a Fixit, and therefore Mr Hand must be something bigger and stranger than the "Crescent Hall nob" they had assumed, and works (grudgingly) with God. Mr Hand has had them installing devices called Y-nodes which look like Sneech growths (and Sprocket is rich as a result of how many clients he has), and which produce ultrasonic sound only small creatures can hear. Fleebs in the presence of a Y-node turn to face it and stare. Sprocket sees Mr Hand as ruthless and controlling but constructive rather than destructive in his intentions. They agree to tell Comshaw about it, then get on to the serious business of their wedding night. Meanwhile Snerd returns to Shona. Ogdoad arrives at Agita's office and insists on a promise of safe conduct before he will come in. He has some involvement with another Eyebolt (?) called Tribblerig and some scheme involving Sneech squeezings, which he assumes is what Agita wants to talk about, but as he enters the office Comshaw baps the Fixit, called Endix, off his head and Skradt traps him under the bowl, but Endix somehow commits suicide. Ogdoad is terribly distressed, for he and Endix had become at least semi-partners, and being meshed gave him stereoscopic vision. He is rather horrible and gloats over the fact that God will destroy them. Agita dismisses Comshaw and Skradt and takes Ogdoad with her to see a female Motihaul accountant called Marritza who is wearing a Fixit named Arnix. Agita threatens Arnix with the knife-point ferule of her umbrella, then tells him that the gaff regarding God and the Fixits is well and truly blown, and offers him the chance to ride on Ogdoad and act as a liason officer between herself and God. Arnix and Ogdoad both agree. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt leave the Grafted Zone, and Root Hall itself, via the Egress Zone, and are quizzed as they leave by an Eyebolt who assumes it's all to do with Ogdoad and Tribblerig scheming over Sneech squeezings. As they come away from Root Hall they pass through the Deep Egress Zone, then go by a lettered sign, where another Eyebolt opens the centre of a letter and watches them leave. They pass the male Nome called Rezrov, still with his arm in a sling, leading, on a string, a very flirtatious-looking female Trog named Hogminny. Both are smeared with green paint, and Rezrov's clothes are torn. We are told that some Nomes and some Trogs have a "thing", and learn that Skradt tentatively fancies Maggle. Comshaw 'phones the Council and tells them he has delivered their message to Agita, and he has a message for them from Root Hall saying Ogdoad is involved with a Sneech squeezings scheme but they'll handle it. Comshaw takes Skradt home with him and Camora and Niddle are quite welcoming, although if he's staying they may need to move to a bigger apartment. All sleep, exhausted. As a final wrap-up, we see Snoot bitching to Izchak (who is evidently his room-mate) about his bloody awful day; the SuperRock pausing to rest and to talk to GeezerRock who can talk, but not walk, and who asks it whether it's just going to sit there; Digger reporting to Frowgler that things are going to plan and he has no questions to ask; and Frederick preparing to serenade the Grubbs on a Fugehorn. I think this is the point at which the strip revealed (although Rob mentioned it off-strip before) that Digger is a Boogieman with dwarfism, because we can see that his face is covered with white fur, behind the goggles. 06: Twilight [17/12/2011 – 09/06/2012] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3001–#3174] Agorn encounters Hpobfvfr, who is trailing the Humans. She blasts her way through a wall into Sneech den, then addresses him as if he is two people – she senses the sentient (and possibly sapient) Hitchiking Gem which Agorn doesn't know he is carrying. Sylvester and co. enter the main corridor, which is again unnaturally quiet – we learn there should be trilobite-thingies scuttling about trailing organic wires etc.. Sylvester mentions that he didn't find out about his father's death until after the funeral. While discussing a performing troupe who once came to the local village, Mortimer accidentally causes Rosemary to fixate on the Glowgem in his umbrella, and gives her two hypnotic commands – "Go to sleep, but act like you're still awake!", "Take a note! I am not going to keep making these mistakes with women!" – and then a third one, "Do as you're told! Stay in your place! Speak only when spoken to! The Brush wills it!", when he and Sylvester discuss the overbearing previous Oracle Omega. Trailed at some distance by Hpobfvfr, the Human party pass a Sneech tower which is at the edge between Human and Sneech territory and is labelled "NO INTERRUPTIONS", then emerge into an empty area leading towards the entrance. They then come to a neon sign saying "OUR TRAJECTORYS DIVERGE PAYMENT FOR YE ASSISTANCE" (although Sylvester doesn't know what assistance is meant). This disintegrates, leaving a squat obelisk which moves when it is touched (by Sylvester, with strips of shirt round his fingers), and which Rosemary names the Dohickey. The Sneeches themselves have gone, and Sylvester doesn't know what assistance they're talking about. The obelisk steers them around a hole in the floor, which proves to be the hole which Chauncy and Edgar left when they exited Izchak's shop looking for the Scary Lady. Matagam the Motihaul soldier and, later, a Boogieman called Geoff climb out of the hole, checking where Chauncy and Edgar went (and plan to return back down via the Council tunnel, having learned from the Human party where it is they've emerged). Mortimer hurries his party away. Heading for the Mansion proper, Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester emerge into an elaborate vestibule decorated with ornamental fake stalagmites and flaming braziers, which is the scary-looking room they see from the Mansion when they look through the arch inderneath the devil mask. Here they notice a new opening in a side wall. This is the entrance to the tunnel put in by the Council to monitor the Humans: that is, the upper end of the tunnel that also goes from the Basement to the forest. From there they exit through the archway under the mask to a plain downstairs room containing the entrance to the elevator and a small extension of the Tree, and with "BEWARE MR FLIP" written on the wall. Mr Flip is a character we meet in Sundays in SubShaft 44f, but Mortimer says the graffito has been there his whole life. To get further they need to go down a short corridor and through a locked door, the key to which Sylvester dropped while falling into the Great Chasm. Matagam and Geoff head for the Council tunnel and are passed by Hpobfvfr coming up, who corners the Humans against the locked door. Mortimer senses that her mind has been tampered with and speaks to her sympathetically, incidentally getting between her and her intended targets. Then we see in flashback that Sopovefe, the male Ghast she passed just before Rosemary and Sylvester fell into the Chasm, realised that something was wrong and went and fetched help (we see him run past Rezrov and Hogminny: this time Hogminny is holding the leash). Hpthvo, the officer in charge of a party of Ghast soldiers who have come up via the hole which Hpbfvfr bashed through into the Sneech den, orders Hpobfvfr to stand down, and this breaks the Operator's hold over her. Hpobfvfr and one soldier leave (passing the elevator, where Hpobfvfr wishes death on the Operator), while Hpthvo and the other soldier stay to interrogate the Humans. Hearing Rosemary address Mortimer by name, Hpthvo queries this and he says he is "Mortimer Eman.. because we're going to be all.. formal..": in doing so he inadvertently gives Rosemary another hypnotic command. Having confirmed Mortimer's name and that he might be the one who started the Nome War, and having learned that they are Human, Hpthvo wants to arrest the trio, but great aunt Scary appears in the doorway (with balloon) and scares them off. Somewhere, she has acquired a flower which she is now wearing tucked into the v-neck of her dress. After the Ghasts leave the rest go through into the house, and Scary cures Sylvester's memory problems. He is very reluctant to ask her to do anything which will put him under an obligation to her. Scary tries to touch the Sneech obelisk, but it fizzes a shock at her. Meanwhile Sylvester has realised something is still wrong with Rosemary, and when she starts addressing Mortimer as "Mr Eman" because "We are being all formal" Sylvester realises that she is following Mortimer's commands literally. Mortimer tries to snap her out of it by giving her a ridiculous command to "be a dog" but she goes down on all fours and starts growling. Scary is detachedly impressed by his power, and thinks there is a real risk Rosemary will become permanently enthralled. Alarmed, Mortimer tries to order Rosemary to be herself, preempting Scary who was about to intervene, and commands her to take orders from noone, although she can listen to their advice. In the short term it seems to have worked, but it remains to be seen whether she has internalised any of his commands. Sylvester takes control of the Glowgem for now and gives it to Rosemary to go in her Poke Kit, and Mortimer goes off to speak to Frederick. Restored to normal function, Rosemary is introduced to the Scary Lady, whose name we finally learn to be Myrrh (and it is confirmed that she sent Chauncy and Edgar to a desert zone). The two go off for a private chat in which it is revealed that Rosemary knows Myrrh to be not Human, and that Myrrh loves and protects Frederick to the point of being willing to kill anybody who threatens anybody he cares about, such as his nephews. It is mentioned in passing that Rosemary's encounter with Scratch was before she joined Hack'N'Slash. Myrrh agrees that Rosemary should be independent, as Mortimer told her, and can sense that she's already met a lot of powerful locals who tried to influence her, people Myrrh calls "local dignitaries": we see Protus; the Operator; the Tree; the Djinnoscope; Tand; the Gibber; and the Great Riddler. She repeats to Rosemary what Mortimer told her about living her own life and dreaming her own dreams, just to make it stick, and magically straightens the bent wing on her helmet. The same minituarised trundlebug who fell onto Rosemary's helmet earlier in the day is revealed to be still lurking in her broken lamp, and Myrrh rescues it, then goes off to see what's happened to the Sneeches, after commenting that the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer will spoil his intended date with Sharona Stout in the village. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss Myrrh, and how Frederick summoned her by accident while trying to get a Djinn. He spent his energy on a collar to control her and stop her from running wild and killing bystanders, as Demons had done in the past, but now she wears the collar voluntarily and uses it to assist her own magic in some way, as Frowgler had suggested to her when she met him while time-slipped (although he may have suggested it because he'd already seen her future self doing it). She has been a good partner to Frederick and a good great-aunt to his family, and Sylvester is loyal to her and will protect her if necessary. Rosemary reluctantly agrees, but wants to keep the knowledge of the Can-Opener from her. Sylvester schedules a talk about Rosemary's recent history for the next day but he fears to be overheard, so they must go somewhere secure. They prove to each other that they are Human by checking each other's ears (Sylvester's ears are apparently jaw-droppingly strange, but not pointed) and discuss the origins of Demons and Djinn and the possibility that since Myrrh answers questions and helps people, maybe Frederick wasn't so far off the mark when he tried to summon a Djinn and got her – or maybe they are, after all, just people and all individual. Straightforward Demons like Chauncy and Edgar and Scratch come from Fratz; Human-like Demons and the Djinn come from Zark. Demons in the Snowgrass area are more like rock/tree things (is the Tree one? later we will see that one visited the Spire City in Mechana). and Demons in the Deep Jungle are more animal and strange. Sylvester realises something about Frederick and why he hid books on Demons which he feels foolish not to have realised before, which leads to a conversation about a duel which Rosemary lost to a woman named Haruka Sol in a way which made her realise her own mortality and how dangerous her job was, and they take the Sneech obelisk towards the Quiet Room. Meanwhile Mortimer passes the countdown thing, which now reads 0315313091 (it was 315342639 when Rosemary and Sylvester passed it that morning, so it's counted down by 29,548 in about half a day, suggesting it will take about fourteen years to reach zero), but he tells it he's not in the mood. Mortimer goes to speak to Frederick. On the way he meets Nellie, who recognises the umbrella he is carrying (formerly Myrrh's) and seems shocked by it. She is concerned, generally, for Mortimer's safety and well-being, and for that of her own husband Amos although he is sitting quietly doing some book-binding. Mortimer believes Rosemary and Sylvester might now be an item: Nellie expects him to be jealous but he doesn't seem to be. Meanwhile, Myrrh enters the Sneech den and speaks to Frowgler, who is crawling out of the top of the shaft created by Chauncy and Edgar. Within Myrrh's subjective timeline they seem not to have spoken to each other for fifty years, since she was flashed forwards from just before the Crash, but are on good terms. [For Frowgler it was probably a few hours ago, although as the Frowgler Myrrh met during the flash-forwards was a pre-explosion Frowgler whose horn had not yet been broken it's hard to be sure.] Myrrh says Frederick is going to be upset about something Frowgler has done (probably arranging for Mortimer to get the umbrella-wand). Frederick, who is playing his Fugehorn into some kind of vaguely tree-like amplifier in a vast and high chamber, tells Mortimer that he's a wizard and that there's a wand built into the umbrella, but he won't help Mortimer to learn magic because he thinks it brings only misery. we learn that Frederick actually plays the Fugehorn very well, and that Amos actually enjoys his music. Amos and Nellie discuss the danger Mortimer is in, or represents, and Amos promises to be careful. Meanwhile Sylvester and Rosemary listen to Frederick's playing as they steer the Dohickey towards the Quiet Room, and Sylvester tells her that what Frederick is playing is a well-known lament called Threnody for the Victims of the Crash, which is where the local Oracle, Threnody, and her Guardian Dirge got their work-names. We learn that Ernest, the Earl who was an art forger, was also a genuine patron of the arts and built a whole wing of the Mansdion, called the Party Palace, for theatre and other performing arts. That's where Frederick's tree-like amplifier is. The Quiet Room is more of a gap in the Mansion than an actual room. As they approach it Rosemary's Poke Kit shrinks and begins to disgorge its contents, so Sylvester goes alone to deposit the Sneech Dohickey. The Quiet Room contains among other things the Dark Crystal; a Triforce symbol from the Zelda stories; a clockwork monkey (made by the Kaylu cult) playing cymbals; a statuette of Cthulhu; a flower in a pot; and a crescent thing which looks like the head of another Can-Opener-type pike. Rosemary says "I can hear you ralking in there.." 7'0150; it looks as though she means she can hear Sylvester, but we will learn that she means she can hear the Dohickey. After Sylvester leaves, all these objects begin to glow with magic and the crescent speaks and greets the Dohickey. Sylvester and Rosemary go to find a sword for her and to change the lock on the Basement door, since he has lost his key in the Basement. They find a powerful taser called a Zap Trident, much stronger than the one Sylvester tried to use on Villipend: Rosemary says Hack'N'Slash have offered a big reward for a working one, but they leave it where it is because it's probably only its proximity to the Quiet Room which is keeping it from exploding, and they would ahve to take it all the way to REowan to find an Hack'N'Slash office big enough to hand it in. Still, it's a source of future cash if they ever get that depserate. Sylvester says that the things in the Quiet Room are dangerous, that destroying them in the Great Chasm would lead to earthquakes (we see that the three-eyed thing from the airbox was tossed in) and that left in the Quiet Room those that are Sneech gifts gradually fade away, and in any case they usually switch off when the recipient dies. The crescent thing is not known to be dangerous – just annoying. They meet up with Mortimer, and Sylvester assures him he hadn't known that he was a wizard. If he had done, Mortimer would have left and gone after Yasmine. Sylvester thinks perhaps he should go after her anyway, but Mortimer hopes she will return to the Mansion. Sylvester fears this could lead to a division of loyalties, depending on what it is the Weirdos are plotting. He thinks their father may also have been an unknown wizard. Mortimer describes his encounter with Frowgler, who he has realised gave him the umbrella surreptitiously, and Sylvester believes him because the Great Riddler also mentioned Frowgler. They intend to debrief each other the next day but not now, because Rosemary feels they may be overheard. She meanwhile is planning to fetch a siege-pot from the barracks. Mortimer goes off and heads up the North Tower: on the way he prods a door-sign that says "SIGNS OF CHANGE" with his umbrella, and it clicks. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the Weirdos, who are a combination of jester, priest and counsellor. We learn that Oracles (but not Weirdos) carry out midwifery – and euthanasia. Sylvester feels that he no longer knows what's going on around his home. We learn that there are seige-engines mounted on the Main Tower and also that Rosemary can't act, as they discuss the plays which used to be put on at the Mansion, and the history of Kaylu – a fascist-style movement which introduced a country called Tomania to a crazed, murderous empire-building cult which worshipped a two-tailed monkey god, and was destroyed by the Crash. The Crash had an extreme effect on the Infernal Engine. Having collected the necessary materials they board up the door to the Basement, using an Ettin-made "length" and a mechanical nail-planter which could be valuable if they can find somebody to replicate it for sale. They leave the door unbarred for Myrrh, and Sylvester declares their business with the Basement is done for the day, although he will keep his promise to call on the Ferns again, and his plans for the rest of the evening require Rosemary to retain her (Audra's) helmet. We see Frederick return to the suite of rooms he shares with Myrrh, and gaze nostalgically at a photograph of his younger self and other youths in wizard gear. They are Nellie, Amos, a curly-haired woman whom Nellie will later name as "poor Mamie" (who died in the Crash), and the future Old Man Larssen. 07: Career Paths [11/06/2012 – 16/02/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3181–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips start–#03424] We see Agorn emerge, with relief, from a partially-blocked tunnel mouth partway up a rock-face near a bridge across the Great Chasm. He edges along a narrow ledge with his back to the wall, past Furphy (who we will later learn is his son) who is keeping some Jibjib eggs warm, and aross a gap which he has to jump, and comes to a bridge with a checkpoint at either end, although this one at the Sneech end is deserted. He can smell that the Ghast party went past earlier. The bridge is long and has no railings, but it's fairly safe as it's about 12ft wide. The far end is lit by bone torches. He crosses and speaks to a Gnoll border guard called Varuna, and an Ichyoid guard named Argus, and tells Varuna to warn her "vile employer" (probably Nevus or Guttle) that if the nobs keep poking in the Sneech den the Sneeches will some day poke back. He thinks that the entrance to Crescent Hall, which looks out on the bridge, is in the line of fire, and that his boss isn't stupid enough to live there. He talks to another Gnoll guard called Scibile who doesn't let him in because of the lockdown, but fills him in on what he knows of the events of the day, including the fact that something strange is happening at the Observatory, then he walks into a maze of dark, much-graffitoed stone passages and stairs. The Hitchhiking Gem falls from his spear with a clunk and he spots it, assumes he picked it up by accident in the Sneech den and posts it down a metal hatch. As he (or the gem) leaves some sort of small device which had been sticking up from a rock retracts, with a trickle of magic. The gem clangs down into a chain of pipes heading towards the SubShafts, and we see that the pipes pass by an odd kind of sculpture or device consisting of coloured spikes almost like giant coloured pencils, with single letters on them, mainly vowels. This may have to do with the religion of the Brush that coloured in the world. On top of these spikes sits a small red-brown Fuzz, clutching a flaming torch. Agorn, meanwhile, keeps going until he comes back out into Time Hall and the other side of Cresent Hall, but it's all unnaturally quiet. He goes to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base, and speaks to a male receptionist called Enchiridon. He is left waiting for a long time while a female Scrutineer called Hypothimia records his every word and action. She is stressed and angry because with all that's been going on – the fire, Chauncy and Edgar on the loose etc. – she wants to be with her mate Brimborion and their children but instead she is stuck here in this petty desk job. Peripatet arrives in his wheeled chair to collect Agorn but before Agorn goes he tells Hypothimia that he himself has been parted from his mate (he seems to have only one) and his child has been lost through some sort of mental transformation (he went away but left his body behind: we will learn that this is Furphy), but all you can do is pick yourself up and try to change things for the better. As Agorn and Peripatet proceed through Root Hall we learn that Peripatet has a girlfrind called Glossolalia, and Agorn sniffs out (literally) that Skradt is now with Comshaw. They pass various official messages on the walls but one seems like a religious or political statement – "Remontado decided she had had o nuff shaft folderol so off she went and uprooted us all". As they pass the door to Scritchpods 205–214 a female Eyebolt in a wheeled chair passes them going the other way, wearing what may be a normal hat or may be a Fixit, and a wave of "weirding" hallucinations emanates from behind the closed door. This Eyebolt is carrying a box on her cart, and the cart is labelled CTV: possibly Computation Transport Vehicle. Peripatet takes Agorn to a door behind which is a dark space containing dark, sinister-looking objects, perhaps Ettin machinery, glowing with dull red lights. Agorn refuses to enter. An unseen, probably male presence (Agorn addresses it as "Mr Muckymuck") behind a hatch dismisses Peripatet, who leaves at speed – the presence says that Peripatet does well at clandestine cart-races. It wants to discuss Agorn's boss, and says that "some of us" are aware of, and broadly approve of, what "you all" are doing. Consequently Agorn has been given Class Eight clearance, which means he can now come and go unescorted through most areas of Root Hall. The presence is somebody Agorn has had indirect contact with or knowledge of, but has never spoken to directly before: it asks him to supply any useful information he comes across in return, and Agorn tells him that Humans are real. The presence starts to half tell Agorn about Fixits but Agorn appears not to be receptive to the idea of hats being significant, and leaves. Meanwhile the chit for Agorn's new clearance is transferred by a cart-driving messenger (later named as Symposiarch) who reads the first message, destroys it, writes another and drops it down a pneumatic pipe system to a clerk (later named as Pulvinar) who reads it and then eats it and replaces it with another which he writes himself. He is monitoring something on a small screen. Agorn goes to the "Grafted Zone" of Root Hall and speaks to Flibbergib, Agita's Eyebolt receptionist, who again tries to tell him about the Fixits, not very clearly. Meanwhile we see various characters sleeping, including the Shallow Wyrm Squeeb, asleep in the Trog pen deep down on the side of the Chasm, and Bung's friend Faddle the Gnoll, who is very much awake. He is trying to evade somebody, but is rounded up by a hunting party of female Gnolls. Next we see him and four females, all wearing collars with glowing buckles on the front and all with white hair like a Finagler's, sleeping together in a large nest. We will learn later that this is the Place No One Talks About and that these are the Placettes, who are the female version of Finaglers. Agita arrives and Agorn shows her a written note saying that he's been promoted to Class Eight. We see a flashback to the aftermath of the auction, and Agita sending Agorn to trail Mortimer. Agorn reports the basics of the toing and froing he has seen surrounding Mortimer, Rufus, Eunice and Yasmine, saying he followed Mortimer's scent to a hole, then saw him carried out unconscious by two Humans (Rufus and Eunice) some time later. Agita fundamentally misunderstands what Humans are – she knows they are like big Nomes so she thinks they are a local mutation caused by the Spike, and gradually spreading through the local forest. Agorn says that there were repeller poles all around the hut where Mortimer was placed, and that most of the Humans just walked past them but that the female Human who then arrived (Yasmine) "did the usual spit-test" on one. Does this mean Yasmine is related to the Emans and passed a Herediscan, or was she just proving she was Human? Agita shows Agorn a written note (written on clay and then wiped) warning him about the Fixits – which suggests she doesn't want to speak out loud in front of Flibbergib, or fears others may be listening – and telling him to lie low until tomorrow and then spear any hats with eyes on sight, even if worn by her. As Agorn leaves Root Hall he notices that there are fewer Eyebolt watchers on duty than there usually are. The last one usually hides inside a free-standing stone sign outside the exit, but there is no-one there, and what looks like blood on the spy-hole. The "blood" is a trick with fruit-juice to get him to stop and look, and he is narrowly missed by an arrow fired from an overhang by Fanga, one of two dark-haired female Gnolls (the other is Shabash), who had momentarily mistaken him for somebody else (Bromir, who looks a lot like him). Agorn slides over the edge onto a ledge to avoid the archer, takes a back route and lets himself into a concealed bedsit room behind a panel out in the Fringes. In the dust on a table, someone has drawn an arrow and written "She thought you were someone else", surrounded by what look like Smyt footprints: we later learn that messages on the table are a regular thing and usually correct, and the marks on the table are referred to as flipper marks, although they look a bit small to be Frowgler's. Digger comes in – it's his pad – and Agorn addreses him as "Boss". We see that Agorn and Digger have known about the Fixits for some time. Agorn reports the day's activities to Digger, giving him more detail than he told Agita. He was already familiar with Mortimer at one remove as somebody Skibble talked about. Although he didn't tell Agita, he followed Mortimer into the basement under World o' Pots and saw a lot of working Human tech, which they'll need "if we've lost all of Rhid's stash", and saw the cloakring, which made him feel odd. He says that "Yas-meen" came from the direction of the Spike (no, there isn't room under her hood for a Fixit) and was different in some way. He didn't tell Agita that he saw Mortimer speaking to Frowgler: he didn't hear what they said but says he supposes Digger could just ask Frowgler, and Digger agrees. He feels that something nudged him to get him to go down the hole in the crater, which led him to the Ferns. We see that they have been watching the Humans, drawing them and giving them descriptive nicknames (Arthur the Weirdo with his ventriloquist's puppet Fantod is "Snoop two-head", Rufus is "Snoop one-head", Sylvester is "Eyeplates" and Myrrh is "Clawblaster"). Agorn would like to bring Comshaw into their conspiracy, or whatever it is, but Digger vetoes the idea. Agorn could tell by smell that Mortimer, "Silvester" and Rufus were littermates, and that Rosemary is something different, a "hardcase" like Comshaw or the two-spiked Pales. Agorn sketches the three Human women he saw, then sets out to see to some personal matters, but as he leaves Digger points out that when "Muckymuck" at Root Hall said that he and others were broadly pleased with what Agorn's boss was doing he may have meant Digger himself and their conspiracy-whatever, not Agita, whose schemes serve only herself. Agorn is alarmed at this idea, and thinks that "our enemy" may have made Eyebolt enemies. Coming away from Digger's bedsit he meets a Gnoll called Bromir who looks a lot like him and believes himself to be the target of the assassins, who were hired by Sooterkin at Root Hall. Bromir refers to Agorn having been given higher clearance by Fuglemin, who may therefore be Agorn's Mr Muckymuck. Agorn heads back towards the Sneech side of the Great Chasm. At the bridge he tries to chat up the Gnoll guard Varuna and invites her to come fishing with him some time: she turns him down, although the Ichyoid guard Argus thinks she should have said yes. He comes on Furphy and his eggs again and we learn that Furphy is actually Agorn's son. The mother was called Awen and she and Agorn are estranged, though not bitterly so. A Denthir is mentioned who was probably their Finagler but is now dead. Furphy has had some kind of relationship with Dandilli (who went to the SubShafts) and will take no other mate, possibly because she put him off from doing so. Father and son talk, and Furphy says that the reason he thinks nothing is real is that that morning he saw that the physical world had changed but most people can't see it (this is a fourth-wall breach, because Rob changed aspects of the design of the area), and he's not the only one who sees it because the Observer also sees Change. Agorn is semi-willing to consider this and means to tell Digger about it tomorrow. Furphy is guarding the eggs for two Jibjibs named Snurge (presumably male) and Scumble (female), to whom he owes a favour. Two other Jibjibs called Ruck (male) and Smew (female) fly overhead in the dark, and we see them enter a hole in a sort of complex, compound stalactite formation, which we will learn is called the Uppermost Spire, and settle on a nest there. Ruck is carrying Urwyn's friend, the comparatlively large Shallow Wyrm Zugo, although the Jibjibs don't know his name. Zugo slithers off into a crack, telling the Jibjibs to wait there for him. These two Jibjibs regularly carry a secretive group of Shallow Wyrms whom they refer to as Clients, transporting them around a widespread network of "rings" which run right through the rocks and whose purpose the Jibjibs don't know. Nevus is an outlier by being a Wyrm out in the open on his own. They get snuggly in the nest, although Smew does not wish to have eggs. We see a Shallow Wyrm named Sneckdraw who seems to be spying on a ring, or at least on a tunnel used by a ring. Sneckdraw is detected and chased through the tunnels by helmeted guards named Vim, Crot, Ang and Diet, and escapes by jumping off an underground cliff onto the back of a tame (or sapient?) bat. Ang gets Ruck to fly him in pursuit with a view to killing them: Ruck queries this but when Ang assures him that Sneckdraw is not officially a member of any ring, and therefore not a Client, Ruck is OK with it. They follow the bat's scent trail – Ang is especially good at this – but Sneckdraw and the bat dodge into a narrow tunnel which Ruck can't fit into. We see another Wyrm, too distant and small to identify, behind a kind of wooden screen in this tunnel. They come to a place where there is a graffitoed sign on the wall saying "Ring of the Newborn Word": Sneckdraw, who seems to be a freelance spy, dismounts and is challenged by guards called Conspue and Fream, armed with a zap trident. They pay Sneckdraw with a food item and he (the guards referred to him as "he", even though he seems to have the eyelashes Rob uses to indicate femininity) reports on Zugo of the Dunktyn Stone's presence at the Uppermost Spire. Conspue either doesn't know or won't say why Zugo is important. Fream conveys Sneckdraw's message to a female superior whom we don't see, and then goes to speak to a female tuneller or miner called Glink, on whom Fream seems to be sweet, and who is listening in secretly on people farther down the tunnel. We see Sina giving the cleaning contract for the new hall to Maw and his crew. At Kronk's suggestion, Sina names the new group Leny Hall, although Maggle and Grik, and the Gobules, all seem to know something mildly disreputable about Leny. At or near Leny Hall, Pergola is investigating plants in a narrow tunnel. Tracking the tunnel higher, we see a male Fixot named Slix ascending a slope to report to a female Fixit named Astex, who sits on a rock in a tunnel filled with plants and fungi. She seems to be fishing in a stream which flows alongside her rock. Slix, who has been sent by a female commander called Poinx, comes to speak to her and get her observations – he calls her "our resident". Astex, who seems to have a cynical attitude to her own kind, says that the shield around the Spike area that "keeps the evil monsters out. Or in, as the case may be." was breached for a second or so, causing panic. It was very noisy – she probably means the OZPR event. Slix runs off before she can tell him about the Sneeches leaving. We learn that Astex is acquainted with Frowgler. We see Mortimer speaking about wizardry to Amos Grubb, who is himself a wizard, but who retired pre-Crash, having thrown his wand away after the incident with Myrrh. He says that Sylvester has some magic, although not as much as Mortimer, and their father Willoughby could have been a wizard if he hadn't been so frivolous. He believes there are still some schools of magic in operation somewhere, but he kept the fact of Mortimer's magic from Mortimer as a favour to Frederick and Nellie, and because it's so dangerous. Magic tends to run in families and other members of the E family also have at least some magical talent (which is why their mother is so good at overhearing things). Mortimer confirms that he found the umbrella-wand: he wouldn't accept a gift from Myrrh "after what heppened last time!" They discuss the fact that Mortimer got the wand from Frowgler, who didn't feel like Myrrh (i.e. not like he came from Zark or Fratz), and the fact that Frederick and Amos were trained by Sylvester and Mortimer's great-great-uncle Hindenburgh. Amos says that Nellie has very little magic (even though she is one of the people in Frederick's photo'). [Amos says he threw his wand away "sixty-odd years" ago, and he was still a wizard in that photo', which means that Nellie was already at least about eighteen eleven years before the Crash, making Myrrh's statement that she was very young at the time even stranger.] If Mortimer practises as a magician he may get hassles from the Oracles of the Brush, and from the villagers, who are now so anti-magic they nearly torched the library. We learn that wands should preferably be handled only by the owner, and Mortimer half remembers the vision of his future self flying, and thinks about using telekinesis to open locks. They discuss the nature of mind-reading and mind-control, which is far easier for Sneeches, Demons and Djinn to perform than other races, and Rosemary's susceptibility; magic-users on the other hand are very resistent to mind-control. They set off in search of Rosemary so Amos can get to know her. The scene cuts to the Nomes at the Pale camp. They are discussing the fact that if Nitfol becomes mayor he'll need a wife. He says that the only girl he found tolerable disappeared. Then Fizmo, the Hot Zone worker, appears and she and Nitfol get talking: she is apparently the girl whom he liked before. She has switched her allegiance to Frowgler and now refers to him as her boss. Nitfol is working with Frowgler too. Umboz and Piu leave them to talk and go off to make love. Then we cut to The Spike, where Eunice Kelso and Rufus are talking. It seems Eunice is a villager who had been posing as Rufus's friend for a long time, but really watching him for God. In notes we learn that the Spike is Ettin-made and that before the Crash, Humans used it to moor airships. Rufus has recently had a talk with "God", or possibly with Dorian (who is not God), which left him briefly unconscious and rubber-legged, but he seems to have agreed to play an important role in God's organisation. This is only the third time Eunice has been in the Spike, and she plans to leave via a service tunnel leading towards the village. Rufus is behaving in quite a commanding, confident way, and speculating about what "God" and his henchman Dorian plan for Eunice next: her job is over and she has important information, so maybe they were hoping he'd kill her. After some edgy verbal sparring Eunice more-or-less agrees to be Rufus's new assistant and bodyguard. Rufus tells her to see what Dorian offers her first, and if she turns down both of them she should go, and get as far as way as possible: but they both know she mustn't go "Out West". Eunice assures him that her hat doesn't have an eye and that she would never let "one of those little creeps" get on her head. She was recruited to God's service by an "old posh lady" named Miss Wentworth whom she met in Noodle: this has been brewing since before Rufus and Eunice were born. How long ago is that? Rufus's father Willoughby was the son of a post-Crash refugee, so Willoughby was born not more than about forty-eight years ago. Let's say Willoughby was about twenty when he and Dorothea had Sylvester, so that's twenty-eight years ago. Rufus is from their fifth pregnancy, so even if Dorothea cranked out one pregnancy a year Rufus is only twenty-four. So the conspiracy is twenty-five-plus years old. 08: The End of the Day [18/02/2013 – 16/07/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips #3431–end] We see Rosemary and Sylvester coming out of gender-specific lavatories which are delineated by male and female statues carrying a real spear and shield. They discuss finding Rosemary some better clothes so she can be properly introduced to Nellie and Amos, although Sylvester is wary of telling her what to wear because of the hypnosis incident. He gets his own clothes from Genrick Gaberdine, an excellent tailor in Eetown, who will be mentioned several times in future strips. The female clothes they are about to see are out of date (mostly collected between fifty and eighty years ago by the wives of Ernest and Philbert), but Sylvester tries to keep stylish because it makes a good impression as Earl. Rosemary is tested by an Ettin-built electronic panel on the wall which confirms she is compatible with the house and can perform its ceremonies. Sylvester offers formally to employ her as Taskmistress, partly for real and partly as cover, and she is given an E-family uniform (which is the same two shades of periwinkle blue we later see on Winnifrite habits and shrines), although she picks the big E off the breast for the moment, and keeps her old clothes in the Poke Kit and later in a drawer. Sylvester warns her that most of the lavatories are shut off to save water and to limit baths to one a day because they get their water from the roof. Once they are both respectably dressed they go and introduce Rosemary to Nellie, although Sylvester tells Nellie that Rosemary's name is Rosemary Aurora Dapple, not Rosemary Imogene Ripley. It is important to impress Nellie because she has Views, and is popular in the village (while Myrrh is unpopular, having "cut quite a swath" before the Crash, as we saw in her collision with Ilsa's anti-Earl group). If possible Rosemary should avoid telling Nellie that she has killed Humans (but killing non-humans is evidently OK) and it would help if she can assist Nellie in her garden. Nellie keeps most of the garden produce for herself and Amos, but there is a commercial orchard they all help with, even Myrrh, and whch helps to fund the Mansion. The Grubbs have a nice homely sitting-room, with a picture on the wall of a winged waffle and an egg with legs. Nellie has already worked out that Rosemary arrived without passing through the village, and is angry about Mortimer being encouraged/allowed to learn magic, although Sylvester says not only that Mortimer needs to do this, but that he may need Mortimer to do this, because of what's happening "downstairs". He tells her that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress, making it sound as if he intentionally summoned her to the Mansion for that purpose, and also that she killed a monster and now there's meat and tallow in the Low Kitchen. Quizzed about her origins Rosemary mentions the three beacons in the Bay of Runes, "big and scary and beautiful", and also that people in Moonin hunt Saurs (who are presumably non-sapient, and are bigger than the Mansion ones – so probably what the Mansion Saurs call Sawtooths). They allow Nellie to assume that Rosemary learned to fight mainly because she was a Saur-hunter although she admits that she has "some training" with the sword, and Nellie warns Sylvester that the Sheriff wants to meet Rosemary. Nellie opens up and talks about the group of which she, Amos and Frederick were a part prior to the Crash. She came from Zebedee, Frederick and Amos were locals, and it's later hinted that Olaf came from elsewhere. Amos and Frederick were old friends who were learning magic from Hindenburgh, and Mamie must have learned from somebody as she had a magicker hat (Olaf didn't and nor did Nellie). Nellie had to choose between Frederick and Amos and chose Amos, and Mamie was with Olaf. But then Fredrick accidentally summoned Myrrh and lost his magic, and Amos renounced magic, so only Mamie had the hat when the Crash came, and only Mamie died. Amos, Nellie and Ilsa became servants at the Mansion (and Olaf, we will later learn, became the local vet). Amos and Nellie had a son, Arlen. who is now the local Hedgemaster. Sylvester warns Nellie about some of the recent developments in the Basement, and the fact that the River of Fire can affect things even up here in the Mansion. As he talks we see vignettes of Chumley the Boogieman presiding over a growing collection of dead Fixits; the blonde woman with the pink bow, whom Rosemary called Mz Teree, reporting distressing changes in the Basement to someone who addresses her as Annabelle (and who has been waiting impatiently for her: possibly Nirvana); and Frowgler telling Myrrh about the conversation Rosemary and Sylvester are currently having with Nellie. Sylvester leaves Rosemary and Nellie alone to talk about contraception, and we learn that there is a "Women's Circle" at the local Temple, where such things may be discussed. Here, such things are only discussed between women, at the Temple, because in the past there have been men in the area who tried to stop women from using Stiflebloom. The Women's Circle preserved their freedom and all women are allowed to attend: even outsiders; even Myrrh if she wanted to. Eunice is a member. In Moonin they talk about Stiflebloom freely, even though they are sexually uptight and not like the more sex-positive Morlock or Abalone. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester leave together, talking about local leaders – an impromptu lady mayor named Saffron Stout who runs an inn, and Patrick Skragg, the Sheriff. The Earl has warily polite relationships with both. Both Nellie and Sylvester mention Olga, Mortimer's ex, who seems to have been a disaster. Rosemary says the position of "strange and dangerous woman" is now filled. Sylvester formally introduces Rosemary to Frederick. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester agree to conceal her true identity and membership of Hack n' Slash, in case she's on a "wanted" list. They meet up with Amos and Mortimer and Amos, as a former wizard, comfirms that Mortimer no longer has psychic influence over Rosemary. Amos can still see people's mental structures, which vary a bit by region, and he can tell that she is from Out West. Amos and Sylvester exchange news of the day, including some things Sylvester didn't tell Nellie, like about the Sneech gift, and about Tand – Sylvester thinks he has seen Tand mentioned in the records and Amos promises to look her up. Sylvester learns about The Pit flaring. We learn that "Pit" stands for "Pulse-Ignition Thaumnode" and that it was a booster device used to power-up airships heading for the Far Eastern Shore, to save on fuel. The effect is like a small version of the Daynight (a rainbow aurora witnessed by the first Prime Oracle, although we don't learn that till later), which evidently did something drastic, at least to people near it. Mortimer finds The Pit creepy. After Amos leaves to go home, Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer go to the Basement of the barracks, fetch a siege pot and set it up on the top of the West Tower over the main entrance. Mortimer goes off to find clothes (his shirt having been shredded to make makeshift gloves and boots in the Sneech den) and leaves Sylvester and Rosemary discussing the definition of "mansion". He tells her about the Spike, which he has never tried to climb because it's one big, churning Ettin machine and very dangerous. He can see that somebody is living there because it's been more active (in terms of lights etc.) since the Crash, but it's out of the Mansion lands and as far as he knows nobody now officially owns it. They discuss the aftermath of the Crash – which wasn't nearly as bad in the poor rural area where Rosemary comes from, because hardly anybody there used magic anyway – and the ownership of land and property left vacant after the previous owners died in the disaster. Eva was affected, but that was because she was in Nye on the mainland. Now Eetown, once a thriving metropolis, lives by catching Tooterfish for their oil. They go off to eat and we see a series of vignettes. Myrrh has arrived in the Sneech den proper, but hasn't encountered any Sneeches. Amos collects a package of Dornbeast-liver from the processor and takes it to Nellie, and discusses Rosemary with her: Nellie isn't sure she likes Rosemary but feels she can trust her, and Amos says they haven't been told the full story about how she got there but they're in no position to complain about people withholding information. Mortimer gets cleaned up (but even after a bath he still smells of sphagnum dust). En route to a dinner of last night's Dornbeast tendrils, Rosemary and Sylvester pause to look at a Panegate which leads elsewhere on their own world, into open grassland on the Thembrian Steppes, with the occasional distant horseman. Sylvester says that such local Panegates are especially hard to open, possibly because the Ettins double-locked them against Sneech incursions. Behind them is a statue of Pratchett's Discworld. Mortimer joins them at table and says he has put the umbrella aside until such time as he may decide to take up magic. They discuss re-opening access to a nearby beach so they can gather fish and seaweed, now that Rosemary is there to fend off any Ichyoids who might object, then they sign Rosemary into the Mansion's official staff record-book, still under the false name Dapple. Sylvester goes off to write up the day's events, and Mortimer goes and tries on various formal outfits, but doesn't seem to like the look of them, and picks a blue t-shirt with a star on the chest. Rosemary gets Amos to show her the library. Coming away with a stack of books on history, anthropology and moral philosophy, she experiences a psychic tweak which calls her to go to the Quiet Room and speak to (apparently) the Sneech Dohickey, which she can hear because she touched it, although she remains outside the locked door. She says that it and she are both protecting Sylvester, and suggests it should watch the Basement door, or the Weirdo. As the new Taskmistress she threatens the devices, saying that if any of them causes trouble she'll chuck them all into the Great Chasm. As she walks away we see Frowgler sitting by the foot of the door – he speaks to the Dohickey as if they are old aquaintances. Myrrh, with her balloon in tow, descends to the Ettinworks using the musical levitating lift in the shaft where Rosemary met Tand. Returning to the Guest Room, Rosemary rearranges the furniture so she can sit facing the door, writes to her aunt and takes a bath. She falls asleep but immediately wakes into a dream which seems to be some kind of objectively real astral projection. She passes Skuy and Spot, who are arguing, because Skuy is keeping people away from the elevator: Skuy at least seems to be also asleep and also taking part in the astral projection. Rosemary goes to the elevator and meets the Operator, who has summoned her and tries to hypnotise her, but she says that will never happen again and whacks him with a mallet, which she then hands over to Skuy: the physically real Operator is aware of and intrigued by what has just happened to his astral equivalent. We see an overview of various couples sleeping: Nellie and Amos; Umbuz and Piu (in bed together, so their relationship is progressing fast!); the Gobules Gorp and Phiga. Then we see Mortimer and Yasmine, who would like to be a couple but aren't yet: Mortimer lying awake, and Yasmine sitting by a camp fire, staring at a Fleeb. Myrrh goes to the same doorway off the underhub where Sylvester and co. were passed the metal "KEEP OUT" sign. She is passed a similar cut-out message, this one saying "IN HER" with an extra "E" drawn or painted on to make it "IN HERE". The extra "E" is done in the style of the emblem of the Earls of E. The door opens and she goes through into the corridor of doors we saw before. A distant door is open to receive her but all we see through it is several floating lights – possibly ABOLs. More vignettes: Eunice talking to Cox, in front of Ettin signs or graffiti saying "shake hands" and "onebig onion", and tells him Rufuis says they're lucky that "this phizzpile hasn't imploded and fallen in the swamp". She probably literally means the Spike collapsing. Hector talks to Nunsuch and says that "sir" wishes Nunsuch and another character called Penfold to interface with the Spindizzies: Nunsuch indicates some Ettin text which appears on a screen beside them and which changes gradually from the old font to the new. This text, which says "remote spike extrusion", triggers Hector to engage a "revised schedule" which he says is twenty years late. Sylvester gives up on his paperwork and collapses into bed. Meanwhile Myrrh leaves the room of lights and returns to the Mansion, where she bars the Basement door and puts a ward on it telling Basement dwellers to keep out. She opens a Panegate into a lush jungle and sets the balloon floating off into that jungle carrying the rescued Trundlebug, who lands in a bush where it meets a new friend (probably of the opposite sex, if Trundlebugs have sexes). She goes and reassures Frederick that although the magic umbrella is hers she didn't directly give it to Mortimer, and they start flirting. The scene shifts to the Trog holding area where Villipend and Hamble were formerly imprisoned, and we see that Hamble has survived electrocution. In his former life, before the Plunge, he was a simple fungi farmer, but proximity to the Hot Zone seems to have done something to reverse the mental decline which caused him to jump into the Great Chasm in the first place, and he is now very clever and very ambitious. He half rescues, half kidnaps Squeeb, and works out how to get out of the habitat. He snifs out, literally, a hidden door behind which is an emergency bolthole room with stocked provisions, and which opens out above the chute. He sets off to walk along the top of the chute-tube with Squeeb strapped to his arm, seeking a new dawn which will be his. We learn on the way that Squeeb, who is Nevus's brother in law, belongs to no ring, and despises the idea of doing so. Finally we see two vignettes. In one, a male soldier reports on Rosemary's disappearance to a female commander, the Tansy whom Rosemary saw in a vision. Tansy is working for some outfit or political party whose emblem is a triangle within a circle: it appears on her desk and on her helmet. It appears to belong to her: the office she is occupying has a sign outside saying "ABBOT'S OFFICE" but then a big "T" and the triangle-and-circle sign have both been drawn on it using the same red paint. She vows to find Rosemary wherever she has gone – and clearly with hostile intent. In the other, we see Sylvester's sister Lilith and their mother Dorothea, talking in the darkness at the edge of a banquet in the Deep Jungle somewhere. The mother would have liked to have stayed, but she has received a psychic impression that they need to start heading back to E. Part Six: On My Way to Town [28/07/2013 – 16/11/2018] Note that from 03/05/2015, the Saturdays in the Basement strips show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with the action above ground. 01: Rise and Shine [28/07/2013 – 26/11/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips start–#3698] The sun has just risen over the Mansion. The brothers are already awake: Sylvester resumes doing his paperwork, but Mortimer stands gazing out of a window, clutching the umbrella he said he wouldn't pick up again unless and until he decided to take up magic, and thinking of himself as having "set out" – and that the world itself has also changed. Rosemary emerges and rings the bell for Schmedley, the butler, attracting Mortimer's attention. He introduces her to Schmedley, who tells her how to find Sylvester (and who speaks very quietly). Schmedley is not surprised to hear that Mortimer is a wizard. We see Arthur the Weirdo feeling the worse for wear. Sylvester explains the hierarchy of the Mansion's servants to Rosemary. Nellie and Amos are officially retired, and Myrrh retired when Ilsa, the Head Housekeeper, did (he evidently doesn't know Myrrh was controlling her!). When the main posts are all filled the rank from top down goes Regent and Estate Manager (Frederick); Head Housekeeper; Butler; Taskmistress; then the Head Gardener and Head Librarian and then all the small fry. As Taskmistress Rosemary stands fairly high. One of her duties is, at least potentially, to find and hire a new sign-writer (if official and full-time, called a Notification Artificer). Sylvester's next task is in three days and Rosemary's in five. He shows Rosemary her new official quarters and office, which she is quite stunned by. Her quarters command a view of the ocean, which leads to a discussion about Panegates and the fact that no known Panegate leads to another continent, although some lead to alternative realities for the location of the Mansion. They move on to discussing why the villagers don't all move into the much-more-comfortable Mansion, and Rosemary's dream about the Operator. Sylvester didn't share it but we see a flashback to what must be his own dream, in which he, Rosemary and Nimue are attending a university lecture given by Protus, accompanied by three frogs, two sitting with the girls in the audience and one sitting with Protus, and Sylvester is aware that his own frog is missing (or has gone to Protus). We see a rusted, land-locked churnboat which Philbert had been going to convert into a building, the Boathouse, and access to which is heavily restricted; and a wizwitch detector which detects Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss security clearances, and local legends relating to a scruffy local folk-hero called Frizzlegarb who Sylvester thinks might have been a surviving Wilf, and who is associated with a symbol that looks like a waffle with wings. Legends say Frizzlegarb founded Glome, grew the first pudding plant and planted the acorn which became the Forest of Burzee. They also say that he swam through a pool and there met what sounds like a Willigig. [Later we will learn that Frizzlegarb was a Fuzz from the far future, presumably dislocated in time by the Willigig.] Sylvester is still having trouble with the fact that Willigigs are real. He shows Rosemary round her apartment and gives her a mechanical pocket-watch, then they get out Mortimer's Glowgem and test it on a sort of battery-tester invented by Griffington. They are quite rare. although there are some in the Infernal Engine, and in deep shafts under the Brushspire Peaks, and in Paydon, and the university had some big ones brought back by the Bradstreet Expedition. No-one really knows what they are, but they're not alive, they come in various types which feel slightly different, and they store power, and they didn't explode in the Crash. We see an outtake of the Tribbletongued Hamster (in pirate getup), the plant and the ABOL escaping together in their toy boat, sailing along an underground tunnel: a sign in the background points towards the sea. This is a colourised but othwerwise only slightly different version of the drawing we saw the previous day whem Rosemary and Sylvester were coming away from Spatchcock's office, but the sign pointing to the sea is new, so they've made progress. This Glowgem is highly charged. The Mansion has a few others whose charge has almost run down: they can be recharged by dipping them in the River of Fire for a few days. They used to do that from a bridge station over the River, but it collapsed in the Crash: we see that the Observatory in the Basement is adapted from the ruins of it. Sylvester mentions that the Mansion used to have a "wizwitch", a magic-wielder, as a regular member of staff and he supposes it now has one again. The scene cuts to Mortimer, who is talking to a strange wall of purple electrical spikes labelled "CURED ELECTRO-SPIKES" and filled with littl wires, telling it he is going to go and celebrate the fact that he has grown up and got a job. He goes to Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where there are various amusements and places to eat. Back with Rosemary and Sylvester, he asks her about Hack & Slash's Commandant Spangler (who Rosemary had said was the only person she had previously met who had a private office). This segues into a conversation about their respective grandparents. Rob has said elsewhwere that Quincy died in 5398, and it's now 5423, and Sylvester says here that Quincy died when he was five, so Sylvester is now twenty-nine or thirty. Rosemary's parents died on their way back from her grandmother's funeral, when she was a baby. Rosemary runs through her fake history, although we know from a bonus strip of her family that she has kept their names and just changed her father's surname to match her new, false surname Dapple. She discusses the remote possibility of using Protus to go back in time and save her parents – for whom she has little feeling – at the cost of giving up her own exciting future and getting stuck as a farm-girl (and refers to Haroons in passing as Leafheads). Meanwhile we see Frederick and Myrrh set out to do something – unspecified but involving hand-holding – "properly". Get married, probably. Sylvester tells Rosemary about the demand there used to be for apartments linked to this private corridor for senior administrators: Amos could have had a smart Head Librarian's apartment here, but he and Nellie chose to live down in the Storage Halls next to Frederick and Myrrh because of their long history [Olaf lives in the village]. There used to be a separate cottage for the Head Gardener but it was damaged in the Crash. They discuss the fact that in the past, pre-Ludwig, the Earls were at risk of being assassinated just for being the Earl. Rosemary goes off at a tangent about a fluffy-seeming female called Miss Gritz who was a traveller on the caravan Rosemary was guarding, and whom she suspects of being her apparent boyfriend's very high-powered personal bodyguard. Sylvester shows Rosemary round the official, ceremonial offices for himself and his secretary (but not his official chambers, which are untidy). The offices are designed to be intimidating, and with security in mind: there is a round thing on the wall that Sylvester says is the remains of a robot security system. The fact that attention is drawn to it suggests to me that we will find out Mr Hand can access it and it's not as broken as it purports to be, but Rosemary taps it and it doesn't do anything visible. Meanwhile, we see Eunice, wearing a rucksack, emerge from a concealed entrance in a rock with a spy-eye on top. Yasmine arrives on horseback at a sign that points to Eetown in one direction and Noodle in another (forking rather than diametrically opposed), and thinks that in another hour she'll be far enough away to take her hood off. So she is somebody who might be recognised. Her spark of attraction with Martimer suggests that a) she too is in the twenty-five to thirty-five range and b) she isn't Lenore, even though the Shibolith accent could be fake. We learn that the Mansion has an actual throne. Audra was the last Earl to use it and since then it's been reserved in case the king should visit – this nearly happened fifty years ago, when Yorik III had planned a visit, but the king ws killed when his flagship airship The Velvet Glove went down during the Crash, and the current king tends to stay in the capital. We learn that the Mansion has a High Tower, which seems to be the turret off the main tower, and access to which is blocked: Rufus tried to get in there, before he wandered off, but as far as Sylvester knows he was unsuccessful. Possibly Mr Hand lives there. Sylvester says Rufus likes to wander but he doesn't go far: Sylvester tried to get him to go to university but Rufus felt that the area around the Mansion was where he was going to be. Sylvester doesn't know where Rufus is now: Mortimer hasn't told him, or perhaps being zapped and PZORed and meeting Yasmine scrambled his memory. Sylvester shows Rosemary an escape hatch under the desk (which itself is made of near-impregnable Ettin lengths), leading to a panic-room which used to be well-equippped but is now almost empty. There used to be guards down there, but not since the Crash: and no, they didn't really need guards after the Crash, because they had Myrrh. We learn that in the early days the Earldom was passed on by mortal combat. Milo was the last Earl of E officially to kill his predecessor and the first to pass the Earldom on by blood although his grandson, Dorn II, may have been murdered by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, who then ruled in her husband Lemuel's stead while he got on with his Panegate research. We also learn that in those days the Earldoms of E and S were friends. Sylvester doesn't know as much about his mother's family, the Mundivagants, who are grand and grudging industrialists. Neither he nor Lenore would ever ask their maternal grandfather Humphrey Mundivagant for a favour. Their brother Ace works for the Mundivagants. Rosemary's family were all farmers with a long tradition, but they have died out. The Mansion has mangonels and mini airships which could probably be got to work. Rosemary asks about a sign saying "Gargoyle pits" and Sylvester tells her that there are creatures called Gargoyles and Spindizzies which were bred or manufactured by the Ettins to service and repair the buildings in which they live, so the Mansion behaves like a semi-living thing, a sort of colonial organism, even though there's no central personality such as there is at the Castle of the Combynes. Gargoyles deal with the exterior and Spindizzies with the interior, especially service machinery behind the walls and in the BaseCore, which is "one giant inaccessible churn of zappy machinery". The Mansion is slowly running down. Sylvester and Rosemary speculate about the possibility of finding still-surviving Ettins who could restore it. They come to a corridor where an end-wall has moved aside, giving access to a platform looking out into a vast service-space, so Sylvester takes Rosemary to meet the Spindizzies, warning her to get the Can-Opener out first and not tell anybody about the Poke Kit. In the empty space we saee lines of force, with the first appearance of the little Ts and Fs which become a common motif. 02: Fishing Around [27/11/2013 – 22/03/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3704–#3810] The scene opens with an Ichyoid about under water, wearing some sort of equipment on his chest which seems to be intergrated into his body, and surrounded by sea-life, including two eyes looking out of a hole with "THAT'S A MORAY" written round it. We return to Sylvester, telling Rosemary that the BaseCore of the Mansion, which they are looking down on, and the space around it is malleable and in a state of flux. Sylvester warns Rosemary that the Spindizzies share new information indiscriminately, but may assume you already know old things you aren't aware of. Two Spindizzies appear: they have grey, hairless humanoid upper bodies trailing away into wormy tails, and pterosaur-like wings. The males have brown wing-muscles and the females blue. They speak like intelligent but literal-minded computers but are friendly and kind, very concerned when they hear that Rosemary is taking over as Taskmistress in case that means Prunella has died, and perhaps a little disappointed that she isn't Sylvester's love-interest, since they want him to produce another male Task-performer. Sylvester agrees to bring in supplies (antimony) which they request, and ask them if they can tell what the Can-Opener is made of, but they can't, although they may be able to duplicate it (by which they mean, construct a look-alike pattern). When they are analysing something, little lines hang in the air, some similar to the marks on the Can-Opener, s0me more like distorted letters. Every Human (or in Myrrh's case, humanoid) in the Mansion has a designated Spindizzy who communicates with them: Horace and, newly, Emily are matched to Sylvester and Rosemary. As Taskmistress Rosemary will need to talk to Emily weekly. They live about as long as Humans, so if you have a personal Spindsizzy you always have somebody who's happy to talk to you. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the Ettins, and the moving walls (which the Spindizzies can influence if they are nearby, even though they can't leave their chamber): Sylvester thinks the Mansion with its Panegates and moving walls wasn't intended as a residence but as some other sort of facility. They wonder whether there are any surviving Ettins – and if so, how they would react to finding Humans living in their laboratory, or whatever it is. The Ettins are myths to the Spindizzies too – scary, tyrannical myths. We learn that the Spindizzies are mortal flesh-and-blood creatures but they reproduce in a mechanical incubator, and are assigned mates on a very scientific basis: and that Motihauls reproduce by the female laying an egg and then the male handing her a bottle of sperm. We learn that one of Ludwig's assistants, James Neil Pakson, went far enough down into the depths to visit the Spindizzy incubator, and his granddaughter Nicole visited the Far-Eastern Shore on the other side of the ocean from the Mansion. There were Human colonies there which may or may not have survived the Crash, about which the Spindizzies know nothing. They also don't know about other Ettin-made edifices, or about the things no-one is sure who made: the Infernal Engine, the Beacons, the Sandwall, and a range of actual big rock candy mountains. Meanwhile we see vignettes of other characters. Mortimer is breakfasting on a Spyder-burger at the Landing o' Family Fun, and visiting the Fish Museum there. He has aquired a little purple-and-green party version of a wizard's conical hat. Eunice Kelso is seen leaving the woods and heading for Eetown, with her rucksack: she passes a retired Guardian called Mr Flem, who warns her that the woods are dangerous. Terin Flem, whom we will meet again, is a semi-retired pig-farmer who used to be the Oracle Omega's Guardian Finale, and sits on a rock near the village alongside his dog Byron, apparently whittling wood. Nelly is feeding (non-sapient) Jibjibs while Amos wears goggles as he uses tongs to hold up a rod with a star on the end which isn't Mortimer's Glowgem (too many points). It appears that he is making, or restoring, a wand. Arthur the Weirdo is taking a bath; Myrrh is looking out from her and Frederick's flat, looking a bit suspicious (perhaps because she senses the presence of Frowgler); and Schmedley is being addressed by somebody off-screen and short (probably Frowgler). The chamber where Rosemary and Sylvester and the Spindizzies are all meeting is a sort of holo-deck, in which the Spindizzies successfully produce a useable mock-up of the Can-Opener which is only real in this environment, a quasi-humanoid sparring-partner for Rosemary to practise with, a chair for Sylvester to sit in and watch, and some background scenery including a bad, Escheresque reproduction of part of a monument called the Citadel of the Hugging Squirrels, one of the Sculpted Isles in Isdanlia. This reproduction was commissioned by Dorn I for his mother Nettana, who came from that area. The Sculpted Isles date back to a mysterious Dawn Era, probably that of the Wilfs and Gobblems. Sylvester dozes in a chair, leaving Rosemary to her sparring, but in fact she talks to the Spindizzies instead of fighting, and runs them through the tools they have patterns for: Human Tool #1 is a stick. She learns that they have patterns for Ettin tools as well as Human ones, but most of the Ettin ones are encrypted: one that isn't encrypted is a 3D version of the USB symbol, and they would love to get hold of a real one (there was a broken one on the sea floor where we saw the Ichyoid). She encrypts the pattern for the Can-Opener so only she and Sylvester can see it. It seems that any "productive individual" can come in and encrypt personalized tools. She learns that the Spindizzies could in principle find out what the Can-Opener is made of but their access to data is blocked beyond a certain level, although they don't know by whom. Rufus might be able to fix it. They tell her that Rufus is at Semi-Autonomous Research Structure #00001. Rosemary doesn't want to spar now because she hasn't the time, but she takes the time to walk up the imaginary sky. She starts to ask Emily the Spindizzy whether she knows that she, Rosemary, is currently... then changes the subject, which may or may not have been important. Then she wakes Sylvester and tells him where Rufus is, which he translates as the Spike. He isn't pleased, and says that the Spike is very dangerous, partly because the machines there have no built-in safety systems, but doesn't intend to go rescue him as he assumes Rufus knows what he's doing: he doesn't know about the Fixits etc. The information about Rufus came from a high-ranking Spindizzy called Tanith who was Nirvana's contact, but they have lost contact with Nirvana. Meanwhile a Valentine's Day out-take shows Sheriff Patrick Skragg giving a flower to his wife Halcyone, while their son Stephen reads a Willy-the-Wendigo book. Sylvester informs the Spindizzies about the departure of the Sneeches, and asks them what they know about Willigigs. They have been aware of Protus's presence for around a month (37.77 days – are Mansionverse months forty days?) but haven't spoken to him. They are not aware of Frowgler. Sylvester and Rosemary take their leave of them: Sylvester promises to bring them some antimony which they have asked for, and which he has in store. After they leave we see that the Spindizzies penetrate right down into the Basement and see Sprocket the Gnoll engineer, holding a Glowgem in a wrench, opening conversation with a male Spindizzy. Rosemary and Sylvester set off to go fishing. They discuss the Mansion's mineral stores, including gold, and Rosemary tells Sylvester what she learned from the Spindizzies while he was asleep, about the data block which Rufus might be able to fix. Sylvester suggests that the same person deliberately planted the Can-Opener with Izchak for Rosemary to find, and prevented the Spindizzies from investigating it: he fears he is being too paranoid but Rosemary, being profesionally paranoid, suggests there may be two conflicting secret factions at work. For the moment, Sylvester is not telling the Spindizzies about the return of Nirvana, the previous Taskmistress: he means to return to the Ettinworks once he has researched Tand, and will allow Nirvana and "Mz Teree" (Annabelle) to explain themselves before making a decision about them. They make their way down to a sea-level room where there are storage lockers for fishing gear and for beach leisure gear, and a small boat, and a door to the E family's private – and artificially-enhanced – fishing beach. [Here an out-take shows Sylvester's mother Dorothea and sister Lilith visiting the Irish-analogue nation of Tiranog at some point in the recent past.] They used to have a proper boat-house etc. but much of it has fallen into ruins. Ichyoids don't like large-scale commerical fishing and cut large fishing nets, so before going outside they look though a security periscope and see only gulls. There is a suggestion that many Ichyoids died in the Crash. Sylvester also talks about what he considers to be the remote possibility of somebody from the Basement making their way up to the beach (suggesting that part of it is below sea-level), and at that we see the hamster and his crew in their miniature pirate ship, approaching the open air. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss boats, and an explorer called Semidemela, and then go outside, where they stand side by side on the beach and agree that their feelings for each other are brother/sisterly rather than romantic (although acknowledging that this could change). It's mentioned that Audra had an entire fleet, and that they have a private, secure marina, but without magic it takes too much effort to open. They catch fish and gather seaweed and then go inside to cook them. Meanwhile we see a small boat propelled by a magic-powered outboard motor, and piloted by a skinny, elderly male villager. This is Olaf Larssen, the village vet, whom we saw before when Protus caused Sylvester to have a vision of a selection of villagers (among other things), and who was part of Frederick's pre-Myrrh magical team. His boat is named Mamie, after his partner who died in the Crash. The hamster and his pirate crew in their tiny wind-up clockwork boat approach and order Olaf to stand to and prepare to be boarded, and he thinks that all Tribble-Tongued Hamsters are insane. Compared to a Human, Cap'n Hamster is more like a large gopher in size. 03: A Change in the Scene [24/03/2014 – 12/07/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3817–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips start–#3915] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips start–#3921] From this point on, the parallel activity in the Basement splits away into a series of separate strips, until Sylvester and co. re-enter the Basement in Part Eight. The scene above-ground opens with Nitfol, Fizmo and three Pales (Thrash and his team, although they are all wearing or carrying shields and Thrash doesn't have the stripe on his chest that he had before) about to enter a wood tangled with brambles, in search of whatever Nitfol needs for his bid to become mayor. Nitfol says that Fizmo's presence isn't absolutely neccessary to his plans (knowing that this expedition will be dangerous) – but she has her own agenda. Then we see Yasmine riding through a wood. She is just about to take off her hood, now she is far enough from the Mansion, when she feels a vibration in her bag of Fleebs. She opens it and the Fleebs leap out, although they do not appear rabid. Meanwhile we see the E family make breakfast. Amos and Nellie bring non-sapient Jibjib eggs (their cockerel is called Zoroaster), Sylvester and Rosemary have fish and edible seaweed, and Mortimer brings a bottle of a magically-active drink called Yurple Juice. He won it by playing a game called Star Board at Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, and feels he may have cheated magically. The Weirdo (seriously hungover) and Fantod arrive and are introduced to Rosemary. Then Myrrh and Frederick arrive, dressed as if for a very fancy trip to a smart restaurant or theatre, and Myrrh announces that they are now retiring from their work to keep the family alive. Although they don't state so explicitly, they are planning to go away on a trip (we were told when we first met him that Frederick likes to go on long journeys). Myrrh also satisfies the Weirdo and Fantod's curiosity by dropping her glamour and revealing to them that she is a Demon. Mortimer is now Sylvester's Regent, his understudy – about which he is less than thrilled. Sylvester tells him just to do what Rosemary tells him, when Sylvester himself isn't there. Since the Mansion will now be less secure, Sylvester offers Amos and Nellie the chance to retire to the village, but they refuse. Instead, Amos will teach Mortimer magic. Meanwhile Sylvester, Rosemary and Mortimer need to go to the village to update Saffron, the lady mayor, on what's been happening, to sell Dornbeast parts and to attend the Temple. The Dornbeast parts are ready-wrapped in a refrigerator or stasis unit next to Ludwig's monster-processing machine. We learn later that the wrappings alone will keep meat fresh for a week, and if wrapped and in the cabinet it will keep for months. Mortimer wants to go to the Temple (he starts to ask whether he can go with them, then states that he is going) to light a candle for Nitfol, whom he believes to be dead through his fault, and then find the forest Nomes and tell them what happened to him. This leads to a discussion about Deep Jungle Nomes, who live in normal tree-houses, and about tree-warping. You can do the same with stone on a small scale, and we see Mulch and Grind tucked into a pocket in the wall behind Faldstool, just as Shona discussed with Frowgler. Because the Poke Kit won't work so well away from the Mansion's magic tricklepoint, Rosemary and Sylvester go to the Barrackstack to deposit the Can-Opener in a vault and collect other equipment. Meanwhile Mortimer goes to take antimony to the Spindizzies. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Ludwig's machines still work, and why this might be; and the fact that Ludwig left whole shelves' worth of notes which haven't been properly catalogued [an ideal job for the Ludwigites]. Ludwig was never intentionally unkind, but his thought processes weren't necesarily like those of most other people. Rosemary thinks that the Weirdo is ill or hungover but competant, and has had military training. Knowing that the Weirdo is conspiring with Yasmine in some way, Sylvester says they should lock their doors at night. Only the "cactus" part of the Mansion is Ettin-made: the other buildings were constructed by various Earls, although sometimes using Ettin salvage. The Barrackstack, which contains some Ettin elements but was mainly built by Angus and Audra, goes down as far below ground as above (about eight storeys each way). It was originally an impregnable fortress, but after the wars were over and "the Mugwumps all died.. or whatever.." Ernest and Philbert added stairs. There are sealed-off escape tunnels from the barracks which open into places which are now inside Eetown. A sign points to the Party Palace, built by Ernest, and describes the attractions on offer there. Rosemary is alarmed to see "Quincunx Den" on there: we will later learn that to her, the Quincunx is a paramilitry outfit Out West. Here it's a very complex card-game. We see a board laid out with cards in which there seem to be five suits: asterisks; circles; crosses (shaped like a Christian cross); little flowering plants (which I'm betting are called blooms); and anchors. They also discuss some kind of game which involves magically-powered equipment and is played by couples (together as a team) in an Underwear Arena: possibly that means the game is called Underwear. Whatever it is long-married couples are especially good at it (which suggests it might involve listing your partner's physical or sexual quirks), and people called Shrouders – the reverse of nudists – cannot play it. All the local villagers are informally Shrouders. Sylvester and Nimue won a silver medal at this game at University. Rosemary wants to play, with Sylvester as her partner, but the only team they could play against would be Nellie and Amos who would win because they've been married over fifty years, so Rosemary wants to get Yasmine back so they can play against her and Mortimer. Mortimer takes the antimony to his Spindizzy contact, Charles. Charles recognizes the umbrella as a "thaumalogical flow enhancer and regulator" and already knew Mortimer had wizard potential. The scene cuts to a female Spindizzy, Clementine, who is talking to Sina, Sprocket and a half-seen male Trog, probably either Mowder or Grak. Sina is quizzing Clementine about her claim to have met the Earl. Sylvester opens a weapons-vault to keep the Can-Opener in: like military exercises the vaults have random names. This one contains a wide range of good spears and swords over which Rosemary exclaims. We learn that there are official family weapons on display in the Gatestone, but they haven't been used in anger since Dorn II. They put the Can-Opener into a safe, then enter Rosemary into the Herediscan system. They discuss Griffington – his collection of obscene limericks, his management of the Factor E and his possession of three minions, Krell (who investigated old devices), Drowpole (who built new ones), and Strauhatt (who marketed what they made). Rosemary is now Sylvester's minion, after Nirvana, who was the first. They see a statue which purports to be of an Obsidian Sneech, but is more sinister than accurate, and collect all the gear Rosemary will need to maintain her sword. This area of the Mansion, which is actually of great military importance, is dotted with signs which suggest that only boring things happen there. As with the Barrackstack, much of the Ettin-built part of the Mansion is underground, even before you get to the Basement. Arthur and Fantod are sitting by the counting-down machine, now at 000315311089. Fantod, who seems to be an actual creature because his eyes move and widen expressively, still looks stunned after their encounter with Myrrh's demon form. Arthur says he assumes that "she knew all along" – perhaps a reference to Yasmine – and he plans to take Amos's advice (to go to the Temple and get Threnody to light a candle for Tulip). Sylvester and Rosemary reach a document-storage area under the library, and Sylvester gives Rosemary an instruction manual for the Poke Kit. She reads about secured sub-pockets and has a half memory of the Tree giving her a secret seed, but it slips her mind again. She experiments with taking the Glowgem in and out, and then looks around warily and makes a secret pocket, into which we will later learn she moved the HJ42. Sylvester meanwhile asks Amos for Obadiah Wuttgutt's Cyclopedia of Night Beasties but they don't have a copy – only Rosemary's memory of reading it. Amos asks Sylvester to tell Olaf in the village that he and Amos need to talk. Rosemary's Glowgem seems to be attracted to one of the supposedly deactivated surveillance devices (like the one in Sylvester's office suite) on the wall: the swirly pattern on it starts throbbing and Rosemary stares at it, but she is no longer vulnerable to being hypnotised. She finds the whole sub-pocket idea creepy, because there could be anything in there, and without the assistance of an official service engineer she wouldn't know it and might accidentally say a password which would cause something dangerous to erupt. They can't empty it by taking it into the Quiet Room, as that might damage it. Rosemary has written to Aunt Eva but she has described where she is, and Sylvester is concerned that her enemies might get it out of her aunt. Sylvester advises her to send another less specific letter via his lawyer, Mr Ferule. They discuss Tansy's army which is chasing Rosemary, and which is called the Quincunx (like the complex game: they don't know if there's a connection). If the Quincunx finds out where Rosemary is and comes as an army it would take them six months to get to E, but it's possible they could send an assassin, or hire a local one by wire; albeit that at present they don't know Rosemary's name. There's no possibility of Tansy giving up and neither will Rosemary: she thinks about Protus showing Sylvester "that poor Gnoll" (Rhid) and then her and Tansy fighting. There's a hint that the thing which Rosemary stole from the Quincunx was whatever she used to travel instantly to the east. The Quincunx are currently in the Nodnol/Lawnrock Peninsula, farther west around the Bay of Runes from Moonin. Being about to leave to walk to the village, they discuss a thing at the entrance called the Gatestone, believed to have been moved there by Ettric, the 2nd Earl. It's an artefact which might predate the Ettins. We see Mortimer waiting for them in an official Assembly Alcove, and being joined there by Arthur the Weirdo and his puppet Fantod, who congratulate him on becoming Regent. They ask about the umbrella, and Mortimer leads them to believe it's just an umbrella, to keep off the rain and sun. Mortimer still smells of sphagnum dust, and this leads to a discussion of Arthur's days at the Weirdo Academy. Arthur is heading to the Temple to have a candle lit for his friend Tulip. 04: Barriers and Gates [14/07/2014 – 27/11/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips #3922–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #3925–#4053] We see the Saurs Buzz and Ig meeting by the ruins of a museum in Eetown. Ig has a Glowgem which was in Niddle's pack: he doesn't know what it is, just that it's pretty. Buzz wants Ig to tell him about what has become of Snerk: Ig says Buzz wouldn't believe him but Buzz, who has been working with Frowgler, says Ig would be surprised what he believes these days. Mortimer and Arthur discuss whether Weirdos are allowed to marry. Opinions vary: Swithinites thing they shouldn't, and Bonavenites think it's OK. Of the family's previous Weirdos, Captain Tin-Throatwobbler was a Swithinite, but Sarah Bellum was a widow. They discuss a girl named Melba who lives in the village, and with whom Fantod implies tnat Arthur has a "thing": she's a friend of Mortimer's sister Lilith's, and quite eccentric, but Arthur says she is too frivolous to make an official Weirdo. Sylvester joins the others at the assembly point. Trailing behind him, Rosemary surreptitiously deposits several items from her Poke Kit – her Poke Kit instruction booklet, plus the lantern and bottle of blade-oil which Sylvester gave her in the Barrackstack – in a large urn. It is one of several artistic and archaeological artefacts which grace the hallway. The main door of the Mansion is set into the Gatestone, a huge boulder which "soaks up light, spreads it around". It may be natural as there are others elsewhere, but it was transported there. The main doors are kept closed, with a small door let into them. It leads to a walled outside area, still strewn with post-Crash rubble. From there, the main gates have been deliberately blocked with rubble to prevent mass invasion, again with a small door next to them. The party discuss the fortifications erected by previous earls, and the early earls themselves (the name of the first earl is not known), and why the village was renamed Eetown instead of Etown (Shibolith is under military rule because of the tensions with Thekla to the south, and there's a fortess/military base there called ETown). The fortifications are now a bit gappy – in fact they use a hole in the wall as a back door – and electronic repellers are used to keep out wild animals. These also protect the orchard and the main path to the village. These are the things Yasmine got past by spitting on them. Sylvester and Mortimer, Rosemary, Arthur and Fantod walk towards Eetown, discussing how the area came to be renamed Audravania instead of Northwoods, after Audra's death, and the vast lands which Audra had ruled before her fatal decision to poke the Hot Zone. Audra had made a voluntary marriage, albeit a political one, but prior to her many future Earls had been forcibly betrothed as children. Plenty of women at university wanted to marry Sylvester for his title, even though he was a poor scholarship boy. Sylvester could, even now, become a gold-digger and find a rich woman who would marry him for his title. Rosemary makes a point of saying she supposes he hates that sort of person: she's probably thinking that marrying for money may be how he will become what he hates. We learn that while at university Sylvester attended the coronation of the king and queen, Yancy and Fluer. Amos has visited the capital with Frederick, but Nellie has never been outside Audravania, except on her honeymoon, when they went to a town called Rowen which was fashionable before the Crash. This leads to a discussion of an island off Eetown, called Alwin, which belongs to the Earls but which they allow honeymooning couples from the village to use. Mortimer says that this arrangement is important to the villagers, which leads to him telling Sylvester what's going on there at the moment – including a break-in at Genrick's tailor shop, where stuff was taken overnight, but money was left for it, for more than the stolen clothes were worth. Possibly this was Frowgler, taking the hat he later gave to Fizmo: but the reference is to "some clothes", so if it was Frowgler what else did he take, and why? Rufus's friend Eunice is mentioned as one of a number of people who have recently moved into the area (and Mortimer doesn't seem to remember that she zapped him): the village is growing and there is a debate, known as the Inside-Out fight, as to whether or not to expand it beyond the boundary hedge. Peter Nigultrum (a half-Polarite) is engaged to Ida, and Mortimer mentions a couple called Hooper and Pandowny who both seem to be male, and says it would help if Sylvester could be there if and when they marry. Evidently there is a small amount of prejudice against same-sex couples. They meet and speak to the pig-farmer Terin Flem and his dog Byron, sitting on a rock outside the village, whittling. This is the same Mr Flem we saw with Eunice before, who comes from the same area (Moonin) as Rosemary and who used to be Guardian to the hardline Oracle named Omega, whom Sylvester didn't get on with. Flem asks Mortimer to ask young Dirge (the current Guardian) to come by, and Fantod mentions "rarebits" he has promised to Byron, or prhaps vice versa. They pass a sign indicating the town dump and Bechdel, which is Mr Flem's pig farm,and the surname of his son in law. He was married while a Guardian. Omega treated him as an afterthought: her original Guardian died in the Crash. Omega preached doom and hellfire and opposed education and change, which still has a lingering effect on the attitudes of the villagers. She was at least not a hypocrite, and was fiercely honest and dutiful and a proficient healer. Sylvester and Mortimer have an obscure private conversation about change: Mortimer wants to do more and different, things he should have done while Omega was alive but didn't, but Sylvester tells him to keep it quiet for the moment as they shouldn't spring too many changes on the villagers at once, and they are still anti-magic. They can't keep it secret forever, though, as Nellie is a gossip. We see an image of Mortimer's future self with the female Motihaul and the woman with clubbed hair. Meanwhile Rosemary talks to Arthur and Fantod. Arthur tries to quiz Rosemary about how she got there but she evades the question and instead asks him about what Weirdos do. They are jesters who "speak truth to power". Their original accents are trained out of them (Arthur is from Alfibay), which raises more questions about Yasmine. Arthur, Fantod and Rosemary discuss the new, safer denizens' tunnel from the Mansion to the Basement, and the disappearance of the Sneeches. Meanwhile the party arrives at the outskirts of the village and Sylvester shows Rosemary the irrigation ditches and other features. They come to the Temple, which was made from the remains of a much grander one ("about the fanciest one east of Rowen") which was destroyed in the Crash, and which lies just outside the hedge which surrounds the village, rather than at the centre of town as would be the norm. Omega had it built there so that, post Crash, people approaching could see a sign that this was an outpost of civilisation, and she trusted the Brush to keep it safe. The town's previous Temple had been destroyed (and the previous local Oracle, Riverbend, had been killed), and so had the town in Wirtwam where Omega was posted previously. She built this Temple out of stones from the old one, and it's actually rather nice. We learn that Sylvester and Mortimer's father had been partially responsible for, and died in, some kind of accident involving a circus and a stampeding elifinos in a nearby town called Noodle, known as the Noodle Incident and so famous that even people Out West know about it. Their father wasn't entirely or solely to blame, but he made a good scapegoat. The Eman family is unpopular in Noodle, not just because of the Incident but because Sylvester promotes the interests of the Eetown tooterfisheries and cuts into the profits of the Noodle Fish-Mongers Association. They meet a little girl called Juniper, who is the granddaughter of Amos and Nellie and tells them "everyone" is in the Temple. Her father Arlen is Hedgemaster and her mother keeps bees. She has a special friendship with Fantod. The group go through a sensory ritual – watch the flames, smell the blossoms, taste the water, touch the earth (in the form of a giant stone, originally at the Mansion's private Temple and personally blessed by Violet) and listen to the Brush. The last is done by sitting on a bench made of rare and precious materials (this one is made of a sort of pourable, durable Ettin-made plastic): Arthur and Mortimer are the only ones who feel the need to do so. It is mentioned that the tree will bloom in a month or so (we are reminded later that it's currently mid April). To mark Hallowe'en we see a raiding party of Nomes, including Umboz's brother Frotz who is desperate to get out of it, probably creeping towards the north Gnoll village. They are scared off by a pumpkin-headed spectre which is really Frowgler in costume (possibly borrowed from the female Motihaul Strode, although it doesn't have crescent-horn-holes), using some kind of glowing magic or technology to fly. Rosemary and Juniper discuss where various people come from, and Rosemary manages to give the girl a very strange idea of what a walrus looks like. They talk with Sylvester about Inuit-equivalents called Tunits, who live on the Iceshore north of Alfibay in the west of Yurpsland, and the secretive, hostile Haroons who live in forest between the Iceshore and Alfibay, and the harsh, uninhabited and uninhabitable northen shore called Skralland, to the north of Audravania, which might or might not have been named after someone called Skral who is even less well-documented than Frizzlegarb. Aside from army bases, Eetown and the Mansion are now the most northernmost Human habitations on the east shore. We learn that there used to be a secretive underground nation called the Great Underearth Empire of the Northern Pole, colloquially known as the Polarites, but their society was destroyed in the Crash. They used to have an exit tunnel in northern Audravania, for trade and called the Gate of Commerce, because Eetown was booming and they hoped to trade with the Far East Shore; as well as the famous Gate of Diplomacy in Paydon and the Gate of Remembrance on the Iceshore north of Alfibay. But the Gate of Commerce was destroyed by the Crash after only five years. In Paydon a "Salvagetown" grew up around the ruins of the Gate of Diplomacy, challenged by surviving Polarites who were away from home when the Crash hit. There are people in Eetown of half Haroon (Ilsa Lundquist) or half Polarite (Peter Nigultrum) ancestry, and they can't ever go home. Since Ilsa's mother left the tribes she would be treated as a stranger by the Haroons, despite her green hair; and Peter's father's Polarite home no longer exists. Meanwhile, Arthur and Mortimer sit on the bench and ask for divine assurance that they are doing the right thing, and both receive it, more or less. Fantod and Juniper talk about her hopes for a more interesting career than hedging, and how she'd like to see more of Nellie and Amos, and how sorry she is for Peter and Ilsa that they can't go home. We see an out-take for Thanksgiving, in which Myrrh and Frederick are about to start on a feast. I have left this in the time-line, as well as putting it with the Christmas cards etc., because it fits with the idea that they have gone on a second (or, strictly speaking, first) honeymoon, and it leads into subsequent episodes where they are at the Spires. Myrrh is using weird cutlery that fits onto rings on her forefinger and thumb, to eat Demon-specific foods. We learn later that they are not yet at the Spires here, but elsewhere. 05: Eetown – The Temple [28/11/2014 – 25/08/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #4060–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips start–#4323] The party from the Mansion enter the Temple, where Sylvester introduces Rosemary to the Oracle Threnody and various town worthies. Sylvester assures the townsfolk in the Temple that despite his family's recent history in such matters Rosemary is Human, and fully qualified to be Taskmistress, "highly qualified, physically and mentally". We see an image of Myrrh, and of a mad-looking Human woman wielding a rolling pin, who is evidently a recentish Mansion employee who turned out not to be emotionally qualified: perhaps this is Olga. He informs them that Frederick has retired as Regent and Mortimer will be taking over. Sheriff Patrick Skragg quizzes Rosemary as to whether she is a fugitive from the King's Law. She swears that she isn't, then sends the child Juniper off with the Weirdo and Fantod to show Fantod how she's been practising some skill he's been helping her with. Once they are out of earshot she tells the rest that she is also taking over Myrrh's duties as bodyguard and will be wearing a sword. Threnody is dubious about Rosemary's past use of violent force, but accepts that it may have been necessary. The Sheriff provisionally accepts Rosemary's offer of help with the town milita [sic]: there isn't one, as such, but he says he could use another trained deputy, aside from Dirge. But Waldo Weequash, head of the Eetown Guild of Fisherfolk and Octopus Wranglers, thinks Rosemary is a vagabond who will bring a criminal element into the town. Saffron Stout, innkeeper and impromptu mayor, points out that Rosemary will mainly be at the Mansion and agrees with the Sheriff that they should give her a chance, and asks Sylvester to call on her privately later. She asks after Frederick's health, and whether Sylvester knows anything about the Pit flare. He says that as far as he knows none of his household were involved, except insofar as his great-great-uncle helped build it: that must be Hindenburgh. Threnody – who is emergency backup Taskmistress – quizzes Rosemary about her Temple attendance, and Rosemary promises to make sure Sylvester goes to Temple more often. The last Temple Rosemary attended was in Jonetown East and Threnody thinks that Blackbird, the Oracle there, might some day be Prime Oracle. Outside the Temple, the townsfolk discuss Rosemary privately. The Sheriff is planning to check up on her in police records, just in case, but they agree she seems an improvement on Myrrh. They discuss the fact that non-Humans are allowed to join the religion and are treated equally (although Sylvester suggests that that's the official position but not always adhered to) and some Nomes and Motihauls have been ordained as Oracles, but other non-Humans (Pales are shown as an example) resisted conversion. Sylvester mentions that he has heard that the Nomes have a male priest, and Threnody is interested in meeting him. Mortimer and the Weirdo remain at the Temple to light memorial candles to speed the passage of the dead, the Weirdo for his friend Tulip, and Mortimer for Nitfol whom he wrongly believes to be dead. Threnody assumes that Arthur learned of his friend's death through the post, and Sylvester, who has worked out that Arthur probably learned about it from Yasmine, signals to Mortimer not to contradict her. While Mortimer and the Weirdo are praying, Rosemary and Sylvester look at the Temple's paintings of the various founding Oracles, and discuss their favourites. Rosemary follows Hettie, who carried a light in the darkness and made the dark and the unknown part of the Brush, and Sylvester likes Joice, who stood for inspiration. Mortimer passes on a message to Dirge, the current Guardian, that Finale, the previous Guardian (=Terin Flem), would like to speak to him: Dirge doesn't seem happy about it. Mortimer wants to ask about why Sylvester shushed him, but feels that the time is not yet because somebody might overhear. The group go and stand by a large boulder outside the town gates ("The Town Rock") where they won't be overheard, and discuss Yasmine and the Weirdos generally. Mortimer is able to pick them out because he can sense their mind shapes. They discuss the fact that Rosemary has not been taught any magical theory, because she was educated at the Hack & Slash Academy whose purpose was to produce effective H&S employees and they very rarely encounter magic-users these days. Also H&S is riddled with factions: they used to have a Wizwitch Brigade and Rosemary suspects it may still exist but is being kept a secret, even from other factions in H&S. We learn that the Weirdo Academy is very ancient. It's in a town called Marksburg, which is in Fredonia, and is where the E boys' mother came from. Nowadays Marksburg has a stodgy reputation, but it has a lively history. In the past there were several Weirdo schools and Weirdos went by several names, such as Tomfool. Milo was the first Earl of E to hire one. The Trio fall to discussing the various worthies they met at the Temple. Sylvester fills Rosemary in on the background to the various individuals, and village issues such as the need to bring in a full-time Healer, since at the moment the Oracle, Threnody, is both healer and teacher, and as the village population grows it's getting hard for her to cope. Better to bring in an outside Healer, as thanks to Omega's influence the village would never pay for a separate teacher. Sylvester's only friends in the village are Peter Nigultrum the solicitor, and a fisherman called Captain Tugwart: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting because they would be discussing Sylvester. Weesquash resents him because Sylvester has more power than him and has set policies which benefit him, thus obliging him to feel grateful. They discuss who is and isn't local. People who were born in the village are accepted as local even if their parents were foreign, as is the case with Peter. Anyone not born there is a foreigner. The exceptions are the Oracle and Guardian, and Old Man Larssen. If Rosemary stays fifty years they will still be annoyed if she marries a local (other than one of the E boys) and she'll still be "The Mooninite" because she wasn't born in Eetown. She says she'll earn a more distinctive label than that, thinking of herself as some sinister dark queen with a flaming sword. Guardians are often specifically trained for specific areas (we see images of Guardians with a zap trident, a Ghast ceremonial spoon and a bat on a leash). Rosemary can tell that Dirge is combat-trained and wonders why the High Temple thought Eeetown needed him. This leads to a discussion about how the Spyders and Tree-Squids got into the area; and about things called Raviners or Hill Crabs, which people in Moonin sometimes eat, and which may be able to be provoked into producing a useful ichor; and the fact that the E family used to grow and sell the killer trees. Mortimer would like to talk about the events of the previous day but they don't have time. As they approach the entrance to Eetown proper they discuss various Oracles Rosemary has met on her travels. In a brief out-take, we see Schmedley placing a black arm-band on the flipper of the statue of the world-turtle which we glimpsed before, to commemorate the death of Terry Pratchett. Sylvester and co. discuss the defences of Eetown, with drawbridges put in after the Crash. These were scrounged from houses in Crestheights, a posh district near the Masion, destroyed in the Crash. The defences are not very good, and post-Crash the town had some trouble with raiders until Myrrh got back. She, Frederick and Quincy had been holidaying in Aruba (an island without magic) when the Crash hit. It was on their way back that Quincy met Agnes, his future wife. Meanwhile the town made a defensive wall out of crashed cars, and then grew a hedge over and through them. We see an ancient wand-tree called an Oakapple (nothing to do with real oak apples) which grows just inside the hedge. Post-Crash, the rallying point for local survivors was a pub called the Moose and Squirrel. Because it was a cheap outfit which didn't use much magic it survived the Crash relatively intact. The innkeeper, Simon, had acquired the place by dubious means, but he became impromptu mayor and did a good job of coordinating disaster relief. Sylvester and co. head for the local administrative offices, but as they pass by the fountain in the (unpaved) main square they become aware that they have an audience. Sylvester lectures Rosemary about the layout of the town, where the bathhouse is etc., trying to sound confident and impress the watchers. The town has a watch tower, but these days it's mainly used as a love-nest. They speak to the townsfolk who have been watching them, and Rosemary (under the false surname Dapple) is introduced to everybody. Most striking, perhaps, is a young mother called Silence Krenshaw whom Sylvester knows very well, and had considered hiring as Taskmistress. We will learn that she and Sylvester were childhood playmates. They discuss Rosemary's duties, and that Sylvester wants Rosemary to serve as a Mature and Responsible Adult, a formal title which seems to mean that she will somehow help him to find a wife. He does not fancy Rosemary herself. Silence says that there is somebody out there for Sylvester. Mortimer meanwhile talks to an adoring fanclub of young girls. They ask him about his umbrella and he says you never know when a storm might blow up. One of them, possibly named Hanna, is evidently psychic and she realises both that he is speaking metaphorically, and that a metaphorical storm is indeed coming. Sylvester and co. head for Government House, followed by a gaggle of children. They discuss the pudding plant, a local cash crop which only grows well in Audravania. Rosemary has never eaten a fresh one. Rosemary wonders why so small a town has a bank. Sylvester explains that it gives them independence from the Noodle Fish-Monger's Association, and lists the conditions required in order for them to have an official bank, and its personnel (the village blacksmith Sheldon doubles as a nominal guard, but it does have a real assistant clerk, Permelia). It is illegal for an agent of the King's Law, such as the Sheriff, officially to work for a bank. The town government is full of bickering and back-biting. The bank manager is Peter Nigultrum, who also helps the sub-literate to write letters because it's a rustic area and some people can barely read and write. Rosemary says you haven't seen rustic till you've seen the deep back-woods of Moonin: we see a man wearing antlers, a woman wearing wings, a child with a staff, and a standing stone with a skull on top. As they approach the bank they meet Peter's fiancée Ida. Ida and Rosemary discuss Rosemary's home district of Moonin and the presence there of the Beacons, three shimmering offshore monoliths believed to date back to the Dawn Wars. Ida seems unaware that the Mansion is equally interesting and almost equally historic. The first Prime Oracle, Daisy, came from Moonin, but Rosemary feels that Daisy was ashamed of her humble origins. The most important local Oracle is Jackstraw in Glome. They meet Peter, the half-Polarite bank manager, who works out that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress from her clothes. They tell him that Frederick and Myrrh have retired, and that Mortimer is a wizard. The only bit that surprises Peter is that Myrrh is able to retire. We glimpse Myrrh at some sort of hotel, apparently amusing herself by wrestling robots, and Ida gossiping about having just met them. Peter predicts that Mortimer's newfound wizard status will lead to trouble. We see Dirge, the current Guardian, and Terin Flem, the previous one, discussing the changes in personnel at the Mansion, and saying that Dirge has a decision to make: apparently, whether or not to report Mortimer to the authorities. Thirty years post-Crash, when Flem first saw signs that Mortimer was a wizard, magic was regarded as evil. He should really have told Omega that Mortimer was a wizard, but then somebody would have come and taken the boy away, and Flem liked Mortimer, so he kept quiet. An officious government clerk named Appleby also failed to report Mortimer – Flem thinks he just never noticed what was going on because he was stuck behind his desk. Dirge will tell Threnody about Mortimer, but won't call someone to collect him unless Mortimer wants him to. Flem tells Dirge about Eunice being out in the woods again. After Dirge has left, Flem tells his dog Byron that he hated Omega. Peter tells Mortimer there may still be a magic school which Threnody could help him find if Amos turns out not to be a good teacher. They discuss Polarite technology and social structures: Peter's father was in security, relatively low-status but with access to information. Peter had thought of contacting the surviving Polarites in the capital, but Sylvester says they would scorn him for having facial hair. The Polarites were divided into three regions, Bism, Mahar and Symm. The Vril Undercroft, a sub-group of the Symmites and the group to which Peter's father belonged, were allowed to open a Commerce Gate in northern Audravania, where they to some extent went native and became more open and sociable than most Polarites. That was why Peter's father was able to be wandering around on the surface without any magical machinery when the Crash hit, and so survived. The Polarites seem all to have worn one to six (the more, the higher the rank) wiggly wires with glowing balls on the tip, set into the back of their hair: these are reminiscent of the antennae we will later see Spire folk wearing. Surviving Polarites in exile often have short versions of the wiggly wires, but without the glowing tips. Sylvester and Rosemary give Peter a highly edited version of Rosemary's life story (and she has a flashback of hiding from Tansy). Peter knows the Mansion and its dangers well – he even has his own Spindizzy, Alfred. [An out-take at this point celebrates the legalization of gay mariage in the US by showing Baldy with a slightly younger – and much hairier – boyfriend, looking at rainbow Vagabond flutterbys.] Peter tells Sylvester they have some paperwork to go over [Ipcress files!], so Sylvester asks Mortimer to take Rosemary away and introduce her to Shadrik, an ox-like Metalmin. Sylvester and Peter then discuss Peter's upcoming marriage to Ida. Peter says Sylvester will never marry a local girl because they aren't academically stimulating enough – not even Ida or Silence – whereas he himself was looking for somebody who was restful to be with. Sylvester will be his best man. Sylvester trusts Peter so much that he tells him at least the gist of Rosemary's true story, including that Dapple isn't her real surname (although not what is). Peter will look out for people looking out for Rosemary, and send the signal Rose, Pine, Apple through "the usual channel" if he can safely do so. Sylvester doesn't want to marry Rosemary because she's not intellectual or educated, but she's a perfect Taskmistress – so perfect he suspects somebody is interfering in his life, and sent her to him. [Out-take: to celebrate the strip's twelfth anniversary: we briefly see the pirate hamster and his crew approaching an island which has a sapient tree. The tree thinks that it has been twelve years: in-universe, probably since it last saw the plant, since the plant swears to itself when it sees where they are.] We see that Eunice works in the pub, apparently as a cook (and Frowgler is lurking behind some sacks on a shelf, watching her). Rosemary and Mortimer are given free sausages by the town's Sausage Stroller. Mortimer is feeling very guilty about having accidentally magically hypnotised Rosemary the day before, so she punishes and absolves him by giving him a light bonk on the head, but says that being hypnotised by him was mostly quite enjoyable. They talk about the fact that he has only left the area a few times (and was in Noodle when his father died there), and comes across as rather sheltered, but now responsibility has been thrust on him and he will meet it. Rosemary talks about the relatively safe life she left to become a bodyguard, and the fact that her home village had an ancient ruined tower built by Gobblems, and which she used to climb. She later travelled to most of the places she could see from up there, but many of the towns were a bit same-y because they were rebuilt at the same time, after Unification. Talking about education and the E-family tutor causes Mortimer to realise there's something about Rufus and Eunice which he is forgetting. They look at Shadrik, which/who is a haulage Metalmin who is fairly bright but doesn't speak, and lives in a former stable. Sadrik living in a shed leads to a mention of Dorian Ingersoll the hermit who used to live in a hut. Dorian's history is confusing: we've been told he's lived in the Spike for forty-two years, but here we're told he lived in the forest when Mortimer was a child, and we've seen the ruins of his hut when Yasmine came across them. He obviously shared his time and wasn't in the Spike full-time. Shadrik's battery is flat but Rufus is working on recharging it: even when he's working only the Earl, the Mayor and the Sheriff can give him orders. Rosemary works out that Sylvester just wanted her and Mortimer out of the way so he could speak to Peter privately. To kill time she suggests they climb the local watchtower, so she can survey the terrain. To get to it they go through a warehouse used to store apples, which has been altered and added to till it's almost as complex as the Mansion (one of the doors is lanelled "STILL ALIVE KEEP IN"). They are passed by some sort of functionary (beginning with a B) who wears false Nome ears and costume wings. It's possible the B stands for Batgirl, especially as she lives in the Belfry "like usual". Mortimer is wafted a note, possibly left by the Batgirl, to say that the writer has their eye on Eunice and Rufus, who are up to something. 06: Eetown – The State [26/08/2015 – 20/11/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4330–#4421] From the tower Rosemary and Mortimer look down on the village square, which includes a fuzzball court. Mortimer points out various districts of the town, and they see Old Man Larssen's place outside the town hedge, although he has a hedge of his own. Rosemary is pleased to be able to see the Specific Ocean, which was on her To-Do List. They discuss a range of wonders Rosemary hopes to see (including The Running of the Clams in Woldercan, which may be a clams-got-legs B.C. reference), many of which have already been visited by Mortimer's mother and sister, although they were unable to get into a place called Sybola where there is some kind of secret Rosemary wishes to solve. They visited the Spires of Mechana and Sylvester's sister Lil said they were "really creepy". Rosemary thinks the main thing on Mortimer's To-Do List right now should be to learn how to use the wand-umbrella. A Labour Day out-take shows various kinds of labour in Eetown, including the Batgirl who is writing or drawing at an easel, and Violet wrestling with a piglet. Rosemary and Mortimer meet Sylvester outside the bank and he refers to the Batgirl as "our Flittermouse". Sylvester takes them to meet Sherman P Gray, the new(ish) government Clerk of Eetown. The previous clerk, Hubert Appleby (who didn't get on with Omega) died at his desk eight years previously. Sherman has a telegraph machine (loathed by Omega) run off batteries re-charged by a hand-turned charger, and many duties, one of which is to register new arrivals like Rosemary. He is also postman and tax-collector, and has a form for Mortimer to register as the new Regent of E. [In a brief out-take, we see the pirates (hamster and co.), having landed at Piratestash Island, recruit a resident gull to the crew. The stunted but sapient tree on the island implies that the Plant is being punished by being required to stay with the crew.] We learn about the unofficial but influential Tome of Royal Succession, a kind of Debrett's Peerage. The Keepers of the Tome will want to know about changes to Sylvester's "official retinue": not only about Mortimer becoming Regent, but about Rosemary becoming Taskmistress. We are reminded of the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setup by the fact that Rosemary is impressed that the Post Office pigeon-holes have doors, garnered from post-Crash architectural salvage. While Sylvester is checking his postal Inbox it is confirmed that it is now 14th April 5423HC ("Historical Counting"). Sherman sees from her form that Rosemary comes from an island called Dyngusmyles, which has a reputation for having wild, backwoods people, and has strange weather and biology because it's close to the Beacons, which before the Crash attracted research parties from the university in Azimuth. We see that the lights from the Beacons are a bit similar to Eyebolt Weirding. Sherman himself comes from a frost-mining area in Thull. They compare weather: Sherman was surprised to find that though Eetown is farther north than the frost mines of Crag Sinsoss that he came from, it has a milder local climate. Sylvester warns Sherman that Rosemary is a fighter and will be wearing a sword as part of her duties. Sherman OKs this but says that while they are in his government office weapons must be deposited in a special receptacle, and Mortimer promptly puts his umbrella in it. Sherman fills Sylvester in on various items of news, including the fact that a ship from a far-off region named Coradine has visited the port of Woldercan in the west of Yurpsland. Coradine is part of the same continent as the Mansion but it's a group of islands as far west as it gets, beautiful but quite reclusive and ritualistic, and many of its inhabitants are Motihauls. To get to Woldercan the Coradine ship would have had to sail round the edge of a region called Kadath, which is inhabited by Wendigoes, and past an island called Honaly (as in Puff the Magic Dragon) where there are [Human?] Viking-type sea-raiders whom we see sailing a ship whose sail bears the image of the hamster pirate captain, then right across the north coasts of Thembria, Upper Slubovia, Ruratana and Tiranog. It's possible they came for Yurple Juice, a wildly popular and expensive drink with magical properties. After posting Rosemary's letter to Aunt Eva (in the guise of an official letter from Sylvester) the party take leave of Sherman, promising to return later to set up a post-box for Rosemary and collect the newspaper. Mortimer and Sylvester share a post box but Frederick and the staff each have their own: we see Frederick receiving a skull-faced box with a bow on top, Amos receiving book-binding supplies and Schemdley apparently receiving a love letter. There is a mention of the previous day's magical Pit-flare being a reoccurring event, and of the recent finding of a dead Ichyoid washed into the harbour. As they come away they talk about the fact that Sherman's girlfriend in nearby Obtown married someone else. Sylvester says that Myrrh is listed in the Official Threats Compendium, but since she hasn't killed anybody it's not worth anyone's while to go to the trouble of trying to banish her. Behind them, in his office, Sherman looks up Mortimer's umbrella in the Official Threats Compendium, and finds it. We learn that there's a series of Government departments with harmless-sounding names – Redundancy, Secondary Overlap, Tertiary Retainment – which process information and look for interesting connections. They discuss rural pubs. Rosemary is an expert on awful pubs: we see one whose sign is a hand choking a Jibjib; one whose sign appears to be a jellyfish on toast, with a female Motihaul collapsed drunk outside with flies buzzing round her and a rat on her knee; and one where recalcitrant customers were thrown into a pit of wild Saurs. Rory Vinsmith, the innkeeper in Moonin with the Saur pit, was executed for murder and the pub was re-named The Saur Pit in his honour. In the west he is famous, but now they are so far from her home that nobody's heard of him, which makes Rosemary realise how big Yurpsland is. Big news does travel, however: Rosemary had heard about the Noodle Incident, and Sylvester had heard about the Drumshambo Massacre. Saffron, the local innkeeper at The Moose and Squirrel, may have heard of Vinsmith, and Sylvester quietly warns Rosemary that Saffron may also have heard of her Aunt Eva, the gambler. There is a pale grey cat wandering along a window ledge at the ront of The Moose and Squirrel. They enter the pub and meet Sharona, Saffron's niece, who is Mortimer's semi-girlfriend with whom he had a date on the coming Friday (it's currently Monday), and the daughter of Sheldon the blacksmith. She is overcome by the smell of sphagnum dust coming off Mortimer. They meet Mavis, one of the barmaids, and then Saffron. Eunice Kelso is also one of her barmaids, along with Mavis Mossett and Flossy Efflore, and there's a cook called Gormind Trencherman and a bouncer and stablehand called [Chauncy?] Hobson. Mention is made of people in Moonin distilling a spirit from muckroots: the distillery seems to be called Fancy Rat Spirits, with a logo of a rat in a monocle and a straw boater. Characters called : Wendell and Ricky, who we will learn are the town's odd-jobbers, are also mentioned: Wendell is prone to sudden wild enthusiasms . Sharona is repelled by the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer, and dumps him for being too unreliable and accident-prone (he feels guilty, because she had slipped his mind until he saw her). Saffron takes a bottle of Pudding Liquor, just uncorked that day, from a shelf: something grey, probably Frowgler's nose, is glimpsed poking out from behind an adjacent bottle. They drink from it, and Sylvester immediately passes out, while Rosemary begins seeing imaginary glowing flutterbies. Mortimer seems unaffected. 07: Revelations [30/11/2015 – 27/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4428–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips start–#4602] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. We begin, therefore, with the eyes of various small creatures, including Smyts, being dazzled and impressed by the glowing tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Rosemary and Sylvester wake, very groggy, to find themselves lying on a jetty on Alwin Island, the honeymoon destination, accompanied by the grey cat who had been outside the pub. The island will prove to be littered with large stone sculptures, mostly of non-Human animals. They agree that they must have been drugged (there is mention of glitterberries, which seem to be this world's equivalent of magic mushrooms, although that's probably not what was used), not just drunk, and discuss possible culprits. Presumably it's somebody who wants to embarass Sylvester, not kill him. Neither of them really thinks it was Saffron, and this is confirmed by a brief view of Mavis the barmaid discovering Saffron herself collapsed behind the bar and asking for a shot of clingweed tonic (the same plant Telic asked Comshaw to bring him). Permelia Weesquash might, but she doesn't frequent the pub or know anyone who works with herbs except Threnody (we see Threnody with tongs, about to pluck a glowing berry from the "tongue" of one of the small carnivorous plants). Sylvester's main suspect is Old Man Larssen, the town vet, who is very educated but also obsessive and secretive, a bit like Crazy Rhid – even so Sylvester doesn't really think he did it. He half suspects Eunice, who comes from Noodle, passes as a non-entity and could be an agent of his enemies the Noodle Fishmongers' Association. But we glimpse Eunice thinking that she has no idea what just happened in the bar but she'd better report it anyway. No other visitors are expected – nobody comes there except newlyweds, or about-to-be-weds preparing the venue. There is however a rowing boat concealed on the island. They manage to stagger to their feet in order to go find the boat, but Rosemary thinks they are still both too stoned to steer and suggests that since they were planning to have a private talk anyway, now is a good time and place. Sylvester shows Rosemary some of the sights of the island, since as Taskmistress she will be expected to oversee the team of respectable village matrons who prepare the honeymoon cabin for weddings. They return to the dock (and the cat) to sit and talk, on the far side of the island from the village. Further out they can see Scraggy Island, which holds a lighthouse and the town graveyard. The lighthouse keeper is Dougal Izzard. His wife Selene Perkins left but their daughter Shelby stayed, married Grumby the carpenter and had a son Edson who is apprentice lighthouse-keeper. The hobby of Cloudmapping is mentioned. Sylvester sits on a bench on the pier but Rosemary declines to sit next to him. Instead, the cat does, but he shoves her off when she tries to sit on his knee. Here there is an outtake scene showing Frederick and Myrrh playing chess with two men called Jebidiah and Jones, who are wearing formal dinner suits. These are based on Angus Scrimm and David Bowie, who died that week, and a poster of Grabthar's Hammer on the wall commemorates Alan Rickman, also lost. In the background, visible over the top of a stone wall, we can see the Spires of Mechana, which are more of an upright sausage shape than pointy. Sylvester talks Rosemary through the history of the area, beginning with creation by the Brush (it is mentioned that there is also life on Perelandra and Barsoom) and the first civilization, the Wilfs and Gobbblems (Dreamers and Builders), who erected wonderful buildings and even had colonies on the moon before destroying each other in the Dawn War. Sylvester has glimpsed what seemed to be a Wilf and a Gobblem through a Panegate, so it may be that there are survivors in other realities, but that Panegate is in a part of the Mansion which is only periodically accessible, and won't be again for fifteen years. Then came the Ettins and Sneeches, who may have already existed but been suppressed, and who now built up another high-tech civilization and then again destroyed it in war, after which Humans and Nomes moved in, spreading from jungles in the south. Before that destruction, the Ettins built the main towers of the Mansions of E and S. The Tower of S was so-called because of an S-shaped mark on the walls, so the Scions of S made that their symbol, but the Mansion of E is a corruption of the Tower of Ett(in)s – their names were later changed from Tower to Mansion for some beaurocratic reason. Their symbol was originally a serif E with a tall tail on the bottom bar, crossed by two short horizontal lines to make an ETT monogram, but over time the crossbars got lost. The Ettins also built the Spire and "one or two other things" – we see a tangle of spikes, which might be branches, each tipped with a glowing light. The Ettin/Sneech war largely passed Audravania by, leaving it with these fairly intact Ettin buildings. According to the Spindizzies the Ettin name of the Mansion is PRFO4223. We learn that nomadic Humans who didn't even have agriculture reached the Towers late in the Human diaspora, at a time when the country of Ackbar, in the south-west of the continent, already had quite an advanced Human civilization along the banks of the Refutation (De Nial). The name of the first Earl isn't known but he led his tribe into the valley and died while storming the Tower: the exact wording of the legend is "the Earl stormed the heights, and the heights broke with thunder, and none ever came back down". Legend also says he fought and defeated living Ettins but this is unlikely given their advanced technology. A lone Ettin skull was later found in the Tower. The first Earl's descendants avoided the interior of the Tower for generations afterwards but they set up camp and built new buildings around its foot. The area was rich in resources and they had to fight off generations of would-be invaders. Sylvester gives Rosemary a detailed run-down of the various Earls, which you can find summarised on the background page. The most salient points are that agriculture began to be established at the time of Ettrath, the 5th Earl, and so did neighbouring fiefdoms: the Scions of S to the north, Myways to the west and Obtund to the south. S was eventually destroyed by Angus, the 16th Earl. Myways and, for a couple of generations, Obtund were defeated and made vassals of E: Myways was destroyed in the Crash and there's nothing there now but a coaching inn, but the Obtunds are still around, with their own Duke, and are friendly neighbours. Many of the early Earls of E were villains and slave-traders who came to power by murdering their predecessors, until they got to the brilliant philosopher and strategist Milo, the 9th Earl, who severed the family's links to the slave trade, converted to the new religion of the Brush, moved into the Ettin-built Tower and made contact with the Spindizzies. What they know about the earlier history of the family is just what was written by Milo – quite possibly the first Earl to be able to write – and may not be 100% accurate. Milo's mother, Persafone, was a slave who had been an educated aristocrat before being enslaved, and came from an advanced culture between what are now Paydon and Thull, but at the time were called Pay Downs and Hoar Hull. She deliberately trained Milo up to be a successful warrior who would murder Milo's father, Frake, at her urging, knowing Milo would help her to survive her intended coup against Frake. Milo had ambivalent feelings about her: as Earl he kept her in elegant comfort but well away from any decision-making. He was seen as weak because he was educated, so as soon as he became Earl the Mansion was attacked by Myways and Obtund, but he soundly defeated them and made them pay tribute. Milo was established and confident enough to travel, and met his future wife Nettana in the Forest of Burzee. She was an aristocrat from the Iridescent Kingdom of Southern Kroke in what is now Isdanlia, but at the time was an advanced but fragmented region. She was intelligent, stylish, determined and he was intelligent, brave, forthright, tall, athletic and had nice hair His heart was more in intellectual learning than bloodshed and after his wife died he abdicated in favour of his son, and sailed away to explore new lands. Milo's son Dorn I was scientifically-minded and bred the Dornbeasts for use as living siege engines. They were named in his honour after he was kiled by one, but he called them Siegebeasts and they were bred up from swamp-dwelling Chompbeasts, non-sapient distant relatives of the Ettins. Selling Siegebeasts marked the beginning of the rise of E as an economic power. After he was killed by one his wife Aimee became Regent for their son Dorn II, who unfortunately was a shallow sports jock obsessed with Starball and hunting, although he did continue to breed and sell Dornbeasts. Dorn II was mostly gay and apart from getting an heir with his wife Olivia Obtund his sexual partnership (of a sort, since Dorn wasn't very highly sexed) was with a guy named Heffston, who was a much better strategist and ruler than Dorn. Heffston was from a humble background but worked to educate himself, and laid the foundation for the E-family library. It was another century before an Oracle named Brittlebush legalised gay marriage. In an aside, we see Arthur and Fantod talking to village children. They seem to believe Rosemary and Sylvester are still in the inn with Saffron. Village gossip evidently has Sylvester and Saffron getting married. Dorn II was killed, possibly by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, an ambitious local girl who had a loving but quarrelsome relationship with Dorn's son Lemuel, the Panegate expert. Lemuel eventually abdicated in favour of his daughter Wilhelmina, who was aided and defended by her step-grandfather Heffston. By so doing, Heffston both atoned for not having paid enough attention to Lemuel as a boy, and got revenge on Charlotte for her suspected role in the death of Dorn II, by turning her daughter against her. Charlotte was banished to a set of apartments inside a cave on Mount Ett, and Lemuel drove his carriage up there every evening to spend the night with her. Wilhelmina just called herself W for most purposes and was considered ceremonailly male, to the point of wearing a false beard. Her reign was peaceful and prosperous: she was no more interested in being Earl than her father had been, but she was more skilled at picking good subordinates to whom she could delegate. She had some magic, strong but restricted to manipulating stone, and was a prolific sculptor who made a lot of money by travelling to other stately homes to perform tricky bits of stonework. She visited the Sculpted Isles and there met her husband Alwin, then returned with him and deposed her parents, despite the fact that her mother Charlotte had sort-of promised her in marriage to Shaw IV, Scion of S: this, along with economic rivalry. led to the falling-out between E and S, and the destruction of S about a century later. Alwin's health had been damaged by Wyvern Pox as a child and he was "a lazy gadabout pretty-boy" but W loved him, and he was a good father to their twins. After Alwin's death, twenty years after their marriage, W unofficially abandoned ruling in favour of obsessively covering Alwin Island with sculptures. One of her younger sisters became a very famous and scary witch called Arianya of the Brackens, who moved West and is now the best-known of the E family. W committed suicide by allowing a large block of stone to fall on her, and was succeeded by her son Linus, the combat botanist. Linus went on an expedition to the jungle and married a Zanduan woman named Padma who had a vicious sense of humour and was his intellectual and magical equal, and with whom he had five daughters and two sons. He was the first Earl to wear glasses, and got up a consortium of local nobles to bring thaumnodes to the area. He and Padma explored the Basement (at a time when most of the species down there were still shut into enclosed habitats) and put in lights. We see him and his team looking at a little gadget with two arms and three glowing red lights, apparently in an Ettin airbox. [We have seen this object before as an example of what an airbox is, when Rosemary and Sylvester were discussing the Can-Opener.] He built a conservatory for his plants, and to give Padma a jungle to shelter in during the winter. Linus it was who bred The Tree which made Basement society possible outside their controlled habitats. Meanwhile his sister Marcia married a noble in Svan and became a cartoonist. 08: Naming Names [30/05/2016 – 23/12/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4609–#4812] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. The chapter therefore opens with a group of above-ground Smyts celebrating their version of Memorial Day. Sylvester continues to talk about his ancestors, and how after Padma died, Linus took the Seed of the Tree deep into the Basement and never came home, so in a sense he committed suicide like his mother. [We know that Rosemary also carries a Seed of the Tree, which she brought up from the depths, but had forgotten.] He talks about Griffington, the 15th Earl, who was very intelligent but had his mother's nasty sense of humour and was only interested in making money, at which he was very successful. Griffington went on an expedition to the Infernal Engine, which was smaller in those days (so it's still growing), and to Mechana to look at their technology. He and other techs of the period managed to make their own basic robots and restore some of the much better Ettin ones – one of the latter, Akillhees, works in mathematics at the university – and he also invented battle tanks, a few of which still work. Along with someone called Drowpole he set up the Factor E factory, and he and Struahatt sold their devices commercially and made a lot of money. We see him and his assistant Krell probing the same device in the airbox that we saw Linus looking at. He had a lot of commercial enemies and rivals, including the Scion of S. He and Krell died in an industrial accident (or maybe not an accident). He had to wear smoked lenses to protect his eyes: a problem inherited by Lenore. Griffington was succeeded by his son Angus and Angus's loyal and more cunning brother Cyrus. Angus went on a tour, like his ancestor Milo, but he took an army with him and conquered S and other neighbouring states although some of them, such as Rowen, gave as good as they got. When Angus and Cyrus were young, Cyrus married Cassandra Grayflint and they had a son Artston. Griffington sent Angus to visit the Infernal Engine to broaden his mind, and as a result he fell for a very wild, rough but highly-sexed female labourer named Syn (rhymes with tie-in) who had spent her life up to that point inside the Engine. She needed thick glasses and a bath, and had to be taught to wear clothes, but she had a talent for technology and a happily iconcoclastic attitude to everything, including herself, and the religion of the Brush to which she did not belong. She somewhat resembled Myrrh, refused to marry Angus but became his consort, and died in childbirth giving birth to Audra. Audra grew up at loggerheads with her uncle Cyrus, who had distrusted her mother. In later life Angus's conquests ground to a halt and he died peacefully in bed – and Cyrus promptly tried to seize the earldom for himself and his son. Audra thrashed Cyrus in combat and convinced him to become her loyal follower. Together they conquered Rowen and then consolidated their holdings and formed the Northwoods Alliance. Audra contracted a loveless political marriage with the intellectually brilliant John Harfang, with whom she had a son, Ludwig. The Northwoods Alliance stood against the advancing army of Yorik Yurp, later Yorick I, and lost, despite the best efforts of John Harfang who, under the alias "The Frost Fox", served as a secret agent and was killed while on a mission (and later became the subject of a series of lurid spy thrillers). Audra protected Ludwig by hiding him away as a child and then sending him to the university under an assumed name, while getting Flitch, one of Cyrus's grandchildren (so Ludwig's second cousin), to pretend to be Ludwig in order to draw Yorik's fire. The Northwoods Alliance eventually lost the war, in part because high-tech Wirtwam decided that Yorik was the lesser of two evils and Hyacinth of Wirtwam married him. But the war was long and bloody and forced the pace of technological development. Audra and Cyrus were probably looking for a technological edge when they poked the Hot Zone and were killed, or failing that for a more honourable death than execution, but their deaths really finished the Alliance. Yorik crushed their last resistance by destroying the town of Glome (and incidentally probably killing the fake Ludwig), then re-built it, and any local nobles who were willing to swear allegiance were grafted into the new Yurpsland hierarchy. The real Ludwig was one of them – the Yurpsland troops didn't know who he was, and in any case had known Audra as the head of the Northwoods Alliance, not as the Earl of E. The Alliance used a different symbol, not the E: a W with an arrow on the central point, designed by Linus's sister Marcia for Linus's thaumnode-purchasing cartel. Ludwig's politically astute partner Penelope Orrery from Gilad (a Temple-administered neutral state) coached him on how to pass as a harmless minor aristo. Sylvester isn't sure whether Yorik was really fooled over Ludwig, or knew who he was but decided to spare him. Ludwig was a super-genius who enjoyed university and made many friends there; he was very popular with the girls and could have had his pick of the local beauties, but preferred the slightly plain Penelope for her brains. Ludwig didn't graduate because he went home to help his mother with the war effort; Penelope worked out his real identity somehow, and followed him (and reached E before he did). It was because Ludwig never graduated that the fund set up to pay for his tuition was never wound up, and remained available to pay future heirs' university fees. Ludwig tried to stop his mother from poking the Hot Zone but she did it anyway, and died, and he and Penelope were left holding the reins. They actually did very well, since Ludwig was able to sell his inventions – materially assisted by Yorik's conquest of the whole area, which had resulted in a unified trading and patent system. He and Penelope built the Ivory Tower, and lived there. It is mentioned that vamphyrs don't really exist but zombies do (but only when animated by a wizwitch, and only briefly as they tend to explode), that many of Ludwig's devices were one-off prototypes and that Yorik I wrote his own memoirs. These memoirs are little known because his son wasn't that interested in promoting them, and besides they weren't very well-written. But they deal extensively with Audra, whom Yorik rather admired – it was he who re-named the province where E is situated Audravania. He decided against trying to conquer Thekla, which had a similar technology and power level to his own forces, or the Polarites, who were enormously more powerful and advancsd. [Out-take for Talk Like a Pirate Day – Captain Hamster, the crew of the Pretty Lady and the newly-recruited gull are all getting drunk on grog. The Plant, very drunk indeed, has decided it loves them all.] Ludwig died of pneumonia after getting soaked while walking in the rain. His son Ernest, hedonist, (consensual) philanderer and forger, took over. His parents were disappointed because he wasn't interested in science, or all that bright, but he was very interested in plays and a reasonably good actor himself, when he could be bothered. He married Lucidia Penderghast, gold-digger, fashion victim and amateur actress, and they nearly deserved each other. He was the first Earl to marry by the new ritual involving the Pool at the Temple. At university Ernest discovered that he was good at maths, history and a proficient if uninspired kind of art. He did a certain amount of commercial graphics work and a lot of art forgery, although the latter was really just a hobby. He was a fairly successful playwright, although not great at dialogue – his best play was probably Bracken, about his five-greats-aunt Arianya – and was very good at improving other people's scripts. He and Lucidia fought a lot but seemed to enjoy it, and they had three sons, Philbert, Hindenburgh the wizard, and Valentin, who was the one to whom the Djinnoscope gave a clean death. Ernest was fatally stabbed by, or over, one of his lovers. Philbert married the artist Hepzibah Kelly and founded a chain of "Lovelace" orphanages, using Kelly's mother's maiden name. He helped preserve the Forest of Burzee as a public park instead of letting it be carved up into private estates. He supported many smaller charities and was a faithful husband. But Sylvester believes he did these things to rebuild the family's post-Ernest reputation, not because he really cared. The couple had sons, Quincy and Frederick, and presumably at least one more as Frederick refers to "my brothers". [Later we learn there was a younger brother called Jasper.] Philbert was killed in a motor-racing accident a month before the Crash (this is an error by Sylvester, because we've already establisahed that his accident was three months before the Crash, and it isn't that Philbert hung on in hospital for two months before he died, because Sylvester says he was killed instantly) and was succeeded by his son Quincy. Quincy was not very bright, but he was genuinely caring and scraped through university by hard work. His Hall of Achievement entry just says that he tied his own shoes, but this turns out to be fairly serious: he kept walking, kept trying, and held the Mansion area together after the Crash. He survived the Crash because he, his brother Frederick and Myrrh were in Aruba, which uses no magic. Afterwards they had to walk hundreds of miles home – hence the importance of the shoes. On their way they picked up another survivor, Agnes Bloggett, who married Quincy. Hepzibah, who had stayed home because of health problems, died in the Crash. Quincy eventually died after falling from one of the Mansion's towers. Quincy's son Willoughby attended university where he met his future wife, Dorothea Mundivagant. Both were very vague but possibly magically gifted. Sylvester thinks that it was wrong of Frederick not to tell Mortimer that he, Mortimer, was a wizard – but it was probably a good decision not to tell Willoughby that he was. They had six children – Sylvester, Ace, Mortimer, the twins Lilith and Lenore, and Rufus. Rufus was conceived because the local contraceptive Stiflebloom plant had failed. Because Willoughby was so lazy and detached it was really his uncle Frederick and Myrrh who ran the earldom. After Willoughby died in the notorious Noodle Incident, Frederick became official Regent until Sylvester finished at university, and Dorothea became even vaguer and more preoccupied than before, and set off in search of something unknown. Sylvester fears he won't ever see her again. Sylvester did well at university and made friends, especially Bertrum W Skinknottle (who fell for and married Honoria Clemens – these names are PG Wodehouse references) and Nimue Fayling. The students were divided into Houses: the male houses were named after dangerous animals and the female ones after pretty things, but they were otherwise equal. Nimue was in training to take over the family business, growing oranges. She and Sylvester dated, but split up because neither would give up their family responsibility. Bertie and Honoria married and went back to Bertie's home in Lagado, but he's not sure where they are now because Bertie recently got a new job (souds like preparation for him to pop up). Sylvester went home alone and took over the Earl's duties. He found a job for Ace with their uncle Dalton Mundivagant. His mother Dorothea inherited cash from her mother, and she and Lil went travelling. Mortimer and Rufus stayed around, and Mortimer started bringing home strange women, most notably Olga Q Bonmarrow, a drifter with mental health issues who was in love with Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Basement society has come along tremendously in a highly technological way during Sylvester's lifetime (so post-Crash), and the idea that the Sneeches might be behind this. Sylvester forgot to ask Myrrh what she saw in the Sneech den, and now they don't even know where she is. We see that she is in a bakery (or maybe café) with a sign saying Kato Bread on the wall, and where there are a lot of cats whom she is talking to as if they understand each other. This cat-filled place is presumably in the Spires, since we will learn that the arena where she was wrestling robots is there. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss whether the Dohickey thank-you gift was for Sylvester or for his whole family, and Rosemary points out that the first Earls were meant to have killed off the Ettins who were holding the Sneeches prisoner. Whether they did or not, the Sneeches may believe they did. They discuss the fact that Sneeches do have childen, and whether or not they have intelligible emotions. Finally, Rosemary says that eveything else can wait, and that she will follow Sylvester's plans. He says he can't make plans until he knows what it is that Rosemary stole. She agrees to show it to him, but tells him to cover his eyes and ears while she gets it out of the Poke Kit, so he doesn't learn any codes which he might later be forced to reveal. 09: Wreaking Havoc [26/12/2016 – 07/07/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4818–end] Rosemary produces from the Poke Kit an oval object which she says is called the HJ42, but she thinks it's also a mythological object called the Chaos Key. This is clearly the same item which has been being passed around among the Basement folk – not just another of the same model but this actual one, because HJ42 is the designation of a specific instance of this gadget which was collected by an anthropological expedition, and Protus called it the HJ42 when he gave it to Mortimer. Either it's looped through time to appear twice in the same area at the same time, or when Rosemary thinks it's safely tucked away in her Poke Kit, it isn't. As the Chaos Key it has been used to open various kinds of metaphorical and literal doors, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Rosemary studied its semi-legendary history in the libraries of Hack'n'Slash. It may have been implicated in the Thricklefork Demon Massacre. It caused strange events – including a giant man-eating flower – at a place called Bellona. It was passed around the clans of Erewhon, trailing odd happenings. It was used to rob a bank, then disappeared from view, only to reappear among the artefacts brought back from the Infernal Engine by the Hendrick-Joost Expedition. At this point Rosemary puts it back in the Poke Kit and she and Sylvester agree not to mention the name "Chaos Key" again if they can avoid it, but just to refer to it as the HJ42. The Hendrick-Joost Expedition came from the High University of Azimuth and visited the Infernal Engine in Yurpsland. There were protests about them taking items from Yurpsland back to Azimuth, and eventually they returned some of them, including the "HJ-42". These returned items were parcelled out between various Yurpsland museums and collectors, and #42 went to an Erewhonian noble named Cuddlup, who passed it on to an Erewhonian sect called the Chromans. The Chromans were great collectors and displayers of curios which demonstrated the wonders of the world – some of which were magically active. The most dangerous were kept in an offshore fortress which went into meltdown during the Crash. The HJ42 was put on display in various places but it made people nervous, so it was moved to a medium-level facility in a place called Gowplace at the tip of the Lawnrock Peninsula. After the Crash, Gowplace was re-named Chroma and became the Chromans' capital, and the HJ42 dropped out of sight again for several decades. About ten years ago, or forty years after the Crash, it resurfaced as part of a travelling Chroman display for which H&S provided security, and eventually it caused some alarming effect, although Rosemary's security clearance wasn't high enough to find out what. It was put back into storage, but at this point rumours about it began to be passed around. It was also at this point that Rosemary first heard about it and began to research it – and so, unfortunately, did Tansy Rugan, the leader of the Quincunx, a kind of sinister private army. Rosemary started to suspect the Quincunx were searching for the HJ42, and knew it would be a seriously Bad Thing if they found it. She couldn't get H&S to take her concerns seriously enough, so she went AWOL, rode all the way to Chroma and stole the HJ42 herself. Two hours later the Quincunx arrived and started hunting her (and killing Chromans). She did her best to evade them but eventually Tansy cornered her. One of the buttons on the device was glowing so in desperation Rosemary pressed it, thinking that it might cause an explosion which would take out Tansy and her 2inC Nathan Holn along with Rosemary herself. Instead, it teleported her to the forest near Eetown. At first she wasn't sure whether she'd been moved through time or space, but then she met Mortimer and realised from his accent that she had shifted a long way to the east. She was very dazed and disoriented and just followed Mortimer home. They talk for a while about how Rosemary ended up with Hack'n'Slash in the first place. Bored with farming muckroots and lobster-fishing, she became a crew-woman on a boat called the Oshinoxtra. From there she went to the mainland and worked on a large farm, and even served as a minion on a Saur hunt (presumably, like the domesticated Trogs, these were less sapient than the ones in the Basement). Once she'd saved up enough money she went to see the nearest city, Jonetown. Everything there was far more expensive than she'd expected but as luck would have it she was in the right place to rescue Edwird Soloman, a retired bureaucrat who was being harrassed by louts. She and Edwird hit it off and became firm friends, and he gave her a place to stay. She became his bodyguard and housekeeper, read his books and reached an uneasy accommodation with his girlfriend, Mrs Rumble. Sometime later, Rosemary and some friends were scavenging in a scrapyard when they encountered the demon Scratch, and Rosemary managed to overcome him to the point where he was willing to discuss his situation and behave reasonably. This caused unpleasantness between the neighbours and Edwird, and brought Rosemary to the attention of Hack'nSlash, who recruited her. While they are tidying up conversational loose ends, Rosemary tells Sylvester about a hermit she met in the SAR (where there are many hermits, but this one is The Hermit), and who was probably a wizard, or possibly a demon: he will only ever say that he's a person. This is true even if he is a Demon: we see a brief glimpse of the Operator gazing rather sadly at an image of what is presumably his partner. They establish that demons can communicate over long distances via leylines, hence Edgar learned Rosemary's name from Scratch, and Myrrh could arrange visits from friends (two demon visitors are shown: one of them is Jones, from the Spires, and the other is Marilith). Rosemary is reluctant to ask Myrrh to pass along messages, as her favours have to be paid for. Sylvester assures her Myrrh can keep a secret. They discuss Ilsa, who has a very able illegitimate daughter, Druscilla, who works for the big bank in the capital. Ilsa writes to her with local gossip, so news of Rosemary's presence will soon reach the capital. Ilsa is half Haroon, and the Haroons do not worship the Brush, much, or care what the Oracles think about having children out of wedlock. Sylvester is trying to modernise the village, with some cooperation from the current Oracle, Threnody, who is a great improvement over her predecessor Omega. He hopes to bring in not only a teacher but a glass-blower. It is mentioned that opposite Frederick and Myrrh's old room there is a door labelled "Gwen's stuff", but neither of them knows who Gwen is or was. Sylvester has never investigated it, but assumes Myrrh will have done so. They discuss the fact that when Sylvester met with Protus he saw visions of Rhid and Villipend, whom they then met, so evidently he was seeing the future. He also saw Rosemary fighting a woman with a glowing glove, and that may be a true vision too. Rosemary thinks from the description that it is Tansy Rugan, who has a magic shock-glove, so they will have to meet and fight some time soon. At least she'll probably have the Can-Opener, but she doesn't have it with her now. Sylvester wants them to have regular conferences, but he's not going to say where the next one will be, in case of eavesdroppers (from what we see, through the Panegate that connects to the edge of the Crystal Thicket). He had intended to hold this one on the Commons, well away from anyone not a goat. They discuss Rosemary's old teachers, and whether Myrrh and Frederick are gone for good: Rosemary probably hopes they are. We glimpse Frederick being given an Ides of March cake by a waitress wearing antennae ending in grey bobbles, confirming they are at the Spires: they are in an underwater café with a seal peering in through a porthole. We also glimpse Mortimer in the woods, with a scratch on his face and what looks like more web draped across his shoulders. Sylvester wishes for an alternative to the rowboat, since he'll have to pay someone to row it back. Olaf Larrsen, the village vet, turns up in his motorboat Mamie (Rosemary and Sylvester agree that Sylvester also wishes for a million Simoleons in a secure bank account) and is introduced to Rosemary, who he is glad to see is not a "demon, Bonmarrow or Flibbler". Flibblers, whatever they are, are everywhere. Olaf agrees to give them a lift in return for information and a discount on the organs of the Dornbeast Rosemary killed the night she arrived (less than two days ago). Sylvester half regrets returning to the stresses of being the Earl. Olaf takes the couple and the cat back to the mainland. En route they discuss the reorganisation at the Mansion, and the Crash – Olaf used to build thaumtools, before the Crash, and has been able to measure the fact that magic is very slowly returning. He made a motor for his little boat, but none of the local fishermen would let him fit one to theirs even if there was enough magic to power something that big. He thinks the local Ichyoids are up to something. He tells them about the hamster pirate captain, who has now ceased to be an out-take and become part of main canon, and that he has met Protus, who was talking about someone named Winnifred (presumably the founder of the future Winnifrite sect). The only Winnifreds they know are somebody Sylvester was at univesity with, and a now-dead old woman Rosemary knew in Moonin. Sylvester warns Olaf that Nirvana Clepe may be back in the area (Olaf looks a bit alarmed). It's mentioned that Olaf hasn't married: evidently he and Mamie didn't get that far. Sylvester asks Olaf whether he has seen Frowgler – he hasn't – but we cut away to see Frowgler talking to the village Flittermouse in her tower. She is assessing livestock, which involves little toy figures. Frowgler says he is always there to get done what needs doing, and she says it makes her speculate on who he really is "behind that mask". She tells him that her name is Vyon Ward Parkin, an orphan who was taken in by the Flittermice after she was shunned because her family had died in a "Spew" from the Infernal Engine, and peoople feared she might be contaminated. We see that the Flittermice have a universal presence, at least in Yurpsland, and use actual bats as messengers. The Flittermice are an Order, whose job is to "flit into the dark places and do the mucky jobs that need to be done" – which they agree is also Frowgler's job. Vyon herself was literally posted to her new position in Eetown, in a box: or possibly ceremonially pretended to have been posted. It's a lonely job and she appreciates Frowgler's company, but she could have left if she wanted to, and did not: there's a suggestion that Frowgler's own role is not voluntary. He gives her a "laughter marble", which she seems to have been waiting for, and says that some day everyone will know who he is (or was) behind the mask, then he leaves via an artificial tunnel which looks as if it was made for the purpose, and which takes him to water. Unlike a real frog, he appears to have gills. As Frowgler swims away, we see him pass a tank containing an octopus named Aloysius. Violet Hopkirk lures Aloysius to the surface and milks him of ink. She overhears people gossipping about Frederick's retirement. We overhear two of her employers talking about her and how she has the talent to work on a "Wrangrig", but it isn't safe for girls. Cut to Sylvester and co. in the boat, discussing Wrangling Rigs, aka octopus inkpull platforms, and the fact that it's "not safe" for girls because it's thought to be bad luck, locally, to have a woman on board. Violet, who has a reputation for not talking, overhears more gossip, quizzes a local boy and learns about Sylvester's party going into The Moose and Squirrel and not coming out. She goes to the inn to talk to Eunice Kelso about it. Eunice doesn't know where the party went, and shoos Violet away, after saying there are no Human-sized underground ways out: we see what looks like a Frowgler-sized way out. Violet returns to her mother, Helena, and they gossip about Rosemary. Violet is mulling over the idea of Myrrh and Frederick retiring. She sits to clean blobwarts with her feet on a stone marked 44: this number seems to recur. Sylvester greets a trapper in another boat, name of Rod, and his young son Ash[ley]: these are the father and brother of Violet. Ash is very interested in Rosemary: their conversation reveals that Flibblers from Moonin don't have a Moonin accent. Mention is made of the Sky Trek, a walk across the country due in five years, and of a Mobile Confectioners' Guild, whose members include salesmen called Lollipop Perambulators. Sylvester finds Ash refreshing – too many people treat him with either scorn or fear because of his position. Olaf tells Ash to tell his friend Aloysius (not the octopus!) to stay out of his garden, because it's magic. Sylvester tells him to spread the word that there is going to be a meeting at the Temple to formally introduce Rosemary. Rod and Ash in their boat sail past an islet with a distance marker on it, then we see a gull try to land on the islet, and be scared away by a green, snakey-looking thing which says "Boo" in Ichyoid runes. This is one of the same tentacled things (perhaps the same individual) which we saw in the Basement, rescuing Shabash from a reservoir. Rob and Ash come to shore and we see Ash gossipping with his friend Aloysius on the dockside – both boys look about ten years old. A gull – perhaps the same one that was chased off by the tentacled thing – is sitting near Aloysius. Ash passes on Olaf's message about the magic garden, and Sylvester's about the Temple meeting. As they walk past the Spewing Wall – a forum for graffiti – the Flitttermouse's Laughter Marble hits the ground behind them, and Aloysius picks it up, hides it and tells Ash it's just a rock. The gull flits in and out of shot near them. They pass Fantod and the Weirdo having an adult conversation with Melba Corrigan and her whimp-pig Wilbur. Ash and Aloysius tell Fantod that they are planning to go to a haunted ruin tomorrow, and he warns them it might fall down, then Fantod warns Aloysius, specifically, to be careful with"whatever it is yer doin' all of a sudden". We then see the Oracle Threnody, in a medical office listening to a man's chest with a stethoscope; Mayoress Saffron Stout sitting behind her desk; and the Flittermouse, scoring things off a list on a notice board. Written on the corner of the board (not part of the list) is a note saying "Tell truth ——— Seek fortunes". She has a sort of umbrella stand which has various sorts of pole in it, including a Sneech stick. Next to it is a truncated green cone which has sticking out of the top a T with an extra, sometimes slanting crossbar, a distortd Ŧ, which became a recurring motif. 10: Into the Woods [10/07/2017 – 03/11/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips start–#5125] To start with we see Myrrh, who seems not to need to breathe or to be wearing anything except her collar, strolling through an undersea forest in the Sea of Plinths. The Ŧ with the slanting crossbar appears sticking out of a green growth. She wonders which way to go: a flatworm points its arrow-shaped head upwards, so she surfaces. Frederick is still being served food by the waitresses in antennae, who are amazed at how much he can eat, and suggest that their chef has failed because Fredrick was able to eat the whole meal. They are a mixed bunch, ethnically, and we will later learn that the Spires recruit orphans from all over. A female Eyebolt who has "Shmelcathy" on a screen by her desk (but we will later learn this isn't her name, just something or someone she is monitoring) is working at her desk. Other women in deely-boppers/antennae (all this culture wear them, or at least all the women) are monitoring Frederick on a screen, under the command of an older woman with fluffy, puffy white hair: they too are amazed by how much Frederick can eat and remain upright. They talk about his Herediscan – he is related to previous test subjects (we see Dorothea and Lilith on screens) – and the waitresses say he must be a thaumaturge to stay conscious, yet he isn't setting off their magic-detectors. The blonde waitress, Svetlana Rostova, is told to stay with him and answer his questions. Myrrh, meanwhile, arises from a water-filled tube into a sort of domed cockpit, in which there is a plant-covered floor dotted with flowers, and a Lizhopper, one of the little mini-Trog-like creatures which we saw Rosemary chasing out of the Mansion at the start of the story. Frederick and Svetlana talk, initially in front of a drawing on the wall of the moon on a stick, and we learn that they are in the Zamyatin Spire, a very high-tech-looking place. Zamyatin Spire residents are all women, but other Spires are for men only, or mixed. The Spires have a vaguely Soviet, very controlled culture: Svetlana refers to native Spire residents as "assets". As Myrrh – with the Lizhopper riding on her head – presses a button in the flowery cockpit, Frederick and Svetlana discuss Yurpsland politics, which involve a ceremonial, hereditary king and a separate political ruler who seems to be self-appointed (although they see it as "chosen by the Brush") rather than elected. Also the fact that Frederick is a demithaumaturge, and that the Spires are on a major tricklepoint (although the one in the Sybola jungles may be bigger, which may relate to whatever mystery is in Sybola), so were not much affected by the Crash and still have working pre-Crash technology. Myrrh climbs up some sort of stair or ladder to a room where there is a naked male musician named Jones (who is clearly based on David Bowie/Jones, and is a fellow demon), whom we saw earlier with his human partner Jebidiah, and who plays the flute for her. Spire trechnology involves some enormous gears which were built by an unknown society from before the Ettins. Svetlana is impressed to learn that Frederick's family have their own library, in which he read about the Spires. When Myrrh is mentioned, Svetlana surmises that Myrrh is Frederick's wife, because he wouldn't have been allowed into Zamyatin Spire if he didn't have a spouse (meanwhile Jones continues to play his flute for Myrrh). Frederick and Svetlana discuss the arrangements for straight women like her who wish to find a mate when they live in an all-female Spire, and see an agent of sorts, holding a giant needle like a dagger and trying to arrest somebody for smuggling Fuzz jars (Svetlana says this woman isn't police, but something they don't discuss). Singing Fuzzes are a big fad in the Spires and are bred for size, intelligence and voice, which suggests that this could be the past of Frizzlegarb's future world of Hollows and Fuzz communities (especially as we see one in a tank which seems to have embryonic tuft-antennae of the kind later seen on Purple Zoners). Special barriers prevent Fuzzes from being moved from one Spire to another, except in jars (which might explain why the future Fuzzes find it difficult to move from one Hollow to another, and might also have something to do with the barrier which surrounds the Spire in Audravania). Frederick and Svetlana end up on a balcony which Svetlana calls a Bubble-viewing Recreation Platform, overlooking a hall where large coloured bubbles with blurry images inside well up, but Frederick says it's a Spindizzy interface chamber, but with no visible Spindizzies and no apparent way of summoning them. We learn that The Spire community has a low birthrate and takes in orphans from elsewhere, but Svetlana was born there, in Platohov Spire, and trained in Burdekin Spire, and her paternal grandmother told her about legless, truthful flying beings who could have been either Spindizzies or Helipaths. She is not sure whether The Spire city belonged to the Ettins or the Sneeches, originally – only that the Sneeches say it was contested between the two species. Frederick describes ancient weaponry – the Ettins used city-smashing Doombombs and the Sneeches used Tangles, giant vines which could infitrate and wreck Ettin machinery. Frederick has worked out that something was meant to happen to him in the restaurant where Svetlana works, but she assures him he wasn't intended to die. Solzhenitsyn Spire is about death and he mustn't go there, but Zamyatin is all about collecting and hoarding information. Frederick wants to go ask the nearest archivist about Spindizzies. Svetlana is unnerved by this, as asking questions is discouraged. They discuss the fact that Frederick is still collecting information which may be useful to his family, even though he is retired, and that Myrrh may or may not decide she has retired as others would understand it, and we see the woman with fluffy white hair monitoring their conversation. Fredrick says he is filling in time until Myrrh gets back from "whatever you all have her doing", and at this point we see Myrrh pressing her claws into a set of holes on a control that opens a round purple door on the wall of Jones's chamber. Cutting back to Eetown, we see Olaf's boat pulling in to his private dock, and Captain Hamster's crew sleeping off a binge-drinking session, and Mortimer, with umbrella but sans strands of Spyder web, waking in the deep dark woods (to which he was evidently transported from the pub, in the same way that his brother and Rosemary were transported to the island) with the sense that some sort of revelation has slipped away from him, and then encountering Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party in the woods. This, we will later learn, is a flashback which must have happened around when Rosemary and Sylvester were waking on Alwin Island, and hour or so before we glimpsed him with web on his shoulder. From here until It All Comes Together, Mortimer's and Sylvester's storylines are out of phase by an hour or two. Once on shore, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Olaf knew Mortimer was a wizard, but didn't tell him. Olaf is fairly benign but generally acts out of self-interest. We see that Olaf has a fenced-off telegraph pole topped with magical gadgets, so dodgy-looking that Sylvester says that in this case Omega (who hated Olaf and vice-versa) might have had a point about the dangers of technology. Mortimer is very relieved to see that Nitfol survived the Spyder, but ashamed that he had accidentally led the beaver-shark to destroy Nitfol's home tree. Fizmo realises that Mortimer owes Nitfol a favour and can take them beyond the "Edge of the World", but Mortimer doesn't know what she means. At this point we get some portraits of various characters – Ilsa's and Saffron's parents; characters from the Willy the Wendigo books (Willy himself, in a bow tie; a pink and blue spider; a rock with eyes; something like a green female Nome (but may be meant to be a Gobble'em); and a male Wift/Wilf); some past E Weirdos; and the E family's tutor. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, discussing Olaf's thaum measurements. Sylvester thinks he has a second agenda – perhaps an attempt to bring back magic, which even the High University of Azimuth has been unable to do. Sylvester thinks this is a good idea, because he wants Humanity to explore the other planets in the system, and doesn't see much future in steam power. Mortimer, Nitfol and Fizmo establish their frames of reference. The Nomes' world can be walked across in a day or two (but they're smaller than Humans, and on rough ground, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles), and is bounded by a wall of mist you can't push through, and centred on the Spike – Fizmo's father Foblub was an explorer, but even he didn't manage to walk all the way around the edge. Mortimer remembers a Spindizzy called Charles telling him about a solid haze. Myrrh stands in a place where there are striped, rugby-ball-shaped lights, and gazes up at an enormous bust of a bearded, humanoid male demon wearing a medal. This last image is a Hallowe'en special, but also part of the canonical sequence: it's actually an image of the Operator. Sylvester shows Rosemary a road which leads south to a place called E Isles where there are offshore islands and a ferry across the River E, but no city because the nearby shore is too rocky for a port, and then on to Obtown. He points out Olaf Larrsen's house and then they head back towards the woods – as they do so they pass Aloysius hiding behind a bush near Larssen's place, with the gull next to him. 11: New Openings [06/11/2017 – 02/02/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5132–#5215] Rosemary tells Sylvester there was a kid hiding behind the bush they just passed, and Sylvester identifies him as Aloysius Culpepper, an orphan who lives with his uncle and aunt. We see Aloysius and the gull sneak into Olaf Larrsen's place and poke about in the fields, before using an upturned bucket to climb through a shed window, after testing that a magic-emitting plant on a shelf inside is safe by throwing a stick at it, then wedging the window with another stick in some unclear way. The shed contains various odd machines and hanging mobiles. He doesn't touch a gadget that's labelled "LINE #1 TERMINUS ——— DON'T TOUCH", but instead winds up a clockwork figure of a running man (later referred to as the Flailer, so probably its feet are meant to pound grain), and the noise attracts Olaf, who is carrying a fishing net with a hole in the bottom. He tells Aloysius to follow him or go home, so Aloysius (who is barefoot) and the gull follow him. They go to the main house where they are greeted by Olaf's housekeeper (who asks if he's caught anything, then sees he's caught Aloysius) – we see Sylvester telling Rosemary that this is Ilsa Lundquist, who used to work at the Mansion. Ilsa asks Aloysius what the gull's name is, but Aloysius says gulls only have names when they are flying. She takes the hats from Olaf and Aloysius without touching them, on the end of a baton, and comments that she doesn't suppose gulls ever wear hats. We see a scene of three gulls by the seashore, including one wearing a hat, who is part of Cap'n Hamster's crew, and still looks hungover. We return to Mortimer, talking to the Nomes. Nitfol doesn't know what Spindizzies are but he does know about the Mansion, because his father was a scholar who owned two and a half books. We see Nitfol's father with two books, one labelled "Socks", the other "Cookiedice", which is the name of one of the Hollows where we see Fuzzes living in the future. Mortimer mentions the library at the Mansion – Fizmo doesn't believe such a thing is possible, but Nitfol has heard stories of large book collections in the past, or at least scroll collections. We see a shadowy image of a female Nome filing scrolls on big racks. Mortimer describes the library as being in the Ivory Tower, which leads to a long digression about behemoth teeth (if behemoths are really elephants, Mortimer has a very confused idea of what they look like), and he mentions that there is an apartment at the top, with a pool, but nobody lives in it now, "most of the time". He mentions that the tower was built by Ludwig, which leads to a very muddled conversation, because the Nomes know Ludwig as a cult figure worshipped by some people in the Basement. Mortimer manages to explain about the Spindizzies and how literal they are, and how he once told Charles he felt trapped and Charles told him about the mist barrier. Mortimer thinks the Spindizzies might know how to bring the barrier down: Fizmo thinks this is fantasy, but Nitfol wants to meet them. Nitfol and Fizmo go off to confer, while Thrash seeks to attract Mortimer's attention to something, and Mortimer wonders aloud whether this is the same Pale (Thrash) he met yesterday with Frowgler – it is – and he can tell that Thrash senses something wrong. We return to Zamyatin Spire, where Svetlana is disturbed by Frederick's whistling, because music is discouraged except in the gym and at culture festivals. She takes him to a stern-looking Senior Archivix, who wasn't expecting them – Frederick tells this woman his name, but says she doesn't need to know Svetlana's. In Eetown, Aloysius gives a wall-eyed look to a stuffed gull. Ilsa brings cocoa (which he has never had before) for Aloysius, herb tea for Olaf and tripewater for the gull. Olaf says he's not a nice person (echoing Rhid) but he's an old man and he has had to keep his books locked away because Omega didn't want people to see them, but now she's gone and her influence is waning, he has been hoping for someone like Aloysius to come along. He told Ash to tell Aloysius to stay away from the magic because he knew it would lure him in. Aloysius correctly surmises that Olaf wants him as an apprentice. Olaf says his only love Mamie, after whom his boat is named, died fifty years ago (in the Crash), so if Aloysius comes every day he can, and learns magic and veterinary medicine, when Olaf dies he will leave his house and all his money to Aloysius, aside from a bit for Ilsa. Olaf tells Aloysius that no wizwitch could channel all the forms of magic, but some were generalists who could do a little of a lot, and some, known as Hedgewizwitches, could do only one thing but did it very well. Mamie was one, because all she could do was heal, but very well, even though she didn't have a very nurturing personality. Aloysius is another – an "Animal Empathist", hence his link with the gull. Mortimer is still talking to Thrash, and shows him his umbrella. He tells the Pale that he is a wizard and asks if that's the problem, and Thrash shakes his head. Meanwhile Nitfol tells Fizmo he isn't going to go off with Mortimer immediately, but he will at some point, because Zpeaker and the Nexus also thought the barrier could be brought down, and if Nitfol's political plan fails they will at least have a means of leaving. Thrash draws Mortimer's attention to the fact that Spyders are creeping up on them. Frederick speaks to the Senior Archivix, whose name is Anushka Zhdanov. She tells him he is allowed to access archives up to Level Three, but won't say how many levels there are above that. He asks for information on Spindizzies. She asks if he is a Yurpslander, and when he says he is, she calls for someone named Snegurka and sends her to fetch a file (calling her a lackwit). Olaf tells Aloysius that neither of them is a full wizard, but that in theory if you make the right thaum machine you can mimic any power. However, there isn't enough energy around post-Crash, so animal empathy is impossible to mimic and no one will be "horning in" on Aloysius's skill. There are no other empaths in the area, but there are a few other wizwitches of other kinds – some who know what they are (we see Myrrh, Amos Grubb and Mortimer) and some who don't (we see a teenage boy in a soft baggy hat, who is probably Ricky of the famous Ricky and Wendell, and a short teenage girl with a lot of long, bushy hair) and who he doesn't think could handle being told. 12: The New Level [05/02/2018 – 01/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5222–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips start–#5299] At the start of the chapter we see Melba Corrigan's blobwart-vending cart and her pet pig Wilbur sitting in front of a large bush. Her hat is lying on the bush, and two butterflies (not flutterbys) fly up from behind it. They represent sex and/or kisses, and she is behind the bush with Arthur the Weirdo. Faint words on the hedge appear to spell out "Nutella weather person" – I've no idea why. Rosemary and Sylvester arrive back at Eetown's South Road Gate. Sylvester would rather go home, but Rosemary reminds him that he needs to collect the post, and says that it probably wasn't a villager in a boat that took them to Alwin. They both think it was probably Mortimer, by magic, which means he has immense innate power and the potential to be "quite something". Meanwhile, Mortimer's party start to back away from a Spyder, which begins to spew thick ropes of web at them, while another one boxes them in from behind. But Thrash slashes their web-ropes with his sickle and beats down the one in front of Mortimer. It's not clear whether he has killed it or not, but he probably has, as later they will pass a dead one in that direction. Meanwhile, Senior Archivix Anushka offers Frederick a chair and a cup of tea while he waits for his file. Svetlana is impressed and concerned, as teachairs are only offered to important guests, and she isn't authorised to associate with important guests, but doesn't wish to leave. The Archivix gives Frederick permission for Svetlana to stay and have tea too, but Svetlana says it's not Anushka's decision to make. Olaf thinks Aloysius can handle being told he has magic, but also that an empathist can't do much harm (but they can do some: we see a silhouette of a bear being sicced on somebody). He warns him not to tell anyone else about his magic, because there are people – the picture implies it's official, government people – looking to capture functioning wizwitches. It's possible that Aloysius may have other, minor talents as well as his main one – Mamie did (including, it's implied, skin-stimulation during sex) – and there are tests for this, but Olaf can't administer them. Amos and Frederick both could, but Frederick won't. Rosemary suggests that if Mortimer is going to be "something" so will Sylvester, since Mortimer obeys him. As they talk, a Vagabond flutterby – a creature with which Mortimer has a strong affinity – comes to them with a scrap of cloth tied around it, bearing a message apparently written in blood. Back to Mortimer's party. We will later learn that the timeline is disjointed, because these scenes with Mortimer must have happened while Rosemary and Sylvester were on Alwin Island. The Pales are fighting off the Spyders, and kill at least one behind Mortimer, but the Spyders keep coming and keep flinging web at them. Prompted by Nitfol, Mortimer has a moment of crisis where he decides he will no longer be either a follower or a causer of problems, and he shoots magical force from his umbrella-wand, declaring that there will be no more killing or dying (and gives himself an electric shock). The surviving Spyders run off, and we see two Spyders discussing the fact that they had thought all Human wizwitches had been killed in the Crash, and that this raises the possibility that there may still be Humans who are able to "talk" (perhaps this means Aloysius's animal empathy) and they must call a conclave to discuss this. Svetlana confirms to Frederick that it is her boss (or at least, the person who told her to watch Frederick) who decides whether she may stay and drink tea or not. She has a number as well as a name – 23-42-5258.8. Frederick addresses the security bugs in the walls and asks for Svetlana to be made his guide, stating her name and number, and since nobody answers with an objection, Svetlana is officially promoted to that role. She isn't sure what she thinks about this, as she had enjoyed being a waitress, but eventually she makes a firm decision to sit down and embrace her promotion, and she does quite like her cup of tea. Olaf tells Aloysius that Amos gave up being an active wizard before the Crash (although we see old!Amos lighting a candle with magic) – we know this was to do with Myrrh, but Olaf will only tell Aloysius about it if Aloysius agrees to be trained. Amos has already asked Olaf to come to the Mansion to discuss something, so he will take Aloysius with him, but Aloysius shouldn't mention his possible apprenticeship etc. to Amos's wife Nellie. They have a complex misunderstanding about what "having views" means, which leads to mention of an apparently blind woman called Gretta Weed, who in the metaphorical sense sees further than Nellie. Gretta is brighter than Nellie, and Saffron brighter than Gretta, but Olaf is more concerned with their open-mindedness to new possibilities. They discuss the fact that once he is trained, Aloysius will have the choice to stay in Eetown or to move elsewhere: we see an image of him as an adult healing horses for Nimue in Abalone. Once they have found a private spot, Sylvester reads his message, which says "Open Training Gate. Urgent." This refers to one of the Panegates at the Mansion. Sylvester still has to complete business in town but will rush through it. We see him ask the sausage vendor, Claudia, what people are talking about – which is really all the news from the Mansion. She has been selling(?) a lot of sausages because people are anxious/excited about the changes, and warns them that Saffron is "in a mood". Fizmo and Nitfol are surprised and impressed that Mortimer is a wizard, and reveal in conversation that Fizmo works for Frowgler, and Nitfol sort-of does too. We see Frowgler underground, talking to a Shallow Wyrm named Parkin who is guarding the Circle at the World's End. Fizmo says Frowgler can see the future (which Mortimer cannot), and warned her about a job she took. We see her underground in her hazmat suit, looking at a little creature similar to a Shallow Wyrm but probably not one (no head crest), which is growling at her. Mortimer says Frowgler gave him good advice, but he works for his brother Sylvester, not for Frowgler. He tells them Sylvester is a sort of mayor, avoiding the charged word "Earl" by chance or design. Svetlana reveals that she prefers kvass to tea, although this is against her culture. The Spire folk drink actual tea, but tea in Yurpsland is usually brewed from other plants. Frederick himself drinks – cautiously – things brewed by Myrrh. They get onto discussing Yurplejuice – neither Svetlana nor Anoshka has tasted it, because it's restricted, and even in Yurpsland it's regulated. Olaf tells Aloysius about the other half of his business – the first half is treating sick animals, the second half is making and selling thaum-powered gadgets. He has always refused to make magical weapons – Zap-Tridents – partly out of morality and partly in case someone buys one and then kills him to prevent him making any for anyone else. In any case they only work at Tricklepoints, such as the one under the Mansion. To make his own gadgets work away from a Tricklepoint he has built big, cumbersome energy collectors. Aloysius shows Olaf the Laughter Marble, and Olaf says it does party tricks, which he will show him in the workshop. 13: Thicket [02/05/2018 – 16/11/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5313–#5502] Sylvester says Claudia will be shifting a lot more sausages, because more changes are coming, because he is planning to be more pro-active. He and Rosemary discuss Mayor Saffron's temper: "in a mood" isn't so bad, it's when she's "in a snit" you need to worry, but it was her father who could really make her angry. Mortimer says he arrived here (in the woods) by accident, but now he's here he will help the Nomes. He asks why they are there and Fizmo says they are going to "that Crystal Thicket". We will learn later that they are looking for a flower that grows only there, which can be used to induce Raviners to spew ichor, which they need for whatever takeover scheme Nitfol cooked up with the Nexus. Nitfol is initially angry with her for telling, but Fizmo says that if Mortimer (with his evident magical power) is working for Mayor Koyeeb they're all dead anyway. Nitfol discusses good and bad leaders with Mortimer (we see an outline of what might be an assassination being prepared), and Mortimer correctly concludes that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb. He is still willing to help, on the understanding that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb for an ethical reason (i.e. because he is very bad at his job) and that he isn't planning to kill him. He knows where the Crystal Thicket is. Frederick tells Svetlana and Anoshka about Yurplejuice, which he hasn't had since the funeral of Mariah, the Mansion's groom, when they still had horses. He doesn't seem to know he just missed sharing some at breakfast that morning, when he and Myrrh announced their retirement and didn't sit down to share what the family were eating and drinking. It's made in Wirtvale, and the stuff which Yurpsland exports is second-rate, but the best brands are wonderful. This leads to a conversation about funerals: the Spire folk file their dead on shelves in a catacomb, but they do have a ceremony (and their elderly do get to retire in comfort, so they're not a totally brutal society). They talk about the fact that Spire folk are trained for their jobs, but Frederick had to muddle through as both wizard and Regent, and didn't do a terrific job, in his own opinion. We see Myrrh emerging from a hole in a rocky floor, into a cavern where there are many pink stalactites and stalagmites (probably artificial: they look too smooth to be natural). She is preceded by a butterfly – perhaps signifying that she and Jones have had sex. In the cavern is a giant Metalmin who knows what she is – it addresses her as "zarkette" – and challenges her to a game of Warboard, the local version of chess. We see the woman with puffy white hair watching Myrrh and the Metalmin on a screen: this is the same woman who was earlier seen overseeing the team who were discussing the fact that Frederick wasn't being knocked out by what they had fed him. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, still discussing Saffron Stout, and Saffron's father, who died when Sylvester was five, and her mother, who kept small yappy dogs. Neither was at all communicative about their past. Mention is made of Wendell's fish-fermenting scheme, which evidently stank the village out and made everybody angry. Mortimer tells the Nomes that even though the forest completely surrounds the Thicket, there is a magical way of getting where they're going and skipping the forest part. He tries to compare Panegates with the treewarping the Nomes do, which requires planning and equipment. Nitfol knows about twistpoints, but Mortimer says Panegates are safer, and there's one that leads to the edge of the Thicket. He has to explain that it's Panegate, not Paingate. Yes, Nitfol and Fizmo can both read, and they know what window-panes are, although Fizmo says only nobs like the mayor and Piu can afford them. Mention is made of Fizmo's married sister Fweep. Meanwhile, Frederick says that Spire folk who do badly at their jobs get sacked. Yurpsland is a young, recently unified (134 years ago) country which hasn't worked out how to do things yet, whereas the Spire regime is 400+ years old, when the city was built (although not entirely completed) by Dmitri I. He speaks about a Yurpslander named Owen Gregiry, who wrote a study on the Spires, and they discuss various Spire monarchs: Feodore II, who began the Great Expansion; Feodore III who "obtained" the Outer Shoals; and the famous Ivana III, who fought off the Wendigoes. Frederick is more interested in Vasily II, who wanted to introduce changes. We flash to Violet Hopkirk, telling her mother she's going out but will be back in time for supper. Young Ash, her brother, offers to help make supper while she's out. We see the Flittermouse in her tower, watching Violet through a telescope as she sets out: she has a Juneteenth flag on one of her mailbags. Then we see Eunice calling Ricky and Wendell, the odd-jobbers, to come out from a hole surrounded by a wooden structure, because Saffron needs them: they are doing something which involves bags of coloured liquid. Then we see former Guardian Terin Flem, sitting on a rock talking to his grandchildren Stephan and Sparrow. He is going to wait at the rock until he sees the Mansion party come by on their way out of the village. We see Rosemary and Sylvester discussing the mayor of her home town, how as an orphan she was a problem for him, and how her Aunt Eva came home, and Zeke persuaded her to take her orphan niece in. Eva was also seen as a problem because she had run off to the wicked big city (Nye), picked up foreign ways and then returned rich. There are things Rosemary wonders about Eva's return, but she's not going to talk about it in town where there are potential eavesdroppers. Mortimer and the Nomes agree that it would be as tedious to trek to the Mansion to find the Panegate as it would be to go to the Thicket on foot, and as far as Mortimer knows they won't be able to locate the Panegate at the Thicket end, or open it from that side if they could find it. He assumes they are going to the Thicket to find a particular flower. He tells them not to tell him their plans, so he can't inadvertently give the game away. We cut to Sylvester's brother Ace, with spear and rucksack, walking through an unknown town (later we will learn that it's called Jagger Junction) in the west of Yurpsland and meeting up with a blonde Nome woman wearing a long skirt and a hat with a flower in it. He shows her a similar flower – which he was reluctant to wear in his hat. As he is Ace, she takes the nom de guerre Diamond (Ace suggests Joker, and says if she doesn't want to be called one she shouldn't dress like one). As they walk through the town, in the background we see a very odd face, or maybe a mask, with slanted oval eyes, watching them from some sort of battlement, and they pass a poster with a kind of alien face on it: or perhaps a safety mask. Other, more Human faces peer round corners at them wherever they walk. Ace comments on the fact that they are being followed, and asks if they are friends of Diamond's, or at least allies. Cut to the Mansion's butler Schmedley, standing in front of a large, open book and holding a cake with candles, to celebrate fifteen years since the strip began. There are twelve candles on the cake, and three flutterbys flying around it. A Fuzz watches from a trunk of the Tree. Frederick and Anushka discuss rules of succession. In the Spires the rulers are matched by a Matriarch or Patriarch of opposite sex to the ruler, and who bears the mystic Gear until it's time to hand it on to the new ruler. Vasily II the would-be change-maker died young (as did Yorik II, who drowned while swimming in Lake Laputa), and Frederick suggests that his death was suspiciously convenient. The village fishermen are deeply interested in Rosemary's hat. Coming from where she does, she is able to discuss fishing with them. One called Tom even invites them for a drink, but she and Sylvester have too much to do, and Sylvester says later in private that having the Earl in the inn would be a buzz-kill – nearly as bad as an Oracle in the pub. Fizmo is curious about the smell of sphagnum dust which still hangs around Mortimer. She and Nitfol discuss the birth of Fizmo's niece Faift, in a way which implies that Nomes can choose the gender of their foetus – although Nitfol denies it when Mortimer asks. Fizmo is horrified to realise she is now an auntie, and remembers she needs to ask the village healer Piu for Stiflebloom. Nitfol is an only child. We see an image of him as a boy, holding a thin staff which is the Ŧ with the slanted crossbar. Diamond says that Ace is an object of great local interest, which is why people are spying on them: some of the spies are "allies of temporary convenience" and others are enemies. We see a graffito which says "IN THE NAME OF THE" and then a circle with three small circles or holes in it. Ace identifies Diamond as being a Nome with dyed-blonde hair. She asks whether there was another option, and he says there are always options (we are shown that he is thinking of Myrrh, so of people who are in disguise and might not be what they superficially appear) but sometimes all the options are bad, and he learned that from "you people". "You people" could be the organisation for which Diamond works, or just people "here" (later described as "Out West"), where Ace has been for a while. Ace comes from "Back East": the boundary between the two is Nye, the gamblig den. Diamond regards people from the East as posh, privileged and soft. Diamond came to Jagger Junction from somewhere "much, much worse" than here, which makes Ace say he questions her Nomishness. When Ace says he doubts her Nomishness he probably means that the only places he knows of that are much worse than this are Zark and Fratz, but it is later heavily hinted that Diamond was a slave-labourer who escaped from the Infernal Engine. They are watched by a young male Nome, standing in a doorway: we will later learn that he is called Uffer. Ace and Diamond come to a plain, unmarked door in a wall, which Ace says people must only come to if they are already welcome there. It opens before them. Frederick tells Anushka that he ended up taking over running his "Spire" and training his successor (Sylvester) because the official leader (Willoughby) was no good at it. We see him training Sylvester to deal with a machine that has the Ŧ sticking off it. Willoughby died in the Noodle Incident, which the Spire folk haven't heard about. Frederick says he would have thought everyone to the ends of the known world would have heard of it, and this leads to a discussion of an island called Solla Sollew, which Svetlana says is the island at the farthest edge of the Revealed World, and which Frederick says an explorer described as "alive and burning". Anushka says that Solla Sollew isn't the farthest place from the Spires, just hard to reach because of magic-storms from the Glow Confection mountain range: the farthest point is the Biloka Penninsula on the far side of the Deep Southeastern Jungles. Frederick does not know why the town of Noodle is called Noodle, but the Noodle Incident is the most interesting thing that ever happened there, and they even have a museum about it. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the local fishermen. Tom Bawcock, the senior fisherman, is unmarried but has a thing going with Gretta Weed. Rosemary thinks one of the fishermen, Ernie Corrigan, is cute, and the feeling appears to be mutual. It's OK for Mansionites other than the Earl to hang out in the local pub, and many have done so, but not Nirvana for unspecified reasons. Sylvester goes to collect post from Mr Gray. Mortimer's party, discussing Stiflebloom, pass what looks like a dead Spyder. Fizmo left their village because Nome girls were being encouraged to get pregnant instead of taking Stiflebloom. She talks bout how she and Kulkad were hired to go down into the Hot Zone in suits. She couldn't see much through the helmet, and can't really describe what they were monitoring. Mortimer says Sylvester will want to know, and Nitfol should want to know too if he's going to be a leader, so Fizmo says the thing they were watching was a sort of stone growth. Ace and Diamond pass two guards, and climb stairs to visit a Mr Shadwell, Diamond's boss. Ace fusses about the lack of a handrail, and Diamond says he reminds her of Algernon Jones, the hero of Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. At the top of the stairs, they find Mr Shadwell seated dead at his desk, with some kind of wound on his chest. Frederick wasn't present at the Noodle Incident and didn't hear about it till days later, because they didn't have a Sparkwire – a telegraph system. Sparkwire operators seem to be all women, who wear antennae like the ones the Spire people wear, although in the Spires they signify citizenship. The Spire ones seem to be implants – at least, they're not just attached to a band like the ones worn by Sparkwire operatives. In Noodle there is a museum about the Incident, but it isn't very accurate. In the Spires, Solovyov Spire is all museums, and they're accurate (we see a display case with the Ŧ on top), but some can only be visited by people with a high security clearance. Svetlana has been to the ones she's allowed to see: Frederick says "And the exhibits gave you no reason to doubt their accuracy?" and Svetlana replies "Negative", which is ambiguous. While Sylvester is talking to Mr Gray, some village children ask Rosemary how she, Sylvester and Mortimer got out of the inn without anybody seeing them go. She says they used a one-time magic door. [Cut to Cap'n Hamster, talking to the sapient sea plant on Piratestash Island about how they are both rare life-forms, and how he bounces from ship to gaol (his cage in Nevus's collection) and back, and how he was swept to this location by a freak wave, and the fact that his parents (who had a ship named Grenache) told him that somewhere across the waves there would by a pirate girl for him, and he will search till he finds her.] Fizmo tells Mortimer that when she was down in the Hot Zone, she had a button to push (and then run away) if the thing she was watching started to move. Technology doesn't work well down there, which was why they needed live watchers, but the button was shielded. Fizmo says she saw a rock grow legs and walk. Nitfol asks if it talked – she says no. Nitfol is not surprised by her story, because he has heard stories from when Nomes called Hotdiggers used to mine down close to the Hot Zone. Diamond says she will pay Ace (who seems to be some kind of bodyguard, like Rosemary) to help her get away from the town, as she was Shadwell's "little mascot" and probably won't survive him for long if she stays. Ace agrees on condition that she doesn't lie to him, and that she tells him where the thing he came to collect is. She opens a wall safe and gives Ace a sort of snow globe thing with a figure in it – a long-robed figure juggling the numbers 007. Frederick has never been to the Noodle museum, or the ones in the Spires, but has heard testimony he believes (from Sylvester, about Noodle, and Svetlana about the Spires). He leaves it open whether he trusts the Spire museums or not. Svetlana starts to say "Is not what I am denying! Am saying you should not be—" and then glances nervously at the walls and says it's nothing. Frederick says Willoughby set off some kind of chain reaction which badly damaged much of Noodle, but no-one except Willoughby died. The incident happened in part because of poor maintenance in Noodle, but that part of the story was hushed up. Mr Gray is concerned that there may be things which, unofficially, Sylvester should tell him about. They have a verbal skirmish in which Sylvester avoids telling him anything. He collects his post, rejoins Rosemary and says it may have been a tactical error for Mortimer to let people see that his umbrellla could be used as a weapon – Mr Gray is of course a government agent, and after Mortimer placed his umbrella in a weapons-holder he looked it up in the Compendium of Official Threats, so now he suspects that Mortimer is a wizard. Nitfol says that one of his ancestors, Nikmo, found a talking rock in the deeps, although most of the records of what it said were lost. Nikmo brought the rock home to the surface, but it stopped talking and he was ridiculed for saying it had. Family history says Nikmo later snuck the rock back into the deeps and it came back to life. He told his daughter Margi about it. Margi became a famous adventuress and had a son, Jindak (mobile hanging over cradle, with Ŧ). Margi told Jindak that she thought Nikmo went back later to visit the rock, but she herself could never find it. Mortimer asks about the surviving records of what the rock said, and Nitfol says that the rock said it had been broken off from a larger boulder during a natural upheaval. We see Violet sneaking past behind Terin Flem, who is still keeping a lookout: later comments suggest he really isn't of her creeping through the trees behind him. She walks to the Mansion's gardens, where she startles Nellie Grubb, in her role as gardener. Ace tells Diamond to place another globe, called a Zoinkglobe, into the safe. He had arranged to give Mr Shadwell this one in return for the one with the juggler, and now Shadwell's heirs can have it. He tells Diamond not to steal stuff from the safe unless they need it to survive, so she takes a small plaque with Shadwell's sigil on it, used to show that the bearer is in his favour. Ace comments that Louis and Buddy, the security guards, had let him up there with a spear and an unsearched pack, so they are either incompetent or part of whatever is going on. Silhouette of railing decorated with Ŧ. We return to the Spires, where Frederick is talking about the official enquiry into the Noodle Incident. The Spires have official enquiries too – Svetlana says "Except when conditioned by circumstances", Frederick replies "Like when a gal happens to be carrying a big needle?" and Anushka says they don't talk about that here. Frederick says that what he has said came from his own experience, not from Svetlana. He says that Willoughby was scapegoated (although he really was somewhat to blame) – then a woman named Snegurka arrives with a file which was requested earlier (presumably the one on Spindizzies). Part Seven: Seats of Power [19/11/2018 – 01/12/2021] 01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion. Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle. Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking. Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him. Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both). Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree. Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly. Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out. Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer". Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled. 02: Entangled [05/02/2018 – 03/05/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5584–#5661] Mortimer and the two Nomes wonder nervously what will happen if the Pales don't return from squid-chasing. The scene switches to the Pale camp, where Zpeaker is telling Vezza how the Pales grow their tools. The tools do not grow from plants but are in some way related to the Pales themselves and this is critical information, so he will need to ask the Nexus for permission to show her. Vezza, being young, can hear the Pales' supersonic voices: Zpeaker says all their communication is sonic "except Zcopers". [Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.] Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee. Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor. Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting. The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket. We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts. Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back. Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are. Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood. Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect. Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head. 03: No Turning Back [06/05/2019 – 01/08/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5675–#5752] Mortimer's party progress, keeping together. Mortimer, being taller, can see a large, distant rock which he thinks is near the Panegate. Nitfol says one direction is as good as another, and Mortimer says the direction of the Thicket (the jumble of crystals) is bad. Another Ŧ on a rock in the distance. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as. Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been". We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother. Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before. Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed. For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt. Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling. Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ. Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle. Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock. Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could. Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters. He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them. 04: Fallout [02/08/2019 – 30/10/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5759–#5848] Not-Shmelcathy tells Myrrh she doesn't see the point of clothes unless it's exceptionally cold: then admits that's the default state in the Spires for a third of the year. Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of". Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was. We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin. Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible. Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon. According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl". Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic. Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice. Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach. Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her. Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them. Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington. Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers. Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business. Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!" Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that. 05: Going Home [04/11/2019 – 27/12/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5855–#5899] The Eyebolt formerly known as not-Schmelcathy says that her name is Simplicity (despite the name on the screen by her desk). She is bubbling with answers to questions Myrrh doesn't want to ask (demons are sensitive about favours and counter-favours). She says "we" (presumably the Eyebolts) can sense auras and that it's important that Myrrh know what she is confronting. Myrrh assumes she is talking about the Operator. There is a side conversation about Jones, who we see apparently getting clothes from Alena and Idita. Simplicity says that the Operator is much more powerful than either Myrrh or Jones, and he has visited the Spires, but he's still only part of the problem. We see an image of the Operator having a power-bar about two and a half times Myrrh's, but it's like a small stream compared to a raging river when measured against the Power Simplicity is thinking of. Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one. Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt. The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers. Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one. Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question. Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped. 06: Diplomacy [30/12/2019 – 13/02/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5909–#5958] Comshaw reveals that when they found the door to the Mansion open, the Council had deliberately aimed a Dornbeast through the door to test what would happen. Sylvester confirms that they are Human and that he is The Earl. Rosemary is his trusty assistant, and Skradt is Comshaw's. Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.] Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing. Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home. Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock. Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome. Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin". An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree. 07: Exit Strategies [24/02/2020 – 26/06/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5986–#6084] Ivana takes Frederick and Svetlana to a Diplomatic Quarantine Facility, for guests who are important but disruptive. There are covered plates of cakes: one of the covers has a Ŧ on it. Frederick will not be allowed to interact with anyone else, except Svetlana whose duties are not yet complete. Frederick assumes this will be so until he goes back to the docks, but Ivana says he's never been at the docks. Svetlana asks if he walked from Yurpsland, but Ivana says he and Myrrh didn't appear via any known entrance, which is part of why he's interesting. Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can. Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees. Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach. Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond". Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way. Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished. Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open. Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave. Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip. Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen. Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl. Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her. Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear. We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar. Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation. Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well. An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist. Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises. They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years). They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough). After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole. At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires. 08: High Level Meetings [29/06/2020 – 09/10/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6098–#6188] Diamond is very concerned that she hadn't known Blas was in town: it suggests her situational awareness is slipping, and that's dangerous. If she had known, she might or might not have told Shadwell, who sometimes had people killed, but only when absolutely necessary: Ace says his employers are the same, except more genteel about it. Wooden Ŧ among planks behind them, and metal one acting as a sort of tap. Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap. Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket. Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat. A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them. Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived. At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket. Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch). Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs. In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home. Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background. An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting. Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall. They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ). More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX. Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded. 09: It All Comes Together [13/10/2020 – 19/02/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6202–#6318] Svetlana agrees that she will go with Frederick to Audravania. At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres. We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together. A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar. Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown. Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes. Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade. Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos. Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower. Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire. Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something". Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings. Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs. In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits. Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement. The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went. 10: Unexplored Territory [22/02/2021 – 28/05/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6325–#6416] This chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Unexplored Territory, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto. We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm. The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect". Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it. Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing). Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles. Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned. Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself. It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought. Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat. Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality. Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock. 11: New Clothes [01/06/2021 – 03/09/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6423–#6514] Diamond and Ace have moved out of the trace left by the Infernal Engine, and Ace can feel the difference. He wants to know how Jagger Junction ended up this rough (Diamond doesn't know or care), and says if in the future there's anything he can do to fix it, he will. A fairly large Fuzz, maybe cat-sized, is lurking in a small dustbin. Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia. This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine. They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned. Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns. Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in. Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it. Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears. Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree. Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol). Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future. 12: Advice and Council [07/09/2021 – 01/12/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6521–#6577] Rosemary advises Fizmo to really listen to what other people say and to not talk – or swear – much during the Council meeting. Outwith that meeting, she should definitely tell Nitfol what she thinks, about everything. Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works. Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette. Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves. Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers. Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end. Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction. Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: An Intermission [14/06/2004 – 06/09/2004] The Weirdo reports on the Mansion's creatures and cultures to a shadowy female figure in pointed shoulder-pads and a hood with two floppy little points (possibly the cloak is intended either for a female Motihaul or for a type of messenger we will later learn is called a Flittermouse, and who wears a bat-like costume), who comes from the capital. His report includes Protus the Willigig, who seems to know the Weirdo from the future. He is unable to discuss the Operator, for reasons he can't or won't reveal. There's a bit of a red herring at this point, because he says that the Operator is "the only member of his race currently in or under the Mansion": but the Scary Lady has gone out, so she's not in the Mansion right now. Comments are made on the fact that fleebs just sit around and stare (they're said not to eat, which doesn't fit with the rabid Fleebs biting the Pale: and are they related to Fixits?). We hear that things "Out West" (which we will learn just means the west of their own country, not the continent) are going badly, and could reverse the rebuilding their group has done since the Crash, that fleebs are involved somehow (although perhaps only as an indicator of unexplained contact between east and west) and that someone called Tulip, a friend of the Weirdo's, has been killed: also that events at the Mansion are of great importance. They discuss the fact that fleebs from the east turned up in the west at the same time that a woman obviously from the west (Rosemary) turned up in the east, but are interrupted by evidence of surveillance. Before they part, Arthur gives her a drawing of Rosemary to check up on, and says Rosemary (whom he describes as a "sword bunny") is dressed like a Chroman Initiate but she clearly hasn't taken Chroman vows. Rosemary's outfit at this point consists of a plain white T-shirt with short sleeves and a V-neck, and an ankle-length pale-blue skirt.
Agita is angry with Snert and says that rule-breaking leads to screaming, blood-drenched anarchy and almost no-one wants that: Mortimer protests that the fact that screaming, blood-drenched anarchy tends to follow him doesn't mean he wants it. Agita also says the winner of the auction will get an 80-count head-start.
In the forest tunnel, Comshaw's party encounter the remains of a "Metalmin", a man-shaped robot. It's probably a corruption of "metal man" and the old ones were Ettin-made, so they're around six hundred years old. After the party have gone their presence partly activates the Metalmin but then its head falls off and explodes, provoking a small war among some tiny sapient creatures called Smyts (a bit like sparrow-sized Trogs) and Fuzzes (balls of brown fur with hands and feet), until the Fuzzes are eaten by the predatory, beetleish arthropod called a slimegrub. Rob was still working out the sizes: in later strips, slimegrubs would be slightly smaller than Fuzzes, but this one is hundreds of times bigger.
This was the first anniversary of the strip, so we see Rosemary and Sylvester talking about days that seem to last a year, and Snoot thinking that all his days feel like that.
A Gnoll called Blit and an Ooze (a bit like a slime-mould but the size of a large dog) called Noet discuss signs and portents indicating that this may be the day that changes the world, and try to persuade a Ghast called Vipthiboo of this, in a theological sense, but he thinks the idea is stupid – not noticing a burst of energy which washes over them. Vipthiboo is searching for a lost Dornbeast pup: a fact which causes Blit and Noet to run away. Blit and Noet then accidentally activate an electronic idol to the evil monkey-god Kaylu, which has been set up to operate as a form of fairground entertainment, and find the Dornbeast: Noet thinks it's cute. We learn that Furphy reports to Nevus, and see Faldstool receiving an aurilnode report about events at Le Tree. `
We will learn later that there was a fairly recent Human attempt to set up a brutal fascist dictatorship in the name of Kaylu.
Gorp and Phiga report to a battered, half-blinded but very authoritative Gobule elder called Maw, who wears a prosthetic right foot and a crown made of jawbones, and makes a grave and dignified speech about the spiritual implications that eating has for his species; but they are pursued by the Ghast Sepferb from whom they stole the cakeshroom. Maw and his squabbling assistants Twiz and Devura (who are really trying his patience) return the cakeshroom to Sepferb (who more or less works for the Council but also may be involved in a secret project). In the process we see a pile of boxes and other items which includes a stuffed creature that looks like a rabbit with antennae instead of ears, and a box marked M.U.L.E. MK 2: later we will learn that mules are small workhorse robots, one of whom will become a significant character. We learn that a long time ago Maw ate a Ghast who was some kind of charismatic political troublemaker, and the Ghasts are more grateful than offended. That was how Maw got to be so battered, and also a respected leader. Maw lectures his cohorts about cooperation, but as we cut away to the viewpoint of the unknown watcher, on his viewscreens we see them attacked by unidentified assailants (later named as being led by someone called Nash: we don't know who Nash is, but they are a renowned contestant in the Hurler's Cup – but that need not necessarily mean Nash has hands, as we will learn that the Gobule Spot has won the Tosser's Cup three times, using his tongue; also there's a suggestion that the Hurler's Cup might be for projectile vomiting).
Also on the watcher's screens we can see Hpobfvfr making a failed grab for the Jibjib waiter at Le Tree; the still-stoned Wyrm Tabo talking about how he and Percy and Skibble used to go Glowgem hunting; and Sina organising everybody. The watcher, now identified as male and moustachioed and referred to as the Overseer (or at least an Overseer – we will later learn that he is called Mr Hand), has a sarcastic Metalmin butler called Hector who is in a poor state of repair. The Overseer seems to live on alcohol, especially the low-grade products of the Mansion's former Moe Vineyard. A strange octopussy creature with a stalk on its head, called a Scalpsucker, is clinging to the Overseer's face, but he peels it off and chucks it aside. There is a reference to the Overseer hiring two mechanics to install a replacement scanner – the same two, Flange (Helipath) and Sprocket (Gnoll), who were working on Project Y. Meanwhile Hector can't fix the existing scanner because a damaged filament is preventing him from accessing his tech-repair data. Inside a hatch on Hector's back is a repair manual in the Overseer's handwriting but which he doesn't remember writing: this may have been forged by Hector who then wiped the memory. The Overseer sends his agents Sprocket and Flange to get a spare part for Hector from the wrecked Metalmin in the tunnel.
We meet some little sapient arthropods called Sciencebugs, religious fanatics in tiny space-suits who are trying to cross the Overseer's office to reach the shrine of a beetle-deity, a figure of what we will later learn is a character in a comic called Roshambo the Warrior-Beetle, along with Frowgler the Horned Frog, without being zapped by a bug-zapper. One is killed in a religious dispute, and some philosophical Smyt monks eat the remains. One of the monks is able to understand Human speech, which of course is very loud and deep to them.
We learn that long ago the Overseer was friends with a short and (by Hector's estimate) short-lived person named Drax, from the name probably a Fixit but quite short-lived from what Hector says, and that it was the Overseer who was spying on the Weirdo, and wants to find out who his contact from the capital is. He has programmed Hector to pester him and make sure he gets things done. Watching the screens we see again that the drugged Wyrm (Tabo) at Le Tree is an old friend of Percy's and they have another friend called Skibble, not present: the screens also show sinister half-seen faces in the dark, probably The Gibber, which we will later learn is a kind of group psychic entity made up at least partly of Gnolls. The overseer fears that Arthur the Weirdo has been "very very naughty". He finds the Scary Lady to be "wonderfully, deliciously naughty".
Hector takes the Scalpsucker and deposits it down a chute into a tank where more are being bred. On his way to the chute, Hector passes alcoves containing strange things – a mummified king on a throne, sitting next to a dial saying Yes, No, Cheese (Yes is selected); a strange mechanism plugged into the Tree; and a chained Trog running on a treadmill, trying to grab a lure in the form of a Gnoll doll. As the Scalpsucker crashes down the chute we glimpse a hatted Smyt who seems to have multiple arms like a Hindu deity, or perhaps who is juggling and whirring its two arms so they seem like many, accompanied by something like a cross between a spider and a slime grub.
When the Scalpsucker arrives in the breeding tank and starts mating, the vibrations shake loose a literal Bad Penny, an evil coin, which is then at least partially eaten by little sapient creatures called Biters: tiny cousins of the Gobules, but they all have horns or feelers on their heads, which are rare in full-size Gobules. We see that Hector has a three-eyed robot dog called Nunsuch. Hector wakes a Boogieman whose job is to beat the Middle Gong, which tells Sylvester that the day is half over.
02: The Grand Tour [07/09/2004 – 29/11/2004] Snoot takes Sylvester and Rosemary to meet the manager of Le Tree, an Eyebolt called Spatchcock. On the way Sylvester shows Rosemary a sort of small menagerie set up by Nevus, with creatures in glass cases. One of the exhibits is an energy being called an ABOL (a sapient Amorphous Ball of Light), and the others are a large "Tribbletongued" hamster and a sapient house-plant resembling a Ficus. These are cameos from other ComicGenesis comics – the ABOL from Reasoned Cognition, the hamster from Furmentation and the plant from Station V3. Sylvester tells Rosemary that the ABOL is sapient and she touches its case with a view to releasing it, and gets a severe electric shock. After they leave we see that all three exhibits are sapient and the hamster means to escape: he has a set of pirate gear hidden in his cage.
Sylvester and co. also pass a strange multi-tentacled thing which looks like a plant which is imitating an insect, with "eyes" which open up like flower-buds to reveal two small sapient creatures resembling Shallow Wyrms but attached to the plant at the tail, and called Ahz and Skiv. We later hear this plant-thing called The Growth. A passing flutterby appears to explode when it gets too close to Snoot.
While they wait to see Spatchcock, Rosemary pokes a Gnoll who is hiding in a large vase (we will learn that he or she is called Dyte), spying on them, and we briefly catch up on the other groups.
We see a group of very regimented Eyebolt clerks, one of whom is arrested for Weirding – which seems to involve the imagination and astral manifestation of imagined objects.
We see a young flutterby (like a very tough dragonfly) fooling around, imitated by a young Smyt.
The young female Trog Wrawa recruits two mature male Trogs called Leny and Kronk to assist Sina in persuading Crazy Rhid to let them run the bucket chain through his home/laboratory. The loss of mind by older Trogs is discussed, and Trog friends or acquaintances of Kronk's called Yurd and Hamble are mentioned, who committed suicide by jumping into the Chasm when they felt their minds going. We see Leny try to eat a flutterby but it is, literally, too strong for him – it prises his jaws open and flies off. We learn that while male Trogs invariably develop progressive dementia after reaching full adulthood, 90% of female Trogs just die. Leny is very cheerful, despite his loss of functuon, because he was never very bright and so for him the dementia isn't a huge change.
The auction for Protus's gadget escalates.
We are introduced to SuperSmyt and his unassuming alter-ego Clur, defending three civilian Smyts from a giant Fuzz. Three Gnoll soldiers who are called Frag (who has a spiked helmet and an even spikier club), Forfind and Blem head to the defence of Le Tree, having been summoned by Nevus and Faldstool. Two Gobules, one of them named Cram, plan to attack Maw and Nash while they are distracted by fighting each other, on the instructions of an unnamed boss.
A Deep Wyrm called Yaypo overhears the two Gobules plotting an attack, and decides to head for the Hot Zone, where it's safer. There he meets fellow Deep Wyrms Syth and Gybb. Gybb hunts talking rocks: he smashes all the speaking rocks he meets, until he encounters one much bigger than he is, which batters him. We see a pebble break loose and become independently sapient. It meets an "old codger" rock (later dubbed GeezerRock), then falls to the glowing, molten surface of the Hot Zone (which we will later learn is a crust over some powerful, deep-down machine), where it is nearly melted. It then crashes through a hatch into a deep zone below the crust, where we see the skeleton of a Human, a dead Mansion security guard. In this zone there are Nome workers, Kulkad and Fizmo, wearing space suits, who are monitoring something to see if it changes. If it does, they're been told (probably by Frowgler, although we don't learn that till later) to press a button and run. Kulkad picks the rock up and shows it to Fizmo, who is very frustrated because other things have changed – this is the third rock to come through the hatch this week, there are mysterious sounds and it's getting hotter – but the thing they're watching stays the same. The pebble (later known as SuperRock) grows legs and runs away, and hides behind the Human skeleton while the Nomes search for it. It gets into the airvents where it is unfazed by pest-control systems, including a semi-sapient Verminator Metalmin which it induces to break down a barrier. In doing so the Verminator damages the air-shaft mechanism so badly that it self-destructs, causing an explosion which blows the SuperRock back out through the crust and onto a stalactite which it begins to climb, and causes Fizmo, one of the space-suited workers (a very talkative one), to quit. Stalactites hang above the molten surface of the crust and stalagmites and stone pillars protrude from it: one of the pillars has a vertical row of lights up it.
Comshaw, Digger and Niddle reach the gate that keeps Spyders and Tree-Squids out of the tunnels. Comshaw is anxious to find out who blocked the tunnel by hiring Skoil. They venture out into the forest, and Niddle is overcome by the sight of the sky. At this point, the crystal is consistently staying in his hand. They meet a Saur (who we will later learn is called Buzz and works for a mysterious Boss, probably Frowgler the "real life" horned frog, whom we will meet later) and two Pales. The Saur passes on a message that their world is ending, and about decisions Comshaw will need to make to minimize the damage. A great evil is rising in the Basement and if he turns back he may be able to stop it, but if he does he will miss a meeting in the forest which is even more vital. Buzz points him towards the forest, where he will find three old friends (Agita, Nevus and Guttle) who hired Skoil. The killer tree (the same one that tried to catch Mortimer) has a good feeling about the approach of Digger Odel and thinks he is lunch.
03: The Nome War [30/11/2004 – 10/01/2005] Digger Odel undermines and brings down the killer tree, watched by a Nome called Umboz, a squid-coaxer (we learn later that this means he persuades Tree-Squids to position themselves around his home village to protect it), and his daughter Vezza. Umboz is wrongly credited by other Nomes with killing the tree, and so clearing a path to a neighbouring North Gnoll village. Koyeeb, the local Nome mayor, proposes attacking the Gnoll villagers who are currently occupied with the Pales, and orders Umboz to lead the expedition. Umboz, fearing he is being set up because he is a political dissident, flees with Vezza. He mentions "Uncle Frotz and his friend Gnusto" who are out harvesting: these must be the two male Nomes whom we have twice seen in the forest. Frotz is Vezza's uncle and Umboz's brother.
Umboz tells Vezza about a war between mining Nomes and Gnolls in the Basement several generations ago. Overcrowding frayed everybody's tempers, and then there was an explosion in a Nome mine which was attributed to the Gnolls, although it was really set off by a "monster" or Demon (who was probably a Human – in fact, almost certainly Mortimer, as he has referred to himself as having done something in the past which annoyed a lot of Nomes). The Nomes attacked the Gnolls in retaliation and the Operator stoked the war by handing out weapons.
The Nomes lost the war because they had a hereditary leader called Zabern who wasn't much good. The Gnoll leader was Compline, who had survived serious childhood injuries and had been persuaded to lead the Gnoll army by his mate Caytid. Caytid was able to use magic, as both Gnolls and Nomes had been able to do in the distant past, and she brought other female Gnolls into the war as archers. Evidently both Gnoll and Nome society are slightly sexist, or maybe just fight in ways that rely heavily on muscle, as females fighting was a new thing for Gnolls, and also surpising to Vezza. A few mining Nomes were given refuge underground with other species but most ended up fleeing the Basement and living in the forest alongside the forest Gnolls.
The Nomes who fled to the forest were helped by the Pales there, but then some of the very alien Sneeches emerged in between the enemy lines. Both sides disengaged and fled, blocking off that part of the Basement where the Sneeches were by plugging the tunnels to the forest on one side, and pulling down all but one of the Human-made bridges across an underground chasm on the other, trapping the Sneeches in a narrow zone. [This is why the Council had to make a new tunnel from their side of the Basement to the forest.] Pales sometimes sneak back down through Sneech territory and across the one remaining bridge to trade, but they don't always make it back alive. Umboz says that unlike all the other intelligent species, "Sneeches aren't people".
Zabern was succeeded as Nome leader by his brother Gizgum, who was quite good at it, but rule then passed to Gizgum's son Tinsot and grandson Kaleeb, who weren't.
Vezza, whose mother is dead, advises her father to marry a female Nome Healer called Piu, who pretends to hate him but secretly likes him. At this point they are interrupted by a battered Nitfol (who has lost his obligatory hat, and is still quite gummed-up with strands of Spyder web) and two Pales. They do not seem to be the pair we saw with Buzz: both groups consisted of a Pale with a flag and one carrying a tool, but the flagstaff and tool are different shapes in each group. Nitfol tells Umboz and Vezza to come with him to the Pale village, because "Glorf and the rest of the Mayor's goons" are probably coming for them. He agrees to pick up Piu on the way as well, in case the Mayor persecutes her for her connection with Umboz.
04: CROSSOVER: The Zayfaring Stranger [13/01/2005 – 15/03/2005] A Human man called Zay, who is dimension-hopping to try to find a lost colleague named Phil, crashes through a dimension gate into the Mansion. Frederick's partner the Scary Lady takes Zay to a Panegate, a fixed inter-dimensional portal, and sends him on his way. While they are walking to the Panegate we learn that the walls of the Mansion sometimes rearrange themselves; and get to see some strange bits of the Mansion, including a sort of amusement arcade called Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where the Scary Lady acquires a balloon; and meet a G455 Guardinator Bot, which zaps Zay but not the Scary Lady, who gives it a false name, Melvin Dwamish, presumably the name of some family member or servant from generations ago. The bot is guarding a room holding Ernest, the 19th Earl's, secret stash: we don't get to see what the stash is, but from Zay's reaction, probably sex toys.
We meet Nellie Grubb, Amos's wife, whom Myrrh calls Prunella and with whom Frederick was once in love, although another man won her. We hear about the Crash, the sudden loss of magic, which occurred when Prunella was young (the Scary Lady speaks as if she was a small child, but we will later learn she must have been about twenty-five because she was already a student some years before the Crash) – later established as having taken place about fifty years previously. We see that Frederick's partner, a.k.a. the Scary Lady, can still do at least some magic, enough to modify memory – she makes Prunella forget their meeting, after Prunella wrongly assumes she and Zay are having an affair, and threatens to tell Frederick (who in fact probably wouldn't care if she were).
We also see a magical lift-shaft which you levitate up after telling a musical crystal ball what door you want to get to, and some unspecified creatures (just the eyes in darkness, and clawed hands with four fingers and a thumb) hiding behind a barred opening in the lift shaft, who call the Scary Lady "the Destroyer" and are there to watch what she does and prevent her from breaking through the bars. If she does they must send a message "back home". One of them "flibbles" a GOBOL to get it working again: flibbling is a running joke because we're never told exactly what it is but it seems to be some kind of quasi-sexual act which some people do as a job, and others try to suppress.
At the Panegate, the Scary Lady rescues a millipede-like trundlebug which was in danger of being zapped by the gate's security system. Zay is rude and sneers at her for showing compassion, so she decides not to tell him there are many different Panegates, and instead sends him somewhere difficult and filled with tentacles
The balloon from the Landing o' Family Fun turns out to be strangely significant. Although the Scary Lady lets go of the string and allows it to float off soon after she acquires it, we see at the end that it is sentient, and is following her like a pet.
05: Business Dealings [17/03/2005 – 19/07/2005] We start by seeing the same trundlebug that the Scary Lady saved, as it flees from a slimegrub, falls down a shaft and is swept through the bowels of the Mansion to bounce off a pile of rubbish and land ultimately on Rosemary's helmet – by which point it has shrunk to less than half its original size, as a result of being teleported by anti-vermin filters. It's supposed to regain its full size after a few minutes, but doesn't quite.
Rosemary and Sylvester are discussing chocolate, a great rarity, while they wait to see Spatchcock. We learn that Rosemary was an undercover hired guard for merchant caravans "Out West", pretending to be a travelling juggler while in fact working for a big security firm called Hack 'n Slash. Again, Human society, at least in the West, must be mildly sexist as a woman warrior was unusual (which made her better at not being suspected of being a guard). She mentions juggling triblots, which Sylvester hasn't heard of (we will learn they are fleebs). People in the west travel in caravans for safety, owing to widespread social disintegration. There are also small caravans in the Mansion area, groups of peddlars that travel around selling things such as medical supplies for which there isn't enough demand for a fixed shop in each village.
Meanwhile, Snoot is assisted by a Gnoll named Erud, and the Saur Snerk, acting for his employer, wins the bidding for the HJ42. Agita says she is engaged in "appalled speculation" as to where Snerk was keeping the sack of fleebs which he suddenly produces: in fact we will learn later that Frowgler leant him a Poke Kit (a sort of other-dimensional suitcase).
Comshaw and Niddle set out rather vaguely to find the "three friends" mentioned by Buzz: Comshaw figures it means the three bigwigs and he wants to know what they're up to out here in the forest. Along the way they capture a small Scalpsucker, and we learn that Comshaw had a dead friend named Boffin who was brother to Wunk, the panicky Gnoll who is on the Council. They meet a female Gnoll called Shona, the sister of Sina and also Nevus the Wyrm's assistant, who is waiting for the auction to finish so she can get through the security perimeter and give Nevus a message from Mr Faldstool (about the fight in Le Tree).
The Trog Wrawa and her adult friends Leny and Kronk discuss a male Trog called Villipend who jumped into the Great Chasm when he felt his mind going, and Kronk says that was a good thing, he's glad Villipend is dead. A friend of Kronk's called Yurd who also jumped is mentioned, and a friend of Leny's called Grum who has gone to visit the forest (he was the Trog we saw running away from Skoil). Wrawa bullies Tuft and Dap (who is building pebble towers for fun) into calling Odum, a male Trog friend of theirs, whom she then recruits to join Sina. Dap seems to have some kind of alarm-switch he can summon help with.
Rosemary and Sylvester are interviewed by the Eyebolt called Spatchcock, the manager of Le Tree, while carnage continues beyond his office window, and a Boogieman looms behind them, but so far in the shadows that he's hard to spot. Spatchcock wants to talk to them because they mentioned paper napkins, and paper is a great rarity in the Basement: the restaurant was actually planning to introduce them but this is a great secret so he assumes they are industrial spies. He scans them with his antennae and decides that they are forest Nomes from somewhere near an architectural feature called The Spike, who were sent by a rival restaurant called Le Gnollhole. Sylvester plays along with this, and inadvertently describes the appearance of Comshaw, the only Gnoll he knows, as being that of the Gnoll who sent him. Spatchcock then thinks that Comshaw, and the Council, are spying on Le Tree, which can only add to the tension between the Council faction and Nevus.
We learn that the Earl is considered to be a "fairytale monster". Snoot, who knows the two are Humans, spies on part of this conversation, then goes to the Growth and extracts from it a small, stroppy Shallow Wyrm called Squeeb, Nevus's brother in law, who is studying Ahz and Skiv. Snoot sets Squeeb to infiltrate Sylvester's backpack and spy on him: Ahz and Skiv are pleased to see Squeeb go.
Sprocket and Flange reach the wrecked Metalmin in the forest tunnel, and find Skoil, the young Poker whom Comshaw duelled, still lying unconscious or perhaps even dead. Mortimer tries to call off the auction because the Zorper is too dangerous to sell, but Snerk grabs it.
Back with Comshaw and co., they talk about Comshaw's other grandfather Bivit, who went to the forest to hunt Scalpsuckers, and came back changed. We learn that Gnoll reproduction requires a mated male/female pair plus an extra male called a Finagler, possessed of some mysterious psychic and/or manipulative ability. Shona is due to marry a mate Snerd and a Finagler Wubb, but she is concerned that Wubb may not be up to the job and her and Snerd's children will grow up delinquent or deranged. Niddle, normally quite vague and submissive, takes charge to give Shona advice about Finagling, and also flibbles her.
Shona and Comshaw watch a type of banded flutterby called a Vagabond, short-lived but able to fly beyond the world (we will learn later that this means leaving an area cented on The Spire and circumscribed by some kind of magical force-field). Vagabonds will be significant later. We also learn that Comshaw and his friend Boffin were in an accident in which something fell on them, and Boffin died: Boffin, who was the second-best Poker after Comshaw, saw a Vagabond leave the world when somebody hired him to go to the edge of the world, but he never said who hired him. Now Skoil is second-best. We see Thrash and two other Pales corner Niddle against a tree. It is possible they are the three Pales on whom Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed when they were clinging to the Tree-Sqiid, although if so not just the design of their bodies but of their tools/weapons has changed a lot.
06: Crazy Rhid [22/07/2005 – 23/08/2005] We learn that Crazy Rhid hates Wyrms because they can visit the Hot Zone and he can't. Sina's party locates him in the hallway outside his home, carrying an explosive plant-bomb. They discuss why he almost alone among Gnolls wears clothes, and why other species do or don't. We learn that he used to be a Candle Monk, which is why he still has a robe, but he was kicked out for blowing things up. He keeps the robe for its pockets.
Rhid knocks out Sepferb with something from his pockets, and Sina talls hm she wants to hire him. They are interrupted by a ghost cat (a crossover from another strip), which Rhid dismisses as a side effect of the time twistpoint. Sina says she wants him to go away and eat the cakeshroom but he refuses, knowing she's trying to get him out of the way. He refuses to let them run the bucket chain through his home, and sets off munitions which injure Sepfrbfrx and blind Sina, and when Sina summons the Trogs and tries to intimidate him he kills Leny with the bomb, saying with apparent pride that he is a terrible person, and Wrawa then violently attacks him and causes him to flee, leaving the coast clear. Her voice changes into something terrible.
07: Le Tree Lecture Series [25/08/2005 – 11/10/2005] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Le Tree: as they do so Snoot plants Squeeb in Sylvester's backpack in order to spy on them and find out what they are, but Squeeb is zapped by something he finds in the pack (we will learn that it is a taser). Rosemary and Sylvester smell smoke in the air. They discuss the life-support Tree which runs throughout the Basement and Mansion, providing air, food and light without apparently needing to be fed, and with a root which goes deeper into the Hot Zone than even Wyrms can follow (so it may be connected to whatever Fizmo was watching). Sylvester says it's kept the system going for nine generations and people who attack it come to a bad end. Rosemary finds it rather sinister. The trundlebug is still on her helmet. They pass the display cases which used to hold Cap'n Hamster, the plant and the ABOL, but which are now broken: a bonus strip shows us that they have escaped, and have sailed away down an underground stream in a small wind-up toy boat called the SS Pretty Lady.
They talk about the fact that Nomes are closely related to Humans, and other bipeds aren't: Rosemary has seen inside a Motihaul's ribcage (killed by somebody esle). They also talk about conditions in the west and we learn that there is a Motihaul Semi-Autonomous Region (SAR), plus a colony of Nomes who act as go-betweens, and near it is a very large, sinister, smoking machine or factory called the Infernal Engine. We also learn that although Ghasts are normally peaceful, there's a colony called Ghastvale where they are murderous to other sapients, and it blocks a mountain pass and forces traders to go through the Motihaul SAR instead. Sylvester knew about it even as a child because Frederick used it as a scary campfire story.
They discuss Sylvester and Mortimer's money-grubbing sister Lenore, and an old flame of Rosemary's called Edwird is mentioned. It's established that Sylvester also has an old flame, not named (we later learn she's called Nimue), and that Mortimer is highly successful with the opposite sex and makes a habit of bringing home strange and dangerous women. As they leave the restaurant they are accosted by a very frazzled Hpobfvfr, who is then attacked by Frag and others of Nevus's forces: there seems to be a pitched battle going on between Nevus's forces and the Council. Speck, one of the Gobules who was present when the Operator flamed, warns them about the fire at the elevator. She refers to Gorp and Phiga as Gorphiga, rather like couples in fandom. Sylvester and Rosemary decide to go the long way back to the Mansion, through the Sneech den and past many dangers, rather than face an angry, flaming Operator. Camora and Hax emerge from their alcove and offer to guide them.
Part Three: The Widening Gyre [12/10/2005 – 14/07/2007] 01: Strangers in the Night [12/10/2005 – 19/10/2005] We see the woman to whom the Weirdo, Arthur, was reporting earlier. High up in the Mansion she runs into Protus, who addresses her as Yasmine Fotheringby – we learn she has a strong accent and comes from a place called Shibolith. She asks him the quickest way to get down to the forest so he creates a rupture in space and pushes her through it, causing her to fall out into a ruined building in the forest, close to where Comshaw is searching for Niddle. We learn that Protus cannot walk – so the time-machine thing he sits in may be part of him – and that he is working with structures called time pylons, at least one of which is in the Mansion. 02: Frowgler the Horned Frog [20/10/2005 – 02/11/2005] In the woods Shona meets a talking frog called Frowgler, who possesses horns and a dragonish tail, both retractable. We will learn later that "Frowgler the Horned Frog" is the name of a guru figure in a popular local action comic, along with Roshambo the Warrior Beetle, whom the Sciencebugs worship. Shona associates the fact that Frowgler's horns are retractable with the way Nomes "tree-warp" in order to create Tardis-like bigger-on-the-inside homes in tree-trunks, a method which Nevus uses to hide his hench-Trogs Mulch and Grind: Frowgler refers to this as "tiny extra worlds". We will later learn that he has a Poke Kit (an extra-dimensional pocket) although that probably isn't where he keeps his horns. Frowgler seems to dislike Nevus, and tells Shona that there's no future in working for him, and she should work for Comshaw instead. He slightly implies that he might be a Demon, which makes Shona nervous: after she has departed to give her message to Nevus, Frowgler regrets having told her his name. He knows the names of her and her sister Sina. 03: Auction Aftermath [03/11/2005 – 20/11/2005] Knowing that the other three bidders at the auction will only allow him a brief head-start, Snerk the Saur flees with the HJ42. Agita is overbearing to Mortimer so he distracts her by kissing her, causing her to recoil in horror. The three fall out: Guttle threatens to eat Agita and Nevus, and Mimsy tricks Guttle into trying to eat a booby-trapped bauble created by Crazy Rhid and then hidden in her fluffy hair, and which ties him up in tendrils. We see a bearded Gnoll, a Gobule with four little tentacles on his head and a blindfolded Trog (we learn later that Trogs are very sensitive to sunlight) spying on the outcome of the auction – they seem to be henchbeings of the three bosses. The Gnoll we will later learn is called Agorn, and works for Agita , the Gobule is called Capper and the Trog is named Orfis and works for Nevus. Orfis, despite the blindfold, can smell the presence of a nearly-but-not-quite Nome, and the Saur running past them. Mortimer tries to sneak away in the other direction, carrying his sack of fleebs, and falls down a hole. Snerk collides with Shona, who is coming with her message for Nevus: the collision sets off the HJ42 again and it goes PROZ. 04: Good Rhiddence [21/11/2005 – 15/12/2005] Crazy Rhid runs away, passing the bucket chain, and Snerd goes to find Sina and get an update. Sina, who has been blinded by a blast set off by Rhid just before he killed Leny (but this isn't a major handicap because, like a dog, she is more scent-oriented), tells him that Leny is dead and the Ghast Sepferb, the same one who retrieved the cakeshroom from Maw's den, is badly hurt. Sina sends a very reluctant Snerd to tell the Ghasts so they can bring help for Sepferb, and sends Kronk the Trog to pursue Rhid. Kronk mentions that he was present – a long time ago – when Digger and a Trog named Yurd tried to saved the world, and from the sound of it people died. Noone present knows who Digger is. Sina also sends a Deep Wyrm called Ploot to organise other Wyrms, and a Motihaul called Hiblehoy to help Wrawa dispose of Leny's body, so the Gobules don't eat him. Ploot is very keen to help stop the fire getting to the Bottle, because Chauncy and Edgar visited the Hot Zone for two extended periods when they were loose before. Clochard speaks to a female Motihaul named Nugabela, who has children by Izchak, and has bought Bung's toadstool from Faddle. They see the Candle Monks massing to confront the Evil One and Clochard follows them, hoping for a show. 05: Guidance [16/12/2005 – 03/01/2006] Outside Le Tree, Hax prompts Camora to ask Rosemary and Sylvester to pay her for guiding them: Sylvester pays her with paper, already scribbled on on one side (Rosemary's To Do list) and she is glad to get it. A fountain with toxic fluid is mentioned. Sylvester pretends they are forest Nomes but Hax assures Camora they are Humans: we see a flashback in which Sylvester and the Scary Lady were involved in some trouble in the Basement. We learn that the Basement dwellers call the Mansion "God's Cactus" and that "God" in this context is not a deity but a wealthy, elderly man. The Candle Monks see the party and proclaim the Evil One: meanwhile in the background we see Frag with his club and helmet. Camora will guide them to see Izchak so Rosemary can get a new weapon. 06: Thrash [05/01/2006 – 18/02/2006] Still carrying the Scalpsucker, Comshaw sets out to track Niddle. As he does so he hears the sound "PROZ" made by the HJ42 firing. He encounters a Saur called Ig who used to know him and his late friend Boffin: Ig tells Comshaw he saw Niddle with a group of Pales, one of whom is called/has the job-title Thrash because he winnows out problems. Thrash has a double head-spike and a pale diagonal stripe across his chest, which must be painted on as later we see him without it. There is a mention of an Eyebolt called Preznit who is on the Basement Council, and wants to save the world. Ig says that Buzz's Boss – presumably Frowgler – appeared on the scene only recently and works with the Pale government, called the Nexus. Comshaw also learns from Ig that there had been an earlier explosion which went "ZORP", so the two were symmetrically matched. Ig and Comshaw come to a mound dotted with bare, dead-white tree-trunks: the top of this mound is called The Pit, and it normally performs some action which is currently quiescent. They hear a loud click and then a rainbow-striped pillar of magical Fire shoots out of the top of the mound, before switching off with another click. Comshaw guesses Niddle set it off by accident. Ig and Comshaw discuss some aspects of Pale culture, especially the carrying of flags with mysterious holes in, and we learn that in the past Comshaw, in his rôle as Poker, "brought down" a pair of rogue Trogs called the Raver brothers, and killed Crudbean – a sort of Triffid accidentally created by Crud, one of the protagonists in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They find Niddle and the Pales, who had been knocked off the hill by the Fire blast. Comshaw gets their attention by throwing the Scalpsucker at them, but is amazed to find how unimpressed by him Thrash is. The Scalpsucker first knocks down the one with the flag, then Comshaw confrints Thrash and demands to know where Niddle is and Thrash simply points behind him, to where Niddle appears, then turns and walks away. As he goes he picks up the flag, then peels the Scalpsucker away from the flag bearer and tosses it behind him – where it lands on the antler bearer, who chucks it into the forest. 07: The Hole Thing [20/02/2006 – 01/04/2006] Mortimer, who still has one shoe (on his right foot), and is still looking for Nitfol, finds himself at the bottom of a deep, crumbling pit created by the HJ42 blast. This sort of thing evidently happens to him a lot. A mongoose-like creature called a tunnel rat and a thing like a small eyeless Saur, called a Lurker, try to attack him but end up fighting each other (in the dark, he doesn't even see them). He asks a friendly female Scalpsucker (not the individual from the forest) to go for help, but then a small landslide, preceded by mechanical noises, reveals a door and he and the Scalpsucker go through it. They find themselves in the Basement storage-area of a pre-Crash branch of a Walmart-like superstore called World o' Pots (whose stock includes the self-sealing stembolts from Deep Space Nine), where Mortimer, still clutching his sack of fleebs, upends a crate of sphagnum dust over himself. There they encounter a scary-looking but well-meaning and slightly malfunctioning robot which Mortimer is able to semi-control by invoking a "Herediscan" which shows him to be an Eman, and which showers him with free samples of a fruit-flavoured dessert called Sploo and with little sweets called Yummysticks. Mortimer's brother Rufus then appears on the scene. The scalpsucker waits in the doorway, looking neglected. 08: Sittin' in a Tree [02/04/2006 – 27/04/2006] We see Piu, the Nome Healer (the one who Vezza previously said fancied Umboz), sprinkling things into a bowl: it's not clear whether she's mixing up what's in the bowl or feeding it, as an amorphous, grasping purple hand emerges and she whacks it with a wooden spoon. Umboz calls on her, and they semi propose to each other. He tells her that Mayor Koyeeb tried to have him killed, and she decides to run away with him, because she was already disaffected from Koyeeb's government as the number of Nomes in the village is dropping due to a low birth-rate, and Koyeeb is doing nothing about it. Mention is made of old stories about "Bugs" (Ettins) who were wiped out in a war. Piu gets out a brown ring, too big to be a finger-ring, that symbolises that she is betrothed: she also has a hat put away for their eventual marriage. The ring appears to be a hair-band, as up to this strip her hair is held back in a pony-tail by a mauve band, and after it, by a brown one. She is alarmed when Umboz tells her that they two, plus Vezza and Nitfol, have all been invited to visit the local Pale hive, since Pales are normally very reclusive: and a bit alarmed to hear that a beaver shark brought down Nitfol's hometree. Umboz agrees that if the Pales have invited them, it's because the Pales want something from them, but he can't think of a better way of hiding from Koyeeb. As they leave, in the background we see first one of a pot of ornamental carnivorous plants, and then the jelly monster in the bowl, trying and failing to eat a small flutterby: these things look as though they might be smaller, non-sapient relatives of Fern and the Oozes, just as there are non-sapient, livestock versions of Jibjibs and Trogs. Note that Piu controls the thing in the bowl with a designated Whacking Spoon, while we will learn that Ghast reproduction involves a pool of undifferentiated Ghast material and a Stirring Spoon. Glorf and the Mayor's goons are already at the window, and hear the clatter caused by the unsuccessful hunt. We see what Shona and Frowgler discussed, that Nomes live by creating Tardis-like spaces which are bigger on the inside, and which are apparently anchored to more than one tree, so that they can be entered and exited not just through the tree where the home is situated but through neighbouring trees (which is how they evade Glorf). Piu and Umboz rejoin Nitfol, a prattling Vezza and the Pales, and Piu gives Nitfol her emergency hat, kept for patients in need and made especially ugly so they won't steal it. As they set out Comshaw's Scalpsucker lands behind them. 09: Back and Forth [28/04/2006 – 20/05/2006] Propelled by the firing of the HJ42, Snerk the Saur and Shona the Gnoll find themselves fifty years in the past in the local Human city of Eetown three months prior to The Crash. They encounter a young, green-haired woman called Ilsa who is aggresively rude and calls them vermin, and one with long dark hair who seems to be the Scary Lady when young. These two are fighting about the Eman family because the Scary Lady is loyal to the Earl Philbert's brother, Frederick, and Ilsa hates the Earl and is part of some revolutionary group (we also see somebody in dark glasses, carrying a bomb). The Scary Lady realises that Shona and Snerk are out of their place and tries to use a magical 'fluence on Shona, but Gnolls are highly resistant to that sort of thing, so she grabs Shona physically and then is transported back to the future with her and Snerk. Snerk runs off, still clutching the HJ42. The Scary Lady tries unsuccessfully to remove her necklace/collar – this coincides with and may be the cause of the eruption of Fire from The Pit. Shona is aware that the town they were transported to had a feeling in the air like that of the River of Fire, and she'd like to feel it again. She believes she just went through a twistpoint, and isn't clear that where they went was in the past. The Scary Lady meets Frowgler and they discuss the collar, which is magical, is tied in to the power of the Mansion and was put on her by Frederick. It still gives her access to some power even in this future where magic has failed, although she's going to have to make some tweaks to the Mansion's magical systems. Frowgler warns her about the Crash about to happen three months ahead in her own time, and that she has to ensure that Frederick and his brother Quincy, Sylvester's future grandfather, survive it so Quincy can father children, in order to preserve causality. She might not care about the world ending if causality unravels, but she would care about Frederick ending, even though he was the one who trapped her. As confirmation that he's telling the truth Frowgler tells her that when she returns to her own time she will learn that Philbert is dead and Quincy is now the Earl. She refers to Frowgler as being "dressed like" a horned frog, so she knows him as something else. We learn that she is some sort of dangerous nihilistic demon whom the young Frederick and his friends summoned by accident and then couldn't banish again, so Frederick used up all his own power to create the collar that controls her. She hated him, yet grew also to love him. This must have taken some time, and Prunella was already a student when they did the summoning, which is why I say she must have been about twenty-five at the time of the Crash. Returned to her own time, the Scary Lady learns that Philbert is in hospital after a serious crash. She uses mind-control to co-opt Ilsa to assist her, reasoning that Ilsa will need a new purpose now that Philbert is about to die, and we see that a comic book called The Return of Frowgler is on sale. 10: Candle Monks [28/05/2006 – 09/06/2006] Rosemary, Sylvester, Camora and Hax confront the Candle Monks and we learn that Camora is the "Evil One" – because two weeks previously she accidentally knocked over their Eternal Candle while dodging a rack of lesser candles knocked over by Niddle. Rosemary scares them off by being commanding, but we learn that their theology is fairly sensible – they light candles because they don't like being solely dependent on The Tree for so much, including light. Camora tells the Humans about various religious sects in the Basement: we see what we will later learn are Bloomers, and she lists Beeblers, Ears of the Brush (we see a Helipath with an ear trumpet), Doomsayers, the Spelling Guild and her own group, the Ludwigites. They worship the great scientist Ludwig who rebuilt the world after the wicked Earl-monster tore it in two, apparently without realising either that he was Human or that he was the heir of E and eventually became the 18th Earl himself. They believe he was a Gnoll. Rosemary thinks it very progressive of the Candle Monks to have a male leader, the Ooze called Father Tartuf, because she's used to Oracles being female. Camora mentions that Comshaw has said that Nomes have male priests. We see that the Gnoll Clochard has been tailing them – and that he reports to Digger Odel. 11: Dropping Out [10/06/2006 – 16/07/2006] Camora, Rosemary and Hax go to visit a lavatory (known as a drophole) leaving Sylvester waiting outside. Protus appears to him (initially upside down) and says he needs to speak to him in private, and they are not alone (probably because of Squeeb hiding in Sylvester's backpack). He jumps Sylvester through a region of what looks like computer code to some kind of hyperspace cul-de-sac where Humans can survive (although Sylvester first forgets what his eyes are, then is able to see his own skeleton), and where Protus goes in order not to be overlooked by his employers (unspecified, but with eyes everywhere). Protus's world is in full colour, therefore full of magic. We learn that Protus has lost a very valuable object. He needs Sylvester's help to find it because he has special abilities – Faddle is mentioned as also having these powers, but not as much, and Mr Hand is mentioned as a nuisance to Protus. After turning on his helmet lamp, and a moment of confusion in which Protus appears enormous, Sylvester is able to see images generated by machinery which Protus has set up: he sees Mortimer wearing a pink outfit including a pointy hat and an umbrella, which is clerly the same outfit Mortimer saw himself in when he was Zorped forwards in time. This Mortimer is flying hand in hand with a kind of Superwoman figure in what seems to be an Eman family uniform, as it has a big E on the left shoulder. She is probably the woman Mortimer saw himself with in the future, as she has the same distinctive hairstyle, although her hair looks a bit lighter in colour. Then he sees Rosemary fighting a woman who is wearing some sort of leather gear and a magic glove, who we will learn is called Tansy, and who has the triangle-in-circle sign on her arm. He sees brief images of the male Motihaul Izchak, vending pointy things; of Crazy Rhid; and of an adult male darkpelter Trog, and he mentions that Humans in Wirtvale breed Trogs – probably less intelligent ones – for leather. He sees snapshots of three villagers: the local Oracle, Threnody; Saffron Stout the innkeeper; and Old Man Larssen. Then he gets glimpses of Angus's giant pot which is stored in the Mansion and of what looks like some Sneech growths, then of an old lorry (which he calls an auto) of a kind we will later see driven by Fixits working beneath the River of Fire. The driver of this one seems to have horns, or possibly a horned hat, and there is a big E on the front above the driver's cab. Protus says the lorry is the thing he's looking for. [Note: the only horned sapient species we know of are demons and Wendigoes; the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Protus then sends Sylvester back to outside the drophole, then reappears from further in the future to thank him for his help in recovering the lorry/auto. Rosemary, Camora and Hax then emerge (Rosemary says it was the second-nicest one she's used in a year, presumably after the flush toilet at the Mansion) and Camora can tell by scent that Protus has been there and has taken Sylvester out of time. She mentions that on a previous occasion Protus took Skibble out of Time Hall, and advises Slvester to describe what he saw before it fades, so he tells Rosemary about seeing her fighting a woman in a glowing glove, although Camora says the future isn't necessarily fixed. 12: Bad Rubbish [18/07/2006 – 04/09/2006] [End overlaps start of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions] Sina's team scatter to their tasks: Kronk to track down Rhid; Snerd to summon a Ghast Healer; and Hiblehoy to help Wrawa deal with Leny's body. Sina herself (still blind) takes the Deep Wyrms Ploot and Voog to break off a big metal fire-bowl from its plinth outside Rhid's place and chuck it through the door to set off any booby-traps. They are joined by the Gnoll Skuy from the bucket chain (who ducks when she hears all the bangs, but Sina doesn't flinch). Rhid's hall proves to be large and empty, but with alcoves along the walls some of which contain further booby-traps. They know there has to be a workshop elsewhere, for which Rhid is probably making. Ploot and Voog discuss Wyrm politics – their need for Telic (the healer) and someone called Hesper (who we later find out is a Helipath armourer) and for Coldzoners generally, a separatist Wyrm politician called Mother Byng who Ploot thinks is becoming senile (saying which could earn him a visit from a sort of secret police called Cousins) and trouble in the Burn Zone and with the sapient Rocks, which may cause them to need Rhid's weapons. The oppressive rule of families in Wyrm society is one of the reasons they come up to the Coldzone. We learn in passing that Skuy lives in a warren off Helignoll Hall with eleven other Gnolls. Voog, probing the alcoves, is injured by a booby-trap, which causes Sina to have a crisis of nerve about her leadership skills, but Skuy appeals to her desire to impress Comshaw. She leads her troops (Skuy the Gnoll, Spot the Gobule, Mowder the Trog and Fosic the Helipath) in setting off traps by throwing rocks: Spot is especially good at this, using his tongue, and reminds them that he is three-times winner of the Tosser's Cup. In the process Voog gives away the fact that some Hot Zone rocks are sapient and aggressive, causing Sina to promise herself never to go there. They need to press ahead because the smoke from the elevator is getting worse. They clear the way to the exit at the far end, but find it is blocked by a mysterious web linked to little glowing glass bulbs, and there is a burning pot of Trog Repellant which makes Mowder throw up. Mowder retreats, and Sina asks him to send any Ghasts forwards as she wants information about Dornbeasts. Meanwhile, Wrawa and Hiblehoy take Leny's body to Bowel Hall to be rendered down, because he wanted to be useful, and Rhid is seen fleeing past Tuft and Dap. We see Hpobfvfr, accompanied by a sled-mounted flame-thrower (not hers), interrogating Speck about Hpthbvtw's presence at the elevator explosion; the Council babbling in alarm; Nevus's Eyebolt secretary trying to get the flame-thrower recalled, so evidently it is part of Nevus's armoury; Digger doing whatever Digger does; Fizmo still climbing stairs; and Nitfol and co. still walking. Note that the title of this episode is a riff on the saying "Good riddance to bad rubbish". 13: After Thrash [05/09/2006 – 30/10/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1112–#1154] Comshaw, Niddle and Ig meet up by The Pit: Niddle still has his coming and going crystal, and close exposure to the Fire from the pit has left him with some extra clairvoyant knowledge of recent events. He mentions Mortimer, and Comshaw recognises the name as that of a supposed demon who caused an explosion which started the Nome–Gnoll war, and we learn that Compline and Caytid disappeared during a Sneech attack at the end of the war. We learn that Comshaw's father Comfrey tried to do something in the forest which Comshaw, his mother and the late Clerihew, Comshaw's parents' Finagler, spent their lives trying to live down. We also learn that the forerunners of Finaglers were called Schemers, now rare in the Basement but still common in the forest; that Ig has a forest Gnoll friend called Splat who won't tell him what Schemers do; that people come to the family home to get Finagling advice from Niddle when Comshaw and Camora are out; and that Comshaw and Camora are regarded as the best mated Gnoll couple. Sina and her intended, Sprocket, are the next best, although they argue because Sina has a crush on Comshaw, and Sprocket is used to relating to unconscious machines and his sexless Helipath partner Flange. Ig gives relationship advice to Comshaw. There is mention of a beautiful but too quiet Gnoll named Mimsy who was Comshaw's girlfriend before Camora. Mimsy is the Gnoll who now carries Nevus. Niddle warns Comshaw that the Pales were told by somebody (Comshaw assumes the Nexus, but it was probably Frowgler) to steer him away from the Pit; that Thrash is dangerous, angry and scared; and that Pales communicate supersonically although a few other people, including some Schemers and Finaglers, can hear them. We learn that forest dwellers call the Mansion of E "The Stump". Niddle recounts the vision he had when the Fire brushed past him – basically he saw scenes from all the things going on around them, and now he fills Comshaw in on them. The minds of Shona and Snerk felt good, as if something nice had happened to them (despite their trip to the past having been scary): maybe they picked up some magic. He has seen various Nomes, including a male priest and the party who are travelling to the Pale camp. We learn that the two Pales who are accompanying the Nome group are called Fetch and Stepit: Stepit seems to be the FlagPale. Niddle knows that the Pales think of their home as the Camp. Niddle saw Nellie Grubb – Frederick's neighbour – heading to the village. He knows where Mortimer currently is (under World o' Pots), so Comshaw decides to go and speak to Mortimer and find out what the Humans want. Ig comes too to see if anything entertaining will happen. As they walk they are talking about Metalmins, which Comshaw thinks of as some old Human thing. After the party sets off we see a Metalmin or some other robot (we only see part of the head – it's definitely not Hector) come into view near The Pit; Glorf standing in Piu's house (behind him the Ooze-like thing seems to be crawling away, taking its bowl with it); Shona talking to Nevus and Mimsy; Snerk finding a dead Spyder (actually, the same one which earlier attacked Nitfol and Mortimer); and the white-haired, oldish version of the Scary Lady, accompanied by the apparently sentient balloon from the Zayfaring Stranger incident. Woman and balloon pass what seems to be a topiary Gobule, labelled Znutar, and come to a golden glow which causes the Scary Lady to think that "it's time for that again already". Possibly she is seeing the light from The Pit through a window and remembering that she saw it from close up when she was fifty years younger. 14: Rufus [01/11/2006 – 27/12/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1161–#1195] Mortimer and Rufus discuss the family – they have sisters Lenore and Lil and a daredevil brother Ace. A few weeks ago Mortimer received a postcard from their mother and Lil sent from a place called Oongawa (the capital of Kuzco, near the Deep Jungle). Lenore is in their capital, and her last letter was very rude about someone or something. Ace was last heard of Out West, working for Grandpa Mundivagant. There is mention of Quincy having had an accident due to not tying his shoelaces. We learn that World o' Pots is 60% owned by assorted Pale shareholders (Pales from a sub-country called Shibolith, not the local ones): Pale communities are very competitive but the ones in Shibolith can't afford to ride to actual war on Titanbugs, so they compete over stocks and shares. Pre-Crash, Human weaponry had been leaning towards magic-powered zappers (we see a tank built by Griff in the Hall of Achievement, and we're told the brothers used to play on it – again, how did they get down there?), so the Pales did well out of The Crash because Human soldiers suddenly needed to buy their non-magical weapons, and it took a while for Human armourers in Wirtwam to step in and begin inventing non-magical weapons technology. There is mention of an unknown something lurking under the Barrier Peaks to the north. But the Pales also suffered many losses in The Crash so it's unlikely they engineered it, and their own country (Yurpsland, although readers weren't told that initially) also did well, because of Wirtwam, and because they already had a province named Isdanlia that built sailing ships, and that fact gave them a head start after the Crash so that now they have the most powerful navy in the world. The brothers pass through a cloakring designed to prevent magical snooping, although it gives Mortimer a bad feeling (he doesn't know yet that he has magic). Rufus thinks someone is watching him, but won't talk about it until they are inside the cloakring. It is mentioned that Mortimer is an expert lock-picker. Rufus wears gloves, and tells Mortimer not to touch anything. There is still a World o' Pots in the village but this pre-Crash one was vast and its basement is full of extraordinary things, some of them previously intended for shipment to the Far Eastern Shore, including a box of darkness, food supplies on which Rufus lives (and which include chocolate frogs, sasquatch and Soylent Grey), and a demon-trap bottle which Rufus had the shopbot install in case the unknown watcher is a demon, and which requires an extensible ceiling to fit it in, made by the Hammerspace Company, which specialised in extra-dimensional products including "Poke Kits" – weightless portable storage space. In the in-universe comic which featured Frowgler the demon frog and Roshambo the warrior beetle, Frowgler gave Roshambo a Poke Kit. The demon-trap worked best as a sort of tapered bulb, but since it naturally fills with liquid some marketing department decided to make it look like a wine bottle. We also learn about a massacre at a place called Thricklefork in Florin, after "an idiot at the Royal Academy of Magic" summoned demons. Rufus gets whacked by one of his own defensive booby-traps, but they make it to Rufus's room. Rufus says that for a year he has seen mysterious comings and goings from the Mansion of E (not the Basement), things being delivered or removed, and that the culprits are not Frederick, the Grubbs, Schmedley (the ageing butler) or Arthur the Weirdo. He believes it is down to Mr Hand, living high in the Mansion. Mr Hand is very old – believed to be the already-old wizard who locked the Operator in the elevator nearly eighty years ago – may or may not be Human, and has a Metalmin servant named Hector, which means he is the Overseer whom we have seen watching screens. There is a drawing of Hector on the wall. While they discuss Mr Hand, a shadowy figure is watching. This proves to be a woman named Eunice, who has a similar clubbed hairstyle to that of the Superwoman figure Mortimer was flying with in Sylvester's Protus-induced vision (but is probably not the same woman because her hair is lighter, and gets lighter still in later drawings), but wears gloves like Tansy, the woman he saw Rosemary fighting. Eunice stuns Mortimer with some sort of electric prod and tells Rufus, who has apparently known her for years, that she and the other villagers, including Threnody the Oracle, all work for somebody more important than Mr Hand. She works for God (the old rich guy, not the deity), and if Rufus comes with her, God will give him the answers he seeks. She dismisses Mr Hand as "a senile old fool". 15: Snerk Meets the Boss [28/12/2006 – 05/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions in between strips #1195–#1221] Snerk, the Saur who won the auction, is nibbling on the dead Spyder when Frowgler appears. Frowgler is looking a bit rough and has lost the tip of a horn: we don't actually know why because he looked OK when last seen with the Scary Lady. Either he has been elsewhere (or elsewhen), or the Scary Lady's return to her own time was more violent at his end than at hers. [Later we will learn that Frowgler has probably been damaged in an explosion which hasn't happened yet.] It was Frowgler who put him up to bidding for what he calls the Zorper – the HJ42. Snerk tells Frowgler that the Zorper fired – which Frowgler isn't concerned about – and gives Frowgler both the Zorper and a Poke Kit containing extra fleebs, which Frowgler had loaned to him. Frowgler dismisses Snerk, telling him to go lay low at headquarters for a few days, and to tell people called Lumpy and Buzz (presumably the Saur who gave Comshaw a message about the end of the world when he first emerged from the tunnel) he hopes to be back at headquarters tomorrow – but then he says goodbye to Snerk's departing back as if he expects never to see him again. Left alone, he speaks as if he has seen the Zorper before, refers to "your glowing friend", presumably the wandering crystal that Niddle has, then activates it. To do so he extends not only retractable claws but what looks like a button with a "3" and two dots on it, set into the palm of his right hand and resembling the writing on the buttons on the device (or perhaps it's a coin: it's not wildly different from some coins with the E on). This time the Zorper goes "OZPR", violently enough to worry Snerk. [Latr we will learn that this sets off the explosion in which Frowgler has been/will have been damaged.] 16: Closing In [06/01/2007 – 25/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1221–#1235] Clochard asks Bung where Digger Odel is, and Bung says Digger is returning after being hired by a mysterious personage to bring down the killer tree (remember that the killer tree coming down is significant because it cleared the way for Mayor Koyeeb to lead an assault on the North Gnoll village). Meanwhile Rosemary's party are heading for Izchak's weapons shop, and Hpobfvfr is seen fleeing, apparently because the flame-thrower is about to explode. Rosemary and Sylvester pass an official notice saying "DO NOT PAINT THIS WALL BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL", on which somebody has painted "ZARK OFF N DIE". Camora explains Basement politics as she sees them – how the Ghasts encouraged the formation of the Council as a peaceful alternative to the gang bosses Agita, Nevus and Guttle, because they need a stable environment in which to maintain their breeding-pools and reproduce. The Council had wanted Comshaw to be the Gnollish representative, but Camora didn't permit it. Camora regards the Council as meddlers, except that they did bring down and confine the demons Chauncy and Edgar. She despises Preznit, the Council leader, in part because he wears a hood and gloves and a fake voice and pretends not to be the Eyebolt everyone knows he is. The Helipath and Jibjib (Rubrak and Snipe) are trying again to raise the heavy weight in front of the "No loitering" sign. Hpobfvfr gets mixed up with Sina's bucket chain as a result of a misunderstanding – she is looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw and hears that there is an injured male Ghast near Crazy Rhid's place, but in fact it's Sepfrbfrx, now one of Sina's team. 17: Conflagration [26/01/2007 – 26/03/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1242–#1297] Rosemary and Sylvester come to Time Hall, the centre of the Basement complex, where there is a poisonous fountain (which spews a different fluid every hour) and a levitating Ettin-made clock. They proceed to Sidestep Hall, the Motihaul village, which is divided by sex: the fact that Rosemary and Sylvester already know that it will be leads to a conversation about Motihauls elsewhere, what a swamp is, and the existence in the Basement of Nubby's Crogogator Pit (Camora says that Nubby really got into his work). Hpobfvfr isn't interested in Sepfrbfrx, and in any case says she can't help him and he needs a Porta-Pool. She can smell that it was Rhid who damaged him, and can smell the Trog repellant, and she suspects Dornbeast bulbs are also present. She dismisses Skuy as of no interest, and asks Sina about a Ghast by the elevator. They are somewhat at cross purposes because Sina thinks Hpobfvfr is the Ghast that she sent for for help with Dornbeasts. It seems that the web across Rhid's exitway is a Dornbeast net. Rhid wanted an exit leading towards the elevator and the Fringes but that meant there were adult Trogs and Dornbeasts out there, hence his choice of a Dornbeast net and Trog repellant at the door. That means it is Hpobfvfr's quickest way through to the elevator. The net is made of Scalpsucker tendons and when pulled it sets off bulbs of sphagnum grit, which Dornbeasts find very irritating (although the ones which guard the breeding-pools are conditioned to ignore it). Some of the bulbs turn out to have explosive in them, not just grit, so Hpobfvfr slashes the net with a cutting claw concealed in the flesh of her finger. It was put there when she was a child, and it's painful. Sylvester's party have a certain amount of difficulty getting past the Motihaul guards, Smatchet and Gunsel, and Rosemary has to sneak up on them and disarm Gunsel. She tells them to either get some training or get a different job, and that Snoot will need a cleanup team at Le Tree. As the party leaves, the guards comment to each other that they have seen a "hat" like Camora's before, on somebody called old Mumchance. Rosemary didn't keep Gunsell's spear because she's done with stealing, and also it wasn't very good. Camora tells Hax, quietly, that the person to see for the best weapons is Hesper. Although Rosemary has a sense of unease, the party don't realise they are being overlooked by hidden seige engine controllers, including an officer we will later learn is called Upernavik. Meanwhile, the Scary Lady is still wandering around the Mansion with her sentient balloon, summoning it by whistling, Sina calls the bucket-chain into line to run through Rhid's place, and Hpobfvfr exits from the now open doorway and goes to the elevator looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw, where the Operator, now conscious and suspended in the fire, tries to hypnotise her. Meanwhile we see the Scary Lady, upstairs in the Mansion and still accompanied by her balloon, looking at the doorway which leads to Sneech territory and being concerned that it is silent when there should be a sound of screeching. Flames of magic flare out from the Operator, flowing through everybody nearby, incorporating the arm of a female Motihaul named Kulma which is then unnaturally stretched through a doorway to carry the power to touch the Jibjib Snipe and his Helipath friend Rubrak, who have just managed to secure their weight. It causes Rubrak to drop a hooked tool, just as the Scary Lady reaches the top of the elevator, presses a button and by doing so forces the Operator back into his lift and puts out the flames. As he feels his inescapabale task pull him back he grabs Hpobfvfr and drags her into the elevator with him, and the retracting lash of the Operator's energy and the Motihaul's arm throws the dropped tool and pings it against Chauncy and Edgar's containment bottle. 18: Chauncy & Edgar [27/03/2007 – 24/04/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1304–#1325] The people in the bucket chain who were caught up in the energy flow have been knocked down by it and are a bit dazed, apart from the Gnolls such as Niff, Folla and Wittol who are all still standing. Sina wants everybody to go home, now, because she feel something much worse than fire was involved, then it stopped for no reason so it may well re-emerge from the elevator. The Motihaul Kulma knows that her arm was stretched somehow and that it touched a Jibjib. Spot is being Spot and seeing how far he can stick his tongue into something. Meanwhile the demons Chauncy and Edgar, who are extremely polite and careful with each other (in a way which involves a quote from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, about staying on your own side of a division), investigate the damage to their bottle, where they can sense a tiny hole. We learn that they fear the Caged King (the devil in the elevator) and something called the Burning Eye (later comments suggest this is the light near the top of The Spike, a tall thin tower near the Mansion) very much, and the Scary Lady somewhat less so. Chauncy temporarily detaches one of Edgar's horns to use as a chisel to break their way out through the side of the bottle. Folla tells Niff that something weird is happening by the bottle, and Skuy and Voog can feel that Hpobfvfr was taken away. Sina is already telling everyone to clear the area when Niff goes to check on the bottle, sees it breaking and yells to everybody to run: note Niff and the bottle are not near enough to Sina for her to hear him. Both the Operator and the Scary Lady hear it blow. Once they are free, Edgar, the more Human-looking one, tries to set off on his own, but Chauncy (who resembles a woodlouse) won't let him. They kill the weight-lifting Helipath (who we only later learn was called Rubrak), who was knocked down by the energy surge – Chauncy cuts hir and then Edgar drops the heavy weight (which seems to be levitating, since most of it stays up after the rope is cut) on to hir. But Edgar is less murderous than of old, and turns down the chance to vivisect Rubrak's working partner, the Jibjib Snipe. We learn that Chauncy and Edgar were sucked through some kind of hole from their own dimension, where they were under such constant threat that they had no time to take names or to think, and when they arrived they kept up the same level of violence. Now as prisoners they have had time to calm down, and just killing more local life without gaining any new information from it seems pointless, at least to Edgar. They are aware of Rosemary, who passed by their bottle an hour or two beforehand: they can tell that she is of this dimension, not a heavyweight being like the Operator or the Scary Lady, but still she feels different and they go in search of her to dissect her and find out why. Meanwhile we see the Gobule Bung wake from deep sleep, apparently with clairvoyant knowledge of the demons' escape, and send two Jibjib henchbirds names Spuza and Snurt out with some kind of message or mission. 19: Remnants [25/04/2007 – 21/05/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1332–#1353] Sina, who deosn't yet know that Chauncy and Edgar are out, takes a mourning leave of the missing Hpobfvfr, standing in front of the closed elevator and apologising for leaving her. Many of her surviving forces disperse to home and/or safety, and Smyts move in to devour the dead. Sina speaks to a female Trog called Maggle who is a darkpelter (has a dark coat and pale hair) which is associated with resistance to Trog repellant: Sina sends her to take the buckets back to Tunktal the bucket maker, who is regarded with revulsion. Rhid's hidden workshop was blown open and exposed when Hpobfvfr disposed of the booby-traps: Sina and Skuy go to tell the Council about it, leaving Ploot and Voog (who had started to go home, then felt guilty about it and came back) to guard the workshop and prevent Rhid from returning. They don't actually enter the workshop, because it's booby-trapped (Skuy drops to the floor when exploding arrows start flying about), and the things in it might be useful so they don't want to just blow it up. Voog doesn't want to talk politics, and says if Ploot keeps talking about Mother Byng being senile he'll be tossed in the Squirmpit. Ploot can feel change coming. There is a twistpoint nearby which causes Sina and Skuy to see a vision (of the falling whale and bowl of petunias from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Rhid had told Sina about the twistpoints, with reference to the ghost cat we saw before: she says that he was dangerous not because he lied (he never did as far as she knows) but because of the truths he knew; that she wishes she'd had a chance to talk to him under safer circumstances; and that yes, he's a terrible person but a person can be both terrible and great. She wonders how many people Comshaw has killed (we know of at least three, if the Crudbean counts as a person). They head for the Council and to get help for Sepferb, still lying injured on the floor. On the way they meet Catmorlo, who collects her cakeshroom (accompanied by Nosh, who is eager to eat it) – Catmorlo gives them all a chuunk of the cakeshroom and Sina thinks that if she hadn't intervened they would all still have been standing around arguing about how to organise the bucket chain, no-one would have died or been injured and the fire would have stopped anyway (this may or may not be true: it depends on what the Operator would have done). She tosses the no-longer-needed tray away, hitting Nosh off-screen. No, she doesn't know why it's called a cakeshroom. Then they hear an explosion and meet a female Motihaul named Asota who warns them that Nevus and the Council are fighting, and Chauncy and Edgar are loose. 20: The Lady and the King [22/05/2007 – 09/06/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1360–#1367] By pressing a button the Scary Lady has summoned the Operator to open the upstairs doors of the lift: he asks if she's called him because she wants to know about the Sneeches and she tells him it's because he was having too much fun with the fire etc. and she had been contractually obliged to intervene, although various distractions conspired (possibly literally) to delay her in so doing. The Operator tries to tempt her to break her contract and let him do as he pleases, and in return he will restore both her and Frederick's full power and youth, maybe send them through a Panegate to a place where they can be the god Ghu Himself. Then he realises that Frederick-the-magician died (that is, ceased to exist) just after summoning her, so it was Frederick-without-magic that she fell in love with and she won't want the magician back; but still, he can give them both eternal youth, instead of her having to watch Frederick decline with age. He calls her "my child", and partway through this conversation his little uniform hat metamorphoses into a crown, the little tags on his shoulders grow into full military-style epaulettes and his uniform develops brass buttons and a medal, but she rejects his offer. He mentions creatures he calls "poor Shades" who refer to her as The Destroyer – presumably the ones we saw watching her from behind a grille as she escorted Zay to the Panegate. She mentions him standing on a balcony being cheered by a crowd (in Zark, as we will later learn), but he lost his power and now he's "locked in a box at the ragged end of reality" because nothing lasts forever: he says "including boxes". After she leaves, the Operator/King comments to himself that she was feeling unexpectedly hopeful and he wants to find out why. He reaches through the dimensions to touch one of Protus's time pylons: it gives him a shock but he hangs on and scrolls back through the Scary Lady's recent experiences. He sees a mask, then the pillar of Fire, then Prunella, then Zay, all of whom he dismisses as sources of hopefulness before coming to an unbreachable barrier. If these scenes are running in order then her hopefulness must relate to whatever happened when she went out earlier in the day. He believes she has seen whatever Protus is hiding among his time pylons, but doesn't know it. He wants to call her back some time soon to speak to her again, and we learn that he has engineered a test for Rosemary (floating above his hand is a vision of Rosemary's winged helmet and the horns of Chauncy and Edgar), and if she passes he will want her back too – but it depends on his gaining control over Hpobfvfr, who is still resisting his attempts to take over her mind. Meanwhile, something the Operator said has led the Scary Lady to assume there's something up with the Sneeches. She takes up her Sneechstick and prepares to go through the archway which leads to the route which runs through the Sneech den – so she will presumably be going down the route that Sylvester and Rosemary will eventually be coming up. 21: No Gnoll is an Island [11/06/2007 – 14/07/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1374–#1409] We see brief snapshots of the various groups – Skuy talking urgently to Ploot and Voog; people throwing stones at Chauncy, who is menacing Frag and a Trog; Kronk storming along, being watched by Clochard; Agita and Nevus and their assistants leaving the auction; and Ig, Niddle and Comshaw striding out. Then we cut to Comshaw's team in the forest. Comshaw is saying that Metalmins don't move: Niddle is just insisting that he saw a vision of an active, moving Metalmin when they hear the "OZPR" noise made by the HJ42 as Frowgler activates it. This is followed by a burst of purple light from behind the trees, and Comshaw says this is far more violent than and of a different quality from the previous such event (by which he means when it went "PROZ" after Shona and Snerk collided). He compares the previous event to the light-show in the Cavern of Serene Shimmering (which has something to do with marriage/reproduction), which isn't as bad as the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave. While they are talking an enormous boulder is thrown through the air, narrowly missing them. Niddle is thinking of going to check out the site of the explosion when Ig smells something (which he recognises but the Gnolls don't) and tells them to run. Something is growling offstage left and even flutterbys are fleeing. They climb up onto the ruins of an old Human fountain, and Ig tells them what's coming is a skunk shark, which can't climb, and isn't as bad as a beaver shark. Once beaver sharks lock onto a prey they never give up, but skunk sharks lose their sense of where you are and wander off if you climb up high. They're called skunk sharks because they smell, although neither Ig nor Comshaw know where the word "skunk" originates. Niddle is still clutchuing the glowing crystal but nobody notices or comments on it: not even him. Ig and Comshaw talk about the skunk sharks, whom Ig calls "growfers", useful omnivore which graze and thin out the saplings to create open woods and grassland. They don't go to the deep forest to the north, and that's why it is deep forest. They tend to graze in a circle which is "East of the Ravine. South of the Deep [forest]. West of the Stump North of the Edge. The important stuff." This circle is probably centred around The Spire, and doesn't include the Mansion (the Stump). The shark will go away eventually but Ig can't say how long that is because he doesn't know what an hour is and can only count to forty-two. This leads them to a conversation about maths and inifinity (we see the Eyebolt mathematicians Poyndext and Suscalva, arguing). Comshaw says he can count to a million, which is about how many leaves there are in the world, and Niddle says he's wildly underestimating. They have to hang around on top of the fountain's plinth for a couple of hours, talking, until the shark has gone. Comshaw tells Ig how they divide up the day into twenty hours, and they know about sunrise and sunset because The Tree extends above ground and responds to sunlight, and the GBOLs (Glowing Balls of Light), the lights powered by The Tree, are dimmer at night. The Basement-dwellers got the idea of a twenty-hour day from the Ettin-made clock in Time Hall which, like a lot of other Ettin artefacts, they wrongly believe to have been made by Humans. Comshaw has decided not to visit Louch after all, so while they wait they break out the beetles. Then Comshaw climbs to the top of the fountain (which is about 8ft tall, not counting the base) in order to get a good view all around. Part Four: The Road Less Travelled [16/07/2007 – 26/02/2010] 01: Izchak [16/07/2007 – 30/08/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1416–#1451] Sylvester's party come to a Motihaul-owned shop called Izchak's Sharp n' Pointy. Izchak is a bit annoying, and tries to sell them sharp twigs, Nome picks and then a machete-like sword which he says belonged to Othar. Rosemary is attracted by a weapon like a halberd with a weighted butt and a kind of hooked crescent end. She doesn't know it, but this is the same weapon Mortimer saw her carrying when he was briefly flashed forwards in time after he pressed the button on the HJ42 during the auction in the forest. Behind her back Izchak tells Sylvester and Camora it's not for sale because it's trapped in an "airbox", an Ettin-made forcefield which the Basement dwellers wrongly attribute to Humans, and which neither he nor Sprocket and Flange have been able to open. However, if he was telling the truth then something Rosemary does, or some change in conditions, causes the airbox to open and the weapon comes freely to Rosemary. As Rosemary is speaking to Izchak, Chauncy and Edgar carve their way in through the wall. They want to dissect Rosemary and Sylvester to see how they differ: Chauncy says that the walls in Rosemary's head have "only traces of extra paint on them", while Sylvester's are "thickly encrusted". They know who Rosemary is because they heard about her from another demon named Scratch whom she encountered before. Rosemary thrashes Edgar with her new weapon and then tells him that his victims felt similar pain, and until the magic comes back he's stuck here so he has to learn how to live here. Edgar it transpires is not callous or brutal: rather, because the Human world is so flimsy in comparison with his own he had believed that the world and the creatures in it weren't real, but something like a video game. Now that she has shown him that these are real people he doesn't intend them harm. We learn that Rosemary did something similar in the past with Scratch: she got him to pay attention to her, then advised him to go away, find a new place and learn how to live there peacefuly. We learn some background information. Demons in this world communicate with each other long-distance by a process called "tapping the lines". Chauncy and Edgar would have left long ago but they are constrained by some kind of barrier around the local area (it does seem to be local, not the planet's magnetic field). It surrounds the tunnels, the plant life outside and the Burning Eye, which is probably The Spire. Edgar can tell that Sylvester is closely connected with the Scary Lady (his great aunt), and Sylvester tells the two demons to go ask her to help them to get away. They say she has forbidden them from ever going upstairs again, but then Chauncy senses that she is on her way down, so they go in search of her. Before they leave, Chauncy asks Rosemary to strike him too so he can feel it, and she does so but nearly breaks her wrists, because he is so solid. Chauncy agrees that that was unpleasant and he'll think about the implications. Edgar, who seems to be a nice boy at heart, thanks Rosemary and says he will talk to the others. Then they simply carve their way through solid rock to go see the Scary Lady. After they have left, Rosemary pays Izchak, and starts looking for a suitably grand romantic name for her new pole weapon. Sylvester dubs it "the Can-Opener". He finds it supicious that the airbox just opened and let her take the weapon, as if it had been set up for her to take. He learned about airboxes at the University: they all have some specific trigger to open them, but it could be anything. We see sample airboxes containing a little machine with three "eyes" and two arms or horns; a statuette of Cthulhu/a winged Ichyoid; and a pipe with a flared end. As they come away from Izchak's shop Camora smells something, and a voice shouts "HALT!" 02: Upernavik [31/08/2007 – 26/09/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1458–#1479] As they come away from Izchak's place, Sylvester's party encounter a group of male Motihaul soldiers armed with cold-forged iron weapons (which was what Camora could smell: and Sylvester can tell that they are cold iron, which implies he might have some magic himself), inbound to tackle Chauncy and Edgar, and are warned by their officer, Matagam, to leave the area. The clever and devious head of male Motihaul security, Upernavik, is listening through bugging devices: he must have heard the confrontation between Rosemary and Edgar, because he has "Scratch" written on his notepad. He sets Whisp (a dark-pelted female Trog) to tail Rosemary, Camora and Sylvester, then orders his side-kick called Knumdrot (a play on the Patrician's secretary Drumknot in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels) to lock down their whole Hall, saying that the sellers might object but their spokesmotihaul just had his shop ripped apart by two demons and a giant killer Nome. Knumdrot refuses, citing a Contract which states that a Full Hall Lockdown requires the prior consent of both Upernavik and his female counterpart, Angmagslika. Upernavik regards consulting with Angmagslika as a dire ordeal – but he doesn't need to meet her after all because he receives a message from her telling him to initiate Lockdown. A horn is honked to alert two male Motihauls called Notserplib and Nagolder, who are dozing in a very cozy flat or office full of ornaments and games. We see the sound travel down pipes past a Smyt graffiti-artist ("Fnord wuz ere") and a Trundlebug who is looking at something like a Pacman monster. The two Motihauls have a pet tunnel rat called Hackit who is sleeping on Nagolder's stomach, and has to be lifted up with defensive gloves and placed in a box decorated with a moon and stars (it doesn't work without them) to control him. His job is to protect them from slimegrubs. Once Hackit has been safely boxed, they swim down a well-shaft to an underwater capstan which they turn to close off the Hall: they are able to breathe underwater, so long as it's fresh water. Nagolder, we learn, is a friend to Cully, the young Gnoll who was banished to SubShaft 44f. Shut outside in Time Hall, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that he considers her to be only the second most frightening woman he knows – after his great-aunt the Scary Lady. 03: The Gibber [27/09/2007 – 01/11/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1486–#1515] Rosemary starts to tell or ask Sylvester something about the Scary Lady, but Sylvester interrupts to talk to Camora about the fact that they are heading for the Riddle Grotto. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their upbringing – Sylvester's parents were loving but absent, his father a twit who died young, his mother always a traveller, literally and figuratively, so he was raised largely by the Scary Lady. Rosemary, whose parents we know drowned in a maritime accident, was raised by her Aunt Eva and by Eva's former bodyguard Zeke. We see a vignette of Eva teaching Rosemary how to pick locks. Heading towards the long way out, they pass a group entity called The Gibber, guarded and assisted by an elderly female Gnoll (the grandmother of Mimsy), a Poker called Anathama. Helignoll Hall is a major home site for Helipaths and Gnolls: some years previously they started to open up a side chamber called Helinew, but then seven years ago a group centred around a male Gnoll called Altholen, inspired by stories of the magic-users Caytid the Gnoll and the male Motihaul explorer Othar, used "Sneech squeezings" and the underground River of Fire (= magic) in an attempt to reawaken the magic in the world. Instead, they caused a cataclysm called the Breach which extended right up into the Mansion, where it caused sparks or similar to shoot out of the Tree. In the Basement it killed a large number of Ecadems and generated many new twistpoints. Camora's sires' Finagler Twitchel helped to seal it again: her sires Buccula and Choller also claimed credit for sealing the Breach. Some of this information comes from Camora, and some from Anathama who says that Buccula and Choller just got in the way, and it was the Trog Yurd and co. who fixed it. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Anathama they are forest Nomes, but Anathama as a youngster saw the young Sylvester and the Scary Lady fleeing a running fight with some Trogs in the Basement and she knows that they are Human, although she doesn't comment. One of the effects of the Breach was to bring The Gibber, a cloud of half-seen faces in the darkness beyond a hole in the wall, into being in their own pocket of reality, overlaying what had been Helinew Hall. The Gibber have great knowledge and always tell the truth, so they function as an oracle. The Gibber knows their names – Sylvester Winston Humphrey Eman (but they hesitate over the Eman and say that some things are truths and not truths) and Rosemary Imogene Ripley, who they know arrived in an instant. In the past they told the truth to Camora, that she was going to mate with Comshaw: neither she nor Anathama were happy about it, since Anathama thought he would mate with her granddaughter Mimsy. Now they tell truths to Rosemary and Sylvester, which they later tell Anathama were among the greatest truths they have ever given. To Rosemary they say "What you stole is even more dangerous and precious than you know. In the end, you will fly away and live forever, and you will leave the world shattered in your wake." To Sylvester: "You will return to where you started, and you will become what you hate. And in doing so, you will restore the world to what it was". After Rosemary and co. have left, The Gibber tell Anathama that they are dying – the power source which maintains them has failed (which suggests they are powered by the Sneeches). She is quite upset by this. She tells them that her duty with them has not been onerous, especially considering some of the things she has done in the past – we see her crawling through a tunnel to collect Glowgems – and she mentions somebody called Bokonon who was "Sent into the SubShafts, and then..", which was somehow Digger's fault. This was connected with some necessary but personally risky thing that a group she belonged to, along with Bokonon and Digger and unspecified others, was and are doing. She needs to find Digger and tell him that Humans are back. Digger has never been to The Gibber to hear his truth. 04: Hop Skip and Several Jumps [02/11/2007 – 08/01/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1520–#1581] Bung's Jibjib messenger Snurt goes to Maw – who is just wrapping up winning a battle against his assailants – and warns him that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. Cram and his colleague, who were planning to attack both Maw and Nash, have been defeated: Cram is fleeing and the colleague is dead. One of two tiny Fuzzes is unimpressed by Chauncy and Edgar, qua world-destroying giants, as they've seen bigger. The people at Rhid's place arm themselves with the remains of his Dornbeast-repellant globes, ready to fling them at the demons. Sprocket and Flange 'phone Mr Hand and tell him they have his Metalmin filament and now they're going home: they don't tell him they have seen Nevus and Agita returning to the Basement. Mr Hand tells them to drop the filament off first. Nevus speaks to Frag and is surprised to find that in his absence his forces have gone to war against the Council, in his name and claiming his authorisation. The Nome party – Vezza, Piu, Umboz and Nitfol – and their Pale escort cross a rope bridge across the Ravine en route to the Pale camp. A chain of Pale lookouts send a signal to the Camp by waving flags and tools: at the Camp they have a telescope set up to watch for the signal. We see their supersonic voice being sent from the telescope operator to the The message is "She is coming", so presumably it's either Piu or Vezza they want (unles it refers to Fizmo who will join them later). The message passes by somebody who is being showered (or maybe fumigated). The Nexus him or herself, the ruler, is apprehensive and says that "she" may not be "the one", and the outcome will prove "Frogmask" – presumably Frowgler – right or wrong. We see a frog on a lily-pad near a Pale boatman: apparently it's a real frog. The boat is a punt, and there are fish in it. The action cuts to the high thin tower called The Spike, on the edge of a lake somewhere near the Mansion, where a high-ranking male Fixit called Cox is using a mesmerised Pale mount to listen to Pale communications. Cox speaks to a Human called Dorian who has lived in The Spike for forty-two years. Dorian is being ridden by a Fixit but it seems that Dorian is the one doing the talking, and is in a position of authority. Dorian says that somebody called Kelso is "finally bringing in her pet idiot" – presumably Rufus. We will learn that Kelso is Eunice's surname. Cox floats down through the tower, using artificial levitation devices, until he meets a female Fixit called Vix who is riding a controlled Nome girl, and pushing a gurney holding industrial supplies. During the chapter headed Thrash, in the 900th strip which in real-time appeared almost two years before this one, a light message saying "900 WOO HOO" was seen shining from the top of The Spike. In-universe, this of course was earlier the same afternoon, and Vix says that the "wooflare" has drained some resource which the supplies on the gurney will help to stabilise, but Cox calls her away to walk with him. We learn that Cox is significantly older than fifty and witnessed the Crash. He talks to Vix about the Crash and the Human cities he once saw. Vix doesn't think she will ever ride a Human and visit such places, as she's never even been DownSpike: Cox says he was there when she was brought up from the pens. There is a reference to a shield around the area, and to a new Human being brought in to The Spike, presumably Rufus. Protus, he thinks, has some vast plan – he first appeared five years beforehand and since then there have been more wooflares, both in the Spike and the SubShafts (a fourth-wall breach reference to the dawn of the comic, although it only became an organised web-comic four and a half years earlier), and more twistpoints. Mr Hand has been passing on reports from the Hot Zone observers, which also suggest imminent events: so Mr Hand is in some way allied with The Spike. Protus finds Mr Hand mildly annoying but nothing they know of will make him angry: but he could still crush them all in passing. There is also a female enemy Out West who some people fear might be involved with Protus, although Cox doubts it, and so does a leader called the Topspike, who may be the same as God. Cox says that before the Crash he was sent to Rowen, the capital of Lune, to bring back an airbox (maybe the one in which the Can Opener was kept?), but he should have dumped it and fled, and Vix should do the same if she gets the chance: flee the Spike, and go anywhere except Out West. Meanwhile, within sight of the Spike but some distance away, Frowgler crawls out of the crater left by the OZPR event – he seems mildly disappointed that it didn't kill him. He has the broken horn: is it possible that within his own timeline this is happening before he met Snerk and received the Zorper from him? Perhaps going OZPR sent him around in a circle. At the Mansion, the Weirdo, grieving for his dead friend Tulip (said to have been "hauled off to the Pole", a euphemism for death), has got roaring drunk, climbed up to the roof terrace, set off a siren called the Mugwump Alarm (although there are no longer any Mugwumps in the area and they are believed to be extinct) and passed out. Amos Grubb comes to shut off the alarm – which requires complex instructions from a code book (he seems to be the Mansion's librarian) – and has a conversation with Fantod, the Weirdo's ventriloquist's puppet, in which Fantod speaks as if he is an independent entity. Fantod never met Tulip, because Arthur won him in a Skipjack game after he left the Weirdo Academy. Fantod tells Amos about some events he and the Weirdo witnessed by the elevator, and refers to Rosemary as a "sword bunny" (an expression previousy used by Arthur – of course). They seem to be regular visitors to the Basement (again, how do they get down there?). Amos assumes that Rosemary must have arrived via the village, and that Nellie will hear some gossip about her while she's in town. Note that on the human side of the door, the door is marked in formal print "ROOF mind the gargoyles", and on the gargoyle side it's marked in scrawl "NOT RooF MIND THE HooMANS". The Weirdo having sobered up a little, Amos advises him to go to the Temple in the village and ask the Oracle, Threnody, to light a candle for Tulip. he and Amos walk down many stairs within the Mansion, and we glimpse a Panegate which opens into a world of yellow light and busy Helipaths. We see strange machinery, cables and pipes and Tree branches in the walls; Schmedley's room; the Scary Lady's electronic crystal ball; and a device called Ludwig's Vent Tapper 3000, which seems to be trying to tickle a magical flame into life by going beedle beedle with a mechanical hand. A limb of the tree connects into the Vent Tapper, then leads all the way down into the Basement where we see a female Gobule called Gulch teaching three baby Gobules called Gif, Glub and Gip, and telling them about the Tree, and about how they chew on bones and then make torches from the bigger ones, and about great bones within the ground, which they sometimes dig up. We see in cross-section that a ceiling GBOL light in the tunnels is connected to a huge, buried bone. Buried near it we see the head and claw-hand of a Metalmin, who died clutching a Glowgem. 05: Skibble's Place [09/01/2008 – 01/03/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1594–#1636] Rosemary threatens to hit Sylvester if he tells anyone her middle name is Imogene; he tells her that Mortimer's are Nigel Mundivagant. We learn from Camora that Mortimer was the "demon" who caused the Nome War, and from Sylvester that his parents chose their children's names from a very pompous and very long classic book called Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. Ironically the Mortimer in the book pulls wings off flutterbys, while we will later learn that Mortimer Eman has a strong connection to the things. Boogiemen choose their names from a secret Human book; Gnoll names are chose by their parental Finagler. Rosemary is alarmed by the idea of eternal life – she says she'd get really bored after the first thousand years. Sylvester is less alarmed by the idea of becoming what he hates, since he hates some quite harmless things, including his brothers sometimes, and the trick is to make the prediction work for you: Camora grudgingly admits (mainly sub-vocally to Hax) that she is happy with Comshaw. Sylvester comforts Rosemary by interpreting her prediction as eternal fame rather than eternal life. They come to Skibble's place (not Skibble, just his place), guarded by a male Gnoll called Cerbis, who peers through a slot in the door and offers to lend them a token with an "E" on it and a string hanging off it, to be used to activate a device to summon the Great Riddler through whose territory they must soon pass. He says they'll owe Skibble a favour for it (favours are traded as a kind of currency), and the string is so that after they've used it to pay the Summoner device they can pull it back out, as Cerbis has a limited supply of them. Sylvester turns the offer down. They discuss the aurilnode on the wall outside Skibble's Place: it was invented by a Helipath called Auril and Sylvester is impressed and disturbed by the level of sophistication it shows, and also by the spectacular magical event caused by Altholen, which wasn't a stupid idea as such even though he failed in his purpose, and which suggests outside help (whether to set it up or to fail isn't clear). He tells Camora about magic and the Crash, before which Humans too had telephones. He describes it as a huge magical surge which blew all the magical systems and tools and killed most of the magickers. Sylvester wonders whether Auril used Sneech squeezings in hir work. Camora says s/he was too sane to do so, and this leads to a discussion about genius and eccentricity – about Rufus, who takes dangerous scientific risks, and Rosemary's friend Edwird, who likes to swim in ice water, and Telic the doctor, who operates on hirself. Sylvester is sure that Auril used either knowledge or material from the Sneeches, which makes him want to get out of there even more. Camora realises that Rosemary and Sylvester just want to get home, and she wants to take them to the Council's tunnel soo they can leave, but Hax says this is a bad idea as it would give an invading force an easy way in. They set off for the Riddle Grotto, with Whisp trailing them. On the way they talk about family: Rosemary is an only child, since her parents got pregnant with her on their honeymoon and then died when she was six months old, but Sylvester is one of six. And yes, he loves Lenore, even though he doesn't trust her. Camora, who loathes her own brother, doesn't understand this. Camora tells them about Skibble, who first made a name for himself by unexpectedly winning the Stacking Cup at the Games, then became a gemhunter, but the dialogue trails away as they move on. It's a running joke that we never find out what species Skibble is. Meanwhile Shona, returning from the forest, realises her sister Sina is in trouble and goes in search of her, as does Sprocket (who expects that he and Flange will have a lot of work doing repairs). Shona has already reported to Nevus and told him about Frowgler and the "tall Nomes", but Nevus, Mimsy and a couple of male Gnoll soldiers, Frag and Blem, are still stuck trying to fight their way through to Nevus's office (which is in or off Crescent Hall). Nevus is having nearly as trying a day as Snoot. Agita is also back, and meets with her assistant Flibbergib the Eyebolt, who is riding on a Gobule and has been sent by a Mr Foolscap to warn her about the fighting, and to complain about Weirders. Agita comments on the fact that Flibbergib is upRooted, which suggests that while Camora may have been exaggerating about Eyebolts fusing with their seats there was a grain of truth in it. Guttle, delayed by the tangle he was caught up in, and still partially wrapped in tendrils, comes stamping down the tunnel, dismissing Skoil from his service as he tramples him underfoot. We see a scarred Rhid, still trailed by Kronk and contemplating desperate measures. We see the scuttly little sapient rock still trying to climb out of the Hot Zone, but having trouble coping with the distances involved. We see the Scary Lady and her balloon venture into the Sneech den, thinking that something is very wrong: Frederick half wakes and thinks of following her to make sure she doesn't do anything drastic, then falls back asleep. Clochard and Anathama meet up, both looking for Digger, and exchange dire news (the Council and Nevus at war, The Gibber dying, Humans returning, Kronk chasing a burned Rhid) which is trumped by one of Bung's Jibjibs, Spuza, warning them that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. They discuss the fact that Anathama saw Sylvester in the Basement fifteen years before, along with the "Clawblaster" – evidently the Scary Lady – and now he's with Rosemary, and with the pole weapon which Anathama has seen before, and although he's older he's far from old which tells Anathama that Humans have much longer lifespans than Gnolls. Anathama herself was whelp when she saw Sylvester (a.k.a. "Eyeplates") and the Clawblaster, and that was fifteen years ago, so she's sixteen or seventeen, and she says she's unusually old for a gnoll. Meanwhile, two Trog raiders wait at the mouth of the tunnel, planning to mug the next person through: it's about to be Guttle. They don't even notice Digger passing them by. 06: The Three Great Riddles [03/03/2008 – 04/06/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1643–#1725] Camora is telling Rosemary and Sylvester about Skibble – it's not clear what species Skibble is but he's a sort of Trickster and is friends with someone called Blitz who is probably a Gobule. Camora's story involves the words "So Skibble eats all of them!" Rosemary replies "But you just said Skibble is a—", and Camora waves her hand and says "Yeah, yeah, he probably got Blitz to eat them." The implication is that Skibble is something with a very specialised diet: so probably a Ghast, Ooze, Helipath or Ichyoid. Heading for the Riddle Grotto they pass a sign warning of a defence system called Death Doors, which are doors which attack any non-Human trying to open them, as with the Djinnoscope. They pass a door labelled Pots Room without stopping. Sylvester mentions the Djinnoscope, Camora asks about it and he describes the Hall of Achievement to her – but she knows it as the Death Hall, and the Djinnoscope as the Death Machine: Sylvester jokes about sub-committes in charge of naming. He explains that the Djinnoscope is called that because it can grant boons, like a Djinn. It's believed to have been a Djinn who taught people (he means Humans) how to tap into magic. They come to the Riddle Grotto and find themselves on a jetty at the side of a deep pool. Theoretically no one can cross without authorisation because the Riddler lives in the water and is fantastically fast (as they see when they toss a rock into the water, from a handy bowl of rocks provided for that purpose), but a Jibjib called Speedy once flew across on a bet with someone called Shilpit. Othar the magical Motihaul explorer is mentioned again. They prepare to say goodbye to Camora: she again wants to tell them about the tunnel (and is hearing voices), but Hax dissuades her. We learn that the Three Great Riddles were named by Dorn, 10th Earl of E, who also created the Dornbeasts (initially known as siegebeasts) as battle-mounts, and ended up being eaten by them. Sylvester has two large and one small E tokens in his pocket: he'll tell her what the small one is for later. Camora notices that the cabinet which holds the Summoner has changed shape (from a kind of squat bullet-shape to a straight-line oblong) since they first came into the grotto, but Rosemary and Sylvester have seen no change, which suggests that either their memory or the time-line is being tampered with. Sylvester says it's always been as it now is – and that it reminds him of something he saw with Protus (although it just looks like a dark oblong Protus took him though). Hax invades Camora's mind – previously they were just sub-vocalising – and takes it over, saying that he must follow his orders and she would find it distressing to be aware of what those orders are, and her mind and her sanity are precious and must be preserved. Rosemary and Sylvester are only aware that she went blank for a moment. Having been taken over, Camora now says she was foolish to suggest that the cabinet had changed, but Sylvester refers to his great-great-uncle Hindenburgh the wizard, who also witnessed things changing. Sylvester inserts a token into the Summoner and it sets off a siren (playing the Jaws theme, very loudly) which summons the Riddler himself – a giant Ichyoid about 60ft high, older than the Earldom of E and speaking a Human/Ichyoid pidgin represented as Futhark runes (occasionally upside-down Futhark runes). He starts by asking them their business, and addressing Sylvester by name, and expressing sorrow at his father Willoughby's death. Willoughby had a knack for making friends. Sylvester introduces Rosemary as "non-family – staying?" The Riddler replies that she is dangerous. Sylvester asks if he, Rosemary and their possessions may pass over, and the Riddler asks if "Fixit Gnoll" wants to cross too, but they don't understand what he means. He asks for information on Frowgler, but Sylvester only knows about the comic-book character and explains that he is a two-dimensional representation drawn by somebody called Linderhoff. We learn from Rosemary that Roshambo, and his talking sword Slasher, and the frog-wizard Frowgler, and other characters including Naif and Arax, are hugely popular cultural icons and the comic's been running since before the Crash, although Sylvester later comments that the quality of the comics has declined since then. Sylvester recalls Mortimer complaining that one of his Roshambo action figures had been damaged – this may relate to the Sciencebugs who were worshipping a Roshambo figure on Mr Hand's desk, or perhaps Frowgler measured a Frowgler action toy to get his impersonation right, although the comic-book Frowgler has a more elaborate tail-tip than the "real" one does, and his horns are yellow. The Riddler finds their information about Frowgler interesting, and gives them permission to cross. Sylvester warns Camora not to try to follow them as she doesn't have permission to cross, gives her the second half of her paper payment, admits to her that they are Humans and promises to try to come back and speak formally to Comshaw and the Basement authorities, and to try to make things better for everyone – but it's not Camora they are speaking to now. Rosemary and Sylvester are both aware that Camora has changed, but they don't know why. Note that the three Great Riddles aren't really riddles at all, but questions: how to get the Riddler to pay you benign attention; how to understand what he says to you; and the third one is a request for information, in this case about Frowgler. A pontoon rises and rotates into position, enabling Rosemary and Sylvester to cross the pool. Sylvester thinks the inefficiency of all this is a feature, not a bug, to make people reluctant to disturb the Riddler. There used to be a lot of ways in and out of the Basement but they were gradually all closed off except two – Rosemary reckons there must be at least one more to explain the various appearances and disappearances, and that Arthur the Weirdo uses it (OK, how does he avoid being noticed as a Human?). The pontoon's action is so jerky that as they get to the far side they fall in a heap and Rosemary jokily tries to kiss Sylvester. Hax thinks he senses someone, but can't make out who (it's Whisp). He walks Camora away. Sylvester had kept some things from Camora, such as the fact that the bridge stays in place for a couple of hours, and that he didn't need the token to operate the Summoner, because he's an Eman. We learn about Herediscans, security devices which identify members of the E family, and that the family used to manufacture reverse-engineered Ettin-style robots and sell them under the brand name Factor E. Some of the scanners accept new people: some only accept family, and because of the dilution of the family's DNA over the generations, some now won't open at all. Rosemary and Sylvester have one more Herediscan to get through, and he has to be alive to operate it. Sylvester doesn't like comics because he feels they have declined in scope and presentation and aren't nearly as good as before the Crash. But he knows he is privileged to be able to worry about such things, after society came so close to total collapse. Rosemary's Aunt Eva was close to starving but she later ended up as a professional Skipjack card-player: hence the bodyguard, who also watched out for creative cheaters while Eva concentrated on the game. Sylvester is boggled that people just went back to playing Skipjack after the world nearly ended. Rosemary says that in the town of Nye some card-games played right through the Crash. She herself has never been to Nye: Sylvester wants to know how she got from Out West to Audravanaia without going through Nye, but she ducks telling him, for now. Aunt Eva refused to teach Rosemary to play Skipjack: Sylvester thinks she's too impatient to be good at such a slow game. He says she followed in Zeke the bodyguard's footsteps instead. She says she's not a bodyguard: she's an explorer and Sylvester is her native guide. Meanwhile, Hax uses some kind of electrical charge from his antennae to open a secret door in the corridor wall. He walks Camora through the door into some sort of control centre (although the scene is domestic enough to include a fish in a bowl). He wonders about calling Mr Hand to confirm his orders, but decides not to. It sounds like he is planning to kill Rosemary and Sylvester. Whisp doesn't see Camora disappear into the wall, but does note that Camora's scent just stops. However, she was told to follow the "Nomes", not Camora. 07: Decisions Decisions [05/06/2008 – 05/07/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1732–#1760] Chauncy and Edgar locate the Scary Lady in the Sneech Den and ask her to help them get through the barrier: they do not want to go home because they have become used to having names. She agrees to help them. Sprocket and Flange place the filament from the old Metalmin, contained in what looks like an empty GBOL globe, into a service hatch, whence it is collected by an Ichyoid. Hiblehoy and Wrawa leave Leny's body in Bowel Hall to be rendered down. They are paid in Glowgems: Wrawa tells Hiblehoy to take half for himself and give the other half to Telic to research why the Trogs develop dementia. Her eyes look a bit strange so she, like Sina, may had been blinded by the explosion. Tomorrow she means to track down Rhid, but right now she crashes out and has to be carried home to bed by Hiblehoy: as they leave they see the Gnoll Forfind rallying Nevus's troops to the attack. We see Thrash and his two as-yet unnamed associates (later they will be called Scrawl and FlagPale) striding past the ruins of Eetown. Thrash finds Frowgler, slightly singed after the OZPR event, and picks him up. The other two withdraw so Thrash and Frowgler can talk privately. Frowgler says that he knows Thrash doesn't like him, and he's not going to tell him his story because it's so odd even he doesn't believe it, but that he means to see that the Pales get what they want. It's not his problem whether or not they'll still want it once they've got it. Frowgler says that he is neither so clever as the Nexus nor so powerful as the ruler in the Spike but still he is the most important person Thrash has ever met. He understands that Thrash may feel resentful because he's here in the forest herding Gnolls such as Niddle instead of escorting the Nome party to see the Nexus, which is evidently a prestigious job, but Thrash is here because Frowgler wanted him here, because Frowgler is the msot important person he's ever met, even if he's not as intelligent as the Nexus or as powerful as "our friend" in The Spike. Now Thrash can choose to help him or kill him. Thrash tosses him up in the air and catches him again, like a tennis ball, then lets Frowgler point him in the direction he and his companions should head. We see the forest Gnolls Scrof and Louch, who had been out on a foraging/raiding party and got caught in all the strange events of the day when Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed on them, after which Louch ran off. Louch, a cousin of Comshaw's, couldn't cross over the usual bridge because Pales were watching it (these were the lookouts waiting for Nitfol's party), and had to go north and use an even more precarious and minimalist bridge just called The Rope, and consisting of just three cords. Coming back he saw The Spike wooflare, and the Fire from The Pit, and at least two explosions from the Zorper. Now he is tired and wants to go back to their village, the northernmost of a pair, which is just a big communal warren. Louch is fed up with how poorly they live and wants to learn to read like his mother, and better himself. He thinks he will ask Umboz the Nome to teach his people how to cultivate crops, or go down in the Basement and ask Comshaw for help: but we see the Nome mayor Koyeeb saying that Umboz is a traitor, and ordering Umboz's brother Frotz to regain the family honour by leading a dawn raid on Louch's village. In the Basement, we see a male Gnoll, Bung's friend Faddle, heading home with a plant in a pot, and Niff and Folla from the bucket chain looking for somewhere to hide from the fighting, and instead running into the newly returned Shona. They start to tell her about Chauncy and Edgar: she doesn't believe them, but then they overhear two female Motihauls talking about it, and about Sina setting up a safe zone in Crazy Rhid's place (because of the weaponry there). Shona thinks that a safe zone at Rhid's place is an oxymoron, but Niff and Folla tell her that Sina has driven Rhid off. They all head for Rhid's place. 08: The River of Fire [07/07/2008 – 26/11/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1767–#1899] Deep underground, overlooking the River of Fire, is a bridge or gantry of some kind protruding from a pueblo-style adobe building. In this building we see a male Gnoll called Blit, with a bandaged leg (possibly injured in the fighting: he looks like a Gnoll we glimpsed having a bad day at Le Tree, but that one had a scratch on the left cheek), and a male Motihaul named Gongoozle discussing the fact that this is meant to be The Day That Changes Everything but it seems to be change for the worse, and the Gobule Lairs are all now at war with each other. A female Trog called Espy (who we will later learn is or used to be a primary-school teacher of young Trogs, and who is remarkably old-looking for a Trog and yet still mentally sharp) summons Blit to go downstairs to see someone called the Observer, and sends Gongoozle away because he is not on the Observer's staff and they are closing the observatory to outsiders. Blit goes downstairs by a complex route of lifts and stairs and corridors, passing other workers: a nameless Gobule squatting on a box labelled "IMPORTANT SECRET MYSTERIOUS STUFF"; two Eyebolts called Poyndext and Suscalva doing mysterious scientific calculations; and two Gobule labourers called Ottus and Piterbult. Ottus drives a heavy-goods-lift using a treadmill: between them the two are transporting heavy loads of "River Signs" up to Poyndext and Suscalva for analysis, as they have been doing for at least five years. Because of the lack of paper in the Basement, the signs are on what appear to be clay tablets. Piterbult, who pushed the tablets in a cart and has a curiously flat rear, is subversive in a jokey way. Blit then passes in sequence a sophisticated door with brass hinges and handle and a sign saying "CHANGE YOUR MIND"; a wooden gate with "STOP POKING AROUND" written vertically on the planks; a doorway closed by a ragged curtain with "LAMENT FOR THE DEAD" on it; a knotted climbing-rope; and an open doorway through which we can see a stone with "POINT OF NO RETURN" written on it. A short watch-being of unknown species called Wences (of whom we just see eyes, in a hatch near the floor) tells him the Observer wants him, and it's alright but not OK. Blit is caught by a booby-trap and catapulted through the air above the River to land in a padded cart partway out along the gantry, and operated by a Helipath called Lucint and two Jibjibs. He has actually crashed through the roof of a covered walkway along the gantry: the Jibjibs go to repair it with strands of leaves, so at least it's not very solid. The gantry has an amorphous block (the observation pod) hanging off the end with a small crane on it, and a cord, perhaps an autilnode wire, connects the gantry to the far side of the River. Lucint carries a stunned Blit down to the observation pod. Blit is just making "eep" noises, but Lucint evidently interprets them as comments about Piterbult, because he says that "that" (either the subversion or the flat back, we don't know) often results from direct exposure to Fire, and that "he", presumably Piterbult, has been pushing the Sign-report cart so often that he can now literally do it with his eyes shut. There may be an especially weird fourth-wall-breach joke going on here. When we first see Piterbult his back appears flat because the frame of the strip is cutting him off, but then he walks into the shot and we see that he really is that flat. Fire is magic in this universe but it's also colour and the hand of the artist, so he's flat because he conforms to the frame the artist (Fire) drew for him: a bit like the "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" joke in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. At the observation pod they meet two pink female Oozes, using artificial cradle-supports. The lower-down one of these is the Observer, and has OBSVR written on her side in Manglish (perhaps self-generated as it moves around). She tells Blit to tell her what he saw and he exclaims "GREEN!" although he says he doesn't know what the word means. Are Gnolls red-green colour blind, like dogs? Now he's said it he can talk again: maybe he was dazed because he saw a colour his eyes nromally can't process. The Observer tells him that different species react differently to proximity to the River of Fire. As an Ooze she herself has become stiff and less able to change shape (the Ooze stationed higher up is the Observer-to-Be, a trainee). It is rapidly harmful to Motihauls; Helipaths have to wear goggles to keep from going dizzy; Ghasts have to wear tinted lenses otherwise they go mad; and Wyrms can't go near it at all lest they become hypnotised and jump in. Eyebolts, Gobules, Jibjibs and Trogs are hardly affected, and Gnolls, especially mated trios of Gnolls, are affected in some way but also affect the Fire back, disturbing its flow (or perhaps affect the Observer's perception of the flow: she isn't sure which). The Observer has summoned Blit to look at the fire and see what he can see, because the River is behaving strangely. She mentions other Days That Changed Everything but says this one is especially odd, with an unexplained reference to a Nome called Rejov who did something which caused a similar event. The Obsever trundles her wheeled cradle out of the way and Blit looks down through a viewing hatch into the River. He sees images of a cactus – almost certainly "God's Cactus", the Mansion of E – and of a "fancy pot", then letters telling him two Humans are about to cross the Grotto Bridge. Meanwhile, at the edge of the Riddler's Grotto Sylvester lectures Rosemary about what Humans have learned about magic from Ettin writings. In their world it seems to function like magnetism – it's generated in or by the planet's core, sprays out from the South Pole in a series of leylines resembling lines of longitude and then dives back in at the North Pole. These leylines have been much fainter since the Crash. There are also random magical upwellings called tricklepoints which are still active and useable, and there's one at the source of the River of Fire. Not far away to the south, the Forest of Burzee contains an even bigger tricklepoint. The forest is peaceful and used for quiet contemplation. Different tricklepoints behave differently and are good for different things: the ones in Agraba and Akbar are good for summoning Djinn, the one in Plinth is good for cold-forging iron, and the one under the Mansion is being squeezed by something down in the Hot Zone, causing the River to be sprayed out of it. The female Earl Audra, mother of Ludwig, investigated it, dug exploratory mines right down deep into the Hot Zone and in doing so triggered a cataclysm which greatly enlarged the Great Chasm. We can see that Audra built a shaft down through a pillar – this is the pillar with a line of lights up it that we saw during the sequence with the sapient rock, and probably also where the stair which Fizmo climbed is – which connected to a series of chambers, which explains why there was a dead E security guard in the chambers where Fizmo and Kulkad were working. He was probably killed by the blast which Audra set off. Audra used this Hot Zone research station to send down a probe which triggered the explosion, so the thing Fizmo and Kulkad were watching for might be a resurgance of this force, rather like watching the magma chamber of a volcano for signs of swelling and upwelling. The River itself isn't dangerous unless you physically touch it. Audra's father Angus threw condemned prisoners into the River of Fire, and Chauncy and Edgar probably entered the world through it. The Operator, however, came to town by tram. Sylvester warns Rosemary to expect to see visions as they approach the River, and they set off. Whisp, who is evidently blazingly fast and agile, watches them from the far side of the Grotto and then crosses the Pool by bounding across the sinking bridge and dodging the Riddler's lightning-fast claws, although she suspects him of not really caring whether or not anyone crosses the Pool. Rosemary hears movement behind them but Sylvester assures her it's just the bridge sinking. Sylvester tells Rosemary that witches and wizards – thaumslingers – used to wear magic-concentrators called thaumtappers inside their pointy hats, which killed most of them when the Crash came. The batteries in their helmets run on small thaumtappers and Rosemary sees coloured lights and "horrible shapes" when she switches her helmet light on so close to the River, but it only happens if you're wearing the helmet at the time. Rosemary is concerned that if another Crash comes their helmet battereis could blow up and kill them, but Sylvester says that if the Brush sends them a second Crash on the one day they're wearing thaum battereies then so be it, and at least neither of them is carrying a high-powered magical item which really would kill them if it blew up. Rosemary smiles brightly and tries not to think about the Can-Opener. Sylvester does not literally think that the Brush caused the Crash, and it certainly wasn't the Wrath of the Brush as a hardline Oracle (Omega, although we don't hear her name until later) said when he was a child: he believes that the Brush set the world up, but that it has no interest in mere mortals (i.e. he's a deist). [The Brush that coloured in the world is their local version of a Creator Deity, represented by a symbol rather like a rake, and we also see that the more magic is present, the more saturated is the colour of the images in the strip.] We learn that he is not very devout, and has private reasons for not going to the Temple every week, and that the local temple of the Brush was moved from the Mansion to the local village of Eetown after an Earl called Ernest (father of Philbert) quarrelled with an Oracle called Purity. Ernest was a forger and died in a dramatic way. A new, large Temple was built just outside Eetown, which at the time was a thriving town, but being magically-powered it was wrecked in the Crash and a new new Temple was built from the ruins. As they approach the River they start to see externally-manifested visions of people from their pasts. Sylvester sees Dirge, a thuggish man from the village (actually the current Oracle Threnody's guardian), threatening to hit him. Rosemary sees her tutor and friend (not lover, Rob has said their relationship was platonic, and he was a lot older than her) lover, Edwird, and a respected bodyguard colleague called Baldy. She apologises to Edwird for having hurt him by leaving him in an emotionally clumsy way, and swears to make it up to him if she ever gets the chance; and expects Baldy (whose real name is Milburn Aloysius Aldershot) may be her enemy now because she went AWOL from a job they were both working on. The vision of a "Pyrite" appears, with a parrot on his shoulder – the pirate, who was someone Rosemary was once on a course with, dissipates when swiped with the Can-Opener but the parrot seems to be real and flies away. She has a theory that it was the parrot who was doing the course, and the pirate was just its mount. Sylvester sees Shackleforth Ferule, the family lawyer, who administers the trust which pays for the eldest in each generation of Emans to go to university. [In an out-take to mark the death of Paul Newman we see Forfind and another Gnoll on watch for "Council phiizzers".] Sylvester borrows the Can-Opener to wave away the vision: as he does so we see a symbol scratched on the bulky end, which Rob said is some kind of spoiler. It looks a bit like a coat-hanger with three bent wires hanging off it. Sylvester admires Mr Ferule because of his honest dedication to his job and his competence, even if he's a cold dry stick. Sylvester teaches Rosemary how to conjure shapes out of the magic-saturated air at will (he's good at it, but not as good as Mortimer) and tells her that Ludwig studied them, and said that they were connected in some way with the distance between Eyebolts (something we have seen managers of Eyebolt clerks worrying about, and these shapes resemble those conjured by Eyebolt Weirders). We learn that brilliant Ludwig had an almost equally brilliant common-law wife called Penelope who acted as his tech-writer (though they never "jumped in the Pool" to marry). They come to a flight of steps down, which is where the visions used to start before they spread out. As they approach the River it starts to show them what they most want to see. Rosemary sees a half-formed vision of her dead parents, without mouths because they died before she could talk to them, and Sylvester sees a naked, busty, willing Rosemary – the real Rosemary is quite flattered. We learn that for some reason Sylvester cannot or may not marry anyone from Eetown: he was expected to find a bride at university, but was too busy studying and none of his girlfriends fancied life in the arse-end of nowhere. We learn that the species in the Basement and in the area around the Mansion represent all the known intelligent species in the world, except Mugwumps (believed extinct) and Wendigoes. Rosemary wants to know why the Mansion isn't known as a tourist attraction, or as a draw for research teams as the Infernal Engine is: not even before the Crash, when Eetown was a busy and major stop-off point for airships to the Far East across the ocean. But Sylvester says there are similar but more impressive buildings elsewhere, and the Basement dwellers at the time were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now..", and neither Ernest nor Philbert was interested in the Basement. But he agrees it's still strange. If he means that the Basement dwellers were still confined to their individual species-specific habitats in Philbert's time, fifty years ago, that would mean that everyone except the Gnolls, Gobules and Eyebolts was shut up when Audra and Ludwig went down there. But other things he says later suggest that he just means they were confined to the Basement, not roaming around the Mansion and the surrounding woods. Rosemary and Sylvester recognise and acknowledge that they are already friends, and see a vision of Nimue Fayling, Sylvester's girlfriend from university (and Rosemary sees a naked Sylvester, but doesn't let on). They come to the start of a bridge across the River. Sylvester says that something's changed since he was last there. A magical surge envelops them and Rosemary (only) sees a vision of the Tree personified as a sort of Ent (although initially she thinks it's Death personified). It says that it is "an aspect minor" of "the system entire". It tells her that she is carrying the seeds of some important thing, an Egg and a Claw of it: the Can-Opener is the claw, and the egg is whatever Rosemary carries with her (presumably the Zorper/HJ42: we don't learn that until later, but we see crackles of energy from her pocket) and which she refers to as having brought her there. Presumably, this is the same thing that she stole. It says that Sylvester is less connected, and only has a Torch. Rosemary is becoming connected to "the system entire", the setup that runs the world and of which the Tree is a part, and which touches "the sky; the water; the earth and the fire; the magic; the prince in his high tower". Rosemary apologises for having distrusted it before, and speaks as if it is a god. It says she must turn the system entire upside down. She is concerend that that will hurt it, literally or metaphorically: it says that it will but "for the garden to grow roots must touch the sky". It wants to help but it lives on too slow a timescale to do much. It gives her another seed – this one actually looks a bit like a real seed – which she understands that she will need to plant at the end. We find out that she carries a Poke Kit for small items, but suddenly she understands it much better, without a manual, and is able to generate a secured SubPocket to keep the seed in with a 21-digit security code: 314159265358979323846. She is upset because she knows she won't remember this meeting. As Rosemary wakes from the trance she forgets who she was talking to, but just before she wakes the Tree starts to tell her she will remember when she needs to. She tries to tell Sylvester about what happened and ask whether she can trust what she saw, but it slides out of her mind. He will need to remember what little he saw, and remind her when the time comes. Meanwhile, Whisp is still stalking them, the parrot is still flying overhead, and Hax uses Camora to collect a sort of blunderbuss from a cupboard in the hidden control centre where he took her. 09: Loose Ends (Basement Edition) [27/11/2008 – 07/01/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1906–#1939] Shona, Folla and Niff climb a stair in the background and Forfind flees from arrows and rocks as Faddle brings Bung a flower in a pot as a thank-you for the profit he made from selling Bung's toadstool. We learn that Bung is quite an important political or merchantile player and are reminded that he knows Digger. One of his Jibjibs returns – she has been warning "folks" about Chauncy and Edgar (and she doesn't know who Digger is). We learn that Faddle is a failed or partial Finagler – and that this entails being a good psychological observer, so he knows that Bung has lots of contacts but no friends, and thinks the plant will be a friend for him. Anathama and Clochard are in some kind of long-standing political conspiracy with Digger, and are searching for him: Clochard is tempted to call out his name, but Anathama says he mustn't. They talk of going to Location Zero to wait for him, but it might be days before he turns up. He finds them (and it is mentioned that it is Clochard's job to ask questions he doesn't want the answers to, and that he hangs out with Izchak for information but doesn't much like him) and takes them much deeper underground. They have to cross a gap marked "mind the gap" in Ettin script. They come to a comfortable bedroom cum office which has artificial lights – so the Tree can't see what goes on there. As with the room Hax took Camora to (although this isn't the same one) there's a fish in a bowl, and also a big domino, which may be significant because even bigger dominoes turn up in Rhid's place. There they meet their old friend the male Gnoll Bokonon, an elderly Finagler whom they had believed had been lost in the SubShafts a long time ago: he had last been heard of in SubShaft 44f, compiling a report on Crud, the developer of the Crudbean (and one of the main characters in Sundays in the SubShafts), which was just after Comshaw killed the Ravers and Nevus started Le Tree. Bokonon believes the Tree is esssentially on the same side as them. Digger says they need to survive what is happening, which will bring the birth of a new order, and "ours will be even newer and even less orderly". Digger goes back out to see what he can do or learn about the fighting and about Chauncy and Edgar, leaving the three Gnolls behind to gossip in Gnoll jargon. Clochard and Anathama make the most of what time they have in this dangerous local situation, and go off together to make love. Bokonon, as a former Finagler, offers to help but they turn him down. Meanwhile, we see the Scary Lady and her sentient balloon escorting Chauncy and Edgar to a Panegate which opens on a desert area: perhaps Agraba or Akbar, where the Djinn live (but it's labelled "HOWDY buckarooclass panegate" in Ettin, which suggests it's some equivalent of Arizona). Nevus, Guttle and Agita resume command of their forces: Nevus orders Faldstool to get Preznit on the 'node (='phone); Guttle plans to attack both of them; and Agita correctly tells Flibbergib what both the others are doing, although she herself is busy still scrubbing off Mortimer's kiss. Two Ghast medics are en route to collect Sepferb from outside Crazy Rhid's place and place him in a restorative Porta-Pool: on the way they pass Hiblehoy, carrying an exhausted, sleeping Wrawa, and they advise him on her care and warn him she may be in an erratic mental state when she wakes up. Hiblehoy can't get home because Sidestep Hall is in lockdown, so a Trog called Mowder lets him and Wrawa into Rhid's place, where Sina is trying to organise an emergency demon-proof camp. Maggle has not succeeded in getting through all the fighting to return the buckets to Tunktal. The Wyrms Voog and Ploot have identified a source of water in one of the side-rooms off Rhid's place but there is machinery in the way. Sprocket and Flange turn up and are set to dismantle the machines. Maggle and Flange discuss the level of sexual tension between Sina and Sprocket, and whether they've chosen a Finagler yet. Variously in the background we see Timf, Delfa, possibly Satyrsong, and the Helipath Fosic. Meanwhile a New Year out-take shows Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party walking past some large Human ruins, with the Spike in the background. 10: Loose Ends (Mansion Edition) [08/01/2009 – 02/03/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1946–#1995] Amos Grubb puts Arthur the Weirdo and his hand-puppet Fantod to bed in their attic room: we see Arthur has a soft-toy Wendigo, which seems to be this world's equivalent of a teddy-bear. We see a system of lifts and pulleys within the walls of the Mansion: this is used to deliver to Hector a box containing the spare piece which Sprocket and Flange earlier salvaged from the defunct Metalmin. On his way back from collecting the box Hector passes a talking machine (which spits out phrases relevant to the death of Patrick McGoohan, but they include "The tree plants a seed!"); a Panegate (labelled "ALOHACLASS VIEWGATE"); a gun (?) in a case marked "In case of Ludwig, break glass"; and then preserved specimens of a Mugwump (with "NEVER" written above it) and a Wendigo ("AGAIN") and a painting of one of the titanbugs which the Pales use as war mounts ("OR ELSE"). Reaching his own quarters he takes the spare part out of the box and dumps the box down a chute, then goes to Mr Hand – on the way passing the Trog on the treadmill, who is now flaked out asleep. This time we see a sweep of the whole corridor. From right to left, heading in the direction Hector is walking, we see a lift with a half-seen label starting "Zark" (which is where the Operator is from); piles of boxes; a door labelled "WINE 'CELLER'" (with quotes round the misspelling); the exhausted Trog on his treadmill, under a sign saying "P.O.C. TESTING PREP"; a door labelled "EMERGENCY WAR THRONE-TOP STORAGE"; and the weird mechanism connected to a limb of the tree, only this time we can see a label above its alcove saying "TREELINK", which may be how Mr Hand is doing his snooping. Mr Hand, siting in a chair labelled a warthrone, with a massive mechanical hood on top which hides most of his face, talks about everyone being "back behindscenes and accounted for" except for "young Gill", the Ichyoid at Le Tree, who has been killed or injured by Hpobfvfr. He is eager to talk to Hax the Fixit. He swaps the spare part into Hector, who jokes that now his filament has been replaced he can proceed with his mission to "DESTROY ALL HUMANS!!!" (although you get the impression he kind-of wishes it was true). Mr Hand is very amused by the visual images this conjures up: Hector reminds him that he himself is human, and Mr Hand replies "Only just". Hector then repairs Mr Hand's scanners. Hand looks at pictures from around the Basement (although he can't scan near the River of Fire) and comments on the non presence of The Gibber, which may connect to something the Sneeches have done (left?). He tries to track Rosemary and Sylvester but can't see them because they are close to the River, so he sends Hector to talk to the Riddler. He has a special interest in and wariness of Rosemary, and mutters that she might be another test sent down from— As Hector leaves, Mr Hand is 'phoned by some colleague for a conference, and he mutters "Speak of the Zarkite and he appears", meaning that the person who has called is the one who sets him tests. Hector passes the dead king on his throne: the dial is now at "No". A label above his alcove says "EARLSCOPE". Amos goes outside onto a bridge and observes unusual activity in the Tree, which is labouring to clear the air in the Basement of smoke. He lets himself into the Ivory Tower and goes to a cupboard labelled "IMPORTANT BOOK AND STAIRWAY CANDLESTICK SECURITY CABINET", replaces a book and gets out a candle which he lights by magic, but Nellie catches him and tells him off for taking the risk, as she fears a second Crash which might kill him if he's using magic at the time. Amos is a former thaumslinger (so is she, although we don't learn that till later). Nellie has brought back from the village a large young man called Patrick, the local sheriff, who has come for a report. As a child he used to come to read, but no longer does. Amos reports to Patrick about Rosemary, and Nellie talks about the Pit Flare, which she saw on her way to town, but Amos didn't know about. Patrick and his colleagues watch the Earl and are aware that Rosemary arrived without seeming to pass through the surrounding area. Amos reassures him she's not from another world. Patrick wants Sylvester to report to him. Amos and Nellie give him a book on wine-making for someone called Saffron in the village (we will learn that she is the innkeeper), and a Willy the Wendigo book for his son, and he strides off back to the village. 11: Loose Ends (Forest Edition) [03/03/2009 – 21/04/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2002–#2044] Umboz, Vezza, Piu and Nitfol and their Pale escort arrive at the Pale camp, a kind of amorphous but high-tech. (with e.g. gas-lighting), pueblo-type castle. The local Pales seem very curious to see them. There they meet a Pale diplomat called Zpeaker, with two head-spikes (both large and dark, unlike Thrash who has one large dark spike and a second, small and pale one) and a larger and more prominent jaw than most Pales, whose job is to project sounds that other species can hear, in order to talk to them. We learn that Umboz is a squidcoaxer and Vezza is training to be, Piu is a healer and Nitfol is unemployed; and that Nitfol had been rescued from the Spyder by their two Pale escorts, who presumably killed the Spyder and who took him to Frowgler. Frowgler told him that he had sent the Pales to save him, and now he, Nitfol, had to save Umboz and Vezza. He wants to speak to Frowgler, but he's not currently at the Camp. Nitfol asks to see the Nexus, the Pale leader, since Zpeaker says he's the only one who knows what Frowgler is, but the other three Nomes prefer to go and eat and rest. Frowgler has told the Pales they will benefit by helping these Nomes: Umboz is afraid they want him to open a breach in his village's squid-based defences but Zpeaker says not. What the Pales hope for is a way to breach the barrier which they, and the Nomes, experience as keeping them bound within this local area. Frowgler told them Umboz and co. could help, and so far everything he's told them has come true (this must be what Frowgler meant when he said that he meant to see that the Pales got what they wanted, and whether or not they still wanted it once they'd got it wasn't his concern). The Nexus is old enough to remember before the barrier existed, when magic flowed freely, so before the Crash: so possibly the appearance of the barrier is connected with the Crash (and Philbert' death and the Basement-folk escaping their habitats also happened around that time). We learn that after the Nome/Gnoll war, the Nomes taught the Pales how to tree-warp (opening a Tardis-like space within a tree-trunk). They have used these skills to set up comfortable quarters for their Nome visitors inside a large tree which abuts their main building, with a bedroom upstairs up a ladder, and a drophole down below. Zpeaker doesn't get the chance to use his voice skills very often; the rest of the time he helps to grow giant fungi called Tower Caps. We learn that now that Piu and Umbuz are getting married, she will be the one making the decisions, according to Nome custom. Vezza, having eaten a lot, crashes out on a sofa. Umboz and Piu discuss how to get rid of Mayor Koyeeb, and who should replace him: Nitfol, returning, volunteers. The others reluctantly agree, as he's clever and the destruction of his home tree by the beaver shark gives him a non-conspiratorial excuse for seeking a new lifestyle. Nitfol says he doesn't hate everyone, just holds people in contempt, except the Nexus who really impressed him, and who already made the points Piu and Umbuz are making. The Nexus and Nitfol have a multi-stage plan of campaign worked out. The first stage will involve "some really stupid blobwarts, a five-meter pole, and three liters of Raviner ichor". To persuade Raviners (which are weird land-crab-like things) to spew ichor will involve the collection of strange and difficult substances from the deep forest. Meanwhile, the skunk shark is still chewing its way through the bushes, much to the alarm of Snerk, and Comshaw and co. are still roosting on top of the ruined fountain. We see Yasmine Fotheringby waking up dazed and regaining her composure in the ruins where Protus dropped her – in fact, the above-ground bit of the same ruined branch of World o' Pots where Mortimer fell into the underground storage area. She takes off a mask within the hood: we still cannot see her face or species, but she thinks of herself as Human, and remembers being sent by someone named Tara to find out about fleebs. She knows that she belongs to the Weirdoes' Guild. She sets off to rejoin her horse but then hears a sleeping Mortimer coughing inside a building guarded by a not very effective Sneech security device, and goes to investigate. Mortimer wakes up wondering why Pales, who like deserts, also live here in the forest. Meanwhile, Niddle is teaching Ig to play a complicated rock-stacking game, and Comsahw is impatient to leave. 12: Urwyn and the elevator [22/04/2009 – 03/08/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2051–#2149] Shona, Niff (the male) and Folla arrive at Rhid's ex place, where the male Trog Mowder is now the gatekeeper: the gate in question is being constructed by Fosic the Helipath. Mowder believes that Rhid's former place, under Sina's leadership, will become a new multi-species Hall offering greater opportunities for individuality and personal advancement than the existing Halls, and might maybe even start a trend for many new Halls springing up around the fringes of the old ones. Shona wants to see Sina, her sister, but Sina sends her a message telling her to go home. Mowder suggests that she come in anyway and report to Catmorlo to be assigned a job, thus becoming Sina's employee instead of Nevus's, but Shona walks away, passing Kulma and Timf who are busily at work carrying things. Mowder isn't worried that Shona will rat them out to Nevus as he doesn't reckon Nevus respects her opinion. We meet a tiny, diffident Shallow Wyrm called Urwyn (of the Inner Ring of the Circle of the Dunktyn Stone, although we don't learn that until later). He volunteers to help with the new Hall, and Mowder sends a male Gnoll called Satyrsong to carry Urwyn to Catmorlo. Satyrsong has an extreme hairdo which he cultivates for effect. Delfa gives Satyrsong a piece of found tech. to add to their stockpile: it looks Ettin-made (and is based on the USB symbol). Maggle, Flange, Kulma and Timf and others offstage are milling about carrying out tasks assigned by Catmorlo: Urwyn notices that the new piece of unknown eqipment which Satyrsong has brought in sends out a trail of energy to another piece, but no-one listens to him when he tries to tell them about it. Skuy appears with a message from Sina, saying they need somebody inconspicuous to keep an eye on the elevator. Urwyn is assigned to stay out of sight and watch. As Skuy carries Urwyn towards the elevator they pass a group of Flange, a Gnoll named Krink from the bucket chain, a Jibjib and Prandia the Gobule, who are building some kind of electronic gateway which involves toggling a bim. They encounter Voog, who is instructing Niff and Folla on sniffing some boxes to see if the contets are OK. Voog examines Urwyn to see if he has to "eat" him, which is actually a metaphor for some sexual element of the relationship between the large Deep Wyrms and the little ones. This leads to a conversation in which Skuy says she will never use a Finagler: she was in love with Cully who was exiled to SubShaft 44f by Nevus (whom Urwyn believes and hopes doesn't know he exists). Skuy takes Urwyn to meet Sina, who is in Rhid's laboratory where Sprocket is clearing out the most dangerous stuff. Wrawa has been left to sleep and a Gnoll Healer named Kottle is assigned to keep an eye on her. The Trogs called Grik and Grak have appointed themselves as Sina's bodyguards. Sina's sight is returning, and she is kept very busy organising everybody. Hiblehoy is sent to make up beds – we learn that it is difficult, but not impossible, for male and female Motihauls to work together. Pergola warns them about a "thing" spewing goo and is sent to tell Sprocket. There is some conversation about Rhid's obligatory stuffed crocagator: Nubby kept a pool of live ones at the far end of the Basement, but Urwyn has never been to see them because there's no [unspecified secret thing he doesn't want to name], plus it's a long journey for someone his size. We are reminded that Rhid used to be a Candle Monk but got thrown out, and told that he was trained by a Gnoll wizard (? probably a wizard) called Burtgum who died in some kind of accident. Grak won't let Sina approach the elevator. Urwyn will summon help, if he needs it, by pinging a glass ball. A Gnoll called Finimbrun, who is interested in similar stuff to Rhid but is sane, is to be that help. Finimbrun takes Urwyn to meet somebody called Huff and they all get caught up inside a mechanical Kraken, a Human-made advertising float which Rhid had acquired somewhere, which changes from green to purple and which is labelled "Eat at Shub's". Finimbrun gets control of the arms and uses them to fumble around: one of the things he finds lying nearby is a Pokemon ball labelled "Rhid Find lightning rod before opening again!-Rhid". Huff's species isn't given but his or her dialogue font looks like Jibjib. The Kraken's long arm is used to transport Urwyn to a position where he can watch the elevator from behind a nearby door jamb. There he meets another Shallow Wyrm, a friend of his called Zugo, who is doing some kind of foraging work for "the Circle". We learn that Urwyn is the Wyrm equivalent of a pampered aristocrat but he wants to be useful and do work, and would give up his position and work like and with Zugo, but Zugo's work colleagues would kill him for Breaking the Rings. Zugo, who is the equivalent of working-class, is also unusual in that he will talk to Urwyn. Urwyn asks Zugo to warn "the innerest Ring" that Rhid has been ousted: he expects that if anybody in that Ring notices that he, Urwyn has left, they'll be glad to be rid of him. Meanwhile, Flange has created a device called a bim toggler with which s/he has opened a false wall to reveal a sequence of rooms beyond. Some walls havve a symbol on them which indicates that there is space behind them that can be access with such a device. S/he believes there may be other large rooms left sealed by the Humans. An alarmingly gungho female Motihaul called Othara, granddaughter of the famous Othar, turns up and volunteers to explore the new space, which Sina hopes will relieve overcrowding in the Halls. Urwyn (or possibly Zugo) thinks he hears something, but doesn't realise the floor-dial on the elevator has moved. Sina realises she forgot to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, but at that moment the elevator doors open and Hpobfvfr appears, red-eyed and controlled by the Operator. Urwyn tells Zugo to leave. Hpobfvfr still hates the Operator but he has nevertheless convinced her that he is her superior officer, by knowing Level Three passwords: the way the Operator speaks of different levels of passwords suggests Hpobfvfr may operate in some artificial way like a Metalmin and her mind can be hacked into. The Operator sends her to fetch Sylvester's cold iron frying pan: although it hurts the Operator to touch it, he holds it and uses it to probe the boundaries of his cage. He sends her to gather up the remains of Hpthbvtw (Hepthbav), which he thinks he can use: but when he realises that Hpobfvfr has a strong emotional link to Hpthbvtw, and that this is weakening his hold over her (her eyes get noticeably less red), he orders her back into the lift. He tells her that he too had a mate he was "rather fond of", and offspring, and he doesn't know if he will see them again but in the very long term he will "literally move heaven and earth" for the chance to do so. Skuy comes to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, and Urwyn tells her she's already appeared: she goes off again to tell Sina. Meanwhile, the Operator does something to Hpobfvfr's physiology which causes a red flicker around her head, and then tells her to track and kill Rosemary and Sylvester – a task she takes to with enthusiasm. In fact, the Operator is seeking to test Rosemary against a less malleable opponent than Chauncy and Edgar, because he has a use for her if she wins. Ploot, the large Deep Wyrm from Sina's team, comes to speak to Urwyn about what he has seen. In the foreground, a Smyt summons a trundlebug and rides it like a horse. Urwyn comments on the fact that Ploot is the first Deep Wyrm he's met who didn't examine him to see if he needed to "eat" him. Ploot says he's just not very interested in that kind of thing – it's a powerful and necessary drive but a small minority just don't have it. They see an externalised Vision, or what Ploot calls a "Glimpse" (actually celebrating the strip's sixth birthday). Ploot tells Urwyn he stays up high (for a Wyrm) in the Basement because he doesn't want to breed and also because times are changing, as the Vision suggests, and he wants to help people who are trying to smooth the transition and set up a new society etc.. Urwyn mutters that he isn't sure he'd mind if Ploot wanted to Eat him.... Another Shallow Wyrm called Kryt of the Ring of the Celestial Observation Slit, who has been secretly watching this exchange, goes to some kind of communication station and starts to give a secret report about the Operator to some Wyrm authority. There seems to be a small colony of the little Shallow Wyrms living around this communication point. Meanwhile a large flutterby, a banded Vagabond, dazed by crashing into light globes, flies past them and down into the depths, where it is struck by the radiator of a large lorry or armoured car, being driven deep undergound. 13: The Great Chasm [04/08/2009 – 26/02/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2158–end] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips start–#2348] On the lorry are two very amusing, characterful Fixits, a male and a female who call each other "Age" and "Beauty" and who seem to be working partners, both riding unconscious Gnoll mounts. They mention an engineer called Tix who had been complaining that the "Sneechtaps" were all offline. They come to an underground building which looks a bit like a smaller version of the Mansion of E upside-down and has levitating lifts, where they report to a very bossy female Fixit called Grix. It is mentioned that there is a schedule which Nevus and the Council have pre-empted by attacking each other. They bear a message saying that Mr Hand wants to see Hax urgently. Grix reveals that Hax has a history of getting into scrapes (nearly as bad as Mortimer) and has just spent almost ten years relegated to the (breeding?) pens in the mountains. He was given Project Y duty that very morning (which suggests he was told to take fleebs to the Great Chasm in order for Sprocket and Flange to end up with them) and Grix isn't surprised to hear that he ran into trouble. Grix summons a female Ichyoid called Igor (which seems to be a job title not a name) who brings in boxes of what we later learn are delicate, increasingly-hard-to-obtain Pvatskin Triggers vital for the maintenance of the underpinnings of the River of Fire. The partners are despatched to take these boxes to the Chasmside Covert Observation Station: after they have left, Igor wishes to discuss Rufus, apparently as a replacement for Mr Hand, but this is so secret a matter that Grix tells her they must know nothing about it ever. The two partners are sent on another long lorry journey to deliver the boxes (which one of them finds unsettling). With them in the lorry are other consignments, including lunch for their journey and a cage containing a larger-than-usual (hamster-sized), amaranth-coloured Fuzz which sings in notes coloured in the same rainbow colours as the River of Fire, underneath which they pass (and we see a massive pillar supporting it). This may be an indication that someone in this group has contact with the city of the Spires in Mechana where, as we will later learn, they breed Fuzzes for size, appearance and singing ability. The female Fixit expresses moral doubts about what they are doing by controlling their mounts. En route they pass the Quarentine [sic] Alcove of Forbidden Objects, which contains strange things such as a statue of an Ichyoid and a giant, broken statue of Kaylu with wires hanging out of it. When they reach the Chasmside Covert Observation Station (which is decorated with a crowned human figure playing a trumpet) they unload in a large, open hangar and then report to Fixits called Apix and Birux. We learn that one of the things they are doing down here is repairing the undershield of the River of Fire, but it's getting more difficult, in part because it's getting harder to get hold of the hardening foam triggered by the Pvatskin Triggers. Apix says that Nevus and Preznit (for the Council) have called a cease-fire. He is aware of Sylvester and of Rosemary, whom he calls "regrettably proactive". The male of the two partners then goes up to an observation deck where he talks to a Fixit called Peex (riding on/fused with an Eyebolt) and they discuss Project Y, the same thing Sprocket and Flange were working on earlier. Project Y will give their employers much more effective surveillance but may not be finished in their lifetime. There is a suggestion that their current surveillance system involves the Tree. Project Y will result in much better surveillance, and then Mr Hand won't need as many of them to snoop for him. The action cuts to Rosemary and Sylvester, who are discussing Rosemary's Poke Kit, which was a going-away present from Aunt Eva, and the E family library in the Ivory Tower, and books they have read about Erewhonian anthropology, and night creatures. We learn that Amos Grubb is the Mansion's librarian and Nellie Grubb is the gardener. As Rosemary and Sylvester climb the steps leading away from the far side of the River there are no more visions, just an odd smell of marshberries (which leads to a discussion about the different berries available in different regions, and Audravania growing pudding plants). They reach a lighted area, and Rosemary becomes temporarily hypnotised after looking at a spinning light. She is amazed to discover that the Can-Opener fits inside her Poke Kit, which previously had only been able to hold small objects: Sylvester attributes this to the power of the tricklepoint. Pre-Crash folk heroes named Readman and Billsmith are mentioned, who carried a whole library and an arsenal in Poke Kits. If you take a Poke Kit into a low-magic area it spits out what was inside it. Their local trickle-pont is between the Mansion and the Spire. Sylvester talks about the Spike (and at least some bits of the Mansion, since e.g. the Panegates have the same characteristic writing on them as the Spike) having been built by Ettins, and about the ancient war between Ettins and Sneeches, which killed all the Ettins and most of the Sneeches. We learn that the Ettins sent a mission to the Moon to investigate artefacts of unknown origin there, and they used durasteel construction plates. The Ettins had less of a presence Out West. The West was Sneech terriory, although most of them died in the war and they now mainly live in Wirtvale. Sylvester says that the Sneeches in the Basement usually allow travellers through their territory if they stick to the main road and don't engage with anybody. They occasionally give travellers gifts, which may be beneficial, dangerous or both: Audra's cost her a hand but she said it was worth it. Latterly, Sneech gifts are usually either thrown away or stored in the Quiet Room (a magic-deadening space upstairs in the Mansion). The new Earl has to walk through the Sneech colony alone, but Sylvester saw no Sneeches when he did so. In the context of how unusual it is to have one Pale village with no other Pales nearby to fight, Sylvester talks about the zoo which the Ettins set up in the Basement, before Humans arrived in the area. The habitats were self-sustaining and most still work: Nubby's Crocogator Pit is in the Motihaul swamp, and the Chamber of Extreme Aridity was for the Pales. Most of the local sapient species were exhibits – except the Sneeches, who were prisoners of war and research subjects; the Gnolls, who were free-lance "vermin" living where they chose; and the Gobules and Eyebolts, who were on the staff of the zoo. There's a dating problem there. Previously Sylvester said that most of the nonHumans in the Basement were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now.." in Philbert's time – which extended right up to three months before the Crash, fifty years ago. Now he says of the Pales that "Like all the other species, after the Ettins were gone, they eventually got out of their habitat. Started roaming the Basement." where they set up a mixed-species society. But "after the Ettins were gone" is in the time of the 1st Earl. Definite dates start with Milo, the 9thEarl, 350 years ago, but since then they've averaged twenty-five years per reign so the 1st Earl would probably have been around 550 years ago. Five hundred years is a very long "eventually". Perhaps what happened was that soon after the Ettins died their habitats became open and they could "start roaming", but they mostly stayed in their own environments where they were comfortable, until a combination of rising numbers and the disruption caused by Audra eventually led them to start spreading out. Or perhaps he just means that up to fifty years ago they were still confined to the Basement, not spreading out into the countryside: especially as he says that the Pales left the Basement and settled in the ruins of Eetown after the Crash. This probably has something to do with the presence of a large, ultimately Pale-owned World o' Pots in Eetown. The Ettins seem to have had no contact with Humans (presumably until their final end, when the 1st Earl supposedly fought them) as their records never mention them. Sylvester knows a lot about all this because if he'd had his choice he would have liked to be an archaeologist. Humans came into the country from across the sea in large numbers from Tiranog via the Sea of Shells and into a region called Abalone, and took over the area. Tiranog is on the same continent, and not all that far away, so this reinforces the idea that the Ettins only lived in what is now Yurpsland, otherwise they could hardly have failed to meet Humans. There were already older Human colonies in Yurpsland, in Shibolith, south-east of Abalone, who got there by a different route, overland from Thekla in the south. They had conflict with the Pales in Shibolith and so never spread, and they now speak a very different dialect from the rest. However, the language spoken locally is very widespread because Sylvester says his mother can just about understand the locals in Agraba, which is on the other side of the whole big continent, nearly four times the whole width of Yurpsland away. Even before the colonies in Shibolith, the insular, hostile tribal Human group called Haroons were brought into Alfibay (the far north-west of Yurpsland) by someone or something. Sylvester mentions Ilsa Lundquist, who was head housekeeper at the Mansion for years, and whose mother was a Haroon. This must be the same green-haired, Earl-hating Ilsa whom Snerk and Shona met when the HJ42 went PROZ and jumped them back to Eetown shortly before the Crash. Ilsa had a distracted air – probably because the Scary Lady was controlling her in some way – and eventually retired to the village. The Mansion still has a very old, almost mummified butler called Schmedley. They used to have all sorts of servants, including an hereditary string-measurer: the last incumbent choked to death a week and a half before the Crash, and some people thought the Crash happened because the post was vacant. Rosemary has plans for reviving the Mansion's fortunes, and is already referring to "our" and "we" in this context. At the very least, she can mind the place while Sylvester goes to Glome, the provincial capital, where he can get more current information. We learn that King Yorik III and his children died in the Crash. The current king Yancy II is a figurehead: the Bureaucracy really governs. Sylvester follows the fortunes of various factions in The Times (which stuck out here he can only get hold of weeks after publication) and has plans for playing the stockmarket. The stories in The Times are often slanted in a way that gives away the various jockeyings for position between government agencies and between companies. There is a long discussion about the fact that the government's bureaucracy is fragmented into multiple agencies and factions, and about the politics of the various neighbouring countries, including a place called Blefusco which is clearly equivalent to France. The country just south of Yurpsland is called Thekla, and south of that are Incana and Blefusco. Incana and Thekla are sabre-rattling: Blefusco is neutral, but if it gets dragged in it could lead to war between multiple countries including theirs. As they approach the top of the stairs, the hypnotic lights go out. They talk about the various habitats in the Basement ex-zoo, the death of the Wendigoes in the failed arctic exhibit (no loss, according to Sylvester), and the Willy the Wendigo books, and Sylvester's obligation to produce an heir (although given how many siblings he has I would have thought a nephew or niece would have done) and birth-control failures (they chew a plant called stiflebloom, but occasionally it doesn't work), and the pointlessness of Rosemary's crush on Baldy because he was "a homguy". We learn that the Helipaths and Ecadems were probably brought in by the Ettins through a Panegate. Sylvester believes that the Panegates open into alternate heres, rather than other planets. We learn that Rosemary's parents drowned in a maritime accident, and that there were terrible Dawn Wars before the Ettins and Sneeches came along. The combatants were inimical races called Wilfs/Wifts and Gobblems/Gobble'Ems, who are now known in this world only from bone framgments and fairy tales but who still exist beyond one of the Panegates. For whatever reason, the Panegates only show worlds a long way diverged from this one. The 12th Earl, Lemuel, investigated the Panegates and was probably killed by one: the controls are difficult and dangerous to operate, but there are a few simple ones which do work and part of the rite of passage of the new Earl is to go through one to e.g. the Forest, or yo Charlotte's Cave (which is halfway up the side of a nearby mountain). The Panegates also sometimes prompt the formation of brief portals to strange and distant places. We see an image of one through which we can glimpse Snoopy on his doghouse, and are shown an incident where two frog-creatures from the Station V3 webcomic emerged in the Mansion and were dealt with by the Scary Lady. I would suggest that Frowgler came through such a portal after one connected to the Roshambo comic, but he has said elsewhere that he isn't the Frowgler, just a Frowgler. Rosemary starts to ask about the Scary Lady, but then they reach the Great Chasm. Mr Hand watches them on his monitors, but disclaims all knowledge to somebody on the 'phone. Ludwig installed railings and bridges over the Chasm: there is a gap in the rails opposite the door they emerge from, but no bridge. It's not just any gap, but delineated by posts with E finials: it looks like it was built for a bridge that's no longer there, or perhaps as a boarding-point for airships. They establish that Rosemary is not scared of heights, and actively enjoyed working in the rigging of a sailing ship. The Chasm, is lit by daylight (and hence only in daylight) by reflectors installed by Ludwig. Walking along a ledge to get to the actual bridge, they sample the local treefruit, pass a gap where the rail is simply broken, then encounter an elderly male Gobule called Theophan the Recluse. Theophan is one of a long series of Theophans, the Founder, the Mighty and the Rotund, who were all famous mentors (passing the name through mentoring, not blood relationship). Gobule young are self-supporting and non-sapient, like baby guinea-pigs. They scatter in large numbers to grow or die. Those that live, become sapient: some of those become mere scavengers around the fringes but the luckiest are taken on by a mentor and educated. This Theophan was a student of Theophan the Rotund, along with Maw, Bung, Cram and Guttle. We learn that Gobule mentors occasionally mentor other species: Sylvester seems to be considering using one for his own future children. We hear about a Jibjib boss called Flap who runs an expensive ferry service across the Chasm, and learn that Theophan has chosen to stay beside the Chasm because it goes all the way down to the Hot Zone and he feels there's something terribly important down there, and not just the Treeroot. He tastes the Can-Opener and thinks it is made of Sneech squeezings, or something similar. He doesn't want to know their names, which are arbitrary labels, so they use the code-names Twit and Warrior. We learn that Theophan also stays by the Chasm to provide a sort of impartial counselling service to male Trogs who come to the Chasm to kill themselves by taking the Plunge before they lose their minds. A traditional location is used for this: it looks like another possible airship-jetty, like the one they passed earlier. After Rosemary and Sylvester have left we see Whisp still trailing them, then two baby Gobules emerge from a hole and talk to Theophan. Interestingly Theophan seems to have taught them the wrong meaning of the word "hobnob" as one baby says it means "fighting with", and Theopan replies "With teeth or with words, Yes." It actually means something between being pally with and conspiring with: a British brand of biscuit is called Hobnob because of the cosy image it conjures up. We learn that those Nomes who still live in the Basement live in Root Hall with the Eyebolts. Rosemary disapproves of the fact that Theophan doesn't try to stop the Trogs from killing themselves, but Sylvester understands it, and says he might do the same if he developed Darnay Syndrome (their equivalent of Alzheimer's). Rosemary is aware of Whisp following them. As they approach the Plunge point, trying to lose Whisp, they are passed by Crazy Rhid coming the other way, with Kronk still on his trail some way behind him. Sylvester thinks he's seen Rhid before, but doesn't realise it was in the images shown to him by Protus. We get to see the Plunge Point as seen from across the far side, so that we can see that there is a lighted panel below the lip facing out into the Chasm, lending weight to the idea that these were docking points for something. Nearby, we see the male Ghast Sopovefe from the bucket chain, waiting for "the little zorper" (so probably Frowgler, although if "zorper" is being used just as profanity he might mean Digger or some Shallow Wyrm), and Hpobfvfr passing by behind him, presumably looking for Rosemary and Sylvester: Sopovefe glimpses her and seems to realise something is odd about her. A shot is fired (by Camora, with the blunderbuss, under Hax's control, from a high vantage point), striking Rosemary on the helmet and dazing her: in her confusion she exclaims "I told them not to ring your bell, Dandelion..", Dandelion being the name of the Oracle where she grew up. Kronk pushes her aside in order to pursue Rhid, and she and Sylvester fall into the Chasm. Rhid and Kronk pass Whisp, who can smell that Rosemary and Sylvester went over the Plunge, and also smells Camora's presence nearby. Rhid, in the lead, then passes Theophan, and then a Trog juggler who we later learn is called Stonwal, and then the doorway that leads to the River, and then is rescued by Digger Odel, who pulls him in behind a concealed panel. Whisp traces Camora's scent and works out that she emerged from a spot in a corridor wall (not the point she disappeared behind before), tracked to the ledge above the Plunge site and then returned. She wonders if it's a transporting twistpoint, like one in Helignoll Hall, then works out that it's a concealed door, and leaves to report back to Upernavik and Knumdrot. Meanwhile we see Hpobfvfr go to the edge of the Plunge and peer over, then turn back. Behind the panel Hax disengages from Camora. He believes he has contained her memory and delayed her awakening, but she wakes instantly, with full memory, and tries to grab him. He escapes down a letterbox-sized slot in the rock, scraping his front surface badly in the process, with Camora shouting THIS IS NOT OVER!" behind him. We see gaps and tunnels in the rock containing odd bits of struts and tools and what looks like a Smyt-sized pink racing car, then a cavern where four bats are roosting. One bat bat wakes and flies through wider fissures towards the outside. Part Five: Mechanisms in the Dark [27/02/2010 – 16/07/2013] 01: Sitting in a Tree [27/02/2010 – 04/06/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2355–#2443] Now that it is getting dark Comshaw, Niddle and Ig see the bat fly past them and finally feel safe to come down from the ruined fountain. Ig is now wearing/carrying Niddle's backpack. We also see a distant, unidentifed Saur, possibly Snerk but the colour looks darker, lurking in a tree, watching a bat go past. Yasmine enters the ruined building where she heard coughing, and discovers Mortimer, lying on a makeshift bed and still coming round from having been stunned by Eunice. He has a note from Rufus on his chest but we aren't told what it says. He correctly identifies Yasmine, who seems familiar to him although she doesn't think they've met, as a Weirdo – which she finds amazing, apparently because it suggests a degree of clairvoyance not seen since the Crash. He also identifies the building as Dorian's old hut (presumably the Dorian who now lives in the Spike), but seems confused: when Yasmine mentions Protus as the Willigig currently living in the Mansion, Mortimer recalls being somewhere near the Basement at some point and Skibble, who seems to be a friend of his, turning up "like he usually does" (which makes it unlikely he's an Ichyoid, so we're down to Ghast, Ooze of Helipath) and mentioning Protus to him, but he doesn't coherently connect this with the Willigig who gave him the HJ42 after the incident with the Tree-Squid earlier in the day – although he then refers to Protus as "really grumpy", so he must have made the connection subconsciously, even if he has forgotten the meeting consciously. Yasmine claims she is there to conduct an official Weirdo's Guild review of Arthur's performance. Mortimer smells strongly of sphagnum dust and sploo. Yasmine sets off again to find her horse, and Mortimer again sets out to find Nitfol and rescue him if still alive. He is briefly distracted by a flutterby and calls it to his finger: Yasmine sees this and is again amazed by his psychic talent. Agita's henchgnoll Agorn overhears them talking, and we see Mortimer's Scalpsucker messenger still only halfway up the side of the shaft. The flutterby flies round her and she falls asleep: it seems Mortimer sent it to tell her to stand down. Yasmine and Mortimer get along well and he tells her about all the odd things which happen to him. They talk about Mortimer and Sylvester doing their duty and Sylvester still getting scorned by the villagers, about chaos theory and flutterbys and how one flutterby might some day make a difference, and she tells him to tell Frederick about the odd things. Thinking of what Protus showed her, but not saying it, she tells Mortimer she expects to be back some day and when she returns she expects him to have made some progress with his situation. As Yasmine leaves, Mortimer gives her his sack of fleebs, and Agorn watches from behind a wall. Agorn, who is carrying a spear, wonders whether to follow one or the other, go home and report or go run off and join the Spikefolk, who carry out strange rites involving doing a Metalmin dance and getting blasted with Spikeglow. He appears to decide to follow Mortimer. Ig, Comshaw and Niddle are trying to locate Mortimer by smell but they smell something odd as well that Ig has never smelled before, metal and skin, wet and burnt – Niddle says this smell was all over the mound that the Fire came out of earlier ("The Pit"). The way they describe the smell, it probably relates to either Frowgler or the Meltalmin which we glimped earlier near The Pit: we will find out later that it's Frowgler, which implies that Frowgler smells of metal (is it possible that Frowgler in some way is the Metalmin?). They can also smell that there have been a lot of Pales about, not just Thrash's party and the two with Buzz. Niddle says the metal/skin/wet/burnt smell was all over the hill where The Pit is, then suddenly gone. Again there is mention of a barrier which Humans live beyond, as if there's some sort of cordon keeping the Basement folk in. Niddle is pleased that he was exposed to the Fire and saw visions, as he thinks this will prove to be important, and he says it will now be a Finagler thing which he will spread at the next Conclave. Having parted from Jasmine Mortimer is a bit lost (and we see he is now completely barefoot: evidently Rufus and/or Eunice removed his remaining shoe when they put him to bed), but then he encounters Frowgler, Thrash and the two other Pales we will later know as Flagpale and Scrawl, although for the moment Frowgler calls them Flaghelper and Antlerhelper. Frowgler is sitting on a branch of a tree against which the Scary Lady's pink umbrella is leaning. Mortimer recognises Frowgler as a comic-book character but Frowgler says that he is "not THE Frowgler. Just.. A Frowgler", and saying that his parents called him that is a close enough approximation. Frowgler comments that the local Pales call their fort "The Camp" because they expect it to be temporary, and advises Mortimer on how to find the closest Spyder web, and that he'll know he's near it when he sees smoke. He claims to be in a similar position to his fictional counterpart, in that he has come to assist the Good Guys against powerful evil forces, much bigger and more powerful than mere demons. Mortimer and Thrash are both Good Guys, and so are most of the people they know. Mortimer asks if Yasmine was right to tell him to talk to Frederick, and Frowgler thinks she probably was. Mortimer says he needs to be ready "when she gets back" – probably meaning Yasmine. Thrash tacitly agrees to convey Frowgler on to his next stopping point. As Frowgler and the Pales leave, Mortimer notices the umbrella. It doesn't belong to anyone in Frowgler's party, so he keeps it. Agorn watches the bat catching flutterbys, then realises that Comshaw's party are behind him, and hides. He overhears Comshaw sniffing out the fact that the Human, Mortimer, went one way and the Pales and the metal-smelling thing went another. So the metal-smelling thing must be Frowgler. They decide to continue following the Human. Agorn is impressed, but in a kind of patronising way: he sees Comshaw as a young fellow with potential. The space-suited worker who earlier quit the Hot Zone observation station climbs out of a hatch in one of the ruined buildings (with a sign over the door saying "GONE TO EARTH"), takes off her helmet and reveals herself to be a female Nome called Fizmo. She mentions having been taken below from a different entrance by someone called Fogorner, who she believes was working for the group in the Spike. She is afraid she might have come up beyond the Edge of the World, where the giants (Humans) are. She attempts to treewarp her way through the door, but it doesn't work because she doesn't have "the glowgems or the blivit any of the rest of the phizz". In the end she forces her way out of the locked building through a crack high in the stonework, in her underwear but taking with her a pruning hook she found in the locked building. She lands in "puffbloom bushes", which seem to be the local version of hydrangea. She meets Frowgler, who is sitting on a ruined wall and whom she knows – he had advised her not to take the subterranean job. Now he says going back down would be the safest thing for her, but not the best thing. Learning that she admires Nitfol for his independence, he suggests she go with Thrash to the Pale camp where Nitfol now is, and she agrees. She is initially alarmed by Thrash, whom Frowgler introduces as the Nexus's strong right hand, then she casually calls him "whatsyergob". As a reward for not forcing him to force her to agree, Frowgler opens his Poke Kit and gives her a very smart hat made by the posh Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine, since Nomes hate to be bareheaded, but he warns her to examine hats from other sources carefully: to look inside them, and if they're one of the unsafe kind she'll feel the urge to swear and whack them with her pruning hook. It is clear he is warning her about Fixits, and that Fogorner is controlled by a Fixit. He also warns her that the beaver shark – of which there is only one – is loose nearby, and that he is trying to stop Koyeeb doing something which will destroy the Nome village (presumably, attacking the Gnolls). He is sending her away from the village because she's worth saving. He tells Thrash to tell the Nexus that if they don't hear from him, "that stopgap we discussed will be necessary". Frowgler denies being a demon and says he was put on earth to do what he is doing. He goes down the tunnel Fizmo came out of, saying that he needs to see an old friend, and she goes off with the Pales, talking at them about a Nome who built a prototype plane which crashed, and her ideas about hot air balloons (adding that she is a natural source of hot air). We see a flat-topped tower among the ruins, made of Ettin durasteel plates and with a label that starts "Ludwig automatic..." Inside the top, surrounded by windows, is a giant crystal which collects sunlight and directs it underground and down a channel with mirrors in it to steer it around corners. The light-beam passes by a lorry in some sort of workshop, and a buried, humanoid but four-armed Metalmin: either the Metalmin is huge or the lorry is Smyt-size, because the entire lorry is only slightly bigger than the Metalmin's head. The beam from the crystal connects to the lights which channel daylight to the Great Chasm, and we see Rosemary and Sylvester falling: he thinks that he is dying Mortimer's death and his family will never know what happened to him, but then they land in a peculiar fluffy outgrowth of the Tree. Rosemary, still dazed from the blow to the head, identifies Rhid whom they have just seen as one of the people Protus showed to Sylvester, and thinks that the woman he saw her fighting – whom she calls Tansy – is about to show up, since Rhid did. Her helmet light is damaged, and Sylvester's helmet is missing, caught in the Tree high above them. Rosemary apologises to the Tree and then whacks it, causing the helmet to fall into range. Sylvester manages with some difficulty to catch it, so that they have light and can proceed. 02: Lying in a Hole [05/06/2010 – 16/09/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2450–#2548] Mortimer passes an enormous boulder in its own fresh mini-crater: it's not the one that nearly hit Comshaw earlier, but probably comes from the same explosion. Watched by a trundlebug, Rosemary and Sylvester slip through the layer of fluff onto a more normal, solid branch of the Tree. Sylvester thinks the padded branches below the Plunge point are there to stop Trogs killing themselves, or at least, like Theophan, to give them time to reconsider. Rosemary tears her skirt – which is stolen, presumably from a Chroman Initiate – to make ties to keep their helmets on. She admits to having killed three Humans, presumably in combat. Meanwhile, Comshaw, Niddle and Ig are following close behind Mortimer. The pre-existence of Wyverns, a kind of extinct dragon, is mentioned. If this is designed to save Trogs, or at least give them the chance to change their minds, why have none ever made it back to tell Theophan about it? Sylvester's theory that it's all there to save Trogs is born out when they find a burning pot of Trog Repellant, which herds any Trogs who land in the Tree towards a narrow spur bridge leading out over the abyss (made by a very reputable construction firm). Meanwhile, Agorn passes more debris, buried in the ground by the force of the last blast, the OZPR. The spur across the Chasm ends with a bracket with a crab or spider drawn on it, and then a long tube-like chute which they are sucked in by, and which takes them to a padded landing-site in a room within the cliff on the far side of the Chasm, which contains a broken office cabinet which has "The Threshold" written on it, and which moves about under its own power. On the wall is written "MAKES HAMBLE SUMTHING SUMTHING", among other things. They meet a thing called a Lurker – a cave-creature like a blind, bald, sub-sapient Saur. Dog-like, it wants them to follow it: Rosemary thinks it's leading them into an ambush. Following it, they come to a place which looks like the Ettins' artificial Trog habitat, except sterile and dead, without the moss and fresh water etc. of the zoo exhibit. Sylvester feels that he and Rosemary are both acting rather wildly, and that this is due to exposure to energy bubbling up from the Hot Zone. They come to an archway labelled "Serene Cavern of Blissful Relaxation", beside which is a slightly sick poem about the death of Yurd ("Yurd ran far and wide // 'Til his mind began to slide // So he took the Great Plunge // Now he is in a hole all covered with gunge"). Within are the people the Lurker, Blinky, was reporting to – two male trogs called Villipend and Hamble. Both are less flat-faced and probably mentally sharper than Kronk, but Villipend is paranoid and deranged, and his hair (or crest or whatever it is) is styled like a crown. Hamble tries to calm him but he is sure that Rosemary and Sylvester are the "Tormentors" who keep him trapped there, and it doesn't help that he smells his enemy Kronk (who brushed past them at the Plunge point) on them. There are bones in the background which look like those of a Trog. When Sylvester says he doesn't know where the exit is, Villipend throws a weapon which Rosemary fends off with the Can-Opener, which Villipend calls a Sneech claw. Rosemary and Villipend fight and Villipend manages to get in a kick which throws her against the wall. Sylvester intervenes, warns him grimly that he is the terrible Earl of E and fires a primitive taser which he has in his backpack, and which fires over his shoulders when he hits a trigger on his chest – but Villipend dodges and it is Hamble who is struck and apparently killed. The act of firing the taser also throws Squeeb out of the backpack and onto the floor, unnoticed. Villipend is impressed by the taser but annoyed because he wanted to kill Hamble himself. He threatens Sylvester so Rosemary slashes him with the Can-Opener and he hides in the dark. Sylvester finds a door operated by a Herediscan which identifies him as a member of the E family and lets him through: next to it on the wall is written "THE BRUSH IS PERFECT BUT THE PAINT RUNS". He tells Villipend (now clinging to the ceiling) he will leave the door open. Mortimer thinks that he is searching the woods to find out what happened to Nitfol. Then he finds the Spyder's head, detached and smoking, and thinks "OK, now it's just morbid curiosity". Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their weapons training (and we learn that at the bodyguard training-school she went to, the fencing master was a Mr Montoya). She is concerned that she may not be able to stop Villipend if he attacks again, because he's in peak condition and she has no practice with the Can-Opener. Comshaw's party reach the dead Spyder head. Ig can tell that it wasn't Mortimer who killed the Spyder, and begins to discover the joys of cooked meat. As they move away from the Hot Zone vents, Rosemary becomes calmer. Sylvester tells her about the SubShafts, a tangle of tunnels which are greatly affected by the Hot Zone. The Eyebolts who worked for the Ettins lived there, then the mining Nomes as well. After an upheaval when Sylvester was a teen (presumably the Gnoll/Nome war, so Mortimer was about twelve or fourteen when he did whatever he did) they all moved out, the Eyebolts to elsewhere in the Basement, the Nomes to the Forest, and now it's mainly Gnolls who live in the SubShafts. [We seen an outline of Cully, Chunner and Crud, all heavily armed – Cully with a flame-thrower, Chunner with a blunderbuss and Crud with something similar to the Can-Opener.] They come to an area of large engineering works and spiky pylons, like metal tree trunks with short jagged branches, at the start of a walkway or bridge at the edge of a long drop. Mortimer comes to the huge, smoking crater caused when Frowgler set off the HJ42, and wrongly assumes Nitfol and the Spyder were both blown up. He climbs down into the crater and retrieves the HJ42, then Comshaw, Niddle and Ig arrive at the edge of the crater and engage him in conversation about the goals of Humanity. They all conclude that Comshaw needs to speak to Sylvester (hearing that Sylvester is the Earl, Comshaw assumes he must be very scary). The thing Niddle has been carrying in his hand all day, which he found in the tunnel and which is similar to but not the same as a Glowgem, starts radiating energy, and Comshaw notices it for the first time since the tunnel. Niddle says he can almost hear it speak, it's waited a long time and now it's almost time for some unspecified meeting: probably between it and the HJ42. This must be the meeting future!Mortimer told present!Mortimer to prevent. Suddenly the Saur Snerk falls into the crater with them. He had run into the beaver shark and it fixated on him and began chasing him. The beaver shark appears looming over the edge of the crater and then crashes down amongst them. Niddle starts counting down 5...4...3... Mortimer orders the others to run: using his pink umbrella like a baton he summons a large crowd of flutterbys, who distract the shark by crashing against its face. Then Niddle's count reaches zero, and the energies of the HJ42 and the crystal link and set off a silent magical fireball, a huge dome of white light, which is felt by the Operator, the Scary Lady, Frowgler and a mechanical alarm near Hector. Back underground, Rosemary and Sylvester are considering a vertical ladder when Villipend jumps them, wrests the Can-Opener from Rosemary and tries to force Sylvester to go back downstairs and close the door to Villipend's domain, so he can continue to trap other Trogs there. Sylvester is willing to jump into the Chasm rather than do so. Mortimer and the shark are transported into open underground space by a twistpoint and fall down to where Rosemary and Sylvester are. The letters PZOR appear, indicating that the not-Glowgem and the HJ42 interacted to create the twistpoints, burst of light etc.. The shark bites Villipend, killing him, and Rosemary retrieves the Can-Opener and pushes both of them off the edge and into the deep. Comshaw and Niddle are jumped through another twistpoint back to their own home, where Camora is brooding. [They have a skimgibber in a bowl.] Niddle crashes out, as Telic had warned that he would, burbling about the fact that Mortimer has the same haircut as him, and something about a window. Camora tells Comshaw about Hax. He decides to go back out to warn everyone, leaving her to care for Niddle, but first Camora, who is feeling overwrought, declares that she loves Comshaw and they have an unspecified erotic session. Comshaw is happy to see that Niddle has some clingweed wrapped round his feet, since he promised some to Telic. Ig is twistpointed to outside the home of his ex girlfriend Nerda, the mother of his as-yet unhatched children. He offers her the stuff in Niddle's backpack so she lets him in. Snerk is less lucky. As a result (or cause) of an unspecified backlash he is dumped into the middle of a high-tech. experimental facility of some kind being run by two Ghasts. He is pinned in some uncomfortable, scary machinery which may be examining him or may be cleaning and immunising him – it's not clear which – and then pushed through a hatch (which he sort-of recognises because "the boss" told him about doors) labelled "#2540 SAUR HABITAT, WOODLAND" into an artifical woodland habitat designed especially for Saurs. He wonders if it is underground, then thinks that he has been twistpointed to a real forest far away. He wishes to leave a.s.a.p. in order to report to Frowgler. There are other Saurs there, all of them (including Snerk), wearing a bracelet on the right wrist and with a three-digit number on their left side. He meets a dozy girl called Dizel and a much more sensible, very large female called Zil who tells him that if he can find a way out she's coming with him: he learns from her that there's a day/night cycle here, but no proper sun. We learn of the existence of big, dim, agressive Saur relatives called Sawtooths, but there are said to be none in this habiotat. There are however Gnolls – who may be there unofficially. Why was Snerk sent here? Comshaw, Niddle and Ig were sent to their mates, so is Zil Snerk's future mate? The shark certainly didn't go to its mate but we've been told it was the only beaver shark, so probably it had no mate: instead it followed Mortimer on whom it was fixated (it possibly followed Snerk because he had licked Mortimer's foot and so smelled of him). Mortimer went to his brother and Rosemary, but we will be told Rosemary is not his mate, and certainly he is currently fixated on Yasmine. I do not think Yasmine can be Rosemary looped through time, even though we will learn that she is somebody whom people in the area might recognise, because Rosemary wouldn't need a report on Mansion critters. Meanwhile, the not-Glowgem falls back into the crater, and the HJ42 falls through a crack in the floor of the crater [the parallel strip Sundays in SubShaft 44f tells us that it ends up with the rebel Gnoll mechanic Tuttle, who is in league with Digger Odel and passes it to Skuy's boyfriend Cully]. Agorn investigates and sees that the hole which has opened up contains a ladder. He can smell Sneeches in the depths. 03: Spanner in the Works [17/09/2010 – 15/01/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2555–#2926] Sylvester identifies their location as the Ettinworks investigated by Krell, Earl Griffington's assistant. Sylvester, Mortimer (still smelling peculiar due to the sphagnum dust, still with umbrella) and Rosemary set out along the walkway: lights, electric crackles and deep rumbling noises come on as they walk, destroying the ladder they were comsidering before. R&S talk over Mortimer and largely ignore what he is trying to tell them about the umbrella. Sylvester talks about the differences between the SubShafts and the Ettinworks, as electricity crackles on and off around them. Rosemary has a sense that the Can-Opener may do exciting things around electrical discharges, and puts it in the Poke Kit. No Human that Sylvester knows of has been down there since the Crash: and of course after their tumble down the Chasm they are now much lower-down than they had intended to be, vis-á-vis the Sneech den. They come to an unusually passive Sneech plant-machine growth which is blocking the walkway. Similar to the Tree, Sneech dens are built from vast networks of linked, plant-like growths which maintain all forms of life-support, information processing and defence, and can be dangerous if threatened. They are far below the level of the Sneech nest, but Mortimer recounts comments by Skibble suggesting the Sneeches are expanding their territory. He tells Sylvester that Comshaw wants to talk to him. They edge past the growth: Mortimer insists on taking the lead as he is the most expendable. The other two have been ignoring Mortimer and rather treating him like a small child but they begin to realise their mistake. Having passed the Sneech growth they come in sight of an Ettin underhub – a lighthouse-like tower which stretches from the floor below where they are, through the open cavern of the Ettinworks to the ceiling of the cavern, which is the floor of the shallower levels overhead, with a row of windows ringing the tower up near the ceiling. Sylvester talks of a network of underground roads and haulage lorries and buildings which was wrecked and sealed off when Audra poked the Hot Zone and caused the Chasm to spread – it is clear this is the system now being opened up and used by the Fixits. So Yurpsland already had self-powered lorries about 140 years ago, or ninety years before the Crash. The tunnels were used to train and supply armies, but after the Breach the less martially-minded Ludwig sealed them off rather than repairing them (these must be the extra space Fosic is now unsealing with his bim toggler). They go into the underhub and prepare to climb a spiralling internal ramp, and have a conversation in which Rosemary is amazed to learn that a famous, ancient philosopher named Milo, who wrote a very famous work called The Intricate Balance, was the 9th Earl of E. Rosemary's Aunt Eva won it in a Skipjack game among a job-lot of eleven books. They discuss chess, in which Milo was very interested: Rufus is the family champion (after Myrrh). They find a signpost written in a Human script and recently annotated in the handwriting of Nirvana Clepe, former Taskmistress of the Mansion, who retired eight years ago when her wife died, and supposedly now lives in Noodle, three days' ride away. They can tell that the writing is quite new, not weathered by the sea air. Mortimer is showing clairvoyance – he knows that the Sneeches have never been inside the underhub. There is a discussion about Threnody the local Oracle, whom Sylvester fancies (Dirge is her Guardian), and who sometimes helps with the female Tasks now they have no Taskmistress, if Nellie doesn't feel up to it. Presumably the Scary Lady isn't Human enough. Mention is made of two main Brush sects, Mainstream and Throwbacks. The interior of the underhub is full of concealed twistpoints – as they climb, the interior changes illogically and it's possible to go up and end up lower down, or find a door to the outside that should have been visible from the outside, but wasn't (meaning it's 180° rotated from where it appears to be). There are a series of signposts to guide them, and they have to follow the lower numbers on the signs (assuming the top of the underhub to be #1) even when they look like they're going the wrong way. Talking about twistpoints leads them to realise that they each met Protus today. Mortimer talks about the Zorper, about Yasmine, and about ending up in Dorian's old hut. He recalls Dorian as a hermit from his childhood, although Dorian has been working for the group in the Spike for forty-two years, and Mortimer's father was born less than fifty years ago and Mortimer is his third child, so he's not much more than twenty-five. The Dorian we see in memory was already wearing the Fixit he wears now, so he was dividing his time between the Spire and the forest (unless at some point in the future he and his Fixit are going to be sent back to twenty years ago). Sylvester is sure Yasmine was lying about being there to review Arthur, unless the Guild have changed the rules without telling him, because the Guild's assessor is called Jack Kench. Employing a Weirdo, we learn, is a requisite part of being an aristocrat, and being an aristocrat still has its uses. They come to a group of elongated, slope-sided pillars labelled "do not touch". After they have passed on without touching them, we see that they are local Panegates. A window open in one to show the dining room at the Mansion, then two female Gnolls, Dandilli from the SubShafts and probably Dipsoma, gossiping (Dandilli has a flutterby on a string), then a Dornbeast. The Dornbeast tries to come through and is electrocuted. Frowgler, looking rough, emerges from the Dornbeast one although the Dornbeast itself cannot pass. He goes back through another, smaller window and we hear a voice speaking to him which says "ya" and "yer" instead of "you" and "you're", but the font is disguised. Frowgler asks if they are "back up and running" and the voice says yesno, if you don't twist out right aw— then comments that Frowgler is damaged. Frowgler says he met one of Protus's new friends, possibly referring to Thrash tossing him up like a ball. Signs in there say "NO HURRICANES BEYOND THIS POINT" and "STAY HOME CUZ YER WELL". Meanwhile, Nevus's troops are at Comshaw's door, believing he sent Sylvester and Rosemary to spy on Le Tree, but they are facing gthe wrong way, expecting him to be coming from the forest. He emerges behind them and duffs them up with his Poking stick, then tells one of them, a young male Trog called Skradt, to take him to Nevus. They pass Le Gnollhole, which is closed for the duration. Skradt is interested in learning to be a Poker himself. The Basement is now very quiet – most people are hiding, although we glimpse Fanga lurking in a doorway with her bow. The twistpoints in the underhub aren't mentioned in the Mansion's records, suggesting they are newly formed: or rather, since they are so organised, the Ettins set the system up, but it was switched off. Sylvester thinks the Ettins' devices were built to shut down in the event of a Crash, and are now waking again, and in the process turning other stuff from hundreds of years ago back on. They discuss the Crash, and what they could do before it – still far less than the Ettins did. They had a high-level tram which took a week to cross the country: the Ettins went to the moon. They come to another pillar labelled "touch". In order to get past a twistpoint and go up again Mortimer touches it with his umbrella, again considering himself the most expendable, and a ray from the ceiling strikes the other two. Sylvester loses nearly all his memory – although he recalls Nimue – and Rosemary loses some of her intelligence, regresses emotionally and starts acting like an eager-to-please, extremely literal-minded five-year-old with no conversational filters. Rosemary's memory is intact and she realises what has happened and warns Mortimer he will have to tell her what to do. This is a double-edged sword as she is now extremely hypnotically susceptible: when Mortimer says "Stop" to her she actually freezes up. Mortimer still trusts the signs, since touching the pillar, as the sign said, seems to have protected him. He has a crisis of nerve about being the leader, but Sylvester decides to trust him. Following Mortimer's instincts, they hold the umbrella together and touch the pillar again, and this time a levitating lift called a Woosher arrives. The Woosher carries them up inside the tower, and while they are on it the ramps that were there before disappear. 04: Closing Out an Era (The Ettinworks) [18/01/2011 – 04/06/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2674–#2807] As they ride the Woosher Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer discuss the fact that there must be "some rich guy with horrible mutant tastebuds" keeping Moe Wines in business (there is, of course – Mr Hand). They discuss the fact that Sylvester is the Earl (which he has forgotten) and the succession: Mortimer is terrified of having to be Earl if Sylvester doesn't get his memory back, but in any case Ace is older (and equally unsuitable). Lil is dreamy like Mortimer, Lenore is smart but too harsh and self-interested, and Rufus is brilliant but not good with people. They pass an unknown woman in brown, with blonde hair with a pink bow on top – Rosemary calls her Mz Teree – who seems to be marking the signs, but who isn't Nirvana Clepe. Hpobfvfr is still trailing them, and climbing upwards, so either she or the Operator must know about the Trog-catcher in the Chasm, and that going over the Plunge point need not mean that they are dead. When they disembark, higher up, the tower changes again (because they have stepped through an invisible twistpoint to a different section, not because the tower itself has changed) and they find more ramps. It is mentioned that they need never have gone down to look for the Pots Room, because Mortimer knows where there is a supply of seige pots in a disused barracks. Rosemary's bodyguard training is still sharp even if the rest of her isn't. They discuss twistpoints, and confirm that it is possible to walk down a ramp, then back up the same ramp, and end up somewhere different from where they started. Sylvester can remember a scary female teacher at university who taught him about tesseracts in this context, and a night where he and Nimue stood on a high tower looking down at the lights of the city. One of the new signposts they come to is decorated with a heart with "N C + A S" written in it: they think this may be Nirvana Clepe and the Mz Teree woman (meaning Mz Teree's initials are A.S.). With more down-and-up twists they arrive at the level of the wide, round room with the bank of windows, up against the roof of the cavern where the Ettinworks are, and just under the floor of the upper part of the Basement. At this point they are probably back at about the level of Le Tree, or maybe a storey or two below it. As they walk Rosemary burbles, and starts to speak about Tansy – who she thinks is the woman Sylvester saw her fighting when Protus showed him visions – and a word beginning "Qu". The view from the windows looks out into the Ettinworks, and the room is dotted with many pillars and blocks. Meanwhile, Comshaw and Skradt come to the Council entrance, which is heavily defended. An Eyebolt receptionist called Witherward admits them by dropping them down a shaft. They arrive in the midst of a full meeting, including Twiz, acting for Maw; Snerd, acting for Sina; Commander Chumley (the Council's Chief of Security) for the Boogiemen; and Hptwfvth, a Ghast "Stirrer", some kind of high ceremonial functionary relating to how the Ghasts reproduce (they have to use special breeding pools within their home base and are unable to set up more outside it), who is in some way not physically present (or more probably, is physically present but not officially so). On the Council are Doyen, a female Trog; Gavzada, a female Motihaul; Wunk, a male Gnoll; Aprat, a Helipath and Chairbeing Preznit, a male Eyebolt, although he tries to hide his species behind a mask and robes. Doyen cricizes the presence of Skradt, since he is known to work for Nevus, but Comshaw says that Skradt is thinking of becoming a Poker and is there to observe his typical working day. Snerd has brought a message from Sina saying her team at their new hall fully support the Council, and the Council can send an observer if it likes, but they're not leaving. Twiz is very interested in the new hall Sina is setting up, which may be what his group needs (whether as a new place to live after their lair was attacked, or just a place where they can get the contract to do the cleaning, isn't clear). The Council is concerned about Rhid and what he may do next, and whether Sina is a safe person to be a leader. Gavzada is keen on anything which keeps Othara occupied, and they are cautiously positive so long as Sina and her engineer Fosic build walls to keep people away from the Operator. Comshaw then strikes a Fixit from the head of a female Gnoll called Widdendreem, who seems to be the Council's record-keeper. He wants to catch it alive but Widdendreem, freed from the Fixit, pounces and kills it. Widdendreem is angry that she now owes Comshaw a debt, and concerned by the fact that she has killed a person. She tells them the name "Fixit" and that the dead one was a female called Snurfix or Snufix, reporting to a male nicknamed Slinker. Snurfix had crept onto her head while she slept; was herself not really kept informed, other than that the Fixits work for "God"; and didn't try to make Widdendreem do anything, except to pay attention to records and transactions which Snurfix wished to know about. We learn that young Fixits are raised in cages "beyond the Spikeshield", which must be the barrier others have spoken of. Chumley, as security chief, takes command and sends Widdendreem to write down all she recalls about the Fixits, while Comshaw tells the Council what he knows about them – leaving out Camora's name. Chumley decrees that no one in the Council Chamber shall wear a hat – all the Councillors drop their hoods and Preznit, whose brain is in his torso, strips to his socks. Wunk appears slightly boggled by whatever Preznit has in his crotch, which we don't actually see. The Council agrees to tell all the key players – Maw, Agita etc. – whilst trying to prevent the knowledge of the Fixits from spreading generally for the moment, for fear of what God might do when he learns his spy network has been blown. They want all the leaders warned, and preferably to have caught a live Fixit, before God takes any action. Comshaw is sent to tell Agita about the Fixits, but before he leaves he tells them about the Humans, and Sylvester being the Earl, but he doesn't know if he is the Earl. The Earl "tore the world in two fighting Yurp, the Demon King": Yorik Yurp is the king who founded Yurpsland where they live, and the Earl in this case is evidently Audra, who fought a war with Yurp and caused the Chasm to spread. Comshaw plans to go speak to Sylvester tomorrow, if he can find the Mansion: Hptwfvth tells him it's "God's Cactus". Comshaw assures the Council that "his" Humans aren't in league with God, so far as he can tell, and passes on the message that Nevus will be "in non-violent touch". Comshaw, Skradt, Snerd and Twiz head for the exit, discussing the reproduction of various species, and Trog education (here we learn that Espy is a teacher, and that Skradt can read both Manglish and Human script), and that the Ghasts keep paper records. Back with Sylvester's party, Mortimer tells the other two (neither of whom is functioning reliably yet) not to go to look out of the windows, for fear of triggering another dangerous event by accidentally touching one of the many close-set pillars and blocks scattered around the room. We see that leading up from the window room is a flight of stone steps going up into the body of the rock above them. There is also an Ettin-style door, like a triangle with the top cut off, which has a gap about 10" high underneath it. Mortimer peers underneath and sees a triangular space with two Human-type doors set into Ettin-style apertures, leading off from this Ettin control tower. Two roundish objects, possibly shoes, and what seems to be a tapered board made from three slats lean against one wall (although Mortimer later refers to seeing "posts"), but a little metal sign saying "KEEP OUT" falls down in front of him, with the letters cut out of it as holes. Sylvester feels that there are Humans behind the door right now (perhaps this is where Nirvana and the msyterious AS are living?), but when he turns his back it's a non-Human-looking hand, crackling with magic, which retrieves the "KEEP OUT" sign. It doesn't look like Frowgler's hand (and anyway we will learn that he is elsewhere): it actually looks like the hand of one of the mysterious creatures we saw before who called the Scary Lady "The Destroyer", although if so Rob has changed his mind about how many fingers they have. [Note: could be a Wendigo hand, but the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Rosemary asks whether she is bodyguard to both of them: Mortimer says just to Sylvester, and that he himself will have to take care of himself. They set off up the stone steps towards the Sneech den. Rosemary and Sylvester are starting to improve. There is some oblique discussion about R&S going to Nellie and Amos for help if anything happens to Mortimer, about Sylvester not telling Rosemary the Scary Lady's name, then about Mortimer's friend the scalpsucker (and the fact that some scalpsuckers nowadays can talk) – Mortimer remembers falling down the hole leading to the old World o' Pots storeroom but doesn't seem to recall meeting Rufus. They come to a door opened by number pad, leading to a double-doored Sneech-lock with a Sneechstick in it. Mortimer can sense that there are no Sneeches nearby. Emerging, they pass an alcove containing an entrance to the elevator, or at least an elevator. Mortimer steers them past it, looking alarmed, and writing on the wall says "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW", but they should be on the opposite side of the Chasm from the lift with the Operator in it. Maybe they have passed through the stone of the roof above the Great Chasm: it's true that at Mansion-level the elevator and the entrance to the Sneech den are fairly close together. Past that is a round room at the bottom of a shaft, with a crystal on a stand in the middle, playing a popular song called Girl from the Limphopho: this is the same mechanism the Scary Lady used to levitate Zay, but not the same shaft, as hers was square in cross-section. Sylvester confirms that there are several of these lifts throughout the Mansion, all playing the same tune There are also double metal doors, closed, and stairs leading up and down. Mortimer hopes to use the stairs but finds the ones going up are labelled "Operation Certain Death" and the ones going down, "Slimegrub Breedpits". The down-flight shows signs of recent flooding, which ties in with floods which occur in the related < href="MoE_SubShaft_44f_2.htm">Sundays in SubShaft 44f strips. On the first landing down are a large Glowgem and a discarded stick which is probably somebody's wand: Mortimer retrieves the Glowgem, which has a socket just right for fitting it onto the point of his umbrella. Rosemary seems slightly hypnotised by it. They plan to go upstairs, towards Operation Certain Death, but then they hear something big and loud crashing downstairs towards them. Comshaw's party slide down a chute and land in a corridor by the battered-looking Gobule Mingent, who is eating debris from the battle. Twiz has a piece of the dead Fixit in his mouth to take to Maw – they tell Mingent if he smells anything like it, to bite it. Twiz runs off, and Mingent fills Comshaw in on what happened at the elevator. Comshaw thinks Snerd should go on working for Sina but Snerd says Shona wouldn't like it, and he loves Shona. Comshaw and Skradt set off together. They encounter a Jibjib called Schrik being ridden by a Fixit, and try and fail to take the Fixit alive. The Fixit has been using Schrik to spy on Flap's ferry across the Great Chasm. An important Boogieman ruler called Crispin is mentioned: Schrik has a basket to take him but doesn't know if he dremed it, as the Fixit has left him very confused. Comshaw sends Schrik to take the dead Fixit to Sina and then work for her. Skradt reveals that he joined Nevus hoping for an early death in battle, so he wouldn't have to choose to take the Plunge. But Comshaw has given him a vision of something more useful, plus he wants to learn to fight as well as him. Frowgler, watching through a crack in the wall, thinks they make a good team. As the loud noises approach Rosemary draws the Can-Opener, which Sylvester calls a Paleslicer, but thinks better of it. They use the singing crystal thing to levitate them up to a higher floor, but Rosemary is grabbed and held back, floating, by what proves to be an enormous, female relative of Ahz and Skiv, called Tand (who is as big as a Titanoboa, has some difficulty adjusting her voice to the right level, and has tentacles on her head which terminate in hands). Tand can smell that Rosemary has been near Ahz and Skiv and believes, wrongly, that she knows who they are, so after some initial problems adjusting her voice to Human levels, she tells her to tell them to get a move on with their allotted task of growing a garden, a task for which they were all sent here by someone else. Tand says Rosemary is not like any other Human she's met, and one of the other two (has to be Mortimer) is sparkly like a lot of Humans used to be but haven't been for a while – apparently she is sensing him as a magic-user. Tand has to leave because she is literally over-stretched Iimplying that her tail is rooted, somewhere up the "Certain Death" stair) and the torch she is carrying is going out. She is afraid to meet, in the dark, a male "horrible mask-thing" who can go anywhere – this may be Frowgler, since the Pales call him Frogmask. Released, Rosemary floats up to the boys. She feels herself to be now entirely back to normal (although later events will show that this isn't quite true). Sylvester recognises the name Tand from his records, but still hasn't wholly regained his memory. 05: Closing Out an Era (The Sneech Den) [06/06/2011 – 16/12/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2814–#2994] Sylvester, Mortimer and Rosemary pass another large inactive Sneech node and several smaller ones, and some graffiti relating to dragons – although we're not told whether they are a legend or, like wyverns, a real if possibly extinct animal: like the one they saw before, these Sneech growths are far less active than normal. Rosemary would like to talk to Tand again, but not right now. There is a conversation about Mortimer's history of failed relationships with scary women, and mention is made of a disastrous relationship with someone named Olga, and of Ace's success with women. He tells Rosemary that his relationship with her will be strictly business while she is staring bug-eyed at the hypno-Glowgem, and he reveals that he has the hots for Yasmine. Sylvester is also affected by the Glowgem, although not as much. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt come to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base off Time Hall, where Agita (a Motihaul) has her office. They have a complicated system of clearances in which Comshaw ranks quite high, and several zones. An Eyebolt called Philodox admits them to the UnRooted Area, but security is tight due to the events of the day. While waiting to be seen they observe that two of the Eyebolt clerks, Giddhom and Frampold, are wearing Fixit-type hats but they seem to be just hats. Giddhom says thay are in fashion because some people claim they help you to think. Weirding is discussed, and the fact that the Eyebolts in scritchpods perform endless computations but don't say why, and the eccentricities of various species – we learn that Helipaths refuse to cross the Great Chasm to Sneech side even though Sneeches get on OK with them, and that the Trog juggler at the edge of the Great Chasm is Skradt's cousin Stonwal. The hatted clerks are Scrutineers, recording and preserving everything visitors say – Skradt wishes to be recorded as a future Poker who did something useful with his life. Rosemary is in command over Sylvester because that's part of her job as bodyguard. The Sneech growths would normally be lighted but most here aren't: there is a lot of discussion of Sneech races and technology, living walls etc. When they get to the area where even the floor is a living Sneech growth Mortimer doesn't want to walk barefoot on it, so takes off his shirt (which was ruined by the sploo and the sphagnum dust anyway) so Rosemary can make rag boots for him and mittens for all of them so they don't have to touch the Sneech material. Mortimer makes a bad pun ("Make it sew"): he passes his umbrella to Sylvester while he takes off his shirt, and sees that the Glowgem glows much less brightly when Sylvester holds the umbrella. Rosemary has absorbed the hypnotic lesson that her relationship with Mortimer is strictly business. In the context of rag boots there is some discussion of Rosemary's poor origins on Gnomin. Comshaw borrows Giddhom's hat so Fixits will think he's controlled: Skradt sticks a claw into the buckle to kill it if the buckle should chance to be an eye. They are escorted to see Agita by an Eyebolt called Peripatet riding in a special buggy labelled VEU (Visitor Escort Unit), which has different numbers each side, possibly due to damage sustained during an eventful visit by Strode, the aggressive female Motihaul in the pumpkin-head mask who appears in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They must enter the Rooted Zone at some point as they are there in their next scene. Following a trail of fresh air through the tunnels of the Sneech den, R&S&M come to a bridge over a moderate drop, guarded on either side by relatives of Fern's The intelligent plants are wary of Rosemary because they communicate (probably via the Tree) with Fern and know that Rosemary injured her, but they agree to disarm her and carry the Can-Opener across the bridge themselves for her to collect on the far side. Rosemary reveals that she assumed Fern was dangerous because there are similar plants in Moonin, smaller and not intelligent but very aggressive: we see what are clearly just bigger versions of the plants Piu was growing in a pot. As they get to the far side the Gnoll Agorn falls while trying to climb down from the crater above, and lands at their feet. Agorn hasn't noticed, but Niddle's apearing and disapearing gem (hereafter the Hitchhiking Gem) is now attached to his spear, but as with Niddle it initially comes and goes and is there only some of the time. Mortimer asks if he is there to scrounge Sneech leavings and he agrees. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt pass more clerks one of whom, Ogdoad, is wearing a Fixit. As the Human trio prepare to leave the cave of the sapient plants, the plants confirm that they're heading the right way and then one of them delays them and asks – by spelling with its tongue – that they be given names. Sylvester names them after the Founding Oracles, a group of women who spread the religion of the Brush – Violet, Daisy, Joice, Jenny, Kathryne, Hettie, Evangeline, Vivian and Petunia. Sylvester promises to visit them again: as the Humans leave we see the plants talking amongst themselves by some rapid means, and wishing they had had the chance to eat Agorn. Agorn has scarpered: Rosemary wrongly thinks he might have been the person who was tailing them earlier (Whisp). Sylvester criticises Mortimer for handing Agorn a ready-made excuse. They discuss the fact that for the Earl, every public conversation is a little war, and Sylvester keeps Mortimer, and now Rosemary, around because he can simply talk to them. The Humans come to the main corridor through the Sneech den, which is studded with tall, light-bearing tree-like things. Comshaw, Skradt and Peripatet leave the Rooted Zone for the Grafted Zone. We learn that the Eyebolts in Root Hall distrust the GBOLs, and therefore presumably the Tree, and make their own lights. Comshaw and Skradt come to Agita and her Eyebolt clerk Flibbergib (at one point mistakenly called Flittergib), and Agita gives them apples. Agita has large plants, an aquarium and a special "Meeting with an Important Eyebolt" table. She has with her her young daughter, Rishathra, and a Gnoll guard called Termagant. Agita and Comshaw catch up on the events of the day, and Comshaw gets her to summon Ogdoad, and also supply Skradt with a large bowl. [Around here we have a Labor Day out-take showing local man Arlen and his daughter Juniper, digging a ditch at the back of a hedge near the village of Eetown. The hedge has the rusted remains of a pre-crash vehicle incorporated into it.] Agita tells Comshaw what was auctioned (although she doesn't really know what the Zorper is). They speculate on whether this Mortimer is old enough to be the one who started the Nome War (after somehow falling through into a mine). Meanwhile. Sprocket is upset to see that Crazy Rhid's ex place connects to large areas of still-working giant machinery – the only machinery that good outside the SubShafts – and Rhid, if he knew, didn't tell anyone. The large machine he is looking is something he found (behind a gate marked with the E symbol) when he traced back the thing Pergola reported as spewing goo while Urwyn was being recruited. [We glimpe Rhid sitting on a box, looking traumatised, in a dusty, cobwebby room.] Sina now has a makeshift office, an Eyebolt receptionist called Nikhedonia (who has a non-Fixit hat on the back of her chair) and Maggle acting as gopher. Sina and Sprocket decide to marry, right now – Wittol, who will be their Finagler, has already anticipated this and started to make arrangements. We learn that Niddle has had experiences which make him a perfect Finagler – so perfect he may be a whole new thing. We learn that Gnoll marriage customs involve a receptacle called a Tweebowl (but a bucket will do), a Tool and a Blossom and, at some point before they have whelps, a visit to the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave, and without a Finagler things go badly wrong for mated pairs. Yet, some couples such as Niff and Folla, and an old couple called Mafick and Lepid, live unofficially, without a Finagler, and manage fine. Sprocket, Wittol and Sina have a hasty ceremony, with Skuy and Flange as witnesses and the possibility of a more formal one later. Afterwards Snerd turns up and thinks Nikhedonia's hat is a Fixit, although it's just a hat. As he is explaining, Schrik turns up with an actual dead Fixit. Maggle and Kronk are sent out to show the dead Fixit around and kill any live ones they find, and Snerd returns to his mate Shona and Finagler Wubb. Flange reminds Sprocket of their obligations to their employer Mr Hand, and tells him about Rubrak being killed by Chauncy and Edgar. Sprocket and Flange will probably cease to be partners now (and Snipe will be looking for a new job). Sprocket talks privately to Sina about Mr Hand and the job (and Wittol withdraws because he says they don't yet know him well enough to share dangerous non-Finagler secrets with) – he has realised that the female Motihaul who put him in touch with Mr Hand was wearing/worn by a Fixit, and therefore Mr Hand must be something bigger and stranger than the "Crescent Hall nob" they had assumed, and works (grudgingly) with God. Mr Hand has had them installing devices called Y-nodes which look like Sneech growths (and Sprocket is rich as a result of how many clients he has), and which produce ultrasonic sound only small creatures can hear. Fleebs in the presence of a Y-node turn to face it and stare. Sprocket sees Mr Hand as ruthless and controlling but constructive rather than destructive in his intentions. They agree to tell Comshaw about it, then get on to the serious business of their wedding night. Meanwhile Snerd returns to Shona. Ogdoad arrives at Agita's office and insists on a promise of safe conduct before he will come in. He has some involvement with another Eyebolt (?) called Tribblerig and some scheme involving Sneech squeezings, which he assumes is what Agita wants to talk about, but as he enters the office Comshaw baps the Fixit, called Endix, off his head and Skradt traps him under the bowl, but Endix somehow commits suicide. Ogdoad is terribly distressed, for he and Endix had become at least semi-partners, and being meshed gave him stereoscopic vision. He is rather horrible and gloats over the fact that God will destroy them. Agita dismisses Comshaw and Skradt and takes Ogdoad with her to see a female Motihaul accountant called Marritza who is wearing a Fixit named Arnix. Agita threatens Arnix with the knife-point ferule of her umbrella, then tells him that the gaff regarding God and the Fixits is well and truly blown, and offers him the chance to ride on Ogdoad and act as a liason officer between herself and God. Arnix and Ogdoad both agree. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt leave the Grafted Zone, and Root Hall itself, via the Egress Zone, and are quizzed as they leave by an Eyebolt who assumes it's all to do with Ogdoad and Tribblerig scheming over Sneech squeezings. As they come away from Root Hall they pass through the Deep Egress Zone, then go by a lettered sign, where another Eyebolt opens the centre of a letter and watches them leave. They pass the male Nome called Rezrov, still with his arm in a sling, leading, on a string, a very flirtatious-looking female Trog named Hogminny. Both are smeared with green paint, and Rezrov's clothes are torn. We are told that some Nomes and some Trogs have a "thing", and learn that Skradt tentatively fancies Maggle. Comshaw 'phones the Council and tells them he has delivered their message to Agita, and he has a message for them from Root Hall saying Ogdoad is involved with a Sneech squeezings scheme but they'll handle it. Comshaw takes Skradt home with him and Camora and Niddle are quite welcoming, although if he's staying they may need to move to a bigger apartment. All sleep, exhausted. As a final wrap-up, we see Snoot bitching to Izchak (who is evidently his room-mate) about his bloody awful day; the SuperRock pausing to rest and to talk to GeezerRock who can talk, but not walk, and who asks it whether it's just going to sit there; Digger reporting to Frowgler that things are going to plan and he has no questions to ask; and Frederick preparing to serenade the Grubbs on a Fugehorn. I think this is the point at which the strip revealed (although Rob mentioned it off-strip before) that Digger is a Boogieman with dwarfism, because we can see that his face is covered with white fur, behind the goggles. 06: Twilight [17/12/2011 – 09/06/2012] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3001–#3174] Agorn encounters Hpobfvfr, who is trailing the Humans. She blasts her way through a wall into Sneech den, then addresses him as if he is two people – she senses the sentient (and possibly sapient) Hitchiking Gem which Agorn doesn't know he is carrying. Sylvester and co. enter the main corridor, which is again unnaturally quiet – we learn there should be trilobite-thingies scuttling about trailing organic wires etc.. Sylvester mentions that he didn't find out about his father's death until after the funeral. While discussing a performing troupe who once came to the local village, Mortimer accidentally causes Rosemary to fixate on the Glowgem in his umbrella, and gives her two hypnotic commands – "Go to sleep, but act like you're still awake!", "Take a note! I am not going to keep making these mistakes with women!" – and then a third one, "Do as you're told! Stay in your place! Speak only when spoken to! The Brush wills it!", when he and Sylvester discuss the overbearing previous Oracle Omega. Trailed at some distance by Hpobfvfr, the Human party pass a Sneech tower which is at the edge between Human and Sneech territory and is labelled "NO INTERRUPTIONS", then emerge into an empty area leading towards the entrance. They then come to a neon sign saying "OUR TRAJECTORYS DIVERGE PAYMENT FOR YE ASSISTANCE" (although Sylvester doesn't know what assistance is meant). This disintegrates, leaving a squat obelisk which moves when it is touched (by Sylvester, with strips of shirt round his fingers), and which Rosemary names the Dohickey. The Sneeches themselves have gone, and Sylvester doesn't know what assistance they're talking about. The obelisk steers them around a hole in the floor, which proves to be the hole which Chauncy and Edgar left when they exited Izchak's shop looking for the Scary Lady. Matagam the Motihaul soldier and, later, a Boogieman called Geoff climb out of the hole, checking where Chauncy and Edgar went (and plan to return back down via the Council tunnel, having learned from the Human party where it is they've emerged). Mortimer hurries his party away. Heading for the Mansion proper, Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester emerge into an elaborate vestibule decorated with ornamental fake stalagmites and flaming braziers, which is the scary-looking room they see from the Mansion when they look through the arch inderneath the devil mask. Here they notice a new opening in a side wall. This is the entrance to the tunnel put in by the Council to monitor the Humans: that is, the upper end of the tunnel that also goes from the Basement to the forest. From there they exit through the archway under the mask to a plain downstairs room containing the entrance to the elevator and a small extension of the Tree, and with "BEWARE MR FLIP" written on the wall. Mr Flip is a character we meet in Sundays in SubShaft 44f, but Mortimer says the graffito has been there his whole life. To get further they need to go down a short corridor and through a locked door, the key to which Sylvester dropped while falling into the Great Chasm. Matagam and Geoff head for the Council tunnel and are passed by Hpobfvfr coming up, who corners the Humans against the locked door. Mortimer senses that her mind has been tampered with and speaks to her sympathetically, incidentally getting between her and her intended targets. Then we see in flashback that Sopovefe, the male Ghast she passed just before Rosemary and Sylvester fell into the Chasm, realised that something was wrong and went and fetched help (we see him run past Rezrov and Hogminny: this time Hogminny is holding the leash). Hpthvo, the officer in charge of a party of Ghast soldiers who have come up via the hole which Hpbfvfr bashed through into the Sneech den, orders Hpobfvfr to stand down, and this breaks the Operator's hold over her. Hpobfvfr and one soldier leave (passing the elevator, where Hpobfvfr wishes death on the Operator), while Hpthvo and the other soldier stay to interrogate the Humans. Hearing Rosemary address Mortimer by name, Hpthvo queries this and he says he is "Mortimer Eman.. because we're going to be all.. formal..": in doing so he inadvertently gives Rosemary another hypnotic command. Having confirmed Mortimer's name and that he might be the one who started the Nome War, and having learned that they are Human, Hpthvo wants to arrest the trio, but great aunt Scary appears in the doorway (with balloon) and scares them off. Somewhere, she has acquired a flower which she is now wearing tucked into the v-neck of her dress. After the Ghasts leave the rest go through into the house, and Scary cures Sylvester's memory problems. He is very reluctant to ask her to do anything which will put him under an obligation to her. Scary tries to touch the Sneech obelisk, but it fizzes a shock at her. Meanwhile Sylvester has realised something is still wrong with Rosemary, and when she starts addressing Mortimer as "Mr Eman" because "We are being all formal" Sylvester realises that she is following Mortimer's commands literally. Mortimer tries to snap her out of it by giving her a ridiculous command to "be a dog" but she goes down on all fours and starts growling. Scary is detachedly impressed by his power, and thinks there is a real risk Rosemary will become permanently enthralled. Alarmed, Mortimer tries to order Rosemary to be herself, preempting Scary who was about to intervene, and commands her to take orders from noone, although she can listen to their advice. In the short term it seems to have worked, but it remains to be seen whether she has internalised any of his commands. Sylvester takes control of the Glowgem for now and gives it to Rosemary to go in her Poke Kit, and Mortimer goes off to speak to Frederick. Restored to normal function, Rosemary is introduced to the Scary Lady, whose name we finally learn to be Myrrh (and it is confirmed that she sent Chauncy and Edgar to a desert zone). The two go off for a private chat in which it is revealed that Rosemary knows Myrrh to be not Human, and that Myrrh loves and protects Frederick to the point of being willing to kill anybody who threatens anybody he cares about, such as his nephews. It is mentioned in passing that Rosemary's encounter with Scratch was before she joined Hack'N'Slash. Myrrh agrees that Rosemary should be independent, as Mortimer told her, and can sense that she's already met a lot of powerful locals who tried to influence her, people Myrrh calls "local dignitaries": we see Protus; the Operator; the Tree; the Djinnoscope; Tand; the Gibber; and the Great Riddler. She repeats to Rosemary what Mortimer told her about living her own life and dreaming her own dreams, just to make it stick, and magically straightens the bent wing on her helmet. The same minituarised trundlebug who fell onto Rosemary's helmet earlier in the day is revealed to be still lurking in her broken lamp, and Myrrh rescues it, then goes off to see what's happened to the Sneeches, after commenting that the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer will spoil his intended date with Sharona Stout in the village. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss Myrrh, and how Frederick summoned her by accident while trying to get a Djinn. He spent his energy on a collar to control her and stop her from running wild and killing bystanders, as Demons had done in the past, but now she wears the collar voluntarily and uses it to assist her own magic in some way, as Frowgler had suggested to her when she met him while time-slipped (although he may have suggested it because he'd already seen her future self doing it). She has been a good partner to Frederick and a good great-aunt to his family, and Sylvester is loyal to her and will protect her if necessary. Rosemary reluctantly agrees, but wants to keep the knowledge of the Can-Opener from her. Sylvester schedules a talk about Rosemary's recent history for the next day but he fears to be overheard, so they must go somewhere secure. They prove to each other that they are Human by checking each other's ears (Sylvester's ears are apparently jaw-droppingly strange, but not pointed) and discuss the origins of Demons and Djinn and the possibility that since Myrrh answers questions and helps people, maybe Frederick wasn't so far off the mark when he tried to summon a Djinn and got her – or maybe they are, after all, just people and all individual. Straightforward Demons like Chauncy and Edgar and Scratch come from Fratz; Human-like Demons and the Djinn come from Zark. Demons in the Snowgrass area are more like rock/tree things (is the Tree one? later we will see that one visited the Spire City in Mechana). and Demons in the Deep Jungle are more animal and strange. Sylvester realises something about Frederick and why he hid books on Demons which he feels foolish not to have realised before, which leads to a conversation about a duel which Rosemary lost to a woman named Haruka Sol in a way which made her realise her own mortality and how dangerous her job was, and they take the Sneech obelisk towards the Quiet Room. Meanwhile Mortimer passes the countdown thing, which now reads 0315313091 (it was 315342639 when Rosemary and Sylvester passed it that morning, so it's counted down by 29,548 in about half a day, suggesting it will take about fourteen years to reach zero), but he tells it he's not in the mood. Mortimer goes to speak to Frederick. On the way he meets Nellie, who recognises the umbrella he is carrying (formerly Myrrh's) and seems shocked by it. She is concerned, generally, for Mortimer's safety and well-being, and for that of her own husband Amos although he is sitting quietly doing some book-binding. Mortimer believes Rosemary and Sylvester might now be an item: Nellie expects him to be jealous but he doesn't seem to be. Meanwhile, Myrrh enters the Sneech den and speaks to Frowgler, who is crawling out of the top of the shaft created by Chauncy and Edgar. Within Myrrh's subjective timeline they seem not to have spoken to each other for fifty years, since she was flashed forwards from just before the Crash, but are on good terms. [For Frowgler it was probably a few hours ago, although as the Frowgler Myrrh met during the flash-forwards was a pre-explosion Frowgler whose horn had not yet been broken it's hard to be sure.] Myrrh says Frederick is going to be upset about something Frowgler has done (probably arranging for Mortimer to get the umbrella-wand). Frederick, who is playing his Fugehorn into some kind of vaguely tree-like amplifier in a vast and high chamber, tells Mortimer that he's a wizard and that there's a wand built into the umbrella, but he won't help Mortimer to learn magic because he thinks it brings only misery. we learn that Frederick actually plays the Fugehorn very well, and that Amos actually enjoys his music. Amos and Nellie discuss the danger Mortimer is in, or represents, and Amos promises to be careful. Meanwhile Sylvester and Rosemary listen to Frederick's playing as they steer the Dohickey towards the Quiet Room, and Sylvester tells her that what Frederick is playing is a well-known lament called Threnody for the Victims of the Crash, which is where the local Oracle, Threnody, and her Guardian Dirge got their work-names. We learn that Ernest, the Earl who was an art forger, was also a genuine patron of the arts and built a whole wing of the Mansdion, called the Party Palace, for theatre and other performing arts. That's where Frederick's tree-like amplifier is. The Quiet Room is more of a gap in the Mansion than an actual room. As they approach it Rosemary's Poke Kit shrinks and begins to disgorge its contents, so Sylvester goes alone to deposit the Sneech Dohickey. The Quiet Room contains among other things the Dark Crystal; a Triforce symbol from the Zelda stories; a clockwork monkey (made by the Kaylu cult) playing cymbals; a statuette of Cthulhu; a flower in a pot; and a crescent thing which looks like the head of another Can-Opener-type pike. Rosemary says "I can hear you ralking in there.." 7'0150; it looks as though she means she can hear Sylvester, but we will learn that she means she can hear the Dohickey. After Sylvester leaves, all these objects begin to glow with magic and the crescent speaks and greets the Dohickey. Sylvester and Rosemary go to find a sword for her and to change the lock on the Basement door, since he has lost his key in the Basement. They find a powerful taser called a Zap Trident, much stronger than the one Sylvester tried to use on Villipend: Rosemary says Hack'N'Slash have offered a big reward for a working one, but they leave it where it is because it's probably only its proximity to the Quiet Room which is keeping it from exploding, and they would ahve to take it all the way to REowan to find an Hack'N'Slash office big enough to hand it in. Still, it's a source of future cash if they ever get that depserate. Sylvester says that the things in the Quiet Room are dangerous, that destroying them in the Great Chasm would lead to earthquakes (we see that the three-eyed thing from the airbox was tossed in) and that left in the Quiet Room those that are Sneech gifts gradually fade away, and in any case they usually switch off when the recipient dies. The crescent thing is not known to be dangerous – just annoying. They meet up with Mortimer, and Sylvester assures him he hadn't known that he was a wizard. If he had done, Mortimer would have left and gone after Yasmine. Sylvester thinks perhaps he should go after her anyway, but Mortimer hopes she will return to the Mansion. Sylvester fears this could lead to a division of loyalties, depending on what it is the Weirdos are plotting. He thinks their father may also have been an unknown wizard. Mortimer describes his encounter with Frowgler, who he has realised gave him the umbrella surreptitiously, and Sylvester believes him because the Great Riddler also mentioned Frowgler. They intend to debrief each other the next day but not now, because Rosemary feels they may be overheard. She meanwhile is planning to fetch a siege-pot from the barracks. Mortimer goes off and heads up the North Tower: on the way he prods a door-sign that says "SIGNS OF CHANGE" with his umbrella, and it clicks. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the Weirdos, who are a combination of jester, priest and counsellor. We learn that Oracles (but not Weirdos) carry out midwifery – and euthanasia. Sylvester feels that he no longer knows what's going on around his home. We learn that there are seige-engines mounted on the Main Tower and also that Rosemary can't act, as they discuss the plays which used to be put on at the Mansion, and the history of Kaylu – a fascist-style movement which introduced a country called Tomania to a crazed, murderous empire-building cult which worshipped a two-tailed monkey god, and was destroyed by the Crash. The Crash had an extreme effect on the Infernal Engine. Having collected the necessary materials they board up the door to the Basement, using an Ettin-made "length" and a mechanical nail-planter which could be valuable if they can find somebody to replicate it for sale. They leave the door unbarred for Myrrh, and Sylvester declares their business with the Basement is done for the day, although he will keep his promise to call on the Ferns again, and his plans for the rest of the evening require Rosemary to retain her (Audra's) helmet. We see Frederick return to the suite of rooms he shares with Myrrh, and gaze nostalgically at a photograph of his younger self and other youths in wizard gear. They are Nellie, Amos, a curly-haired woman whom Nellie will later name as "poor Mamie" (who died in the Crash), and the future Old Man Larssen. 07: Career Paths [11/06/2012 – 16/02/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3181–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips start–#03424] We see Agorn emerge, with relief, from a partially-blocked tunnel mouth partway up a rock-face near a bridge across the Great Chasm. He edges along a narrow ledge with his back to the wall, past Furphy (who we will later learn is his son) who is keeping some Jibjib eggs warm, and aross a gap which he has to jump, and comes to a bridge with a checkpoint at either end, although this one at the Sneech end is deserted. He can smell that the Ghast party went past earlier. The bridge is long and has no railings, but it's fairly safe as it's about 12ft wide. The far end is lit by bone torches. He crosses and speaks to a Gnoll border guard called Varuna, and an Ichyoid guard named Argus, and tells Varuna to warn her "vile employer" (probably Nevus or Guttle) that if the nobs keep poking in the Sneech den the Sneeches will some day poke back. He thinks that the entrance to Crescent Hall, which looks out on the bridge, is in the line of fire, and that his boss isn't stupid enough to live there. He talks to another Gnoll guard called Scibile who doesn't let him in because of the lockdown, but fills him in on what he knows of the events of the day, including the fact that something strange is happening at the Observatory, then he walks into a maze of dark, much-graffitoed stone passages and stairs. The Hitchhiking Gem falls from his spear with a clunk and he spots it, assumes he picked it up by accident in the Sneech den and posts it down a metal hatch. As he (or the gem) leaves some sort of small device which had been sticking up from a rock retracts, with a trickle of magic. The gem clangs down into a chain of pipes heading towards the SubShafts, and we see that the pipes pass by an odd kind of sculpture or device consisting of coloured spikes almost like giant coloured pencils, with single letters on them, mainly vowels. This may have to do with the religion of the Brush that coloured in the world. On top of these spikes sits a small red-brown Fuzz, clutching a flaming torch. Agorn, meanwhile, keeps going until he comes back out into Time Hall and the other side of Cresent Hall, but it's all unnaturally quiet. He goes to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base, and speaks to a male receptionist called Enchiridon. He is left waiting for a long time while a female Scrutineer called Hypothimia records his every word and action. She is stressed and angry because with all that's been going on – the fire, Chauncy and Edgar on the loose etc. – she wants to be with her mate Brimborion and their children but instead she is stuck here in this petty desk job. Peripatet arrives in his wheeled chair to collect Agorn but before Agorn goes he tells Hypothimia that he himself has been parted from his mate (he seems to have only one) and his child has been lost through some sort of mental transformation (he went away but left his body behind: we will learn that this is Furphy), but all you can do is pick yourself up and try to change things for the better. As Agorn and Peripatet proceed through Root Hall we learn that Peripatet has a girlfrind called Glossolalia, and Agorn sniffs out (literally) that Skradt is now with Comshaw. They pass various official messages on the walls but one seems like a religious or political statement – "Remontado decided she had had o nuff shaft folderol so off she went and uprooted us all". As they pass the door to Scritchpods 205–214 a female Eyebolt in a wheeled chair passes them going the other way, wearing what may be a normal hat or may be a Fixit, and a wave of "weirding" hallucinations emanates from behind the closed door. This Eyebolt is carrying a box on her cart, and the cart is labelled CTV: possibly Computation Transport Vehicle. Peripatet takes Agorn to a door behind which is a dark space containing dark, sinister-looking objects, perhaps Ettin machinery, glowing with dull red lights. Agorn refuses to enter. An unseen, probably male presence (Agorn addresses it as "Mr Muckymuck") behind a hatch dismisses Peripatet, who leaves at speed – the presence says that Peripatet does well at clandestine cart-races. It wants to discuss Agorn's boss, and says that "some of us" are aware of, and broadly approve of, what "you all" are doing. Consequently Agorn has been given Class Eight clearance, which means he can now come and go unescorted through most areas of Root Hall. The presence is somebody Agorn has had indirect contact with or knowledge of, but has never spoken to directly before: it asks him to supply any useful information he comes across in return, and Agorn tells him that Humans are real. The presence starts to half tell Agorn about Fixits but Agorn appears not to be receptive to the idea of hats being significant, and leaves. Meanwhile the chit for Agorn's new clearance is transferred by a cart-driving messenger (later named as Symposiarch) who reads the first message, destroys it, writes another and drops it down a pneumatic pipe system to a clerk (later named as Pulvinar) who reads it and then eats it and replaces it with another which he writes himself. He is monitoring something on a small screen. Agorn goes to the "Grafted Zone" of Root Hall and speaks to Flibbergib, Agita's Eyebolt receptionist, who again tries to tell him about the Fixits, not very clearly. Meanwhile we see various characters sleeping, including the Shallow Wyrm Squeeb, asleep in the Trog pen deep down on the side of the Chasm, and Bung's friend Faddle the Gnoll, who is very much awake. He is trying to evade somebody, but is rounded up by a hunting party of female Gnolls. Next we see him and four females, all wearing collars with glowing buckles on the front and all with white hair like a Finagler's, sleeping together in a large nest. We will learn later that this is the Place No One Talks About and that these are the Placettes, who are the female version of Finaglers. Agita arrives and Agorn shows her a written note saying that he's been promoted to Class Eight. We see a flashback to the aftermath of the auction, and Agita sending Agorn to trail Mortimer. Agorn reports the basics of the toing and froing he has seen surrounding Mortimer, Rufus, Eunice and Yasmine, saying he followed Mortimer's scent to a hole, then saw him carried out unconscious by two Humans (Rufus and Eunice) some time later. Agita fundamentally misunderstands what Humans are – she knows they are like big Nomes so she thinks they are a local mutation caused by the Spike, and gradually spreading through the local forest. Agorn says that there were repeller poles all around the hut where Mortimer was placed, and that most of the Humans just walked past them but that the female Human who then arrived (Yasmine) "did the usual spit-test" on one. Does this mean Yasmine is related to the Emans and passed a Herediscan, or was she just proving she was Human? Agita shows Agorn a written note (written on clay and then wiped) warning him about the Fixits – which suggests she doesn't want to speak out loud in front of Flibbergib, or fears others may be listening – and telling him to lie low until tomorrow and then spear any hats with eyes on sight, even if worn by her. As Agorn leaves Root Hall he notices that there are fewer Eyebolt watchers on duty than there usually are. The last one usually hides inside a free-standing stone sign outside the exit, but there is no-one there, and what looks like blood on the spy-hole. The "blood" is a trick with fruit-juice to get him to stop and look, and he is narrowly missed by an arrow fired from an overhang by Fanga, one of two dark-haired female Gnolls (the other is Shabash), who had momentarily mistaken him for somebody else (Bromir, who looks a lot like him). Agorn slides over the edge onto a ledge to avoid the archer, takes a back route and lets himself into a concealed bedsit room behind a panel out in the Fringes. In the dust on a table, someone has drawn an arrow and written "She thought you were someone else", surrounded by what look like Smyt footprints: we later learn that messages on the table are a regular thing and usually correct, and the marks on the table are referred to as flipper marks, although they look a bit small to be Frowgler's. Digger comes in – it's his pad – and Agorn addreses him as "Boss". We see that Agorn and Digger have known about the Fixits for some time. Agorn reports the day's activities to Digger, giving him more detail than he told Agita. He was already familiar with Mortimer at one remove as somebody Skibble talked about. Although he didn't tell Agita, he followed Mortimer into the basement under World o' Pots and saw a lot of working Human tech, which they'll need "if we've lost all of Rhid's stash", and saw the cloakring, which made him feel odd. He says that "Yas-meen" came from the direction of the Spike (no, there isn't room under her hood for a Fixit) and was different in some way. He didn't tell Agita that he saw Mortimer speaking to Frowgler: he didn't hear what they said but says he supposes Digger could just ask Frowgler, and Digger agrees. He feels that something nudged him to get him to go down the hole in the crater, which led him to the Ferns. We see that they have been watching the Humans, drawing them and giving them descriptive nicknames (Arthur the Weirdo with his ventriloquist's puppet Fantod is "Snoop two-head", Rufus is "Snoop one-head", Sylvester is "Eyeplates" and Myrrh is "Clawblaster"). Agorn would like to bring Comshaw into their conspiracy, or whatever it is, but Digger vetoes the idea. Agorn could tell by smell that Mortimer, "Silvester" and Rufus were littermates, and that Rosemary is something different, a "hardcase" like Comshaw or the two-spiked Pales. Agorn sketches the three Human women he saw, then sets out to see to some personal matters, but as he leaves Digger points out that when "Muckymuck" at Root Hall said that he and others were broadly pleased with what Agorn's boss was doing he may have meant Digger himself and their conspiracy-whatever, not Agita, whose schemes serve only herself. Agorn is alarmed at this idea, and thinks that "our enemy" may have made Eyebolt enemies. Coming away from Digger's bedsit he meets a Gnoll called Bromir who looks a lot like him and believes himself to be the target of the assassins, who were hired by Sooterkin at Root Hall. Bromir refers to Agorn having been given higher clearance by Fuglemin, who may therefore be Agorn's Mr Muckymuck. Agorn heads back towards the Sneech side of the Great Chasm. At the bridge he tries to chat up the Gnoll guard Varuna and invites her to come fishing with him some time: she turns him down, although the Ichyoid guard Argus thinks she should have said yes. He comes on Furphy and his eggs again and we learn that Furphy is actually Agorn's son. The mother was called Awen and she and Agorn are estranged, though not bitterly so. A Denthir is mentioned who was probably their Finagler but is now dead. Furphy has had some kind of relationship with Dandilli (who went to the SubShafts) and will take no other mate, possibly because she put him off from doing so. Father and son talk, and Furphy says that the reason he thinks nothing is real is that that morning he saw that the physical world had changed but most people can't see it (this is a fourth-wall breach, because Rob changed aspects of the design of the area), and he's not the only one who sees it because the Observer also sees Change. Agorn is semi-willing to consider this and means to tell Digger about it tomorrow. Furphy is guarding the eggs for two Jibjibs named Snurge (presumably male) and Scumble (female), to whom he owes a favour. Two other Jibjibs called Ruck (male) and Smew (female) fly overhead in the dark, and we see them enter a hole in a sort of complex, compound stalactite formation, which we will learn is called the Uppermost Spire, and settle on a nest there. Ruck is carrying Urwyn's friend, the comparatlively large Shallow Wyrm Zugo, although the Jibjibs don't know his name. Zugo slithers off into a crack, telling the Jibjibs to wait there for him. These two Jibjibs regularly carry a secretive group of Shallow Wyrms whom they refer to as Clients, transporting them around a widespread network of "rings" which run right through the rocks and whose purpose the Jibjibs don't know. Nevus is an outlier by being a Wyrm out in the open on his own. They get snuggly in the nest, although Smew does not wish to have eggs. We see a Shallow Wyrm named Sneckdraw who seems to be spying on a ring, or at least on a tunnel used by a ring. Sneckdraw is detected and chased through the tunnels by helmeted guards named Vim, Crot, Ang and Diet, and escapes by jumping off an underground cliff onto the back of a tame (or sapient?) bat. Ang gets Ruck to fly him in pursuit with a view to killing them: Ruck queries this but when Ang assures him that Sneckdraw is not officially a member of any ring, and therefore not a Client, Ruck is OK with it. They follow the bat's scent trail – Ang is especially good at this – but Sneckdraw and the bat dodge into a narrow tunnel which Ruck can't fit into. We see another Wyrm, too distant and small to identify, behind a kind of wooden screen in this tunnel. They come to a place where there is a graffitoed sign on the wall saying "Ring of the Newborn Word": Sneckdraw, who seems to be a freelance spy, dismounts and is challenged by guards called Conspue and Fream, armed with a zap trident. They pay Sneckdraw with a food item and he (the guards referred to him as "he", even though he seems to have the eyelashes Rob uses to indicate femininity) reports on Zugo of the Dunktyn Stone's presence at the Uppermost Spire. Conspue either doesn't know or won't say why Zugo is important. Fream conveys Sneckdraw's message to a female superior whom we don't see, and then goes to speak to a female tuneller or miner called Glink, on whom Fream seems to be sweet, and who is listening in secretly on people farther down the tunnel. We see Sina giving the cleaning contract for the new hall to Maw and his crew. At Kronk's suggestion, Sina names the new group Leny Hall, although Maggle and Grik, and the Gobules, all seem to know something mildly disreputable about Leny. At or near Leny Hall, Pergola is investigating plants in a narrow tunnel. Tracking the tunnel higher, we see a male Fixot named Slix ascending a slope to report to a female Fixit named Astex, who sits on a rock in a tunnel filled with plants and fungi. She seems to be fishing in a stream which flows alongside her rock. Slix, who has been sent by a female commander called Poinx, comes to speak to her and get her observations – he calls her "our resident". Astex, who seems to have a cynical attitude to her own kind, says that the shield around the Spike area that "keeps the evil monsters out. Or in, as the case may be." was breached for a second or so, causing panic. It was very noisy – she probably means the OZPR event. Slix runs off before she can tell him about the Sneeches leaving. We learn that Astex is acquainted with Frowgler. We see Mortimer speaking about wizardry to Amos Grubb, who is himself a wizard, but who retired pre-Crash, having thrown his wand away after the incident with Myrrh. He says that Sylvester has some magic, although not as much as Mortimer, and their father Willoughby could have been a wizard if he hadn't been so frivolous. He believes there are still some schools of magic in operation somewhere, but he kept the fact of Mortimer's magic from Mortimer as a favour to Frederick and Nellie, and because it's so dangerous. Magic tends to run in families and other members of the E family also have at least some magical talent (which is why their mother is so good at overhearing things). Mortimer confirms that he found the umbrella-wand: he wouldn't accept a gift from Myrrh "after what heppened last time!" They discuss the fact that Mortimer got the wand from Frowgler, who didn't feel like Myrrh (i.e. not like he came from Zark or Fratz), and the fact that Frederick and Amos were trained by Sylvester and Mortimer's great-great-uncle Hindenburgh. Amos says that Nellie has very little magic (even though she is one of the people in Frederick's photo'). [Amos says he threw his wand away "sixty-odd years" ago, and he was still a wizard in that photo', which means that Nellie was already at least about eighteen eleven years before the Crash, making Myrrh's statement that she was very young at the time even stranger.] If Mortimer practises as a magician he may get hassles from the Oracles of the Brush, and from the villagers, who are now so anti-magic they nearly torched the library. We learn that wands should preferably be handled only by the owner, and Mortimer half remembers the vision of his future self flying, and thinks about using telekinesis to open locks. They discuss the nature of mind-reading and mind-control, which is far easier for Sneeches, Demons and Djinn to perform than other races, and Rosemary's susceptibility; magic-users on the other hand are very resistent to mind-control. They set off in search of Rosemary so Amos can get to know her. The scene cuts to the Nomes at the Pale camp. They are discussing the fact that if Nitfol becomes mayor he'll need a wife. He says that the only girl he found tolerable disappeared. Then Fizmo, the Hot Zone worker, appears and she and Nitfol get talking: she is apparently the girl whom he liked before. She has switched her allegiance to Frowgler and now refers to him as her boss. Nitfol is working with Frowgler too. Umboz and Piu leave them to talk and go off to make love. Then we cut to The Spike, where Eunice Kelso and Rufus are talking. It seems Eunice is a villager who had been posing as Rufus's friend for a long time, but really watching him for God. In notes we learn that the Spike is Ettin-made and that before the Crash, Humans used it to moor airships. Rufus has recently had a talk with "God", or possibly with Dorian (who is not God), which left him briefly unconscious and rubber-legged, but he seems to have agreed to play an important role in God's organisation. This is only the third time Eunice has been in the Spike, and she plans to leave via a service tunnel leading towards the village. Rufus is behaving in quite a commanding, confident way, and speculating about what "God" and his henchman Dorian plan for Eunice next: her job is over and she has important information, so maybe they were hoping he'd kill her. After some edgy verbal sparring Eunice more-or-less agrees to be Rufus's new assistant and bodyguard. Rufus tells her to see what Dorian offers her first, and if she turns down both of them she should go, and get as far as way as possible: but they both know she mustn't go "Out West". Eunice assures him that her hat doesn't have an eye and that she would never let "one of those little creeps" get on her head. She was recruited to God's service by an "old posh lady" named Miss Wentworth whom she met in Noodle: this has been brewing since before Rufus and Eunice were born. How long ago is that? Rufus's father Willoughby was the son of a post-Crash refugee, so Willoughby was born not more than about forty-eight years ago. Let's say Willoughby was about twenty when he and Dorothea had Sylvester, so that's twenty-eight years ago. Rufus is from their fifth pregnancy, so even if Dorothea cranked out one pregnancy a year Rufus is only twenty-four. So the conspiracy is twenty-five-plus years old. 08: The End of the Day [18/02/2013 – 16/07/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips #3431–end] We see Rosemary and Sylvester coming out of gender-specific lavatories which are delineated by male and female statues carrying a real spear and shield. They discuss finding Rosemary some better clothes so she can be properly introduced to Nellie and Amos, although Sylvester is wary of telling her what to wear because of the hypnosis incident. He gets his own clothes from Genrick Gaberdine, an excellent tailor in Eetown, who will be mentioned several times in future strips. The female clothes they are about to see are out of date (mostly collected between fifty and eighty years ago by the wives of Ernest and Philbert), but Sylvester tries to keep stylish because it makes a good impression as Earl. Rosemary is tested by an Ettin-built electronic panel on the wall which confirms she is compatible with the house and can perform its ceremonies. Sylvester offers formally to employ her as Taskmistress, partly for real and partly as cover, and she is given an E-family uniform (which is the same two shades of periwinkle blue we later see on Winnifrite habits and shrines), although she picks the big E off the breast for the moment, and keeps her old clothes in the Poke Kit and later in a drawer. Sylvester warns her that most of the lavatories are shut off to save water and to limit baths to one a day because they get their water from the roof. Once they are both respectably dressed they go and introduce Rosemary to Nellie, although Sylvester tells Nellie that Rosemary's name is Rosemary Aurora Dapple, not Rosemary Imogene Ripley. It is important to impress Nellie because she has Views, and is popular in the village (while Myrrh is unpopular, having "cut quite a swath" before the Crash, as we saw in her collision with Ilsa's anti-Earl group). If possible Rosemary should avoid telling Nellie that she has killed Humans (but killing non-humans is evidently OK) and it would help if she can assist Nellie in her garden. Nellie keeps most of the garden produce for herself and Amos, but there is a commercial orchard they all help with, even Myrrh, and whch helps to fund the Mansion. The Grubbs have a nice homely sitting-room, with a picture on the wall of a winged waffle and an egg with legs. Nellie has already worked out that Rosemary arrived without passing through the village, and is angry about Mortimer being encouraged/allowed to learn magic, although Sylvester says not only that Mortimer needs to do this, but that he may need Mortimer to do this, because of what's happening "downstairs". He tells her that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress, making it sound as if he intentionally summoned her to the Mansion for that purpose, and also that she killed a monster and now there's meat and tallow in the Low Kitchen. Quizzed about her origins Rosemary mentions the three beacons in the Bay of Runes, "big and scary and beautiful", and also that people in Moonin hunt Saurs (who are presumably non-sapient, and are bigger than the Mansion ones – so probably what the Mansion Saurs call Sawtooths). They allow Nellie to assume that Rosemary learned to fight mainly because she was a Saur-hunter although she admits that she has "some training" with the sword, and Nellie warns Sylvester that the Sheriff wants to meet Rosemary. Nellie opens up and talks about the group of which she, Amos and Frederick were a part prior to the Crash. She came from Zebedee, Frederick and Amos were locals, and it's later hinted that Olaf came from elsewhere. Amos and Frederick were old friends who were learning magic from Hindenburgh, and Mamie must have learned from somebody as she had a magicker hat (Olaf didn't and nor did Nellie). Nellie had to choose between Frederick and Amos and chose Amos, and Mamie was with Olaf. But then Fredrick accidentally summoned Myrrh and lost his magic, and Amos renounced magic, so only Mamie had the hat when the Crash came, and only Mamie died. Amos, Nellie and Ilsa became servants at the Mansion (and Olaf, we will later learn, became the local vet). Amos and Nellie had a son, Arlen. who is now the local Hedgemaster. Sylvester warns Nellie about some of the recent developments in the Basement, and the fact that the River of Fire can affect things even up here in the Mansion. As he talks we see vignettes of Chumley the Boogieman presiding over a growing collection of dead Fixits; the blonde woman with the pink bow, whom Rosemary called Mz Teree, reporting distressing changes in the Basement to someone who addresses her as Annabelle (and who has been waiting impatiently for her: possibly Nirvana); and Frowgler telling Myrrh about the conversation Rosemary and Sylvester are currently having with Nellie. Sylvester leaves Rosemary and Nellie alone to talk about contraception, and we learn that there is a "Women's Circle" at the local Temple, where such things may be discussed. Here, such things are only discussed between women, at the Temple, because in the past there have been men in the area who tried to stop women from using Stiflebloom. The Women's Circle preserved their freedom and all women are allowed to attend: even outsiders; even Myrrh if she wanted to. Eunice is a member. In Moonin they talk about Stiflebloom freely, even though they are sexually uptight and not like the more sex-positive Morlock or Abalone. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester leave together, talking about local leaders – an impromptu lady mayor named Saffron Stout who runs an inn, and Patrick Skragg, the Sheriff. The Earl has warily polite relationships with both. Both Nellie and Sylvester mention Olga, Mortimer's ex, who seems to have been a disaster. Rosemary says the position of "strange and dangerous woman" is now filled. Sylvester formally introduces Rosemary to Frederick. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester agree to conceal her true identity and membership of Hack n' Slash, in case she's on a "wanted" list. They meet up with Amos and Mortimer and Amos, as a former wizard, comfirms that Mortimer no longer has psychic influence over Rosemary. Amos can still see people's mental structures, which vary a bit by region, and he can tell that she is from Out West. Amos and Sylvester exchange news of the day, including some things Sylvester didn't tell Nellie, like about the Sneech gift, and about Tand – Sylvester thinks he has seen Tand mentioned in the records and Amos promises to look her up. Sylvester learns about The Pit flaring. We learn that "Pit" stands for "Pulse-Ignition Thaumnode" and that it was a booster device used to power-up airships heading for the Far Eastern Shore, to save on fuel. The effect is like a small version of the Daynight (a rainbow aurora witnessed by the first Prime Oracle, although we don't learn that till later), which evidently did something drastic, at least to people near it. Mortimer finds The Pit creepy. After Amos leaves to go home, Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer go to the Basement of the barracks, fetch a siege pot and set it up on the top of the West Tower over the main entrance. Mortimer goes off to find clothes (his shirt having been shredded to make makeshift gloves and boots in the Sneech den) and leaves Sylvester and Rosemary discussing the definition of "mansion". He tells her about the Spike, which he has never tried to climb because it's one big, churning Ettin machine and very dangerous. He can see that somebody is living there because it's been more active (in terms of lights etc.) since the Crash, but it's out of the Mansion lands and as far as he knows nobody now officially owns it. They discuss the aftermath of the Crash – which wasn't nearly as bad in the poor rural area where Rosemary comes from, because hardly anybody there used magic anyway – and the ownership of land and property left vacant after the previous owners died in the disaster. Eva was affected, but that was because she was in Nye on the mainland. Now Eetown, once a thriving metropolis, lives by catching Tooterfish for their oil. They go off to eat and we see a series of vignettes. Myrrh has arrived in the Sneech den proper, but hasn't encountered any Sneeches. Amos collects a package of Dornbeast-liver from the processor and takes it to Nellie, and discusses Rosemary with her: Nellie isn't sure she likes Rosemary but feels she can trust her, and Amos says they haven't been told the full story about how she got there but they're in no position to complain about people withholding information. Mortimer gets cleaned up (but even after a bath he still smells of sphagnum dust). En route to a dinner of last night's Dornbeast tendrils, Rosemary and Sylvester pause to look at a Panegate which leads elsewhere on their own world, into open grassland on the Thembrian Steppes, with the occasional distant horseman. Sylvester says that such local Panegates are especially hard to open, possibly because the Ettins double-locked them against Sneech incursions. Behind them is a statue of Pratchett's Discworld. Mortimer joins them at table and says he has put the umbrella aside until such time as he may decide to take up magic. They discuss re-opening access to a nearby beach so they can gather fish and seaweed, now that Rosemary is there to fend off any Ichyoids who might object, then they sign Rosemary into the Mansion's official staff record-book, still under the false name Dapple. Sylvester goes off to write up the day's events, and Mortimer goes and tries on various formal outfits, but doesn't seem to like the look of them, and picks a blue t-shirt with a star on the chest. Rosemary gets Amos to show her the library. Coming away with a stack of books on history, anthropology and moral philosophy, she experiences a psychic tweak which calls her to go to the Quiet Room and speak to (apparently) the Sneech Dohickey, which she can hear because she touched it, although she remains outside the locked door. She says that it and she are both protecting Sylvester, and suggests it should watch the Basement door, or the Weirdo. As the new Taskmistress she threatens the devices, saying that if any of them causes trouble she'll chuck them all into the Great Chasm. As she walks away we see Frowgler sitting by the foot of the door – he speaks to the Dohickey as if they are old aquaintances. Myrrh, with her balloon in tow, descends to the Ettinworks using the musical levitating lift in the shaft where Rosemary met Tand. Returning to the Guest Room, Rosemary rearranges the furniture so she can sit facing the door, writes to her aunt and takes a bath. She falls asleep but immediately wakes into a dream which seems to be some kind of objectively real astral projection. She passes Skuy and Spot, who are arguing, because Skuy is keeping people away from the elevator: Skuy at least seems to be also asleep and also taking part in the astral projection. Rosemary goes to the elevator and meets the Operator, who has summoned her and tries to hypnotise her, but she says that will never happen again and whacks him with a mallet, which she then hands over to Skuy: the physically real Operator is aware of and intrigued by what has just happened to his astral equivalent. We see an overview of various couples sleeping: Nellie and Amos; Umbuz and Piu (in bed together, so their relationship is progressing fast!); the Gobules Gorp and Phiga. Then we see Mortimer and Yasmine, who would like to be a couple but aren't yet: Mortimer lying awake, and Yasmine sitting by a camp fire, staring at a Fleeb. Myrrh goes to the same doorway off the underhub where Sylvester and co. were passed the metal "KEEP OUT" sign. She is passed a similar cut-out message, this one saying "IN HER" with an extra "E" drawn or painted on to make it "IN HERE". The extra "E" is done in the style of the emblem of the Earls of E. The door opens and she goes through into the corridor of doors we saw before. A distant door is open to receive her but all we see through it is several floating lights – possibly ABOLs. More vignettes: Eunice talking to Cox, in front of Ettin signs or graffiti saying "shake hands" and "onebig onion", and tells him Rufuis says they're lucky that "this phizzpile hasn't imploded and fallen in the swamp". She probably literally means the Spike collapsing. Hector talks to Nunsuch and says that "sir" wishes Nunsuch and another character called Penfold to interface with the Spindizzies: Nunsuch indicates some Ettin text which appears on a screen beside them and which changes gradually from the old font to the new. This text, which says "remote spike extrusion", triggers Hector to engage a "revised schedule" which he says is twenty years late. Sylvester gives up on his paperwork and collapses into bed. Meanwhile Myrrh leaves the room of lights and returns to the Mansion, where she bars the Basement door and puts a ward on it telling Basement dwellers to keep out. She opens a Panegate into a lush jungle and sets the balloon floating off into that jungle carrying the rescued Trundlebug, who lands in a bush where it meets a new friend (probably of the opposite sex, if Trundlebugs have sexes). She goes and reassures Frederick that although the magic umbrella is hers she didn't directly give it to Mortimer, and they start flirting. The scene shifts to the Trog holding area where Villipend and Hamble were formerly imprisoned, and we see that Hamble has survived electrocution. In his former life, before the Plunge, he was a simple fungi farmer, but proximity to the Hot Zone seems to have done something to reverse the mental decline which caused him to jump into the Great Chasm in the first place, and he is now very clever and very ambitious. He half rescues, half kidnaps Squeeb, and works out how to get out of the habitat. He snifs out, literally, a hidden door behind which is an emergency bolthole room with stocked provisions, and which opens out above the chute. He sets off to walk along the top of the chute-tube with Squeeb strapped to his arm, seeking a new dawn which will be his. We learn on the way that Squeeb, who is Nevus's brother in law, belongs to no ring, and despises the idea of doing so. Finally we see two vignettes. In one, a male soldier reports on Rosemary's disappearance to a female commander, the Tansy whom Rosemary saw in a vision. Tansy is working for some outfit or political party whose emblem is a triangle within a circle: it appears on her desk and on her helmet. It appears to belong to her: the office she is occupying has a sign outside saying "ABBOT'S OFFICE" but then a big "T" and the triangle-and-circle sign have both been drawn on it using the same red paint. She vows to find Rosemary wherever she has gone – and clearly with hostile intent. In the other, we see Sylvester's sister Lilith and their mother Dorothea, talking in the darkness at the edge of a banquet in the Deep Jungle somewhere. The mother would have liked to have stayed, but she has received a psychic impression that they need to start heading back to E. Part Six: On My Way to Town [28/07/2013 – 16/11/2018] Note that from 03/05/2015, the Saturdays in the Basement strips show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with the action above ground. 01: Rise and Shine [28/07/2013 – 26/11/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips start–#3698] The sun has just risen over the Mansion. The brothers are already awake: Sylvester resumes doing his paperwork, but Mortimer stands gazing out of a window, clutching the umbrella he said he wouldn't pick up again unless and until he decided to take up magic, and thinking of himself as having "set out" – and that the world itself has also changed. Rosemary emerges and rings the bell for Schmedley, the butler, attracting Mortimer's attention. He introduces her to Schmedley, who tells her how to find Sylvester (and who speaks very quietly). Schmedley is not surprised to hear that Mortimer is a wizard. We see Arthur the Weirdo feeling the worse for wear. Sylvester explains the hierarchy of the Mansion's servants to Rosemary. Nellie and Amos are officially retired, and Myrrh retired when Ilsa, the Head Housekeeper, did (he evidently doesn't know Myrrh was controlling her!). When the main posts are all filled the rank from top down goes Regent and Estate Manager (Frederick); Head Housekeeper; Butler; Taskmistress; then the Head Gardener and Head Librarian and then all the small fry. As Taskmistress Rosemary stands fairly high. One of her duties is, at least potentially, to find and hire a new sign-writer (if official and full-time, called a Notification Artificer). Sylvester's next task is in three days and Rosemary's in five. He shows Rosemary her new official quarters and office, which she is quite stunned by. Her quarters command a view of the ocean, which leads to a discussion about Panegates and the fact that no known Panegate leads to another continent, although some lead to alternative realities for the location of the Mansion. They move on to discussing why the villagers don't all move into the much-more-comfortable Mansion, and Rosemary's dream about the Operator. Sylvester didn't share it but we see a flashback to what must be his own dream, in which he, Rosemary and Nimue are attending a university lecture given by Protus, accompanied by three frogs, two sitting with the girls in the audience and one sitting with Protus, and Sylvester is aware that his own frog is missing (or has gone to Protus). We see a rusted, land-locked churnboat which Philbert had been going to convert into a building, the Boathouse, and access to which is heavily restricted; and a wizwitch detector which detects Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss security clearances, and local legends relating to a scruffy local folk-hero called Frizzlegarb who Sylvester thinks might have been a surviving Wilf, and who is associated with a symbol that looks like a waffle with wings. Legends say Frizzlegarb founded Glome, grew the first pudding plant and planted the acorn which became the Forest of Burzee. They also say that he swam through a pool and there met what sounds like a Willigig. [Later we will learn that Frizzlegarb was a Fuzz from the far future, presumably dislocated in time by the Willigig.] Sylvester is still having trouble with the fact that Willigigs are real. He shows Rosemary round her apartment and gives her a mechanical pocket-watch, then they get out Mortimer's Glowgem and test it on a sort of battery-tester invented by Griffington. They are quite rare. although there are some in the Infernal Engine, and in deep shafts under the Brushspire Peaks, and in Paydon, and the university had some big ones brought back by the Bradstreet Expedition. No-one really knows what they are, but they're not alive, they come in various types which feel slightly different, and they store power, and they didn't explode in the Crash. We see an outtake of the Tribbletongued Hamster (in pirate getup), the plant and the ABOL escaping together in their toy boat, sailing along an underground tunnel: a sign in the background points towards the sea. This is a colourised but othwerwise only slightly different version of the drawing we saw the previous day whem Rosemary and Sylvester were coming away from Spatchcock's office, but the sign pointing to the sea is new, so they've made progress. This Glowgem is highly charged. The Mansion has a few others whose charge has almost run down: they can be recharged by dipping them in the River of Fire for a few days. They used to do that from a bridge station over the River, but it collapsed in the Crash: we see that the Observatory in the Basement is adapted from the ruins of it. Sylvester mentions that the Mansion used to have a "wizwitch", a magic-wielder, as a regular member of staff and he supposes it now has one again. The scene cuts to Mortimer, who is talking to a strange wall of purple electrical spikes labelled "CURED ELECTRO-SPIKES" and filled with littl wires, telling it he is going to go and celebrate the fact that he has grown up and got a job. He goes to Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where there are various amusements and places to eat. Back with Rosemary and Sylvester, he asks her about Hack & Slash's Commandant Spangler (who Rosemary had said was the only person she had previously met who had a private office). This segues into a conversation about their respective grandparents. Rob has said elsewhwere that Quincy died in 5398, and it's now 5423, and Sylvester says here that Quincy died when he was five, so Sylvester is now twenty-nine or thirty. Rosemary's parents died on their way back from her grandmother's funeral, when she was a baby. Rosemary runs through her fake history, although we know from a bonus strip of her family that she has kept their names and just changed her father's surname to match her new, false surname Dapple. She discusses the remote possibility of using Protus to go back in time and save her parents – for whom she has little feeling – at the cost of giving up her own exciting future and getting stuck as a farm-girl (and refers to Haroons in passing as Leafheads). Meanwhile we see Frederick and Myrrh set out to do something – unspecified but involving hand-holding – "properly". Get married, probably. Sylvester tells Rosemary about the demand there used to be for apartments linked to this private corridor for senior administrators: Amos could have had a smart Head Librarian's apartment here, but he and Nellie chose to live down in the Storage Halls next to Frederick and Myrrh because of their long history [Olaf lives in the village]. There used to be a separate cottage for the Head Gardener but it was damaged in the Crash. They discuss the fact that in the past, pre-Ludwig, the Earls were at risk of being assassinated just for being the Earl. Rosemary goes off at a tangent about a fluffy-seeming female called Miss Gritz who was a traveller on the caravan Rosemary was guarding, and whom she suspects of being her apparent boyfriend's very high-powered personal bodyguard. Sylvester shows Rosemary round the official, ceremonial offices for himself and his secretary (but not his official chambers, which are untidy). The offices are designed to be intimidating, and with security in mind: there is a round thing on the wall that Sylvester says is the remains of a robot security system. The fact that attention is drawn to it suggests to me that we will find out Mr Hand can access it and it's not as broken as it purports to be, but Rosemary taps it and it doesn't do anything visible. Meanwhile, we see Eunice, wearing a rucksack, emerge from a concealed entrance in a rock with a spy-eye on top. Yasmine arrives on horseback at a sign that points to Eetown in one direction and Noodle in another (forking rather than diametrically opposed), and thinks that in another hour she'll be far enough away to take her hood off. So she is somebody who might be recognised. Her spark of attraction with Martimer suggests that a) she too is in the twenty-five to thirty-five range and b) she isn't Lenore, even though the Shibolith accent could be fake. We learn that the Mansion has an actual throne. Audra was the last Earl to use it and since then it's been reserved in case the king should visit – this nearly happened fifty years ago, when Yorik III had planned a visit, but the king ws killed when his flagship airship The Velvet Glove went down during the Crash, and the current king tends to stay in the capital. We learn that the Mansion has a High Tower, which seems to be the turret off the main tower, and access to which is blocked: Rufus tried to get in there, before he wandered off, but as far as Sylvester knows he was unsuccessful. Possibly Mr Hand lives there. Sylvester says Rufus likes to wander but he doesn't go far: Sylvester tried to get him to go to university but Rufus felt that the area around the Mansion was where he was going to be. Sylvester doesn't know where Rufus is now: Mortimer hasn't told him, or perhaps being zapped and PZORed and meeting Yasmine scrambled his memory. Sylvester shows Rosemary an escape hatch under the desk (which itself is made of near-impregnable Ettin lengths), leading to a panic-room which used to be well-equippped but is now almost empty. There used to be guards down there, but not since the Crash: and no, they didn't really need guards after the Crash, because they had Myrrh. We learn that in the early days the Earldom was passed on by mortal combat. Milo was the last Earl of E officially to kill his predecessor and the first to pass the Earldom on by blood although his grandson, Dorn II, may have been murdered by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, who then ruled in her husband Lemuel's stead while he got on with his Panegate research. We also learn that in those days the Earldoms of E and S were friends. Sylvester doesn't know as much about his mother's family, the Mundivagants, who are grand and grudging industrialists. Neither he nor Lenore would ever ask their maternal grandfather Humphrey Mundivagant for a favour. Their brother Ace works for the Mundivagants. Rosemary's family were all farmers with a long tradition, but they have died out. The Mansion has mangonels and mini airships which could probably be got to work. Rosemary asks about a sign saying "Gargoyle pits" and Sylvester tells her that there are creatures called Gargoyles and Spindizzies which were bred or manufactured by the Ettins to service and repair the buildings in which they live, so the Mansion behaves like a semi-living thing, a sort of colonial organism, even though there's no central personality such as there is at the Castle of the Combynes. Gargoyles deal with the exterior and Spindizzies with the interior, especially service machinery behind the walls and in the BaseCore, which is "one giant inaccessible churn of zappy machinery". The Mansion is slowly running down. Sylvester and Rosemary speculate about the possibility of finding still-surviving Ettins who could restore it. They come to a corridor where an end-wall has moved aside, giving access to a platform looking out into a vast service-space, so Sylvester takes Rosemary to meet the Spindizzies, warning her to get the Can-Opener out first and not tell anybody about the Poke Kit. In the empty space we saee lines of force, with the first appearance of the little Ts and Fs which become a common motif. 02: Fishing Around [27/11/2013 – 22/03/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3704–#3810] The scene opens with an Ichyoid about under water, wearing some sort of equipment on his chest which seems to be intergrated into his body, and surrounded by sea-life, including two eyes looking out of a hole with "THAT'S A MORAY" written round it. We return to Sylvester, telling Rosemary that the BaseCore of the Mansion, which they are looking down on, and the space around it is malleable and in a state of flux. Sylvester warns Rosemary that the Spindizzies share new information indiscriminately, but may assume you already know old things you aren't aware of. Two Spindizzies appear: they have grey, hairless humanoid upper bodies trailing away into wormy tails, and pterosaur-like wings. The males have brown wing-muscles and the females blue. They speak like intelligent but literal-minded computers but are friendly and kind, very concerned when they hear that Rosemary is taking over as Taskmistress in case that means Prunella has died, and perhaps a little disappointed that she isn't Sylvester's love-interest, since they want him to produce another male Task-performer. Sylvester agrees to bring in supplies (antimony) which they request, and ask them if they can tell what the Can-Opener is made of, but they can't, although they may be able to duplicate it (by which they mean, construct a look-alike pattern). When they are analysing something, little lines hang in the air, some similar to the marks on the Can-Opener, s0me more like distorted letters. Every Human (or in Myrrh's case, humanoid) in the Mansion has a designated Spindizzy who communicates with them: Horace and, newly, Emily are matched to Sylvester and Rosemary. As Taskmistress Rosemary will need to talk to Emily weekly. They live about as long as Humans, so if you have a personal Spindsizzy you always have somebody who's happy to talk to you. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the Ettins, and the moving walls (which the Spindizzies can influence if they are nearby, even though they can't leave their chamber): Sylvester thinks the Mansion with its Panegates and moving walls wasn't intended as a residence but as some other sort of facility. They wonder whether there are any surviving Ettins – and if so, how they would react to finding Humans living in their laboratory, or whatever it is. The Ettins are myths to the Spindizzies too – scary, tyrannical myths. We learn that the Spindizzies are mortal flesh-and-blood creatures but they reproduce in a mechanical incubator, and are assigned mates on a very scientific basis: and that Motihauls reproduce by the female laying an egg and then the male handing her a bottle of sperm. We learn that one of Ludwig's assistants, James Neil Pakson, went far enough down into the depths to visit the Spindizzy incubator, and his granddaughter Nicole visited the Far-Eastern Shore on the other side of the ocean from the Mansion. There were Human colonies there which may or may not have survived the Crash, about which the Spindizzies know nothing. They also don't know about other Ettin-made edifices, or about the things no-one is sure who made: the Infernal Engine, the Beacons, the Sandwall, and a range of actual big rock candy mountains. Meanwhile we see vignettes of other characters. Mortimer is breakfasting on a Spyder-burger at the Landing o' Family Fun, and visiting the Fish Museum there. He has aquired a little purple-and-green party version of a wizard's conical hat. Eunice Kelso is seen leaving the woods and heading for Eetown, with her rucksack: she passes a retired Guardian called Mr Flem, who warns her that the woods are dangerous. Terin Flem, whom we will meet again, is a semi-retired pig-farmer who used to be the Oracle Omega's Guardian Finale, and sits on a rock near the village alongside his dog Byron, apparently whittling wood. Nelly is feeding (non-sapient) Jibjibs while Amos wears goggles as he uses tongs to hold up a rod with a star on the end which isn't Mortimer's Glowgem (too many points). It appears that he is making, or restoring, a wand. Arthur the Weirdo is taking a bath; Myrrh is looking out from her and Frederick's flat, looking a bit suspicious (perhaps because she senses the presence of Frowgler); and Schmedley is being addressed by somebody off-screen and short (probably Frowgler). The chamber where Rosemary and Sylvester and the Spindizzies are all meeting is a sort of holo-deck, in which the Spindizzies successfully produce a useable mock-up of the Can-Opener which is only real in this environment, a quasi-humanoid sparring-partner for Rosemary to practise with, a chair for Sylvester to sit in and watch, and some background scenery including a bad, Escheresque reproduction of part of a monument called the Citadel of the Hugging Squirrels, one of the Sculpted Isles in Isdanlia. This reproduction was commissioned by Dorn I for his mother Nettana, who came from that area. The Sculpted Isles date back to a mysterious Dawn Era, probably that of the Wilfs and Gobblems. Sylvester dozes in a chair, leaving Rosemary to her sparring, but in fact she talks to the Spindizzies instead of fighting, and runs them through the tools they have patterns for: Human Tool #1 is a stick. She learns that they have patterns for Ettin tools as well as Human ones, but most of the Ettin ones are encrypted: one that isn't encrypted is a 3D version of the USB symbol, and they would love to get hold of a real one (there was a broken one on the sea floor where we saw the Ichyoid). She encrypts the pattern for the Can-Opener so only she and Sylvester can see it. It seems that any "productive individual" can come in and encrypt personalized tools. She learns that the Spindizzies could in principle find out what the Can-Opener is made of but their access to data is blocked beyond a certain level, although they don't know by whom. Rufus might be able to fix it. They tell her that Rufus is at Semi-Autonomous Research Structure #00001. Rosemary doesn't want to spar now because she hasn't the time, but she takes the time to walk up the imaginary sky. She starts to ask Emily the Spindizzy whether she knows that she, Rosemary, is currently... then changes the subject, which may or may not have been important. Then she wakes Sylvester and tells him where Rufus is, which he translates as the Spike. He isn't pleased, and says that the Spike is very dangerous, partly because the machines there have no built-in safety systems, but doesn't intend to go rescue him as he assumes Rufus knows what he's doing: he doesn't know about the Fixits etc. The information about Rufus came from a high-ranking Spindizzy called Tanith who was Nirvana's contact, but they have lost contact with Nirvana. Meanwhile a Valentine's Day out-take shows Sheriff Patrick Skragg giving a flower to his wife Halcyone, while their son Stephen reads a Willy-the-Wendigo book. Sylvester informs the Spindizzies about the departure of the Sneeches, and asks them what they know about Willigigs. They have been aware of Protus's presence for around a month (37.77 days – are Mansionverse months forty days?) but haven't spoken to him. They are not aware of Frowgler. Sylvester and Rosemary take their leave of them: Sylvester promises to bring them some antimony which they have asked for, and which he has in store. After they leave we see that the Spindizzies penetrate right down into the Basement and see Sprocket the Gnoll engineer, holding a Glowgem in a wrench, opening conversation with a male Spindizzy. Rosemary and Sylvester set off to go fishing. They discuss the Mansion's mineral stores, including gold, and Rosemary tells Sylvester what she learned from the Spindizzies while he was asleep, about the data block which Rufus might be able to fix. Sylvester suggests that the same person deliberately planted the Can-Opener with Izchak for Rosemary to find, and prevented the Spindizzies from investigating it: he fears he is being too paranoid but Rosemary, being profesionally paranoid, suggests there may be two conflicting secret factions at work. For the moment, Sylvester is not telling the Spindizzies about the return of Nirvana, the previous Taskmistress: he means to return to the Ettinworks once he has researched Tand, and will allow Nirvana and "Mz Teree" (Annabelle) to explain themselves before making a decision about them. They make their way down to a sea-level room where there are storage lockers for fishing gear and for beach leisure gear, and a small boat, and a door to the E family's private – and artificially-enhanced – fishing beach. [Here an out-take shows Sylvester's mother Dorothea and sister Lilith visiting the Irish-analogue nation of Tiranog at some point in the recent past.] They used to have a proper boat-house etc. but much of it has fallen into ruins. Ichyoids don't like large-scale commerical fishing and cut large fishing nets, so before going outside they look though a security periscope and see only gulls. There is a suggestion that many Ichyoids died in the Crash. Sylvester also talks about what he considers to be the remote possibility of somebody from the Basement making their way up to the beach (suggesting that part of it is below sea-level), and at that we see the hamster and his crew in their miniature pirate ship, approaching the open air. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss boats, and an explorer called Semidemela, and then go outside, where they stand side by side on the beach and agree that their feelings for each other are brother/sisterly rather than romantic (although acknowledging that this could change). It's mentioned that Audra had an entire fleet, and that they have a private, secure marina, but without magic it takes too much effort to open. They catch fish and gather seaweed and then go inside to cook them. Meanwhile we see a small boat propelled by a magic-powered outboard motor, and piloted by a skinny, elderly male villager. This is Olaf Larssen, the village vet, whom we saw before when Protus caused Sylvester to have a vision of a selection of villagers (among other things), and who was part of Frederick's pre-Myrrh magical team. His boat is named Mamie, after his partner who died in the Crash. The hamster and his pirate crew in their tiny wind-up clockwork boat approach and order Olaf to stand to and prepare to be boarded, and he thinks that all Tribble-Tongued Hamsters are insane. Compared to a Human, Cap'n Hamster is more like a large gopher in size. 03: A Change in the Scene [24/03/2014 – 12/07/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3817–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips start–#3915] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips start–#3921] From this point on, the parallel activity in the Basement splits away into a series of separate strips, until Sylvester and co. re-enter the Basement in Part Eight. The scene above-ground opens with Nitfol, Fizmo and three Pales (Thrash and his team, although they are all wearing or carrying shields and Thrash doesn't have the stripe on his chest that he had before) about to enter a wood tangled with brambles, in search of whatever Nitfol needs for his bid to become mayor. Nitfol says that Fizmo's presence isn't absolutely neccessary to his plans (knowing that this expedition will be dangerous) – but she has her own agenda. Then we see Yasmine riding through a wood. She is just about to take off her hood, now she is far enough from the Mansion, when she feels a vibration in her bag of Fleebs. She opens it and the Fleebs leap out, although they do not appear rabid. Meanwhile we see the E family make breakfast. Amos and Nellie bring non-sapient Jibjib eggs (their cockerel is called Zoroaster), Sylvester and Rosemary have fish and edible seaweed, and Mortimer brings a bottle of a magically-active drink called Yurple Juice. He won it by playing a game called Star Board at Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, and feels he may have cheated magically. The Weirdo (seriously hungover) and Fantod arrive and are introduced to Rosemary. Then Myrrh and Frederick arrive, dressed as if for a very fancy trip to a smart restaurant or theatre, and Myrrh announces that they are now retiring from their work to keep the family alive. Although they don't state so explicitly, they are planning to go away on a trip (we were told when we first met him that Frederick likes to go on long journeys). Myrrh also satisfies the Weirdo and Fantod's curiosity by dropping her glamour and revealing to them that she is a Demon. Mortimer is now Sylvester's Regent, his understudy – about which he is less than thrilled. Sylvester tells him just to do what Rosemary tells him, when Sylvester himself isn't there. Since the Mansion will now be less secure, Sylvester offers Amos and Nellie the chance to retire to the village, but they refuse. Instead, Amos will teach Mortimer magic. Meanwhile Sylvester, Rosemary and Mortimer need to go to the village to update Saffron, the lady mayor, on what's been happening, to sell Dornbeast parts and to attend the Temple. The Dornbeast parts are ready-wrapped in a refrigerator or stasis unit next to Ludwig's monster-processing machine. We learn later that the wrappings alone will keep meat fresh for a week, and if wrapped and in the cabinet it will keep for months. Mortimer wants to go to the Temple (he starts to ask whether he can go with them, then states that he is going) to light a candle for Nitfol, whom he believes to be dead through his fault, and then find the forest Nomes and tell them what happened to him. This leads to a discussion about Deep Jungle Nomes, who live in normal tree-houses, and about tree-warping. You can do the same with stone on a small scale, and we see Mulch and Grind tucked into a pocket in the wall behind Faldstool, just as Shona discussed with Frowgler. Because the Poke Kit won't work so well away from the Mansion's magic tricklepoint, Rosemary and Sylvester go to the Barrackstack to deposit the Can-Opener in a vault and collect other equipment. Meanwhile Mortimer goes to take antimony to the Spindizzies. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Ludwig's machines still work, and why this might be; and the fact that Ludwig left whole shelves' worth of notes which haven't been properly catalogued [an ideal job for the Ludwigites]. Ludwig was never intentionally unkind, but his thought processes weren't necesarily like those of most other people. Rosemary thinks that the Weirdo is ill or hungover but competant, and has had military training. Knowing that the Weirdo is conspiring with Yasmine in some way, Sylvester says they should lock their doors at night. Only the "cactus" part of the Mansion is Ettin-made: the other buildings were constructed by various Earls, although sometimes using Ettin salvage. The Barrackstack, which contains some Ettin elements but was mainly built by Angus and Audra, goes down as far below ground as above (about eight storeys each way). It was originally an impregnable fortress, but after the wars were over and "the Mugwumps all died.. or whatever.." Ernest and Philbert added stairs. There are sealed-off escape tunnels from the barracks which open into places which are now inside Eetown. A sign points to the Party Palace, built by Ernest, and describes the attractions on offer there. Rosemary is alarmed to see "Quincunx Den" on there: we will later learn that to her, the Quincunx is a paramilitry outfit Out West. Here it's a very complex card-game. We see a board laid out with cards in which there seem to be five suits: asterisks; circles; crosses (shaped like a Christian cross); little flowering plants (which I'm betting are called blooms); and anchors. They also discuss some kind of game which involves magically-powered equipment and is played by couples (together as a team) in an Underwear Arena: possibly that means the game is called Underwear. Whatever it is long-married couples are especially good at it (which suggests it might involve listing your partner's physical or sexual quirks), and people called Shrouders – the reverse of nudists – cannot play it. All the local villagers are informally Shrouders. Sylvester and Nimue won a silver medal at this game at University. Rosemary wants to play, with Sylvester as her partner, but the only team they could play against would be Nellie and Amos who would win because they've been married over fifty years, so Rosemary wants to get Yasmine back so they can play against her and Mortimer. Mortimer takes the antimony to his Spindizzy contact, Charles. Charles recognizes the umbrella as a "thaumalogical flow enhancer and regulator" and already knew Mortimer had wizard potential. The scene cuts to a female Spindizzy, Clementine, who is talking to Sina, Sprocket and a half-seen male Trog, probably either Mowder or Grak. Sina is quizzing Clementine about her claim to have met the Earl. Sylvester opens a weapons-vault to keep the Can-Opener in: like military exercises the vaults have random names. This one contains a wide range of good spears and swords over which Rosemary exclaims. We learn that there are official family weapons on display in the Gatestone, but they haven't been used in anger since Dorn II. They put the Can-Opener into a safe, then enter Rosemary into the Herediscan system. They discuss Griffington – his collection of obscene limericks, his management of the Factor E and his possession of three minions, Krell (who investigated old devices), Drowpole (who built new ones), and Strauhatt (who marketed what they made). Rosemary is now Sylvester's minion, after Nirvana, who was the first. They see a statue which purports to be of an Obsidian Sneech, but is more sinister than accurate, and collect all the gear Rosemary will need to maintain her sword. This area of the Mansion, which is actually of great military importance, is dotted with signs which suggest that only boring things happen there. As with the Barrackstack, much of the Ettin-built part of the Mansion is underground, even before you get to the Basement. Arthur and Fantod are sitting by the counting-down machine, now at 000315311089. Fantod, who seems to be an actual creature because his eyes move and widen expressively, still looks stunned after their encounter with Myrrh's demon form. Arthur says he assumes that "she knew all along" – perhaps a reference to Yasmine – and he plans to take Amos's advice (to go to the Temple and get Threnody to light a candle for Tulip). Sylvester and Rosemary reach a document-storage area under the library, and Sylvester gives Rosemary an instruction manual for the Poke Kit. She reads about secured sub-pockets and has a half memory of the Tree giving her a secret seed, but it slips her mind again. She experiments with taking the Glowgem in and out, and then looks around warily and makes a secret pocket, into which we will later learn she moved the HJ42. Sylvester meanwhile asks Amos for Obadiah Wuttgutt's Cyclopedia of Night Beasties but they don't have a copy – only Rosemary's memory of reading it. Amos asks Sylvester to tell Olaf in the village that he and Amos need to talk. Rosemary's Glowgem seems to be attracted to one of the supposedly deactivated surveillance devices (like the one in Sylvester's office suite) on the wall: the swirly pattern on it starts throbbing and Rosemary stares at it, but she is no longer vulnerable to being hypnotised. She finds the whole sub-pocket idea creepy, because there could be anything in there, and without the assistance of an official service engineer she wouldn't know it and might accidentally say a password which would cause something dangerous to erupt. They can't empty it by taking it into the Quiet Room, as that might damage it. Rosemary has written to Aunt Eva but she has described where she is, and Sylvester is concerned that her enemies might get it out of her aunt. Sylvester advises her to send another less specific letter via his lawyer, Mr Ferule. They discuss Tansy's army which is chasing Rosemary, and which is called the Quincunx (like the complex game: they don't know if there's a connection). If the Quincunx finds out where Rosemary is and comes as an army it would take them six months to get to E, but it's possible they could send an assassin, or hire a local one by wire; albeit that at present they don't know Rosemary's name. There's no possibility of Tansy giving up and neither will Rosemary: she thinks about Protus showing Sylvester "that poor Gnoll" (Rhid) and then her and Tansy fighting. There's a hint that the thing which Rosemary stole from the Quincunx was whatever she used to travel instantly to the east. The Quincunx are currently in the Nodnol/Lawnrock Peninsula, farther west around the Bay of Runes from Moonin. Being about to leave to walk to the village, they discuss a thing at the entrance called the Gatestone, believed to have been moved there by Ettric, the 2nd Earl. It's an artefact which might predate the Ettins. We see Mortimer waiting for them in an official Assembly Alcove, and being joined there by Arthur the Weirdo and his puppet Fantod, who congratulate him on becoming Regent. They ask about the umbrella, and Mortimer leads them to believe it's just an umbrella, to keep off the rain and sun. Mortimer still smells of sphagnum dust, and this leads to a discussion of Arthur's days at the Weirdo Academy. Arthur is heading to the Temple to have a candle lit for his friend Tulip. 04: Barriers and Gates [14/07/2014 – 27/11/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips #3922–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #3925–#4053] We see the Saurs Buzz and Ig meeting by the ruins of a museum in Eetown. Ig has a Glowgem which was in Niddle's pack: he doesn't know what it is, just that it's pretty. Buzz wants Ig to tell him about what has become of Snerk: Ig says Buzz wouldn't believe him but Buzz, who has been working with Frowgler, says Ig would be surprised what he believes these days. Mortimer and Arthur discuss whether Weirdos are allowed to marry. Opinions vary: Swithinites thing they shouldn't, and Bonavenites think it's OK. Of the family's previous Weirdos, Captain Tin-Throatwobbler was a Swithinite, but Sarah Bellum was a widow. They discuss a girl named Melba who lives in the village, and with whom Fantod implies tnat Arthur has a "thing": she's a friend of Mortimer's sister Lilith's, and quite eccentric, but Arthur says she is too frivolous to make an official Weirdo. Sylvester joins the others at the assembly point. Trailing behind him, Rosemary surreptitiously deposits several items from her Poke Kit – her Poke Kit instruction booklet, plus the lantern and bottle of blade-oil which Sylvester gave her in the Barrackstack – in a large urn. It is one of several artistic and archaeological artefacts which grace the hallway. The main door of the Mansion is set into the Gatestone, a huge boulder which "soaks up light, spreads it around". It may be natural as there are others elsewhere, but it was transported there. The main doors are kept closed, with a small door let into them. It leads to a walled outside area, still strewn with post-Crash rubble. From there, the main gates have been deliberately blocked with rubble to prevent mass invasion, again with a small door next to them. The party discuss the fortifications erected by previous earls, and the early earls themselves (the name of the first earl is not known), and why the village was renamed Eetown instead of Etown (Shibolith is under military rule because of the tensions with Thekla to the south, and there's a fortess/military base there called ETown). The fortifications are now a bit gappy – in fact they use a hole in the wall as a back door – and electronic repellers are used to keep out wild animals. These also protect the orchard and the main path to the village. These are the things Yasmine got past by spitting on them. Sylvester and Mortimer, Rosemary, Arthur and Fantod walk towards Eetown, discussing how the area came to be renamed Audravania instead of Northwoods, after Audra's death, and the vast lands which Audra had ruled before her fatal decision to poke the Hot Zone. Audra had made a voluntary marriage, albeit a political one, but prior to her many future Earls had been forcibly betrothed as children. Plenty of women at university wanted to marry Sylvester for his title, even though he was a poor scholarship boy. Sylvester could, even now, become a gold-digger and find a rich woman who would marry him for his title. Rosemary makes a point of saying she supposes he hates that sort of person: she's probably thinking that marrying for money may be how he will become what he hates. We learn that while at university Sylvester attended the coronation of the king and queen, Yancy and Fluer. Amos has visited the capital with Frederick, but Nellie has never been outside Audravania, except on her honeymoon, when they went to a town called Rowen which was fashionable before the Crash. This leads to a discussion of an island off Eetown, called Alwin, which belongs to the Earls but which they allow honeymooning couples from the village to use. Mortimer says that this arrangement is important to the villagers, which leads to him telling Sylvester what's going on there at the moment – including a break-in at Genrick's tailor shop, where stuff was taken overnight, but money was left for it, for more than the stolen clothes were worth. Possibly this was Frowgler, taking the hat he later gave to Fizmo: but the reference is to "some clothes", so if it was Frowgler what else did he take, and why? Rufus's friend Eunice is mentioned as one of a number of people who have recently moved into the area (and Mortimer doesn't seem to remember that she zapped him): the village is growing and there is a debate, known as the Inside-Out fight, as to whether or not to expand it beyond the boundary hedge. Peter Nigultrum (a half-Polarite) is engaged to Ida, and Mortimer mentions a couple called Hooper and Pandowny who both seem to be male, and says it would help if Sylvester could be there if and when they marry. Evidently there is a small amount of prejudice against same-sex couples. They meet and speak to the pig-farmer Terin Flem and his dog Byron, sitting on a rock outside the village, whittling. This is the same Mr Flem we saw with Eunice before, who comes from the same area (Moonin) as Rosemary and who used to be Guardian to the hardline Oracle named Omega, whom Sylvester didn't get on with. Flem asks Mortimer to ask young Dirge (the current Guardian) to come by, and Fantod mentions "rarebits" he has promised to Byron, or prhaps vice versa. They pass a sign indicating the town dump and Bechdel, which is Mr Flem's pig farm,and the surname of his son in law. He was married while a Guardian. Omega treated him as an afterthought: her original Guardian died in the Crash. Omega preached doom and hellfire and opposed education and change, which still has a lingering effect on the attitudes of the villagers. She was at least not a hypocrite, and was fiercely honest and dutiful and a proficient healer. Sylvester and Mortimer have an obscure private conversation about change: Mortimer wants to do more and different, things he should have done while Omega was alive but didn't, but Sylvester tells him to keep it quiet for the moment as they shouldn't spring too many changes on the villagers at once, and they are still anti-magic. They can't keep it secret forever, though, as Nellie is a gossip. We see an image of Mortimer's future self with the female Motihaul and the woman with clubbed hair. Meanwhile Rosemary talks to Arthur and Fantod. Arthur tries to quiz Rosemary about how she got there but she evades the question and instead asks him about what Weirdos do. They are jesters who "speak truth to power". Their original accents are trained out of them (Arthur is from Alfibay), which raises more questions about Yasmine. Arthur, Fantod and Rosemary discuss the new, safer denizens' tunnel from the Mansion to the Basement, and the disappearance of the Sneeches. Meanwhile the party arrives at the outskirts of the village and Sylvester shows Rosemary the irrigation ditches and other features. They come to the Temple, which was made from the remains of a much grander one ("about the fanciest one east of Rowen") which was destroyed in the Crash, and which lies just outside the hedge which surrounds the village, rather than at the centre of town as would be the norm. Omega had it built there so that, post Crash, people approaching could see a sign that this was an outpost of civilisation, and she trusted the Brush to keep it safe. The town's previous Temple had been destroyed (and the previous local Oracle, Riverbend, had been killed), and so had the town in Wirtwam where Omega was posted previously. She built this Temple out of stones from the old one, and it's actually rather nice. We learn that Sylvester and Mortimer's father had been partially responsible for, and died in, some kind of accident involving a circus and a stampeding elifinos in a nearby town called Noodle, known as the Noodle Incident and so famous that even people Out West know about it. Their father wasn't entirely or solely to blame, but he made a good scapegoat. The Eman family is unpopular in Noodle, not just because of the Incident but because Sylvester promotes the interests of the Eetown tooterfisheries and cuts into the profits of the Noodle Fish-Mongers Association. They meet a little girl called Juniper, who is the granddaughter of Amos and Nellie and tells them "everyone" is in the Temple. Her father Arlen is Hedgemaster and her mother keeps bees. She has a special friendship with Fantod. The group go through a sensory ritual – watch the flames, smell the blossoms, taste the water, touch the earth (in the form of a giant stone, originally at the Mansion's private Temple and personally blessed by Violet) and listen to the Brush. The last is done by sitting on a bench made of rare and precious materials (this one is made of a sort of pourable, durable Ettin-made plastic): Arthur and Mortimer are the only ones who feel the need to do so. It is mentioned that the tree will bloom in a month or so (we are reminded later that it's currently mid April). To mark Hallowe'en we see a raiding party of Nomes, including Umboz's brother Frotz who is desperate to get out of it, probably creeping towards the north Gnoll village. They are scared off by a pumpkin-headed spectre which is really Frowgler in costume (possibly borrowed from the female Motihaul Strode, although it doesn't have crescent-horn-holes), using some kind of glowing magic or technology to fly. Rosemary and Juniper discuss where various people come from, and Rosemary manages to give the girl a very strange idea of what a walrus looks like. They talk with Sylvester about Inuit-equivalents called Tunits, who live on the Iceshore north of Alfibay in the west of Yurpsland, and the secretive, hostile Haroons who live in forest between the Iceshore and Alfibay, and the harsh, uninhabited and uninhabitable northen shore called Skralland, to the north of Audravania, which might or might not have been named after someone called Skral who is even less well-documented than Frizzlegarb. Aside from army bases, Eetown and the Mansion are now the most northernmost Human habitations on the east shore. We learn that there used to be a secretive underground nation called the Great Underearth Empire of the Northern Pole, colloquially known as the Polarites, but their society was destroyed in the Crash. They used to have an exit tunnel in northern Audravania, for trade and called the Gate of Commerce, because Eetown was booming and they hoped to trade with the Far East Shore; as well as the famous Gate of Diplomacy in Paydon and the Gate of Remembrance on the Iceshore north of Alfibay. But the Gate of Commerce was destroyed by the Crash after only five years. In Paydon a "Salvagetown" grew up around the ruins of the Gate of Diplomacy, challenged by surviving Polarites who were away from home when the Crash hit. There are people in Eetown of half Haroon (Ilsa Lundquist) or half Polarite (Peter Nigultrum) ancestry, and they can't ever go home. Since Ilsa's mother left the tribes she would be treated as a stranger by the Haroons, despite her green hair; and Peter's father's Polarite home no longer exists. Meanwhile, Arthur and Mortimer sit on the bench and ask for divine assurance that they are doing the right thing, and both receive it, more or less. Fantod and Juniper talk about her hopes for a more interesting career than hedging, and how she'd like to see more of Nellie and Amos, and how sorry she is for Peter and Ilsa that they can't go home. We see an out-take for Thanksgiving, in which Myrrh and Frederick are about to start on a feast. I have left this in the time-line, as well as putting it with the Christmas cards etc., because it fits with the idea that they have gone on a second (or, strictly speaking, first) honeymoon, and it leads into subsequent episodes where they are at the Spires. Myrrh is using weird cutlery that fits onto rings on her forefinger and thumb, to eat Demon-specific foods. We learn later that they are not yet at the Spires here, but elsewhere. 05: Eetown – The Temple [28/11/2014 – 25/08/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #4060–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips start–#4323] The party from the Mansion enter the Temple, where Sylvester introduces Rosemary to the Oracle Threnody and various town worthies. Sylvester assures the townsfolk in the Temple that despite his family's recent history in such matters Rosemary is Human, and fully qualified to be Taskmistress, "highly qualified, physically and mentally". We see an image of Myrrh, and of a mad-looking Human woman wielding a rolling pin, who is evidently a recentish Mansion employee who turned out not to be emotionally qualified: perhaps this is Olga. He informs them that Frederick has retired as Regent and Mortimer will be taking over. Sheriff Patrick Skragg quizzes Rosemary as to whether she is a fugitive from the King's Law. She swears that she isn't, then sends the child Juniper off with the Weirdo and Fantod to show Fantod how she's been practising some skill he's been helping her with. Once they are out of earshot she tells the rest that she is also taking over Myrrh's duties as bodyguard and will be wearing a sword. Threnody is dubious about Rosemary's past use of violent force, but accepts that it may have been necessary. The Sheriff provisionally accepts Rosemary's offer of help with the town milita [sic]: there isn't one, as such, but he says he could use another trained deputy, aside from Dirge. But Waldo Weequash, head of the Eetown Guild of Fisherfolk and Octopus Wranglers, thinks Rosemary is a vagabond who will bring a criminal element into the town. Saffron Stout, innkeeper and impromptu mayor, points out that Rosemary will mainly be at the Mansion and agrees with the Sheriff that they should give her a chance, and asks Sylvester to call on her privately later. She asks after Frederick's health, and whether Sylvester knows anything about the Pit flare. He says that as far as he knows none of his household were involved, except insofar as his great-great-uncle helped build it: that must be Hindenburgh. Threnody – who is emergency backup Taskmistress – quizzes Rosemary about her Temple attendance, and Rosemary promises to make sure Sylvester goes to Temple more often. The last Temple Rosemary attended was in Jonetown East and Threnody thinks that Blackbird, the Oracle there, might some day be Prime Oracle. Outside the Temple, the townsfolk discuss Rosemary privately. The Sheriff is planning to check up on her in police records, just in case, but they agree she seems an improvement on Myrrh. They discuss the fact that non-Humans are allowed to join the religion and are treated equally (although Sylvester suggests that that's the official position but not always adhered to) and some Nomes and Motihauls have been ordained as Oracles, but other non-Humans (Pales are shown as an example) resisted conversion. Sylvester mentions that he has heard that the Nomes have a male priest, and Threnody is interested in meeting him. Mortimer and the Weirdo remain at the Temple to light memorial candles to speed the passage of the dead, the Weirdo for his friend Tulip, and Mortimer for Nitfol whom he wrongly believes to be dead. Threnody assumes that Arthur learned of his friend's death through the post, and Sylvester, who has worked out that Arthur probably learned about it from Yasmine, signals to Mortimer not to contradict her. While Mortimer and the Weirdo are praying, Rosemary and Sylvester look at the Temple's paintings of the various founding Oracles, and discuss their favourites. Rosemary follows Hettie, who carried a light in the darkness and made the dark and the unknown part of the Brush, and Sylvester likes Joice, who stood for inspiration. Mortimer passes on a message to Dirge, the current Guardian, that Finale, the previous Guardian (=Terin Flem), would like to speak to him: Dirge doesn't seem happy about it. Mortimer wants to ask about why Sylvester shushed him, but feels that the time is not yet because somebody might overhear. The group go and stand by a large boulder outside the town gates ("The Town Rock") where they won't be overheard, and discuss Yasmine and the Weirdos generally. Mortimer is able to pick them out because he can sense their mind shapes. They discuss the fact that Rosemary has not been taught any magical theory, because she was educated at the Hack & Slash Academy whose purpose was to produce effective H&S employees and they very rarely encounter magic-users these days. Also H&S is riddled with factions: they used to have a Wizwitch Brigade and Rosemary suspects it may still exist but is being kept a secret, even from other factions in H&S. We learn that the Weirdo Academy is very ancient. It's in a town called Marksburg, which is in Fredonia, and is where the E boys' mother came from. Nowadays Marksburg has a stodgy reputation, but it has a lively history. In the past there were several Weirdo schools and Weirdos went by several names, such as Tomfool. Milo was the first Earl of E to hire one. The Trio fall to discussing the various worthies they met at the Temple. Sylvester fills Rosemary in on the background to the various individuals, and village issues such as the need to bring in a full-time Healer, since at the moment the Oracle, Threnody, is both healer and teacher, and as the village population grows it's getting hard for her to cope. Better to bring in an outside Healer, as thanks to Omega's influence the village would never pay for a separate teacher. Sylvester's only friends in the village are Peter Nigultrum the solicitor, and a fisherman called Captain Tugwart: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting because they would be discussing Sylvester. Weesquash resents him because Sylvester has more power than him and has set policies which benefit him, thus obliging him to feel grateful. They discuss who is and isn't local. People who were born in the village are accepted as local even if their parents were foreign, as is the case with Peter. Anyone not born there is a foreigner. The exceptions are the Oracle and Guardian, and Old Man Larssen. If Rosemary stays fifty years they will still be annoyed if she marries a local (other than one of the E boys) and she'll still be "The Mooninite" because she wasn't born in Eetown. She says she'll earn a more distinctive label than that, thinking of herself as some sinister dark queen with a flaming sword. Guardians are often specifically trained for specific areas (we see images of Guardians with a zap trident, a Ghast ceremonial spoon and a bat on a leash). Rosemary can tell that Dirge is combat-trained and wonders why the High Temple thought Eeetown needed him. This leads to a discussion about how the Spyders and Tree-Squids got into the area; and about things called Raviners or Hill Crabs, which people in Moonin sometimes eat, and which may be able to be provoked into producing a useful ichor; and the fact that the E family used to grow and sell the killer trees. Mortimer would like to talk about the events of the previous day but they don't have time. As they approach the entrance to Eetown proper they discuss various Oracles Rosemary has met on her travels. In a brief out-take, we see Schmedley placing a black arm-band on the flipper of the statue of the world-turtle which we glimpsed before, to commemorate the death of Terry Pratchett. Sylvester and co. discuss the defences of Eetown, with drawbridges put in after the Crash. These were scrounged from houses in Crestheights, a posh district near the Masion, destroyed in the Crash. The defences are not very good, and post-Crash the town had some trouble with raiders until Myrrh got back. She, Frederick and Quincy had been holidaying in Aruba (an island without magic) when the Crash hit. It was on their way back that Quincy met Agnes, his future wife. Meanwhile the town made a defensive wall out of crashed cars, and then grew a hedge over and through them. We see an ancient wand-tree called an Oakapple (nothing to do with real oak apples) which grows just inside the hedge. Post-Crash, the rallying point for local survivors was a pub called the Moose and Squirrel. Because it was a cheap outfit which didn't use much magic it survived the Crash relatively intact. The innkeeper, Simon, had acquired the place by dubious means, but he became impromptu mayor and did a good job of coordinating disaster relief. Sylvester and co. head for the local administrative offices, but as they pass by the fountain in the (unpaved) main square they become aware that they have an audience. Sylvester lectures Rosemary about the layout of the town, where the bathhouse is etc., trying to sound confident and impress the watchers. The town has a watch tower, but these days it's mainly used as a love-nest. They speak to the townsfolk who have been watching them, and Rosemary (under the false surname Dapple) is introduced to everybody. Most striking, perhaps, is a young mother called Silence Krenshaw whom Sylvester knows very well, and had considered hiring as Taskmistress. We will learn that she and Sylvester were childhood playmates. They discuss Rosemary's duties, and that Sylvester wants Rosemary to serve as a Mature and Responsible Adult, a formal title which seems to mean that she will somehow help him to find a wife. He does not fancy Rosemary herself. Silence says that there is somebody out there for Sylvester. Mortimer meanwhile talks to an adoring fanclub of young girls. They ask him about his umbrella and he says you never know when a storm might blow up. One of them, possibly named Hanna, is evidently psychic and she realises both that he is speaking metaphorically, and that a metaphorical storm is indeed coming. Sylvester and co. head for Government House, followed by a gaggle of children. They discuss the pudding plant, a local cash crop which only grows well in Audravania. Rosemary has never eaten a fresh one. Rosemary wonders why so small a town has a bank. Sylvester explains that it gives them independence from the Noodle Fish-Monger's Association, and lists the conditions required in order for them to have an official bank, and its personnel (the village blacksmith Sheldon doubles as a nominal guard, but it does have a real assistant clerk, Permelia). It is illegal for an agent of the King's Law, such as the Sheriff, officially to work for a bank. The town government is full of bickering and back-biting. The bank manager is Peter Nigultrum, who also helps the sub-literate to write letters because it's a rustic area and some people can barely read and write. Rosemary says you haven't seen rustic till you've seen the deep back-woods of Moonin: we see a man wearing antlers, a woman wearing wings, a child with a staff, and a standing stone with a skull on top. As they approach the bank they meet Peter's fiancée Ida. Ida and Rosemary discuss Rosemary's home district of Moonin and the presence there of the Beacons, three shimmering offshore monoliths believed to date back to the Dawn Wars. Ida seems unaware that the Mansion is equally interesting and almost equally historic. The first Prime Oracle, Daisy, came from Moonin, but Rosemary feels that Daisy was ashamed of her humble origins. The most important local Oracle is Jackstraw in Glome. They meet Peter, the half-Polarite bank manager, who works out that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress from her clothes. They tell him that Frederick and Myrrh have retired, and that Mortimer is a wizard. The only bit that surprises Peter is that Myrrh is able to retire. We glimpse Myrrh at some sort of hotel, apparently amusing herself by wrestling robots, and Ida gossiping about having just met them. Peter predicts that Mortimer's newfound wizard status will lead to trouble. We see Dirge, the current Guardian, and Terin Flem, the previous one, discussing the changes in personnel at the Mansion, and saying that Dirge has a decision to make: apparently, whether or not to report Mortimer to the authorities. Thirty years post-Crash, when Flem first saw signs that Mortimer was a wizard, magic was regarded as evil. He should really have told Omega that Mortimer was a wizard, but then somebody would have come and taken the boy away, and Flem liked Mortimer, so he kept quiet. An officious government clerk named Appleby also failed to report Mortimer – Flem thinks he just never noticed what was going on because he was stuck behind his desk. Dirge will tell Threnody about Mortimer, but won't call someone to collect him unless Mortimer wants him to. Flem tells Dirge about Eunice being out in the woods again. After Dirge has left, Flem tells his dog Byron that he hated Omega. Peter tells Mortimer there may still be a magic school which Threnody could help him find if Amos turns out not to be a good teacher. They discuss Polarite technology and social structures: Peter's father was in security, relatively low-status but with access to information. Peter had thought of contacting the surviving Polarites in the capital, but Sylvester says they would scorn him for having facial hair. The Polarites were divided into three regions, Bism, Mahar and Symm. The Vril Undercroft, a sub-group of the Symmites and the group to which Peter's father belonged, were allowed to open a Commerce Gate in northern Audravania, where they to some extent went native and became more open and sociable than most Polarites. That was why Peter's father was able to be wandering around on the surface without any magical machinery when the Crash hit, and so survived. The Polarites seem all to have worn one to six (the more, the higher the rank) wiggly wires with glowing balls on the tip, set into the back of their hair: these are reminiscent of the antennae we will later see Spire folk wearing. Surviving Polarites in exile often have short versions of the wiggly wires, but without the glowing tips. Sylvester and Rosemary give Peter a highly edited version of Rosemary's life story (and she has a flashback of hiding from Tansy). Peter knows the Mansion and its dangers well – he even has his own Spindizzy, Alfred. [An out-take at this point celebrates the legalization of gay mariage in the US by showing Baldy with a slightly younger – and much hairier – boyfriend, looking at rainbow Vagabond flutterbys.] Peter tells Sylvester they have some paperwork to go over [Ipcress files!], so Sylvester asks Mortimer to take Rosemary away and introduce her to Shadrik, an ox-like Metalmin. Sylvester and Peter then discuss Peter's upcoming marriage to Ida. Peter says Sylvester will never marry a local girl because they aren't academically stimulating enough – not even Ida or Silence – whereas he himself was looking for somebody who was restful to be with. Sylvester will be his best man. Sylvester trusts Peter so much that he tells him at least the gist of Rosemary's true story, including that Dapple isn't her real surname (although not what is). Peter will look out for people looking out for Rosemary, and send the signal Rose, Pine, Apple through "the usual channel" if he can safely do so. Sylvester doesn't want to marry Rosemary because she's not intellectual or educated, but she's a perfect Taskmistress – so perfect he suspects somebody is interfering in his life, and sent her to him. [Out-take: to celebrate the strip's twelfth anniversary: we briefly see the pirate hamster and his crew approaching an island which has a sapient tree. The tree thinks that it has been twelve years: in-universe, probably since it last saw the plant, since the plant swears to itself when it sees where they are.] We see that Eunice works in the pub, apparently as a cook (and Frowgler is lurking behind some sacks on a shelf, watching her). Rosemary and Mortimer are given free sausages by the town's Sausage Stroller. Mortimer is feeling very guilty about having accidentally magically hypnotised Rosemary the day before, so she punishes and absolves him by giving him a light bonk on the head, but says that being hypnotised by him was mostly quite enjoyable. They talk about the fact that he has only left the area a few times (and was in Noodle when his father died there), and comes across as rather sheltered, but now responsibility has been thrust on him and he will meet it. Rosemary talks about the relatively safe life she left to become a bodyguard, and the fact that her home village had an ancient ruined tower built by Gobblems, and which she used to climb. She later travelled to most of the places she could see from up there, but many of the towns were a bit same-y because they were rebuilt at the same time, after Unification. Talking about education and the E-family tutor causes Mortimer to realise there's something about Rufus and Eunice which he is forgetting. They look at Shadrik, which/who is a haulage Metalmin who is fairly bright but doesn't speak, and lives in a former stable. Sadrik living in a shed leads to a mention of Dorian Ingersoll the hermit who used to live in a hut. Dorian's history is confusing: we've been told he's lived in the Spike for forty-two years, but here we're told he lived in the forest when Mortimer was a child, and we've seen the ruins of his hut when Yasmine came across them. He obviously shared his time and wasn't in the Spike full-time. Shadrik's battery is flat but Rufus is working on recharging it: even when he's working only the Earl, the Mayor and the Sheriff can give him orders. Rosemary works out that Sylvester just wanted her and Mortimer out of the way so he could speak to Peter privately. To kill time she suggests they climb the local watchtower, so she can survey the terrain. To get to it they go through a warehouse used to store apples, which has been altered and added to till it's almost as complex as the Mansion (one of the doors is lanelled "STILL ALIVE KEEP IN"). They are passed by some sort of functionary (beginning with a B) who wears false Nome ears and costume wings. It's possible the B stands for Batgirl, especially as she lives in the Belfry "like usual". Mortimer is wafted a note, possibly left by the Batgirl, to say that the writer has their eye on Eunice and Rufus, who are up to something. 06: Eetown – The State [26/08/2015 – 20/11/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4330–#4421] From the tower Rosemary and Mortimer look down on the village square, which includes a fuzzball court. Mortimer points out various districts of the town, and they see Old Man Larssen's place outside the town hedge, although he has a hedge of his own. Rosemary is pleased to be able to see the Specific Ocean, which was on her To-Do List. They discuss a range of wonders Rosemary hopes to see (including The Running of the Clams in Woldercan, which may be a clams-got-legs B.C. reference), many of which have already been visited by Mortimer's mother and sister, although they were unable to get into a place called Sybola where there is some kind of secret Rosemary wishes to solve. They visited the Spires of Mechana and Sylvester's sister Lil said they were "really creepy". Rosemary thinks the main thing on Mortimer's To-Do List right now should be to learn how to use the wand-umbrella. A Labour Day out-take shows various kinds of labour in Eetown, including the Batgirl who is writing or drawing at an easel, and Violet wrestling with a piglet. Rosemary and Mortimer meet Sylvester outside the bank and he refers to the Batgirl as "our Flittermouse". Sylvester takes them to meet Sherman P Gray, the new(ish) government Clerk of Eetown. The previous clerk, Hubert Appleby (who didn't get on with Omega) died at his desk eight years previously. Sherman has a telegraph machine (loathed by Omega) run off batteries re-charged by a hand-turned charger, and many duties, one of which is to register new arrivals like Rosemary. He is also postman and tax-collector, and has a form for Mortimer to register as the new Regent of E. [In a brief out-take, we see the pirates (hamster and co.), having landed at Piratestash Island, recruit a resident gull to the crew. The stunted but sapient tree on the island implies that the Plant is being punished by being required to stay with the crew.] We learn about the unofficial but influential Tome of Royal Succession, a kind of Debrett's Peerage. The Keepers of the Tome will want to know about changes to Sylvester's "official retinue": not only about Mortimer becoming Regent, but about Rosemary becoming Taskmistress. We are reminded of the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setup by the fact that Rosemary is impressed that the Post Office pigeon-holes have doors, garnered from post-Crash architectural salvage. While Sylvester is checking his postal Inbox it is confirmed that it is now 14th April 5423HC ("Historical Counting"). Sherman sees from her form that Rosemary comes from an island called Dyngusmyles, which has a reputation for having wild, backwoods people, and has strange weather and biology because it's close to the Beacons, which before the Crash attracted research parties from the university in Azimuth. We see that the lights from the Beacons are a bit similar to Eyebolt Weirding. Sherman himself comes from a frost-mining area in Thull. They compare weather: Sherman was surprised to find that though Eetown is farther north than the frost mines of Crag Sinsoss that he came from, it has a milder local climate. Sylvester warns Sherman that Rosemary is a fighter and will be wearing a sword as part of her duties. Sherman OKs this but says that while they are in his government office weapons must be deposited in a special receptacle, and Mortimer promptly puts his umbrella in it. Sherman fills Sylvester in on various items of news, including the fact that a ship from a far-off region named Coradine has visited the port of Woldercan in the west of Yurpsland. Coradine is part of the same continent as the Mansion but it's a group of islands as far west as it gets, beautiful but quite reclusive and ritualistic, and many of its inhabitants are Motihauls. To get to Woldercan the Coradine ship would have had to sail round the edge of a region called Kadath, which is inhabited by Wendigoes, and past an island called Honaly (as in Puff the Magic Dragon) where there are [Human?] Viking-type sea-raiders whom we see sailing a ship whose sail bears the image of the hamster pirate captain, then right across the north coasts of Thembria, Upper Slubovia, Ruratana and Tiranog. It's possible they came for Yurple Juice, a wildly popular and expensive drink with magical properties. After posting Rosemary's letter to Aunt Eva (in the guise of an official letter from Sylvester) the party take leave of Sherman, promising to return later to set up a post-box for Rosemary and collect the newspaper. Mortimer and Sylvester share a post box but Frederick and the staff each have their own: we see Frederick receiving a skull-faced box with a bow on top, Amos receiving book-binding supplies and Schemdley apparently receiving a love letter. There is a mention of the previous day's magical Pit-flare being a reoccurring event, and of the recent finding of a dead Ichyoid washed into the harbour. As they come away they talk about the fact that Sherman's girlfriend in nearby Obtown married someone else. Sylvester says that Myrrh is listed in the Official Threats Compendium, but since she hasn't killed anybody it's not worth anyone's while to go to the trouble of trying to banish her. Behind them, in his office, Sherman looks up Mortimer's umbrella in the Official Threats Compendium, and finds it. We learn that there's a series of Government departments with harmless-sounding names – Redundancy, Secondary Overlap, Tertiary Retainment – which process information and look for interesting connections. They discuss rural pubs. Rosemary is an expert on awful pubs: we see one whose sign is a hand choking a Jibjib; one whose sign appears to be a jellyfish on toast, with a female Motihaul collapsed drunk outside with flies buzzing round her and a rat on her knee; and one where recalcitrant customers were thrown into a pit of wild Saurs. Rory Vinsmith, the innkeeper in Moonin with the Saur pit, was executed for murder and the pub was re-named The Saur Pit in his honour. In the west he is famous, but now they are so far from her home that nobody's heard of him, which makes Rosemary realise how big Yurpsland is. Big news does travel, however: Rosemary had heard about the Noodle Incident, and Sylvester had heard about the Drumshambo Massacre. Saffron, the local innkeeper at The Moose and Squirrel, may have heard of Vinsmith, and Sylvester quietly warns Rosemary that Saffron may also have heard of her Aunt Eva, the gambler. There is a pale grey cat wandering along a window ledge at the ront of The Moose and Squirrel. They enter the pub and meet Sharona, Saffron's niece, who is Mortimer's semi-girlfriend with whom he had a date on the coming Friday (it's currently Monday), and the daughter of Sheldon the blacksmith. She is overcome by the smell of sphagnum dust coming off Mortimer. They meet Mavis, one of the barmaids, and then Saffron. Eunice Kelso is also one of her barmaids, along with Mavis Mossett and Flossy Efflore, and there's a cook called Gormind Trencherman and a bouncer and stablehand called [Chauncy?] Hobson. Mention is made of people in Moonin distilling a spirit from muckroots: the distillery seems to be called Fancy Rat Spirits, with a logo of a rat in a monocle and a straw boater. Characters called : Wendell and Ricky, who we will learn are the town's odd-jobbers, are also mentioned: Wendell is prone to sudden wild enthusiasms . Sharona is repelled by the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer, and dumps him for being too unreliable and accident-prone (he feels guilty, because she had slipped his mind until he saw her). Saffron takes a bottle of Pudding Liquor, just uncorked that day, from a shelf: something grey, probably Frowgler's nose, is glimpsed poking out from behind an adjacent bottle. They drink from it, and Sylvester immediately passes out, while Rosemary begins seeing imaginary glowing flutterbies. Mortimer seems unaffected. 07: Revelations [30/11/2015 – 27/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4428–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips start–#4602] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. We begin, therefore, with the eyes of various small creatures, including Smyts, being dazzled and impressed by the glowing tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Rosemary and Sylvester wake, very groggy, to find themselves lying on a jetty on Alwin Island, the honeymoon destination, accompanied by the grey cat who had been outside the pub. The island will prove to be littered with large stone sculptures, mostly of non-Human animals. They agree that they must have been drugged (there is mention of glitterberries, which seem to be this world's equivalent of magic mushrooms, although that's probably not what was used), not just drunk, and discuss possible culprits. Presumably it's somebody who wants to embarass Sylvester, not kill him. Neither of them really thinks it was Saffron, and this is confirmed by a brief view of Mavis the barmaid discovering Saffron herself collapsed behind the bar and asking for a shot of clingweed tonic (the same plant Telic asked Comshaw to bring him). Permelia Weesquash might, but she doesn't frequent the pub or know anyone who works with herbs except Threnody (we see Threnody with tongs, about to pluck a glowing berry from the "tongue" of one of the small carnivorous plants). Sylvester's main suspect is Old Man Larssen, the town vet, who is very educated but also obsessive and secretive, a bit like Crazy Rhid – even so Sylvester doesn't really think he did it. He half suspects Eunice, who comes from Noodle, passes as a non-entity and could be an agent of his enemies the Noodle Fishmongers' Association. But we glimpse Eunice thinking that she has no idea what just happened in the bar but she'd better report it anyway. No other visitors are expected – nobody comes there except newlyweds, or about-to-be-weds preparing the venue. There is however a rowing boat concealed on the island. They manage to stagger to their feet in order to go find the boat, but Rosemary thinks they are still both too stoned to steer and suggests that since they were planning to have a private talk anyway, now is a good time and place. Sylvester shows Rosemary some of the sights of the island, since as Taskmistress she will be expected to oversee the team of respectable village matrons who prepare the honeymoon cabin for weddings. They return to the dock (and the cat) to sit and talk, on the far side of the island from the village. Further out they can see Scraggy Island, which holds a lighthouse and the town graveyard. The lighthouse keeper is Dougal Izzard. His wife Selene Perkins left but their daughter Shelby stayed, married Grumby the carpenter and had a son Edson who is apprentice lighthouse-keeper. The hobby of Cloudmapping is mentioned. Sylvester sits on a bench on the pier but Rosemary declines to sit next to him. Instead, the cat does, but he shoves her off when she tries to sit on his knee. Here there is an outtake scene showing Frederick and Myrrh playing chess with two men called Jebidiah and Jones, who are wearing formal dinner suits. These are based on Angus Scrimm and David Bowie, who died that week, and a poster of Grabthar's Hammer on the wall commemorates Alan Rickman, also lost. In the background, visible over the top of a stone wall, we can see the Spires of Mechana, which are more of an upright sausage shape than pointy. Sylvester talks Rosemary through the history of the area, beginning with creation by the Brush (it is mentioned that there is also life on Perelandra and Barsoom) and the first civilization, the Wilfs and Gobbblems (Dreamers and Builders), who erected wonderful buildings and even had colonies on the moon before destroying each other in the Dawn War. Sylvester has glimpsed what seemed to be a Wilf and a Gobblem through a Panegate, so it may be that there are survivors in other realities, but that Panegate is in a part of the Mansion which is only periodically accessible, and won't be again for fifteen years. Then came the Ettins and Sneeches, who may have already existed but been suppressed, and who now built up another high-tech civilization and then again destroyed it in war, after which Humans and Nomes moved in, spreading from jungles in the south. Before that destruction, the Ettins built the main towers of the Mansions of E and S. The Tower of S was so-called because of an S-shaped mark on the walls, so the Scions of S made that their symbol, but the Mansion of E is a corruption of the Tower of Ett(in)s – their names were later changed from Tower to Mansion for some beaurocratic reason. Their symbol was originally a serif E with a tall tail on the bottom bar, crossed by two short horizontal lines to make an ETT monogram, but over time the crossbars got lost. The Ettins also built the Spire and "one or two other things" – we see a tangle of spikes, which might be branches, each tipped with a glowing light. The Ettin/Sneech war largely passed Audravania by, leaving it with these fairly intact Ettin buildings. According to the Spindizzies the Ettin name of the Mansion is PRFO4223. We learn that nomadic Humans who didn't even have agriculture reached the Towers late in the Human diaspora, at a time when the country of Ackbar, in the south-west of the continent, already had quite an advanced Human civilization along the banks of the Refutation (De Nial). The name of the first Earl isn't known but he led his tribe into the valley and died while storming the Tower: the exact wording of the legend is "the Earl stormed the heights, and the heights broke with thunder, and none ever came back down". Legend also says he fought and defeated living Ettins but this is unlikely given their advanced technology. A lone Ettin skull was later found in the Tower. The first Earl's descendants avoided the interior of the Tower for generations afterwards but they set up camp and built new buildings around its foot. The area was rich in resources and they had to fight off generations of would-be invaders. Sylvester gives Rosemary a detailed run-down of the various Earls, which you can find summarised on the background page. The most salient points are that agriculture began to be established at the time of Ettrath, the 5th Earl, and so did neighbouring fiefdoms: the Scions of S to the north, Myways to the west and Obtund to the south. S was eventually destroyed by Angus, the 16th Earl. Myways and, for a couple of generations, Obtund were defeated and made vassals of E: Myways was destroyed in the Crash and there's nothing there now but a coaching inn, but the Obtunds are still around, with their own Duke, and are friendly neighbours. Many of the early Earls of E were villains and slave-traders who came to power by murdering their predecessors, until they got to the brilliant philosopher and strategist Milo, the 9th Earl, who severed the family's links to the slave trade, converted to the new religion of the Brush, moved into the Ettin-built Tower and made contact with the Spindizzies. What they know about the earlier history of the family is just what was written by Milo – quite possibly the first Earl to be able to write – and may not be 100% accurate. Milo's mother, Persafone, was a slave who had been an educated aristocrat before being enslaved, and came from an advanced culture between what are now Paydon and Thull, but at the time were called Pay Downs and Hoar Hull. She deliberately trained Milo up to be a successful warrior who would murder Milo's father, Frake, at her urging, knowing Milo would help her to survive her intended coup against Frake. Milo had ambivalent feelings about her: as Earl he kept her in elegant comfort but well away from any decision-making. He was seen as weak because he was educated, so as soon as he became Earl the Mansion was attacked by Myways and Obtund, but he soundly defeated them and made them pay tribute. Milo was established and confident enough to travel, and met his future wife Nettana in the Forest of Burzee. She was an aristocrat from the Iridescent Kingdom of Southern Kroke in what is now Isdanlia, but at the time was an advanced but fragmented region. She was intelligent, stylish, determined and he was intelligent, brave, forthright, tall, athletic and had nice hair His heart was more in intellectual learning than bloodshed and after his wife died he abdicated in favour of his son, and sailed away to explore new lands. Milo's son Dorn I was scientifically-minded and bred the Dornbeasts for use as living siege engines. They were named in his honour after he was kiled by one, but he called them Siegebeasts and they were bred up from swamp-dwelling Chompbeasts, non-sapient distant relatives of the Ettins. Selling Siegebeasts marked the beginning of the rise of E as an economic power. After he was killed by one his wife Aimee became Regent for their son Dorn II, who unfortunately was a shallow sports jock obsessed with Starball and hunting, although he did continue to breed and sell Dornbeasts. Dorn II was mostly gay and apart from getting an heir with his wife Olivia Obtund his sexual partnership (of a sort, since Dorn wasn't very highly sexed) was with a guy named Heffston, who was a much better strategist and ruler than Dorn. Heffston was from a humble background but worked to educate himself, and laid the foundation for the E-family library. It was another century before an Oracle named Brittlebush legalised gay marriage. In an aside, we see Arthur and Fantod talking to village children. They seem to believe Rosemary and Sylvester are still in the inn with Saffron. Village gossip evidently has Sylvester and Saffron getting married. Dorn II was killed, possibly by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, an ambitious local girl who had a loving but quarrelsome relationship with Dorn's son Lemuel, the Panegate expert. Lemuel eventually abdicated in favour of his daughter Wilhelmina, who was aided and defended by her step-grandfather Heffston. By so doing, Heffston both atoned for not having paid enough attention to Lemuel as a boy, and got revenge on Charlotte for her suspected role in the death of Dorn II, by turning her daughter against her. Charlotte was banished to a set of apartments inside a cave on Mount Ett, and Lemuel drove his carriage up there every evening to spend the night with her. Wilhelmina just called herself W for most purposes and was considered ceremonailly male, to the point of wearing a false beard. Her reign was peaceful and prosperous: she was no more interested in being Earl than her father had been, but she was more skilled at picking good subordinates to whom she could delegate. She had some magic, strong but restricted to manipulating stone, and was a prolific sculptor who made a lot of money by travelling to other stately homes to perform tricky bits of stonework. She visited the Sculpted Isles and there met her husband Alwin, then returned with him and deposed her parents, despite the fact that her mother Charlotte had sort-of promised her in marriage to Shaw IV, Scion of S: this, along with economic rivalry. led to the falling-out between E and S, and the destruction of S about a century later. Alwin's health had been damaged by Wyvern Pox as a child and he was "a lazy gadabout pretty-boy" but W loved him, and he was a good father to their twins. After Alwin's death, twenty years after their marriage, W unofficially abandoned ruling in favour of obsessively covering Alwin Island with sculptures. One of her younger sisters became a very famous and scary witch called Arianya of the Brackens, who moved West and is now the best-known of the E family. W committed suicide by allowing a large block of stone to fall on her, and was succeeded by her son Linus, the combat botanist. Linus went on an expedition to the jungle and married a Zanduan woman named Padma who had a vicious sense of humour and was his intellectual and magical equal, and with whom he had five daughters and two sons. He was the first Earl to wear glasses, and got up a consortium of local nobles to bring thaumnodes to the area. He and Padma explored the Basement (at a time when most of the species down there were still shut into enclosed habitats) and put in lights. We see him and his team looking at a little gadget with two arms and three glowing red lights, apparently in an Ettin airbox. [We have seen this object before as an example of what an airbox is, when Rosemary and Sylvester were discussing the Can-Opener.] He built a conservatory for his plants, and to give Padma a jungle to shelter in during the winter. Linus it was who bred The Tree which made Basement society possible outside their controlled habitats. Meanwhile his sister Marcia married a noble in Svan and became a cartoonist. 08: Naming Names [30/05/2016 – 23/12/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4609–#4812] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. The chapter therefore opens with a group of above-ground Smyts celebrating their version of Memorial Day. Sylvester continues to talk about his ancestors, and how after Padma died, Linus took the Seed of the Tree deep into the Basement and never came home, so in a sense he committed suicide like his mother. [We know that Rosemary also carries a Seed of the Tree, which she brought up from the depths, but had forgotten.] He talks about Griffington, the 15th Earl, who was very intelligent but had his mother's nasty sense of humour and was only interested in making money, at which he was very successful. Griffington went on an expedition to the Infernal Engine, which was smaller in those days (so it's still growing), and to Mechana to look at their technology. He and other techs of the period managed to make their own basic robots and restore some of the much better Ettin ones – one of the latter, Akillhees, works in mathematics at the university – and he also invented battle tanks, a few of which still work. Along with someone called Drowpole he set up the Factor E factory, and he and Struahatt sold their devices commercially and made a lot of money. We see him and his assistant Krell probing the same device in the airbox that we saw Linus looking at. He had a lot of commercial enemies and rivals, including the Scion of S. He and Krell died in an industrial accident (or maybe not an accident). He had to wear smoked lenses to protect his eyes: a problem inherited by Lenore. Griffington was succeeded by his son Angus and Angus's loyal and more cunning brother Cyrus. Angus went on a tour, like his ancestor Milo, but he took an army with him and conquered S and other neighbouring states although some of them, such as Rowen, gave as good as they got. When Angus and Cyrus were young, Cyrus married Cassandra Grayflint and they had a son Artston. Griffington sent Angus to visit the Infernal Engine to broaden his mind, and as a result he fell for a very wild, rough but highly-sexed female labourer named Syn (rhymes with tie-in) who had spent her life up to that point inside the Engine. She needed thick glasses and a bath, and had to be taught to wear clothes, but she had a talent for technology and a happily iconcoclastic attitude to everything, including herself, and the religion of the Brush to which she did not belong. She somewhat resembled Myrrh, refused to marry Angus but became his consort, and died in childbirth giving birth to Audra. Audra grew up at loggerheads with her uncle Cyrus, who had distrusted her mother. In later life Angus's conquests ground to a halt and he died peacefully in bed – and Cyrus promptly tried to seize the earldom for himself and his son. Audra thrashed Cyrus in combat and convinced him to become her loyal follower. Together they conquered Rowen and then consolidated their holdings and formed the Northwoods Alliance. Audra contracted a loveless political marriage with the intellectually brilliant John Harfang, with whom she had a son, Ludwig. The Northwoods Alliance stood against the advancing army of Yorik Yurp, later Yorick I, and lost, despite the best efforts of John Harfang who, under the alias "The Frost Fox", served as a secret agent and was killed while on a mission (and later became the subject of a series of lurid spy thrillers). Audra protected Ludwig by hiding him away as a child and then sending him to the university under an assumed name, while getting Flitch, one of Cyrus's grandchildren (so Ludwig's second cousin), to pretend to be Ludwig in order to draw Yorik's fire. The Northwoods Alliance eventually lost the war, in part because high-tech Wirtwam decided that Yorik was the lesser of two evils and Hyacinth of Wirtwam married him. But the war was long and bloody and forced the pace of technological development. Audra and Cyrus were probably looking for a technological edge when they poked the Hot Zone and were killed, or failing that for a more honourable death than execution, but their deaths really finished the Alliance. Yorik crushed their last resistance by destroying the town of Glome (and incidentally probably killing the fake Ludwig), then re-built it, and any local nobles who were willing to swear allegiance were grafted into the new Yurpsland hierarchy. The real Ludwig was one of them – the Yurpsland troops didn't know who he was, and in any case had known Audra as the head of the Northwoods Alliance, not as the Earl of E. The Alliance used a different symbol, not the E: a W with an arrow on the central point, designed by Linus's sister Marcia for Linus's thaumnode-purchasing cartel. Ludwig's politically astute partner Penelope Orrery from Gilad (a Temple-administered neutral state) coached him on how to pass as a harmless minor aristo. Sylvester isn't sure whether Yorik was really fooled over Ludwig, or knew who he was but decided to spare him. Ludwig was a super-genius who enjoyed university and made many friends there; he was very popular with the girls and could have had his pick of the local beauties, but preferred the slightly plain Penelope for her brains. Ludwig didn't graduate because he went home to help his mother with the war effort; Penelope worked out his real identity somehow, and followed him (and reached E before he did). It was because Ludwig never graduated that the fund set up to pay for his tuition was never wound up, and remained available to pay future heirs' university fees. Ludwig tried to stop his mother from poking the Hot Zone but she did it anyway, and died, and he and Penelope were left holding the reins. They actually did very well, since Ludwig was able to sell his inventions – materially assisted by Yorik's conquest of the whole area, which had resulted in a unified trading and patent system. He and Penelope built the Ivory Tower, and lived there. It is mentioned that vamphyrs don't really exist but zombies do (but only when animated by a wizwitch, and only briefly as they tend to explode), that many of Ludwig's devices were one-off prototypes and that Yorik I wrote his own memoirs. These memoirs are little known because his son wasn't that interested in promoting them, and besides they weren't very well-written. But they deal extensively with Audra, whom Yorik rather admired – it was he who re-named the province where E is situated Audravania. He decided against trying to conquer Thekla, which had a similar technology and power level to his own forces, or the Polarites, who were enormously more powerful and advancsd. [Out-take for Talk Like a Pirate Day – Captain Hamster, the crew of the Pretty Lady and the newly-recruited gull are all getting drunk on grog. The Plant, very drunk indeed, has decided it loves them all.] Ludwig died of pneumonia after getting soaked while walking in the rain. His son Ernest, hedonist, (consensual) philanderer and forger, took over. His parents were disappointed because he wasn't interested in science, or all that bright, but he was very interested in plays and a reasonably good actor himself, when he could be bothered. He married Lucidia Penderghast, gold-digger, fashion victim and amateur actress, and they nearly deserved each other. He was the first Earl to marry by the new ritual involving the Pool at the Temple. At university Ernest discovered that he was good at maths, history and a proficient if uninspired kind of art. He did a certain amount of commercial graphics work and a lot of art forgery, although the latter was really just a hobby. He was a fairly successful playwright, although not great at dialogue – his best play was probably Bracken, about his five-greats-aunt Arianya – and was very good at improving other people's scripts. He and Lucidia fought a lot but seemed to enjoy it, and they had three sons, Philbert, Hindenburgh the wizard, and Valentin, who was the one to whom the Djinnoscope gave a clean death. Ernest was fatally stabbed by, or over, one of his lovers. Philbert married the artist Hepzibah Kelly and founded a chain of "Lovelace" orphanages, using Kelly's mother's maiden name. He helped preserve the Forest of Burzee as a public park instead of letting it be carved up into private estates. He supported many smaller charities and was a faithful husband. But Sylvester believes he did these things to rebuild the family's post-Ernest reputation, not because he really cared. The couple had sons, Quincy and Frederick, and presumably at least one more as Frederick refers to "my brothers". [Later we learn there was a younger brother called Jasper.] Philbert was killed in a motor-racing accident a month before the Crash (this is an error by Sylvester, because we've already establisahed that his accident was three months before the Crash, and it isn't that Philbert hung on in hospital for two months before he died, because Sylvester says he was killed instantly) and was succeeded by his son Quincy. Quincy was not very bright, but he was genuinely caring and scraped through university by hard work. His Hall of Achievement entry just says that he tied his own shoes, but this turns out to be fairly serious: he kept walking, kept trying, and held the Mansion area together after the Crash. He survived the Crash because he, his brother Frederick and Myrrh were in Aruba, which uses no magic. Afterwards they had to walk hundreds of miles home – hence the importance of the shoes. On their way they picked up another survivor, Agnes Bloggett, who married Quincy. Hepzibah, who had stayed home because of health problems, died in the Crash. Quincy eventually died after falling from one of the Mansion's towers. Quincy's son Willoughby attended university where he met his future wife, Dorothea Mundivagant. Both were very vague but possibly magically gifted. Sylvester thinks that it was wrong of Frederick not to tell Mortimer that he, Mortimer, was a wizard – but it was probably a good decision not to tell Willoughby that he was. They had six children – Sylvester, Ace, Mortimer, the twins Lilith and Lenore, and Rufus. Rufus was conceived because the local contraceptive Stiflebloom plant had failed. Because Willoughby was so lazy and detached it was really his uncle Frederick and Myrrh who ran the earldom. After Willoughby died in the notorious Noodle Incident, Frederick became official Regent until Sylvester finished at university, and Dorothea became even vaguer and more preoccupied than before, and set off in search of something unknown. Sylvester fears he won't ever see her again. Sylvester did well at university and made friends, especially Bertrum W Skinknottle (who fell for and married Honoria Clemens – these names are PG Wodehouse references) and Nimue Fayling. The students were divided into Houses: the male houses were named after dangerous animals and the female ones after pretty things, but they were otherwise equal. Nimue was in training to take over the family business, growing oranges. She and Sylvester dated, but split up because neither would give up their family responsibility. Bertie and Honoria married and went back to Bertie's home in Lagado, but he's not sure where they are now because Bertie recently got a new job (souds like preparation for him to pop up). Sylvester went home alone and took over the Earl's duties. He found a job for Ace with their uncle Dalton Mundivagant. His mother Dorothea inherited cash from her mother, and she and Lil went travelling. Mortimer and Rufus stayed around, and Mortimer started bringing home strange women, most notably Olga Q Bonmarrow, a drifter with mental health issues who was in love with Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Basement society has come along tremendously in a highly technological way during Sylvester's lifetime (so post-Crash), and the idea that the Sneeches might be behind this. Sylvester forgot to ask Myrrh what she saw in the Sneech den, and now they don't even know where she is. We see that she is in a bakery (or maybe café) with a sign saying Kato Bread on the wall, and where there are a lot of cats whom she is talking to as if they understand each other. This cat-filled place is presumably in the Spires, since we will learn that the arena where she was wrestling robots is there. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss whether the Dohickey thank-you gift was for Sylvester or for his whole family, and Rosemary points out that the first Earls were meant to have killed off the Ettins who were holding the Sneeches prisoner. Whether they did or not, the Sneeches may believe they did. They discuss the fact that Sneeches do have childen, and whether or not they have intelligible emotions. Finally, Rosemary says that eveything else can wait, and that she will follow Sylvester's plans. He says he can't make plans until he knows what it is that Rosemary stole. She agrees to show it to him, but tells him to cover his eyes and ears while she gets it out of the Poke Kit, so he doesn't learn any codes which he might later be forced to reveal. 09: Wreaking Havoc [26/12/2016 – 07/07/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4818–end] Rosemary produces from the Poke Kit an oval object which she says is called the HJ42, but she thinks it's also a mythological object called the Chaos Key. This is clearly the same item which has been being passed around among the Basement folk – not just another of the same model but this actual one, because HJ42 is the designation of a specific instance of this gadget which was collected by an anthropological expedition, and Protus called it the HJ42 when he gave it to Mortimer. Either it's looped through time to appear twice in the same area at the same time, or when Rosemary thinks it's safely tucked away in her Poke Kit, it isn't. As the Chaos Key it has been used to open various kinds of metaphorical and literal doors, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Rosemary studied its semi-legendary history in the libraries of Hack'n'Slash. It may have been implicated in the Thricklefork Demon Massacre. It caused strange events – including a giant man-eating flower – at a place called Bellona. It was passed around the clans of Erewhon, trailing odd happenings. It was used to rob a bank, then disappeared from view, only to reappear among the artefacts brought back from the Infernal Engine by the Hendrick-Joost Expedition. At this point Rosemary puts it back in the Poke Kit and she and Sylvester agree not to mention the name "Chaos Key" again if they can avoid it, but just to refer to it as the HJ42. The Hendrick-Joost Expedition came from the High University of Azimuth and visited the Infernal Engine in Yurpsland. There were protests about them taking items from Yurpsland back to Azimuth, and eventually they returned some of them, including the "HJ-42". These returned items were parcelled out between various Yurpsland museums and collectors, and #42 went to an Erewhonian noble named Cuddlup, who passed it on to an Erewhonian sect called the Chromans. The Chromans were great collectors and displayers of curios which demonstrated the wonders of the world – some of which were magically active. The most dangerous were kept in an offshore fortress which went into meltdown during the Crash. The HJ42 was put on display in various places but it made people nervous, so it was moved to a medium-level facility in a place called Gowplace at the tip of the Lawnrock Peninsula. After the Crash, Gowplace was re-named Chroma and became the Chromans' capital, and the HJ42 dropped out of sight again for several decades. About ten years ago, or forty years after the Crash, it resurfaced as part of a travelling Chroman display for which H&S provided security, and eventually it caused some alarming effect, although Rosemary's security clearance wasn't high enough to find out what. It was put back into storage, but at this point rumours about it began to be passed around. It was also at this point that Rosemary first heard about it and began to research it – and so, unfortunately, did Tansy Rugan, the leader of the Quincunx, a kind of sinister private army. Rosemary started to suspect the Quincunx were searching for the HJ42, and knew it would be a seriously Bad Thing if they found it. She couldn't get H&S to take her concerns seriously enough, so she went AWOL, rode all the way to Chroma and stole the HJ42 herself. Two hours later the Quincunx arrived and started hunting her (and killing Chromans). She did her best to evade them but eventually Tansy cornered her. One of the buttons on the device was glowing so in desperation Rosemary pressed it, thinking that it might cause an explosion which would take out Tansy and her 2inC Nathan Holn along with Rosemary herself. Instead, it teleported her to the forest near Eetown. At first she wasn't sure whether she'd been moved through time or space, but then she met Mortimer and realised from his accent that she had shifted a long way to the east. She was very dazed and disoriented and just followed Mortimer home. They talk for a while about how Rosemary ended up with Hack'n'Slash in the first place. Bored with farming muckroots and lobster-fishing, she became a crew-woman on a boat called the Oshinoxtra. From there she went to the mainland and worked on a large farm, and even served as a minion on a Saur hunt (presumably, like the domesticated Trogs, these were less sapient than the ones in the Basement). Once she'd saved up enough money she went to see the nearest city, Jonetown. Everything there was far more expensive than she'd expected but as luck would have it she was in the right place to rescue Edwird Soloman, a retired bureaucrat who was being harrassed by louts. She and Edwird hit it off and became firm friends, and he gave her a place to stay. She became his bodyguard and housekeeper, read his books and reached an uneasy accommodation with his girlfriend, Mrs Rumble. Sometime later, Rosemary and some friends were scavenging in a scrapyard when they encountered the demon Scratch, and Rosemary managed to overcome him to the point where he was willing to discuss his situation and behave reasonably. This caused unpleasantness between the neighbours and Edwird, and brought Rosemary to the attention of Hack'nSlash, who recruited her. While they are tidying up conversational loose ends, Rosemary tells Sylvester about a hermit she met in the SAR (where there are many hermits, but this one is The Hermit), and who was probably a wizard, or possibly a demon: he will only ever say that he's a person. This is true even if he is a Demon: we see a brief glimpse of the Operator gazing rather sadly at an image of what is presumably his partner. They establish that demons can communicate over long distances via leylines, hence Edgar learned Rosemary's name from Scratch, and Myrrh could arrange visits from friends (two demon visitors are shown: one of them is Jones, from the Spires, and the other is Marilith). Rosemary is reluctant to ask Myrrh to pass along messages, as her favours have to be paid for. Sylvester assures her Myrrh can keep a secret. They discuss Ilsa, who has a very able illegitimate daughter, Druscilla, who works for the big bank in the capital. Ilsa writes to her with local gossip, so news of Rosemary's presence will soon reach the capital. Ilsa is half Haroon, and the Haroons do not worship the Brush, much, or care what the Oracles think about having children out of wedlock. Sylvester is trying to modernise the village, with some cooperation from the current Oracle, Threnody, who is a great improvement over her predecessor Omega. He hopes to bring in not only a teacher but a glass-blower. It is mentioned that opposite Frederick and Myrrh's old room there is a door labelled "Gwen's stuff", but neither of them knows who Gwen is or was. Sylvester has never investigated it, but assumes Myrrh will have done so. They discuss the fact that when Sylvester met with Protus he saw visions of Rhid and Villipend, whom they then met, so evidently he was seeing the future. He also saw Rosemary fighting a woman with a glowing glove, and that may be a true vision too. Rosemary thinks from the description that it is Tansy Rugan, who has a magic shock-glove, so they will have to meet and fight some time soon. At least she'll probably have the Can-Opener, but she doesn't have it with her now. Sylvester wants them to have regular conferences, but he's not going to say where the next one will be, in case of eavesdroppers (from what we see, through the Panegate that connects to the edge of the Crystal Thicket). He had intended to hold this one on the Commons, well away from anyone not a goat. They discuss Rosemary's old teachers, and whether Myrrh and Frederick are gone for good: Rosemary probably hopes they are. We glimpse Frederick being given an Ides of March cake by a waitress wearing antennae ending in grey bobbles, confirming they are at the Spires: they are in an underwater café with a seal peering in through a porthole. We also glimpse Mortimer in the woods, with a scratch on his face and what looks like more web draped across his shoulders. Sylvester wishes for an alternative to the rowboat, since he'll have to pay someone to row it back. Olaf Larrsen, the village vet, turns up in his motorboat Mamie (Rosemary and Sylvester agree that Sylvester also wishes for a million Simoleons in a secure bank account) and is introduced to Rosemary, who he is glad to see is not a "demon, Bonmarrow or Flibbler". Flibblers, whatever they are, are everywhere. Olaf agrees to give them a lift in return for information and a discount on the organs of the Dornbeast Rosemary killed the night she arrived (less than two days ago). Sylvester half regrets returning to the stresses of being the Earl. Olaf takes the couple and the cat back to the mainland. En route they discuss the reorganisation at the Mansion, and the Crash – Olaf used to build thaumtools, before the Crash, and has been able to measure the fact that magic is very slowly returning. He made a motor for his little boat, but none of the local fishermen would let him fit one to theirs even if there was enough magic to power something that big. He thinks the local Ichyoids are up to something. He tells them about the hamster pirate captain, who has now ceased to be an out-take and become part of main canon, and that he has met Protus, who was talking about someone named Winnifred (presumably the founder of the future Winnifrite sect). The only Winnifreds they know are somebody Sylvester was at univesity with, and a now-dead old woman Rosemary knew in Moonin. Sylvester warns Olaf that Nirvana Clepe may be back in the area (Olaf looks a bit alarmed). It's mentioned that Olaf hasn't married: evidently he and Mamie didn't get that far. Sylvester asks Olaf whether he has seen Frowgler – he hasn't – but we cut away to see Frowgler talking to the village Flittermouse in her tower. She is assessing livestock, which involves little toy figures. Frowgler says he is always there to get done what needs doing, and she says it makes her speculate on who he really is "behind that mask". She tells him that her name is Vyon Ward Parkin, an orphan who was taken in by the Flittermice after she was shunned because her family had died in a "Spew" from the Infernal Engine, and peoople feared she might be contaminated. We see that the Flittermice have a universal presence, at least in Yurpsland, and use actual bats as messengers. The Flittermice are an Order, whose job is to "flit into the dark places and do the mucky jobs that need to be done" – which they agree is also Frowgler's job. Vyon herself was literally posted to her new position in Eetown, in a box: or possibly ceremonially pretended to have been posted. It's a lonely job and she appreciates Frowgler's company, but she could have left if she wanted to, and did not: there's a suggestion that Frowgler's own role is not voluntary. He gives her a "laughter marble", which she seems to have been waiting for, and says that some day everyone will know who he is (or was) behind the mask, then he leaves via an artificial tunnel which looks as if it was made for the purpose, and which takes him to water. Unlike a real frog, he appears to have gills. As Frowgler swims away, we see him pass a tank containing an octopus named Aloysius. Violet Hopkirk lures Aloysius to the surface and milks him of ink. She overhears people gossipping about Frederick's retirement. We overhear two of her employers talking about her and how she has the talent to work on a "Wrangrig", but it isn't safe for girls. Cut to Sylvester and co. in the boat, discussing Wrangling Rigs, aka octopus inkpull platforms, and the fact that it's "not safe" for girls because it's thought to be bad luck, locally, to have a woman on board. Violet, who has a reputation for not talking, overhears more gossip, quizzes a local boy and learns about Sylvester's party going into The Moose and Squirrel and not coming out. She goes to the inn to talk to Eunice Kelso about it. Eunice doesn't know where the party went, and shoos Violet away, after saying there are no Human-sized underground ways out: we see what looks like a Frowgler-sized way out. Violet returns to her mother, Helena, and they gossip about Rosemary. Violet is mulling over the idea of Myrrh and Frederick retiring. She sits to clean blobwarts with her feet on a stone marked 44: this number seems to recur. Sylvester greets a trapper in another boat, name of Rod, and his young son Ash[ley]: these are the father and brother of Violet. Ash is very interested in Rosemary: their conversation reveals that Flibblers from Moonin don't have a Moonin accent. Mention is made of the Sky Trek, a walk across the country due in five years, and of a Mobile Confectioners' Guild, whose members include salesmen called Lollipop Perambulators. Sylvester finds Ash refreshing – too many people treat him with either scorn or fear because of his position. Olaf tells Ash to tell his friend Aloysius (not the octopus!) to stay out of his garden, because it's magic. Sylvester tells him to spread the word that there is going to be a meeting at the Temple to formally introduce Rosemary. Rod and Ash in their boat sail past an islet with a distance marker on it, then we see a gull try to land on the islet, and be scared away by a green, snakey-looking thing which says "Boo" in Ichyoid runes. This is one of the same tentacled things (perhaps the same individual) which we saw in the Basement, rescuing Shabash from a reservoir. Rob and Ash come to shore and we see Ash gossipping with his friend Aloysius on the dockside – both boys look about ten years old. A gull – perhaps the same one that was chased off by the tentacled thing – is sitting near Aloysius. Ash passes on Olaf's message about the magic garden, and Sylvester's about the Temple meeting. As they walk past the Spewing Wall – a forum for graffiti – the Flitttermouse's Laughter Marble hits the ground behind them, and Aloysius picks it up, hides it and tells Ash it's just a rock. The gull flits in and out of shot near them. They pass Fantod and the Weirdo having an adult conversation with Melba Corrigan and her whimp-pig Wilbur. Ash and Aloysius tell Fantod that they are planning to go to a haunted ruin tomorrow, and he warns them it might fall down, then Fantod warns Aloysius, specifically, to be careful with"whatever it is yer doin' all of a sudden". We then see the Oracle Threnody, in a medical office listening to a man's chest with a stethoscope; Mayoress Saffron Stout sitting behind her desk; and the Flittermouse, scoring things off a list on a notice board. Written on the corner of the board (not part of the list) is a note saying "Tell truth ——— Seek fortunes". She has a sort of umbrella stand which has various sorts of pole in it, including a Sneech stick. Next to it is a truncated green cone which has sticking out of the top a T with an extra, sometimes slanting crossbar, a distortd Ŧ, which became a recurring motif. 10: Into the Woods [10/07/2017 – 03/11/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips start–#5125] To start with we see Myrrh, who seems not to need to breathe or to be wearing anything except her collar, strolling through an undersea forest in the Sea of Plinths. The Ŧ with the slanting crossbar appears sticking out of a green growth. She wonders which way to go: a flatworm points its arrow-shaped head upwards, so she surfaces. Frederick is still being served food by the waitresses in antennae, who are amazed at how much he can eat, and suggest that their chef has failed because Fredrick was able to eat the whole meal. They are a mixed bunch, ethnically, and we will later learn that the Spires recruit orphans from all over. A female Eyebolt who has "Shmelcathy" on a screen by her desk (but we will later learn this isn't her name, just something or someone she is monitoring) is working at her desk. Other women in deely-boppers/antennae (all this culture wear them, or at least all the women) are monitoring Frederick on a screen, under the command of an older woman with fluffy, puffy white hair: they too are amazed by how much Frederick can eat and remain upright. They talk about his Herediscan – he is related to previous test subjects (we see Dorothea and Lilith on screens) – and the waitresses say he must be a thaumaturge to stay conscious, yet he isn't setting off their magic-detectors. The blonde waitress, Svetlana Rostova, is told to stay with him and answer his questions. Myrrh, meanwhile, arises from a water-filled tube into a sort of domed cockpit, in which there is a plant-covered floor dotted with flowers, and a Lizhopper, one of the little mini-Trog-like creatures which we saw Rosemary chasing out of the Mansion at the start of the story. Frederick and Svetlana talk, initially in front of a drawing on the wall of the moon on a stick, and we learn that they are in the Zamyatin Spire, a very high-tech-looking place. Zamyatin Spire residents are all women, but other Spires are for men only, or mixed. The Spires have a vaguely Soviet, very controlled culture: Svetlana refers to native Spire residents as "assets". As Myrrh – with the Lizhopper riding on her head – presses a button in the flowery cockpit, Frederick and Svetlana discuss Yurpsland politics, which involve a ceremonial, hereditary king and a separate political ruler who seems to be self-appointed (although they see it as "chosen by the Brush") rather than elected. Also the fact that Frederick is a demithaumaturge, and that the Spires are on a major tricklepoint (although the one in the Sybola jungles may be bigger, which may relate to whatever mystery is in Sybola), so were not much affected by the Crash and still have working pre-Crash technology. Myrrh climbs up some sort of stair or ladder to a room where there is a naked male musician named Jones (who is clearly based on David Bowie/Jones, and is a fellow demon), whom we saw earlier with his human partner Jebidiah, and who plays the flute for her. Spire trechnology involves some enormous gears which were built by an unknown society from before the Ettins. Svetlana is impressed to learn that Frederick's family have their own library, in which he read about the Spires. When Myrrh is mentioned, Svetlana surmises that Myrrh is Frederick's wife, because he wouldn't have been allowed into Zamyatin Spire if he didn't have a spouse (meanwhile Jones continues to play his flute for Myrrh). Frederick and Svetlana discuss the arrangements for straight women like her who wish to find a mate when they live in an all-female Spire, and see an agent of sorts, holding a giant needle like a dagger and trying to arrest somebody for smuggling Fuzz jars (Svetlana says this woman isn't police, but something they don't discuss). Singing Fuzzes are a big fad in the Spires and are bred for size, intelligence and voice, which suggests that this could be the past of Frizzlegarb's future world of Hollows and Fuzz communities (especially as we see one in a tank which seems to have embryonic tuft-antennae of the kind later seen on Purple Zoners). Special barriers prevent Fuzzes from being moved from one Spire to another, except in jars (which might explain why the future Fuzzes find it difficult to move from one Hollow to another, and might also have something to do with the barrier which surrounds the Spire in Audravania). Frederick and Svetlana end up on a balcony which Svetlana calls a Bubble-viewing Recreation Platform, overlooking a hall where large coloured bubbles with blurry images inside well up, but Frederick says it's a Spindizzy interface chamber, but with no visible Spindizzies and no apparent way of summoning them. We learn that The Spire community has a low birthrate and takes in orphans from elsewhere, but Svetlana was born there, in Platohov Spire, and trained in Burdekin Spire, and her paternal grandmother told her about legless, truthful flying beings who could have been either Spindizzies or Helipaths. She is not sure whether The Spire city belonged to the Ettins or the Sneeches, originally – only that the Sneeches say it was contested between the two species. Frederick describes ancient weaponry – the Ettins used city-smashing Doombombs and the Sneeches used Tangles, giant vines which could infitrate and wreck Ettin machinery. Frederick has worked out that something was meant to happen to him in the restaurant where Svetlana works, but she assures him he wasn't intended to die. Solzhenitsyn Spire is about death and he mustn't go there, but Zamyatin is all about collecting and hoarding information. Frederick wants to go ask the nearest archivist about Spindizzies. Svetlana is unnerved by this, as asking questions is discouraged. They discuss the fact that Frederick is still collecting information which may be useful to his family, even though he is retired, and that Myrrh may or may not decide she has retired as others would understand it, and we see the woman with fluffy white hair monitoring their conversation. Fredrick says he is filling in time until Myrrh gets back from "whatever you all have her doing", and at this point we see Myrrh pressing her claws into a set of holes on a control that opens a round purple door on the wall of Jones's chamber. Cutting back to Eetown, we see Olaf's boat pulling in to his private dock, and Captain Hamster's crew sleeping off a binge-drinking session, and Mortimer, with umbrella but sans strands of Spyder web, waking in the deep dark woods (to which he was evidently transported from the pub, in the same way that his brother and Rosemary were transported to the island) with the sense that some sort of revelation has slipped away from him, and then encountering Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party in the woods. This, we will later learn, is a flashback which must have happened around when Rosemary and Sylvester were waking on Alwin Island, and hour or so before we glimpsed him with web on his shoulder. From here until It All Comes Together, Mortimer's and Sylvester's storylines are out of phase by an hour or two. Once on shore, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Olaf knew Mortimer was a wizard, but didn't tell him. Olaf is fairly benign but generally acts out of self-interest. We see that Olaf has a fenced-off telegraph pole topped with magical gadgets, so dodgy-looking that Sylvester says that in this case Omega (who hated Olaf and vice-versa) might have had a point about the dangers of technology. Mortimer is very relieved to see that Nitfol survived the Spyder, but ashamed that he had accidentally led the beaver-shark to destroy Nitfol's home tree. Fizmo realises that Mortimer owes Nitfol a favour and can take them beyond the "Edge of the World", but Mortimer doesn't know what she means. At this point we get some portraits of various characters – Ilsa's and Saffron's parents; characters from the Willy the Wendigo books (Willy himself, in a bow tie; a pink and blue spider; a rock with eyes; something like a green female Nome (but may be meant to be a Gobble'em); and a male Wift/Wilf); some past E Weirdos; and the E family's tutor. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, discussing Olaf's thaum measurements. Sylvester thinks he has a second agenda – perhaps an attempt to bring back magic, which even the High University of Azimuth has been unable to do. Sylvester thinks this is a good idea, because he wants Humanity to explore the other planets in the system, and doesn't see much future in steam power. Mortimer, Nitfol and Fizmo establish their frames of reference. The Nomes' world can be walked across in a day or two (but they're smaller than Humans, and on rough ground, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles), and is bounded by a wall of mist you can't push through, and centred on the Spike – Fizmo's father Foblub was an explorer, but even he didn't manage to walk all the way around the edge. Mortimer remembers a Spindizzy called Charles telling him about a solid haze. Myrrh stands in a place where there are striped, rugby-ball-shaped lights, and gazes up at an enormous bust of a bearded, humanoid male demon wearing a medal. This last image is a Hallowe'en special, but also part of the canonical sequence: it's actually an image of the Operator. Sylvester shows Rosemary a road which leads south to a place called E Isles where there are offshore islands and a ferry across the River E, but no city because the nearby shore is too rocky for a port, and then on to Obtown. He points out Olaf Larrsen's house and then they head back towards the woods – as they do so they pass Aloysius hiding behind a bush near Larssen's place, with the gull next to him. 11: New Openings [06/11/2017 – 02/02/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5132–#5215] Rosemary tells Sylvester there was a kid hiding behind the bush they just passed, and Sylvester identifies him as Aloysius Culpepper, an orphan who lives with his uncle and aunt. We see Aloysius and the gull sneak into Olaf Larrsen's place and poke about in the fields, before using an upturned bucket to climb through a shed window, after testing that a magic-emitting plant on a shelf inside is safe by throwing a stick at it, then wedging the window with another stick in some unclear way. The shed contains various odd machines and hanging mobiles. He doesn't touch a gadget that's labelled "LINE #1 TERMINUS ——— DON'T TOUCH", but instead winds up a clockwork figure of a running man (later referred to as the Flailer, so probably its feet are meant to pound grain), and the noise attracts Olaf, who is carrying a fishing net with a hole in the bottom. He tells Aloysius to follow him or go home, so Aloysius (who is barefoot) and the gull follow him. They go to the main house where they are greeted by Olaf's housekeeper (who asks if he's caught anything, then sees he's caught Aloysius) – we see Sylvester telling Rosemary that this is Ilsa Lundquist, who used to work at the Mansion. Ilsa asks Aloysius what the gull's name is, but Aloysius says gulls only have names when they are flying. She takes the hats from Olaf and Aloysius without touching them, on the end of a baton, and comments that she doesn't suppose gulls ever wear hats. We see a scene of three gulls by the seashore, including one wearing a hat, who is part of Cap'n Hamster's crew, and still looks hungover. We return to Mortimer, talking to the Nomes. Nitfol doesn't know what Spindizzies are but he does know about the Mansion, because his father was a scholar who owned two and a half books. We see Nitfol's father with two books, one labelled "Socks", the other "Cookiedice", which is the name of one of the Hollows where we see Fuzzes living in the future. Mortimer mentions the library at the Mansion – Fizmo doesn't believe such a thing is possible, but Nitfol has heard stories of large book collections in the past, or at least scroll collections. We see a shadowy image of a female Nome filing scrolls on big racks. Mortimer describes the library as being in the Ivory Tower, which leads to a long digression about behemoth teeth (if behemoths are really elephants, Mortimer has a very confused idea of what they look like), and he mentions that there is an apartment at the top, with a pool, but nobody lives in it now, "most of the time". He mentions that the tower was built by Ludwig, which leads to a very muddled conversation, because the Nomes know Ludwig as a cult figure worshipped by some people in the Basement. Mortimer manages to explain about the Spindizzies and how literal they are, and how he once told Charles he felt trapped and Charles told him about the mist barrier. Mortimer thinks the Spindizzies might know how to bring the barrier down: Fizmo thinks this is fantasy, but Nitfol wants to meet them. Nitfol and Fizmo go off to confer, while Thrash seeks to attract Mortimer's attention to something, and Mortimer wonders aloud whether this is the same Pale (Thrash) he met yesterday with Frowgler – it is – and he can tell that Thrash senses something wrong. We return to Zamyatin Spire, where Svetlana is disturbed by Frederick's whistling, because music is discouraged except in the gym and at culture festivals. She takes him to a stern-looking Senior Archivix, who wasn't expecting them – Frederick tells this woman his name, but says she doesn't need to know Svetlana's. In Eetown, Aloysius gives a wall-eyed look to a stuffed gull. Ilsa brings cocoa (which he has never had before) for Aloysius, herb tea for Olaf and tripewater for the gull. Olaf says he's not a nice person (echoing Rhid) but he's an old man and he has had to keep his books locked away because Omega didn't want people to see them, but now she's gone and her influence is waning, he has been hoping for someone like Aloysius to come along. He told Ash to tell Aloysius to stay away from the magic because he knew it would lure him in. Aloysius correctly surmises that Olaf wants him as an apprentice. Olaf says his only love Mamie, after whom his boat is named, died fifty years ago (in the Crash), so if Aloysius comes every day he can, and learns magic and veterinary medicine, when Olaf dies he will leave his house and all his money to Aloysius, aside from a bit for Ilsa. Olaf tells Aloysius that no wizwitch could channel all the forms of magic, but some were generalists who could do a little of a lot, and some, known as Hedgewizwitches, could do only one thing but did it very well. Mamie was one, because all she could do was heal, but very well, even though she didn't have a very nurturing personality. Aloysius is another – an "Animal Empathist", hence his link with the gull. Mortimer is still talking to Thrash, and shows him his umbrella. He tells the Pale that he is a wizard and asks if that's the problem, and Thrash shakes his head. Meanwhile Nitfol tells Fizmo he isn't going to go off with Mortimer immediately, but he will at some point, because Zpeaker and the Nexus also thought the barrier could be brought down, and if Nitfol's political plan fails they will at least have a means of leaving. Thrash draws Mortimer's attention to the fact that Spyders are creeping up on them. Frederick speaks to the Senior Archivix, whose name is Anushka Zhdanov. She tells him he is allowed to access archives up to Level Three, but won't say how many levels there are above that. He asks for information on Spindizzies. She asks if he is a Yurpslander, and when he says he is, she calls for someone named Snegurka and sends her to fetch a file (calling her a lackwit). Olaf tells Aloysius that neither of them is a full wizard, but that in theory if you make the right thaum machine you can mimic any power. However, there isn't enough energy around post-Crash, so animal empathy is impossible to mimic and no one will be "horning in" on Aloysius's skill. There are no other empaths in the area, but there are a few other wizwitches of other kinds – some who know what they are (we see Myrrh, Amos Grubb and Mortimer) and some who don't (we see a teenage boy in a soft baggy hat, who is probably Ricky of the famous Ricky and Wendell, and a short teenage girl with a lot of long, bushy hair) and who he doesn't think could handle being told. 12: The New Level [05/02/2018 – 01/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5222–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips start–#5299] At the start of the chapter we see Melba Corrigan's blobwart-vending cart and her pet pig Wilbur sitting in front of a large bush. Her hat is lying on the bush, and two butterflies (not flutterbys) fly up from behind it. They represent sex and/or kisses, and she is behind the bush with Arthur the Weirdo. Faint words on the hedge appear to spell out "Nutella weather person" – I've no idea why. Rosemary and Sylvester arrive back at Eetown's South Road Gate. Sylvester would rather go home, but Rosemary reminds him that he needs to collect the post, and says that it probably wasn't a villager in a boat that took them to Alwin. They both think it was probably Mortimer, by magic, which means he has immense innate power and the potential to be "quite something". Meanwhile, Mortimer's party start to back away from a Spyder, which begins to spew thick ropes of web at them, while another one boxes them in from behind. But Thrash slashes their web-ropes with his sickle and beats down the one in front of Mortimer. It's not clear whether he has killed it or not, but he probably has, as later they will pass a dead one in that direction. Meanwhile, Senior Archivix Anushka offers Frederick a chair and a cup of tea while he waits for his file. Svetlana is impressed and concerned, as teachairs are only offered to important guests, and she isn't authorised to associate with important guests, but doesn't wish to leave. The Archivix gives Frederick permission for Svetlana to stay and have tea too, but Svetlana says it's not Anushka's decision to make. Olaf thinks Aloysius can handle being told he has magic, but also that an empathist can't do much harm (but they can do some: we see a silhouette of a bear being sicced on somebody). He warns him not to tell anyone else about his magic, because there are people – the picture implies it's official, government people – looking to capture functioning wizwitches. It's possible that Aloysius may have other, minor talents as well as his main one – Mamie did (including, it's implied, skin-stimulation during sex) – and there are tests for this, but Olaf can't administer them. Amos and Frederick both could, but Frederick won't. Rosemary suggests that if Mortimer is going to be "something" so will Sylvester, since Mortimer obeys him. As they talk, a Vagabond flutterby – a creature with which Mortimer has a strong affinity – comes to them with a scrap of cloth tied around it, bearing a message apparently written in blood. Back to Mortimer's party. We will later learn that the timeline is disjointed, because these scenes with Mortimer must have happened while Rosemary and Sylvester were on Alwin Island. The Pales are fighting off the Spyders, and kill at least one behind Mortimer, but the Spyders keep coming and keep flinging web at them. Prompted by Nitfol, Mortimer has a moment of crisis where he decides he will no longer be either a follower or a causer of problems, and he shoots magical force from his umbrella-wand, declaring that there will be no more killing or dying (and gives himself an electric shock). The surviving Spyders run off, and we see two Spyders discussing the fact that they had thought all Human wizwitches had been killed in the Crash, and that this raises the possibility that there may still be Humans who are able to "talk" (perhaps this means Aloysius's animal empathy) and they must call a conclave to discuss this. Svetlana confirms to Frederick that it is her boss (or at least, the person who told her to watch Frederick) who decides whether she may stay and drink tea or not. She has a number as well as a name – 23-42-5258.8. Frederick addresses the security bugs in the walls and asks for Svetlana to be made his guide, stating her name and number, and since nobody answers with an objection, Svetlana is officially promoted to that role. She isn't sure what she thinks about this, as she had enjoyed being a waitress, but eventually she makes a firm decision to sit down and embrace her promotion, and she does quite like her cup of tea. Olaf tells Aloysius that Amos gave up being an active wizard before the Crash (although we see old!Amos lighting a candle with magic) – we know this was to do with Myrrh, but Olaf will only tell Aloysius about it if Aloysius agrees to be trained. Amos has already asked Olaf to come to the Mansion to discuss something, so he will take Aloysius with him, but Aloysius shouldn't mention his possible apprenticeship etc. to Amos's wife Nellie. They have a complex misunderstanding about what "having views" means, which leads to mention of an apparently blind woman called Gretta Weed, who in the metaphorical sense sees further than Nellie. Gretta is brighter than Nellie, and Saffron brighter than Gretta, but Olaf is more concerned with their open-mindedness to new possibilities. They discuss the fact that once he is trained, Aloysius will have the choice to stay in Eetown or to move elsewhere: we see an image of him as an adult healing horses for Nimue in Abalone. Once they have found a private spot, Sylvester reads his message, which says "Open Training Gate. Urgent." This refers to one of the Panegates at the Mansion. Sylvester still has to complete business in town but will rush through it. We see him ask the sausage vendor, Claudia, what people are talking about – which is really all the news from the Mansion. She has been selling(?) a lot of sausages because people are anxious/excited about the changes, and warns them that Saffron is "in a mood". Fizmo and Nitfol are surprised and impressed that Mortimer is a wizard, and reveal in conversation that Fizmo works for Frowgler, and Nitfol sort-of does too. We see Frowgler underground, talking to a Shallow Wyrm named Parkin who is guarding the Circle at the World's End. Fizmo says Frowgler can see the future (which Mortimer cannot), and warned her about a job she took. We see her underground in her hazmat suit, looking at a little creature similar to a Shallow Wyrm but probably not one (no head crest), which is growling at her. Mortimer says Frowgler gave him good advice, but he works for his brother Sylvester, not for Frowgler. He tells them Sylvester is a sort of mayor, avoiding the charged word "Earl" by chance or design. Svetlana reveals that she prefers kvass to tea, although this is against her culture. The Spire folk drink actual tea, but tea in Yurpsland is usually brewed from other plants. Frederick himself drinks – cautiously – things brewed by Myrrh. They get onto discussing Yurplejuice – neither Svetlana nor Anoshka has tasted it, because it's restricted, and even in Yurpsland it's regulated. Olaf tells Aloysius about the other half of his business – the first half is treating sick animals, the second half is making and selling thaum-powered gadgets. He has always refused to make magical weapons – Zap-Tridents – partly out of morality and partly in case someone buys one and then kills him to prevent him making any for anyone else. In any case they only work at Tricklepoints, such as the one under the Mansion. To make his own gadgets work away from a Tricklepoint he has built big, cumbersome energy collectors. Aloysius shows Olaf the Laughter Marble, and Olaf says it does party tricks, which he will show him in the workshop. 13: Thicket [02/05/2018 – 16/11/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5313–#5502] Sylvester says Claudia will be shifting a lot more sausages, because more changes are coming, because he is planning to be more pro-active. He and Rosemary discuss Mayor Saffron's temper: "in a mood" isn't so bad, it's when she's "in a snit" you need to worry, but it was her father who could really make her angry. Mortimer says he arrived here (in the woods) by accident, but now he's here he will help the Nomes. He asks why they are there and Fizmo says they are going to "that Crystal Thicket". We will learn later that they are looking for a flower that grows only there, which can be used to induce Raviners to spew ichor, which they need for whatever takeover scheme Nitfol cooked up with the Nexus. Nitfol is initially angry with her for telling, but Fizmo says that if Mortimer (with his evident magical power) is working for Mayor Koyeeb they're all dead anyway. Nitfol discusses good and bad leaders with Mortimer (we see an outline of what might be an assassination being prepared), and Mortimer correctly concludes that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb. He is still willing to help, on the understanding that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb for an ethical reason (i.e. because he is very bad at his job) and that he isn't planning to kill him. He knows where the Crystal Thicket is. Frederick tells Svetlana and Anoshka about Yurplejuice, which he hasn't had since the funeral of Mariah, the Mansion's groom, when they still had horses. He doesn't seem to know he just missed sharing some at breakfast that morning, when he and Myrrh announced their retirement and didn't sit down to share what the family were eating and drinking. It's made in Wirtvale, and the stuff which Yurpsland exports is second-rate, but the best brands are wonderful. This leads to a conversation about funerals: the Spire folk file their dead on shelves in a catacomb, but they do have a ceremony (and their elderly do get to retire in comfort, so they're not a totally brutal society). They talk about the fact that Spire folk are trained for their jobs, but Frederick had to muddle through as both wizard and Regent, and didn't do a terrific job, in his own opinion. We see Myrrh emerging from a hole in a rocky floor, into a cavern where there are many pink stalactites and stalagmites (probably artificial: they look too smooth to be natural). She is preceded by a butterfly – perhaps signifying that she and Jones have had sex. In the cavern is a giant Metalmin who knows what she is – it addresses her as "zarkette" – and challenges her to a game of Warboard, the local version of chess. We see the woman with puffy white hair watching Myrrh and the Metalmin on a screen: this is the same woman who was earlier seen overseeing the team who were discussing the fact that Frederick wasn't being knocked out by what they had fed him. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, still discussing Saffron Stout, and Saffron's father, who died when Sylvester was five, and her mother, who kept small yappy dogs. Neither was at all communicative about their past. Mention is made of Wendell's fish-fermenting scheme, which evidently stank the village out and made everybody angry. Mortimer tells the Nomes that even though the forest completely surrounds the Thicket, there is a magical way of getting where they're going and skipping the forest part. He tries to compare Panegates with the treewarping the Nomes do, which requires planning and equipment. Nitfol knows about twistpoints, but Mortimer says Panegates are safer, and there's one that leads to the edge of the Thicket. He has to explain that it's Panegate, not Paingate. Yes, Nitfol and Fizmo can both read, and they know what window-panes are, although Fizmo says only nobs like the mayor and Piu can afford them. Mention is made of Fizmo's married sister Fweep. Meanwhile, Frederick says that Spire folk who do badly at their jobs get sacked. Yurpsland is a young, recently unified (134 years ago) country which hasn't worked out how to do things yet, whereas the Spire regime is 400+ years old, when the city was built (although not entirely completed) by Dmitri I. He speaks about a Yurpslander named Owen Gregiry, who wrote a study on the Spires, and they discuss various Spire monarchs: Feodore II, who began the Great Expansion; Feodore III who "obtained" the Outer Shoals; and the famous Ivana III, who fought off the Wendigoes. Frederick is more interested in Vasily II, who wanted to introduce changes. We flash to Violet Hopkirk, telling her mother she's going out but will be back in time for supper. Young Ash, her brother, offers to help make supper while she's out. We see the Flittermouse in her tower, watching Violet through a telescope as she sets out: she has a Juneteenth flag on one of her mailbags. Then we see Eunice calling Ricky and Wendell, the odd-jobbers, to come out from a hole surrounded by a wooden structure, because Saffron needs them: they are doing something which involves bags of coloured liquid. Then we see former Guardian Terin Flem, sitting on a rock talking to his grandchildren Stephan and Sparrow. He is going to wait at the rock until he sees the Mansion party come by on their way out of the village. We see Rosemary and Sylvester discussing the mayor of her home town, how as an orphan she was a problem for him, and how her Aunt Eva came home, and Zeke persuaded her to take her orphan niece in. Eva was also seen as a problem because she had run off to the wicked big city (Nye), picked up foreign ways and then returned rich. There are things Rosemary wonders about Eva's return, but she's not going to talk about it in town where there are potential eavesdroppers. Mortimer and the Nomes agree that it would be as tedious to trek to the Mansion to find the Panegate as it would be to go to the Thicket on foot, and as far as Mortimer knows they won't be able to locate the Panegate at the Thicket end, or open it from that side if they could find it. He assumes they are going to the Thicket to find a particular flower. He tells them not to tell him their plans, so he can't inadvertently give the game away. We cut to Sylvester's brother Ace, with spear and rucksack, walking through an unknown town (later we will learn that it's called Jagger Junction) in the west of Yurpsland and meeting up with a blonde Nome woman wearing a long skirt and a hat with a flower in it. He shows her a similar flower – which he was reluctant to wear in his hat. As he is Ace, she takes the nom de guerre Diamond (Ace suggests Joker, and says if she doesn't want to be called one she shouldn't dress like one). As they walk through the town, in the background we see a very odd face, or maybe a mask, with slanted oval eyes, watching them from some sort of battlement, and they pass a poster with a kind of alien face on it: or perhaps a safety mask. Other, more Human faces peer round corners at them wherever they walk. Ace comments on the fact that they are being followed, and asks if they are friends of Diamond's, or at least allies. Cut to the Mansion's butler Schmedley, standing in front of a large, open book and holding a cake with candles, to celebrate fifteen years since the strip began. There are twelve candles on the cake, and three flutterbys flying around it. A Fuzz watches from a trunk of the Tree. Frederick and Anushka discuss rules of succession. In the Spires the rulers are matched by a Matriarch or Patriarch of opposite sex to the ruler, and who bears the mystic Gear until it's time to hand it on to the new ruler. Vasily II the would-be change-maker died young (as did Yorik II, who drowned while swimming in Lake Laputa), and Frederick suggests that his death was suspiciously convenient. The village fishermen are deeply interested in Rosemary's hat. Coming from where she does, she is able to discuss fishing with them. One called Tom even invites them for a drink, but she and Sylvester have too much to do, and Sylvester says later in private that having the Earl in the inn would be a buzz-kill – nearly as bad as an Oracle in the pub. Fizmo is curious about the smell of sphagnum dust which still hangs around Mortimer. She and Nitfol discuss the birth of Fizmo's niece Faift, in a way which implies that Nomes can choose the gender of their foetus – although Nitfol denies it when Mortimer asks. Fizmo is horrified to realise she is now an auntie, and remembers she needs to ask the village healer Piu for Stiflebloom. Nitfol is an only child. We see an image of him as a boy, holding a thin staff which is the Ŧ with the slanted crossbar. Diamond says that Ace is an object of great local interest, which is why people are spying on them: some of the spies are "allies of temporary convenience" and others are enemies. We see a graffito which says "IN THE NAME OF THE" and then a circle with three small circles or holes in it. Ace identifies Diamond as being a Nome with dyed-blonde hair. She asks whether there was another option, and he says there are always options (we are shown that he is thinking of Myrrh, so of people who are in disguise and might not be what they superficially appear) but sometimes all the options are bad, and he learned that from "you people". "You people" could be the organisation for which Diamond works, or just people "here" (later described as "Out West"), where Ace has been for a while. Ace comes from "Back East": the boundary between the two is Nye, the gamblig den. Diamond regards people from the East as posh, privileged and soft. Diamond came to Jagger Junction from somewhere "much, much worse" than here, which makes Ace say he questions her Nomishness. When Ace says he doubts her Nomishness he probably means that the only places he knows of that are much worse than this are Zark and Fratz, but it is later heavily hinted that Diamond was a slave-labourer who escaped from the Infernal Engine. They are watched by a young male Nome, standing in a doorway: we will later learn that he is called Uffer. Ace and Diamond come to a plain, unmarked door in a wall, which Ace says people must only come to if they are already welcome there. It opens before them. Frederick tells Anushka that he ended up taking over running his "Spire" and training his successor (Sylvester) because the official leader (Willoughby) was no good at it. We see him training Sylvester to deal with a machine that has the Ŧ sticking off it. Willoughby died in the Noodle Incident, which the Spire folk haven't heard about. Frederick says he would have thought everyone to the ends of the known world would have heard of it, and this leads to a discussion of an island called Solla Sollew, which Svetlana says is the island at the farthest edge of the Revealed World, and which Frederick says an explorer described as "alive and burning". Anushka says that Solla Sollew isn't the farthest place from the Spires, just hard to reach because of magic-storms from the Glow Confection mountain range: the farthest point is the Biloka Penninsula on the far side of the Deep Southeastern Jungles. Frederick does not know why the town of Noodle is called Noodle, but the Noodle Incident is the most interesting thing that ever happened there, and they even have a museum about it. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the local fishermen. Tom Bawcock, the senior fisherman, is unmarried but has a thing going with Gretta Weed. Rosemary thinks one of the fishermen, Ernie Corrigan, is cute, and the feeling appears to be mutual. It's OK for Mansionites other than the Earl to hang out in the local pub, and many have done so, but not Nirvana for unspecified reasons. Sylvester goes to collect post from Mr Gray. Mortimer's party, discussing Stiflebloom, pass what looks like a dead Spyder. Fizmo left their village because Nome girls were being encouraged to get pregnant instead of taking Stiflebloom. She talks bout how she and Kulkad were hired to go down into the Hot Zone in suits. She couldn't see much through the helmet, and can't really describe what they were monitoring. Mortimer says Sylvester will want to know, and Nitfol should want to know too if he's going to be a leader, so Fizmo says the thing they were watching was a sort of stone growth. Ace and Diamond pass two guards, and climb stairs to visit a Mr Shadwell, Diamond's boss. Ace fusses about the lack of a handrail, and Diamond says he reminds her of Algernon Jones, the hero of Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. At the top of the stairs, they find Mr Shadwell seated dead at his desk, with some kind of wound on his chest. Frederick wasn't present at the Noodle Incident and didn't hear about it till days later, because they didn't have a Sparkwire – a telegraph system. Sparkwire operators seem to be all women, who wear antennae like the ones the Spire people wear, although in the Spires they signify citizenship. The Spire ones seem to be implants – at least, they're not just attached to a band like the ones worn by Sparkwire operatives. In Noodle there is a museum about the Incident, but it isn't very accurate. In the Spires, Solovyov Spire is all museums, and they're accurate (we see a display case with the Ŧ on top), but some can only be visited by people with a high security clearance. Svetlana has been to the ones she's allowed to see: Frederick says "And the exhibits gave you no reason to doubt their accuracy?" and Svetlana replies "Negative", which is ambiguous. While Sylvester is talking to Mr Gray, some village children ask Rosemary how she, Sylvester and Mortimer got out of the inn without anybody seeing them go. She says they used a one-time magic door. [Cut to Cap'n Hamster, talking to the sapient sea plant on Piratestash Island about how they are both rare life-forms, and how he bounces from ship to gaol (his cage in Nevus's collection) and back, and how he was swept to this location by a freak wave, and the fact that his parents (who had a ship named Grenache) told him that somewhere across the waves there would by a pirate girl for him, and he will search till he finds her.] Fizmo tells Mortimer that when she was down in the Hot Zone, she had a button to push (and then run away) if the thing she was watching started to move. Technology doesn't work well down there, which was why they needed live watchers, but the button was shielded. Fizmo says she saw a rock grow legs and walk. Nitfol asks if it talked – she says no. Nitfol is not surprised by her story, because he has heard stories from when Nomes called Hotdiggers used to mine down close to the Hot Zone. Diamond says she will pay Ace (who seems to be some kind of bodyguard, like Rosemary) to help her get away from the town, as she was Shadwell's "little mascot" and probably won't survive him for long if she stays. Ace agrees on condition that she doesn't lie to him, and that she tells him where the thing he came to collect is. She opens a wall safe and gives Ace a sort of snow globe thing with a figure in it – a long-robed figure juggling the numbers 007. Frederick has never been to the Noodle museum, or the ones in the Spires, but has heard testimony he believes (from Sylvester, about Noodle, and Svetlana about the Spires). He leaves it open whether he trusts the Spire museums or not. Svetlana starts to say "Is not what I am denying! Am saying you should not be—" and then glances nervously at the walls and says it's nothing. Frederick says Willoughby set off some kind of chain reaction which badly damaged much of Noodle, but no-one except Willoughby died. The incident happened in part because of poor maintenance in Noodle, but that part of the story was hushed up. Mr Gray is concerned that there may be things which, unofficially, Sylvester should tell him about. They have a verbal skirmish in which Sylvester avoids telling him anything. He collects his post, rejoins Rosemary and says it may have been a tactical error for Mortimer to let people see that his umbrellla could be used as a weapon – Mr Gray is of course a government agent, and after Mortimer placed his umbrella in a weapons-holder he looked it up in the Compendium of Official Threats, so now he suspects that Mortimer is a wizard. Nitfol says that one of his ancestors, Nikmo, found a talking rock in the deeps, although most of the records of what it said were lost. Nikmo brought the rock home to the surface, but it stopped talking and he was ridiculed for saying it had. Family history says Nikmo later snuck the rock back into the deeps and it came back to life. He told his daughter Margi about it. Margi became a famous adventuress and had a son, Jindak (mobile hanging over cradle, with Ŧ). Margi told Jindak that she thought Nikmo went back later to visit the rock, but she herself could never find it. Mortimer asks about the surviving records of what the rock said, and Nitfol says that the rock said it had been broken off from a larger boulder during a natural upheaval. We see Violet sneaking past behind Terin Flem, who is still keeping a lookout: later comments suggest he really isn't of her creeping through the trees behind him. She walks to the Mansion's gardens, where she startles Nellie Grubb, in her role as gardener. Ace tells Diamond to place another globe, called a Zoinkglobe, into the safe. He had arranged to give Mr Shadwell this one in return for the one with the juggler, and now Shadwell's heirs can have it. He tells Diamond not to steal stuff from the safe unless they need it to survive, so she takes a small plaque with Shadwell's sigil on it, used to show that the bearer is in his favour. Ace comments that Louis and Buddy, the security guards, had let him up there with a spear and an unsearched pack, so they are either incompetent or part of whatever is going on. Silhouette of railing decorated with Ŧ. We return to the Spires, where Frederick is talking about the official enquiry into the Noodle Incident. The Spires have official enquiries too – Svetlana says "Except when conditioned by circumstances", Frederick replies "Like when a gal happens to be carrying a big needle?" and Anushka says they don't talk about that here. Frederick says that what he has said came from his own experience, not from Svetlana. He says that Willoughby was scapegoated (although he really was somewhat to blame) – then a woman named Snegurka arrives with a file which was requested earlier (presumably the one on Spindizzies). Part Seven: Seats of Power [19/11/2018 – 01/12/2021] 01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion. Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle. Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking. Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him. Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both). Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree. Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly. Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out. Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer". Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled. 02: Entangled [05/02/2018 – 03/05/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5584–#5661] Mortimer and the two Nomes wonder nervously what will happen if the Pales don't return from squid-chasing. The scene switches to the Pale camp, where Zpeaker is telling Vezza how the Pales grow their tools. The tools do not grow from plants but are in some way related to the Pales themselves and this is critical information, so he will need to ask the Nexus for permission to show her. Vezza, being young, can hear the Pales' supersonic voices: Zpeaker says all their communication is sonic "except Zcopers". [Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.] Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee. Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor. Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting. The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket. We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts. Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back. Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are. Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood. Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect. Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head. 03: No Turning Back [06/05/2019 – 01/08/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5675–#5752] Mortimer's party progress, keeping together. Mortimer, being taller, can see a large, distant rock which he thinks is near the Panegate. Nitfol says one direction is as good as another, and Mortimer says the direction of the Thicket (the jumble of crystals) is bad. Another Ŧ on a rock in the distance. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as. Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been". We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother. Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before. Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed. For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt. Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling. Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ. Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle. Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock. Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could. Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters. He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them. 04: Fallout [02/08/2019 – 30/10/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5759–#5848] Not-Shmelcathy tells Myrrh she doesn't see the point of clothes unless it's exceptionally cold: then admits that's the default state in the Spires for a third of the year. Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of". Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was. We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin. Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible. Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon. According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl". Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic. Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice. Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach. Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her. Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them. Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington. Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers. Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business. Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!" Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that. 05: Going Home [04/11/2019 – 27/12/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5855–#5899] The Eyebolt formerly known as not-Schmelcathy says that her name is Simplicity (despite the name on the screen by her desk). She is bubbling with answers to questions Myrrh doesn't want to ask (demons are sensitive about favours and counter-favours). She says "we" (presumably the Eyebolts) can sense auras and that it's important that Myrrh know what she is confronting. Myrrh assumes she is talking about the Operator. There is a side conversation about Jones, who we see apparently getting clothes from Alena and Idita. Simplicity says that the Operator is much more powerful than either Myrrh or Jones, and he has visited the Spires, but he's still only part of the problem. We see an image of the Operator having a power-bar about two and a half times Myrrh's, but it's like a small stream compared to a raging river when measured against the Power Simplicity is thinking of. Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one. Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt. The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers. Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one. Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question. Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped. 06: Diplomacy [30/12/2019 – 13/02/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5909–#5958] Comshaw reveals that when they found the door to the Mansion open, the Council had deliberately aimed a Dornbeast through the door to test what would happen. Sylvester confirms that they are Human and that he is The Earl. Rosemary is his trusty assistant, and Skradt is Comshaw's. Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.] Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing. Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home. Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock. Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome. Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin". An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree. 07: Exit Strategies [24/02/2020 – 26/06/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5986–#6084] Ivana takes Frederick and Svetlana to a Diplomatic Quarantine Facility, for guests who are important but disruptive. There are covered plates of cakes: one of the covers has a Ŧ on it. Frederick will not be allowed to interact with anyone else, except Svetlana whose duties are not yet complete. Frederick assumes this will be so until he goes back to the docks, but Ivana says he's never been at the docks. Svetlana asks if he walked from Yurpsland, but Ivana says he and Myrrh didn't appear via any known entrance, which is part of why he's interesting. Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can. Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees. Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach. Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond". Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way. Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished. Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open. Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave. Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip. Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen. Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl. Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her. Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear. We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar. Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation. Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well. An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist. Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises. They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years). They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough). After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole. At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires. 08: High Level Meetings [29/06/2020 – 09/10/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6098–#6188] Diamond is very concerned that she hadn't known Blas was in town: it suggests her situational awareness is slipping, and that's dangerous. If she had known, she might or might not have told Shadwell, who sometimes had people killed, but only when absolutely necessary: Ace says his employers are the same, except more genteel about it. Wooden Ŧ among planks behind them, and metal one acting as a sort of tap. Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap. Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket. Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat. A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them. Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived. At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket. Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch). Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs. In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home. Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background. An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting. Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall. They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ). More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX. Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded. 09: It All Comes Together [13/10/2020 – 19/02/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6202–#6318] Svetlana agrees that she will go with Frederick to Audravania. At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres. We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together. A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar. Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown. Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes. Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade. Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos. Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower. Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire. Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something". Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings. Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs. In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits. Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement. The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went. 10: Unexplored Territory [22/02/2021 – 28/05/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6325–#6416] This chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Unexplored Territory, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto. We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm. The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect". Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it. Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing). Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles. Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned. Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself. It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought. Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat. Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality. Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock. 11: New Clothes [01/06/2021 – 03/09/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6423–#6514] Diamond and Ace have moved out of the trace left by the Infernal Engine, and Ace can feel the difference. He wants to know how Jagger Junction ended up this rough (Diamond doesn't know or care), and says if in the future there's anything he can do to fix it, he will. A fairly large Fuzz, maybe cat-sized, is lurking in a small dustbin. Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia. This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine. They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned. Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns. Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in. Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it. Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears. Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree. Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol). Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future. 12: Advice and Council [07/09/2021 – 01/12/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6521–#6577] Rosemary advises Fizmo to really listen to what other people say and to not talk – or swear – much during the Council meeting. Outwith that meeting, she should definitely tell Nitfol what she thinks, about everything. Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works. Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette. Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves. Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers. Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end. Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction. Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: Strangers in the Night [12/10/2005 – 19/10/2005] We see the woman to whom the Weirdo, Arthur, was reporting earlier. High up in the Mansion she runs into Protus, who addresses her as Yasmine Fotheringby – we learn she has a strong accent and comes from a place called Shibolith. She asks him the quickest way to get down to the forest so he creates a rupture in space and pushes her through it, causing her to fall out into a ruined building in the forest, close to where Comshaw is searching for Niddle. We learn that Protus cannot walk – so the time-machine thing he sits in may be part of him – and that he is working with structures called time pylons, at least one of which is in the Mansion.
02: Frowgler the Horned Frog [20/10/2005 – 02/11/2005] In the woods Shona meets a talking frog called Frowgler, who possesses horns and a dragonish tail, both retractable. We will learn later that "Frowgler the Horned Frog" is the name of a guru figure in a popular local action comic, along with Roshambo the Warrior Beetle, whom the Sciencebugs worship.
Shona associates the fact that Frowgler's horns are retractable with the way Nomes "tree-warp" in order to create Tardis-like bigger-on-the-inside homes in tree-trunks, a method which Nevus uses to hide his hench-Trogs Mulch and Grind: Frowgler refers to this as "tiny extra worlds". We will later learn that he has a Poke Kit (an extra-dimensional pocket) although that probably isn't where he keeps his horns.
Frowgler seems to dislike Nevus, and tells Shona that there's no future in working for him, and she should work for Comshaw instead. He slightly implies that he might be a Demon, which makes Shona nervous: after she has departed to give her message to Nevus, Frowgler regrets having told her his name. He knows the names of her and her sister Sina.
03: Auction Aftermath [03/11/2005 – 20/11/2005] Knowing that the other three bidders at the auction will only allow him a brief head-start, Snerk the Saur flees with the HJ42. Agita is overbearing to Mortimer so he distracts her by kissing her, causing her to recoil in horror. The three fall out: Guttle threatens to eat Agita and Nevus, and Mimsy tricks Guttle into trying to eat a booby-trapped bauble created by Crazy Rhid and then hidden in her fluffy hair, and which ties him up in tendrils.
We see a bearded Gnoll, a Gobule with four little tentacles on his head and a blindfolded Trog (we learn later that Trogs are very sensitive to sunlight) spying on the outcome of the auction – they seem to be henchbeings of the three bosses. The Gnoll we will later learn is called Agorn, and works for Agita , the Gobule is called Capper and the Trog is named Orfis and works for Nevus. Orfis, despite the blindfold, can smell the presence of a nearly-but-not-quite Nome, and the Saur running past them.
Mortimer tries to sneak away in the other direction, carrying his sack of fleebs, and falls down a hole. Snerk collides with Shona, who is coming with her message for Nevus: the collision sets off the HJ42 again and it goes PROZ.
04: Good Rhiddence [21/11/2005 – 15/12/2005] Crazy Rhid runs away, passing the bucket chain, and Snerd goes to find Sina and get an update. Sina, who has been blinded by a blast set off by Rhid just before he killed Leny (but this isn't a major handicap because, like a dog, she is more scent-oriented), tells him that Leny is dead and the Ghast Sepferb, the same one who retrieved the cakeshroom from Maw's den, is badly hurt. Sina sends a very reluctant Snerd to tell the Ghasts so they can bring help for Sepferb, and sends Kronk the Trog to pursue Rhid. Kronk mentions that he was present – a long time ago – when Digger and a Trog named Yurd tried to saved the world, and from the sound of it people died. Noone present knows who Digger is. Sina also sends a Deep Wyrm called Ploot to organise other Wyrms, and a Motihaul called Hiblehoy to help Wrawa dispose of Leny's body, so the Gobules don't eat him.
Ploot is very keen to help stop the fire getting to the Bottle, because Chauncy and Edgar visited the Hot Zone for two extended periods when they were loose before.
Clochard speaks to a female Motihaul named Nugabela, who has children by Izchak, and has bought Bung's toadstool from Faddle. They see the Candle Monks massing to confront the Evil One and Clochard follows them, hoping for a show.
05: Guidance [16/12/2005 – 03/01/2006] Outside Le Tree, Hax prompts Camora to ask Rosemary and Sylvester to pay her for guiding them: Sylvester pays her with paper, already scribbled on on one side (Rosemary's To Do list) and she is glad to get it. A fountain with toxic fluid is mentioned. Sylvester pretends they are forest Nomes but Hax assures Camora they are Humans: we see a flashback in which Sylvester and the Scary Lady were involved in some trouble in the Basement. We learn that the Basement dwellers call the Mansion "God's Cactus" and that "God" in this context is not a deity but a wealthy, elderly man. The Candle Monks see the party and proclaim the Evil One: meanwhile in the background we see Frag with his club and helmet. Camora will guide them to see Izchak so Rosemary can get a new weapon.
06: Thrash [05/01/2006 – 18/02/2006] Still carrying the Scalpsucker, Comshaw sets out to track Niddle. As he does so he hears the sound "PROZ" made by the HJ42 firing. He encounters a Saur called Ig who used to know him and his late friend Boffin: Ig tells Comshaw he saw Niddle with a group of Pales, one of whom is called/has the job-title Thrash because he winnows out problems. Thrash has a double head-spike and a pale diagonal stripe across his chest, which must be painted on as later we see him without it. There is a mention of an Eyebolt called Preznit who is on the Basement Council, and wants to save the world. Ig says that Buzz's Boss – presumably Frowgler – appeared on the scene only recently and works with the Pale government, called the Nexus. Comshaw also learns from Ig that there had been an earlier explosion which went "ZORP", so the two were symmetrically matched.
Ig and Comshaw come to a mound dotted with bare, dead-white tree-trunks: the top of this mound is called The Pit, and it normally performs some action which is currently quiescent. They hear a loud click and then a rainbow-striped pillar of magical Fire shoots out of the top of the mound, before switching off with another click. Comshaw guesses Niddle set it off by accident.
Ig and Comshaw discuss some aspects of Pale culture, especially the carrying of flags with mysterious holes in, and we learn that in the past Comshaw, in his rôle as Poker, "brought down" a pair of rogue Trogs called the Raver brothers, and killed Crudbean – a sort of Triffid accidentally created by Crud, one of the protagonists in Sundays in SubShaft 44f.
They find Niddle and the Pales, who had been knocked off the hill by the Fire blast. Comshaw gets their attention by throwing the Scalpsucker at them, but is amazed to find how unimpressed by him Thrash is. The Scalpsucker first knocks down the one with the flag, then Comshaw confrints Thrash and demands to know where Niddle is and Thrash simply points behind him, to where Niddle appears, then turns and walks away. As he goes he picks up the flag, then peels the Scalpsucker away from the flag bearer and tosses it behind him – where it lands on the antler bearer, who chucks it into the forest.
07: The Hole Thing [20/02/2006 – 01/04/2006] Mortimer, who still has one shoe (on his right foot), and is still looking for Nitfol, finds himself at the bottom of a deep, crumbling pit created by the HJ42 blast. This sort of thing evidently happens to him a lot. A mongoose-like creature called a tunnel rat and a thing like a small eyeless Saur, called a Lurker, try to attack him but end up fighting each other (in the dark, he doesn't even see them). He asks a friendly female Scalpsucker (not the individual from the forest) to go for help, but then a small landslide, preceded by mechanical noises, reveals a door and he and the Scalpsucker go through it.
They find themselves in the Basement storage-area of a pre-Crash branch of a Walmart-like superstore called World o' Pots (whose stock includes the self-sealing stembolts from Deep Space Nine), where Mortimer, still clutching his sack of fleebs, upends a crate of sphagnum dust over himself. There they encounter a scary-looking but well-meaning and slightly malfunctioning robot which Mortimer is able to semi-control by invoking a "Herediscan" which shows him to be an Eman, and which showers him with free samples of a fruit-flavoured dessert called Sploo and with little sweets called Yummysticks. Mortimer's brother Rufus then appears on the scene. The scalpsucker waits in the doorway, looking neglected.
08: Sittin' in a Tree [02/04/2006 – 27/04/2006] We see Piu, the Nome Healer (the one who Vezza previously said fancied Umboz), sprinkling things into a bowl: it's not clear whether she's mixing up what's in the bowl or feeding it, as an amorphous, grasping purple hand emerges and she whacks it with a wooden spoon. Umboz calls on her, and they semi propose to each other. He tells her that Mayor Koyeeb tried to have him killed, and she decides to run away with him, because she was already disaffected from Koyeeb's government as the number of Nomes in the village is dropping due to a low birth-rate, and Koyeeb is doing nothing about it. Mention is made of old stories about "Bugs" (Ettins) who were wiped out in a war.
Piu gets out a brown ring, too big to be a finger-ring, that symbolises that she is betrothed: she also has a hat put away for their eventual marriage. The ring appears to be a hair-band, as up to this strip her hair is held back in a pony-tail by a mauve band, and after it, by a brown one. She is alarmed when Umboz tells her that they two, plus Vezza and Nitfol, have all been invited to visit the local Pale hive, since Pales are normally very reclusive: and a bit alarmed to hear that a beaver shark brought down Nitfol's hometree. Umboz agrees that if the Pales have invited them, it's because the Pales want something from them, but he can't think of a better way of hiding from Koyeeb.
As they leave, in the background we see first one of a pot of ornamental carnivorous plants, and then the jelly monster in the bowl, trying and failing to eat a small flutterby: these things look as though they might be smaller, non-sapient relatives of Fern and the Oozes, just as there are non-sapient, livestock versions of Jibjibs and Trogs. Note that Piu controls the thing in the bowl with a designated Whacking Spoon, while we will learn that Ghast reproduction involves a pool of undifferentiated Ghast material and a Stirring Spoon. Glorf and the Mayor's goons are already at the window, and hear the clatter caused by the unsuccessful hunt.
We see what Shona and Frowgler discussed, that Nomes live by creating Tardis-like spaces which are bigger on the inside, and which are apparently anchored to more than one tree, so that they can be entered and exited not just through the tree where the home is situated but through neighbouring trees (which is how they evade Glorf). Piu and Umboz rejoin Nitfol, a prattling Vezza and the Pales, and Piu gives Nitfol her emergency hat, kept for patients in need and made especially ugly so they won't steal it. As they set out Comshaw's Scalpsucker lands behind them.
09: Back and Forth [28/04/2006 – 20/05/2006] Propelled by the firing of the HJ42, Snerk the Saur and Shona the Gnoll find themselves fifty years in the past in the local Human city of Eetown three months prior to The Crash. They encounter a young, green-haired woman called Ilsa who is aggresively rude and calls them vermin, and one with long dark hair who seems to be the Scary Lady when young. These two are fighting about the Eman family because the Scary Lady is loyal to the Earl Philbert's brother, Frederick, and Ilsa hates the Earl and is part of some revolutionary group (we also see somebody in dark glasses, carrying a bomb). The Scary Lady realises that Shona and Snerk are out of their place and tries to use a magical 'fluence on Shona, but Gnolls are highly resistant to that sort of thing, so she grabs Shona physically and then is transported back to the future with her and Snerk.
Snerk runs off, still clutching the HJ42. The Scary Lady tries unsuccessfully to remove her necklace/collar – this coincides with and may be the cause of the eruption of Fire from The Pit. Shona is aware that the town they were transported to had a feeling in the air like that of the River of Fire, and she'd like to feel it again. She believes she just went through a twistpoint, and isn't clear that where they went was in the past.
The Scary Lady meets Frowgler and they discuss the collar, which is magical, is tied in to the power of the Mansion and was put on her by Frederick. It still gives her access to some power even in this future where magic has failed, although she's going to have to make some tweaks to the Mansion's magical systems. Frowgler warns her about the Crash about to happen three months ahead in her own time, and that she has to ensure that Frederick and his brother Quincy, Sylvester's future grandfather, survive it so Quincy can father children, in order to preserve causality. She might not care about the world ending if causality unravels, but she would care about Frederick ending, even though he was the one who trapped her. As confirmation that he's telling the truth Frowgler tells her that when she returns to her own time she will learn that Philbert is dead and Quincy is now the Earl. She refers to Frowgler as being "dressed like" a horned frog, so she knows him as something else.
We learn that she is some sort of dangerous nihilistic demon whom the young Frederick and his friends summoned by accident and then couldn't banish again, so Frederick used up all his own power to create the collar that controls her. She hated him, yet grew also to love him. This must have taken some time, and Prunella was already a student when they did the summoning, which is why I say she must have been about twenty-five at the time of the Crash.
Returned to her own time, the Scary Lady learns that Philbert is in hospital after a serious crash. She uses mind-control to co-opt Ilsa to assist her, reasoning that Ilsa will need a new purpose now that Philbert is about to die, and we see that a comic book called The Return of Frowgler is on sale.
10: Candle Monks [28/05/2006 – 09/06/2006] Rosemary, Sylvester, Camora and Hax confront the Candle Monks and we learn that Camora is the "Evil One" – because two weeks previously she accidentally knocked over their Eternal Candle while dodging a rack of lesser candles knocked over by Niddle. Rosemary scares them off by being commanding, but we learn that their theology is fairly sensible – they light candles because they don't like being solely dependent on The Tree for so much, including light.
Camora tells the Humans about various religious sects in the Basement: we see what we will later learn are Bloomers, and she lists Beeblers, Ears of the Brush (we see a Helipath with an ear trumpet), Doomsayers, the Spelling Guild and her own group, the Ludwigites. They worship the great scientist Ludwig who rebuilt the world after the wicked Earl-monster tore it in two, apparently without realising either that he was Human or that he was the heir of E and eventually became the 18th Earl himself. They believe he was a Gnoll.
Rosemary thinks it very progressive of the Candle Monks to have a male leader, the Ooze called Father Tartuf, because she's used to Oracles being female. Camora mentions that Comshaw has said that Nomes have male priests.
We see that the Gnoll Clochard has been tailing them – and that he reports to Digger Odel.
11: Dropping Out [10/06/2006 – 16/07/2006] Camora, Rosemary and Hax go to visit a lavatory (known as a drophole) leaving Sylvester waiting outside. Protus appears to him (initially upside down) and says he needs to speak to him in private, and they are not alone (probably because of Squeeb hiding in Sylvester's backpack). He jumps Sylvester through a region of what looks like computer code to some kind of hyperspace cul-de-sac where Humans can survive (although Sylvester first forgets what his eyes are, then is able to see his own skeleton), and where Protus goes in order not to be overlooked by his employers (unspecified, but with eyes everywhere). Protus's world is in full colour, therefore full of magic.
We learn that Protus has lost a very valuable object. He needs Sylvester's help to find it because he has special abilities – Faddle is mentioned as also having these powers, but not as much, and Mr Hand is mentioned as a nuisance to Protus. After turning on his helmet lamp, and a moment of confusion in which Protus appears enormous, Sylvester is able to see images generated by machinery which Protus has set up: he sees Mortimer wearing a pink outfit including a pointy hat and an umbrella, which is clerly the same outfit Mortimer saw himself in when he was Zorped forwards in time. This Mortimer is flying hand in hand with a kind of Superwoman figure in what seems to be an Eman family uniform, as it has a big E on the left shoulder. She is probably the woman Mortimer saw himself with in the future, as she has the same distinctive hairstyle, although her hair looks a bit lighter in colour.
Then he sees Rosemary fighting a woman who is wearing some sort of leather gear and a magic glove, who we will learn is called Tansy, and who has the triangle-in-circle sign on her arm. He sees brief images of the male Motihaul Izchak, vending pointy things; of Crazy Rhid; and of an adult male darkpelter Trog, and he mentions that Humans in Wirtvale breed Trogs – probably less intelligent ones – for leather. He sees snapshots of three villagers: the local Oracle, Threnody; Saffron Stout the innkeeper; and Old Man Larssen. Then he gets glimpses of Angus's giant pot which is stored in the Mansion and of what looks like some Sneech growths, then of an old lorry (which he calls an auto) of a kind we will later see driven by Fixits working beneath the River of Fire. The driver of this one seems to have horns, or possibly a horned hat, and there is a big E on the front above the driver's cab. Protus says the lorry is the thing he's looking for. [Note: the only horned sapient species we know of are demons and Wendigoes; the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.]
Protus then sends Sylvester back to outside the drophole, then reappears from further in the future to thank him for his help in recovering the lorry/auto. Rosemary, Camora and Hax then emerge (Rosemary says it was the second-nicest one she's used in a year, presumably after the flush toilet at the Mansion) and Camora can tell by scent that Protus has been there and has taken Sylvester out of time. She mentions that on a previous occasion Protus took Skibble out of Time Hall, and advises Slvester to describe what he saw before it fades, so he tells Rosemary about seeing her fighting a woman in a glowing glove, although Camora says the future isn't necessarily fixed.
12: Bad Rubbish [18/07/2006 – 04/09/2006] [End overlaps start of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions] Sina's team scatter to their tasks: Kronk to track down Rhid; Snerd to summon a Ghast Healer; and Hiblehoy to help Wrawa deal with Leny's body. Sina herself (still blind) takes the Deep Wyrms Ploot and Voog to break off a big metal fire-bowl from its plinth outside Rhid's place and chuck it through the door to set off any booby-traps. They are joined by the Gnoll Skuy from the bucket chain (who ducks when she hears all the bangs, but Sina doesn't flinch).
Rhid's hall proves to be large and empty, but with alcoves along the walls some of which contain further booby-traps. They know there has to be a workshop elsewhere, for which Rhid is probably making.
Ploot and Voog discuss Wyrm politics – their need for Telic (the healer) and someone called Hesper (who we later find out is a Helipath armourer) and for Coldzoners generally, a separatist Wyrm politician called Mother Byng who Ploot thinks is becoming senile (saying which could earn him a visit from a sort of secret police called Cousins) and trouble in the Burn Zone and with the sapient Rocks, which may cause them to need Rhid's weapons. The oppressive rule of families in Wyrm society is one of the reasons they come up to the Coldzone.
We learn in passing that Skuy lives in a warren off Helignoll Hall with eleven other Gnolls. Voog, probing the alcoves, is injured by a booby-trap, which causes Sina to have a crisis of nerve about her leadership skills, but Skuy appeals to her desire to impress Comshaw. She leads her troops (Skuy the Gnoll, Spot the Gobule, Mowder the Trog and Fosic the Helipath) in setting off traps by throwing rocks: Spot is especially good at this, using his tongue, and reminds them that he is three-times winner of the Tosser's Cup. In the process Voog gives away the fact that some Hot Zone rocks are sapient and aggressive, causing Sina to promise herself never to go there. They need to press ahead because the smoke from the elevator is getting worse. They clear the way to the exit at the far end, but find it is blocked by a mysterious web linked to little glowing glass bulbs, and there is a burning pot of Trog Repellant which makes Mowder throw up. Mowder retreats, and Sina asks him to send any Ghasts forwards as she wants information about Dornbeasts.
Meanwhile, Wrawa and Hiblehoy take Leny's body to Bowel Hall to be rendered down, because he wanted to be useful, and Rhid is seen fleeing past Tuft and Dap. We see Hpobfvfr, accompanied by a sled-mounted flame-thrower (not hers), interrogating Speck about Hpthbvtw's presence at the elevator explosion; the Council babbling in alarm; Nevus's Eyebolt secretary trying to get the flame-thrower recalled, so evidently it is part of Nevus's armoury; Digger doing whatever Digger does; Fizmo still climbing stairs; and Nitfol and co. still walking.
Note that the title of this episode is a riff on the saying "Good riddance to bad rubbish".
13: After Thrash [05/09/2006 – 30/10/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1112–#1154] Comshaw, Niddle and Ig meet up by The Pit: Niddle still has his coming and going crystal, and close exposure to the Fire from the pit has left him with some extra clairvoyant knowledge of recent events. He mentions Mortimer, and Comshaw recognises the name as that of a supposed demon who caused an explosion which started the Nome–Gnoll war, and we learn that Compline and Caytid disappeared during a Sneech attack at the end of the war. We learn that Comshaw's father Comfrey tried to do something in the forest which Comshaw, his mother and the late Clerihew, Comshaw's parents' Finagler, spent their lives trying to live down.
We also learn that the forerunners of Finaglers were called Schemers, now rare in the Basement but still common in the forest; that Ig has a forest Gnoll friend called Splat who won't tell him what Schemers do; that people come to the family home to get Finagling advice from Niddle when Comshaw and Camora are out; and that Comshaw and Camora are regarded as the best mated Gnoll couple. Sina and her intended, Sprocket, are the next best, although they argue because Sina has a crush on Comshaw, and Sprocket is used to relating to unconscious machines and his sexless Helipath partner Flange. Ig gives relationship advice to Comshaw. There is mention of a beautiful but too quiet Gnoll named Mimsy who was Comshaw's girlfriend before Camora. Mimsy is the Gnoll who now carries Nevus.
Niddle warns Comshaw that the Pales were told by somebody (Comshaw assumes the Nexus, but it was probably Frowgler) to steer him away from the Pit; that Thrash is dangerous, angry and scared; and that Pales communicate supersonically although a few other people, including some Schemers and Finaglers, can hear them. We learn that forest dwellers call the Mansion of E "The Stump".
Niddle recounts the vision he had when the Fire brushed past him – basically he saw scenes from all the things going on around them, and now he fills Comshaw in on them. The minds of Shona and Snerk felt good, as if something nice had happened to them (despite their trip to the past having been scary): maybe they picked up some magic. He has seen various Nomes, including a male priest and the party who are travelling to the Pale camp.
We learn that the two Pales who are accompanying the Nome group are called Fetch and Stepit: Stepit seems to be the FlagPale. Niddle knows that the Pales think of their home as the Camp. Niddle saw Nellie Grubb – Frederick's neighbour – heading to the village. He knows where Mortimer currently is (under World o' Pots), so Comshaw decides to go and speak to Mortimer and find out what the Humans want. Ig comes too to see if anything entertaining will happen. As they walk they are talking about Metalmins, which Comshaw thinks of as some old Human thing. After the party sets off we see a Metalmin or some other robot (we only see part of the head – it's definitely not Hector) come into view near The Pit; Glorf standing in Piu's house (behind him the Ooze-like thing seems to be crawling away, taking its bowl with it); Shona talking to Nevus and Mimsy; Snerk finding a dead Spyder (actually, the same one which earlier attacked Nitfol and Mortimer); and the white-haired, oldish version of the Scary Lady, accompanied by the apparently sentient balloon from the Zayfaring Stranger incident. Woman and balloon pass what seems to be a topiary Gobule, labelled Znutar, and come to a golden glow which causes the Scary Lady to think that "it's time for that again already". Possibly she is seeing the light from The Pit through a window and remembering that she saw it from close up when she was fifty years younger.
14: Rufus [01/11/2006 – 27/12/2006] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1161–#1195] Mortimer and Rufus discuss the family – they have sisters Lenore and Lil and a daredevil brother Ace. A few weeks ago Mortimer received a postcard from their mother and Lil sent from a place called Oongawa (the capital of Kuzco, near the Deep Jungle). Lenore is in their capital, and her last letter was very rude about someone or something. Ace was last heard of Out West, working for Grandpa Mundivagant. There is mention of Quincy having had an accident due to not tying his shoelaces.
We learn that World o' Pots is 60% owned by assorted Pale shareholders (Pales from a sub-country called Shibolith, not the local ones): Pale communities are very competitive but the ones in Shibolith can't afford to ride to actual war on Titanbugs, so they compete over stocks and shares. Pre-Crash, Human weaponry had been leaning towards magic-powered zappers (we see a tank built by Griff in the Hall of Achievement, and we're told the brothers used to play on it – again, how did they get down there?), so the Pales did well out of The Crash because Human soldiers suddenly needed to buy their non-magical weapons, and it took a while for Human armourers in Wirtwam to step in and begin inventing non-magical weapons technology. There is mention of an unknown something lurking under the Barrier Peaks to the north. But the Pales also suffered many losses in The Crash so it's unlikely they engineered it, and their own country (Yurpsland, although readers weren't told that initially) also did well, because of Wirtwam, and because they already had a province named Isdanlia that built sailing ships, and that fact gave them a head start after the Crash so that now they have the most powerful navy in the world.
The brothers pass through a cloakring designed to prevent magical snooping, although it gives Mortimer a bad feeling (he doesn't know yet that he has magic). Rufus thinks someone is watching him, but won't talk about it until they are inside the cloakring. It is mentioned that Mortimer is an expert lock-picker.
Rufus wears gloves, and tells Mortimer not to touch anything. There is still a World o' Pots in the village but this pre-Crash one was vast and its basement is full of extraordinary things, some of them previously intended for shipment to the Far Eastern Shore, including a box of darkness, food supplies on which Rufus lives (and which include chocolate frogs, sasquatch and Soylent Grey), and a demon-trap bottle which Rufus had the shopbot install in case the unknown watcher is a demon, and which requires an extensible ceiling to fit it in, made by the Hammerspace Company, which specialised in extra-dimensional products including "Poke Kits" – weightless portable storage space. In the in-universe comic which featured Frowgler the demon frog and Roshambo the warrior beetle, Frowgler gave Roshambo a Poke Kit. The demon-trap worked best as a sort of tapered bulb, but since it naturally fills with liquid some marketing department decided to make it look like a wine bottle. We also learn about a massacre at a place called Thricklefork in Florin, after "an idiot at the Royal Academy of Magic" summoned demons.
Rufus gets whacked by one of his own defensive booby-traps, but they make it to Rufus's room. Rufus says that for a year he has seen mysterious comings and goings from the Mansion of E (not the Basement), things being delivered or removed, and that the culprits are not Frederick, the Grubbs, Schmedley (the ageing butler) or Arthur the Weirdo. He believes it is down to Mr Hand, living high in the Mansion. Mr Hand is very old – believed to be the already-old wizard who locked the Operator in the elevator nearly eighty years ago – may or may not be Human, and has a Metalmin servant named Hector, which means he is the Overseer whom we have seen watching screens. There is a drawing of Hector on the wall.
While they discuss Mr Hand, a shadowy figure is watching. This proves to be a woman named Eunice, who has a similar clubbed hairstyle to that of the Superwoman figure Mortimer was flying with in Sylvester's Protus-induced vision (but is probably not the same woman because her hair is lighter, and gets lighter still in later drawings), but wears gloves like Tansy, the woman he saw Rosemary fighting. Eunice stuns Mortimer with some sort of electric prod and tells Rufus, who has apparently known her for years, that she and the other villagers, including Threnody the Oracle, all work for somebody more important than Mr Hand. She works for God (the old rich guy, not the deity), and if Rufus comes with her, God will give him the answers he seeks. She dismisses Mr Hand as "a senile old fool".
15: Snerk Meets the Boss [28/12/2006 – 05/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions in between strips #1195–#1221] Snerk, the Saur who won the auction, is nibbling on the dead Spyder when Frowgler appears. Frowgler is looking a bit rough and has lost the tip of a horn: we don't actually know why because he looked OK when last seen with the Scary Lady. Either he has been elsewhere (or elsewhen), or the Scary Lady's return to her own time was more violent at his end than at hers. [Later we will learn that Frowgler has probably been damaged in an explosion which hasn't happened yet.] It was Frowgler who put him up to bidding for what he calls the Zorper – the HJ42. Snerk tells Frowgler that the Zorper fired – which Frowgler isn't concerned about – and gives Frowgler both the Zorper and a Poke Kit containing extra fleebs, which Frowgler had loaned to him. Frowgler dismisses Snerk, telling him to go lay low at headquarters for a few days, and to tell people called Lumpy and Buzz (presumably the Saur who gave Comshaw a message about the end of the world when he first emerged from the tunnel) he hopes to be back at headquarters tomorrow – but then he says goodbye to Snerk's departing back as if he expects never to see him again. Left alone, he speaks as if he has seen the Zorper before, refers to "your glowing friend", presumably the wandering crystal that Niddle has, then activates it. To do so he extends not only retractable claws but what looks like a button with a "3" and two dots on it, set into the palm of his right hand and resembling the writing on the buttons on the device (or perhaps it's a coin: it's not wildly different from some coins with the E on). This time the Zorper goes "OZPR", violently enough to worry Snerk. [Latr we will learn that this sets off the explosion in which Frowgler has been/will have been damaged.]
16: Closing In [06/01/2007 – 25/01/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1221–#1235] Clochard asks Bung where Digger Odel is, and Bung says Digger is returning after being hired by a mysterious personage to bring down the killer tree (remember that the killer tree coming down is significant because it cleared the way for Mayor Koyeeb to lead an assault on the North Gnoll village). Meanwhile Rosemary's party are heading for Izchak's weapons shop, and Hpobfvfr is seen fleeing, apparently because the flame-thrower is about to explode.
Rosemary and Sylvester pass an official notice saying "DO NOT PAINT THIS WALL BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL", on which somebody has painted "ZARK OFF N DIE". Camora explains Basement politics as she sees them – how the Ghasts encouraged the formation of the Council as a peaceful alternative to the gang bosses Agita, Nevus and Guttle, because they need a stable environment in which to maintain their breeding-pools and reproduce. The Council had wanted Comshaw to be the Gnollish representative, but Camora didn't permit it. Camora regards the Council as meddlers, except that they did bring down and confine the demons Chauncy and Edgar. She despises Preznit, the Council leader, in part because he wears a hood and gloves and a fake voice and pretends not to be the Eyebolt everyone knows he is.
The Helipath and Jibjib (Rubrak and Snipe) are trying again to raise the heavy weight in front of the "No loitering" sign. Hpobfvfr gets mixed up with Sina's bucket chain as a result of a misunderstanding – she is looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw and hears that there is an injured male Ghast near Crazy Rhid's place, but in fact it's Sepfrbfrx, now one of Sina's team.
17: Conflagration [26/01/2007 – 26/03/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1242–#1297] Rosemary and Sylvester come to Time Hall, the centre of the Basement complex, where there is a poisonous fountain (which spews a different fluid every hour) and a levitating Ettin-made clock. They proceed to Sidestep Hall, the Motihaul village, which is divided by sex: the fact that Rosemary and Sylvester already know that it will be leads to a conversation about Motihauls elsewhere, what a swamp is, and the existence in the Basement of Nubby's Crogogator Pit (Camora says that Nubby really got into his work).
Hpobfvfr isn't interested in Sepfrbfrx, and in any case says she can't help him and he needs a Porta-Pool. She can smell that it was Rhid who damaged him, and can smell the Trog repellant, and she suspects Dornbeast bulbs are also present. She dismisses Skuy as of no interest, and asks Sina about a Ghast by the elevator. They are somewhat at cross purposes because Sina thinks Hpobfvfr is the Ghast that she sent for for help with Dornbeasts.
It seems that the web across Rhid's exitway is a Dornbeast net. Rhid wanted an exit leading towards the elevator and the Fringes but that meant there were adult Trogs and Dornbeasts out there, hence his choice of a Dornbeast net and Trog repellant at the door. That means it is Hpobfvfr's quickest way through to the elevator. The net is made of Scalpsucker tendons and when pulled it sets off bulbs of sphagnum grit, which Dornbeasts find very irritating (although the ones which guard the breeding-pools are conditioned to ignore it). Some of the bulbs turn out to have explosive in them, not just grit, so Hpobfvfr slashes the net with a cutting claw concealed in the flesh of her finger. It was put there when she was a child, and it's painful.
Sylvester's party have a certain amount of difficulty getting past the Motihaul guards, Smatchet and Gunsel, and Rosemary has to sneak up on them and disarm Gunsel. She tells them to either get some training or get a different job, and that Snoot will need a cleanup team at Le Tree. As the party leaves, the guards comment to each other that they have seen a "hat" like Camora's before, on somebody called old Mumchance.
Rosemary didn't keep Gunsell's spear because she's done with stealing, and also it wasn't very good. Camora tells Hax, quietly, that the person to see for the best weapons is Hesper. Although Rosemary has a sense of unease, the party don't realise they are being overlooked by hidden seige engine controllers, including an officer we will later learn is called Upernavik.
Meanwhile, the Scary Lady is still wandering around the Mansion with her sentient balloon, summoning it by whistling, Sina calls the bucket-chain into line to run through Rhid's place, and Hpobfvfr exits from the now open doorway and goes to the elevator looking for Hepthbav/Hpthbvtw, where the Operator, now conscious and suspended in the fire, tries to hypnotise her. Meanwhile we see the Scary Lady, upstairs in the Mansion and still accompanied by her balloon, looking at the doorway which leads to Sneech territory and being concerned that it is silent when there should be a sound of screeching.
Flames of magic flare out from the Operator, flowing through everybody nearby, incorporating the arm of a female Motihaul named Kulma which is then unnaturally stretched through a doorway to carry the power to touch the Jibjib Snipe and his Helipath friend Rubrak, who have just managed to secure their weight. It causes Rubrak to drop a hooked tool, just as the Scary Lady reaches the top of the elevator, presses a button and by doing so forces the Operator back into his lift and puts out the flames. As he feels his inescapabale task pull him back he grabs Hpobfvfr and drags her into the elevator with him, and the retracting lash of the Operator's energy and the Motihaul's arm throws the dropped tool and pings it against Chauncy and Edgar's containment bottle.
18: Chauncy & Edgar [27/03/2007 – 24/04/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1304–#1325] The people in the bucket chain who were caught up in the energy flow have been knocked down by it and are a bit dazed, apart from the Gnolls such as Niff, Folla and Wittol who are all still standing. Sina wants everybody to go home, now, because she feel something much worse than fire was involved, then it stopped for no reason so it may well re-emerge from the elevator. The Motihaul Kulma knows that her arm was stretched somehow and that it touched a Jibjib. Spot is being Spot and seeing how far he can stick his tongue into something.
Meanwhile the demons Chauncy and Edgar, who are extremely polite and careful with each other (in a way which involves a quote from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, about staying on your own side of a division), investigate the damage to their bottle, where they can sense a tiny hole. We learn that they fear the Caged King (the devil in the elevator) and something called the Burning Eye (later comments suggest this is the light near the top of The Spike, a tall thin tower near the Mansion) very much, and the Scary Lady somewhat less so. Chauncy temporarily detaches one of Edgar's horns to use as a chisel to break their way out through the side of the bottle. Folla tells Niff that something weird is happening by the bottle, and Skuy and Voog can feel that Hpobfvfr was taken away.
Sina is already telling everyone to clear the area when Niff goes to check on the bottle, sees it breaking and yells to everybody to run: note Niff and the bottle are not near enough to Sina for her to hear him. Both the Operator and the Scary Lady hear it blow. Once they are free, Edgar, the more Human-looking one, tries to set off on his own, but Chauncy (who resembles a woodlouse) won't let him. They kill the weight-lifting Helipath (who we only later learn was called Rubrak), who was knocked down by the energy surge – Chauncy cuts hir and then Edgar drops the heavy weight (which seems to be levitating, since most of it stays up after the rope is cut) on to hir. But Edgar is less murderous than of old, and turns down the chance to vivisect Rubrak's working partner, the Jibjib Snipe.
We learn that Chauncy and Edgar were sucked through some kind of hole from their own dimension, where they were under such constant threat that they had no time to take names or to think, and when they arrived they kept up the same level of violence. Now as prisoners they have had time to calm down, and just killing more local life without gaining any new information from it seems pointless, at least to Edgar. They are aware of Rosemary, who passed by their bottle an hour or two beforehand: they can tell that she is of this dimension, not a heavyweight being like the Operator or the Scary Lady, but still she feels different and they go in search of her to dissect her and find out why.
Meanwhile we see the Gobule Bung wake from deep sleep, apparently with clairvoyant knowledge of the demons' escape, and send two Jibjib henchbirds names Spuza and Snurt out with some kind of message or mission.
19: Remnants [25/04/2007 – 21/05/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1332–#1353] Sina, who deosn't yet know that Chauncy and Edgar are out, takes a mourning leave of the missing Hpobfvfr, standing in front of the closed elevator and apologising for leaving her. Many of her surviving forces disperse to home and/or safety, and Smyts move in to devour the dead. Sina speaks to a female Trog called Maggle who is a darkpelter (has a dark coat and pale hair) which is associated with resistance to Trog repellant: Sina sends her to take the buckets back to Tunktal the bucket maker, who is regarded with revulsion. Rhid's hidden workshop was blown open and exposed when Hpobfvfr disposed of the booby-traps: Sina and Skuy go to tell the Council about it, leaving Ploot and Voog (who had started to go home, then felt guilty about it and came back) to guard the workshop and prevent Rhid from returning. They don't actually enter the workshop, because it's booby-trapped (Skuy drops to the floor when exploding arrows start flying about), and the things in it might be useful so they don't want to just blow it up.
Voog doesn't want to talk politics, and says if Ploot keeps talking about Mother Byng being senile he'll be tossed in the Squirmpit. Ploot can feel change coming.
There is a twistpoint nearby which causes Sina and Skuy to see a vision (of the falling whale and bowl of petunias from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Rhid had told Sina about the twistpoints, with reference to the ghost cat we saw before: she says that he was dangerous not because he lied (he never did as far as she knows) but because of the truths he knew; that she wishes she'd had a chance to talk to him under safer circumstances; and that yes, he's a terrible person but a person can be both terrible and great. She wonders how many people Comshaw has killed (we know of at least three, if the Crudbean counts as a person).
They head for the Council and to get help for Sepferb, still lying injured on the floor. On the way they meet Catmorlo, who collects her cakeshroom (accompanied by Nosh, who is eager to eat it) – Catmorlo gives them all a chuunk of the cakeshroom and Sina thinks that if she hadn't intervened they would all still have been standing around arguing about how to organise the bucket chain, no-one would have died or been injured and the fire would have stopped anyway (this may or may not be true: it depends on what the Operator would have done). She tosses the no-longer-needed tray away, hitting Nosh off-screen. No, she doesn't know why it's called a cakeshroom. Then they hear an explosion and meet a female Motihaul named Asota who warns them that Nevus and the Council are fighting, and Chauncy and Edgar are loose.
20: The Lady and the King [22/05/2007 – 09/06/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1360–#1367] By pressing a button the Scary Lady has summoned the Operator to open the upstairs doors of the lift: he asks if she's called him because she wants to know about the Sneeches and she tells him it's because he was having too much fun with the fire etc. and she had been contractually obliged to intervene, although various distractions conspired (possibly literally) to delay her in so doing. The Operator tries to tempt her to break her contract and let him do as he pleases, and in return he will restore both her and Frederick's full power and youth, maybe send them through a Panegate to a place where they can be the god Ghu Himself. Then he realises that Frederick-the-magician died (that is, ceased to exist) just after summoning her, so it was Frederick-without-magic that she fell in love with and she won't want the magician back; but still, he can give them both eternal youth, instead of her having to watch Frederick decline with age. He calls her "my child", and partway through this conversation his little uniform hat metamorphoses into a crown, the little tags on his shoulders grow into full military-style epaulettes and his uniform develops brass buttons and a medal, but she rejects his offer.
He mentions creatures he calls "poor Shades" who refer to her as The Destroyer – presumably the ones we saw watching her from behind a grille as she escorted Zay to the Panegate. She mentions him standing on a balcony being cheered by a crowd (in Zark, as we will later learn), but he lost his power and now he's "locked in a box at the ragged end of reality" because nothing lasts forever: he says "including boxes".
After she leaves, the Operator/King comments to himself that she was feeling unexpectedly hopeful and he wants to find out why. He reaches through the dimensions to touch one of Protus's time pylons: it gives him a shock but he hangs on and scrolls back through the Scary Lady's recent experiences. He sees a mask, then the pillar of Fire, then Prunella, then Zay, all of whom he dismisses as sources of hopefulness before coming to an unbreachable barrier. If these scenes are running in order then her hopefulness must relate to whatever happened when she went out earlier in the day. He believes she has seen whatever Protus is hiding among his time pylons, but doesn't know it. He wants to call her back some time soon to speak to her again, and we learn that he has engineered a test for Rosemary (floating above his hand is a vision of Rosemary's winged helmet and the horns of Chauncy and Edgar), and if she passes he will want her back too – but it depends on his gaining control over Hpobfvfr, who is still resisting his attempts to take over her mind.
Meanwhile, something the Operator said has led the Scary Lady to assume there's something up with the Sneeches. She takes up her Sneechstick and prepares to go through the archway which leads to the route which runs through the Sneech den – so she will presumably be going down the route that Sylvester and Rosemary will eventually be coming up.
21: No Gnoll is an Island [11/06/2007 – 14/07/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1374–#1409] We see brief snapshots of the various groups – Skuy talking urgently to Ploot and Voog; people throwing stones at Chauncy, who is menacing Frag and a Trog; Kronk storming along, being watched by Clochard; Agita and Nevus and their assistants leaving the auction; and Ig, Niddle and Comshaw striding out. Then we cut to Comshaw's team in the forest. Comshaw is saying that Metalmins don't move: Niddle is just insisting that he saw a vision of an active, moving Metalmin when they hear the "OZPR" noise made by the HJ42 as Frowgler activates it. This is followed by a burst of purple light from behind the trees, and Comshaw says this is far more violent than and of a different quality from the previous such event (by which he means when it went "PROZ" after Shona and Snerk collided). He compares the previous event to the light-show in the Cavern of Serene Shimmering (which has something to do with marriage/reproduction), which isn't as bad as the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave. While they are talking an enormous boulder is thrown through the air, narrowly missing them.
Niddle is thinking of going to check out the site of the explosion when Ig smells something (which he recognises but the Gnolls don't) and tells them to run. Something is growling offstage left and even flutterbys are fleeing. They climb up onto the ruins of an old Human fountain, and Ig tells them what's coming is a skunk shark, which can't climb, and isn't as bad as a beaver shark. Once beaver sharks lock onto a prey they never give up, but skunk sharks lose their sense of where you are and wander off if you climb up high. They're called skunk sharks because they smell, although neither Ig nor Comshaw know where the word "skunk" originates. Niddle is still clutchuing the glowing crystal but nobody notices or comments on it: not even him.
Ig and Comshaw talk about the skunk sharks, whom Ig calls "growfers", useful omnivore which graze and thin out the saplings to create open woods and grassland. They don't go to the deep forest to the north, and that's why it is deep forest. They tend to graze in a circle which is "East of the Ravine. South of the Deep [forest]. West of the Stump North of the Edge. The important stuff." This circle is probably centred around The Spire, and doesn't include the Mansion (the Stump). The shark will go away eventually but Ig can't say how long that is because he doesn't know what an hour is and can only count to forty-two. This leads them to a conversation about maths and inifinity (we see the Eyebolt mathematicians Poyndext and Suscalva, arguing). Comshaw says he can count to a million, which is about how many leaves there are in the world, and Niddle says he's wildly underestimating.
They have to hang around on top of the fountain's plinth for a couple of hours, talking, until the shark has gone. Comshaw tells Ig how they divide up the day into twenty hours, and they know about sunrise and sunset because The Tree extends above ground and responds to sunlight, and the GBOLs (Glowing Balls of Light), the lights powered by The Tree, are dimmer at night. The Basement-dwellers got the idea of a twenty-hour day from the Ettin-made clock in Time Hall which, like a lot of other Ettin artefacts, they wrongly believe to have been made by Humans.
Comshaw has decided not to visit Louch after all, so while they wait they break out the beetles. Then Comshaw climbs to the top of the fountain (which is about 8ft tall, not counting the base) in order to get a good view all around.
Part Four: The Road Less Travelled [16/07/2007 – 26/02/2010] 01: Izchak [16/07/2007 – 30/08/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1416–#1451] Sylvester's party come to a Motihaul-owned shop called Izchak's Sharp n' Pointy. Izchak is a bit annoying, and tries to sell them sharp twigs, Nome picks and then a machete-like sword which he says belonged to Othar. Rosemary is attracted by a weapon like a halberd with a weighted butt and a kind of hooked crescent end. She doesn't know it, but this is the same weapon Mortimer saw her carrying when he was briefly flashed forwards in time after he pressed the button on the HJ42 during the auction in the forest. Behind her back Izchak tells Sylvester and Camora it's not for sale because it's trapped in an "airbox", an Ettin-made forcefield which the Basement dwellers wrongly attribute to Humans, and which neither he nor Sprocket and Flange have been able to open. However, if he was telling the truth then something Rosemary does, or some change in conditions, causes the airbox to open and the weapon comes freely to Rosemary. As Rosemary is speaking to Izchak, Chauncy and Edgar carve their way in through the wall. They want to dissect Rosemary and Sylvester to see how they differ: Chauncy says that the walls in Rosemary's head have "only traces of extra paint on them", while Sylvester's are "thickly encrusted". They know who Rosemary is because they heard about her from another demon named Scratch whom she encountered before. Rosemary thrashes Edgar with her new weapon and then tells him that his victims felt similar pain, and until the magic comes back he's stuck here so he has to learn how to live here. Edgar it transpires is not callous or brutal: rather, because the Human world is so flimsy in comparison with his own he had believed that the world and the creatures in it weren't real, but something like a video game. Now that she has shown him that these are real people he doesn't intend them harm. We learn that Rosemary did something similar in the past with Scratch: she got him to pay attention to her, then advised him to go away, find a new place and learn how to live there peacefuly. We learn some background information. Demons in this world communicate with each other long-distance by a process called "tapping the lines". Chauncy and Edgar would have left long ago but they are constrained by some kind of barrier around the local area (it does seem to be local, not the planet's magnetic field). It surrounds the tunnels, the plant life outside and the Burning Eye, which is probably The Spire. Edgar can tell that Sylvester is closely connected with the Scary Lady (his great aunt), and Sylvester tells the two demons to go ask her to help them to get away. They say she has forbidden them from ever going upstairs again, but then Chauncy senses that she is on her way down, so they go in search of her. Before they leave, Chauncy asks Rosemary to strike him too so he can feel it, and she does so but nearly breaks her wrists, because he is so solid. Chauncy agrees that that was unpleasant and he'll think about the implications. Edgar, who seems to be a nice boy at heart, thanks Rosemary and says he will talk to the others. Then they simply carve their way through solid rock to go see the Scary Lady. After they have left, Rosemary pays Izchak, and starts looking for a suitably grand romantic name for her new pole weapon. Sylvester dubs it "the Can-Opener". He finds it supicious that the airbox just opened and let her take the weapon, as if it had been set up for her to take. He learned about airboxes at the University: they all have some specific trigger to open them, but it could be anything. We see sample airboxes containing a little machine with three "eyes" and two arms or horns; a statuette of Cthulhu/a winged Ichyoid; and a pipe with a flared end. As they come away from Izchak's shop Camora smells something, and a voice shouts "HALT!" 02: Upernavik [31/08/2007 – 26/09/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1458–#1479] As they come away from Izchak's place, Sylvester's party encounter a group of male Motihaul soldiers armed with cold-forged iron weapons (which was what Camora could smell: and Sylvester can tell that they are cold iron, which implies he might have some magic himself), inbound to tackle Chauncy and Edgar, and are warned by their officer, Matagam, to leave the area. The clever and devious head of male Motihaul security, Upernavik, is listening through bugging devices: he must have heard the confrontation between Rosemary and Edgar, because he has "Scratch" written on his notepad. He sets Whisp (a dark-pelted female Trog) to tail Rosemary, Camora and Sylvester, then orders his side-kick called Knumdrot (a play on the Patrician's secretary Drumknot in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels) to lock down their whole Hall, saying that the sellers might object but their spokesmotihaul just had his shop ripped apart by two demons and a giant killer Nome. Knumdrot refuses, citing a Contract which states that a Full Hall Lockdown requires the prior consent of both Upernavik and his female counterpart, Angmagslika. Upernavik regards consulting with Angmagslika as a dire ordeal – but he doesn't need to meet her after all because he receives a message from her telling him to initiate Lockdown. A horn is honked to alert two male Motihauls called Notserplib and Nagolder, who are dozing in a very cozy flat or office full of ornaments and games. We see the sound travel down pipes past a Smyt graffiti-artist ("Fnord wuz ere") and a Trundlebug who is looking at something like a Pacman monster. The two Motihauls have a pet tunnel rat called Hackit who is sleeping on Nagolder's stomach, and has to be lifted up with defensive gloves and placed in a box decorated with a moon and stars (it doesn't work without them) to control him. His job is to protect them from slimegrubs. Once Hackit has been safely boxed, they swim down a well-shaft to an underwater capstan which they turn to close off the Hall: they are able to breathe underwater, so long as it's fresh water. Nagolder, we learn, is a friend to Cully, the young Gnoll who was banished to SubShaft 44f. Shut outside in Time Hall, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that he considers her to be only the second most frightening woman he knows – after his great-aunt the Scary Lady. 03: The Gibber [27/09/2007 – 01/11/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1486–#1515] Rosemary starts to tell or ask Sylvester something about the Scary Lady, but Sylvester interrupts to talk to Camora about the fact that they are heading for the Riddle Grotto. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their upbringing – Sylvester's parents were loving but absent, his father a twit who died young, his mother always a traveller, literally and figuratively, so he was raised largely by the Scary Lady. Rosemary, whose parents we know drowned in a maritime accident, was raised by her Aunt Eva and by Eva's former bodyguard Zeke. We see a vignette of Eva teaching Rosemary how to pick locks. Heading towards the long way out, they pass a group entity called The Gibber, guarded and assisted by an elderly female Gnoll (the grandmother of Mimsy), a Poker called Anathama. Helignoll Hall is a major home site for Helipaths and Gnolls: some years previously they started to open up a side chamber called Helinew, but then seven years ago a group centred around a male Gnoll called Altholen, inspired by stories of the magic-users Caytid the Gnoll and the male Motihaul explorer Othar, used "Sneech squeezings" and the underground River of Fire (= magic) in an attempt to reawaken the magic in the world. Instead, they caused a cataclysm called the Breach which extended right up into the Mansion, where it caused sparks or similar to shoot out of the Tree. In the Basement it killed a large number of Ecadems and generated many new twistpoints. Camora's sires' Finagler Twitchel helped to seal it again: her sires Buccula and Choller also claimed credit for sealing the Breach. Some of this information comes from Camora, and some from Anathama who says that Buccula and Choller just got in the way, and it was the Trog Yurd and co. who fixed it. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Anathama they are forest Nomes, but Anathama as a youngster saw the young Sylvester and the Scary Lady fleeing a running fight with some Trogs in the Basement and she knows that they are Human, although she doesn't comment. One of the effects of the Breach was to bring The Gibber, a cloud of half-seen faces in the darkness beyond a hole in the wall, into being in their own pocket of reality, overlaying what had been Helinew Hall. The Gibber have great knowledge and always tell the truth, so they function as an oracle. The Gibber knows their names – Sylvester Winston Humphrey Eman (but they hesitate over the Eman and say that some things are truths and not truths) and Rosemary Imogene Ripley, who they know arrived in an instant. In the past they told the truth to Camora, that she was going to mate with Comshaw: neither she nor Anathama were happy about it, since Anathama thought he would mate with her granddaughter Mimsy. Now they tell truths to Rosemary and Sylvester, which they later tell Anathama were among the greatest truths they have ever given. To Rosemary they say "What you stole is even more dangerous and precious than you know. In the end, you will fly away and live forever, and you will leave the world shattered in your wake." To Sylvester: "You will return to where you started, and you will become what you hate. And in doing so, you will restore the world to what it was". After Rosemary and co. have left, The Gibber tell Anathama that they are dying – the power source which maintains them has failed (which suggests they are powered by the Sneeches). She is quite upset by this. She tells them that her duty with them has not been onerous, especially considering some of the things she has done in the past – we see her crawling through a tunnel to collect Glowgems – and she mentions somebody called Bokonon who was "Sent into the SubShafts, and then..", which was somehow Digger's fault. This was connected with some necessary but personally risky thing that a group she belonged to, along with Bokonon and Digger and unspecified others, was and are doing. She needs to find Digger and tell him that Humans are back. Digger has never been to The Gibber to hear his truth. 04: Hop Skip and Several Jumps [02/11/2007 – 08/01/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1520–#1581] Bung's Jibjib messenger Snurt goes to Maw – who is just wrapping up winning a battle against his assailants – and warns him that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. Cram and his colleague, who were planning to attack both Maw and Nash, have been defeated: Cram is fleeing and the colleague is dead. One of two tiny Fuzzes is unimpressed by Chauncy and Edgar, qua world-destroying giants, as they've seen bigger. The people at Rhid's place arm themselves with the remains of his Dornbeast-repellant globes, ready to fling them at the demons. Sprocket and Flange 'phone Mr Hand and tell him they have his Metalmin filament and now they're going home: they don't tell him they have seen Nevus and Agita returning to the Basement. Mr Hand tells them to drop the filament off first. Nevus speaks to Frag and is surprised to find that in his absence his forces have gone to war against the Council, in his name and claiming his authorisation. The Nome party – Vezza, Piu, Umboz and Nitfol – and their Pale escort cross a rope bridge across the Ravine en route to the Pale camp. A chain of Pale lookouts send a signal to the Camp by waving flags and tools: at the Camp they have a telescope set up to watch for the signal. We see their supersonic voice being sent from the telescope operator to the The message is "She is coming", so presumably it's either Piu or Vezza they want (unles it refers to Fizmo who will join them later). The message passes by somebody who is being showered (or maybe fumigated). The Nexus him or herself, the ruler, is apprehensive and says that "she" may not be "the one", and the outcome will prove "Frogmask" – presumably Frowgler – right or wrong. We see a frog on a lily-pad near a Pale boatman: apparently it's a real frog. The boat is a punt, and there are fish in it. The action cuts to the high thin tower called The Spike, on the edge of a lake somewhere near the Mansion, where a high-ranking male Fixit called Cox is using a mesmerised Pale mount to listen to Pale communications. Cox speaks to a Human called Dorian who has lived in The Spike for forty-two years. Dorian is being ridden by a Fixit but it seems that Dorian is the one doing the talking, and is in a position of authority. Dorian says that somebody called Kelso is "finally bringing in her pet idiot" – presumably Rufus. We will learn that Kelso is Eunice's surname. Cox floats down through the tower, using artificial levitation devices, until he meets a female Fixit called Vix who is riding a controlled Nome girl, and pushing a gurney holding industrial supplies. During the chapter headed Thrash, in the 900th strip which in real-time appeared almost two years before this one, a light message saying "900 WOO HOO" was seen shining from the top of The Spike. In-universe, this of course was earlier the same afternoon, and Vix says that the "wooflare" has drained some resource which the supplies on the gurney will help to stabilise, but Cox calls her away to walk with him. We learn that Cox is significantly older than fifty and witnessed the Crash. He talks to Vix about the Crash and the Human cities he once saw. Vix doesn't think she will ever ride a Human and visit such places, as she's never even been DownSpike: Cox says he was there when she was brought up from the pens. There is a reference to a shield around the area, and to a new Human being brought in to The Spike, presumably Rufus. Protus, he thinks, has some vast plan – he first appeared five years beforehand and since then there have been more wooflares, both in the Spike and the SubShafts (a fourth-wall breach reference to the dawn of the comic, although it only became an organised web-comic four and a half years earlier), and more twistpoints. Mr Hand has been passing on reports from the Hot Zone observers, which also suggest imminent events: so Mr Hand is in some way allied with The Spike. Protus finds Mr Hand mildly annoying but nothing they know of will make him angry: but he could still crush them all in passing. There is also a female enemy Out West who some people fear might be involved with Protus, although Cox doubts it, and so does a leader called the Topspike, who may be the same as God. Cox says that before the Crash he was sent to Rowen, the capital of Lune, to bring back an airbox (maybe the one in which the Can Opener was kept?), but he should have dumped it and fled, and Vix should do the same if she gets the chance: flee the Spike, and go anywhere except Out West. Meanwhile, within sight of the Spike but some distance away, Frowgler crawls out of the crater left by the OZPR event – he seems mildly disappointed that it didn't kill him. He has the broken horn: is it possible that within his own timeline this is happening before he met Snerk and received the Zorper from him? Perhaps going OZPR sent him around in a circle. At the Mansion, the Weirdo, grieving for his dead friend Tulip (said to have been "hauled off to the Pole", a euphemism for death), has got roaring drunk, climbed up to the roof terrace, set off a siren called the Mugwump Alarm (although there are no longer any Mugwumps in the area and they are believed to be extinct) and passed out. Amos Grubb comes to shut off the alarm – which requires complex instructions from a code book (he seems to be the Mansion's librarian) – and has a conversation with Fantod, the Weirdo's ventriloquist's puppet, in which Fantod speaks as if he is an independent entity. Fantod never met Tulip, because Arthur won him in a Skipjack game after he left the Weirdo Academy. Fantod tells Amos about some events he and the Weirdo witnessed by the elevator, and refers to Rosemary as a "sword bunny" (an expression previousy used by Arthur – of course). They seem to be regular visitors to the Basement (again, how do they get down there?). Amos assumes that Rosemary must have arrived via the village, and that Nellie will hear some gossip about her while she's in town. Note that on the human side of the door, the door is marked in formal print "ROOF mind the gargoyles", and on the gargoyle side it's marked in scrawl "NOT RooF MIND THE HooMANS". The Weirdo having sobered up a little, Amos advises him to go to the Temple in the village and ask the Oracle, Threnody, to light a candle for Tulip. he and Amos walk down many stairs within the Mansion, and we glimpse a Panegate which opens into a world of yellow light and busy Helipaths. We see strange machinery, cables and pipes and Tree branches in the walls; Schmedley's room; the Scary Lady's electronic crystal ball; and a device called Ludwig's Vent Tapper 3000, which seems to be trying to tickle a magical flame into life by going beedle beedle with a mechanical hand. A limb of the tree connects into the Vent Tapper, then leads all the way down into the Basement where we see a female Gobule called Gulch teaching three baby Gobules called Gif, Glub and Gip, and telling them about the Tree, and about how they chew on bones and then make torches from the bigger ones, and about great bones within the ground, which they sometimes dig up. We see in cross-section that a ceiling GBOL light in the tunnels is connected to a huge, buried bone. Buried near it we see the head and claw-hand of a Metalmin, who died clutching a Glowgem. 05: Skibble's Place [09/01/2008 – 01/03/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1594–#1636] Rosemary threatens to hit Sylvester if he tells anyone her middle name is Imogene; he tells her that Mortimer's are Nigel Mundivagant. We learn from Camora that Mortimer was the "demon" who caused the Nome War, and from Sylvester that his parents chose their children's names from a very pompous and very long classic book called Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. Ironically the Mortimer in the book pulls wings off flutterbys, while we will later learn that Mortimer Eman has a strong connection to the things. Boogiemen choose their names from a secret Human book; Gnoll names are chose by their parental Finagler. Rosemary is alarmed by the idea of eternal life – she says she'd get really bored after the first thousand years. Sylvester is less alarmed by the idea of becoming what he hates, since he hates some quite harmless things, including his brothers sometimes, and the trick is to make the prediction work for you: Camora grudgingly admits (mainly sub-vocally to Hax) that she is happy with Comshaw. Sylvester comforts Rosemary by interpreting her prediction as eternal fame rather than eternal life. They come to Skibble's place (not Skibble, just his place), guarded by a male Gnoll called Cerbis, who peers through a slot in the door and offers to lend them a token with an "E" on it and a string hanging off it, to be used to activate a device to summon the Great Riddler through whose territory they must soon pass. He says they'll owe Skibble a favour for it (favours are traded as a kind of currency), and the string is so that after they've used it to pay the Summoner device they can pull it back out, as Cerbis has a limited supply of them. Sylvester turns the offer down. They discuss the aurilnode on the wall outside Skibble's Place: it was invented by a Helipath called Auril and Sylvester is impressed and disturbed by the level of sophistication it shows, and also by the spectacular magical event caused by Altholen, which wasn't a stupid idea as such even though he failed in his purpose, and which suggests outside help (whether to set it up or to fail isn't clear). He tells Camora about magic and the Crash, before which Humans too had telephones. He describes it as a huge magical surge which blew all the magical systems and tools and killed most of the magickers. Sylvester wonders whether Auril used Sneech squeezings in hir work. Camora says s/he was too sane to do so, and this leads to a discussion about genius and eccentricity – about Rufus, who takes dangerous scientific risks, and Rosemary's friend Edwird, who likes to swim in ice water, and Telic the doctor, who operates on hirself. Sylvester is sure that Auril used either knowledge or material from the Sneeches, which makes him want to get out of there even more. Camora realises that Rosemary and Sylvester just want to get home, and she wants to take them to the Council's tunnel soo they can leave, but Hax says this is a bad idea as it would give an invading force an easy way in. They set off for the Riddle Grotto, with Whisp trailing them. On the way they talk about family: Rosemary is an only child, since her parents got pregnant with her on their honeymoon and then died when she was six months old, but Sylvester is one of six. And yes, he loves Lenore, even though he doesn't trust her. Camora, who loathes her own brother, doesn't understand this. Camora tells them about Skibble, who first made a name for himself by unexpectedly winning the Stacking Cup at the Games, then became a gemhunter, but the dialogue trails away as they move on. It's a running joke that we never find out what species Skibble is. Meanwhile Shona, returning from the forest, realises her sister Sina is in trouble and goes in search of her, as does Sprocket (who expects that he and Flange will have a lot of work doing repairs). Shona has already reported to Nevus and told him about Frowgler and the "tall Nomes", but Nevus, Mimsy and a couple of male Gnoll soldiers, Frag and Blem, are still stuck trying to fight their way through to Nevus's office (which is in or off Crescent Hall). Nevus is having nearly as trying a day as Snoot. Agita is also back, and meets with her assistant Flibbergib the Eyebolt, who is riding on a Gobule and has been sent by a Mr Foolscap to warn her about the fighting, and to complain about Weirders. Agita comments on the fact that Flibbergib is upRooted, which suggests that while Camora may have been exaggerating about Eyebolts fusing with their seats there was a grain of truth in it. Guttle, delayed by the tangle he was caught up in, and still partially wrapped in tendrils, comes stamping down the tunnel, dismissing Skoil from his service as he tramples him underfoot. We see a scarred Rhid, still trailed by Kronk and contemplating desperate measures. We see the scuttly little sapient rock still trying to climb out of the Hot Zone, but having trouble coping with the distances involved. We see the Scary Lady and her balloon venture into the Sneech den, thinking that something is very wrong: Frederick half wakes and thinks of following her to make sure she doesn't do anything drastic, then falls back asleep. Clochard and Anathama meet up, both looking for Digger, and exchange dire news (the Council and Nevus at war, The Gibber dying, Humans returning, Kronk chasing a burned Rhid) which is trumped by one of Bung's Jibjibs, Spuza, warning them that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. They discuss the fact that Anathama saw Sylvester in the Basement fifteen years before, along with the "Clawblaster" – evidently the Scary Lady – and now he's with Rosemary, and with the pole weapon which Anathama has seen before, and although he's older he's far from old which tells Anathama that Humans have much longer lifespans than Gnolls. Anathama herself was whelp when she saw Sylvester (a.k.a. "Eyeplates") and the Clawblaster, and that was fifteen years ago, so she's sixteen or seventeen, and she says she's unusually old for a gnoll. Meanwhile, two Trog raiders wait at the mouth of the tunnel, planning to mug the next person through: it's about to be Guttle. They don't even notice Digger passing them by. 06: The Three Great Riddles [03/03/2008 – 04/06/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1643–#1725] Camora is telling Rosemary and Sylvester about Skibble – it's not clear what species Skibble is but he's a sort of Trickster and is friends with someone called Blitz who is probably a Gobule. Camora's story involves the words "So Skibble eats all of them!" Rosemary replies "But you just said Skibble is a—", and Camora waves her hand and says "Yeah, yeah, he probably got Blitz to eat them." The implication is that Skibble is something with a very specialised diet: so probably a Ghast, Ooze, Helipath or Ichyoid. Heading for the Riddle Grotto they pass a sign warning of a defence system called Death Doors, which are doors which attack any non-Human trying to open them, as with the Djinnoscope. They pass a door labelled Pots Room without stopping. Sylvester mentions the Djinnoscope, Camora asks about it and he describes the Hall of Achievement to her – but she knows it as the Death Hall, and the Djinnoscope as the Death Machine: Sylvester jokes about sub-committes in charge of naming. He explains that the Djinnoscope is called that because it can grant boons, like a Djinn. It's believed to have been a Djinn who taught people (he means Humans) how to tap into magic. They come to the Riddle Grotto and find themselves on a jetty at the side of a deep pool. Theoretically no one can cross without authorisation because the Riddler lives in the water and is fantastically fast (as they see when they toss a rock into the water, from a handy bowl of rocks provided for that purpose), but a Jibjib called Speedy once flew across on a bet with someone called Shilpit. Othar the magical Motihaul explorer is mentioned again. They prepare to say goodbye to Camora: she again wants to tell them about the tunnel (and is hearing voices), but Hax dissuades her. We learn that the Three Great Riddles were named by Dorn, 10th Earl of E, who also created the Dornbeasts (initially known as siegebeasts) as battle-mounts, and ended up being eaten by them. Sylvester has two large and one small E tokens in his pocket: he'll tell her what the small one is for later. Camora notices that the cabinet which holds the Summoner has changed shape (from a kind of squat bullet-shape to a straight-line oblong) since they first came into the grotto, but Rosemary and Sylvester have seen no change, which suggests that either their memory or the time-line is being tampered with. Sylvester says it's always been as it now is – and that it reminds him of something he saw with Protus (although it just looks like a dark oblong Protus took him though). Hax invades Camora's mind – previously they were just sub-vocalising – and takes it over, saying that he must follow his orders and she would find it distressing to be aware of what those orders are, and her mind and her sanity are precious and must be preserved. Rosemary and Sylvester are only aware that she went blank for a moment. Having been taken over, Camora now says she was foolish to suggest that the cabinet had changed, but Sylvester refers to his great-great-uncle Hindenburgh the wizard, who also witnessed things changing. Sylvester inserts a token into the Summoner and it sets off a siren (playing the Jaws theme, very loudly) which summons the Riddler himself – a giant Ichyoid about 60ft high, older than the Earldom of E and speaking a Human/Ichyoid pidgin represented as Futhark runes (occasionally upside-down Futhark runes). He starts by asking them their business, and addressing Sylvester by name, and expressing sorrow at his father Willoughby's death. Willoughby had a knack for making friends. Sylvester introduces Rosemary as "non-family – staying?" The Riddler replies that she is dangerous. Sylvester asks if he, Rosemary and their possessions may pass over, and the Riddler asks if "Fixit Gnoll" wants to cross too, but they don't understand what he means. He asks for information on Frowgler, but Sylvester only knows about the comic-book character and explains that he is a two-dimensional representation drawn by somebody called Linderhoff. We learn from Rosemary that Roshambo, and his talking sword Slasher, and the frog-wizard Frowgler, and other characters including Naif and Arax, are hugely popular cultural icons and the comic's been running since before the Crash, although Sylvester later comments that the quality of the comics has declined since then. Sylvester recalls Mortimer complaining that one of his Roshambo action figures had been damaged – this may relate to the Sciencebugs who were worshipping a Roshambo figure on Mr Hand's desk, or perhaps Frowgler measured a Frowgler action toy to get his impersonation right, although the comic-book Frowgler has a more elaborate tail-tip than the "real" one does, and his horns are yellow. The Riddler finds their information about Frowgler interesting, and gives them permission to cross. Sylvester warns Camora not to try to follow them as she doesn't have permission to cross, gives her the second half of her paper payment, admits to her that they are Humans and promises to try to come back and speak formally to Comshaw and the Basement authorities, and to try to make things better for everyone – but it's not Camora they are speaking to now. Rosemary and Sylvester are both aware that Camora has changed, but they don't know why. Note that the three Great Riddles aren't really riddles at all, but questions: how to get the Riddler to pay you benign attention; how to understand what he says to you; and the third one is a request for information, in this case about Frowgler. A pontoon rises and rotates into position, enabling Rosemary and Sylvester to cross the pool. Sylvester thinks the inefficiency of all this is a feature, not a bug, to make people reluctant to disturb the Riddler. There used to be a lot of ways in and out of the Basement but they were gradually all closed off except two – Rosemary reckons there must be at least one more to explain the various appearances and disappearances, and that Arthur the Weirdo uses it (OK, how does he avoid being noticed as a Human?). The pontoon's action is so jerky that as they get to the far side they fall in a heap and Rosemary jokily tries to kiss Sylvester. Hax thinks he senses someone, but can't make out who (it's Whisp). He walks Camora away. Sylvester had kept some things from Camora, such as the fact that the bridge stays in place for a couple of hours, and that he didn't need the token to operate the Summoner, because he's an Eman. We learn about Herediscans, security devices which identify members of the E family, and that the family used to manufacture reverse-engineered Ettin-style robots and sell them under the brand name Factor E. Some of the scanners accept new people: some only accept family, and because of the dilution of the family's DNA over the generations, some now won't open at all. Rosemary and Sylvester have one more Herediscan to get through, and he has to be alive to operate it. Sylvester doesn't like comics because he feels they have declined in scope and presentation and aren't nearly as good as before the Crash. But he knows he is privileged to be able to worry about such things, after society came so close to total collapse. Rosemary's Aunt Eva was close to starving but she later ended up as a professional Skipjack card-player: hence the bodyguard, who also watched out for creative cheaters while Eva concentrated on the game. Sylvester is boggled that people just went back to playing Skipjack after the world nearly ended. Rosemary says that in the town of Nye some card-games played right through the Crash. She herself has never been to Nye: Sylvester wants to know how she got from Out West to Audravanaia without going through Nye, but she ducks telling him, for now. Aunt Eva refused to teach Rosemary to play Skipjack: Sylvester thinks she's too impatient to be good at such a slow game. He says she followed in Zeke the bodyguard's footsteps instead. She says she's not a bodyguard: she's an explorer and Sylvester is her native guide. Meanwhile, Hax uses some kind of electrical charge from his antennae to open a secret door in the corridor wall. He walks Camora through the door into some sort of control centre (although the scene is domestic enough to include a fish in a bowl). He wonders about calling Mr Hand to confirm his orders, but decides not to. It sounds like he is planning to kill Rosemary and Sylvester. Whisp doesn't see Camora disappear into the wall, but does note that Camora's scent just stops. However, she was told to follow the "Nomes", not Camora. 07: Decisions Decisions [05/06/2008 – 05/07/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1732–#1760] Chauncy and Edgar locate the Scary Lady in the Sneech Den and ask her to help them get through the barrier: they do not want to go home because they have become used to having names. She agrees to help them. Sprocket and Flange place the filament from the old Metalmin, contained in what looks like an empty GBOL globe, into a service hatch, whence it is collected by an Ichyoid. Hiblehoy and Wrawa leave Leny's body in Bowel Hall to be rendered down. They are paid in Glowgems: Wrawa tells Hiblehoy to take half for himself and give the other half to Telic to research why the Trogs develop dementia. Her eyes look a bit strange so she, like Sina, may had been blinded by the explosion. Tomorrow she means to track down Rhid, but right now she crashes out and has to be carried home to bed by Hiblehoy: as they leave they see the Gnoll Forfind rallying Nevus's troops to the attack. We see Thrash and his two as-yet unnamed associates (later they will be called Scrawl and FlagPale) striding past the ruins of Eetown. Thrash finds Frowgler, slightly singed after the OZPR event, and picks him up. The other two withdraw so Thrash and Frowgler can talk privately. Frowgler says that he knows Thrash doesn't like him, and he's not going to tell him his story because it's so odd even he doesn't believe it, but that he means to see that the Pales get what they want. It's not his problem whether or not they'll still want it once they've got it. Frowgler says that he is neither so clever as the Nexus nor so powerful as the ruler in the Spike but still he is the most important person Thrash has ever met. He understands that Thrash may feel resentful because he's here in the forest herding Gnolls such as Niddle instead of escorting the Nome party to see the Nexus, which is evidently a prestigious job, but Thrash is here because Frowgler wanted him here, because Frowgler is the msot important person he's ever met, even if he's not as intelligent as the Nexus or as powerful as "our friend" in The Spike. Now Thrash can choose to help him or kill him. Thrash tosses him up in the air and catches him again, like a tennis ball, then lets Frowgler point him in the direction he and his companions should head. We see the forest Gnolls Scrof and Louch, who had been out on a foraging/raiding party and got caught in all the strange events of the day when Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed on them, after which Louch ran off. Louch, a cousin of Comshaw's, couldn't cross over the usual bridge because Pales were watching it (these were the lookouts waiting for Nitfol's party), and had to go north and use an even more precarious and minimalist bridge just called The Rope, and consisting of just three cords. Coming back he saw The Spike wooflare, and the Fire from The Pit, and at least two explosions from the Zorper. Now he is tired and wants to go back to their village, the northernmost of a pair, which is just a big communal warren. Louch is fed up with how poorly they live and wants to learn to read like his mother, and better himself. He thinks he will ask Umboz the Nome to teach his people how to cultivate crops, or go down in the Basement and ask Comshaw for help: but we see the Nome mayor Koyeeb saying that Umboz is a traitor, and ordering Umboz's brother Frotz to regain the family honour by leading a dawn raid on Louch's village. In the Basement, we see a male Gnoll, Bung's friend Faddle, heading home with a plant in a pot, and Niff and Folla from the bucket chain looking for somewhere to hide from the fighting, and instead running into the newly returned Shona. They start to tell her about Chauncy and Edgar: she doesn't believe them, but then they overhear two female Motihauls talking about it, and about Sina setting up a safe zone in Crazy Rhid's place (because of the weaponry there). Shona thinks that a safe zone at Rhid's place is an oxymoron, but Niff and Folla tell her that Sina has driven Rhid off. They all head for Rhid's place. 08: The River of Fire [07/07/2008 – 26/11/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1767–#1899] Deep underground, overlooking the River of Fire, is a bridge or gantry of some kind protruding from a pueblo-style adobe building. In this building we see a male Gnoll called Blit, with a bandaged leg (possibly injured in the fighting: he looks like a Gnoll we glimpsed having a bad day at Le Tree, but that one had a scratch on the left cheek), and a male Motihaul named Gongoozle discussing the fact that this is meant to be The Day That Changes Everything but it seems to be change for the worse, and the Gobule Lairs are all now at war with each other. A female Trog called Espy (who we will later learn is or used to be a primary-school teacher of young Trogs, and who is remarkably old-looking for a Trog and yet still mentally sharp) summons Blit to go downstairs to see someone called the Observer, and sends Gongoozle away because he is not on the Observer's staff and they are closing the observatory to outsiders. Blit goes downstairs by a complex route of lifts and stairs and corridors, passing other workers: a nameless Gobule squatting on a box labelled "IMPORTANT SECRET MYSTERIOUS STUFF"; two Eyebolts called Poyndext and Suscalva doing mysterious scientific calculations; and two Gobule labourers called Ottus and Piterbult. Ottus drives a heavy-goods-lift using a treadmill: between them the two are transporting heavy loads of "River Signs" up to Poyndext and Suscalva for analysis, as they have been doing for at least five years. Because of the lack of paper in the Basement, the signs are on what appear to be clay tablets. Piterbult, who pushed the tablets in a cart and has a curiously flat rear, is subversive in a jokey way. Blit then passes in sequence a sophisticated door with brass hinges and handle and a sign saying "CHANGE YOUR MIND"; a wooden gate with "STOP POKING AROUND" written vertically on the planks; a doorway closed by a ragged curtain with "LAMENT FOR THE DEAD" on it; a knotted climbing-rope; and an open doorway through which we can see a stone with "POINT OF NO RETURN" written on it. A short watch-being of unknown species called Wences (of whom we just see eyes, in a hatch near the floor) tells him the Observer wants him, and it's alright but not OK. Blit is caught by a booby-trap and catapulted through the air above the River to land in a padded cart partway out along the gantry, and operated by a Helipath called Lucint and two Jibjibs. He has actually crashed through the roof of a covered walkway along the gantry: the Jibjibs go to repair it with strands of leaves, so at least it's not very solid. The gantry has an amorphous block (the observation pod) hanging off the end with a small crane on it, and a cord, perhaps an autilnode wire, connects the gantry to the far side of the River. Lucint carries a stunned Blit down to the observation pod. Blit is just making "eep" noises, but Lucint evidently interprets them as comments about Piterbult, because he says that "that" (either the subversion or the flat back, we don't know) often results from direct exposure to Fire, and that "he", presumably Piterbult, has been pushing the Sign-report cart so often that he can now literally do it with his eyes shut. There may be an especially weird fourth-wall-breach joke going on here. When we first see Piterbult his back appears flat because the frame of the strip is cutting him off, but then he walks into the shot and we see that he really is that flat. Fire is magic in this universe but it's also colour and the hand of the artist, so he's flat because he conforms to the frame the artist (Fire) drew for him: a bit like the "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" joke in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. At the observation pod they meet two pink female Oozes, using artificial cradle-supports. The lower-down one of these is the Observer, and has OBSVR written on her side in Manglish (perhaps self-generated as it moves around). She tells Blit to tell her what he saw and he exclaims "GREEN!" although he says he doesn't know what the word means. Are Gnolls red-green colour blind, like dogs? Now he's said it he can talk again: maybe he was dazed because he saw a colour his eyes nromally can't process. The Observer tells him that different species react differently to proximity to the River of Fire. As an Ooze she herself has become stiff and less able to change shape (the Ooze stationed higher up is the Observer-to-Be, a trainee). It is rapidly harmful to Motihauls; Helipaths have to wear goggles to keep from going dizzy; Ghasts have to wear tinted lenses otherwise they go mad; and Wyrms can't go near it at all lest they become hypnotised and jump in. Eyebolts, Gobules, Jibjibs and Trogs are hardly affected, and Gnolls, especially mated trios of Gnolls, are affected in some way but also affect the Fire back, disturbing its flow (or perhaps affect the Observer's perception of the flow: she isn't sure which). The Observer has summoned Blit to look at the fire and see what he can see, because the River is behaving strangely. She mentions other Days That Changed Everything but says this one is especially odd, with an unexplained reference to a Nome called Rejov who did something which caused a similar event. The Obsever trundles her wheeled cradle out of the way and Blit looks down through a viewing hatch into the River. He sees images of a cactus – almost certainly "God's Cactus", the Mansion of E – and of a "fancy pot", then letters telling him two Humans are about to cross the Grotto Bridge. Meanwhile, at the edge of the Riddler's Grotto Sylvester lectures Rosemary about what Humans have learned about magic from Ettin writings. In their world it seems to function like magnetism – it's generated in or by the planet's core, sprays out from the South Pole in a series of leylines resembling lines of longitude and then dives back in at the North Pole. These leylines have been much fainter since the Crash. There are also random magical upwellings called tricklepoints which are still active and useable, and there's one at the source of the River of Fire. Not far away to the south, the Forest of Burzee contains an even bigger tricklepoint. The forest is peaceful and used for quiet contemplation. Different tricklepoints behave differently and are good for different things: the ones in Agraba and Akbar are good for summoning Djinn, the one in Plinth is good for cold-forging iron, and the one under the Mansion is being squeezed by something down in the Hot Zone, causing the River to be sprayed out of it. The female Earl Audra, mother of Ludwig, investigated it, dug exploratory mines right down deep into the Hot Zone and in doing so triggered a cataclysm which greatly enlarged the Great Chasm. We can see that Audra built a shaft down through a pillar – this is the pillar with a line of lights up it that we saw during the sequence with the sapient rock, and probably also where the stair which Fizmo climbed is – which connected to a series of chambers, which explains why there was a dead E security guard in the chambers where Fizmo and Kulkad were working. He was probably killed by the blast which Audra set off. Audra used this Hot Zone research station to send down a probe which triggered the explosion, so the thing Fizmo and Kulkad were watching for might be a resurgance of this force, rather like watching the magma chamber of a volcano for signs of swelling and upwelling. The River itself isn't dangerous unless you physically touch it. Audra's father Angus threw condemned prisoners into the River of Fire, and Chauncy and Edgar probably entered the world through it. The Operator, however, came to town by tram. Sylvester warns Rosemary to expect to see visions as they approach the River, and they set off. Whisp, who is evidently blazingly fast and agile, watches them from the far side of the Grotto and then crosses the Pool by bounding across the sinking bridge and dodging the Riddler's lightning-fast claws, although she suspects him of not really caring whether or not anyone crosses the Pool. Rosemary hears movement behind them but Sylvester assures her it's just the bridge sinking. Sylvester tells Rosemary that witches and wizards – thaumslingers – used to wear magic-concentrators called thaumtappers inside their pointy hats, which killed most of them when the Crash came. The batteries in their helmets run on small thaumtappers and Rosemary sees coloured lights and "horrible shapes" when she switches her helmet light on so close to the River, but it only happens if you're wearing the helmet at the time. Rosemary is concerned that if another Crash comes their helmet battereis could blow up and kill them, but Sylvester says that if the Brush sends them a second Crash on the one day they're wearing thaum battereies then so be it, and at least neither of them is carrying a high-powered magical item which really would kill them if it blew up. Rosemary smiles brightly and tries not to think about the Can-Opener. Sylvester does not literally think that the Brush caused the Crash, and it certainly wasn't the Wrath of the Brush as a hardline Oracle (Omega, although we don't hear her name until later) said when he was a child: he believes that the Brush set the world up, but that it has no interest in mere mortals (i.e. he's a deist). [The Brush that coloured in the world is their local version of a Creator Deity, represented by a symbol rather like a rake, and we also see that the more magic is present, the more saturated is the colour of the images in the strip.] We learn that he is not very devout, and has private reasons for not going to the Temple every week, and that the local temple of the Brush was moved from the Mansion to the local village of Eetown after an Earl called Ernest (father of Philbert) quarrelled with an Oracle called Purity. Ernest was a forger and died in a dramatic way. A new, large Temple was built just outside Eetown, which at the time was a thriving town, but being magically-powered it was wrecked in the Crash and a new new Temple was built from the ruins. As they approach the River they start to see externally-manifested visions of people from their pasts. Sylvester sees Dirge, a thuggish man from the village (actually the current Oracle Threnody's guardian), threatening to hit him. Rosemary sees her tutor and friend (not lover, Rob has said their relationship was platonic, and he was a lot older than her) lover, Edwird, and a respected bodyguard colleague called Baldy. She apologises to Edwird for having hurt him by leaving him in an emotionally clumsy way, and swears to make it up to him if she ever gets the chance; and expects Baldy (whose real name is Milburn Aloysius Aldershot) may be her enemy now because she went AWOL from a job they were both working on. The vision of a "Pyrite" appears, with a parrot on his shoulder – the pirate, who was someone Rosemary was once on a course with, dissipates when swiped with the Can-Opener but the parrot seems to be real and flies away. She has a theory that it was the parrot who was doing the course, and the pirate was just its mount. Sylvester sees Shackleforth Ferule, the family lawyer, who administers the trust which pays for the eldest in each generation of Emans to go to university. [In an out-take to mark the death of Paul Newman we see Forfind and another Gnoll on watch for "Council phiizzers".] Sylvester borrows the Can-Opener to wave away the vision: as he does so we see a symbol scratched on the bulky end, which Rob said is some kind of spoiler. It looks a bit like a coat-hanger with three bent wires hanging off it. Sylvester admires Mr Ferule because of his honest dedication to his job and his competence, even if he's a cold dry stick. Sylvester teaches Rosemary how to conjure shapes out of the magic-saturated air at will (he's good at it, but not as good as Mortimer) and tells her that Ludwig studied them, and said that they were connected in some way with the distance between Eyebolts (something we have seen managers of Eyebolt clerks worrying about, and these shapes resemble those conjured by Eyebolt Weirders). We learn that brilliant Ludwig had an almost equally brilliant common-law wife called Penelope who acted as his tech-writer (though they never "jumped in the Pool" to marry). They come to a flight of steps down, which is where the visions used to start before they spread out. As they approach the River it starts to show them what they most want to see. Rosemary sees a half-formed vision of her dead parents, without mouths because they died before she could talk to them, and Sylvester sees a naked, busty, willing Rosemary – the real Rosemary is quite flattered. We learn that for some reason Sylvester cannot or may not marry anyone from Eetown: he was expected to find a bride at university, but was too busy studying and none of his girlfriends fancied life in the arse-end of nowhere. We learn that the species in the Basement and in the area around the Mansion represent all the known intelligent species in the world, except Mugwumps (believed extinct) and Wendigoes. Rosemary wants to know why the Mansion isn't known as a tourist attraction, or as a draw for research teams as the Infernal Engine is: not even before the Crash, when Eetown was a busy and major stop-off point for airships to the Far East across the ocean. But Sylvester says there are similar but more impressive buildings elsewhere, and the Basement dwellers at the time were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now..", and neither Ernest nor Philbert was interested in the Basement. But he agrees it's still strange. If he means that the Basement dwellers were still confined to their individual species-specific habitats in Philbert's time, fifty years ago, that would mean that everyone except the Gnolls, Gobules and Eyebolts was shut up when Audra and Ludwig went down there. But other things he says later suggest that he just means they were confined to the Basement, not roaming around the Mansion and the surrounding woods. Rosemary and Sylvester recognise and acknowledge that they are already friends, and see a vision of Nimue Fayling, Sylvester's girlfriend from university (and Rosemary sees a naked Sylvester, but doesn't let on). They come to the start of a bridge across the River. Sylvester says that something's changed since he was last there. A magical surge envelops them and Rosemary (only) sees a vision of the Tree personified as a sort of Ent (although initially she thinks it's Death personified). It says that it is "an aspect minor" of "the system entire". It tells her that she is carrying the seeds of some important thing, an Egg and a Claw of it: the Can-Opener is the claw, and the egg is whatever Rosemary carries with her (presumably the Zorper/HJ42: we don't learn that until later, but we see crackles of energy from her pocket) and which she refers to as having brought her there. Presumably, this is the same thing that she stole. It says that Sylvester is less connected, and only has a Torch. Rosemary is becoming connected to "the system entire", the setup that runs the world and of which the Tree is a part, and which touches "the sky; the water; the earth and the fire; the magic; the prince in his high tower". Rosemary apologises for having distrusted it before, and speaks as if it is a god. It says she must turn the system entire upside down. She is concerend that that will hurt it, literally or metaphorically: it says that it will but "for the garden to grow roots must touch the sky". It wants to help but it lives on too slow a timescale to do much. It gives her another seed – this one actually looks a bit like a real seed – which she understands that she will need to plant at the end. We find out that she carries a Poke Kit for small items, but suddenly she understands it much better, without a manual, and is able to generate a secured SubPocket to keep the seed in with a 21-digit security code: 314159265358979323846. She is upset because she knows she won't remember this meeting. As Rosemary wakes from the trance she forgets who she was talking to, but just before she wakes the Tree starts to tell her she will remember when she needs to. She tries to tell Sylvester about what happened and ask whether she can trust what she saw, but it slides out of her mind. He will need to remember what little he saw, and remind her when the time comes. Meanwhile, Whisp is still stalking them, the parrot is still flying overhead, and Hax uses Camora to collect a sort of blunderbuss from a cupboard in the hidden control centre where he took her. 09: Loose Ends (Basement Edition) [27/11/2008 – 07/01/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1906–#1939] Shona, Folla and Niff climb a stair in the background and Forfind flees from arrows and rocks as Faddle brings Bung a flower in a pot as a thank-you for the profit he made from selling Bung's toadstool. We learn that Bung is quite an important political or merchantile player and are reminded that he knows Digger. One of his Jibjibs returns – she has been warning "folks" about Chauncy and Edgar (and she doesn't know who Digger is). We learn that Faddle is a failed or partial Finagler – and that this entails being a good psychological observer, so he knows that Bung has lots of contacts but no friends, and thinks the plant will be a friend for him. Anathama and Clochard are in some kind of long-standing political conspiracy with Digger, and are searching for him: Clochard is tempted to call out his name, but Anathama says he mustn't. They talk of going to Location Zero to wait for him, but it might be days before he turns up. He finds them (and it is mentioned that it is Clochard's job to ask questions he doesn't want the answers to, and that he hangs out with Izchak for information but doesn't much like him) and takes them much deeper underground. They have to cross a gap marked "mind the gap" in Ettin script. They come to a comfortable bedroom cum office which has artificial lights – so the Tree can't see what goes on there. As with the room Hax took Camora to (although this isn't the same one) there's a fish in a bowl, and also a big domino, which may be significant because even bigger dominoes turn up in Rhid's place. There they meet their old friend the male Gnoll Bokonon, an elderly Finagler whom they had believed had been lost in the SubShafts a long time ago: he had last been heard of in SubShaft 44f, compiling a report on Crud, the developer of the Crudbean (and one of the main characters in Sundays in the SubShafts), which was just after Comshaw killed the Ravers and Nevus started Le Tree. Bokonon believes the Tree is esssentially on the same side as them. Digger says they need to survive what is happening, which will bring the birth of a new order, and "ours will be even newer and even less orderly". Digger goes back out to see what he can do or learn about the fighting and about Chauncy and Edgar, leaving the three Gnolls behind to gossip in Gnoll jargon. Clochard and Anathama make the most of what time they have in this dangerous local situation, and go off together to make love. Bokonon, as a former Finagler, offers to help but they turn him down. Meanwhile, we see the Scary Lady and her sentient balloon escorting Chauncy and Edgar to a Panegate which opens on a desert area: perhaps Agraba or Akbar, where the Djinn live (but it's labelled "HOWDY buckarooclass panegate" in Ettin, which suggests it's some equivalent of Arizona). Nevus, Guttle and Agita resume command of their forces: Nevus orders Faldstool to get Preznit on the 'node (='phone); Guttle plans to attack both of them; and Agita correctly tells Flibbergib what both the others are doing, although she herself is busy still scrubbing off Mortimer's kiss. Two Ghast medics are en route to collect Sepferb from outside Crazy Rhid's place and place him in a restorative Porta-Pool: on the way they pass Hiblehoy, carrying an exhausted, sleeping Wrawa, and they advise him on her care and warn him she may be in an erratic mental state when she wakes up. Hiblehoy can't get home because Sidestep Hall is in lockdown, so a Trog called Mowder lets him and Wrawa into Rhid's place, where Sina is trying to organise an emergency demon-proof camp. Maggle has not succeeded in getting through all the fighting to return the buckets to Tunktal. The Wyrms Voog and Ploot have identified a source of water in one of the side-rooms off Rhid's place but there is machinery in the way. Sprocket and Flange turn up and are set to dismantle the machines. Maggle and Flange discuss the level of sexual tension between Sina and Sprocket, and whether they've chosen a Finagler yet. Variously in the background we see Timf, Delfa, possibly Satyrsong, and the Helipath Fosic. Meanwhile a New Year out-take shows Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party walking past some large Human ruins, with the Spike in the background. 10: Loose Ends (Mansion Edition) [08/01/2009 – 02/03/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1946–#1995] Amos Grubb puts Arthur the Weirdo and his hand-puppet Fantod to bed in their attic room: we see Arthur has a soft-toy Wendigo, which seems to be this world's equivalent of a teddy-bear. We see a system of lifts and pulleys within the walls of the Mansion: this is used to deliver to Hector a box containing the spare piece which Sprocket and Flange earlier salvaged from the defunct Metalmin. On his way back from collecting the box Hector passes a talking machine (which spits out phrases relevant to the death of Patrick McGoohan, but they include "The tree plants a seed!"); a Panegate (labelled "ALOHACLASS VIEWGATE"); a gun (?) in a case marked "In case of Ludwig, break glass"; and then preserved specimens of a Mugwump (with "NEVER" written above it) and a Wendigo ("AGAIN") and a painting of one of the titanbugs which the Pales use as war mounts ("OR ELSE"). Reaching his own quarters he takes the spare part out of the box and dumps the box down a chute, then goes to Mr Hand – on the way passing the Trog on the treadmill, who is now flaked out asleep. This time we see a sweep of the whole corridor. From right to left, heading in the direction Hector is walking, we see a lift with a half-seen label starting "Zark" (which is where the Operator is from); piles of boxes; a door labelled "WINE 'CELLER'" (with quotes round the misspelling); the exhausted Trog on his treadmill, under a sign saying "P.O.C. TESTING PREP"; a door labelled "EMERGENCY WAR THRONE-TOP STORAGE"; and the weird mechanism connected to a limb of the tree, only this time we can see a label above its alcove saying "TREELINK", which may be how Mr Hand is doing his snooping. Mr Hand, siting in a chair labelled a warthrone, with a massive mechanical hood on top which hides most of his face, talks about everyone being "back behindscenes and accounted for" except for "young Gill", the Ichyoid at Le Tree, who has been killed or injured by Hpobfvfr. He is eager to talk to Hax the Fixit. He swaps the spare part into Hector, who jokes that now his filament has been replaced he can proceed with his mission to "DESTROY ALL HUMANS!!!" (although you get the impression he kind-of wishes it was true). Mr Hand is very amused by the visual images this conjures up: Hector reminds him that he himself is human, and Mr Hand replies "Only just". Hector then repairs Mr Hand's scanners. Hand looks at pictures from around the Basement (although he can't scan near the River of Fire) and comments on the non presence of The Gibber, which may connect to something the Sneeches have done (left?). He tries to track Rosemary and Sylvester but can't see them because they are close to the River, so he sends Hector to talk to the Riddler. He has a special interest in and wariness of Rosemary, and mutters that she might be another test sent down from— As Hector leaves, Mr Hand is 'phoned by some colleague for a conference, and he mutters "Speak of the Zarkite and he appears", meaning that the person who has called is the one who sets him tests. Hector passes the dead king on his throne: the dial is now at "No". A label above his alcove says "EARLSCOPE". Amos goes outside onto a bridge and observes unusual activity in the Tree, which is labouring to clear the air in the Basement of smoke. He lets himself into the Ivory Tower and goes to a cupboard labelled "IMPORTANT BOOK AND STAIRWAY CANDLESTICK SECURITY CABINET", replaces a book and gets out a candle which he lights by magic, but Nellie catches him and tells him off for taking the risk, as she fears a second Crash which might kill him if he's using magic at the time. Amos is a former thaumslinger (so is she, although we don't learn that till later). Nellie has brought back from the village a large young man called Patrick, the local sheriff, who has come for a report. As a child he used to come to read, but no longer does. Amos reports to Patrick about Rosemary, and Nellie talks about the Pit Flare, which she saw on her way to town, but Amos didn't know about. Patrick and his colleagues watch the Earl and are aware that Rosemary arrived without seeming to pass through the surrounding area. Amos reassures him she's not from another world. Patrick wants Sylvester to report to him. Amos and Nellie give him a book on wine-making for someone called Saffron in the village (we will learn that she is the innkeeper), and a Willy the Wendigo book for his son, and he strides off back to the village. 11: Loose Ends (Forest Edition) [03/03/2009 – 21/04/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2002–#2044] Umboz, Vezza, Piu and Nitfol and their Pale escort arrive at the Pale camp, a kind of amorphous but high-tech. (with e.g. gas-lighting), pueblo-type castle. The local Pales seem very curious to see them. There they meet a Pale diplomat called Zpeaker, with two head-spikes (both large and dark, unlike Thrash who has one large dark spike and a second, small and pale one) and a larger and more prominent jaw than most Pales, whose job is to project sounds that other species can hear, in order to talk to them. We learn that Umboz is a squidcoaxer and Vezza is training to be, Piu is a healer and Nitfol is unemployed; and that Nitfol had been rescued from the Spyder by their two Pale escorts, who presumably killed the Spyder and who took him to Frowgler. Frowgler told him that he had sent the Pales to save him, and now he, Nitfol, had to save Umboz and Vezza. He wants to speak to Frowgler, but he's not currently at the Camp. Nitfol asks to see the Nexus, the Pale leader, since Zpeaker says he's the only one who knows what Frowgler is, but the other three Nomes prefer to go and eat and rest. Frowgler has told the Pales they will benefit by helping these Nomes: Umboz is afraid they want him to open a breach in his village's squid-based defences but Zpeaker says not. What the Pales hope for is a way to breach the barrier which they, and the Nomes, experience as keeping them bound within this local area. Frowgler told them Umboz and co. could help, and so far everything he's told them has come true (this must be what Frowgler meant when he said that he meant to see that the Pales got what they wanted, and whether or not they still wanted it once they'd got it wasn't his concern). The Nexus is old enough to remember before the barrier existed, when magic flowed freely, so before the Crash: so possibly the appearance of the barrier is connected with the Crash (and Philbert' death and the Basement-folk escaping their habitats also happened around that time). We learn that after the Nome/Gnoll war, the Nomes taught the Pales how to tree-warp (opening a Tardis-like space within a tree-trunk). They have used these skills to set up comfortable quarters for their Nome visitors inside a large tree which abuts their main building, with a bedroom upstairs up a ladder, and a drophole down below. Zpeaker doesn't get the chance to use his voice skills very often; the rest of the time he helps to grow giant fungi called Tower Caps. We learn that now that Piu and Umbuz are getting married, she will be the one making the decisions, according to Nome custom. Vezza, having eaten a lot, crashes out on a sofa. Umboz and Piu discuss how to get rid of Mayor Koyeeb, and who should replace him: Nitfol, returning, volunteers. The others reluctantly agree, as he's clever and the destruction of his home tree by the beaver shark gives him a non-conspiratorial excuse for seeking a new lifestyle. Nitfol says he doesn't hate everyone, just holds people in contempt, except the Nexus who really impressed him, and who already made the points Piu and Umbuz are making. The Nexus and Nitfol have a multi-stage plan of campaign worked out. The first stage will involve "some really stupid blobwarts, a five-meter pole, and three liters of Raviner ichor". To persuade Raviners (which are weird land-crab-like things) to spew ichor will involve the collection of strange and difficult substances from the deep forest. Meanwhile, the skunk shark is still chewing its way through the bushes, much to the alarm of Snerk, and Comshaw and co. are still roosting on top of the ruined fountain. We see Yasmine Fotheringby waking up dazed and regaining her composure in the ruins where Protus dropped her – in fact, the above-ground bit of the same ruined branch of World o' Pots where Mortimer fell into the underground storage area. She takes off a mask within the hood: we still cannot see her face or species, but she thinks of herself as Human, and remembers being sent by someone named Tara to find out about fleebs. She knows that she belongs to the Weirdoes' Guild. She sets off to rejoin her horse but then hears a sleeping Mortimer coughing inside a building guarded by a not very effective Sneech security device, and goes to investigate. Mortimer wakes up wondering why Pales, who like deserts, also live here in the forest. Meanwhile, Niddle is teaching Ig to play a complicated rock-stacking game, and Comsahw is impatient to leave. 12: Urwyn and the elevator [22/04/2009 – 03/08/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2051–#2149] Shona, Niff (the male) and Folla arrive at Rhid's ex place, where the male Trog Mowder is now the gatekeeper: the gate in question is being constructed by Fosic the Helipath. Mowder believes that Rhid's former place, under Sina's leadership, will become a new multi-species Hall offering greater opportunities for individuality and personal advancement than the existing Halls, and might maybe even start a trend for many new Halls springing up around the fringes of the old ones. Shona wants to see Sina, her sister, but Sina sends her a message telling her to go home. Mowder suggests that she come in anyway and report to Catmorlo to be assigned a job, thus becoming Sina's employee instead of Nevus's, but Shona walks away, passing Kulma and Timf who are busily at work carrying things. Mowder isn't worried that Shona will rat them out to Nevus as he doesn't reckon Nevus respects her opinion. We meet a tiny, diffident Shallow Wyrm called Urwyn (of the Inner Ring of the Circle of the Dunktyn Stone, although we don't learn that until later). He volunteers to help with the new Hall, and Mowder sends a male Gnoll called Satyrsong to carry Urwyn to Catmorlo. Satyrsong has an extreme hairdo which he cultivates for effect. Delfa gives Satyrsong a piece of found tech. to add to their stockpile: it looks Ettin-made (and is based on the USB symbol). Maggle, Flange, Kulma and Timf and others offstage are milling about carrying out tasks assigned by Catmorlo: Urwyn notices that the new piece of unknown eqipment which Satyrsong has brought in sends out a trail of energy to another piece, but no-one listens to him when he tries to tell them about it. Skuy appears with a message from Sina, saying they need somebody inconspicuous to keep an eye on the elevator. Urwyn is assigned to stay out of sight and watch. As Skuy carries Urwyn towards the elevator they pass a group of Flange, a Gnoll named Krink from the bucket chain, a Jibjib and Prandia the Gobule, who are building some kind of electronic gateway which involves toggling a bim. They encounter Voog, who is instructing Niff and Folla on sniffing some boxes to see if the contets are OK. Voog examines Urwyn to see if he has to "eat" him, which is actually a metaphor for some sexual element of the relationship between the large Deep Wyrms and the little ones. This leads to a conversation in which Skuy says she will never use a Finagler: she was in love with Cully who was exiled to SubShaft 44f by Nevus (whom Urwyn believes and hopes doesn't know he exists). Skuy takes Urwyn to meet Sina, who is in Rhid's laboratory where Sprocket is clearing out the most dangerous stuff. Wrawa has been left to sleep and a Gnoll Healer named Kottle is assigned to keep an eye on her. The Trogs called Grik and Grak have appointed themselves as Sina's bodyguards. Sina's sight is returning, and she is kept very busy organising everybody. Hiblehoy is sent to make up beds – we learn that it is difficult, but not impossible, for male and female Motihauls to work together. Pergola warns them about a "thing" spewing goo and is sent to tell Sprocket. There is some conversation about Rhid's obligatory stuffed crocagator: Nubby kept a pool of live ones at the far end of the Basement, but Urwyn has never been to see them because there's no [unspecified secret thing he doesn't want to name], plus it's a long journey for someone his size. We are reminded that Rhid used to be a Candle Monk but got thrown out, and told that he was trained by a Gnoll wizard (? probably a wizard) called Burtgum who died in some kind of accident. Grak won't let Sina approach the elevator. Urwyn will summon help, if he needs it, by pinging a glass ball. A Gnoll called Finimbrun, who is interested in similar stuff to Rhid but is sane, is to be that help. Finimbrun takes Urwyn to meet somebody called Huff and they all get caught up inside a mechanical Kraken, a Human-made advertising float which Rhid had acquired somewhere, which changes from green to purple and which is labelled "Eat at Shub's". Finimbrun gets control of the arms and uses them to fumble around: one of the things he finds lying nearby is a Pokemon ball labelled "Rhid Find lightning rod before opening again!-Rhid". Huff's species isn't given but his or her dialogue font looks like Jibjib. The Kraken's long arm is used to transport Urwyn to a position where he can watch the elevator from behind a nearby door jamb. There he meets another Shallow Wyrm, a friend of his called Zugo, who is doing some kind of foraging work for "the Circle". We learn that Urwyn is the Wyrm equivalent of a pampered aristocrat but he wants to be useful and do work, and would give up his position and work like and with Zugo, but Zugo's work colleagues would kill him for Breaking the Rings. Zugo, who is the equivalent of working-class, is also unusual in that he will talk to Urwyn. Urwyn asks Zugo to warn "the innerest Ring" that Rhid has been ousted: he expects that if anybody in that Ring notices that he, Urwyn has left, they'll be glad to be rid of him. Meanwhile, Flange has created a device called a bim toggler with which s/he has opened a false wall to reveal a sequence of rooms beyond. Some walls havve a symbol on them which indicates that there is space behind them that can be access with such a device. S/he believes there may be other large rooms left sealed by the Humans. An alarmingly gungho female Motihaul called Othara, granddaughter of the famous Othar, turns up and volunteers to explore the new space, which Sina hopes will relieve overcrowding in the Halls. Urwyn (or possibly Zugo) thinks he hears something, but doesn't realise the floor-dial on the elevator has moved. Sina realises she forgot to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, but at that moment the elevator doors open and Hpobfvfr appears, red-eyed and controlled by the Operator. Urwyn tells Zugo to leave. Hpobfvfr still hates the Operator but he has nevertheless convinced her that he is her superior officer, by knowing Level Three passwords: the way the Operator speaks of different levels of passwords suggests Hpobfvfr may operate in some artificial way like a Metalmin and her mind can be hacked into. The Operator sends her to fetch Sylvester's cold iron frying pan: although it hurts the Operator to touch it, he holds it and uses it to probe the boundaries of his cage. He sends her to gather up the remains of Hpthbvtw (Hepthbav), which he thinks he can use: but when he realises that Hpobfvfr has a strong emotional link to Hpthbvtw, and that this is weakening his hold over her (her eyes get noticeably less red), he orders her back into the lift. He tells her that he too had a mate he was "rather fond of", and offspring, and he doesn't know if he will see them again but in the very long term he will "literally move heaven and earth" for the chance to do so. Skuy comes to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, and Urwyn tells her she's already appeared: she goes off again to tell Sina. Meanwhile, the Operator does something to Hpobfvfr's physiology which causes a red flicker around her head, and then tells her to track and kill Rosemary and Sylvester – a task she takes to with enthusiasm. In fact, the Operator is seeking to test Rosemary against a less malleable opponent than Chauncy and Edgar, because he has a use for her if she wins. Ploot, the large Deep Wyrm from Sina's team, comes to speak to Urwyn about what he has seen. In the foreground, a Smyt summons a trundlebug and rides it like a horse. Urwyn comments on the fact that Ploot is the first Deep Wyrm he's met who didn't examine him to see if he needed to "eat" him. Ploot says he's just not very interested in that kind of thing – it's a powerful and necessary drive but a small minority just don't have it. They see an externalised Vision, or what Ploot calls a "Glimpse" (actually celebrating the strip's sixth birthday). Ploot tells Urwyn he stays up high (for a Wyrm) in the Basement because he doesn't want to breed and also because times are changing, as the Vision suggests, and he wants to help people who are trying to smooth the transition and set up a new society etc.. Urwyn mutters that he isn't sure he'd mind if Ploot wanted to Eat him.... Another Shallow Wyrm called Kryt of the Ring of the Celestial Observation Slit, who has been secretly watching this exchange, goes to some kind of communication station and starts to give a secret report about the Operator to some Wyrm authority. There seems to be a small colony of the little Shallow Wyrms living around this communication point. Meanwhile a large flutterby, a banded Vagabond, dazed by crashing into light globes, flies past them and down into the depths, where it is struck by the radiator of a large lorry or armoured car, being driven deep undergound. 13: The Great Chasm [04/08/2009 – 26/02/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2158–end] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips start–#2348] On the lorry are two very amusing, characterful Fixits, a male and a female who call each other "Age" and "Beauty" and who seem to be working partners, both riding unconscious Gnoll mounts. They mention an engineer called Tix who had been complaining that the "Sneechtaps" were all offline. They come to an underground building which looks a bit like a smaller version of the Mansion of E upside-down and has levitating lifts, where they report to a very bossy female Fixit called Grix. It is mentioned that there is a schedule which Nevus and the Council have pre-empted by attacking each other. They bear a message saying that Mr Hand wants to see Hax urgently. Grix reveals that Hax has a history of getting into scrapes (nearly as bad as Mortimer) and has just spent almost ten years relegated to the (breeding?) pens in the mountains. He was given Project Y duty that very morning (which suggests he was told to take fleebs to the Great Chasm in order for Sprocket and Flange to end up with them) and Grix isn't surprised to hear that he ran into trouble. Grix summons a female Ichyoid called Igor (which seems to be a job title not a name) who brings in boxes of what we later learn are delicate, increasingly-hard-to-obtain Pvatskin Triggers vital for the maintenance of the underpinnings of the River of Fire. The partners are despatched to take these boxes to the Chasmside Covert Observation Station: after they have left, Igor wishes to discuss Rufus, apparently as a replacement for Mr Hand, but this is so secret a matter that Grix tells her they must know nothing about it ever. The two partners are sent on another long lorry journey to deliver the boxes (which one of them finds unsettling). With them in the lorry are other consignments, including lunch for their journey and a cage containing a larger-than-usual (hamster-sized), amaranth-coloured Fuzz which sings in notes coloured in the same rainbow colours as the River of Fire, underneath which they pass (and we see a massive pillar supporting it). This may be an indication that someone in this group has contact with the city of the Spires in Mechana where, as we will later learn, they breed Fuzzes for size, appearance and singing ability. The female Fixit expresses moral doubts about what they are doing by controlling their mounts. En route they pass the Quarentine [sic] Alcove of Forbidden Objects, which contains strange things such as a statue of an Ichyoid and a giant, broken statue of Kaylu with wires hanging out of it. When they reach the Chasmside Covert Observation Station (which is decorated with a crowned human figure playing a trumpet) they unload in a large, open hangar and then report to Fixits called Apix and Birux. We learn that one of the things they are doing down here is repairing the undershield of the River of Fire, but it's getting more difficult, in part because it's getting harder to get hold of the hardening foam triggered by the Pvatskin Triggers. Apix says that Nevus and Preznit (for the Council) have called a cease-fire. He is aware of Sylvester and of Rosemary, whom he calls "regrettably proactive". The male of the two partners then goes up to an observation deck where he talks to a Fixit called Peex (riding on/fused with an Eyebolt) and they discuss Project Y, the same thing Sprocket and Flange were working on earlier. Project Y will give their employers much more effective surveillance but may not be finished in their lifetime. There is a suggestion that their current surveillance system involves the Tree. Project Y will result in much better surveillance, and then Mr Hand won't need as many of them to snoop for him. The action cuts to Rosemary and Sylvester, who are discussing Rosemary's Poke Kit, which was a going-away present from Aunt Eva, and the E family library in the Ivory Tower, and books they have read about Erewhonian anthropology, and night creatures. We learn that Amos Grubb is the Mansion's librarian and Nellie Grubb is the gardener. As Rosemary and Sylvester climb the steps leading away from the far side of the River there are no more visions, just an odd smell of marshberries (which leads to a discussion about the different berries available in different regions, and Audravania growing pudding plants). They reach a lighted area, and Rosemary becomes temporarily hypnotised after looking at a spinning light. She is amazed to discover that the Can-Opener fits inside her Poke Kit, which previously had only been able to hold small objects: Sylvester attributes this to the power of the tricklepoint. Pre-Crash folk heroes named Readman and Billsmith are mentioned, who carried a whole library and an arsenal in Poke Kits. If you take a Poke Kit into a low-magic area it spits out what was inside it. Their local trickle-pont is between the Mansion and the Spire. Sylvester talks about the Spike (and at least some bits of the Mansion, since e.g. the Panegates have the same characteristic writing on them as the Spike) having been built by Ettins, and about the ancient war between Ettins and Sneeches, which killed all the Ettins and most of the Sneeches. We learn that the Ettins sent a mission to the Moon to investigate artefacts of unknown origin there, and they used durasteel construction plates. The Ettins had less of a presence Out West. The West was Sneech terriory, although most of them died in the war and they now mainly live in Wirtvale. Sylvester says that the Sneeches in the Basement usually allow travellers through their territory if they stick to the main road and don't engage with anybody. They occasionally give travellers gifts, which may be beneficial, dangerous or both: Audra's cost her a hand but she said it was worth it. Latterly, Sneech gifts are usually either thrown away or stored in the Quiet Room (a magic-deadening space upstairs in the Mansion). The new Earl has to walk through the Sneech colony alone, but Sylvester saw no Sneeches when he did so. In the context of how unusual it is to have one Pale village with no other Pales nearby to fight, Sylvester talks about the zoo which the Ettins set up in the Basement, before Humans arrived in the area. The habitats were self-sustaining and most still work: Nubby's Crocogator Pit is in the Motihaul swamp, and the Chamber of Extreme Aridity was for the Pales. Most of the local sapient species were exhibits – except the Sneeches, who were prisoners of war and research subjects; the Gnolls, who were free-lance "vermin" living where they chose; and the Gobules and Eyebolts, who were on the staff of the zoo. There's a dating problem there. Previously Sylvester said that most of the nonHumans in the Basement were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now.." in Philbert's time – which extended right up to three months before the Crash, fifty years ago. Now he says of the Pales that "Like all the other species, after the Ettins were gone, they eventually got out of their habitat. Started roaming the Basement." where they set up a mixed-species society. But "after the Ettins were gone" is in the time of the 1st Earl. Definite dates start with Milo, the 9thEarl, 350 years ago, but since then they've averaged twenty-five years per reign so the 1st Earl would probably have been around 550 years ago. Five hundred years is a very long "eventually". Perhaps what happened was that soon after the Ettins died their habitats became open and they could "start roaming", but they mostly stayed in their own environments where they were comfortable, until a combination of rising numbers and the disruption caused by Audra eventually led them to start spreading out. Or perhaps he just means that up to fifty years ago they were still confined to the Basement, not spreading out into the countryside: especially as he says that the Pales left the Basement and settled in the ruins of Eetown after the Crash. This probably has something to do with the presence of a large, ultimately Pale-owned World o' Pots in Eetown. The Ettins seem to have had no contact with Humans (presumably until their final end, when the 1st Earl supposedly fought them) as their records never mention them. Sylvester knows a lot about all this because if he'd had his choice he would have liked to be an archaeologist. Humans came into the country from across the sea in large numbers from Tiranog via the Sea of Shells and into a region called Abalone, and took over the area. Tiranog is on the same continent, and not all that far away, so this reinforces the idea that the Ettins only lived in what is now Yurpsland, otherwise they could hardly have failed to meet Humans. There were already older Human colonies in Yurpsland, in Shibolith, south-east of Abalone, who got there by a different route, overland from Thekla in the south. They had conflict with the Pales in Shibolith and so never spread, and they now speak a very different dialect from the rest. However, the language spoken locally is very widespread because Sylvester says his mother can just about understand the locals in Agraba, which is on the other side of the whole big continent, nearly four times the whole width of Yurpsland away. Even before the colonies in Shibolith, the insular, hostile tribal Human group called Haroons were brought into Alfibay (the far north-west of Yurpsland) by someone or something. Sylvester mentions Ilsa Lundquist, who was head housekeeper at the Mansion for years, and whose mother was a Haroon. This must be the same green-haired, Earl-hating Ilsa whom Snerk and Shona met when the HJ42 went PROZ and jumped them back to Eetown shortly before the Crash. Ilsa had a distracted air – probably because the Scary Lady was controlling her in some way – and eventually retired to the village. The Mansion still has a very old, almost mummified butler called Schmedley. They used to have all sorts of servants, including an hereditary string-measurer: the last incumbent choked to death a week and a half before the Crash, and some people thought the Crash happened because the post was vacant. Rosemary has plans for reviving the Mansion's fortunes, and is already referring to "our" and "we" in this context. At the very least, she can mind the place while Sylvester goes to Glome, the provincial capital, where he can get more current information. We learn that King Yorik III and his children died in the Crash. The current king Yancy II is a figurehead: the Bureaucracy really governs. Sylvester follows the fortunes of various factions in The Times (which stuck out here he can only get hold of weeks after publication) and has plans for playing the stockmarket. The stories in The Times are often slanted in a way that gives away the various jockeyings for position between government agencies and between companies. There is a long discussion about the fact that the government's bureaucracy is fragmented into multiple agencies and factions, and about the politics of the various neighbouring countries, including a place called Blefusco which is clearly equivalent to France. The country just south of Yurpsland is called Thekla, and south of that are Incana and Blefusco. Incana and Thekla are sabre-rattling: Blefusco is neutral, but if it gets dragged in it could lead to war between multiple countries including theirs. As they approach the top of the stairs, the hypnotic lights go out. They talk about the various habitats in the Basement ex-zoo, the death of the Wendigoes in the failed arctic exhibit (no loss, according to Sylvester), and the Willy the Wendigo books, and Sylvester's obligation to produce an heir (although given how many siblings he has I would have thought a nephew or niece would have done) and birth-control failures (they chew a plant called stiflebloom, but occasionally it doesn't work), and the pointlessness of Rosemary's crush on Baldy because he was "a homguy". We learn that the Helipaths and Ecadems were probably brought in by the Ettins through a Panegate. Sylvester believes that the Panegates open into alternate heres, rather than other planets. We learn that Rosemary's parents drowned in a maritime accident, and that there were terrible Dawn Wars before the Ettins and Sneeches came along. The combatants were inimical races called Wilfs/Wifts and Gobblems/Gobble'Ems, who are now known in this world only from bone framgments and fairy tales but who still exist beyond one of the Panegates. For whatever reason, the Panegates only show worlds a long way diverged from this one. The 12th Earl, Lemuel, investigated the Panegates and was probably killed by one: the controls are difficult and dangerous to operate, but there are a few simple ones which do work and part of the rite of passage of the new Earl is to go through one to e.g. the Forest, or yo Charlotte's Cave (which is halfway up the side of a nearby mountain). The Panegates also sometimes prompt the formation of brief portals to strange and distant places. We see an image of one through which we can glimpse Snoopy on his doghouse, and are shown an incident where two frog-creatures from the Station V3 webcomic emerged in the Mansion and were dealt with by the Scary Lady. I would suggest that Frowgler came through such a portal after one connected to the Roshambo comic, but he has said elsewhere that he isn't the Frowgler, just a Frowgler. Rosemary starts to ask about the Scary Lady, but then they reach the Great Chasm. Mr Hand watches them on his monitors, but disclaims all knowledge to somebody on the 'phone. Ludwig installed railings and bridges over the Chasm: there is a gap in the rails opposite the door they emerge from, but no bridge. It's not just any gap, but delineated by posts with E finials: it looks like it was built for a bridge that's no longer there, or perhaps as a boarding-point for airships. They establish that Rosemary is not scared of heights, and actively enjoyed working in the rigging of a sailing ship. The Chasm, is lit by daylight (and hence only in daylight) by reflectors installed by Ludwig. Walking along a ledge to get to the actual bridge, they sample the local treefruit, pass a gap where the rail is simply broken, then encounter an elderly male Gobule called Theophan the Recluse. Theophan is one of a long series of Theophans, the Founder, the Mighty and the Rotund, who were all famous mentors (passing the name through mentoring, not blood relationship). Gobule young are self-supporting and non-sapient, like baby guinea-pigs. They scatter in large numbers to grow or die. Those that live, become sapient: some of those become mere scavengers around the fringes but the luckiest are taken on by a mentor and educated. This Theophan was a student of Theophan the Rotund, along with Maw, Bung, Cram and Guttle. We learn that Gobule mentors occasionally mentor other species: Sylvester seems to be considering using one for his own future children. We hear about a Jibjib boss called Flap who runs an expensive ferry service across the Chasm, and learn that Theophan has chosen to stay beside the Chasm because it goes all the way down to the Hot Zone and he feels there's something terribly important down there, and not just the Treeroot. He tastes the Can-Opener and thinks it is made of Sneech squeezings, or something similar. He doesn't want to know their names, which are arbitrary labels, so they use the code-names Twit and Warrior. We learn that Theophan also stays by the Chasm to provide a sort of impartial counselling service to male Trogs who come to the Chasm to kill themselves by taking the Plunge before they lose their minds. A traditional location is used for this: it looks like another possible airship-jetty, like the one they passed earlier. After Rosemary and Sylvester have left we see Whisp still trailing them, then two baby Gobules emerge from a hole and talk to Theophan. Interestingly Theophan seems to have taught them the wrong meaning of the word "hobnob" as one baby says it means "fighting with", and Theopan replies "With teeth or with words, Yes." It actually means something between being pally with and conspiring with: a British brand of biscuit is called Hobnob because of the cosy image it conjures up. We learn that those Nomes who still live in the Basement live in Root Hall with the Eyebolts. Rosemary disapproves of the fact that Theophan doesn't try to stop the Trogs from killing themselves, but Sylvester understands it, and says he might do the same if he developed Darnay Syndrome (their equivalent of Alzheimer's). Rosemary is aware of Whisp following them. As they approach the Plunge point, trying to lose Whisp, they are passed by Crazy Rhid coming the other way, with Kronk still on his trail some way behind him. Sylvester thinks he's seen Rhid before, but doesn't realise it was in the images shown to him by Protus. We get to see the Plunge Point as seen from across the far side, so that we can see that there is a lighted panel below the lip facing out into the Chasm, lending weight to the idea that these were docking points for something. Nearby, we see the male Ghast Sopovefe from the bucket chain, waiting for "the little zorper" (so probably Frowgler, although if "zorper" is being used just as profanity he might mean Digger or some Shallow Wyrm), and Hpobfvfr passing by behind him, presumably looking for Rosemary and Sylvester: Sopovefe glimpses her and seems to realise something is odd about her. A shot is fired (by Camora, with the blunderbuss, under Hax's control, from a high vantage point), striking Rosemary on the helmet and dazing her: in her confusion she exclaims "I told them not to ring your bell, Dandelion..", Dandelion being the name of the Oracle where she grew up. Kronk pushes her aside in order to pursue Rhid, and she and Sylvester fall into the Chasm. Rhid and Kronk pass Whisp, who can smell that Rosemary and Sylvester went over the Plunge, and also smells Camora's presence nearby. Rhid, in the lead, then passes Theophan, and then a Trog juggler who we later learn is called Stonwal, and then the doorway that leads to the River, and then is rescued by Digger Odel, who pulls him in behind a concealed panel. Whisp traces Camora's scent and works out that she emerged from a spot in a corridor wall (not the point she disappeared behind before), tracked to the ledge above the Plunge site and then returned. She wonders if it's a transporting twistpoint, like one in Helignoll Hall, then works out that it's a concealed door, and leaves to report back to Upernavik and Knumdrot. Meanwhile we see Hpobfvfr go to the edge of the Plunge and peer over, then turn back. Behind the panel Hax disengages from Camora. He believes he has contained her memory and delayed her awakening, but she wakes instantly, with full memory, and tries to grab him. He escapes down a letterbox-sized slot in the rock, scraping his front surface badly in the process, with Camora shouting THIS IS NOT OVER!" behind him. We see gaps and tunnels in the rock containing odd bits of struts and tools and what looks like a Smyt-sized pink racing car, then a cavern where four bats are roosting. One bat bat wakes and flies through wider fissures towards the outside. Part Five: Mechanisms in the Dark [27/02/2010 – 16/07/2013] 01: Sitting in a Tree [27/02/2010 – 04/06/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2355–#2443] Now that it is getting dark Comshaw, Niddle and Ig see the bat fly past them and finally feel safe to come down from the ruined fountain. Ig is now wearing/carrying Niddle's backpack. We also see a distant, unidentifed Saur, possibly Snerk but the colour looks darker, lurking in a tree, watching a bat go past. Yasmine enters the ruined building where she heard coughing, and discovers Mortimer, lying on a makeshift bed and still coming round from having been stunned by Eunice. He has a note from Rufus on his chest but we aren't told what it says. He correctly identifies Yasmine, who seems familiar to him although she doesn't think they've met, as a Weirdo – which she finds amazing, apparently because it suggests a degree of clairvoyance not seen since the Crash. He also identifies the building as Dorian's old hut (presumably the Dorian who now lives in the Spike), but seems confused: when Yasmine mentions Protus as the Willigig currently living in the Mansion, Mortimer recalls being somewhere near the Basement at some point and Skibble, who seems to be a friend of his, turning up "like he usually does" (which makes it unlikely he's an Ichyoid, so we're down to Ghast, Ooze of Helipath) and mentioning Protus to him, but he doesn't coherently connect this with the Willigig who gave him the HJ42 after the incident with the Tree-Squid earlier in the day – although he then refers to Protus as "really grumpy", so he must have made the connection subconsciously, even if he has forgotten the meeting consciously. Yasmine claims she is there to conduct an official Weirdo's Guild review of Arthur's performance. Mortimer smells strongly of sphagnum dust and sploo. Yasmine sets off again to find her horse, and Mortimer again sets out to find Nitfol and rescue him if still alive. He is briefly distracted by a flutterby and calls it to his finger: Yasmine sees this and is again amazed by his psychic talent. Agita's henchgnoll Agorn overhears them talking, and we see Mortimer's Scalpsucker messenger still only halfway up the side of the shaft. The flutterby flies round her and she falls asleep: it seems Mortimer sent it to tell her to stand down. Yasmine and Mortimer get along well and he tells her about all the odd things which happen to him. They talk about Mortimer and Sylvester doing their duty and Sylvester still getting scorned by the villagers, about chaos theory and flutterbys and how one flutterby might some day make a difference, and she tells him to tell Frederick about the odd things. Thinking of what Protus showed her, but not saying it, she tells Mortimer she expects to be back some day and when she returns she expects him to have made some progress with his situation. As Yasmine leaves, Mortimer gives her his sack of fleebs, and Agorn watches from behind a wall. Agorn, who is carrying a spear, wonders whether to follow one or the other, go home and report or go run off and join the Spikefolk, who carry out strange rites involving doing a Metalmin dance and getting blasted with Spikeglow. He appears to decide to follow Mortimer. Ig, Comshaw and Niddle are trying to locate Mortimer by smell but they smell something odd as well that Ig has never smelled before, metal and skin, wet and burnt – Niddle says this smell was all over the mound that the Fire came out of earlier ("The Pit"). The way they describe the smell, it probably relates to either Frowgler or the Meltalmin which we glimped earlier near The Pit: we will find out later that it's Frowgler, which implies that Frowgler smells of metal (is it possible that Frowgler in some way is the Metalmin?). They can also smell that there have been a lot of Pales about, not just Thrash's party and the two with Buzz. Niddle says the metal/skin/wet/burnt smell was all over the hill where The Pit is, then suddenly gone. Again there is mention of a barrier which Humans live beyond, as if there's some sort of cordon keeping the Basement folk in. Niddle is pleased that he was exposed to the Fire and saw visions, as he thinks this will prove to be important, and he says it will now be a Finagler thing which he will spread at the next Conclave. Having parted from Jasmine Mortimer is a bit lost (and we see he is now completely barefoot: evidently Rufus and/or Eunice removed his remaining shoe when they put him to bed), but then he encounters Frowgler, Thrash and the two other Pales we will later know as Flagpale and Scrawl, although for the moment Frowgler calls them Flaghelper and Antlerhelper. Frowgler is sitting on a branch of a tree against which the Scary Lady's pink umbrella is leaning. Mortimer recognises Frowgler as a comic-book character but Frowgler says that he is "not THE Frowgler. Just.. A Frowgler", and saying that his parents called him that is a close enough approximation. Frowgler comments that the local Pales call their fort "The Camp" because they expect it to be temporary, and advises Mortimer on how to find the closest Spyder web, and that he'll know he's near it when he sees smoke. He claims to be in a similar position to his fictional counterpart, in that he has come to assist the Good Guys against powerful evil forces, much bigger and more powerful than mere demons. Mortimer and Thrash are both Good Guys, and so are most of the people they know. Mortimer asks if Yasmine was right to tell him to talk to Frederick, and Frowgler thinks she probably was. Mortimer says he needs to be ready "when she gets back" – probably meaning Yasmine. Thrash tacitly agrees to convey Frowgler on to his next stopping point. As Frowgler and the Pales leave, Mortimer notices the umbrella. It doesn't belong to anyone in Frowgler's party, so he keeps it. Agorn watches the bat catching flutterbys, then realises that Comshaw's party are behind him, and hides. He overhears Comshaw sniffing out the fact that the Human, Mortimer, went one way and the Pales and the metal-smelling thing went another. So the metal-smelling thing must be Frowgler. They decide to continue following the Human. Agorn is impressed, but in a kind of patronising way: he sees Comshaw as a young fellow with potential. The space-suited worker who earlier quit the Hot Zone observation station climbs out of a hatch in one of the ruined buildings (with a sign over the door saying "GONE TO EARTH"), takes off her helmet and reveals herself to be a female Nome called Fizmo. She mentions having been taken below from a different entrance by someone called Fogorner, who she believes was working for the group in the Spike. She is afraid she might have come up beyond the Edge of the World, where the giants (Humans) are. She attempts to treewarp her way through the door, but it doesn't work because she doesn't have "the glowgems or the blivit any of the rest of the phizz". In the end she forces her way out of the locked building through a crack high in the stonework, in her underwear but taking with her a pruning hook she found in the locked building. She lands in "puffbloom bushes", which seem to be the local version of hydrangea. She meets Frowgler, who is sitting on a ruined wall and whom she knows – he had advised her not to take the subterranean job. Now he says going back down would be the safest thing for her, but not the best thing. Learning that she admires Nitfol for his independence, he suggests she go with Thrash to the Pale camp where Nitfol now is, and she agrees. She is initially alarmed by Thrash, whom Frowgler introduces as the Nexus's strong right hand, then she casually calls him "whatsyergob". As a reward for not forcing him to force her to agree, Frowgler opens his Poke Kit and gives her a very smart hat made by the posh Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine, since Nomes hate to be bareheaded, but he warns her to examine hats from other sources carefully: to look inside them, and if they're one of the unsafe kind she'll feel the urge to swear and whack them with her pruning hook. It is clear he is warning her about Fixits, and that Fogorner is controlled by a Fixit. He also warns her that the beaver shark – of which there is only one – is loose nearby, and that he is trying to stop Koyeeb doing something which will destroy the Nome village (presumably, attacking the Gnolls). He is sending her away from the village because she's worth saving. He tells Thrash to tell the Nexus that if they don't hear from him, "that stopgap we discussed will be necessary". Frowgler denies being a demon and says he was put on earth to do what he is doing. He goes down the tunnel Fizmo came out of, saying that he needs to see an old friend, and she goes off with the Pales, talking at them about a Nome who built a prototype plane which crashed, and her ideas about hot air balloons (adding that she is a natural source of hot air). We see a flat-topped tower among the ruins, made of Ettin durasteel plates and with a label that starts "Ludwig automatic..." Inside the top, surrounded by windows, is a giant crystal which collects sunlight and directs it underground and down a channel with mirrors in it to steer it around corners. The light-beam passes by a lorry in some sort of workshop, and a buried, humanoid but four-armed Metalmin: either the Metalmin is huge or the lorry is Smyt-size, because the entire lorry is only slightly bigger than the Metalmin's head. The beam from the crystal connects to the lights which channel daylight to the Great Chasm, and we see Rosemary and Sylvester falling: he thinks that he is dying Mortimer's death and his family will never know what happened to him, but then they land in a peculiar fluffy outgrowth of the Tree. Rosemary, still dazed from the blow to the head, identifies Rhid whom they have just seen as one of the people Protus showed to Sylvester, and thinks that the woman he saw her fighting – whom she calls Tansy – is about to show up, since Rhid did. Her helmet light is damaged, and Sylvester's helmet is missing, caught in the Tree high above them. Rosemary apologises to the Tree and then whacks it, causing the helmet to fall into range. Sylvester manages with some difficulty to catch it, so that they have light and can proceed. 02: Lying in a Hole [05/06/2010 – 16/09/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2450–#2548] Mortimer passes an enormous boulder in its own fresh mini-crater: it's not the one that nearly hit Comshaw earlier, but probably comes from the same explosion. Watched by a trundlebug, Rosemary and Sylvester slip through the layer of fluff onto a more normal, solid branch of the Tree. Sylvester thinks the padded branches below the Plunge point are there to stop Trogs killing themselves, or at least, like Theophan, to give them time to reconsider. Rosemary tears her skirt – which is stolen, presumably from a Chroman Initiate – to make ties to keep their helmets on. She admits to having killed three Humans, presumably in combat. Meanwhile, Comshaw, Niddle and Ig are following close behind Mortimer. The pre-existence of Wyverns, a kind of extinct dragon, is mentioned. If this is designed to save Trogs, or at least give them the chance to change their minds, why have none ever made it back to tell Theophan about it? Sylvester's theory that it's all there to save Trogs is born out when they find a burning pot of Trog Repellant, which herds any Trogs who land in the Tree towards a narrow spur bridge leading out over the abyss (made by a very reputable construction firm). Meanwhile, Agorn passes more debris, buried in the ground by the force of the last blast, the OZPR. The spur across the Chasm ends with a bracket with a crab or spider drawn on it, and then a long tube-like chute which they are sucked in by, and which takes them to a padded landing-site in a room within the cliff on the far side of the Chasm, which contains a broken office cabinet which has "The Threshold" written on it, and which moves about under its own power. On the wall is written "MAKES HAMBLE SUMTHING SUMTHING", among other things. They meet a thing called a Lurker – a cave-creature like a blind, bald, sub-sapient Saur. Dog-like, it wants them to follow it: Rosemary thinks it's leading them into an ambush. Following it, they come to a place which looks like the Ettins' artificial Trog habitat, except sterile and dead, without the moss and fresh water etc. of the zoo exhibit. Sylvester feels that he and Rosemary are both acting rather wildly, and that this is due to exposure to energy bubbling up from the Hot Zone. They come to an archway labelled "Serene Cavern of Blissful Relaxation", beside which is a slightly sick poem about the death of Yurd ("Yurd ran far and wide // 'Til his mind began to slide // So he took the Great Plunge // Now he is in a hole all covered with gunge"). Within are the people the Lurker, Blinky, was reporting to – two male trogs called Villipend and Hamble. Both are less flat-faced and probably mentally sharper than Kronk, but Villipend is paranoid and deranged, and his hair (or crest or whatever it is) is styled like a crown. Hamble tries to calm him but he is sure that Rosemary and Sylvester are the "Tormentors" who keep him trapped there, and it doesn't help that he smells his enemy Kronk (who brushed past them at the Plunge point) on them. There are bones in the background which look like those of a Trog. When Sylvester says he doesn't know where the exit is, Villipend throws a weapon which Rosemary fends off with the Can-Opener, which Villipend calls a Sneech claw. Rosemary and Villipend fight and Villipend manages to get in a kick which throws her against the wall. Sylvester intervenes, warns him grimly that he is the terrible Earl of E and fires a primitive taser which he has in his backpack, and which fires over his shoulders when he hits a trigger on his chest – but Villipend dodges and it is Hamble who is struck and apparently killed. The act of firing the taser also throws Squeeb out of the backpack and onto the floor, unnoticed. Villipend is impressed by the taser but annoyed because he wanted to kill Hamble himself. He threatens Sylvester so Rosemary slashes him with the Can-Opener and he hides in the dark. Sylvester finds a door operated by a Herediscan which identifies him as a member of the E family and lets him through: next to it on the wall is written "THE BRUSH IS PERFECT BUT THE PAINT RUNS". He tells Villipend (now clinging to the ceiling) he will leave the door open. Mortimer thinks that he is searching the woods to find out what happened to Nitfol. Then he finds the Spyder's head, detached and smoking, and thinks "OK, now it's just morbid curiosity". Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their weapons training (and we learn that at the bodyguard training-school she went to, the fencing master was a Mr Montoya). She is concerned that she may not be able to stop Villipend if he attacks again, because he's in peak condition and she has no practice with the Can-Opener. Comshaw's party reach the dead Spyder head. Ig can tell that it wasn't Mortimer who killed the Spyder, and begins to discover the joys of cooked meat. As they move away from the Hot Zone vents, Rosemary becomes calmer. Sylvester tells her about the SubShafts, a tangle of tunnels which are greatly affected by the Hot Zone. The Eyebolts who worked for the Ettins lived there, then the mining Nomes as well. After an upheaval when Sylvester was a teen (presumably the Gnoll/Nome war, so Mortimer was about twelve or fourteen when he did whatever he did) they all moved out, the Eyebolts to elsewhere in the Basement, the Nomes to the Forest, and now it's mainly Gnolls who live in the SubShafts. [We seen an outline of Cully, Chunner and Crud, all heavily armed – Cully with a flame-thrower, Chunner with a blunderbuss and Crud with something similar to the Can-Opener.] They come to an area of large engineering works and spiky pylons, like metal tree trunks with short jagged branches, at the start of a walkway or bridge at the edge of a long drop. Mortimer comes to the huge, smoking crater caused when Frowgler set off the HJ42, and wrongly assumes Nitfol and the Spyder were both blown up. He climbs down into the crater and retrieves the HJ42, then Comshaw, Niddle and Ig arrive at the edge of the crater and engage him in conversation about the goals of Humanity. They all conclude that Comshaw needs to speak to Sylvester (hearing that Sylvester is the Earl, Comshaw assumes he must be very scary). The thing Niddle has been carrying in his hand all day, which he found in the tunnel and which is similar to but not the same as a Glowgem, starts radiating energy, and Comshaw notices it for the first time since the tunnel. Niddle says he can almost hear it speak, it's waited a long time and now it's almost time for some unspecified meeting: probably between it and the HJ42. This must be the meeting future!Mortimer told present!Mortimer to prevent. Suddenly the Saur Snerk falls into the crater with them. He had run into the beaver shark and it fixated on him and began chasing him. The beaver shark appears looming over the edge of the crater and then crashes down amongst them. Niddle starts counting down 5...4...3... Mortimer orders the others to run: using his pink umbrella like a baton he summons a large crowd of flutterbys, who distract the shark by crashing against its face. Then Niddle's count reaches zero, and the energies of the HJ42 and the crystal link and set off a silent magical fireball, a huge dome of white light, which is felt by the Operator, the Scary Lady, Frowgler and a mechanical alarm near Hector. Back underground, Rosemary and Sylvester are considering a vertical ladder when Villipend jumps them, wrests the Can-Opener from Rosemary and tries to force Sylvester to go back downstairs and close the door to Villipend's domain, so he can continue to trap other Trogs there. Sylvester is willing to jump into the Chasm rather than do so. Mortimer and the shark are transported into open underground space by a twistpoint and fall down to where Rosemary and Sylvester are. The letters PZOR appear, indicating that the not-Glowgem and the HJ42 interacted to create the twistpoints, burst of light etc.. The shark bites Villipend, killing him, and Rosemary retrieves the Can-Opener and pushes both of them off the edge and into the deep. Comshaw and Niddle are jumped through another twistpoint back to their own home, where Camora is brooding. [They have a skimgibber in a bowl.] Niddle crashes out, as Telic had warned that he would, burbling about the fact that Mortimer has the same haircut as him, and something about a window. Camora tells Comshaw about Hax. He decides to go back out to warn everyone, leaving her to care for Niddle, but first Camora, who is feeling overwrought, declares that she loves Comshaw and they have an unspecified erotic session. Comshaw is happy to see that Niddle has some clingweed wrapped round his feet, since he promised some to Telic. Ig is twistpointed to outside the home of his ex girlfriend Nerda, the mother of his as-yet unhatched children. He offers her the stuff in Niddle's backpack so she lets him in. Snerk is less lucky. As a result (or cause) of an unspecified backlash he is dumped into the middle of a high-tech. experimental facility of some kind being run by two Ghasts. He is pinned in some uncomfortable, scary machinery which may be examining him or may be cleaning and immunising him – it's not clear which – and then pushed through a hatch (which he sort-of recognises because "the boss" told him about doors) labelled "#2540 SAUR HABITAT, WOODLAND" into an artifical woodland habitat designed especially for Saurs. He wonders if it is underground, then thinks that he has been twistpointed to a real forest far away. He wishes to leave a.s.a.p. in order to report to Frowgler. There are other Saurs there, all of them (including Snerk), wearing a bracelet on the right wrist and with a three-digit number on their left side. He meets a dozy girl called Dizel and a much more sensible, very large female called Zil who tells him that if he can find a way out she's coming with him: he learns from her that there's a day/night cycle here, but no proper sun. We learn of the existence of big, dim, agressive Saur relatives called Sawtooths, but there are said to be none in this habiotat. There are however Gnolls – who may be there unofficially. Why was Snerk sent here? Comshaw, Niddle and Ig were sent to their mates, so is Zil Snerk's future mate? The shark certainly didn't go to its mate but we've been told it was the only beaver shark, so probably it had no mate: instead it followed Mortimer on whom it was fixated (it possibly followed Snerk because he had licked Mortimer's foot and so smelled of him). Mortimer went to his brother and Rosemary, but we will be told Rosemary is not his mate, and certainly he is currently fixated on Yasmine. I do not think Yasmine can be Rosemary looped through time, even though we will learn that she is somebody whom people in the area might recognise, because Rosemary wouldn't need a report on Mansion critters. Meanwhile, the not-Glowgem falls back into the crater, and the HJ42 falls through a crack in the floor of the crater [the parallel strip Sundays in SubShaft 44f tells us that it ends up with the rebel Gnoll mechanic Tuttle, who is in league with Digger Odel and passes it to Skuy's boyfriend Cully]. Agorn investigates and sees that the hole which has opened up contains a ladder. He can smell Sneeches in the depths. 03: Spanner in the Works [17/09/2010 – 15/01/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2555–#2926] Sylvester identifies their location as the Ettinworks investigated by Krell, Earl Griffington's assistant. Sylvester, Mortimer (still smelling peculiar due to the sphagnum dust, still with umbrella) and Rosemary set out along the walkway: lights, electric crackles and deep rumbling noises come on as they walk, destroying the ladder they were comsidering before. R&S talk over Mortimer and largely ignore what he is trying to tell them about the umbrella. Sylvester talks about the differences between the SubShafts and the Ettinworks, as electricity crackles on and off around them. Rosemary has a sense that the Can-Opener may do exciting things around electrical discharges, and puts it in the Poke Kit. No Human that Sylvester knows of has been down there since the Crash: and of course after their tumble down the Chasm they are now much lower-down than they had intended to be, vis-á-vis the Sneech den. They come to an unusually passive Sneech plant-machine growth which is blocking the walkway. Similar to the Tree, Sneech dens are built from vast networks of linked, plant-like growths which maintain all forms of life-support, information processing and defence, and can be dangerous if threatened. They are far below the level of the Sneech nest, but Mortimer recounts comments by Skibble suggesting the Sneeches are expanding their territory. He tells Sylvester that Comshaw wants to talk to him. They edge past the growth: Mortimer insists on taking the lead as he is the most expendable. The other two have been ignoring Mortimer and rather treating him like a small child but they begin to realise their mistake. Having passed the Sneech growth they come in sight of an Ettin underhub – a lighthouse-like tower which stretches from the floor below where they are, through the open cavern of the Ettinworks to the ceiling of the cavern, which is the floor of the shallower levels overhead, with a row of windows ringing the tower up near the ceiling. Sylvester talks of a network of underground roads and haulage lorries and buildings which was wrecked and sealed off when Audra poked the Hot Zone and caused the Chasm to spread – it is clear this is the system now being opened up and used by the Fixits. So Yurpsland already had self-powered lorries about 140 years ago, or ninety years before the Crash. The tunnels were used to train and supply armies, but after the Breach the less martially-minded Ludwig sealed them off rather than repairing them (these must be the extra space Fosic is now unsealing with his bim toggler). They go into the underhub and prepare to climb a spiralling internal ramp, and have a conversation in which Rosemary is amazed to learn that a famous, ancient philosopher named Milo, who wrote a very famous work called The Intricate Balance, was the 9th Earl of E. Rosemary's Aunt Eva won it in a Skipjack game among a job-lot of eleven books. They discuss chess, in which Milo was very interested: Rufus is the family champion (after Myrrh). They find a signpost written in a Human script and recently annotated in the handwriting of Nirvana Clepe, former Taskmistress of the Mansion, who retired eight years ago when her wife died, and supposedly now lives in Noodle, three days' ride away. They can tell that the writing is quite new, not weathered by the sea air. Mortimer is showing clairvoyance – he knows that the Sneeches have never been inside the underhub. There is a discussion about Threnody the local Oracle, whom Sylvester fancies (Dirge is her Guardian), and who sometimes helps with the female Tasks now they have no Taskmistress, if Nellie doesn't feel up to it. Presumably the Scary Lady isn't Human enough. Mention is made of two main Brush sects, Mainstream and Throwbacks. The interior of the underhub is full of concealed twistpoints – as they climb, the interior changes illogically and it's possible to go up and end up lower down, or find a door to the outside that should have been visible from the outside, but wasn't (meaning it's 180° rotated from where it appears to be). There are a series of signposts to guide them, and they have to follow the lower numbers on the signs (assuming the top of the underhub to be #1) even when they look like they're going the wrong way. Talking about twistpoints leads them to realise that they each met Protus today. Mortimer talks about the Zorper, about Yasmine, and about ending up in Dorian's old hut. He recalls Dorian as a hermit from his childhood, although Dorian has been working for the group in the Spike for forty-two years, and Mortimer's father was born less than fifty years ago and Mortimer is his third child, so he's not much more than twenty-five. The Dorian we see in memory was already wearing the Fixit he wears now, so he was dividing his time between the Spire and the forest (unless at some point in the future he and his Fixit are going to be sent back to twenty years ago). Sylvester is sure Yasmine was lying about being there to review Arthur, unless the Guild have changed the rules without telling him, because the Guild's assessor is called Jack Kench. Employing a Weirdo, we learn, is a requisite part of being an aristocrat, and being an aristocrat still has its uses. They come to a group of elongated, slope-sided pillars labelled "do not touch". After they have passed on without touching them, we see that they are local Panegates. A window open in one to show the dining room at the Mansion, then two female Gnolls, Dandilli from the SubShafts and probably Dipsoma, gossiping (Dandilli has a flutterby on a string), then a Dornbeast. The Dornbeast tries to come through and is electrocuted. Frowgler, looking rough, emerges from the Dornbeast one although the Dornbeast itself cannot pass. He goes back through another, smaller window and we hear a voice speaking to him which says "ya" and "yer" instead of "you" and "you're", but the font is disguised. Frowgler asks if they are "back up and running" and the voice says yesno, if you don't twist out right aw— then comments that Frowgler is damaged. Frowgler says he met one of Protus's new friends, possibly referring to Thrash tossing him up like a ball. Signs in there say "NO HURRICANES BEYOND THIS POINT" and "STAY HOME CUZ YER WELL". Meanwhile, Nevus's troops are at Comshaw's door, believing he sent Sylvester and Rosemary to spy on Le Tree, but they are facing gthe wrong way, expecting him to be coming from the forest. He emerges behind them and duffs them up with his Poking stick, then tells one of them, a young male Trog called Skradt, to take him to Nevus. They pass Le Gnollhole, which is closed for the duration. Skradt is interested in learning to be a Poker himself. The Basement is now very quiet – most people are hiding, although we glimpse Fanga lurking in a doorway with her bow. The twistpoints in the underhub aren't mentioned in the Mansion's records, suggesting they are newly formed: or rather, since they are so organised, the Ettins set the system up, but it was switched off. Sylvester thinks the Ettins' devices were built to shut down in the event of a Crash, and are now waking again, and in the process turning other stuff from hundreds of years ago back on. They discuss the Crash, and what they could do before it – still far less than the Ettins did. They had a high-level tram which took a week to cross the country: the Ettins went to the moon. They come to another pillar labelled "touch". In order to get past a twistpoint and go up again Mortimer touches it with his umbrella, again considering himself the most expendable, and a ray from the ceiling strikes the other two. Sylvester loses nearly all his memory – although he recalls Nimue – and Rosemary loses some of her intelligence, regresses emotionally and starts acting like an eager-to-please, extremely literal-minded five-year-old with no conversational filters. Rosemary's memory is intact and she realises what has happened and warns Mortimer he will have to tell her what to do. This is a double-edged sword as she is now extremely hypnotically susceptible: when Mortimer says "Stop" to her she actually freezes up. Mortimer still trusts the signs, since touching the pillar, as the sign said, seems to have protected him. He has a crisis of nerve about being the leader, but Sylvester decides to trust him. Following Mortimer's instincts, they hold the umbrella together and touch the pillar again, and this time a levitating lift called a Woosher arrives. The Woosher carries them up inside the tower, and while they are on it the ramps that were there before disappear. 04: Closing Out an Era (The Ettinworks) [18/01/2011 – 04/06/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2674–#2807] As they ride the Woosher Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer discuss the fact that there must be "some rich guy with horrible mutant tastebuds" keeping Moe Wines in business (there is, of course – Mr Hand). They discuss the fact that Sylvester is the Earl (which he has forgotten) and the succession: Mortimer is terrified of having to be Earl if Sylvester doesn't get his memory back, but in any case Ace is older (and equally unsuitable). Lil is dreamy like Mortimer, Lenore is smart but too harsh and self-interested, and Rufus is brilliant but not good with people. They pass an unknown woman in brown, with blonde hair with a pink bow on top – Rosemary calls her Mz Teree – who seems to be marking the signs, but who isn't Nirvana Clepe. Hpobfvfr is still trailing them, and climbing upwards, so either she or the Operator must know about the Trog-catcher in the Chasm, and that going over the Plunge point need not mean that they are dead. When they disembark, higher up, the tower changes again (because they have stepped through an invisible twistpoint to a different section, not because the tower itself has changed) and they find more ramps. It is mentioned that they need never have gone down to look for the Pots Room, because Mortimer knows where there is a supply of seige pots in a disused barracks. Rosemary's bodyguard training is still sharp even if the rest of her isn't. They discuss twistpoints, and confirm that it is possible to walk down a ramp, then back up the same ramp, and end up somewhere different from where they started. Sylvester can remember a scary female teacher at university who taught him about tesseracts in this context, and a night where he and Nimue stood on a high tower looking down at the lights of the city. One of the new signposts they come to is decorated with a heart with "N C + A S" written in it: they think this may be Nirvana Clepe and the Mz Teree woman (meaning Mz Teree's initials are A.S.). With more down-and-up twists they arrive at the level of the wide, round room with the bank of windows, up against the roof of the cavern where the Ettinworks are, and just under the floor of the upper part of the Basement. At this point they are probably back at about the level of Le Tree, or maybe a storey or two below it. As they walk Rosemary burbles, and starts to speak about Tansy – who she thinks is the woman Sylvester saw her fighting when Protus showed him visions – and a word beginning "Qu". The view from the windows looks out into the Ettinworks, and the room is dotted with many pillars and blocks. Meanwhile, Comshaw and Skradt come to the Council entrance, which is heavily defended. An Eyebolt receptionist called Witherward admits them by dropping them down a shaft. They arrive in the midst of a full meeting, including Twiz, acting for Maw; Snerd, acting for Sina; Commander Chumley (the Council's Chief of Security) for the Boogiemen; and Hptwfvth, a Ghast "Stirrer", some kind of high ceremonial functionary relating to how the Ghasts reproduce (they have to use special breeding pools within their home base and are unable to set up more outside it), who is in some way not physically present (or more probably, is physically present but not officially so). On the Council are Doyen, a female Trog; Gavzada, a female Motihaul; Wunk, a male Gnoll; Aprat, a Helipath and Chairbeing Preznit, a male Eyebolt, although he tries to hide his species behind a mask and robes. Doyen cricizes the presence of Skradt, since he is known to work for Nevus, but Comshaw says that Skradt is thinking of becoming a Poker and is there to observe his typical working day. Snerd has brought a message from Sina saying her team at their new hall fully support the Council, and the Council can send an observer if it likes, but they're not leaving. Twiz is very interested in the new hall Sina is setting up, which may be what his group needs (whether as a new place to live after their lair was attacked, or just a place where they can get the contract to do the cleaning, isn't clear). The Council is concerned about Rhid and what he may do next, and whether Sina is a safe person to be a leader. Gavzada is keen on anything which keeps Othara occupied, and they are cautiously positive so long as Sina and her engineer Fosic build walls to keep people away from the Operator. Comshaw then strikes a Fixit from the head of a female Gnoll called Widdendreem, who seems to be the Council's record-keeper. He wants to catch it alive but Widdendreem, freed from the Fixit, pounces and kills it. Widdendreem is angry that she now owes Comshaw a debt, and concerned by the fact that she has killed a person. She tells them the name "Fixit" and that the dead one was a female called Snurfix or Snufix, reporting to a male nicknamed Slinker. Snurfix had crept onto her head while she slept; was herself not really kept informed, other than that the Fixits work for "God"; and didn't try to make Widdendreem do anything, except to pay attention to records and transactions which Snurfix wished to know about. We learn that young Fixits are raised in cages "beyond the Spikeshield", which must be the barrier others have spoken of. Chumley, as security chief, takes command and sends Widdendreem to write down all she recalls about the Fixits, while Comshaw tells the Council what he knows about them – leaving out Camora's name. Chumley decrees that no one in the Council Chamber shall wear a hat – all the Councillors drop their hoods and Preznit, whose brain is in his torso, strips to his socks. Wunk appears slightly boggled by whatever Preznit has in his crotch, which we don't actually see. The Council agrees to tell all the key players – Maw, Agita etc. – whilst trying to prevent the knowledge of the Fixits from spreading generally for the moment, for fear of what God might do when he learns his spy network has been blown. They want all the leaders warned, and preferably to have caught a live Fixit, before God takes any action. Comshaw is sent to tell Agita about the Fixits, but before he leaves he tells them about the Humans, and Sylvester being the Earl, but he doesn't know if he is the Earl. The Earl "tore the world in two fighting Yurp, the Demon King": Yorik Yurp is the king who founded Yurpsland where they live, and the Earl in this case is evidently Audra, who fought a war with Yurp and caused the Chasm to spread. Comshaw plans to go speak to Sylvester tomorrow, if he can find the Mansion: Hptwfvth tells him it's "God's Cactus". Comshaw assures the Council that "his" Humans aren't in league with God, so far as he can tell, and passes on the message that Nevus will be "in non-violent touch". Comshaw, Skradt, Snerd and Twiz head for the exit, discussing the reproduction of various species, and Trog education (here we learn that Espy is a teacher, and that Skradt can read both Manglish and Human script), and that the Ghasts keep paper records. Back with Sylvester's party, Mortimer tells the other two (neither of whom is functioning reliably yet) not to go to look out of the windows, for fear of triggering another dangerous event by accidentally touching one of the many close-set pillars and blocks scattered around the room. We see that leading up from the window room is a flight of stone steps going up into the body of the rock above them. There is also an Ettin-style door, like a triangle with the top cut off, which has a gap about 10" high underneath it. Mortimer peers underneath and sees a triangular space with two Human-type doors set into Ettin-style apertures, leading off from this Ettin control tower. Two roundish objects, possibly shoes, and what seems to be a tapered board made from three slats lean against one wall (although Mortimer later refers to seeing "posts"), but a little metal sign saying "KEEP OUT" falls down in front of him, with the letters cut out of it as holes. Sylvester feels that there are Humans behind the door right now (perhaps this is where Nirvana and the msyterious AS are living?), but when he turns his back it's a non-Human-looking hand, crackling with magic, which retrieves the "KEEP OUT" sign. It doesn't look like Frowgler's hand (and anyway we will learn that he is elsewhere): it actually looks like the hand of one of the mysterious creatures we saw before who called the Scary Lady "The Destroyer", although if so Rob has changed his mind about how many fingers they have. [Note: could be a Wendigo hand, but the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Rosemary asks whether she is bodyguard to both of them: Mortimer says just to Sylvester, and that he himself will have to take care of himself. They set off up the stone steps towards the Sneech den. Rosemary and Sylvester are starting to improve. There is some oblique discussion about R&S going to Nellie and Amos for help if anything happens to Mortimer, about Sylvester not telling Rosemary the Scary Lady's name, then about Mortimer's friend the scalpsucker (and the fact that some scalpsuckers nowadays can talk) – Mortimer remembers falling down the hole leading to the old World o' Pots storeroom but doesn't seem to recall meeting Rufus. They come to a door opened by number pad, leading to a double-doored Sneech-lock with a Sneechstick in it. Mortimer can sense that there are no Sneeches nearby. Emerging, they pass an alcove containing an entrance to the elevator, or at least an elevator. Mortimer steers them past it, looking alarmed, and writing on the wall says "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW", but they should be on the opposite side of the Chasm from the lift with the Operator in it. Maybe they have passed through the stone of the roof above the Great Chasm: it's true that at Mansion-level the elevator and the entrance to the Sneech den are fairly close together. Past that is a round room at the bottom of a shaft, with a crystal on a stand in the middle, playing a popular song called Girl from the Limphopho: this is the same mechanism the Scary Lady used to levitate Zay, but not the same shaft, as hers was square in cross-section. Sylvester confirms that there are several of these lifts throughout the Mansion, all playing the same tune There are also double metal doors, closed, and stairs leading up and down. Mortimer hopes to use the stairs but finds the ones going up are labelled "Operation Certain Death" and the ones going down, "Slimegrub Breedpits". The down-flight shows signs of recent flooding, which ties in with floods which occur in the related < href="MoE_SubShaft_44f_2.htm">Sundays in SubShaft 44f strips. On the first landing down are a large Glowgem and a discarded stick which is probably somebody's wand: Mortimer retrieves the Glowgem, which has a socket just right for fitting it onto the point of his umbrella. Rosemary seems slightly hypnotised by it. They plan to go upstairs, towards Operation Certain Death, but then they hear something big and loud crashing downstairs towards them. Comshaw's party slide down a chute and land in a corridor by the battered-looking Gobule Mingent, who is eating debris from the battle. Twiz has a piece of the dead Fixit in his mouth to take to Maw – they tell Mingent if he smells anything like it, to bite it. Twiz runs off, and Mingent fills Comshaw in on what happened at the elevator. Comshaw thinks Snerd should go on working for Sina but Snerd says Shona wouldn't like it, and he loves Shona. Comshaw and Skradt set off together. They encounter a Jibjib called Schrik being ridden by a Fixit, and try and fail to take the Fixit alive. The Fixit has been using Schrik to spy on Flap's ferry across the Great Chasm. An important Boogieman ruler called Crispin is mentioned: Schrik has a basket to take him but doesn't know if he dremed it, as the Fixit has left him very confused. Comshaw sends Schrik to take the dead Fixit to Sina and then work for her. Skradt reveals that he joined Nevus hoping for an early death in battle, so he wouldn't have to choose to take the Plunge. But Comshaw has given him a vision of something more useful, plus he wants to learn to fight as well as him. Frowgler, watching through a crack in the wall, thinks they make a good team. As the loud noises approach Rosemary draws the Can-Opener, which Sylvester calls a Paleslicer, but thinks better of it. They use the singing crystal thing to levitate them up to a higher floor, but Rosemary is grabbed and held back, floating, by what proves to be an enormous, female relative of Ahz and Skiv, called Tand (who is as big as a Titanoboa, has some difficulty adjusting her voice to the right level, and has tentacles on her head which terminate in hands). Tand can smell that Rosemary has been near Ahz and Skiv and believes, wrongly, that she knows who they are, so after some initial problems adjusting her voice to Human levels, she tells her to tell them to get a move on with their allotted task of growing a garden, a task for which they were all sent here by someone else. Tand says Rosemary is not like any other Human she's met, and one of the other two (has to be Mortimer) is sparkly like a lot of Humans used to be but haven't been for a while – apparently she is sensing him as a magic-user. Tand has to leave because she is literally over-stretched Iimplying that her tail is rooted, somewhere up the "Certain Death" stair) and the torch she is carrying is going out. She is afraid to meet, in the dark, a male "horrible mask-thing" who can go anywhere – this may be Frowgler, since the Pales call him Frogmask. Released, Rosemary floats up to the boys. She feels herself to be now entirely back to normal (although later events will show that this isn't quite true). Sylvester recognises the name Tand from his records, but still hasn't wholly regained his memory. 05: Closing Out an Era (The Sneech Den) [06/06/2011 – 16/12/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2814–#2994] Sylvester, Mortimer and Rosemary pass another large inactive Sneech node and several smaller ones, and some graffiti relating to dragons – although we're not told whether they are a legend or, like wyverns, a real if possibly extinct animal: like the one they saw before, these Sneech growths are far less active than normal. Rosemary would like to talk to Tand again, but not right now. There is a conversation about Mortimer's history of failed relationships with scary women, and mention is made of a disastrous relationship with someone named Olga, and of Ace's success with women. He tells Rosemary that his relationship with her will be strictly business while she is staring bug-eyed at the hypno-Glowgem, and he reveals that he has the hots for Yasmine. Sylvester is also affected by the Glowgem, although not as much. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt come to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base off Time Hall, where Agita (a Motihaul) has her office. They have a complicated system of clearances in which Comshaw ranks quite high, and several zones. An Eyebolt called Philodox admits them to the UnRooted Area, but security is tight due to the events of the day. While waiting to be seen they observe that two of the Eyebolt clerks, Giddhom and Frampold, are wearing Fixit-type hats but they seem to be just hats. Giddhom says thay are in fashion because some people claim they help you to think. Weirding is discussed, and the fact that the Eyebolts in scritchpods perform endless computations but don't say why, and the eccentricities of various species – we learn that Helipaths refuse to cross the Great Chasm to Sneech side even though Sneeches get on OK with them, and that the Trog juggler at the edge of the Great Chasm is Skradt's cousin Stonwal. The hatted clerks are Scrutineers, recording and preserving everything visitors say – Skradt wishes to be recorded as a future Poker who did something useful with his life. Rosemary is in command over Sylvester because that's part of her job as bodyguard. The Sneech growths would normally be lighted but most here aren't: there is a lot of discussion of Sneech races and technology, living walls etc. When they get to the area where even the floor is a living Sneech growth Mortimer doesn't want to walk barefoot on it, so takes off his shirt (which was ruined by the sploo and the sphagnum dust anyway) so Rosemary can make rag boots for him and mittens for all of them so they don't have to touch the Sneech material. Mortimer makes a bad pun ("Make it sew"): he passes his umbrella to Sylvester while he takes off his shirt, and sees that the Glowgem glows much less brightly when Sylvester holds the umbrella. Rosemary has absorbed the hypnotic lesson that her relationship with Mortimer is strictly business. In the context of rag boots there is some discussion of Rosemary's poor origins on Gnomin. Comshaw borrows Giddhom's hat so Fixits will think he's controlled: Skradt sticks a claw into the buckle to kill it if the buckle should chance to be an eye. They are escorted to see Agita by an Eyebolt called Peripatet riding in a special buggy labelled VEU (Visitor Escort Unit), which has different numbers each side, possibly due to damage sustained during an eventful visit by Strode, the aggressive female Motihaul in the pumpkin-head mask who appears in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They must enter the Rooted Zone at some point as they are there in their next scene. Following a trail of fresh air through the tunnels of the Sneech den, R&S&M come to a bridge over a moderate drop, guarded on either side by relatives of Fern's The intelligent plants are wary of Rosemary because they communicate (probably via the Tree) with Fern and know that Rosemary injured her, but they agree to disarm her and carry the Can-Opener across the bridge themselves for her to collect on the far side. Rosemary reveals that she assumed Fern was dangerous because there are similar plants in Moonin, smaller and not intelligent but very aggressive: we see what are clearly just bigger versions of the plants Piu was growing in a pot. As they get to the far side the Gnoll Agorn falls while trying to climb down from the crater above, and lands at their feet. Agorn hasn't noticed, but Niddle's apearing and disapearing gem (hereafter the Hitchhiking Gem) is now attached to his spear, but as with Niddle it initially comes and goes and is there only some of the time. Mortimer asks if he is there to scrounge Sneech leavings and he agrees. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt pass more clerks one of whom, Ogdoad, is wearing a Fixit. As the Human trio prepare to leave the cave of the sapient plants, the plants confirm that they're heading the right way and then one of them delays them and asks – by spelling with its tongue – that they be given names. Sylvester names them after the Founding Oracles, a group of women who spread the religion of the Brush – Violet, Daisy, Joice, Jenny, Kathryne, Hettie, Evangeline, Vivian and Petunia. Sylvester promises to visit them again: as the Humans leave we see the plants talking amongst themselves by some rapid means, and wishing they had had the chance to eat Agorn. Agorn has scarpered: Rosemary wrongly thinks he might have been the person who was tailing them earlier (Whisp). Sylvester criticises Mortimer for handing Agorn a ready-made excuse. They discuss the fact that for the Earl, every public conversation is a little war, and Sylvester keeps Mortimer, and now Rosemary, around because he can simply talk to them. The Humans come to the main corridor through the Sneech den, which is studded with tall, light-bearing tree-like things. Comshaw, Skradt and Peripatet leave the Rooted Zone for the Grafted Zone. We learn that the Eyebolts in Root Hall distrust the GBOLs, and therefore presumably the Tree, and make their own lights. Comshaw and Skradt come to Agita and her Eyebolt clerk Flibbergib (at one point mistakenly called Flittergib), and Agita gives them apples. Agita has large plants, an aquarium and a special "Meeting with an Important Eyebolt" table. She has with her her young daughter, Rishathra, and a Gnoll guard called Termagant. Agita and Comshaw catch up on the events of the day, and Comshaw gets her to summon Ogdoad, and also supply Skradt with a large bowl. [Around here we have a Labor Day out-take showing local man Arlen and his daughter Juniper, digging a ditch at the back of a hedge near the village of Eetown. The hedge has the rusted remains of a pre-crash vehicle incorporated into it.] Agita tells Comshaw what was auctioned (although she doesn't really know what the Zorper is). They speculate on whether this Mortimer is old enough to be the one who started the Nome War (after somehow falling through into a mine). Meanwhile. Sprocket is upset to see that Crazy Rhid's ex place connects to large areas of still-working giant machinery – the only machinery that good outside the SubShafts – and Rhid, if he knew, didn't tell anyone. The large machine he is looking is something he found (behind a gate marked with the E symbol) when he traced back the thing Pergola reported as spewing goo while Urwyn was being recruited. [We glimpe Rhid sitting on a box, looking traumatised, in a dusty, cobwebby room.] Sina now has a makeshift office, an Eyebolt receptionist called Nikhedonia (who has a non-Fixit hat on the back of her chair) and Maggle acting as gopher. Sina and Sprocket decide to marry, right now – Wittol, who will be their Finagler, has already anticipated this and started to make arrangements. We learn that Niddle has had experiences which make him a perfect Finagler – so perfect he may be a whole new thing. We learn that Gnoll marriage customs involve a receptacle called a Tweebowl (but a bucket will do), a Tool and a Blossom and, at some point before they have whelps, a visit to the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave, and without a Finagler things go badly wrong for mated pairs. Yet, some couples such as Niff and Folla, and an old couple called Mafick and Lepid, live unofficially, without a Finagler, and manage fine. Sprocket, Wittol and Sina have a hasty ceremony, with Skuy and Flange as witnesses and the possibility of a more formal one later. Afterwards Snerd turns up and thinks Nikhedonia's hat is a Fixit, although it's just a hat. As he is explaining, Schrik turns up with an actual dead Fixit. Maggle and Kronk are sent out to show the dead Fixit around and kill any live ones they find, and Snerd returns to his mate Shona and Finagler Wubb. Flange reminds Sprocket of their obligations to their employer Mr Hand, and tells him about Rubrak being killed by Chauncy and Edgar. Sprocket and Flange will probably cease to be partners now (and Snipe will be looking for a new job). Sprocket talks privately to Sina about Mr Hand and the job (and Wittol withdraws because he says they don't yet know him well enough to share dangerous non-Finagler secrets with) – he has realised that the female Motihaul who put him in touch with Mr Hand was wearing/worn by a Fixit, and therefore Mr Hand must be something bigger and stranger than the "Crescent Hall nob" they had assumed, and works (grudgingly) with God. Mr Hand has had them installing devices called Y-nodes which look like Sneech growths (and Sprocket is rich as a result of how many clients he has), and which produce ultrasonic sound only small creatures can hear. Fleebs in the presence of a Y-node turn to face it and stare. Sprocket sees Mr Hand as ruthless and controlling but constructive rather than destructive in his intentions. They agree to tell Comshaw about it, then get on to the serious business of their wedding night. Meanwhile Snerd returns to Shona. Ogdoad arrives at Agita's office and insists on a promise of safe conduct before he will come in. He has some involvement with another Eyebolt (?) called Tribblerig and some scheme involving Sneech squeezings, which he assumes is what Agita wants to talk about, but as he enters the office Comshaw baps the Fixit, called Endix, off his head and Skradt traps him under the bowl, but Endix somehow commits suicide. Ogdoad is terribly distressed, for he and Endix had become at least semi-partners, and being meshed gave him stereoscopic vision. He is rather horrible and gloats over the fact that God will destroy them. Agita dismisses Comshaw and Skradt and takes Ogdoad with her to see a female Motihaul accountant called Marritza who is wearing a Fixit named Arnix. Agita threatens Arnix with the knife-point ferule of her umbrella, then tells him that the gaff regarding God and the Fixits is well and truly blown, and offers him the chance to ride on Ogdoad and act as a liason officer between herself and God. Arnix and Ogdoad both agree. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt leave the Grafted Zone, and Root Hall itself, via the Egress Zone, and are quizzed as they leave by an Eyebolt who assumes it's all to do with Ogdoad and Tribblerig scheming over Sneech squeezings. As they come away from Root Hall they pass through the Deep Egress Zone, then go by a lettered sign, where another Eyebolt opens the centre of a letter and watches them leave. They pass the male Nome called Rezrov, still with his arm in a sling, leading, on a string, a very flirtatious-looking female Trog named Hogminny. Both are smeared with green paint, and Rezrov's clothes are torn. We are told that some Nomes and some Trogs have a "thing", and learn that Skradt tentatively fancies Maggle. Comshaw 'phones the Council and tells them he has delivered their message to Agita, and he has a message for them from Root Hall saying Ogdoad is involved with a Sneech squeezings scheme but they'll handle it. Comshaw takes Skradt home with him and Camora and Niddle are quite welcoming, although if he's staying they may need to move to a bigger apartment. All sleep, exhausted. As a final wrap-up, we see Snoot bitching to Izchak (who is evidently his room-mate) about his bloody awful day; the SuperRock pausing to rest and to talk to GeezerRock who can talk, but not walk, and who asks it whether it's just going to sit there; Digger reporting to Frowgler that things are going to plan and he has no questions to ask; and Frederick preparing to serenade the Grubbs on a Fugehorn. I think this is the point at which the strip revealed (although Rob mentioned it off-strip before) that Digger is a Boogieman with dwarfism, because we can see that his face is covered with white fur, behind the goggles. 06: Twilight [17/12/2011 – 09/06/2012] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3001–#3174] Agorn encounters Hpobfvfr, who is trailing the Humans. She blasts her way through a wall into Sneech den, then addresses him as if he is two people – she senses the sentient (and possibly sapient) Hitchiking Gem which Agorn doesn't know he is carrying. Sylvester and co. enter the main corridor, which is again unnaturally quiet – we learn there should be trilobite-thingies scuttling about trailing organic wires etc.. Sylvester mentions that he didn't find out about his father's death until after the funeral. While discussing a performing troupe who once came to the local village, Mortimer accidentally causes Rosemary to fixate on the Glowgem in his umbrella, and gives her two hypnotic commands – "Go to sleep, but act like you're still awake!", "Take a note! I am not going to keep making these mistakes with women!" – and then a third one, "Do as you're told! Stay in your place! Speak only when spoken to! The Brush wills it!", when he and Sylvester discuss the overbearing previous Oracle Omega. Trailed at some distance by Hpobfvfr, the Human party pass a Sneech tower which is at the edge between Human and Sneech territory and is labelled "NO INTERRUPTIONS", then emerge into an empty area leading towards the entrance. They then come to a neon sign saying "OUR TRAJECTORYS DIVERGE PAYMENT FOR YE ASSISTANCE" (although Sylvester doesn't know what assistance is meant). This disintegrates, leaving a squat obelisk which moves when it is touched (by Sylvester, with strips of shirt round his fingers), and which Rosemary names the Dohickey. The Sneeches themselves have gone, and Sylvester doesn't know what assistance they're talking about. The obelisk steers them around a hole in the floor, which proves to be the hole which Chauncy and Edgar left when they exited Izchak's shop looking for the Scary Lady. Matagam the Motihaul soldier and, later, a Boogieman called Geoff climb out of the hole, checking where Chauncy and Edgar went (and plan to return back down via the Council tunnel, having learned from the Human party where it is they've emerged). Mortimer hurries his party away. Heading for the Mansion proper, Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester emerge into an elaborate vestibule decorated with ornamental fake stalagmites and flaming braziers, which is the scary-looking room they see from the Mansion when they look through the arch inderneath the devil mask. Here they notice a new opening in a side wall. This is the entrance to the tunnel put in by the Council to monitor the Humans: that is, the upper end of the tunnel that also goes from the Basement to the forest. From there they exit through the archway under the mask to a plain downstairs room containing the entrance to the elevator and a small extension of the Tree, and with "BEWARE MR FLIP" written on the wall. Mr Flip is a character we meet in Sundays in SubShaft 44f, but Mortimer says the graffito has been there his whole life. To get further they need to go down a short corridor and through a locked door, the key to which Sylvester dropped while falling into the Great Chasm. Matagam and Geoff head for the Council tunnel and are passed by Hpobfvfr coming up, who corners the Humans against the locked door. Mortimer senses that her mind has been tampered with and speaks to her sympathetically, incidentally getting between her and her intended targets. Then we see in flashback that Sopovefe, the male Ghast she passed just before Rosemary and Sylvester fell into the Chasm, realised that something was wrong and went and fetched help (we see him run past Rezrov and Hogminny: this time Hogminny is holding the leash). Hpthvo, the officer in charge of a party of Ghast soldiers who have come up via the hole which Hpbfvfr bashed through into the Sneech den, orders Hpobfvfr to stand down, and this breaks the Operator's hold over her. Hpobfvfr and one soldier leave (passing the elevator, where Hpobfvfr wishes death on the Operator), while Hpthvo and the other soldier stay to interrogate the Humans. Hearing Rosemary address Mortimer by name, Hpthvo queries this and he says he is "Mortimer Eman.. because we're going to be all.. formal..": in doing so he inadvertently gives Rosemary another hypnotic command. Having confirmed Mortimer's name and that he might be the one who started the Nome War, and having learned that they are Human, Hpthvo wants to arrest the trio, but great aunt Scary appears in the doorway (with balloon) and scares them off. Somewhere, she has acquired a flower which she is now wearing tucked into the v-neck of her dress. After the Ghasts leave the rest go through into the house, and Scary cures Sylvester's memory problems. He is very reluctant to ask her to do anything which will put him under an obligation to her. Scary tries to touch the Sneech obelisk, but it fizzes a shock at her. Meanwhile Sylvester has realised something is still wrong with Rosemary, and when she starts addressing Mortimer as "Mr Eman" because "We are being all formal" Sylvester realises that she is following Mortimer's commands literally. Mortimer tries to snap her out of it by giving her a ridiculous command to "be a dog" but she goes down on all fours and starts growling. Scary is detachedly impressed by his power, and thinks there is a real risk Rosemary will become permanently enthralled. Alarmed, Mortimer tries to order Rosemary to be herself, preempting Scary who was about to intervene, and commands her to take orders from noone, although she can listen to their advice. In the short term it seems to have worked, but it remains to be seen whether she has internalised any of his commands. Sylvester takes control of the Glowgem for now and gives it to Rosemary to go in her Poke Kit, and Mortimer goes off to speak to Frederick. Restored to normal function, Rosemary is introduced to the Scary Lady, whose name we finally learn to be Myrrh (and it is confirmed that she sent Chauncy and Edgar to a desert zone). The two go off for a private chat in which it is revealed that Rosemary knows Myrrh to be not Human, and that Myrrh loves and protects Frederick to the point of being willing to kill anybody who threatens anybody he cares about, such as his nephews. It is mentioned in passing that Rosemary's encounter with Scratch was before she joined Hack'N'Slash. Myrrh agrees that Rosemary should be independent, as Mortimer told her, and can sense that she's already met a lot of powerful locals who tried to influence her, people Myrrh calls "local dignitaries": we see Protus; the Operator; the Tree; the Djinnoscope; Tand; the Gibber; and the Great Riddler. She repeats to Rosemary what Mortimer told her about living her own life and dreaming her own dreams, just to make it stick, and magically straightens the bent wing on her helmet. The same minituarised trundlebug who fell onto Rosemary's helmet earlier in the day is revealed to be still lurking in her broken lamp, and Myrrh rescues it, then goes off to see what's happened to the Sneeches, after commenting that the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer will spoil his intended date with Sharona Stout in the village. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss Myrrh, and how Frederick summoned her by accident while trying to get a Djinn. He spent his energy on a collar to control her and stop her from running wild and killing bystanders, as Demons had done in the past, but now she wears the collar voluntarily and uses it to assist her own magic in some way, as Frowgler had suggested to her when she met him while time-slipped (although he may have suggested it because he'd already seen her future self doing it). She has been a good partner to Frederick and a good great-aunt to his family, and Sylvester is loyal to her and will protect her if necessary. Rosemary reluctantly agrees, but wants to keep the knowledge of the Can-Opener from her. Sylvester schedules a talk about Rosemary's recent history for the next day but he fears to be overheard, so they must go somewhere secure. They prove to each other that they are Human by checking each other's ears (Sylvester's ears are apparently jaw-droppingly strange, but not pointed) and discuss the origins of Demons and Djinn and the possibility that since Myrrh answers questions and helps people, maybe Frederick wasn't so far off the mark when he tried to summon a Djinn and got her – or maybe they are, after all, just people and all individual. Straightforward Demons like Chauncy and Edgar and Scratch come from Fratz; Human-like Demons and the Djinn come from Zark. Demons in the Snowgrass area are more like rock/tree things (is the Tree one? later we will see that one visited the Spire City in Mechana). and Demons in the Deep Jungle are more animal and strange. Sylvester realises something about Frederick and why he hid books on Demons which he feels foolish not to have realised before, which leads to a conversation about a duel which Rosemary lost to a woman named Haruka Sol in a way which made her realise her own mortality and how dangerous her job was, and they take the Sneech obelisk towards the Quiet Room. Meanwhile Mortimer passes the countdown thing, which now reads 0315313091 (it was 315342639 when Rosemary and Sylvester passed it that morning, so it's counted down by 29,548 in about half a day, suggesting it will take about fourteen years to reach zero), but he tells it he's not in the mood. Mortimer goes to speak to Frederick. On the way he meets Nellie, who recognises the umbrella he is carrying (formerly Myrrh's) and seems shocked by it. She is concerned, generally, for Mortimer's safety and well-being, and for that of her own husband Amos although he is sitting quietly doing some book-binding. Mortimer believes Rosemary and Sylvester might now be an item: Nellie expects him to be jealous but he doesn't seem to be. Meanwhile, Myrrh enters the Sneech den and speaks to Frowgler, who is crawling out of the top of the shaft created by Chauncy and Edgar. Within Myrrh's subjective timeline they seem not to have spoken to each other for fifty years, since she was flashed forwards from just before the Crash, but are on good terms. [For Frowgler it was probably a few hours ago, although as the Frowgler Myrrh met during the flash-forwards was a pre-explosion Frowgler whose horn had not yet been broken it's hard to be sure.] Myrrh says Frederick is going to be upset about something Frowgler has done (probably arranging for Mortimer to get the umbrella-wand). Frederick, who is playing his Fugehorn into some kind of vaguely tree-like amplifier in a vast and high chamber, tells Mortimer that he's a wizard and that there's a wand built into the umbrella, but he won't help Mortimer to learn magic because he thinks it brings only misery. we learn that Frederick actually plays the Fugehorn very well, and that Amos actually enjoys his music. Amos and Nellie discuss the danger Mortimer is in, or represents, and Amos promises to be careful. Meanwhile Sylvester and Rosemary listen to Frederick's playing as they steer the Dohickey towards the Quiet Room, and Sylvester tells her that what Frederick is playing is a well-known lament called Threnody for the Victims of the Crash, which is where the local Oracle, Threnody, and her Guardian Dirge got their work-names. We learn that Ernest, the Earl who was an art forger, was also a genuine patron of the arts and built a whole wing of the Mansdion, called the Party Palace, for theatre and other performing arts. That's where Frederick's tree-like amplifier is. The Quiet Room is more of a gap in the Mansion than an actual room. As they approach it Rosemary's Poke Kit shrinks and begins to disgorge its contents, so Sylvester goes alone to deposit the Sneech Dohickey. The Quiet Room contains among other things the Dark Crystal; a Triforce symbol from the Zelda stories; a clockwork monkey (made by the Kaylu cult) playing cymbals; a statuette of Cthulhu; a flower in a pot; and a crescent thing which looks like the head of another Can-Opener-type pike. Rosemary says "I can hear you ralking in there.." 7'0150; it looks as though she means she can hear Sylvester, but we will learn that she means she can hear the Dohickey. After Sylvester leaves, all these objects begin to glow with magic and the crescent speaks and greets the Dohickey. Sylvester and Rosemary go to find a sword for her and to change the lock on the Basement door, since he has lost his key in the Basement. They find a powerful taser called a Zap Trident, much stronger than the one Sylvester tried to use on Villipend: Rosemary says Hack'N'Slash have offered a big reward for a working one, but they leave it where it is because it's probably only its proximity to the Quiet Room which is keeping it from exploding, and they would ahve to take it all the way to REowan to find an Hack'N'Slash office big enough to hand it in. Still, it's a source of future cash if they ever get that depserate. Sylvester says that the things in the Quiet Room are dangerous, that destroying them in the Great Chasm would lead to earthquakes (we see that the three-eyed thing from the airbox was tossed in) and that left in the Quiet Room those that are Sneech gifts gradually fade away, and in any case they usually switch off when the recipient dies. The crescent thing is not known to be dangerous – just annoying. They meet up with Mortimer, and Sylvester assures him he hadn't known that he was a wizard. If he had done, Mortimer would have left and gone after Yasmine. Sylvester thinks perhaps he should go after her anyway, but Mortimer hopes she will return to the Mansion. Sylvester fears this could lead to a division of loyalties, depending on what it is the Weirdos are plotting. He thinks their father may also have been an unknown wizard. Mortimer describes his encounter with Frowgler, who he has realised gave him the umbrella surreptitiously, and Sylvester believes him because the Great Riddler also mentioned Frowgler. They intend to debrief each other the next day but not now, because Rosemary feels they may be overheard. She meanwhile is planning to fetch a siege-pot from the barracks. Mortimer goes off and heads up the North Tower: on the way he prods a door-sign that says "SIGNS OF CHANGE" with his umbrella, and it clicks. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the Weirdos, who are a combination of jester, priest and counsellor. We learn that Oracles (but not Weirdos) carry out midwifery – and euthanasia. Sylvester feels that he no longer knows what's going on around his home. We learn that there are seige-engines mounted on the Main Tower and also that Rosemary can't act, as they discuss the plays which used to be put on at the Mansion, and the history of Kaylu – a fascist-style movement which introduced a country called Tomania to a crazed, murderous empire-building cult which worshipped a two-tailed monkey god, and was destroyed by the Crash. The Crash had an extreme effect on the Infernal Engine. Having collected the necessary materials they board up the door to the Basement, using an Ettin-made "length" and a mechanical nail-planter which could be valuable if they can find somebody to replicate it for sale. They leave the door unbarred for Myrrh, and Sylvester declares their business with the Basement is done for the day, although he will keep his promise to call on the Ferns again, and his plans for the rest of the evening require Rosemary to retain her (Audra's) helmet. We see Frederick return to the suite of rooms he shares with Myrrh, and gaze nostalgically at a photograph of his younger self and other youths in wizard gear. They are Nellie, Amos, a curly-haired woman whom Nellie will later name as "poor Mamie" (who died in the Crash), and the future Old Man Larssen. 07: Career Paths [11/06/2012 – 16/02/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3181–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips start–#03424] We see Agorn emerge, with relief, from a partially-blocked tunnel mouth partway up a rock-face near a bridge across the Great Chasm. He edges along a narrow ledge with his back to the wall, past Furphy (who we will later learn is his son) who is keeping some Jibjib eggs warm, and aross a gap which he has to jump, and comes to a bridge with a checkpoint at either end, although this one at the Sneech end is deserted. He can smell that the Ghast party went past earlier. The bridge is long and has no railings, but it's fairly safe as it's about 12ft wide. The far end is lit by bone torches. He crosses and speaks to a Gnoll border guard called Varuna, and an Ichyoid guard named Argus, and tells Varuna to warn her "vile employer" (probably Nevus or Guttle) that if the nobs keep poking in the Sneech den the Sneeches will some day poke back. He thinks that the entrance to Crescent Hall, which looks out on the bridge, is in the line of fire, and that his boss isn't stupid enough to live there. He talks to another Gnoll guard called Scibile who doesn't let him in because of the lockdown, but fills him in on what he knows of the events of the day, including the fact that something strange is happening at the Observatory, then he walks into a maze of dark, much-graffitoed stone passages and stairs. The Hitchhiking Gem falls from his spear with a clunk and he spots it, assumes he picked it up by accident in the Sneech den and posts it down a metal hatch. As he (or the gem) leaves some sort of small device which had been sticking up from a rock retracts, with a trickle of magic. The gem clangs down into a chain of pipes heading towards the SubShafts, and we see that the pipes pass by an odd kind of sculpture or device consisting of coloured spikes almost like giant coloured pencils, with single letters on them, mainly vowels. This may have to do with the religion of the Brush that coloured in the world. On top of these spikes sits a small red-brown Fuzz, clutching a flaming torch. Agorn, meanwhile, keeps going until he comes back out into Time Hall and the other side of Cresent Hall, but it's all unnaturally quiet. He goes to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base, and speaks to a male receptionist called Enchiridon. He is left waiting for a long time while a female Scrutineer called Hypothimia records his every word and action. She is stressed and angry because with all that's been going on – the fire, Chauncy and Edgar on the loose etc. – she wants to be with her mate Brimborion and their children but instead she is stuck here in this petty desk job. Peripatet arrives in his wheeled chair to collect Agorn but before Agorn goes he tells Hypothimia that he himself has been parted from his mate (he seems to have only one) and his child has been lost through some sort of mental transformation (he went away but left his body behind: we will learn that this is Furphy), but all you can do is pick yourself up and try to change things for the better. As Agorn and Peripatet proceed through Root Hall we learn that Peripatet has a girlfrind called Glossolalia, and Agorn sniffs out (literally) that Skradt is now with Comshaw. They pass various official messages on the walls but one seems like a religious or political statement – "Remontado decided she had had o nuff shaft folderol so off she went and uprooted us all". As they pass the door to Scritchpods 205–214 a female Eyebolt in a wheeled chair passes them going the other way, wearing what may be a normal hat or may be a Fixit, and a wave of "weirding" hallucinations emanates from behind the closed door. This Eyebolt is carrying a box on her cart, and the cart is labelled CTV: possibly Computation Transport Vehicle. Peripatet takes Agorn to a door behind which is a dark space containing dark, sinister-looking objects, perhaps Ettin machinery, glowing with dull red lights. Agorn refuses to enter. An unseen, probably male presence (Agorn addresses it as "Mr Muckymuck") behind a hatch dismisses Peripatet, who leaves at speed – the presence says that Peripatet does well at clandestine cart-races. It wants to discuss Agorn's boss, and says that "some of us" are aware of, and broadly approve of, what "you all" are doing. Consequently Agorn has been given Class Eight clearance, which means he can now come and go unescorted through most areas of Root Hall. The presence is somebody Agorn has had indirect contact with or knowledge of, but has never spoken to directly before: it asks him to supply any useful information he comes across in return, and Agorn tells him that Humans are real. The presence starts to half tell Agorn about Fixits but Agorn appears not to be receptive to the idea of hats being significant, and leaves. Meanwhile the chit for Agorn's new clearance is transferred by a cart-driving messenger (later named as Symposiarch) who reads the first message, destroys it, writes another and drops it down a pneumatic pipe system to a clerk (later named as Pulvinar) who reads it and then eats it and replaces it with another which he writes himself. He is monitoring something on a small screen. Agorn goes to the "Grafted Zone" of Root Hall and speaks to Flibbergib, Agita's Eyebolt receptionist, who again tries to tell him about the Fixits, not very clearly. Meanwhile we see various characters sleeping, including the Shallow Wyrm Squeeb, asleep in the Trog pen deep down on the side of the Chasm, and Bung's friend Faddle the Gnoll, who is very much awake. He is trying to evade somebody, but is rounded up by a hunting party of female Gnolls. Next we see him and four females, all wearing collars with glowing buckles on the front and all with white hair like a Finagler's, sleeping together in a large nest. We will learn later that this is the Place No One Talks About and that these are the Placettes, who are the female version of Finaglers. Agita arrives and Agorn shows her a written note saying that he's been promoted to Class Eight. We see a flashback to the aftermath of the auction, and Agita sending Agorn to trail Mortimer. Agorn reports the basics of the toing and froing he has seen surrounding Mortimer, Rufus, Eunice and Yasmine, saying he followed Mortimer's scent to a hole, then saw him carried out unconscious by two Humans (Rufus and Eunice) some time later. Agita fundamentally misunderstands what Humans are – she knows they are like big Nomes so she thinks they are a local mutation caused by the Spike, and gradually spreading through the local forest. Agorn says that there were repeller poles all around the hut where Mortimer was placed, and that most of the Humans just walked past them but that the female Human who then arrived (Yasmine) "did the usual spit-test" on one. Does this mean Yasmine is related to the Emans and passed a Herediscan, or was she just proving she was Human? Agita shows Agorn a written note (written on clay and then wiped) warning him about the Fixits – which suggests she doesn't want to speak out loud in front of Flibbergib, or fears others may be listening – and telling him to lie low until tomorrow and then spear any hats with eyes on sight, even if worn by her. As Agorn leaves Root Hall he notices that there are fewer Eyebolt watchers on duty than there usually are. The last one usually hides inside a free-standing stone sign outside the exit, but there is no-one there, and what looks like blood on the spy-hole. The "blood" is a trick with fruit-juice to get him to stop and look, and he is narrowly missed by an arrow fired from an overhang by Fanga, one of two dark-haired female Gnolls (the other is Shabash), who had momentarily mistaken him for somebody else (Bromir, who looks a lot like him). Agorn slides over the edge onto a ledge to avoid the archer, takes a back route and lets himself into a concealed bedsit room behind a panel out in the Fringes. In the dust on a table, someone has drawn an arrow and written "She thought you were someone else", surrounded by what look like Smyt footprints: we later learn that messages on the table are a regular thing and usually correct, and the marks on the table are referred to as flipper marks, although they look a bit small to be Frowgler's. Digger comes in – it's his pad – and Agorn addreses him as "Boss". We see that Agorn and Digger have known about the Fixits for some time. Agorn reports the day's activities to Digger, giving him more detail than he told Agita. He was already familiar with Mortimer at one remove as somebody Skibble talked about. Although he didn't tell Agita, he followed Mortimer into the basement under World o' Pots and saw a lot of working Human tech, which they'll need "if we've lost all of Rhid's stash", and saw the cloakring, which made him feel odd. He says that "Yas-meen" came from the direction of the Spike (no, there isn't room under her hood for a Fixit) and was different in some way. He didn't tell Agita that he saw Mortimer speaking to Frowgler: he didn't hear what they said but says he supposes Digger could just ask Frowgler, and Digger agrees. He feels that something nudged him to get him to go down the hole in the crater, which led him to the Ferns. We see that they have been watching the Humans, drawing them and giving them descriptive nicknames (Arthur the Weirdo with his ventriloquist's puppet Fantod is "Snoop two-head", Rufus is "Snoop one-head", Sylvester is "Eyeplates" and Myrrh is "Clawblaster"). Agorn would like to bring Comshaw into their conspiracy, or whatever it is, but Digger vetoes the idea. Agorn could tell by smell that Mortimer, "Silvester" and Rufus were littermates, and that Rosemary is something different, a "hardcase" like Comshaw or the two-spiked Pales. Agorn sketches the three Human women he saw, then sets out to see to some personal matters, but as he leaves Digger points out that when "Muckymuck" at Root Hall said that he and others were broadly pleased with what Agorn's boss was doing he may have meant Digger himself and their conspiracy-whatever, not Agita, whose schemes serve only herself. Agorn is alarmed at this idea, and thinks that "our enemy" may have made Eyebolt enemies. Coming away from Digger's bedsit he meets a Gnoll called Bromir who looks a lot like him and believes himself to be the target of the assassins, who were hired by Sooterkin at Root Hall. Bromir refers to Agorn having been given higher clearance by Fuglemin, who may therefore be Agorn's Mr Muckymuck. Agorn heads back towards the Sneech side of the Great Chasm. At the bridge he tries to chat up the Gnoll guard Varuna and invites her to come fishing with him some time: she turns him down, although the Ichyoid guard Argus thinks she should have said yes. He comes on Furphy and his eggs again and we learn that Furphy is actually Agorn's son. The mother was called Awen and she and Agorn are estranged, though not bitterly so. A Denthir is mentioned who was probably their Finagler but is now dead. Furphy has had some kind of relationship with Dandilli (who went to the SubShafts) and will take no other mate, possibly because she put him off from doing so. Father and son talk, and Furphy says that the reason he thinks nothing is real is that that morning he saw that the physical world had changed but most people can't see it (this is a fourth-wall breach, because Rob changed aspects of the design of the area), and he's not the only one who sees it because the Observer also sees Change. Agorn is semi-willing to consider this and means to tell Digger about it tomorrow. Furphy is guarding the eggs for two Jibjibs named Snurge (presumably male) and Scumble (female), to whom he owes a favour. Two other Jibjibs called Ruck (male) and Smew (female) fly overhead in the dark, and we see them enter a hole in a sort of complex, compound stalactite formation, which we will learn is called the Uppermost Spire, and settle on a nest there. Ruck is carrying Urwyn's friend, the comparatlively large Shallow Wyrm Zugo, although the Jibjibs don't know his name. Zugo slithers off into a crack, telling the Jibjibs to wait there for him. These two Jibjibs regularly carry a secretive group of Shallow Wyrms whom they refer to as Clients, transporting them around a widespread network of "rings" which run right through the rocks and whose purpose the Jibjibs don't know. Nevus is an outlier by being a Wyrm out in the open on his own. They get snuggly in the nest, although Smew does not wish to have eggs. We see a Shallow Wyrm named Sneckdraw who seems to be spying on a ring, or at least on a tunnel used by a ring. Sneckdraw is detected and chased through the tunnels by helmeted guards named Vim, Crot, Ang and Diet, and escapes by jumping off an underground cliff onto the back of a tame (or sapient?) bat. Ang gets Ruck to fly him in pursuit with a view to killing them: Ruck queries this but when Ang assures him that Sneckdraw is not officially a member of any ring, and therefore not a Client, Ruck is OK with it. They follow the bat's scent trail – Ang is especially good at this – but Sneckdraw and the bat dodge into a narrow tunnel which Ruck can't fit into. We see another Wyrm, too distant and small to identify, behind a kind of wooden screen in this tunnel. They come to a place where there is a graffitoed sign on the wall saying "Ring of the Newborn Word": Sneckdraw, who seems to be a freelance spy, dismounts and is challenged by guards called Conspue and Fream, armed with a zap trident. They pay Sneckdraw with a food item and he (the guards referred to him as "he", even though he seems to have the eyelashes Rob uses to indicate femininity) reports on Zugo of the Dunktyn Stone's presence at the Uppermost Spire. Conspue either doesn't know or won't say why Zugo is important. Fream conveys Sneckdraw's message to a female superior whom we don't see, and then goes to speak to a female tuneller or miner called Glink, on whom Fream seems to be sweet, and who is listening in secretly on people farther down the tunnel. We see Sina giving the cleaning contract for the new hall to Maw and his crew. At Kronk's suggestion, Sina names the new group Leny Hall, although Maggle and Grik, and the Gobules, all seem to know something mildly disreputable about Leny. At or near Leny Hall, Pergola is investigating plants in a narrow tunnel. Tracking the tunnel higher, we see a male Fixot named Slix ascending a slope to report to a female Fixit named Astex, who sits on a rock in a tunnel filled with plants and fungi. She seems to be fishing in a stream which flows alongside her rock. Slix, who has been sent by a female commander called Poinx, comes to speak to her and get her observations – he calls her "our resident". Astex, who seems to have a cynical attitude to her own kind, says that the shield around the Spike area that "keeps the evil monsters out. Or in, as the case may be." was breached for a second or so, causing panic. It was very noisy – she probably means the OZPR event. Slix runs off before she can tell him about the Sneeches leaving. We learn that Astex is acquainted with Frowgler. We see Mortimer speaking about wizardry to Amos Grubb, who is himself a wizard, but who retired pre-Crash, having thrown his wand away after the incident with Myrrh. He says that Sylvester has some magic, although not as much as Mortimer, and their father Willoughby could have been a wizard if he hadn't been so frivolous. He believes there are still some schools of magic in operation somewhere, but he kept the fact of Mortimer's magic from Mortimer as a favour to Frederick and Nellie, and because it's so dangerous. Magic tends to run in families and other members of the E family also have at least some magical talent (which is why their mother is so good at overhearing things). Mortimer confirms that he found the umbrella-wand: he wouldn't accept a gift from Myrrh "after what heppened last time!" They discuss the fact that Mortimer got the wand from Frowgler, who didn't feel like Myrrh (i.e. not like he came from Zark or Fratz), and the fact that Frederick and Amos were trained by Sylvester and Mortimer's great-great-uncle Hindenburgh. Amos says that Nellie has very little magic (even though she is one of the people in Frederick's photo'). [Amos says he threw his wand away "sixty-odd years" ago, and he was still a wizard in that photo', which means that Nellie was already at least about eighteen eleven years before the Crash, making Myrrh's statement that she was very young at the time even stranger.] If Mortimer practises as a magician he may get hassles from the Oracles of the Brush, and from the villagers, who are now so anti-magic they nearly torched the library. We learn that wands should preferably be handled only by the owner, and Mortimer half remembers the vision of his future self flying, and thinks about using telekinesis to open locks. They discuss the nature of mind-reading and mind-control, which is far easier for Sneeches, Demons and Djinn to perform than other races, and Rosemary's susceptibility; magic-users on the other hand are very resistent to mind-control. They set off in search of Rosemary so Amos can get to know her. The scene cuts to the Nomes at the Pale camp. They are discussing the fact that if Nitfol becomes mayor he'll need a wife. He says that the only girl he found tolerable disappeared. Then Fizmo, the Hot Zone worker, appears and she and Nitfol get talking: she is apparently the girl whom he liked before. She has switched her allegiance to Frowgler and now refers to him as her boss. Nitfol is working with Frowgler too. Umboz and Piu leave them to talk and go off to make love. Then we cut to The Spike, where Eunice Kelso and Rufus are talking. It seems Eunice is a villager who had been posing as Rufus's friend for a long time, but really watching him for God. In notes we learn that the Spike is Ettin-made and that before the Crash, Humans used it to moor airships. Rufus has recently had a talk with "God", or possibly with Dorian (who is not God), which left him briefly unconscious and rubber-legged, but he seems to have agreed to play an important role in God's organisation. This is only the third time Eunice has been in the Spike, and she plans to leave via a service tunnel leading towards the village. Rufus is behaving in quite a commanding, confident way, and speculating about what "God" and his henchman Dorian plan for Eunice next: her job is over and she has important information, so maybe they were hoping he'd kill her. After some edgy verbal sparring Eunice more-or-less agrees to be Rufus's new assistant and bodyguard. Rufus tells her to see what Dorian offers her first, and if she turns down both of them she should go, and get as far as way as possible: but they both know she mustn't go "Out West". Eunice assures him that her hat doesn't have an eye and that she would never let "one of those little creeps" get on her head. She was recruited to God's service by an "old posh lady" named Miss Wentworth whom she met in Noodle: this has been brewing since before Rufus and Eunice were born. How long ago is that? Rufus's father Willoughby was the son of a post-Crash refugee, so Willoughby was born not more than about forty-eight years ago. Let's say Willoughby was about twenty when he and Dorothea had Sylvester, so that's twenty-eight years ago. Rufus is from their fifth pregnancy, so even if Dorothea cranked out one pregnancy a year Rufus is only twenty-four. So the conspiracy is twenty-five-plus years old. 08: The End of the Day [18/02/2013 – 16/07/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips #3431–end] We see Rosemary and Sylvester coming out of gender-specific lavatories which are delineated by male and female statues carrying a real spear and shield. They discuss finding Rosemary some better clothes so she can be properly introduced to Nellie and Amos, although Sylvester is wary of telling her what to wear because of the hypnosis incident. He gets his own clothes from Genrick Gaberdine, an excellent tailor in Eetown, who will be mentioned several times in future strips. The female clothes they are about to see are out of date (mostly collected between fifty and eighty years ago by the wives of Ernest and Philbert), but Sylvester tries to keep stylish because it makes a good impression as Earl. Rosemary is tested by an Ettin-built electronic panel on the wall which confirms she is compatible with the house and can perform its ceremonies. Sylvester offers formally to employ her as Taskmistress, partly for real and partly as cover, and she is given an E-family uniform (which is the same two shades of periwinkle blue we later see on Winnifrite habits and shrines), although she picks the big E off the breast for the moment, and keeps her old clothes in the Poke Kit and later in a drawer. Sylvester warns her that most of the lavatories are shut off to save water and to limit baths to one a day because they get their water from the roof. Once they are both respectably dressed they go and introduce Rosemary to Nellie, although Sylvester tells Nellie that Rosemary's name is Rosemary Aurora Dapple, not Rosemary Imogene Ripley. It is important to impress Nellie because she has Views, and is popular in the village (while Myrrh is unpopular, having "cut quite a swath" before the Crash, as we saw in her collision with Ilsa's anti-Earl group). If possible Rosemary should avoid telling Nellie that she has killed Humans (but killing non-humans is evidently OK) and it would help if she can assist Nellie in her garden. Nellie keeps most of the garden produce for herself and Amos, but there is a commercial orchard they all help with, even Myrrh, and whch helps to fund the Mansion. The Grubbs have a nice homely sitting-room, with a picture on the wall of a winged waffle and an egg with legs. Nellie has already worked out that Rosemary arrived without passing through the village, and is angry about Mortimer being encouraged/allowed to learn magic, although Sylvester says not only that Mortimer needs to do this, but that he may need Mortimer to do this, because of what's happening "downstairs". He tells her that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress, making it sound as if he intentionally summoned her to the Mansion for that purpose, and also that she killed a monster and now there's meat and tallow in the Low Kitchen. Quizzed about her origins Rosemary mentions the three beacons in the Bay of Runes, "big and scary and beautiful", and also that people in Moonin hunt Saurs (who are presumably non-sapient, and are bigger than the Mansion ones – so probably what the Mansion Saurs call Sawtooths). They allow Nellie to assume that Rosemary learned to fight mainly because she was a Saur-hunter although she admits that she has "some training" with the sword, and Nellie warns Sylvester that the Sheriff wants to meet Rosemary. Nellie opens up and talks about the group of which she, Amos and Frederick were a part prior to the Crash. She came from Zebedee, Frederick and Amos were locals, and it's later hinted that Olaf came from elsewhere. Amos and Frederick were old friends who were learning magic from Hindenburgh, and Mamie must have learned from somebody as she had a magicker hat (Olaf didn't and nor did Nellie). Nellie had to choose between Frederick and Amos and chose Amos, and Mamie was with Olaf. But then Fredrick accidentally summoned Myrrh and lost his magic, and Amos renounced magic, so only Mamie had the hat when the Crash came, and only Mamie died. Amos, Nellie and Ilsa became servants at the Mansion (and Olaf, we will later learn, became the local vet). Amos and Nellie had a son, Arlen. who is now the local Hedgemaster. Sylvester warns Nellie about some of the recent developments in the Basement, and the fact that the River of Fire can affect things even up here in the Mansion. As he talks we see vignettes of Chumley the Boogieman presiding over a growing collection of dead Fixits; the blonde woman with the pink bow, whom Rosemary called Mz Teree, reporting distressing changes in the Basement to someone who addresses her as Annabelle (and who has been waiting impatiently for her: possibly Nirvana); and Frowgler telling Myrrh about the conversation Rosemary and Sylvester are currently having with Nellie. Sylvester leaves Rosemary and Nellie alone to talk about contraception, and we learn that there is a "Women's Circle" at the local Temple, where such things may be discussed. Here, such things are only discussed between women, at the Temple, because in the past there have been men in the area who tried to stop women from using Stiflebloom. The Women's Circle preserved their freedom and all women are allowed to attend: even outsiders; even Myrrh if she wanted to. Eunice is a member. In Moonin they talk about Stiflebloom freely, even though they are sexually uptight and not like the more sex-positive Morlock or Abalone. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester leave together, talking about local leaders – an impromptu lady mayor named Saffron Stout who runs an inn, and Patrick Skragg, the Sheriff. The Earl has warily polite relationships with both. Both Nellie and Sylvester mention Olga, Mortimer's ex, who seems to have been a disaster. Rosemary says the position of "strange and dangerous woman" is now filled. Sylvester formally introduces Rosemary to Frederick. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester agree to conceal her true identity and membership of Hack n' Slash, in case she's on a "wanted" list. They meet up with Amos and Mortimer and Amos, as a former wizard, comfirms that Mortimer no longer has psychic influence over Rosemary. Amos can still see people's mental structures, which vary a bit by region, and he can tell that she is from Out West. Amos and Sylvester exchange news of the day, including some things Sylvester didn't tell Nellie, like about the Sneech gift, and about Tand – Sylvester thinks he has seen Tand mentioned in the records and Amos promises to look her up. Sylvester learns about The Pit flaring. We learn that "Pit" stands for "Pulse-Ignition Thaumnode" and that it was a booster device used to power-up airships heading for the Far Eastern Shore, to save on fuel. The effect is like a small version of the Daynight (a rainbow aurora witnessed by the first Prime Oracle, although we don't learn that till later), which evidently did something drastic, at least to people near it. Mortimer finds The Pit creepy. After Amos leaves to go home, Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer go to the Basement of the barracks, fetch a siege pot and set it up on the top of the West Tower over the main entrance. Mortimer goes off to find clothes (his shirt having been shredded to make makeshift gloves and boots in the Sneech den) and leaves Sylvester and Rosemary discussing the definition of "mansion". He tells her about the Spike, which he has never tried to climb because it's one big, churning Ettin machine and very dangerous. He can see that somebody is living there because it's been more active (in terms of lights etc.) since the Crash, but it's out of the Mansion lands and as far as he knows nobody now officially owns it. They discuss the aftermath of the Crash – which wasn't nearly as bad in the poor rural area where Rosemary comes from, because hardly anybody there used magic anyway – and the ownership of land and property left vacant after the previous owners died in the disaster. Eva was affected, but that was because she was in Nye on the mainland. Now Eetown, once a thriving metropolis, lives by catching Tooterfish for their oil. They go off to eat and we see a series of vignettes. Myrrh has arrived in the Sneech den proper, but hasn't encountered any Sneeches. Amos collects a package of Dornbeast-liver from the processor and takes it to Nellie, and discusses Rosemary with her: Nellie isn't sure she likes Rosemary but feels she can trust her, and Amos says they haven't been told the full story about how she got there but they're in no position to complain about people withholding information. Mortimer gets cleaned up (but even after a bath he still smells of sphagnum dust). En route to a dinner of last night's Dornbeast tendrils, Rosemary and Sylvester pause to look at a Panegate which leads elsewhere on their own world, into open grassland on the Thembrian Steppes, with the occasional distant horseman. Sylvester says that such local Panegates are especially hard to open, possibly because the Ettins double-locked them against Sneech incursions. Behind them is a statue of Pratchett's Discworld. Mortimer joins them at table and says he has put the umbrella aside until such time as he may decide to take up magic. They discuss re-opening access to a nearby beach so they can gather fish and seaweed, now that Rosemary is there to fend off any Ichyoids who might object, then they sign Rosemary into the Mansion's official staff record-book, still under the false name Dapple. Sylvester goes off to write up the day's events, and Mortimer goes and tries on various formal outfits, but doesn't seem to like the look of them, and picks a blue t-shirt with a star on the chest. Rosemary gets Amos to show her the library. Coming away with a stack of books on history, anthropology and moral philosophy, she experiences a psychic tweak which calls her to go to the Quiet Room and speak to (apparently) the Sneech Dohickey, which she can hear because she touched it, although she remains outside the locked door. She says that it and she are both protecting Sylvester, and suggests it should watch the Basement door, or the Weirdo. As the new Taskmistress she threatens the devices, saying that if any of them causes trouble she'll chuck them all into the Great Chasm. As she walks away we see Frowgler sitting by the foot of the door – he speaks to the Dohickey as if they are old aquaintances. Myrrh, with her balloon in tow, descends to the Ettinworks using the musical levitating lift in the shaft where Rosemary met Tand. Returning to the Guest Room, Rosemary rearranges the furniture so she can sit facing the door, writes to her aunt and takes a bath. She falls asleep but immediately wakes into a dream which seems to be some kind of objectively real astral projection. She passes Skuy and Spot, who are arguing, because Skuy is keeping people away from the elevator: Skuy at least seems to be also asleep and also taking part in the astral projection. Rosemary goes to the elevator and meets the Operator, who has summoned her and tries to hypnotise her, but she says that will never happen again and whacks him with a mallet, which she then hands over to Skuy: the physically real Operator is aware of and intrigued by what has just happened to his astral equivalent. We see an overview of various couples sleeping: Nellie and Amos; Umbuz and Piu (in bed together, so their relationship is progressing fast!); the Gobules Gorp and Phiga. Then we see Mortimer and Yasmine, who would like to be a couple but aren't yet: Mortimer lying awake, and Yasmine sitting by a camp fire, staring at a Fleeb. Myrrh goes to the same doorway off the underhub where Sylvester and co. were passed the metal "KEEP OUT" sign. She is passed a similar cut-out message, this one saying "IN HER" with an extra "E" drawn or painted on to make it "IN HERE". The extra "E" is done in the style of the emblem of the Earls of E. The door opens and she goes through into the corridor of doors we saw before. A distant door is open to receive her but all we see through it is several floating lights – possibly ABOLs. More vignettes: Eunice talking to Cox, in front of Ettin signs or graffiti saying "shake hands" and "onebig onion", and tells him Rufuis says they're lucky that "this phizzpile hasn't imploded and fallen in the swamp". She probably literally means the Spike collapsing. Hector talks to Nunsuch and says that "sir" wishes Nunsuch and another character called Penfold to interface with the Spindizzies: Nunsuch indicates some Ettin text which appears on a screen beside them and which changes gradually from the old font to the new. This text, which says "remote spike extrusion", triggers Hector to engage a "revised schedule" which he says is twenty years late. Sylvester gives up on his paperwork and collapses into bed. Meanwhile Myrrh leaves the room of lights and returns to the Mansion, where she bars the Basement door and puts a ward on it telling Basement dwellers to keep out. She opens a Panegate into a lush jungle and sets the balloon floating off into that jungle carrying the rescued Trundlebug, who lands in a bush where it meets a new friend (probably of the opposite sex, if Trundlebugs have sexes). She goes and reassures Frederick that although the magic umbrella is hers she didn't directly give it to Mortimer, and they start flirting. The scene shifts to the Trog holding area where Villipend and Hamble were formerly imprisoned, and we see that Hamble has survived electrocution. In his former life, before the Plunge, he was a simple fungi farmer, but proximity to the Hot Zone seems to have done something to reverse the mental decline which caused him to jump into the Great Chasm in the first place, and he is now very clever and very ambitious. He half rescues, half kidnaps Squeeb, and works out how to get out of the habitat. He snifs out, literally, a hidden door behind which is an emergency bolthole room with stocked provisions, and which opens out above the chute. He sets off to walk along the top of the chute-tube with Squeeb strapped to his arm, seeking a new dawn which will be his. We learn on the way that Squeeb, who is Nevus's brother in law, belongs to no ring, and despises the idea of doing so. Finally we see two vignettes. In one, a male soldier reports on Rosemary's disappearance to a female commander, the Tansy whom Rosemary saw in a vision. Tansy is working for some outfit or political party whose emblem is a triangle within a circle: it appears on her desk and on her helmet. It appears to belong to her: the office she is occupying has a sign outside saying "ABBOT'S OFFICE" but then a big "T" and the triangle-and-circle sign have both been drawn on it using the same red paint. She vows to find Rosemary wherever she has gone – and clearly with hostile intent. In the other, we see Sylvester's sister Lilith and their mother Dorothea, talking in the darkness at the edge of a banquet in the Deep Jungle somewhere. The mother would have liked to have stayed, but she has received a psychic impression that they need to start heading back to E. Part Six: On My Way to Town [28/07/2013 – 16/11/2018] Note that from 03/05/2015, the Saturdays in the Basement strips show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with the action above ground. 01: Rise and Shine [28/07/2013 – 26/11/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips start–#3698] The sun has just risen over the Mansion. The brothers are already awake: Sylvester resumes doing his paperwork, but Mortimer stands gazing out of a window, clutching the umbrella he said he wouldn't pick up again unless and until he decided to take up magic, and thinking of himself as having "set out" – and that the world itself has also changed. Rosemary emerges and rings the bell for Schmedley, the butler, attracting Mortimer's attention. He introduces her to Schmedley, who tells her how to find Sylvester (and who speaks very quietly). Schmedley is not surprised to hear that Mortimer is a wizard. We see Arthur the Weirdo feeling the worse for wear. Sylvester explains the hierarchy of the Mansion's servants to Rosemary. Nellie and Amos are officially retired, and Myrrh retired when Ilsa, the Head Housekeeper, did (he evidently doesn't know Myrrh was controlling her!). When the main posts are all filled the rank from top down goes Regent and Estate Manager (Frederick); Head Housekeeper; Butler; Taskmistress; then the Head Gardener and Head Librarian and then all the small fry. As Taskmistress Rosemary stands fairly high. One of her duties is, at least potentially, to find and hire a new sign-writer (if official and full-time, called a Notification Artificer). Sylvester's next task is in three days and Rosemary's in five. He shows Rosemary her new official quarters and office, which she is quite stunned by. Her quarters command a view of the ocean, which leads to a discussion about Panegates and the fact that no known Panegate leads to another continent, although some lead to alternative realities for the location of the Mansion. They move on to discussing why the villagers don't all move into the much-more-comfortable Mansion, and Rosemary's dream about the Operator. Sylvester didn't share it but we see a flashback to what must be his own dream, in which he, Rosemary and Nimue are attending a university lecture given by Protus, accompanied by three frogs, two sitting with the girls in the audience and one sitting with Protus, and Sylvester is aware that his own frog is missing (or has gone to Protus). We see a rusted, land-locked churnboat which Philbert had been going to convert into a building, the Boathouse, and access to which is heavily restricted; and a wizwitch detector which detects Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss security clearances, and local legends relating to a scruffy local folk-hero called Frizzlegarb who Sylvester thinks might have been a surviving Wilf, and who is associated with a symbol that looks like a waffle with wings. Legends say Frizzlegarb founded Glome, grew the first pudding plant and planted the acorn which became the Forest of Burzee. They also say that he swam through a pool and there met what sounds like a Willigig. [Later we will learn that Frizzlegarb was a Fuzz from the far future, presumably dislocated in time by the Willigig.] Sylvester is still having trouble with the fact that Willigigs are real. He shows Rosemary round her apartment and gives her a mechanical pocket-watch, then they get out Mortimer's Glowgem and test it on a sort of battery-tester invented by Griffington. They are quite rare. although there are some in the Infernal Engine, and in deep shafts under the Brushspire Peaks, and in Paydon, and the university had some big ones brought back by the Bradstreet Expedition. No-one really knows what they are, but they're not alive, they come in various types which feel slightly different, and they store power, and they didn't explode in the Crash. We see an outtake of the Tribbletongued Hamster (in pirate getup), the plant and the ABOL escaping together in their toy boat, sailing along an underground tunnel: a sign in the background points towards the sea. This is a colourised but othwerwise only slightly different version of the drawing we saw the previous day whem Rosemary and Sylvester were coming away from Spatchcock's office, but the sign pointing to the sea is new, so they've made progress. This Glowgem is highly charged. The Mansion has a few others whose charge has almost run down: they can be recharged by dipping them in the River of Fire for a few days. They used to do that from a bridge station over the River, but it collapsed in the Crash: we see that the Observatory in the Basement is adapted from the ruins of it. Sylvester mentions that the Mansion used to have a "wizwitch", a magic-wielder, as a regular member of staff and he supposes it now has one again. The scene cuts to Mortimer, who is talking to a strange wall of purple electrical spikes labelled "CURED ELECTRO-SPIKES" and filled with littl wires, telling it he is going to go and celebrate the fact that he has grown up and got a job. He goes to Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where there are various amusements and places to eat. Back with Rosemary and Sylvester, he asks her about Hack & Slash's Commandant Spangler (who Rosemary had said was the only person she had previously met who had a private office). This segues into a conversation about their respective grandparents. Rob has said elsewhwere that Quincy died in 5398, and it's now 5423, and Sylvester says here that Quincy died when he was five, so Sylvester is now twenty-nine or thirty. Rosemary's parents died on their way back from her grandmother's funeral, when she was a baby. Rosemary runs through her fake history, although we know from a bonus strip of her family that she has kept their names and just changed her father's surname to match her new, false surname Dapple. She discusses the remote possibility of using Protus to go back in time and save her parents – for whom she has little feeling – at the cost of giving up her own exciting future and getting stuck as a farm-girl (and refers to Haroons in passing as Leafheads). Meanwhile we see Frederick and Myrrh set out to do something – unspecified but involving hand-holding – "properly". Get married, probably. Sylvester tells Rosemary about the demand there used to be for apartments linked to this private corridor for senior administrators: Amos could have had a smart Head Librarian's apartment here, but he and Nellie chose to live down in the Storage Halls next to Frederick and Myrrh because of their long history [Olaf lives in the village]. There used to be a separate cottage for the Head Gardener but it was damaged in the Crash. They discuss the fact that in the past, pre-Ludwig, the Earls were at risk of being assassinated just for being the Earl. Rosemary goes off at a tangent about a fluffy-seeming female called Miss Gritz who was a traveller on the caravan Rosemary was guarding, and whom she suspects of being her apparent boyfriend's very high-powered personal bodyguard. Sylvester shows Rosemary round the official, ceremonial offices for himself and his secretary (but not his official chambers, which are untidy). The offices are designed to be intimidating, and with security in mind: there is a round thing on the wall that Sylvester says is the remains of a robot security system. The fact that attention is drawn to it suggests to me that we will find out Mr Hand can access it and it's not as broken as it purports to be, but Rosemary taps it and it doesn't do anything visible. Meanwhile, we see Eunice, wearing a rucksack, emerge from a concealed entrance in a rock with a spy-eye on top. Yasmine arrives on horseback at a sign that points to Eetown in one direction and Noodle in another (forking rather than diametrically opposed), and thinks that in another hour she'll be far enough away to take her hood off. So she is somebody who might be recognised. Her spark of attraction with Martimer suggests that a) she too is in the twenty-five to thirty-five range and b) she isn't Lenore, even though the Shibolith accent could be fake. We learn that the Mansion has an actual throne. Audra was the last Earl to use it and since then it's been reserved in case the king should visit – this nearly happened fifty years ago, when Yorik III had planned a visit, but the king ws killed when his flagship airship The Velvet Glove went down during the Crash, and the current king tends to stay in the capital. We learn that the Mansion has a High Tower, which seems to be the turret off the main tower, and access to which is blocked: Rufus tried to get in there, before he wandered off, but as far as Sylvester knows he was unsuccessful. Possibly Mr Hand lives there. Sylvester says Rufus likes to wander but he doesn't go far: Sylvester tried to get him to go to university but Rufus felt that the area around the Mansion was where he was going to be. Sylvester doesn't know where Rufus is now: Mortimer hasn't told him, or perhaps being zapped and PZORed and meeting Yasmine scrambled his memory. Sylvester shows Rosemary an escape hatch under the desk (which itself is made of near-impregnable Ettin lengths), leading to a panic-room which used to be well-equippped but is now almost empty. There used to be guards down there, but not since the Crash: and no, they didn't really need guards after the Crash, because they had Myrrh. We learn that in the early days the Earldom was passed on by mortal combat. Milo was the last Earl of E officially to kill his predecessor and the first to pass the Earldom on by blood although his grandson, Dorn II, may have been murdered by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, who then ruled in her husband Lemuel's stead while he got on with his Panegate research. We also learn that in those days the Earldoms of E and S were friends. Sylvester doesn't know as much about his mother's family, the Mundivagants, who are grand and grudging industrialists. Neither he nor Lenore would ever ask their maternal grandfather Humphrey Mundivagant for a favour. Their brother Ace works for the Mundivagants. Rosemary's family were all farmers with a long tradition, but they have died out. The Mansion has mangonels and mini airships which could probably be got to work. Rosemary asks about a sign saying "Gargoyle pits" and Sylvester tells her that there are creatures called Gargoyles and Spindizzies which were bred or manufactured by the Ettins to service and repair the buildings in which they live, so the Mansion behaves like a semi-living thing, a sort of colonial organism, even though there's no central personality such as there is at the Castle of the Combynes. Gargoyles deal with the exterior and Spindizzies with the interior, especially service machinery behind the walls and in the BaseCore, which is "one giant inaccessible churn of zappy machinery". The Mansion is slowly running down. Sylvester and Rosemary speculate about the possibility of finding still-surviving Ettins who could restore it. They come to a corridor where an end-wall has moved aside, giving access to a platform looking out into a vast service-space, so Sylvester takes Rosemary to meet the Spindizzies, warning her to get the Can-Opener out first and not tell anybody about the Poke Kit. In the empty space we saee lines of force, with the first appearance of the little Ts and Fs which become a common motif. 02: Fishing Around [27/11/2013 – 22/03/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3704–#3810] The scene opens with an Ichyoid about under water, wearing some sort of equipment on his chest which seems to be intergrated into his body, and surrounded by sea-life, including two eyes looking out of a hole with "THAT'S A MORAY" written round it. We return to Sylvester, telling Rosemary that the BaseCore of the Mansion, which they are looking down on, and the space around it is malleable and in a state of flux. Sylvester warns Rosemary that the Spindizzies share new information indiscriminately, but may assume you already know old things you aren't aware of. Two Spindizzies appear: they have grey, hairless humanoid upper bodies trailing away into wormy tails, and pterosaur-like wings. The males have brown wing-muscles and the females blue. They speak like intelligent but literal-minded computers but are friendly and kind, very concerned when they hear that Rosemary is taking over as Taskmistress in case that means Prunella has died, and perhaps a little disappointed that she isn't Sylvester's love-interest, since they want him to produce another male Task-performer. Sylvester agrees to bring in supplies (antimony) which they request, and ask them if they can tell what the Can-Opener is made of, but they can't, although they may be able to duplicate it (by which they mean, construct a look-alike pattern). When they are analysing something, little lines hang in the air, some similar to the marks on the Can-Opener, s0me more like distorted letters. Every Human (or in Myrrh's case, humanoid) in the Mansion has a designated Spindizzy who communicates with them: Horace and, newly, Emily are matched to Sylvester and Rosemary. As Taskmistress Rosemary will need to talk to Emily weekly. They live about as long as Humans, so if you have a personal Spindsizzy you always have somebody who's happy to talk to you. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the Ettins, and the moving walls (which the Spindizzies can influence if they are nearby, even though they can't leave their chamber): Sylvester thinks the Mansion with its Panegates and moving walls wasn't intended as a residence but as some other sort of facility. They wonder whether there are any surviving Ettins – and if so, how they would react to finding Humans living in their laboratory, or whatever it is. The Ettins are myths to the Spindizzies too – scary, tyrannical myths. We learn that the Spindizzies are mortal flesh-and-blood creatures but they reproduce in a mechanical incubator, and are assigned mates on a very scientific basis: and that Motihauls reproduce by the female laying an egg and then the male handing her a bottle of sperm. We learn that one of Ludwig's assistants, James Neil Pakson, went far enough down into the depths to visit the Spindizzy incubator, and his granddaughter Nicole visited the Far-Eastern Shore on the other side of the ocean from the Mansion. There were Human colonies there which may or may not have survived the Crash, about which the Spindizzies know nothing. They also don't know about other Ettin-made edifices, or about the things no-one is sure who made: the Infernal Engine, the Beacons, the Sandwall, and a range of actual big rock candy mountains. Meanwhile we see vignettes of other characters. Mortimer is breakfasting on a Spyder-burger at the Landing o' Family Fun, and visiting the Fish Museum there. He has aquired a little purple-and-green party version of a wizard's conical hat. Eunice Kelso is seen leaving the woods and heading for Eetown, with her rucksack: she passes a retired Guardian called Mr Flem, who warns her that the woods are dangerous. Terin Flem, whom we will meet again, is a semi-retired pig-farmer who used to be the Oracle Omega's Guardian Finale, and sits on a rock near the village alongside his dog Byron, apparently whittling wood. Nelly is feeding (non-sapient) Jibjibs while Amos wears goggles as he uses tongs to hold up a rod with a star on the end which isn't Mortimer's Glowgem (too many points). It appears that he is making, or restoring, a wand. Arthur the Weirdo is taking a bath; Myrrh is looking out from her and Frederick's flat, looking a bit suspicious (perhaps because she senses the presence of Frowgler); and Schmedley is being addressed by somebody off-screen and short (probably Frowgler). The chamber where Rosemary and Sylvester and the Spindizzies are all meeting is a sort of holo-deck, in which the Spindizzies successfully produce a useable mock-up of the Can-Opener which is only real in this environment, a quasi-humanoid sparring-partner for Rosemary to practise with, a chair for Sylvester to sit in and watch, and some background scenery including a bad, Escheresque reproduction of part of a monument called the Citadel of the Hugging Squirrels, one of the Sculpted Isles in Isdanlia. This reproduction was commissioned by Dorn I for his mother Nettana, who came from that area. The Sculpted Isles date back to a mysterious Dawn Era, probably that of the Wilfs and Gobblems. Sylvester dozes in a chair, leaving Rosemary to her sparring, but in fact she talks to the Spindizzies instead of fighting, and runs them through the tools they have patterns for: Human Tool #1 is a stick. She learns that they have patterns for Ettin tools as well as Human ones, but most of the Ettin ones are encrypted: one that isn't encrypted is a 3D version of the USB symbol, and they would love to get hold of a real one (there was a broken one on the sea floor where we saw the Ichyoid). She encrypts the pattern for the Can-Opener so only she and Sylvester can see it. It seems that any "productive individual" can come in and encrypt personalized tools. She learns that the Spindizzies could in principle find out what the Can-Opener is made of but their access to data is blocked beyond a certain level, although they don't know by whom. Rufus might be able to fix it. They tell her that Rufus is at Semi-Autonomous Research Structure #00001. Rosemary doesn't want to spar now because she hasn't the time, but she takes the time to walk up the imaginary sky. She starts to ask Emily the Spindizzy whether she knows that she, Rosemary, is currently... then changes the subject, which may or may not have been important. Then she wakes Sylvester and tells him where Rufus is, which he translates as the Spike. He isn't pleased, and says that the Spike is very dangerous, partly because the machines there have no built-in safety systems, but doesn't intend to go rescue him as he assumes Rufus knows what he's doing: he doesn't know about the Fixits etc. The information about Rufus came from a high-ranking Spindizzy called Tanith who was Nirvana's contact, but they have lost contact with Nirvana. Meanwhile a Valentine's Day out-take shows Sheriff Patrick Skragg giving a flower to his wife Halcyone, while their son Stephen reads a Willy-the-Wendigo book. Sylvester informs the Spindizzies about the departure of the Sneeches, and asks them what they know about Willigigs. They have been aware of Protus's presence for around a month (37.77 days – are Mansionverse months forty days?) but haven't spoken to him. They are not aware of Frowgler. Sylvester and Rosemary take their leave of them: Sylvester promises to bring them some antimony which they have asked for, and which he has in store. After they leave we see that the Spindizzies penetrate right down into the Basement and see Sprocket the Gnoll engineer, holding a Glowgem in a wrench, opening conversation with a male Spindizzy. Rosemary and Sylvester set off to go fishing. They discuss the Mansion's mineral stores, including gold, and Rosemary tells Sylvester what she learned from the Spindizzies while he was asleep, about the data block which Rufus might be able to fix. Sylvester suggests that the same person deliberately planted the Can-Opener with Izchak for Rosemary to find, and prevented the Spindizzies from investigating it: he fears he is being too paranoid but Rosemary, being profesionally paranoid, suggests there may be two conflicting secret factions at work. For the moment, Sylvester is not telling the Spindizzies about the return of Nirvana, the previous Taskmistress: he means to return to the Ettinworks once he has researched Tand, and will allow Nirvana and "Mz Teree" (Annabelle) to explain themselves before making a decision about them. They make their way down to a sea-level room where there are storage lockers for fishing gear and for beach leisure gear, and a small boat, and a door to the E family's private – and artificially-enhanced – fishing beach. [Here an out-take shows Sylvester's mother Dorothea and sister Lilith visiting the Irish-analogue nation of Tiranog at some point in the recent past.] They used to have a proper boat-house etc. but much of it has fallen into ruins. Ichyoids don't like large-scale commerical fishing and cut large fishing nets, so before going outside they look though a security periscope and see only gulls. There is a suggestion that many Ichyoids died in the Crash. Sylvester also talks about what he considers to be the remote possibility of somebody from the Basement making their way up to the beach (suggesting that part of it is below sea-level), and at that we see the hamster and his crew in their miniature pirate ship, approaching the open air. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss boats, and an explorer called Semidemela, and then go outside, where they stand side by side on the beach and agree that their feelings for each other are brother/sisterly rather than romantic (although acknowledging that this could change). It's mentioned that Audra had an entire fleet, and that they have a private, secure marina, but without magic it takes too much effort to open. They catch fish and gather seaweed and then go inside to cook them. Meanwhile we see a small boat propelled by a magic-powered outboard motor, and piloted by a skinny, elderly male villager. This is Olaf Larssen, the village vet, whom we saw before when Protus caused Sylvester to have a vision of a selection of villagers (among other things), and who was part of Frederick's pre-Myrrh magical team. His boat is named Mamie, after his partner who died in the Crash. The hamster and his pirate crew in their tiny wind-up clockwork boat approach and order Olaf to stand to and prepare to be boarded, and he thinks that all Tribble-Tongued Hamsters are insane. Compared to a Human, Cap'n Hamster is more like a large gopher in size. 03: A Change in the Scene [24/03/2014 – 12/07/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3817–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips start–#3915] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips start–#3921] From this point on, the parallel activity in the Basement splits away into a series of separate strips, until Sylvester and co. re-enter the Basement in Part Eight. The scene above-ground opens with Nitfol, Fizmo and three Pales (Thrash and his team, although they are all wearing or carrying shields and Thrash doesn't have the stripe on his chest that he had before) about to enter a wood tangled with brambles, in search of whatever Nitfol needs for his bid to become mayor. Nitfol says that Fizmo's presence isn't absolutely neccessary to his plans (knowing that this expedition will be dangerous) – but she has her own agenda. Then we see Yasmine riding through a wood. She is just about to take off her hood, now she is far enough from the Mansion, when she feels a vibration in her bag of Fleebs. She opens it and the Fleebs leap out, although they do not appear rabid. Meanwhile we see the E family make breakfast. Amos and Nellie bring non-sapient Jibjib eggs (their cockerel is called Zoroaster), Sylvester and Rosemary have fish and edible seaweed, and Mortimer brings a bottle of a magically-active drink called Yurple Juice. He won it by playing a game called Star Board at Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, and feels he may have cheated magically. The Weirdo (seriously hungover) and Fantod arrive and are introduced to Rosemary. Then Myrrh and Frederick arrive, dressed as if for a very fancy trip to a smart restaurant or theatre, and Myrrh announces that they are now retiring from their work to keep the family alive. Although they don't state so explicitly, they are planning to go away on a trip (we were told when we first met him that Frederick likes to go on long journeys). Myrrh also satisfies the Weirdo and Fantod's curiosity by dropping her glamour and revealing to them that she is a Demon. Mortimer is now Sylvester's Regent, his understudy – about which he is less than thrilled. Sylvester tells him just to do what Rosemary tells him, when Sylvester himself isn't there. Since the Mansion will now be less secure, Sylvester offers Amos and Nellie the chance to retire to the village, but they refuse. Instead, Amos will teach Mortimer magic. Meanwhile Sylvester, Rosemary and Mortimer need to go to the village to update Saffron, the lady mayor, on what's been happening, to sell Dornbeast parts and to attend the Temple. The Dornbeast parts are ready-wrapped in a refrigerator or stasis unit next to Ludwig's monster-processing machine. We learn later that the wrappings alone will keep meat fresh for a week, and if wrapped and in the cabinet it will keep for months. Mortimer wants to go to the Temple (he starts to ask whether he can go with them, then states that he is going) to light a candle for Nitfol, whom he believes to be dead through his fault, and then find the forest Nomes and tell them what happened to him. This leads to a discussion about Deep Jungle Nomes, who live in normal tree-houses, and about tree-warping. You can do the same with stone on a small scale, and we see Mulch and Grind tucked into a pocket in the wall behind Faldstool, just as Shona discussed with Frowgler. Because the Poke Kit won't work so well away from the Mansion's magic tricklepoint, Rosemary and Sylvester go to the Barrackstack to deposit the Can-Opener in a vault and collect other equipment. Meanwhile Mortimer goes to take antimony to the Spindizzies. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Ludwig's machines still work, and why this might be; and the fact that Ludwig left whole shelves' worth of notes which haven't been properly catalogued [an ideal job for the Ludwigites]. Ludwig was never intentionally unkind, but his thought processes weren't necesarily like those of most other people. Rosemary thinks that the Weirdo is ill or hungover but competant, and has had military training. Knowing that the Weirdo is conspiring with Yasmine in some way, Sylvester says they should lock their doors at night. Only the "cactus" part of the Mansion is Ettin-made: the other buildings were constructed by various Earls, although sometimes using Ettin salvage. The Barrackstack, which contains some Ettin elements but was mainly built by Angus and Audra, goes down as far below ground as above (about eight storeys each way). It was originally an impregnable fortress, but after the wars were over and "the Mugwumps all died.. or whatever.." Ernest and Philbert added stairs. There are sealed-off escape tunnels from the barracks which open into places which are now inside Eetown. A sign points to the Party Palace, built by Ernest, and describes the attractions on offer there. Rosemary is alarmed to see "Quincunx Den" on there: we will later learn that to her, the Quincunx is a paramilitry outfit Out West. Here it's a very complex card-game. We see a board laid out with cards in which there seem to be five suits: asterisks; circles; crosses (shaped like a Christian cross); little flowering plants (which I'm betting are called blooms); and anchors. They also discuss some kind of game which involves magically-powered equipment and is played by couples (together as a team) in an Underwear Arena: possibly that means the game is called Underwear. Whatever it is long-married couples are especially good at it (which suggests it might involve listing your partner's physical or sexual quirks), and people called Shrouders – the reverse of nudists – cannot play it. All the local villagers are informally Shrouders. Sylvester and Nimue won a silver medal at this game at University. Rosemary wants to play, with Sylvester as her partner, but the only team they could play against would be Nellie and Amos who would win because they've been married over fifty years, so Rosemary wants to get Yasmine back so they can play against her and Mortimer. Mortimer takes the antimony to his Spindizzy contact, Charles. Charles recognizes the umbrella as a "thaumalogical flow enhancer and regulator" and already knew Mortimer had wizard potential. The scene cuts to a female Spindizzy, Clementine, who is talking to Sina, Sprocket and a half-seen male Trog, probably either Mowder or Grak. Sina is quizzing Clementine about her claim to have met the Earl. Sylvester opens a weapons-vault to keep the Can-Opener in: like military exercises the vaults have random names. This one contains a wide range of good spears and swords over which Rosemary exclaims. We learn that there are official family weapons on display in the Gatestone, but they haven't been used in anger since Dorn II. They put the Can-Opener into a safe, then enter Rosemary into the Herediscan system. They discuss Griffington – his collection of obscene limericks, his management of the Factor E and his possession of three minions, Krell (who investigated old devices), Drowpole (who built new ones), and Strauhatt (who marketed what they made). Rosemary is now Sylvester's minion, after Nirvana, who was the first. They see a statue which purports to be of an Obsidian Sneech, but is more sinister than accurate, and collect all the gear Rosemary will need to maintain her sword. This area of the Mansion, which is actually of great military importance, is dotted with signs which suggest that only boring things happen there. As with the Barrackstack, much of the Ettin-built part of the Mansion is underground, even before you get to the Basement. Arthur and Fantod are sitting by the counting-down machine, now at 000315311089. Fantod, who seems to be an actual creature because his eyes move and widen expressively, still looks stunned after their encounter with Myrrh's demon form. Arthur says he assumes that "she knew all along" – perhaps a reference to Yasmine – and he plans to take Amos's advice (to go to the Temple and get Threnody to light a candle for Tulip). Sylvester and Rosemary reach a document-storage area under the library, and Sylvester gives Rosemary an instruction manual for the Poke Kit. She reads about secured sub-pockets and has a half memory of the Tree giving her a secret seed, but it slips her mind again. She experiments with taking the Glowgem in and out, and then looks around warily and makes a secret pocket, into which we will later learn she moved the HJ42. Sylvester meanwhile asks Amos for Obadiah Wuttgutt's Cyclopedia of Night Beasties but they don't have a copy – only Rosemary's memory of reading it. Amos asks Sylvester to tell Olaf in the village that he and Amos need to talk. Rosemary's Glowgem seems to be attracted to one of the supposedly deactivated surveillance devices (like the one in Sylvester's office suite) on the wall: the swirly pattern on it starts throbbing and Rosemary stares at it, but she is no longer vulnerable to being hypnotised. She finds the whole sub-pocket idea creepy, because there could be anything in there, and without the assistance of an official service engineer she wouldn't know it and might accidentally say a password which would cause something dangerous to erupt. They can't empty it by taking it into the Quiet Room, as that might damage it. Rosemary has written to Aunt Eva but she has described where she is, and Sylvester is concerned that her enemies might get it out of her aunt. Sylvester advises her to send another less specific letter via his lawyer, Mr Ferule. They discuss Tansy's army which is chasing Rosemary, and which is called the Quincunx (like the complex game: they don't know if there's a connection). If the Quincunx finds out where Rosemary is and comes as an army it would take them six months to get to E, but it's possible they could send an assassin, or hire a local one by wire; albeit that at present they don't know Rosemary's name. There's no possibility of Tansy giving up and neither will Rosemary: she thinks about Protus showing Sylvester "that poor Gnoll" (Rhid) and then her and Tansy fighting. There's a hint that the thing which Rosemary stole from the Quincunx was whatever she used to travel instantly to the east. The Quincunx are currently in the Nodnol/Lawnrock Peninsula, farther west around the Bay of Runes from Moonin. Being about to leave to walk to the village, they discuss a thing at the entrance called the Gatestone, believed to have been moved there by Ettric, the 2nd Earl. It's an artefact which might predate the Ettins. We see Mortimer waiting for them in an official Assembly Alcove, and being joined there by Arthur the Weirdo and his puppet Fantod, who congratulate him on becoming Regent. They ask about the umbrella, and Mortimer leads them to believe it's just an umbrella, to keep off the rain and sun. Mortimer still smells of sphagnum dust, and this leads to a discussion of Arthur's days at the Weirdo Academy. Arthur is heading to the Temple to have a candle lit for his friend Tulip. 04: Barriers and Gates [14/07/2014 – 27/11/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips #3922–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #3925–#4053] We see the Saurs Buzz and Ig meeting by the ruins of a museum in Eetown. Ig has a Glowgem which was in Niddle's pack: he doesn't know what it is, just that it's pretty. Buzz wants Ig to tell him about what has become of Snerk: Ig says Buzz wouldn't believe him but Buzz, who has been working with Frowgler, says Ig would be surprised what he believes these days. Mortimer and Arthur discuss whether Weirdos are allowed to marry. Opinions vary: Swithinites thing they shouldn't, and Bonavenites think it's OK. Of the family's previous Weirdos, Captain Tin-Throatwobbler was a Swithinite, but Sarah Bellum was a widow. They discuss a girl named Melba who lives in the village, and with whom Fantod implies tnat Arthur has a "thing": she's a friend of Mortimer's sister Lilith's, and quite eccentric, but Arthur says she is too frivolous to make an official Weirdo. Sylvester joins the others at the assembly point. Trailing behind him, Rosemary surreptitiously deposits several items from her Poke Kit – her Poke Kit instruction booklet, plus the lantern and bottle of blade-oil which Sylvester gave her in the Barrackstack – in a large urn. It is one of several artistic and archaeological artefacts which grace the hallway. The main door of the Mansion is set into the Gatestone, a huge boulder which "soaks up light, spreads it around". It may be natural as there are others elsewhere, but it was transported there. The main doors are kept closed, with a small door let into them. It leads to a walled outside area, still strewn with post-Crash rubble. From there, the main gates have been deliberately blocked with rubble to prevent mass invasion, again with a small door next to them. The party discuss the fortifications erected by previous earls, and the early earls themselves (the name of the first earl is not known), and why the village was renamed Eetown instead of Etown (Shibolith is under military rule because of the tensions with Thekla to the south, and there's a fortess/military base there called ETown). The fortifications are now a bit gappy – in fact they use a hole in the wall as a back door – and electronic repellers are used to keep out wild animals. These also protect the orchard and the main path to the village. These are the things Yasmine got past by spitting on them. Sylvester and Mortimer, Rosemary, Arthur and Fantod walk towards Eetown, discussing how the area came to be renamed Audravania instead of Northwoods, after Audra's death, and the vast lands which Audra had ruled before her fatal decision to poke the Hot Zone. Audra had made a voluntary marriage, albeit a political one, but prior to her many future Earls had been forcibly betrothed as children. Plenty of women at university wanted to marry Sylvester for his title, even though he was a poor scholarship boy. Sylvester could, even now, become a gold-digger and find a rich woman who would marry him for his title. Rosemary makes a point of saying she supposes he hates that sort of person: she's probably thinking that marrying for money may be how he will become what he hates. We learn that while at university Sylvester attended the coronation of the king and queen, Yancy and Fluer. Amos has visited the capital with Frederick, but Nellie has never been outside Audravania, except on her honeymoon, when they went to a town called Rowen which was fashionable before the Crash. This leads to a discussion of an island off Eetown, called Alwin, which belongs to the Earls but which they allow honeymooning couples from the village to use. Mortimer says that this arrangement is important to the villagers, which leads to him telling Sylvester what's going on there at the moment – including a break-in at Genrick's tailor shop, where stuff was taken overnight, but money was left for it, for more than the stolen clothes were worth. Possibly this was Frowgler, taking the hat he later gave to Fizmo: but the reference is to "some clothes", so if it was Frowgler what else did he take, and why? Rufus's friend Eunice is mentioned as one of a number of people who have recently moved into the area (and Mortimer doesn't seem to remember that she zapped him): the village is growing and there is a debate, known as the Inside-Out fight, as to whether or not to expand it beyond the boundary hedge. Peter Nigultrum (a half-Polarite) is engaged to Ida, and Mortimer mentions a couple called Hooper and Pandowny who both seem to be male, and says it would help if Sylvester could be there if and when they marry. Evidently there is a small amount of prejudice against same-sex couples. They meet and speak to the pig-farmer Terin Flem and his dog Byron, sitting on a rock outside the village, whittling. This is the same Mr Flem we saw with Eunice before, who comes from the same area (Moonin) as Rosemary and who used to be Guardian to the hardline Oracle named Omega, whom Sylvester didn't get on with. Flem asks Mortimer to ask young Dirge (the current Guardian) to come by, and Fantod mentions "rarebits" he has promised to Byron, or prhaps vice versa. They pass a sign indicating the town dump and Bechdel, which is Mr Flem's pig farm,and the surname of his son in law. He was married while a Guardian. Omega treated him as an afterthought: her original Guardian died in the Crash. Omega preached doom and hellfire and opposed education and change, which still has a lingering effect on the attitudes of the villagers. She was at least not a hypocrite, and was fiercely honest and dutiful and a proficient healer. Sylvester and Mortimer have an obscure private conversation about change: Mortimer wants to do more and different, things he should have done while Omega was alive but didn't, but Sylvester tells him to keep it quiet for the moment as they shouldn't spring too many changes on the villagers at once, and they are still anti-magic. They can't keep it secret forever, though, as Nellie is a gossip. We see an image of Mortimer's future self with the female Motihaul and the woman with clubbed hair. Meanwhile Rosemary talks to Arthur and Fantod. Arthur tries to quiz Rosemary about how she got there but she evades the question and instead asks him about what Weirdos do. They are jesters who "speak truth to power". Their original accents are trained out of them (Arthur is from Alfibay), which raises more questions about Yasmine. Arthur, Fantod and Rosemary discuss the new, safer denizens' tunnel from the Mansion to the Basement, and the disappearance of the Sneeches. Meanwhile the party arrives at the outskirts of the village and Sylvester shows Rosemary the irrigation ditches and other features. They come to the Temple, which was made from the remains of a much grander one ("about the fanciest one east of Rowen") which was destroyed in the Crash, and which lies just outside the hedge which surrounds the village, rather than at the centre of town as would be the norm. Omega had it built there so that, post Crash, people approaching could see a sign that this was an outpost of civilisation, and she trusted the Brush to keep it safe. The town's previous Temple had been destroyed (and the previous local Oracle, Riverbend, had been killed), and so had the town in Wirtwam where Omega was posted previously. She built this Temple out of stones from the old one, and it's actually rather nice. We learn that Sylvester and Mortimer's father had been partially responsible for, and died in, some kind of accident involving a circus and a stampeding elifinos in a nearby town called Noodle, known as the Noodle Incident and so famous that even people Out West know about it. Their father wasn't entirely or solely to blame, but he made a good scapegoat. The Eman family is unpopular in Noodle, not just because of the Incident but because Sylvester promotes the interests of the Eetown tooterfisheries and cuts into the profits of the Noodle Fish-Mongers Association. They meet a little girl called Juniper, who is the granddaughter of Amos and Nellie and tells them "everyone" is in the Temple. Her father Arlen is Hedgemaster and her mother keeps bees. She has a special friendship with Fantod. The group go through a sensory ritual – watch the flames, smell the blossoms, taste the water, touch the earth (in the form of a giant stone, originally at the Mansion's private Temple and personally blessed by Violet) and listen to the Brush. The last is done by sitting on a bench made of rare and precious materials (this one is made of a sort of pourable, durable Ettin-made plastic): Arthur and Mortimer are the only ones who feel the need to do so. It is mentioned that the tree will bloom in a month or so (we are reminded later that it's currently mid April). To mark Hallowe'en we see a raiding party of Nomes, including Umboz's brother Frotz who is desperate to get out of it, probably creeping towards the north Gnoll village. They are scared off by a pumpkin-headed spectre which is really Frowgler in costume (possibly borrowed from the female Motihaul Strode, although it doesn't have crescent-horn-holes), using some kind of glowing magic or technology to fly. Rosemary and Juniper discuss where various people come from, and Rosemary manages to give the girl a very strange idea of what a walrus looks like. They talk with Sylvester about Inuit-equivalents called Tunits, who live on the Iceshore north of Alfibay in the west of Yurpsland, and the secretive, hostile Haroons who live in forest between the Iceshore and Alfibay, and the harsh, uninhabited and uninhabitable northen shore called Skralland, to the north of Audravania, which might or might not have been named after someone called Skral who is even less well-documented than Frizzlegarb. Aside from army bases, Eetown and the Mansion are now the most northernmost Human habitations on the east shore. We learn that there used to be a secretive underground nation called the Great Underearth Empire of the Northern Pole, colloquially known as the Polarites, but their society was destroyed in the Crash. They used to have an exit tunnel in northern Audravania, for trade and called the Gate of Commerce, because Eetown was booming and they hoped to trade with the Far East Shore; as well as the famous Gate of Diplomacy in Paydon and the Gate of Remembrance on the Iceshore north of Alfibay. But the Gate of Commerce was destroyed by the Crash after only five years. In Paydon a "Salvagetown" grew up around the ruins of the Gate of Diplomacy, challenged by surviving Polarites who were away from home when the Crash hit. There are people in Eetown of half Haroon (Ilsa Lundquist) or half Polarite (Peter Nigultrum) ancestry, and they can't ever go home. Since Ilsa's mother left the tribes she would be treated as a stranger by the Haroons, despite her green hair; and Peter's father's Polarite home no longer exists. Meanwhile, Arthur and Mortimer sit on the bench and ask for divine assurance that they are doing the right thing, and both receive it, more or less. Fantod and Juniper talk about her hopes for a more interesting career than hedging, and how she'd like to see more of Nellie and Amos, and how sorry she is for Peter and Ilsa that they can't go home. We see an out-take for Thanksgiving, in which Myrrh and Frederick are about to start on a feast. I have left this in the time-line, as well as putting it with the Christmas cards etc., because it fits with the idea that they have gone on a second (or, strictly speaking, first) honeymoon, and it leads into subsequent episodes where they are at the Spires. Myrrh is using weird cutlery that fits onto rings on her forefinger and thumb, to eat Demon-specific foods. We learn later that they are not yet at the Spires here, but elsewhere. 05: Eetown – The Temple [28/11/2014 – 25/08/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #4060–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips start–#4323] The party from the Mansion enter the Temple, where Sylvester introduces Rosemary to the Oracle Threnody and various town worthies. Sylvester assures the townsfolk in the Temple that despite his family's recent history in such matters Rosemary is Human, and fully qualified to be Taskmistress, "highly qualified, physically and mentally". We see an image of Myrrh, and of a mad-looking Human woman wielding a rolling pin, who is evidently a recentish Mansion employee who turned out not to be emotionally qualified: perhaps this is Olga. He informs them that Frederick has retired as Regent and Mortimer will be taking over. Sheriff Patrick Skragg quizzes Rosemary as to whether she is a fugitive from the King's Law. She swears that she isn't, then sends the child Juniper off with the Weirdo and Fantod to show Fantod how she's been practising some skill he's been helping her with. Once they are out of earshot she tells the rest that she is also taking over Myrrh's duties as bodyguard and will be wearing a sword. Threnody is dubious about Rosemary's past use of violent force, but accepts that it may have been necessary. The Sheriff provisionally accepts Rosemary's offer of help with the town milita [sic]: there isn't one, as such, but he says he could use another trained deputy, aside from Dirge. But Waldo Weequash, head of the Eetown Guild of Fisherfolk and Octopus Wranglers, thinks Rosemary is a vagabond who will bring a criminal element into the town. Saffron Stout, innkeeper and impromptu mayor, points out that Rosemary will mainly be at the Mansion and agrees with the Sheriff that they should give her a chance, and asks Sylvester to call on her privately later. She asks after Frederick's health, and whether Sylvester knows anything about the Pit flare. He says that as far as he knows none of his household were involved, except insofar as his great-great-uncle helped build it: that must be Hindenburgh. Threnody – who is emergency backup Taskmistress – quizzes Rosemary about her Temple attendance, and Rosemary promises to make sure Sylvester goes to Temple more often. The last Temple Rosemary attended was in Jonetown East and Threnody thinks that Blackbird, the Oracle there, might some day be Prime Oracle. Outside the Temple, the townsfolk discuss Rosemary privately. The Sheriff is planning to check up on her in police records, just in case, but they agree she seems an improvement on Myrrh. They discuss the fact that non-Humans are allowed to join the religion and are treated equally (although Sylvester suggests that that's the official position but not always adhered to) and some Nomes and Motihauls have been ordained as Oracles, but other non-Humans (Pales are shown as an example) resisted conversion. Sylvester mentions that he has heard that the Nomes have a male priest, and Threnody is interested in meeting him. Mortimer and the Weirdo remain at the Temple to light memorial candles to speed the passage of the dead, the Weirdo for his friend Tulip, and Mortimer for Nitfol whom he wrongly believes to be dead. Threnody assumes that Arthur learned of his friend's death through the post, and Sylvester, who has worked out that Arthur probably learned about it from Yasmine, signals to Mortimer not to contradict her. While Mortimer and the Weirdo are praying, Rosemary and Sylvester look at the Temple's paintings of the various founding Oracles, and discuss their favourites. Rosemary follows Hettie, who carried a light in the darkness and made the dark and the unknown part of the Brush, and Sylvester likes Joice, who stood for inspiration. Mortimer passes on a message to Dirge, the current Guardian, that Finale, the previous Guardian (=Terin Flem), would like to speak to him: Dirge doesn't seem happy about it. Mortimer wants to ask about why Sylvester shushed him, but feels that the time is not yet because somebody might overhear. The group go and stand by a large boulder outside the town gates ("The Town Rock") where they won't be overheard, and discuss Yasmine and the Weirdos generally. Mortimer is able to pick them out because he can sense their mind shapes. They discuss the fact that Rosemary has not been taught any magical theory, because she was educated at the Hack & Slash Academy whose purpose was to produce effective H&S employees and they very rarely encounter magic-users these days. Also H&S is riddled with factions: they used to have a Wizwitch Brigade and Rosemary suspects it may still exist but is being kept a secret, even from other factions in H&S. We learn that the Weirdo Academy is very ancient. It's in a town called Marksburg, which is in Fredonia, and is where the E boys' mother came from. Nowadays Marksburg has a stodgy reputation, but it has a lively history. In the past there were several Weirdo schools and Weirdos went by several names, such as Tomfool. Milo was the first Earl of E to hire one. The Trio fall to discussing the various worthies they met at the Temple. Sylvester fills Rosemary in on the background to the various individuals, and village issues such as the need to bring in a full-time Healer, since at the moment the Oracle, Threnody, is both healer and teacher, and as the village population grows it's getting hard for her to cope. Better to bring in an outside Healer, as thanks to Omega's influence the village would never pay for a separate teacher. Sylvester's only friends in the village are Peter Nigultrum the solicitor, and a fisherman called Captain Tugwart: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting because they would be discussing Sylvester. Weesquash resents him because Sylvester has more power than him and has set policies which benefit him, thus obliging him to feel grateful. They discuss who is and isn't local. People who were born in the village are accepted as local even if their parents were foreign, as is the case with Peter. Anyone not born there is a foreigner. The exceptions are the Oracle and Guardian, and Old Man Larssen. If Rosemary stays fifty years they will still be annoyed if she marries a local (other than one of the E boys) and she'll still be "The Mooninite" because she wasn't born in Eetown. She says she'll earn a more distinctive label than that, thinking of herself as some sinister dark queen with a flaming sword. Guardians are often specifically trained for specific areas (we see images of Guardians with a zap trident, a Ghast ceremonial spoon and a bat on a leash). Rosemary can tell that Dirge is combat-trained and wonders why the High Temple thought Eeetown needed him. This leads to a discussion about how the Spyders and Tree-Squids got into the area; and about things called Raviners or Hill Crabs, which people in Moonin sometimes eat, and which may be able to be provoked into producing a useful ichor; and the fact that the E family used to grow and sell the killer trees. Mortimer would like to talk about the events of the previous day but they don't have time. As they approach the entrance to Eetown proper they discuss various Oracles Rosemary has met on her travels. In a brief out-take, we see Schmedley placing a black arm-band on the flipper of the statue of the world-turtle which we glimpsed before, to commemorate the death of Terry Pratchett. Sylvester and co. discuss the defences of Eetown, with drawbridges put in after the Crash. These were scrounged from houses in Crestheights, a posh district near the Masion, destroyed in the Crash. The defences are not very good, and post-Crash the town had some trouble with raiders until Myrrh got back. She, Frederick and Quincy had been holidaying in Aruba (an island without magic) when the Crash hit. It was on their way back that Quincy met Agnes, his future wife. Meanwhile the town made a defensive wall out of crashed cars, and then grew a hedge over and through them. We see an ancient wand-tree called an Oakapple (nothing to do with real oak apples) which grows just inside the hedge. Post-Crash, the rallying point for local survivors was a pub called the Moose and Squirrel. Because it was a cheap outfit which didn't use much magic it survived the Crash relatively intact. The innkeeper, Simon, had acquired the place by dubious means, but he became impromptu mayor and did a good job of coordinating disaster relief. Sylvester and co. head for the local administrative offices, but as they pass by the fountain in the (unpaved) main square they become aware that they have an audience. Sylvester lectures Rosemary about the layout of the town, where the bathhouse is etc., trying to sound confident and impress the watchers. The town has a watch tower, but these days it's mainly used as a love-nest. They speak to the townsfolk who have been watching them, and Rosemary (under the false surname Dapple) is introduced to everybody. Most striking, perhaps, is a young mother called Silence Krenshaw whom Sylvester knows very well, and had considered hiring as Taskmistress. We will learn that she and Sylvester were childhood playmates. They discuss Rosemary's duties, and that Sylvester wants Rosemary to serve as a Mature and Responsible Adult, a formal title which seems to mean that she will somehow help him to find a wife. He does not fancy Rosemary herself. Silence says that there is somebody out there for Sylvester. Mortimer meanwhile talks to an adoring fanclub of young girls. They ask him about his umbrella and he says you never know when a storm might blow up. One of them, possibly named Hanna, is evidently psychic and she realises both that he is speaking metaphorically, and that a metaphorical storm is indeed coming. Sylvester and co. head for Government House, followed by a gaggle of children. They discuss the pudding plant, a local cash crop which only grows well in Audravania. Rosemary has never eaten a fresh one. Rosemary wonders why so small a town has a bank. Sylvester explains that it gives them independence from the Noodle Fish-Monger's Association, and lists the conditions required in order for them to have an official bank, and its personnel (the village blacksmith Sheldon doubles as a nominal guard, but it does have a real assistant clerk, Permelia). It is illegal for an agent of the King's Law, such as the Sheriff, officially to work for a bank. The town government is full of bickering and back-biting. The bank manager is Peter Nigultrum, who also helps the sub-literate to write letters because it's a rustic area and some people can barely read and write. Rosemary says you haven't seen rustic till you've seen the deep back-woods of Moonin: we see a man wearing antlers, a woman wearing wings, a child with a staff, and a standing stone with a skull on top. As they approach the bank they meet Peter's fiancée Ida. Ida and Rosemary discuss Rosemary's home district of Moonin and the presence there of the Beacons, three shimmering offshore monoliths believed to date back to the Dawn Wars. Ida seems unaware that the Mansion is equally interesting and almost equally historic. The first Prime Oracle, Daisy, came from Moonin, but Rosemary feels that Daisy was ashamed of her humble origins. The most important local Oracle is Jackstraw in Glome. They meet Peter, the half-Polarite bank manager, who works out that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress from her clothes. They tell him that Frederick and Myrrh have retired, and that Mortimer is a wizard. The only bit that surprises Peter is that Myrrh is able to retire. We glimpse Myrrh at some sort of hotel, apparently amusing herself by wrestling robots, and Ida gossiping about having just met them. Peter predicts that Mortimer's newfound wizard status will lead to trouble. We see Dirge, the current Guardian, and Terin Flem, the previous one, discussing the changes in personnel at the Mansion, and saying that Dirge has a decision to make: apparently, whether or not to report Mortimer to the authorities. Thirty years post-Crash, when Flem first saw signs that Mortimer was a wizard, magic was regarded as evil. He should really have told Omega that Mortimer was a wizard, but then somebody would have come and taken the boy away, and Flem liked Mortimer, so he kept quiet. An officious government clerk named Appleby also failed to report Mortimer – Flem thinks he just never noticed what was going on because he was stuck behind his desk. Dirge will tell Threnody about Mortimer, but won't call someone to collect him unless Mortimer wants him to. Flem tells Dirge about Eunice being out in the woods again. After Dirge has left, Flem tells his dog Byron that he hated Omega. Peter tells Mortimer there may still be a magic school which Threnody could help him find if Amos turns out not to be a good teacher. They discuss Polarite technology and social structures: Peter's father was in security, relatively low-status but with access to information. Peter had thought of contacting the surviving Polarites in the capital, but Sylvester says they would scorn him for having facial hair. The Polarites were divided into three regions, Bism, Mahar and Symm. The Vril Undercroft, a sub-group of the Symmites and the group to which Peter's father belonged, were allowed to open a Commerce Gate in northern Audravania, where they to some extent went native and became more open and sociable than most Polarites. That was why Peter's father was able to be wandering around on the surface without any magical machinery when the Crash hit, and so survived. The Polarites seem all to have worn one to six (the more, the higher the rank) wiggly wires with glowing balls on the tip, set into the back of their hair: these are reminiscent of the antennae we will later see Spire folk wearing. Surviving Polarites in exile often have short versions of the wiggly wires, but without the glowing tips. Sylvester and Rosemary give Peter a highly edited version of Rosemary's life story (and she has a flashback of hiding from Tansy). Peter knows the Mansion and its dangers well – he even has his own Spindizzy, Alfred. [An out-take at this point celebrates the legalization of gay mariage in the US by showing Baldy with a slightly younger – and much hairier – boyfriend, looking at rainbow Vagabond flutterbys.] Peter tells Sylvester they have some paperwork to go over [Ipcress files!], so Sylvester asks Mortimer to take Rosemary away and introduce her to Shadrik, an ox-like Metalmin. Sylvester and Peter then discuss Peter's upcoming marriage to Ida. Peter says Sylvester will never marry a local girl because they aren't academically stimulating enough – not even Ida or Silence – whereas he himself was looking for somebody who was restful to be with. Sylvester will be his best man. Sylvester trusts Peter so much that he tells him at least the gist of Rosemary's true story, including that Dapple isn't her real surname (although not what is). Peter will look out for people looking out for Rosemary, and send the signal Rose, Pine, Apple through "the usual channel" if he can safely do so. Sylvester doesn't want to marry Rosemary because she's not intellectual or educated, but she's a perfect Taskmistress – so perfect he suspects somebody is interfering in his life, and sent her to him. [Out-take: to celebrate the strip's twelfth anniversary: we briefly see the pirate hamster and his crew approaching an island which has a sapient tree. The tree thinks that it has been twelve years: in-universe, probably since it last saw the plant, since the plant swears to itself when it sees where they are.] We see that Eunice works in the pub, apparently as a cook (and Frowgler is lurking behind some sacks on a shelf, watching her). Rosemary and Mortimer are given free sausages by the town's Sausage Stroller. Mortimer is feeling very guilty about having accidentally magically hypnotised Rosemary the day before, so she punishes and absolves him by giving him a light bonk on the head, but says that being hypnotised by him was mostly quite enjoyable. They talk about the fact that he has only left the area a few times (and was in Noodle when his father died there), and comes across as rather sheltered, but now responsibility has been thrust on him and he will meet it. Rosemary talks about the relatively safe life she left to become a bodyguard, and the fact that her home village had an ancient ruined tower built by Gobblems, and which she used to climb. She later travelled to most of the places she could see from up there, but many of the towns were a bit same-y because they were rebuilt at the same time, after Unification. Talking about education and the E-family tutor causes Mortimer to realise there's something about Rufus and Eunice which he is forgetting. They look at Shadrik, which/who is a haulage Metalmin who is fairly bright but doesn't speak, and lives in a former stable. Sadrik living in a shed leads to a mention of Dorian Ingersoll the hermit who used to live in a hut. Dorian's history is confusing: we've been told he's lived in the Spike for forty-two years, but here we're told he lived in the forest when Mortimer was a child, and we've seen the ruins of his hut when Yasmine came across them. He obviously shared his time and wasn't in the Spike full-time. Shadrik's battery is flat but Rufus is working on recharging it: even when he's working only the Earl, the Mayor and the Sheriff can give him orders. Rosemary works out that Sylvester just wanted her and Mortimer out of the way so he could speak to Peter privately. To kill time she suggests they climb the local watchtower, so she can survey the terrain. To get to it they go through a warehouse used to store apples, which has been altered and added to till it's almost as complex as the Mansion (one of the doors is lanelled "STILL ALIVE KEEP IN"). They are passed by some sort of functionary (beginning with a B) who wears false Nome ears and costume wings. It's possible the B stands for Batgirl, especially as she lives in the Belfry "like usual". Mortimer is wafted a note, possibly left by the Batgirl, to say that the writer has their eye on Eunice and Rufus, who are up to something. 06: Eetown – The State [26/08/2015 – 20/11/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4330–#4421] From the tower Rosemary and Mortimer look down on the village square, which includes a fuzzball court. Mortimer points out various districts of the town, and they see Old Man Larssen's place outside the town hedge, although he has a hedge of his own. Rosemary is pleased to be able to see the Specific Ocean, which was on her To-Do List. They discuss a range of wonders Rosemary hopes to see (including The Running of the Clams in Woldercan, which may be a clams-got-legs B.C. reference), many of which have already been visited by Mortimer's mother and sister, although they were unable to get into a place called Sybola where there is some kind of secret Rosemary wishes to solve. They visited the Spires of Mechana and Sylvester's sister Lil said they were "really creepy". Rosemary thinks the main thing on Mortimer's To-Do List right now should be to learn how to use the wand-umbrella. A Labour Day out-take shows various kinds of labour in Eetown, including the Batgirl who is writing or drawing at an easel, and Violet wrestling with a piglet. Rosemary and Mortimer meet Sylvester outside the bank and he refers to the Batgirl as "our Flittermouse". Sylvester takes them to meet Sherman P Gray, the new(ish) government Clerk of Eetown. The previous clerk, Hubert Appleby (who didn't get on with Omega) died at his desk eight years previously. Sherman has a telegraph machine (loathed by Omega) run off batteries re-charged by a hand-turned charger, and many duties, one of which is to register new arrivals like Rosemary. He is also postman and tax-collector, and has a form for Mortimer to register as the new Regent of E. [In a brief out-take, we see the pirates (hamster and co.), having landed at Piratestash Island, recruit a resident gull to the crew. The stunted but sapient tree on the island implies that the Plant is being punished by being required to stay with the crew.] We learn about the unofficial but influential Tome of Royal Succession, a kind of Debrett's Peerage. The Keepers of the Tome will want to know about changes to Sylvester's "official retinue": not only about Mortimer becoming Regent, but about Rosemary becoming Taskmistress. We are reminded of the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setup by the fact that Rosemary is impressed that the Post Office pigeon-holes have doors, garnered from post-Crash architectural salvage. While Sylvester is checking his postal Inbox it is confirmed that it is now 14th April 5423HC ("Historical Counting"). Sherman sees from her form that Rosemary comes from an island called Dyngusmyles, which has a reputation for having wild, backwoods people, and has strange weather and biology because it's close to the Beacons, which before the Crash attracted research parties from the university in Azimuth. We see that the lights from the Beacons are a bit similar to Eyebolt Weirding. Sherman himself comes from a frost-mining area in Thull. They compare weather: Sherman was surprised to find that though Eetown is farther north than the frost mines of Crag Sinsoss that he came from, it has a milder local climate. Sylvester warns Sherman that Rosemary is a fighter and will be wearing a sword as part of her duties. Sherman OKs this but says that while they are in his government office weapons must be deposited in a special receptacle, and Mortimer promptly puts his umbrella in it. Sherman fills Sylvester in on various items of news, including the fact that a ship from a far-off region named Coradine has visited the port of Woldercan in the west of Yurpsland. Coradine is part of the same continent as the Mansion but it's a group of islands as far west as it gets, beautiful but quite reclusive and ritualistic, and many of its inhabitants are Motihauls. To get to Woldercan the Coradine ship would have had to sail round the edge of a region called Kadath, which is inhabited by Wendigoes, and past an island called Honaly (as in Puff the Magic Dragon) where there are [Human?] Viking-type sea-raiders whom we see sailing a ship whose sail bears the image of the hamster pirate captain, then right across the north coasts of Thembria, Upper Slubovia, Ruratana and Tiranog. It's possible they came for Yurple Juice, a wildly popular and expensive drink with magical properties. After posting Rosemary's letter to Aunt Eva (in the guise of an official letter from Sylvester) the party take leave of Sherman, promising to return later to set up a post-box for Rosemary and collect the newspaper. Mortimer and Sylvester share a post box but Frederick and the staff each have their own: we see Frederick receiving a skull-faced box with a bow on top, Amos receiving book-binding supplies and Schemdley apparently receiving a love letter. There is a mention of the previous day's magical Pit-flare being a reoccurring event, and of the recent finding of a dead Ichyoid washed into the harbour. As they come away they talk about the fact that Sherman's girlfriend in nearby Obtown married someone else. Sylvester says that Myrrh is listed in the Official Threats Compendium, but since she hasn't killed anybody it's not worth anyone's while to go to the trouble of trying to banish her. Behind them, in his office, Sherman looks up Mortimer's umbrella in the Official Threats Compendium, and finds it. We learn that there's a series of Government departments with harmless-sounding names – Redundancy, Secondary Overlap, Tertiary Retainment – which process information and look for interesting connections. They discuss rural pubs. Rosemary is an expert on awful pubs: we see one whose sign is a hand choking a Jibjib; one whose sign appears to be a jellyfish on toast, with a female Motihaul collapsed drunk outside with flies buzzing round her and a rat on her knee; and one where recalcitrant customers were thrown into a pit of wild Saurs. Rory Vinsmith, the innkeeper in Moonin with the Saur pit, was executed for murder and the pub was re-named The Saur Pit in his honour. In the west he is famous, but now they are so far from her home that nobody's heard of him, which makes Rosemary realise how big Yurpsland is. Big news does travel, however: Rosemary had heard about the Noodle Incident, and Sylvester had heard about the Drumshambo Massacre. Saffron, the local innkeeper at The Moose and Squirrel, may have heard of Vinsmith, and Sylvester quietly warns Rosemary that Saffron may also have heard of her Aunt Eva, the gambler. There is a pale grey cat wandering along a window ledge at the ront of The Moose and Squirrel. They enter the pub and meet Sharona, Saffron's niece, who is Mortimer's semi-girlfriend with whom he had a date on the coming Friday (it's currently Monday), and the daughter of Sheldon the blacksmith. She is overcome by the smell of sphagnum dust coming off Mortimer. They meet Mavis, one of the barmaids, and then Saffron. Eunice Kelso is also one of her barmaids, along with Mavis Mossett and Flossy Efflore, and there's a cook called Gormind Trencherman and a bouncer and stablehand called [Chauncy?] Hobson. Mention is made of people in Moonin distilling a spirit from muckroots: the distillery seems to be called Fancy Rat Spirits, with a logo of a rat in a monocle and a straw boater. Characters called : Wendell and Ricky, who we will learn are the town's odd-jobbers, are also mentioned: Wendell is prone to sudden wild enthusiasms . Sharona is repelled by the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer, and dumps him for being too unreliable and accident-prone (he feels guilty, because she had slipped his mind until he saw her). Saffron takes a bottle of Pudding Liquor, just uncorked that day, from a shelf: something grey, probably Frowgler's nose, is glimpsed poking out from behind an adjacent bottle. They drink from it, and Sylvester immediately passes out, while Rosemary begins seeing imaginary glowing flutterbies. Mortimer seems unaffected. 07: Revelations [30/11/2015 – 27/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4428–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips start–#4602] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. We begin, therefore, with the eyes of various small creatures, including Smyts, being dazzled and impressed by the glowing tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Rosemary and Sylvester wake, very groggy, to find themselves lying on a jetty on Alwin Island, the honeymoon destination, accompanied by the grey cat who had been outside the pub. The island will prove to be littered with large stone sculptures, mostly of non-Human animals. They agree that they must have been drugged (there is mention of glitterberries, which seem to be this world's equivalent of magic mushrooms, although that's probably not what was used), not just drunk, and discuss possible culprits. Presumably it's somebody who wants to embarass Sylvester, not kill him. Neither of them really thinks it was Saffron, and this is confirmed by a brief view of Mavis the barmaid discovering Saffron herself collapsed behind the bar and asking for a shot of clingweed tonic (the same plant Telic asked Comshaw to bring him). Permelia Weesquash might, but she doesn't frequent the pub or know anyone who works with herbs except Threnody (we see Threnody with tongs, about to pluck a glowing berry from the "tongue" of one of the small carnivorous plants). Sylvester's main suspect is Old Man Larssen, the town vet, who is very educated but also obsessive and secretive, a bit like Crazy Rhid – even so Sylvester doesn't really think he did it. He half suspects Eunice, who comes from Noodle, passes as a non-entity and could be an agent of his enemies the Noodle Fishmongers' Association. But we glimpse Eunice thinking that she has no idea what just happened in the bar but she'd better report it anyway. No other visitors are expected – nobody comes there except newlyweds, or about-to-be-weds preparing the venue. There is however a rowing boat concealed on the island. They manage to stagger to their feet in order to go find the boat, but Rosemary thinks they are still both too stoned to steer and suggests that since they were planning to have a private talk anyway, now is a good time and place. Sylvester shows Rosemary some of the sights of the island, since as Taskmistress she will be expected to oversee the team of respectable village matrons who prepare the honeymoon cabin for weddings. They return to the dock (and the cat) to sit and talk, on the far side of the island from the village. Further out they can see Scraggy Island, which holds a lighthouse and the town graveyard. The lighthouse keeper is Dougal Izzard. His wife Selene Perkins left but their daughter Shelby stayed, married Grumby the carpenter and had a son Edson who is apprentice lighthouse-keeper. The hobby of Cloudmapping is mentioned. Sylvester sits on a bench on the pier but Rosemary declines to sit next to him. Instead, the cat does, but he shoves her off when she tries to sit on his knee. Here there is an outtake scene showing Frederick and Myrrh playing chess with two men called Jebidiah and Jones, who are wearing formal dinner suits. These are based on Angus Scrimm and David Bowie, who died that week, and a poster of Grabthar's Hammer on the wall commemorates Alan Rickman, also lost. In the background, visible over the top of a stone wall, we can see the Spires of Mechana, which are more of an upright sausage shape than pointy. Sylvester talks Rosemary through the history of the area, beginning with creation by the Brush (it is mentioned that there is also life on Perelandra and Barsoom) and the first civilization, the Wilfs and Gobbblems (Dreamers and Builders), who erected wonderful buildings and even had colonies on the moon before destroying each other in the Dawn War. Sylvester has glimpsed what seemed to be a Wilf and a Gobblem through a Panegate, so it may be that there are survivors in other realities, but that Panegate is in a part of the Mansion which is only periodically accessible, and won't be again for fifteen years. Then came the Ettins and Sneeches, who may have already existed but been suppressed, and who now built up another high-tech civilization and then again destroyed it in war, after which Humans and Nomes moved in, spreading from jungles in the south. Before that destruction, the Ettins built the main towers of the Mansions of E and S. The Tower of S was so-called because of an S-shaped mark on the walls, so the Scions of S made that their symbol, but the Mansion of E is a corruption of the Tower of Ett(in)s – their names were later changed from Tower to Mansion for some beaurocratic reason. Their symbol was originally a serif E with a tall tail on the bottom bar, crossed by two short horizontal lines to make an ETT monogram, but over time the crossbars got lost. The Ettins also built the Spire and "one or two other things" – we see a tangle of spikes, which might be branches, each tipped with a glowing light. The Ettin/Sneech war largely passed Audravania by, leaving it with these fairly intact Ettin buildings. According to the Spindizzies the Ettin name of the Mansion is PRFO4223. We learn that nomadic Humans who didn't even have agriculture reached the Towers late in the Human diaspora, at a time when the country of Ackbar, in the south-west of the continent, already had quite an advanced Human civilization along the banks of the Refutation (De Nial). The name of the first Earl isn't known but he led his tribe into the valley and died while storming the Tower: the exact wording of the legend is "the Earl stormed the heights, and the heights broke with thunder, and none ever came back down". Legend also says he fought and defeated living Ettins but this is unlikely given their advanced technology. A lone Ettin skull was later found in the Tower. The first Earl's descendants avoided the interior of the Tower for generations afterwards but they set up camp and built new buildings around its foot. The area was rich in resources and they had to fight off generations of would-be invaders. Sylvester gives Rosemary a detailed run-down of the various Earls, which you can find summarised on the background page. The most salient points are that agriculture began to be established at the time of Ettrath, the 5th Earl, and so did neighbouring fiefdoms: the Scions of S to the north, Myways to the west and Obtund to the south. S was eventually destroyed by Angus, the 16th Earl. Myways and, for a couple of generations, Obtund were defeated and made vassals of E: Myways was destroyed in the Crash and there's nothing there now but a coaching inn, but the Obtunds are still around, with their own Duke, and are friendly neighbours. Many of the early Earls of E were villains and slave-traders who came to power by murdering their predecessors, until they got to the brilliant philosopher and strategist Milo, the 9th Earl, who severed the family's links to the slave trade, converted to the new religion of the Brush, moved into the Ettin-built Tower and made contact with the Spindizzies. What they know about the earlier history of the family is just what was written by Milo – quite possibly the first Earl to be able to write – and may not be 100% accurate. Milo's mother, Persafone, was a slave who had been an educated aristocrat before being enslaved, and came from an advanced culture between what are now Paydon and Thull, but at the time were called Pay Downs and Hoar Hull. She deliberately trained Milo up to be a successful warrior who would murder Milo's father, Frake, at her urging, knowing Milo would help her to survive her intended coup against Frake. Milo had ambivalent feelings about her: as Earl he kept her in elegant comfort but well away from any decision-making. He was seen as weak because he was educated, so as soon as he became Earl the Mansion was attacked by Myways and Obtund, but he soundly defeated them and made them pay tribute. Milo was established and confident enough to travel, and met his future wife Nettana in the Forest of Burzee. She was an aristocrat from the Iridescent Kingdom of Southern Kroke in what is now Isdanlia, but at the time was an advanced but fragmented region. She was intelligent, stylish, determined and he was intelligent, brave, forthright, tall, athletic and had nice hair His heart was more in intellectual learning than bloodshed and after his wife died he abdicated in favour of his son, and sailed away to explore new lands. Milo's son Dorn I was scientifically-minded and bred the Dornbeasts for use as living siege engines. They were named in his honour after he was kiled by one, but he called them Siegebeasts and they were bred up from swamp-dwelling Chompbeasts, non-sapient distant relatives of the Ettins. Selling Siegebeasts marked the beginning of the rise of E as an economic power. After he was killed by one his wife Aimee became Regent for their son Dorn II, who unfortunately was a shallow sports jock obsessed with Starball and hunting, although he did continue to breed and sell Dornbeasts. Dorn II was mostly gay and apart from getting an heir with his wife Olivia Obtund his sexual partnership (of a sort, since Dorn wasn't very highly sexed) was with a guy named Heffston, who was a much better strategist and ruler than Dorn. Heffston was from a humble background but worked to educate himself, and laid the foundation for the E-family library. It was another century before an Oracle named Brittlebush legalised gay marriage. In an aside, we see Arthur and Fantod talking to village children. They seem to believe Rosemary and Sylvester are still in the inn with Saffron. Village gossip evidently has Sylvester and Saffron getting married. Dorn II was killed, possibly by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, an ambitious local girl who had a loving but quarrelsome relationship with Dorn's son Lemuel, the Panegate expert. Lemuel eventually abdicated in favour of his daughter Wilhelmina, who was aided and defended by her step-grandfather Heffston. By so doing, Heffston both atoned for not having paid enough attention to Lemuel as a boy, and got revenge on Charlotte for her suspected role in the death of Dorn II, by turning her daughter against her. Charlotte was banished to a set of apartments inside a cave on Mount Ett, and Lemuel drove his carriage up there every evening to spend the night with her. Wilhelmina just called herself W for most purposes and was considered ceremonailly male, to the point of wearing a false beard. Her reign was peaceful and prosperous: she was no more interested in being Earl than her father had been, but she was more skilled at picking good subordinates to whom she could delegate. She had some magic, strong but restricted to manipulating stone, and was a prolific sculptor who made a lot of money by travelling to other stately homes to perform tricky bits of stonework. She visited the Sculpted Isles and there met her husband Alwin, then returned with him and deposed her parents, despite the fact that her mother Charlotte had sort-of promised her in marriage to Shaw IV, Scion of S: this, along with economic rivalry. led to the falling-out between E and S, and the destruction of S about a century later. Alwin's health had been damaged by Wyvern Pox as a child and he was "a lazy gadabout pretty-boy" but W loved him, and he was a good father to their twins. After Alwin's death, twenty years after their marriage, W unofficially abandoned ruling in favour of obsessively covering Alwin Island with sculptures. One of her younger sisters became a very famous and scary witch called Arianya of the Brackens, who moved West and is now the best-known of the E family. W committed suicide by allowing a large block of stone to fall on her, and was succeeded by her son Linus, the combat botanist. Linus went on an expedition to the jungle and married a Zanduan woman named Padma who had a vicious sense of humour and was his intellectual and magical equal, and with whom he had five daughters and two sons. He was the first Earl to wear glasses, and got up a consortium of local nobles to bring thaumnodes to the area. He and Padma explored the Basement (at a time when most of the species down there were still shut into enclosed habitats) and put in lights. We see him and his team looking at a little gadget with two arms and three glowing red lights, apparently in an Ettin airbox. [We have seen this object before as an example of what an airbox is, when Rosemary and Sylvester were discussing the Can-Opener.] He built a conservatory for his plants, and to give Padma a jungle to shelter in during the winter. Linus it was who bred The Tree which made Basement society possible outside their controlled habitats. Meanwhile his sister Marcia married a noble in Svan and became a cartoonist. 08: Naming Names [30/05/2016 – 23/12/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4609–#4812] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. The chapter therefore opens with a group of above-ground Smyts celebrating their version of Memorial Day. Sylvester continues to talk about his ancestors, and how after Padma died, Linus took the Seed of the Tree deep into the Basement and never came home, so in a sense he committed suicide like his mother. [We know that Rosemary also carries a Seed of the Tree, which she brought up from the depths, but had forgotten.] He talks about Griffington, the 15th Earl, who was very intelligent but had his mother's nasty sense of humour and was only interested in making money, at which he was very successful. Griffington went on an expedition to the Infernal Engine, which was smaller in those days (so it's still growing), and to Mechana to look at their technology. He and other techs of the period managed to make their own basic robots and restore some of the much better Ettin ones – one of the latter, Akillhees, works in mathematics at the university – and he also invented battle tanks, a few of which still work. Along with someone called Drowpole he set up the Factor E factory, and he and Struahatt sold their devices commercially and made a lot of money. We see him and his assistant Krell probing the same device in the airbox that we saw Linus looking at. He had a lot of commercial enemies and rivals, including the Scion of S. He and Krell died in an industrial accident (or maybe not an accident). He had to wear smoked lenses to protect his eyes: a problem inherited by Lenore. Griffington was succeeded by his son Angus and Angus's loyal and more cunning brother Cyrus. Angus went on a tour, like his ancestor Milo, but he took an army with him and conquered S and other neighbouring states although some of them, such as Rowen, gave as good as they got. When Angus and Cyrus were young, Cyrus married Cassandra Grayflint and they had a son Artston. Griffington sent Angus to visit the Infernal Engine to broaden his mind, and as a result he fell for a very wild, rough but highly-sexed female labourer named Syn (rhymes with tie-in) who had spent her life up to that point inside the Engine. She needed thick glasses and a bath, and had to be taught to wear clothes, but she had a talent for technology and a happily iconcoclastic attitude to everything, including herself, and the religion of the Brush to which she did not belong. She somewhat resembled Myrrh, refused to marry Angus but became his consort, and died in childbirth giving birth to Audra. Audra grew up at loggerheads with her uncle Cyrus, who had distrusted her mother. In later life Angus's conquests ground to a halt and he died peacefully in bed – and Cyrus promptly tried to seize the earldom for himself and his son. Audra thrashed Cyrus in combat and convinced him to become her loyal follower. Together they conquered Rowen and then consolidated their holdings and formed the Northwoods Alliance. Audra contracted a loveless political marriage with the intellectually brilliant John Harfang, with whom she had a son, Ludwig. The Northwoods Alliance stood against the advancing army of Yorik Yurp, later Yorick I, and lost, despite the best efforts of John Harfang who, under the alias "The Frost Fox", served as a secret agent and was killed while on a mission (and later became the subject of a series of lurid spy thrillers). Audra protected Ludwig by hiding him away as a child and then sending him to the university under an assumed name, while getting Flitch, one of Cyrus's grandchildren (so Ludwig's second cousin), to pretend to be Ludwig in order to draw Yorik's fire. The Northwoods Alliance eventually lost the war, in part because high-tech Wirtwam decided that Yorik was the lesser of two evils and Hyacinth of Wirtwam married him. But the war was long and bloody and forced the pace of technological development. Audra and Cyrus were probably looking for a technological edge when they poked the Hot Zone and were killed, or failing that for a more honourable death than execution, but their deaths really finished the Alliance. Yorik crushed their last resistance by destroying the town of Glome (and incidentally probably killing the fake Ludwig), then re-built it, and any local nobles who were willing to swear allegiance were grafted into the new Yurpsland hierarchy. The real Ludwig was one of them – the Yurpsland troops didn't know who he was, and in any case had known Audra as the head of the Northwoods Alliance, not as the Earl of E. The Alliance used a different symbol, not the E: a W with an arrow on the central point, designed by Linus's sister Marcia for Linus's thaumnode-purchasing cartel. Ludwig's politically astute partner Penelope Orrery from Gilad (a Temple-administered neutral state) coached him on how to pass as a harmless minor aristo. Sylvester isn't sure whether Yorik was really fooled over Ludwig, or knew who he was but decided to spare him. Ludwig was a super-genius who enjoyed university and made many friends there; he was very popular with the girls and could have had his pick of the local beauties, but preferred the slightly plain Penelope for her brains. Ludwig didn't graduate because he went home to help his mother with the war effort; Penelope worked out his real identity somehow, and followed him (and reached E before he did). It was because Ludwig never graduated that the fund set up to pay for his tuition was never wound up, and remained available to pay future heirs' university fees. Ludwig tried to stop his mother from poking the Hot Zone but she did it anyway, and died, and he and Penelope were left holding the reins. They actually did very well, since Ludwig was able to sell his inventions – materially assisted by Yorik's conquest of the whole area, which had resulted in a unified trading and patent system. He and Penelope built the Ivory Tower, and lived there. It is mentioned that vamphyrs don't really exist but zombies do (but only when animated by a wizwitch, and only briefly as they tend to explode), that many of Ludwig's devices were one-off prototypes and that Yorik I wrote his own memoirs. These memoirs are little known because his son wasn't that interested in promoting them, and besides they weren't very well-written. But they deal extensively with Audra, whom Yorik rather admired – it was he who re-named the province where E is situated Audravania. He decided against trying to conquer Thekla, which had a similar technology and power level to his own forces, or the Polarites, who were enormously more powerful and advancsd. [Out-take for Talk Like a Pirate Day – Captain Hamster, the crew of the Pretty Lady and the newly-recruited gull are all getting drunk on grog. The Plant, very drunk indeed, has decided it loves them all.] Ludwig died of pneumonia after getting soaked while walking in the rain. His son Ernest, hedonist, (consensual) philanderer and forger, took over. His parents were disappointed because he wasn't interested in science, or all that bright, but he was very interested in plays and a reasonably good actor himself, when he could be bothered. He married Lucidia Penderghast, gold-digger, fashion victim and amateur actress, and they nearly deserved each other. He was the first Earl to marry by the new ritual involving the Pool at the Temple. At university Ernest discovered that he was good at maths, history and a proficient if uninspired kind of art. He did a certain amount of commercial graphics work and a lot of art forgery, although the latter was really just a hobby. He was a fairly successful playwright, although not great at dialogue – his best play was probably Bracken, about his five-greats-aunt Arianya – and was very good at improving other people's scripts. He and Lucidia fought a lot but seemed to enjoy it, and they had three sons, Philbert, Hindenburgh the wizard, and Valentin, who was the one to whom the Djinnoscope gave a clean death. Ernest was fatally stabbed by, or over, one of his lovers. Philbert married the artist Hepzibah Kelly and founded a chain of "Lovelace" orphanages, using Kelly's mother's maiden name. He helped preserve the Forest of Burzee as a public park instead of letting it be carved up into private estates. He supported many smaller charities and was a faithful husband. But Sylvester believes he did these things to rebuild the family's post-Ernest reputation, not because he really cared. The couple had sons, Quincy and Frederick, and presumably at least one more as Frederick refers to "my brothers". [Later we learn there was a younger brother called Jasper.] Philbert was killed in a motor-racing accident a month before the Crash (this is an error by Sylvester, because we've already establisahed that his accident was three months before the Crash, and it isn't that Philbert hung on in hospital for two months before he died, because Sylvester says he was killed instantly) and was succeeded by his son Quincy. Quincy was not very bright, but he was genuinely caring and scraped through university by hard work. His Hall of Achievement entry just says that he tied his own shoes, but this turns out to be fairly serious: he kept walking, kept trying, and held the Mansion area together after the Crash. He survived the Crash because he, his brother Frederick and Myrrh were in Aruba, which uses no magic. Afterwards they had to walk hundreds of miles home – hence the importance of the shoes. On their way they picked up another survivor, Agnes Bloggett, who married Quincy. Hepzibah, who had stayed home because of health problems, died in the Crash. Quincy eventually died after falling from one of the Mansion's towers. Quincy's son Willoughby attended university where he met his future wife, Dorothea Mundivagant. Both were very vague but possibly magically gifted. Sylvester thinks that it was wrong of Frederick not to tell Mortimer that he, Mortimer, was a wizard – but it was probably a good decision not to tell Willoughby that he was. They had six children – Sylvester, Ace, Mortimer, the twins Lilith and Lenore, and Rufus. Rufus was conceived because the local contraceptive Stiflebloom plant had failed. Because Willoughby was so lazy and detached it was really his uncle Frederick and Myrrh who ran the earldom. After Willoughby died in the notorious Noodle Incident, Frederick became official Regent until Sylvester finished at university, and Dorothea became even vaguer and more preoccupied than before, and set off in search of something unknown. Sylvester fears he won't ever see her again. Sylvester did well at university and made friends, especially Bertrum W Skinknottle (who fell for and married Honoria Clemens – these names are PG Wodehouse references) and Nimue Fayling. The students were divided into Houses: the male houses were named after dangerous animals and the female ones after pretty things, but they were otherwise equal. Nimue was in training to take over the family business, growing oranges. She and Sylvester dated, but split up because neither would give up their family responsibility. Bertie and Honoria married and went back to Bertie's home in Lagado, but he's not sure where they are now because Bertie recently got a new job (souds like preparation for him to pop up). Sylvester went home alone and took over the Earl's duties. He found a job for Ace with their uncle Dalton Mundivagant. His mother Dorothea inherited cash from her mother, and she and Lil went travelling. Mortimer and Rufus stayed around, and Mortimer started bringing home strange women, most notably Olga Q Bonmarrow, a drifter with mental health issues who was in love with Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Basement society has come along tremendously in a highly technological way during Sylvester's lifetime (so post-Crash), and the idea that the Sneeches might be behind this. Sylvester forgot to ask Myrrh what she saw in the Sneech den, and now they don't even know where she is. We see that she is in a bakery (or maybe café) with a sign saying Kato Bread on the wall, and where there are a lot of cats whom she is talking to as if they understand each other. This cat-filled place is presumably in the Spires, since we will learn that the arena where she was wrestling robots is there. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss whether the Dohickey thank-you gift was for Sylvester or for his whole family, and Rosemary points out that the first Earls were meant to have killed off the Ettins who were holding the Sneeches prisoner. Whether they did or not, the Sneeches may believe they did. They discuss the fact that Sneeches do have childen, and whether or not they have intelligible emotions. Finally, Rosemary says that eveything else can wait, and that she will follow Sylvester's plans. He says he can't make plans until he knows what it is that Rosemary stole. She agrees to show it to him, but tells him to cover his eyes and ears while she gets it out of the Poke Kit, so he doesn't learn any codes which he might later be forced to reveal. 09: Wreaking Havoc [26/12/2016 – 07/07/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4818–end] Rosemary produces from the Poke Kit an oval object which she says is called the HJ42, but she thinks it's also a mythological object called the Chaos Key. This is clearly the same item which has been being passed around among the Basement folk – not just another of the same model but this actual one, because HJ42 is the designation of a specific instance of this gadget which was collected by an anthropological expedition, and Protus called it the HJ42 when he gave it to Mortimer. Either it's looped through time to appear twice in the same area at the same time, or when Rosemary thinks it's safely tucked away in her Poke Kit, it isn't. As the Chaos Key it has been used to open various kinds of metaphorical and literal doors, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Rosemary studied its semi-legendary history in the libraries of Hack'n'Slash. It may have been implicated in the Thricklefork Demon Massacre. It caused strange events – including a giant man-eating flower – at a place called Bellona. It was passed around the clans of Erewhon, trailing odd happenings. It was used to rob a bank, then disappeared from view, only to reappear among the artefacts brought back from the Infernal Engine by the Hendrick-Joost Expedition. At this point Rosemary puts it back in the Poke Kit and she and Sylvester agree not to mention the name "Chaos Key" again if they can avoid it, but just to refer to it as the HJ42. The Hendrick-Joost Expedition came from the High University of Azimuth and visited the Infernal Engine in Yurpsland. There were protests about them taking items from Yurpsland back to Azimuth, and eventually they returned some of them, including the "HJ-42". These returned items were parcelled out between various Yurpsland museums and collectors, and #42 went to an Erewhonian noble named Cuddlup, who passed it on to an Erewhonian sect called the Chromans. The Chromans were great collectors and displayers of curios which demonstrated the wonders of the world – some of which were magically active. The most dangerous were kept in an offshore fortress which went into meltdown during the Crash. The HJ42 was put on display in various places but it made people nervous, so it was moved to a medium-level facility in a place called Gowplace at the tip of the Lawnrock Peninsula. After the Crash, Gowplace was re-named Chroma and became the Chromans' capital, and the HJ42 dropped out of sight again for several decades. About ten years ago, or forty years after the Crash, it resurfaced as part of a travelling Chroman display for which H&S provided security, and eventually it caused some alarming effect, although Rosemary's security clearance wasn't high enough to find out what. It was put back into storage, but at this point rumours about it began to be passed around. It was also at this point that Rosemary first heard about it and began to research it – and so, unfortunately, did Tansy Rugan, the leader of the Quincunx, a kind of sinister private army. Rosemary started to suspect the Quincunx were searching for the HJ42, and knew it would be a seriously Bad Thing if they found it. She couldn't get H&S to take her concerns seriously enough, so she went AWOL, rode all the way to Chroma and stole the HJ42 herself. Two hours later the Quincunx arrived and started hunting her (and killing Chromans). She did her best to evade them but eventually Tansy cornered her. One of the buttons on the device was glowing so in desperation Rosemary pressed it, thinking that it might cause an explosion which would take out Tansy and her 2inC Nathan Holn along with Rosemary herself. Instead, it teleported her to the forest near Eetown. At first she wasn't sure whether she'd been moved through time or space, but then she met Mortimer and realised from his accent that she had shifted a long way to the east. She was very dazed and disoriented and just followed Mortimer home. They talk for a while about how Rosemary ended up with Hack'n'Slash in the first place. Bored with farming muckroots and lobster-fishing, she became a crew-woman on a boat called the Oshinoxtra. From there she went to the mainland and worked on a large farm, and even served as a minion on a Saur hunt (presumably, like the domesticated Trogs, these were less sapient than the ones in the Basement). Once she'd saved up enough money she went to see the nearest city, Jonetown. Everything there was far more expensive than she'd expected but as luck would have it she was in the right place to rescue Edwird Soloman, a retired bureaucrat who was being harrassed by louts. She and Edwird hit it off and became firm friends, and he gave her a place to stay. She became his bodyguard and housekeeper, read his books and reached an uneasy accommodation with his girlfriend, Mrs Rumble. Sometime later, Rosemary and some friends were scavenging in a scrapyard when they encountered the demon Scratch, and Rosemary managed to overcome him to the point where he was willing to discuss his situation and behave reasonably. This caused unpleasantness between the neighbours and Edwird, and brought Rosemary to the attention of Hack'nSlash, who recruited her. While they are tidying up conversational loose ends, Rosemary tells Sylvester about a hermit she met in the SAR (where there are many hermits, but this one is The Hermit), and who was probably a wizard, or possibly a demon: he will only ever say that he's a person. This is true even if he is a Demon: we see a brief glimpse of the Operator gazing rather sadly at an image of what is presumably his partner. They establish that demons can communicate over long distances via leylines, hence Edgar learned Rosemary's name from Scratch, and Myrrh could arrange visits from friends (two demon visitors are shown: one of them is Jones, from the Spires, and the other is Marilith). Rosemary is reluctant to ask Myrrh to pass along messages, as her favours have to be paid for. Sylvester assures her Myrrh can keep a secret. They discuss Ilsa, who has a very able illegitimate daughter, Druscilla, who works for the big bank in the capital. Ilsa writes to her with local gossip, so news of Rosemary's presence will soon reach the capital. Ilsa is half Haroon, and the Haroons do not worship the Brush, much, or care what the Oracles think about having children out of wedlock. Sylvester is trying to modernise the village, with some cooperation from the current Oracle, Threnody, who is a great improvement over her predecessor Omega. He hopes to bring in not only a teacher but a glass-blower. It is mentioned that opposite Frederick and Myrrh's old room there is a door labelled "Gwen's stuff", but neither of them knows who Gwen is or was. Sylvester has never investigated it, but assumes Myrrh will have done so. They discuss the fact that when Sylvester met with Protus he saw visions of Rhid and Villipend, whom they then met, so evidently he was seeing the future. He also saw Rosemary fighting a woman with a glowing glove, and that may be a true vision too. Rosemary thinks from the description that it is Tansy Rugan, who has a magic shock-glove, so they will have to meet and fight some time soon. At least she'll probably have the Can-Opener, but she doesn't have it with her now. Sylvester wants them to have regular conferences, but he's not going to say where the next one will be, in case of eavesdroppers (from what we see, through the Panegate that connects to the edge of the Crystal Thicket). He had intended to hold this one on the Commons, well away from anyone not a goat. They discuss Rosemary's old teachers, and whether Myrrh and Frederick are gone for good: Rosemary probably hopes they are. We glimpse Frederick being given an Ides of March cake by a waitress wearing antennae ending in grey bobbles, confirming they are at the Spires: they are in an underwater café with a seal peering in through a porthole. We also glimpse Mortimer in the woods, with a scratch on his face and what looks like more web draped across his shoulders. Sylvester wishes for an alternative to the rowboat, since he'll have to pay someone to row it back. Olaf Larrsen, the village vet, turns up in his motorboat Mamie (Rosemary and Sylvester agree that Sylvester also wishes for a million Simoleons in a secure bank account) and is introduced to Rosemary, who he is glad to see is not a "demon, Bonmarrow or Flibbler". Flibblers, whatever they are, are everywhere. Olaf agrees to give them a lift in return for information and a discount on the organs of the Dornbeast Rosemary killed the night she arrived (less than two days ago). Sylvester half regrets returning to the stresses of being the Earl. Olaf takes the couple and the cat back to the mainland. En route they discuss the reorganisation at the Mansion, and the Crash – Olaf used to build thaumtools, before the Crash, and has been able to measure the fact that magic is very slowly returning. He made a motor for his little boat, but none of the local fishermen would let him fit one to theirs even if there was enough magic to power something that big. He thinks the local Ichyoids are up to something. He tells them about the hamster pirate captain, who has now ceased to be an out-take and become part of main canon, and that he has met Protus, who was talking about someone named Winnifred (presumably the founder of the future Winnifrite sect). The only Winnifreds they know are somebody Sylvester was at univesity with, and a now-dead old woman Rosemary knew in Moonin. Sylvester warns Olaf that Nirvana Clepe may be back in the area (Olaf looks a bit alarmed). It's mentioned that Olaf hasn't married: evidently he and Mamie didn't get that far. Sylvester asks Olaf whether he has seen Frowgler – he hasn't – but we cut away to see Frowgler talking to the village Flittermouse in her tower. She is assessing livestock, which involves little toy figures. Frowgler says he is always there to get done what needs doing, and she says it makes her speculate on who he really is "behind that mask". She tells him that her name is Vyon Ward Parkin, an orphan who was taken in by the Flittermice after she was shunned because her family had died in a "Spew" from the Infernal Engine, and peoople feared she might be contaminated. We see that the Flittermice have a universal presence, at least in Yurpsland, and use actual bats as messengers. The Flittermice are an Order, whose job is to "flit into the dark places and do the mucky jobs that need to be done" – which they agree is also Frowgler's job. Vyon herself was literally posted to her new position in Eetown, in a box: or possibly ceremonially pretended to have been posted. It's a lonely job and she appreciates Frowgler's company, but she could have left if she wanted to, and did not: there's a suggestion that Frowgler's own role is not voluntary. He gives her a "laughter marble", which she seems to have been waiting for, and says that some day everyone will know who he is (or was) behind the mask, then he leaves via an artificial tunnel which looks as if it was made for the purpose, and which takes him to water. Unlike a real frog, he appears to have gills. As Frowgler swims away, we see him pass a tank containing an octopus named Aloysius. Violet Hopkirk lures Aloysius to the surface and milks him of ink. She overhears people gossipping about Frederick's retirement. We overhear two of her employers talking about her and how she has the talent to work on a "Wrangrig", but it isn't safe for girls. Cut to Sylvester and co. in the boat, discussing Wrangling Rigs, aka octopus inkpull platforms, and the fact that it's "not safe" for girls because it's thought to be bad luck, locally, to have a woman on board. Violet, who has a reputation for not talking, overhears more gossip, quizzes a local boy and learns about Sylvester's party going into The Moose and Squirrel and not coming out. She goes to the inn to talk to Eunice Kelso about it. Eunice doesn't know where the party went, and shoos Violet away, after saying there are no Human-sized underground ways out: we see what looks like a Frowgler-sized way out. Violet returns to her mother, Helena, and they gossip about Rosemary. Violet is mulling over the idea of Myrrh and Frederick retiring. She sits to clean blobwarts with her feet on a stone marked 44: this number seems to recur. Sylvester greets a trapper in another boat, name of Rod, and his young son Ash[ley]: these are the father and brother of Violet. Ash is very interested in Rosemary: their conversation reveals that Flibblers from Moonin don't have a Moonin accent. Mention is made of the Sky Trek, a walk across the country due in five years, and of a Mobile Confectioners' Guild, whose members include salesmen called Lollipop Perambulators. Sylvester finds Ash refreshing – too many people treat him with either scorn or fear because of his position. Olaf tells Ash to tell his friend Aloysius (not the octopus!) to stay out of his garden, because it's magic. Sylvester tells him to spread the word that there is going to be a meeting at the Temple to formally introduce Rosemary. Rod and Ash in their boat sail past an islet with a distance marker on it, then we see a gull try to land on the islet, and be scared away by a green, snakey-looking thing which says "Boo" in Ichyoid runes. This is one of the same tentacled things (perhaps the same individual) which we saw in the Basement, rescuing Shabash from a reservoir. Rob and Ash come to shore and we see Ash gossipping with his friend Aloysius on the dockside – both boys look about ten years old. A gull – perhaps the same one that was chased off by the tentacled thing – is sitting near Aloysius. Ash passes on Olaf's message about the magic garden, and Sylvester's about the Temple meeting. As they walk past the Spewing Wall – a forum for graffiti – the Flitttermouse's Laughter Marble hits the ground behind them, and Aloysius picks it up, hides it and tells Ash it's just a rock. The gull flits in and out of shot near them. They pass Fantod and the Weirdo having an adult conversation with Melba Corrigan and her whimp-pig Wilbur. Ash and Aloysius tell Fantod that they are planning to go to a haunted ruin tomorrow, and he warns them it might fall down, then Fantod warns Aloysius, specifically, to be careful with"whatever it is yer doin' all of a sudden". We then see the Oracle Threnody, in a medical office listening to a man's chest with a stethoscope; Mayoress Saffron Stout sitting behind her desk; and the Flittermouse, scoring things off a list on a notice board. Written on the corner of the board (not part of the list) is a note saying "Tell truth ——— Seek fortunes". She has a sort of umbrella stand which has various sorts of pole in it, including a Sneech stick. Next to it is a truncated green cone which has sticking out of the top a T with an extra, sometimes slanting crossbar, a distortd Ŧ, which became a recurring motif. 10: Into the Woods [10/07/2017 – 03/11/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips start–#5125] To start with we see Myrrh, who seems not to need to breathe or to be wearing anything except her collar, strolling through an undersea forest in the Sea of Plinths. The Ŧ with the slanting crossbar appears sticking out of a green growth. She wonders which way to go: a flatworm points its arrow-shaped head upwards, so she surfaces. Frederick is still being served food by the waitresses in antennae, who are amazed at how much he can eat, and suggest that their chef has failed because Fredrick was able to eat the whole meal. They are a mixed bunch, ethnically, and we will later learn that the Spires recruit orphans from all over. A female Eyebolt who has "Shmelcathy" on a screen by her desk (but we will later learn this isn't her name, just something or someone she is monitoring) is working at her desk. Other women in deely-boppers/antennae (all this culture wear them, or at least all the women) are monitoring Frederick on a screen, under the command of an older woman with fluffy, puffy white hair: they too are amazed by how much Frederick can eat and remain upright. They talk about his Herediscan – he is related to previous test subjects (we see Dorothea and Lilith on screens) – and the waitresses say he must be a thaumaturge to stay conscious, yet he isn't setting off their magic-detectors. The blonde waitress, Svetlana Rostova, is told to stay with him and answer his questions. Myrrh, meanwhile, arises from a water-filled tube into a sort of domed cockpit, in which there is a plant-covered floor dotted with flowers, and a Lizhopper, one of the little mini-Trog-like creatures which we saw Rosemary chasing out of the Mansion at the start of the story. Frederick and Svetlana talk, initially in front of a drawing on the wall of the moon on a stick, and we learn that they are in the Zamyatin Spire, a very high-tech-looking place. Zamyatin Spire residents are all women, but other Spires are for men only, or mixed. The Spires have a vaguely Soviet, very controlled culture: Svetlana refers to native Spire residents as "assets". As Myrrh – with the Lizhopper riding on her head – presses a button in the flowery cockpit, Frederick and Svetlana discuss Yurpsland politics, which involve a ceremonial, hereditary king and a separate political ruler who seems to be self-appointed (although they see it as "chosen by the Brush") rather than elected. Also the fact that Frederick is a demithaumaturge, and that the Spires are on a major tricklepoint (although the one in the Sybola jungles may be bigger, which may relate to whatever mystery is in Sybola), so were not much affected by the Crash and still have working pre-Crash technology. Myrrh climbs up some sort of stair or ladder to a room where there is a naked male musician named Jones (who is clearly based on David Bowie/Jones, and is a fellow demon), whom we saw earlier with his human partner Jebidiah, and who plays the flute for her. Spire trechnology involves some enormous gears which were built by an unknown society from before the Ettins. Svetlana is impressed to learn that Frederick's family have their own library, in which he read about the Spires. When Myrrh is mentioned, Svetlana surmises that Myrrh is Frederick's wife, because he wouldn't have been allowed into Zamyatin Spire if he didn't have a spouse (meanwhile Jones continues to play his flute for Myrrh). Frederick and Svetlana discuss the arrangements for straight women like her who wish to find a mate when they live in an all-female Spire, and see an agent of sorts, holding a giant needle like a dagger and trying to arrest somebody for smuggling Fuzz jars (Svetlana says this woman isn't police, but something they don't discuss). Singing Fuzzes are a big fad in the Spires and are bred for size, intelligence and voice, which suggests that this could be the past of Frizzlegarb's future world of Hollows and Fuzz communities (especially as we see one in a tank which seems to have embryonic tuft-antennae of the kind later seen on Purple Zoners). Special barriers prevent Fuzzes from being moved from one Spire to another, except in jars (which might explain why the future Fuzzes find it difficult to move from one Hollow to another, and might also have something to do with the barrier which surrounds the Spire in Audravania). Frederick and Svetlana end up on a balcony which Svetlana calls a Bubble-viewing Recreation Platform, overlooking a hall where large coloured bubbles with blurry images inside well up, but Frederick says it's a Spindizzy interface chamber, but with no visible Spindizzies and no apparent way of summoning them. We learn that The Spire community has a low birthrate and takes in orphans from elsewhere, but Svetlana was born there, in Platohov Spire, and trained in Burdekin Spire, and her paternal grandmother told her about legless, truthful flying beings who could have been either Spindizzies or Helipaths. She is not sure whether The Spire city belonged to the Ettins or the Sneeches, originally – only that the Sneeches say it was contested between the two species. Frederick describes ancient weaponry – the Ettins used city-smashing Doombombs and the Sneeches used Tangles, giant vines which could infitrate and wreck Ettin machinery. Frederick has worked out that something was meant to happen to him in the restaurant where Svetlana works, but she assures him he wasn't intended to die. Solzhenitsyn Spire is about death and he mustn't go there, but Zamyatin is all about collecting and hoarding information. Frederick wants to go ask the nearest archivist about Spindizzies. Svetlana is unnerved by this, as asking questions is discouraged. They discuss the fact that Frederick is still collecting information which may be useful to his family, even though he is retired, and that Myrrh may or may not decide she has retired as others would understand it, and we see the woman with fluffy white hair monitoring their conversation. Fredrick says he is filling in time until Myrrh gets back from "whatever you all have her doing", and at this point we see Myrrh pressing her claws into a set of holes on a control that opens a round purple door on the wall of Jones's chamber. Cutting back to Eetown, we see Olaf's boat pulling in to his private dock, and Captain Hamster's crew sleeping off a binge-drinking session, and Mortimer, with umbrella but sans strands of Spyder web, waking in the deep dark woods (to which he was evidently transported from the pub, in the same way that his brother and Rosemary were transported to the island) with the sense that some sort of revelation has slipped away from him, and then encountering Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party in the woods. This, we will later learn, is a flashback which must have happened around when Rosemary and Sylvester were waking on Alwin Island, and hour or so before we glimpsed him with web on his shoulder. From here until It All Comes Together, Mortimer's and Sylvester's storylines are out of phase by an hour or two. Once on shore, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Olaf knew Mortimer was a wizard, but didn't tell him. Olaf is fairly benign but generally acts out of self-interest. We see that Olaf has a fenced-off telegraph pole topped with magical gadgets, so dodgy-looking that Sylvester says that in this case Omega (who hated Olaf and vice-versa) might have had a point about the dangers of technology. Mortimer is very relieved to see that Nitfol survived the Spyder, but ashamed that he had accidentally led the beaver-shark to destroy Nitfol's home tree. Fizmo realises that Mortimer owes Nitfol a favour and can take them beyond the "Edge of the World", but Mortimer doesn't know what she means. At this point we get some portraits of various characters – Ilsa's and Saffron's parents; characters from the Willy the Wendigo books (Willy himself, in a bow tie; a pink and blue spider; a rock with eyes; something like a green female Nome (but may be meant to be a Gobble'em); and a male Wift/Wilf); some past E Weirdos; and the E family's tutor. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, discussing Olaf's thaum measurements. Sylvester thinks he has a second agenda – perhaps an attempt to bring back magic, which even the High University of Azimuth has been unable to do. Sylvester thinks this is a good idea, because he wants Humanity to explore the other planets in the system, and doesn't see much future in steam power. Mortimer, Nitfol and Fizmo establish their frames of reference. The Nomes' world can be walked across in a day or two (but they're smaller than Humans, and on rough ground, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles), and is bounded by a wall of mist you can't push through, and centred on the Spike – Fizmo's father Foblub was an explorer, but even he didn't manage to walk all the way around the edge. Mortimer remembers a Spindizzy called Charles telling him about a solid haze. Myrrh stands in a place where there are striped, rugby-ball-shaped lights, and gazes up at an enormous bust of a bearded, humanoid male demon wearing a medal. This last image is a Hallowe'en special, but also part of the canonical sequence: it's actually an image of the Operator. Sylvester shows Rosemary a road which leads south to a place called E Isles where there are offshore islands and a ferry across the River E, but no city because the nearby shore is too rocky for a port, and then on to Obtown. He points out Olaf Larrsen's house and then they head back towards the woods – as they do so they pass Aloysius hiding behind a bush near Larssen's place, with the gull next to him. 11: New Openings [06/11/2017 – 02/02/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5132–#5215] Rosemary tells Sylvester there was a kid hiding behind the bush they just passed, and Sylvester identifies him as Aloysius Culpepper, an orphan who lives with his uncle and aunt. We see Aloysius and the gull sneak into Olaf Larrsen's place and poke about in the fields, before using an upturned bucket to climb through a shed window, after testing that a magic-emitting plant on a shelf inside is safe by throwing a stick at it, then wedging the window with another stick in some unclear way. The shed contains various odd machines and hanging mobiles. He doesn't touch a gadget that's labelled "LINE #1 TERMINUS ——— DON'T TOUCH", but instead winds up a clockwork figure of a running man (later referred to as the Flailer, so probably its feet are meant to pound grain), and the noise attracts Olaf, who is carrying a fishing net with a hole in the bottom. He tells Aloysius to follow him or go home, so Aloysius (who is barefoot) and the gull follow him. They go to the main house where they are greeted by Olaf's housekeeper (who asks if he's caught anything, then sees he's caught Aloysius) – we see Sylvester telling Rosemary that this is Ilsa Lundquist, who used to work at the Mansion. Ilsa asks Aloysius what the gull's name is, but Aloysius says gulls only have names when they are flying. She takes the hats from Olaf and Aloysius without touching them, on the end of a baton, and comments that she doesn't suppose gulls ever wear hats. We see a scene of three gulls by the seashore, including one wearing a hat, who is part of Cap'n Hamster's crew, and still looks hungover. We return to Mortimer, talking to the Nomes. Nitfol doesn't know what Spindizzies are but he does know about the Mansion, because his father was a scholar who owned two and a half books. We see Nitfol's father with two books, one labelled "Socks", the other "Cookiedice", which is the name of one of the Hollows where we see Fuzzes living in the future. Mortimer mentions the library at the Mansion – Fizmo doesn't believe such a thing is possible, but Nitfol has heard stories of large book collections in the past, or at least scroll collections. We see a shadowy image of a female Nome filing scrolls on big racks. Mortimer describes the library as being in the Ivory Tower, which leads to a long digression about behemoth teeth (if behemoths are really elephants, Mortimer has a very confused idea of what they look like), and he mentions that there is an apartment at the top, with a pool, but nobody lives in it now, "most of the time". He mentions that the tower was built by Ludwig, which leads to a very muddled conversation, because the Nomes know Ludwig as a cult figure worshipped by some people in the Basement. Mortimer manages to explain about the Spindizzies and how literal they are, and how he once told Charles he felt trapped and Charles told him about the mist barrier. Mortimer thinks the Spindizzies might know how to bring the barrier down: Fizmo thinks this is fantasy, but Nitfol wants to meet them. Nitfol and Fizmo go off to confer, while Thrash seeks to attract Mortimer's attention to something, and Mortimer wonders aloud whether this is the same Pale (Thrash) he met yesterday with Frowgler – it is – and he can tell that Thrash senses something wrong. We return to Zamyatin Spire, where Svetlana is disturbed by Frederick's whistling, because music is discouraged except in the gym and at culture festivals. She takes him to a stern-looking Senior Archivix, who wasn't expecting them – Frederick tells this woman his name, but says she doesn't need to know Svetlana's. In Eetown, Aloysius gives a wall-eyed look to a stuffed gull. Ilsa brings cocoa (which he has never had before) for Aloysius, herb tea for Olaf and tripewater for the gull. Olaf says he's not a nice person (echoing Rhid) but he's an old man and he has had to keep his books locked away because Omega didn't want people to see them, but now she's gone and her influence is waning, he has been hoping for someone like Aloysius to come along. He told Ash to tell Aloysius to stay away from the magic because he knew it would lure him in. Aloysius correctly surmises that Olaf wants him as an apprentice. Olaf says his only love Mamie, after whom his boat is named, died fifty years ago (in the Crash), so if Aloysius comes every day he can, and learns magic and veterinary medicine, when Olaf dies he will leave his house and all his money to Aloysius, aside from a bit for Ilsa. Olaf tells Aloysius that no wizwitch could channel all the forms of magic, but some were generalists who could do a little of a lot, and some, known as Hedgewizwitches, could do only one thing but did it very well. Mamie was one, because all she could do was heal, but very well, even though she didn't have a very nurturing personality. Aloysius is another – an "Animal Empathist", hence his link with the gull. Mortimer is still talking to Thrash, and shows him his umbrella. He tells the Pale that he is a wizard and asks if that's the problem, and Thrash shakes his head. Meanwhile Nitfol tells Fizmo he isn't going to go off with Mortimer immediately, but he will at some point, because Zpeaker and the Nexus also thought the barrier could be brought down, and if Nitfol's political plan fails they will at least have a means of leaving. Thrash draws Mortimer's attention to the fact that Spyders are creeping up on them. Frederick speaks to the Senior Archivix, whose name is Anushka Zhdanov. She tells him he is allowed to access archives up to Level Three, but won't say how many levels there are above that. He asks for information on Spindizzies. She asks if he is a Yurpslander, and when he says he is, she calls for someone named Snegurka and sends her to fetch a file (calling her a lackwit). Olaf tells Aloysius that neither of them is a full wizard, but that in theory if you make the right thaum machine you can mimic any power. However, there isn't enough energy around post-Crash, so animal empathy is impossible to mimic and no one will be "horning in" on Aloysius's skill. There are no other empaths in the area, but there are a few other wizwitches of other kinds – some who know what they are (we see Myrrh, Amos Grubb and Mortimer) and some who don't (we see a teenage boy in a soft baggy hat, who is probably Ricky of the famous Ricky and Wendell, and a short teenage girl with a lot of long, bushy hair) and who he doesn't think could handle being told. 12: The New Level [05/02/2018 – 01/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5222–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips start–#5299] At the start of the chapter we see Melba Corrigan's blobwart-vending cart and her pet pig Wilbur sitting in front of a large bush. Her hat is lying on the bush, and two butterflies (not flutterbys) fly up from behind it. They represent sex and/or kisses, and she is behind the bush with Arthur the Weirdo. Faint words on the hedge appear to spell out "Nutella weather person" – I've no idea why. Rosemary and Sylvester arrive back at Eetown's South Road Gate. Sylvester would rather go home, but Rosemary reminds him that he needs to collect the post, and says that it probably wasn't a villager in a boat that took them to Alwin. They both think it was probably Mortimer, by magic, which means he has immense innate power and the potential to be "quite something". Meanwhile, Mortimer's party start to back away from a Spyder, which begins to spew thick ropes of web at them, while another one boxes them in from behind. But Thrash slashes their web-ropes with his sickle and beats down the one in front of Mortimer. It's not clear whether he has killed it or not, but he probably has, as later they will pass a dead one in that direction. Meanwhile, Senior Archivix Anushka offers Frederick a chair and a cup of tea while he waits for his file. Svetlana is impressed and concerned, as teachairs are only offered to important guests, and she isn't authorised to associate with important guests, but doesn't wish to leave. The Archivix gives Frederick permission for Svetlana to stay and have tea too, but Svetlana says it's not Anushka's decision to make. Olaf thinks Aloysius can handle being told he has magic, but also that an empathist can't do much harm (but they can do some: we see a silhouette of a bear being sicced on somebody). He warns him not to tell anyone else about his magic, because there are people – the picture implies it's official, government people – looking to capture functioning wizwitches. It's possible that Aloysius may have other, minor talents as well as his main one – Mamie did (including, it's implied, skin-stimulation during sex) – and there are tests for this, but Olaf can't administer them. Amos and Frederick both could, but Frederick won't. Rosemary suggests that if Mortimer is going to be "something" so will Sylvester, since Mortimer obeys him. As they talk, a Vagabond flutterby – a creature with which Mortimer has a strong affinity – comes to them with a scrap of cloth tied around it, bearing a message apparently written in blood. Back to Mortimer's party. We will later learn that the timeline is disjointed, because these scenes with Mortimer must have happened while Rosemary and Sylvester were on Alwin Island. The Pales are fighting off the Spyders, and kill at least one behind Mortimer, but the Spyders keep coming and keep flinging web at them. Prompted by Nitfol, Mortimer has a moment of crisis where he decides he will no longer be either a follower or a causer of problems, and he shoots magical force from his umbrella-wand, declaring that there will be no more killing or dying (and gives himself an electric shock). The surviving Spyders run off, and we see two Spyders discussing the fact that they had thought all Human wizwitches had been killed in the Crash, and that this raises the possibility that there may still be Humans who are able to "talk" (perhaps this means Aloysius's animal empathy) and they must call a conclave to discuss this. Svetlana confirms to Frederick that it is her boss (or at least, the person who told her to watch Frederick) who decides whether she may stay and drink tea or not. She has a number as well as a name – 23-42-5258.8. Frederick addresses the security bugs in the walls and asks for Svetlana to be made his guide, stating her name and number, and since nobody answers with an objection, Svetlana is officially promoted to that role. She isn't sure what she thinks about this, as she had enjoyed being a waitress, but eventually she makes a firm decision to sit down and embrace her promotion, and she does quite like her cup of tea. Olaf tells Aloysius that Amos gave up being an active wizard before the Crash (although we see old!Amos lighting a candle with magic) – we know this was to do with Myrrh, but Olaf will only tell Aloysius about it if Aloysius agrees to be trained. Amos has already asked Olaf to come to the Mansion to discuss something, so he will take Aloysius with him, but Aloysius shouldn't mention his possible apprenticeship etc. to Amos's wife Nellie. They have a complex misunderstanding about what "having views" means, which leads to mention of an apparently blind woman called Gretta Weed, who in the metaphorical sense sees further than Nellie. Gretta is brighter than Nellie, and Saffron brighter than Gretta, but Olaf is more concerned with their open-mindedness to new possibilities. They discuss the fact that once he is trained, Aloysius will have the choice to stay in Eetown or to move elsewhere: we see an image of him as an adult healing horses for Nimue in Abalone. Once they have found a private spot, Sylvester reads his message, which says "Open Training Gate. Urgent." This refers to one of the Panegates at the Mansion. Sylvester still has to complete business in town but will rush through it. We see him ask the sausage vendor, Claudia, what people are talking about – which is really all the news from the Mansion. She has been selling(?) a lot of sausages because people are anxious/excited about the changes, and warns them that Saffron is "in a mood". Fizmo and Nitfol are surprised and impressed that Mortimer is a wizard, and reveal in conversation that Fizmo works for Frowgler, and Nitfol sort-of does too. We see Frowgler underground, talking to a Shallow Wyrm named Parkin who is guarding the Circle at the World's End. Fizmo says Frowgler can see the future (which Mortimer cannot), and warned her about a job she took. We see her underground in her hazmat suit, looking at a little creature similar to a Shallow Wyrm but probably not one (no head crest), which is growling at her. Mortimer says Frowgler gave him good advice, but he works for his brother Sylvester, not for Frowgler. He tells them Sylvester is a sort of mayor, avoiding the charged word "Earl" by chance or design. Svetlana reveals that she prefers kvass to tea, although this is against her culture. The Spire folk drink actual tea, but tea in Yurpsland is usually brewed from other plants. Frederick himself drinks – cautiously – things brewed by Myrrh. They get onto discussing Yurplejuice – neither Svetlana nor Anoshka has tasted it, because it's restricted, and even in Yurpsland it's regulated. Olaf tells Aloysius about the other half of his business – the first half is treating sick animals, the second half is making and selling thaum-powered gadgets. He has always refused to make magical weapons – Zap-Tridents – partly out of morality and partly in case someone buys one and then kills him to prevent him making any for anyone else. In any case they only work at Tricklepoints, such as the one under the Mansion. To make his own gadgets work away from a Tricklepoint he has built big, cumbersome energy collectors. Aloysius shows Olaf the Laughter Marble, and Olaf says it does party tricks, which he will show him in the workshop. 13: Thicket [02/05/2018 – 16/11/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5313–#5502] Sylvester says Claudia will be shifting a lot more sausages, because more changes are coming, because he is planning to be more pro-active. He and Rosemary discuss Mayor Saffron's temper: "in a mood" isn't so bad, it's when she's "in a snit" you need to worry, but it was her father who could really make her angry. Mortimer says he arrived here (in the woods) by accident, but now he's here he will help the Nomes. He asks why they are there and Fizmo says they are going to "that Crystal Thicket". We will learn later that they are looking for a flower that grows only there, which can be used to induce Raviners to spew ichor, which they need for whatever takeover scheme Nitfol cooked up with the Nexus. Nitfol is initially angry with her for telling, but Fizmo says that if Mortimer (with his evident magical power) is working for Mayor Koyeeb they're all dead anyway. Nitfol discusses good and bad leaders with Mortimer (we see an outline of what might be an assassination being prepared), and Mortimer correctly concludes that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb. He is still willing to help, on the understanding that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb for an ethical reason (i.e. because he is very bad at his job) and that he isn't planning to kill him. He knows where the Crystal Thicket is. Frederick tells Svetlana and Anoshka about Yurplejuice, which he hasn't had since the funeral of Mariah, the Mansion's groom, when they still had horses. He doesn't seem to know he just missed sharing some at breakfast that morning, when he and Myrrh announced their retirement and didn't sit down to share what the family were eating and drinking. It's made in Wirtvale, and the stuff which Yurpsland exports is second-rate, but the best brands are wonderful. This leads to a conversation about funerals: the Spire folk file their dead on shelves in a catacomb, but they do have a ceremony (and their elderly do get to retire in comfort, so they're not a totally brutal society). They talk about the fact that Spire folk are trained for their jobs, but Frederick had to muddle through as both wizard and Regent, and didn't do a terrific job, in his own opinion. We see Myrrh emerging from a hole in a rocky floor, into a cavern where there are many pink stalactites and stalagmites (probably artificial: they look too smooth to be natural). She is preceded by a butterfly – perhaps signifying that she and Jones have had sex. In the cavern is a giant Metalmin who knows what she is – it addresses her as "zarkette" – and challenges her to a game of Warboard, the local version of chess. We see the woman with puffy white hair watching Myrrh and the Metalmin on a screen: this is the same woman who was earlier seen overseeing the team who were discussing the fact that Frederick wasn't being knocked out by what they had fed him. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, still discussing Saffron Stout, and Saffron's father, who died when Sylvester was five, and her mother, who kept small yappy dogs. Neither was at all communicative about their past. Mention is made of Wendell's fish-fermenting scheme, which evidently stank the village out and made everybody angry. Mortimer tells the Nomes that even though the forest completely surrounds the Thicket, there is a magical way of getting where they're going and skipping the forest part. He tries to compare Panegates with the treewarping the Nomes do, which requires planning and equipment. Nitfol knows about twistpoints, but Mortimer says Panegates are safer, and there's one that leads to the edge of the Thicket. He has to explain that it's Panegate, not Paingate. Yes, Nitfol and Fizmo can both read, and they know what window-panes are, although Fizmo says only nobs like the mayor and Piu can afford them. Mention is made of Fizmo's married sister Fweep. Meanwhile, Frederick says that Spire folk who do badly at their jobs get sacked. Yurpsland is a young, recently unified (134 years ago) country which hasn't worked out how to do things yet, whereas the Spire regime is 400+ years old, when the city was built (although not entirely completed) by Dmitri I. He speaks about a Yurpslander named Owen Gregiry, who wrote a study on the Spires, and they discuss various Spire monarchs: Feodore II, who began the Great Expansion; Feodore III who "obtained" the Outer Shoals; and the famous Ivana III, who fought off the Wendigoes. Frederick is more interested in Vasily II, who wanted to introduce changes. We flash to Violet Hopkirk, telling her mother she's going out but will be back in time for supper. Young Ash, her brother, offers to help make supper while she's out. We see the Flittermouse in her tower, watching Violet through a telescope as she sets out: she has a Juneteenth flag on one of her mailbags. Then we see Eunice calling Ricky and Wendell, the odd-jobbers, to come out from a hole surrounded by a wooden structure, because Saffron needs them: they are doing something which involves bags of coloured liquid. Then we see former Guardian Terin Flem, sitting on a rock talking to his grandchildren Stephan and Sparrow. He is going to wait at the rock until he sees the Mansion party come by on their way out of the village. We see Rosemary and Sylvester discussing the mayor of her home town, how as an orphan she was a problem for him, and how her Aunt Eva came home, and Zeke persuaded her to take her orphan niece in. Eva was also seen as a problem because she had run off to the wicked big city (Nye), picked up foreign ways and then returned rich. There are things Rosemary wonders about Eva's return, but she's not going to talk about it in town where there are potential eavesdroppers. Mortimer and the Nomes agree that it would be as tedious to trek to the Mansion to find the Panegate as it would be to go to the Thicket on foot, and as far as Mortimer knows they won't be able to locate the Panegate at the Thicket end, or open it from that side if they could find it. He assumes they are going to the Thicket to find a particular flower. He tells them not to tell him their plans, so he can't inadvertently give the game away. We cut to Sylvester's brother Ace, with spear and rucksack, walking through an unknown town (later we will learn that it's called Jagger Junction) in the west of Yurpsland and meeting up with a blonde Nome woman wearing a long skirt and a hat with a flower in it. He shows her a similar flower – which he was reluctant to wear in his hat. As he is Ace, she takes the nom de guerre Diamond (Ace suggests Joker, and says if she doesn't want to be called one she shouldn't dress like one). As they walk through the town, in the background we see a very odd face, or maybe a mask, with slanted oval eyes, watching them from some sort of battlement, and they pass a poster with a kind of alien face on it: or perhaps a safety mask. Other, more Human faces peer round corners at them wherever they walk. Ace comments on the fact that they are being followed, and asks if they are friends of Diamond's, or at least allies. Cut to the Mansion's butler Schmedley, standing in front of a large, open book and holding a cake with candles, to celebrate fifteen years since the strip began. There are twelve candles on the cake, and three flutterbys flying around it. A Fuzz watches from a trunk of the Tree. Frederick and Anushka discuss rules of succession. In the Spires the rulers are matched by a Matriarch or Patriarch of opposite sex to the ruler, and who bears the mystic Gear until it's time to hand it on to the new ruler. Vasily II the would-be change-maker died young (as did Yorik II, who drowned while swimming in Lake Laputa), and Frederick suggests that his death was suspiciously convenient. The village fishermen are deeply interested in Rosemary's hat. Coming from where she does, she is able to discuss fishing with them. One called Tom even invites them for a drink, but she and Sylvester have too much to do, and Sylvester says later in private that having the Earl in the inn would be a buzz-kill – nearly as bad as an Oracle in the pub. Fizmo is curious about the smell of sphagnum dust which still hangs around Mortimer. She and Nitfol discuss the birth of Fizmo's niece Faift, in a way which implies that Nomes can choose the gender of their foetus – although Nitfol denies it when Mortimer asks. Fizmo is horrified to realise she is now an auntie, and remembers she needs to ask the village healer Piu for Stiflebloom. Nitfol is an only child. We see an image of him as a boy, holding a thin staff which is the Ŧ with the slanted crossbar. Diamond says that Ace is an object of great local interest, which is why people are spying on them: some of the spies are "allies of temporary convenience" and others are enemies. We see a graffito which says "IN THE NAME OF THE" and then a circle with three small circles or holes in it. Ace identifies Diamond as being a Nome with dyed-blonde hair. She asks whether there was another option, and he says there are always options (we are shown that he is thinking of Myrrh, so of people who are in disguise and might not be what they superficially appear) but sometimes all the options are bad, and he learned that from "you people". "You people" could be the organisation for which Diamond works, or just people "here" (later described as "Out West"), where Ace has been for a while. Ace comes from "Back East": the boundary between the two is Nye, the gamblig den. Diamond regards people from the East as posh, privileged and soft. Diamond came to Jagger Junction from somewhere "much, much worse" than here, which makes Ace say he questions her Nomishness. When Ace says he doubts her Nomishness he probably means that the only places he knows of that are much worse than this are Zark and Fratz, but it is later heavily hinted that Diamond was a slave-labourer who escaped from the Infernal Engine. They are watched by a young male Nome, standing in a doorway: we will later learn that he is called Uffer. Ace and Diamond come to a plain, unmarked door in a wall, which Ace says people must only come to if they are already welcome there. It opens before them. Frederick tells Anushka that he ended up taking over running his "Spire" and training his successor (Sylvester) because the official leader (Willoughby) was no good at it. We see him training Sylvester to deal with a machine that has the Ŧ sticking off it. Willoughby died in the Noodle Incident, which the Spire folk haven't heard about. Frederick says he would have thought everyone to the ends of the known world would have heard of it, and this leads to a discussion of an island called Solla Sollew, which Svetlana says is the island at the farthest edge of the Revealed World, and which Frederick says an explorer described as "alive and burning". Anushka says that Solla Sollew isn't the farthest place from the Spires, just hard to reach because of magic-storms from the Glow Confection mountain range: the farthest point is the Biloka Penninsula on the far side of the Deep Southeastern Jungles. Frederick does not know why the town of Noodle is called Noodle, but the Noodle Incident is the most interesting thing that ever happened there, and they even have a museum about it. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the local fishermen. Tom Bawcock, the senior fisherman, is unmarried but has a thing going with Gretta Weed. Rosemary thinks one of the fishermen, Ernie Corrigan, is cute, and the feeling appears to be mutual. It's OK for Mansionites other than the Earl to hang out in the local pub, and many have done so, but not Nirvana for unspecified reasons. Sylvester goes to collect post from Mr Gray. Mortimer's party, discussing Stiflebloom, pass what looks like a dead Spyder. Fizmo left their village because Nome girls were being encouraged to get pregnant instead of taking Stiflebloom. She talks bout how she and Kulkad were hired to go down into the Hot Zone in suits. She couldn't see much through the helmet, and can't really describe what they were monitoring. Mortimer says Sylvester will want to know, and Nitfol should want to know too if he's going to be a leader, so Fizmo says the thing they were watching was a sort of stone growth. Ace and Diamond pass two guards, and climb stairs to visit a Mr Shadwell, Diamond's boss. Ace fusses about the lack of a handrail, and Diamond says he reminds her of Algernon Jones, the hero of Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. At the top of the stairs, they find Mr Shadwell seated dead at his desk, with some kind of wound on his chest. Frederick wasn't present at the Noodle Incident and didn't hear about it till days later, because they didn't have a Sparkwire – a telegraph system. Sparkwire operators seem to be all women, who wear antennae like the ones the Spire people wear, although in the Spires they signify citizenship. The Spire ones seem to be implants – at least, they're not just attached to a band like the ones worn by Sparkwire operatives. In Noodle there is a museum about the Incident, but it isn't very accurate. In the Spires, Solovyov Spire is all museums, and they're accurate (we see a display case with the Ŧ on top), but some can only be visited by people with a high security clearance. Svetlana has been to the ones she's allowed to see: Frederick says "And the exhibits gave you no reason to doubt their accuracy?" and Svetlana replies "Negative", which is ambiguous. While Sylvester is talking to Mr Gray, some village children ask Rosemary how she, Sylvester and Mortimer got out of the inn without anybody seeing them go. She says they used a one-time magic door. [Cut to Cap'n Hamster, talking to the sapient sea plant on Piratestash Island about how they are both rare life-forms, and how he bounces from ship to gaol (his cage in Nevus's collection) and back, and how he was swept to this location by a freak wave, and the fact that his parents (who had a ship named Grenache) told him that somewhere across the waves there would by a pirate girl for him, and he will search till he finds her.] Fizmo tells Mortimer that when she was down in the Hot Zone, she had a button to push (and then run away) if the thing she was watching started to move. Technology doesn't work well down there, which was why they needed live watchers, but the button was shielded. Fizmo says she saw a rock grow legs and walk. Nitfol asks if it talked – she says no. Nitfol is not surprised by her story, because he has heard stories from when Nomes called Hotdiggers used to mine down close to the Hot Zone. Diamond says she will pay Ace (who seems to be some kind of bodyguard, like Rosemary) to help her get away from the town, as she was Shadwell's "little mascot" and probably won't survive him for long if she stays. Ace agrees on condition that she doesn't lie to him, and that she tells him where the thing he came to collect is. She opens a wall safe and gives Ace a sort of snow globe thing with a figure in it – a long-robed figure juggling the numbers 007. Frederick has never been to the Noodle museum, or the ones in the Spires, but has heard testimony he believes (from Sylvester, about Noodle, and Svetlana about the Spires). He leaves it open whether he trusts the Spire museums or not. Svetlana starts to say "Is not what I am denying! Am saying you should not be—" and then glances nervously at the walls and says it's nothing. Frederick says Willoughby set off some kind of chain reaction which badly damaged much of Noodle, but no-one except Willoughby died. The incident happened in part because of poor maintenance in Noodle, but that part of the story was hushed up. Mr Gray is concerned that there may be things which, unofficially, Sylvester should tell him about. They have a verbal skirmish in which Sylvester avoids telling him anything. He collects his post, rejoins Rosemary and says it may have been a tactical error for Mortimer to let people see that his umbrellla could be used as a weapon – Mr Gray is of course a government agent, and after Mortimer placed his umbrella in a weapons-holder he looked it up in the Compendium of Official Threats, so now he suspects that Mortimer is a wizard. Nitfol says that one of his ancestors, Nikmo, found a talking rock in the deeps, although most of the records of what it said were lost. Nikmo brought the rock home to the surface, but it stopped talking and he was ridiculed for saying it had. Family history says Nikmo later snuck the rock back into the deeps and it came back to life. He told his daughter Margi about it. Margi became a famous adventuress and had a son, Jindak (mobile hanging over cradle, with Ŧ). Margi told Jindak that she thought Nikmo went back later to visit the rock, but she herself could never find it. Mortimer asks about the surviving records of what the rock said, and Nitfol says that the rock said it had been broken off from a larger boulder during a natural upheaval. We see Violet sneaking past behind Terin Flem, who is still keeping a lookout: later comments suggest he really isn't of her creeping through the trees behind him. She walks to the Mansion's gardens, where she startles Nellie Grubb, in her role as gardener. Ace tells Diamond to place another globe, called a Zoinkglobe, into the safe. He had arranged to give Mr Shadwell this one in return for the one with the juggler, and now Shadwell's heirs can have it. He tells Diamond not to steal stuff from the safe unless they need it to survive, so she takes a small plaque with Shadwell's sigil on it, used to show that the bearer is in his favour. Ace comments that Louis and Buddy, the security guards, had let him up there with a spear and an unsearched pack, so they are either incompetent or part of whatever is going on. Silhouette of railing decorated with Ŧ. We return to the Spires, where Frederick is talking about the official enquiry into the Noodle Incident. The Spires have official enquiries too – Svetlana says "Except when conditioned by circumstances", Frederick replies "Like when a gal happens to be carrying a big needle?" and Anushka says they don't talk about that here. Frederick says that what he has said came from his own experience, not from Svetlana. He says that Willoughby was scapegoated (although he really was somewhat to blame) – then a woman named Snegurka arrives with a file which was requested earlier (presumably the one on Spindizzies). Part Seven: Seats of Power [19/11/2018 – 01/12/2021] 01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion. Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle. Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking. Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him. Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both). Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree. Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly. Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out. Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer". Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled. 02: Entangled [05/02/2018 – 03/05/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5584–#5661] Mortimer and the two Nomes wonder nervously what will happen if the Pales don't return from squid-chasing. The scene switches to the Pale camp, where Zpeaker is telling Vezza how the Pales grow their tools. The tools do not grow from plants but are in some way related to the Pales themselves and this is critical information, so he will need to ask the Nexus for permission to show her. Vezza, being young, can hear the Pales' supersonic voices: Zpeaker says all their communication is sonic "except Zcopers". [Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.] Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee. Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor. Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting. The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket. We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts. Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back. Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are. Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood. Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect. Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head. 03: No Turning Back [06/05/2019 – 01/08/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5675–#5752] Mortimer's party progress, keeping together. Mortimer, being taller, can see a large, distant rock which he thinks is near the Panegate. Nitfol says one direction is as good as another, and Mortimer says the direction of the Thicket (the jumble of crystals) is bad. Another Ŧ on a rock in the distance. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as. Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been". We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother. Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before. Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed. For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt. Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling. Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ. Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle. Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock. Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could. Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters. He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them. 04: Fallout [02/08/2019 – 30/10/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5759–#5848] Not-Shmelcathy tells Myrrh she doesn't see the point of clothes unless it's exceptionally cold: then admits that's the default state in the Spires for a third of the year. Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of". Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was. We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin. Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible. Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon. According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl". Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic. Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice. Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach. Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her. Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them. Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington. Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers. Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business. Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!" Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that. 05: Going Home [04/11/2019 – 27/12/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5855–#5899] The Eyebolt formerly known as not-Schmelcathy says that her name is Simplicity (despite the name on the screen by her desk). She is bubbling with answers to questions Myrrh doesn't want to ask (demons are sensitive about favours and counter-favours). She says "we" (presumably the Eyebolts) can sense auras and that it's important that Myrrh know what she is confronting. Myrrh assumes she is talking about the Operator. There is a side conversation about Jones, who we see apparently getting clothes from Alena and Idita. Simplicity says that the Operator is much more powerful than either Myrrh or Jones, and he has visited the Spires, but he's still only part of the problem. We see an image of the Operator having a power-bar about two and a half times Myrrh's, but it's like a small stream compared to a raging river when measured against the Power Simplicity is thinking of. Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one. Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt. The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers. Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one. Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question. Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped. 06: Diplomacy [30/12/2019 – 13/02/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5909–#5958] Comshaw reveals that when they found the door to the Mansion open, the Council had deliberately aimed a Dornbeast through the door to test what would happen. Sylvester confirms that they are Human and that he is The Earl. Rosemary is his trusty assistant, and Skradt is Comshaw's. Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.] Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing. Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home. Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock. Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome. Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin". An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree. 07: Exit Strategies [24/02/2020 – 26/06/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5986–#6084] Ivana takes Frederick and Svetlana to a Diplomatic Quarantine Facility, for guests who are important but disruptive. There are covered plates of cakes: one of the covers has a Ŧ on it. Frederick will not be allowed to interact with anyone else, except Svetlana whose duties are not yet complete. Frederick assumes this will be so until he goes back to the docks, but Ivana says he's never been at the docks. Svetlana asks if he walked from Yurpsland, but Ivana says he and Myrrh didn't appear via any known entrance, which is part of why he's interesting. Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can. Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees. Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach. Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond". Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way. Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished. Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open. Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave. Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip. Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen. Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl. Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her. Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear. We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar. Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation. Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well. An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist. Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises. They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years). They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough). After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole. At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires. 08: High Level Meetings [29/06/2020 – 09/10/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6098–#6188] Diamond is very concerned that she hadn't known Blas was in town: it suggests her situational awareness is slipping, and that's dangerous. If she had known, she might or might not have told Shadwell, who sometimes had people killed, but only when absolutely necessary: Ace says his employers are the same, except more genteel about it. Wooden Ŧ among planks behind them, and metal one acting as a sort of tap. Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap. Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket. Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat. A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them. Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived. At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket. Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch). Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs. In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home. Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background. An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting. Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall. They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ). More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX. Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded. 09: It All Comes Together [13/10/2020 – 19/02/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6202–#6318] Svetlana agrees that she will go with Frederick to Audravania. At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres. We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together. A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar. Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown. Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes. Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade. Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos. Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower. Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire. Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something". Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings. Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs. In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits. Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement. The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went. 10: Unexplored Territory [22/02/2021 – 28/05/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6325–#6416] This chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Unexplored Territory, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto. We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm. The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect". Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it. Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing). Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles. Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned. Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself. It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought. Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat. Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality. Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock. 11: New Clothes [01/06/2021 – 03/09/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6423–#6514] Diamond and Ace have moved out of the trace left by the Infernal Engine, and Ace can feel the difference. He wants to know how Jagger Junction ended up this rough (Diamond doesn't know or care), and says if in the future there's anything he can do to fix it, he will. A fairly large Fuzz, maybe cat-sized, is lurking in a small dustbin. Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia. This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine. They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned. Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns. Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in. Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it. Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears. Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree. Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol). Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future. 12: Advice and Council [07/09/2021 – 01/12/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6521–#6577] Rosemary advises Fizmo to really listen to what other people say and to not talk – or swear – much during the Council meeting. Outwith that meeting, she should definitely tell Nitfol what she thinks, about everything. Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works. Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette. Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves. Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers. Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end. Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction. Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: Izchak [16/07/2007 – 30/08/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1416–#1451] Sylvester's party come to a Motihaul-owned shop called Izchak's Sharp n' Pointy. Izchak is a bit annoying, and tries to sell them sharp twigs, Nome picks and then a machete-like sword which he says belonged to Othar. Rosemary is attracted by a weapon like a halberd with a weighted butt and a kind of hooked crescent end. She doesn't know it, but this is the same weapon Mortimer saw her carrying when he was briefly flashed forwards in time after he pressed the button on the HJ42 during the auction in the forest. Behind her back Izchak tells Sylvester and Camora it's not for sale because it's trapped in an "airbox", an Ettin-made forcefield which the Basement dwellers wrongly attribute to Humans, and which neither he nor Sprocket and Flange have been able to open. However, if he was telling the truth then something Rosemary does, or some change in conditions, causes the airbox to open and the weapon comes freely to Rosemary.
As Rosemary is speaking to Izchak, Chauncy and Edgar carve their way in through the wall. They want to dissect Rosemary and Sylvester to see how they differ: Chauncy says that the walls in Rosemary's head have "only traces of extra paint on them", while Sylvester's are "thickly encrusted". They know who Rosemary is because they heard about her from another demon named Scratch whom she encountered before.
Rosemary thrashes Edgar with her new weapon and then tells him that his victims felt similar pain, and until the magic comes back he's stuck here so he has to learn how to live here. Edgar it transpires is not callous or brutal: rather, because the Human world is so flimsy in comparison with his own he had believed that the world and the creatures in it weren't real, but something like a video game. Now that she has shown him that these are real people he doesn't intend them harm. We learn that Rosemary did something similar in the past with Scratch: she got him to pay attention to her, then advised him to go away, find a new place and learn how to live there peacefuly.
We learn some background information. Demons in this world communicate with each other long-distance by a process called "tapping the lines". Chauncy and Edgar would have left long ago but they are constrained by some kind of barrier around the local area (it does seem to be local, not the planet's magnetic field). It surrounds the tunnels, the plant life outside and the Burning Eye, which is probably The Spire.
Edgar can tell that Sylvester is closely connected with the Scary Lady (his great aunt), and Sylvester tells the two demons to go ask her to help them to get away. They say she has forbidden them from ever going upstairs again, but then Chauncy senses that she is on her way down, so they go in search of her. Before they leave, Chauncy asks Rosemary to strike him too so he can feel it, and she does so but nearly breaks her wrists, because he is so solid. Chauncy agrees that that was unpleasant and he'll think about the implications. Edgar, who seems to be a nice boy at heart, thanks Rosemary and says he will talk to the others. Then they simply carve their way through solid rock to go see the Scary Lady.
After they have left, Rosemary pays Izchak, and starts looking for a suitably grand romantic name for her new pole weapon. Sylvester dubs it "the Can-Opener". He finds it supicious that the airbox just opened and let her take the weapon, as if it had been set up for her to take. He learned about airboxes at the University: they all have some specific trigger to open them, but it could be anything. We see sample airboxes containing a little machine with three "eyes" and two arms or horns; a statuette of Cthulhu/a winged Ichyoid; and a pipe with a flared end. As they come away from Izchak's shop Camora smells something, and a voice shouts "HALT!"
02: Upernavik [31/08/2007 – 26/09/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1458–#1479] As they come away from Izchak's place, Sylvester's party encounter a group of male Motihaul soldiers armed with cold-forged iron weapons (which was what Camora could smell: and Sylvester can tell that they are cold iron, which implies he might have some magic himself), inbound to tackle Chauncy and Edgar, and are warned by their officer, Matagam, to leave the area. The clever and devious head of male Motihaul security, Upernavik, is listening through bugging devices: he must have heard the confrontation between Rosemary and Edgar, because he has "Scratch" written on his notepad. He sets Whisp (a dark-pelted female Trog) to tail Rosemary, Camora and Sylvester, then orders his side-kick called Knumdrot (a play on the Patrician's secretary Drumknot in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels) to lock down their whole Hall, saying that the sellers might object but their spokesmotihaul just had his shop ripped apart by two demons and a giant killer Nome. Knumdrot refuses, citing a Contract which states that a Full Hall Lockdown requires the prior consent of both Upernavik and his female counterpart, Angmagslika. Upernavik regards consulting with Angmagslika as a dire ordeal – but he doesn't need to meet her after all because he receives a message from her telling him to initiate Lockdown.
A horn is honked to alert two male Motihauls called Notserplib and Nagolder, who are dozing in a very cozy flat or office full of ornaments and games. We see the sound travel down pipes past a Smyt graffiti-artist ("Fnord wuz ere") and a Trundlebug who is looking at something like a Pacman monster. The two Motihauls have a pet tunnel rat called Hackit who is sleeping on Nagolder's stomach, and has to be lifted up with defensive gloves and placed in a box decorated with a moon and stars (it doesn't work without them) to control him. His job is to protect them from slimegrubs. Once Hackit has been safely boxed, they swim down a well-shaft to an underwater capstan which they turn to close off the Hall: they are able to breathe underwater, so long as it's fresh water. Nagolder, we learn, is a friend to Cully, the young Gnoll who was banished to SubShaft 44f.
Shut outside in Time Hall, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that he considers her to be only the second most frightening woman he knows – after his great-aunt the Scary Lady.
03: The Gibber [27/09/2007 – 01/11/2007] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1486–#1515] Rosemary starts to tell or ask Sylvester something about the Scary Lady, but Sylvester interrupts to talk to Camora about the fact that they are heading for the Riddle Grotto. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their upbringing – Sylvester's parents were loving but absent, his father a twit who died young, his mother always a traveller, literally and figuratively, so he was raised largely by the Scary Lady. Rosemary, whose parents we know drowned in a maritime accident, was raised by her Aunt Eva and by Eva's former bodyguard Zeke. We see a vignette of Eva teaching Rosemary how to pick locks.
Heading towards the long way out, they pass a group entity called The Gibber, guarded and assisted by an elderly female Gnoll (the grandmother of Mimsy), a Poker called Anathama. Helignoll Hall is a major home site for Helipaths and Gnolls: some years previously they started to open up a side chamber called Helinew, but then seven years ago a group centred around a male Gnoll called Altholen, inspired by stories of the magic-users Caytid the Gnoll and the male Motihaul explorer Othar, used "Sneech squeezings" and the underground River of Fire (= magic) in an attempt to reawaken the magic in the world. Instead, they caused a cataclysm called the Breach which extended right up into the Mansion, where it caused sparks or similar to shoot out of the Tree. In the Basement it killed a large number of Ecadems and generated many new twistpoints. Camora's sires' Finagler Twitchel helped to seal it again: her sires Buccula and Choller also claimed credit for sealing the Breach.
Some of this information comes from Camora, and some from Anathama who says that Buccula and Choller just got in the way, and it was the Trog Yurd and co. who fixed it. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Anathama they are forest Nomes, but Anathama as a youngster saw the young Sylvester and the Scary Lady fleeing a running fight with some Trogs in the Basement and she knows that they are Human, although she doesn't comment.
One of the effects of the Breach was to bring The Gibber, a cloud of half-seen faces in the darkness beyond a hole in the wall, into being in their own pocket of reality, overlaying what had been Helinew Hall. The Gibber have great knowledge and always tell the truth, so they function as an oracle. The Gibber knows their names – Sylvester Winston Humphrey Eman (but they hesitate over the Eman and say that some things are truths and not truths) and Rosemary Imogene Ripley, who they know arrived in an instant.
In the past they told the truth to Camora, that she was going to mate with Comshaw: neither she nor Anathama were happy about it, since Anathama thought he would mate with her granddaughter Mimsy. Now they tell truths to Rosemary and Sylvester, which they later tell Anathama were among the greatest truths they have ever given. To Rosemary they say "What you stole is even more dangerous and precious than you know. In the end, you will fly away and live forever, and you will leave the world shattered in your wake." To Sylvester: "You will return to where you started, and you will become what you hate. And in doing so, you will restore the world to what it was".
After Rosemary and co. have left, The Gibber tell Anathama that they are dying – the power source which maintains them has failed (which suggests they are powered by the Sneeches). She is quite upset by this. She tells them that her duty with them has not been onerous, especially considering some of the things she has done in the past – we see her crawling through a tunnel to collect Glowgems – and she mentions somebody called Bokonon who was "Sent into the SubShafts, and then..", which was somehow Digger's fault. This was connected with some necessary but personally risky thing that a group she belonged to, along with Bokonon and Digger and unspecified others, was and are doing. She needs to find Digger and tell him that Humans are back. Digger has never been to The Gibber to hear his truth.
04: Hop Skip and Several Jumps [02/11/2007 – 08/01/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1520–#1581] Bung's Jibjib messenger Snurt goes to Maw – who is just wrapping up winning a battle against his assailants – and warns him that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. Cram and his colleague, who were planning to attack both Maw and Nash, have been defeated: Cram is fleeing and the colleague is dead. One of two tiny Fuzzes is unimpressed by Chauncy and Edgar, qua world-destroying giants, as they've seen bigger.
The people at Rhid's place arm themselves with the remains of his Dornbeast-repellant globes, ready to fling them at the demons. Sprocket and Flange 'phone Mr Hand and tell him they have his Metalmin filament and now they're going home: they don't tell him they have seen Nevus and Agita returning to the Basement. Mr Hand tells them to drop the filament off first. Nevus speaks to Frag and is surprised to find that in his absence his forces have gone to war against the Council, in his name and claiming his authorisation.
The Nome party – Vezza, Piu, Umboz and Nitfol – and their Pale escort cross a rope bridge across the Ravine en route to the Pale camp. A chain of Pale lookouts send a signal to the Camp by waving flags and tools: at the Camp they have a telescope set up to watch for the signal. We see their supersonic voice being sent from the telescope operator to the The message is "She is coming", so presumably it's either Piu or Vezza they want (unles it refers to Fizmo who will join them later). The message passes by somebody who is being showered (or maybe fumigated). The Nexus him or herself, the ruler, is apprehensive and says that "she" may not be "the one", and the outcome will prove "Frogmask" – presumably Frowgler – right or wrong. We see a frog on a lily-pad near a Pale boatman: apparently it's a real frog. The boat is a punt, and there are fish in it.
The action cuts to the high thin tower called The Spike, on the edge of a lake somewhere near the Mansion, where a high-ranking male Fixit called Cox is using a mesmerised Pale mount to listen to Pale communications. Cox speaks to a Human called Dorian who has lived in The Spike for forty-two years. Dorian is being ridden by a Fixit but it seems that Dorian is the one doing the talking, and is in a position of authority. Dorian says that somebody called Kelso is "finally bringing in her pet idiot" – presumably Rufus. We will learn that Kelso is Eunice's surname.
Cox floats down through the tower, using artificial levitation devices, until he meets a female Fixit called Vix who is riding a controlled Nome girl, and pushing a gurney holding industrial supplies. During the chapter headed Thrash, in the 900th strip which in real-time appeared almost two years before this one, a light message saying "900 WOO HOO" was seen shining from the top of The Spike. In-universe, this of course was earlier the same afternoon, and Vix says that the "wooflare" has drained some resource which the supplies on the gurney will help to stabilise, but Cox calls her away to walk with him.
We learn that Cox is significantly older than fifty and witnessed the Crash. He talks to Vix about the Crash and the Human cities he once saw. Vix doesn't think she will ever ride a Human and visit such places, as she's never even been DownSpike: Cox says he was there when she was brought up from the pens. There is a reference to a shield around the area, and to a new Human being brought in to The Spike, presumably Rufus. Protus, he thinks, has some vast plan – he first appeared five years beforehand and since then there have been more wooflares, both in the Spike and the SubShafts (a fourth-wall breach reference to the dawn of the comic, although it only became an organised web-comic four and a half years earlier), and more twistpoints. Mr Hand has been passing on reports from the Hot Zone observers, which also suggest imminent events: so Mr Hand is in some way allied with The Spike. Protus finds Mr Hand mildly annoying but nothing they know of will make him angry: but he could still crush them all in passing. There is also a female enemy Out West who some people fear might be involved with Protus, although Cox doubts it, and so does a leader called the Topspike, who may be the same as God.
Cox says that before the Crash he was sent to Rowen, the capital of Lune, to bring back an airbox (maybe the one in which the Can Opener was kept?), but he should have dumped it and fled, and Vix should do the same if she gets the chance: flee the Spike, and go anywhere except Out West.
Meanwhile, within sight of the Spike but some distance away, Frowgler crawls out of the crater left by the OZPR event – he seems mildly disappointed that it didn't kill him. He has the broken horn: is it possible that within his own timeline this is happening before he met Snerk and received the Zorper from him? Perhaps going OZPR sent him around in a circle.
At the Mansion, the Weirdo, grieving for his dead friend Tulip (said to have been "hauled off to the Pole", a euphemism for death), has got roaring drunk, climbed up to the roof terrace, set off a siren called the Mugwump Alarm (although there are no longer any Mugwumps in the area and they are believed to be extinct) and passed out. Amos Grubb comes to shut off the alarm – which requires complex instructions from a code book (he seems to be the Mansion's librarian) – and has a conversation with Fantod, the Weirdo's ventriloquist's puppet, in which Fantod speaks as if he is an independent entity. Fantod never met Tulip, because Arthur won him in a Skipjack game after he left the Weirdo Academy. Fantod tells Amos about some events he and the Weirdo witnessed by the elevator, and refers to Rosemary as a "sword bunny" (an expression previousy used by Arthur – of course). They seem to be regular visitors to the Basement (again, how do they get down there?). Amos assumes that Rosemary must have arrived via the village, and that Nellie will hear some gossip about her while she's in town.
Note that on the human side of the door, the door is marked in formal print "ROOF mind the gargoyles", and on the gargoyle side it's marked in scrawl "NOT RooF MIND THE HooMANS".
The Weirdo having sobered up a little, Amos advises him to go to the Temple in the village and ask the Oracle, Threnody, to light a candle for Tulip. he and Amos walk down many stairs within the Mansion, and we glimpse a Panegate which opens into a world of yellow light and busy Helipaths. We see strange machinery, cables and pipes and Tree branches in the walls; Schmedley's room; the Scary Lady's electronic crystal ball; and a device called Ludwig's Vent Tapper 3000, which seems to be trying to tickle a magical flame into life by going beedle beedle with a mechanical hand.
A limb of the tree connects into the Vent Tapper, then leads all the way down into the Basement where we see a female Gobule called Gulch teaching three baby Gobules called Gif, Glub and Gip, and telling them about the Tree, and about how they chew on bones and then make torches from the bigger ones, and about great bones within the ground, which they sometimes dig up. We see in cross-section that a ceiling GBOL light in the tunnels is connected to a huge, buried bone. Buried near it we see the head and claw-hand of a Metalmin, who died clutching a Glowgem.
05: Skibble's Place [09/01/2008 – 01/03/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1594–#1636] Rosemary threatens to hit Sylvester if he tells anyone her middle name is Imogene; he tells her that Mortimer's are Nigel Mundivagant. We learn from Camora that Mortimer was the "demon" who caused the Nome War, and from Sylvester that his parents chose their children's names from a very pompous and very long classic book called Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. Ironically the Mortimer in the book pulls wings off flutterbys, while we will later learn that Mortimer Eman has a strong connection to the things. Boogiemen choose their names from a secret Human book; Gnoll names are chose by their parental Finagler.
Rosemary is alarmed by the idea of eternal life – she says she'd get really bored after the first thousand years. Sylvester is less alarmed by the idea of becoming what he hates, since he hates some quite harmless things, including his brothers sometimes, and the trick is to make the prediction work for you: Camora grudgingly admits (mainly sub-vocally to Hax) that she is happy with Comshaw. Sylvester comforts Rosemary by interpreting her prediction as eternal fame rather than eternal life.
They come to Skibble's place (not Skibble, just his place), guarded by a male Gnoll called Cerbis, who peers through a slot in the door and offers to lend them a token with an "E" on it and a string hanging off it, to be used to activate a device to summon the Great Riddler through whose territory they must soon pass. He says they'll owe Skibble a favour for it (favours are traded as a kind of currency), and the string is so that after they've used it to pay the Summoner device they can pull it back out, as Cerbis has a limited supply of them. Sylvester turns the offer down.
They discuss the aurilnode on the wall outside Skibble's Place: it was invented by a Helipath called Auril and Sylvester is impressed and disturbed by the level of sophistication it shows, and also by the spectacular magical event caused by Altholen, which wasn't a stupid idea as such even though he failed in his purpose, and which suggests outside help (whether to set it up or to fail isn't clear). He tells Camora about magic and the Crash, before which Humans too had telephones. He describes it as a huge magical surge which blew all the magical systems and tools and killed most of the magickers.
Sylvester wonders whether Auril used Sneech squeezings in hir work. Camora says s/he was too sane to do so, and this leads to a discussion about genius and eccentricity – about Rufus, who takes dangerous scientific risks, and Rosemary's friend Edwird, who likes to swim in ice water, and Telic the doctor, who operates on hirself. Sylvester is sure that Auril used either knowledge or material from the Sneeches, which makes him want to get out of there even more.
Camora realises that Rosemary and Sylvester just want to get home, and she wants to take them to the Council's tunnel soo they can leave, but Hax says this is a bad idea as it would give an invading force an easy way in. They set off for the Riddle Grotto, with Whisp trailing them. On the way they talk about family: Rosemary is an only child, since her parents got pregnant with her on their honeymoon and then died when she was six months old, but Sylvester is one of six. And yes, he loves Lenore, even though he doesn't trust her. Camora, who loathes her own brother, doesn't understand this. Camora tells them about Skibble, who first made a name for himself by unexpectedly winning the Stacking Cup at the Games, then became a gemhunter, but the dialogue trails away as they move on. It's a running joke that we never find out what species Skibble is.
Meanwhile Shona, returning from the forest, realises her sister Sina is in trouble and goes in search of her, as does Sprocket (who expects that he and Flange will have a lot of work doing repairs). Shona has already reported to Nevus and told him about Frowgler and the "tall Nomes", but Nevus, Mimsy and a couple of male Gnoll soldiers, Frag and Blem, are still stuck trying to fight their way through to Nevus's office (which is in or off Crescent Hall). Nevus is having nearly as trying a day as Snoot. Agita is also back, and meets with her assistant Flibbergib the Eyebolt, who is riding on a Gobule and has been sent by a Mr Foolscap to warn her about the fighting, and to complain about Weirders. Agita comments on the fact that Flibbergib is upRooted, which suggests that while Camora may have been exaggerating about Eyebolts fusing with their seats there was a grain of truth in it. Guttle, delayed by the tangle he was caught up in, and still partially wrapped in tendrils, comes stamping down the tunnel, dismissing Skoil from his service as he tramples him underfoot.
We see a scarred Rhid, still trailed by Kronk and contemplating desperate measures. We see the scuttly little sapient rock still trying to climb out of the Hot Zone, but having trouble coping with the distances involved. We see the Scary Lady and her balloon venture into the Sneech den, thinking that something is very wrong: Frederick half wakes and thinks of following her to make sure she doesn't do anything drastic, then falls back asleep.
Clochard and Anathama meet up, both looking for Digger, and exchange dire news (the Council and Nevus at war, The Gibber dying, Humans returning, Kronk chasing a burned Rhid) which is trumped by one of Bung's Jibjibs, Spuza, warning them that Chauncy and Edgar are loose. They discuss the fact that Anathama saw Sylvester in the Basement fifteen years before, along with the "Clawblaster" – evidently the Scary Lady – and now he's with Rosemary, and with the pole weapon which Anathama has seen before, and although he's older he's far from old which tells Anathama that Humans have much longer lifespans than Gnolls. Anathama herself was whelp when she saw Sylvester (a.k.a. "Eyeplates") and the Clawblaster, and that was fifteen years ago, so she's sixteen or seventeen, and she says she's unusually old for a gnoll.
Meanwhile, two Trog raiders wait at the mouth of the tunnel, planning to mug the next person through: it's about to be Guttle. They don't even notice Digger passing them by.
06: The Three Great Riddles [03/03/2008 – 04/06/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1643–#1725] Camora is telling Rosemary and Sylvester about Skibble – it's not clear what species Skibble is but he's a sort of Trickster and is friends with someone called Blitz who is probably a Gobule. Camora's story involves the words "So Skibble eats all of them!" Rosemary replies "But you just said Skibble is a—", and Camora waves her hand and says "Yeah, yeah, he probably got Blitz to eat them." The implication is that Skibble is something with a very specialised diet: so probably a Ghast, Ooze, Helipath or Ichyoid.
Heading for the Riddle Grotto they pass a sign warning of a defence system called Death Doors, which are doors which attack any non-Human trying to open them, as with the Djinnoscope. They pass a door labelled Pots Room without stopping. Sylvester mentions the Djinnoscope, Camora asks about it and he describes the Hall of Achievement to her – but she knows it as the Death Hall, and the Djinnoscope as the Death Machine: Sylvester jokes about sub-committes in charge of naming. He explains that the Djinnoscope is called that because it can grant boons, like a Djinn. It's believed to have been a Djinn who taught people (he means Humans) how to tap into magic.
They come to the Riddle Grotto and find themselves on a jetty at the side of a deep pool. Theoretically no one can cross without authorisation because the Riddler lives in the water and is fantastically fast (as they see when they toss a rock into the water, from a handy bowl of rocks provided for that purpose), but a Jibjib called Speedy once flew across on a bet with someone called Shilpit. Othar the magical Motihaul explorer is mentioned again. They prepare to say goodbye to Camora: she again wants to tell them about the tunnel (and is hearing voices), but Hax dissuades her.
We learn that the Three Great Riddles were named by Dorn, 10th Earl of E, who also created the Dornbeasts (initially known as siegebeasts) as battle-mounts, and ended up being eaten by them. Sylvester has two large and one small E tokens in his pocket: he'll tell her what the small one is for later.
Camora notices that the cabinet which holds the Summoner has changed shape (from a kind of squat bullet-shape to a straight-line oblong) since they first came into the grotto, but Rosemary and Sylvester have seen no change, which suggests that either their memory or the time-line is being tampered with. Sylvester says it's always been as it now is – and that it reminds him of something he saw with Protus (although it just looks like a dark oblong Protus took him though). Hax invades Camora's mind – previously they were just sub-vocalising – and takes it over, saying that he must follow his orders and she would find it distressing to be aware of what those orders are, and her mind and her sanity are precious and must be preserved. Rosemary and Sylvester are only aware that she went blank for a moment. Having been taken over, Camora now says she was foolish to suggest that the cabinet had changed, but Sylvester refers to his great-great-uncle Hindenburgh the wizard, who also witnessed things changing.
Sylvester inserts a token into the Summoner and it sets off a siren (playing the Jaws theme, very loudly) which summons the Riddler himself – a giant Ichyoid about 60ft high, older than the Earldom of E and speaking a Human/Ichyoid pidgin represented as Futhark runes (occasionally upside-down Futhark runes). He starts by asking them their business, and addressing Sylvester by name, and expressing sorrow at his father Willoughby's death. Willoughby had a knack for making friends. Sylvester introduces Rosemary as "non-family – staying?" The Riddler replies that she is dangerous.
Sylvester asks if he, Rosemary and their possessions may pass over, and the Riddler asks if "Fixit Gnoll" wants to cross too, but they don't understand what he means. He asks for information on Frowgler, but Sylvester only knows about the comic-book character and explains that he is a two-dimensional representation drawn by somebody called Linderhoff. We learn from Rosemary that Roshambo, and his talking sword Slasher, and the frog-wizard Frowgler, and other characters including Naif and Arax, are hugely popular cultural icons and the comic's been running since before the Crash, although Sylvester later comments that the quality of the comics has declined since then. Sylvester recalls Mortimer complaining that one of his Roshambo action figures had been damaged – this may relate to the Sciencebugs who were worshipping a Roshambo figure on Mr Hand's desk, or perhaps Frowgler measured a Frowgler action toy to get his impersonation right, although the comic-book Frowgler has a more elaborate tail-tip than the "real" one does, and his horns are yellow.
The Riddler finds their information about Frowgler interesting, and gives them permission to cross. Sylvester warns Camora not to try to follow them as she doesn't have permission to cross, gives her the second half of her paper payment, admits to her that they are Humans and promises to try to come back and speak formally to Comshaw and the Basement authorities, and to try to make things better for everyone – but it's not Camora they are speaking to now. Rosemary and Sylvester are both aware that Camora has changed, but they don't know why.
Note that the three Great Riddles aren't really riddles at all, but questions: how to get the Riddler to pay you benign attention; how to understand what he says to you; and the third one is a request for information, in this case about Frowgler.
A pontoon rises and rotates into position, enabling Rosemary and Sylvester to cross the pool. Sylvester thinks the inefficiency of all this is a feature, not a bug, to make people reluctant to disturb the Riddler. There used to be a lot of ways in and out of the Basement but they were gradually all closed off except two – Rosemary reckons there must be at least one more to explain the various appearances and disappearances, and that Arthur the Weirdo uses it (OK, how does he avoid being noticed as a Human?). The pontoon's action is so jerky that as they get to the far side they fall in a heap and Rosemary jokily tries to kiss Sylvester.
Hax thinks he senses someone, but can't make out who (it's Whisp). He walks Camora away.
Sylvester had kept some things from Camora, such as the fact that the bridge stays in place for a couple of hours, and that he didn't need the token to operate the Summoner, because he's an Eman. We learn about Herediscans, security devices which identify members of the E family, and that the family used to manufacture reverse-engineered Ettin-style robots and sell them under the brand name Factor E. Some of the scanners accept new people: some only accept family, and because of the dilution of the family's DNA over the generations, some now won't open at all.
Rosemary and Sylvester have one more Herediscan to get through, and he has to be alive to operate it. Sylvester doesn't like comics because he feels they have declined in scope and presentation and aren't nearly as good as before the Crash. But he knows he is privileged to be able to worry about such things, after society came so close to total collapse. Rosemary's Aunt Eva was close to starving but she later ended up as a professional Skipjack card-player: hence the bodyguard, who also watched out for creative cheaters while Eva concentrated on the game.
Sylvester is boggled that people just went back to playing Skipjack after the world nearly ended. Rosemary says that in the town of Nye some card-games played right through the Crash. She herself has never been to Nye: Sylvester wants to know how she got from Out West to Audravanaia without going through Nye, but she ducks telling him, for now.
Aunt Eva refused to teach Rosemary to play Skipjack: Sylvester thinks she's too impatient to be good at such a slow game. He says she followed in Zeke the bodyguard's footsteps instead. She says she's not a bodyguard: she's an explorer and Sylvester is her native guide.
Meanwhile, Hax uses some kind of electrical charge from his antennae to open a secret door in the corridor wall. He walks Camora through the door into some sort of control centre (although the scene is domestic enough to include a fish in a bowl). He wonders about calling Mr Hand to confirm his orders, but decides not to. It sounds like he is planning to kill Rosemary and Sylvester.
Whisp doesn't see Camora disappear into the wall, but does note that Camora's scent just stops. However, she was told to follow the "Nomes", not Camora.
07: Decisions Decisions [05/06/2008 – 05/07/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1732–#1760] Chauncy and Edgar locate the Scary Lady in the Sneech Den and ask her to help them get through the barrier: they do not want to go home because they have become used to having names. She agrees to help them.
Sprocket and Flange place the filament from the old Metalmin, contained in what looks like an empty GBOL globe, into a service hatch, whence it is collected by an Ichyoid.
Hiblehoy and Wrawa leave Leny's body in Bowel Hall to be rendered down. They are paid in Glowgems: Wrawa tells Hiblehoy to take half for himself and give the other half to Telic to research why the Trogs develop dementia. Her eyes look a bit strange so she, like Sina, may had been blinded by the explosion. Tomorrow she means to track down Rhid, but right now she crashes out and has to be carried home to bed by Hiblehoy: as they leave they see the Gnoll Forfind rallying Nevus's troops to the attack.
We see Thrash and his two as-yet unnamed associates (later they will be called Scrawl and FlagPale) striding past the ruins of Eetown. Thrash finds Frowgler, slightly singed after the OZPR event, and picks him up. The other two withdraw so Thrash and Frowgler can talk privately. Frowgler says that he knows Thrash doesn't like him, and he's not going to tell him his story because it's so odd even he doesn't believe it, but that he means to see that the Pales get what they want. It's not his problem whether or not they'll still want it once they've got it. Frowgler says that he is neither so clever as the Nexus nor so powerful as the ruler in the Spike but still he is the most important person Thrash has ever met.
He understands that Thrash may feel resentful because he's here in the forest herding Gnolls such as Niddle instead of escorting the Nome party to see the Nexus, which is evidently a prestigious job, but Thrash is here because Frowgler wanted him here, because Frowgler is the msot important person he's ever met, even if he's not as intelligent as the Nexus or as powerful as "our friend" in The Spike. Now Thrash can choose to help him or kill him. Thrash tosses him up in the air and catches him again, like a tennis ball, then lets Frowgler point him in the direction he and his companions should head.
We see the forest Gnolls Scrof and Louch, who had been out on a foraging/raiding party and got caught in all the strange events of the day when Mortimer and Nitfol nearly landed on them, after which Louch ran off. Louch, a cousin of Comshaw's, couldn't cross over the usual bridge because Pales were watching it (these were the lookouts waiting for Nitfol's party), and had to go north and use an even more precarious and minimalist bridge just called The Rope, and consisting of just three cords. Coming back he saw The Spike wooflare, and the Fire from The Pit, and at least two explosions from the Zorper. Now he is tired and wants to go back to their village, the northernmost of a pair, which is just a big communal warren. Louch is fed up with how poorly they live and wants to learn to read like his mother, and better himself. He thinks he will ask Umboz the Nome to teach his people how to cultivate crops, or go down in the Basement and ask Comshaw for help: but we see the Nome mayor Koyeeb saying that Umboz is a traitor, and ordering Umboz's brother Frotz to regain the family honour by leading a dawn raid on Louch's village.
In the Basement, we see a male Gnoll, Bung's friend Faddle, heading home with a plant in a pot, and Niff and Folla from the bucket chain looking for somewhere to hide from the fighting, and instead running into the newly returned Shona. They start to tell her about Chauncy and Edgar: she doesn't believe them, but then they overhear two female Motihauls talking about it, and about Sina setting up a safe zone in Crazy Rhid's place (because of the weaponry there). Shona thinks that a safe zone at Rhid's place is an oxymoron, but Niff and Folla tell her that Sina has driven Rhid off. They all head for Rhid's place.
08: The River of Fire [07/07/2008 – 26/11/2008] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1767–#1899] Deep underground, overlooking the River of Fire, is a bridge or gantry of some kind protruding from a pueblo-style adobe building. In this building we see a male Gnoll called Blit, with a bandaged leg (possibly injured in the fighting: he looks like a Gnoll we glimpsed having a bad day at Le Tree, but that one had a scratch on the left cheek), and a male Motihaul named Gongoozle discussing the fact that this is meant to be The Day That Changes Everything but it seems to be change for the worse, and the Gobule Lairs are all now at war with each other. A female Trog called Espy (who we will later learn is or used to be a primary-school teacher of young Trogs, and who is remarkably old-looking for a Trog and yet still mentally sharp) summons Blit to go downstairs to see someone called the Observer, and sends Gongoozle away because he is not on the Observer's staff and they are closing the observatory to outsiders.
Blit goes downstairs by a complex route of lifts and stairs and corridors, passing other workers: a nameless Gobule squatting on a box labelled "IMPORTANT SECRET MYSTERIOUS STUFF"; two Eyebolts called Poyndext and Suscalva doing mysterious scientific calculations; and two Gobule labourers called Ottus and Piterbult. Ottus drives a heavy-goods-lift using a treadmill: between them the two are transporting heavy loads of "River Signs" up to Poyndext and Suscalva for analysis, as they have been doing for at least five years. Because of the lack of paper in the Basement, the signs are on what appear to be clay tablets. Piterbult, who pushed the tablets in a cart and has a curiously flat rear, is subversive in a jokey way.
Blit then passes in sequence a sophisticated door with brass hinges and handle and a sign saying "CHANGE YOUR MIND"; a wooden gate with "STOP POKING AROUND" written vertically on the planks; a doorway closed by a ragged curtain with "LAMENT FOR THE DEAD" on it; a knotted climbing-rope; and an open doorway through which we can see a stone with "POINT OF NO RETURN" written on it. A short watch-being of unknown species called Wences (of whom we just see eyes, in a hatch near the floor) tells him the Observer wants him, and it's alright but not OK. Blit is caught by a booby-trap and catapulted through the air above the River to land in a padded cart partway out along the gantry, and operated by a Helipath called Lucint and two Jibjibs. He has actually crashed through the roof of a covered walkway along the gantry: the Jibjibs go to repair it with strands of leaves, so at least it's not very solid. The gantry has an amorphous block (the observation pod) hanging off the end with a small crane on it, and a cord, perhaps an autilnode wire, connects the gantry to the far side of the River.
Lucint carries a stunned Blit down to the observation pod. Blit is just making "eep" noises, but Lucint evidently interprets them as comments about Piterbult, because he says that "that" (either the subversion or the flat back, we don't know) often results from direct exposure to Fire, and that "he", presumably Piterbult, has been pushing the Sign-report cart so often that he can now literally do it with his eyes shut.
There may be an especially weird fourth-wall-breach joke going on here. When we first see Piterbult his back appears flat because the frame of the strip is cutting him off, but then he walks into the shot and we see that he really is that flat. Fire is magic in this universe but it's also colour and the hand of the artist, so he's flat because he conforms to the frame the artist (Fire) drew for him: a bit like the "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way" joke in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
At the observation pod they meet two pink female Oozes, using artificial cradle-supports. The lower-down one of these is the Observer, and has OBSVR written on her side in Manglish (perhaps self-generated as it moves around). She tells Blit to tell her what he saw and he exclaims "GREEN!" although he says he doesn't know what the word means. Are Gnolls red-green colour blind, like dogs? Now he's said it he can talk again: maybe he was dazed because he saw a colour his eyes nromally can't process.
The Observer tells him that different species react differently to proximity to the River of Fire. As an Ooze she herself has become stiff and less able to change shape (the Ooze stationed higher up is the Observer-to-Be, a trainee). It is rapidly harmful to Motihauls; Helipaths have to wear goggles to keep from going dizzy; Ghasts have to wear tinted lenses otherwise they go mad; and Wyrms can't go near it at all lest they become hypnotised and jump in. Eyebolts, Gobules, Jibjibs and Trogs are hardly affected, and Gnolls, especially mated trios of Gnolls, are affected in some way but also affect the Fire back, disturbing its flow (or perhaps affect the Observer's perception of the flow: she isn't sure which). The Observer has summoned Blit to look at the fire and see what he can see, because the River is behaving strangely. She mentions other Days That Changed Everything but says this one is especially odd, with an unexplained reference to a Nome called Rejov who did something which caused a similar event.
The Obsever trundles her wheeled cradle out of the way and Blit looks down through a viewing hatch into the River. He sees images of a cactus – almost certainly "God's Cactus", the Mansion of E – and of a "fancy pot", then letters telling him two Humans are about to cross the Grotto Bridge.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the Riddler's Grotto Sylvester lectures Rosemary about what Humans have learned about magic from Ettin writings. In their world it seems to function like magnetism – it's generated in or by the planet's core, sprays out from the South Pole in a series of leylines resembling lines of longitude and then dives back in at the North Pole. These leylines have been much fainter since the Crash. There are also random magical upwellings called tricklepoints which are still active and useable, and there's one at the source of the River of Fire. Not far away to the south, the Forest of Burzee contains an even bigger tricklepoint. The forest is peaceful and used for quiet contemplation.
Different tricklepoints behave differently and are good for different things: the ones in Agraba and Akbar are good for summoning Djinn, the one in Plinth is good for cold-forging iron, and the one under the Mansion is being squeezed by something down in the Hot Zone, causing the River to be sprayed out of it. The female Earl Audra, mother of Ludwig, investigated it, dug exploratory mines right down deep into the Hot Zone and in doing so triggered a cataclysm which greatly enlarged the Great Chasm. We can see that Audra built a shaft down through a pillar – this is the pillar with a line of lights up it that we saw during the sequence with the sapient rock, and probably also where the stair which Fizmo climbed is – which connected to a series of chambers, which explains why there was a dead E security guard in the chambers where Fizmo and Kulkad were working. He was probably killed by the blast which Audra set off. Audra used this Hot Zone research station to send down a probe which triggered the explosion, so the thing Fizmo and Kulkad were watching for might be a resurgance of this force, rather like watching the magma chamber of a volcano for signs of swelling and upwelling.
The River itself isn't dangerous unless you physically touch it. Audra's father Angus threw condemned prisoners into the River of Fire, and Chauncy and Edgar probably entered the world through it. The Operator, however, came to town by tram.
Sylvester warns Rosemary to expect to see visions as they approach the River, and they set off. Whisp, who is evidently blazingly fast and agile, watches them from the far side of the Grotto and then crosses the Pool by bounding across the sinking bridge and dodging the Riddler's lightning-fast claws, although she suspects him of not really caring whether or not anyone crosses the Pool.
Rosemary hears movement behind them but Sylvester assures her it's just the bridge sinking. Sylvester tells Rosemary that witches and wizards – thaumslingers – used to wear magic-concentrators called thaumtappers inside their pointy hats, which killed most of them when the Crash came. The batteries in their helmets run on small thaumtappers and Rosemary sees coloured lights and "horrible shapes" when she switches her helmet light on so close to the River, but it only happens if you're wearing the helmet at the time.
Rosemary is concerned that if another Crash comes their helmet battereis could blow up and kill them, but Sylvester says that if the Brush sends them a second Crash on the one day they're wearing thaum battereies then so be it, and at least neither of them is carrying a high-powered magical item which really would kill them if it blew up. Rosemary smiles brightly and tries not to think about the Can-Opener.
Sylvester does not literally think that the Brush caused the Crash, and it certainly wasn't the Wrath of the Brush as a hardline Oracle (Omega, although we don't hear her name until later) said when he was a child: he believes that the Brush set the world up, but that it has no interest in mere mortals (i.e. he's a deist). [The Brush that coloured in the world is their local version of a Creator Deity, represented by a symbol rather like a rake, and we also see that the more magic is present, the more saturated is the colour of the images in the strip.] We learn that he is not very devout, and has private reasons for not going to the Temple every week, and that the local temple of the Brush was moved from the Mansion to the local village of Eetown after an Earl called Ernest (father of Philbert) quarrelled with an Oracle called Purity. Ernest was a forger and died in a dramatic way. A new, large Temple was built just outside Eetown, which at the time was a thriving town, but being magically-powered it was wrecked in the Crash and a new new Temple was built from the ruins.
As they approach the River they start to see externally-manifested visions of people from their pasts. Sylvester sees Dirge, a thuggish man from the village (actually the current Oracle Threnody's guardian), threatening to hit him. Rosemary sees her tutor and friend (not lover, Rob has said their relationship was platonic, and he was a lot older than her) lover, Edwird, and a respected bodyguard colleague called Baldy. She apologises to Edwird for having hurt him by leaving him in an emotionally clumsy way, and swears to make it up to him if she ever gets the chance; and expects Baldy (whose real name is Milburn Aloysius Aldershot) may be her enemy now because she went AWOL from a job they were both working on. The vision of a "Pyrite" appears, with a parrot on his shoulder – the pirate, who was someone Rosemary was once on a course with, dissipates when swiped with the Can-Opener but the parrot seems to be real and flies away. She has a theory that it was the parrot who was doing the course, and the pirate was just its mount.
Sylvester sees Shackleforth Ferule, the family lawyer, who administers the trust which pays for the eldest in each generation of Emans to go to university. [In an out-take to mark the death of Paul Newman we see Forfind and another Gnoll on watch for "Council phiizzers".] Sylvester borrows the Can-Opener to wave away the vision: as he does so we see a symbol scratched on the bulky end, which Rob said is some kind of spoiler. It looks a bit like a coat-hanger with three bent wires hanging off it. Sylvester admires Mr Ferule because of his honest dedication to his job and his competence, even if he's a cold dry stick.
Sylvester teaches Rosemary how to conjure shapes out of the magic-saturated air at will (he's good at it, but not as good as Mortimer) and tells her that Ludwig studied them, and said that they were connected in some way with the distance between Eyebolts (something we have seen managers of Eyebolt clerks worrying about, and these shapes resemble those conjured by Eyebolt Weirders). We learn that brilliant Ludwig had an almost equally brilliant common-law wife called Penelope who acted as his tech-writer (though they never "jumped in the Pool" to marry).
They come to a flight of steps down, which is where the visions used to start before they spread out. As they approach the River it starts to show them what they most want to see. Rosemary sees a half-formed vision of her dead parents, without mouths because they died before she could talk to them, and Sylvester sees a naked, busty, willing Rosemary – the real Rosemary is quite flattered. We learn that for some reason Sylvester cannot or may not marry anyone from Eetown: he was expected to find a bride at university, but was too busy studying and none of his girlfriends fancied life in the arse-end of nowhere. We learn that the species in the Basement and in the area around the Mansion represent all the known intelligent species in the world, except Mugwumps (believed extinct) and Wendigoes. Rosemary wants to know why the Mansion isn't known as a tourist attraction, or as a draw for research teams as the Infernal Engine is: not even before the Crash, when Eetown was a busy and major stop-off point for airships to the Far East across the ocean. But Sylvester says there are similar but more impressive buildings elsewhere, and the Basement dwellers at the time were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now..", and neither Ernest nor Philbert was interested in the Basement. But he agrees it's still strange.
If he means that the Basement dwellers were still confined to their individual species-specific habitats in Philbert's time, fifty years ago, that would mean that everyone except the Gnolls, Gobules and Eyebolts was shut up when Audra and Ludwig went down there. But other things he says later suggest that he just means they were confined to the Basement, not roaming around the Mansion and the surrounding woods.
Rosemary and Sylvester recognise and acknowledge that they are already friends, and see a vision of Nimue Fayling, Sylvester's girlfriend from university (and Rosemary sees a naked Sylvester, but doesn't let on).
They come to the start of a bridge across the River. Sylvester says that something's changed since he was last there. A magical surge envelops them and Rosemary (only) sees a vision of the Tree personified as a sort of Ent (although initially she thinks it's Death personified). It says that it is "an aspect minor" of "the system entire". It tells her that she is carrying the seeds of some important thing, an Egg and a Claw of it: the Can-Opener is the claw, and the egg is whatever Rosemary carries with her (presumably the Zorper/HJ42: we don't learn that until later, but we see crackles of energy from her pocket) and which she refers to as having brought her there. Presumably, this is the same thing that she stole. It says that Sylvester is less connected, and only has a Torch.
Rosemary is becoming connected to "the system entire", the setup that runs the world and of which the Tree is a part, and which touches "the sky; the water; the earth and the fire; the magic; the prince in his high tower". Rosemary apologises for having distrusted it before, and speaks as if it is a god. It says she must turn the system entire upside down. She is concerend that that will hurt it, literally or metaphorically: it says that it will but "for the garden to grow roots must touch the sky". It wants to help but it lives on too slow a timescale to do much. It gives her another seed – this one actually looks a bit like a real seed – which she understands that she will need to plant at the end. We find out that she carries a Poke Kit for small items, but suddenly she understands it much better, without a manual, and is able to generate a secured SubPocket to keep the seed in with a 21-digit security code: 314159265358979323846. She is upset because she knows she won't remember this meeting.
As Rosemary wakes from the trance she forgets who she was talking to, but just before she wakes the Tree starts to tell her she will remember when she needs to. She tries to tell Sylvester about what happened and ask whether she can trust what she saw, but it slides out of her mind. He will need to remember what little he saw, and remind her when the time comes. Meanwhile, Whisp is still stalking them, the parrot is still flying overhead, and Hax uses Camora to collect a sort of blunderbuss from a cupboard in the hidden control centre where he took her.
09: Loose Ends (Basement Edition) [27/11/2008 – 07/01/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1906–#1939] Shona, Folla and Niff climb a stair in the background and Forfind flees from arrows and rocks as Faddle brings Bung a flower in a pot as a thank-you for the profit he made from selling Bung's toadstool. We learn that Bung is quite an important political or merchantile player and are reminded that he knows Digger. One of his Jibjibs returns – she has been warning "folks" about Chauncy and Edgar (and she doesn't know who Digger is). We learn that Faddle is a failed or partial Finagler – and that this entails being a good psychological observer, so he knows that Bung has lots of contacts but no friends, and thinks the plant will be a friend for him.
Anathama and Clochard are in some kind of long-standing political conspiracy with Digger, and are searching for him: Clochard is tempted to call out his name, but Anathama says he mustn't. They talk of going to Location Zero to wait for him, but it might be days before he turns up. He finds them (and it is mentioned that it is Clochard's job to ask questions he doesn't want the answers to, and that he hangs out with Izchak for information but doesn't much like him) and takes them much deeper underground. They have to cross a gap marked "mind the gap" in Ettin script. They come to a comfortable bedroom cum office which has artificial lights – so the Tree can't see what goes on there. As with the room Hax took Camora to (although this isn't the same one) there's a fish in a bowl, and also a big domino, which may be significant because even bigger dominoes turn up in Rhid's place.
There they meet their old friend the male Gnoll Bokonon, an elderly Finagler whom they had believed had been lost in the SubShafts a long time ago: he had last been heard of in SubShaft 44f, compiling a report on Crud, the developer of the Crudbean (and one of the main characters in Sundays in the SubShafts), which was just after Comshaw killed the Ravers and Nevus started Le Tree. Bokonon believes the Tree is esssentially on the same side as them. Digger says they need to survive what is happening, which will bring the birth of a new order, and "ours will be even newer and even less orderly".
Digger goes back out to see what he can do or learn about the fighting and about Chauncy and Edgar, leaving the three Gnolls behind to gossip in Gnoll jargon. Clochard and Anathama make the most of what time they have in this dangerous local situation, and go off together to make love. Bokonon, as a former Finagler, offers to help but they turn him down.
Meanwhile, we see the Scary Lady and her sentient balloon escorting Chauncy and Edgar to a Panegate which opens on a desert area: perhaps Agraba or Akbar, where the Djinn live (but it's labelled "HOWDY buckarooclass panegate" in Ettin, which suggests it's some equivalent of Arizona). Nevus, Guttle and Agita resume command of their forces: Nevus orders Faldstool to get Preznit on the 'node (='phone); Guttle plans to attack both of them; and Agita correctly tells Flibbergib what both the others are doing, although she herself is busy still scrubbing off Mortimer's kiss. Two Ghast medics are en route to collect Sepferb from outside Crazy Rhid's place and place him in a restorative Porta-Pool: on the way they pass Hiblehoy, carrying an exhausted, sleeping Wrawa, and they advise him on her care and warn him she may be in an erratic mental state when she wakes up.
Hiblehoy can't get home because Sidestep Hall is in lockdown, so a Trog called Mowder lets him and Wrawa into Rhid's place, where Sina is trying to organise an emergency demon-proof camp. Maggle has not succeeded in getting through all the fighting to return the buckets to Tunktal. The Wyrms Voog and Ploot have identified a source of water in one of the side-rooms off Rhid's place but there is machinery in the way. Sprocket and Flange turn up and are set to dismantle the machines. Maggle and Flange discuss the level of sexual tension between Sina and Sprocket, and whether they've chosen a Finagler yet. Variously in the background we see Timf, Delfa, possibly Satyrsong, and the Helipath Fosic.
Meanwhile a New Year out-take shows Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party walking past some large Human ruins, with the Spike in the background.
10: Loose Ends (Mansion Edition) [08/01/2009 – 02/03/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #1946–#1995] Amos Grubb puts Arthur the Weirdo and his hand-puppet Fantod to bed in their attic room: we see Arthur has a soft-toy Wendigo, which seems to be this world's equivalent of a teddy-bear. We see a system of lifts and pulleys within the walls of the Mansion: this is used to deliver to Hector a box containing the spare piece which Sprocket and Flange earlier salvaged from the defunct Metalmin. On his way back from collecting the box Hector passes a talking machine (which spits out phrases relevant to the death of Patrick McGoohan, but they include "The tree plants a seed!"); a Panegate (labelled "ALOHACLASS VIEWGATE"); a gun (?) in a case marked "In case of Ludwig, break glass"; and then preserved specimens of a Mugwump (with "NEVER" written above it) and a Wendigo ("AGAIN") and a painting of one of the titanbugs which the Pales use as war mounts ("OR ELSE"). Reaching his own quarters he takes the spare part out of the box and dumps the box down a chute, then goes to Mr Hand – on the way passing the Trog on the treadmill, who is now flaked out asleep.
This time we see a sweep of the whole corridor. From right to left, heading in the direction Hector is walking, we see a lift with a half-seen label starting "Zark" (which is where the Operator is from); piles of boxes; a door labelled "WINE 'CELLER'" (with quotes round the misspelling); the exhausted Trog on his treadmill, under a sign saying "P.O.C. TESTING PREP"; a door labelled "EMERGENCY WAR THRONE-TOP STORAGE"; and the weird mechanism connected to a limb of the tree, only this time we can see a label above its alcove saying "TREELINK", which may be how Mr Hand is doing his snooping.
Mr Hand, siting in a chair labelled a warthrone, with a massive mechanical hood on top which hides most of his face, talks about everyone being "back behindscenes and accounted for" except for "young Gill", the Ichyoid at Le Tree, who has been killed or injured by Hpobfvfr. He is eager to talk to Hax the Fixit. He swaps the spare part into Hector, who jokes that now his filament has been replaced he can proceed with his mission to "DESTROY ALL HUMANS!!!" (although you get the impression he kind-of wishes it was true). Mr Hand is very amused by the visual images this conjures up: Hector reminds him that he himself is human, and Mr Hand replies "Only just". Hector then repairs Mr Hand's scanners. Hand looks at pictures from around the Basement (although he can't scan near the River of Fire) and comments on the non presence of The Gibber, which may connect to something the Sneeches have done (left?). He tries to track Rosemary and Sylvester but can't see them because they are close to the River, so he sends Hector to talk to the Riddler. He has a special interest in and wariness of Rosemary, and mutters that she might be another test sent down from—
As Hector leaves, Mr Hand is 'phoned by some colleague for a conference, and he mutters "Speak of the Zarkite and he appears", meaning that the person who has called is the one who sets him tests. Hector passes the dead king on his throne: the dial is now at "No". A label above his alcove says "EARLSCOPE".
Amos goes outside onto a bridge and observes unusual activity in the Tree, which is labouring to clear the air in the Basement of smoke. He lets himself into the Ivory Tower and goes to a cupboard labelled "IMPORTANT BOOK AND STAIRWAY CANDLESTICK SECURITY CABINET", replaces a book and gets out a candle which he lights by magic, but Nellie catches him and tells him off for taking the risk, as she fears a second Crash which might kill him if he's using magic at the time. Amos is a former thaumslinger (so is she, although we don't learn that till later).
Nellie has brought back from the village a large young man called Patrick, the local sheriff, who has come for a report. As a child he used to come to read, but no longer does. Amos reports to Patrick about Rosemary, and Nellie talks about the Pit Flare, which she saw on her way to town, but Amos didn't know about. Patrick and his colleagues watch the Earl and are aware that Rosemary arrived without seeming to pass through the surrounding area. Amos reassures him she's not from another world. Patrick wants Sylvester to report to him. Amos and Nellie give him a book on wine-making for someone called Saffron in the village (we will learn that she is the innkeeper), and a Willy the Wendigo book for his son, and he strides off back to the village.
11: Loose Ends (Forest Edition) [03/03/2009 – 21/04/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2002–#2044] Umboz, Vezza, Piu and Nitfol and their Pale escort arrive at the Pale camp, a kind of amorphous but high-tech. (with e.g. gas-lighting), pueblo-type castle. The local Pales seem very curious to see them. There they meet a Pale diplomat called Zpeaker, with two head-spikes (both large and dark, unlike Thrash who has one large dark spike and a second, small and pale one) and a larger and more prominent jaw than most Pales, whose job is to project sounds that other species can hear, in order to talk to them. We learn that Umboz is a squidcoaxer and Vezza is training to be, Piu is a healer and Nitfol is unemployed; and that Nitfol had been rescued from the Spyder by their two Pale escorts, who presumably killed the Spyder and who took him to Frowgler. Frowgler told him that he had sent the Pales to save him, and now he, Nitfol, had to save Umboz and Vezza. He wants to speak to Frowgler, but he's not currently at the Camp.
Nitfol asks to see the Nexus, the Pale leader, since Zpeaker says he's the only one who knows what Frowgler is, but the other three Nomes prefer to go and eat and rest. Frowgler has told the Pales they will benefit by helping these Nomes: Umboz is afraid they want him to open a breach in his village's squid-based defences but Zpeaker says not. What the Pales hope for is a way to breach the barrier which they, and the Nomes, experience as keeping them bound within this local area. Frowgler told them Umboz and co. could help, and so far everything he's told them has come true (this must be what Frowgler meant when he said that he meant to see that the Pales got what they wanted, and whether or not they still wanted it once they'd got it wasn't his concern). The Nexus is old enough to remember before the barrier existed, when magic flowed freely, so before the Crash: so possibly the appearance of the barrier is connected with the Crash (and Philbert' death and the Basement-folk escaping their habitats also happened around that time).
We learn that after the Nome/Gnoll war, the Nomes taught the Pales how to tree-warp (opening a Tardis-like space within a tree-trunk). They have used these skills to set up comfortable quarters for their Nome visitors inside a large tree which abuts their main building, with a bedroom upstairs up a ladder, and a drophole down below. Zpeaker doesn't get the chance to use his voice skills very often; the rest of the time he helps to grow giant fungi called Tower Caps. We learn that now that Piu and Umbuz are getting married, she will be the one making the decisions, according to Nome custom.
Vezza, having eaten a lot, crashes out on a sofa. Umboz and Piu discuss how to get rid of Mayor Koyeeb, and who should replace him: Nitfol, returning, volunteers. The others reluctantly agree, as he's clever and the destruction of his home tree by the beaver shark gives him a non-conspiratorial excuse for seeking a new lifestyle. Nitfol says he doesn't hate everyone, just holds people in contempt, except the Nexus who really impressed him, and who already made the points Piu and Umbuz are making. The Nexus and Nitfol have a multi-stage plan of campaign worked out. The first stage will involve "some really stupid blobwarts, a five-meter pole, and three liters of Raviner ichor". To persuade Raviners (which are weird land-crab-like things) to spew ichor will involve the collection of strange and difficult substances from the deep forest.
Meanwhile, the skunk shark is still chewing its way through the bushes, much to the alarm of Snerk, and Comshaw and co. are still roosting on top of the ruined fountain. We see Yasmine Fotheringby waking up dazed and regaining her composure in the ruins where Protus dropped her – in fact, the above-ground bit of the same ruined branch of World o' Pots where Mortimer fell into the underground storage area. She takes off a mask within the hood: we still cannot see her face or species, but she thinks of herself as Human, and remembers being sent by someone named Tara to find out about fleebs. She knows that she belongs to the Weirdoes' Guild. She sets off to rejoin her horse but then hears a sleeping Mortimer coughing inside a building guarded by a not very effective Sneech security device, and goes to investigate. Mortimer wakes up wondering why Pales, who like deserts, also live here in the forest.
Meanwhile, Niddle is teaching Ig to play a complicated rock-stacking game, and Comsahw is impatient to leave.
12: Urwyn and the elevator [22/04/2009 – 03/08/2009] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2051–#2149] Shona, Niff (the male) and Folla arrive at Rhid's ex place, where the male Trog Mowder is now the gatekeeper: the gate in question is being constructed by Fosic the Helipath. Mowder believes that Rhid's former place, under Sina's leadership, will become a new multi-species Hall offering greater opportunities for individuality and personal advancement than the existing Halls, and might maybe even start a trend for many new Halls springing up around the fringes of the old ones. Shona wants to see Sina, her sister, but Sina sends her a message telling her to go home. Mowder suggests that she come in anyway and report to Catmorlo to be assigned a job, thus becoming Sina's employee instead of Nevus's, but Shona walks away, passing Kulma and Timf who are busily at work carrying things. Mowder isn't worried that Shona will rat them out to Nevus as he doesn't reckon Nevus respects her opinion.
We meet a tiny, diffident Shallow Wyrm called Urwyn (of the Inner Ring of the Circle of the Dunktyn Stone, although we don't learn that until later). He volunteers to help with the new Hall, and Mowder sends a male Gnoll called Satyrsong to carry Urwyn to Catmorlo. Satyrsong has an extreme hairdo which he cultivates for effect. Delfa gives Satyrsong a piece of found tech. to add to their stockpile: it looks Ettin-made (and is based on the USB symbol). Maggle, Flange, Kulma and Timf and others offstage are milling about carrying out tasks assigned by Catmorlo: Urwyn notices that the new piece of unknown eqipment which Satyrsong has brought in sends out a trail of energy to another piece, but no-one listens to him when he tries to tell them about it.
Skuy appears with a message from Sina, saying they need somebody inconspicuous to keep an eye on the elevator. Urwyn is assigned to stay out of sight and watch. As Skuy carries Urwyn towards the elevator they pass a group of Flange, a Gnoll named Krink from the bucket chain, a Jibjib and Prandia the Gobule, who are building some kind of electronic gateway which involves toggling a bim. They encounter Voog, who is instructing Niff and Folla on sniffing some boxes to see if the contets are OK. Voog examines Urwyn to see if he has to "eat" him, which is actually a metaphor for some sexual element of the relationship between the large Deep Wyrms and the little ones. This leads to a conversation in which Skuy says she will never use a Finagler: she was in love with Cully who was exiled to SubShaft 44f by Nevus (whom Urwyn believes and hopes doesn't know he exists).
Skuy takes Urwyn to meet Sina, who is in Rhid's laboratory where Sprocket is clearing out the most dangerous stuff. Wrawa has been left to sleep and a Gnoll Healer named Kottle is assigned to keep an eye on her. The Trogs called Grik and Grak have appointed themselves as Sina's bodyguards. Sina's sight is returning, and she is kept very busy organising everybody. Hiblehoy is sent to make up beds – we learn that it is difficult, but not impossible, for male and female Motihauls to work together. Pergola warns them about a "thing" spewing goo and is sent to tell Sprocket. There is some conversation about Rhid's obligatory stuffed crocagator: Nubby kept a pool of live ones at the far end of the Basement, but Urwyn has never been to see them because there's no [unspecified secret thing he doesn't want to name], plus it's a long journey for someone his size. We are reminded that Rhid used to be a Candle Monk but got thrown out, and told that he was trained by a Gnoll wizard (? probably a wizard) called Burtgum who died in some kind of accident. Grak won't let Sina approach the elevator.
Urwyn will summon help, if he needs it, by pinging a glass ball. A Gnoll called Finimbrun, who is interested in similar stuff to Rhid but is sane, is to be that help. Finimbrun takes Urwyn to meet somebody called Huff and they all get caught up inside a mechanical Kraken, a Human-made advertising float which Rhid had acquired somewhere, which changes from green to purple and which is labelled "Eat at Shub's". Finimbrun gets control of the arms and uses them to fumble around: one of the things he finds lying nearby is a Pokemon ball labelled "Rhid Find lightning rod before opening again!-Rhid". Huff's species isn't given but his or her dialogue font looks like Jibjib.
The Kraken's long arm is used to transport Urwyn to a position where he can watch the elevator from behind a nearby door jamb. There he meets another Shallow Wyrm, a friend of his called Zugo, who is doing some kind of foraging work for "the Circle". We learn that Urwyn is the Wyrm equivalent of a pampered aristocrat but he wants to be useful and do work, and would give up his position and work like and with Zugo, but Zugo's work colleagues would kill him for Breaking the Rings. Zugo, who is the equivalent of working-class, is also unusual in that he will talk to Urwyn. Urwyn asks Zugo to warn "the innerest Ring" that Rhid has been ousted: he expects that if anybody in that Ring notices that he, Urwyn has left, they'll be glad to be rid of him.
Meanwhile, Flange has created a device called a bim toggler with which s/he has opened a false wall to reveal a sequence of rooms beyond. Some walls havve a symbol on them which indicates that there is space behind them that can be access with such a device. S/he believes there may be other large rooms left sealed by the Humans. An alarmingly gungho female Motihaul called Othara, granddaughter of the famous Othar, turns up and volunteers to explore the new space, which Sina hopes will relieve overcrowding in the Halls.
Urwyn (or possibly Zugo) thinks he hears something, but doesn't realise the floor-dial on the elevator has moved. Sina realises she forgot to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, but at that moment the elevator doors open and Hpobfvfr appears, red-eyed and controlled by the Operator. Urwyn tells Zugo to leave. Hpobfvfr still hates the Operator but he has nevertheless convinced her that he is her superior officer, by knowing Level Three passwords: the way the Operator speaks of different levels of passwords suggests Hpobfvfr may operate in some artificial way like a Metalmin and her mind can be hacked into. The Operator sends her to fetch Sylvester's cold iron frying pan: although it hurts the Operator to touch it, he holds it and uses it to probe the boundaries of his cage.
He sends her to gather up the remains of Hpthbvtw (Hepthbav), which he thinks he can use: but when he realises that Hpobfvfr has a strong emotional link to Hpthbvtw, and that this is weakening his hold over her (her eyes get noticeably less red), he orders her back into the lift. He tells her that he too had a mate he was "rather fond of", and offspring, and he doesn't know if he will see them again but in the very long term he will "literally move heaven and earth" for the chance to do so.
Skuy comes to warn Urwyn about Hpobfvfr, and Urwyn tells her she's already appeared: she goes off again to tell Sina. Meanwhile, the Operator does something to Hpobfvfr's physiology which causes a red flicker around her head, and then tells her to track and kill Rosemary and Sylvester – a task she takes to with enthusiasm. In fact, the Operator is seeking to test Rosemary against a less malleable opponent than Chauncy and Edgar, because he has a use for her if she wins.
Ploot, the large Deep Wyrm from Sina's team, comes to speak to Urwyn about what he has seen. In the foreground, a Smyt summons a trundlebug and rides it like a horse. Urwyn comments on the fact that Ploot is the first Deep Wyrm he's met who didn't examine him to see if he needed to "eat" him. Ploot says he's just not very interested in that kind of thing – it's a powerful and necessary drive but a small minority just don't have it. They see an externalised Vision, or what Ploot calls a "Glimpse" (actually celebrating the strip's sixth birthday). Ploot tells Urwyn he stays up high (for a Wyrm) in the Basement because he doesn't want to breed and also because times are changing, as the Vision suggests, and he wants to help people who are trying to smooth the transition and set up a new society etc.. Urwyn mutters that he isn't sure he'd mind if Ploot wanted to Eat him....
Another Shallow Wyrm called Kryt of the Ring of the Celestial Observation Slit, who has been secretly watching this exchange, goes to some kind of communication station and starts to give a secret report about the Operator to some Wyrm authority. There seems to be a small colony of the little Shallow Wyrms living around this communication point. Meanwhile a large flutterby, a banded Vagabond, dazed by crashing into light globes, flies past them and down into the depths, where it is struck by the radiator of a large lorry or armoured car, being driven deep undergound.
13: The Great Chasm [04/08/2009 – 26/02/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions strips #2158–end] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips start–#2348] On the lorry are two very amusing, characterful Fixits, a male and a female who call each other "Age" and "Beauty" and who seem to be working partners, both riding unconscious Gnoll mounts. They mention an engineer called Tix who had been complaining that the "Sneechtaps" were all offline. They come to an underground building which looks a bit like a smaller version of the Mansion of E upside-down and has levitating lifts, where they report to a very bossy female Fixit called Grix. It is mentioned that there is a schedule which Nevus and the Council have pre-empted by attacking each other.
They bear a message saying that Mr Hand wants to see Hax urgently. Grix reveals that Hax has a history of getting into scrapes (nearly as bad as Mortimer) and has just spent almost ten years relegated to the (breeding?) pens in the mountains. He was given Project Y duty that very morning (which suggests he was told to take fleebs to the Great Chasm in order for Sprocket and Flange to end up with them) and Grix isn't surprised to hear that he ran into trouble. Grix summons a female Ichyoid called Igor (which seems to be a job title not a name) who brings in boxes of what we later learn are delicate, increasingly-hard-to-obtain Pvatskin Triggers vital for the maintenance of the underpinnings of the River of Fire. The partners are despatched to take these boxes to the Chasmside Covert Observation Station: after they have left, Igor wishes to discuss Rufus, apparently as a replacement for Mr Hand, but this is so secret a matter that Grix tells her they must know nothing about it ever.
The two partners are sent on another long lorry journey to deliver the boxes (which one of them finds unsettling). With them in the lorry are other consignments, including lunch for their journey and a cage containing a larger-than-usual (hamster-sized), amaranth-coloured Fuzz which sings in notes coloured in the same rainbow colours as the River of Fire, underneath which they pass (and we see a massive pillar supporting it). This may be an indication that someone in this group has contact with the city of the Spires in Mechana where, as we will later learn, they breed Fuzzes for size, appearance and singing ability. The female Fixit expresses moral doubts about what they are doing by controlling their mounts. En route they pass the Quarentine [sic] Alcove of Forbidden Objects, which contains strange things such as a statue of an Ichyoid and a giant, broken statue of Kaylu with wires hanging out of it.
When they reach the Chasmside Covert Observation Station (which is decorated with a crowned human figure playing a trumpet) they unload in a large, open hangar and then report to Fixits called Apix and Birux. We learn that one of the things they are doing down here is repairing the undershield of the River of Fire, but it's getting more difficult, in part because it's getting harder to get hold of the hardening foam triggered by the Pvatskin Triggers. Apix says that Nevus and Preznit (for the Council) have called a cease-fire. He is aware of Sylvester and of Rosemary, whom he calls "regrettably proactive". The male of the two partners then goes up to an observation deck where he talks to a Fixit called Peex (riding on/fused with an Eyebolt) and they discuss Project Y, the same thing Sprocket and Flange were working on earlier. Project Y will give their employers much more effective surveillance but may not be finished in their lifetime. There is a suggestion that their current surveillance system involves the Tree. Project Y will result in much better surveillance, and then Mr Hand won't need as many of them to snoop for him.
The action cuts to Rosemary and Sylvester, who are discussing Rosemary's Poke Kit, which was a going-away present from Aunt Eva, and the E family library in the Ivory Tower, and books they have read about Erewhonian anthropology, and night creatures. We learn that Amos Grubb is the Mansion's librarian and Nellie Grubb is the gardener.
As Rosemary and Sylvester climb the steps leading away from the far side of the River there are no more visions, just an odd smell of marshberries (which leads to a discussion about the different berries available in different regions, and Audravania growing pudding plants). They reach a lighted area, and Rosemary becomes temporarily hypnotised after looking at a spinning light. She is amazed to discover that the Can-Opener fits inside her Poke Kit, which previously had only been able to hold small objects: Sylvester attributes this to the power of the tricklepoint. Pre-Crash folk heroes named Readman and Billsmith are mentioned, who carried a whole library and an arsenal in Poke Kits. If you take a Poke Kit into a low-magic area it spits out what was inside it. Their local trickle-pont is between the Mansion and the Spire.
Sylvester talks about the Spike (and at least some bits of the Mansion, since e.g. the Panegates have the same characteristic writing on them as the Spike) having been built by Ettins, and about the ancient war between Ettins and Sneeches, which killed all the Ettins and most of the Sneeches. We learn that the Ettins sent a mission to the Moon to investigate artefacts of unknown origin there, and they used durasteel construction plates.
The Ettins had less of a presence Out West. The West was Sneech terriory, although most of them died in the war and they now mainly live in Wirtvale. Sylvester says that the Sneeches in the Basement usually allow travellers through their territory if they stick to the main road and don't engage with anybody. They occasionally give travellers gifts, which may be beneficial, dangerous or both: Audra's cost her a hand but she said it was worth it. Latterly, Sneech gifts are usually either thrown away or stored in the Quiet Room (a magic-deadening space upstairs in the Mansion). The new Earl has to walk through the Sneech colony alone, but Sylvester saw no Sneeches when he did so. In the context of how unusual it is to have one Pale village with no other Pales nearby to fight, Sylvester talks about the zoo which the Ettins set up in the Basement, before Humans arrived in the area. The habitats were self-sustaining and most still work: Nubby's Crocogator Pit is in the Motihaul swamp, and the Chamber of Extreme Aridity was for the Pales. Most of the local sapient species were exhibits – except the Sneeches, who were prisoners of war and research subjects; the Gnolls, who were free-lance "vermin" living where they chose; and the Gobules and Eyebolts, who were on the staff of the zoo. There's a dating problem there. Previously Sylvester said that most of the nonHumans in the Basement were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now.." in Philbert's time – which extended right up to three months before the Crash, fifty years ago. Now he says of the Pales that "Like all the other species, after the Ettins were gone, they eventually got out of their habitat. Started roaming the Basement." where they set up a mixed-species society. But "after the Ettins were gone" is in the time of the 1st Earl. Definite dates start with Milo, the 9thEarl, 350 years ago, but since then they've averaged twenty-five years per reign so the 1st Earl would probably have been around 550 years ago. Five hundred years is a very long "eventually". Perhaps what happened was that soon after the Ettins died their habitats became open and they could "start roaming", but they mostly stayed in their own environments where they were comfortable, until a combination of rising numbers and the disruption caused by Audra eventually led them to start spreading out. Or perhaps he just means that up to fifty years ago they were still confined to the Basement, not spreading out into the countryside: especially as he says that the Pales left the Basement and settled in the ruins of Eetown after the Crash. This probably has something to do with the presence of a large, ultimately Pale-owned World o' Pots in Eetown. The Ettins seem to have had no contact with Humans (presumably until their final end, when the 1st Earl supposedly fought them) as their records never mention them. Sylvester knows a lot about all this because if he'd had his choice he would have liked to be an archaeologist. Humans came into the country from across the sea in large numbers from Tiranog via the Sea of Shells and into a region called Abalone, and took over the area. Tiranog is on the same continent, and not all that far away, so this reinforces the idea that the Ettins only lived in what is now Yurpsland, otherwise they could hardly have failed to meet Humans. There were already older Human colonies in Yurpsland, in Shibolith, south-east of Abalone, who got there by a different route, overland from Thekla in the south. They had conflict with the Pales in Shibolith and so never spread, and they now speak a very different dialect from the rest. However, the language spoken locally is very widespread because Sylvester says his mother can just about understand the locals in Agraba, which is on the other side of the whole big continent, nearly four times the whole width of Yurpsland away. Even before the colonies in Shibolith, the insular, hostile tribal Human group called Haroons were brought into Alfibay (the far north-west of Yurpsland) by someone or something. Sylvester mentions Ilsa Lundquist, who was head housekeeper at the Mansion for years, and whose mother was a Haroon. This must be the same green-haired, Earl-hating Ilsa whom Snerk and Shona met when the HJ42 went PROZ and jumped them back to Eetown shortly before the Crash. Ilsa had a distracted air – probably because the Scary Lady was controlling her in some way – and eventually retired to the village. The Mansion still has a very old, almost mummified butler called Schmedley. They used to have all sorts of servants, including an hereditary string-measurer: the last incumbent choked to death a week and a half before the Crash, and some people thought the Crash happened because the post was vacant. Rosemary has plans for reviving the Mansion's fortunes, and is already referring to "our" and "we" in this context. At the very least, she can mind the place while Sylvester goes to Glome, the provincial capital, where he can get more current information. We learn that King Yorik III and his children died in the Crash. The current king Yancy II is a figurehead: the Bureaucracy really governs. Sylvester follows the fortunes of various factions in The Times (which stuck out here he can only get hold of weeks after publication) and has plans for playing the stockmarket. The stories in The Times are often slanted in a way that gives away the various jockeyings for position between government agencies and between companies. There is a long discussion about the fact that the government's bureaucracy is fragmented into multiple agencies and factions, and about the politics of the various neighbouring countries, including a place called Blefusco which is clearly equivalent to France. The country just south of Yurpsland is called Thekla, and south of that are Incana and Blefusco. Incana and Thekla are sabre-rattling: Blefusco is neutral, but if it gets dragged in it could lead to war between multiple countries including theirs. As they approach the top of the stairs, the hypnotic lights go out. They talk about the various habitats in the Basement ex-zoo, the death of the Wendigoes in the failed arctic exhibit (no loss, according to Sylvester), and the Willy the Wendigo books, and Sylvester's obligation to produce an heir (although given how many siblings he has I would have thought a nephew or niece would have done) and birth-control failures (they chew a plant called stiflebloom, but occasionally it doesn't work), and the pointlessness of Rosemary's crush on Baldy because he was "a homguy". We learn that the Helipaths and Ecadems were probably brought in by the Ettins through a Panegate. Sylvester believes that the Panegates open into alternate heres, rather than other planets. We learn that Rosemary's parents drowned in a maritime accident, and that there were terrible Dawn Wars before the Ettins and Sneeches came along. The combatants were inimical races called Wilfs/Wifts and Gobblems/Gobble'Ems, who are now known in this world only from bone framgments and fairy tales but who still exist beyond one of the Panegates. For whatever reason, the Panegates only show worlds a long way diverged from this one. The 12th Earl, Lemuel, investigated the Panegates and was probably killed by one: the controls are difficult and dangerous to operate, but there are a few simple ones which do work and part of the rite of passage of the new Earl is to go through one to e.g. the Forest, or yo Charlotte's Cave (which is halfway up the side of a nearby mountain). The Panegates also sometimes prompt the formation of brief portals to strange and distant places. We see an image of one through which we can glimpse Snoopy on his doghouse, and are shown an incident where two frog-creatures from the Station V3 webcomic emerged in the Mansion and were dealt with by the Scary Lady. I would suggest that Frowgler came through such a portal after one connected to the Roshambo comic, but he has said elsewhere that he isn't the Frowgler, just a Frowgler. Rosemary starts to ask about the Scary Lady, but then they reach the Great Chasm. Mr Hand watches them on his monitors, but disclaims all knowledge to somebody on the 'phone. Ludwig installed railings and bridges over the Chasm: there is a gap in the rails opposite the door they emerge from, but no bridge. It's not just any gap, but delineated by posts with E finials: it looks like it was built for a bridge that's no longer there, or perhaps as a boarding-point for airships. They establish that Rosemary is not scared of heights, and actively enjoyed working in the rigging of a sailing ship. The Chasm, is lit by daylight (and hence only in daylight) by reflectors installed by Ludwig. Walking along a ledge to get to the actual bridge, they sample the local treefruit, pass a gap where the rail is simply broken, then encounter an elderly male Gobule called Theophan the Recluse. Theophan is one of a long series of Theophans, the Founder, the Mighty and the Rotund, who were all famous mentors (passing the name through mentoring, not blood relationship). Gobule young are self-supporting and non-sapient, like baby guinea-pigs. They scatter in large numbers to grow or die. Those that live, become sapient: some of those become mere scavengers around the fringes but the luckiest are taken on by a mentor and educated. This Theophan was a student of Theophan the Rotund, along with Maw, Bung, Cram and Guttle. We learn that Gobule mentors occasionally mentor other species: Sylvester seems to be considering using one for his own future children. We hear about a Jibjib boss called Flap who runs an expensive ferry service across the Chasm, and learn that Theophan has chosen to stay beside the Chasm because it goes all the way down to the Hot Zone and he feels there's something terribly important down there, and not just the Treeroot. He tastes the Can-Opener and thinks it is made of Sneech squeezings, or something similar. He doesn't want to know their names, which are arbitrary labels, so they use the code-names Twit and Warrior. We learn that Theophan also stays by the Chasm to provide a sort of impartial counselling service to male Trogs who come to the Chasm to kill themselves by taking the Plunge before they lose their minds. A traditional location is used for this: it looks like another possible airship-jetty, like the one they passed earlier. After Rosemary and Sylvester have left we see Whisp still trailing them, then two baby Gobules emerge from a hole and talk to Theophan. Interestingly Theophan seems to have taught them the wrong meaning of the word "hobnob" as one baby says it means "fighting with", and Theopan replies "With teeth or with words, Yes." It actually means something between being pally with and conspiring with: a British brand of biscuit is called Hobnob because of the cosy image it conjures up. We learn that those Nomes who still live in the Basement live in Root Hall with the Eyebolts. Rosemary disapproves of the fact that Theophan doesn't try to stop the Trogs from killing themselves, but Sylvester understands it, and says he might do the same if he developed Darnay Syndrome (their equivalent of Alzheimer's). Rosemary is aware of Whisp following them. As they approach the Plunge point, trying to lose Whisp, they are passed by Crazy Rhid coming the other way, with Kronk still on his trail some way behind him. Sylvester thinks he's seen Rhid before, but doesn't realise it was in the images shown to him by Protus. We get to see the Plunge Point as seen from across the far side, so that we can see that there is a lighted panel below the lip facing out into the Chasm, lending weight to the idea that these were docking points for something. Nearby, we see the male Ghast Sopovefe from the bucket chain, waiting for "the little zorper" (so probably Frowgler, although if "zorper" is being used just as profanity he might mean Digger or some Shallow Wyrm), and Hpobfvfr passing by behind him, presumably looking for Rosemary and Sylvester: Sopovefe glimpses her and seems to realise something is odd about her. A shot is fired (by Camora, with the blunderbuss, under Hax's control, from a high vantage point), striking Rosemary on the helmet and dazing her: in her confusion she exclaims "I told them not to ring your bell, Dandelion..", Dandelion being the name of the Oracle where she grew up. Kronk pushes her aside in order to pursue Rhid, and she and Sylvester fall into the Chasm. Rhid and Kronk pass Whisp, who can smell that Rosemary and Sylvester went over the Plunge, and also smells Camora's presence nearby. Rhid, in the lead, then passes Theophan, and then a Trog juggler who we later learn is called Stonwal, and then the doorway that leads to the River, and then is rescued by Digger Odel, who pulls him in behind a concealed panel. Whisp traces Camora's scent and works out that she emerged from a spot in a corridor wall (not the point she disappeared behind before), tracked to the ledge above the Plunge site and then returned. She wonders if it's a transporting twistpoint, like one in Helignoll Hall, then works out that it's a concealed door, and leaves to report back to Upernavik and Knumdrot. Meanwhile we see Hpobfvfr go to the edge of the Plunge and peer over, then turn back. Behind the panel Hax disengages from Camora. He believes he has contained her memory and delayed her awakening, but she wakes instantly, with full memory, and tries to grab him. He escapes down a letterbox-sized slot in the rock, scraping his front surface badly in the process, with Camora shouting THIS IS NOT OVER!" behind him. We see gaps and tunnels in the rock containing odd bits of struts and tools and what looks like a Smyt-sized pink racing car, then a cavern where four bats are roosting. One bat bat wakes and flies through wider fissures towards the outside.
There's a dating problem there. Previously Sylvester said that most of the nonHumans in the Basement were "still.. penned up, not roaming around free like they are now.." in Philbert's time – which extended right up to three months before the Crash, fifty years ago. Now he says of the Pales that "Like all the other species, after the Ettins were gone, they eventually got out of their habitat. Started roaming the Basement." where they set up a mixed-species society.
But "after the Ettins were gone" is in the time of the 1st Earl. Definite dates start with Milo, the 9thEarl, 350 years ago, but since then they've averaged twenty-five years per reign so the 1st Earl would probably have been around 550 years ago. Five hundred years is a very long "eventually". Perhaps what happened was that soon after the Ettins died their habitats became open and they could "start roaming", but they mostly stayed in their own environments where they were comfortable, until a combination of rising numbers and the disruption caused by Audra eventually led them to start spreading out. Or perhaps he just means that up to fifty years ago they were still confined to the Basement, not spreading out into the countryside: especially as he says that the Pales left the Basement and settled in the ruins of Eetown after the Crash. This probably has something to do with the presence of a large, ultimately Pale-owned World o' Pots in Eetown.
The Ettins seem to have had no contact with Humans (presumably until their final end, when the 1st Earl supposedly fought them) as their records never mention them. Sylvester knows a lot about all this because if he'd had his choice he would have liked to be an archaeologist. Humans came into the country from across the sea in large numbers from Tiranog via the Sea of Shells and into a region called Abalone, and took over the area. Tiranog is on the same continent, and not all that far away, so this reinforces the idea that the Ettins only lived in what is now Yurpsland, otherwise they could hardly have failed to meet Humans.
There were already older Human colonies in Yurpsland, in Shibolith, south-east of Abalone, who got there by a different route, overland from Thekla in the south. They had conflict with the Pales in Shibolith and so never spread, and they now speak a very different dialect from the rest. However, the language spoken locally is very widespread because Sylvester says his mother can just about understand the locals in Agraba, which is on the other side of the whole big continent, nearly four times the whole width of Yurpsland away. Even before the colonies in Shibolith, the insular, hostile tribal Human group called Haroons were brought into Alfibay (the far north-west of Yurpsland) by someone or something.
Sylvester mentions Ilsa Lundquist, who was head housekeeper at the Mansion for years, and whose mother was a Haroon. This must be the same green-haired, Earl-hating Ilsa whom Snerk and Shona met when the HJ42 went PROZ and jumped them back to Eetown shortly before the Crash. Ilsa had a distracted air – probably because the Scary Lady was controlling her in some way – and eventually retired to the village. The Mansion still has a very old, almost mummified butler called Schmedley. They used to have all sorts of servants, including an hereditary string-measurer: the last incumbent choked to death a week and a half before the Crash, and some people thought the Crash happened because the post was vacant. Rosemary has plans for reviving the Mansion's fortunes, and is already referring to "our" and "we" in this context. At the very least, she can mind the place while Sylvester goes to Glome, the provincial capital, where he can get more current information.
We learn that King Yorik III and his children died in the Crash. The current king Yancy II is a figurehead: the Bureaucracy really governs. Sylvester follows the fortunes of various factions in The Times (which stuck out here he can only get hold of weeks after publication) and has plans for playing the stockmarket. The stories in The Times are often slanted in a way that gives away the various jockeyings for position between government agencies and between companies. There is a long discussion about the fact that the government's bureaucracy is fragmented into multiple agencies and factions, and about the politics of the various neighbouring countries, including a place called Blefusco which is clearly equivalent to France. The country just south of Yurpsland is called Thekla, and south of that are Incana and Blefusco. Incana and Thekla are sabre-rattling: Blefusco is neutral, but if it gets dragged in it could lead to war between multiple countries including theirs.
As they approach the top of the stairs, the hypnotic lights go out. They talk about the various habitats in the Basement ex-zoo, the death of the Wendigoes in the failed arctic exhibit (no loss, according to Sylvester), and the Willy the Wendigo books, and Sylvester's obligation to produce an heir (although given how many siblings he has I would have thought a nephew or niece would have done) and birth-control failures (they chew a plant called stiflebloom, but occasionally it doesn't work), and the pointlessness of Rosemary's crush on Baldy because he was "a homguy". We learn that the Helipaths and Ecadems were probably brought in by the Ettins through a Panegate. Sylvester believes that the Panegates open into alternate heres, rather than other planets.
We learn that Rosemary's parents drowned in a maritime accident, and that there were terrible Dawn Wars before the Ettins and Sneeches came along. The combatants were inimical races called Wilfs/Wifts and Gobblems/Gobble'Ems, who are now known in this world only from bone framgments and fairy tales but who still exist beyond one of the Panegates. For whatever reason, the Panegates only show worlds a long way diverged from this one. The 12th Earl, Lemuel, investigated the Panegates and was probably killed by one: the controls are difficult and dangerous to operate, but there are a few simple ones which do work and part of the rite of passage of the new Earl is to go through one to e.g. the Forest, or yo Charlotte's Cave (which is halfway up the side of a nearby mountain).
The Panegates also sometimes prompt the formation of brief portals to strange and distant places. We see an image of one through which we can glimpse Snoopy on his doghouse, and are shown an incident where two frog-creatures from the Station V3 webcomic emerged in the Mansion and were dealt with by the Scary Lady. I would suggest that Frowgler came through such a portal after one connected to the Roshambo comic, but he has said elsewhere that he isn't the Frowgler, just a Frowgler.
Rosemary starts to ask about the Scary Lady, but then they reach the Great Chasm. Mr Hand watches them on his monitors, but disclaims all knowledge to somebody on the 'phone. Ludwig installed railings and bridges over the Chasm: there is a gap in the rails opposite the door they emerge from, but no bridge. It's not just any gap, but delineated by posts with E finials: it looks like it was built for a bridge that's no longer there, or perhaps as a boarding-point for airships. They establish that Rosemary is not scared of heights, and actively enjoyed working in the rigging of a sailing ship.
The Chasm, is lit by daylight (and hence only in daylight) by reflectors installed by Ludwig. Walking along a ledge to get to the actual bridge, they sample the local treefruit, pass a gap where the rail is simply broken, then encounter an elderly male Gobule called Theophan the Recluse. Theophan is one of a long series of Theophans, the Founder, the Mighty and the Rotund, who were all famous mentors (passing the name through mentoring, not blood relationship). Gobule young are self-supporting and non-sapient, like baby guinea-pigs. They scatter in large numbers to grow or die. Those that live, become sapient: some of those become mere scavengers around the fringes but the luckiest are taken on by a mentor and educated. This Theophan was a student of Theophan the Rotund, along with Maw, Bung, Cram and Guttle. We learn that Gobule mentors occasionally mentor other species: Sylvester seems to be considering using one for his own future children. We hear about a Jibjib boss called Flap who runs an expensive ferry service across the Chasm, and learn that Theophan has chosen to stay beside the Chasm because it goes all the way down to the Hot Zone and he feels there's something terribly important down there, and not just the Treeroot. He tastes the Can-Opener and thinks it is made of Sneech squeezings, or something similar. He doesn't want to know their names, which are arbitrary labels, so they use the code-names Twit and Warrior.
We learn that Theophan also stays by the Chasm to provide a sort of impartial counselling service to male Trogs who come to the Chasm to kill themselves by taking the Plunge before they lose their minds. A traditional location is used for this: it looks like another possible airship-jetty, like the one they passed earlier. After Rosemary and Sylvester have left we see Whisp still trailing them, then two baby Gobules emerge from a hole and talk to Theophan. Interestingly Theophan seems to have taught them the wrong meaning of the word "hobnob" as one baby says it means "fighting with", and Theopan replies "With teeth or with words, Yes." It actually means something between being pally with and conspiring with: a British brand of biscuit is called Hobnob because of the cosy image it conjures up. We learn that those Nomes who still live in the Basement live in Root Hall with the Eyebolts.
Rosemary disapproves of the fact that Theophan doesn't try to stop the Trogs from killing themselves, but Sylvester understands it, and says he might do the same if he developed Darnay Syndrome (their equivalent of Alzheimer's). Rosemary is aware of Whisp following them. As they approach the Plunge point, trying to lose Whisp, they are passed by Crazy Rhid coming the other way, with Kronk still on his trail some way behind him. Sylvester thinks he's seen Rhid before, but doesn't realise it was in the images shown to him by Protus. We get to see the Plunge Point as seen from across the far side, so that we can see that there is a lighted panel below the lip facing out into the Chasm, lending weight to the idea that these were docking points for something.
Nearby, we see the male Ghast Sopovefe from the bucket chain, waiting for "the little zorper" (so probably Frowgler, although if "zorper" is being used just as profanity he might mean Digger or some Shallow Wyrm), and Hpobfvfr passing by behind him, presumably looking for Rosemary and Sylvester: Sopovefe glimpses her and seems to realise something is odd about her. A shot is fired (by Camora, with the blunderbuss, under Hax's control, from a high vantage point), striking Rosemary on the helmet and dazing her: in her confusion she exclaims "I told them not to ring your bell, Dandelion..", Dandelion being the name of the Oracle where she grew up. Kronk pushes her aside in order to pursue Rhid, and she and Sylvester fall into the Chasm.
Rhid and Kronk pass Whisp, who can smell that Rosemary and Sylvester went over the Plunge, and also smells Camora's presence nearby. Rhid, in the lead, then passes Theophan, and then a Trog juggler who we later learn is called Stonwal, and then the doorway that leads to the River, and then is rescued by Digger Odel, who pulls him in behind a concealed panel. Whisp traces Camora's scent and works out that she emerged from a spot in a corridor wall (not the point she disappeared behind before), tracked to the ledge above the Plunge site and then returned. She wonders if it's a transporting twistpoint, like one in Helignoll Hall, then works out that it's a concealed door, and leaves to report back to Upernavik and Knumdrot. Meanwhile we see Hpobfvfr go to the edge of the Plunge and peer over, then turn back.
Behind the panel Hax disengages from Camora. He believes he has contained her memory and delayed her awakening, but she wakes instantly, with full memory, and tries to grab him. He escapes down a letterbox-sized slot in the rock, scraping his front surface badly in the process, with Camora shouting THIS IS NOT OVER!" behind him. We see gaps and tunnels in the rock containing odd bits of struts and tools and what looks like a Smyt-sized pink racing car, then a cavern where four bats are roosting. One bat bat wakes and flies through wider fissures towards the outside.
Part Five: Mechanisms in the Dark [27/02/2010 – 16/07/2013] 01: Sitting in a Tree [27/02/2010 – 04/06/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2355–#2443] Now that it is getting dark Comshaw, Niddle and Ig see the bat fly past them and finally feel safe to come down from the ruined fountain. Ig is now wearing/carrying Niddle's backpack. We also see a distant, unidentifed Saur, possibly Snerk but the colour looks darker, lurking in a tree, watching a bat go past. Yasmine enters the ruined building where she heard coughing, and discovers Mortimer, lying on a makeshift bed and still coming round from having been stunned by Eunice. He has a note from Rufus on his chest but we aren't told what it says. He correctly identifies Yasmine, who seems familiar to him although she doesn't think they've met, as a Weirdo – which she finds amazing, apparently because it suggests a degree of clairvoyance not seen since the Crash. He also identifies the building as Dorian's old hut (presumably the Dorian who now lives in the Spike), but seems confused: when Yasmine mentions Protus as the Willigig currently living in the Mansion, Mortimer recalls being somewhere near the Basement at some point and Skibble, who seems to be a friend of his, turning up "like he usually does" (which makes it unlikely he's an Ichyoid, so we're down to Ghast, Ooze of Helipath) and mentioning Protus to him, but he doesn't coherently connect this with the Willigig who gave him the HJ42 after the incident with the Tree-Squid earlier in the day – although he then refers to Protus as "really grumpy", so he must have made the connection subconsciously, even if he has forgotten the meeting consciously. Yasmine claims she is there to conduct an official Weirdo's Guild review of Arthur's performance. Mortimer smells strongly of sphagnum dust and sploo. Yasmine sets off again to find her horse, and Mortimer again sets out to find Nitfol and rescue him if still alive. He is briefly distracted by a flutterby and calls it to his finger: Yasmine sees this and is again amazed by his psychic talent. Agita's henchgnoll Agorn overhears them talking, and we see Mortimer's Scalpsucker messenger still only halfway up the side of the shaft. The flutterby flies round her and she falls asleep: it seems Mortimer sent it to tell her to stand down. Yasmine and Mortimer get along well and he tells her about all the odd things which happen to him. They talk about Mortimer and Sylvester doing their duty and Sylvester still getting scorned by the villagers, about chaos theory and flutterbys and how one flutterby might some day make a difference, and she tells him to tell Frederick about the odd things. Thinking of what Protus showed her, but not saying it, she tells Mortimer she expects to be back some day and when she returns she expects him to have made some progress with his situation. As Yasmine leaves, Mortimer gives her his sack of fleebs, and Agorn watches from behind a wall. Agorn, who is carrying a spear, wonders whether to follow one or the other, go home and report or go run off and join the Spikefolk, who carry out strange rites involving doing a Metalmin dance and getting blasted with Spikeglow. He appears to decide to follow Mortimer. Ig, Comshaw and Niddle are trying to locate Mortimer by smell but they smell something odd as well that Ig has never smelled before, metal and skin, wet and burnt – Niddle says this smell was all over the mound that the Fire came out of earlier ("The Pit"). The way they describe the smell, it probably relates to either Frowgler or the Meltalmin which we glimped earlier near The Pit: we will find out later that it's Frowgler, which implies that Frowgler smells of metal (is it possible that Frowgler in some way is the Metalmin?). They can also smell that there have been a lot of Pales about, not just Thrash's party and the two with Buzz. Niddle says the metal/skin/wet/burnt smell was all over the hill where The Pit is, then suddenly gone. Again there is mention of a barrier which Humans live beyond, as if there's some sort of cordon keeping the Basement folk in. Niddle is pleased that he was exposed to the Fire and saw visions, as he thinks this will prove to be important, and he says it will now be a Finagler thing which he will spread at the next Conclave. Having parted from Jasmine Mortimer is a bit lost (and we see he is now completely barefoot: evidently Rufus and/or Eunice removed his remaining shoe when they put him to bed), but then he encounters Frowgler, Thrash and the two other Pales we will later know as Flagpale and Scrawl, although for the moment Frowgler calls them Flaghelper and Antlerhelper. Frowgler is sitting on a branch of a tree against which the Scary Lady's pink umbrella is leaning. Mortimer recognises Frowgler as a comic-book character but Frowgler says that he is "not THE Frowgler. Just.. A Frowgler", and saying that his parents called him that is a close enough approximation. Frowgler comments that the local Pales call their fort "The Camp" because they expect it to be temporary, and advises Mortimer on how to find the closest Spyder web, and that he'll know he's near it when he sees smoke. He claims to be in a similar position to his fictional counterpart, in that he has come to assist the Good Guys against powerful evil forces, much bigger and more powerful than mere demons. Mortimer and Thrash are both Good Guys, and so are most of the people they know. Mortimer asks if Yasmine was right to tell him to talk to Frederick, and Frowgler thinks she probably was. Mortimer says he needs to be ready "when she gets back" – probably meaning Yasmine. Thrash tacitly agrees to convey Frowgler on to his next stopping point. As Frowgler and the Pales leave, Mortimer notices the umbrella. It doesn't belong to anyone in Frowgler's party, so he keeps it. Agorn watches the bat catching flutterbys, then realises that Comshaw's party are behind him, and hides. He overhears Comshaw sniffing out the fact that the Human, Mortimer, went one way and the Pales and the metal-smelling thing went another. So the metal-smelling thing must be Frowgler. They decide to continue following the Human. Agorn is impressed, but in a kind of patronising way: he sees Comshaw as a young fellow with potential. The space-suited worker who earlier quit the Hot Zone observation station climbs out of a hatch in one of the ruined buildings (with a sign over the door saying "GONE TO EARTH"), takes off her helmet and reveals herself to be a female Nome called Fizmo. She mentions having been taken below from a different entrance by someone called Fogorner, who she believes was working for the group in the Spike. She is afraid she might have come up beyond the Edge of the World, where the giants (Humans) are. She attempts to treewarp her way through the door, but it doesn't work because she doesn't have "the glowgems or the blivit any of the rest of the phizz". In the end she forces her way out of the locked building through a crack high in the stonework, in her underwear but taking with her a pruning hook she found in the locked building. She lands in "puffbloom bushes", which seem to be the local version of hydrangea. She meets Frowgler, who is sitting on a ruined wall and whom she knows – he had advised her not to take the subterranean job. Now he says going back down would be the safest thing for her, but not the best thing. Learning that she admires Nitfol for his independence, he suggests she go with Thrash to the Pale camp where Nitfol now is, and she agrees. She is initially alarmed by Thrash, whom Frowgler introduces as the Nexus's strong right hand, then she casually calls him "whatsyergob". As a reward for not forcing him to force her to agree, Frowgler opens his Poke Kit and gives her a very smart hat made by the posh Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine, since Nomes hate to be bareheaded, but he warns her to examine hats from other sources carefully: to look inside them, and if they're one of the unsafe kind she'll feel the urge to swear and whack them with her pruning hook. It is clear he is warning her about Fixits, and that Fogorner is controlled by a Fixit. He also warns her that the beaver shark – of which there is only one – is loose nearby, and that he is trying to stop Koyeeb doing something which will destroy the Nome village (presumably, attacking the Gnolls). He is sending her away from the village because she's worth saving. He tells Thrash to tell the Nexus that if they don't hear from him, "that stopgap we discussed will be necessary". Frowgler denies being a demon and says he was put on earth to do what he is doing. He goes down the tunnel Fizmo came out of, saying that he needs to see an old friend, and she goes off with the Pales, talking at them about a Nome who built a prototype plane which crashed, and her ideas about hot air balloons (adding that she is a natural source of hot air). We see a flat-topped tower among the ruins, made of Ettin durasteel plates and with a label that starts "Ludwig automatic..." Inside the top, surrounded by windows, is a giant crystal which collects sunlight and directs it underground and down a channel with mirrors in it to steer it around corners. The light-beam passes by a lorry in some sort of workshop, and a buried, humanoid but four-armed Metalmin: either the Metalmin is huge or the lorry is Smyt-size, because the entire lorry is only slightly bigger than the Metalmin's head. The beam from the crystal connects to the lights which channel daylight to the Great Chasm, and we see Rosemary and Sylvester falling: he thinks that he is dying Mortimer's death and his family will never know what happened to him, but then they land in a peculiar fluffy outgrowth of the Tree. Rosemary, still dazed from the blow to the head, identifies Rhid whom they have just seen as one of the people Protus showed to Sylvester, and thinks that the woman he saw her fighting – whom she calls Tansy – is about to show up, since Rhid did. Her helmet light is damaged, and Sylvester's helmet is missing, caught in the Tree high above them. Rosemary apologises to the Tree and then whacks it, causing the helmet to fall into range. Sylvester manages with some difficulty to catch it, so that they have light and can proceed. 02: Lying in a Hole [05/06/2010 – 16/09/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2450–#2548] Mortimer passes an enormous boulder in its own fresh mini-crater: it's not the one that nearly hit Comshaw earlier, but probably comes from the same explosion. Watched by a trundlebug, Rosemary and Sylvester slip through the layer of fluff onto a more normal, solid branch of the Tree. Sylvester thinks the padded branches below the Plunge point are there to stop Trogs killing themselves, or at least, like Theophan, to give them time to reconsider. Rosemary tears her skirt – which is stolen, presumably from a Chroman Initiate – to make ties to keep their helmets on. She admits to having killed three Humans, presumably in combat. Meanwhile, Comshaw, Niddle and Ig are following close behind Mortimer. The pre-existence of Wyverns, a kind of extinct dragon, is mentioned. If this is designed to save Trogs, or at least give them the chance to change their minds, why have none ever made it back to tell Theophan about it? Sylvester's theory that it's all there to save Trogs is born out when they find a burning pot of Trog Repellant, which herds any Trogs who land in the Tree towards a narrow spur bridge leading out over the abyss (made by a very reputable construction firm). Meanwhile, Agorn passes more debris, buried in the ground by the force of the last blast, the OZPR. The spur across the Chasm ends with a bracket with a crab or spider drawn on it, and then a long tube-like chute which they are sucked in by, and which takes them to a padded landing-site in a room within the cliff on the far side of the Chasm, which contains a broken office cabinet which has "The Threshold" written on it, and which moves about under its own power. On the wall is written "MAKES HAMBLE SUMTHING SUMTHING", among other things. They meet a thing called a Lurker – a cave-creature like a blind, bald, sub-sapient Saur. Dog-like, it wants them to follow it: Rosemary thinks it's leading them into an ambush. Following it, they come to a place which looks like the Ettins' artificial Trog habitat, except sterile and dead, without the moss and fresh water etc. of the zoo exhibit. Sylvester feels that he and Rosemary are both acting rather wildly, and that this is due to exposure to energy bubbling up from the Hot Zone. They come to an archway labelled "Serene Cavern of Blissful Relaxation", beside which is a slightly sick poem about the death of Yurd ("Yurd ran far and wide // 'Til his mind began to slide // So he took the Great Plunge // Now he is in a hole all covered with gunge"). Within are the people the Lurker, Blinky, was reporting to – two male trogs called Villipend and Hamble. Both are less flat-faced and probably mentally sharper than Kronk, but Villipend is paranoid and deranged, and his hair (or crest or whatever it is) is styled like a crown. Hamble tries to calm him but he is sure that Rosemary and Sylvester are the "Tormentors" who keep him trapped there, and it doesn't help that he smells his enemy Kronk (who brushed past them at the Plunge point) on them. There are bones in the background which look like those of a Trog. When Sylvester says he doesn't know where the exit is, Villipend throws a weapon which Rosemary fends off with the Can-Opener, which Villipend calls a Sneech claw. Rosemary and Villipend fight and Villipend manages to get in a kick which throws her against the wall. Sylvester intervenes, warns him grimly that he is the terrible Earl of E and fires a primitive taser which he has in his backpack, and which fires over his shoulders when he hits a trigger on his chest – but Villipend dodges and it is Hamble who is struck and apparently killed. The act of firing the taser also throws Squeeb out of the backpack and onto the floor, unnoticed. Villipend is impressed by the taser but annoyed because he wanted to kill Hamble himself. He threatens Sylvester so Rosemary slashes him with the Can-Opener and he hides in the dark. Sylvester finds a door operated by a Herediscan which identifies him as a member of the E family and lets him through: next to it on the wall is written "THE BRUSH IS PERFECT BUT THE PAINT RUNS". He tells Villipend (now clinging to the ceiling) he will leave the door open. Mortimer thinks that he is searching the woods to find out what happened to Nitfol. Then he finds the Spyder's head, detached and smoking, and thinks "OK, now it's just morbid curiosity". Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their weapons training (and we learn that at the bodyguard training-school she went to, the fencing master was a Mr Montoya). She is concerned that she may not be able to stop Villipend if he attacks again, because he's in peak condition and she has no practice with the Can-Opener. Comshaw's party reach the dead Spyder head. Ig can tell that it wasn't Mortimer who killed the Spyder, and begins to discover the joys of cooked meat. As they move away from the Hot Zone vents, Rosemary becomes calmer. Sylvester tells her about the SubShafts, a tangle of tunnels which are greatly affected by the Hot Zone. The Eyebolts who worked for the Ettins lived there, then the mining Nomes as well. After an upheaval when Sylvester was a teen (presumably the Gnoll/Nome war, so Mortimer was about twelve or fourteen when he did whatever he did) they all moved out, the Eyebolts to elsewhere in the Basement, the Nomes to the Forest, and now it's mainly Gnolls who live in the SubShafts. [We seen an outline of Cully, Chunner and Crud, all heavily armed – Cully with a flame-thrower, Chunner with a blunderbuss and Crud with something similar to the Can-Opener.] They come to an area of large engineering works and spiky pylons, like metal tree trunks with short jagged branches, at the start of a walkway or bridge at the edge of a long drop. Mortimer comes to the huge, smoking crater caused when Frowgler set off the HJ42, and wrongly assumes Nitfol and the Spyder were both blown up. He climbs down into the crater and retrieves the HJ42, then Comshaw, Niddle and Ig arrive at the edge of the crater and engage him in conversation about the goals of Humanity. They all conclude that Comshaw needs to speak to Sylvester (hearing that Sylvester is the Earl, Comshaw assumes he must be very scary). The thing Niddle has been carrying in his hand all day, which he found in the tunnel and which is similar to but not the same as a Glowgem, starts radiating energy, and Comshaw notices it for the first time since the tunnel. Niddle says he can almost hear it speak, it's waited a long time and now it's almost time for some unspecified meeting: probably between it and the HJ42. This must be the meeting future!Mortimer told present!Mortimer to prevent. Suddenly the Saur Snerk falls into the crater with them. He had run into the beaver shark and it fixated on him and began chasing him. The beaver shark appears looming over the edge of the crater and then crashes down amongst them. Niddle starts counting down 5...4...3... Mortimer orders the others to run: using his pink umbrella like a baton he summons a large crowd of flutterbys, who distract the shark by crashing against its face. Then Niddle's count reaches zero, and the energies of the HJ42 and the crystal link and set off a silent magical fireball, a huge dome of white light, which is felt by the Operator, the Scary Lady, Frowgler and a mechanical alarm near Hector. Back underground, Rosemary and Sylvester are considering a vertical ladder when Villipend jumps them, wrests the Can-Opener from Rosemary and tries to force Sylvester to go back downstairs and close the door to Villipend's domain, so he can continue to trap other Trogs there. Sylvester is willing to jump into the Chasm rather than do so. Mortimer and the shark are transported into open underground space by a twistpoint and fall down to where Rosemary and Sylvester are. The letters PZOR appear, indicating that the not-Glowgem and the HJ42 interacted to create the twistpoints, burst of light etc.. The shark bites Villipend, killing him, and Rosemary retrieves the Can-Opener and pushes both of them off the edge and into the deep. Comshaw and Niddle are jumped through another twistpoint back to their own home, where Camora is brooding. [They have a skimgibber in a bowl.] Niddle crashes out, as Telic had warned that he would, burbling about the fact that Mortimer has the same haircut as him, and something about a window. Camora tells Comshaw about Hax. He decides to go back out to warn everyone, leaving her to care for Niddle, but first Camora, who is feeling overwrought, declares that she loves Comshaw and they have an unspecified erotic session. Comshaw is happy to see that Niddle has some clingweed wrapped round his feet, since he promised some to Telic. Ig is twistpointed to outside the home of his ex girlfriend Nerda, the mother of his as-yet unhatched children. He offers her the stuff in Niddle's backpack so she lets him in. Snerk is less lucky. As a result (or cause) of an unspecified backlash he is dumped into the middle of a high-tech. experimental facility of some kind being run by two Ghasts. He is pinned in some uncomfortable, scary machinery which may be examining him or may be cleaning and immunising him – it's not clear which – and then pushed through a hatch (which he sort-of recognises because "the boss" told him about doors) labelled "#2540 SAUR HABITAT, WOODLAND" into an artifical woodland habitat designed especially for Saurs. He wonders if it is underground, then thinks that he has been twistpointed to a real forest far away. He wishes to leave a.s.a.p. in order to report to Frowgler. There are other Saurs there, all of them (including Snerk), wearing a bracelet on the right wrist and with a three-digit number on their left side. He meets a dozy girl called Dizel and a much more sensible, very large female called Zil who tells him that if he can find a way out she's coming with him: he learns from her that there's a day/night cycle here, but no proper sun. We learn of the existence of big, dim, agressive Saur relatives called Sawtooths, but there are said to be none in this habiotat. There are however Gnolls – who may be there unofficially. Why was Snerk sent here? Comshaw, Niddle and Ig were sent to their mates, so is Zil Snerk's future mate? The shark certainly didn't go to its mate but we've been told it was the only beaver shark, so probably it had no mate: instead it followed Mortimer on whom it was fixated (it possibly followed Snerk because he had licked Mortimer's foot and so smelled of him). Mortimer went to his brother and Rosemary, but we will be told Rosemary is not his mate, and certainly he is currently fixated on Yasmine. I do not think Yasmine can be Rosemary looped through time, even though we will learn that she is somebody whom people in the area might recognise, because Rosemary wouldn't need a report on Mansion critters. Meanwhile, the not-Glowgem falls back into the crater, and the HJ42 falls through a crack in the floor of the crater [the parallel strip Sundays in SubShaft 44f tells us that it ends up with the rebel Gnoll mechanic Tuttle, who is in league with Digger Odel and passes it to Skuy's boyfriend Cully]. Agorn investigates and sees that the hole which has opened up contains a ladder. He can smell Sneeches in the depths. 03: Spanner in the Works [17/09/2010 – 15/01/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2555–#2926] Sylvester identifies their location as the Ettinworks investigated by Krell, Earl Griffington's assistant. Sylvester, Mortimer (still smelling peculiar due to the sphagnum dust, still with umbrella) and Rosemary set out along the walkway: lights, electric crackles and deep rumbling noises come on as they walk, destroying the ladder they were comsidering before. R&S talk over Mortimer and largely ignore what he is trying to tell them about the umbrella. Sylvester talks about the differences between the SubShafts and the Ettinworks, as electricity crackles on and off around them. Rosemary has a sense that the Can-Opener may do exciting things around electrical discharges, and puts it in the Poke Kit. No Human that Sylvester knows of has been down there since the Crash: and of course after their tumble down the Chasm they are now much lower-down than they had intended to be, vis-á-vis the Sneech den. They come to an unusually passive Sneech plant-machine growth which is blocking the walkway. Similar to the Tree, Sneech dens are built from vast networks of linked, plant-like growths which maintain all forms of life-support, information processing and defence, and can be dangerous if threatened. They are far below the level of the Sneech nest, but Mortimer recounts comments by Skibble suggesting the Sneeches are expanding their territory. He tells Sylvester that Comshaw wants to talk to him. They edge past the growth: Mortimer insists on taking the lead as he is the most expendable. The other two have been ignoring Mortimer and rather treating him like a small child but they begin to realise their mistake. Having passed the Sneech growth they come in sight of an Ettin underhub – a lighthouse-like tower which stretches from the floor below where they are, through the open cavern of the Ettinworks to the ceiling of the cavern, which is the floor of the shallower levels overhead, with a row of windows ringing the tower up near the ceiling. Sylvester talks of a network of underground roads and haulage lorries and buildings which was wrecked and sealed off when Audra poked the Hot Zone and caused the Chasm to spread – it is clear this is the system now being opened up and used by the Fixits. So Yurpsland already had self-powered lorries about 140 years ago, or ninety years before the Crash. The tunnels were used to train and supply armies, but after the Breach the less martially-minded Ludwig sealed them off rather than repairing them (these must be the extra space Fosic is now unsealing with his bim toggler). They go into the underhub and prepare to climb a spiralling internal ramp, and have a conversation in which Rosemary is amazed to learn that a famous, ancient philosopher named Milo, who wrote a very famous work called The Intricate Balance, was the 9th Earl of E. Rosemary's Aunt Eva won it in a Skipjack game among a job-lot of eleven books. They discuss chess, in which Milo was very interested: Rufus is the family champion (after Myrrh). They find a signpost written in a Human script and recently annotated in the handwriting of Nirvana Clepe, former Taskmistress of the Mansion, who retired eight years ago when her wife died, and supposedly now lives in Noodle, three days' ride away. They can tell that the writing is quite new, not weathered by the sea air. Mortimer is showing clairvoyance – he knows that the Sneeches have never been inside the underhub. There is a discussion about Threnody the local Oracle, whom Sylvester fancies (Dirge is her Guardian), and who sometimes helps with the female Tasks now they have no Taskmistress, if Nellie doesn't feel up to it. Presumably the Scary Lady isn't Human enough. Mention is made of two main Brush sects, Mainstream and Throwbacks. The interior of the underhub is full of concealed twistpoints – as they climb, the interior changes illogically and it's possible to go up and end up lower down, or find a door to the outside that should have been visible from the outside, but wasn't (meaning it's 180° rotated from where it appears to be). There are a series of signposts to guide them, and they have to follow the lower numbers on the signs (assuming the top of the underhub to be #1) even when they look like they're going the wrong way. Talking about twistpoints leads them to realise that they each met Protus today. Mortimer talks about the Zorper, about Yasmine, and about ending up in Dorian's old hut. He recalls Dorian as a hermit from his childhood, although Dorian has been working for the group in the Spike for forty-two years, and Mortimer's father was born less than fifty years ago and Mortimer is his third child, so he's not much more than twenty-five. The Dorian we see in memory was already wearing the Fixit he wears now, so he was dividing his time between the Spire and the forest (unless at some point in the future he and his Fixit are going to be sent back to twenty years ago). Sylvester is sure Yasmine was lying about being there to review Arthur, unless the Guild have changed the rules without telling him, because the Guild's assessor is called Jack Kench. Employing a Weirdo, we learn, is a requisite part of being an aristocrat, and being an aristocrat still has its uses. They come to a group of elongated, slope-sided pillars labelled "do not touch". After they have passed on without touching them, we see that they are local Panegates. A window open in one to show the dining room at the Mansion, then two female Gnolls, Dandilli from the SubShafts and probably Dipsoma, gossiping (Dandilli has a flutterby on a string), then a Dornbeast. The Dornbeast tries to come through and is electrocuted. Frowgler, looking rough, emerges from the Dornbeast one although the Dornbeast itself cannot pass. He goes back through another, smaller window and we hear a voice speaking to him which says "ya" and "yer" instead of "you" and "you're", but the font is disguised. Frowgler asks if they are "back up and running" and the voice says yesno, if you don't twist out right aw— then comments that Frowgler is damaged. Frowgler says he met one of Protus's new friends, possibly referring to Thrash tossing him up like a ball. Signs in there say "NO HURRICANES BEYOND THIS POINT" and "STAY HOME CUZ YER WELL". Meanwhile, Nevus's troops are at Comshaw's door, believing he sent Sylvester and Rosemary to spy on Le Tree, but they are facing gthe wrong way, expecting him to be coming from the forest. He emerges behind them and duffs them up with his Poking stick, then tells one of them, a young male Trog called Skradt, to take him to Nevus. They pass Le Gnollhole, which is closed for the duration. Skradt is interested in learning to be a Poker himself. The Basement is now very quiet – most people are hiding, although we glimpse Fanga lurking in a doorway with her bow. The twistpoints in the underhub aren't mentioned in the Mansion's records, suggesting they are newly formed: or rather, since they are so organised, the Ettins set the system up, but it was switched off. Sylvester thinks the Ettins' devices were built to shut down in the event of a Crash, and are now waking again, and in the process turning other stuff from hundreds of years ago back on. They discuss the Crash, and what they could do before it – still far less than the Ettins did. They had a high-level tram which took a week to cross the country: the Ettins went to the moon. They come to another pillar labelled "touch". In order to get past a twistpoint and go up again Mortimer touches it with his umbrella, again considering himself the most expendable, and a ray from the ceiling strikes the other two. Sylvester loses nearly all his memory – although he recalls Nimue – and Rosemary loses some of her intelligence, regresses emotionally and starts acting like an eager-to-please, extremely literal-minded five-year-old with no conversational filters. Rosemary's memory is intact and she realises what has happened and warns Mortimer he will have to tell her what to do. This is a double-edged sword as she is now extremely hypnotically susceptible: when Mortimer says "Stop" to her she actually freezes up. Mortimer still trusts the signs, since touching the pillar, as the sign said, seems to have protected him. He has a crisis of nerve about being the leader, but Sylvester decides to trust him. Following Mortimer's instincts, they hold the umbrella together and touch the pillar again, and this time a levitating lift called a Woosher arrives. The Woosher carries them up inside the tower, and while they are on it the ramps that were there before disappear. 04: Closing Out an Era (The Ettinworks) [18/01/2011 – 04/06/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2674–#2807] As they ride the Woosher Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer discuss the fact that there must be "some rich guy with horrible mutant tastebuds" keeping Moe Wines in business (there is, of course – Mr Hand). They discuss the fact that Sylvester is the Earl (which he has forgotten) and the succession: Mortimer is terrified of having to be Earl if Sylvester doesn't get his memory back, but in any case Ace is older (and equally unsuitable). Lil is dreamy like Mortimer, Lenore is smart but too harsh and self-interested, and Rufus is brilliant but not good with people. They pass an unknown woman in brown, with blonde hair with a pink bow on top – Rosemary calls her Mz Teree – who seems to be marking the signs, but who isn't Nirvana Clepe. Hpobfvfr is still trailing them, and climbing upwards, so either she or the Operator must know about the Trog-catcher in the Chasm, and that going over the Plunge point need not mean that they are dead. When they disembark, higher up, the tower changes again (because they have stepped through an invisible twistpoint to a different section, not because the tower itself has changed) and they find more ramps. It is mentioned that they need never have gone down to look for the Pots Room, because Mortimer knows where there is a supply of seige pots in a disused barracks. Rosemary's bodyguard training is still sharp even if the rest of her isn't. They discuss twistpoints, and confirm that it is possible to walk down a ramp, then back up the same ramp, and end up somewhere different from where they started. Sylvester can remember a scary female teacher at university who taught him about tesseracts in this context, and a night where he and Nimue stood on a high tower looking down at the lights of the city. One of the new signposts they come to is decorated with a heart with "N C + A S" written in it: they think this may be Nirvana Clepe and the Mz Teree woman (meaning Mz Teree's initials are A.S.). With more down-and-up twists they arrive at the level of the wide, round room with the bank of windows, up against the roof of the cavern where the Ettinworks are, and just under the floor of the upper part of the Basement. At this point they are probably back at about the level of Le Tree, or maybe a storey or two below it. As they walk Rosemary burbles, and starts to speak about Tansy – who she thinks is the woman Sylvester saw her fighting when Protus showed him visions – and a word beginning "Qu". The view from the windows looks out into the Ettinworks, and the room is dotted with many pillars and blocks. Meanwhile, Comshaw and Skradt come to the Council entrance, which is heavily defended. An Eyebolt receptionist called Witherward admits them by dropping them down a shaft. They arrive in the midst of a full meeting, including Twiz, acting for Maw; Snerd, acting for Sina; Commander Chumley (the Council's Chief of Security) for the Boogiemen; and Hptwfvth, a Ghast "Stirrer", some kind of high ceremonial functionary relating to how the Ghasts reproduce (they have to use special breeding pools within their home base and are unable to set up more outside it), who is in some way not physically present (or more probably, is physically present but not officially so). On the Council are Doyen, a female Trog; Gavzada, a female Motihaul; Wunk, a male Gnoll; Aprat, a Helipath and Chairbeing Preznit, a male Eyebolt, although he tries to hide his species behind a mask and robes. Doyen cricizes the presence of Skradt, since he is known to work for Nevus, but Comshaw says that Skradt is thinking of becoming a Poker and is there to observe his typical working day. Snerd has brought a message from Sina saying her team at their new hall fully support the Council, and the Council can send an observer if it likes, but they're not leaving. Twiz is very interested in the new hall Sina is setting up, which may be what his group needs (whether as a new place to live after their lair was attacked, or just a place where they can get the contract to do the cleaning, isn't clear). The Council is concerned about Rhid and what he may do next, and whether Sina is a safe person to be a leader. Gavzada is keen on anything which keeps Othara occupied, and they are cautiously positive so long as Sina and her engineer Fosic build walls to keep people away from the Operator. Comshaw then strikes a Fixit from the head of a female Gnoll called Widdendreem, who seems to be the Council's record-keeper. He wants to catch it alive but Widdendreem, freed from the Fixit, pounces and kills it. Widdendreem is angry that she now owes Comshaw a debt, and concerned by the fact that she has killed a person. She tells them the name "Fixit" and that the dead one was a female called Snurfix or Snufix, reporting to a male nicknamed Slinker. Snurfix had crept onto her head while she slept; was herself not really kept informed, other than that the Fixits work for "God"; and didn't try to make Widdendreem do anything, except to pay attention to records and transactions which Snurfix wished to know about. We learn that young Fixits are raised in cages "beyond the Spikeshield", which must be the barrier others have spoken of. Chumley, as security chief, takes command and sends Widdendreem to write down all she recalls about the Fixits, while Comshaw tells the Council what he knows about them – leaving out Camora's name. Chumley decrees that no one in the Council Chamber shall wear a hat – all the Councillors drop their hoods and Preznit, whose brain is in his torso, strips to his socks. Wunk appears slightly boggled by whatever Preznit has in his crotch, which we don't actually see. The Council agrees to tell all the key players – Maw, Agita etc. – whilst trying to prevent the knowledge of the Fixits from spreading generally for the moment, for fear of what God might do when he learns his spy network has been blown. They want all the leaders warned, and preferably to have caught a live Fixit, before God takes any action. Comshaw is sent to tell Agita about the Fixits, but before he leaves he tells them about the Humans, and Sylvester being the Earl, but he doesn't know if he is the Earl. The Earl "tore the world in two fighting Yurp, the Demon King": Yorik Yurp is the king who founded Yurpsland where they live, and the Earl in this case is evidently Audra, who fought a war with Yurp and caused the Chasm to spread. Comshaw plans to go speak to Sylvester tomorrow, if he can find the Mansion: Hptwfvth tells him it's "God's Cactus". Comshaw assures the Council that "his" Humans aren't in league with God, so far as he can tell, and passes on the message that Nevus will be "in non-violent touch". Comshaw, Skradt, Snerd and Twiz head for the exit, discussing the reproduction of various species, and Trog education (here we learn that Espy is a teacher, and that Skradt can read both Manglish and Human script), and that the Ghasts keep paper records. Back with Sylvester's party, Mortimer tells the other two (neither of whom is functioning reliably yet) not to go to look out of the windows, for fear of triggering another dangerous event by accidentally touching one of the many close-set pillars and blocks scattered around the room. We see that leading up from the window room is a flight of stone steps going up into the body of the rock above them. There is also an Ettin-style door, like a triangle with the top cut off, which has a gap about 10" high underneath it. Mortimer peers underneath and sees a triangular space with two Human-type doors set into Ettin-style apertures, leading off from this Ettin control tower. Two roundish objects, possibly shoes, and what seems to be a tapered board made from three slats lean against one wall (although Mortimer later refers to seeing "posts"), but a little metal sign saying "KEEP OUT" falls down in front of him, with the letters cut out of it as holes. Sylvester feels that there are Humans behind the door right now (perhaps this is where Nirvana and the msyterious AS are living?), but when he turns his back it's a non-Human-looking hand, crackling with magic, which retrieves the "KEEP OUT" sign. It doesn't look like Frowgler's hand (and anyway we will learn that he is elsewhere): it actually looks like the hand of one of the mysterious creatures we saw before who called the Scary Lady "The Destroyer", although if so Rob has changed his mind about how many fingers they have. [Note: could be a Wendigo hand, but the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.] Rosemary asks whether she is bodyguard to both of them: Mortimer says just to Sylvester, and that he himself will have to take care of himself. They set off up the stone steps towards the Sneech den. Rosemary and Sylvester are starting to improve. There is some oblique discussion about R&S going to Nellie and Amos for help if anything happens to Mortimer, about Sylvester not telling Rosemary the Scary Lady's name, then about Mortimer's friend the scalpsucker (and the fact that some scalpsuckers nowadays can talk) – Mortimer remembers falling down the hole leading to the old World o' Pots storeroom but doesn't seem to recall meeting Rufus. They come to a door opened by number pad, leading to a double-doored Sneech-lock with a Sneechstick in it. Mortimer can sense that there are no Sneeches nearby. Emerging, they pass an alcove containing an entrance to the elevator, or at least an elevator. Mortimer steers them past it, looking alarmed, and writing on the wall says "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW", but they should be on the opposite side of the Chasm from the lift with the Operator in it. Maybe they have passed through the stone of the roof above the Great Chasm: it's true that at Mansion-level the elevator and the entrance to the Sneech den are fairly close together. Past that is a round room at the bottom of a shaft, with a crystal on a stand in the middle, playing a popular song called Girl from the Limphopho: this is the same mechanism the Scary Lady used to levitate Zay, but not the same shaft, as hers was square in cross-section. Sylvester confirms that there are several of these lifts throughout the Mansion, all playing the same tune There are also double metal doors, closed, and stairs leading up and down. Mortimer hopes to use the stairs but finds the ones going up are labelled "Operation Certain Death" and the ones going down, "Slimegrub Breedpits". The down-flight shows signs of recent flooding, which ties in with floods which occur in the related < href="MoE_SubShaft_44f_2.htm">Sundays in SubShaft 44f strips. On the first landing down are a large Glowgem and a discarded stick which is probably somebody's wand: Mortimer retrieves the Glowgem, which has a socket just right for fitting it onto the point of his umbrella. Rosemary seems slightly hypnotised by it. They plan to go upstairs, towards Operation Certain Death, but then they hear something big and loud crashing downstairs towards them. Comshaw's party slide down a chute and land in a corridor by the battered-looking Gobule Mingent, who is eating debris from the battle. Twiz has a piece of the dead Fixit in his mouth to take to Maw – they tell Mingent if he smells anything like it, to bite it. Twiz runs off, and Mingent fills Comshaw in on what happened at the elevator. Comshaw thinks Snerd should go on working for Sina but Snerd says Shona wouldn't like it, and he loves Shona. Comshaw and Skradt set off together. They encounter a Jibjib called Schrik being ridden by a Fixit, and try and fail to take the Fixit alive. The Fixit has been using Schrik to spy on Flap's ferry across the Great Chasm. An important Boogieman ruler called Crispin is mentioned: Schrik has a basket to take him but doesn't know if he dremed it, as the Fixit has left him very confused. Comshaw sends Schrik to take the dead Fixit to Sina and then work for her. Skradt reveals that he joined Nevus hoping for an early death in battle, so he wouldn't have to choose to take the Plunge. But Comshaw has given him a vision of something more useful, plus he wants to learn to fight as well as him. Frowgler, watching through a crack in the wall, thinks they make a good team. As the loud noises approach Rosemary draws the Can-Opener, which Sylvester calls a Paleslicer, but thinks better of it. They use the singing crystal thing to levitate them up to a higher floor, but Rosemary is grabbed and held back, floating, by what proves to be an enormous, female relative of Ahz and Skiv, called Tand (who is as big as a Titanoboa, has some difficulty adjusting her voice to the right level, and has tentacles on her head which terminate in hands). Tand can smell that Rosemary has been near Ahz and Skiv and believes, wrongly, that she knows who they are, so after some initial problems adjusting her voice to Human levels, she tells her to tell them to get a move on with their allotted task of growing a garden, a task for which they were all sent here by someone else. Tand says Rosemary is not like any other Human she's met, and one of the other two (has to be Mortimer) is sparkly like a lot of Humans used to be but haven't been for a while – apparently she is sensing him as a magic-user. Tand has to leave because she is literally over-stretched Iimplying that her tail is rooted, somewhere up the "Certain Death" stair) and the torch she is carrying is going out. She is afraid to meet, in the dark, a male "horrible mask-thing" who can go anywhere – this may be Frowgler, since the Pales call him Frogmask. Released, Rosemary floats up to the boys. She feels herself to be now entirely back to normal (although later events will show that this isn't quite true). Sylvester recognises the name Tand from his records, but still hasn't wholly regained his memory. 05: Closing Out an Era (The Sneech Den) [06/06/2011 – 16/12/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2814–#2994] Sylvester, Mortimer and Rosemary pass another large inactive Sneech node and several smaller ones, and some graffiti relating to dragons – although we're not told whether they are a legend or, like wyverns, a real if possibly extinct animal: like the one they saw before, these Sneech growths are far less active than normal. Rosemary would like to talk to Tand again, but not right now. There is a conversation about Mortimer's history of failed relationships with scary women, and mention is made of a disastrous relationship with someone named Olga, and of Ace's success with women. He tells Rosemary that his relationship with her will be strictly business while she is staring bug-eyed at the hypno-Glowgem, and he reveals that he has the hots for Yasmine. Sylvester is also affected by the Glowgem, although not as much. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt come to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base off Time Hall, where Agita (a Motihaul) has her office. They have a complicated system of clearances in which Comshaw ranks quite high, and several zones. An Eyebolt called Philodox admits them to the UnRooted Area, but security is tight due to the events of the day. While waiting to be seen they observe that two of the Eyebolt clerks, Giddhom and Frampold, are wearing Fixit-type hats but they seem to be just hats. Giddhom says thay are in fashion because some people claim they help you to think. Weirding is discussed, and the fact that the Eyebolts in scritchpods perform endless computations but don't say why, and the eccentricities of various species – we learn that Helipaths refuse to cross the Great Chasm to Sneech side even though Sneeches get on OK with them, and that the Trog juggler at the edge of the Great Chasm is Skradt's cousin Stonwal. The hatted clerks are Scrutineers, recording and preserving everything visitors say – Skradt wishes to be recorded as a future Poker who did something useful with his life. Rosemary is in command over Sylvester because that's part of her job as bodyguard. The Sneech growths would normally be lighted but most here aren't: there is a lot of discussion of Sneech races and technology, living walls etc. When they get to the area where even the floor is a living Sneech growth Mortimer doesn't want to walk barefoot on it, so takes off his shirt (which was ruined by the sploo and the sphagnum dust anyway) so Rosemary can make rag boots for him and mittens for all of them so they don't have to touch the Sneech material. Mortimer makes a bad pun ("Make it sew"): he passes his umbrella to Sylvester while he takes off his shirt, and sees that the Glowgem glows much less brightly when Sylvester holds the umbrella. Rosemary has absorbed the hypnotic lesson that her relationship with Mortimer is strictly business. In the context of rag boots there is some discussion of Rosemary's poor origins on Gnomin. Comshaw borrows Giddhom's hat so Fixits will think he's controlled: Skradt sticks a claw into the buckle to kill it if the buckle should chance to be an eye. They are escorted to see Agita by an Eyebolt called Peripatet riding in a special buggy labelled VEU (Visitor Escort Unit), which has different numbers each side, possibly due to damage sustained during an eventful visit by Strode, the aggressive female Motihaul in the pumpkin-head mask who appears in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They must enter the Rooted Zone at some point as they are there in their next scene. Following a trail of fresh air through the tunnels of the Sneech den, R&S&M come to a bridge over a moderate drop, guarded on either side by relatives of Fern's The intelligent plants are wary of Rosemary because they communicate (probably via the Tree) with Fern and know that Rosemary injured her, but they agree to disarm her and carry the Can-Opener across the bridge themselves for her to collect on the far side. Rosemary reveals that she assumed Fern was dangerous because there are similar plants in Moonin, smaller and not intelligent but very aggressive: we see what are clearly just bigger versions of the plants Piu was growing in a pot. As they get to the far side the Gnoll Agorn falls while trying to climb down from the crater above, and lands at their feet. Agorn hasn't noticed, but Niddle's apearing and disapearing gem (hereafter the Hitchhiking Gem) is now attached to his spear, but as with Niddle it initially comes and goes and is there only some of the time. Mortimer asks if he is there to scrounge Sneech leavings and he agrees. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt pass more clerks one of whom, Ogdoad, is wearing a Fixit. As the Human trio prepare to leave the cave of the sapient plants, the plants confirm that they're heading the right way and then one of them delays them and asks – by spelling with its tongue – that they be given names. Sylvester names them after the Founding Oracles, a group of women who spread the religion of the Brush – Violet, Daisy, Joice, Jenny, Kathryne, Hettie, Evangeline, Vivian and Petunia. Sylvester promises to visit them again: as the Humans leave we see the plants talking amongst themselves by some rapid means, and wishing they had had the chance to eat Agorn. Agorn has scarpered: Rosemary wrongly thinks he might have been the person who was tailing them earlier (Whisp). Sylvester criticises Mortimer for handing Agorn a ready-made excuse. They discuss the fact that for the Earl, every public conversation is a little war, and Sylvester keeps Mortimer, and now Rosemary, around because he can simply talk to them. The Humans come to the main corridor through the Sneech den, which is studded with tall, light-bearing tree-like things. Comshaw, Skradt and Peripatet leave the Rooted Zone for the Grafted Zone. We learn that the Eyebolts in Root Hall distrust the GBOLs, and therefore presumably the Tree, and make their own lights. Comshaw and Skradt come to Agita and her Eyebolt clerk Flibbergib (at one point mistakenly called Flittergib), and Agita gives them apples. Agita has large plants, an aquarium and a special "Meeting with an Important Eyebolt" table. She has with her her young daughter, Rishathra, and a Gnoll guard called Termagant. Agita and Comshaw catch up on the events of the day, and Comshaw gets her to summon Ogdoad, and also supply Skradt with a large bowl. [Around here we have a Labor Day out-take showing local man Arlen and his daughter Juniper, digging a ditch at the back of a hedge near the village of Eetown. The hedge has the rusted remains of a pre-crash vehicle incorporated into it.] Agita tells Comshaw what was auctioned (although she doesn't really know what the Zorper is). They speculate on whether this Mortimer is old enough to be the one who started the Nome War (after somehow falling through into a mine). Meanwhile. Sprocket is upset to see that Crazy Rhid's ex place connects to large areas of still-working giant machinery – the only machinery that good outside the SubShafts – and Rhid, if he knew, didn't tell anyone. The large machine he is looking is something he found (behind a gate marked with the E symbol) when he traced back the thing Pergola reported as spewing goo while Urwyn was being recruited. [We glimpe Rhid sitting on a box, looking traumatised, in a dusty, cobwebby room.] Sina now has a makeshift office, an Eyebolt receptionist called Nikhedonia (who has a non-Fixit hat on the back of her chair) and Maggle acting as gopher. Sina and Sprocket decide to marry, right now – Wittol, who will be their Finagler, has already anticipated this and started to make arrangements. We learn that Niddle has had experiences which make him a perfect Finagler – so perfect he may be a whole new thing. We learn that Gnoll marriage customs involve a receptacle called a Tweebowl (but a bucket will do), a Tool and a Blossom and, at some point before they have whelps, a visit to the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave, and without a Finagler things go badly wrong for mated pairs. Yet, some couples such as Niff and Folla, and an old couple called Mafick and Lepid, live unofficially, without a Finagler, and manage fine. Sprocket, Wittol and Sina have a hasty ceremony, with Skuy and Flange as witnesses and the possibility of a more formal one later. Afterwards Snerd turns up and thinks Nikhedonia's hat is a Fixit, although it's just a hat. As he is explaining, Schrik turns up with an actual dead Fixit. Maggle and Kronk are sent out to show the dead Fixit around and kill any live ones they find, and Snerd returns to his mate Shona and Finagler Wubb. Flange reminds Sprocket of their obligations to their employer Mr Hand, and tells him about Rubrak being killed by Chauncy and Edgar. Sprocket and Flange will probably cease to be partners now (and Snipe will be looking for a new job). Sprocket talks privately to Sina about Mr Hand and the job (and Wittol withdraws because he says they don't yet know him well enough to share dangerous non-Finagler secrets with) – he has realised that the female Motihaul who put him in touch with Mr Hand was wearing/worn by a Fixit, and therefore Mr Hand must be something bigger and stranger than the "Crescent Hall nob" they had assumed, and works (grudgingly) with God. Mr Hand has had them installing devices called Y-nodes which look like Sneech growths (and Sprocket is rich as a result of how many clients he has), and which produce ultrasonic sound only small creatures can hear. Fleebs in the presence of a Y-node turn to face it and stare. Sprocket sees Mr Hand as ruthless and controlling but constructive rather than destructive in his intentions. They agree to tell Comshaw about it, then get on to the serious business of their wedding night. Meanwhile Snerd returns to Shona. Ogdoad arrives at Agita's office and insists on a promise of safe conduct before he will come in. He has some involvement with another Eyebolt (?) called Tribblerig and some scheme involving Sneech squeezings, which he assumes is what Agita wants to talk about, but as he enters the office Comshaw baps the Fixit, called Endix, off his head and Skradt traps him under the bowl, but Endix somehow commits suicide. Ogdoad is terribly distressed, for he and Endix had become at least semi-partners, and being meshed gave him stereoscopic vision. He is rather horrible and gloats over the fact that God will destroy them. Agita dismisses Comshaw and Skradt and takes Ogdoad with her to see a female Motihaul accountant called Marritza who is wearing a Fixit named Arnix. Agita threatens Arnix with the knife-point ferule of her umbrella, then tells him that the gaff regarding God and the Fixits is well and truly blown, and offers him the chance to ride on Ogdoad and act as a liason officer between herself and God. Arnix and Ogdoad both agree. Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt leave the Grafted Zone, and Root Hall itself, via the Egress Zone, and are quizzed as they leave by an Eyebolt who assumes it's all to do with Ogdoad and Tribblerig scheming over Sneech squeezings. As they come away from Root Hall they pass through the Deep Egress Zone, then go by a lettered sign, where another Eyebolt opens the centre of a letter and watches them leave. They pass the male Nome called Rezrov, still with his arm in a sling, leading, on a string, a very flirtatious-looking female Trog named Hogminny. Both are smeared with green paint, and Rezrov's clothes are torn. We are told that some Nomes and some Trogs have a "thing", and learn that Skradt tentatively fancies Maggle. Comshaw 'phones the Council and tells them he has delivered their message to Agita, and he has a message for them from Root Hall saying Ogdoad is involved with a Sneech squeezings scheme but they'll handle it. Comshaw takes Skradt home with him and Camora and Niddle are quite welcoming, although if he's staying they may need to move to a bigger apartment. All sleep, exhausted. As a final wrap-up, we see Snoot bitching to Izchak (who is evidently his room-mate) about his bloody awful day; the SuperRock pausing to rest and to talk to GeezerRock who can talk, but not walk, and who asks it whether it's just going to sit there; Digger reporting to Frowgler that things are going to plan and he has no questions to ask; and Frederick preparing to serenade the Grubbs on a Fugehorn. I think this is the point at which the strip revealed (although Rob mentioned it off-strip before) that Digger is a Boogieman with dwarfism, because we can see that his face is covered with white fur, behind the goggles. 06: Twilight [17/12/2011 – 09/06/2012] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3001–#3174] Agorn encounters Hpobfvfr, who is trailing the Humans. She blasts her way through a wall into Sneech den, then addresses him as if he is two people – she senses the sentient (and possibly sapient) Hitchiking Gem which Agorn doesn't know he is carrying. Sylvester and co. enter the main corridor, which is again unnaturally quiet – we learn there should be trilobite-thingies scuttling about trailing organic wires etc.. Sylvester mentions that he didn't find out about his father's death until after the funeral. While discussing a performing troupe who once came to the local village, Mortimer accidentally causes Rosemary to fixate on the Glowgem in his umbrella, and gives her two hypnotic commands – "Go to sleep, but act like you're still awake!", "Take a note! I am not going to keep making these mistakes with women!" – and then a third one, "Do as you're told! Stay in your place! Speak only when spoken to! The Brush wills it!", when he and Sylvester discuss the overbearing previous Oracle Omega. Trailed at some distance by Hpobfvfr, the Human party pass a Sneech tower which is at the edge between Human and Sneech territory and is labelled "NO INTERRUPTIONS", then emerge into an empty area leading towards the entrance. They then come to a neon sign saying "OUR TRAJECTORYS DIVERGE PAYMENT FOR YE ASSISTANCE" (although Sylvester doesn't know what assistance is meant). This disintegrates, leaving a squat obelisk which moves when it is touched (by Sylvester, with strips of shirt round his fingers), and which Rosemary names the Dohickey. The Sneeches themselves have gone, and Sylvester doesn't know what assistance they're talking about. The obelisk steers them around a hole in the floor, which proves to be the hole which Chauncy and Edgar left when they exited Izchak's shop looking for the Scary Lady. Matagam the Motihaul soldier and, later, a Boogieman called Geoff climb out of the hole, checking where Chauncy and Edgar went (and plan to return back down via the Council tunnel, having learned from the Human party where it is they've emerged). Mortimer hurries his party away. Heading for the Mansion proper, Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester emerge into an elaborate vestibule decorated with ornamental fake stalagmites and flaming braziers, which is the scary-looking room they see from the Mansion when they look through the arch inderneath the devil mask. Here they notice a new opening in a side wall. This is the entrance to the tunnel put in by the Council to monitor the Humans: that is, the upper end of the tunnel that also goes from the Basement to the forest. From there they exit through the archway under the mask to a plain downstairs room containing the entrance to the elevator and a small extension of the Tree, and with "BEWARE MR FLIP" written on the wall. Mr Flip is a character we meet in Sundays in SubShaft 44f, but Mortimer says the graffito has been there his whole life. To get further they need to go down a short corridor and through a locked door, the key to which Sylvester dropped while falling into the Great Chasm. Matagam and Geoff head for the Council tunnel and are passed by Hpobfvfr coming up, who corners the Humans against the locked door. Mortimer senses that her mind has been tampered with and speaks to her sympathetically, incidentally getting between her and her intended targets. Then we see in flashback that Sopovefe, the male Ghast she passed just before Rosemary and Sylvester fell into the Chasm, realised that something was wrong and went and fetched help (we see him run past Rezrov and Hogminny: this time Hogminny is holding the leash). Hpthvo, the officer in charge of a party of Ghast soldiers who have come up via the hole which Hpbfvfr bashed through into the Sneech den, orders Hpobfvfr to stand down, and this breaks the Operator's hold over her. Hpobfvfr and one soldier leave (passing the elevator, where Hpobfvfr wishes death on the Operator), while Hpthvo and the other soldier stay to interrogate the Humans. Hearing Rosemary address Mortimer by name, Hpthvo queries this and he says he is "Mortimer Eman.. because we're going to be all.. formal..": in doing so he inadvertently gives Rosemary another hypnotic command. Having confirmed Mortimer's name and that he might be the one who started the Nome War, and having learned that they are Human, Hpthvo wants to arrest the trio, but great aunt Scary appears in the doorway (with balloon) and scares them off. Somewhere, she has acquired a flower which she is now wearing tucked into the v-neck of her dress. After the Ghasts leave the rest go through into the house, and Scary cures Sylvester's memory problems. He is very reluctant to ask her to do anything which will put him under an obligation to her. Scary tries to touch the Sneech obelisk, but it fizzes a shock at her. Meanwhile Sylvester has realised something is still wrong with Rosemary, and when she starts addressing Mortimer as "Mr Eman" because "We are being all formal" Sylvester realises that she is following Mortimer's commands literally. Mortimer tries to snap her out of it by giving her a ridiculous command to "be a dog" but she goes down on all fours and starts growling. Scary is detachedly impressed by his power, and thinks there is a real risk Rosemary will become permanently enthralled. Alarmed, Mortimer tries to order Rosemary to be herself, preempting Scary who was about to intervene, and commands her to take orders from noone, although she can listen to their advice. In the short term it seems to have worked, but it remains to be seen whether she has internalised any of his commands. Sylvester takes control of the Glowgem for now and gives it to Rosemary to go in her Poke Kit, and Mortimer goes off to speak to Frederick. Restored to normal function, Rosemary is introduced to the Scary Lady, whose name we finally learn to be Myrrh (and it is confirmed that she sent Chauncy and Edgar to a desert zone). The two go off for a private chat in which it is revealed that Rosemary knows Myrrh to be not Human, and that Myrrh loves and protects Frederick to the point of being willing to kill anybody who threatens anybody he cares about, such as his nephews. It is mentioned in passing that Rosemary's encounter with Scratch was before she joined Hack'N'Slash. Myrrh agrees that Rosemary should be independent, as Mortimer told her, and can sense that she's already met a lot of powerful locals who tried to influence her, people Myrrh calls "local dignitaries": we see Protus; the Operator; the Tree; the Djinnoscope; Tand; the Gibber; and the Great Riddler. She repeats to Rosemary what Mortimer told her about living her own life and dreaming her own dreams, just to make it stick, and magically straightens the bent wing on her helmet. The same minituarised trundlebug who fell onto Rosemary's helmet earlier in the day is revealed to be still lurking in her broken lamp, and Myrrh rescues it, then goes off to see what's happened to the Sneeches, after commenting that the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer will spoil his intended date with Sharona Stout in the village. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss Myrrh, and how Frederick summoned her by accident while trying to get a Djinn. He spent his energy on a collar to control her and stop her from running wild and killing bystanders, as Demons had done in the past, but now she wears the collar voluntarily and uses it to assist her own magic in some way, as Frowgler had suggested to her when she met him while time-slipped (although he may have suggested it because he'd already seen her future self doing it). She has been a good partner to Frederick and a good great-aunt to his family, and Sylvester is loyal to her and will protect her if necessary. Rosemary reluctantly agrees, but wants to keep the knowledge of the Can-Opener from her. Sylvester schedules a talk about Rosemary's recent history for the next day but he fears to be overheard, so they must go somewhere secure. They prove to each other that they are Human by checking each other's ears (Sylvester's ears are apparently jaw-droppingly strange, but not pointed) and discuss the origins of Demons and Djinn and the possibility that since Myrrh answers questions and helps people, maybe Frederick wasn't so far off the mark when he tried to summon a Djinn and got her – or maybe they are, after all, just people and all individual. Straightforward Demons like Chauncy and Edgar and Scratch come from Fratz; Human-like Demons and the Djinn come from Zark. Demons in the Snowgrass area are more like rock/tree things (is the Tree one? later we will see that one visited the Spire City in Mechana). and Demons in the Deep Jungle are more animal and strange. Sylvester realises something about Frederick and why he hid books on Demons which he feels foolish not to have realised before, which leads to a conversation about a duel which Rosemary lost to a woman named Haruka Sol in a way which made her realise her own mortality and how dangerous her job was, and they take the Sneech obelisk towards the Quiet Room. Meanwhile Mortimer passes the countdown thing, which now reads 0315313091 (it was 315342639 when Rosemary and Sylvester passed it that morning, so it's counted down by 29,548 in about half a day, suggesting it will take about fourteen years to reach zero), but he tells it he's not in the mood. Mortimer goes to speak to Frederick. On the way he meets Nellie, who recognises the umbrella he is carrying (formerly Myrrh's) and seems shocked by it. She is concerned, generally, for Mortimer's safety and well-being, and for that of her own husband Amos although he is sitting quietly doing some book-binding. Mortimer believes Rosemary and Sylvester might now be an item: Nellie expects him to be jealous but he doesn't seem to be. Meanwhile, Myrrh enters the Sneech den and speaks to Frowgler, who is crawling out of the top of the shaft created by Chauncy and Edgar. Within Myrrh's subjective timeline they seem not to have spoken to each other for fifty years, since she was flashed forwards from just before the Crash, but are on good terms. [For Frowgler it was probably a few hours ago, although as the Frowgler Myrrh met during the flash-forwards was a pre-explosion Frowgler whose horn had not yet been broken it's hard to be sure.] Myrrh says Frederick is going to be upset about something Frowgler has done (probably arranging for Mortimer to get the umbrella-wand). Frederick, who is playing his Fugehorn into some kind of vaguely tree-like amplifier in a vast and high chamber, tells Mortimer that he's a wizard and that there's a wand built into the umbrella, but he won't help Mortimer to learn magic because he thinks it brings only misery. we learn that Frederick actually plays the Fugehorn very well, and that Amos actually enjoys his music. Amos and Nellie discuss the danger Mortimer is in, or represents, and Amos promises to be careful. Meanwhile Sylvester and Rosemary listen to Frederick's playing as they steer the Dohickey towards the Quiet Room, and Sylvester tells her that what Frederick is playing is a well-known lament called Threnody for the Victims of the Crash, which is where the local Oracle, Threnody, and her Guardian Dirge got their work-names. We learn that Ernest, the Earl who was an art forger, was also a genuine patron of the arts and built a whole wing of the Mansdion, called the Party Palace, for theatre and other performing arts. That's where Frederick's tree-like amplifier is. The Quiet Room is more of a gap in the Mansion than an actual room. As they approach it Rosemary's Poke Kit shrinks and begins to disgorge its contents, so Sylvester goes alone to deposit the Sneech Dohickey. The Quiet Room contains among other things the Dark Crystal; a Triforce symbol from the Zelda stories; a clockwork monkey (made by the Kaylu cult) playing cymbals; a statuette of Cthulhu; a flower in a pot; and a crescent thing which looks like the head of another Can-Opener-type pike. Rosemary says "I can hear you ralking in there.." 7'0150; it looks as though she means she can hear Sylvester, but we will learn that she means she can hear the Dohickey. After Sylvester leaves, all these objects begin to glow with magic and the crescent speaks and greets the Dohickey. Sylvester and Rosemary go to find a sword for her and to change the lock on the Basement door, since he has lost his key in the Basement. They find a powerful taser called a Zap Trident, much stronger than the one Sylvester tried to use on Villipend: Rosemary says Hack'N'Slash have offered a big reward for a working one, but they leave it where it is because it's probably only its proximity to the Quiet Room which is keeping it from exploding, and they would ahve to take it all the way to REowan to find an Hack'N'Slash office big enough to hand it in. Still, it's a source of future cash if they ever get that depserate. Sylvester says that the things in the Quiet Room are dangerous, that destroying them in the Great Chasm would lead to earthquakes (we see that the three-eyed thing from the airbox was tossed in) and that left in the Quiet Room those that are Sneech gifts gradually fade away, and in any case they usually switch off when the recipient dies. The crescent thing is not known to be dangerous – just annoying. They meet up with Mortimer, and Sylvester assures him he hadn't known that he was a wizard. If he had done, Mortimer would have left and gone after Yasmine. Sylvester thinks perhaps he should go after her anyway, but Mortimer hopes she will return to the Mansion. Sylvester fears this could lead to a division of loyalties, depending on what it is the Weirdos are plotting. He thinks their father may also have been an unknown wizard. Mortimer describes his encounter with Frowgler, who he has realised gave him the umbrella surreptitiously, and Sylvester believes him because the Great Riddler also mentioned Frowgler. They intend to debrief each other the next day but not now, because Rosemary feels they may be overheard. She meanwhile is planning to fetch a siege-pot from the barracks. Mortimer goes off and heads up the North Tower: on the way he prods a door-sign that says "SIGNS OF CHANGE" with his umbrella, and it clicks. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the Weirdos, who are a combination of jester, priest and counsellor. We learn that Oracles (but not Weirdos) carry out midwifery – and euthanasia. Sylvester feels that he no longer knows what's going on around his home. We learn that there are seige-engines mounted on the Main Tower and also that Rosemary can't act, as they discuss the plays which used to be put on at the Mansion, and the history of Kaylu – a fascist-style movement which introduced a country called Tomania to a crazed, murderous empire-building cult which worshipped a two-tailed monkey god, and was destroyed by the Crash. The Crash had an extreme effect on the Infernal Engine. Having collected the necessary materials they board up the door to the Basement, using an Ettin-made "length" and a mechanical nail-planter which could be valuable if they can find somebody to replicate it for sale. They leave the door unbarred for Myrrh, and Sylvester declares their business with the Basement is done for the day, although he will keep his promise to call on the Ferns again, and his plans for the rest of the evening require Rosemary to retain her (Audra's) helmet. We see Frederick return to the suite of rooms he shares with Myrrh, and gaze nostalgically at a photograph of his younger self and other youths in wizard gear. They are Nellie, Amos, a curly-haired woman whom Nellie will later name as "poor Mamie" (who died in the Crash), and the future Old Man Larssen. 07: Career Paths [11/06/2012 – 16/02/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3181–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips start–#03424] We see Agorn emerge, with relief, from a partially-blocked tunnel mouth partway up a rock-face near a bridge across the Great Chasm. He edges along a narrow ledge with his back to the wall, past Furphy (who we will later learn is his son) who is keeping some Jibjib eggs warm, and aross a gap which he has to jump, and comes to a bridge with a checkpoint at either end, although this one at the Sneech end is deserted. He can smell that the Ghast party went past earlier. The bridge is long and has no railings, but it's fairly safe as it's about 12ft wide. The far end is lit by bone torches. He crosses and speaks to a Gnoll border guard called Varuna, and an Ichyoid guard named Argus, and tells Varuna to warn her "vile employer" (probably Nevus or Guttle) that if the nobs keep poking in the Sneech den the Sneeches will some day poke back. He thinks that the entrance to Crescent Hall, which looks out on the bridge, is in the line of fire, and that his boss isn't stupid enough to live there. He talks to another Gnoll guard called Scibile who doesn't let him in because of the lockdown, but fills him in on what he knows of the events of the day, including the fact that something strange is happening at the Observatory, then he walks into a maze of dark, much-graffitoed stone passages and stairs. The Hitchhiking Gem falls from his spear with a clunk and he spots it, assumes he picked it up by accident in the Sneech den and posts it down a metal hatch. As he (or the gem) leaves some sort of small device which had been sticking up from a rock retracts, with a trickle of magic. The gem clangs down into a chain of pipes heading towards the SubShafts, and we see that the pipes pass by an odd kind of sculpture or device consisting of coloured spikes almost like giant coloured pencils, with single letters on them, mainly vowels. This may have to do with the religion of the Brush that coloured in the world. On top of these spikes sits a small red-brown Fuzz, clutching a flaming torch. Agorn, meanwhile, keeps going until he comes back out into Time Hall and the other side of Cresent Hall, but it's all unnaturally quiet. He goes to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base, and speaks to a male receptionist called Enchiridon. He is left waiting for a long time while a female Scrutineer called Hypothimia records his every word and action. She is stressed and angry because with all that's been going on – the fire, Chauncy and Edgar on the loose etc. – she wants to be with her mate Brimborion and their children but instead she is stuck here in this petty desk job. Peripatet arrives in his wheeled chair to collect Agorn but before Agorn goes he tells Hypothimia that he himself has been parted from his mate (he seems to have only one) and his child has been lost through some sort of mental transformation (he went away but left his body behind: we will learn that this is Furphy), but all you can do is pick yourself up and try to change things for the better. As Agorn and Peripatet proceed through Root Hall we learn that Peripatet has a girlfrind called Glossolalia, and Agorn sniffs out (literally) that Skradt is now with Comshaw. They pass various official messages on the walls but one seems like a religious or political statement – "Remontado decided she had had o nuff shaft folderol so off she went and uprooted us all". As they pass the door to Scritchpods 205–214 a female Eyebolt in a wheeled chair passes them going the other way, wearing what may be a normal hat or may be a Fixit, and a wave of "weirding" hallucinations emanates from behind the closed door. This Eyebolt is carrying a box on her cart, and the cart is labelled CTV: possibly Computation Transport Vehicle. Peripatet takes Agorn to a door behind which is a dark space containing dark, sinister-looking objects, perhaps Ettin machinery, glowing with dull red lights. Agorn refuses to enter. An unseen, probably male presence (Agorn addresses it as "Mr Muckymuck") behind a hatch dismisses Peripatet, who leaves at speed – the presence says that Peripatet does well at clandestine cart-races. It wants to discuss Agorn's boss, and says that "some of us" are aware of, and broadly approve of, what "you all" are doing. Consequently Agorn has been given Class Eight clearance, which means he can now come and go unescorted through most areas of Root Hall. The presence is somebody Agorn has had indirect contact with or knowledge of, but has never spoken to directly before: it asks him to supply any useful information he comes across in return, and Agorn tells him that Humans are real. The presence starts to half tell Agorn about Fixits but Agorn appears not to be receptive to the idea of hats being significant, and leaves. Meanwhile the chit for Agorn's new clearance is transferred by a cart-driving messenger (later named as Symposiarch) who reads the first message, destroys it, writes another and drops it down a pneumatic pipe system to a clerk (later named as Pulvinar) who reads it and then eats it and replaces it with another which he writes himself. He is monitoring something on a small screen. Agorn goes to the "Grafted Zone" of Root Hall and speaks to Flibbergib, Agita's Eyebolt receptionist, who again tries to tell him about the Fixits, not very clearly. Meanwhile we see various characters sleeping, including the Shallow Wyrm Squeeb, asleep in the Trog pen deep down on the side of the Chasm, and Bung's friend Faddle the Gnoll, who is very much awake. He is trying to evade somebody, but is rounded up by a hunting party of female Gnolls. Next we see him and four females, all wearing collars with glowing buckles on the front and all with white hair like a Finagler's, sleeping together in a large nest. We will learn later that this is the Place No One Talks About and that these are the Placettes, who are the female version of Finaglers. Agita arrives and Agorn shows her a written note saying that he's been promoted to Class Eight. We see a flashback to the aftermath of the auction, and Agita sending Agorn to trail Mortimer. Agorn reports the basics of the toing and froing he has seen surrounding Mortimer, Rufus, Eunice and Yasmine, saying he followed Mortimer's scent to a hole, then saw him carried out unconscious by two Humans (Rufus and Eunice) some time later. Agita fundamentally misunderstands what Humans are – she knows they are like big Nomes so she thinks they are a local mutation caused by the Spike, and gradually spreading through the local forest. Agorn says that there were repeller poles all around the hut where Mortimer was placed, and that most of the Humans just walked past them but that the female Human who then arrived (Yasmine) "did the usual spit-test" on one. Does this mean Yasmine is related to the Emans and passed a Herediscan, or was she just proving she was Human? Agita shows Agorn a written note (written on clay and then wiped) warning him about the Fixits – which suggests she doesn't want to speak out loud in front of Flibbergib, or fears others may be listening – and telling him to lie low until tomorrow and then spear any hats with eyes on sight, even if worn by her. As Agorn leaves Root Hall he notices that there are fewer Eyebolt watchers on duty than there usually are. The last one usually hides inside a free-standing stone sign outside the exit, but there is no-one there, and what looks like blood on the spy-hole. The "blood" is a trick with fruit-juice to get him to stop and look, and he is narrowly missed by an arrow fired from an overhang by Fanga, one of two dark-haired female Gnolls (the other is Shabash), who had momentarily mistaken him for somebody else (Bromir, who looks a lot like him). Agorn slides over the edge onto a ledge to avoid the archer, takes a back route and lets himself into a concealed bedsit room behind a panel out in the Fringes. In the dust on a table, someone has drawn an arrow and written "She thought you were someone else", surrounded by what look like Smyt footprints: we later learn that messages on the table are a regular thing and usually correct, and the marks on the table are referred to as flipper marks, although they look a bit small to be Frowgler's. Digger comes in – it's his pad – and Agorn addreses him as "Boss". We see that Agorn and Digger have known about the Fixits for some time. Agorn reports the day's activities to Digger, giving him more detail than he told Agita. He was already familiar with Mortimer at one remove as somebody Skibble talked about. Although he didn't tell Agita, he followed Mortimer into the basement under World o' Pots and saw a lot of working Human tech, which they'll need "if we've lost all of Rhid's stash", and saw the cloakring, which made him feel odd. He says that "Yas-meen" came from the direction of the Spike (no, there isn't room under her hood for a Fixit) and was different in some way. He didn't tell Agita that he saw Mortimer speaking to Frowgler: he didn't hear what they said but says he supposes Digger could just ask Frowgler, and Digger agrees. He feels that something nudged him to get him to go down the hole in the crater, which led him to the Ferns. We see that they have been watching the Humans, drawing them and giving them descriptive nicknames (Arthur the Weirdo with his ventriloquist's puppet Fantod is "Snoop two-head", Rufus is "Snoop one-head", Sylvester is "Eyeplates" and Myrrh is "Clawblaster"). Agorn would like to bring Comshaw into their conspiracy, or whatever it is, but Digger vetoes the idea. Agorn could tell by smell that Mortimer, "Silvester" and Rufus were littermates, and that Rosemary is something different, a "hardcase" like Comshaw or the two-spiked Pales. Agorn sketches the three Human women he saw, then sets out to see to some personal matters, but as he leaves Digger points out that when "Muckymuck" at Root Hall said that he and others were broadly pleased with what Agorn's boss was doing he may have meant Digger himself and their conspiracy-whatever, not Agita, whose schemes serve only herself. Agorn is alarmed at this idea, and thinks that "our enemy" may have made Eyebolt enemies. Coming away from Digger's bedsit he meets a Gnoll called Bromir who looks a lot like him and believes himself to be the target of the assassins, who were hired by Sooterkin at Root Hall. Bromir refers to Agorn having been given higher clearance by Fuglemin, who may therefore be Agorn's Mr Muckymuck. Agorn heads back towards the Sneech side of the Great Chasm. At the bridge he tries to chat up the Gnoll guard Varuna and invites her to come fishing with him some time: she turns him down, although the Ichyoid guard Argus thinks she should have said yes. He comes on Furphy and his eggs again and we learn that Furphy is actually Agorn's son. The mother was called Awen and she and Agorn are estranged, though not bitterly so. A Denthir is mentioned who was probably their Finagler but is now dead. Furphy has had some kind of relationship with Dandilli (who went to the SubShafts) and will take no other mate, possibly because she put him off from doing so. Father and son talk, and Furphy says that the reason he thinks nothing is real is that that morning he saw that the physical world had changed but most people can't see it (this is a fourth-wall breach, because Rob changed aspects of the design of the area), and he's not the only one who sees it because the Observer also sees Change. Agorn is semi-willing to consider this and means to tell Digger about it tomorrow. Furphy is guarding the eggs for two Jibjibs named Snurge (presumably male) and Scumble (female), to whom he owes a favour. Two other Jibjibs called Ruck (male) and Smew (female) fly overhead in the dark, and we see them enter a hole in a sort of complex, compound stalactite formation, which we will learn is called the Uppermost Spire, and settle on a nest there. Ruck is carrying Urwyn's friend, the comparatlively large Shallow Wyrm Zugo, although the Jibjibs don't know his name. Zugo slithers off into a crack, telling the Jibjibs to wait there for him. These two Jibjibs regularly carry a secretive group of Shallow Wyrms whom they refer to as Clients, transporting them around a widespread network of "rings" which run right through the rocks and whose purpose the Jibjibs don't know. Nevus is an outlier by being a Wyrm out in the open on his own. They get snuggly in the nest, although Smew does not wish to have eggs. We see a Shallow Wyrm named Sneckdraw who seems to be spying on a ring, or at least on a tunnel used by a ring. Sneckdraw is detected and chased through the tunnels by helmeted guards named Vim, Crot, Ang and Diet, and escapes by jumping off an underground cliff onto the back of a tame (or sapient?) bat. Ang gets Ruck to fly him in pursuit with a view to killing them: Ruck queries this but when Ang assures him that Sneckdraw is not officially a member of any ring, and therefore not a Client, Ruck is OK with it. They follow the bat's scent trail – Ang is especially good at this – but Sneckdraw and the bat dodge into a narrow tunnel which Ruck can't fit into. We see another Wyrm, too distant and small to identify, behind a kind of wooden screen in this tunnel. They come to a place where there is a graffitoed sign on the wall saying "Ring of the Newborn Word": Sneckdraw, who seems to be a freelance spy, dismounts and is challenged by guards called Conspue and Fream, armed with a zap trident. They pay Sneckdraw with a food item and he (the guards referred to him as "he", even though he seems to have the eyelashes Rob uses to indicate femininity) reports on Zugo of the Dunktyn Stone's presence at the Uppermost Spire. Conspue either doesn't know or won't say why Zugo is important. Fream conveys Sneckdraw's message to a female superior whom we don't see, and then goes to speak to a female tuneller or miner called Glink, on whom Fream seems to be sweet, and who is listening in secretly on people farther down the tunnel. We see Sina giving the cleaning contract for the new hall to Maw and his crew. At Kronk's suggestion, Sina names the new group Leny Hall, although Maggle and Grik, and the Gobules, all seem to know something mildly disreputable about Leny. At or near Leny Hall, Pergola is investigating plants in a narrow tunnel. Tracking the tunnel higher, we see a male Fixot named Slix ascending a slope to report to a female Fixit named Astex, who sits on a rock in a tunnel filled with plants and fungi. She seems to be fishing in a stream which flows alongside her rock. Slix, who has been sent by a female commander called Poinx, comes to speak to her and get her observations – he calls her "our resident". Astex, who seems to have a cynical attitude to her own kind, says that the shield around the Spike area that "keeps the evil monsters out. Or in, as the case may be." was breached for a second or so, causing panic. It was very noisy – she probably means the OZPR event. Slix runs off before she can tell him about the Sneeches leaving. We learn that Astex is acquainted with Frowgler. We see Mortimer speaking about wizardry to Amos Grubb, who is himself a wizard, but who retired pre-Crash, having thrown his wand away after the incident with Myrrh. He says that Sylvester has some magic, although not as much as Mortimer, and their father Willoughby could have been a wizard if he hadn't been so frivolous. He believes there are still some schools of magic in operation somewhere, but he kept the fact of Mortimer's magic from Mortimer as a favour to Frederick and Nellie, and because it's so dangerous. Magic tends to run in families and other members of the E family also have at least some magical talent (which is why their mother is so good at overhearing things). Mortimer confirms that he found the umbrella-wand: he wouldn't accept a gift from Myrrh "after what heppened last time!" They discuss the fact that Mortimer got the wand from Frowgler, who didn't feel like Myrrh (i.e. not like he came from Zark or Fratz), and the fact that Frederick and Amos were trained by Sylvester and Mortimer's great-great-uncle Hindenburgh. Amos says that Nellie has very little magic (even though she is one of the people in Frederick's photo'). [Amos says he threw his wand away "sixty-odd years" ago, and he was still a wizard in that photo', which means that Nellie was already at least about eighteen eleven years before the Crash, making Myrrh's statement that she was very young at the time even stranger.] If Mortimer practises as a magician he may get hassles from the Oracles of the Brush, and from the villagers, who are now so anti-magic they nearly torched the library. We learn that wands should preferably be handled only by the owner, and Mortimer half remembers the vision of his future self flying, and thinks about using telekinesis to open locks. They discuss the nature of mind-reading and mind-control, which is far easier for Sneeches, Demons and Djinn to perform than other races, and Rosemary's susceptibility; magic-users on the other hand are very resistent to mind-control. They set off in search of Rosemary so Amos can get to know her. The scene cuts to the Nomes at the Pale camp. They are discussing the fact that if Nitfol becomes mayor he'll need a wife. He says that the only girl he found tolerable disappeared. Then Fizmo, the Hot Zone worker, appears and she and Nitfol get talking: she is apparently the girl whom he liked before. She has switched her allegiance to Frowgler and now refers to him as her boss. Nitfol is working with Frowgler too. Umboz and Piu leave them to talk and go off to make love. Then we cut to The Spike, where Eunice Kelso and Rufus are talking. It seems Eunice is a villager who had been posing as Rufus's friend for a long time, but really watching him for God. In notes we learn that the Spike is Ettin-made and that before the Crash, Humans used it to moor airships. Rufus has recently had a talk with "God", or possibly with Dorian (who is not God), which left him briefly unconscious and rubber-legged, but he seems to have agreed to play an important role in God's organisation. This is only the third time Eunice has been in the Spike, and she plans to leave via a service tunnel leading towards the village. Rufus is behaving in quite a commanding, confident way, and speculating about what "God" and his henchman Dorian plan for Eunice next: her job is over and she has important information, so maybe they were hoping he'd kill her. After some edgy verbal sparring Eunice more-or-less agrees to be Rufus's new assistant and bodyguard. Rufus tells her to see what Dorian offers her first, and if she turns down both of them she should go, and get as far as way as possible: but they both know she mustn't go "Out West". Eunice assures him that her hat doesn't have an eye and that she would never let "one of those little creeps" get on her head. She was recruited to God's service by an "old posh lady" named Miss Wentworth whom she met in Noodle: this has been brewing since before Rufus and Eunice were born. How long ago is that? Rufus's father Willoughby was the son of a post-Crash refugee, so Willoughby was born not more than about forty-eight years ago. Let's say Willoughby was about twenty when he and Dorothea had Sylvester, so that's twenty-eight years ago. Rufus is from their fifth pregnancy, so even if Dorothea cranked out one pregnancy a year Rufus is only twenty-four. So the conspiracy is twenty-five-plus years old. 08: The End of the Day [18/02/2013 – 16/07/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips #3431–end] We see Rosemary and Sylvester coming out of gender-specific lavatories which are delineated by male and female statues carrying a real spear and shield. They discuss finding Rosemary some better clothes so she can be properly introduced to Nellie and Amos, although Sylvester is wary of telling her what to wear because of the hypnosis incident. He gets his own clothes from Genrick Gaberdine, an excellent tailor in Eetown, who will be mentioned several times in future strips. The female clothes they are about to see are out of date (mostly collected between fifty and eighty years ago by the wives of Ernest and Philbert), but Sylvester tries to keep stylish because it makes a good impression as Earl. Rosemary is tested by an Ettin-built electronic panel on the wall which confirms she is compatible with the house and can perform its ceremonies. Sylvester offers formally to employ her as Taskmistress, partly for real and partly as cover, and she is given an E-family uniform (which is the same two shades of periwinkle blue we later see on Winnifrite habits and shrines), although she picks the big E off the breast for the moment, and keeps her old clothes in the Poke Kit and later in a drawer. Sylvester warns her that most of the lavatories are shut off to save water and to limit baths to one a day because they get their water from the roof. Once they are both respectably dressed they go and introduce Rosemary to Nellie, although Sylvester tells Nellie that Rosemary's name is Rosemary Aurora Dapple, not Rosemary Imogene Ripley. It is important to impress Nellie because she has Views, and is popular in the village (while Myrrh is unpopular, having "cut quite a swath" before the Crash, as we saw in her collision with Ilsa's anti-Earl group). If possible Rosemary should avoid telling Nellie that she has killed Humans (but killing non-humans is evidently OK) and it would help if she can assist Nellie in her garden. Nellie keeps most of the garden produce for herself and Amos, but there is a commercial orchard they all help with, even Myrrh, and whch helps to fund the Mansion. The Grubbs have a nice homely sitting-room, with a picture on the wall of a winged waffle and an egg with legs. Nellie has already worked out that Rosemary arrived without passing through the village, and is angry about Mortimer being encouraged/allowed to learn magic, although Sylvester says not only that Mortimer needs to do this, but that he may need Mortimer to do this, because of what's happening "downstairs". He tells her that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress, making it sound as if he intentionally summoned her to the Mansion for that purpose, and also that she killed a monster and now there's meat and tallow in the Low Kitchen. Quizzed about her origins Rosemary mentions the three beacons in the Bay of Runes, "big and scary and beautiful", and also that people in Moonin hunt Saurs (who are presumably non-sapient, and are bigger than the Mansion ones – so probably what the Mansion Saurs call Sawtooths). They allow Nellie to assume that Rosemary learned to fight mainly because she was a Saur-hunter although she admits that she has "some training" with the sword, and Nellie warns Sylvester that the Sheriff wants to meet Rosemary. Nellie opens up and talks about the group of which she, Amos and Frederick were a part prior to the Crash. She came from Zebedee, Frederick and Amos were locals, and it's later hinted that Olaf came from elsewhere. Amos and Frederick were old friends who were learning magic from Hindenburgh, and Mamie must have learned from somebody as she had a magicker hat (Olaf didn't and nor did Nellie). Nellie had to choose between Frederick and Amos and chose Amos, and Mamie was with Olaf. But then Fredrick accidentally summoned Myrrh and lost his magic, and Amos renounced magic, so only Mamie had the hat when the Crash came, and only Mamie died. Amos, Nellie and Ilsa became servants at the Mansion (and Olaf, we will later learn, became the local vet). Amos and Nellie had a son, Arlen. who is now the local Hedgemaster. Sylvester warns Nellie about some of the recent developments in the Basement, and the fact that the River of Fire can affect things even up here in the Mansion. As he talks we see vignettes of Chumley the Boogieman presiding over a growing collection of dead Fixits; the blonde woman with the pink bow, whom Rosemary called Mz Teree, reporting distressing changes in the Basement to someone who addresses her as Annabelle (and who has been waiting impatiently for her: possibly Nirvana); and Frowgler telling Myrrh about the conversation Rosemary and Sylvester are currently having with Nellie. Sylvester leaves Rosemary and Nellie alone to talk about contraception, and we learn that there is a "Women's Circle" at the local Temple, where such things may be discussed. Here, such things are only discussed between women, at the Temple, because in the past there have been men in the area who tried to stop women from using Stiflebloom. The Women's Circle preserved their freedom and all women are allowed to attend: even outsiders; even Myrrh if she wanted to. Eunice is a member. In Moonin they talk about Stiflebloom freely, even though they are sexually uptight and not like the more sex-positive Morlock or Abalone. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester leave together, talking about local leaders – an impromptu lady mayor named Saffron Stout who runs an inn, and Patrick Skragg, the Sheriff. The Earl has warily polite relationships with both. Both Nellie and Sylvester mention Olga, Mortimer's ex, who seems to have been a disaster. Rosemary says the position of "strange and dangerous woman" is now filled. Sylvester formally introduces Rosemary to Frederick. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester agree to conceal her true identity and membership of Hack n' Slash, in case she's on a "wanted" list. They meet up with Amos and Mortimer and Amos, as a former wizard, comfirms that Mortimer no longer has psychic influence over Rosemary. Amos can still see people's mental structures, which vary a bit by region, and he can tell that she is from Out West. Amos and Sylvester exchange news of the day, including some things Sylvester didn't tell Nellie, like about the Sneech gift, and about Tand – Sylvester thinks he has seen Tand mentioned in the records and Amos promises to look her up. Sylvester learns about The Pit flaring. We learn that "Pit" stands for "Pulse-Ignition Thaumnode" and that it was a booster device used to power-up airships heading for the Far Eastern Shore, to save on fuel. The effect is like a small version of the Daynight (a rainbow aurora witnessed by the first Prime Oracle, although we don't learn that till later), which evidently did something drastic, at least to people near it. Mortimer finds The Pit creepy. After Amos leaves to go home, Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer go to the Basement of the barracks, fetch a siege pot and set it up on the top of the West Tower over the main entrance. Mortimer goes off to find clothes (his shirt having been shredded to make makeshift gloves and boots in the Sneech den) and leaves Sylvester and Rosemary discussing the definition of "mansion". He tells her about the Spike, which he has never tried to climb because it's one big, churning Ettin machine and very dangerous. He can see that somebody is living there because it's been more active (in terms of lights etc.) since the Crash, but it's out of the Mansion lands and as far as he knows nobody now officially owns it. They discuss the aftermath of the Crash – which wasn't nearly as bad in the poor rural area where Rosemary comes from, because hardly anybody there used magic anyway – and the ownership of land and property left vacant after the previous owners died in the disaster. Eva was affected, but that was because she was in Nye on the mainland. Now Eetown, once a thriving metropolis, lives by catching Tooterfish for their oil. They go off to eat and we see a series of vignettes. Myrrh has arrived in the Sneech den proper, but hasn't encountered any Sneeches. Amos collects a package of Dornbeast-liver from the processor and takes it to Nellie, and discusses Rosemary with her: Nellie isn't sure she likes Rosemary but feels she can trust her, and Amos says they haven't been told the full story about how she got there but they're in no position to complain about people withholding information. Mortimer gets cleaned up (but even after a bath he still smells of sphagnum dust). En route to a dinner of last night's Dornbeast tendrils, Rosemary and Sylvester pause to look at a Panegate which leads elsewhere on their own world, into open grassland on the Thembrian Steppes, with the occasional distant horseman. Sylvester says that such local Panegates are especially hard to open, possibly because the Ettins double-locked them against Sneech incursions. Behind them is a statue of Pratchett's Discworld. Mortimer joins them at table and says he has put the umbrella aside until such time as he may decide to take up magic. They discuss re-opening access to a nearby beach so they can gather fish and seaweed, now that Rosemary is there to fend off any Ichyoids who might object, then they sign Rosemary into the Mansion's official staff record-book, still under the false name Dapple. Sylvester goes off to write up the day's events, and Mortimer goes and tries on various formal outfits, but doesn't seem to like the look of them, and picks a blue t-shirt with a star on the chest. Rosemary gets Amos to show her the library. Coming away with a stack of books on history, anthropology and moral philosophy, she experiences a psychic tweak which calls her to go to the Quiet Room and speak to (apparently) the Sneech Dohickey, which she can hear because she touched it, although she remains outside the locked door. She says that it and she are both protecting Sylvester, and suggests it should watch the Basement door, or the Weirdo. As the new Taskmistress she threatens the devices, saying that if any of them causes trouble she'll chuck them all into the Great Chasm. As she walks away we see Frowgler sitting by the foot of the door – he speaks to the Dohickey as if they are old aquaintances. Myrrh, with her balloon in tow, descends to the Ettinworks using the musical levitating lift in the shaft where Rosemary met Tand. Returning to the Guest Room, Rosemary rearranges the furniture so she can sit facing the door, writes to her aunt and takes a bath. She falls asleep but immediately wakes into a dream which seems to be some kind of objectively real astral projection. She passes Skuy and Spot, who are arguing, because Skuy is keeping people away from the elevator: Skuy at least seems to be also asleep and also taking part in the astral projection. Rosemary goes to the elevator and meets the Operator, who has summoned her and tries to hypnotise her, but she says that will never happen again and whacks him with a mallet, which she then hands over to Skuy: the physically real Operator is aware of and intrigued by what has just happened to his astral equivalent. We see an overview of various couples sleeping: Nellie and Amos; Umbuz and Piu (in bed together, so their relationship is progressing fast!); the Gobules Gorp and Phiga. Then we see Mortimer and Yasmine, who would like to be a couple but aren't yet: Mortimer lying awake, and Yasmine sitting by a camp fire, staring at a Fleeb. Myrrh goes to the same doorway off the underhub where Sylvester and co. were passed the metal "KEEP OUT" sign. She is passed a similar cut-out message, this one saying "IN HER" with an extra "E" drawn or painted on to make it "IN HERE". The extra "E" is done in the style of the emblem of the Earls of E. The door opens and she goes through into the corridor of doors we saw before. A distant door is open to receive her but all we see through it is several floating lights – possibly ABOLs. More vignettes: Eunice talking to Cox, in front of Ettin signs or graffiti saying "shake hands" and "onebig onion", and tells him Rufuis says they're lucky that "this phizzpile hasn't imploded and fallen in the swamp". She probably literally means the Spike collapsing. Hector talks to Nunsuch and says that "sir" wishes Nunsuch and another character called Penfold to interface with the Spindizzies: Nunsuch indicates some Ettin text which appears on a screen beside them and which changes gradually from the old font to the new. This text, which says "remote spike extrusion", triggers Hector to engage a "revised schedule" which he says is twenty years late. Sylvester gives up on his paperwork and collapses into bed. Meanwhile Myrrh leaves the room of lights and returns to the Mansion, where she bars the Basement door and puts a ward on it telling Basement dwellers to keep out. She opens a Panegate into a lush jungle and sets the balloon floating off into that jungle carrying the rescued Trundlebug, who lands in a bush where it meets a new friend (probably of the opposite sex, if Trundlebugs have sexes). She goes and reassures Frederick that although the magic umbrella is hers she didn't directly give it to Mortimer, and they start flirting. The scene shifts to the Trog holding area where Villipend and Hamble were formerly imprisoned, and we see that Hamble has survived electrocution. In his former life, before the Plunge, he was a simple fungi farmer, but proximity to the Hot Zone seems to have done something to reverse the mental decline which caused him to jump into the Great Chasm in the first place, and he is now very clever and very ambitious. He half rescues, half kidnaps Squeeb, and works out how to get out of the habitat. He snifs out, literally, a hidden door behind which is an emergency bolthole room with stocked provisions, and which opens out above the chute. He sets off to walk along the top of the chute-tube with Squeeb strapped to his arm, seeking a new dawn which will be his. We learn on the way that Squeeb, who is Nevus's brother in law, belongs to no ring, and despises the idea of doing so. Finally we see two vignettes. In one, a male soldier reports on Rosemary's disappearance to a female commander, the Tansy whom Rosemary saw in a vision. Tansy is working for some outfit or political party whose emblem is a triangle within a circle: it appears on her desk and on her helmet. It appears to belong to her: the office she is occupying has a sign outside saying "ABBOT'S OFFICE" but then a big "T" and the triangle-and-circle sign have both been drawn on it using the same red paint. She vows to find Rosemary wherever she has gone – and clearly with hostile intent. In the other, we see Sylvester's sister Lilith and their mother Dorothea, talking in the darkness at the edge of a banquet in the Deep Jungle somewhere. The mother would have liked to have stayed, but she has received a psychic impression that they need to start heading back to E. Part Six: On My Way to Town [28/07/2013 – 16/11/2018] Note that from 03/05/2015, the Saturdays in the Basement strips show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with the action above ground. 01: Rise and Shine [28/07/2013 – 26/11/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips start–#3698] The sun has just risen over the Mansion. The brothers are already awake: Sylvester resumes doing his paperwork, but Mortimer stands gazing out of a window, clutching the umbrella he said he wouldn't pick up again unless and until he decided to take up magic, and thinking of himself as having "set out" – and that the world itself has also changed. Rosemary emerges and rings the bell for Schmedley, the butler, attracting Mortimer's attention. He introduces her to Schmedley, who tells her how to find Sylvester (and who speaks very quietly). Schmedley is not surprised to hear that Mortimer is a wizard. We see Arthur the Weirdo feeling the worse for wear. Sylvester explains the hierarchy of the Mansion's servants to Rosemary. Nellie and Amos are officially retired, and Myrrh retired when Ilsa, the Head Housekeeper, did (he evidently doesn't know Myrrh was controlling her!). When the main posts are all filled the rank from top down goes Regent and Estate Manager (Frederick); Head Housekeeper; Butler; Taskmistress; then the Head Gardener and Head Librarian and then all the small fry. As Taskmistress Rosemary stands fairly high. One of her duties is, at least potentially, to find and hire a new sign-writer (if official and full-time, called a Notification Artificer). Sylvester's next task is in three days and Rosemary's in five. He shows Rosemary her new official quarters and office, which she is quite stunned by. Her quarters command a view of the ocean, which leads to a discussion about Panegates and the fact that no known Panegate leads to another continent, although some lead to alternative realities for the location of the Mansion. They move on to discussing why the villagers don't all move into the much-more-comfortable Mansion, and Rosemary's dream about the Operator. Sylvester didn't share it but we see a flashback to what must be his own dream, in which he, Rosemary and Nimue are attending a university lecture given by Protus, accompanied by three frogs, two sitting with the girls in the audience and one sitting with Protus, and Sylvester is aware that his own frog is missing (or has gone to Protus). We see a rusted, land-locked churnboat which Philbert had been going to convert into a building, the Boathouse, and access to which is heavily restricted; and a wizwitch detector which detects Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss security clearances, and local legends relating to a scruffy local folk-hero called Frizzlegarb who Sylvester thinks might have been a surviving Wilf, and who is associated with a symbol that looks like a waffle with wings. Legends say Frizzlegarb founded Glome, grew the first pudding plant and planted the acorn which became the Forest of Burzee. They also say that he swam through a pool and there met what sounds like a Willigig. [Later we will learn that Frizzlegarb was a Fuzz from the far future, presumably dislocated in time by the Willigig.] Sylvester is still having trouble with the fact that Willigigs are real. He shows Rosemary round her apartment and gives her a mechanical pocket-watch, then they get out Mortimer's Glowgem and test it on a sort of battery-tester invented by Griffington. They are quite rare. although there are some in the Infernal Engine, and in deep shafts under the Brushspire Peaks, and in Paydon, and the university had some big ones brought back by the Bradstreet Expedition. No-one really knows what they are, but they're not alive, they come in various types which feel slightly different, and they store power, and they didn't explode in the Crash. We see an outtake of the Tribbletongued Hamster (in pirate getup), the plant and the ABOL escaping together in their toy boat, sailing along an underground tunnel: a sign in the background points towards the sea. This is a colourised but othwerwise only slightly different version of the drawing we saw the previous day whem Rosemary and Sylvester were coming away from Spatchcock's office, but the sign pointing to the sea is new, so they've made progress. This Glowgem is highly charged. The Mansion has a few others whose charge has almost run down: they can be recharged by dipping them in the River of Fire for a few days. They used to do that from a bridge station over the River, but it collapsed in the Crash: we see that the Observatory in the Basement is adapted from the ruins of it. Sylvester mentions that the Mansion used to have a "wizwitch", a magic-wielder, as a regular member of staff and he supposes it now has one again. The scene cuts to Mortimer, who is talking to a strange wall of purple electrical spikes labelled "CURED ELECTRO-SPIKES" and filled with littl wires, telling it he is going to go and celebrate the fact that he has grown up and got a job. He goes to Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where there are various amusements and places to eat. Back with Rosemary and Sylvester, he asks her about Hack & Slash's Commandant Spangler (who Rosemary had said was the only person she had previously met who had a private office). This segues into a conversation about their respective grandparents. Rob has said elsewhwere that Quincy died in 5398, and it's now 5423, and Sylvester says here that Quincy died when he was five, so Sylvester is now twenty-nine or thirty. Rosemary's parents died on their way back from her grandmother's funeral, when she was a baby. Rosemary runs through her fake history, although we know from a bonus strip of her family that she has kept their names and just changed her father's surname to match her new, false surname Dapple. She discusses the remote possibility of using Protus to go back in time and save her parents – for whom she has little feeling – at the cost of giving up her own exciting future and getting stuck as a farm-girl (and refers to Haroons in passing as Leafheads). Meanwhile we see Frederick and Myrrh set out to do something – unspecified but involving hand-holding – "properly". Get married, probably. Sylvester tells Rosemary about the demand there used to be for apartments linked to this private corridor for senior administrators: Amos could have had a smart Head Librarian's apartment here, but he and Nellie chose to live down in the Storage Halls next to Frederick and Myrrh because of their long history [Olaf lives in the village]. There used to be a separate cottage for the Head Gardener but it was damaged in the Crash. They discuss the fact that in the past, pre-Ludwig, the Earls were at risk of being assassinated just for being the Earl. Rosemary goes off at a tangent about a fluffy-seeming female called Miss Gritz who was a traveller on the caravan Rosemary was guarding, and whom she suspects of being her apparent boyfriend's very high-powered personal bodyguard. Sylvester shows Rosemary round the official, ceremonial offices for himself and his secretary (but not his official chambers, which are untidy). The offices are designed to be intimidating, and with security in mind: there is a round thing on the wall that Sylvester says is the remains of a robot security system. The fact that attention is drawn to it suggests to me that we will find out Mr Hand can access it and it's not as broken as it purports to be, but Rosemary taps it and it doesn't do anything visible. Meanwhile, we see Eunice, wearing a rucksack, emerge from a concealed entrance in a rock with a spy-eye on top. Yasmine arrives on horseback at a sign that points to Eetown in one direction and Noodle in another (forking rather than diametrically opposed), and thinks that in another hour she'll be far enough away to take her hood off. So she is somebody who might be recognised. Her spark of attraction with Martimer suggests that a) she too is in the twenty-five to thirty-five range and b) she isn't Lenore, even though the Shibolith accent could be fake. We learn that the Mansion has an actual throne. Audra was the last Earl to use it and since then it's been reserved in case the king should visit – this nearly happened fifty years ago, when Yorik III had planned a visit, but the king ws killed when his flagship airship The Velvet Glove went down during the Crash, and the current king tends to stay in the capital. We learn that the Mansion has a High Tower, which seems to be the turret off the main tower, and access to which is blocked: Rufus tried to get in there, before he wandered off, but as far as Sylvester knows he was unsuccessful. Possibly Mr Hand lives there. Sylvester says Rufus likes to wander but he doesn't go far: Sylvester tried to get him to go to university but Rufus felt that the area around the Mansion was where he was going to be. Sylvester doesn't know where Rufus is now: Mortimer hasn't told him, or perhaps being zapped and PZORed and meeting Yasmine scrambled his memory. Sylvester shows Rosemary an escape hatch under the desk (which itself is made of near-impregnable Ettin lengths), leading to a panic-room which used to be well-equippped but is now almost empty. There used to be guards down there, but not since the Crash: and no, they didn't really need guards after the Crash, because they had Myrrh. We learn that in the early days the Earldom was passed on by mortal combat. Milo was the last Earl of E officially to kill his predecessor and the first to pass the Earldom on by blood although his grandson, Dorn II, may have been murdered by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, who then ruled in her husband Lemuel's stead while he got on with his Panegate research. We also learn that in those days the Earldoms of E and S were friends. Sylvester doesn't know as much about his mother's family, the Mundivagants, who are grand and grudging industrialists. Neither he nor Lenore would ever ask their maternal grandfather Humphrey Mundivagant for a favour. Their brother Ace works for the Mundivagants. Rosemary's family were all farmers with a long tradition, but they have died out. The Mansion has mangonels and mini airships which could probably be got to work. Rosemary asks about a sign saying "Gargoyle pits" and Sylvester tells her that there are creatures called Gargoyles and Spindizzies which were bred or manufactured by the Ettins to service and repair the buildings in which they live, so the Mansion behaves like a semi-living thing, a sort of colonial organism, even though there's no central personality such as there is at the Castle of the Combynes. Gargoyles deal with the exterior and Spindizzies with the interior, especially service machinery behind the walls and in the BaseCore, which is "one giant inaccessible churn of zappy machinery". The Mansion is slowly running down. Sylvester and Rosemary speculate about the possibility of finding still-surviving Ettins who could restore it. They come to a corridor where an end-wall has moved aside, giving access to a platform looking out into a vast service-space, so Sylvester takes Rosemary to meet the Spindizzies, warning her to get the Can-Opener out first and not tell anybody about the Poke Kit. In the empty space we saee lines of force, with the first appearance of the little Ts and Fs which become a common motif. 02: Fishing Around [27/11/2013 – 22/03/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3704–#3810] The scene opens with an Ichyoid about under water, wearing some sort of equipment on his chest which seems to be intergrated into his body, and surrounded by sea-life, including two eyes looking out of a hole with "THAT'S A MORAY" written round it. We return to Sylvester, telling Rosemary that the BaseCore of the Mansion, which they are looking down on, and the space around it is malleable and in a state of flux. Sylvester warns Rosemary that the Spindizzies share new information indiscriminately, but may assume you already know old things you aren't aware of. Two Spindizzies appear: they have grey, hairless humanoid upper bodies trailing away into wormy tails, and pterosaur-like wings. The males have brown wing-muscles and the females blue. They speak like intelligent but literal-minded computers but are friendly and kind, very concerned when they hear that Rosemary is taking over as Taskmistress in case that means Prunella has died, and perhaps a little disappointed that she isn't Sylvester's love-interest, since they want him to produce another male Task-performer. Sylvester agrees to bring in supplies (antimony) which they request, and ask them if they can tell what the Can-Opener is made of, but they can't, although they may be able to duplicate it (by which they mean, construct a look-alike pattern). When they are analysing something, little lines hang in the air, some similar to the marks on the Can-Opener, s0me more like distorted letters. Every Human (or in Myrrh's case, humanoid) in the Mansion has a designated Spindizzy who communicates with them: Horace and, newly, Emily are matched to Sylvester and Rosemary. As Taskmistress Rosemary will need to talk to Emily weekly. They live about as long as Humans, so if you have a personal Spindsizzy you always have somebody who's happy to talk to you. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the Ettins, and the moving walls (which the Spindizzies can influence if they are nearby, even though they can't leave their chamber): Sylvester thinks the Mansion with its Panegates and moving walls wasn't intended as a residence but as some other sort of facility. They wonder whether there are any surviving Ettins – and if so, how they would react to finding Humans living in their laboratory, or whatever it is. The Ettins are myths to the Spindizzies too – scary, tyrannical myths. We learn that the Spindizzies are mortal flesh-and-blood creatures but they reproduce in a mechanical incubator, and are assigned mates on a very scientific basis: and that Motihauls reproduce by the female laying an egg and then the male handing her a bottle of sperm. We learn that one of Ludwig's assistants, James Neil Pakson, went far enough down into the depths to visit the Spindizzy incubator, and his granddaughter Nicole visited the Far-Eastern Shore on the other side of the ocean from the Mansion. There were Human colonies there which may or may not have survived the Crash, about which the Spindizzies know nothing. They also don't know about other Ettin-made edifices, or about the things no-one is sure who made: the Infernal Engine, the Beacons, the Sandwall, and a range of actual big rock candy mountains. Meanwhile we see vignettes of other characters. Mortimer is breakfasting on a Spyder-burger at the Landing o' Family Fun, and visiting the Fish Museum there. He has aquired a little purple-and-green party version of a wizard's conical hat. Eunice Kelso is seen leaving the woods and heading for Eetown, with her rucksack: she passes a retired Guardian called Mr Flem, who warns her that the woods are dangerous. Terin Flem, whom we will meet again, is a semi-retired pig-farmer who used to be the Oracle Omega's Guardian Finale, and sits on a rock near the village alongside his dog Byron, apparently whittling wood. Nelly is feeding (non-sapient) Jibjibs while Amos wears goggles as he uses tongs to hold up a rod with a star on the end which isn't Mortimer's Glowgem (too many points). It appears that he is making, or restoring, a wand. Arthur the Weirdo is taking a bath; Myrrh is looking out from her and Frederick's flat, looking a bit suspicious (perhaps because she senses the presence of Frowgler); and Schmedley is being addressed by somebody off-screen and short (probably Frowgler). The chamber where Rosemary and Sylvester and the Spindizzies are all meeting is a sort of holo-deck, in which the Spindizzies successfully produce a useable mock-up of the Can-Opener which is only real in this environment, a quasi-humanoid sparring-partner for Rosemary to practise with, a chair for Sylvester to sit in and watch, and some background scenery including a bad, Escheresque reproduction of part of a monument called the Citadel of the Hugging Squirrels, one of the Sculpted Isles in Isdanlia. This reproduction was commissioned by Dorn I for his mother Nettana, who came from that area. The Sculpted Isles date back to a mysterious Dawn Era, probably that of the Wilfs and Gobblems. Sylvester dozes in a chair, leaving Rosemary to her sparring, but in fact she talks to the Spindizzies instead of fighting, and runs them through the tools they have patterns for: Human Tool #1 is a stick. She learns that they have patterns for Ettin tools as well as Human ones, but most of the Ettin ones are encrypted: one that isn't encrypted is a 3D version of the USB symbol, and they would love to get hold of a real one (there was a broken one on the sea floor where we saw the Ichyoid). She encrypts the pattern for the Can-Opener so only she and Sylvester can see it. It seems that any "productive individual" can come in and encrypt personalized tools. She learns that the Spindizzies could in principle find out what the Can-Opener is made of but their access to data is blocked beyond a certain level, although they don't know by whom. Rufus might be able to fix it. They tell her that Rufus is at Semi-Autonomous Research Structure #00001. Rosemary doesn't want to spar now because she hasn't the time, but she takes the time to walk up the imaginary sky. She starts to ask Emily the Spindizzy whether she knows that she, Rosemary, is currently... then changes the subject, which may or may not have been important. Then she wakes Sylvester and tells him where Rufus is, which he translates as the Spike. He isn't pleased, and says that the Spike is very dangerous, partly because the machines there have no built-in safety systems, but doesn't intend to go rescue him as he assumes Rufus knows what he's doing: he doesn't know about the Fixits etc. The information about Rufus came from a high-ranking Spindizzy called Tanith who was Nirvana's contact, but they have lost contact with Nirvana. Meanwhile a Valentine's Day out-take shows Sheriff Patrick Skragg giving a flower to his wife Halcyone, while their son Stephen reads a Willy-the-Wendigo book. Sylvester informs the Spindizzies about the departure of the Sneeches, and asks them what they know about Willigigs. They have been aware of Protus's presence for around a month (37.77 days – are Mansionverse months forty days?) but haven't spoken to him. They are not aware of Frowgler. Sylvester and Rosemary take their leave of them: Sylvester promises to bring them some antimony which they have asked for, and which he has in store. After they leave we see that the Spindizzies penetrate right down into the Basement and see Sprocket the Gnoll engineer, holding a Glowgem in a wrench, opening conversation with a male Spindizzy. Rosemary and Sylvester set off to go fishing. They discuss the Mansion's mineral stores, including gold, and Rosemary tells Sylvester what she learned from the Spindizzies while he was asleep, about the data block which Rufus might be able to fix. Sylvester suggests that the same person deliberately planted the Can-Opener with Izchak for Rosemary to find, and prevented the Spindizzies from investigating it: he fears he is being too paranoid but Rosemary, being profesionally paranoid, suggests there may be two conflicting secret factions at work. For the moment, Sylvester is not telling the Spindizzies about the return of Nirvana, the previous Taskmistress: he means to return to the Ettinworks once he has researched Tand, and will allow Nirvana and "Mz Teree" (Annabelle) to explain themselves before making a decision about them. They make their way down to a sea-level room where there are storage lockers for fishing gear and for beach leisure gear, and a small boat, and a door to the E family's private – and artificially-enhanced – fishing beach. [Here an out-take shows Sylvester's mother Dorothea and sister Lilith visiting the Irish-analogue nation of Tiranog at some point in the recent past.] They used to have a proper boat-house etc. but much of it has fallen into ruins. Ichyoids don't like large-scale commerical fishing and cut large fishing nets, so before going outside they look though a security periscope and see only gulls. There is a suggestion that many Ichyoids died in the Crash. Sylvester also talks about what he considers to be the remote possibility of somebody from the Basement making their way up to the beach (suggesting that part of it is below sea-level), and at that we see the hamster and his crew in their miniature pirate ship, approaching the open air. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss boats, and an explorer called Semidemela, and then go outside, where they stand side by side on the beach and agree that their feelings for each other are brother/sisterly rather than romantic (although acknowledging that this could change). It's mentioned that Audra had an entire fleet, and that they have a private, secure marina, but without magic it takes too much effort to open. They catch fish and gather seaweed and then go inside to cook them. Meanwhile we see a small boat propelled by a magic-powered outboard motor, and piloted by a skinny, elderly male villager. This is Olaf Larssen, the village vet, whom we saw before when Protus caused Sylvester to have a vision of a selection of villagers (among other things), and who was part of Frederick's pre-Myrrh magical team. His boat is named Mamie, after his partner who died in the Crash. The hamster and his pirate crew in their tiny wind-up clockwork boat approach and order Olaf to stand to and prepare to be boarded, and he thinks that all Tribble-Tongued Hamsters are insane. Compared to a Human, Cap'n Hamster is more like a large gopher in size. 03: A Change in the Scene [24/03/2014 – 12/07/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3817–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips start–#3915] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips start–#3921] From this point on, the parallel activity in the Basement splits away into a series of separate strips, until Sylvester and co. re-enter the Basement in Part Eight. The scene above-ground opens with Nitfol, Fizmo and three Pales (Thrash and his team, although they are all wearing or carrying shields and Thrash doesn't have the stripe on his chest that he had before) about to enter a wood tangled with brambles, in search of whatever Nitfol needs for his bid to become mayor. Nitfol says that Fizmo's presence isn't absolutely neccessary to his plans (knowing that this expedition will be dangerous) – but she has her own agenda. Then we see Yasmine riding through a wood. She is just about to take off her hood, now she is far enough from the Mansion, when she feels a vibration in her bag of Fleebs. She opens it and the Fleebs leap out, although they do not appear rabid. Meanwhile we see the E family make breakfast. Amos and Nellie bring non-sapient Jibjib eggs (their cockerel is called Zoroaster), Sylvester and Rosemary have fish and edible seaweed, and Mortimer brings a bottle of a magically-active drink called Yurple Juice. He won it by playing a game called Star Board at Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, and feels he may have cheated magically. The Weirdo (seriously hungover) and Fantod arrive and are introduced to Rosemary. Then Myrrh and Frederick arrive, dressed as if for a very fancy trip to a smart restaurant or theatre, and Myrrh announces that they are now retiring from their work to keep the family alive. Although they don't state so explicitly, they are planning to go away on a trip (we were told when we first met him that Frederick likes to go on long journeys). Myrrh also satisfies the Weirdo and Fantod's curiosity by dropping her glamour and revealing to them that she is a Demon. Mortimer is now Sylvester's Regent, his understudy – about which he is less than thrilled. Sylvester tells him just to do what Rosemary tells him, when Sylvester himself isn't there. Since the Mansion will now be less secure, Sylvester offers Amos and Nellie the chance to retire to the village, but they refuse. Instead, Amos will teach Mortimer magic. Meanwhile Sylvester, Rosemary and Mortimer need to go to the village to update Saffron, the lady mayor, on what's been happening, to sell Dornbeast parts and to attend the Temple. The Dornbeast parts are ready-wrapped in a refrigerator or stasis unit next to Ludwig's monster-processing machine. We learn later that the wrappings alone will keep meat fresh for a week, and if wrapped and in the cabinet it will keep for months. Mortimer wants to go to the Temple (he starts to ask whether he can go with them, then states that he is going) to light a candle for Nitfol, whom he believes to be dead through his fault, and then find the forest Nomes and tell them what happened to him. This leads to a discussion about Deep Jungle Nomes, who live in normal tree-houses, and about tree-warping. You can do the same with stone on a small scale, and we see Mulch and Grind tucked into a pocket in the wall behind Faldstool, just as Shona discussed with Frowgler. Because the Poke Kit won't work so well away from the Mansion's magic tricklepoint, Rosemary and Sylvester go to the Barrackstack to deposit the Can-Opener in a vault and collect other equipment. Meanwhile Mortimer goes to take antimony to the Spindizzies. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Ludwig's machines still work, and why this might be; and the fact that Ludwig left whole shelves' worth of notes which haven't been properly catalogued [an ideal job for the Ludwigites]. Ludwig was never intentionally unkind, but his thought processes weren't necesarily like those of most other people. Rosemary thinks that the Weirdo is ill or hungover but competant, and has had military training. Knowing that the Weirdo is conspiring with Yasmine in some way, Sylvester says they should lock their doors at night. Only the "cactus" part of the Mansion is Ettin-made: the other buildings were constructed by various Earls, although sometimes using Ettin salvage. The Barrackstack, which contains some Ettin elements but was mainly built by Angus and Audra, goes down as far below ground as above (about eight storeys each way). It was originally an impregnable fortress, but after the wars were over and "the Mugwumps all died.. or whatever.." Ernest and Philbert added stairs. There are sealed-off escape tunnels from the barracks which open into places which are now inside Eetown. A sign points to the Party Palace, built by Ernest, and describes the attractions on offer there. Rosemary is alarmed to see "Quincunx Den" on there: we will later learn that to her, the Quincunx is a paramilitry outfit Out West. Here it's a very complex card-game. We see a board laid out with cards in which there seem to be five suits: asterisks; circles; crosses (shaped like a Christian cross); little flowering plants (which I'm betting are called blooms); and anchors. They also discuss some kind of game which involves magically-powered equipment and is played by couples (together as a team) in an Underwear Arena: possibly that means the game is called Underwear. Whatever it is long-married couples are especially good at it (which suggests it might involve listing your partner's physical or sexual quirks), and people called Shrouders – the reverse of nudists – cannot play it. All the local villagers are informally Shrouders. Sylvester and Nimue won a silver medal at this game at University. Rosemary wants to play, with Sylvester as her partner, but the only team they could play against would be Nellie and Amos who would win because they've been married over fifty years, so Rosemary wants to get Yasmine back so they can play against her and Mortimer. Mortimer takes the antimony to his Spindizzy contact, Charles. Charles recognizes the umbrella as a "thaumalogical flow enhancer and regulator" and already knew Mortimer had wizard potential. The scene cuts to a female Spindizzy, Clementine, who is talking to Sina, Sprocket and a half-seen male Trog, probably either Mowder or Grak. Sina is quizzing Clementine about her claim to have met the Earl. Sylvester opens a weapons-vault to keep the Can-Opener in: like military exercises the vaults have random names. This one contains a wide range of good spears and swords over which Rosemary exclaims. We learn that there are official family weapons on display in the Gatestone, but they haven't been used in anger since Dorn II. They put the Can-Opener into a safe, then enter Rosemary into the Herediscan system. They discuss Griffington – his collection of obscene limericks, his management of the Factor E and his possession of three minions, Krell (who investigated old devices), Drowpole (who built new ones), and Strauhatt (who marketed what they made). Rosemary is now Sylvester's minion, after Nirvana, who was the first. They see a statue which purports to be of an Obsidian Sneech, but is more sinister than accurate, and collect all the gear Rosemary will need to maintain her sword. This area of the Mansion, which is actually of great military importance, is dotted with signs which suggest that only boring things happen there. As with the Barrackstack, much of the Ettin-built part of the Mansion is underground, even before you get to the Basement. Arthur and Fantod are sitting by the counting-down machine, now at 000315311089. Fantod, who seems to be an actual creature because his eyes move and widen expressively, still looks stunned after their encounter with Myrrh's demon form. Arthur says he assumes that "she knew all along" – perhaps a reference to Yasmine – and he plans to take Amos's advice (to go to the Temple and get Threnody to light a candle for Tulip). Sylvester and Rosemary reach a document-storage area under the library, and Sylvester gives Rosemary an instruction manual for the Poke Kit. She reads about secured sub-pockets and has a half memory of the Tree giving her a secret seed, but it slips her mind again. She experiments with taking the Glowgem in and out, and then looks around warily and makes a secret pocket, into which we will later learn she moved the HJ42. Sylvester meanwhile asks Amos for Obadiah Wuttgutt's Cyclopedia of Night Beasties but they don't have a copy – only Rosemary's memory of reading it. Amos asks Sylvester to tell Olaf in the village that he and Amos need to talk. Rosemary's Glowgem seems to be attracted to one of the supposedly deactivated surveillance devices (like the one in Sylvester's office suite) on the wall: the swirly pattern on it starts throbbing and Rosemary stares at it, but she is no longer vulnerable to being hypnotised. She finds the whole sub-pocket idea creepy, because there could be anything in there, and without the assistance of an official service engineer she wouldn't know it and might accidentally say a password which would cause something dangerous to erupt. They can't empty it by taking it into the Quiet Room, as that might damage it. Rosemary has written to Aunt Eva but she has described where she is, and Sylvester is concerned that her enemies might get it out of her aunt. Sylvester advises her to send another less specific letter via his lawyer, Mr Ferule. They discuss Tansy's army which is chasing Rosemary, and which is called the Quincunx (like the complex game: they don't know if there's a connection). If the Quincunx finds out where Rosemary is and comes as an army it would take them six months to get to E, but it's possible they could send an assassin, or hire a local one by wire; albeit that at present they don't know Rosemary's name. There's no possibility of Tansy giving up and neither will Rosemary: she thinks about Protus showing Sylvester "that poor Gnoll" (Rhid) and then her and Tansy fighting. There's a hint that the thing which Rosemary stole from the Quincunx was whatever she used to travel instantly to the east. The Quincunx are currently in the Nodnol/Lawnrock Peninsula, farther west around the Bay of Runes from Moonin. Being about to leave to walk to the village, they discuss a thing at the entrance called the Gatestone, believed to have been moved there by Ettric, the 2nd Earl. It's an artefact which might predate the Ettins. We see Mortimer waiting for them in an official Assembly Alcove, and being joined there by Arthur the Weirdo and his puppet Fantod, who congratulate him on becoming Regent. They ask about the umbrella, and Mortimer leads them to believe it's just an umbrella, to keep off the rain and sun. Mortimer still smells of sphagnum dust, and this leads to a discussion of Arthur's days at the Weirdo Academy. Arthur is heading to the Temple to have a candle lit for his friend Tulip. 04: Barriers and Gates [14/07/2014 – 27/11/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips #3922–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #3925–#4053] We see the Saurs Buzz and Ig meeting by the ruins of a museum in Eetown. Ig has a Glowgem which was in Niddle's pack: he doesn't know what it is, just that it's pretty. Buzz wants Ig to tell him about what has become of Snerk: Ig says Buzz wouldn't believe him but Buzz, who has been working with Frowgler, says Ig would be surprised what he believes these days. Mortimer and Arthur discuss whether Weirdos are allowed to marry. Opinions vary: Swithinites thing they shouldn't, and Bonavenites think it's OK. Of the family's previous Weirdos, Captain Tin-Throatwobbler was a Swithinite, but Sarah Bellum was a widow. They discuss a girl named Melba who lives in the village, and with whom Fantod implies tnat Arthur has a "thing": she's a friend of Mortimer's sister Lilith's, and quite eccentric, but Arthur says she is too frivolous to make an official Weirdo. Sylvester joins the others at the assembly point. Trailing behind him, Rosemary surreptitiously deposits several items from her Poke Kit – her Poke Kit instruction booklet, plus the lantern and bottle of blade-oil which Sylvester gave her in the Barrackstack – in a large urn. It is one of several artistic and archaeological artefacts which grace the hallway. The main door of the Mansion is set into the Gatestone, a huge boulder which "soaks up light, spreads it around". It may be natural as there are others elsewhere, but it was transported there. The main doors are kept closed, with a small door let into them. It leads to a walled outside area, still strewn with post-Crash rubble. From there, the main gates have been deliberately blocked with rubble to prevent mass invasion, again with a small door next to them. The party discuss the fortifications erected by previous earls, and the early earls themselves (the name of the first earl is not known), and why the village was renamed Eetown instead of Etown (Shibolith is under military rule because of the tensions with Thekla to the south, and there's a fortess/military base there called ETown). The fortifications are now a bit gappy – in fact they use a hole in the wall as a back door – and electronic repellers are used to keep out wild animals. These also protect the orchard and the main path to the village. These are the things Yasmine got past by spitting on them. Sylvester and Mortimer, Rosemary, Arthur and Fantod walk towards Eetown, discussing how the area came to be renamed Audravania instead of Northwoods, after Audra's death, and the vast lands which Audra had ruled before her fatal decision to poke the Hot Zone. Audra had made a voluntary marriage, albeit a political one, but prior to her many future Earls had been forcibly betrothed as children. Plenty of women at university wanted to marry Sylvester for his title, even though he was a poor scholarship boy. Sylvester could, even now, become a gold-digger and find a rich woman who would marry him for his title. Rosemary makes a point of saying she supposes he hates that sort of person: she's probably thinking that marrying for money may be how he will become what he hates. We learn that while at university Sylvester attended the coronation of the king and queen, Yancy and Fluer. Amos has visited the capital with Frederick, but Nellie has never been outside Audravania, except on her honeymoon, when they went to a town called Rowen which was fashionable before the Crash. This leads to a discussion of an island off Eetown, called Alwin, which belongs to the Earls but which they allow honeymooning couples from the village to use. Mortimer says that this arrangement is important to the villagers, which leads to him telling Sylvester what's going on there at the moment – including a break-in at Genrick's tailor shop, where stuff was taken overnight, but money was left for it, for more than the stolen clothes were worth. Possibly this was Frowgler, taking the hat he later gave to Fizmo: but the reference is to "some clothes", so if it was Frowgler what else did he take, and why? Rufus's friend Eunice is mentioned as one of a number of people who have recently moved into the area (and Mortimer doesn't seem to remember that she zapped him): the village is growing and there is a debate, known as the Inside-Out fight, as to whether or not to expand it beyond the boundary hedge. Peter Nigultrum (a half-Polarite) is engaged to Ida, and Mortimer mentions a couple called Hooper and Pandowny who both seem to be male, and says it would help if Sylvester could be there if and when they marry. Evidently there is a small amount of prejudice against same-sex couples. They meet and speak to the pig-farmer Terin Flem and his dog Byron, sitting on a rock outside the village, whittling. This is the same Mr Flem we saw with Eunice before, who comes from the same area (Moonin) as Rosemary and who used to be Guardian to the hardline Oracle named Omega, whom Sylvester didn't get on with. Flem asks Mortimer to ask young Dirge (the current Guardian) to come by, and Fantod mentions "rarebits" he has promised to Byron, or prhaps vice versa. They pass a sign indicating the town dump and Bechdel, which is Mr Flem's pig farm,and the surname of his son in law. He was married while a Guardian. Omega treated him as an afterthought: her original Guardian died in the Crash. Omega preached doom and hellfire and opposed education and change, which still has a lingering effect on the attitudes of the villagers. She was at least not a hypocrite, and was fiercely honest and dutiful and a proficient healer. Sylvester and Mortimer have an obscure private conversation about change: Mortimer wants to do more and different, things he should have done while Omega was alive but didn't, but Sylvester tells him to keep it quiet for the moment as they shouldn't spring too many changes on the villagers at once, and they are still anti-magic. They can't keep it secret forever, though, as Nellie is a gossip. We see an image of Mortimer's future self with the female Motihaul and the woman with clubbed hair. Meanwhile Rosemary talks to Arthur and Fantod. Arthur tries to quiz Rosemary about how she got there but she evades the question and instead asks him about what Weirdos do. They are jesters who "speak truth to power". Their original accents are trained out of them (Arthur is from Alfibay), which raises more questions about Yasmine. Arthur, Fantod and Rosemary discuss the new, safer denizens' tunnel from the Mansion to the Basement, and the disappearance of the Sneeches. Meanwhile the party arrives at the outskirts of the village and Sylvester shows Rosemary the irrigation ditches and other features. They come to the Temple, which was made from the remains of a much grander one ("about the fanciest one east of Rowen") which was destroyed in the Crash, and which lies just outside the hedge which surrounds the village, rather than at the centre of town as would be the norm. Omega had it built there so that, post Crash, people approaching could see a sign that this was an outpost of civilisation, and she trusted the Brush to keep it safe. The town's previous Temple had been destroyed (and the previous local Oracle, Riverbend, had been killed), and so had the town in Wirtwam where Omega was posted previously. She built this Temple out of stones from the old one, and it's actually rather nice. We learn that Sylvester and Mortimer's father had been partially responsible for, and died in, some kind of accident involving a circus and a stampeding elifinos in a nearby town called Noodle, known as the Noodle Incident and so famous that even people Out West know about it. Their father wasn't entirely or solely to blame, but he made a good scapegoat. The Eman family is unpopular in Noodle, not just because of the Incident but because Sylvester promotes the interests of the Eetown tooterfisheries and cuts into the profits of the Noodle Fish-Mongers Association. They meet a little girl called Juniper, who is the granddaughter of Amos and Nellie and tells them "everyone" is in the Temple. Her father Arlen is Hedgemaster and her mother keeps bees. She has a special friendship with Fantod. The group go through a sensory ritual – watch the flames, smell the blossoms, taste the water, touch the earth (in the form of a giant stone, originally at the Mansion's private Temple and personally blessed by Violet) and listen to the Brush. The last is done by sitting on a bench made of rare and precious materials (this one is made of a sort of pourable, durable Ettin-made plastic): Arthur and Mortimer are the only ones who feel the need to do so. It is mentioned that the tree will bloom in a month or so (we are reminded later that it's currently mid April). To mark Hallowe'en we see a raiding party of Nomes, including Umboz's brother Frotz who is desperate to get out of it, probably creeping towards the north Gnoll village. They are scared off by a pumpkin-headed spectre which is really Frowgler in costume (possibly borrowed from the female Motihaul Strode, although it doesn't have crescent-horn-holes), using some kind of glowing magic or technology to fly. Rosemary and Juniper discuss where various people come from, and Rosemary manages to give the girl a very strange idea of what a walrus looks like. They talk with Sylvester about Inuit-equivalents called Tunits, who live on the Iceshore north of Alfibay in the west of Yurpsland, and the secretive, hostile Haroons who live in forest between the Iceshore and Alfibay, and the harsh, uninhabited and uninhabitable northen shore called Skralland, to the north of Audravania, which might or might not have been named after someone called Skral who is even less well-documented than Frizzlegarb. Aside from army bases, Eetown and the Mansion are now the most northernmost Human habitations on the east shore. We learn that there used to be a secretive underground nation called the Great Underearth Empire of the Northern Pole, colloquially known as the Polarites, but their society was destroyed in the Crash. They used to have an exit tunnel in northern Audravania, for trade and called the Gate of Commerce, because Eetown was booming and they hoped to trade with the Far East Shore; as well as the famous Gate of Diplomacy in Paydon and the Gate of Remembrance on the Iceshore north of Alfibay. But the Gate of Commerce was destroyed by the Crash after only five years. In Paydon a "Salvagetown" grew up around the ruins of the Gate of Diplomacy, challenged by surviving Polarites who were away from home when the Crash hit. There are people in Eetown of half Haroon (Ilsa Lundquist) or half Polarite (Peter Nigultrum) ancestry, and they can't ever go home. Since Ilsa's mother left the tribes she would be treated as a stranger by the Haroons, despite her green hair; and Peter's father's Polarite home no longer exists. Meanwhile, Arthur and Mortimer sit on the bench and ask for divine assurance that they are doing the right thing, and both receive it, more or less. Fantod and Juniper talk about her hopes for a more interesting career than hedging, and how she'd like to see more of Nellie and Amos, and how sorry she is for Peter and Ilsa that they can't go home. We see an out-take for Thanksgiving, in which Myrrh and Frederick are about to start on a feast. I have left this in the time-line, as well as putting it with the Christmas cards etc., because it fits with the idea that they have gone on a second (or, strictly speaking, first) honeymoon, and it leads into subsequent episodes where they are at the Spires. Myrrh is using weird cutlery that fits onto rings on her forefinger and thumb, to eat Demon-specific foods. We learn later that they are not yet at the Spires here, but elsewhere. 05: Eetown – The Temple [28/11/2014 – 25/08/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #4060–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips start–#4323] The party from the Mansion enter the Temple, where Sylvester introduces Rosemary to the Oracle Threnody and various town worthies. Sylvester assures the townsfolk in the Temple that despite his family's recent history in such matters Rosemary is Human, and fully qualified to be Taskmistress, "highly qualified, physically and mentally". We see an image of Myrrh, and of a mad-looking Human woman wielding a rolling pin, who is evidently a recentish Mansion employee who turned out not to be emotionally qualified: perhaps this is Olga. He informs them that Frederick has retired as Regent and Mortimer will be taking over. Sheriff Patrick Skragg quizzes Rosemary as to whether she is a fugitive from the King's Law. She swears that she isn't, then sends the child Juniper off with the Weirdo and Fantod to show Fantod how she's been practising some skill he's been helping her with. Once they are out of earshot she tells the rest that she is also taking over Myrrh's duties as bodyguard and will be wearing a sword. Threnody is dubious about Rosemary's past use of violent force, but accepts that it may have been necessary. The Sheriff provisionally accepts Rosemary's offer of help with the town milita [sic]: there isn't one, as such, but he says he could use another trained deputy, aside from Dirge. But Waldo Weequash, head of the Eetown Guild of Fisherfolk and Octopus Wranglers, thinks Rosemary is a vagabond who will bring a criminal element into the town. Saffron Stout, innkeeper and impromptu mayor, points out that Rosemary will mainly be at the Mansion and agrees with the Sheriff that they should give her a chance, and asks Sylvester to call on her privately later. She asks after Frederick's health, and whether Sylvester knows anything about the Pit flare. He says that as far as he knows none of his household were involved, except insofar as his great-great-uncle helped build it: that must be Hindenburgh. Threnody – who is emergency backup Taskmistress – quizzes Rosemary about her Temple attendance, and Rosemary promises to make sure Sylvester goes to Temple more often. The last Temple Rosemary attended was in Jonetown East and Threnody thinks that Blackbird, the Oracle there, might some day be Prime Oracle. Outside the Temple, the townsfolk discuss Rosemary privately. The Sheriff is planning to check up on her in police records, just in case, but they agree she seems an improvement on Myrrh. They discuss the fact that non-Humans are allowed to join the religion and are treated equally (although Sylvester suggests that that's the official position but not always adhered to) and some Nomes and Motihauls have been ordained as Oracles, but other non-Humans (Pales are shown as an example) resisted conversion. Sylvester mentions that he has heard that the Nomes have a male priest, and Threnody is interested in meeting him. Mortimer and the Weirdo remain at the Temple to light memorial candles to speed the passage of the dead, the Weirdo for his friend Tulip, and Mortimer for Nitfol whom he wrongly believes to be dead. Threnody assumes that Arthur learned of his friend's death through the post, and Sylvester, who has worked out that Arthur probably learned about it from Yasmine, signals to Mortimer not to contradict her. While Mortimer and the Weirdo are praying, Rosemary and Sylvester look at the Temple's paintings of the various founding Oracles, and discuss their favourites. Rosemary follows Hettie, who carried a light in the darkness and made the dark and the unknown part of the Brush, and Sylvester likes Joice, who stood for inspiration. Mortimer passes on a message to Dirge, the current Guardian, that Finale, the previous Guardian (=Terin Flem), would like to speak to him: Dirge doesn't seem happy about it. Mortimer wants to ask about why Sylvester shushed him, but feels that the time is not yet because somebody might overhear. The group go and stand by a large boulder outside the town gates ("The Town Rock") where they won't be overheard, and discuss Yasmine and the Weirdos generally. Mortimer is able to pick them out because he can sense their mind shapes. They discuss the fact that Rosemary has not been taught any magical theory, because she was educated at the Hack & Slash Academy whose purpose was to produce effective H&S employees and they very rarely encounter magic-users these days. Also H&S is riddled with factions: they used to have a Wizwitch Brigade and Rosemary suspects it may still exist but is being kept a secret, even from other factions in H&S. We learn that the Weirdo Academy is very ancient. It's in a town called Marksburg, which is in Fredonia, and is where the E boys' mother came from. Nowadays Marksburg has a stodgy reputation, but it has a lively history. In the past there were several Weirdo schools and Weirdos went by several names, such as Tomfool. Milo was the first Earl of E to hire one. The Trio fall to discussing the various worthies they met at the Temple. Sylvester fills Rosemary in on the background to the various individuals, and village issues such as the need to bring in a full-time Healer, since at the moment the Oracle, Threnody, is both healer and teacher, and as the village population grows it's getting hard for her to cope. Better to bring in an outside Healer, as thanks to Omega's influence the village would never pay for a separate teacher. Sylvester's only friends in the village are Peter Nigultrum the solicitor, and a fisherman called Captain Tugwart: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting because they would be discussing Sylvester. Weesquash resents him because Sylvester has more power than him and has set policies which benefit him, thus obliging him to feel grateful. They discuss who is and isn't local. People who were born in the village are accepted as local even if their parents were foreign, as is the case with Peter. Anyone not born there is a foreigner. The exceptions are the Oracle and Guardian, and Old Man Larssen. If Rosemary stays fifty years they will still be annoyed if she marries a local (other than one of the E boys) and she'll still be "The Mooninite" because she wasn't born in Eetown. She says she'll earn a more distinctive label than that, thinking of herself as some sinister dark queen with a flaming sword. Guardians are often specifically trained for specific areas (we see images of Guardians with a zap trident, a Ghast ceremonial spoon and a bat on a leash). Rosemary can tell that Dirge is combat-trained and wonders why the High Temple thought Eeetown needed him. This leads to a discussion about how the Spyders and Tree-Squids got into the area; and about things called Raviners or Hill Crabs, which people in Moonin sometimes eat, and which may be able to be provoked into producing a useful ichor; and the fact that the E family used to grow and sell the killer trees. Mortimer would like to talk about the events of the previous day but they don't have time. As they approach the entrance to Eetown proper they discuss various Oracles Rosemary has met on her travels. In a brief out-take, we see Schmedley placing a black arm-band on the flipper of the statue of the world-turtle which we glimpsed before, to commemorate the death of Terry Pratchett. Sylvester and co. discuss the defences of Eetown, with drawbridges put in after the Crash. These were scrounged from houses in Crestheights, a posh district near the Masion, destroyed in the Crash. The defences are not very good, and post-Crash the town had some trouble with raiders until Myrrh got back. She, Frederick and Quincy had been holidaying in Aruba (an island without magic) when the Crash hit. It was on their way back that Quincy met Agnes, his future wife. Meanwhile the town made a defensive wall out of crashed cars, and then grew a hedge over and through them. We see an ancient wand-tree called an Oakapple (nothing to do with real oak apples) which grows just inside the hedge. Post-Crash, the rallying point for local survivors was a pub called the Moose and Squirrel. Because it was a cheap outfit which didn't use much magic it survived the Crash relatively intact. The innkeeper, Simon, had acquired the place by dubious means, but he became impromptu mayor and did a good job of coordinating disaster relief. Sylvester and co. head for the local administrative offices, but as they pass by the fountain in the (unpaved) main square they become aware that they have an audience. Sylvester lectures Rosemary about the layout of the town, where the bathhouse is etc., trying to sound confident and impress the watchers. The town has a watch tower, but these days it's mainly used as a love-nest. They speak to the townsfolk who have been watching them, and Rosemary (under the false surname Dapple) is introduced to everybody. Most striking, perhaps, is a young mother called Silence Krenshaw whom Sylvester knows very well, and had considered hiring as Taskmistress. We will learn that she and Sylvester were childhood playmates. They discuss Rosemary's duties, and that Sylvester wants Rosemary to serve as a Mature and Responsible Adult, a formal title which seems to mean that she will somehow help him to find a wife. He does not fancy Rosemary herself. Silence says that there is somebody out there for Sylvester. Mortimer meanwhile talks to an adoring fanclub of young girls. They ask him about his umbrella and he says you never know when a storm might blow up. One of them, possibly named Hanna, is evidently psychic and she realises both that he is speaking metaphorically, and that a metaphorical storm is indeed coming. Sylvester and co. head for Government House, followed by a gaggle of children. They discuss the pudding plant, a local cash crop which only grows well in Audravania. Rosemary has never eaten a fresh one. Rosemary wonders why so small a town has a bank. Sylvester explains that it gives them independence from the Noodle Fish-Monger's Association, and lists the conditions required in order for them to have an official bank, and its personnel (the village blacksmith Sheldon doubles as a nominal guard, but it does have a real assistant clerk, Permelia). It is illegal for an agent of the King's Law, such as the Sheriff, officially to work for a bank. The town government is full of bickering and back-biting. The bank manager is Peter Nigultrum, who also helps the sub-literate to write letters because it's a rustic area and some people can barely read and write. Rosemary says you haven't seen rustic till you've seen the deep back-woods of Moonin: we see a man wearing antlers, a woman wearing wings, a child with a staff, and a standing stone with a skull on top. As they approach the bank they meet Peter's fiancée Ida. Ida and Rosemary discuss Rosemary's home district of Moonin and the presence there of the Beacons, three shimmering offshore monoliths believed to date back to the Dawn Wars. Ida seems unaware that the Mansion is equally interesting and almost equally historic. The first Prime Oracle, Daisy, came from Moonin, but Rosemary feels that Daisy was ashamed of her humble origins. The most important local Oracle is Jackstraw in Glome. They meet Peter, the half-Polarite bank manager, who works out that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress from her clothes. They tell him that Frederick and Myrrh have retired, and that Mortimer is a wizard. The only bit that surprises Peter is that Myrrh is able to retire. We glimpse Myrrh at some sort of hotel, apparently amusing herself by wrestling robots, and Ida gossiping about having just met them. Peter predicts that Mortimer's newfound wizard status will lead to trouble. We see Dirge, the current Guardian, and Terin Flem, the previous one, discussing the changes in personnel at the Mansion, and saying that Dirge has a decision to make: apparently, whether or not to report Mortimer to the authorities. Thirty years post-Crash, when Flem first saw signs that Mortimer was a wizard, magic was regarded as evil. He should really have told Omega that Mortimer was a wizard, but then somebody would have come and taken the boy away, and Flem liked Mortimer, so he kept quiet. An officious government clerk named Appleby also failed to report Mortimer – Flem thinks he just never noticed what was going on because he was stuck behind his desk. Dirge will tell Threnody about Mortimer, but won't call someone to collect him unless Mortimer wants him to. Flem tells Dirge about Eunice being out in the woods again. After Dirge has left, Flem tells his dog Byron that he hated Omega. Peter tells Mortimer there may still be a magic school which Threnody could help him find if Amos turns out not to be a good teacher. They discuss Polarite technology and social structures: Peter's father was in security, relatively low-status but with access to information. Peter had thought of contacting the surviving Polarites in the capital, but Sylvester says they would scorn him for having facial hair. The Polarites were divided into three regions, Bism, Mahar and Symm. The Vril Undercroft, a sub-group of the Symmites and the group to which Peter's father belonged, were allowed to open a Commerce Gate in northern Audravania, where they to some extent went native and became more open and sociable than most Polarites. That was why Peter's father was able to be wandering around on the surface without any magical machinery when the Crash hit, and so survived. The Polarites seem all to have worn one to six (the more, the higher the rank) wiggly wires with glowing balls on the tip, set into the back of their hair: these are reminiscent of the antennae we will later see Spire folk wearing. Surviving Polarites in exile often have short versions of the wiggly wires, but without the glowing tips. Sylvester and Rosemary give Peter a highly edited version of Rosemary's life story (and she has a flashback of hiding from Tansy). Peter knows the Mansion and its dangers well – he even has his own Spindizzy, Alfred. [An out-take at this point celebrates the legalization of gay mariage in the US by showing Baldy with a slightly younger – and much hairier – boyfriend, looking at rainbow Vagabond flutterbys.] Peter tells Sylvester they have some paperwork to go over [Ipcress files!], so Sylvester asks Mortimer to take Rosemary away and introduce her to Shadrik, an ox-like Metalmin. Sylvester and Peter then discuss Peter's upcoming marriage to Ida. Peter says Sylvester will never marry a local girl because they aren't academically stimulating enough – not even Ida or Silence – whereas he himself was looking for somebody who was restful to be with. Sylvester will be his best man. Sylvester trusts Peter so much that he tells him at least the gist of Rosemary's true story, including that Dapple isn't her real surname (although not what is). Peter will look out for people looking out for Rosemary, and send the signal Rose, Pine, Apple through "the usual channel" if he can safely do so. Sylvester doesn't want to marry Rosemary because she's not intellectual or educated, but she's a perfect Taskmistress – so perfect he suspects somebody is interfering in his life, and sent her to him. [Out-take: to celebrate the strip's twelfth anniversary: we briefly see the pirate hamster and his crew approaching an island which has a sapient tree. The tree thinks that it has been twelve years: in-universe, probably since it last saw the plant, since the plant swears to itself when it sees where they are.] We see that Eunice works in the pub, apparently as a cook (and Frowgler is lurking behind some sacks on a shelf, watching her). Rosemary and Mortimer are given free sausages by the town's Sausage Stroller. Mortimer is feeling very guilty about having accidentally magically hypnotised Rosemary the day before, so she punishes and absolves him by giving him a light bonk on the head, but says that being hypnotised by him was mostly quite enjoyable. They talk about the fact that he has only left the area a few times (and was in Noodle when his father died there), and comes across as rather sheltered, but now responsibility has been thrust on him and he will meet it. Rosemary talks about the relatively safe life she left to become a bodyguard, and the fact that her home village had an ancient ruined tower built by Gobblems, and which she used to climb. She later travelled to most of the places she could see from up there, but many of the towns were a bit same-y because they were rebuilt at the same time, after Unification. Talking about education and the E-family tutor causes Mortimer to realise there's something about Rufus and Eunice which he is forgetting. They look at Shadrik, which/who is a haulage Metalmin who is fairly bright but doesn't speak, and lives in a former stable. Sadrik living in a shed leads to a mention of Dorian Ingersoll the hermit who used to live in a hut. Dorian's history is confusing: we've been told he's lived in the Spike for forty-two years, but here we're told he lived in the forest when Mortimer was a child, and we've seen the ruins of his hut when Yasmine came across them. He obviously shared his time and wasn't in the Spike full-time. Shadrik's battery is flat but Rufus is working on recharging it: even when he's working only the Earl, the Mayor and the Sheriff can give him orders. Rosemary works out that Sylvester just wanted her and Mortimer out of the way so he could speak to Peter privately. To kill time she suggests they climb the local watchtower, so she can survey the terrain. To get to it they go through a warehouse used to store apples, which has been altered and added to till it's almost as complex as the Mansion (one of the doors is lanelled "STILL ALIVE KEEP IN"). They are passed by some sort of functionary (beginning with a B) who wears false Nome ears and costume wings. It's possible the B stands for Batgirl, especially as she lives in the Belfry "like usual". Mortimer is wafted a note, possibly left by the Batgirl, to say that the writer has their eye on Eunice and Rufus, who are up to something. 06: Eetown – The State [26/08/2015 – 20/11/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4330–#4421] From the tower Rosemary and Mortimer look down on the village square, which includes a fuzzball court. Mortimer points out various districts of the town, and they see Old Man Larssen's place outside the town hedge, although he has a hedge of his own. Rosemary is pleased to be able to see the Specific Ocean, which was on her To-Do List. They discuss a range of wonders Rosemary hopes to see (including The Running of the Clams in Woldercan, which may be a clams-got-legs B.C. reference), many of which have already been visited by Mortimer's mother and sister, although they were unable to get into a place called Sybola where there is some kind of secret Rosemary wishes to solve. They visited the Spires of Mechana and Sylvester's sister Lil said they were "really creepy". Rosemary thinks the main thing on Mortimer's To-Do List right now should be to learn how to use the wand-umbrella. A Labour Day out-take shows various kinds of labour in Eetown, including the Batgirl who is writing or drawing at an easel, and Violet wrestling with a piglet. Rosemary and Mortimer meet Sylvester outside the bank and he refers to the Batgirl as "our Flittermouse". Sylvester takes them to meet Sherman P Gray, the new(ish) government Clerk of Eetown. The previous clerk, Hubert Appleby (who didn't get on with Omega) died at his desk eight years previously. Sherman has a telegraph machine (loathed by Omega) run off batteries re-charged by a hand-turned charger, and many duties, one of which is to register new arrivals like Rosemary. He is also postman and tax-collector, and has a form for Mortimer to register as the new Regent of E. [In a brief out-take, we see the pirates (hamster and co.), having landed at Piratestash Island, recruit a resident gull to the crew. The stunted but sapient tree on the island implies that the Plant is being punished by being required to stay with the crew.] We learn about the unofficial but influential Tome of Royal Succession, a kind of Debrett's Peerage. The Keepers of the Tome will want to know about changes to Sylvester's "official retinue": not only about Mortimer becoming Regent, but about Rosemary becoming Taskmistress. We are reminded of the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setup by the fact that Rosemary is impressed that the Post Office pigeon-holes have doors, garnered from post-Crash architectural salvage. While Sylvester is checking his postal Inbox it is confirmed that it is now 14th April 5423HC ("Historical Counting"). Sherman sees from her form that Rosemary comes from an island called Dyngusmyles, which has a reputation for having wild, backwoods people, and has strange weather and biology because it's close to the Beacons, which before the Crash attracted research parties from the university in Azimuth. We see that the lights from the Beacons are a bit similar to Eyebolt Weirding. Sherman himself comes from a frost-mining area in Thull. They compare weather: Sherman was surprised to find that though Eetown is farther north than the frost mines of Crag Sinsoss that he came from, it has a milder local climate. Sylvester warns Sherman that Rosemary is a fighter and will be wearing a sword as part of her duties. Sherman OKs this but says that while they are in his government office weapons must be deposited in a special receptacle, and Mortimer promptly puts his umbrella in it. Sherman fills Sylvester in on various items of news, including the fact that a ship from a far-off region named Coradine has visited the port of Woldercan in the west of Yurpsland. Coradine is part of the same continent as the Mansion but it's a group of islands as far west as it gets, beautiful but quite reclusive and ritualistic, and many of its inhabitants are Motihauls. To get to Woldercan the Coradine ship would have had to sail round the edge of a region called Kadath, which is inhabited by Wendigoes, and past an island called Honaly (as in Puff the Magic Dragon) where there are [Human?] Viking-type sea-raiders whom we see sailing a ship whose sail bears the image of the hamster pirate captain, then right across the north coasts of Thembria, Upper Slubovia, Ruratana and Tiranog. It's possible they came for Yurple Juice, a wildly popular and expensive drink with magical properties. After posting Rosemary's letter to Aunt Eva (in the guise of an official letter from Sylvester) the party take leave of Sherman, promising to return later to set up a post-box for Rosemary and collect the newspaper. Mortimer and Sylvester share a post box but Frederick and the staff each have their own: we see Frederick receiving a skull-faced box with a bow on top, Amos receiving book-binding supplies and Schemdley apparently receiving a love letter. There is a mention of the previous day's magical Pit-flare being a reoccurring event, and of the recent finding of a dead Ichyoid washed into the harbour. As they come away they talk about the fact that Sherman's girlfriend in nearby Obtown married someone else. Sylvester says that Myrrh is listed in the Official Threats Compendium, but since she hasn't killed anybody it's not worth anyone's while to go to the trouble of trying to banish her. Behind them, in his office, Sherman looks up Mortimer's umbrella in the Official Threats Compendium, and finds it. We learn that there's a series of Government departments with harmless-sounding names – Redundancy, Secondary Overlap, Tertiary Retainment – which process information and look for interesting connections. They discuss rural pubs. Rosemary is an expert on awful pubs: we see one whose sign is a hand choking a Jibjib; one whose sign appears to be a jellyfish on toast, with a female Motihaul collapsed drunk outside with flies buzzing round her and a rat on her knee; and one where recalcitrant customers were thrown into a pit of wild Saurs. Rory Vinsmith, the innkeeper in Moonin with the Saur pit, was executed for murder and the pub was re-named The Saur Pit in his honour. In the west he is famous, but now they are so far from her home that nobody's heard of him, which makes Rosemary realise how big Yurpsland is. Big news does travel, however: Rosemary had heard about the Noodle Incident, and Sylvester had heard about the Drumshambo Massacre. Saffron, the local innkeeper at The Moose and Squirrel, may have heard of Vinsmith, and Sylvester quietly warns Rosemary that Saffron may also have heard of her Aunt Eva, the gambler. There is a pale grey cat wandering along a window ledge at the ront of The Moose and Squirrel. They enter the pub and meet Sharona, Saffron's niece, who is Mortimer's semi-girlfriend with whom he had a date on the coming Friday (it's currently Monday), and the daughter of Sheldon the blacksmith. She is overcome by the smell of sphagnum dust coming off Mortimer. They meet Mavis, one of the barmaids, and then Saffron. Eunice Kelso is also one of her barmaids, along with Mavis Mossett and Flossy Efflore, and there's a cook called Gormind Trencherman and a bouncer and stablehand called [Chauncy?] Hobson. Mention is made of people in Moonin distilling a spirit from muckroots: the distillery seems to be called Fancy Rat Spirits, with a logo of a rat in a monocle and a straw boater. Characters called : Wendell and Ricky, who we will learn are the town's odd-jobbers, are also mentioned: Wendell is prone to sudden wild enthusiasms . Sharona is repelled by the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer, and dumps him for being too unreliable and accident-prone (he feels guilty, because she had slipped his mind until he saw her). Saffron takes a bottle of Pudding Liquor, just uncorked that day, from a shelf: something grey, probably Frowgler's nose, is glimpsed poking out from behind an adjacent bottle. They drink from it, and Sylvester immediately passes out, while Rosemary begins seeing imaginary glowing flutterbies. Mortimer seems unaffected. 07: Revelations [30/11/2015 – 27/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4428–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips start–#4602] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. We begin, therefore, with the eyes of various small creatures, including Smyts, being dazzled and impressed by the glowing tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Rosemary and Sylvester wake, very groggy, to find themselves lying on a jetty on Alwin Island, the honeymoon destination, accompanied by the grey cat who had been outside the pub. The island will prove to be littered with large stone sculptures, mostly of non-Human animals. They agree that they must have been drugged (there is mention of glitterberries, which seem to be this world's equivalent of magic mushrooms, although that's probably not what was used), not just drunk, and discuss possible culprits. Presumably it's somebody who wants to embarass Sylvester, not kill him. Neither of them really thinks it was Saffron, and this is confirmed by a brief view of Mavis the barmaid discovering Saffron herself collapsed behind the bar and asking for a shot of clingweed tonic (the same plant Telic asked Comshaw to bring him). Permelia Weesquash might, but she doesn't frequent the pub or know anyone who works with herbs except Threnody (we see Threnody with tongs, about to pluck a glowing berry from the "tongue" of one of the small carnivorous plants). Sylvester's main suspect is Old Man Larssen, the town vet, who is very educated but also obsessive and secretive, a bit like Crazy Rhid – even so Sylvester doesn't really think he did it. He half suspects Eunice, who comes from Noodle, passes as a non-entity and could be an agent of his enemies the Noodle Fishmongers' Association. But we glimpse Eunice thinking that she has no idea what just happened in the bar but she'd better report it anyway. No other visitors are expected – nobody comes there except newlyweds, or about-to-be-weds preparing the venue. There is however a rowing boat concealed on the island. They manage to stagger to their feet in order to go find the boat, but Rosemary thinks they are still both too stoned to steer and suggests that since they were planning to have a private talk anyway, now is a good time and place. Sylvester shows Rosemary some of the sights of the island, since as Taskmistress she will be expected to oversee the team of respectable village matrons who prepare the honeymoon cabin for weddings. They return to the dock (and the cat) to sit and talk, on the far side of the island from the village. Further out they can see Scraggy Island, which holds a lighthouse and the town graveyard. The lighthouse keeper is Dougal Izzard. His wife Selene Perkins left but their daughter Shelby stayed, married Grumby the carpenter and had a son Edson who is apprentice lighthouse-keeper. The hobby of Cloudmapping is mentioned. Sylvester sits on a bench on the pier but Rosemary declines to sit next to him. Instead, the cat does, but he shoves her off when she tries to sit on his knee. Here there is an outtake scene showing Frederick and Myrrh playing chess with two men called Jebidiah and Jones, who are wearing formal dinner suits. These are based on Angus Scrimm and David Bowie, who died that week, and a poster of Grabthar's Hammer on the wall commemorates Alan Rickman, also lost. In the background, visible over the top of a stone wall, we can see the Spires of Mechana, which are more of an upright sausage shape than pointy. Sylvester talks Rosemary through the history of the area, beginning with creation by the Brush (it is mentioned that there is also life on Perelandra and Barsoom) and the first civilization, the Wilfs and Gobbblems (Dreamers and Builders), who erected wonderful buildings and even had colonies on the moon before destroying each other in the Dawn War. Sylvester has glimpsed what seemed to be a Wilf and a Gobblem through a Panegate, so it may be that there are survivors in other realities, but that Panegate is in a part of the Mansion which is only periodically accessible, and won't be again for fifteen years. Then came the Ettins and Sneeches, who may have already existed but been suppressed, and who now built up another high-tech civilization and then again destroyed it in war, after which Humans and Nomes moved in, spreading from jungles in the south. Before that destruction, the Ettins built the main towers of the Mansions of E and S. The Tower of S was so-called because of an S-shaped mark on the walls, so the Scions of S made that their symbol, but the Mansion of E is a corruption of the Tower of Ett(in)s – their names were later changed from Tower to Mansion for some beaurocratic reason. Their symbol was originally a serif E with a tall tail on the bottom bar, crossed by two short horizontal lines to make an ETT monogram, but over time the crossbars got lost. The Ettins also built the Spire and "one or two other things" – we see a tangle of spikes, which might be branches, each tipped with a glowing light. The Ettin/Sneech war largely passed Audravania by, leaving it with these fairly intact Ettin buildings. According to the Spindizzies the Ettin name of the Mansion is PRFO4223. We learn that nomadic Humans who didn't even have agriculture reached the Towers late in the Human diaspora, at a time when the country of Ackbar, in the south-west of the continent, already had quite an advanced Human civilization along the banks of the Refutation (De Nial). The name of the first Earl isn't known but he led his tribe into the valley and died while storming the Tower: the exact wording of the legend is "the Earl stormed the heights, and the heights broke with thunder, and none ever came back down". Legend also says he fought and defeated living Ettins but this is unlikely given their advanced technology. A lone Ettin skull was later found in the Tower. The first Earl's descendants avoided the interior of the Tower for generations afterwards but they set up camp and built new buildings around its foot. The area was rich in resources and they had to fight off generations of would-be invaders. Sylvester gives Rosemary a detailed run-down of the various Earls, which you can find summarised on the background page. The most salient points are that agriculture began to be established at the time of Ettrath, the 5th Earl, and so did neighbouring fiefdoms: the Scions of S to the north, Myways to the west and Obtund to the south. S was eventually destroyed by Angus, the 16th Earl. Myways and, for a couple of generations, Obtund were defeated and made vassals of E: Myways was destroyed in the Crash and there's nothing there now but a coaching inn, but the Obtunds are still around, with their own Duke, and are friendly neighbours. Many of the early Earls of E were villains and slave-traders who came to power by murdering their predecessors, until they got to the brilliant philosopher and strategist Milo, the 9th Earl, who severed the family's links to the slave trade, converted to the new religion of the Brush, moved into the Ettin-built Tower and made contact with the Spindizzies. What they know about the earlier history of the family is just what was written by Milo – quite possibly the first Earl to be able to write – and may not be 100% accurate. Milo's mother, Persafone, was a slave who had been an educated aristocrat before being enslaved, and came from an advanced culture between what are now Paydon and Thull, but at the time were called Pay Downs and Hoar Hull. She deliberately trained Milo up to be a successful warrior who would murder Milo's father, Frake, at her urging, knowing Milo would help her to survive her intended coup against Frake. Milo had ambivalent feelings about her: as Earl he kept her in elegant comfort but well away from any decision-making. He was seen as weak because he was educated, so as soon as he became Earl the Mansion was attacked by Myways and Obtund, but he soundly defeated them and made them pay tribute. Milo was established and confident enough to travel, and met his future wife Nettana in the Forest of Burzee. She was an aristocrat from the Iridescent Kingdom of Southern Kroke in what is now Isdanlia, but at the time was an advanced but fragmented region. She was intelligent, stylish, determined and he was intelligent, brave, forthright, tall, athletic and had nice hair His heart was more in intellectual learning than bloodshed and after his wife died he abdicated in favour of his son, and sailed away to explore new lands. Milo's son Dorn I was scientifically-minded and bred the Dornbeasts for use as living siege engines. They were named in his honour after he was kiled by one, but he called them Siegebeasts and they were bred up from swamp-dwelling Chompbeasts, non-sapient distant relatives of the Ettins. Selling Siegebeasts marked the beginning of the rise of E as an economic power. After he was killed by one his wife Aimee became Regent for their son Dorn II, who unfortunately was a shallow sports jock obsessed with Starball and hunting, although he did continue to breed and sell Dornbeasts. Dorn II was mostly gay and apart from getting an heir with his wife Olivia Obtund his sexual partnership (of a sort, since Dorn wasn't very highly sexed) was with a guy named Heffston, who was a much better strategist and ruler than Dorn. Heffston was from a humble background but worked to educate himself, and laid the foundation for the E-family library. It was another century before an Oracle named Brittlebush legalised gay marriage. In an aside, we see Arthur and Fantod talking to village children. They seem to believe Rosemary and Sylvester are still in the inn with Saffron. Village gossip evidently has Sylvester and Saffron getting married. Dorn II was killed, possibly by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, an ambitious local girl who had a loving but quarrelsome relationship with Dorn's son Lemuel, the Panegate expert. Lemuel eventually abdicated in favour of his daughter Wilhelmina, who was aided and defended by her step-grandfather Heffston. By so doing, Heffston both atoned for not having paid enough attention to Lemuel as a boy, and got revenge on Charlotte for her suspected role in the death of Dorn II, by turning her daughter against her. Charlotte was banished to a set of apartments inside a cave on Mount Ett, and Lemuel drove his carriage up there every evening to spend the night with her. Wilhelmina just called herself W for most purposes and was considered ceremonailly male, to the point of wearing a false beard. Her reign was peaceful and prosperous: she was no more interested in being Earl than her father had been, but she was more skilled at picking good subordinates to whom she could delegate. She had some magic, strong but restricted to manipulating stone, and was a prolific sculptor who made a lot of money by travelling to other stately homes to perform tricky bits of stonework. She visited the Sculpted Isles and there met her husband Alwin, then returned with him and deposed her parents, despite the fact that her mother Charlotte had sort-of promised her in marriage to Shaw IV, Scion of S: this, along with economic rivalry. led to the falling-out between E and S, and the destruction of S about a century later. Alwin's health had been damaged by Wyvern Pox as a child and he was "a lazy gadabout pretty-boy" but W loved him, and he was a good father to their twins. After Alwin's death, twenty years after their marriage, W unofficially abandoned ruling in favour of obsessively covering Alwin Island with sculptures. One of her younger sisters became a very famous and scary witch called Arianya of the Brackens, who moved West and is now the best-known of the E family. W committed suicide by allowing a large block of stone to fall on her, and was succeeded by her son Linus, the combat botanist. Linus went on an expedition to the jungle and married a Zanduan woman named Padma who had a vicious sense of humour and was his intellectual and magical equal, and with whom he had five daughters and two sons. He was the first Earl to wear glasses, and got up a consortium of local nobles to bring thaumnodes to the area. He and Padma explored the Basement (at a time when most of the species down there were still shut into enclosed habitats) and put in lights. We see him and his team looking at a little gadget with two arms and three glowing red lights, apparently in an Ettin airbox. [We have seen this object before as an example of what an airbox is, when Rosemary and Sylvester were discussing the Can-Opener.] He built a conservatory for his plants, and to give Padma a jungle to shelter in during the winter. Linus it was who bred The Tree which made Basement society possible outside their controlled habitats. Meanwhile his sister Marcia married a noble in Svan and became a cartoonist. 08: Naming Names [30/05/2016 – 23/12/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4609–#4812] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. The chapter therefore opens with a group of above-ground Smyts celebrating their version of Memorial Day. Sylvester continues to talk about his ancestors, and how after Padma died, Linus took the Seed of the Tree deep into the Basement and never came home, so in a sense he committed suicide like his mother. [We know that Rosemary also carries a Seed of the Tree, which she brought up from the depths, but had forgotten.] He talks about Griffington, the 15th Earl, who was very intelligent but had his mother's nasty sense of humour and was only interested in making money, at which he was very successful. Griffington went on an expedition to the Infernal Engine, which was smaller in those days (so it's still growing), and to Mechana to look at their technology. He and other techs of the period managed to make their own basic robots and restore some of the much better Ettin ones – one of the latter, Akillhees, works in mathematics at the university – and he also invented battle tanks, a few of which still work. Along with someone called Drowpole he set up the Factor E factory, and he and Struahatt sold their devices commercially and made a lot of money. We see him and his assistant Krell probing the same device in the airbox that we saw Linus looking at. He had a lot of commercial enemies and rivals, including the Scion of S. He and Krell died in an industrial accident (or maybe not an accident). He had to wear smoked lenses to protect his eyes: a problem inherited by Lenore. Griffington was succeeded by his son Angus and Angus's loyal and more cunning brother Cyrus. Angus went on a tour, like his ancestor Milo, but he took an army with him and conquered S and other neighbouring states although some of them, such as Rowen, gave as good as they got. When Angus and Cyrus were young, Cyrus married Cassandra Grayflint and they had a son Artston. Griffington sent Angus to visit the Infernal Engine to broaden his mind, and as a result he fell for a very wild, rough but highly-sexed female labourer named Syn (rhymes with tie-in) who had spent her life up to that point inside the Engine. She needed thick glasses and a bath, and had to be taught to wear clothes, but she had a talent for technology and a happily iconcoclastic attitude to everything, including herself, and the religion of the Brush to which she did not belong. She somewhat resembled Myrrh, refused to marry Angus but became his consort, and died in childbirth giving birth to Audra. Audra grew up at loggerheads with her uncle Cyrus, who had distrusted her mother. In later life Angus's conquests ground to a halt and he died peacefully in bed – and Cyrus promptly tried to seize the earldom for himself and his son. Audra thrashed Cyrus in combat and convinced him to become her loyal follower. Together they conquered Rowen and then consolidated their holdings and formed the Northwoods Alliance. Audra contracted a loveless political marriage with the intellectually brilliant John Harfang, with whom she had a son, Ludwig. The Northwoods Alliance stood against the advancing army of Yorik Yurp, later Yorick I, and lost, despite the best efforts of John Harfang who, under the alias "The Frost Fox", served as a secret agent and was killed while on a mission (and later became the subject of a series of lurid spy thrillers). Audra protected Ludwig by hiding him away as a child and then sending him to the university under an assumed name, while getting Flitch, one of Cyrus's grandchildren (so Ludwig's second cousin), to pretend to be Ludwig in order to draw Yorik's fire. The Northwoods Alliance eventually lost the war, in part because high-tech Wirtwam decided that Yorik was the lesser of two evils and Hyacinth of Wirtwam married him. But the war was long and bloody and forced the pace of technological development. Audra and Cyrus were probably looking for a technological edge when they poked the Hot Zone and were killed, or failing that for a more honourable death than execution, but their deaths really finished the Alliance. Yorik crushed their last resistance by destroying the town of Glome (and incidentally probably killing the fake Ludwig), then re-built it, and any local nobles who were willing to swear allegiance were grafted into the new Yurpsland hierarchy. The real Ludwig was one of them – the Yurpsland troops didn't know who he was, and in any case had known Audra as the head of the Northwoods Alliance, not as the Earl of E. The Alliance used a different symbol, not the E: a W with an arrow on the central point, designed by Linus's sister Marcia for Linus's thaumnode-purchasing cartel. Ludwig's politically astute partner Penelope Orrery from Gilad (a Temple-administered neutral state) coached him on how to pass as a harmless minor aristo. Sylvester isn't sure whether Yorik was really fooled over Ludwig, or knew who he was but decided to spare him. Ludwig was a super-genius who enjoyed university and made many friends there; he was very popular with the girls and could have had his pick of the local beauties, but preferred the slightly plain Penelope for her brains. Ludwig didn't graduate because he went home to help his mother with the war effort; Penelope worked out his real identity somehow, and followed him (and reached E before he did). It was because Ludwig never graduated that the fund set up to pay for his tuition was never wound up, and remained available to pay future heirs' university fees. Ludwig tried to stop his mother from poking the Hot Zone but she did it anyway, and died, and he and Penelope were left holding the reins. They actually did very well, since Ludwig was able to sell his inventions – materially assisted by Yorik's conquest of the whole area, which had resulted in a unified trading and patent system. He and Penelope built the Ivory Tower, and lived there. It is mentioned that vamphyrs don't really exist but zombies do (but only when animated by a wizwitch, and only briefly as they tend to explode), that many of Ludwig's devices were one-off prototypes and that Yorik I wrote his own memoirs. These memoirs are little known because his son wasn't that interested in promoting them, and besides they weren't very well-written. But they deal extensively with Audra, whom Yorik rather admired – it was he who re-named the province where E is situated Audravania. He decided against trying to conquer Thekla, which had a similar technology and power level to his own forces, or the Polarites, who were enormously more powerful and advancsd. [Out-take for Talk Like a Pirate Day – Captain Hamster, the crew of the Pretty Lady and the newly-recruited gull are all getting drunk on grog. The Plant, very drunk indeed, has decided it loves them all.] Ludwig died of pneumonia after getting soaked while walking in the rain. His son Ernest, hedonist, (consensual) philanderer and forger, took over. His parents were disappointed because he wasn't interested in science, or all that bright, but he was very interested in plays and a reasonably good actor himself, when he could be bothered. He married Lucidia Penderghast, gold-digger, fashion victim and amateur actress, and they nearly deserved each other. He was the first Earl to marry by the new ritual involving the Pool at the Temple. At university Ernest discovered that he was good at maths, history and a proficient if uninspired kind of art. He did a certain amount of commercial graphics work and a lot of art forgery, although the latter was really just a hobby. He was a fairly successful playwright, although not great at dialogue – his best play was probably Bracken, about his five-greats-aunt Arianya – and was very good at improving other people's scripts. He and Lucidia fought a lot but seemed to enjoy it, and they had three sons, Philbert, Hindenburgh the wizard, and Valentin, who was the one to whom the Djinnoscope gave a clean death. Ernest was fatally stabbed by, or over, one of his lovers. Philbert married the artist Hepzibah Kelly and founded a chain of "Lovelace" orphanages, using Kelly's mother's maiden name. He helped preserve the Forest of Burzee as a public park instead of letting it be carved up into private estates. He supported many smaller charities and was a faithful husband. But Sylvester believes he did these things to rebuild the family's post-Ernest reputation, not because he really cared. The couple had sons, Quincy and Frederick, and presumably at least one more as Frederick refers to "my brothers". [Later we learn there was a younger brother called Jasper.] Philbert was killed in a motor-racing accident a month before the Crash (this is an error by Sylvester, because we've already establisahed that his accident was three months before the Crash, and it isn't that Philbert hung on in hospital for two months before he died, because Sylvester says he was killed instantly) and was succeeded by his son Quincy. Quincy was not very bright, but he was genuinely caring and scraped through university by hard work. His Hall of Achievement entry just says that he tied his own shoes, but this turns out to be fairly serious: he kept walking, kept trying, and held the Mansion area together after the Crash. He survived the Crash because he, his brother Frederick and Myrrh were in Aruba, which uses no magic. Afterwards they had to walk hundreds of miles home – hence the importance of the shoes. On their way they picked up another survivor, Agnes Bloggett, who married Quincy. Hepzibah, who had stayed home because of health problems, died in the Crash. Quincy eventually died after falling from one of the Mansion's towers. Quincy's son Willoughby attended university where he met his future wife, Dorothea Mundivagant. Both were very vague but possibly magically gifted. Sylvester thinks that it was wrong of Frederick not to tell Mortimer that he, Mortimer, was a wizard – but it was probably a good decision not to tell Willoughby that he was. They had six children – Sylvester, Ace, Mortimer, the twins Lilith and Lenore, and Rufus. Rufus was conceived because the local contraceptive Stiflebloom plant had failed. Because Willoughby was so lazy and detached it was really his uncle Frederick and Myrrh who ran the earldom. After Willoughby died in the notorious Noodle Incident, Frederick became official Regent until Sylvester finished at university, and Dorothea became even vaguer and more preoccupied than before, and set off in search of something unknown. Sylvester fears he won't ever see her again. Sylvester did well at university and made friends, especially Bertrum W Skinknottle (who fell for and married Honoria Clemens – these names are PG Wodehouse references) and Nimue Fayling. The students were divided into Houses: the male houses were named after dangerous animals and the female ones after pretty things, but they were otherwise equal. Nimue was in training to take over the family business, growing oranges. She and Sylvester dated, but split up because neither would give up their family responsibility. Bertie and Honoria married and went back to Bertie's home in Lagado, but he's not sure where they are now because Bertie recently got a new job (souds like preparation for him to pop up). Sylvester went home alone and took over the Earl's duties. He found a job for Ace with their uncle Dalton Mundivagant. His mother Dorothea inherited cash from her mother, and she and Lil went travelling. Mortimer and Rufus stayed around, and Mortimer started bringing home strange women, most notably Olga Q Bonmarrow, a drifter with mental health issues who was in love with Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Basement society has come along tremendously in a highly technological way during Sylvester's lifetime (so post-Crash), and the idea that the Sneeches might be behind this. Sylvester forgot to ask Myrrh what she saw in the Sneech den, and now they don't even know where she is. We see that she is in a bakery (or maybe café) with a sign saying Kato Bread on the wall, and where there are a lot of cats whom she is talking to as if they understand each other. This cat-filled place is presumably in the Spires, since we will learn that the arena where she was wrestling robots is there. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss whether the Dohickey thank-you gift was for Sylvester or for his whole family, and Rosemary points out that the first Earls were meant to have killed off the Ettins who were holding the Sneeches prisoner. Whether they did or not, the Sneeches may believe they did. They discuss the fact that Sneeches do have childen, and whether or not they have intelligible emotions. Finally, Rosemary says that eveything else can wait, and that she will follow Sylvester's plans. He says he can't make plans until he knows what it is that Rosemary stole. She agrees to show it to him, but tells him to cover his eyes and ears while she gets it out of the Poke Kit, so he doesn't learn any codes which he might later be forced to reveal. 09: Wreaking Havoc [26/12/2016 – 07/07/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4818–end] Rosemary produces from the Poke Kit an oval object which she says is called the HJ42, but she thinks it's also a mythological object called the Chaos Key. This is clearly the same item which has been being passed around among the Basement folk – not just another of the same model but this actual one, because HJ42 is the designation of a specific instance of this gadget which was collected by an anthropological expedition, and Protus called it the HJ42 when he gave it to Mortimer. Either it's looped through time to appear twice in the same area at the same time, or when Rosemary thinks it's safely tucked away in her Poke Kit, it isn't. As the Chaos Key it has been used to open various kinds of metaphorical and literal doors, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Rosemary studied its semi-legendary history in the libraries of Hack'n'Slash. It may have been implicated in the Thricklefork Demon Massacre. It caused strange events – including a giant man-eating flower – at a place called Bellona. It was passed around the clans of Erewhon, trailing odd happenings. It was used to rob a bank, then disappeared from view, only to reappear among the artefacts brought back from the Infernal Engine by the Hendrick-Joost Expedition. At this point Rosemary puts it back in the Poke Kit and she and Sylvester agree not to mention the name "Chaos Key" again if they can avoid it, but just to refer to it as the HJ42. The Hendrick-Joost Expedition came from the High University of Azimuth and visited the Infernal Engine in Yurpsland. There were protests about them taking items from Yurpsland back to Azimuth, and eventually they returned some of them, including the "HJ-42". These returned items were parcelled out between various Yurpsland museums and collectors, and #42 went to an Erewhonian noble named Cuddlup, who passed it on to an Erewhonian sect called the Chromans. The Chromans were great collectors and displayers of curios which demonstrated the wonders of the world – some of which were magically active. The most dangerous were kept in an offshore fortress which went into meltdown during the Crash. The HJ42 was put on display in various places but it made people nervous, so it was moved to a medium-level facility in a place called Gowplace at the tip of the Lawnrock Peninsula. After the Crash, Gowplace was re-named Chroma and became the Chromans' capital, and the HJ42 dropped out of sight again for several decades. About ten years ago, or forty years after the Crash, it resurfaced as part of a travelling Chroman display for which H&S provided security, and eventually it caused some alarming effect, although Rosemary's security clearance wasn't high enough to find out what. It was put back into storage, but at this point rumours about it began to be passed around. It was also at this point that Rosemary first heard about it and began to research it – and so, unfortunately, did Tansy Rugan, the leader of the Quincunx, a kind of sinister private army. Rosemary started to suspect the Quincunx were searching for the HJ42, and knew it would be a seriously Bad Thing if they found it. She couldn't get H&S to take her concerns seriously enough, so she went AWOL, rode all the way to Chroma and stole the HJ42 herself. Two hours later the Quincunx arrived and started hunting her (and killing Chromans). She did her best to evade them but eventually Tansy cornered her. One of the buttons on the device was glowing so in desperation Rosemary pressed it, thinking that it might cause an explosion which would take out Tansy and her 2inC Nathan Holn along with Rosemary herself. Instead, it teleported her to the forest near Eetown. At first she wasn't sure whether she'd been moved through time or space, but then she met Mortimer and realised from his accent that she had shifted a long way to the east. She was very dazed and disoriented and just followed Mortimer home. They talk for a while about how Rosemary ended up with Hack'n'Slash in the first place. Bored with farming muckroots and lobster-fishing, she became a crew-woman on a boat called the Oshinoxtra. From there she went to the mainland and worked on a large farm, and even served as a minion on a Saur hunt (presumably, like the domesticated Trogs, these were less sapient than the ones in the Basement). Once she'd saved up enough money she went to see the nearest city, Jonetown. Everything there was far more expensive than she'd expected but as luck would have it she was in the right place to rescue Edwird Soloman, a retired bureaucrat who was being harrassed by louts. She and Edwird hit it off and became firm friends, and he gave her a place to stay. She became his bodyguard and housekeeper, read his books and reached an uneasy accommodation with his girlfriend, Mrs Rumble. Sometime later, Rosemary and some friends were scavenging in a scrapyard when they encountered the demon Scratch, and Rosemary managed to overcome him to the point where he was willing to discuss his situation and behave reasonably. This caused unpleasantness between the neighbours and Edwird, and brought Rosemary to the attention of Hack'nSlash, who recruited her. While they are tidying up conversational loose ends, Rosemary tells Sylvester about a hermit she met in the SAR (where there are many hermits, but this one is The Hermit), and who was probably a wizard, or possibly a demon: he will only ever say that he's a person. This is true even if he is a Demon: we see a brief glimpse of the Operator gazing rather sadly at an image of what is presumably his partner. They establish that demons can communicate over long distances via leylines, hence Edgar learned Rosemary's name from Scratch, and Myrrh could arrange visits from friends (two demon visitors are shown: one of them is Jones, from the Spires, and the other is Marilith). Rosemary is reluctant to ask Myrrh to pass along messages, as her favours have to be paid for. Sylvester assures her Myrrh can keep a secret. They discuss Ilsa, who has a very able illegitimate daughter, Druscilla, who works for the big bank in the capital. Ilsa writes to her with local gossip, so news of Rosemary's presence will soon reach the capital. Ilsa is half Haroon, and the Haroons do not worship the Brush, much, or care what the Oracles think about having children out of wedlock. Sylvester is trying to modernise the village, with some cooperation from the current Oracle, Threnody, who is a great improvement over her predecessor Omega. He hopes to bring in not only a teacher but a glass-blower. It is mentioned that opposite Frederick and Myrrh's old room there is a door labelled "Gwen's stuff", but neither of them knows who Gwen is or was. Sylvester has never investigated it, but assumes Myrrh will have done so. They discuss the fact that when Sylvester met with Protus he saw visions of Rhid and Villipend, whom they then met, so evidently he was seeing the future. He also saw Rosemary fighting a woman with a glowing glove, and that may be a true vision too. Rosemary thinks from the description that it is Tansy Rugan, who has a magic shock-glove, so they will have to meet and fight some time soon. At least she'll probably have the Can-Opener, but she doesn't have it with her now. Sylvester wants them to have regular conferences, but he's not going to say where the next one will be, in case of eavesdroppers (from what we see, through the Panegate that connects to the edge of the Crystal Thicket). He had intended to hold this one on the Commons, well away from anyone not a goat. They discuss Rosemary's old teachers, and whether Myrrh and Frederick are gone for good: Rosemary probably hopes they are. We glimpse Frederick being given an Ides of March cake by a waitress wearing antennae ending in grey bobbles, confirming they are at the Spires: they are in an underwater café with a seal peering in through a porthole. We also glimpse Mortimer in the woods, with a scratch on his face and what looks like more web draped across his shoulders. Sylvester wishes for an alternative to the rowboat, since he'll have to pay someone to row it back. Olaf Larrsen, the village vet, turns up in his motorboat Mamie (Rosemary and Sylvester agree that Sylvester also wishes for a million Simoleons in a secure bank account) and is introduced to Rosemary, who he is glad to see is not a "demon, Bonmarrow or Flibbler". Flibblers, whatever they are, are everywhere. Olaf agrees to give them a lift in return for information and a discount on the organs of the Dornbeast Rosemary killed the night she arrived (less than two days ago). Sylvester half regrets returning to the stresses of being the Earl. Olaf takes the couple and the cat back to the mainland. En route they discuss the reorganisation at the Mansion, and the Crash – Olaf used to build thaumtools, before the Crash, and has been able to measure the fact that magic is very slowly returning. He made a motor for his little boat, but none of the local fishermen would let him fit one to theirs even if there was enough magic to power something that big. He thinks the local Ichyoids are up to something. He tells them about the hamster pirate captain, who has now ceased to be an out-take and become part of main canon, and that he has met Protus, who was talking about someone named Winnifred (presumably the founder of the future Winnifrite sect). The only Winnifreds they know are somebody Sylvester was at univesity with, and a now-dead old woman Rosemary knew in Moonin. Sylvester warns Olaf that Nirvana Clepe may be back in the area (Olaf looks a bit alarmed). It's mentioned that Olaf hasn't married: evidently he and Mamie didn't get that far. Sylvester asks Olaf whether he has seen Frowgler – he hasn't – but we cut away to see Frowgler talking to the village Flittermouse in her tower. She is assessing livestock, which involves little toy figures. Frowgler says he is always there to get done what needs doing, and she says it makes her speculate on who he really is "behind that mask". She tells him that her name is Vyon Ward Parkin, an orphan who was taken in by the Flittermice after she was shunned because her family had died in a "Spew" from the Infernal Engine, and peoople feared she might be contaminated. We see that the Flittermice have a universal presence, at least in Yurpsland, and use actual bats as messengers. The Flittermice are an Order, whose job is to "flit into the dark places and do the mucky jobs that need to be done" – which they agree is also Frowgler's job. Vyon herself was literally posted to her new position in Eetown, in a box: or possibly ceremonially pretended to have been posted. It's a lonely job and she appreciates Frowgler's company, but she could have left if she wanted to, and did not: there's a suggestion that Frowgler's own role is not voluntary. He gives her a "laughter marble", which she seems to have been waiting for, and says that some day everyone will know who he is (or was) behind the mask, then he leaves via an artificial tunnel which looks as if it was made for the purpose, and which takes him to water. Unlike a real frog, he appears to have gills. As Frowgler swims away, we see him pass a tank containing an octopus named Aloysius. Violet Hopkirk lures Aloysius to the surface and milks him of ink. She overhears people gossipping about Frederick's retirement. We overhear two of her employers talking about her and how she has the talent to work on a "Wrangrig", but it isn't safe for girls. Cut to Sylvester and co. in the boat, discussing Wrangling Rigs, aka octopus inkpull platforms, and the fact that it's "not safe" for girls because it's thought to be bad luck, locally, to have a woman on board. Violet, who has a reputation for not talking, overhears more gossip, quizzes a local boy and learns about Sylvester's party going into The Moose and Squirrel and not coming out. She goes to the inn to talk to Eunice Kelso about it. Eunice doesn't know where the party went, and shoos Violet away, after saying there are no Human-sized underground ways out: we see what looks like a Frowgler-sized way out. Violet returns to her mother, Helena, and they gossip about Rosemary. Violet is mulling over the idea of Myrrh and Frederick retiring. She sits to clean blobwarts with her feet on a stone marked 44: this number seems to recur. Sylvester greets a trapper in another boat, name of Rod, and his young son Ash[ley]: these are the father and brother of Violet. Ash is very interested in Rosemary: their conversation reveals that Flibblers from Moonin don't have a Moonin accent. Mention is made of the Sky Trek, a walk across the country due in five years, and of a Mobile Confectioners' Guild, whose members include salesmen called Lollipop Perambulators. Sylvester finds Ash refreshing – too many people treat him with either scorn or fear because of his position. Olaf tells Ash to tell his friend Aloysius (not the octopus!) to stay out of his garden, because it's magic. Sylvester tells him to spread the word that there is going to be a meeting at the Temple to formally introduce Rosemary. Rod and Ash in their boat sail past an islet with a distance marker on it, then we see a gull try to land on the islet, and be scared away by a green, snakey-looking thing which says "Boo" in Ichyoid runes. This is one of the same tentacled things (perhaps the same individual) which we saw in the Basement, rescuing Shabash from a reservoir. Rob and Ash come to shore and we see Ash gossipping with his friend Aloysius on the dockside – both boys look about ten years old. A gull – perhaps the same one that was chased off by the tentacled thing – is sitting near Aloysius. Ash passes on Olaf's message about the magic garden, and Sylvester's about the Temple meeting. As they walk past the Spewing Wall – a forum for graffiti – the Flitttermouse's Laughter Marble hits the ground behind them, and Aloysius picks it up, hides it and tells Ash it's just a rock. The gull flits in and out of shot near them. They pass Fantod and the Weirdo having an adult conversation with Melba Corrigan and her whimp-pig Wilbur. Ash and Aloysius tell Fantod that they are planning to go to a haunted ruin tomorrow, and he warns them it might fall down, then Fantod warns Aloysius, specifically, to be careful with"whatever it is yer doin' all of a sudden". We then see the Oracle Threnody, in a medical office listening to a man's chest with a stethoscope; Mayoress Saffron Stout sitting behind her desk; and the Flittermouse, scoring things off a list on a notice board. Written on the corner of the board (not part of the list) is a note saying "Tell truth ——— Seek fortunes". She has a sort of umbrella stand which has various sorts of pole in it, including a Sneech stick. Next to it is a truncated green cone which has sticking out of the top a T with an extra, sometimes slanting crossbar, a distortd Ŧ, which became a recurring motif. 10: Into the Woods [10/07/2017 – 03/11/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips start–#5125] To start with we see Myrrh, who seems not to need to breathe or to be wearing anything except her collar, strolling through an undersea forest in the Sea of Plinths. The Ŧ with the slanting crossbar appears sticking out of a green growth. She wonders which way to go: a flatworm points its arrow-shaped head upwards, so she surfaces. Frederick is still being served food by the waitresses in antennae, who are amazed at how much he can eat, and suggest that their chef has failed because Fredrick was able to eat the whole meal. They are a mixed bunch, ethnically, and we will later learn that the Spires recruit orphans from all over. A female Eyebolt who has "Shmelcathy" on a screen by her desk (but we will later learn this isn't her name, just something or someone she is monitoring) is working at her desk. Other women in deely-boppers/antennae (all this culture wear them, or at least all the women) are monitoring Frederick on a screen, under the command of an older woman with fluffy, puffy white hair: they too are amazed by how much Frederick can eat and remain upright. They talk about his Herediscan – he is related to previous test subjects (we see Dorothea and Lilith on screens) – and the waitresses say he must be a thaumaturge to stay conscious, yet he isn't setting off their magic-detectors. The blonde waitress, Svetlana Rostova, is told to stay with him and answer his questions. Myrrh, meanwhile, arises from a water-filled tube into a sort of domed cockpit, in which there is a plant-covered floor dotted with flowers, and a Lizhopper, one of the little mini-Trog-like creatures which we saw Rosemary chasing out of the Mansion at the start of the story. Frederick and Svetlana talk, initially in front of a drawing on the wall of the moon on a stick, and we learn that they are in the Zamyatin Spire, a very high-tech-looking place. Zamyatin Spire residents are all women, but other Spires are for men only, or mixed. The Spires have a vaguely Soviet, very controlled culture: Svetlana refers to native Spire residents as "assets". As Myrrh – with the Lizhopper riding on her head – presses a button in the flowery cockpit, Frederick and Svetlana discuss Yurpsland politics, which involve a ceremonial, hereditary king and a separate political ruler who seems to be self-appointed (although they see it as "chosen by the Brush") rather than elected. Also the fact that Frederick is a demithaumaturge, and that the Spires are on a major tricklepoint (although the one in the Sybola jungles may be bigger, which may relate to whatever mystery is in Sybola), so were not much affected by the Crash and still have working pre-Crash technology. Myrrh climbs up some sort of stair or ladder to a room where there is a naked male musician named Jones (who is clearly based on David Bowie/Jones, and is a fellow demon), whom we saw earlier with his human partner Jebidiah, and who plays the flute for her. Spire trechnology involves some enormous gears which were built by an unknown society from before the Ettins. Svetlana is impressed to learn that Frederick's family have their own library, in which he read about the Spires. When Myrrh is mentioned, Svetlana surmises that Myrrh is Frederick's wife, because he wouldn't have been allowed into Zamyatin Spire if he didn't have a spouse (meanwhile Jones continues to play his flute for Myrrh). Frederick and Svetlana discuss the arrangements for straight women like her who wish to find a mate when they live in an all-female Spire, and see an agent of sorts, holding a giant needle like a dagger and trying to arrest somebody for smuggling Fuzz jars (Svetlana says this woman isn't police, but something they don't discuss). Singing Fuzzes are a big fad in the Spires and are bred for size, intelligence and voice, which suggests that this could be the past of Frizzlegarb's future world of Hollows and Fuzz communities (especially as we see one in a tank which seems to have embryonic tuft-antennae of the kind later seen on Purple Zoners). Special barriers prevent Fuzzes from being moved from one Spire to another, except in jars (which might explain why the future Fuzzes find it difficult to move from one Hollow to another, and might also have something to do with the barrier which surrounds the Spire in Audravania). Frederick and Svetlana end up on a balcony which Svetlana calls a Bubble-viewing Recreation Platform, overlooking a hall where large coloured bubbles with blurry images inside well up, but Frederick says it's a Spindizzy interface chamber, but with no visible Spindizzies and no apparent way of summoning them. We learn that The Spire community has a low birthrate and takes in orphans from elsewhere, but Svetlana was born there, in Platohov Spire, and trained in Burdekin Spire, and her paternal grandmother told her about legless, truthful flying beings who could have been either Spindizzies or Helipaths. She is not sure whether The Spire city belonged to the Ettins or the Sneeches, originally – only that the Sneeches say it was contested between the two species. Frederick describes ancient weaponry – the Ettins used city-smashing Doombombs and the Sneeches used Tangles, giant vines which could infitrate and wreck Ettin machinery. Frederick has worked out that something was meant to happen to him in the restaurant where Svetlana works, but she assures him he wasn't intended to die. Solzhenitsyn Spire is about death and he mustn't go there, but Zamyatin is all about collecting and hoarding information. Frederick wants to go ask the nearest archivist about Spindizzies. Svetlana is unnerved by this, as asking questions is discouraged. They discuss the fact that Frederick is still collecting information which may be useful to his family, even though he is retired, and that Myrrh may or may not decide she has retired as others would understand it, and we see the woman with fluffy white hair monitoring their conversation. Fredrick says he is filling in time until Myrrh gets back from "whatever you all have her doing", and at this point we see Myrrh pressing her claws into a set of holes on a control that opens a round purple door on the wall of Jones's chamber. Cutting back to Eetown, we see Olaf's boat pulling in to his private dock, and Captain Hamster's crew sleeping off a binge-drinking session, and Mortimer, with umbrella but sans strands of Spyder web, waking in the deep dark woods (to which he was evidently transported from the pub, in the same way that his brother and Rosemary were transported to the island) with the sense that some sort of revelation has slipped away from him, and then encountering Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party in the woods. This, we will later learn, is a flashback which must have happened around when Rosemary and Sylvester were waking on Alwin Island, and hour or so before we glimpsed him with web on his shoulder. From here until It All Comes Together, Mortimer's and Sylvester's storylines are out of phase by an hour or two. Once on shore, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Olaf knew Mortimer was a wizard, but didn't tell him. Olaf is fairly benign but generally acts out of self-interest. We see that Olaf has a fenced-off telegraph pole topped with magical gadgets, so dodgy-looking that Sylvester says that in this case Omega (who hated Olaf and vice-versa) might have had a point about the dangers of technology. Mortimer is very relieved to see that Nitfol survived the Spyder, but ashamed that he had accidentally led the beaver-shark to destroy Nitfol's home tree. Fizmo realises that Mortimer owes Nitfol a favour and can take them beyond the "Edge of the World", but Mortimer doesn't know what she means. At this point we get some portraits of various characters – Ilsa's and Saffron's parents; characters from the Willy the Wendigo books (Willy himself, in a bow tie; a pink and blue spider; a rock with eyes; something like a green female Nome (but may be meant to be a Gobble'em); and a male Wift/Wilf); some past E Weirdos; and the E family's tutor. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, discussing Olaf's thaum measurements. Sylvester thinks he has a second agenda – perhaps an attempt to bring back magic, which even the High University of Azimuth has been unable to do. Sylvester thinks this is a good idea, because he wants Humanity to explore the other planets in the system, and doesn't see much future in steam power. Mortimer, Nitfol and Fizmo establish their frames of reference. The Nomes' world can be walked across in a day or two (but they're smaller than Humans, and on rough ground, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles), and is bounded by a wall of mist you can't push through, and centred on the Spike – Fizmo's father Foblub was an explorer, but even he didn't manage to walk all the way around the edge. Mortimer remembers a Spindizzy called Charles telling him about a solid haze. Myrrh stands in a place where there are striped, rugby-ball-shaped lights, and gazes up at an enormous bust of a bearded, humanoid male demon wearing a medal. This last image is a Hallowe'en special, but also part of the canonical sequence: it's actually an image of the Operator. Sylvester shows Rosemary a road which leads south to a place called E Isles where there are offshore islands and a ferry across the River E, but no city because the nearby shore is too rocky for a port, and then on to Obtown. He points out Olaf Larrsen's house and then they head back towards the woods – as they do so they pass Aloysius hiding behind a bush near Larssen's place, with the gull next to him. 11: New Openings [06/11/2017 – 02/02/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5132–#5215] Rosemary tells Sylvester there was a kid hiding behind the bush they just passed, and Sylvester identifies him as Aloysius Culpepper, an orphan who lives with his uncle and aunt. We see Aloysius and the gull sneak into Olaf Larrsen's place and poke about in the fields, before using an upturned bucket to climb through a shed window, after testing that a magic-emitting plant on a shelf inside is safe by throwing a stick at it, then wedging the window with another stick in some unclear way. The shed contains various odd machines and hanging mobiles. He doesn't touch a gadget that's labelled "LINE #1 TERMINUS ——— DON'T TOUCH", but instead winds up a clockwork figure of a running man (later referred to as the Flailer, so probably its feet are meant to pound grain), and the noise attracts Olaf, who is carrying a fishing net with a hole in the bottom. He tells Aloysius to follow him or go home, so Aloysius (who is barefoot) and the gull follow him. They go to the main house where they are greeted by Olaf's housekeeper (who asks if he's caught anything, then sees he's caught Aloysius) – we see Sylvester telling Rosemary that this is Ilsa Lundquist, who used to work at the Mansion. Ilsa asks Aloysius what the gull's name is, but Aloysius says gulls only have names when they are flying. She takes the hats from Olaf and Aloysius without touching them, on the end of a baton, and comments that she doesn't suppose gulls ever wear hats. We see a scene of three gulls by the seashore, including one wearing a hat, who is part of Cap'n Hamster's crew, and still looks hungover. We return to Mortimer, talking to the Nomes. Nitfol doesn't know what Spindizzies are but he does know about the Mansion, because his father was a scholar who owned two and a half books. We see Nitfol's father with two books, one labelled "Socks", the other "Cookiedice", which is the name of one of the Hollows where we see Fuzzes living in the future. Mortimer mentions the library at the Mansion – Fizmo doesn't believe such a thing is possible, but Nitfol has heard stories of large book collections in the past, or at least scroll collections. We see a shadowy image of a female Nome filing scrolls on big racks. Mortimer describes the library as being in the Ivory Tower, which leads to a long digression about behemoth teeth (if behemoths are really elephants, Mortimer has a very confused idea of what they look like), and he mentions that there is an apartment at the top, with a pool, but nobody lives in it now, "most of the time". He mentions that the tower was built by Ludwig, which leads to a very muddled conversation, because the Nomes know Ludwig as a cult figure worshipped by some people in the Basement. Mortimer manages to explain about the Spindizzies and how literal they are, and how he once told Charles he felt trapped and Charles told him about the mist barrier. Mortimer thinks the Spindizzies might know how to bring the barrier down: Fizmo thinks this is fantasy, but Nitfol wants to meet them. Nitfol and Fizmo go off to confer, while Thrash seeks to attract Mortimer's attention to something, and Mortimer wonders aloud whether this is the same Pale (Thrash) he met yesterday with Frowgler – it is – and he can tell that Thrash senses something wrong. We return to Zamyatin Spire, where Svetlana is disturbed by Frederick's whistling, because music is discouraged except in the gym and at culture festivals. She takes him to a stern-looking Senior Archivix, who wasn't expecting them – Frederick tells this woman his name, but says she doesn't need to know Svetlana's. In Eetown, Aloysius gives a wall-eyed look to a stuffed gull. Ilsa brings cocoa (which he has never had before) for Aloysius, herb tea for Olaf and tripewater for the gull. Olaf says he's not a nice person (echoing Rhid) but he's an old man and he has had to keep his books locked away because Omega didn't want people to see them, but now she's gone and her influence is waning, he has been hoping for someone like Aloysius to come along. He told Ash to tell Aloysius to stay away from the magic because he knew it would lure him in. Aloysius correctly surmises that Olaf wants him as an apprentice. Olaf says his only love Mamie, after whom his boat is named, died fifty years ago (in the Crash), so if Aloysius comes every day he can, and learns magic and veterinary medicine, when Olaf dies he will leave his house and all his money to Aloysius, aside from a bit for Ilsa. Olaf tells Aloysius that no wizwitch could channel all the forms of magic, but some were generalists who could do a little of a lot, and some, known as Hedgewizwitches, could do only one thing but did it very well. Mamie was one, because all she could do was heal, but very well, even though she didn't have a very nurturing personality. Aloysius is another – an "Animal Empathist", hence his link with the gull. Mortimer is still talking to Thrash, and shows him his umbrella. He tells the Pale that he is a wizard and asks if that's the problem, and Thrash shakes his head. Meanwhile Nitfol tells Fizmo he isn't going to go off with Mortimer immediately, but he will at some point, because Zpeaker and the Nexus also thought the barrier could be brought down, and if Nitfol's political plan fails they will at least have a means of leaving. Thrash draws Mortimer's attention to the fact that Spyders are creeping up on them. Frederick speaks to the Senior Archivix, whose name is Anushka Zhdanov. She tells him he is allowed to access archives up to Level Three, but won't say how many levels there are above that. He asks for information on Spindizzies. She asks if he is a Yurpslander, and when he says he is, she calls for someone named Snegurka and sends her to fetch a file (calling her a lackwit). Olaf tells Aloysius that neither of them is a full wizard, but that in theory if you make the right thaum machine you can mimic any power. However, there isn't enough energy around post-Crash, so animal empathy is impossible to mimic and no one will be "horning in" on Aloysius's skill. There are no other empaths in the area, but there are a few other wizwitches of other kinds – some who know what they are (we see Myrrh, Amos Grubb and Mortimer) and some who don't (we see a teenage boy in a soft baggy hat, who is probably Ricky of the famous Ricky and Wendell, and a short teenage girl with a lot of long, bushy hair) and who he doesn't think could handle being told. 12: The New Level [05/02/2018 – 01/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5222–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips start–#5299] At the start of the chapter we see Melba Corrigan's blobwart-vending cart and her pet pig Wilbur sitting in front of a large bush. Her hat is lying on the bush, and two butterflies (not flutterbys) fly up from behind it. They represent sex and/or kisses, and she is behind the bush with Arthur the Weirdo. Faint words on the hedge appear to spell out "Nutella weather person" – I've no idea why. Rosemary and Sylvester arrive back at Eetown's South Road Gate. Sylvester would rather go home, but Rosemary reminds him that he needs to collect the post, and says that it probably wasn't a villager in a boat that took them to Alwin. They both think it was probably Mortimer, by magic, which means he has immense innate power and the potential to be "quite something". Meanwhile, Mortimer's party start to back away from a Spyder, which begins to spew thick ropes of web at them, while another one boxes them in from behind. But Thrash slashes their web-ropes with his sickle and beats down the one in front of Mortimer. It's not clear whether he has killed it or not, but he probably has, as later they will pass a dead one in that direction. Meanwhile, Senior Archivix Anushka offers Frederick a chair and a cup of tea while he waits for his file. Svetlana is impressed and concerned, as teachairs are only offered to important guests, and she isn't authorised to associate with important guests, but doesn't wish to leave. The Archivix gives Frederick permission for Svetlana to stay and have tea too, but Svetlana says it's not Anushka's decision to make. Olaf thinks Aloysius can handle being told he has magic, but also that an empathist can't do much harm (but they can do some: we see a silhouette of a bear being sicced on somebody). He warns him not to tell anyone else about his magic, because there are people – the picture implies it's official, government people – looking to capture functioning wizwitches. It's possible that Aloysius may have other, minor talents as well as his main one – Mamie did (including, it's implied, skin-stimulation during sex) – and there are tests for this, but Olaf can't administer them. Amos and Frederick both could, but Frederick won't. Rosemary suggests that if Mortimer is going to be "something" so will Sylvester, since Mortimer obeys him. As they talk, a Vagabond flutterby – a creature with which Mortimer has a strong affinity – comes to them with a scrap of cloth tied around it, bearing a message apparently written in blood. Back to Mortimer's party. We will later learn that the timeline is disjointed, because these scenes with Mortimer must have happened while Rosemary and Sylvester were on Alwin Island. The Pales are fighting off the Spyders, and kill at least one behind Mortimer, but the Spyders keep coming and keep flinging web at them. Prompted by Nitfol, Mortimer has a moment of crisis where he decides he will no longer be either a follower or a causer of problems, and he shoots magical force from his umbrella-wand, declaring that there will be no more killing or dying (and gives himself an electric shock). The surviving Spyders run off, and we see two Spyders discussing the fact that they had thought all Human wizwitches had been killed in the Crash, and that this raises the possibility that there may still be Humans who are able to "talk" (perhaps this means Aloysius's animal empathy) and they must call a conclave to discuss this. Svetlana confirms to Frederick that it is her boss (or at least, the person who told her to watch Frederick) who decides whether she may stay and drink tea or not. She has a number as well as a name – 23-42-5258.8. Frederick addresses the security bugs in the walls and asks for Svetlana to be made his guide, stating her name and number, and since nobody answers with an objection, Svetlana is officially promoted to that role. She isn't sure what she thinks about this, as she had enjoyed being a waitress, but eventually she makes a firm decision to sit down and embrace her promotion, and she does quite like her cup of tea. Olaf tells Aloysius that Amos gave up being an active wizard before the Crash (although we see old!Amos lighting a candle with magic) – we know this was to do with Myrrh, but Olaf will only tell Aloysius about it if Aloysius agrees to be trained. Amos has already asked Olaf to come to the Mansion to discuss something, so he will take Aloysius with him, but Aloysius shouldn't mention his possible apprenticeship etc. to Amos's wife Nellie. They have a complex misunderstanding about what "having views" means, which leads to mention of an apparently blind woman called Gretta Weed, who in the metaphorical sense sees further than Nellie. Gretta is brighter than Nellie, and Saffron brighter than Gretta, but Olaf is more concerned with their open-mindedness to new possibilities. They discuss the fact that once he is trained, Aloysius will have the choice to stay in Eetown or to move elsewhere: we see an image of him as an adult healing horses for Nimue in Abalone. Once they have found a private spot, Sylvester reads his message, which says "Open Training Gate. Urgent." This refers to one of the Panegates at the Mansion. Sylvester still has to complete business in town but will rush through it. We see him ask the sausage vendor, Claudia, what people are talking about – which is really all the news from the Mansion. She has been selling(?) a lot of sausages because people are anxious/excited about the changes, and warns them that Saffron is "in a mood". Fizmo and Nitfol are surprised and impressed that Mortimer is a wizard, and reveal in conversation that Fizmo works for Frowgler, and Nitfol sort-of does too. We see Frowgler underground, talking to a Shallow Wyrm named Parkin who is guarding the Circle at the World's End. Fizmo says Frowgler can see the future (which Mortimer cannot), and warned her about a job she took. We see her underground in her hazmat suit, looking at a little creature similar to a Shallow Wyrm but probably not one (no head crest), which is growling at her. Mortimer says Frowgler gave him good advice, but he works for his brother Sylvester, not for Frowgler. He tells them Sylvester is a sort of mayor, avoiding the charged word "Earl" by chance or design. Svetlana reveals that she prefers kvass to tea, although this is against her culture. The Spire folk drink actual tea, but tea in Yurpsland is usually brewed from other plants. Frederick himself drinks – cautiously – things brewed by Myrrh. They get onto discussing Yurplejuice – neither Svetlana nor Anoshka has tasted it, because it's restricted, and even in Yurpsland it's regulated. Olaf tells Aloysius about the other half of his business – the first half is treating sick animals, the second half is making and selling thaum-powered gadgets. He has always refused to make magical weapons – Zap-Tridents – partly out of morality and partly in case someone buys one and then kills him to prevent him making any for anyone else. In any case they only work at Tricklepoints, such as the one under the Mansion. To make his own gadgets work away from a Tricklepoint he has built big, cumbersome energy collectors. Aloysius shows Olaf the Laughter Marble, and Olaf says it does party tricks, which he will show him in the workshop. 13: Thicket [02/05/2018 – 16/11/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5313–#5502] Sylvester says Claudia will be shifting a lot more sausages, because more changes are coming, because he is planning to be more pro-active. He and Rosemary discuss Mayor Saffron's temper: "in a mood" isn't so bad, it's when she's "in a snit" you need to worry, but it was her father who could really make her angry. Mortimer says he arrived here (in the woods) by accident, but now he's here he will help the Nomes. He asks why they are there and Fizmo says they are going to "that Crystal Thicket". We will learn later that they are looking for a flower that grows only there, which can be used to induce Raviners to spew ichor, which they need for whatever takeover scheme Nitfol cooked up with the Nexus. Nitfol is initially angry with her for telling, but Fizmo says that if Mortimer (with his evident magical power) is working for Mayor Koyeeb they're all dead anyway. Nitfol discusses good and bad leaders with Mortimer (we see an outline of what might be an assassination being prepared), and Mortimer correctly concludes that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb. He is still willing to help, on the understanding that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb for an ethical reason (i.e. because he is very bad at his job) and that he isn't planning to kill him. He knows where the Crystal Thicket is. Frederick tells Svetlana and Anoshka about Yurplejuice, which he hasn't had since the funeral of Mariah, the Mansion's groom, when they still had horses. He doesn't seem to know he just missed sharing some at breakfast that morning, when he and Myrrh announced their retirement and didn't sit down to share what the family were eating and drinking. It's made in Wirtvale, and the stuff which Yurpsland exports is second-rate, but the best brands are wonderful. This leads to a conversation about funerals: the Spire folk file their dead on shelves in a catacomb, but they do have a ceremony (and their elderly do get to retire in comfort, so they're not a totally brutal society). They talk about the fact that Spire folk are trained for their jobs, but Frederick had to muddle through as both wizard and Regent, and didn't do a terrific job, in his own opinion. We see Myrrh emerging from a hole in a rocky floor, into a cavern where there are many pink stalactites and stalagmites (probably artificial: they look too smooth to be natural). She is preceded by a butterfly – perhaps signifying that she and Jones have had sex. In the cavern is a giant Metalmin who knows what she is – it addresses her as "zarkette" – and challenges her to a game of Warboard, the local version of chess. We see the woman with puffy white hair watching Myrrh and the Metalmin on a screen: this is the same woman who was earlier seen overseeing the team who were discussing the fact that Frederick wasn't being knocked out by what they had fed him. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, still discussing Saffron Stout, and Saffron's father, who died when Sylvester was five, and her mother, who kept small yappy dogs. Neither was at all communicative about their past. Mention is made of Wendell's fish-fermenting scheme, which evidently stank the village out and made everybody angry. Mortimer tells the Nomes that even though the forest completely surrounds the Thicket, there is a magical way of getting where they're going and skipping the forest part. He tries to compare Panegates with the treewarping the Nomes do, which requires planning and equipment. Nitfol knows about twistpoints, but Mortimer says Panegates are safer, and there's one that leads to the edge of the Thicket. He has to explain that it's Panegate, not Paingate. Yes, Nitfol and Fizmo can both read, and they know what window-panes are, although Fizmo says only nobs like the mayor and Piu can afford them. Mention is made of Fizmo's married sister Fweep. Meanwhile, Frederick says that Spire folk who do badly at their jobs get sacked. Yurpsland is a young, recently unified (134 years ago) country which hasn't worked out how to do things yet, whereas the Spire regime is 400+ years old, when the city was built (although not entirely completed) by Dmitri I. He speaks about a Yurpslander named Owen Gregiry, who wrote a study on the Spires, and they discuss various Spire monarchs: Feodore II, who began the Great Expansion; Feodore III who "obtained" the Outer Shoals; and the famous Ivana III, who fought off the Wendigoes. Frederick is more interested in Vasily II, who wanted to introduce changes. We flash to Violet Hopkirk, telling her mother she's going out but will be back in time for supper. Young Ash, her brother, offers to help make supper while she's out. We see the Flittermouse in her tower, watching Violet through a telescope as she sets out: she has a Juneteenth flag on one of her mailbags. Then we see Eunice calling Ricky and Wendell, the odd-jobbers, to come out from a hole surrounded by a wooden structure, because Saffron needs them: they are doing something which involves bags of coloured liquid. Then we see former Guardian Terin Flem, sitting on a rock talking to his grandchildren Stephan and Sparrow. He is going to wait at the rock until he sees the Mansion party come by on their way out of the village. We see Rosemary and Sylvester discussing the mayor of her home town, how as an orphan she was a problem for him, and how her Aunt Eva came home, and Zeke persuaded her to take her orphan niece in. Eva was also seen as a problem because she had run off to the wicked big city (Nye), picked up foreign ways and then returned rich. There are things Rosemary wonders about Eva's return, but she's not going to talk about it in town where there are potential eavesdroppers. Mortimer and the Nomes agree that it would be as tedious to trek to the Mansion to find the Panegate as it would be to go to the Thicket on foot, and as far as Mortimer knows they won't be able to locate the Panegate at the Thicket end, or open it from that side if they could find it. He assumes they are going to the Thicket to find a particular flower. He tells them not to tell him their plans, so he can't inadvertently give the game away. We cut to Sylvester's brother Ace, with spear and rucksack, walking through an unknown town (later we will learn that it's called Jagger Junction) in the west of Yurpsland and meeting up with a blonde Nome woman wearing a long skirt and a hat with a flower in it. He shows her a similar flower – which he was reluctant to wear in his hat. As he is Ace, she takes the nom de guerre Diamond (Ace suggests Joker, and says if she doesn't want to be called one she shouldn't dress like one). As they walk through the town, in the background we see a very odd face, or maybe a mask, with slanted oval eyes, watching them from some sort of battlement, and they pass a poster with a kind of alien face on it: or perhaps a safety mask. Other, more Human faces peer round corners at them wherever they walk. Ace comments on the fact that they are being followed, and asks if they are friends of Diamond's, or at least allies. Cut to the Mansion's butler Schmedley, standing in front of a large, open book and holding a cake with candles, to celebrate fifteen years since the strip began. There are twelve candles on the cake, and three flutterbys flying around it. A Fuzz watches from a trunk of the Tree. Frederick and Anushka discuss rules of succession. In the Spires the rulers are matched by a Matriarch or Patriarch of opposite sex to the ruler, and who bears the mystic Gear until it's time to hand it on to the new ruler. Vasily II the would-be change-maker died young (as did Yorik II, who drowned while swimming in Lake Laputa), and Frederick suggests that his death was suspiciously convenient. The village fishermen are deeply interested in Rosemary's hat. Coming from where she does, she is able to discuss fishing with them. One called Tom even invites them for a drink, but she and Sylvester have too much to do, and Sylvester says later in private that having the Earl in the inn would be a buzz-kill – nearly as bad as an Oracle in the pub. Fizmo is curious about the smell of sphagnum dust which still hangs around Mortimer. She and Nitfol discuss the birth of Fizmo's niece Faift, in a way which implies that Nomes can choose the gender of their foetus – although Nitfol denies it when Mortimer asks. Fizmo is horrified to realise she is now an auntie, and remembers she needs to ask the village healer Piu for Stiflebloom. Nitfol is an only child. We see an image of him as a boy, holding a thin staff which is the Ŧ with the slanted crossbar. Diamond says that Ace is an object of great local interest, which is why people are spying on them: some of the spies are "allies of temporary convenience" and others are enemies. We see a graffito which says "IN THE NAME OF THE" and then a circle with three small circles or holes in it. Ace identifies Diamond as being a Nome with dyed-blonde hair. She asks whether there was another option, and he says there are always options (we are shown that he is thinking of Myrrh, so of people who are in disguise and might not be what they superficially appear) but sometimes all the options are bad, and he learned that from "you people". "You people" could be the organisation for which Diamond works, or just people "here" (later described as "Out West"), where Ace has been for a while. Ace comes from "Back East": the boundary between the two is Nye, the gamblig den. Diamond regards people from the East as posh, privileged and soft. Diamond came to Jagger Junction from somewhere "much, much worse" than here, which makes Ace say he questions her Nomishness. When Ace says he doubts her Nomishness he probably means that the only places he knows of that are much worse than this are Zark and Fratz, but it is later heavily hinted that Diamond was a slave-labourer who escaped from the Infernal Engine. They are watched by a young male Nome, standing in a doorway: we will later learn that he is called Uffer. Ace and Diamond come to a plain, unmarked door in a wall, which Ace says people must only come to if they are already welcome there. It opens before them. Frederick tells Anushka that he ended up taking over running his "Spire" and training his successor (Sylvester) because the official leader (Willoughby) was no good at it. We see him training Sylvester to deal with a machine that has the Ŧ sticking off it. Willoughby died in the Noodle Incident, which the Spire folk haven't heard about. Frederick says he would have thought everyone to the ends of the known world would have heard of it, and this leads to a discussion of an island called Solla Sollew, which Svetlana says is the island at the farthest edge of the Revealed World, and which Frederick says an explorer described as "alive and burning". Anushka says that Solla Sollew isn't the farthest place from the Spires, just hard to reach because of magic-storms from the Glow Confection mountain range: the farthest point is the Biloka Penninsula on the far side of the Deep Southeastern Jungles. Frederick does not know why the town of Noodle is called Noodle, but the Noodle Incident is the most interesting thing that ever happened there, and they even have a museum about it. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the local fishermen. Tom Bawcock, the senior fisherman, is unmarried but has a thing going with Gretta Weed. Rosemary thinks one of the fishermen, Ernie Corrigan, is cute, and the feeling appears to be mutual. It's OK for Mansionites other than the Earl to hang out in the local pub, and many have done so, but not Nirvana for unspecified reasons. Sylvester goes to collect post from Mr Gray. Mortimer's party, discussing Stiflebloom, pass what looks like a dead Spyder. Fizmo left their village because Nome girls were being encouraged to get pregnant instead of taking Stiflebloom. She talks bout how she and Kulkad were hired to go down into the Hot Zone in suits. She couldn't see much through the helmet, and can't really describe what they were monitoring. Mortimer says Sylvester will want to know, and Nitfol should want to know too if he's going to be a leader, so Fizmo says the thing they were watching was a sort of stone growth. Ace and Diamond pass two guards, and climb stairs to visit a Mr Shadwell, Diamond's boss. Ace fusses about the lack of a handrail, and Diamond says he reminds her of Algernon Jones, the hero of Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. At the top of the stairs, they find Mr Shadwell seated dead at his desk, with some kind of wound on his chest. Frederick wasn't present at the Noodle Incident and didn't hear about it till days later, because they didn't have a Sparkwire – a telegraph system. Sparkwire operators seem to be all women, who wear antennae like the ones the Spire people wear, although in the Spires they signify citizenship. The Spire ones seem to be implants – at least, they're not just attached to a band like the ones worn by Sparkwire operatives. In Noodle there is a museum about the Incident, but it isn't very accurate. In the Spires, Solovyov Spire is all museums, and they're accurate (we see a display case with the Ŧ on top), but some can only be visited by people with a high security clearance. Svetlana has been to the ones she's allowed to see: Frederick says "And the exhibits gave you no reason to doubt their accuracy?" and Svetlana replies "Negative", which is ambiguous. While Sylvester is talking to Mr Gray, some village children ask Rosemary how she, Sylvester and Mortimer got out of the inn without anybody seeing them go. She says they used a one-time magic door. [Cut to Cap'n Hamster, talking to the sapient sea plant on Piratestash Island about how they are both rare life-forms, and how he bounces from ship to gaol (his cage in Nevus's collection) and back, and how he was swept to this location by a freak wave, and the fact that his parents (who had a ship named Grenache) told him that somewhere across the waves there would by a pirate girl for him, and he will search till he finds her.] Fizmo tells Mortimer that when she was down in the Hot Zone, she had a button to push (and then run away) if the thing she was watching started to move. Technology doesn't work well down there, which was why they needed live watchers, but the button was shielded. Fizmo says she saw a rock grow legs and walk. Nitfol asks if it talked – she says no. Nitfol is not surprised by her story, because he has heard stories from when Nomes called Hotdiggers used to mine down close to the Hot Zone. Diamond says she will pay Ace (who seems to be some kind of bodyguard, like Rosemary) to help her get away from the town, as she was Shadwell's "little mascot" and probably won't survive him for long if she stays. Ace agrees on condition that she doesn't lie to him, and that she tells him where the thing he came to collect is. She opens a wall safe and gives Ace a sort of snow globe thing with a figure in it – a long-robed figure juggling the numbers 007. Frederick has never been to the Noodle museum, or the ones in the Spires, but has heard testimony he believes (from Sylvester, about Noodle, and Svetlana about the Spires). He leaves it open whether he trusts the Spire museums or not. Svetlana starts to say "Is not what I am denying! Am saying you should not be—" and then glances nervously at the walls and says it's nothing. Frederick says Willoughby set off some kind of chain reaction which badly damaged much of Noodle, but no-one except Willoughby died. The incident happened in part because of poor maintenance in Noodle, but that part of the story was hushed up. Mr Gray is concerned that there may be things which, unofficially, Sylvester should tell him about. They have a verbal skirmish in which Sylvester avoids telling him anything. He collects his post, rejoins Rosemary and says it may have been a tactical error for Mortimer to let people see that his umbrellla could be used as a weapon – Mr Gray is of course a government agent, and after Mortimer placed his umbrella in a weapons-holder he looked it up in the Compendium of Official Threats, so now he suspects that Mortimer is a wizard. Nitfol says that one of his ancestors, Nikmo, found a talking rock in the deeps, although most of the records of what it said were lost. Nikmo brought the rock home to the surface, but it stopped talking and he was ridiculed for saying it had. Family history says Nikmo later snuck the rock back into the deeps and it came back to life. He told his daughter Margi about it. Margi became a famous adventuress and had a son, Jindak (mobile hanging over cradle, with Ŧ). Margi told Jindak that she thought Nikmo went back later to visit the rock, but she herself could never find it. Mortimer asks about the surviving records of what the rock said, and Nitfol says that the rock said it had been broken off from a larger boulder during a natural upheaval. We see Violet sneaking past behind Terin Flem, who is still keeping a lookout: later comments suggest he really isn't of her creeping through the trees behind him. She walks to the Mansion's gardens, where she startles Nellie Grubb, in her role as gardener. Ace tells Diamond to place another globe, called a Zoinkglobe, into the safe. He had arranged to give Mr Shadwell this one in return for the one with the juggler, and now Shadwell's heirs can have it. He tells Diamond not to steal stuff from the safe unless they need it to survive, so she takes a small plaque with Shadwell's sigil on it, used to show that the bearer is in his favour. Ace comments that Louis and Buddy, the security guards, had let him up there with a spear and an unsearched pack, so they are either incompetent or part of whatever is going on. Silhouette of railing decorated with Ŧ. We return to the Spires, where Frederick is talking about the official enquiry into the Noodle Incident. The Spires have official enquiries too – Svetlana says "Except when conditioned by circumstances", Frederick replies "Like when a gal happens to be carrying a big needle?" and Anushka says they don't talk about that here. Frederick says that what he has said came from his own experience, not from Svetlana. He says that Willoughby was scapegoated (although he really was somewhat to blame) – then a woman named Snegurka arrives with a file which was requested earlier (presumably the one on Spindizzies). Part Seven: Seats of Power [19/11/2018 – 01/12/2021] 01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion. Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle. Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking. Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him. Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both). Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree. Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly. Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out. Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer". Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled. 02: Entangled [05/02/2018 – 03/05/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5584–#5661] Mortimer and the two Nomes wonder nervously what will happen if the Pales don't return from squid-chasing. The scene switches to the Pale camp, where Zpeaker is telling Vezza how the Pales grow their tools. The tools do not grow from plants but are in some way related to the Pales themselves and this is critical information, so he will need to ask the Nexus for permission to show her. Vezza, being young, can hear the Pales' supersonic voices: Zpeaker says all their communication is sonic "except Zcopers". [Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.] Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee. Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor. Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting. The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket. We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts. Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back. Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are. Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood. Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect. Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head. 03: No Turning Back [06/05/2019 – 01/08/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5675–#5752] Mortimer's party progress, keeping together. Mortimer, being taller, can see a large, distant rock which he thinks is near the Panegate. Nitfol says one direction is as good as another, and Mortimer says the direction of the Thicket (the jumble of crystals) is bad. Another Ŧ on a rock in the distance. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as. Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been". We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother. Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before. Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed. For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt. Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling. Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ. Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle. Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock. Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could. Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters. He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them. 04: Fallout [02/08/2019 – 30/10/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5759–#5848] Not-Shmelcathy tells Myrrh she doesn't see the point of clothes unless it's exceptionally cold: then admits that's the default state in the Spires for a third of the year. Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of". Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was. We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin. Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible. Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon. According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl". Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic. Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice. Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach. Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her. Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them. Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington. Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers. Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business. Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!" Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that. 05: Going Home [04/11/2019 – 27/12/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5855–#5899] The Eyebolt formerly known as not-Schmelcathy says that her name is Simplicity (despite the name on the screen by her desk). She is bubbling with answers to questions Myrrh doesn't want to ask (demons are sensitive about favours and counter-favours). She says "we" (presumably the Eyebolts) can sense auras and that it's important that Myrrh know what she is confronting. Myrrh assumes she is talking about the Operator. There is a side conversation about Jones, who we see apparently getting clothes from Alena and Idita. Simplicity says that the Operator is much more powerful than either Myrrh or Jones, and he has visited the Spires, but he's still only part of the problem. We see an image of the Operator having a power-bar about two and a half times Myrrh's, but it's like a small stream compared to a raging river when measured against the Power Simplicity is thinking of. Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one. Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt. The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers. Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one. Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question. Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped. 06: Diplomacy [30/12/2019 – 13/02/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5909–#5958] Comshaw reveals that when they found the door to the Mansion open, the Council had deliberately aimed a Dornbeast through the door to test what would happen. Sylvester confirms that they are Human and that he is The Earl. Rosemary is his trusty assistant, and Skradt is Comshaw's. Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.] Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing. Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home. Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock. Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome. Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin". An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree. 07: Exit Strategies [24/02/2020 – 26/06/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5986–#6084] Ivana takes Frederick and Svetlana to a Diplomatic Quarantine Facility, for guests who are important but disruptive. There are covered plates of cakes: one of the covers has a Ŧ on it. Frederick will not be allowed to interact with anyone else, except Svetlana whose duties are not yet complete. Frederick assumes this will be so until he goes back to the docks, but Ivana says he's never been at the docks. Svetlana asks if he walked from Yurpsland, but Ivana says he and Myrrh didn't appear via any known entrance, which is part of why he's interesting. Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can. Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees. Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach. Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond". Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way. Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished. Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open. Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave. Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip. Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen. Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl. Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her. Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear. We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar. Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation. Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well. An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist. Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises. They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years). They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough). After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole. At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires. 08: High Level Meetings [29/06/2020 – 09/10/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6098–#6188] Diamond is very concerned that she hadn't known Blas was in town: it suggests her situational awareness is slipping, and that's dangerous. If she had known, she might or might not have told Shadwell, who sometimes had people killed, but only when absolutely necessary: Ace says his employers are the same, except more genteel about it. Wooden Ŧ among planks behind them, and metal one acting as a sort of tap. Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap. Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket. Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat. A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them. Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived. At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket. Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch). Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs. In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home. Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background. An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting. Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall. They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ). More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX. Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded. 09: It All Comes Together [13/10/2020 – 19/02/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6202–#6318] Svetlana agrees that she will go with Frederick to Audravania. At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres. We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together. A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar. Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown. Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes. Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade. Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos. Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower. Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire. Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something". Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings. Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs. In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits. Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement. The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went. 10: Unexplored Territory [22/02/2021 – 28/05/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6325–#6416] This chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Unexplored Territory, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto. We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm. The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect". Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it. Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing). Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles. Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned. Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself. It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought. Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat. Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality. Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock. 11: New Clothes [01/06/2021 – 03/09/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6423–#6514] Diamond and Ace have moved out of the trace left by the Infernal Engine, and Ace can feel the difference. He wants to know how Jagger Junction ended up this rough (Diamond doesn't know or care), and says if in the future there's anything he can do to fix it, he will. A fairly large Fuzz, maybe cat-sized, is lurking in a small dustbin. Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia. This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine. They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned. Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns. Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in. Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it. Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears. Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree. Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol). Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future. 12: Advice and Council [07/09/2021 – 01/12/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6521–#6577] Rosemary advises Fizmo to really listen to what other people say and to not talk – or swear – much during the Council meeting. Outwith that meeting, she should definitely tell Nitfol what she thinks, about everything. Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works. Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette. Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves. Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers. Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end. Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction. Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: Sitting in a Tree [27/02/2010 – 04/06/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2355–#2443] Now that it is getting dark Comshaw, Niddle and Ig see the bat fly past them and finally feel safe to come down from the ruined fountain. Ig is now wearing/carrying Niddle's backpack. We also see a distant, unidentifed Saur, possibly Snerk but the colour looks darker, lurking in a tree, watching a bat go past.
Yasmine enters the ruined building where she heard coughing, and discovers Mortimer, lying on a makeshift bed and still coming round from having been stunned by Eunice. He has a note from Rufus on his chest but we aren't told what it says. He correctly identifies Yasmine, who seems familiar to him although she doesn't think they've met, as a Weirdo – which she finds amazing, apparently because it suggests a degree of clairvoyance not seen since the Crash. He also identifies the building as Dorian's old hut (presumably the Dorian who now lives in the Spike), but seems confused: when Yasmine mentions Protus as the Willigig currently living in the Mansion, Mortimer recalls being somewhere near the Basement at some point and Skibble, who seems to be a friend of his, turning up "like he usually does" (which makes it unlikely he's an Ichyoid, so we're down to Ghast, Ooze of Helipath) and mentioning Protus to him, but he doesn't coherently connect this with the Willigig who gave him the HJ42 after the incident with the Tree-Squid earlier in the day – although he then refers to Protus as "really grumpy", so he must have made the connection subconsciously, even if he has forgotten the meeting consciously. Yasmine claims she is there to conduct an official Weirdo's Guild review of Arthur's performance. Mortimer smells strongly of sphagnum dust and sploo.
Yasmine sets off again to find her horse, and Mortimer again sets out to find Nitfol and rescue him if still alive. He is briefly distracted by a flutterby and calls it to his finger: Yasmine sees this and is again amazed by his psychic talent. Agita's henchgnoll Agorn overhears them talking, and we see Mortimer's Scalpsucker messenger still only halfway up the side of the shaft. The flutterby flies round her and she falls asleep: it seems Mortimer sent it to tell her to stand down.
Yasmine and Mortimer get along well and he tells her about all the odd things which happen to him. They talk about Mortimer and Sylvester doing their duty and Sylvester still getting scorned by the villagers, about chaos theory and flutterbys and how one flutterby might some day make a difference, and she tells him to tell Frederick about the odd things. Thinking of what Protus showed her, but not saying it, she tells Mortimer she expects to be back some day and when she returns she expects him to have made some progress with his situation. As Yasmine leaves, Mortimer gives her his sack of fleebs, and Agorn watches from behind a wall.
Agorn, who is carrying a spear, wonders whether to follow one or the other, go home and report or go run off and join the Spikefolk, who carry out strange rites involving doing a Metalmin dance and getting blasted with Spikeglow. He appears to decide to follow Mortimer.
Ig, Comshaw and Niddle are trying to locate Mortimer by smell but they smell something odd as well that Ig has never smelled before, metal and skin, wet and burnt – Niddle says this smell was all over the mound that the Fire came out of earlier ("The Pit"). The way they describe the smell, it probably relates to either Frowgler or the Meltalmin which we glimped earlier near The Pit: we will find out later that it's Frowgler, which implies that Frowgler smells of metal (is it possible that Frowgler in some way is the Metalmin?). They can also smell that there have been a lot of Pales about, not just Thrash's party and the two with Buzz. Niddle says the metal/skin/wet/burnt smell was all over the hill where The Pit is, then suddenly gone. Again there is mention of a barrier which Humans live beyond, as if there's some sort of cordon keeping the Basement folk in. Niddle is pleased that he was exposed to the Fire and saw visions, as he thinks this will prove to be important, and he says it will now be a Finagler thing which he will spread at the next Conclave.
Having parted from Jasmine Mortimer is a bit lost (and we see he is now completely barefoot: evidently Rufus and/or Eunice removed his remaining shoe when they put him to bed), but then he encounters Frowgler, Thrash and the two other Pales we will later know as Flagpale and Scrawl, although for the moment Frowgler calls them Flaghelper and Antlerhelper. Frowgler is sitting on a branch of a tree against which the Scary Lady's pink umbrella is leaning. Mortimer recognises Frowgler as a comic-book character but Frowgler says that he is "not THE Frowgler. Just.. A Frowgler", and saying that his parents called him that is a close enough approximation. Frowgler comments that the local Pales call their fort "The Camp" because they expect it to be temporary, and advises Mortimer on how to find the closest Spyder web, and that he'll know he's near it when he sees smoke. He claims to be in a similar position to his fictional counterpart, in that he has come to assist the Good Guys against powerful evil forces, much bigger and more powerful than mere demons. Mortimer and Thrash are both Good Guys, and so are most of the people they know. Mortimer asks if Yasmine was right to tell him to talk to Frederick, and Frowgler thinks she probably was. Mortimer says he needs to be ready "when she gets back" – probably meaning Yasmine.
Thrash tacitly agrees to convey Frowgler on to his next stopping point. As Frowgler and the Pales leave, Mortimer notices the umbrella. It doesn't belong to anyone in Frowgler's party, so he keeps it.
Agorn watches the bat catching flutterbys, then realises that Comshaw's party are behind him, and hides. He overhears Comshaw sniffing out the fact that the Human, Mortimer, went one way and the Pales and the metal-smelling thing went another. So the metal-smelling thing must be Frowgler. They decide to continue following the Human. Agorn is impressed, but in a kind of patronising way: he sees Comshaw as a young fellow with potential.
The space-suited worker who earlier quit the Hot Zone observation station climbs out of a hatch in one of the ruined buildings (with a sign over the door saying "GONE TO EARTH"), takes off her helmet and reveals herself to be a female Nome called Fizmo. She mentions having been taken below from a different entrance by someone called Fogorner, who she believes was working for the group in the Spike. She is afraid she might have come up beyond the Edge of the World, where the giants (Humans) are. She attempts to treewarp her way through the door, but it doesn't work because she doesn't have "the glowgems or the blivit any of the rest of the phizz". In the end she forces her way out of the locked building through a crack high in the stonework, in her underwear but taking with her a pruning hook she found in the locked building. She lands in "puffbloom bushes", which seem to be the local version of hydrangea.
She meets Frowgler, who is sitting on a ruined wall and whom she knows – he had advised her not to take the subterranean job. Now he says going back down would be the safest thing for her, but not the best thing. Learning that she admires Nitfol for his independence, he suggests she go with Thrash to the Pale camp where Nitfol now is, and she agrees. She is initially alarmed by Thrash, whom Frowgler introduces as the Nexus's strong right hand, then she casually calls him "whatsyergob". As a reward for not forcing him to force her to agree, Frowgler opens his Poke Kit and gives her a very smart hat made by the posh Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine, since Nomes hate to be bareheaded, but he warns her to examine hats from other sources carefully: to look inside them, and if they're one of the unsafe kind she'll feel the urge to swear and whack them with her pruning hook. It is clear he is warning her about Fixits, and that Fogorner is controlled by a Fixit. He also warns her that the beaver shark – of which there is only one – is loose nearby, and that he is trying to stop Koyeeb doing something which will destroy the Nome village (presumably, attacking the Gnolls). He is sending her away from the village because she's worth saving. He tells Thrash to tell the Nexus that if they don't hear from him, "that stopgap we discussed will be necessary".
Frowgler denies being a demon and says he was put on earth to do what he is doing. He goes down the tunnel Fizmo came out of, saying that he needs to see an old friend, and she goes off with the Pales, talking at them about a Nome who built a prototype plane which crashed, and her ideas about hot air balloons (adding that she is a natural source of hot air).
We see a flat-topped tower among the ruins, made of Ettin durasteel plates and with a label that starts "Ludwig automatic..." Inside the top, surrounded by windows, is a giant crystal which collects sunlight and directs it underground and down a channel with mirrors in it to steer it around corners. The light-beam passes by a lorry in some sort of workshop, and a buried, humanoid but four-armed Metalmin: either the Metalmin is huge or the lorry is Smyt-size, because the entire lorry is only slightly bigger than the Metalmin's head.
The beam from the crystal connects to the lights which channel daylight to the Great Chasm, and we see Rosemary and Sylvester falling: he thinks that he is dying Mortimer's death and his family will never know what happened to him, but then they land in a peculiar fluffy outgrowth of the Tree. Rosemary, still dazed from the blow to the head, identifies Rhid whom they have just seen as one of the people Protus showed to Sylvester, and thinks that the woman he saw her fighting – whom she calls Tansy – is about to show up, since Rhid did. Her helmet light is damaged, and Sylvester's helmet is missing, caught in the Tree high above them. Rosemary apologises to the Tree and then whacks it, causing the helmet to fall into range. Sylvester manages with some difficulty to catch it, so that they have light and can proceed.
02: Lying in a Hole [05/06/2010 – 16/09/2010] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2450–#2548] Mortimer passes an enormous boulder in its own fresh mini-crater: it's not the one that nearly hit Comshaw earlier, but probably comes from the same explosion. Watched by a trundlebug, Rosemary and Sylvester slip through the layer of fluff onto a more normal, solid branch of the Tree. Sylvester thinks the padded branches below the Plunge point are there to stop Trogs killing themselves, or at least, like Theophan, to give them time to reconsider. Rosemary tears her skirt – which is stolen, presumably from a Chroman Initiate – to make ties to keep their helmets on. She admits to having killed three Humans, presumably in combat. Meanwhile, Comshaw, Niddle and Ig are following close behind Mortimer.
The pre-existence of Wyverns, a kind of extinct dragon, is mentioned. If this is designed to save Trogs, or at least give them the chance to change their minds, why have none ever made it back to tell Theophan about it? Sylvester's theory that it's all there to save Trogs is born out when they find a burning pot of Trog Repellant, which herds any Trogs who land in the Tree towards a narrow spur bridge leading out over the abyss (made by a very reputable construction firm). Meanwhile, Agorn passes more debris, buried in the ground by the force of the last blast, the OZPR. The spur across the Chasm ends with a bracket with a crab or spider drawn on it, and then a long tube-like chute which they are sucked in by, and which takes them to a padded landing-site in a room within the cliff on the far side of the Chasm, which contains a broken office cabinet which has "The Threshold" written on it, and which moves about under its own power. On the wall is written "MAKES HAMBLE SUMTHING SUMTHING", among other things.
They meet a thing called a Lurker – a cave-creature like a blind, bald, sub-sapient Saur. Dog-like, it wants them to follow it: Rosemary thinks it's leading them into an ambush. Following it, they come to a place which looks like the Ettins' artificial Trog habitat, except sterile and dead, without the moss and fresh water etc. of the zoo exhibit. Sylvester feels that he and Rosemary are both acting rather wildly, and that this is due to exposure to energy bubbling up from the Hot Zone.
They come to an archway labelled "Serene Cavern of Blissful Relaxation", beside which is a slightly sick poem about the death of Yurd ("Yurd ran far and wide // 'Til his mind began to slide // So he took the Great Plunge // Now he is in a hole all covered with gunge"). Within are the people the Lurker, Blinky, was reporting to – two male trogs called Villipend and Hamble. Both are less flat-faced and probably mentally sharper than Kronk, but Villipend is paranoid and deranged, and his hair (or crest or whatever it is) is styled like a crown. Hamble tries to calm him but he is sure that Rosemary and Sylvester are the "Tormentors" who keep him trapped there, and it doesn't help that he smells his enemy Kronk (who brushed past them at the Plunge point) on them. There are bones in the background which look like those of a Trog.
When Sylvester says he doesn't know where the exit is, Villipend throws a weapon which Rosemary fends off with the Can-Opener, which Villipend calls a Sneech claw. Rosemary and Villipend fight and Villipend manages to get in a kick which throws her against the wall. Sylvester intervenes, warns him grimly that he is the terrible Earl of E and fires a primitive taser which he has in his backpack, and which fires over his shoulders when he hits a trigger on his chest – but Villipend dodges and it is Hamble who is struck and apparently killed. The act of firing the taser also throws Squeeb out of the backpack and onto the floor, unnoticed.
Villipend is impressed by the taser but annoyed because he wanted to kill Hamble himself. He threatens Sylvester so Rosemary slashes him with the Can-Opener and he hides in the dark. Sylvester finds a door operated by a Herediscan which identifies him as a member of the E family and lets him through: next to it on the wall is written "THE BRUSH IS PERFECT BUT THE PAINT RUNS". He tells Villipend (now clinging to the ceiling) he will leave the door open.
Mortimer thinks that he is searching the woods to find out what happened to Nitfol. Then he finds the Spyder's head, detached and smoking, and thinks "OK, now it's just morbid curiosity".
Rosemary and Sylvester discuss their weapons training (and we learn that at the bodyguard training-school she went to, the fencing master was a Mr Montoya). She is concerned that she may not be able to stop Villipend if he attacks again, because he's in peak condition and she has no practice with the Can-Opener.
Comshaw's party reach the dead Spyder head. Ig can tell that it wasn't Mortimer who killed the Spyder, and begins to discover the joys of cooked meat.
As they move away from the Hot Zone vents, Rosemary becomes calmer. Sylvester tells her about the SubShafts, a tangle of tunnels which are greatly affected by the Hot Zone. The Eyebolts who worked for the Ettins lived there, then the mining Nomes as well. After an upheaval when Sylvester was a teen (presumably the Gnoll/Nome war, so Mortimer was about twelve or fourteen when he did whatever he did) they all moved out, the Eyebolts to elsewhere in the Basement, the Nomes to the Forest, and now it's mainly Gnolls who live in the SubShafts. [We seen an outline of Cully, Chunner and Crud, all heavily armed – Cully with a flame-thrower, Chunner with a blunderbuss and Crud with something similar to the Can-Opener.] They come to an area of large engineering works and spiky pylons, like metal tree trunks with short jagged branches, at the start of a walkway or bridge at the edge of a long drop.
Mortimer comes to the huge, smoking crater caused when Frowgler set off the HJ42, and wrongly assumes Nitfol and the Spyder were both blown up. He climbs down into the crater and retrieves the HJ42, then Comshaw, Niddle and Ig arrive at the edge of the crater and engage him in conversation about the goals of Humanity. They all conclude that Comshaw needs to speak to Sylvester (hearing that Sylvester is the Earl, Comshaw assumes he must be very scary).
The thing Niddle has been carrying in his hand all day, which he found in the tunnel and which is similar to but not the same as a Glowgem, starts radiating energy, and Comshaw notices it for the first time since the tunnel. Niddle says he can almost hear it speak, it's waited a long time and now it's almost time for some unspecified meeting: probably between it and the HJ42. This must be the meeting future!Mortimer told present!Mortimer to prevent.
Suddenly the Saur Snerk falls into the crater with them. He had run into the beaver shark and it fixated on him and began chasing him. The beaver shark appears looming over the edge of the crater and then crashes down amongst them. Niddle starts counting down 5...4...3... Mortimer orders the others to run: using his pink umbrella like a baton he summons a large crowd of flutterbys, who distract the shark by crashing against its face. Then Niddle's count reaches zero, and the energies of the HJ42 and the crystal link and set off a silent magical fireball, a huge dome of white light, which is felt by the Operator, the Scary Lady, Frowgler and a mechanical alarm near Hector.
Back underground, Rosemary and Sylvester are considering a vertical ladder when Villipend jumps them, wrests the Can-Opener from Rosemary and tries to force Sylvester to go back downstairs and close the door to Villipend's domain, so he can continue to trap other Trogs there. Sylvester is willing to jump into the Chasm rather than do so.
Mortimer and the shark are transported into open underground space by a twistpoint and fall down to where Rosemary and Sylvester are. The letters PZOR appear, indicating that the not-Glowgem and the HJ42 interacted to create the twistpoints, burst of light etc.. The shark bites Villipend, killing him, and Rosemary retrieves the Can-Opener and pushes both of them off the edge and into the deep.
Comshaw and Niddle are jumped through another twistpoint back to their own home, where Camora is brooding. [They have a skimgibber in a bowl.] Niddle crashes out, as Telic had warned that he would, burbling about the fact that Mortimer has the same haircut as him, and something about a window. Camora tells Comshaw about Hax. He decides to go back out to warn everyone, leaving her to care for Niddle, but first Camora, who is feeling overwrought, declares that she loves Comshaw and they have an unspecified erotic session. Comshaw is happy to see that Niddle has some clingweed wrapped round his feet, since he promised some to Telic.
Ig is twistpointed to outside the home of his ex girlfriend Nerda, the mother of his as-yet unhatched children. He offers her the stuff in Niddle's backpack so she lets him in.
Snerk is less lucky. As a result (or cause) of an unspecified backlash he is dumped into the middle of a high-tech. experimental facility of some kind being run by two Ghasts. He is pinned in some uncomfortable, scary machinery which may be examining him or may be cleaning and immunising him – it's not clear which – and then pushed through a hatch (which he sort-of recognises because "the boss" told him about doors) labelled "#2540 SAUR HABITAT, WOODLAND" into an artifical woodland habitat designed especially for Saurs. He wonders if it is underground, then thinks that he has been twistpointed to a real forest far away. He wishes to leave a.s.a.p. in order to report to Frowgler. There are other Saurs there, all of them (including Snerk), wearing a bracelet on the right wrist and with a three-digit number on their left side. He meets a dozy girl called Dizel and a much more sensible, very large female called Zil who tells him that if he can find a way out she's coming with him: he learns from her that there's a day/night cycle here, but no proper sun. We learn of the existence of big, dim, agressive Saur relatives called Sawtooths, but there are said to be none in this habiotat. There are however Gnolls – who may be there unofficially.
Why was Snerk sent here? Comshaw, Niddle and Ig were sent to their mates, so is Zil Snerk's future mate? The shark certainly didn't go to its mate but we've been told it was the only beaver shark, so probably it had no mate: instead it followed Mortimer on whom it was fixated (it possibly followed Snerk because he had licked Mortimer's foot and so smelled of him). Mortimer went to his brother and Rosemary, but we will be told Rosemary is not his mate, and certainly he is currently fixated on Yasmine. I do not think Yasmine can be Rosemary looped through time, even though we will learn that she is somebody whom people in the area might recognise, because Rosemary wouldn't need a report on Mansion critters.
Meanwhile, the not-Glowgem falls back into the crater, and the HJ42 falls through a crack in the floor of the crater [the parallel strip Sundays in SubShaft 44f tells us that it ends up with the rebel Gnoll mechanic Tuttle, who is in league with Digger Odel and passes it to Skuy's boyfriend Cully]. Agorn investigates and sees that the hole which has opened up contains a ladder. He can smell Sneeches in the depths.
03: Spanner in the Works [17/09/2010 – 15/01/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2555–#2926] Sylvester identifies their location as the Ettinworks investigated by Krell, Earl Griffington's assistant. Sylvester, Mortimer (still smelling peculiar due to the sphagnum dust, still with umbrella) and Rosemary set out along the walkway: lights, electric crackles and deep rumbling noises come on as they walk, destroying the ladder they were comsidering before. R&S talk over Mortimer and largely ignore what he is trying to tell them about the umbrella. Sylvester talks about the differences between the SubShafts and the Ettinworks, as electricity crackles on and off around them. Rosemary has a sense that the Can-Opener may do exciting things around electrical discharges, and puts it in the Poke Kit. No Human that Sylvester knows of has been down there since the Crash: and of course after their tumble down the Chasm they are now much lower-down than they had intended to be, vis-á-vis the Sneech den.
They come to an unusually passive Sneech plant-machine growth which is blocking the walkway. Similar to the Tree, Sneech dens are built from vast networks of linked, plant-like growths which maintain all forms of life-support, information processing and defence, and can be dangerous if threatened. They are far below the level of the Sneech nest, but Mortimer recounts comments by Skibble suggesting the Sneeches are expanding their territory. He tells Sylvester that Comshaw wants to talk to him. They edge past the growth: Mortimer insists on taking the lead as he is the most expendable. The other two have been ignoring Mortimer and rather treating him like a small child but they begin to realise their mistake.
Having passed the Sneech growth they come in sight of an Ettin underhub – a lighthouse-like tower which stretches from the floor below where they are, through the open cavern of the Ettinworks to the ceiling of the cavern, which is the floor of the shallower levels overhead, with a row of windows ringing the tower up near the ceiling. Sylvester talks of a network of underground roads and haulage lorries and buildings which was wrecked and sealed off when Audra poked the Hot Zone and caused the Chasm to spread – it is clear this is the system now being opened up and used by the Fixits. So Yurpsland already had self-powered lorries about 140 years ago, or ninety years before the Crash. The tunnels were used to train and supply armies, but after the Breach the less martially-minded Ludwig sealed them off rather than repairing them (these must be the extra space Fosic is now unsealing with his bim toggler).
They go into the underhub and prepare to climb a spiralling internal ramp, and have a conversation in which Rosemary is amazed to learn that a famous, ancient philosopher named Milo, who wrote a very famous work called The Intricate Balance, was the 9th Earl of E. Rosemary's Aunt Eva won it in a Skipjack game among a job-lot of eleven books. They discuss chess, in which Milo was very interested: Rufus is the family champion (after Myrrh). They find a signpost written in a Human script and recently annotated in the handwriting of Nirvana Clepe, former Taskmistress of the Mansion, who retired eight years ago when her wife died, and supposedly now lives in Noodle, three days' ride away. They can tell that the writing is quite new, not weathered by the sea air. Mortimer is showing clairvoyance – he knows that the Sneeches have never been inside the underhub. There is a discussion about Threnody the local Oracle, whom Sylvester fancies (Dirge is her Guardian), and who sometimes helps with the female Tasks now they have no Taskmistress, if Nellie doesn't feel up to it. Presumably the Scary Lady isn't Human enough. Mention is made of two main Brush sects, Mainstream and Throwbacks.
The interior of the underhub is full of concealed twistpoints – as they climb, the interior changes illogically and it's possible to go up and end up lower down, or find a door to the outside that should have been visible from the outside, but wasn't (meaning it's 180° rotated from where it appears to be). There are a series of signposts to guide them, and they have to follow the lower numbers on the signs (assuming the top of the underhub to be #1) even when they look like they're going the wrong way. Talking about twistpoints leads them to realise that they each met Protus today. Mortimer talks about the Zorper, about Yasmine, and about ending up in Dorian's old hut. He recalls Dorian as a hermit from his childhood, although Dorian has been working for the group in the Spike for forty-two years, and Mortimer's father was born less than fifty years ago and Mortimer is his third child, so he's not much more than twenty-five. The Dorian we see in memory was already wearing the Fixit he wears now, so he was dividing his time between the Spire and the forest (unless at some point in the future he and his Fixit are going to be sent back to twenty years ago).
Sylvester is sure Yasmine was lying about being there to review Arthur, unless the Guild have changed the rules without telling him, because the Guild's assessor is called Jack Kench. Employing a Weirdo, we learn, is a requisite part of being an aristocrat, and being an aristocrat still has its uses.
They come to a group of elongated, slope-sided pillars labelled "do not touch". After they have passed on without touching them, we see that they are local Panegates. A window open in one to show the dining room at the Mansion, then two female Gnolls, Dandilli from the SubShafts and probably Dipsoma, gossiping (Dandilli has a flutterby on a string), then a Dornbeast. The Dornbeast tries to come through and is electrocuted. Frowgler, looking rough, emerges from the Dornbeast one although the Dornbeast itself cannot pass. He goes back through another, smaller window and we hear a voice speaking to him which says "ya" and "yer" instead of "you" and "you're", but the font is disguised. Frowgler asks if they are "back up and running" and the voice says yesno, if you don't twist out right aw— then comments that Frowgler is damaged. Frowgler says he met one of Protus's new friends, possibly referring to Thrash tossing him up like a ball. Signs in there say "NO HURRICANES BEYOND THIS POINT" and "STAY HOME CUZ YER WELL".
Meanwhile, Nevus's troops are at Comshaw's door, believing he sent Sylvester and Rosemary to spy on Le Tree, but they are facing gthe wrong way, expecting him to be coming from the forest. He emerges behind them and duffs them up with his Poking stick, then tells one of them, a young male Trog called Skradt, to take him to Nevus. They pass Le Gnollhole, which is closed for the duration. Skradt is interested in learning to be a Poker himself. The Basement is now very quiet – most people are hiding, although we glimpse Fanga lurking in a doorway with her bow.
The twistpoints in the underhub aren't mentioned in the Mansion's records, suggesting they are newly formed: or rather, since they are so organised, the Ettins set the system up, but it was switched off. Sylvester thinks the Ettins' devices were built to shut down in the event of a Crash, and are now waking again, and in the process turning other stuff from hundreds of years ago back on. They discuss the Crash, and what they could do before it – still far less than the Ettins did. They had a high-level tram which took a week to cross the country: the Ettins went to the moon.
They come to another pillar labelled "touch". In order to get past a twistpoint and go up again Mortimer touches it with his umbrella, again considering himself the most expendable, and a ray from the ceiling strikes the other two. Sylvester loses nearly all his memory – although he recalls Nimue – and Rosemary loses some of her intelligence, regresses emotionally and starts acting like an eager-to-please, extremely literal-minded five-year-old with no conversational filters. Rosemary's memory is intact and she realises what has happened and warns Mortimer he will have to tell her what to do. This is a double-edged sword as she is now extremely hypnotically susceptible: when Mortimer says "Stop" to her she actually freezes up. Mortimer still trusts the signs, since touching the pillar, as the sign said, seems to have protected him. He has a crisis of nerve about being the leader, but Sylvester decides to trust him.
Following Mortimer's instincts, they hold the umbrella together and touch the pillar again, and this time a levitating lift called a Woosher arrives. The Woosher carries them up inside the tower, and while they are on it the ramps that were there before disappear.
04: Closing Out an Era (The Ettinworks) [18/01/2011 – 04/06/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2674–#2807] As they ride the Woosher Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer discuss the fact that there must be "some rich guy with horrible mutant tastebuds" keeping Moe Wines in business (there is, of course – Mr Hand). They discuss the fact that Sylvester is the Earl (which he has forgotten) and the succession: Mortimer is terrified of having to be Earl if Sylvester doesn't get his memory back, but in any case Ace is older (and equally unsuitable). Lil is dreamy like Mortimer, Lenore is smart but too harsh and self-interested, and Rufus is brilliant but not good with people. They pass an unknown woman in brown, with blonde hair with a pink bow on top – Rosemary calls her Mz Teree – who seems to be marking the signs, but who isn't Nirvana Clepe. Hpobfvfr is still trailing them, and climbing upwards, so either she or the Operator must know about the Trog-catcher in the Chasm, and that going over the Plunge point need not mean that they are dead.
When they disembark, higher up, the tower changes again (because they have stepped through an invisible twistpoint to a different section, not because the tower itself has changed) and they find more ramps. It is mentioned that they need never have gone down to look for the Pots Room, because Mortimer knows where there is a supply of seige pots in a disused barracks. Rosemary's bodyguard training is still sharp even if the rest of her isn't. They discuss twistpoints, and confirm that it is possible to walk down a ramp, then back up the same ramp, and end up somewhere different from where they started. Sylvester can remember a scary female teacher at university who taught him about tesseracts in this context, and a night where he and Nimue stood on a high tower looking down at the lights of the city. One of the new signposts they come to is decorated with a heart with "N C + A S" written in it: they think this may be Nirvana Clepe and the Mz Teree woman (meaning Mz Teree's initials are A.S.).
With more down-and-up twists they arrive at the level of the wide, round room with the bank of windows, up against the roof of the cavern where the Ettinworks are, and just under the floor of the upper part of the Basement. At this point they are probably back at about the level of Le Tree, or maybe a storey or two below it. As they walk Rosemary burbles, and starts to speak about Tansy – who she thinks is the woman Sylvester saw her fighting when Protus showed him visions – and a word beginning "Qu". The view from the windows looks out into the Ettinworks, and the room is dotted with many pillars and blocks.
Meanwhile, Comshaw and Skradt come to the Council entrance, which is heavily defended. An Eyebolt receptionist called Witherward admits them by dropping them down a shaft. They arrive in the midst of a full meeting, including Twiz, acting for Maw; Snerd, acting for Sina; Commander Chumley (the Council's Chief of Security) for the Boogiemen; and Hptwfvth, a Ghast "Stirrer", some kind of high ceremonial functionary relating to how the Ghasts reproduce (they have to use special breeding pools within their home base and are unable to set up more outside it), who is in some way not physically present (or more probably, is physically present but not officially so). On the Council are Doyen, a female Trog; Gavzada, a female Motihaul; Wunk, a male Gnoll; Aprat, a Helipath and Chairbeing Preznit, a male Eyebolt, although he tries to hide his species behind a mask and robes. Doyen cricizes the presence of Skradt, since he is known to work for Nevus, but Comshaw says that Skradt is thinking of becoming a Poker and is there to observe his typical working day.
Snerd has brought a message from Sina saying her team at their new hall fully support the Council, and the Council can send an observer if it likes, but they're not leaving. Twiz is very interested in the new hall Sina is setting up, which may be what his group needs (whether as a new place to live after their lair was attacked, or just a place where they can get the contract to do the cleaning, isn't clear). The Council is concerned about Rhid and what he may do next, and whether Sina is a safe person to be a leader. Gavzada is keen on anything which keeps Othara occupied, and they are cautiously positive so long as Sina and her engineer Fosic build walls to keep people away from the Operator.
Comshaw then strikes a Fixit from the head of a female Gnoll called Widdendreem, who seems to be the Council's record-keeper. He wants to catch it alive but Widdendreem, freed from the Fixit, pounces and kills it. Widdendreem is angry that she now owes Comshaw a debt, and concerned by the fact that she has killed a person. She tells them the name "Fixit" and that the dead one was a female called Snurfix or Snufix, reporting to a male nicknamed Slinker. Snurfix had crept onto her head while she slept; was herself not really kept informed, other than that the Fixits work for "God"; and didn't try to make Widdendreem do anything, except to pay attention to records and transactions which Snurfix wished to know about. We learn that young Fixits are raised in cages "beyond the Spikeshield", which must be the barrier others have spoken of. Chumley, as security chief, takes command and sends Widdendreem to write down all she recalls about the Fixits, while Comshaw tells the Council what he knows about them – leaving out Camora's name. Chumley decrees that no one in the Council Chamber shall wear a hat – all the Councillors drop their hoods and Preznit, whose brain is in his torso, strips to his socks. Wunk appears slightly boggled by whatever Preznit has in his crotch, which we don't actually see.
The Council agrees to tell all the key players – Maw, Agita etc. – whilst trying to prevent the knowledge of the Fixits from spreading generally for the moment, for fear of what God might do when he learns his spy network has been blown. They want all the leaders warned, and preferably to have caught a live Fixit, before God takes any action.
Comshaw is sent to tell Agita about the Fixits, but before he leaves he tells them about the Humans, and Sylvester being the Earl, but he doesn't know if he is the Earl. The Earl "tore the world in two fighting Yurp, the Demon King": Yorik Yurp is the king who founded Yurpsland where they live, and the Earl in this case is evidently Audra, who fought a war with Yurp and caused the Chasm to spread. Comshaw plans to go speak to Sylvester tomorrow, if he can find the Mansion: Hptwfvth tells him it's "God's Cactus". Comshaw assures the Council that "his" Humans aren't in league with God, so far as he can tell, and passes on the message that Nevus will be "in non-violent touch".
Comshaw, Skradt, Snerd and Twiz head for the exit, discussing the reproduction of various species, and Trog education (here we learn that Espy is a teacher, and that Skradt can read both Manglish and Human script), and that the Ghasts keep paper records.
Back with Sylvester's party, Mortimer tells the other two (neither of whom is functioning reliably yet) not to go to look out of the windows, for fear of triggering another dangerous event by accidentally touching one of the many close-set pillars and blocks scattered around the room. We see that leading up from the window room is a flight of stone steps going up into the body of the rock above them. There is also an Ettin-style door, like a triangle with the top cut off, which has a gap about 10" high underneath it. Mortimer peers underneath and sees a triangular space with two Human-type doors set into Ettin-style apertures, leading off from this Ettin control tower. Two roundish objects, possibly shoes, and what seems to be a tapered board made from three slats lean against one wall (although Mortimer later refers to seeing "posts"), but a little metal sign saying "KEEP OUT" falls down in front of him, with the letters cut out of it as holes. Sylvester feels that there are Humans behind the door right now (perhaps this is where Nirvana and the msyterious AS are living?), but when he turns his back it's a non-Human-looking hand, crackling with magic, which retrieves the "KEEP OUT" sign. It doesn't look like Frowgler's hand (and anyway we will learn that he is elsewhere): it actually looks like the hand of one of the mysterious creatures we saw before who called the Scary Lady "The Destroyer", although if so Rob has changed his mind about how many fingers they have. [Note: could be a Wendigo hand, but the Basement is supposedly too warm for Wendigoes.]
Rosemary asks whether she is bodyguard to both of them: Mortimer says just to Sylvester, and that he himself will have to take care of himself.
They set off up the stone steps towards the Sneech den. Rosemary and Sylvester are starting to improve. There is some oblique discussion about R&S going to Nellie and Amos for help if anything happens to Mortimer, about Sylvester not telling Rosemary the Scary Lady's name, then about Mortimer's friend the scalpsucker (and the fact that some scalpsuckers nowadays can talk) – Mortimer remembers falling down the hole leading to the old World o' Pots storeroom but doesn't seem to recall meeting Rufus. They come to a door opened by number pad, leading to a double-doored Sneech-lock with a Sneechstick in it. Mortimer can sense that there are no Sneeches nearby. Emerging, they pass an alcove containing an entrance to the elevator, or at least an elevator. Mortimer steers them past it, looking alarmed, and writing on the wall says "THE DEVIL YOU KNOW", but they should be on the opposite side of the Chasm from the lift with the Operator in it. Maybe they have passed through the stone of the roof above the Great Chasm: it's true that at Mansion-level the elevator and the entrance to the Sneech den are fairly close together.
Past that is a round room at the bottom of a shaft, with a crystal on a stand in the middle, playing a popular song called Girl from the Limphopho: this is the same mechanism the Scary Lady used to levitate Zay, but not the same shaft, as hers was square in cross-section. Sylvester confirms that there are several of these lifts throughout the Mansion, all playing the same tune There are also double metal doors, closed, and stairs leading up and down.
Mortimer hopes to use the stairs but finds the ones going up are labelled "Operation Certain Death" and the ones going down, "Slimegrub Breedpits". The down-flight shows signs of recent flooding, which ties in with floods which occur in the related < href="MoE_SubShaft_44f_2.htm">Sundays in SubShaft 44f strips. On the first landing down are a large Glowgem and a discarded stick which is probably somebody's wand: Mortimer retrieves the Glowgem, which has a socket just right for fitting it onto the point of his umbrella. Rosemary seems slightly hypnotised by it. They plan to go upstairs, towards Operation Certain Death, but then they hear something big and loud crashing downstairs towards them.
Comshaw's party slide down a chute and land in a corridor by the battered-looking Gobule Mingent, who is eating debris from the battle. Twiz has a piece of the dead Fixit in his mouth to take to Maw – they tell Mingent if he smells anything like it, to bite it. Twiz runs off, and Mingent fills Comshaw in on what happened at the elevator. Comshaw thinks Snerd should go on working for Sina but Snerd says Shona wouldn't like it, and he loves Shona.
Comshaw and Skradt set off together. They encounter a Jibjib called Schrik being ridden by a Fixit, and try and fail to take the Fixit alive. The Fixit has been using Schrik to spy on Flap's ferry across the Great Chasm. An important Boogieman ruler called Crispin is mentioned: Schrik has a basket to take him but doesn't know if he dremed it, as the Fixit has left him very confused. Comshaw sends Schrik to take the dead Fixit to Sina and then work for her.
Skradt reveals that he joined Nevus hoping for an early death in battle, so he wouldn't have to choose to take the Plunge. But Comshaw has given him a vision of something more useful, plus he wants to learn to fight as well as him. Frowgler, watching through a crack in the wall, thinks they make a good team.
As the loud noises approach Rosemary draws the Can-Opener, which Sylvester calls a Paleslicer, but thinks better of it. They use the singing crystal thing to levitate them up to a higher floor, but Rosemary is grabbed and held back, floating, by what proves to be an enormous, female relative of Ahz and Skiv, called Tand (who is as big as a Titanoboa, has some difficulty adjusting her voice to the right level, and has tentacles on her head which terminate in hands). Tand can smell that Rosemary has been near Ahz and Skiv and believes, wrongly, that she knows who they are, so after some initial problems adjusting her voice to Human levels, she tells her to tell them to get a move on with their allotted task of growing a garden, a task for which they were all sent here by someone else. Tand says Rosemary is not like any other Human she's met, and one of the other two (has to be Mortimer) is sparkly like a lot of Humans used to be but haven't been for a while – apparently she is sensing him as a magic-user.
Tand has to leave because she is literally over-stretched Iimplying that her tail is rooted, somewhere up the "Certain Death" stair) and the torch she is carrying is going out. She is afraid to meet, in the dark, a male "horrible mask-thing" who can go anywhere – this may be Frowgler, since the Pales call him Frogmask. Released, Rosemary floats up to the boys. She feels herself to be now entirely back to normal (although later events will show that this isn't quite true). Sylvester recognises the name Tand from his records, but still hasn't wholly regained his memory.
05: Closing Out an Era (The Sneech Den) [06/06/2011 – 16/12/2011] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #2814–#2994] Sylvester, Mortimer and Rosemary pass another large inactive Sneech node and several smaller ones, and some graffiti relating to dragons – although we're not told whether they are a legend or, like wyverns, a real if possibly extinct animal: like the one they saw before, these Sneech growths are far less active than normal. Rosemary would like to talk to Tand again, but not right now. There is a conversation about Mortimer's history of failed relationships with scary women, and mention is made of a disastrous relationship with someone named Olga, and of Ace's success with women. He tells Rosemary that his relationship with her will be strictly business while she is staring bug-eyed at the hypno-Glowgem, and he reveals that he has the hots for Yasmine. Sylvester is also affected by the Glowgem, although not as much.
Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt come to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base off Time Hall, where Agita (a Motihaul) has her office. They have a complicated system of clearances in which Comshaw ranks quite high, and several zones. An Eyebolt called Philodox admits them to the UnRooted Area, but security is tight due to the events of the day. While waiting to be seen they observe that two of the Eyebolt clerks, Giddhom and Frampold, are wearing Fixit-type hats but they seem to be just hats. Giddhom says thay are in fashion because some people claim they help you to think. Weirding is discussed, and the fact that the Eyebolts in scritchpods perform endless computations but don't say why, and the eccentricities of various species – we learn that Helipaths refuse to cross the Great Chasm to Sneech side even though Sneeches get on OK with them, and that the Trog juggler at the edge of the Great Chasm is Skradt's cousin Stonwal. The hatted clerks are Scrutineers, recording and preserving everything visitors say – Skradt wishes to be recorded as a future Poker who did something useful with his life.
Rosemary is in command over Sylvester because that's part of her job as bodyguard. The Sneech growths would normally be lighted but most here aren't: there is a lot of discussion of Sneech races and technology, living walls etc. When they get to the area where even the floor is a living Sneech growth Mortimer doesn't want to walk barefoot on it, so takes off his shirt (which was ruined by the sploo and the sphagnum dust anyway) so Rosemary can make rag boots for him and mittens for all of them so they don't have to touch the Sneech material. Mortimer makes a bad pun ("Make it sew"): he passes his umbrella to Sylvester while he takes off his shirt, and sees that the Glowgem glows much less brightly when Sylvester holds the umbrella. Rosemary has absorbed the hypnotic lesson that her relationship with Mortimer is strictly business. In the context of rag boots there is some discussion of Rosemary's poor origins on Gnomin.
Comshaw borrows Giddhom's hat so Fixits will think he's controlled: Skradt sticks a claw into the buckle to kill it if the buckle should chance to be an eye. They are escorted to see Agita by an Eyebolt called Peripatet riding in a special buggy labelled VEU (Visitor Escort Unit), which has different numbers each side, possibly due to damage sustained during an eventful visit by Strode, the aggressive female Motihaul in the pumpkin-head mask who appears in Sundays in SubShaft 44f. They must enter the Rooted Zone at some point as they are there in their next scene.
Following a trail of fresh air through the tunnels of the Sneech den, R&S&M come to a bridge over a moderate drop, guarded on either side by relatives of Fern's The intelligent plants are wary of Rosemary because they communicate (probably via the Tree) with Fern and know that Rosemary injured her, but they agree to disarm her and carry the Can-Opener across the bridge themselves for her to collect on the far side. Rosemary reveals that she assumed Fern was dangerous because there are similar plants in Moonin, smaller and not intelligent but very aggressive: we see what are clearly just bigger versions of the plants Piu was growing in a pot. As they get to the far side the Gnoll Agorn falls while trying to climb down from the crater above, and lands at their feet. Agorn hasn't noticed, but Niddle's apearing and disapearing gem (hereafter the Hitchhiking Gem) is now attached to his spear, but as with Niddle it initially comes and goes and is there only some of the time. Mortimer asks if he is there to scrounge Sneech leavings and he agrees.
Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt pass more clerks one of whom, Ogdoad, is wearing a Fixit.
As the Human trio prepare to leave the cave of the sapient plants, the plants confirm that they're heading the right way and then one of them delays them and asks – by spelling with its tongue – that they be given names. Sylvester names them after the Founding Oracles, a group of women who spread the religion of the Brush – Violet, Daisy, Joice, Jenny, Kathryne, Hettie, Evangeline, Vivian and Petunia. Sylvester promises to visit them again: as the Humans leave we see the plants talking amongst themselves by some rapid means, and wishing they had had the chance to eat Agorn. Agorn has scarpered: Rosemary wrongly thinks he might have been the person who was tailing them earlier (Whisp).
Sylvester criticises Mortimer for handing Agorn a ready-made excuse. They discuss the fact that for the Earl, every public conversation is a little war, and Sylvester keeps Mortimer, and now Rosemary, around because he can simply talk to them. The Humans come to the main corridor through the Sneech den, which is studded with tall, light-bearing tree-like things.
Comshaw, Skradt and Peripatet leave the Rooted Zone for the Grafted Zone. We learn that the Eyebolts in Root Hall distrust the GBOLs, and therefore presumably the Tree, and make their own lights. Comshaw and Skradt come to Agita and her Eyebolt clerk Flibbergib (at one point mistakenly called Flittergib), and Agita gives them apples. Agita has large plants, an aquarium and a special "Meeting with an Important Eyebolt" table. She has with her her young daughter, Rishathra, and a Gnoll guard called Termagant. Agita and Comshaw catch up on the events of the day, and Comshaw gets her to summon Ogdoad, and also supply Skradt with a large bowl.
[Around here we have a Labor Day out-take showing local man Arlen and his daughter Juniper, digging a ditch at the back of a hedge near the village of Eetown. The hedge has the rusted remains of a pre-crash vehicle incorporated into it.]
Agita tells Comshaw what was auctioned (although she doesn't really know what the Zorper is). They speculate on whether this Mortimer is old enough to be the one who started the Nome War (after somehow falling through into a mine).
Meanwhile. Sprocket is upset to see that Crazy Rhid's ex place connects to large areas of still-working giant machinery – the only machinery that good outside the SubShafts – and Rhid, if he knew, didn't tell anyone. The large machine he is looking is something he found (behind a gate marked with the E symbol) when he traced back the thing Pergola reported as spewing goo while Urwyn was being recruited. [We glimpe Rhid sitting on a box, looking traumatised, in a dusty, cobwebby room.] Sina now has a makeshift office, an Eyebolt receptionist called Nikhedonia (who has a non-Fixit hat on the back of her chair) and Maggle acting as gopher. Sina and Sprocket decide to marry, right now – Wittol, who will be their Finagler, has already anticipated this and started to make arrangements. We learn that Niddle has had experiences which make him a perfect Finagler – so perfect he may be a whole new thing.
We learn that Gnoll marriage customs involve a receptacle called a Tweebowl (but a bucket will do), a Tool and a Blossom and, at some point before they have whelps, a visit to the Fluffy Foo-Foo Cave, and without a Finagler things go badly wrong for mated pairs. Yet, some couples such as Niff and Folla, and an old couple called Mafick and Lepid, live unofficially, without a Finagler, and manage fine. Sprocket, Wittol and Sina have a hasty ceremony, with Skuy and Flange as witnesses and the possibility of a more formal one later. Afterwards Snerd turns up and thinks Nikhedonia's hat is a Fixit, although it's just a hat. As he is explaining, Schrik turns up with an actual dead Fixit. Maggle and Kronk are sent out to show the dead Fixit around and kill any live ones they find, and Snerd returns to his mate Shona and Finagler Wubb.
Flange reminds Sprocket of their obligations to their employer Mr Hand, and tells him about Rubrak being killed by Chauncy and Edgar. Sprocket and Flange will probably cease to be partners now (and Snipe will be looking for a new job). Sprocket talks privately to Sina about Mr Hand and the job (and Wittol withdraws because he says they don't yet know him well enough to share dangerous non-Finagler secrets with) – he has realised that the female Motihaul who put him in touch with Mr Hand was wearing/worn by a Fixit, and therefore Mr Hand must be something bigger and stranger than the "Crescent Hall nob" they had assumed, and works (grudgingly) with God. Mr Hand has had them installing devices called Y-nodes which look like Sneech growths (and Sprocket is rich as a result of how many clients he has), and which produce ultrasonic sound only small creatures can hear. Fleebs in the presence of a Y-node turn to face it and stare. Sprocket sees Mr Hand as ruthless and controlling but constructive rather than destructive in his intentions. They agree to tell Comshaw about it, then get on to the serious business of their wedding night. Meanwhile Snerd returns to Shona.
Ogdoad arrives at Agita's office and insists on a promise of safe conduct before he will come in. He has some involvement with another Eyebolt (?) called Tribblerig and some scheme involving Sneech squeezings, which he assumes is what Agita wants to talk about, but as he enters the office Comshaw baps the Fixit, called Endix, off his head and Skradt traps him under the bowl, but Endix somehow commits suicide. Ogdoad is terribly distressed, for he and Endix had become at least semi-partners, and being meshed gave him stereoscopic vision. He is rather horrible and gloats over the fact that God will destroy them.
Agita dismisses Comshaw and Skradt and takes Ogdoad with her to see a female Motihaul accountant called Marritza who is wearing a Fixit named Arnix. Agita threatens Arnix with the knife-point ferule of her umbrella, then tells him that the gaff regarding God and the Fixits is well and truly blown, and offers him the chance to ride on Ogdoad and act as a liason officer between herself and God. Arnix and Ogdoad both agree.
Meanwhile Comshaw and Skradt leave the Grafted Zone, and Root Hall itself, via the Egress Zone, and are quizzed as they leave by an Eyebolt who assumes it's all to do with Ogdoad and Tribblerig scheming over Sneech squeezings. As they come away from Root Hall they pass through the Deep Egress Zone, then go by a lettered sign, where another Eyebolt opens the centre of a letter and watches them leave. They pass the male Nome called Rezrov, still with his arm in a sling, leading, on a string, a very flirtatious-looking female Trog named Hogminny. Both are smeared with green paint, and Rezrov's clothes are torn. We are told that some Nomes and some Trogs have a "thing", and learn that Skradt tentatively fancies Maggle. Comshaw 'phones the Council and tells them he has delivered their message to Agita, and he has a message for them from Root Hall saying Ogdoad is involved with a Sneech squeezings scheme but they'll handle it. Comshaw takes Skradt home with him and Camora and Niddle are quite welcoming, although if he's staying they may need to move to a bigger apartment. All sleep, exhausted.
As a final wrap-up, we see Snoot bitching to Izchak (who is evidently his room-mate) about his bloody awful day; the SuperRock pausing to rest and to talk to GeezerRock who can talk, but not walk, and who asks it whether it's just going to sit there; Digger reporting to Frowgler that things are going to plan and he has no questions to ask; and Frederick preparing to serenade the Grubbs on a Fugehorn. I think this is the point at which the strip revealed (although Rob mentioned it off-strip before) that Digger is a Boogieman with dwarfism, because we can see that his face is covered with white fur, behind the goggles.
06: Twilight [17/12/2011 – 09/06/2012] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3001–#3174] Agorn encounters Hpobfvfr, who is trailing the Humans. She blasts her way through a wall into Sneech den, then addresses him as if he is two people – she senses the sentient (and possibly sapient) Hitchiking Gem which Agorn doesn't know he is carrying.
Sylvester and co. enter the main corridor, which is again unnaturally quiet – we learn there should be trilobite-thingies scuttling about trailing organic wires etc.. Sylvester mentions that he didn't find out about his father's death until after the funeral. While discussing a performing troupe who once came to the local village, Mortimer accidentally causes Rosemary to fixate on the Glowgem in his umbrella, and gives her two hypnotic commands – "Go to sleep, but act like you're still awake!", "Take a note! I am not going to keep making these mistakes with women!" – and then a third one, "Do as you're told! Stay in your place! Speak only when spoken to! The Brush wills it!", when he and Sylvester discuss the overbearing previous Oracle Omega.
Trailed at some distance by Hpobfvfr, the Human party pass a Sneech tower which is at the edge between Human and Sneech territory and is labelled "NO INTERRUPTIONS", then emerge into an empty area leading towards the entrance. They then come to a neon sign saying "OUR TRAJECTORYS DIVERGE PAYMENT FOR YE ASSISTANCE" (although Sylvester doesn't know what assistance is meant). This disintegrates, leaving a squat obelisk which moves when it is touched (by Sylvester, with strips of shirt round his fingers), and which Rosemary names the Dohickey. The Sneeches themselves have gone, and Sylvester doesn't know what assistance they're talking about.
The obelisk steers them around a hole in the floor, which proves to be the hole which Chauncy and Edgar left when they exited Izchak's shop looking for the Scary Lady. Matagam the Motihaul soldier and, later, a Boogieman called Geoff climb out of the hole, checking where Chauncy and Edgar went (and plan to return back down via the Council tunnel, having learned from the Human party where it is they've emerged). Mortimer hurries his party away.
Heading for the Mansion proper, Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester emerge into an elaborate vestibule decorated with ornamental fake stalagmites and flaming braziers, which is the scary-looking room they see from the Mansion when they look through the arch inderneath the devil mask. Here they notice a new opening in a side wall. This is the entrance to the tunnel put in by the Council to monitor the Humans: that is, the upper end of the tunnel that also goes from the Basement to the forest. From there they exit through the archway under the mask to a plain downstairs room containing the entrance to the elevator and a small extension of the Tree, and with "BEWARE MR FLIP" written on the wall. Mr Flip is a character we meet in Sundays in SubShaft 44f, but Mortimer says the graffito has been there his whole life. To get further they need to go down a short corridor and through a locked door, the key to which Sylvester dropped while falling into the Great Chasm.
Matagam and Geoff head for the Council tunnel and are passed by Hpobfvfr coming up, who corners the Humans against the locked door. Mortimer senses that her mind has been tampered with and speaks to her sympathetically, incidentally getting between her and her intended targets. Then we see in flashback that Sopovefe, the male Ghast she passed just before Rosemary and Sylvester fell into the Chasm, realised that something was wrong and went and fetched help (we see him run past Rezrov and Hogminny: this time Hogminny is holding the leash). Hpthvo, the officer in charge of a party of Ghast soldiers who have come up via the hole which Hpbfvfr bashed through into the Sneech den, orders Hpobfvfr to stand down, and this breaks the Operator's hold over her. Hpobfvfr and one soldier leave (passing the elevator, where Hpobfvfr wishes death on the Operator), while Hpthvo and the other soldier stay to interrogate the Humans.
Hearing Rosemary address Mortimer by name, Hpthvo queries this and he says he is "Mortimer Eman.. because we're going to be all.. formal..": in doing so he inadvertently gives Rosemary another hypnotic command. Having confirmed Mortimer's name and that he might be the one who started the Nome War, and having learned that they are Human, Hpthvo wants to arrest the trio, but great aunt Scary appears in the doorway (with balloon) and scares them off. Somewhere, she has acquired a flower which she is now wearing tucked into the v-neck of her dress.
After the Ghasts leave the rest go through into the house, and Scary cures Sylvester's memory problems. He is very reluctant to ask her to do anything which will put him under an obligation to her. Scary tries to touch the Sneech obelisk, but it fizzes a shock at her. Meanwhile Sylvester has realised something is still wrong with Rosemary, and when she starts addressing Mortimer as "Mr Eman" because "We are being all formal" Sylvester realises that she is following Mortimer's commands literally. Mortimer tries to snap her out of it by giving her a ridiculous command to "be a dog" but she goes down on all fours and starts growling. Scary is detachedly impressed by his power, and thinks there is a real risk Rosemary will become permanently enthralled.
Alarmed, Mortimer tries to order Rosemary to be herself, preempting Scary who was about to intervene, and commands her to take orders from noone, although she can listen to their advice. In the short term it seems to have worked, but it remains to be seen whether she has internalised any of his commands. Sylvester takes control of the Glowgem for now and gives it to Rosemary to go in her Poke Kit, and Mortimer goes off to speak to Frederick.
Restored to normal function, Rosemary is introduced to the Scary Lady, whose name we finally learn to be Myrrh (and it is confirmed that she sent Chauncy and Edgar to a desert zone). The two go off for a private chat in which it is revealed that Rosemary knows Myrrh to be not Human, and that Myrrh loves and protects Frederick to the point of being willing to kill anybody who threatens anybody he cares about, such as his nephews. It is mentioned in passing that Rosemary's encounter with Scratch was before she joined Hack'N'Slash. Myrrh agrees that Rosemary should be independent, as Mortimer told her, and can sense that she's already met a lot of powerful locals who tried to influence her, people Myrrh calls "local dignitaries": we see Protus; the Operator; the Tree; the Djinnoscope; Tand; the Gibber; and the Great Riddler. She repeats to Rosemary what Mortimer told her about living her own life and dreaming her own dreams, just to make it stick, and magically straightens the bent wing on her helmet. The same minituarised trundlebug who fell onto Rosemary's helmet earlier in the day is revealed to be still lurking in her broken lamp, and Myrrh rescues it, then goes off to see what's happened to the Sneeches, after commenting that the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer will spoil his intended date with Sharona Stout in the village.
Rosemary and Sylvester discuss Myrrh, and how Frederick summoned her by accident while trying to get a Djinn. He spent his energy on a collar to control her and stop her from running wild and killing bystanders, as Demons had done in the past, but now she wears the collar voluntarily and uses it to assist her own magic in some way, as Frowgler had suggested to her when she met him while time-slipped (although he may have suggested it because he'd already seen her future self doing it). She has been a good partner to Frederick and a good great-aunt to his family, and Sylvester is loyal to her and will protect her if necessary. Rosemary reluctantly agrees, but wants to keep the knowledge of the Can-Opener from her.
Sylvester schedules a talk about Rosemary's recent history for the next day but he fears to be overheard, so they must go somewhere secure. They prove to each other that they are Human by checking each other's ears (Sylvester's ears are apparently jaw-droppingly strange, but not pointed) and discuss the origins of Demons and Djinn and the possibility that since Myrrh answers questions and helps people, maybe Frederick wasn't so far off the mark when he tried to summon a Djinn and got her – or maybe they are, after all, just people and all individual. Straightforward Demons like Chauncy and Edgar and Scratch come from Fratz; Human-like Demons and the Djinn come from Zark. Demons in the Snowgrass area are more like rock/tree things (is the Tree one? later we will see that one visited the Spire City in Mechana). and Demons in the Deep Jungle are more animal and strange. Sylvester realises something about Frederick and why he hid books on Demons which he feels foolish not to have realised before, which leads to a conversation about a duel which Rosemary lost to a woman named Haruka Sol in a way which made her realise her own mortality and how dangerous her job was, and they take the Sneech obelisk towards the Quiet Room.
Meanwhile Mortimer passes the countdown thing, which now reads 0315313091 (it was 315342639 when Rosemary and Sylvester passed it that morning, so it's counted down by 29,548 in about half a day, suggesting it will take about fourteen years to reach zero), but he tells it he's not in the mood.
Mortimer goes to speak to Frederick. On the way he meets Nellie, who recognises the umbrella he is carrying (formerly Myrrh's) and seems shocked by it. She is concerned, generally, for Mortimer's safety and well-being, and for that of her own husband Amos although he is sitting quietly doing some book-binding. Mortimer believes Rosemary and Sylvester might now be an item: Nellie expects him to be jealous but he doesn't seem to be.
Meanwhile, Myrrh enters the Sneech den and speaks to Frowgler, who is crawling out of the top of the shaft created by Chauncy and Edgar. Within Myrrh's subjective timeline they seem not to have spoken to each other for fifty years, since she was flashed forwards from just before the Crash, but are on good terms. [For Frowgler it was probably a few hours ago, although as the Frowgler Myrrh met during the flash-forwards was a pre-explosion Frowgler whose horn had not yet been broken it's hard to be sure.] Myrrh says Frederick is going to be upset about something Frowgler has done (probably arranging for Mortimer to get the umbrella-wand).
Frederick, who is playing his Fugehorn into some kind of vaguely tree-like amplifier in a vast and high chamber, tells Mortimer that he's a wizard and that there's a wand built into the umbrella, but he won't help Mortimer to learn magic because he thinks it brings only misery. we learn that Frederick actually plays the Fugehorn very well, and that Amos actually enjoys his music. Amos and Nellie discuss the danger Mortimer is in, or represents, and Amos promises to be careful.
Meanwhile Sylvester and Rosemary listen to Frederick's playing as they steer the Dohickey towards the Quiet Room, and Sylvester tells her that what Frederick is playing is a well-known lament called Threnody for the Victims of the Crash, which is where the local Oracle, Threnody, and her Guardian Dirge got their work-names. We learn that Ernest, the Earl who was an art forger, was also a genuine patron of the arts and built a whole wing of the Mansdion, called the Party Palace, for theatre and other performing arts. That's where Frederick's tree-like amplifier is.
The Quiet Room is more of a gap in the Mansion than an actual room. As they approach it Rosemary's Poke Kit shrinks and begins to disgorge its contents, so Sylvester goes alone to deposit the Sneech Dohickey. The Quiet Room contains among other things the Dark Crystal; a Triforce symbol from the Zelda stories; a clockwork monkey (made by the Kaylu cult) playing cymbals; a statuette of Cthulhu; a flower in a pot; and a crescent thing which looks like the head of another Can-Opener-type pike. Rosemary says "I can hear you ralking in there.." 7'0150; it looks as though she means she can hear Sylvester, but we will learn that she means she can hear the Dohickey. After Sylvester leaves, all these objects begin to glow with magic and the crescent speaks and greets the Dohickey.
Sylvester and Rosemary go to find a sword for her and to change the lock on the Basement door, since he has lost his key in the Basement. They find a powerful taser called a Zap Trident, much stronger than the one Sylvester tried to use on Villipend: Rosemary says Hack'N'Slash have offered a big reward for a working one, but they leave it where it is because it's probably only its proximity to the Quiet Room which is keeping it from exploding, and they would ahve to take it all the way to REowan to find an Hack'N'Slash office big enough to hand it in. Still, it's a source of future cash if they ever get that depserate. Sylvester says that the things in the Quiet Room are dangerous, that destroying them in the Great Chasm would lead to earthquakes (we see that the three-eyed thing from the airbox was tossed in) and that left in the Quiet Room those that are Sneech gifts gradually fade away, and in any case they usually switch off when the recipient dies. The crescent thing is not known to be dangerous – just annoying.
They meet up with Mortimer, and Sylvester assures him he hadn't known that he was a wizard. If he had done, Mortimer would have left and gone after Yasmine. Sylvester thinks perhaps he should go after her anyway, but Mortimer hopes she will return to the Mansion. Sylvester fears this could lead to a division of loyalties, depending on what it is the Weirdos are plotting. He thinks their father may also have been an unknown wizard.
Mortimer describes his encounter with Frowgler, who he has realised gave him the umbrella surreptitiously, and Sylvester believes him because the Great Riddler also mentioned Frowgler. They intend to debrief each other the next day but not now, because Rosemary feels they may be overheard. She meanwhile is planning to fetch a siege-pot from the barracks. Mortimer goes off and heads up the North Tower: on the way he prods a door-sign that says "SIGNS OF CHANGE" with his umbrella, and it clicks.
Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the Weirdos, who are a combination of jester, priest and counsellor. We learn that Oracles (but not Weirdos) carry out midwifery – and euthanasia. Sylvester feels that he no longer knows what's going on around his home. We learn that there are seige-engines mounted on the Main Tower and also that Rosemary can't act, as they discuss the plays which used to be put on at the Mansion, and the history of Kaylu – a fascist-style movement which introduced a country called Tomania to a crazed, murderous empire-building cult which worshipped a two-tailed monkey god, and was destroyed by the Crash. The Crash had an extreme effect on the Infernal Engine.
Having collected the necessary materials they board up the door to the Basement, using an Ettin-made "length" and a mechanical nail-planter which could be valuable if they can find somebody to replicate it for sale. They leave the door unbarred for Myrrh, and Sylvester declares their business with the Basement is done for the day, although he will keep his promise to call on the Ferns again, and his plans for the rest of the evening require Rosemary to retain her (Audra's) helmet.
We see Frederick return to the suite of rooms he shares with Myrrh, and gaze nostalgically at a photograph of his younger self and other youths in wizard gear. They are Nellie, Amos, a curly-haired woman whom Nellie will later name as "poor Mamie" (who died in the Crash), and the future Old Man Larssen.
07: Career Paths [11/06/2012 – 16/02/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals strips #3181–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips start–#03424] We see Agorn emerge, with relief, from a partially-blocked tunnel mouth partway up a rock-face near a bridge across the Great Chasm. He edges along a narrow ledge with his back to the wall, past Furphy (who we will later learn is his son) who is keeping some Jibjib eggs warm, and aross a gap which he has to jump, and comes to a bridge with a checkpoint at either end, although this one at the Sneech end is deserted. He can smell that the Ghast party went past earlier. The bridge is long and has no railings, but it's fairly safe as it's about 12ft wide. The far end is lit by bone torches. He crosses and speaks to a Gnoll border guard called Varuna, and an Ichyoid guard named Argus, and tells Varuna to warn her "vile employer" (probably Nevus or Guttle) that if the nobs keep poking in the Sneech den the Sneeches will some day poke back. He thinks that the entrance to Crescent Hall, which looks out on the bridge, is in the line of fire, and that his boss isn't stupid enough to live there.
He talks to another Gnoll guard called Scibile who doesn't let him in because of the lockdown, but fills him in on what he knows of the events of the day, including the fact that something strange is happening at the Observatory, then he walks into a maze of dark, much-graffitoed stone passages and stairs. The Hitchhiking Gem falls from his spear with a clunk and he spots it, assumes he picked it up by accident in the Sneech den and posts it down a metal hatch. As he (or the gem) leaves some sort of small device which had been sticking up from a rock retracts, with a trickle of magic. The gem clangs down into a chain of pipes heading towards the SubShafts, and we see that the pipes pass by an odd kind of sculpture or device consisting of coloured spikes almost like giant coloured pencils, with single letters on them, mainly vowels. This may have to do with the religion of the Brush that coloured in the world. On top of these spikes sits a small red-brown Fuzz, clutching a flaming torch.
Agorn, meanwhile, keeps going until he comes back out into Time Hall and the other side of Cresent Hall, but it's all unnaturally quiet. He goes to Root Hall, the Eyebolt home base, and speaks to a male receptionist called Enchiridon. He is left waiting for a long time while a female Scrutineer called Hypothimia records his every word and action. She is stressed and angry because with all that's been going on – the fire, Chauncy and Edgar on the loose etc. – she wants to be with her mate Brimborion and their children but instead she is stuck here in this petty desk job. Peripatet arrives in his wheeled chair to collect Agorn but before Agorn goes he tells Hypothimia that he himself has been parted from his mate (he seems to have only one) and his child has been lost through some sort of mental transformation (he went away but left his body behind: we will learn that this is Furphy), but all you can do is pick yourself up and try to change things for the better.
As Agorn and Peripatet proceed through Root Hall we learn that Peripatet has a girlfrind called Glossolalia, and Agorn sniffs out (literally) that Skradt is now with Comshaw. They pass various official messages on the walls but one seems like a religious or political statement – "Remontado decided she had had o nuff shaft folderol so off she went and uprooted us all". As they pass the door to Scritchpods 205–214 a female Eyebolt in a wheeled chair passes them going the other way, wearing what may be a normal hat or may be a Fixit, and a wave of "weirding" hallucinations emanates from behind the closed door. This Eyebolt is carrying a box on her cart, and the cart is labelled CTV: possibly Computation Transport Vehicle.
Peripatet takes Agorn to a door behind which is a dark space containing dark, sinister-looking objects, perhaps Ettin machinery, glowing with dull red lights. Agorn refuses to enter. An unseen, probably male presence (Agorn addresses it as "Mr Muckymuck") behind a hatch dismisses Peripatet, who leaves at speed – the presence says that Peripatet does well at clandestine cart-races. It wants to discuss Agorn's boss, and says that "some of us" are aware of, and broadly approve of, what "you all" are doing. Consequently Agorn has been given Class Eight clearance, which means he can now come and go unescorted through most areas of Root Hall. The presence is somebody Agorn has had indirect contact with or knowledge of, but has never spoken to directly before: it asks him to supply any useful information he comes across in return, and Agorn tells him that Humans are real. The presence starts to half tell Agorn about Fixits but Agorn appears not to be receptive to the idea of hats being significant, and leaves.
Meanwhile the chit for Agorn's new clearance is transferred by a cart-driving messenger (later named as Symposiarch) who reads the first message, destroys it, writes another and drops it down a pneumatic pipe system to a clerk (later named as Pulvinar) who reads it and then eats it and replaces it with another which he writes himself. He is monitoring something on a small screen.
Agorn goes to the "Grafted Zone" of Root Hall and speaks to Flibbergib, Agita's Eyebolt receptionist, who again tries to tell him about the Fixits, not very clearly.
Meanwhile we see various characters sleeping, including the Shallow Wyrm Squeeb, asleep in the Trog pen deep down on the side of the Chasm, and Bung's friend Faddle the Gnoll, who is very much awake. He is trying to evade somebody, but is rounded up by a hunting party of female Gnolls. Next we see him and four females, all wearing collars with glowing buckles on the front and all with white hair like a Finagler's, sleeping together in a large nest. We will learn later that this is the Place No One Talks About and that these are the Placettes, who are the female version of Finaglers.
Agita arrives and Agorn shows her a written note saying that he's been promoted to Class Eight. We see a flashback to the aftermath of the auction, and Agita sending Agorn to trail Mortimer. Agorn reports the basics of the toing and froing he has seen surrounding Mortimer, Rufus, Eunice and Yasmine, saying he followed Mortimer's scent to a hole, then saw him carried out unconscious by two Humans (Rufus and Eunice) some time later. Agita fundamentally misunderstands what Humans are – she knows they are like big Nomes so she thinks they are a local mutation caused by the Spike, and gradually spreading through the local forest. Agorn says that there were repeller poles all around the hut where Mortimer was placed, and that most of the Humans just walked past them but that the female Human who then arrived (Yasmine) "did the usual spit-test" on one. Does this mean Yasmine is related to the Emans and passed a Herediscan, or was she just proving she was Human? Agita shows Agorn a written note (written on clay and then wiped) warning him about the Fixits – which suggests she doesn't want to speak out loud in front of Flibbergib, or fears others may be listening – and telling him to lie low until tomorrow and then spear any hats with eyes on sight, even if worn by her.
As Agorn leaves Root Hall he notices that there are fewer Eyebolt watchers on duty than there usually are. The last one usually hides inside a free-standing stone sign outside the exit, but there is no-one there, and what looks like blood on the spy-hole. The "blood" is a trick with fruit-juice to get him to stop and look, and he is narrowly missed by an arrow fired from an overhang by Fanga, one of two dark-haired female Gnolls (the other is Shabash), who had momentarily mistaken him for somebody else (Bromir, who looks a lot like him).
Agorn slides over the edge onto a ledge to avoid the archer, takes a back route and lets himself into a concealed bedsit room behind a panel out in the Fringes. In the dust on a table, someone has drawn an arrow and written "She thought you were someone else", surrounded by what look like Smyt footprints: we later learn that messages on the table are a regular thing and usually correct, and the marks on the table are referred to as flipper marks, although they look a bit small to be Frowgler's. Digger comes in – it's his pad – and Agorn addreses him as "Boss". We see that Agorn and Digger have known about the Fixits for some time. Agorn reports the day's activities to Digger, giving him more detail than he told Agita.
He was already familiar with Mortimer at one remove as somebody Skibble talked about. Although he didn't tell Agita, he followed Mortimer into the basement under World o' Pots and saw a lot of working Human tech, which they'll need "if we've lost all of Rhid's stash", and saw the cloakring, which made him feel odd. He says that "Yas-meen" came from the direction of the Spike (no, there isn't room under her hood for a Fixit) and was different in some way. He didn't tell Agita that he saw Mortimer speaking to Frowgler: he didn't hear what they said but says he supposes Digger could just ask Frowgler, and Digger agrees. He feels that something nudged him to get him to go down the hole in the crater, which led him to the Ferns. We see that they have been watching the Humans, drawing them and giving them descriptive nicknames (Arthur the Weirdo with his ventriloquist's puppet Fantod is "Snoop two-head", Rufus is "Snoop one-head", Sylvester is "Eyeplates" and Myrrh is "Clawblaster"). Agorn would like to bring Comshaw into their conspiracy, or whatever it is, but Digger vetoes the idea. Agorn could tell by smell that Mortimer, "Silvester" and Rufus were littermates, and that Rosemary is something different, a "hardcase" like Comshaw or the two-spiked Pales.
Agorn sketches the three Human women he saw, then sets out to see to some personal matters, but as he leaves Digger points out that when "Muckymuck" at Root Hall said that he and others were broadly pleased with what Agorn's boss was doing he may have meant Digger himself and their conspiracy-whatever, not Agita, whose schemes serve only herself. Agorn is alarmed at this idea, and thinks that "our enemy" may have made Eyebolt enemies. Coming away from Digger's bedsit he meets a Gnoll called Bromir who looks a lot like him and believes himself to be the target of the assassins, who were hired by Sooterkin at Root Hall. Bromir refers to Agorn having been given higher clearance by Fuglemin, who may therefore be Agorn's Mr Muckymuck.
Agorn heads back towards the Sneech side of the Great Chasm. At the bridge he tries to chat up the Gnoll guard Varuna and invites her to come fishing with him some time: she turns him down, although the Ichyoid guard Argus thinks she should have said yes.
He comes on Furphy and his eggs again and we learn that Furphy is actually Agorn's son. The mother was called Awen and she and Agorn are estranged, though not bitterly so. A Denthir is mentioned who was probably their Finagler but is now dead. Furphy has had some kind of relationship with Dandilli (who went to the SubShafts) and will take no other mate, possibly because she put him off from doing so. Father and son talk, and Furphy says that the reason he thinks nothing is real is that that morning he saw that the physical world had changed but most people can't see it (this is a fourth-wall breach, because Rob changed aspects of the design of the area), and he's not the only one who sees it because the Observer also sees Change. Agorn is semi-willing to consider this and means to tell Digger about it tomorrow.
Furphy is guarding the eggs for two Jibjibs named Snurge (presumably male) and Scumble (female), to whom he owes a favour. Two other Jibjibs called Ruck (male) and Smew (female) fly overhead in the dark, and we see them enter a hole in a sort of complex, compound stalactite formation, which we will learn is called the Uppermost Spire, and settle on a nest there. Ruck is carrying Urwyn's friend, the comparatlively large Shallow Wyrm Zugo, although the Jibjibs don't know his name. Zugo slithers off into a crack, telling the Jibjibs to wait there for him. These two Jibjibs regularly carry a secretive group of Shallow Wyrms whom they refer to as Clients, transporting them around a widespread network of "rings" which run right through the rocks and whose purpose the Jibjibs don't know. Nevus is an outlier by being a Wyrm out in the open on his own. They get snuggly in the nest, although Smew does not wish to have eggs.
We see a Shallow Wyrm named Sneckdraw who seems to be spying on a ring, or at least on a tunnel used by a ring. Sneckdraw is detected and chased through the tunnels by helmeted guards named Vim, Crot, Ang and Diet, and escapes by jumping off an underground cliff onto the back of a tame (or sapient?) bat. Ang gets Ruck to fly him in pursuit with a view to killing them: Ruck queries this but when Ang assures him that Sneckdraw is not officially a member of any ring, and therefore not a Client, Ruck is OK with it. They follow the bat's scent trail – Ang is especially good at this – but Sneckdraw and the bat dodge into a narrow tunnel which Ruck can't fit into. We see another Wyrm, too distant and small to identify, behind a kind of wooden screen in this tunnel. They come to a place where there is a graffitoed sign on the wall saying "Ring of the Newborn Word": Sneckdraw, who seems to be a freelance spy, dismounts and is challenged by guards called Conspue and Fream, armed with a zap trident. They pay Sneckdraw with a food item and he (the guards referred to him as "he", even though he seems to have the eyelashes Rob uses to indicate femininity) reports on Zugo of the Dunktyn Stone's presence at the Uppermost Spire. Conspue either doesn't know or won't say why Zugo is important. Fream conveys Sneckdraw's message to a female superior whom we don't see, and then goes to speak to a female tuneller or miner called Glink, on whom Fream seems to be sweet, and who is listening in secretly on people farther down the tunnel.
We see Sina giving the cleaning contract for the new hall to Maw and his crew. At Kronk's suggestion, Sina names the new group Leny Hall, although Maggle and Grik, and the Gobules, all seem to know something mildly disreputable about Leny.
At or near Leny Hall, Pergola is investigating plants in a narrow tunnel. Tracking the tunnel higher, we see a male Fixot named Slix ascending a slope to report to a female Fixit named Astex, who sits on a rock in a tunnel filled with plants and fungi. She seems to be fishing in a stream which flows alongside her rock. Slix, who has been sent by a female commander called Poinx, comes to speak to her and get her observations – he calls her "our resident". Astex, who seems to have a cynical attitude to her own kind, says that the shield around the Spike area that "keeps the evil monsters out. Or in, as the case may be." was breached for a second or so, causing panic. It was very noisy – she probably means the OZPR event. Slix runs off before she can tell him about the Sneeches leaving. We learn that Astex is acquainted with Frowgler.
We see Mortimer speaking about wizardry to Amos Grubb, who is himself a wizard, but who retired pre-Crash, having thrown his wand away after the incident with Myrrh. He says that Sylvester has some magic, although not as much as Mortimer, and their father Willoughby could have been a wizard if he hadn't been so frivolous. He believes there are still some schools of magic in operation somewhere, but he kept the fact of Mortimer's magic from Mortimer as a favour to Frederick and Nellie, and because it's so dangerous. Magic tends to run in families and other members of the E family also have at least some magical talent (which is why their mother is so good at overhearing things). Mortimer confirms that he found the umbrella-wand: he wouldn't accept a gift from Myrrh "after what heppened last time!"
They discuss the fact that Mortimer got the wand from Frowgler, who didn't feel like Myrrh (i.e. not like he came from Zark or Fratz), and the fact that Frederick and Amos were trained by Sylvester and Mortimer's great-great-uncle Hindenburgh. Amos says that Nellie has very little magic (even though she is one of the people in Frederick's photo'). [Amos says he threw his wand away "sixty-odd years" ago, and he was still a wizard in that photo', which means that Nellie was already at least about eighteen eleven years before the Crash, making Myrrh's statement that she was very young at the time even stranger.] If Mortimer practises as a magician he may get hassles from the Oracles of the Brush, and from the villagers, who are now so anti-magic they nearly torched the library. We learn that wands should preferably be handled only by the owner, and Mortimer half remembers the vision of his future self flying, and thinks about using telekinesis to open locks. They discuss the nature of mind-reading and mind-control, which is far easier for Sneeches, Demons and Djinn to perform than other races, and Rosemary's susceptibility; magic-users on the other hand are very resistent to mind-control. They set off in search of Rosemary so Amos can get to know her.
The scene cuts to the Nomes at the Pale camp. They are discussing the fact that if Nitfol becomes mayor he'll need a wife. He says that the only girl he found tolerable disappeared. Then Fizmo, the Hot Zone worker, appears and she and Nitfol get talking: she is apparently the girl whom he liked before. She has switched her allegiance to Frowgler and now refers to him as her boss. Nitfol is working with Frowgler too. Umboz and Piu leave them to talk and go off to make love.
Then we cut to The Spike, where Eunice Kelso and Rufus are talking. It seems Eunice is a villager who had been posing as Rufus's friend for a long time, but really watching him for God. In notes we learn that the Spike is Ettin-made and that before the Crash, Humans used it to moor airships. Rufus has recently had a talk with "God", or possibly with Dorian (who is not God), which left him briefly unconscious and rubber-legged, but he seems to have agreed to play an important role in God's organisation. This is only the third time Eunice has been in the Spike, and she plans to leave via a service tunnel leading towards the village. Rufus is behaving in quite a commanding, confident way, and speculating about what "God" and his henchman Dorian plan for Eunice next: her job is over and she has important information, so maybe they were hoping he'd kill her.
After some edgy verbal sparring Eunice more-or-less agrees to be Rufus's new assistant and bodyguard. Rufus tells her to see what Dorian offers her first, and if she turns down both of them she should go, and get as far as way as possible: but they both know she mustn't go "Out West". Eunice assures him that her hat doesn't have an eye and that she would never let "one of those little creeps" get on her head. She was recruited to God's service by an "old posh lady" named Miss Wentworth whom she met in Noodle: this has been brewing since before Rufus and Eunice were born. How long ago is that? Rufus's father Willoughby was the son of a post-Crash refugee, so Willoughby was born not more than about forty-eight years ago. Let's say Willoughby was about twenty when he and Dorothea had Sylvester, so that's twenty-eight years ago. Rufus is from their fifth pregnancy, so even if Dorothea cranked out one pregnancy a year Rufus is only twenty-four. So the conspiracy is twenty-five-plus years old.
08: The End of the Day [18/02/2013 – 16/07/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage strips #3431–end] We see Rosemary and Sylvester coming out of gender-specific lavatories which are delineated by male and female statues carrying a real spear and shield. They discuss finding Rosemary some better clothes so she can be properly introduced to Nellie and Amos, although Sylvester is wary of telling her what to wear because of the hypnosis incident. He gets his own clothes from Genrick Gaberdine, an excellent tailor in Eetown, who will be mentioned several times in future strips. The female clothes they are about to see are out of date (mostly collected between fifty and eighty years ago by the wives of Ernest and Philbert), but Sylvester tries to keep stylish because it makes a good impression as Earl.
Rosemary is tested by an Ettin-built electronic panel on the wall which confirms she is compatible with the house and can perform its ceremonies. Sylvester offers formally to employ her as Taskmistress, partly for real and partly as cover, and she is given an E-family uniform (which is the same two shades of periwinkle blue we later see on Winnifrite habits and shrines), although she picks the big E off the breast for the moment, and keeps her old clothes in the Poke Kit and later in a drawer. Sylvester warns her that most of the lavatories are shut off to save water and to limit baths to one a day because they get their water from the roof. Once they are both respectably dressed they go and introduce Rosemary to Nellie, although Sylvester tells Nellie that Rosemary's name is Rosemary Aurora Dapple, not Rosemary Imogene Ripley. It is important to impress Nellie because she has Views, and is popular in the village (while Myrrh is unpopular, having "cut quite a swath" before the Crash, as we saw in her collision with Ilsa's anti-Earl group). If possible Rosemary should avoid telling Nellie that she has killed Humans (but killing non-humans is evidently OK) and it would help if she can assist Nellie in her garden. Nellie keeps most of the garden produce for herself and Amos, but there is a commercial orchard they all help with, even Myrrh, and whch helps to fund the Mansion.
The Grubbs have a nice homely sitting-room, with a picture on the wall of a winged waffle and an egg with legs. Nellie has already worked out that Rosemary arrived without passing through the village, and is angry about Mortimer being encouraged/allowed to learn magic, although Sylvester says not only that Mortimer needs to do this, but that he may need Mortimer to do this, because of what's happening "downstairs". He tells her that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress, making it sound as if he intentionally summoned her to the Mansion for that purpose, and also that she killed a monster and now there's meat and tallow in the Low Kitchen. Quizzed about her origins Rosemary mentions the three beacons in the Bay of Runes, "big and scary and beautiful", and also that people in Moonin hunt Saurs (who are presumably non-sapient, and are bigger than the Mansion ones – so probably what the Mansion Saurs call Sawtooths). They allow Nellie to assume that Rosemary learned to fight mainly because she was a Saur-hunter although she admits that she has "some training" with the sword, and Nellie warns Sylvester that the Sheriff wants to meet Rosemary.
Nellie opens up and talks about the group of which she, Amos and Frederick were a part prior to the Crash. She came from Zebedee, Frederick and Amos were locals, and it's later hinted that Olaf came from elsewhere. Amos and Frederick were old friends who were learning magic from Hindenburgh, and Mamie must have learned from somebody as she had a magicker hat (Olaf didn't and nor did Nellie). Nellie had to choose between Frederick and Amos and chose Amos, and Mamie was with Olaf. But then Fredrick accidentally summoned Myrrh and lost his magic, and Amos renounced magic, so only Mamie had the hat when the Crash came, and only Mamie died. Amos, Nellie and Ilsa became servants at the Mansion (and Olaf, we will later learn, became the local vet). Amos and Nellie had a son, Arlen. who is now the local Hedgemaster.
Sylvester warns Nellie about some of the recent developments in the Basement, and the fact that the River of Fire can affect things even up here in the Mansion. As he talks we see vignettes of Chumley the Boogieman presiding over a growing collection of dead Fixits; the blonde woman with the pink bow, whom Rosemary called Mz Teree, reporting distressing changes in the Basement to someone who addresses her as Annabelle (and who has been waiting impatiently for her: possibly Nirvana); and Frowgler telling Myrrh about the conversation Rosemary and Sylvester are currently having with Nellie.
Sylvester leaves Rosemary and Nellie alone to talk about contraception, and we learn that there is a "Women's Circle" at the local Temple, where such things may be discussed. Here, such things are only discussed between women, at the Temple, because in the past there have been men in the area who tried to stop women from using Stiflebloom. The Women's Circle preserved their freedom and all women are allowed to attend: even outsiders; even Myrrh if she wanted to. Eunice is a member. In Moonin they talk about Stiflebloom freely, even though they are sexually uptight and not like the more sex-positive Morlock or Abalone. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester leave together, talking about local leaders – an impromptu lady mayor named Saffron Stout who runs an inn, and Patrick Skragg, the Sheriff. The Earl has warily polite relationships with both.
Both Nellie and Sylvester mention Olga, Mortimer's ex, who seems to have been a disaster. Rosemary says the position of "strange and dangerous woman" is now filled.
Sylvester formally introduces Rosemary to Frederick. Afterwards Rosemary and Sylvester agree to conceal her true identity and membership of Hack n' Slash, in case she's on a "wanted" list. They meet up with Amos and Mortimer and Amos, as a former wizard, comfirms that Mortimer no longer has psychic influence over Rosemary. Amos can still see people's mental structures, which vary a bit by region, and he can tell that she is from Out West. Amos and Sylvester exchange news of the day, including some things Sylvester didn't tell Nellie, like about the Sneech gift, and about Tand – Sylvester thinks he has seen Tand mentioned in the records and Amos promises to look her up. Sylvester learns about The Pit flaring. We learn that "Pit" stands for "Pulse-Ignition Thaumnode" and that it was a booster device used to power-up airships heading for the Far Eastern Shore, to save on fuel. The effect is like a small version of the Daynight (a rainbow aurora witnessed by the first Prime Oracle, although we don't learn that till later), which evidently did something drastic, at least to people near it. Mortimer finds The Pit creepy.
After Amos leaves to go home, Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer go to the Basement of the barracks, fetch a siege pot and set it up on the top of the West Tower over the main entrance. Mortimer goes off to find clothes (his shirt having been shredded to make makeshift gloves and boots in the Sneech den) and leaves Sylvester and Rosemary discussing the definition of "mansion". He tells her about the Spike, which he has never tried to climb because it's one big, churning Ettin machine and very dangerous. He can see that somebody is living there because it's been more active (in terms of lights etc.) since the Crash, but it's out of the Mansion lands and as far as he knows nobody now officially owns it. They discuss the aftermath of the Crash – which wasn't nearly as bad in the poor rural area where Rosemary comes from, because hardly anybody there used magic anyway – and the ownership of land and property left vacant after the previous owners died in the disaster. Eva was affected, but that was because she was in Nye on the mainland. Now Eetown, once a thriving metropolis, lives by catching Tooterfish for their oil.
They go off to eat and we see a series of vignettes. Myrrh has arrived in the Sneech den proper, but hasn't encountered any Sneeches. Amos collects a package of Dornbeast-liver from the processor and takes it to Nellie, and discusses Rosemary with her: Nellie isn't sure she likes Rosemary but feels she can trust her, and Amos says they haven't been told the full story about how she got there but they're in no position to complain about people withholding information. Mortimer gets cleaned up (but even after a bath he still smells of sphagnum dust). En route to a dinner of last night's Dornbeast tendrils, Rosemary and Sylvester pause to look at a Panegate which leads elsewhere on their own world, into open grassland on the Thembrian Steppes, with the occasional distant horseman. Sylvester says that such local Panegates are especially hard to open, possibly because the Ettins double-locked them against Sneech incursions. Behind them is a statue of Pratchett's Discworld.
Mortimer joins them at table and says he has put the umbrella aside until such time as he may decide to take up magic. They discuss re-opening access to a nearby beach so they can gather fish and seaweed, now that Rosemary is there to fend off any Ichyoids who might object, then they sign Rosemary into the Mansion's official staff record-book, still under the false name Dapple.
Sylvester goes off to write up the day's events, and Mortimer goes and tries on various formal outfits, but doesn't seem to like the look of them, and picks a blue t-shirt with a star on the chest. Rosemary gets Amos to show her the library. Coming away with a stack of books on history, anthropology and moral philosophy, she experiences a psychic tweak which calls her to go to the Quiet Room and speak to (apparently) the Sneech Dohickey, which she can hear because she touched it, although she remains outside the locked door. She says that it and she are both protecting Sylvester, and suggests it should watch the Basement door, or the Weirdo. As the new Taskmistress she threatens the devices, saying that if any of them causes trouble she'll chuck them all into the Great Chasm. As she walks away we see Frowgler sitting by the foot of the door – he speaks to the Dohickey as if they are old aquaintances.
Myrrh, with her balloon in tow, descends to the Ettinworks using the musical levitating lift in the shaft where Rosemary met Tand.
Returning to the Guest Room, Rosemary rearranges the furniture so she can sit facing the door, writes to her aunt and takes a bath. She falls asleep but immediately wakes into a dream which seems to be some kind of objectively real astral projection. She passes Skuy and Spot, who are arguing, because Skuy is keeping people away from the elevator: Skuy at least seems to be also asleep and also taking part in the astral projection. Rosemary goes to the elevator and meets the Operator, who has summoned her and tries to hypnotise her, but she says that will never happen again and whacks him with a mallet, which she then hands over to Skuy: the physically real Operator is aware of and intrigued by what has just happened to his astral equivalent.
We see an overview of various couples sleeping: Nellie and Amos; Umbuz and Piu (in bed together, so their relationship is progressing fast!); the Gobules Gorp and Phiga. Then we see Mortimer and Yasmine, who would like to be a couple but aren't yet: Mortimer lying awake, and Yasmine sitting by a camp fire, staring at a Fleeb.
Myrrh goes to the same doorway off the underhub where Sylvester and co. were passed the metal "KEEP OUT" sign. She is passed a similar cut-out message, this one saying "IN HER" with an extra "E" drawn or painted on to make it "IN HERE". The extra "E" is done in the style of the emblem of the Earls of E. The door opens and she goes through into the corridor of doors we saw before. A distant door is open to receive her but all we see through it is several floating lights – possibly ABOLs.
More vignettes: Eunice talking to Cox, in front of Ettin signs or graffiti saying "shake hands" and "onebig onion", and tells him Rufuis says they're lucky that "this phizzpile hasn't imploded and fallen in the swamp". She probably literally means the Spike collapsing. Hector talks to Nunsuch and says that "sir" wishes Nunsuch and another character called Penfold to interface with the Spindizzies: Nunsuch indicates some Ettin text which appears on a screen beside them and which changes gradually from the old font to the new. This text, which says "remote spike extrusion", triggers Hector to engage a "revised schedule" which he says is twenty years late. Sylvester gives up on his paperwork and collapses into bed.
Meanwhile Myrrh leaves the room of lights and returns to the Mansion, where she bars the Basement door and puts a ward on it telling Basement dwellers to keep out. She opens a Panegate into a lush jungle and sets the balloon floating off into that jungle carrying the rescued Trundlebug, who lands in a bush where it meets a new friend (probably of the opposite sex, if Trundlebugs have sexes). She goes and reassures Frederick that although the magic umbrella is hers she didn't directly give it to Mortimer, and they start flirting.
The scene shifts to the Trog holding area where Villipend and Hamble were formerly imprisoned, and we see that Hamble has survived electrocution. In his former life, before the Plunge, he was a simple fungi farmer, but proximity to the Hot Zone seems to have done something to reverse the mental decline which caused him to jump into the Great Chasm in the first place, and he is now very clever and very ambitious. He half rescues, half kidnaps Squeeb, and works out how to get out of the habitat. He snifs out, literally, a hidden door behind which is an emergency bolthole room with stocked provisions, and which opens out above the chute. He sets off to walk along the top of the chute-tube with Squeeb strapped to his arm, seeking a new dawn which will be his. We learn on the way that Squeeb, who is Nevus's brother in law, belongs to no ring, and despises the idea of doing so.
Finally we see two vignettes. In one, a male soldier reports on Rosemary's disappearance to a female commander, the Tansy whom Rosemary saw in a vision. Tansy is working for some outfit or political party whose emblem is a triangle within a circle: it appears on her desk and on her helmet. It appears to belong to her: the office she is occupying has a sign outside saying "ABBOT'S OFFICE" but then a big "T" and the triangle-and-circle sign have both been drawn on it using the same red paint. She vows to find Rosemary wherever she has gone – and clearly with hostile intent.
In the other, we see Sylvester's sister Lilith and their mother Dorothea, talking in the darkness at the edge of a banquet in the Deep Jungle somewhere. The mother would have liked to have stayed, but she has received a psychic impression that they need to start heading back to E.
Part Six: On My Way to Town [28/07/2013 – 16/11/2018]
Note that from 03/05/2015, the Saturdays in the Basement strips show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with the action above ground. 01: Rise and Shine [28/07/2013 – 26/11/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips start–#3698] The sun has just risen over the Mansion. The brothers are already awake: Sylvester resumes doing his paperwork, but Mortimer stands gazing out of a window, clutching the umbrella he said he wouldn't pick up again unless and until he decided to take up magic, and thinking of himself as having "set out" – and that the world itself has also changed. Rosemary emerges and rings the bell for Schmedley, the butler, attracting Mortimer's attention. He introduces her to Schmedley, who tells her how to find Sylvester (and who speaks very quietly). Schmedley is not surprised to hear that Mortimer is a wizard. We see Arthur the Weirdo feeling the worse for wear. Sylvester explains the hierarchy of the Mansion's servants to Rosemary. Nellie and Amos are officially retired, and Myrrh retired when Ilsa, the Head Housekeeper, did (he evidently doesn't know Myrrh was controlling her!). When the main posts are all filled the rank from top down goes Regent and Estate Manager (Frederick); Head Housekeeper; Butler; Taskmistress; then the Head Gardener and Head Librarian and then all the small fry. As Taskmistress Rosemary stands fairly high. One of her duties is, at least potentially, to find and hire a new sign-writer (if official and full-time, called a Notification Artificer). Sylvester's next task is in three days and Rosemary's in five. He shows Rosemary her new official quarters and office, which she is quite stunned by. Her quarters command a view of the ocean, which leads to a discussion about Panegates and the fact that no known Panegate leads to another continent, although some lead to alternative realities for the location of the Mansion. They move on to discussing why the villagers don't all move into the much-more-comfortable Mansion, and Rosemary's dream about the Operator. Sylvester didn't share it but we see a flashback to what must be his own dream, in which he, Rosemary and Nimue are attending a university lecture given by Protus, accompanied by three frogs, two sitting with the girls in the audience and one sitting with Protus, and Sylvester is aware that his own frog is missing (or has gone to Protus). We see a rusted, land-locked churnboat which Philbert had been going to convert into a building, the Boathouse, and access to which is heavily restricted; and a wizwitch detector which detects Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss security clearances, and local legends relating to a scruffy local folk-hero called Frizzlegarb who Sylvester thinks might have been a surviving Wilf, and who is associated with a symbol that looks like a waffle with wings. Legends say Frizzlegarb founded Glome, grew the first pudding plant and planted the acorn which became the Forest of Burzee. They also say that he swam through a pool and there met what sounds like a Willigig. [Later we will learn that Frizzlegarb was a Fuzz from the far future, presumably dislocated in time by the Willigig.] Sylvester is still having trouble with the fact that Willigigs are real. He shows Rosemary round her apartment and gives her a mechanical pocket-watch, then they get out Mortimer's Glowgem and test it on a sort of battery-tester invented by Griffington. They are quite rare. although there are some in the Infernal Engine, and in deep shafts under the Brushspire Peaks, and in Paydon, and the university had some big ones brought back by the Bradstreet Expedition. No-one really knows what they are, but they're not alive, they come in various types which feel slightly different, and they store power, and they didn't explode in the Crash. We see an outtake of the Tribbletongued Hamster (in pirate getup), the plant and the ABOL escaping together in their toy boat, sailing along an underground tunnel: a sign in the background points towards the sea. This is a colourised but othwerwise only slightly different version of the drawing we saw the previous day whem Rosemary and Sylvester were coming away from Spatchcock's office, but the sign pointing to the sea is new, so they've made progress. This Glowgem is highly charged. The Mansion has a few others whose charge has almost run down: they can be recharged by dipping them in the River of Fire for a few days. They used to do that from a bridge station over the River, but it collapsed in the Crash: we see that the Observatory in the Basement is adapted from the ruins of it. Sylvester mentions that the Mansion used to have a "wizwitch", a magic-wielder, as a regular member of staff and he supposes it now has one again. The scene cuts to Mortimer, who is talking to a strange wall of purple electrical spikes labelled "CURED ELECTRO-SPIKES" and filled with littl wires, telling it he is going to go and celebrate the fact that he has grown up and got a job. He goes to Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where there are various amusements and places to eat. Back with Rosemary and Sylvester, he asks her about Hack & Slash's Commandant Spangler (who Rosemary had said was the only person she had previously met who had a private office). This segues into a conversation about their respective grandparents. Rob has said elsewhwere that Quincy died in 5398, and it's now 5423, and Sylvester says here that Quincy died when he was five, so Sylvester is now twenty-nine or thirty. Rosemary's parents died on their way back from her grandmother's funeral, when she was a baby. Rosemary runs through her fake history, although we know from a bonus strip of her family that she has kept their names and just changed her father's surname to match her new, false surname Dapple. She discusses the remote possibility of using Protus to go back in time and save her parents – for whom she has little feeling – at the cost of giving up her own exciting future and getting stuck as a farm-girl (and refers to Haroons in passing as Leafheads). Meanwhile we see Frederick and Myrrh set out to do something – unspecified but involving hand-holding – "properly". Get married, probably. Sylvester tells Rosemary about the demand there used to be for apartments linked to this private corridor for senior administrators: Amos could have had a smart Head Librarian's apartment here, but he and Nellie chose to live down in the Storage Halls next to Frederick and Myrrh because of their long history [Olaf lives in the village]. There used to be a separate cottage for the Head Gardener but it was damaged in the Crash. They discuss the fact that in the past, pre-Ludwig, the Earls were at risk of being assassinated just for being the Earl. Rosemary goes off at a tangent about a fluffy-seeming female called Miss Gritz who was a traveller on the caravan Rosemary was guarding, and whom she suspects of being her apparent boyfriend's very high-powered personal bodyguard. Sylvester shows Rosemary round the official, ceremonial offices for himself and his secretary (but not his official chambers, which are untidy). The offices are designed to be intimidating, and with security in mind: there is a round thing on the wall that Sylvester says is the remains of a robot security system. The fact that attention is drawn to it suggests to me that we will find out Mr Hand can access it and it's not as broken as it purports to be, but Rosemary taps it and it doesn't do anything visible. Meanwhile, we see Eunice, wearing a rucksack, emerge from a concealed entrance in a rock with a spy-eye on top. Yasmine arrives on horseback at a sign that points to Eetown in one direction and Noodle in another (forking rather than diametrically opposed), and thinks that in another hour she'll be far enough away to take her hood off. So she is somebody who might be recognised. Her spark of attraction with Martimer suggests that a) she too is in the twenty-five to thirty-five range and b) she isn't Lenore, even though the Shibolith accent could be fake. We learn that the Mansion has an actual throne. Audra was the last Earl to use it and since then it's been reserved in case the king should visit – this nearly happened fifty years ago, when Yorik III had planned a visit, but the king ws killed when his flagship airship The Velvet Glove went down during the Crash, and the current king tends to stay in the capital. We learn that the Mansion has a High Tower, which seems to be the turret off the main tower, and access to which is blocked: Rufus tried to get in there, before he wandered off, but as far as Sylvester knows he was unsuccessful. Possibly Mr Hand lives there. Sylvester says Rufus likes to wander but he doesn't go far: Sylvester tried to get him to go to university but Rufus felt that the area around the Mansion was where he was going to be. Sylvester doesn't know where Rufus is now: Mortimer hasn't told him, or perhaps being zapped and PZORed and meeting Yasmine scrambled his memory. Sylvester shows Rosemary an escape hatch under the desk (which itself is made of near-impregnable Ettin lengths), leading to a panic-room which used to be well-equippped but is now almost empty. There used to be guards down there, but not since the Crash: and no, they didn't really need guards after the Crash, because they had Myrrh. We learn that in the early days the Earldom was passed on by mortal combat. Milo was the last Earl of E officially to kill his predecessor and the first to pass the Earldom on by blood although his grandson, Dorn II, may have been murdered by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, who then ruled in her husband Lemuel's stead while he got on with his Panegate research. We also learn that in those days the Earldoms of E and S were friends. Sylvester doesn't know as much about his mother's family, the Mundivagants, who are grand and grudging industrialists. Neither he nor Lenore would ever ask their maternal grandfather Humphrey Mundivagant for a favour. Their brother Ace works for the Mundivagants. Rosemary's family were all farmers with a long tradition, but they have died out. The Mansion has mangonels and mini airships which could probably be got to work. Rosemary asks about a sign saying "Gargoyle pits" and Sylvester tells her that there are creatures called Gargoyles and Spindizzies which were bred or manufactured by the Ettins to service and repair the buildings in which they live, so the Mansion behaves like a semi-living thing, a sort of colonial organism, even though there's no central personality such as there is at the Castle of the Combynes. Gargoyles deal with the exterior and Spindizzies with the interior, especially service machinery behind the walls and in the BaseCore, which is "one giant inaccessible churn of zappy machinery". The Mansion is slowly running down. Sylvester and Rosemary speculate about the possibility of finding still-surviving Ettins who could restore it. They come to a corridor where an end-wall has moved aside, giving access to a platform looking out into a vast service-space, so Sylvester takes Rosemary to meet the Spindizzies, warning her to get the Can-Opener out first and not tell anybody about the Poke Kit. In the empty space we saee lines of force, with the first appearance of the little Ts and Fs which become a common motif. 02: Fishing Around [27/11/2013 – 22/03/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3704–#3810] The scene opens with an Ichyoid about under water, wearing some sort of equipment on his chest which seems to be intergrated into his body, and surrounded by sea-life, including two eyes looking out of a hole with "THAT'S A MORAY" written round it. We return to Sylvester, telling Rosemary that the BaseCore of the Mansion, which they are looking down on, and the space around it is malleable and in a state of flux. Sylvester warns Rosemary that the Spindizzies share new information indiscriminately, but may assume you already know old things you aren't aware of. Two Spindizzies appear: they have grey, hairless humanoid upper bodies trailing away into wormy tails, and pterosaur-like wings. The males have brown wing-muscles and the females blue. They speak like intelligent but literal-minded computers but are friendly and kind, very concerned when they hear that Rosemary is taking over as Taskmistress in case that means Prunella has died, and perhaps a little disappointed that she isn't Sylvester's love-interest, since they want him to produce another male Task-performer. Sylvester agrees to bring in supplies (antimony) which they request, and ask them if they can tell what the Can-Opener is made of, but they can't, although they may be able to duplicate it (by which they mean, construct a look-alike pattern). When they are analysing something, little lines hang in the air, some similar to the marks on the Can-Opener, s0me more like distorted letters. Every Human (or in Myrrh's case, humanoid) in the Mansion has a designated Spindizzy who communicates with them: Horace and, newly, Emily are matched to Sylvester and Rosemary. As Taskmistress Rosemary will need to talk to Emily weekly. They live about as long as Humans, so if you have a personal Spindsizzy you always have somebody who's happy to talk to you. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the Ettins, and the moving walls (which the Spindizzies can influence if they are nearby, even though they can't leave their chamber): Sylvester thinks the Mansion with its Panegates and moving walls wasn't intended as a residence but as some other sort of facility. They wonder whether there are any surviving Ettins – and if so, how they would react to finding Humans living in their laboratory, or whatever it is. The Ettins are myths to the Spindizzies too – scary, tyrannical myths. We learn that the Spindizzies are mortal flesh-and-blood creatures but they reproduce in a mechanical incubator, and are assigned mates on a very scientific basis: and that Motihauls reproduce by the female laying an egg and then the male handing her a bottle of sperm. We learn that one of Ludwig's assistants, James Neil Pakson, went far enough down into the depths to visit the Spindizzy incubator, and his granddaughter Nicole visited the Far-Eastern Shore on the other side of the ocean from the Mansion. There were Human colonies there which may or may not have survived the Crash, about which the Spindizzies know nothing. They also don't know about other Ettin-made edifices, or about the things no-one is sure who made: the Infernal Engine, the Beacons, the Sandwall, and a range of actual big rock candy mountains. Meanwhile we see vignettes of other characters. Mortimer is breakfasting on a Spyder-burger at the Landing o' Family Fun, and visiting the Fish Museum there. He has aquired a little purple-and-green party version of a wizard's conical hat. Eunice Kelso is seen leaving the woods and heading for Eetown, with her rucksack: she passes a retired Guardian called Mr Flem, who warns her that the woods are dangerous. Terin Flem, whom we will meet again, is a semi-retired pig-farmer who used to be the Oracle Omega's Guardian Finale, and sits on a rock near the village alongside his dog Byron, apparently whittling wood. Nelly is feeding (non-sapient) Jibjibs while Amos wears goggles as he uses tongs to hold up a rod with a star on the end which isn't Mortimer's Glowgem (too many points). It appears that he is making, or restoring, a wand. Arthur the Weirdo is taking a bath; Myrrh is looking out from her and Frederick's flat, looking a bit suspicious (perhaps because she senses the presence of Frowgler); and Schmedley is being addressed by somebody off-screen and short (probably Frowgler). The chamber where Rosemary and Sylvester and the Spindizzies are all meeting is a sort of holo-deck, in which the Spindizzies successfully produce a useable mock-up of the Can-Opener which is only real in this environment, a quasi-humanoid sparring-partner for Rosemary to practise with, a chair for Sylvester to sit in and watch, and some background scenery including a bad, Escheresque reproduction of part of a monument called the Citadel of the Hugging Squirrels, one of the Sculpted Isles in Isdanlia. This reproduction was commissioned by Dorn I for his mother Nettana, who came from that area. The Sculpted Isles date back to a mysterious Dawn Era, probably that of the Wilfs and Gobblems. Sylvester dozes in a chair, leaving Rosemary to her sparring, but in fact she talks to the Spindizzies instead of fighting, and runs them through the tools they have patterns for: Human Tool #1 is a stick. She learns that they have patterns for Ettin tools as well as Human ones, but most of the Ettin ones are encrypted: one that isn't encrypted is a 3D version of the USB symbol, and they would love to get hold of a real one (there was a broken one on the sea floor where we saw the Ichyoid). She encrypts the pattern for the Can-Opener so only she and Sylvester can see it. It seems that any "productive individual" can come in and encrypt personalized tools. She learns that the Spindizzies could in principle find out what the Can-Opener is made of but their access to data is blocked beyond a certain level, although they don't know by whom. Rufus might be able to fix it. They tell her that Rufus is at Semi-Autonomous Research Structure #00001. Rosemary doesn't want to spar now because she hasn't the time, but she takes the time to walk up the imaginary sky. She starts to ask Emily the Spindizzy whether she knows that she, Rosemary, is currently... then changes the subject, which may or may not have been important. Then she wakes Sylvester and tells him where Rufus is, which he translates as the Spike. He isn't pleased, and says that the Spike is very dangerous, partly because the machines there have no built-in safety systems, but doesn't intend to go rescue him as he assumes Rufus knows what he's doing: he doesn't know about the Fixits etc. The information about Rufus came from a high-ranking Spindizzy called Tanith who was Nirvana's contact, but they have lost contact with Nirvana. Meanwhile a Valentine's Day out-take shows Sheriff Patrick Skragg giving a flower to his wife Halcyone, while their son Stephen reads a Willy-the-Wendigo book. Sylvester informs the Spindizzies about the departure of the Sneeches, and asks them what they know about Willigigs. They have been aware of Protus's presence for around a month (37.77 days – are Mansionverse months forty days?) but haven't spoken to him. They are not aware of Frowgler. Sylvester and Rosemary take their leave of them: Sylvester promises to bring them some antimony which they have asked for, and which he has in store. After they leave we see that the Spindizzies penetrate right down into the Basement and see Sprocket the Gnoll engineer, holding a Glowgem in a wrench, opening conversation with a male Spindizzy. Rosemary and Sylvester set off to go fishing. They discuss the Mansion's mineral stores, including gold, and Rosemary tells Sylvester what she learned from the Spindizzies while he was asleep, about the data block which Rufus might be able to fix. Sylvester suggests that the same person deliberately planted the Can-Opener with Izchak for Rosemary to find, and prevented the Spindizzies from investigating it: he fears he is being too paranoid but Rosemary, being profesionally paranoid, suggests there may be two conflicting secret factions at work. For the moment, Sylvester is not telling the Spindizzies about the return of Nirvana, the previous Taskmistress: he means to return to the Ettinworks once he has researched Tand, and will allow Nirvana and "Mz Teree" (Annabelle) to explain themselves before making a decision about them. They make their way down to a sea-level room where there are storage lockers for fishing gear and for beach leisure gear, and a small boat, and a door to the E family's private – and artificially-enhanced – fishing beach. [Here an out-take shows Sylvester's mother Dorothea and sister Lilith visiting the Irish-analogue nation of Tiranog at some point in the recent past.] They used to have a proper boat-house etc. but much of it has fallen into ruins. Ichyoids don't like large-scale commerical fishing and cut large fishing nets, so before going outside they look though a security periscope and see only gulls. There is a suggestion that many Ichyoids died in the Crash. Sylvester also talks about what he considers to be the remote possibility of somebody from the Basement making their way up to the beach (suggesting that part of it is below sea-level), and at that we see the hamster and his crew in their miniature pirate ship, approaching the open air. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss boats, and an explorer called Semidemela, and then go outside, where they stand side by side on the beach and agree that their feelings for each other are brother/sisterly rather than romantic (although acknowledging that this could change). It's mentioned that Audra had an entire fleet, and that they have a private, secure marina, but without magic it takes too much effort to open. They catch fish and gather seaweed and then go inside to cook them. Meanwhile we see a small boat propelled by a magic-powered outboard motor, and piloted by a skinny, elderly male villager. This is Olaf Larssen, the village vet, whom we saw before when Protus caused Sylvester to have a vision of a selection of villagers (among other things), and who was part of Frederick's pre-Myrrh magical team. His boat is named Mamie, after his partner who died in the Crash. The hamster and his pirate crew in their tiny wind-up clockwork boat approach and order Olaf to stand to and prepare to be boarded, and he thinks that all Tribble-Tongued Hamsters are insane. Compared to a Human, Cap'n Hamster is more like a large gopher in size. 03: A Change in the Scene [24/03/2014 – 12/07/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3817–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips start–#3915] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips start–#3921] From this point on, the parallel activity in the Basement splits away into a series of separate strips, until Sylvester and co. re-enter the Basement in Part Eight. The scene above-ground opens with Nitfol, Fizmo and three Pales (Thrash and his team, although they are all wearing or carrying shields and Thrash doesn't have the stripe on his chest that he had before) about to enter a wood tangled with brambles, in search of whatever Nitfol needs for his bid to become mayor. Nitfol says that Fizmo's presence isn't absolutely neccessary to his plans (knowing that this expedition will be dangerous) – but she has her own agenda. Then we see Yasmine riding through a wood. She is just about to take off her hood, now she is far enough from the Mansion, when she feels a vibration in her bag of Fleebs. She opens it and the Fleebs leap out, although they do not appear rabid. Meanwhile we see the E family make breakfast. Amos and Nellie bring non-sapient Jibjib eggs (their cockerel is called Zoroaster), Sylvester and Rosemary have fish and edible seaweed, and Mortimer brings a bottle of a magically-active drink called Yurple Juice. He won it by playing a game called Star Board at Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, and feels he may have cheated magically. The Weirdo (seriously hungover) and Fantod arrive and are introduced to Rosemary. Then Myrrh and Frederick arrive, dressed as if for a very fancy trip to a smart restaurant or theatre, and Myrrh announces that they are now retiring from their work to keep the family alive. Although they don't state so explicitly, they are planning to go away on a trip (we were told when we first met him that Frederick likes to go on long journeys). Myrrh also satisfies the Weirdo and Fantod's curiosity by dropping her glamour and revealing to them that she is a Demon. Mortimer is now Sylvester's Regent, his understudy – about which he is less than thrilled. Sylvester tells him just to do what Rosemary tells him, when Sylvester himself isn't there. Since the Mansion will now be less secure, Sylvester offers Amos and Nellie the chance to retire to the village, but they refuse. Instead, Amos will teach Mortimer magic. Meanwhile Sylvester, Rosemary and Mortimer need to go to the village to update Saffron, the lady mayor, on what's been happening, to sell Dornbeast parts and to attend the Temple. The Dornbeast parts are ready-wrapped in a refrigerator or stasis unit next to Ludwig's monster-processing machine. We learn later that the wrappings alone will keep meat fresh for a week, and if wrapped and in the cabinet it will keep for months. Mortimer wants to go to the Temple (he starts to ask whether he can go with them, then states that he is going) to light a candle for Nitfol, whom he believes to be dead through his fault, and then find the forest Nomes and tell them what happened to him. This leads to a discussion about Deep Jungle Nomes, who live in normal tree-houses, and about tree-warping. You can do the same with stone on a small scale, and we see Mulch and Grind tucked into a pocket in the wall behind Faldstool, just as Shona discussed with Frowgler. Because the Poke Kit won't work so well away from the Mansion's magic tricklepoint, Rosemary and Sylvester go to the Barrackstack to deposit the Can-Opener in a vault and collect other equipment. Meanwhile Mortimer goes to take antimony to the Spindizzies. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Ludwig's machines still work, and why this might be; and the fact that Ludwig left whole shelves' worth of notes which haven't been properly catalogued [an ideal job for the Ludwigites]. Ludwig was never intentionally unkind, but his thought processes weren't necesarily like those of most other people. Rosemary thinks that the Weirdo is ill or hungover but competant, and has had military training. Knowing that the Weirdo is conspiring with Yasmine in some way, Sylvester says they should lock their doors at night. Only the "cactus" part of the Mansion is Ettin-made: the other buildings were constructed by various Earls, although sometimes using Ettin salvage. The Barrackstack, which contains some Ettin elements but was mainly built by Angus and Audra, goes down as far below ground as above (about eight storeys each way). It was originally an impregnable fortress, but after the wars were over and "the Mugwumps all died.. or whatever.." Ernest and Philbert added stairs. There are sealed-off escape tunnels from the barracks which open into places which are now inside Eetown. A sign points to the Party Palace, built by Ernest, and describes the attractions on offer there. Rosemary is alarmed to see "Quincunx Den" on there: we will later learn that to her, the Quincunx is a paramilitry outfit Out West. Here it's a very complex card-game. We see a board laid out with cards in which there seem to be five suits: asterisks; circles; crosses (shaped like a Christian cross); little flowering plants (which I'm betting are called blooms); and anchors. They also discuss some kind of game which involves magically-powered equipment and is played by couples (together as a team) in an Underwear Arena: possibly that means the game is called Underwear. Whatever it is long-married couples are especially good at it (which suggests it might involve listing your partner's physical or sexual quirks), and people called Shrouders – the reverse of nudists – cannot play it. All the local villagers are informally Shrouders. Sylvester and Nimue won a silver medal at this game at University. Rosemary wants to play, with Sylvester as her partner, but the only team they could play against would be Nellie and Amos who would win because they've been married over fifty years, so Rosemary wants to get Yasmine back so they can play against her and Mortimer. Mortimer takes the antimony to his Spindizzy contact, Charles. Charles recognizes the umbrella as a "thaumalogical flow enhancer and regulator" and already knew Mortimer had wizard potential. The scene cuts to a female Spindizzy, Clementine, who is talking to Sina, Sprocket and a half-seen male Trog, probably either Mowder or Grak. Sina is quizzing Clementine about her claim to have met the Earl. Sylvester opens a weapons-vault to keep the Can-Opener in: like military exercises the vaults have random names. This one contains a wide range of good spears and swords over which Rosemary exclaims. We learn that there are official family weapons on display in the Gatestone, but they haven't been used in anger since Dorn II. They put the Can-Opener into a safe, then enter Rosemary into the Herediscan system. They discuss Griffington – his collection of obscene limericks, his management of the Factor E and his possession of three minions, Krell (who investigated old devices), Drowpole (who built new ones), and Strauhatt (who marketed what they made). Rosemary is now Sylvester's minion, after Nirvana, who was the first. They see a statue which purports to be of an Obsidian Sneech, but is more sinister than accurate, and collect all the gear Rosemary will need to maintain her sword. This area of the Mansion, which is actually of great military importance, is dotted with signs which suggest that only boring things happen there. As with the Barrackstack, much of the Ettin-built part of the Mansion is underground, even before you get to the Basement. Arthur and Fantod are sitting by the counting-down machine, now at 000315311089. Fantod, who seems to be an actual creature because his eyes move and widen expressively, still looks stunned after their encounter with Myrrh's demon form. Arthur says he assumes that "she knew all along" – perhaps a reference to Yasmine – and he plans to take Amos's advice (to go to the Temple and get Threnody to light a candle for Tulip). Sylvester and Rosemary reach a document-storage area under the library, and Sylvester gives Rosemary an instruction manual for the Poke Kit. She reads about secured sub-pockets and has a half memory of the Tree giving her a secret seed, but it slips her mind again. She experiments with taking the Glowgem in and out, and then looks around warily and makes a secret pocket, into which we will later learn she moved the HJ42. Sylvester meanwhile asks Amos for Obadiah Wuttgutt's Cyclopedia of Night Beasties but they don't have a copy – only Rosemary's memory of reading it. Amos asks Sylvester to tell Olaf in the village that he and Amos need to talk. Rosemary's Glowgem seems to be attracted to one of the supposedly deactivated surveillance devices (like the one in Sylvester's office suite) on the wall: the swirly pattern on it starts throbbing and Rosemary stares at it, but she is no longer vulnerable to being hypnotised. She finds the whole sub-pocket idea creepy, because there could be anything in there, and without the assistance of an official service engineer she wouldn't know it and might accidentally say a password which would cause something dangerous to erupt. They can't empty it by taking it into the Quiet Room, as that might damage it. Rosemary has written to Aunt Eva but she has described where she is, and Sylvester is concerned that her enemies might get it out of her aunt. Sylvester advises her to send another less specific letter via his lawyer, Mr Ferule. They discuss Tansy's army which is chasing Rosemary, and which is called the Quincunx (like the complex game: they don't know if there's a connection). If the Quincunx finds out where Rosemary is and comes as an army it would take them six months to get to E, but it's possible they could send an assassin, or hire a local one by wire; albeit that at present they don't know Rosemary's name. There's no possibility of Tansy giving up and neither will Rosemary: she thinks about Protus showing Sylvester "that poor Gnoll" (Rhid) and then her and Tansy fighting. There's a hint that the thing which Rosemary stole from the Quincunx was whatever she used to travel instantly to the east. The Quincunx are currently in the Nodnol/Lawnrock Peninsula, farther west around the Bay of Runes from Moonin. Being about to leave to walk to the village, they discuss a thing at the entrance called the Gatestone, believed to have been moved there by Ettric, the 2nd Earl. It's an artefact which might predate the Ettins. We see Mortimer waiting for them in an official Assembly Alcove, and being joined there by Arthur the Weirdo and his puppet Fantod, who congratulate him on becoming Regent. They ask about the umbrella, and Mortimer leads them to believe it's just an umbrella, to keep off the rain and sun. Mortimer still smells of sphagnum dust, and this leads to a discussion of Arthur's days at the Weirdo Academy. Arthur is heading to the Temple to have a candle lit for his friend Tulip. 04: Barriers and Gates [14/07/2014 – 27/11/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips #3922–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #3925–#4053] We see the Saurs Buzz and Ig meeting by the ruins of a museum in Eetown. Ig has a Glowgem which was in Niddle's pack: he doesn't know what it is, just that it's pretty. Buzz wants Ig to tell him about what has become of Snerk: Ig says Buzz wouldn't believe him but Buzz, who has been working with Frowgler, says Ig would be surprised what he believes these days. Mortimer and Arthur discuss whether Weirdos are allowed to marry. Opinions vary: Swithinites thing they shouldn't, and Bonavenites think it's OK. Of the family's previous Weirdos, Captain Tin-Throatwobbler was a Swithinite, but Sarah Bellum was a widow. They discuss a girl named Melba who lives in the village, and with whom Fantod implies tnat Arthur has a "thing": she's a friend of Mortimer's sister Lilith's, and quite eccentric, but Arthur says she is too frivolous to make an official Weirdo. Sylvester joins the others at the assembly point. Trailing behind him, Rosemary surreptitiously deposits several items from her Poke Kit – her Poke Kit instruction booklet, plus the lantern and bottle of blade-oil which Sylvester gave her in the Barrackstack – in a large urn. It is one of several artistic and archaeological artefacts which grace the hallway. The main door of the Mansion is set into the Gatestone, a huge boulder which "soaks up light, spreads it around". It may be natural as there are others elsewhere, but it was transported there. The main doors are kept closed, with a small door let into them. It leads to a walled outside area, still strewn with post-Crash rubble. From there, the main gates have been deliberately blocked with rubble to prevent mass invasion, again with a small door next to them. The party discuss the fortifications erected by previous earls, and the early earls themselves (the name of the first earl is not known), and why the village was renamed Eetown instead of Etown (Shibolith is under military rule because of the tensions with Thekla to the south, and there's a fortess/military base there called ETown). The fortifications are now a bit gappy – in fact they use a hole in the wall as a back door – and electronic repellers are used to keep out wild animals. These also protect the orchard and the main path to the village. These are the things Yasmine got past by spitting on them. Sylvester and Mortimer, Rosemary, Arthur and Fantod walk towards Eetown, discussing how the area came to be renamed Audravania instead of Northwoods, after Audra's death, and the vast lands which Audra had ruled before her fatal decision to poke the Hot Zone. Audra had made a voluntary marriage, albeit a political one, but prior to her many future Earls had been forcibly betrothed as children. Plenty of women at university wanted to marry Sylvester for his title, even though he was a poor scholarship boy. Sylvester could, even now, become a gold-digger and find a rich woman who would marry him for his title. Rosemary makes a point of saying she supposes he hates that sort of person: she's probably thinking that marrying for money may be how he will become what he hates. We learn that while at university Sylvester attended the coronation of the king and queen, Yancy and Fluer. Amos has visited the capital with Frederick, but Nellie has never been outside Audravania, except on her honeymoon, when they went to a town called Rowen which was fashionable before the Crash. This leads to a discussion of an island off Eetown, called Alwin, which belongs to the Earls but which they allow honeymooning couples from the village to use. Mortimer says that this arrangement is important to the villagers, which leads to him telling Sylvester what's going on there at the moment – including a break-in at Genrick's tailor shop, where stuff was taken overnight, but money was left for it, for more than the stolen clothes were worth. Possibly this was Frowgler, taking the hat he later gave to Fizmo: but the reference is to "some clothes", so if it was Frowgler what else did he take, and why? Rufus's friend Eunice is mentioned as one of a number of people who have recently moved into the area (and Mortimer doesn't seem to remember that she zapped him): the village is growing and there is a debate, known as the Inside-Out fight, as to whether or not to expand it beyond the boundary hedge. Peter Nigultrum (a half-Polarite) is engaged to Ida, and Mortimer mentions a couple called Hooper and Pandowny who both seem to be male, and says it would help if Sylvester could be there if and when they marry. Evidently there is a small amount of prejudice against same-sex couples. They meet and speak to the pig-farmer Terin Flem and his dog Byron, sitting on a rock outside the village, whittling. This is the same Mr Flem we saw with Eunice before, who comes from the same area (Moonin) as Rosemary and who used to be Guardian to the hardline Oracle named Omega, whom Sylvester didn't get on with. Flem asks Mortimer to ask young Dirge (the current Guardian) to come by, and Fantod mentions "rarebits" he has promised to Byron, or prhaps vice versa. They pass a sign indicating the town dump and Bechdel, which is Mr Flem's pig farm,and the surname of his son in law. He was married while a Guardian. Omega treated him as an afterthought: her original Guardian died in the Crash. Omega preached doom and hellfire and opposed education and change, which still has a lingering effect on the attitudes of the villagers. She was at least not a hypocrite, and was fiercely honest and dutiful and a proficient healer. Sylvester and Mortimer have an obscure private conversation about change: Mortimer wants to do more and different, things he should have done while Omega was alive but didn't, but Sylvester tells him to keep it quiet for the moment as they shouldn't spring too many changes on the villagers at once, and they are still anti-magic. They can't keep it secret forever, though, as Nellie is a gossip. We see an image of Mortimer's future self with the female Motihaul and the woman with clubbed hair. Meanwhile Rosemary talks to Arthur and Fantod. Arthur tries to quiz Rosemary about how she got there but she evades the question and instead asks him about what Weirdos do. They are jesters who "speak truth to power". Their original accents are trained out of them (Arthur is from Alfibay), which raises more questions about Yasmine. Arthur, Fantod and Rosemary discuss the new, safer denizens' tunnel from the Mansion to the Basement, and the disappearance of the Sneeches. Meanwhile the party arrives at the outskirts of the village and Sylvester shows Rosemary the irrigation ditches and other features. They come to the Temple, which was made from the remains of a much grander one ("about the fanciest one east of Rowen") which was destroyed in the Crash, and which lies just outside the hedge which surrounds the village, rather than at the centre of town as would be the norm. Omega had it built there so that, post Crash, people approaching could see a sign that this was an outpost of civilisation, and she trusted the Brush to keep it safe. The town's previous Temple had been destroyed (and the previous local Oracle, Riverbend, had been killed), and so had the town in Wirtwam where Omega was posted previously. She built this Temple out of stones from the old one, and it's actually rather nice. We learn that Sylvester and Mortimer's father had been partially responsible for, and died in, some kind of accident involving a circus and a stampeding elifinos in a nearby town called Noodle, known as the Noodle Incident and so famous that even people Out West know about it. Their father wasn't entirely or solely to blame, but he made a good scapegoat. The Eman family is unpopular in Noodle, not just because of the Incident but because Sylvester promotes the interests of the Eetown tooterfisheries and cuts into the profits of the Noodle Fish-Mongers Association. They meet a little girl called Juniper, who is the granddaughter of Amos and Nellie and tells them "everyone" is in the Temple. Her father Arlen is Hedgemaster and her mother keeps bees. She has a special friendship with Fantod. The group go through a sensory ritual – watch the flames, smell the blossoms, taste the water, touch the earth (in the form of a giant stone, originally at the Mansion's private Temple and personally blessed by Violet) and listen to the Brush. The last is done by sitting on a bench made of rare and precious materials (this one is made of a sort of pourable, durable Ettin-made plastic): Arthur and Mortimer are the only ones who feel the need to do so. It is mentioned that the tree will bloom in a month or so (we are reminded later that it's currently mid April). To mark Hallowe'en we see a raiding party of Nomes, including Umboz's brother Frotz who is desperate to get out of it, probably creeping towards the north Gnoll village. They are scared off by a pumpkin-headed spectre which is really Frowgler in costume (possibly borrowed from the female Motihaul Strode, although it doesn't have crescent-horn-holes), using some kind of glowing magic or technology to fly. Rosemary and Juniper discuss where various people come from, and Rosemary manages to give the girl a very strange idea of what a walrus looks like. They talk with Sylvester about Inuit-equivalents called Tunits, who live on the Iceshore north of Alfibay in the west of Yurpsland, and the secretive, hostile Haroons who live in forest between the Iceshore and Alfibay, and the harsh, uninhabited and uninhabitable northen shore called Skralland, to the north of Audravania, which might or might not have been named after someone called Skral who is even less well-documented than Frizzlegarb. Aside from army bases, Eetown and the Mansion are now the most northernmost Human habitations on the east shore. We learn that there used to be a secretive underground nation called the Great Underearth Empire of the Northern Pole, colloquially known as the Polarites, but their society was destroyed in the Crash. They used to have an exit tunnel in northern Audravania, for trade and called the Gate of Commerce, because Eetown was booming and they hoped to trade with the Far East Shore; as well as the famous Gate of Diplomacy in Paydon and the Gate of Remembrance on the Iceshore north of Alfibay. But the Gate of Commerce was destroyed by the Crash after only five years. In Paydon a "Salvagetown" grew up around the ruins of the Gate of Diplomacy, challenged by surviving Polarites who were away from home when the Crash hit. There are people in Eetown of half Haroon (Ilsa Lundquist) or half Polarite (Peter Nigultrum) ancestry, and they can't ever go home. Since Ilsa's mother left the tribes she would be treated as a stranger by the Haroons, despite her green hair; and Peter's father's Polarite home no longer exists. Meanwhile, Arthur and Mortimer sit on the bench and ask for divine assurance that they are doing the right thing, and both receive it, more or less. Fantod and Juniper talk about her hopes for a more interesting career than hedging, and how she'd like to see more of Nellie and Amos, and how sorry she is for Peter and Ilsa that they can't go home. We see an out-take for Thanksgiving, in which Myrrh and Frederick are about to start on a feast. I have left this in the time-line, as well as putting it with the Christmas cards etc., because it fits with the idea that they have gone on a second (or, strictly speaking, first) honeymoon, and it leads into subsequent episodes where they are at the Spires. Myrrh is using weird cutlery that fits onto rings on her forefinger and thumb, to eat Demon-specific foods. We learn later that they are not yet at the Spires here, but elsewhere. 05: Eetown – The Temple [28/11/2014 – 25/08/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #4060–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips start–#4323] The party from the Mansion enter the Temple, where Sylvester introduces Rosemary to the Oracle Threnody and various town worthies. Sylvester assures the townsfolk in the Temple that despite his family's recent history in such matters Rosemary is Human, and fully qualified to be Taskmistress, "highly qualified, physically and mentally". We see an image of Myrrh, and of a mad-looking Human woman wielding a rolling pin, who is evidently a recentish Mansion employee who turned out not to be emotionally qualified: perhaps this is Olga. He informs them that Frederick has retired as Regent and Mortimer will be taking over. Sheriff Patrick Skragg quizzes Rosemary as to whether she is a fugitive from the King's Law. She swears that she isn't, then sends the child Juniper off with the Weirdo and Fantod to show Fantod how she's been practising some skill he's been helping her with. Once they are out of earshot she tells the rest that she is also taking over Myrrh's duties as bodyguard and will be wearing a sword. Threnody is dubious about Rosemary's past use of violent force, but accepts that it may have been necessary. The Sheriff provisionally accepts Rosemary's offer of help with the town milita [sic]: there isn't one, as such, but he says he could use another trained deputy, aside from Dirge. But Waldo Weequash, head of the Eetown Guild of Fisherfolk and Octopus Wranglers, thinks Rosemary is a vagabond who will bring a criminal element into the town. Saffron Stout, innkeeper and impromptu mayor, points out that Rosemary will mainly be at the Mansion and agrees with the Sheriff that they should give her a chance, and asks Sylvester to call on her privately later. She asks after Frederick's health, and whether Sylvester knows anything about the Pit flare. He says that as far as he knows none of his household were involved, except insofar as his great-great-uncle helped build it: that must be Hindenburgh. Threnody – who is emergency backup Taskmistress – quizzes Rosemary about her Temple attendance, and Rosemary promises to make sure Sylvester goes to Temple more often. The last Temple Rosemary attended was in Jonetown East and Threnody thinks that Blackbird, the Oracle there, might some day be Prime Oracle. Outside the Temple, the townsfolk discuss Rosemary privately. The Sheriff is planning to check up on her in police records, just in case, but they agree she seems an improvement on Myrrh. They discuss the fact that non-Humans are allowed to join the religion and are treated equally (although Sylvester suggests that that's the official position but not always adhered to) and some Nomes and Motihauls have been ordained as Oracles, but other non-Humans (Pales are shown as an example) resisted conversion. Sylvester mentions that he has heard that the Nomes have a male priest, and Threnody is interested in meeting him. Mortimer and the Weirdo remain at the Temple to light memorial candles to speed the passage of the dead, the Weirdo for his friend Tulip, and Mortimer for Nitfol whom he wrongly believes to be dead. Threnody assumes that Arthur learned of his friend's death through the post, and Sylvester, who has worked out that Arthur probably learned about it from Yasmine, signals to Mortimer not to contradict her. While Mortimer and the Weirdo are praying, Rosemary and Sylvester look at the Temple's paintings of the various founding Oracles, and discuss their favourites. Rosemary follows Hettie, who carried a light in the darkness and made the dark and the unknown part of the Brush, and Sylvester likes Joice, who stood for inspiration. Mortimer passes on a message to Dirge, the current Guardian, that Finale, the previous Guardian (=Terin Flem), would like to speak to him: Dirge doesn't seem happy about it. Mortimer wants to ask about why Sylvester shushed him, but feels that the time is not yet because somebody might overhear. The group go and stand by a large boulder outside the town gates ("The Town Rock") where they won't be overheard, and discuss Yasmine and the Weirdos generally. Mortimer is able to pick them out because he can sense their mind shapes. They discuss the fact that Rosemary has not been taught any magical theory, because she was educated at the Hack & Slash Academy whose purpose was to produce effective H&S employees and they very rarely encounter magic-users these days. Also H&S is riddled with factions: they used to have a Wizwitch Brigade and Rosemary suspects it may still exist but is being kept a secret, even from other factions in H&S. We learn that the Weirdo Academy is very ancient. It's in a town called Marksburg, which is in Fredonia, and is where the E boys' mother came from. Nowadays Marksburg has a stodgy reputation, but it has a lively history. In the past there were several Weirdo schools and Weirdos went by several names, such as Tomfool. Milo was the first Earl of E to hire one. The Trio fall to discussing the various worthies they met at the Temple. Sylvester fills Rosemary in on the background to the various individuals, and village issues such as the need to bring in a full-time Healer, since at the moment the Oracle, Threnody, is both healer and teacher, and as the village population grows it's getting hard for her to cope. Better to bring in an outside Healer, as thanks to Omega's influence the village would never pay for a separate teacher. Sylvester's only friends in the village are Peter Nigultrum the solicitor, and a fisherman called Captain Tugwart: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting because they would be discussing Sylvester. Weesquash resents him because Sylvester has more power than him and has set policies which benefit him, thus obliging him to feel grateful. They discuss who is and isn't local. People who were born in the village are accepted as local even if their parents were foreign, as is the case with Peter. Anyone not born there is a foreigner. The exceptions are the Oracle and Guardian, and Old Man Larssen. If Rosemary stays fifty years they will still be annoyed if she marries a local (other than one of the E boys) and she'll still be "The Mooninite" because she wasn't born in Eetown. She says she'll earn a more distinctive label than that, thinking of herself as some sinister dark queen with a flaming sword. Guardians are often specifically trained for specific areas (we see images of Guardians with a zap trident, a Ghast ceremonial spoon and a bat on a leash). Rosemary can tell that Dirge is combat-trained and wonders why the High Temple thought Eeetown needed him. This leads to a discussion about how the Spyders and Tree-Squids got into the area; and about things called Raviners or Hill Crabs, which people in Moonin sometimes eat, and which may be able to be provoked into producing a useful ichor; and the fact that the E family used to grow and sell the killer trees. Mortimer would like to talk about the events of the previous day but they don't have time. As they approach the entrance to Eetown proper they discuss various Oracles Rosemary has met on her travels. In a brief out-take, we see Schmedley placing a black arm-band on the flipper of the statue of the world-turtle which we glimpsed before, to commemorate the death of Terry Pratchett. Sylvester and co. discuss the defences of Eetown, with drawbridges put in after the Crash. These were scrounged from houses in Crestheights, a posh district near the Masion, destroyed in the Crash. The defences are not very good, and post-Crash the town had some trouble with raiders until Myrrh got back. She, Frederick and Quincy had been holidaying in Aruba (an island without magic) when the Crash hit. It was on their way back that Quincy met Agnes, his future wife. Meanwhile the town made a defensive wall out of crashed cars, and then grew a hedge over and through them. We see an ancient wand-tree called an Oakapple (nothing to do with real oak apples) which grows just inside the hedge. Post-Crash, the rallying point for local survivors was a pub called the Moose and Squirrel. Because it was a cheap outfit which didn't use much magic it survived the Crash relatively intact. The innkeeper, Simon, had acquired the place by dubious means, but he became impromptu mayor and did a good job of coordinating disaster relief. Sylvester and co. head for the local administrative offices, but as they pass by the fountain in the (unpaved) main square they become aware that they have an audience. Sylvester lectures Rosemary about the layout of the town, where the bathhouse is etc., trying to sound confident and impress the watchers. The town has a watch tower, but these days it's mainly used as a love-nest. They speak to the townsfolk who have been watching them, and Rosemary (under the false surname Dapple) is introduced to everybody. Most striking, perhaps, is a young mother called Silence Krenshaw whom Sylvester knows very well, and had considered hiring as Taskmistress. We will learn that she and Sylvester were childhood playmates. They discuss Rosemary's duties, and that Sylvester wants Rosemary to serve as a Mature and Responsible Adult, a formal title which seems to mean that she will somehow help him to find a wife. He does not fancy Rosemary herself. Silence says that there is somebody out there for Sylvester. Mortimer meanwhile talks to an adoring fanclub of young girls. They ask him about his umbrella and he says you never know when a storm might blow up. One of them, possibly named Hanna, is evidently psychic and she realises both that he is speaking metaphorically, and that a metaphorical storm is indeed coming. Sylvester and co. head for Government House, followed by a gaggle of children. They discuss the pudding plant, a local cash crop which only grows well in Audravania. Rosemary has never eaten a fresh one. Rosemary wonders why so small a town has a bank. Sylvester explains that it gives them independence from the Noodle Fish-Monger's Association, and lists the conditions required in order for them to have an official bank, and its personnel (the village blacksmith Sheldon doubles as a nominal guard, but it does have a real assistant clerk, Permelia). It is illegal for an agent of the King's Law, such as the Sheriff, officially to work for a bank. The town government is full of bickering and back-biting. The bank manager is Peter Nigultrum, who also helps the sub-literate to write letters because it's a rustic area and some people can barely read and write. Rosemary says you haven't seen rustic till you've seen the deep back-woods of Moonin: we see a man wearing antlers, a woman wearing wings, a child with a staff, and a standing stone with a skull on top. As they approach the bank they meet Peter's fiancée Ida. Ida and Rosemary discuss Rosemary's home district of Moonin and the presence there of the Beacons, three shimmering offshore monoliths believed to date back to the Dawn Wars. Ida seems unaware that the Mansion is equally interesting and almost equally historic. The first Prime Oracle, Daisy, came from Moonin, but Rosemary feels that Daisy was ashamed of her humble origins. The most important local Oracle is Jackstraw in Glome. They meet Peter, the half-Polarite bank manager, who works out that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress from her clothes. They tell him that Frederick and Myrrh have retired, and that Mortimer is a wizard. The only bit that surprises Peter is that Myrrh is able to retire. We glimpse Myrrh at some sort of hotel, apparently amusing herself by wrestling robots, and Ida gossiping about having just met them. Peter predicts that Mortimer's newfound wizard status will lead to trouble. We see Dirge, the current Guardian, and Terin Flem, the previous one, discussing the changes in personnel at the Mansion, and saying that Dirge has a decision to make: apparently, whether or not to report Mortimer to the authorities. Thirty years post-Crash, when Flem first saw signs that Mortimer was a wizard, magic was regarded as evil. He should really have told Omega that Mortimer was a wizard, but then somebody would have come and taken the boy away, and Flem liked Mortimer, so he kept quiet. An officious government clerk named Appleby also failed to report Mortimer – Flem thinks he just never noticed what was going on because he was stuck behind his desk. Dirge will tell Threnody about Mortimer, but won't call someone to collect him unless Mortimer wants him to. Flem tells Dirge about Eunice being out in the woods again. After Dirge has left, Flem tells his dog Byron that he hated Omega. Peter tells Mortimer there may still be a magic school which Threnody could help him find if Amos turns out not to be a good teacher. They discuss Polarite technology and social structures: Peter's father was in security, relatively low-status but with access to information. Peter had thought of contacting the surviving Polarites in the capital, but Sylvester says they would scorn him for having facial hair. The Polarites were divided into three regions, Bism, Mahar and Symm. The Vril Undercroft, a sub-group of the Symmites and the group to which Peter's father belonged, were allowed to open a Commerce Gate in northern Audravania, where they to some extent went native and became more open and sociable than most Polarites. That was why Peter's father was able to be wandering around on the surface without any magical machinery when the Crash hit, and so survived. The Polarites seem all to have worn one to six (the more, the higher the rank) wiggly wires with glowing balls on the tip, set into the back of their hair: these are reminiscent of the antennae we will later see Spire folk wearing. Surviving Polarites in exile often have short versions of the wiggly wires, but without the glowing tips. Sylvester and Rosemary give Peter a highly edited version of Rosemary's life story (and she has a flashback of hiding from Tansy). Peter knows the Mansion and its dangers well – he even has his own Spindizzy, Alfred. [An out-take at this point celebrates the legalization of gay mariage in the US by showing Baldy with a slightly younger – and much hairier – boyfriend, looking at rainbow Vagabond flutterbys.] Peter tells Sylvester they have some paperwork to go over [Ipcress files!], so Sylvester asks Mortimer to take Rosemary away and introduce her to Shadrik, an ox-like Metalmin. Sylvester and Peter then discuss Peter's upcoming marriage to Ida. Peter says Sylvester will never marry a local girl because they aren't academically stimulating enough – not even Ida or Silence – whereas he himself was looking for somebody who was restful to be with. Sylvester will be his best man. Sylvester trusts Peter so much that he tells him at least the gist of Rosemary's true story, including that Dapple isn't her real surname (although not what is). Peter will look out for people looking out for Rosemary, and send the signal Rose, Pine, Apple through "the usual channel" if he can safely do so. Sylvester doesn't want to marry Rosemary because she's not intellectual or educated, but she's a perfect Taskmistress – so perfect he suspects somebody is interfering in his life, and sent her to him. [Out-take: to celebrate the strip's twelfth anniversary: we briefly see the pirate hamster and his crew approaching an island which has a sapient tree. The tree thinks that it has been twelve years: in-universe, probably since it last saw the plant, since the plant swears to itself when it sees where they are.] We see that Eunice works in the pub, apparently as a cook (and Frowgler is lurking behind some sacks on a shelf, watching her). Rosemary and Mortimer are given free sausages by the town's Sausage Stroller. Mortimer is feeling very guilty about having accidentally magically hypnotised Rosemary the day before, so she punishes and absolves him by giving him a light bonk on the head, but says that being hypnotised by him was mostly quite enjoyable. They talk about the fact that he has only left the area a few times (and was in Noodle when his father died there), and comes across as rather sheltered, but now responsibility has been thrust on him and he will meet it. Rosemary talks about the relatively safe life she left to become a bodyguard, and the fact that her home village had an ancient ruined tower built by Gobblems, and which she used to climb. She later travelled to most of the places she could see from up there, but many of the towns were a bit same-y because they were rebuilt at the same time, after Unification. Talking about education and the E-family tutor causes Mortimer to realise there's something about Rufus and Eunice which he is forgetting. They look at Shadrik, which/who is a haulage Metalmin who is fairly bright but doesn't speak, and lives in a former stable. Sadrik living in a shed leads to a mention of Dorian Ingersoll the hermit who used to live in a hut. Dorian's history is confusing: we've been told he's lived in the Spike for forty-two years, but here we're told he lived in the forest when Mortimer was a child, and we've seen the ruins of his hut when Yasmine came across them. He obviously shared his time and wasn't in the Spike full-time. Shadrik's battery is flat but Rufus is working on recharging it: even when he's working only the Earl, the Mayor and the Sheriff can give him orders. Rosemary works out that Sylvester just wanted her and Mortimer out of the way so he could speak to Peter privately. To kill time she suggests they climb the local watchtower, so she can survey the terrain. To get to it they go through a warehouse used to store apples, which has been altered and added to till it's almost as complex as the Mansion (one of the doors is lanelled "STILL ALIVE KEEP IN"). They are passed by some sort of functionary (beginning with a B) who wears false Nome ears and costume wings. It's possible the B stands for Batgirl, especially as she lives in the Belfry "like usual". Mortimer is wafted a note, possibly left by the Batgirl, to say that the writer has their eye on Eunice and Rufus, who are up to something. 06: Eetown – The State [26/08/2015 – 20/11/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4330–#4421] From the tower Rosemary and Mortimer look down on the village square, which includes a fuzzball court. Mortimer points out various districts of the town, and they see Old Man Larssen's place outside the town hedge, although he has a hedge of his own. Rosemary is pleased to be able to see the Specific Ocean, which was on her To-Do List. They discuss a range of wonders Rosemary hopes to see (including The Running of the Clams in Woldercan, which may be a clams-got-legs B.C. reference), many of which have already been visited by Mortimer's mother and sister, although they were unable to get into a place called Sybola where there is some kind of secret Rosemary wishes to solve. They visited the Spires of Mechana and Sylvester's sister Lil said they were "really creepy". Rosemary thinks the main thing on Mortimer's To-Do List right now should be to learn how to use the wand-umbrella. A Labour Day out-take shows various kinds of labour in Eetown, including the Batgirl who is writing or drawing at an easel, and Violet wrestling with a piglet. Rosemary and Mortimer meet Sylvester outside the bank and he refers to the Batgirl as "our Flittermouse". Sylvester takes them to meet Sherman P Gray, the new(ish) government Clerk of Eetown. The previous clerk, Hubert Appleby (who didn't get on with Omega) died at his desk eight years previously. Sherman has a telegraph machine (loathed by Omega) run off batteries re-charged by a hand-turned charger, and many duties, one of which is to register new arrivals like Rosemary. He is also postman and tax-collector, and has a form for Mortimer to register as the new Regent of E. [In a brief out-take, we see the pirates (hamster and co.), having landed at Piratestash Island, recruit a resident gull to the crew. The stunted but sapient tree on the island implies that the Plant is being punished by being required to stay with the crew.] We learn about the unofficial but influential Tome of Royal Succession, a kind of Debrett's Peerage. The Keepers of the Tome will want to know about changes to Sylvester's "official retinue": not only about Mortimer becoming Regent, but about Rosemary becoming Taskmistress. We are reminded of the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setup by the fact that Rosemary is impressed that the Post Office pigeon-holes have doors, garnered from post-Crash architectural salvage. While Sylvester is checking his postal Inbox it is confirmed that it is now 14th April 5423HC ("Historical Counting"). Sherman sees from her form that Rosemary comes from an island called Dyngusmyles, which has a reputation for having wild, backwoods people, and has strange weather and biology because it's close to the Beacons, which before the Crash attracted research parties from the university in Azimuth. We see that the lights from the Beacons are a bit similar to Eyebolt Weirding. Sherman himself comes from a frost-mining area in Thull. They compare weather: Sherman was surprised to find that though Eetown is farther north than the frost mines of Crag Sinsoss that he came from, it has a milder local climate. Sylvester warns Sherman that Rosemary is a fighter and will be wearing a sword as part of her duties. Sherman OKs this but says that while they are in his government office weapons must be deposited in a special receptacle, and Mortimer promptly puts his umbrella in it. Sherman fills Sylvester in on various items of news, including the fact that a ship from a far-off region named Coradine has visited the port of Woldercan in the west of Yurpsland. Coradine is part of the same continent as the Mansion but it's a group of islands as far west as it gets, beautiful but quite reclusive and ritualistic, and many of its inhabitants are Motihauls. To get to Woldercan the Coradine ship would have had to sail round the edge of a region called Kadath, which is inhabited by Wendigoes, and past an island called Honaly (as in Puff the Magic Dragon) where there are [Human?] Viking-type sea-raiders whom we see sailing a ship whose sail bears the image of the hamster pirate captain, then right across the north coasts of Thembria, Upper Slubovia, Ruratana and Tiranog. It's possible they came for Yurple Juice, a wildly popular and expensive drink with magical properties. After posting Rosemary's letter to Aunt Eva (in the guise of an official letter from Sylvester) the party take leave of Sherman, promising to return later to set up a post-box for Rosemary and collect the newspaper. Mortimer and Sylvester share a post box but Frederick and the staff each have their own: we see Frederick receiving a skull-faced box with a bow on top, Amos receiving book-binding supplies and Schemdley apparently receiving a love letter. There is a mention of the previous day's magical Pit-flare being a reoccurring event, and of the recent finding of a dead Ichyoid washed into the harbour. As they come away they talk about the fact that Sherman's girlfriend in nearby Obtown married someone else. Sylvester says that Myrrh is listed in the Official Threats Compendium, but since she hasn't killed anybody it's not worth anyone's while to go to the trouble of trying to banish her. Behind them, in his office, Sherman looks up Mortimer's umbrella in the Official Threats Compendium, and finds it. We learn that there's a series of Government departments with harmless-sounding names – Redundancy, Secondary Overlap, Tertiary Retainment – which process information and look for interesting connections. They discuss rural pubs. Rosemary is an expert on awful pubs: we see one whose sign is a hand choking a Jibjib; one whose sign appears to be a jellyfish on toast, with a female Motihaul collapsed drunk outside with flies buzzing round her and a rat on her knee; and one where recalcitrant customers were thrown into a pit of wild Saurs. Rory Vinsmith, the innkeeper in Moonin with the Saur pit, was executed for murder and the pub was re-named The Saur Pit in his honour. In the west he is famous, but now they are so far from her home that nobody's heard of him, which makes Rosemary realise how big Yurpsland is. Big news does travel, however: Rosemary had heard about the Noodle Incident, and Sylvester had heard about the Drumshambo Massacre. Saffron, the local innkeeper at The Moose and Squirrel, may have heard of Vinsmith, and Sylvester quietly warns Rosemary that Saffron may also have heard of her Aunt Eva, the gambler. There is a pale grey cat wandering along a window ledge at the ront of The Moose and Squirrel. They enter the pub and meet Sharona, Saffron's niece, who is Mortimer's semi-girlfriend with whom he had a date on the coming Friday (it's currently Monday), and the daughter of Sheldon the blacksmith. She is overcome by the smell of sphagnum dust coming off Mortimer. They meet Mavis, one of the barmaids, and then Saffron. Eunice Kelso is also one of her barmaids, along with Mavis Mossett and Flossy Efflore, and there's a cook called Gormind Trencherman and a bouncer and stablehand called [Chauncy?] Hobson. Mention is made of people in Moonin distilling a spirit from muckroots: the distillery seems to be called Fancy Rat Spirits, with a logo of a rat in a monocle and a straw boater. Characters called : Wendell and Ricky, who we will learn are the town's odd-jobbers, are also mentioned: Wendell is prone to sudden wild enthusiasms . Sharona is repelled by the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer, and dumps him for being too unreliable and accident-prone (he feels guilty, because she had slipped his mind until he saw her). Saffron takes a bottle of Pudding Liquor, just uncorked that day, from a shelf: something grey, probably Frowgler's nose, is glimpsed poking out from behind an adjacent bottle. They drink from it, and Sylvester immediately passes out, while Rosemary begins seeing imaginary glowing flutterbies. Mortimer seems unaffected. 07: Revelations [30/11/2015 – 27/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4428–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips start–#4602] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. We begin, therefore, with the eyes of various small creatures, including Smyts, being dazzled and impressed by the glowing tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Rosemary and Sylvester wake, very groggy, to find themselves lying on a jetty on Alwin Island, the honeymoon destination, accompanied by the grey cat who had been outside the pub. The island will prove to be littered with large stone sculptures, mostly of non-Human animals. They agree that they must have been drugged (there is mention of glitterberries, which seem to be this world's equivalent of magic mushrooms, although that's probably not what was used), not just drunk, and discuss possible culprits. Presumably it's somebody who wants to embarass Sylvester, not kill him. Neither of them really thinks it was Saffron, and this is confirmed by a brief view of Mavis the barmaid discovering Saffron herself collapsed behind the bar and asking for a shot of clingweed tonic (the same plant Telic asked Comshaw to bring him). Permelia Weesquash might, but she doesn't frequent the pub or know anyone who works with herbs except Threnody (we see Threnody with tongs, about to pluck a glowing berry from the "tongue" of one of the small carnivorous plants). Sylvester's main suspect is Old Man Larssen, the town vet, who is very educated but also obsessive and secretive, a bit like Crazy Rhid – even so Sylvester doesn't really think he did it. He half suspects Eunice, who comes from Noodle, passes as a non-entity and could be an agent of his enemies the Noodle Fishmongers' Association. But we glimpse Eunice thinking that she has no idea what just happened in the bar but she'd better report it anyway. No other visitors are expected – nobody comes there except newlyweds, or about-to-be-weds preparing the venue. There is however a rowing boat concealed on the island. They manage to stagger to their feet in order to go find the boat, but Rosemary thinks they are still both too stoned to steer and suggests that since they were planning to have a private talk anyway, now is a good time and place. Sylvester shows Rosemary some of the sights of the island, since as Taskmistress she will be expected to oversee the team of respectable village matrons who prepare the honeymoon cabin for weddings. They return to the dock (and the cat) to sit and talk, on the far side of the island from the village. Further out they can see Scraggy Island, which holds a lighthouse and the town graveyard. The lighthouse keeper is Dougal Izzard. His wife Selene Perkins left but their daughter Shelby stayed, married Grumby the carpenter and had a son Edson who is apprentice lighthouse-keeper. The hobby of Cloudmapping is mentioned. Sylvester sits on a bench on the pier but Rosemary declines to sit next to him. Instead, the cat does, but he shoves her off when she tries to sit on his knee. Here there is an outtake scene showing Frederick and Myrrh playing chess with two men called Jebidiah and Jones, who are wearing formal dinner suits. These are based on Angus Scrimm and David Bowie, who died that week, and a poster of Grabthar's Hammer on the wall commemorates Alan Rickman, also lost. In the background, visible over the top of a stone wall, we can see the Spires of Mechana, which are more of an upright sausage shape than pointy. Sylvester talks Rosemary through the history of the area, beginning with creation by the Brush (it is mentioned that there is also life on Perelandra and Barsoom) and the first civilization, the Wilfs and Gobbblems (Dreamers and Builders), who erected wonderful buildings and even had colonies on the moon before destroying each other in the Dawn War. Sylvester has glimpsed what seemed to be a Wilf and a Gobblem through a Panegate, so it may be that there are survivors in other realities, but that Panegate is in a part of the Mansion which is only periodically accessible, and won't be again for fifteen years. Then came the Ettins and Sneeches, who may have already existed but been suppressed, and who now built up another high-tech civilization and then again destroyed it in war, after which Humans and Nomes moved in, spreading from jungles in the south. Before that destruction, the Ettins built the main towers of the Mansions of E and S. The Tower of S was so-called because of an S-shaped mark on the walls, so the Scions of S made that their symbol, but the Mansion of E is a corruption of the Tower of Ett(in)s – their names were later changed from Tower to Mansion for some beaurocratic reason. Their symbol was originally a serif E with a tall tail on the bottom bar, crossed by two short horizontal lines to make an ETT monogram, but over time the crossbars got lost. The Ettins also built the Spire and "one or two other things" – we see a tangle of spikes, which might be branches, each tipped with a glowing light. The Ettin/Sneech war largely passed Audravania by, leaving it with these fairly intact Ettin buildings. According to the Spindizzies the Ettin name of the Mansion is PRFO4223. We learn that nomadic Humans who didn't even have agriculture reached the Towers late in the Human diaspora, at a time when the country of Ackbar, in the south-west of the continent, already had quite an advanced Human civilization along the banks of the Refutation (De Nial). The name of the first Earl isn't known but he led his tribe into the valley and died while storming the Tower: the exact wording of the legend is "the Earl stormed the heights, and the heights broke with thunder, and none ever came back down". Legend also says he fought and defeated living Ettins but this is unlikely given their advanced technology. A lone Ettin skull was later found in the Tower. The first Earl's descendants avoided the interior of the Tower for generations afterwards but they set up camp and built new buildings around its foot. The area was rich in resources and they had to fight off generations of would-be invaders. Sylvester gives Rosemary a detailed run-down of the various Earls, which you can find summarised on the background page. The most salient points are that agriculture began to be established at the time of Ettrath, the 5th Earl, and so did neighbouring fiefdoms: the Scions of S to the north, Myways to the west and Obtund to the south. S was eventually destroyed by Angus, the 16th Earl. Myways and, for a couple of generations, Obtund were defeated and made vassals of E: Myways was destroyed in the Crash and there's nothing there now but a coaching inn, but the Obtunds are still around, with their own Duke, and are friendly neighbours. Many of the early Earls of E were villains and slave-traders who came to power by murdering their predecessors, until they got to the brilliant philosopher and strategist Milo, the 9th Earl, who severed the family's links to the slave trade, converted to the new religion of the Brush, moved into the Ettin-built Tower and made contact with the Spindizzies. What they know about the earlier history of the family is just what was written by Milo – quite possibly the first Earl to be able to write – and may not be 100% accurate. Milo's mother, Persafone, was a slave who had been an educated aristocrat before being enslaved, and came from an advanced culture between what are now Paydon and Thull, but at the time were called Pay Downs and Hoar Hull. She deliberately trained Milo up to be a successful warrior who would murder Milo's father, Frake, at her urging, knowing Milo would help her to survive her intended coup against Frake. Milo had ambivalent feelings about her: as Earl he kept her in elegant comfort but well away from any decision-making. He was seen as weak because he was educated, so as soon as he became Earl the Mansion was attacked by Myways and Obtund, but he soundly defeated them and made them pay tribute. Milo was established and confident enough to travel, and met his future wife Nettana in the Forest of Burzee. She was an aristocrat from the Iridescent Kingdom of Southern Kroke in what is now Isdanlia, but at the time was an advanced but fragmented region. She was intelligent, stylish, determined and he was intelligent, brave, forthright, tall, athletic and had nice hair His heart was more in intellectual learning than bloodshed and after his wife died he abdicated in favour of his son, and sailed away to explore new lands. Milo's son Dorn I was scientifically-minded and bred the Dornbeasts for use as living siege engines. They were named in his honour after he was kiled by one, but he called them Siegebeasts and they were bred up from swamp-dwelling Chompbeasts, non-sapient distant relatives of the Ettins. Selling Siegebeasts marked the beginning of the rise of E as an economic power. After he was killed by one his wife Aimee became Regent for their son Dorn II, who unfortunately was a shallow sports jock obsessed with Starball and hunting, although he did continue to breed and sell Dornbeasts. Dorn II was mostly gay and apart from getting an heir with his wife Olivia Obtund his sexual partnership (of a sort, since Dorn wasn't very highly sexed) was with a guy named Heffston, who was a much better strategist and ruler than Dorn. Heffston was from a humble background but worked to educate himself, and laid the foundation for the E-family library. It was another century before an Oracle named Brittlebush legalised gay marriage. In an aside, we see Arthur and Fantod talking to village children. They seem to believe Rosemary and Sylvester are still in the inn with Saffron. Village gossip evidently has Sylvester and Saffron getting married. Dorn II was killed, possibly by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, an ambitious local girl who had a loving but quarrelsome relationship with Dorn's son Lemuel, the Panegate expert. Lemuel eventually abdicated in favour of his daughter Wilhelmina, who was aided and defended by her step-grandfather Heffston. By so doing, Heffston both atoned for not having paid enough attention to Lemuel as a boy, and got revenge on Charlotte for her suspected role in the death of Dorn II, by turning her daughter against her. Charlotte was banished to a set of apartments inside a cave on Mount Ett, and Lemuel drove his carriage up there every evening to spend the night with her. Wilhelmina just called herself W for most purposes and was considered ceremonailly male, to the point of wearing a false beard. Her reign was peaceful and prosperous: she was no more interested in being Earl than her father had been, but she was more skilled at picking good subordinates to whom she could delegate. She had some magic, strong but restricted to manipulating stone, and was a prolific sculptor who made a lot of money by travelling to other stately homes to perform tricky bits of stonework. She visited the Sculpted Isles and there met her husband Alwin, then returned with him and deposed her parents, despite the fact that her mother Charlotte had sort-of promised her in marriage to Shaw IV, Scion of S: this, along with economic rivalry. led to the falling-out between E and S, and the destruction of S about a century later. Alwin's health had been damaged by Wyvern Pox as a child and he was "a lazy gadabout pretty-boy" but W loved him, and he was a good father to their twins. After Alwin's death, twenty years after their marriage, W unofficially abandoned ruling in favour of obsessively covering Alwin Island with sculptures. One of her younger sisters became a very famous and scary witch called Arianya of the Brackens, who moved West and is now the best-known of the E family. W committed suicide by allowing a large block of stone to fall on her, and was succeeded by her son Linus, the combat botanist. Linus went on an expedition to the jungle and married a Zanduan woman named Padma who had a vicious sense of humour and was his intellectual and magical equal, and with whom he had five daughters and two sons. He was the first Earl to wear glasses, and got up a consortium of local nobles to bring thaumnodes to the area. He and Padma explored the Basement (at a time when most of the species down there were still shut into enclosed habitats) and put in lights. We see him and his team looking at a little gadget with two arms and three glowing red lights, apparently in an Ettin airbox. [We have seen this object before as an example of what an airbox is, when Rosemary and Sylvester were discussing the Can-Opener.] He built a conservatory for his plants, and to give Padma a jungle to shelter in during the winter. Linus it was who bred The Tree which made Basement society possible outside their controlled habitats. Meanwhile his sister Marcia married a noble in Svan and became a cartoonist. 08: Naming Names [30/05/2016 – 23/12/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4609–#4812] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. The chapter therefore opens with a group of above-ground Smyts celebrating their version of Memorial Day. Sylvester continues to talk about his ancestors, and how after Padma died, Linus took the Seed of the Tree deep into the Basement and never came home, so in a sense he committed suicide like his mother. [We know that Rosemary also carries a Seed of the Tree, which she brought up from the depths, but had forgotten.] He talks about Griffington, the 15th Earl, who was very intelligent but had his mother's nasty sense of humour and was only interested in making money, at which he was very successful. Griffington went on an expedition to the Infernal Engine, which was smaller in those days (so it's still growing), and to Mechana to look at their technology. He and other techs of the period managed to make their own basic robots and restore some of the much better Ettin ones – one of the latter, Akillhees, works in mathematics at the university – and he also invented battle tanks, a few of which still work. Along with someone called Drowpole he set up the Factor E factory, and he and Struahatt sold their devices commercially and made a lot of money. We see him and his assistant Krell probing the same device in the airbox that we saw Linus looking at. He had a lot of commercial enemies and rivals, including the Scion of S. He and Krell died in an industrial accident (or maybe not an accident). He had to wear smoked lenses to protect his eyes: a problem inherited by Lenore. Griffington was succeeded by his son Angus and Angus's loyal and more cunning brother Cyrus. Angus went on a tour, like his ancestor Milo, but he took an army with him and conquered S and other neighbouring states although some of them, such as Rowen, gave as good as they got. When Angus and Cyrus were young, Cyrus married Cassandra Grayflint and they had a son Artston. Griffington sent Angus to visit the Infernal Engine to broaden his mind, and as a result he fell for a very wild, rough but highly-sexed female labourer named Syn (rhymes with tie-in) who had spent her life up to that point inside the Engine. She needed thick glasses and a bath, and had to be taught to wear clothes, but she had a talent for technology and a happily iconcoclastic attitude to everything, including herself, and the religion of the Brush to which she did not belong. She somewhat resembled Myrrh, refused to marry Angus but became his consort, and died in childbirth giving birth to Audra. Audra grew up at loggerheads with her uncle Cyrus, who had distrusted her mother. In later life Angus's conquests ground to a halt and he died peacefully in bed – and Cyrus promptly tried to seize the earldom for himself and his son. Audra thrashed Cyrus in combat and convinced him to become her loyal follower. Together they conquered Rowen and then consolidated their holdings and formed the Northwoods Alliance. Audra contracted a loveless political marriage with the intellectually brilliant John Harfang, with whom she had a son, Ludwig. The Northwoods Alliance stood against the advancing army of Yorik Yurp, later Yorick I, and lost, despite the best efforts of John Harfang who, under the alias "The Frost Fox", served as a secret agent and was killed while on a mission (and later became the subject of a series of lurid spy thrillers). Audra protected Ludwig by hiding him away as a child and then sending him to the university under an assumed name, while getting Flitch, one of Cyrus's grandchildren (so Ludwig's second cousin), to pretend to be Ludwig in order to draw Yorik's fire. The Northwoods Alliance eventually lost the war, in part because high-tech Wirtwam decided that Yorik was the lesser of two evils and Hyacinth of Wirtwam married him. But the war was long and bloody and forced the pace of technological development. Audra and Cyrus were probably looking for a technological edge when they poked the Hot Zone and were killed, or failing that for a more honourable death than execution, but their deaths really finished the Alliance. Yorik crushed their last resistance by destroying the town of Glome (and incidentally probably killing the fake Ludwig), then re-built it, and any local nobles who were willing to swear allegiance were grafted into the new Yurpsland hierarchy. The real Ludwig was one of them – the Yurpsland troops didn't know who he was, and in any case had known Audra as the head of the Northwoods Alliance, not as the Earl of E. The Alliance used a different symbol, not the E: a W with an arrow on the central point, designed by Linus's sister Marcia for Linus's thaumnode-purchasing cartel. Ludwig's politically astute partner Penelope Orrery from Gilad (a Temple-administered neutral state) coached him on how to pass as a harmless minor aristo. Sylvester isn't sure whether Yorik was really fooled over Ludwig, or knew who he was but decided to spare him. Ludwig was a super-genius who enjoyed university and made many friends there; he was very popular with the girls and could have had his pick of the local beauties, but preferred the slightly plain Penelope for her brains. Ludwig didn't graduate because he went home to help his mother with the war effort; Penelope worked out his real identity somehow, and followed him (and reached E before he did). It was because Ludwig never graduated that the fund set up to pay for his tuition was never wound up, and remained available to pay future heirs' university fees. Ludwig tried to stop his mother from poking the Hot Zone but she did it anyway, and died, and he and Penelope were left holding the reins. They actually did very well, since Ludwig was able to sell his inventions – materially assisted by Yorik's conquest of the whole area, which had resulted in a unified trading and patent system. He and Penelope built the Ivory Tower, and lived there. It is mentioned that vamphyrs don't really exist but zombies do (but only when animated by a wizwitch, and only briefly as they tend to explode), that many of Ludwig's devices were one-off prototypes and that Yorik I wrote his own memoirs. These memoirs are little known because his son wasn't that interested in promoting them, and besides they weren't very well-written. But they deal extensively with Audra, whom Yorik rather admired – it was he who re-named the province where E is situated Audravania. He decided against trying to conquer Thekla, which had a similar technology and power level to his own forces, or the Polarites, who were enormously more powerful and advancsd. [Out-take for Talk Like a Pirate Day – Captain Hamster, the crew of the Pretty Lady and the newly-recruited gull are all getting drunk on grog. The Plant, very drunk indeed, has decided it loves them all.] Ludwig died of pneumonia after getting soaked while walking in the rain. His son Ernest, hedonist, (consensual) philanderer and forger, took over. His parents were disappointed because he wasn't interested in science, or all that bright, but he was very interested in plays and a reasonably good actor himself, when he could be bothered. He married Lucidia Penderghast, gold-digger, fashion victim and amateur actress, and they nearly deserved each other. He was the first Earl to marry by the new ritual involving the Pool at the Temple. At university Ernest discovered that he was good at maths, history and a proficient if uninspired kind of art. He did a certain amount of commercial graphics work and a lot of art forgery, although the latter was really just a hobby. He was a fairly successful playwright, although not great at dialogue – his best play was probably Bracken, about his five-greats-aunt Arianya – and was very good at improving other people's scripts. He and Lucidia fought a lot but seemed to enjoy it, and they had three sons, Philbert, Hindenburgh the wizard, and Valentin, who was the one to whom the Djinnoscope gave a clean death. Ernest was fatally stabbed by, or over, one of his lovers. Philbert married the artist Hepzibah Kelly and founded a chain of "Lovelace" orphanages, using Kelly's mother's maiden name. He helped preserve the Forest of Burzee as a public park instead of letting it be carved up into private estates. He supported many smaller charities and was a faithful husband. But Sylvester believes he did these things to rebuild the family's post-Ernest reputation, not because he really cared. The couple had sons, Quincy and Frederick, and presumably at least one more as Frederick refers to "my brothers". [Later we learn there was a younger brother called Jasper.] Philbert was killed in a motor-racing accident a month before the Crash (this is an error by Sylvester, because we've already establisahed that his accident was three months before the Crash, and it isn't that Philbert hung on in hospital for two months before he died, because Sylvester says he was killed instantly) and was succeeded by his son Quincy. Quincy was not very bright, but he was genuinely caring and scraped through university by hard work. His Hall of Achievement entry just says that he tied his own shoes, but this turns out to be fairly serious: he kept walking, kept trying, and held the Mansion area together after the Crash. He survived the Crash because he, his brother Frederick and Myrrh were in Aruba, which uses no magic. Afterwards they had to walk hundreds of miles home – hence the importance of the shoes. On their way they picked up another survivor, Agnes Bloggett, who married Quincy. Hepzibah, who had stayed home because of health problems, died in the Crash. Quincy eventually died after falling from one of the Mansion's towers. Quincy's son Willoughby attended university where he met his future wife, Dorothea Mundivagant. Both were very vague but possibly magically gifted. Sylvester thinks that it was wrong of Frederick not to tell Mortimer that he, Mortimer, was a wizard – but it was probably a good decision not to tell Willoughby that he was. They had six children – Sylvester, Ace, Mortimer, the twins Lilith and Lenore, and Rufus. Rufus was conceived because the local contraceptive Stiflebloom plant had failed. Because Willoughby was so lazy and detached it was really his uncle Frederick and Myrrh who ran the earldom. After Willoughby died in the notorious Noodle Incident, Frederick became official Regent until Sylvester finished at university, and Dorothea became even vaguer and more preoccupied than before, and set off in search of something unknown. Sylvester fears he won't ever see her again. Sylvester did well at university and made friends, especially Bertrum W Skinknottle (who fell for and married Honoria Clemens – these names are PG Wodehouse references) and Nimue Fayling. The students were divided into Houses: the male houses were named after dangerous animals and the female ones after pretty things, but they were otherwise equal. Nimue was in training to take over the family business, growing oranges. She and Sylvester dated, but split up because neither would give up their family responsibility. Bertie and Honoria married and went back to Bertie's home in Lagado, but he's not sure where they are now because Bertie recently got a new job (souds like preparation for him to pop up). Sylvester went home alone and took over the Earl's duties. He found a job for Ace with their uncle Dalton Mundivagant. His mother Dorothea inherited cash from her mother, and she and Lil went travelling. Mortimer and Rufus stayed around, and Mortimer started bringing home strange women, most notably Olga Q Bonmarrow, a drifter with mental health issues who was in love with Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Basement society has come along tremendously in a highly technological way during Sylvester's lifetime (so post-Crash), and the idea that the Sneeches might be behind this. Sylvester forgot to ask Myrrh what she saw in the Sneech den, and now they don't even know where she is. We see that she is in a bakery (or maybe café) with a sign saying Kato Bread on the wall, and where there are a lot of cats whom she is talking to as if they understand each other. This cat-filled place is presumably in the Spires, since we will learn that the arena where she was wrestling robots is there. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss whether the Dohickey thank-you gift was for Sylvester or for his whole family, and Rosemary points out that the first Earls were meant to have killed off the Ettins who were holding the Sneeches prisoner. Whether they did or not, the Sneeches may believe they did. They discuss the fact that Sneeches do have childen, and whether or not they have intelligible emotions. Finally, Rosemary says that eveything else can wait, and that she will follow Sylvester's plans. He says he can't make plans until he knows what it is that Rosemary stole. She agrees to show it to him, but tells him to cover his eyes and ears while she gets it out of the Poke Kit, so he doesn't learn any codes which he might later be forced to reveal. 09: Wreaking Havoc [26/12/2016 – 07/07/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4818–end] Rosemary produces from the Poke Kit an oval object which she says is called the HJ42, but she thinks it's also a mythological object called the Chaos Key. This is clearly the same item which has been being passed around among the Basement folk – not just another of the same model but this actual one, because HJ42 is the designation of a specific instance of this gadget which was collected by an anthropological expedition, and Protus called it the HJ42 when he gave it to Mortimer. Either it's looped through time to appear twice in the same area at the same time, or when Rosemary thinks it's safely tucked away in her Poke Kit, it isn't. As the Chaos Key it has been used to open various kinds of metaphorical and literal doors, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Rosemary studied its semi-legendary history in the libraries of Hack'n'Slash. It may have been implicated in the Thricklefork Demon Massacre. It caused strange events – including a giant man-eating flower – at a place called Bellona. It was passed around the clans of Erewhon, trailing odd happenings. It was used to rob a bank, then disappeared from view, only to reappear among the artefacts brought back from the Infernal Engine by the Hendrick-Joost Expedition. At this point Rosemary puts it back in the Poke Kit and she and Sylvester agree not to mention the name "Chaos Key" again if they can avoid it, but just to refer to it as the HJ42. The Hendrick-Joost Expedition came from the High University of Azimuth and visited the Infernal Engine in Yurpsland. There were protests about them taking items from Yurpsland back to Azimuth, and eventually they returned some of them, including the "HJ-42". These returned items were parcelled out between various Yurpsland museums and collectors, and #42 went to an Erewhonian noble named Cuddlup, who passed it on to an Erewhonian sect called the Chromans. The Chromans were great collectors and displayers of curios which demonstrated the wonders of the world – some of which were magically active. The most dangerous were kept in an offshore fortress which went into meltdown during the Crash. The HJ42 was put on display in various places but it made people nervous, so it was moved to a medium-level facility in a place called Gowplace at the tip of the Lawnrock Peninsula. After the Crash, Gowplace was re-named Chroma and became the Chromans' capital, and the HJ42 dropped out of sight again for several decades. About ten years ago, or forty years after the Crash, it resurfaced as part of a travelling Chroman display for which H&S provided security, and eventually it caused some alarming effect, although Rosemary's security clearance wasn't high enough to find out what. It was put back into storage, but at this point rumours about it began to be passed around. It was also at this point that Rosemary first heard about it and began to research it – and so, unfortunately, did Tansy Rugan, the leader of the Quincunx, a kind of sinister private army. Rosemary started to suspect the Quincunx were searching for the HJ42, and knew it would be a seriously Bad Thing if they found it. She couldn't get H&S to take her concerns seriously enough, so she went AWOL, rode all the way to Chroma and stole the HJ42 herself. Two hours later the Quincunx arrived and started hunting her (and killing Chromans). She did her best to evade them but eventually Tansy cornered her. One of the buttons on the device was glowing so in desperation Rosemary pressed it, thinking that it might cause an explosion which would take out Tansy and her 2inC Nathan Holn along with Rosemary herself. Instead, it teleported her to the forest near Eetown. At first she wasn't sure whether she'd been moved through time or space, but then she met Mortimer and realised from his accent that she had shifted a long way to the east. She was very dazed and disoriented and just followed Mortimer home. They talk for a while about how Rosemary ended up with Hack'n'Slash in the first place. Bored with farming muckroots and lobster-fishing, she became a crew-woman on a boat called the Oshinoxtra. From there she went to the mainland and worked on a large farm, and even served as a minion on a Saur hunt (presumably, like the domesticated Trogs, these were less sapient than the ones in the Basement). Once she'd saved up enough money she went to see the nearest city, Jonetown. Everything there was far more expensive than she'd expected but as luck would have it she was in the right place to rescue Edwird Soloman, a retired bureaucrat who was being harrassed by louts. She and Edwird hit it off and became firm friends, and he gave her a place to stay. She became his bodyguard and housekeeper, read his books and reached an uneasy accommodation with his girlfriend, Mrs Rumble. Sometime later, Rosemary and some friends were scavenging in a scrapyard when they encountered the demon Scratch, and Rosemary managed to overcome him to the point where he was willing to discuss his situation and behave reasonably. This caused unpleasantness between the neighbours and Edwird, and brought Rosemary to the attention of Hack'nSlash, who recruited her. While they are tidying up conversational loose ends, Rosemary tells Sylvester about a hermit she met in the SAR (where there are many hermits, but this one is The Hermit), and who was probably a wizard, or possibly a demon: he will only ever say that he's a person. This is true even if he is a Demon: we see a brief glimpse of the Operator gazing rather sadly at an image of what is presumably his partner. They establish that demons can communicate over long distances via leylines, hence Edgar learned Rosemary's name from Scratch, and Myrrh could arrange visits from friends (two demon visitors are shown: one of them is Jones, from the Spires, and the other is Marilith). Rosemary is reluctant to ask Myrrh to pass along messages, as her favours have to be paid for. Sylvester assures her Myrrh can keep a secret. They discuss Ilsa, who has a very able illegitimate daughter, Druscilla, who works for the big bank in the capital. Ilsa writes to her with local gossip, so news of Rosemary's presence will soon reach the capital. Ilsa is half Haroon, and the Haroons do not worship the Brush, much, or care what the Oracles think about having children out of wedlock. Sylvester is trying to modernise the village, with some cooperation from the current Oracle, Threnody, who is a great improvement over her predecessor Omega. He hopes to bring in not only a teacher but a glass-blower. It is mentioned that opposite Frederick and Myrrh's old room there is a door labelled "Gwen's stuff", but neither of them knows who Gwen is or was. Sylvester has never investigated it, but assumes Myrrh will have done so. They discuss the fact that when Sylvester met with Protus he saw visions of Rhid and Villipend, whom they then met, so evidently he was seeing the future. He also saw Rosemary fighting a woman with a glowing glove, and that may be a true vision too. Rosemary thinks from the description that it is Tansy Rugan, who has a magic shock-glove, so they will have to meet and fight some time soon. At least she'll probably have the Can-Opener, but she doesn't have it with her now. Sylvester wants them to have regular conferences, but he's not going to say where the next one will be, in case of eavesdroppers (from what we see, through the Panegate that connects to the edge of the Crystal Thicket). He had intended to hold this one on the Commons, well away from anyone not a goat. They discuss Rosemary's old teachers, and whether Myrrh and Frederick are gone for good: Rosemary probably hopes they are. We glimpse Frederick being given an Ides of March cake by a waitress wearing antennae ending in grey bobbles, confirming they are at the Spires: they are in an underwater café with a seal peering in through a porthole. We also glimpse Mortimer in the woods, with a scratch on his face and what looks like more web draped across his shoulders. Sylvester wishes for an alternative to the rowboat, since he'll have to pay someone to row it back. Olaf Larrsen, the village vet, turns up in his motorboat Mamie (Rosemary and Sylvester agree that Sylvester also wishes for a million Simoleons in a secure bank account) and is introduced to Rosemary, who he is glad to see is not a "demon, Bonmarrow or Flibbler". Flibblers, whatever they are, are everywhere. Olaf agrees to give them a lift in return for information and a discount on the organs of the Dornbeast Rosemary killed the night she arrived (less than two days ago). Sylvester half regrets returning to the stresses of being the Earl. Olaf takes the couple and the cat back to the mainland. En route they discuss the reorganisation at the Mansion, and the Crash – Olaf used to build thaumtools, before the Crash, and has been able to measure the fact that magic is very slowly returning. He made a motor for his little boat, but none of the local fishermen would let him fit one to theirs even if there was enough magic to power something that big. He thinks the local Ichyoids are up to something. He tells them about the hamster pirate captain, who has now ceased to be an out-take and become part of main canon, and that he has met Protus, who was talking about someone named Winnifred (presumably the founder of the future Winnifrite sect). The only Winnifreds they know are somebody Sylvester was at univesity with, and a now-dead old woman Rosemary knew in Moonin. Sylvester warns Olaf that Nirvana Clepe may be back in the area (Olaf looks a bit alarmed). It's mentioned that Olaf hasn't married: evidently he and Mamie didn't get that far. Sylvester asks Olaf whether he has seen Frowgler – he hasn't – but we cut away to see Frowgler talking to the village Flittermouse in her tower. She is assessing livestock, which involves little toy figures. Frowgler says he is always there to get done what needs doing, and she says it makes her speculate on who he really is "behind that mask". She tells him that her name is Vyon Ward Parkin, an orphan who was taken in by the Flittermice after she was shunned because her family had died in a "Spew" from the Infernal Engine, and peoople feared she might be contaminated. We see that the Flittermice have a universal presence, at least in Yurpsland, and use actual bats as messengers. The Flittermice are an Order, whose job is to "flit into the dark places and do the mucky jobs that need to be done" – which they agree is also Frowgler's job. Vyon herself was literally posted to her new position in Eetown, in a box: or possibly ceremonially pretended to have been posted. It's a lonely job and she appreciates Frowgler's company, but she could have left if she wanted to, and did not: there's a suggestion that Frowgler's own role is not voluntary. He gives her a "laughter marble", which she seems to have been waiting for, and says that some day everyone will know who he is (or was) behind the mask, then he leaves via an artificial tunnel which looks as if it was made for the purpose, and which takes him to water. Unlike a real frog, he appears to have gills. As Frowgler swims away, we see him pass a tank containing an octopus named Aloysius. Violet Hopkirk lures Aloysius to the surface and milks him of ink. She overhears people gossipping about Frederick's retirement. We overhear two of her employers talking about her and how she has the talent to work on a "Wrangrig", but it isn't safe for girls. Cut to Sylvester and co. in the boat, discussing Wrangling Rigs, aka octopus inkpull platforms, and the fact that it's "not safe" for girls because it's thought to be bad luck, locally, to have a woman on board. Violet, who has a reputation for not talking, overhears more gossip, quizzes a local boy and learns about Sylvester's party going into The Moose and Squirrel and not coming out. She goes to the inn to talk to Eunice Kelso about it. Eunice doesn't know where the party went, and shoos Violet away, after saying there are no Human-sized underground ways out: we see what looks like a Frowgler-sized way out. Violet returns to her mother, Helena, and they gossip about Rosemary. Violet is mulling over the idea of Myrrh and Frederick retiring. She sits to clean blobwarts with her feet on a stone marked 44: this number seems to recur. Sylvester greets a trapper in another boat, name of Rod, and his young son Ash[ley]: these are the father and brother of Violet. Ash is very interested in Rosemary: their conversation reveals that Flibblers from Moonin don't have a Moonin accent. Mention is made of the Sky Trek, a walk across the country due in five years, and of a Mobile Confectioners' Guild, whose members include salesmen called Lollipop Perambulators. Sylvester finds Ash refreshing – too many people treat him with either scorn or fear because of his position. Olaf tells Ash to tell his friend Aloysius (not the octopus!) to stay out of his garden, because it's magic. Sylvester tells him to spread the word that there is going to be a meeting at the Temple to formally introduce Rosemary. Rod and Ash in their boat sail past an islet with a distance marker on it, then we see a gull try to land on the islet, and be scared away by a green, snakey-looking thing which says "Boo" in Ichyoid runes. This is one of the same tentacled things (perhaps the same individual) which we saw in the Basement, rescuing Shabash from a reservoir. Rob and Ash come to shore and we see Ash gossipping with his friend Aloysius on the dockside – both boys look about ten years old. A gull – perhaps the same one that was chased off by the tentacled thing – is sitting near Aloysius. Ash passes on Olaf's message about the magic garden, and Sylvester's about the Temple meeting. As they walk past the Spewing Wall – a forum for graffiti – the Flitttermouse's Laughter Marble hits the ground behind them, and Aloysius picks it up, hides it and tells Ash it's just a rock. The gull flits in and out of shot near them. They pass Fantod and the Weirdo having an adult conversation with Melba Corrigan and her whimp-pig Wilbur. Ash and Aloysius tell Fantod that they are planning to go to a haunted ruin tomorrow, and he warns them it might fall down, then Fantod warns Aloysius, specifically, to be careful with"whatever it is yer doin' all of a sudden". We then see the Oracle Threnody, in a medical office listening to a man's chest with a stethoscope; Mayoress Saffron Stout sitting behind her desk; and the Flittermouse, scoring things off a list on a notice board. Written on the corner of the board (not part of the list) is a note saying "Tell truth ——— Seek fortunes". She has a sort of umbrella stand which has various sorts of pole in it, including a Sneech stick. Next to it is a truncated green cone which has sticking out of the top a T with an extra, sometimes slanting crossbar, a distortd Ŧ, which became a recurring motif. 10: Into the Woods [10/07/2017 – 03/11/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips start–#5125] To start with we see Myrrh, who seems not to need to breathe or to be wearing anything except her collar, strolling through an undersea forest in the Sea of Plinths. The Ŧ with the slanting crossbar appears sticking out of a green growth. She wonders which way to go: a flatworm points its arrow-shaped head upwards, so she surfaces. Frederick is still being served food by the waitresses in antennae, who are amazed at how much he can eat, and suggest that their chef has failed because Fredrick was able to eat the whole meal. They are a mixed bunch, ethnically, and we will later learn that the Spires recruit orphans from all over. A female Eyebolt who has "Shmelcathy" on a screen by her desk (but we will later learn this isn't her name, just something or someone she is monitoring) is working at her desk. Other women in deely-boppers/antennae (all this culture wear them, or at least all the women) are monitoring Frederick on a screen, under the command of an older woman with fluffy, puffy white hair: they too are amazed by how much Frederick can eat and remain upright. They talk about his Herediscan – he is related to previous test subjects (we see Dorothea and Lilith on screens) – and the waitresses say he must be a thaumaturge to stay conscious, yet he isn't setting off their magic-detectors. The blonde waitress, Svetlana Rostova, is told to stay with him and answer his questions. Myrrh, meanwhile, arises from a water-filled tube into a sort of domed cockpit, in which there is a plant-covered floor dotted with flowers, and a Lizhopper, one of the little mini-Trog-like creatures which we saw Rosemary chasing out of the Mansion at the start of the story. Frederick and Svetlana talk, initially in front of a drawing on the wall of the moon on a stick, and we learn that they are in the Zamyatin Spire, a very high-tech-looking place. Zamyatin Spire residents are all women, but other Spires are for men only, or mixed. The Spires have a vaguely Soviet, very controlled culture: Svetlana refers to native Spire residents as "assets". As Myrrh – with the Lizhopper riding on her head – presses a button in the flowery cockpit, Frederick and Svetlana discuss Yurpsland politics, which involve a ceremonial, hereditary king and a separate political ruler who seems to be self-appointed (although they see it as "chosen by the Brush") rather than elected. Also the fact that Frederick is a demithaumaturge, and that the Spires are on a major tricklepoint (although the one in the Sybola jungles may be bigger, which may relate to whatever mystery is in Sybola), so were not much affected by the Crash and still have working pre-Crash technology. Myrrh climbs up some sort of stair or ladder to a room where there is a naked male musician named Jones (who is clearly based on David Bowie/Jones, and is a fellow demon), whom we saw earlier with his human partner Jebidiah, and who plays the flute for her. Spire trechnology involves some enormous gears which were built by an unknown society from before the Ettins. Svetlana is impressed to learn that Frederick's family have their own library, in which he read about the Spires. When Myrrh is mentioned, Svetlana surmises that Myrrh is Frederick's wife, because he wouldn't have been allowed into Zamyatin Spire if he didn't have a spouse (meanwhile Jones continues to play his flute for Myrrh). Frederick and Svetlana discuss the arrangements for straight women like her who wish to find a mate when they live in an all-female Spire, and see an agent of sorts, holding a giant needle like a dagger and trying to arrest somebody for smuggling Fuzz jars (Svetlana says this woman isn't police, but something they don't discuss). Singing Fuzzes are a big fad in the Spires and are bred for size, intelligence and voice, which suggests that this could be the past of Frizzlegarb's future world of Hollows and Fuzz communities (especially as we see one in a tank which seems to have embryonic tuft-antennae of the kind later seen on Purple Zoners). Special barriers prevent Fuzzes from being moved from one Spire to another, except in jars (which might explain why the future Fuzzes find it difficult to move from one Hollow to another, and might also have something to do with the barrier which surrounds the Spire in Audravania). Frederick and Svetlana end up on a balcony which Svetlana calls a Bubble-viewing Recreation Platform, overlooking a hall where large coloured bubbles with blurry images inside well up, but Frederick says it's a Spindizzy interface chamber, but with no visible Spindizzies and no apparent way of summoning them. We learn that The Spire community has a low birthrate and takes in orphans from elsewhere, but Svetlana was born there, in Platohov Spire, and trained in Burdekin Spire, and her paternal grandmother told her about legless, truthful flying beings who could have been either Spindizzies or Helipaths. She is not sure whether The Spire city belonged to the Ettins or the Sneeches, originally – only that the Sneeches say it was contested between the two species. Frederick describes ancient weaponry – the Ettins used city-smashing Doombombs and the Sneeches used Tangles, giant vines which could infitrate and wreck Ettin machinery. Frederick has worked out that something was meant to happen to him in the restaurant where Svetlana works, but she assures him he wasn't intended to die. Solzhenitsyn Spire is about death and he mustn't go there, but Zamyatin is all about collecting and hoarding information. Frederick wants to go ask the nearest archivist about Spindizzies. Svetlana is unnerved by this, as asking questions is discouraged. They discuss the fact that Frederick is still collecting information which may be useful to his family, even though he is retired, and that Myrrh may or may not decide she has retired as others would understand it, and we see the woman with fluffy white hair monitoring their conversation. Fredrick says he is filling in time until Myrrh gets back from "whatever you all have her doing", and at this point we see Myrrh pressing her claws into a set of holes on a control that opens a round purple door on the wall of Jones's chamber. Cutting back to Eetown, we see Olaf's boat pulling in to his private dock, and Captain Hamster's crew sleeping off a binge-drinking session, and Mortimer, with umbrella but sans strands of Spyder web, waking in the deep dark woods (to which he was evidently transported from the pub, in the same way that his brother and Rosemary were transported to the island) with the sense that some sort of revelation has slipped away from him, and then encountering Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party in the woods. This, we will later learn, is a flashback which must have happened around when Rosemary and Sylvester were waking on Alwin Island, and hour or so before we glimpsed him with web on his shoulder. From here until It All Comes Together, Mortimer's and Sylvester's storylines are out of phase by an hour or two. Once on shore, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Olaf knew Mortimer was a wizard, but didn't tell him. Olaf is fairly benign but generally acts out of self-interest. We see that Olaf has a fenced-off telegraph pole topped with magical gadgets, so dodgy-looking that Sylvester says that in this case Omega (who hated Olaf and vice-versa) might have had a point about the dangers of technology. Mortimer is very relieved to see that Nitfol survived the Spyder, but ashamed that he had accidentally led the beaver-shark to destroy Nitfol's home tree. Fizmo realises that Mortimer owes Nitfol a favour and can take them beyond the "Edge of the World", but Mortimer doesn't know what she means. At this point we get some portraits of various characters – Ilsa's and Saffron's parents; characters from the Willy the Wendigo books (Willy himself, in a bow tie; a pink and blue spider; a rock with eyes; something like a green female Nome (but may be meant to be a Gobble'em); and a male Wift/Wilf); some past E Weirdos; and the E family's tutor. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, discussing Olaf's thaum measurements. Sylvester thinks he has a second agenda – perhaps an attempt to bring back magic, which even the High University of Azimuth has been unable to do. Sylvester thinks this is a good idea, because he wants Humanity to explore the other planets in the system, and doesn't see much future in steam power. Mortimer, Nitfol and Fizmo establish their frames of reference. The Nomes' world can be walked across in a day or two (but they're smaller than Humans, and on rough ground, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles), and is bounded by a wall of mist you can't push through, and centred on the Spike – Fizmo's father Foblub was an explorer, but even he didn't manage to walk all the way around the edge. Mortimer remembers a Spindizzy called Charles telling him about a solid haze. Myrrh stands in a place where there are striped, rugby-ball-shaped lights, and gazes up at an enormous bust of a bearded, humanoid male demon wearing a medal. This last image is a Hallowe'en special, but also part of the canonical sequence: it's actually an image of the Operator. Sylvester shows Rosemary a road which leads south to a place called E Isles where there are offshore islands and a ferry across the River E, but no city because the nearby shore is too rocky for a port, and then on to Obtown. He points out Olaf Larrsen's house and then they head back towards the woods – as they do so they pass Aloysius hiding behind a bush near Larssen's place, with the gull next to him. 11: New Openings [06/11/2017 – 02/02/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5132–#5215] Rosemary tells Sylvester there was a kid hiding behind the bush they just passed, and Sylvester identifies him as Aloysius Culpepper, an orphan who lives with his uncle and aunt. We see Aloysius and the gull sneak into Olaf Larrsen's place and poke about in the fields, before using an upturned bucket to climb through a shed window, after testing that a magic-emitting plant on a shelf inside is safe by throwing a stick at it, then wedging the window with another stick in some unclear way. The shed contains various odd machines and hanging mobiles. He doesn't touch a gadget that's labelled "LINE #1 TERMINUS ——— DON'T TOUCH", but instead winds up a clockwork figure of a running man (later referred to as the Flailer, so probably its feet are meant to pound grain), and the noise attracts Olaf, who is carrying a fishing net with a hole in the bottom. He tells Aloysius to follow him or go home, so Aloysius (who is barefoot) and the gull follow him. They go to the main house where they are greeted by Olaf's housekeeper (who asks if he's caught anything, then sees he's caught Aloysius) – we see Sylvester telling Rosemary that this is Ilsa Lundquist, who used to work at the Mansion. Ilsa asks Aloysius what the gull's name is, but Aloysius says gulls only have names when they are flying. She takes the hats from Olaf and Aloysius without touching them, on the end of a baton, and comments that she doesn't suppose gulls ever wear hats. We see a scene of three gulls by the seashore, including one wearing a hat, who is part of Cap'n Hamster's crew, and still looks hungover. We return to Mortimer, talking to the Nomes. Nitfol doesn't know what Spindizzies are but he does know about the Mansion, because his father was a scholar who owned two and a half books. We see Nitfol's father with two books, one labelled "Socks", the other "Cookiedice", which is the name of one of the Hollows where we see Fuzzes living in the future. Mortimer mentions the library at the Mansion – Fizmo doesn't believe such a thing is possible, but Nitfol has heard stories of large book collections in the past, or at least scroll collections. We see a shadowy image of a female Nome filing scrolls on big racks. Mortimer describes the library as being in the Ivory Tower, which leads to a long digression about behemoth teeth (if behemoths are really elephants, Mortimer has a very confused idea of what they look like), and he mentions that there is an apartment at the top, with a pool, but nobody lives in it now, "most of the time". He mentions that the tower was built by Ludwig, which leads to a very muddled conversation, because the Nomes know Ludwig as a cult figure worshipped by some people in the Basement. Mortimer manages to explain about the Spindizzies and how literal they are, and how he once told Charles he felt trapped and Charles told him about the mist barrier. Mortimer thinks the Spindizzies might know how to bring the barrier down: Fizmo thinks this is fantasy, but Nitfol wants to meet them. Nitfol and Fizmo go off to confer, while Thrash seeks to attract Mortimer's attention to something, and Mortimer wonders aloud whether this is the same Pale (Thrash) he met yesterday with Frowgler – it is – and he can tell that Thrash senses something wrong. We return to Zamyatin Spire, where Svetlana is disturbed by Frederick's whistling, because music is discouraged except in the gym and at culture festivals. She takes him to a stern-looking Senior Archivix, who wasn't expecting them – Frederick tells this woman his name, but says she doesn't need to know Svetlana's. In Eetown, Aloysius gives a wall-eyed look to a stuffed gull. Ilsa brings cocoa (which he has never had before) for Aloysius, herb tea for Olaf and tripewater for the gull. Olaf says he's not a nice person (echoing Rhid) but he's an old man and he has had to keep his books locked away because Omega didn't want people to see them, but now she's gone and her influence is waning, he has been hoping for someone like Aloysius to come along. He told Ash to tell Aloysius to stay away from the magic because he knew it would lure him in. Aloysius correctly surmises that Olaf wants him as an apprentice. Olaf says his only love Mamie, after whom his boat is named, died fifty years ago (in the Crash), so if Aloysius comes every day he can, and learns magic and veterinary medicine, when Olaf dies he will leave his house and all his money to Aloysius, aside from a bit for Ilsa. Olaf tells Aloysius that no wizwitch could channel all the forms of magic, but some were generalists who could do a little of a lot, and some, known as Hedgewizwitches, could do only one thing but did it very well. Mamie was one, because all she could do was heal, but very well, even though she didn't have a very nurturing personality. Aloysius is another – an "Animal Empathist", hence his link with the gull. Mortimer is still talking to Thrash, and shows him his umbrella. He tells the Pale that he is a wizard and asks if that's the problem, and Thrash shakes his head. Meanwhile Nitfol tells Fizmo he isn't going to go off with Mortimer immediately, but he will at some point, because Zpeaker and the Nexus also thought the barrier could be brought down, and if Nitfol's political plan fails they will at least have a means of leaving. Thrash draws Mortimer's attention to the fact that Spyders are creeping up on them. Frederick speaks to the Senior Archivix, whose name is Anushka Zhdanov. She tells him he is allowed to access archives up to Level Three, but won't say how many levels there are above that. He asks for information on Spindizzies. She asks if he is a Yurpslander, and when he says he is, she calls for someone named Snegurka and sends her to fetch a file (calling her a lackwit). Olaf tells Aloysius that neither of them is a full wizard, but that in theory if you make the right thaum machine you can mimic any power. However, there isn't enough energy around post-Crash, so animal empathy is impossible to mimic and no one will be "horning in" on Aloysius's skill. There are no other empaths in the area, but there are a few other wizwitches of other kinds – some who know what they are (we see Myrrh, Amos Grubb and Mortimer) and some who don't (we see a teenage boy in a soft baggy hat, who is probably Ricky of the famous Ricky and Wendell, and a short teenage girl with a lot of long, bushy hair) and who he doesn't think could handle being told. 12: The New Level [05/02/2018 – 01/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5222–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips start–#5299] At the start of the chapter we see Melba Corrigan's blobwart-vending cart and her pet pig Wilbur sitting in front of a large bush. Her hat is lying on the bush, and two butterflies (not flutterbys) fly up from behind it. They represent sex and/or kisses, and she is behind the bush with Arthur the Weirdo. Faint words on the hedge appear to spell out "Nutella weather person" – I've no idea why. Rosemary and Sylvester arrive back at Eetown's South Road Gate. Sylvester would rather go home, but Rosemary reminds him that he needs to collect the post, and says that it probably wasn't a villager in a boat that took them to Alwin. They both think it was probably Mortimer, by magic, which means he has immense innate power and the potential to be "quite something". Meanwhile, Mortimer's party start to back away from a Spyder, which begins to spew thick ropes of web at them, while another one boxes them in from behind. But Thrash slashes their web-ropes with his sickle and beats down the one in front of Mortimer. It's not clear whether he has killed it or not, but he probably has, as later they will pass a dead one in that direction. Meanwhile, Senior Archivix Anushka offers Frederick a chair and a cup of tea while he waits for his file. Svetlana is impressed and concerned, as teachairs are only offered to important guests, and she isn't authorised to associate with important guests, but doesn't wish to leave. The Archivix gives Frederick permission for Svetlana to stay and have tea too, but Svetlana says it's not Anushka's decision to make. Olaf thinks Aloysius can handle being told he has magic, but also that an empathist can't do much harm (but they can do some: we see a silhouette of a bear being sicced on somebody). He warns him not to tell anyone else about his magic, because there are people – the picture implies it's official, government people – looking to capture functioning wizwitches. It's possible that Aloysius may have other, minor talents as well as his main one – Mamie did (including, it's implied, skin-stimulation during sex) – and there are tests for this, but Olaf can't administer them. Amos and Frederick both could, but Frederick won't. Rosemary suggests that if Mortimer is going to be "something" so will Sylvester, since Mortimer obeys him. As they talk, a Vagabond flutterby – a creature with which Mortimer has a strong affinity – comes to them with a scrap of cloth tied around it, bearing a message apparently written in blood. Back to Mortimer's party. We will later learn that the timeline is disjointed, because these scenes with Mortimer must have happened while Rosemary and Sylvester were on Alwin Island. The Pales are fighting off the Spyders, and kill at least one behind Mortimer, but the Spyders keep coming and keep flinging web at them. Prompted by Nitfol, Mortimer has a moment of crisis where he decides he will no longer be either a follower or a causer of problems, and he shoots magical force from his umbrella-wand, declaring that there will be no more killing or dying (and gives himself an electric shock). The surviving Spyders run off, and we see two Spyders discussing the fact that they had thought all Human wizwitches had been killed in the Crash, and that this raises the possibility that there may still be Humans who are able to "talk" (perhaps this means Aloysius's animal empathy) and they must call a conclave to discuss this. Svetlana confirms to Frederick that it is her boss (or at least, the person who told her to watch Frederick) who decides whether she may stay and drink tea or not. She has a number as well as a name – 23-42-5258.8. Frederick addresses the security bugs in the walls and asks for Svetlana to be made his guide, stating her name and number, and since nobody answers with an objection, Svetlana is officially promoted to that role. She isn't sure what she thinks about this, as she had enjoyed being a waitress, but eventually she makes a firm decision to sit down and embrace her promotion, and she does quite like her cup of tea. Olaf tells Aloysius that Amos gave up being an active wizard before the Crash (although we see old!Amos lighting a candle with magic) – we know this was to do with Myrrh, but Olaf will only tell Aloysius about it if Aloysius agrees to be trained. Amos has already asked Olaf to come to the Mansion to discuss something, so he will take Aloysius with him, but Aloysius shouldn't mention his possible apprenticeship etc. to Amos's wife Nellie. They have a complex misunderstanding about what "having views" means, which leads to mention of an apparently blind woman called Gretta Weed, who in the metaphorical sense sees further than Nellie. Gretta is brighter than Nellie, and Saffron brighter than Gretta, but Olaf is more concerned with their open-mindedness to new possibilities. They discuss the fact that once he is trained, Aloysius will have the choice to stay in Eetown or to move elsewhere: we see an image of him as an adult healing horses for Nimue in Abalone. Once they have found a private spot, Sylvester reads his message, which says "Open Training Gate. Urgent." This refers to one of the Panegates at the Mansion. Sylvester still has to complete business in town but will rush through it. We see him ask the sausage vendor, Claudia, what people are talking about – which is really all the news from the Mansion. She has been selling(?) a lot of sausages because people are anxious/excited about the changes, and warns them that Saffron is "in a mood". Fizmo and Nitfol are surprised and impressed that Mortimer is a wizard, and reveal in conversation that Fizmo works for Frowgler, and Nitfol sort-of does too. We see Frowgler underground, talking to a Shallow Wyrm named Parkin who is guarding the Circle at the World's End. Fizmo says Frowgler can see the future (which Mortimer cannot), and warned her about a job she took. We see her underground in her hazmat suit, looking at a little creature similar to a Shallow Wyrm but probably not one (no head crest), which is growling at her. Mortimer says Frowgler gave him good advice, but he works for his brother Sylvester, not for Frowgler. He tells them Sylvester is a sort of mayor, avoiding the charged word "Earl" by chance or design. Svetlana reveals that she prefers kvass to tea, although this is against her culture. The Spire folk drink actual tea, but tea in Yurpsland is usually brewed from other plants. Frederick himself drinks – cautiously – things brewed by Myrrh. They get onto discussing Yurplejuice – neither Svetlana nor Anoshka has tasted it, because it's restricted, and even in Yurpsland it's regulated. Olaf tells Aloysius about the other half of his business – the first half is treating sick animals, the second half is making and selling thaum-powered gadgets. He has always refused to make magical weapons – Zap-Tridents – partly out of morality and partly in case someone buys one and then kills him to prevent him making any for anyone else. In any case they only work at Tricklepoints, such as the one under the Mansion. To make his own gadgets work away from a Tricklepoint he has built big, cumbersome energy collectors. Aloysius shows Olaf the Laughter Marble, and Olaf says it does party tricks, which he will show him in the workshop. 13: Thicket [02/05/2018 – 16/11/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5313–#5502] Sylvester says Claudia will be shifting a lot more sausages, because more changes are coming, because he is planning to be more pro-active. He and Rosemary discuss Mayor Saffron's temper: "in a mood" isn't so bad, it's when she's "in a snit" you need to worry, but it was her father who could really make her angry. Mortimer says he arrived here (in the woods) by accident, but now he's here he will help the Nomes. He asks why they are there and Fizmo says they are going to "that Crystal Thicket". We will learn later that they are looking for a flower that grows only there, which can be used to induce Raviners to spew ichor, which they need for whatever takeover scheme Nitfol cooked up with the Nexus. Nitfol is initially angry with her for telling, but Fizmo says that if Mortimer (with his evident magical power) is working for Mayor Koyeeb they're all dead anyway. Nitfol discusses good and bad leaders with Mortimer (we see an outline of what might be an assassination being prepared), and Mortimer correctly concludes that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb. He is still willing to help, on the understanding that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb for an ethical reason (i.e. because he is very bad at his job) and that he isn't planning to kill him. He knows where the Crystal Thicket is. Frederick tells Svetlana and Anoshka about Yurplejuice, which he hasn't had since the funeral of Mariah, the Mansion's groom, when they still had horses. He doesn't seem to know he just missed sharing some at breakfast that morning, when he and Myrrh announced their retirement and didn't sit down to share what the family were eating and drinking. It's made in Wirtvale, and the stuff which Yurpsland exports is second-rate, but the best brands are wonderful. This leads to a conversation about funerals: the Spire folk file their dead on shelves in a catacomb, but they do have a ceremony (and their elderly do get to retire in comfort, so they're not a totally brutal society). They talk about the fact that Spire folk are trained for their jobs, but Frederick had to muddle through as both wizard and Regent, and didn't do a terrific job, in his own opinion. We see Myrrh emerging from a hole in a rocky floor, into a cavern where there are many pink stalactites and stalagmites (probably artificial: they look too smooth to be natural). She is preceded by a butterfly – perhaps signifying that she and Jones have had sex. In the cavern is a giant Metalmin who knows what she is – it addresses her as "zarkette" – and challenges her to a game of Warboard, the local version of chess. We see the woman with puffy white hair watching Myrrh and the Metalmin on a screen: this is the same woman who was earlier seen overseeing the team who were discussing the fact that Frederick wasn't being knocked out by what they had fed him. Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, still discussing Saffron Stout, and Saffron's father, who died when Sylvester was five, and her mother, who kept small yappy dogs. Neither was at all communicative about their past. Mention is made of Wendell's fish-fermenting scheme, which evidently stank the village out and made everybody angry. Mortimer tells the Nomes that even though the forest completely surrounds the Thicket, there is a magical way of getting where they're going and skipping the forest part. He tries to compare Panegates with the treewarping the Nomes do, which requires planning and equipment. Nitfol knows about twistpoints, but Mortimer says Panegates are safer, and there's one that leads to the edge of the Thicket. He has to explain that it's Panegate, not Paingate. Yes, Nitfol and Fizmo can both read, and they know what window-panes are, although Fizmo says only nobs like the mayor and Piu can afford them. Mention is made of Fizmo's married sister Fweep. Meanwhile, Frederick says that Spire folk who do badly at their jobs get sacked. Yurpsland is a young, recently unified (134 years ago) country which hasn't worked out how to do things yet, whereas the Spire regime is 400+ years old, when the city was built (although not entirely completed) by Dmitri I. He speaks about a Yurpslander named Owen Gregiry, who wrote a study on the Spires, and they discuss various Spire monarchs: Feodore II, who began the Great Expansion; Feodore III who "obtained" the Outer Shoals; and the famous Ivana III, who fought off the Wendigoes. Frederick is more interested in Vasily II, who wanted to introduce changes. We flash to Violet Hopkirk, telling her mother she's going out but will be back in time for supper. Young Ash, her brother, offers to help make supper while she's out. We see the Flittermouse in her tower, watching Violet through a telescope as she sets out: she has a Juneteenth flag on one of her mailbags. Then we see Eunice calling Ricky and Wendell, the odd-jobbers, to come out from a hole surrounded by a wooden structure, because Saffron needs them: they are doing something which involves bags of coloured liquid. Then we see former Guardian Terin Flem, sitting on a rock talking to his grandchildren Stephan and Sparrow. He is going to wait at the rock until he sees the Mansion party come by on their way out of the village. We see Rosemary and Sylvester discussing the mayor of her home town, how as an orphan she was a problem for him, and how her Aunt Eva came home, and Zeke persuaded her to take her orphan niece in. Eva was also seen as a problem because she had run off to the wicked big city (Nye), picked up foreign ways and then returned rich. There are things Rosemary wonders about Eva's return, but she's not going to talk about it in town where there are potential eavesdroppers. Mortimer and the Nomes agree that it would be as tedious to trek to the Mansion to find the Panegate as it would be to go to the Thicket on foot, and as far as Mortimer knows they won't be able to locate the Panegate at the Thicket end, or open it from that side if they could find it. He assumes they are going to the Thicket to find a particular flower. He tells them not to tell him their plans, so he can't inadvertently give the game away. We cut to Sylvester's brother Ace, with spear and rucksack, walking through an unknown town (later we will learn that it's called Jagger Junction) in the west of Yurpsland and meeting up with a blonde Nome woman wearing a long skirt and a hat with a flower in it. He shows her a similar flower – which he was reluctant to wear in his hat. As he is Ace, she takes the nom de guerre Diamond (Ace suggests Joker, and says if she doesn't want to be called one she shouldn't dress like one). As they walk through the town, in the background we see a very odd face, or maybe a mask, with slanted oval eyes, watching them from some sort of battlement, and they pass a poster with a kind of alien face on it: or perhaps a safety mask. Other, more Human faces peer round corners at them wherever they walk. Ace comments on the fact that they are being followed, and asks if they are friends of Diamond's, or at least allies. Cut to the Mansion's butler Schmedley, standing in front of a large, open book and holding a cake with candles, to celebrate fifteen years since the strip began. There are twelve candles on the cake, and three flutterbys flying around it. A Fuzz watches from a trunk of the Tree. Frederick and Anushka discuss rules of succession. In the Spires the rulers are matched by a Matriarch or Patriarch of opposite sex to the ruler, and who bears the mystic Gear until it's time to hand it on to the new ruler. Vasily II the would-be change-maker died young (as did Yorik II, who drowned while swimming in Lake Laputa), and Frederick suggests that his death was suspiciously convenient. The village fishermen are deeply interested in Rosemary's hat. Coming from where she does, she is able to discuss fishing with them. One called Tom even invites them for a drink, but she and Sylvester have too much to do, and Sylvester says later in private that having the Earl in the inn would be a buzz-kill – nearly as bad as an Oracle in the pub. Fizmo is curious about the smell of sphagnum dust which still hangs around Mortimer. She and Nitfol discuss the birth of Fizmo's niece Faift, in a way which implies that Nomes can choose the gender of their foetus – although Nitfol denies it when Mortimer asks. Fizmo is horrified to realise she is now an auntie, and remembers she needs to ask the village healer Piu for Stiflebloom. Nitfol is an only child. We see an image of him as a boy, holding a thin staff which is the Ŧ with the slanted crossbar. Diamond says that Ace is an object of great local interest, which is why people are spying on them: some of the spies are "allies of temporary convenience" and others are enemies. We see a graffito which says "IN THE NAME OF THE" and then a circle with three small circles or holes in it. Ace identifies Diamond as being a Nome with dyed-blonde hair. She asks whether there was another option, and he says there are always options (we are shown that he is thinking of Myrrh, so of people who are in disguise and might not be what they superficially appear) but sometimes all the options are bad, and he learned that from "you people". "You people" could be the organisation for which Diamond works, or just people "here" (later described as "Out West"), where Ace has been for a while. Ace comes from "Back East": the boundary between the two is Nye, the gamblig den. Diamond regards people from the East as posh, privileged and soft. Diamond came to Jagger Junction from somewhere "much, much worse" than here, which makes Ace say he questions her Nomishness. When Ace says he doubts her Nomishness he probably means that the only places he knows of that are much worse than this are Zark and Fratz, but it is later heavily hinted that Diamond was a slave-labourer who escaped from the Infernal Engine. They are watched by a young male Nome, standing in a doorway: we will later learn that he is called Uffer. Ace and Diamond come to a plain, unmarked door in a wall, which Ace says people must only come to if they are already welcome there. It opens before them. Frederick tells Anushka that he ended up taking over running his "Spire" and training his successor (Sylvester) because the official leader (Willoughby) was no good at it. We see him training Sylvester to deal with a machine that has the Ŧ sticking off it. Willoughby died in the Noodle Incident, which the Spire folk haven't heard about. Frederick says he would have thought everyone to the ends of the known world would have heard of it, and this leads to a discussion of an island called Solla Sollew, which Svetlana says is the island at the farthest edge of the Revealed World, and which Frederick says an explorer described as "alive and burning". Anushka says that Solla Sollew isn't the farthest place from the Spires, just hard to reach because of magic-storms from the Glow Confection mountain range: the farthest point is the Biloka Penninsula on the far side of the Deep Southeastern Jungles. Frederick does not know why the town of Noodle is called Noodle, but the Noodle Incident is the most interesting thing that ever happened there, and they even have a museum about it. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the local fishermen. Tom Bawcock, the senior fisherman, is unmarried but has a thing going with Gretta Weed. Rosemary thinks one of the fishermen, Ernie Corrigan, is cute, and the feeling appears to be mutual. It's OK for Mansionites other than the Earl to hang out in the local pub, and many have done so, but not Nirvana for unspecified reasons. Sylvester goes to collect post from Mr Gray. Mortimer's party, discussing Stiflebloom, pass what looks like a dead Spyder. Fizmo left their village because Nome girls were being encouraged to get pregnant instead of taking Stiflebloom. She talks bout how she and Kulkad were hired to go down into the Hot Zone in suits. She couldn't see much through the helmet, and can't really describe what they were monitoring. Mortimer says Sylvester will want to know, and Nitfol should want to know too if he's going to be a leader, so Fizmo says the thing they were watching was a sort of stone growth. Ace and Diamond pass two guards, and climb stairs to visit a Mr Shadwell, Diamond's boss. Ace fusses about the lack of a handrail, and Diamond says he reminds her of Algernon Jones, the hero of Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. At the top of the stairs, they find Mr Shadwell seated dead at his desk, with some kind of wound on his chest. Frederick wasn't present at the Noodle Incident and didn't hear about it till days later, because they didn't have a Sparkwire – a telegraph system. Sparkwire operators seem to be all women, who wear antennae like the ones the Spire people wear, although in the Spires they signify citizenship. The Spire ones seem to be implants – at least, they're not just attached to a band like the ones worn by Sparkwire operatives. In Noodle there is a museum about the Incident, but it isn't very accurate. In the Spires, Solovyov Spire is all museums, and they're accurate (we see a display case with the Ŧ on top), but some can only be visited by people with a high security clearance. Svetlana has been to the ones she's allowed to see: Frederick says "And the exhibits gave you no reason to doubt their accuracy?" and Svetlana replies "Negative", which is ambiguous. While Sylvester is talking to Mr Gray, some village children ask Rosemary how she, Sylvester and Mortimer got out of the inn without anybody seeing them go. She says they used a one-time magic door. [Cut to Cap'n Hamster, talking to the sapient sea plant on Piratestash Island about how they are both rare life-forms, and how he bounces from ship to gaol (his cage in Nevus's collection) and back, and how he was swept to this location by a freak wave, and the fact that his parents (who had a ship named Grenache) told him that somewhere across the waves there would by a pirate girl for him, and he will search till he finds her.] Fizmo tells Mortimer that when she was down in the Hot Zone, she had a button to push (and then run away) if the thing she was watching started to move. Technology doesn't work well down there, which was why they needed live watchers, but the button was shielded. Fizmo says she saw a rock grow legs and walk. Nitfol asks if it talked – she says no. Nitfol is not surprised by her story, because he has heard stories from when Nomes called Hotdiggers used to mine down close to the Hot Zone. Diamond says she will pay Ace (who seems to be some kind of bodyguard, like Rosemary) to help her get away from the town, as she was Shadwell's "little mascot" and probably won't survive him for long if she stays. Ace agrees on condition that she doesn't lie to him, and that she tells him where the thing he came to collect is. She opens a wall safe and gives Ace a sort of snow globe thing with a figure in it – a long-robed figure juggling the numbers 007. Frederick has never been to the Noodle museum, or the ones in the Spires, but has heard testimony he believes (from Sylvester, about Noodle, and Svetlana about the Spires). He leaves it open whether he trusts the Spire museums or not. Svetlana starts to say "Is not what I am denying! Am saying you should not be—" and then glances nervously at the walls and says it's nothing. Frederick says Willoughby set off some kind of chain reaction which badly damaged much of Noodle, but no-one except Willoughby died. The incident happened in part because of poor maintenance in Noodle, but that part of the story was hushed up. Mr Gray is concerned that there may be things which, unofficially, Sylvester should tell him about. They have a verbal skirmish in which Sylvester avoids telling him anything. He collects his post, rejoins Rosemary and says it may have been a tactical error for Mortimer to let people see that his umbrellla could be used as a weapon – Mr Gray is of course a government agent, and after Mortimer placed his umbrella in a weapons-holder he looked it up in the Compendium of Official Threats, so now he suspects that Mortimer is a wizard. Nitfol says that one of his ancestors, Nikmo, found a talking rock in the deeps, although most of the records of what it said were lost. Nikmo brought the rock home to the surface, but it stopped talking and he was ridiculed for saying it had. Family history says Nikmo later snuck the rock back into the deeps and it came back to life. He told his daughter Margi about it. Margi became a famous adventuress and had a son, Jindak (mobile hanging over cradle, with Ŧ). Margi told Jindak that she thought Nikmo went back later to visit the rock, but she herself could never find it. Mortimer asks about the surviving records of what the rock said, and Nitfol says that the rock said it had been broken off from a larger boulder during a natural upheaval. We see Violet sneaking past behind Terin Flem, who is still keeping a lookout: later comments suggest he really isn't of her creeping through the trees behind him. She walks to the Mansion's gardens, where she startles Nellie Grubb, in her role as gardener. Ace tells Diamond to place another globe, called a Zoinkglobe, into the safe. He had arranged to give Mr Shadwell this one in return for the one with the juggler, and now Shadwell's heirs can have it. He tells Diamond not to steal stuff from the safe unless they need it to survive, so she takes a small plaque with Shadwell's sigil on it, used to show that the bearer is in his favour. Ace comments that Louis and Buddy, the security guards, had let him up there with a spear and an unsearched pack, so they are either incompetent or part of whatever is going on. Silhouette of railing decorated with Ŧ. We return to the Spires, where Frederick is talking about the official enquiry into the Noodle Incident. The Spires have official enquiries too – Svetlana says "Except when conditioned by circumstances", Frederick replies "Like when a gal happens to be carrying a big needle?" and Anushka says they don't talk about that here. Frederick says that what he has said came from his own experience, not from Svetlana. He says that Willoughby was scapegoated (although he really was somewhat to blame) – then a woman named Snegurka arrives with a file which was requested earlier (presumably the one on Spindizzies). Part Seven: Seats of Power [19/11/2018 – 01/12/2021] 01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion. Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle. Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking. Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him. Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both). Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree. Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly. Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out. Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer". Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled. 02: Entangled [05/02/2018 – 03/05/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5584–#5661] Mortimer and the two Nomes wonder nervously what will happen if the Pales don't return from squid-chasing. The scene switches to the Pale camp, where Zpeaker is telling Vezza how the Pales grow their tools. The tools do not grow from plants but are in some way related to the Pales themselves and this is critical information, so he will need to ask the Nexus for permission to show her. Vezza, being young, can hear the Pales' supersonic voices: Zpeaker says all their communication is sonic "except Zcopers". [Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.] Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee. Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor. Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting. The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket. We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts. Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back. Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are. Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood. Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect. Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head. 03: No Turning Back [06/05/2019 – 01/08/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5675–#5752] Mortimer's party progress, keeping together. Mortimer, being taller, can see a large, distant rock which he thinks is near the Panegate. Nitfol says one direction is as good as another, and Mortimer says the direction of the Thicket (the jumble of crystals) is bad. Another Ŧ on a rock in the distance. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as. Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been". We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother. Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before. Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed. For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt. Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling. Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ. Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle. Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock. Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could. Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters. He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them. 04: Fallout [02/08/2019 – 30/10/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5759–#5848] Not-Shmelcathy tells Myrrh she doesn't see the point of clothes unless it's exceptionally cold: then admits that's the default state in the Spires for a third of the year. Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of". Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was. We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin. Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible. Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon. According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl". Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic. Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice. Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach. Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her. Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them. Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington. Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers. Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business. Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!" Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that. 05: Going Home [04/11/2019 – 27/12/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5855–#5899] The Eyebolt formerly known as not-Schmelcathy says that her name is Simplicity (despite the name on the screen by her desk). She is bubbling with answers to questions Myrrh doesn't want to ask (demons are sensitive about favours and counter-favours). She says "we" (presumably the Eyebolts) can sense auras and that it's important that Myrrh know what she is confronting. Myrrh assumes she is talking about the Operator. There is a side conversation about Jones, who we see apparently getting clothes from Alena and Idita. Simplicity says that the Operator is much more powerful than either Myrrh or Jones, and he has visited the Spires, but he's still only part of the problem. We see an image of the Operator having a power-bar about two and a half times Myrrh's, but it's like a small stream compared to a raging river when measured against the Power Simplicity is thinking of. Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one. Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt. The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers. Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one. Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question. Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped. 06: Diplomacy [30/12/2019 – 13/02/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5909–#5958] Comshaw reveals that when they found the door to the Mansion open, the Council had deliberately aimed a Dornbeast through the door to test what would happen. Sylvester confirms that they are Human and that he is The Earl. Rosemary is his trusty assistant, and Skradt is Comshaw's. Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.] Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing. Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home. Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock. Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome. Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin". An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree. 07: Exit Strategies [24/02/2020 – 26/06/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5986–#6084] Ivana takes Frederick and Svetlana to a Diplomatic Quarantine Facility, for guests who are important but disruptive. There are covered plates of cakes: one of the covers has a Ŧ on it. Frederick will not be allowed to interact with anyone else, except Svetlana whose duties are not yet complete. Frederick assumes this will be so until he goes back to the docks, but Ivana says he's never been at the docks. Svetlana asks if he walked from Yurpsland, but Ivana says he and Myrrh didn't appear via any known entrance, which is part of why he's interesting. Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can. Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees. Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach. Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond". Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way. Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished. Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open. Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave. Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip. Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen. Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl. Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her. Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear. We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar. Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation. Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well. An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist. Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises. They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years). They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough). After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole. At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires. 08: High Level Meetings [29/06/2020 – 09/10/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6098–#6188] Diamond is very concerned that she hadn't known Blas was in town: it suggests her situational awareness is slipping, and that's dangerous. If she had known, she might or might not have told Shadwell, who sometimes had people killed, but only when absolutely necessary: Ace says his employers are the same, except more genteel about it. Wooden Ŧ among planks behind them, and metal one acting as a sort of tap. Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap. Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket. Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat. A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them. Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived. At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket. Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch). Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs. In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home. Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background. An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting. Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall. They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ). More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX. Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded. 09: It All Comes Together [13/10/2020 – 19/02/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6202–#6318] Svetlana agrees that she will go with Frederick to Audravania. At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres. We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together. A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar. Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown. Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes. Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade. Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos. Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower. Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire. Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something". Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings. Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs. In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits. Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement. The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went. 10: Unexplored Territory [22/02/2021 – 28/05/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6325–#6416] This chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Unexplored Territory, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto. We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm. The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect". Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it. Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing). Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles. Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned. Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself. It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought. Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat. Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality. Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock. 11: New Clothes [01/06/2021 – 03/09/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6423–#6514] Diamond and Ace have moved out of the trace left by the Infernal Engine, and Ace can feel the difference. He wants to know how Jagger Junction ended up this rough (Diamond doesn't know or care), and says if in the future there's anything he can do to fix it, he will. A fairly large Fuzz, maybe cat-sized, is lurking in a small dustbin. Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia. This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine. They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned. Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns. Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in. Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it. Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears. Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree. Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol). Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future. 12: Advice and Council [07/09/2021 – 01/12/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6521–#6577] Rosemary advises Fizmo to really listen to what other people say and to not talk – or swear – much during the Council meeting. Outwith that meeting, she should definitely tell Nitfol what she thinks, about everything. Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works. Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette. Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves. Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers. Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end. Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction. Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: Rise and Shine [28/07/2013 – 26/11/2013] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips start–#3698] The sun has just risen over the Mansion. The brothers are already awake: Sylvester resumes doing his paperwork, but Mortimer stands gazing out of a window, clutching the umbrella he said he wouldn't pick up again unless and until he decided to take up magic, and thinking of himself as having "set out" – and that the world itself has also changed. Rosemary emerges and rings the bell for Schmedley, the butler, attracting Mortimer's attention. He introduces her to Schmedley, who tells her how to find Sylvester (and who speaks very quietly). Schmedley is not surprised to hear that Mortimer is a wizard. We see Arthur the Weirdo feeling the worse for wear.
Sylvester explains the hierarchy of the Mansion's servants to Rosemary. Nellie and Amos are officially retired, and Myrrh retired when Ilsa, the Head Housekeeper, did (he evidently doesn't know Myrrh was controlling her!). When the main posts are all filled the rank from top down goes Regent and Estate Manager (Frederick); Head Housekeeper; Butler; Taskmistress; then the Head Gardener and Head Librarian and then all the small fry. As Taskmistress Rosemary stands fairly high. One of her duties is, at least potentially, to find and hire a new sign-writer (if official and full-time, called a Notification Artificer). Sylvester's next task is in three days and Rosemary's in five.
He shows Rosemary her new official quarters and office, which she is quite stunned by. Her quarters command a view of the ocean, which leads to a discussion about Panegates and the fact that no known Panegate leads to another continent, although some lead to alternative realities for the location of the Mansion.
They move on to discussing why the villagers don't all move into the much-more-comfortable Mansion, and Rosemary's dream about the Operator. Sylvester didn't share it but we see a flashback to what must be his own dream, in which he, Rosemary and Nimue are attending a university lecture given by Protus, accompanied by three frogs, two sitting with the girls in the audience and one sitting with Protus, and Sylvester is aware that his own frog is missing (or has gone to Protus).
We see a rusted, land-locked churnboat which Philbert had been going to convert into a building, the Boathouse, and access to which is heavily restricted; and a wizwitch detector which detects Mortimer. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss security clearances, and local legends relating to a scruffy local folk-hero called Frizzlegarb who Sylvester thinks might have been a surviving Wilf, and who is associated with a symbol that looks like a waffle with wings. Legends say Frizzlegarb founded Glome, grew the first pudding plant and planted the acorn which became the Forest of Burzee. They also say that he swam through a pool and there met what sounds like a Willigig. [Later we will learn that Frizzlegarb was a Fuzz from the far future, presumably dislocated in time by the Willigig.] Sylvester is still having trouble with the fact that Willigigs are real. He shows Rosemary round her apartment and gives her a mechanical pocket-watch, then they get out Mortimer's Glowgem and test it on a sort of battery-tester invented by Griffington. They are quite rare. although there are some in the Infernal Engine, and in deep shafts under the Brushspire Peaks, and in Paydon, and the university had some big ones brought back by the Bradstreet Expedition. No-one really knows what they are, but they're not alive, they come in various types which feel slightly different, and they store power, and they didn't explode in the Crash.
We see an outtake of the Tribbletongued Hamster (in pirate getup), the plant and the ABOL escaping together in their toy boat, sailing along an underground tunnel: a sign in the background points towards the sea. This is a colourised but othwerwise only slightly different version of the drawing we saw the previous day whem Rosemary and Sylvester were coming away from Spatchcock's office, but the sign pointing to the sea is new, so they've made progress.
This Glowgem is highly charged. The Mansion has a few others whose charge has almost run down: they can be recharged by dipping them in the River of Fire for a few days. They used to do that from a bridge station over the River, but it collapsed in the Crash: we see that the Observatory in the Basement is adapted from the ruins of it. Sylvester mentions that the Mansion used to have a "wizwitch", a magic-wielder, as a regular member of staff and he supposes it now has one again. The scene cuts to Mortimer, who is talking to a strange wall of purple electrical spikes labelled "CURED ELECTRO-SPIKES" and filled with littl wires, telling it he is going to go and celebrate the fact that he has grown up and got a job. He goes to Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, where there are various amusements and places to eat.
Back with Rosemary and Sylvester, he asks her about Hack & Slash's Commandant Spangler (who Rosemary had said was the only person she had previously met who had a private office). This segues into a conversation about their respective grandparents. Rob has said elsewhwere that Quincy died in 5398, and it's now 5423, and Sylvester says here that Quincy died when he was five, so Sylvester is now twenty-nine or thirty. Rosemary's parents died on their way back from her grandmother's funeral, when she was a baby. Rosemary runs through her fake history, although we know from a bonus strip of her family that she has kept their names and just changed her father's surname to match her new, false surname Dapple. She discusses the remote possibility of using Protus to go back in time and save her parents – for whom she has little feeling – at the cost of giving up her own exciting future and getting stuck as a farm-girl (and refers to Haroons in passing as Leafheads). Meanwhile we see Frederick and Myrrh set out to do something – unspecified but involving hand-holding – "properly". Get married, probably.
Sylvester tells Rosemary about the demand there used to be for apartments linked to this private corridor for senior administrators: Amos could have had a smart Head Librarian's apartment here, but he and Nellie chose to live down in the Storage Halls next to Frederick and Myrrh because of their long history [Olaf lives in the village]. There used to be a separate cottage for the Head Gardener but it was damaged in the Crash. They discuss the fact that in the past, pre-Ludwig, the Earls were at risk of being assassinated just for being the Earl. Rosemary goes off at a tangent about a fluffy-seeming female called Miss Gritz who was a traveller on the caravan Rosemary was guarding, and whom she suspects of being her apparent boyfriend's very high-powered personal bodyguard. Sylvester shows Rosemary round the official, ceremonial offices for himself and his secretary (but not his official chambers, which are untidy). The offices are designed to be intimidating, and with security in mind: there is a round thing on the wall that Sylvester says is the remains of a robot security system. The fact that attention is drawn to it suggests to me that we will find out Mr Hand can access it and it's not as broken as it purports to be, but Rosemary taps it and it doesn't do anything visible.
Meanwhile, we see Eunice, wearing a rucksack, emerge from a concealed entrance in a rock with a spy-eye on top. Yasmine arrives on horseback at a sign that points to Eetown in one direction and Noodle in another (forking rather than diametrically opposed), and thinks that in another hour she'll be far enough away to take her hood off. So she is somebody who might be recognised. Her spark of attraction with Martimer suggests that a) she too is in the twenty-five to thirty-five range and b) she isn't Lenore, even though the Shibolith accent could be fake.
We learn that the Mansion has an actual throne. Audra was the last Earl to use it and since then it's been reserved in case the king should visit – this nearly happened fifty years ago, when Yorik III had planned a visit, but the king ws killed when his flagship airship The Velvet Glove went down during the Crash, and the current king tends to stay in the capital.
We learn that the Mansion has a High Tower, which seems to be the turret off the main tower, and access to which is blocked: Rufus tried to get in there, before he wandered off, but as far as Sylvester knows he was unsuccessful. Possibly Mr Hand lives there. Sylvester says Rufus likes to wander but he doesn't go far: Sylvester tried to get him to go to university but Rufus felt that the area around the Mansion was where he was going to be. Sylvester doesn't know where Rufus is now: Mortimer hasn't told him, or perhaps being zapped and PZORed and meeting Yasmine scrambled his memory.
Sylvester shows Rosemary an escape hatch under the desk (which itself is made of near-impregnable Ettin lengths), leading to a panic-room which used to be well-equippped but is now almost empty. There used to be guards down there, but not since the Crash: and no, they didn't really need guards after the Crash, because they had Myrrh. We learn that in the early days the Earldom was passed on by mortal combat. Milo was the last Earl of E officially to kill his predecessor and the first to pass the Earldom on by blood although his grandson, Dorn II, may have been murdered by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, who then ruled in her husband Lemuel's stead while he got on with his Panegate research. We also learn that in those days the Earldoms of E and S were friends.
Sylvester doesn't know as much about his mother's family, the Mundivagants, who are grand and grudging industrialists. Neither he nor Lenore would ever ask their maternal grandfather Humphrey Mundivagant for a favour. Their brother Ace works for the Mundivagants. Rosemary's family were all farmers with a long tradition, but they have died out.
The Mansion has mangonels and mini airships which could probably be got to work. Rosemary asks about a sign saying "Gargoyle pits" and Sylvester tells her that there are creatures called Gargoyles and Spindizzies which were bred or manufactured by the Ettins to service and repair the buildings in which they live, so the Mansion behaves like a semi-living thing, a sort of colonial organism, even though there's no central personality such as there is at the Castle of the Combynes. Gargoyles deal with the exterior and Spindizzies with the interior, especially service machinery behind the walls and in the BaseCore, which is "one giant inaccessible churn of zappy machinery". The Mansion is slowly running down. Sylvester and Rosemary speculate about the possibility of finding still-surviving Ettins who could restore it. They come to a corridor where an end-wall has moved aside, giving access to a platform looking out into a vast service-space, so Sylvester takes Rosemary to meet the Spindizzies, warning her to get the Can-Opener out first and not tell anybody about the Poke Kit. In the empty space we saee lines of force, with the first appearance of the little Ts and Fs which become a common motif.
02: Fishing Around [27/11/2013 – 22/03/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3704–#3810] The scene opens with an Ichyoid about under water, wearing some sort of equipment on his chest which seems to be intergrated into his body, and surrounded by sea-life, including two eyes looking out of a hole with "THAT'S A MORAY" written round it. We return to Sylvester, telling Rosemary that the BaseCore of the Mansion, which they are looking down on, and the space around it is malleable and in a state of flux. Sylvester warns Rosemary that the Spindizzies share new information indiscriminately, but may assume you already know old things you aren't aware of.
Two Spindizzies appear: they have grey, hairless humanoid upper bodies trailing away into wormy tails, and pterosaur-like wings. The males have brown wing-muscles and the females blue. They speak like intelligent but literal-minded computers but are friendly and kind, very concerned when they hear that Rosemary is taking over as Taskmistress in case that means Prunella has died, and perhaps a little disappointed that she isn't Sylvester's love-interest, since they want him to produce another male Task-performer. Sylvester agrees to bring in supplies (antimony) which they request, and ask them if they can tell what the Can-Opener is made of, but they can't, although they may be able to duplicate it (by which they mean, construct a look-alike pattern). When they are analysing something, little lines hang in the air, some similar to the marks on the Can-Opener, s0me more like distorted letters. Every Human (or in Myrrh's case, humanoid) in the Mansion has a designated Spindizzy who communicates with them: Horace and, newly, Emily are matched to Sylvester and Rosemary. As Taskmistress Rosemary will need to talk to Emily weekly. They live about as long as Humans, so if you have a personal Spindsizzy you always have somebody who's happy to talk to you.
Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the Ettins, and the moving walls (which the Spindizzies can influence if they are nearby, even though they can't leave their chamber): Sylvester thinks the Mansion with its Panegates and moving walls wasn't intended as a residence but as some other sort of facility. They wonder whether there are any surviving Ettins – and if so, how they would react to finding Humans living in their laboratory, or whatever it is. The Ettins are myths to the Spindizzies too – scary, tyrannical myths.
We learn that the Spindizzies are mortal flesh-and-blood creatures but they reproduce in a mechanical incubator, and are assigned mates on a very scientific basis: and that Motihauls reproduce by the female laying an egg and then the male handing her a bottle of sperm. We learn that one of Ludwig's assistants, James Neil Pakson, went far enough down into the depths to visit the Spindizzy incubator, and his granddaughter Nicole visited the Far-Eastern Shore on the other side of the ocean from the Mansion. There were Human colonies there which may or may not have survived the Crash, about which the Spindizzies know nothing. They also don't know about other Ettin-made edifices, or about the things no-one is sure who made: the Infernal Engine, the Beacons, the Sandwall, and a range of actual big rock candy mountains.
Meanwhile we see vignettes of other characters. Mortimer is breakfasting on a Spyder-burger at the Landing o' Family Fun, and visiting the Fish Museum there. He has aquired a little purple-and-green party version of a wizard's conical hat. Eunice Kelso is seen leaving the woods and heading for Eetown, with her rucksack: she passes a retired Guardian called Mr Flem, who warns her that the woods are dangerous. Terin Flem, whom we will meet again, is a semi-retired pig-farmer who used to be the Oracle Omega's Guardian Finale, and sits on a rock near the village alongside his dog Byron, apparently whittling wood. Nelly is feeding (non-sapient) Jibjibs while Amos wears goggles as he uses tongs to hold up a rod with a star on the end which isn't Mortimer's Glowgem (too many points). It appears that he is making, or restoring, a wand. Arthur the Weirdo is taking a bath; Myrrh is looking out from her and Frederick's flat, looking a bit suspicious (perhaps because she senses the presence of Frowgler); and Schmedley is being addressed by somebody off-screen and short (probably Frowgler).
The chamber where Rosemary and Sylvester and the Spindizzies are all meeting is a sort of holo-deck, in which the Spindizzies successfully produce a useable mock-up of the Can-Opener which is only real in this environment, a quasi-humanoid sparring-partner for Rosemary to practise with, a chair for Sylvester to sit in and watch, and some background scenery including a bad, Escheresque reproduction of part of a monument called the Citadel of the Hugging Squirrels, one of the Sculpted Isles in Isdanlia. This reproduction was commissioned by Dorn I for his mother Nettana, who came from that area. The Sculpted Isles date back to a mysterious Dawn Era, probably that of the Wilfs and Gobblems. Sylvester dozes in a chair, leaving Rosemary to her sparring, but in fact she talks to the Spindizzies instead of fighting, and runs them through the tools they have patterns for: Human Tool #1 is a stick. She learns that they have patterns for Ettin tools as well as Human ones, but most of the Ettin ones are encrypted: one that isn't encrypted is a 3D version of the USB symbol, and they would love to get hold of a real one (there was a broken one on the sea floor where we saw the Ichyoid). She encrypts the pattern for the Can-Opener so only she and Sylvester can see it. It seems that any "productive individual" can come in and encrypt personalized tools. She learns that the Spindizzies could in principle find out what the Can-Opener is made of but their access to data is blocked beyond a certain level, although they don't know by whom. Rufus might be able to fix it. They tell her that Rufus is at Semi-Autonomous Research Structure #00001.
Rosemary doesn't want to spar now because she hasn't the time, but she takes the time to walk up the imaginary sky. She starts to ask Emily the Spindizzy whether she knows that she, Rosemary, is currently... then changes the subject, which may or may not have been important. Then she wakes Sylvester and tells him where Rufus is, which he translates as the Spike. He isn't pleased, and says that the Spike is very dangerous, partly because the machines there have no built-in safety systems, but doesn't intend to go rescue him as he assumes Rufus knows what he's doing: he doesn't know about the Fixits etc. The information about Rufus came from a high-ranking Spindizzy called Tanith who was Nirvana's contact, but they have lost contact with Nirvana. Meanwhile a Valentine's Day out-take shows Sheriff Patrick Skragg giving a flower to his wife Halcyone, while their son Stephen reads a Willy-the-Wendigo book.
Sylvester informs the Spindizzies about the departure of the Sneeches, and asks them what they know about Willigigs. They have been aware of Protus's presence for around a month (37.77 days – are Mansionverse months forty days?) but haven't spoken to him. They are not aware of Frowgler. Sylvester and Rosemary take their leave of them: Sylvester promises to bring them some antimony which they have asked for, and which he has in store. After they leave we see that the Spindizzies penetrate right down into the Basement and see Sprocket the Gnoll engineer, holding a Glowgem in a wrench, opening conversation with a male Spindizzy.
Rosemary and Sylvester set off to go fishing. They discuss the Mansion's mineral stores, including gold, and Rosemary tells Sylvester what she learned from the Spindizzies while he was asleep, about the data block which Rufus might be able to fix. Sylvester suggests that the same person deliberately planted the Can-Opener with Izchak for Rosemary to find, and prevented the Spindizzies from investigating it: he fears he is being too paranoid but Rosemary, being profesionally paranoid, suggests there may be two conflicting secret factions at work. For the moment, Sylvester is not telling the Spindizzies about the return of Nirvana, the previous Taskmistress: he means to return to the Ettinworks once he has researched Tand, and will allow Nirvana and "Mz Teree" (Annabelle) to explain themselves before making a decision about them.
They make their way down to a sea-level room where there are storage lockers for fishing gear and for beach leisure gear, and a small boat, and a door to the E family's private – and artificially-enhanced – fishing beach. [Here an out-take shows Sylvester's mother Dorothea and sister Lilith visiting the Irish-analogue nation of Tiranog at some point in the recent past.] They used to have a proper boat-house etc. but much of it has fallen into ruins. Ichyoids don't like large-scale commerical fishing and cut large fishing nets, so before going outside they look though a security periscope and see only gulls. There is a suggestion that many Ichyoids died in the Crash. Sylvester also talks about what he considers to be the remote possibility of somebody from the Basement making their way up to the beach (suggesting that part of it is below sea-level), and at that we see the hamster and his crew in their miniature pirate ship, approaching the open air. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss boats, and an explorer called Semidemela, and then go outside, where they stand side by side on the beach and agree that their feelings for each other are brother/sisterly rather than romantic (although acknowledging that this could change). It's mentioned that Audra had an entire fleet, and that they have a private, secure marina, but without magic it takes too much effort to open. They catch fish and gather seaweed and then go inside to cook them.
Meanwhile we see a small boat propelled by a magic-powered outboard motor, and piloted by a skinny, elderly male villager. This is Olaf Larssen, the village vet, whom we saw before when Protus caused Sylvester to have a vision of a selection of villagers (among other things), and who was part of Frederick's pre-Myrrh magical team. His boat is named Mamie, after his partner who died in the Crash. The hamster and his pirate crew in their tiny wind-up clockwork boat approach and order Olaf to stand to and prepare to be boarded, and he thinks that all Tribble-Tongued Hamsters are insane. Compared to a Human, Cap'n Hamster is more like a large gopher in size.
03: A Change in the Scene [24/03/2014 – 12/07/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in SubShaft 44f :: Awakenings strips #3817–end] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips start–#3915] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips start–#3921] From this point on, the parallel activity in the Basement splits away into a series of separate strips, until Sylvester and co. re-enter the Basement in Part Eight. The scene above-ground opens with Nitfol, Fizmo and three Pales (Thrash and his team, although they are all wearing or carrying shields and Thrash doesn't have the stripe on his chest that he had before) about to enter a wood tangled with brambles, in search of whatever Nitfol needs for his bid to become mayor. Nitfol says that Fizmo's presence isn't absolutely neccessary to his plans (knowing that this expedition will be dangerous) – but she has her own agenda. Then we see Yasmine riding through a wood. She is just about to take off her hood, now she is far enough from the Mansion, when she feels a vibration in her bag of Fleebs. She opens it and the Fleebs leap out, although they do not appear rabid.
Meanwhile we see the E family make breakfast. Amos and Nellie bring non-sapient Jibjib eggs (their cockerel is called Zoroaster), Sylvester and Rosemary have fish and edible seaweed, and Mortimer brings a bottle of a magically-active drink called Yurple Juice. He won it by playing a game called Star Board at Uncle Bob's Landing o' Family Fun, and feels he may have cheated magically. The Weirdo (seriously hungover) and Fantod arrive and are introduced to Rosemary.
Then Myrrh and Frederick arrive, dressed as if for a very fancy trip to a smart restaurant or theatre, and Myrrh announces that they are now retiring from their work to keep the family alive. Although they don't state so explicitly, they are planning to go away on a trip (we were told when we first met him that Frederick likes to go on long journeys). Myrrh also satisfies the Weirdo and Fantod's curiosity by dropping her glamour and revealing to them that she is a Demon. Mortimer is now Sylvester's Regent, his understudy – about which he is less than thrilled. Sylvester tells him just to do what Rosemary tells him, when Sylvester himself isn't there. Since the Mansion will now be less secure, Sylvester offers Amos and Nellie the chance to retire to the village, but they refuse. Instead, Amos will teach Mortimer magic. Meanwhile Sylvester, Rosemary and Mortimer need to go to the village to update Saffron, the lady mayor, on what's been happening, to sell Dornbeast parts and to attend the Temple. The Dornbeast parts are ready-wrapped in a refrigerator or stasis unit next to Ludwig's monster-processing machine. We learn later that the wrappings alone will keep meat fresh for a week, and if wrapped and in the cabinet it will keep for months.
Mortimer wants to go to the Temple (he starts to ask whether he can go with them, then states that he is going) to light a candle for Nitfol, whom he believes to be dead through his fault, and then find the forest Nomes and tell them what happened to him. This leads to a discussion about Deep Jungle Nomes, who live in normal tree-houses, and about tree-warping. You can do the same with stone on a small scale, and we see Mulch and Grind tucked into a pocket in the wall behind Faldstool, just as Shona discussed with Frowgler.
Because the Poke Kit won't work so well away from the Mansion's magic tricklepoint, Rosemary and Sylvester go to the Barrackstack to deposit the Can-Opener in a vault and collect other equipment. Meanwhile Mortimer goes to take antimony to the Spindizzies. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Ludwig's machines still work, and why this might be; and the fact that Ludwig left whole shelves' worth of notes which haven't been properly catalogued [an ideal job for the Ludwigites]. Ludwig was never intentionally unkind, but his thought processes weren't necesarily like those of most other people. Rosemary thinks that the Weirdo is ill or hungover but competant, and has had military training. Knowing that the Weirdo is conspiring with Yasmine in some way, Sylvester says they should lock their doors at night.
Only the "cactus" part of the Mansion is Ettin-made: the other buildings were constructed by various Earls, although sometimes using Ettin salvage. The Barrackstack, which contains some Ettin elements but was mainly built by Angus and Audra, goes down as far below ground as above (about eight storeys each way). It was originally an impregnable fortress, but after the wars were over and "the Mugwumps all died.. or whatever.." Ernest and Philbert added stairs. There are sealed-off escape tunnels from the barracks which open into places which are now inside Eetown. A sign points to the Party Palace, built by Ernest, and describes the attractions on offer there. Rosemary is alarmed to see "Quincunx Den" on there: we will later learn that to her, the Quincunx is a paramilitry outfit Out West. Here it's a very complex card-game. We see a board laid out with cards in which there seem to be five suits: asterisks; circles; crosses (shaped like a Christian cross); little flowering plants (which I'm betting are called blooms); and anchors.
They also discuss some kind of game which involves magically-powered equipment and is played by couples (together as a team) in an Underwear Arena: possibly that means the game is called Underwear. Whatever it is long-married couples are especially good at it (which suggests it might involve listing your partner's physical or sexual quirks), and people called Shrouders – the reverse of nudists – cannot play it. All the local villagers are informally Shrouders. Sylvester and Nimue won a silver medal at this game at University. Rosemary wants to play, with Sylvester as her partner, but the only team they could play against would be Nellie and Amos who would win because they've been married over fifty years, so Rosemary wants to get Yasmine back so they can play against her and Mortimer.
Mortimer takes the antimony to his Spindizzy contact, Charles. Charles recognizes the umbrella as a "thaumalogical flow enhancer and regulator" and already knew Mortimer had wizard potential. The scene cuts to a female Spindizzy, Clementine, who is talking to Sina, Sprocket and a half-seen male Trog, probably either Mowder or Grak. Sina is quizzing Clementine about her claim to have met the Earl.
Sylvester opens a weapons-vault to keep the Can-Opener in: like military exercises the vaults have random names. This one contains a wide range of good spears and swords over which Rosemary exclaims. We learn that there are official family weapons on display in the Gatestone, but they haven't been used in anger since Dorn II. They put the Can-Opener into a safe, then enter Rosemary into the Herediscan system. They discuss Griffington – his collection of obscene limericks, his management of the Factor E and his possession of three minions, Krell (who investigated old devices), Drowpole (who built new ones), and Strauhatt (who marketed what they made). Rosemary is now Sylvester's minion, after Nirvana, who was the first. They see a statue which purports to be of an Obsidian Sneech, but is more sinister than accurate, and collect all the gear Rosemary will need to maintain her sword. This area of the Mansion, which is actually of great military importance, is dotted with signs which suggest that only boring things happen there. As with the Barrackstack, much of the Ettin-built part of the Mansion is underground, even before you get to the Basement.
Arthur and Fantod are sitting by the counting-down machine, now at 000315311089. Fantod, who seems to be an actual creature because his eyes move and widen expressively, still looks stunned after their encounter with Myrrh's demon form. Arthur says he assumes that "she knew all along" – perhaps a reference to Yasmine – and he plans to take Amos's advice (to go to the Temple and get Threnody to light a candle for Tulip).
Sylvester and Rosemary reach a document-storage area under the library, and Sylvester gives Rosemary an instruction manual for the Poke Kit. She reads about secured sub-pockets and has a half memory of the Tree giving her a secret seed, but it slips her mind again. She experiments with taking the Glowgem in and out, and then looks around warily and makes a secret pocket, into which we will later learn she moved the HJ42. Sylvester meanwhile asks Amos for Obadiah Wuttgutt's Cyclopedia of Night Beasties but they don't have a copy – only Rosemary's memory of reading it. Amos asks Sylvester to tell Olaf in the village that he and Amos need to talk.
Rosemary's Glowgem seems to be attracted to one of the supposedly deactivated surveillance devices (like the one in Sylvester's office suite) on the wall: the swirly pattern on it starts throbbing and Rosemary stares at it, but she is no longer vulnerable to being hypnotised. She finds the whole sub-pocket idea creepy, because there could be anything in there, and without the assistance of an official service engineer she wouldn't know it and might accidentally say a password which would cause something dangerous to erupt. They can't empty it by taking it into the Quiet Room, as that might damage it.
Rosemary has written to Aunt Eva but she has described where she is, and Sylvester is concerned that her enemies might get it out of her aunt. Sylvester advises her to send another less specific letter via his lawyer, Mr Ferule. They discuss Tansy's army which is chasing Rosemary, and which is called the Quincunx (like the complex game: they don't know if there's a connection). If the Quincunx finds out where Rosemary is and comes as an army it would take them six months to get to E, but it's possible they could send an assassin, or hire a local one by wire; albeit that at present they don't know Rosemary's name. There's no possibility of Tansy giving up and neither will Rosemary: she thinks about Protus showing Sylvester "that poor Gnoll" (Rhid) and then her and Tansy fighting. There's a hint that the thing which Rosemary stole from the Quincunx was whatever she used to travel instantly to the east. The Quincunx are currently in the Nodnol/Lawnrock Peninsula, farther west around the Bay of Runes from Moonin.
Being about to leave to walk to the village, they discuss a thing at the entrance called the Gatestone, believed to have been moved there by Ettric, the 2nd Earl. It's an artefact which might predate the Ettins. We see Mortimer waiting for them in an official Assembly Alcove, and being joined there by Arthur the Weirdo and his puppet Fantod, who congratulate him on becoming Regent. They ask about the umbrella, and Mortimer leads them to believe it's just an umbrella, to keep off the rain and sun. Mortimer still smells of sphagnum dust, and this leads to a discussion of Arthur's days at the Weirdo Academy. Arthur is heading to the Temple to have a candle lit for his friend Tulip.
04: Barriers and Gates [14/07/2014 – 27/11/2014] [Overlaps Sundays in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile strips #3922–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #3925–#4053] We see the Saurs Buzz and Ig meeting by the ruins of a museum in Eetown. Ig has a Glowgem which was in Niddle's pack: he doesn't know what it is, just that it's pretty. Buzz wants Ig to tell him about what has become of Snerk: Ig says Buzz wouldn't believe him but Buzz, who has been working with Frowgler, says Ig would be surprised what he believes these days.
Mortimer and Arthur discuss whether Weirdos are allowed to marry. Opinions vary: Swithinites thing they shouldn't, and Bonavenites think it's OK. Of the family's previous Weirdos, Captain Tin-Throatwobbler was a Swithinite, but Sarah Bellum was a widow. They discuss a girl named Melba who lives in the village, and with whom Fantod implies tnat Arthur has a "thing": she's a friend of Mortimer's sister Lilith's, and quite eccentric, but Arthur says she is too frivolous to make an official Weirdo.
Sylvester joins the others at the assembly point. Trailing behind him, Rosemary surreptitiously deposits several items from her Poke Kit – her Poke Kit instruction booklet, plus the lantern and bottle of blade-oil which Sylvester gave her in the Barrackstack – in a large urn. It is one of several artistic and archaeological artefacts which grace the hallway. The main door of the Mansion is set into the Gatestone, a huge boulder which "soaks up light, spreads it around". It may be natural as there are others elsewhere, but it was transported there. The main doors are kept closed, with a small door let into them. It leads to a walled outside area, still strewn with post-Crash rubble. From there, the main gates have been deliberately blocked with rubble to prevent mass invasion, again with a small door next to them. The party discuss the fortifications erected by previous earls, and the early earls themselves (the name of the first earl is not known), and why the village was renamed Eetown instead of Etown (Shibolith is under military rule because of the tensions with Thekla to the south, and there's a fortess/military base there called ETown). The fortifications are now a bit gappy – in fact they use a hole in the wall as a back door – and electronic repellers are used to keep out wild animals. These also protect the orchard and the main path to the village. These are the things Yasmine got past by spitting on them.
Sylvester and Mortimer, Rosemary, Arthur and Fantod walk towards Eetown, discussing how the area came to be renamed Audravania instead of Northwoods, after Audra's death, and the vast lands which Audra had ruled before her fatal decision to poke the Hot Zone. Audra had made a voluntary marriage, albeit a political one, but prior to her many future Earls had been forcibly betrothed as children. Plenty of women at university wanted to marry Sylvester for his title, even though he was a poor scholarship boy.
Sylvester could, even now, become a gold-digger and find a rich woman who would marry him for his title. Rosemary makes a point of saying she supposes he hates that sort of person: she's probably thinking that marrying for money may be how he will become what he hates.
We learn that while at university Sylvester attended the coronation of the king and queen, Yancy and Fluer. Amos has visited the capital with Frederick, but Nellie has never been outside Audravania, except on her honeymoon, when they went to a town called Rowen which was fashionable before the Crash. This leads to a discussion of an island off Eetown, called Alwin, which belongs to the Earls but which they allow honeymooning couples from the village to use. Mortimer says that this arrangement is important to the villagers, which leads to him telling Sylvester what's going on there at the moment – including a break-in at Genrick's tailor shop, where stuff was taken overnight, but money was left for it, for more than the stolen clothes were worth. Possibly this was Frowgler, taking the hat he later gave to Fizmo: but the reference is to "some clothes", so if it was Frowgler what else did he take, and why? Rufus's friend Eunice is mentioned as one of a number of people who have recently moved into the area (and Mortimer doesn't seem to remember that she zapped him): the village is growing and there is a debate, known as the Inside-Out fight, as to whether or not to expand it beyond the boundary hedge.
Peter Nigultrum (a half-Polarite) is engaged to Ida, and Mortimer mentions a couple called Hooper and Pandowny who both seem to be male, and says it would help if Sylvester could be there if and when they marry. Evidently there is a small amount of prejudice against same-sex couples. They meet and speak to the pig-farmer Terin Flem and his dog Byron, sitting on a rock outside the village, whittling. This is the same Mr Flem we saw with Eunice before, who comes from the same area (Moonin) as Rosemary and who used to be Guardian to the hardline Oracle named Omega, whom Sylvester didn't get on with. Flem asks Mortimer to ask young Dirge (the current Guardian) to come by, and Fantod mentions "rarebits" he has promised to Byron, or prhaps vice versa.
They pass a sign indicating the town dump and Bechdel, which is Mr Flem's pig farm,and the surname of his son in law. He was married while a Guardian. Omega treated him as an afterthought: her original Guardian died in the Crash. Omega preached doom and hellfire and opposed education and change, which still has a lingering effect on the attitudes of the villagers. She was at least not a hypocrite, and was fiercely honest and dutiful and a proficient healer.
Sylvester and Mortimer have an obscure private conversation about change: Mortimer wants to do more and different, things he should have done while Omega was alive but didn't, but Sylvester tells him to keep it quiet for the moment as they shouldn't spring too many changes on the villagers at once, and they are still anti-magic. They can't keep it secret forever, though, as Nellie is a gossip. We see an image of Mortimer's future self with the female Motihaul and the woman with clubbed hair. Meanwhile Rosemary talks to Arthur and Fantod. Arthur tries to quiz Rosemary about how she got there but she evades the question and instead asks him about what Weirdos do. They are jesters who "speak truth to power". Their original accents are trained out of them (Arthur is from Alfibay), which raises more questions about Yasmine.
Arthur, Fantod and Rosemary discuss the new, safer denizens' tunnel from the Mansion to the Basement, and the disappearance of the Sneeches. Meanwhile the party arrives at the outskirts of the village and Sylvester shows Rosemary the irrigation ditches and other features. They come to the Temple, which was made from the remains of a much grander one ("about the fanciest one east of Rowen") which was destroyed in the Crash, and which lies just outside the hedge which surrounds the village, rather than at the centre of town as would be the norm. Omega had it built there so that, post Crash, people approaching could see a sign that this was an outpost of civilisation, and she trusted the Brush to keep it safe. The town's previous Temple had been destroyed (and the previous local Oracle, Riverbend, had been killed), and so had the town in Wirtwam where Omega was posted previously. She built this Temple out of stones from the old one, and it's actually rather nice.
We learn that Sylvester and Mortimer's father had been partially responsible for, and died in, some kind of accident involving a circus and a stampeding elifinos in a nearby town called Noodle, known as the Noodle Incident and so famous that even people Out West know about it. Their father wasn't entirely or solely to blame, but he made a good scapegoat. The Eman family is unpopular in Noodle, not just because of the Incident but because Sylvester promotes the interests of the Eetown tooterfisheries and cuts into the profits of the Noodle Fish-Mongers Association.
They meet a little girl called Juniper, who is the granddaughter of Amos and Nellie and tells them "everyone" is in the Temple. Her father Arlen is Hedgemaster and her mother keeps bees. She has a special friendship with Fantod. The group go through a sensory ritual – watch the flames, smell the blossoms, taste the water, touch the earth (in the form of a giant stone, originally at the Mansion's private Temple and personally blessed by Violet) and listen to the Brush. The last is done by sitting on a bench made of rare and precious materials (this one is made of a sort of pourable, durable Ettin-made plastic): Arthur and Mortimer are the only ones who feel the need to do so. It is mentioned that the tree will bloom in a month or so (we are reminded later that it's currently mid April).
To mark Hallowe'en we see a raiding party of Nomes, including Umboz's brother Frotz who is desperate to get out of it, probably creeping towards the north Gnoll village. They are scared off by a pumpkin-headed spectre which is really Frowgler in costume (possibly borrowed from the female Motihaul Strode, although it doesn't have crescent-horn-holes), using some kind of glowing magic or technology to fly.
Rosemary and Juniper discuss where various people come from, and Rosemary manages to give the girl a very strange idea of what a walrus looks like. They talk with Sylvester about Inuit-equivalents called Tunits, who live on the Iceshore north of Alfibay in the west of Yurpsland, and the secretive, hostile Haroons who live in forest between the Iceshore and Alfibay, and the harsh, uninhabited and uninhabitable northen shore called Skralland, to the north of Audravania, which might or might not have been named after someone called Skral who is even less well-documented than Frizzlegarb. Aside from army bases, Eetown and the Mansion are now the most northernmost Human habitations on the east shore. We learn that there used to be a secretive underground nation called the Great Underearth Empire of the Northern Pole, colloquially known as the Polarites, but their society was destroyed in the Crash. They used to have an exit tunnel in northern Audravania, for trade and called the Gate of Commerce, because Eetown was booming and they hoped to trade with the Far East Shore; as well as the famous Gate of Diplomacy in Paydon and the Gate of Remembrance on the Iceshore north of Alfibay. But the Gate of Commerce was destroyed by the Crash after only five years. In Paydon a "Salvagetown" grew up around the ruins of the Gate of Diplomacy, challenged by surviving Polarites who were away from home when the Crash hit.
There are people in Eetown of half Haroon (Ilsa Lundquist) or half Polarite (Peter Nigultrum) ancestry, and they can't ever go home. Since Ilsa's mother left the tribes she would be treated as a stranger by the Haroons, despite her green hair; and Peter's father's Polarite home no longer exists. Meanwhile, Arthur and Mortimer sit on the bench and ask for divine assurance that they are doing the right thing, and both receive it, more or less. Fantod and Juniper talk about her hopes for a more interesting career than hedging, and how she'd like to see more of Nellie and Amos, and how sorry she is for Peter and Ilsa that they can't go home.
We see an out-take for Thanksgiving, in which Myrrh and Frederick are about to start on a feast. I have left this in the time-line, as well as putting it with the Christmas cards etc., because it fits with the idea that they have gone on a second (or, strictly speaking, first) honeymoon, and it leads into subsequent episodes where they are at the Spires. Myrrh is using weird cutlery that fits onto rings on her forefinger and thumb, to eat Demon-specific foods. We learn later that they are not yet at the Spires here, but elsewhere.
05: Eetown – The Temple [28/11/2014 – 25/08/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests strips #4060–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips start–#4323] The party from the Mansion enter the Temple, where Sylvester introduces Rosemary to the Oracle Threnody and various town worthies. Sylvester assures the townsfolk in the Temple that despite his family's recent history in such matters Rosemary is Human, and fully qualified to be Taskmistress, "highly qualified, physically and mentally". We see an image of Myrrh, and of a mad-looking Human woman wielding a rolling pin, who is evidently a recentish Mansion employee who turned out not to be emotionally qualified: perhaps this is Olga.
He informs them that Frederick has retired as Regent and Mortimer will be taking over. Sheriff Patrick Skragg quizzes Rosemary as to whether she is a fugitive from the King's Law. She swears that she isn't, then sends the child Juniper off with the Weirdo and Fantod to show Fantod how she's been practising some skill he's been helping her with. Once they are out of earshot she tells the rest that she is also taking over Myrrh's duties as bodyguard and will be wearing a sword. Threnody is dubious about Rosemary's past use of violent force, but accepts that it may have been necessary. The Sheriff provisionally accepts Rosemary's offer of help with the town milita [sic]: there isn't one, as such, but he says he could use another trained deputy, aside from Dirge. But Waldo Weequash, head of the Eetown Guild of Fisherfolk and Octopus Wranglers, thinks Rosemary is a vagabond who will bring a criminal element into the town. Saffron Stout, innkeeper and impromptu mayor, points out that Rosemary will mainly be at the Mansion and agrees with the Sheriff that they should give her a chance, and asks Sylvester to call on her privately later. She asks after Frederick's health, and whether Sylvester knows anything about the Pit flare. He says that as far as he knows none of his household were involved, except insofar as his great-great-uncle helped build it: that must be Hindenburgh.
Threnody – who is emergency backup Taskmistress – quizzes Rosemary about her Temple attendance, and Rosemary promises to make sure Sylvester goes to Temple more often. The last Temple Rosemary attended was in Jonetown East and Threnody thinks that Blackbird, the Oracle there, might some day be Prime Oracle.
Outside the Temple, the townsfolk discuss Rosemary privately. The Sheriff is planning to check up on her in police records, just in case, but they agree she seems an improvement on Myrrh. They discuss the fact that non-Humans are allowed to join the religion and are treated equally (although Sylvester suggests that that's the official position but not always adhered to) and some Nomes and Motihauls have been ordained as Oracles, but other non-Humans (Pales are shown as an example) resisted conversion. Sylvester mentions that he has heard that the Nomes have a male priest, and Threnody is interested in meeting him.
Mortimer and the Weirdo remain at the Temple to light memorial candles to speed the passage of the dead, the Weirdo for his friend Tulip, and Mortimer for Nitfol whom he wrongly believes to be dead. Threnody assumes that Arthur learned of his friend's death through the post, and Sylvester, who has worked out that Arthur probably learned about it from Yasmine, signals to Mortimer not to contradict her. While Mortimer and the Weirdo are praying, Rosemary and Sylvester look at the Temple's paintings of the various founding Oracles, and discuss their favourites. Rosemary follows Hettie, who carried a light in the darkness and made the dark and the unknown part of the Brush, and Sylvester likes Joice, who stood for inspiration. Mortimer passes on a message to Dirge, the current Guardian, that Finale, the previous Guardian (=Terin Flem), would like to speak to him: Dirge doesn't seem happy about it. Mortimer wants to ask about why Sylvester shushed him, but feels that the time is not yet because somebody might overhear. The group go and stand by a large boulder outside the town gates ("The Town Rock") where they won't be overheard, and discuss Yasmine and the Weirdos generally. Mortimer is able to pick them out because he can sense their mind shapes.
They discuss the fact that Rosemary has not been taught any magical theory, because she was educated at the Hack & Slash Academy whose purpose was to produce effective H&S employees and they very rarely encounter magic-users these days. Also H&S is riddled with factions: they used to have a Wizwitch Brigade and Rosemary suspects it may still exist but is being kept a secret, even from other factions in H&S.
We learn that the Weirdo Academy is very ancient. It's in a town called Marksburg, which is in Fredonia, and is where the E boys' mother came from. Nowadays Marksburg has a stodgy reputation, but it has a lively history. In the past there were several Weirdo schools and Weirdos went by several names, such as Tomfool. Milo was the first Earl of E to hire one.
The Trio fall to discussing the various worthies they met at the Temple. Sylvester fills Rosemary in on the background to the various individuals, and village issues such as the need to bring in a full-time Healer, since at the moment the Oracle, Threnody, is both healer and teacher, and as the village population grows it's getting hard for her to cope. Better to bring in an outside Healer, as thanks to Omega's influence the village would never pay for a separate teacher. Sylvester's only friends in the village are Peter Nigultrum the solicitor, and a fisherman called Captain Tugwart: Peter wasn't invited to the meeting because they would be discussing Sylvester. Weesquash resents him because Sylvester has more power than him and has set policies which benefit him, thus obliging him to feel grateful.
They discuss who is and isn't local. People who were born in the village are accepted as local even if their parents were foreign, as is the case with Peter. Anyone not born there is a foreigner. The exceptions are the Oracle and Guardian, and Old Man Larssen. If Rosemary stays fifty years they will still be annoyed if she marries a local (other than one of the E boys) and she'll still be "The Mooninite" because she wasn't born in Eetown. She says she'll earn a more distinctive label than that, thinking of herself as some sinister dark queen with a flaming sword.
Guardians are often specifically trained for specific areas (we see images of Guardians with a zap trident, a Ghast ceremonial spoon and a bat on a leash). Rosemary can tell that Dirge is combat-trained and wonders why the High Temple thought Eeetown needed him. This leads to a discussion about how the Spyders and Tree-Squids got into the area; and about things called Raviners or Hill Crabs, which people in Moonin sometimes eat, and which may be able to be provoked into producing a useful ichor; and the fact that the E family used to grow and sell the killer trees. Mortimer would like to talk about the events of the previous day but they don't have time. As they approach the entrance to Eetown proper they discuss various Oracles Rosemary has met on her travels.
In a brief out-take, we see Schmedley placing a black arm-band on the flipper of the statue of the world-turtle which we glimpsed before, to commemorate the death of Terry Pratchett.
Sylvester and co. discuss the defences of Eetown, with drawbridges put in after the Crash. These were scrounged from houses in Crestheights, a posh district near the Masion, destroyed in the Crash. The defences are not very good, and post-Crash the town had some trouble with raiders until Myrrh got back. She, Frederick and Quincy had been holidaying in Aruba (an island without magic) when the Crash hit. It was on their way back that Quincy met Agnes, his future wife. Meanwhile the town made a defensive wall out of crashed cars, and then grew a hedge over and through them. We see an ancient wand-tree called an Oakapple (nothing to do with real oak apples) which grows just inside the hedge.
Post-Crash, the rallying point for local survivors was a pub called the Moose and Squirrel. Because it was a cheap outfit which didn't use much magic it survived the Crash relatively intact. The innkeeper, Simon, had acquired the place by dubious means, but he became impromptu mayor and did a good job of coordinating disaster relief.
Sylvester and co. head for the local administrative offices, but as they pass by the fountain in the (unpaved) main square they become aware that they have an audience. Sylvester lectures Rosemary about the layout of the town, where the bathhouse is etc., trying to sound confident and impress the watchers. The town has a watch tower, but these days it's mainly used as a love-nest.
They speak to the townsfolk who have been watching them, and Rosemary (under the false surname Dapple) is introduced to everybody. Most striking, perhaps, is a young mother called Silence Krenshaw whom Sylvester knows very well, and had considered hiring as Taskmistress. We will learn that she and Sylvester were childhood playmates. They discuss Rosemary's duties, and that Sylvester wants Rosemary to serve as a Mature and Responsible Adult, a formal title which seems to mean that she will somehow help him to find a wife. He does not fancy Rosemary herself. Silence says that there is somebody out there for Sylvester.
Mortimer meanwhile talks to an adoring fanclub of young girls. They ask him about his umbrella and he says you never know when a storm might blow up. One of them, possibly named Hanna, is evidently psychic and she realises both that he is speaking metaphorically, and that a metaphorical storm is indeed coming.
Sylvester and co. head for Government House, followed by a gaggle of children. They discuss the pudding plant, a local cash crop which only grows well in Audravania. Rosemary has never eaten a fresh one.
Rosemary wonders why so small a town has a bank. Sylvester explains that it gives them independence from the Noodle Fish-Monger's Association, and lists the conditions required in order for them to have an official bank, and its personnel (the village blacksmith Sheldon doubles as a nominal guard, but it does have a real assistant clerk, Permelia). It is illegal for an agent of the King's Law, such as the Sheriff, officially to work for a bank. The town government is full of bickering and back-biting. The bank manager is Peter Nigultrum, who also helps the sub-literate to write letters because it's a rustic area and some people can barely read and write. Rosemary says you haven't seen rustic till you've seen the deep back-woods of Moonin: we see a man wearing antlers, a woman wearing wings, a child with a staff, and a standing stone with a skull on top. As they approach the bank they meet Peter's fiancée Ida.
Ida and Rosemary discuss Rosemary's home district of Moonin and the presence there of the Beacons, three shimmering offshore monoliths believed to date back to the Dawn Wars. Ida seems unaware that the Mansion is equally interesting and almost equally historic. The first Prime Oracle, Daisy, came from Moonin, but Rosemary feels that Daisy was ashamed of her humble origins. The most important local Oracle is Jackstraw in Glome.
They meet Peter, the half-Polarite bank manager, who works out that Rosemary is the new Taskmistress from her clothes. They tell him that Frederick and Myrrh have retired, and that Mortimer is a wizard. The only bit that surprises Peter is that Myrrh is able to retire. We glimpse Myrrh at some sort of hotel, apparently amusing herself by wrestling robots, and Ida gossiping about having just met them.
Peter predicts that Mortimer's newfound wizard status will lead to trouble. We see Dirge, the current Guardian, and Terin Flem, the previous one, discussing the changes in personnel at the Mansion, and saying that Dirge has a decision to make: apparently, whether or not to report Mortimer to the authorities. Thirty years post-Crash, when Flem first saw signs that Mortimer was a wizard, magic was regarded as evil. He should really have told Omega that Mortimer was a wizard, but then somebody would have come and taken the boy away, and Flem liked Mortimer, so he kept quiet. An officious government clerk named Appleby also failed to report Mortimer – Flem thinks he just never noticed what was going on because he was stuck behind his desk. Dirge will tell Threnody about Mortimer, but won't call someone to collect him unless Mortimer wants him to. Flem tells Dirge about Eunice being out in the woods again. After Dirge has left, Flem tells his dog Byron that he hated Omega.
Peter tells Mortimer there may still be a magic school which Threnody could help him find if Amos turns out not to be a good teacher. They discuss Polarite technology and social structures: Peter's father was in security, relatively low-status but with access to information. Peter had thought of contacting the surviving Polarites in the capital, but Sylvester says they would scorn him for having facial hair. The Polarites were divided into three regions, Bism, Mahar and Symm. The Vril Undercroft, a sub-group of the Symmites and the group to which Peter's father belonged, were allowed to open a Commerce Gate in northern Audravania, where they to some extent went native and became more open and sociable than most Polarites. That was why Peter's father was able to be wandering around on the surface without any magical machinery when the Crash hit, and so survived. The Polarites seem all to have worn one to six (the more, the higher the rank) wiggly wires with glowing balls on the tip, set into the back of their hair: these are reminiscent of the antennae we will later see Spire folk wearing. Surviving Polarites in exile often have short versions of the wiggly wires, but without the glowing tips.
Sylvester and Rosemary give Peter a highly edited version of Rosemary's life story (and she has a flashback of hiding from Tansy). Peter knows the Mansion and its dangers well – he even has his own Spindizzy, Alfred.
[An out-take at this point celebrates the legalization of gay mariage in the US by showing Baldy with a slightly younger – and much hairier – boyfriend, looking at rainbow Vagabond flutterbys.]
Peter tells Sylvester they have some paperwork to go over [Ipcress files!], so Sylvester asks Mortimer to take Rosemary away and introduce her to Shadrik, an ox-like Metalmin. Sylvester and Peter then discuss Peter's upcoming marriage to Ida. Peter says Sylvester will never marry a local girl because they aren't academically stimulating enough – not even Ida or Silence – whereas he himself was looking for somebody who was restful to be with. Sylvester will be his best man. Sylvester trusts Peter so much that he tells him at least the gist of Rosemary's true story, including that Dapple isn't her real surname (although not what is). Peter will look out for people looking out for Rosemary, and send the signal Rose, Pine, Apple through "the usual channel" if he can safely do so. Sylvester doesn't want to marry Rosemary because she's not intellectual or educated, but she's a perfect Taskmistress – so perfect he suspects somebody is interfering in his life, and sent her to him.
[Out-take: to celebrate the strip's twelfth anniversary: we briefly see the pirate hamster and his crew approaching an island which has a sapient tree. The tree thinks that it has been twelve years: in-universe, probably since it last saw the plant, since the plant swears to itself when it sees where they are.]
We see that Eunice works in the pub, apparently as a cook (and Frowgler is lurking behind some sacks on a shelf, watching her). Rosemary and Mortimer are given free sausages by the town's Sausage Stroller. Mortimer is feeling very guilty about having accidentally magically hypnotised Rosemary the day before, so she punishes and absolves him by giving him a light bonk on the head, but says that being hypnotised by him was mostly quite enjoyable. They talk about the fact that he has only left the area a few times (and was in Noodle when his father died there), and comes across as rather sheltered, but now responsibility has been thrust on him and he will meet it. Rosemary talks about the relatively safe life she left to become a bodyguard, and the fact that her home village had an ancient ruined tower built by Gobblems, and which she used to climb. She later travelled to most of the places she could see from up there, but many of the towns were a bit same-y because they were rebuilt at the same time, after Unification.
Talking about education and the E-family tutor causes Mortimer to realise there's something about Rufus and Eunice which he is forgetting. They look at Shadrik, which/who is a haulage Metalmin who is fairly bright but doesn't speak, and lives in a former stable. Sadrik living in a shed leads to a mention of Dorian Ingersoll the hermit who used to live in a hut. Dorian's history is confusing: we've been told he's lived in the Spike for forty-two years, but here we're told he lived in the forest when Mortimer was a child, and we've seen the ruins of his hut when Yasmine came across them. He obviously shared his time and wasn't in the Spike full-time. Shadrik's battery is flat but Rufus is working on recharging it: even when he's working only the Earl, the Mayor and the Sheriff can give him orders.
Rosemary works out that Sylvester just wanted her and Mortimer out of the way so he could speak to Peter privately. To kill time she suggests they climb the local watchtower, so she can survey the terrain. To get to it they go through a warehouse used to store apples, which has been altered and added to till it's almost as complex as the Mansion (one of the doors is lanelled "STILL ALIVE KEEP IN"). They are passed by some sort of functionary (beginning with a B) who wears false Nome ears and costume wings. It's possible the B stands for Batgirl, especially as she lives in the Belfry "like usual". Mortimer is wafted a note, possibly left by the Batgirl, to say that the writer has their eye on Eunice and Rufus, who are up to something.
06: Eetown – The State [26/08/2015 – 20/11/2015] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4330–#4421] From the tower Rosemary and Mortimer look down on the village square, which includes a fuzzball court. Mortimer points out various districts of the town, and they see Old Man Larssen's place outside the town hedge, although he has a hedge of his own. Rosemary is pleased to be able to see the Specific Ocean, which was on her To-Do List. They discuss a range of wonders Rosemary hopes to see (including The Running of the Clams in Woldercan, which may be a clams-got-legs B.C. reference), many of which have already been visited by Mortimer's mother and sister, although they were unable to get into a place called Sybola where there is some kind of secret Rosemary wishes to solve. They visited the Spires of Mechana and Sylvester's sister Lil said they were "really creepy". Rosemary thinks the main thing on Mortimer's To-Do List right now should be to learn how to use the wand-umbrella.
A Labour Day out-take shows various kinds of labour in Eetown, including the Batgirl who is writing or drawing at an easel, and Violet wrestling with a piglet. Rosemary and Mortimer meet Sylvester outside the bank and he refers to the Batgirl as "our Flittermouse". Sylvester takes them to meet Sherman P Gray, the new(ish) government Clerk of Eetown. The previous clerk, Hubert Appleby (who didn't get on with Omega) died at his desk eight years previously. Sherman has a telegraph machine (loathed by Omega) run off batteries re-charged by a hand-turned charger, and many duties, one of which is to register new arrivals like Rosemary. He is also postman and tax-collector, and has a form for Mortimer to register as the new Regent of E.
[In a brief out-take, we see the pirates (hamster and co.), having landed at Piratestash Island, recruit a resident gull to the crew. The stunted but sapient tree on the island implies that the Plant is being punished by being required to stay with the crew.]
We learn about the unofficial but influential Tome of Royal Succession, a kind of Debrett's Peerage. The Keepers of the Tome will want to know about changes to Sylvester's "official retinue": not only about Mortimer becoming Regent, but about Rosemary becoming Taskmistress. We are reminded of the fact that this is a post-apocalyptic setup by the fact that Rosemary is impressed that the Post Office pigeon-holes have doors, garnered from post-Crash architectural salvage. While Sylvester is checking his postal Inbox it is confirmed that it is now 14th April 5423HC ("Historical Counting").
Sherman sees from her form that Rosemary comes from an island called Dyngusmyles, which has a reputation for having wild, backwoods people, and has strange weather and biology because it's close to the Beacons, which before the Crash attracted research parties from the university in Azimuth. We see that the lights from the Beacons are a bit similar to Eyebolt Weirding. Sherman himself comes from a frost-mining area in Thull. They compare weather: Sherman was surprised to find that though Eetown is farther north than the frost mines of Crag Sinsoss that he came from, it has a milder local climate. Sylvester warns Sherman that Rosemary is a fighter and will be wearing a sword as part of her duties. Sherman OKs this but says that while they are in his government office weapons must be deposited in a special receptacle, and Mortimer promptly puts his umbrella in it.
Sherman fills Sylvester in on various items of news, including the fact that a ship from a far-off region named Coradine has visited the port of Woldercan in the west of Yurpsland. Coradine is part of the same continent as the Mansion but it's a group of islands as far west as it gets, beautiful but quite reclusive and ritualistic, and many of its inhabitants are Motihauls. To get to Woldercan the Coradine ship would have had to sail round the edge of a region called Kadath, which is inhabited by Wendigoes, and past an island called Honaly (as in Puff the Magic Dragon) where there are [Human?] Viking-type sea-raiders whom we see sailing a ship whose sail bears the image of the hamster pirate captain, then right across the north coasts of Thembria, Upper Slubovia, Ruratana and Tiranog. It's possible they came for Yurple Juice, a wildly popular and expensive drink with magical properties.
After posting Rosemary's letter to Aunt Eva (in the guise of an official letter from Sylvester) the party take leave of Sherman, promising to return later to set up a post-box for Rosemary and collect the newspaper. Mortimer and Sylvester share a post box but Frederick and the staff each have their own: we see Frederick receiving a skull-faced box with a bow on top, Amos receiving book-binding supplies and Schemdley apparently receiving a love letter. There is a mention of the previous day's magical Pit-flare being a reoccurring event, and of the recent finding of a dead Ichyoid washed into the harbour.
As they come away they talk about the fact that Sherman's girlfriend in nearby Obtown married someone else. Sylvester says that Myrrh is listed in the Official Threats Compendium, but since she hasn't killed anybody it's not worth anyone's while to go to the trouble of trying to banish her. Behind them, in his office, Sherman looks up Mortimer's umbrella in the Official Threats Compendium, and finds it. We learn that there's a series of Government departments with harmless-sounding names – Redundancy, Secondary Overlap, Tertiary Retainment – which process information and look for interesting connections.
They discuss rural pubs. Rosemary is an expert on awful pubs: we see one whose sign is a hand choking a Jibjib; one whose sign appears to be a jellyfish on toast, with a female Motihaul collapsed drunk outside with flies buzzing round her and a rat on her knee; and one where recalcitrant customers were thrown into a pit of wild Saurs. Rory Vinsmith, the innkeeper in Moonin with the Saur pit, was executed for murder and the pub was re-named The Saur Pit in his honour. In the west he is famous, but now they are so far from her home that nobody's heard of him, which makes Rosemary realise how big Yurpsland is. Big news does travel, however: Rosemary had heard about the Noodle Incident, and Sylvester had heard about the Drumshambo Massacre. Saffron, the local innkeeper at The Moose and Squirrel, may have heard of Vinsmith, and Sylvester quietly warns Rosemary that Saffron may also have heard of her Aunt Eva, the gambler.
There is a pale grey cat wandering along a window ledge at the ront of The Moose and Squirrel. They enter the pub and meet Sharona, Saffron's niece, who is Mortimer's semi-girlfriend with whom he had a date on the coming Friday (it's currently Monday), and the daughter of Sheldon the blacksmith. She is overcome by the smell of sphagnum dust coming off Mortimer. They meet Mavis, one of the barmaids, and then Saffron. Eunice Kelso is also one of her barmaids, along with Mavis Mossett and Flossy Efflore, and there's a cook called Gormind Trencherman and a bouncer and stablehand called [Chauncy?] Hobson. Mention is made of people in Moonin distilling a spirit from muckroots: the distillery seems to be called Fancy Rat Spirits, with a logo of a rat in a monocle and a straw boater. Characters called : Wendell and Ricky, who we will learn are the town's odd-jobbers, are also mentioned: Wendell is prone to sudden wild enthusiasms . Sharona is repelled by the smell of sphagnum dust on Mortimer, and dumps him for being too unreliable and accident-prone (he feels guilty, because she had slipped his mind until he saw her). Saffron takes a bottle of Pudding Liquor, just uncorked that day, from a shelf: something grey, probably Frowgler's nose, is glimpsed poking out from behind an adjacent bottle. They drink from it, and Sylvester immediately passes out, while Rosemary begins seeing imaginary glowing flutterbies. Mortimer seems unaffected.
07: Revelations [30/11/2015 – 27/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Tasks strips #4428–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips start–#4602] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. We begin, therefore, with the eyes of various small creatures, including Smyts, being dazzled and impressed by the glowing tip of Mortimer's umbrella.
Rosemary and Sylvester wake, very groggy, to find themselves lying on a jetty on Alwin Island, the honeymoon destination, accompanied by the grey cat who had been outside the pub. The island will prove to be littered with large stone sculptures, mostly of non-Human animals.
They agree that they must have been drugged (there is mention of glitterberries, which seem to be this world's equivalent of magic mushrooms, although that's probably not what was used), not just drunk, and discuss possible culprits. Presumably it's somebody who wants to embarass Sylvester, not kill him. Neither of them really thinks it was Saffron, and this is confirmed by a brief view of Mavis the barmaid discovering Saffron herself collapsed behind the bar and asking for a shot of clingweed tonic (the same plant Telic asked Comshaw to bring him). Permelia Weesquash might, but she doesn't frequent the pub or know anyone who works with herbs except Threnody (we see Threnody with tongs, about to pluck a glowing berry from the "tongue" of one of the small carnivorous plants). Sylvester's main suspect is Old Man Larssen, the town vet, who is very educated but also obsessive and secretive, a bit like Crazy Rhid – even so Sylvester doesn't really think he did it. He half suspects Eunice, who comes from Noodle, passes as a non-entity and could be an agent of his enemies the Noodle Fishmongers' Association. But we glimpse Eunice thinking that she has no idea what just happened in the bar but she'd better report it anyway.
No other visitors are expected – nobody comes there except newlyweds, or about-to-be-weds preparing the venue. There is however a rowing boat concealed on the island. They manage to stagger to their feet in order to go find the boat, but Rosemary thinks they are still both too stoned to steer and suggests that since they were planning to have a private talk anyway, now is a good time and place.
Sylvester shows Rosemary some of the sights of the island, since as Taskmistress she will be expected to oversee the team of respectable village matrons who prepare the honeymoon cabin for weddings. They return to the dock (and the cat) to sit and talk, on the far side of the island from the village. Further out they can see Scraggy Island, which holds a lighthouse and the town graveyard. The lighthouse keeper is Dougal Izzard. His wife Selene Perkins left but their daughter Shelby stayed, married Grumby the carpenter and had a son Edson who is apprentice lighthouse-keeper. The hobby of Cloudmapping is mentioned.
Sylvester sits on a bench on the pier but Rosemary declines to sit next to him. Instead, the cat does, but he shoves her off when she tries to sit on his knee.
Here there is an outtake scene showing Frederick and Myrrh playing chess with two men called Jebidiah and Jones, who are wearing formal dinner suits. These are based on Angus Scrimm and David Bowie, who died that week, and a poster of Grabthar's Hammer on the wall commemorates Alan Rickman, also lost. In the background, visible over the top of a stone wall, we can see the Spires of Mechana, which are more of an upright sausage shape than pointy.
Sylvester talks Rosemary through the history of the area, beginning with creation by the Brush (it is mentioned that there is also life on Perelandra and Barsoom) and the first civilization, the Wilfs and Gobbblems (Dreamers and Builders), who erected wonderful buildings and even had colonies on the moon before destroying each other in the Dawn War. Sylvester has glimpsed what seemed to be a Wilf and a Gobblem through a Panegate, so it may be that there are survivors in other realities, but that Panegate is in a part of the Mansion which is only periodically accessible, and won't be again for fifteen years. Then came the Ettins and Sneeches, who may have already existed but been suppressed, and who now built up another high-tech civilization and then again destroyed it in war, after which Humans and Nomes moved in, spreading from jungles in the south. Before that destruction, the Ettins built the main towers of the Mansions of E and S. The Tower of S was so-called because of an S-shaped mark on the walls, so the Scions of S made that their symbol, but the Mansion of E is a corruption of the Tower of Ett(in)s – their names were later changed from Tower to Mansion for some beaurocratic reason. Their symbol was originally a serif E with a tall tail on the bottom bar, crossed by two short horizontal lines to make an ETT monogram, but over time the crossbars got lost.
The Ettins also built the Spire and "one or two other things" – we see a tangle of spikes, which might be branches, each tipped with a glowing light. The Ettin/Sneech war largely passed Audravania by, leaving it with these fairly intact Ettin buildings. According to the Spindizzies the Ettin name of the Mansion is PRFO4223.
We learn that nomadic Humans who didn't even have agriculture reached the Towers late in the Human diaspora, at a time when the country of Ackbar, in the south-west of the continent, already had quite an advanced Human civilization along the banks of the Refutation (De Nial). The name of the first Earl isn't known but he led his tribe into the valley and died while storming the Tower: the exact wording of the legend is "the Earl stormed the heights, and the heights broke with thunder, and none ever came back down". Legend also says he fought and defeated living Ettins but this is unlikely given their advanced technology. A lone Ettin skull was later found in the Tower. The first Earl's descendants avoided the interior of the Tower for generations afterwards but they set up camp and built new buildings around its foot. The area was rich in resources and they had to fight off generations of would-be invaders.
Sylvester gives Rosemary a detailed run-down of the various Earls, which you can find summarised on the background page. The most salient points are that agriculture began to be established at the time of Ettrath, the 5th Earl, and so did neighbouring fiefdoms: the Scions of S to the north, Myways to the west and Obtund to the south. S was eventually destroyed by Angus, the 16th Earl. Myways and, for a couple of generations, Obtund were defeated and made vassals of E: Myways was destroyed in the Crash and there's nothing there now but a coaching inn, but the Obtunds are still around, with their own Duke, and are friendly neighbours. Many of the early Earls of E were villains and slave-traders who came to power by murdering their predecessors, until they got to the brilliant philosopher and strategist Milo, the 9th Earl, who severed the family's links to the slave trade, converted to the new religion of the Brush, moved into the Ettin-built Tower and made contact with the Spindizzies. What they know about the earlier history of the family is just what was written by Milo – quite possibly the first Earl to be able to write – and may not be 100% accurate. Milo's mother, Persafone, was a slave who had been an educated aristocrat before being enslaved, and came from an advanced culture between what are now Paydon and Thull, but at the time were called Pay Downs and Hoar Hull. She deliberately trained Milo up to be a successful warrior who would murder Milo's father, Frake, at her urging, knowing Milo would help her to survive her intended coup against Frake. Milo had ambivalent feelings about her: as Earl he kept her in elegant comfort but well away from any decision-making. He was seen as weak because he was educated, so as soon as he became Earl the Mansion was attacked by Myways and Obtund, but he soundly defeated them and made them pay tribute.
Milo was established and confident enough to travel, and met his future wife Nettana in the Forest of Burzee. She was an aristocrat from the Iridescent Kingdom of Southern Kroke in what is now Isdanlia, but at the time was an advanced but fragmented region. She was intelligent, stylish, determined and he was intelligent, brave, forthright, tall, athletic and had nice hair His heart was more in intellectual learning than bloodshed and after his wife died he abdicated in favour of his son, and sailed away to explore new lands.
Milo's son Dorn I was scientifically-minded and bred the Dornbeasts for use as living siege engines. They were named in his honour after he was kiled by one, but he called them Siegebeasts and they were bred up from swamp-dwelling Chompbeasts, non-sapient distant relatives of the Ettins. Selling Siegebeasts marked the beginning of the rise of E as an economic power. After he was killed by one his wife Aimee became Regent for their son Dorn II, who unfortunately was a shallow sports jock obsessed with Starball and hunting, although he did continue to breed and sell Dornbeasts. Dorn II was mostly gay and apart from getting an heir with his wife Olivia Obtund his sexual partnership (of a sort, since Dorn wasn't very highly sexed) was with a guy named Heffston, who was a much better strategist and ruler than Dorn. Heffston was from a humble background but worked to educate himself, and laid the foundation for the E-family library. It was another century before an Oracle named Brittlebush legalised gay marriage.
In an aside, we see Arthur and Fantod talking to village children. They seem to believe Rosemary and Sylvester are still in the inn with Saffron. Village gossip evidently has Sylvester and Saffron getting married.
Dorn II was killed, possibly by his daughter-in-law Charlotte, an ambitious local girl who had a loving but quarrelsome relationship with Dorn's son Lemuel, the Panegate expert. Lemuel eventually abdicated in favour of his daughter Wilhelmina, who was aided and defended by her step-grandfather Heffston. By so doing, Heffston both atoned for not having paid enough attention to Lemuel as a boy, and got revenge on Charlotte for her suspected role in the death of Dorn II, by turning her daughter against her. Charlotte was banished to a set of apartments inside a cave on Mount Ett, and Lemuel drove his carriage up there every evening to spend the night with her.
Wilhelmina just called herself W for most purposes and was considered ceremonailly male, to the point of wearing a false beard. Her reign was peaceful and prosperous: she was no more interested in being Earl than her father had been, but she was more skilled at picking good subordinates to whom she could delegate. She had some magic, strong but restricted to manipulating stone, and was a prolific sculptor who made a lot of money by travelling to other stately homes to perform tricky bits of stonework.
She visited the Sculpted Isles and there met her husband Alwin, then returned with him and deposed her parents, despite the fact that her mother Charlotte had sort-of promised her in marriage to Shaw IV, Scion of S: this, along with economic rivalry. led to the falling-out between E and S, and the destruction of S about a century later. Alwin's health had been damaged by Wyvern Pox as a child and he was "a lazy gadabout pretty-boy" but W loved him, and he was a good father to their twins. After Alwin's death, twenty years after their marriage, W unofficially abandoned ruling in favour of obsessively covering Alwin Island with sculptures. One of her younger sisters became a very famous and scary witch called Arianya of the Brackens, who moved West and is now the best-known of the E family. W committed suicide by allowing a large block of stone to fall on her, and was succeeded by her son Linus, the combat botanist.
Linus went on an expedition to the jungle and married a Zanduan woman named Padma who had a vicious sense of humour and was his intellectual and magical equal, and with whom he had five daughters and two sons. He was the first Earl to wear glasses, and got up a consortium of local nobles to bring thaumnodes to the area. He and Padma explored the Basement (at a time when most of the species down there were still shut into enclosed habitats) and put in lights. We see him and his team looking at a little gadget with two arms and three glowing red lights, apparently in an Ettin airbox. [We have seen this object before as an example of what an airbox is, when Rosemary and Sylvester were discussing the Can-Opener.] He built a conservatory for his plants, and to give Padma a jungle to shelter in during the winter. Linus it was who bred The Tree which made Basement society possible outside their controlled habitats. Meanwhile his sister Marcia married a noble in Svan and became a cartoonist.
08: Naming Names [30/05/2016 – 23/12/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4609–#4812] N.B.: The title-strip for this chapter also exists on, and feeds into, the Smyt celebrations page. The chapter therefore opens with a group of above-ground Smyts celebrating their version of Memorial Day.
Sylvester continues to talk about his ancestors, and how after Padma died, Linus took the Seed of the Tree deep into the Basement and never came home, so in a sense he committed suicide like his mother. [We know that Rosemary also carries a Seed of the Tree, which she brought up from the depths, but had forgotten.] He talks about Griffington, the 15th Earl, who was very intelligent but had his mother's nasty sense of humour and was only interested in making money, at which he was very successful. Griffington went on an expedition to the Infernal Engine, which was smaller in those days (so it's still growing), and to Mechana to look at their technology. He and other techs of the period managed to make their own basic robots and restore some of the much better Ettin ones – one of the latter, Akillhees, works in mathematics at the university – and he also invented battle tanks, a few of which still work. Along with someone called Drowpole he set up the Factor E factory, and he and Struahatt sold their devices commercially and made a lot of money. We see him and his assistant Krell probing the same device in the airbox that we saw Linus looking at. He had a lot of commercial enemies and rivals, including the Scion of S. He and Krell died in an industrial accident (or maybe not an accident). He had to wear smoked lenses to protect his eyes: a problem inherited by Lenore.
Griffington was succeeded by his son Angus and Angus's loyal and more cunning brother Cyrus. Angus went on a tour, like his ancestor Milo, but he took an army with him and conquered S and other neighbouring states although some of them, such as Rowen, gave as good as they got.
When Angus and Cyrus were young, Cyrus married Cassandra Grayflint and they had a son Artston. Griffington sent Angus to visit the Infernal Engine to broaden his mind, and as a result he fell for a very wild, rough but highly-sexed female labourer named Syn (rhymes with tie-in) who had spent her life up to that point inside the Engine. She needed thick glasses and a bath, and had to be taught to wear clothes, but she had a talent for technology and a happily iconcoclastic attitude to everything, including herself, and the religion of the Brush to which she did not belong. She somewhat resembled Myrrh, refused to marry Angus but became his consort, and died in childbirth giving birth to Audra. Audra grew up at loggerheads with her uncle Cyrus, who had distrusted her mother. In later life Angus's conquests ground to a halt and he died peacefully in bed – and Cyrus promptly tried to seize the earldom for himself and his son.
Audra thrashed Cyrus in combat and convinced him to become her loyal follower. Together they conquered Rowen and then consolidated their holdings and formed the Northwoods Alliance. Audra contracted a loveless political marriage with the intellectually brilliant John Harfang, with whom she had a son, Ludwig.
The Northwoods Alliance stood against the advancing army of Yorik Yurp, later Yorick I, and lost, despite the best efforts of John Harfang who, under the alias "The Frost Fox", served as a secret agent and was killed while on a mission (and later became the subject of a series of lurid spy thrillers). Audra protected Ludwig by hiding him away as a child and then sending him to the university under an assumed name, while getting Flitch, one of Cyrus's grandchildren (so Ludwig's second cousin), to pretend to be Ludwig in order to draw Yorik's fire.
The Northwoods Alliance eventually lost the war, in part because high-tech Wirtwam decided that Yorik was the lesser of two evils and Hyacinth of Wirtwam married him. But the war was long and bloody and forced the pace of technological development. Audra and Cyrus were probably looking for a technological edge when they poked the Hot Zone and were killed, or failing that for a more honourable death than execution, but their deaths really finished the Alliance. Yorik crushed their last resistance by destroying the town of Glome (and incidentally probably killing the fake Ludwig), then re-built it, and any local nobles who were willing to swear allegiance were grafted into the new Yurpsland hierarchy. The real Ludwig was one of them – the Yurpsland troops didn't know who he was, and in any case had known Audra as the head of the Northwoods Alliance, not as the Earl of E. The Alliance used a different symbol, not the E: a W with an arrow on the central point, designed by Linus's sister Marcia for Linus's thaumnode-purchasing cartel. Ludwig's politically astute partner Penelope Orrery from Gilad (a Temple-administered neutral state) coached him on how to pass as a harmless minor aristo.
Sylvester isn't sure whether Yorik was really fooled over Ludwig, or knew who he was but decided to spare him. Ludwig was a super-genius who enjoyed university and made many friends there; he was very popular with the girls and could have had his pick of the local beauties, but preferred the slightly plain Penelope for her brains. Ludwig didn't graduate because he went home to help his mother with the war effort; Penelope worked out his real identity somehow, and followed him (and reached E before he did). It was because Ludwig never graduated that the fund set up to pay for his tuition was never wound up, and remained available to pay future heirs' university fees. Ludwig tried to stop his mother from poking the Hot Zone but she did it anyway, and died, and he and Penelope were left holding the reins. They actually did very well, since Ludwig was able to sell his inventions – materially assisted by Yorik's conquest of the whole area, which had resulted in a unified trading and patent system. He and Penelope built the Ivory Tower, and lived there.
It is mentioned that vamphyrs don't really exist but zombies do (but only when animated by a wizwitch, and only briefly as they tend to explode), that many of Ludwig's devices were one-off prototypes and that Yorik I wrote his own memoirs. These memoirs are little known because his son wasn't that interested in promoting them, and besides they weren't very well-written. But they deal extensively with Audra, whom Yorik rather admired – it was he who re-named the province where E is situated Audravania. He decided against trying to conquer Thekla, which had a similar technology and power level to his own forces, or the Polarites, who were enormously more powerful and advancsd.
[Out-take for Talk Like a Pirate Day – Captain Hamster, the crew of the Pretty Lady and the newly-recruited gull are all getting drunk on grog. The Plant, very drunk indeed, has decided it loves them all.]
Ludwig died of pneumonia after getting soaked while walking in the rain. His son Ernest, hedonist, (consensual) philanderer and forger, took over. His parents were disappointed because he wasn't interested in science, or all that bright, but he was very interested in plays and a reasonably good actor himself, when he could be bothered. He married Lucidia Penderghast, gold-digger, fashion victim and amateur actress, and they nearly deserved each other. He was the first Earl to marry by the new ritual involving the Pool at the Temple.
At university Ernest discovered that he was good at maths, history and a proficient if uninspired kind of art. He did a certain amount of commercial graphics work and a lot of art forgery, although the latter was really just a hobby. He was a fairly successful playwright, although not great at dialogue – his best play was probably Bracken, about his five-greats-aunt Arianya – and was very good at improving other people's scripts. He and Lucidia fought a lot but seemed to enjoy it, and they had three sons, Philbert, Hindenburgh the wizard, and Valentin, who was the one to whom the Djinnoscope gave a clean death. Ernest was fatally stabbed by, or over, one of his lovers.
Philbert married the artist Hepzibah Kelly and founded a chain of "Lovelace" orphanages, using Kelly's mother's maiden name. He helped preserve the Forest of Burzee as a public park instead of letting it be carved up into private estates. He supported many smaller charities and was a faithful husband. But Sylvester believes he did these things to rebuild the family's post-Ernest reputation, not because he really cared. The couple had sons, Quincy and Frederick, and presumably at least one more as Frederick refers to "my brothers". [Later we learn there was a younger brother called Jasper.]
Philbert was killed in a motor-racing accident a month before the Crash (this is an error by Sylvester, because we've already establisahed that his accident was three months before the Crash, and it isn't that Philbert hung on in hospital for two months before he died, because Sylvester says he was killed instantly) and was succeeded by his son Quincy. Quincy was not very bright, but he was genuinely caring and scraped through university by hard work. His Hall of Achievement entry just says that he tied his own shoes, but this turns out to be fairly serious: he kept walking, kept trying, and held the Mansion area together after the Crash. He survived the Crash because he, his brother Frederick and Myrrh were in Aruba, which uses no magic. Afterwards they had to walk hundreds of miles home – hence the importance of the shoes. On their way they picked up another survivor, Agnes Bloggett, who married Quincy. Hepzibah, who had stayed home because of health problems, died in the Crash. Quincy eventually died after falling from one of the Mansion's towers.
Quincy's son Willoughby attended university where he met his future wife, Dorothea Mundivagant. Both were very vague but possibly magically gifted. Sylvester thinks that it was wrong of Frederick not to tell Mortimer that he, Mortimer, was a wizard – but it was probably a good decision not to tell Willoughby that he was. They had six children – Sylvester, Ace, Mortimer, the twins Lilith and Lenore, and Rufus. Rufus was conceived because the local contraceptive Stiflebloom plant had failed.
Because Willoughby was so lazy and detached it was really his uncle Frederick and Myrrh who ran the earldom. After Willoughby died in the notorious Noodle Incident, Frederick became official Regent until Sylvester finished at university, and Dorothea became even vaguer and more preoccupied than before, and set off in search of something unknown. Sylvester fears he won't ever see her again.
Sylvester did well at university and made friends, especially Bertrum W Skinknottle (who fell for and married Honoria Clemens – these names are PG Wodehouse references) and Nimue Fayling. The students were divided into Houses: the male houses were named after dangerous animals and the female ones after pretty things, but they were otherwise equal. Nimue was in training to take over the family business, growing oranges. She and Sylvester dated, but split up because neither would give up their family responsibility. Bertie and Honoria married and went back to Bertie's home in Lagado, but he's not sure where they are now because Bertie recently got a new job (souds like preparation for him to pop up). Sylvester went home alone and took over the Earl's duties. He found a job for Ace with their uncle Dalton Mundivagant. His mother Dorothea inherited cash from her mother, and she and Lil went travelling. Mortimer and Rufus stayed around, and Mortimer started bringing home strange women, most notably Olga Q Bonmarrow, a drifter with mental health issues who was in love with Mortimer.
Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Basement society has come along tremendously in a highly technological way during Sylvester's lifetime (so post-Crash), and the idea that the Sneeches might be behind this. Sylvester forgot to ask Myrrh what she saw in the Sneech den, and now they don't even know where she is. We see that she is in a bakery (or maybe café) with a sign saying Kato Bread on the wall, and where there are a lot of cats whom she is talking to as if they understand each other. This cat-filled place is presumably in the Spires, since we will learn that the arena where she was wrestling robots is there. Rosemary and Sylvester discuss whether the Dohickey thank-you gift was for Sylvester or for his whole family, and Rosemary points out that the first Earls were meant to have killed off the Ettins who were holding the Sneeches prisoner. Whether they did or not, the Sneeches may believe they did. They discuss the fact that Sneeches do have childen, and whether or not they have intelligible emotions.
Finally, Rosemary says that eveything else can wait, and that she will follow Sylvester's plans. He says he can't make plans until he knows what it is that Rosemary stole. She agrees to show it to him, but tells him to cover his eyes and ears while she gets it out of the Poke Kit, so he doesn't learn any codes which he might later be forced to reveal.
09: Wreaking Havoc [26/12/2016 – 07/07/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn strips #4818–end] Rosemary produces from the Poke Kit an oval object which she says is called the HJ42, but she thinks it's also a mythological object called the Chaos Key. This is clearly the same item which has been being passed around among the Basement folk – not just another of the same model but this actual one, because HJ42 is the designation of a specific instance of this gadget which was collected by an anthropological expedition, and Protus called it the HJ42 when he gave it to Mortimer. Either it's looped through time to appear twice in the same area at the same time, or when Rosemary thinks it's safely tucked away in her Poke Kit, it isn't.
As the Chaos Key it has been used to open various kinds of metaphorical and literal doors, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Rosemary studied its semi-legendary history in the libraries of Hack'n'Slash. It may have been implicated in the Thricklefork Demon Massacre. It caused strange events – including a giant man-eating flower – at a place called Bellona. It was passed around the clans of Erewhon, trailing odd happenings. It was used to rob a bank, then disappeared from view, only to reappear among the artefacts brought back from the Infernal Engine by the Hendrick-Joost Expedition. At this point Rosemary puts it back in the Poke Kit and she and Sylvester agree not to mention the name "Chaos Key" again if they can avoid it, but just to refer to it as the HJ42.
The Hendrick-Joost Expedition came from the High University of Azimuth and visited the Infernal Engine in Yurpsland. There were protests about them taking items from Yurpsland back to Azimuth, and eventually they returned some of them, including the "HJ-42". These returned items were parcelled out between various Yurpsland museums and collectors, and #42 went to an Erewhonian noble named Cuddlup, who passed it on to an Erewhonian sect called the Chromans.
The Chromans were great collectors and displayers of curios which demonstrated the wonders of the world – some of which were magically active. The most dangerous were kept in an offshore fortress which went into meltdown during the Crash. The HJ42 was put on display in various places but it made people nervous, so it was moved to a medium-level facility in a place called Gowplace at the tip of the Lawnrock Peninsula. After the Crash, Gowplace was re-named Chroma and became the Chromans' capital, and the HJ42 dropped out of sight again for several decades.
About ten years ago, or forty years after the Crash, it resurfaced as part of a travelling Chroman display for which H&S provided security, and eventually it caused some alarming effect, although Rosemary's security clearance wasn't high enough to find out what. It was put back into storage, but at this point rumours about it began to be passed around. It was also at this point that Rosemary first heard about it and began to research it – and so, unfortunately, did Tansy Rugan, the leader of the Quincunx, a kind of sinister private army.
Rosemary started to suspect the Quincunx were searching for the HJ42, and knew it would be a seriously Bad Thing if they found it. She couldn't get H&S to take her concerns seriously enough, so she went AWOL, rode all the way to Chroma and stole the HJ42 herself. Two hours later the Quincunx arrived and started hunting her (and killing Chromans). She did her best to evade them but eventually Tansy cornered her. One of the buttons on the device was glowing so in desperation Rosemary pressed it, thinking that it might cause an explosion which would take out Tansy and her 2inC Nathan Holn along with Rosemary herself. Instead, it teleported her to the forest near Eetown. At first she wasn't sure whether she'd been moved through time or space, but then she met Mortimer and realised from his accent that she had shifted a long way to the east. She was very dazed and disoriented and just followed Mortimer home.
They talk for a while about how Rosemary ended up with Hack'n'Slash in the first place. Bored with farming muckroots and lobster-fishing, she became a crew-woman on a boat called the Oshinoxtra. From there she went to the mainland and worked on a large farm, and even served as a minion on a Saur hunt (presumably, like the domesticated Trogs, these were less sapient than the ones in the Basement). Once she'd saved up enough money she went to see the nearest city, Jonetown. Everything there was far more expensive than she'd expected but as luck would have it she was in the right place to rescue Edwird Soloman, a retired bureaucrat who was being harrassed by louts. She and Edwird hit it off and became firm friends, and he gave her a place to stay. She became his bodyguard and housekeeper, read his books and reached an uneasy accommodation with his girlfriend, Mrs Rumble.
Sometime later, Rosemary and some friends were scavenging in a scrapyard when they encountered the demon Scratch, and Rosemary managed to overcome him to the point where he was willing to discuss his situation and behave reasonably. This caused unpleasantness between the neighbours and Edwird, and brought Rosemary to the attention of Hack'nSlash, who recruited her.
While they are tidying up conversational loose ends, Rosemary tells Sylvester about a hermit she met in the SAR (where there are many hermits, but this one is The Hermit), and who was probably a wizard, or possibly a demon: he will only ever say that he's a person. This is true even if he is a Demon: we see a brief glimpse of the Operator gazing rather sadly at an image of what is presumably his partner. They establish that demons can communicate over long distances via leylines, hence Edgar learned Rosemary's name from Scratch, and Myrrh could arrange visits from friends (two demon visitors are shown: one of them is Jones, from the Spires, and the other is Marilith). Rosemary is reluctant to ask Myrrh to pass along messages, as her favours have to be paid for. Sylvester assures her Myrrh can keep a secret.
They discuss Ilsa, who has a very able illegitimate daughter, Druscilla, who works for the big bank in the capital. Ilsa writes to her with local gossip, so news of Rosemary's presence will soon reach the capital. Ilsa is half Haroon, and the Haroons do not worship the Brush, much, or care what the Oracles think about having children out of wedlock. Sylvester is trying to modernise the village, with some cooperation from the current Oracle, Threnody, who is a great improvement over her predecessor Omega. He hopes to bring in not only a teacher but a glass-blower.
It is mentioned that opposite Frederick and Myrrh's old room there is a door labelled "Gwen's stuff", but neither of them knows who Gwen is or was. Sylvester has never investigated it, but assumes Myrrh will have done so.
They discuss the fact that when Sylvester met with Protus he saw visions of Rhid and Villipend, whom they then met, so evidently he was seeing the future. He also saw Rosemary fighting a woman with a glowing glove, and that may be a true vision too. Rosemary thinks from the description that it is Tansy Rugan, who has a magic shock-glove, so they will have to meet and fight some time soon. At least she'll probably have the Can-Opener, but she doesn't have it with her now.
Sylvester wants them to have regular conferences, but he's not going to say where the next one will be, in case of eavesdroppers (from what we see, through the Panegate that connects to the edge of the Crystal Thicket). He had intended to hold this one on the Commons, well away from anyone not a goat. They discuss Rosemary's old teachers, and whether Myrrh and Frederick are gone for good: Rosemary probably hopes they are. We glimpse Frederick being given an Ides of March cake by a waitress wearing antennae ending in grey bobbles, confirming they are at the Spires: they are in an underwater café with a seal peering in through a porthole. We also glimpse Mortimer in the woods, with a scratch on his face and what looks like more web draped across his shoulders.
Sylvester wishes for an alternative to the rowboat, since he'll have to pay someone to row it back. Olaf Larrsen, the village vet, turns up in his motorboat Mamie (Rosemary and Sylvester agree that Sylvester also wishes for a million Simoleons in a secure bank account) and is introduced to Rosemary, who he is glad to see is not a "demon, Bonmarrow or Flibbler". Flibblers, whatever they are, are everywhere. Olaf agrees to give them a lift in return for information and a discount on the organs of the Dornbeast Rosemary killed the night she arrived (less than two days ago). Sylvester half regrets returning to the stresses of being the Earl.
Olaf takes the couple and the cat back to the mainland. En route they discuss the reorganisation at the Mansion, and the Crash – Olaf used to build thaumtools, before the Crash, and has been able to measure the fact that magic is very slowly returning. He made a motor for his little boat, but none of the local fishermen would let him fit one to theirs even if there was enough magic to power something that big. He thinks the local Ichyoids are up to something. He tells them about the hamster pirate captain, who has now ceased to be an out-take and become part of main canon, and that he has met Protus, who was talking about someone named Winnifred (presumably the founder of the future Winnifrite sect). The only Winnifreds they know are somebody Sylvester was at univesity with, and a now-dead old woman Rosemary knew in Moonin. Sylvester warns Olaf that Nirvana Clepe may be back in the area (Olaf looks a bit alarmed).
It's mentioned that Olaf hasn't married: evidently he and Mamie didn't get that far. Sylvester asks Olaf whether he has seen Frowgler – he hasn't – but we cut away to see Frowgler talking to the village Flittermouse in her tower. She is assessing livestock, which involves little toy figures. Frowgler says he is always there to get done what needs doing, and she says it makes her speculate on who he really is "behind that mask". She tells him that her name is Vyon Ward Parkin, an orphan who was taken in by the Flittermice after she was shunned because her family had died in a "Spew" from the Infernal Engine, and peoople feared she might be contaminated. We see that the Flittermice have a universal presence, at least in Yurpsland, and use actual bats as messengers. The Flittermice are an Order, whose job is to "flit into the dark places and do the mucky jobs that need to be done" – which they agree is also Frowgler's job. Vyon herself was literally posted to her new position in Eetown, in a box: or possibly ceremonially pretended to have been posted. It's a lonely job and she appreciates Frowgler's company, but she could have left if she wanted to, and did not: there's a suggestion that Frowgler's own role is not voluntary. He gives her a "laughter marble", which she seems to have been waiting for, and says that some day everyone will know who he is (or was) behind the mask, then he leaves via an artificial tunnel which looks as if it was made for the purpose, and which takes him to water. Unlike a real frog, he appears to have gills.
As Frowgler swims away, we see him pass a tank containing an octopus named Aloysius. Violet Hopkirk lures Aloysius to the surface and milks him of ink. She overhears people gossipping about Frederick's retirement. We overhear two of her employers talking about her and how she has the talent to work on a "Wrangrig", but it isn't safe for girls. Cut to Sylvester and co. in the boat, discussing Wrangling Rigs, aka octopus inkpull platforms, and the fact that it's "not safe" for girls because it's thought to be bad luck, locally, to have a woman on board.
Violet, who has a reputation for not talking, overhears more gossip, quizzes a local boy and learns about Sylvester's party going into The Moose and Squirrel and not coming out. She goes to the inn to talk to Eunice Kelso about it. Eunice doesn't know where the party went, and shoos Violet away, after saying there are no Human-sized underground ways out: we see what looks like a Frowgler-sized way out. Violet returns to her mother, Helena, and they gossip about Rosemary. Violet is mulling over the idea of Myrrh and Frederick retiring. She sits to clean blobwarts with her feet on a stone marked 44: this number seems to recur.
Sylvester greets a trapper in another boat, name of Rod, and his young son Ash[ley]: these are the father and brother of Violet. Ash is very interested in Rosemary: their conversation reveals that Flibblers from Moonin don't have a Moonin accent. Mention is made of the Sky Trek, a walk across the country due in five years, and of a Mobile Confectioners' Guild, whose members include salesmen called Lollipop Perambulators. Sylvester finds Ash refreshing – too many people treat him with either scorn or fear because of his position. Olaf tells Ash to tell his friend Aloysius (not the octopus!) to stay out of his garden, because it's magic. Sylvester tells him to spread the word that there is going to be a meeting at the Temple to formally introduce Rosemary.
Rod and Ash in their boat sail past an islet with a distance marker on it, then we see a gull try to land on the islet, and be scared away by a green, snakey-looking thing which says "Boo" in Ichyoid runes. This is one of the same tentacled things (perhaps the same individual) which we saw in the Basement, rescuing Shabash from a reservoir.
Rob and Ash come to shore and we see Ash gossipping with his friend Aloysius on the dockside – both boys look about ten years old. A gull – perhaps the same one that was chased off by the tentacled thing – is sitting near Aloysius. Ash passes on Olaf's message about the magic garden, and Sylvester's about the Temple meeting. As they walk past the Spewing Wall – a forum for graffiti – the Flitttermouse's Laughter Marble hits the ground behind them, and Aloysius picks it up, hides it and tells Ash it's just a rock. The gull flits in and out of shot near them. They pass Fantod and the Weirdo having an adult conversation with Melba Corrigan and her whimp-pig Wilbur. Ash and Aloysius tell Fantod that they are planning to go to a haunted ruin tomorrow, and he warns them it might fall down, then Fantod warns Aloysius, specifically, to be careful with"whatever it is yer doin' all of a sudden".
We then see the Oracle Threnody, in a medical office listening to a man's chest with a stethoscope; Mayoress Saffron Stout sitting behind her desk; and the Flittermouse, scoring things off a list on a notice board. Written on the corner of the board (not part of the list) is a note saying "Tell truth ——— Seek fortunes". She has a sort of umbrella stand which has various sorts of pole in it, including a Sneech stick. Next to it is a truncated green cone which has sticking out of the top a T with an extra, sometimes slanting crossbar, a distortd Ŧ, which became a recurring motif.
10: Into the Woods [10/07/2017 – 03/11/2017] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips start–#5125] To start with we see Myrrh, who seems not to need to breathe or to be wearing anything except her collar, strolling through an undersea forest in the Sea of Plinths. The Ŧ with the slanting crossbar appears sticking out of a green growth. She wonders which way to go: a flatworm points its arrow-shaped head upwards, so she surfaces. Frederick is still being served food by the waitresses in antennae, who are amazed at how much he can eat, and suggest that their chef has failed because Fredrick was able to eat the whole meal. They are a mixed bunch, ethnically, and we will later learn that the Spires recruit orphans from all over. A female Eyebolt who has "Shmelcathy" on a screen by her desk (but we will later learn this isn't her name, just something or someone she is monitoring) is working at her desk. Other women in deely-boppers/antennae (all this culture wear them, or at least all the women) are monitoring Frederick on a screen, under the command of an older woman with fluffy, puffy white hair: they too are amazed by how much Frederick can eat and remain upright. They talk about his Herediscan – he is related to previous test subjects (we see Dorothea and Lilith on screens) – and the waitresses say he must be a thaumaturge to stay conscious, yet he isn't setting off their magic-detectors. The blonde waitress, Svetlana Rostova, is told to stay with him and answer his questions.
Myrrh, meanwhile, arises from a water-filled tube into a sort of domed cockpit, in which there is a plant-covered floor dotted with flowers, and a Lizhopper, one of the little mini-Trog-like creatures which we saw Rosemary chasing out of the Mansion at the start of the story.
Frederick and Svetlana talk, initially in front of a drawing on the wall of the moon on a stick, and we learn that they are in the Zamyatin Spire, a very high-tech-looking place. Zamyatin Spire residents are all women, but other Spires are for men only, or mixed. The Spires have a vaguely Soviet, very controlled culture: Svetlana refers to native Spire residents as "assets".
As Myrrh – with the Lizhopper riding on her head – presses a button in the flowery cockpit, Frederick and Svetlana discuss Yurpsland politics, which involve a ceremonial, hereditary king and a separate political ruler who seems to be self-appointed (although they see it as "chosen by the Brush") rather than elected. Also the fact that Frederick is a demithaumaturge, and that the Spires are on a major tricklepoint (although the one in the Sybola jungles may be bigger, which may relate to whatever mystery is in Sybola), so were not much affected by the Crash and still have working pre-Crash technology.
Myrrh climbs up some sort of stair or ladder to a room where there is a naked male musician named Jones (who is clearly based on David Bowie/Jones, and is a fellow demon), whom we saw earlier with his human partner Jebidiah, and who plays the flute for her.
Spire trechnology involves some enormous gears which were built by an unknown society from before the Ettins. Svetlana is impressed to learn that Frederick's family have their own library, in which he read about the Spires. When Myrrh is mentioned, Svetlana surmises that Myrrh is Frederick's wife, because he wouldn't have been allowed into Zamyatin Spire if he didn't have a spouse (meanwhile Jones continues to play his flute for Myrrh). Frederick and Svetlana discuss the arrangements for straight women like her who wish to find a mate when they live in an all-female Spire, and see an agent of sorts, holding a giant needle like a dagger and trying to arrest somebody for smuggling Fuzz jars (Svetlana says this woman isn't police, but something they don't discuss). Singing Fuzzes are a big fad in the Spires and are bred for size, intelligence and voice, which suggests that this could be the past of Frizzlegarb's future world of Hollows and Fuzz communities (especially as we see one in a tank which seems to have embryonic tuft-antennae of the kind later seen on Purple Zoners). Special barriers prevent Fuzzes from being moved from one Spire to another, except in jars (which might explain why the future Fuzzes find it difficult to move from one Hollow to another, and might also have something to do with the barrier which surrounds the Spire in Audravania).
Frederick and Svetlana end up on a balcony which Svetlana calls a Bubble-viewing Recreation Platform, overlooking a hall where large coloured bubbles with blurry images inside well up, but Frederick says it's a Spindizzy interface chamber, but with no visible Spindizzies and no apparent way of summoning them. We learn that The Spire community has a low birthrate and takes in orphans from elsewhere, but Svetlana was born there, in Platohov Spire, and trained in Burdekin Spire, and her paternal grandmother told her about legless, truthful flying beings who could have been either Spindizzies or Helipaths. She is not sure whether The Spire city belonged to the Ettins or the Sneeches, originally – only that the Sneeches say it was contested between the two species. Frederick describes ancient weaponry – the Ettins used city-smashing Doombombs and the Sneeches used Tangles, giant vines which could infitrate and wreck Ettin machinery.
Frederick has worked out that something was meant to happen to him in the restaurant where Svetlana works, but she assures him he wasn't intended to die. Solzhenitsyn Spire is about death and he mustn't go there, but Zamyatin is all about collecting and hoarding information. Frederick wants to go ask the nearest archivist about Spindizzies. Svetlana is unnerved by this, as asking questions is discouraged. They discuss the fact that Frederick is still collecting information which may be useful to his family, even though he is retired, and that Myrrh may or may not decide she has retired as others would understand it, and we see the woman with fluffy white hair monitoring their conversation. Fredrick says he is filling in time until Myrrh gets back from "whatever you all have her doing", and at this point we see Myrrh pressing her claws into a set of holes on a control that opens a round purple door on the wall of Jones's chamber.
Cutting back to Eetown, we see Olaf's boat pulling in to his private dock, and Captain Hamster's crew sleeping off a binge-drinking session, and Mortimer, with umbrella but sans strands of Spyder web, waking in the deep dark woods (to which he was evidently transported from the pub, in the same way that his brother and Rosemary were transported to the island) with the sense that some sort of revelation has slipped away from him, and then encountering Nitfol's mixed Nome and Pale party in the woods. This, we will later learn, is a flashback which must have happened around when Rosemary and Sylvester were waking on Alwin Island, and hour or so before we glimpsed him with web on his shoulder. From here until It All Comes Together, Mortimer's and Sylvester's storylines are out of phase by an hour or two.
Once on shore, Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the fact that Olaf knew Mortimer was a wizard, but didn't tell him. Olaf is fairly benign but generally acts out of self-interest. We see that Olaf has a fenced-off telegraph pole topped with magical gadgets, so dodgy-looking that Sylvester says that in this case Omega (who hated Olaf and vice-versa) might have had a point about the dangers of technology.
Mortimer is very relieved to see that Nitfol survived the Spyder, but ashamed that he had accidentally led the beaver-shark to destroy Nitfol's home tree. Fizmo realises that Mortimer owes Nitfol a favour and can take them beyond the "Edge of the World", but Mortimer doesn't know what she means.
At this point we get some portraits of various characters – Ilsa's and Saffron's parents; characters from the Willy the Wendigo books (Willy himself, in a bow tie; a pink and blue spider; a rock with eyes; something like a green female Nome (but may be meant to be a Gobble'em); and a male Wift/Wilf); some past E Weirdos; and the E family's tutor.
Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, discussing Olaf's thaum measurements. Sylvester thinks he has a second agenda – perhaps an attempt to bring back magic, which even the High University of Azimuth has been unable to do. Sylvester thinks this is a good idea, because he wants Humanity to explore the other planets in the system, and doesn't see much future in steam power.
Mortimer, Nitfol and Fizmo establish their frames of reference. The Nomes' world can be walked across in a day or two (but they're smaller than Humans, and on rough ground, so maybe fifteen to twenty miles), and is bounded by a wall of mist you can't push through, and centred on the Spike – Fizmo's father Foblub was an explorer, but even he didn't manage to walk all the way around the edge. Mortimer remembers a Spindizzy called Charles telling him about a solid haze.
Myrrh stands in a place where there are striped, rugby-ball-shaped lights, and gazes up at an enormous bust of a bearded, humanoid male demon wearing a medal. This last image is a Hallowe'en special, but also part of the canonical sequence: it's actually an image of the Operator.
Sylvester shows Rosemary a road which leads south to a place called E Isles where there are offshore islands and a ferry across the River E, but no city because the nearby shore is too rocky for a port, and then on to Obtown. He points out Olaf Larrsen's house and then they head back towards the woods – as they do so they pass Aloysius hiding behind a bush near Larssen's place, with the gull next to him.
11: New Openings [06/11/2017 – 02/02/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5132–#5215] Rosemary tells Sylvester there was a kid hiding behind the bush they just passed, and Sylvester identifies him as Aloysius Culpepper, an orphan who lives with his uncle and aunt. We see Aloysius and the gull sneak into Olaf Larrsen's place and poke about in the fields, before using an upturned bucket to climb through a shed window, after testing that a magic-emitting plant on a shelf inside is safe by throwing a stick at it, then wedging the window with another stick in some unclear way. The shed contains various odd machines and hanging mobiles. He doesn't touch a gadget that's labelled "LINE #1 TERMINUS ——— DON'T TOUCH", but instead winds up a clockwork figure of a running man (later referred to as the Flailer, so probably its feet are meant to pound grain), and the noise attracts Olaf, who is carrying a fishing net with a hole in the bottom. He tells Aloysius to follow him or go home, so Aloysius (who is barefoot) and the gull follow him.
They go to the main house where they are greeted by Olaf's housekeeper (who asks if he's caught anything, then sees he's caught Aloysius) – we see Sylvester telling Rosemary that this is Ilsa Lundquist, who used to work at the Mansion. Ilsa asks Aloysius what the gull's name is, but Aloysius says gulls only have names when they are flying. She takes the hats from Olaf and Aloysius without touching them, on the end of a baton, and comments that she doesn't suppose gulls ever wear hats. We see a scene of three gulls by the seashore, including one wearing a hat, who is part of Cap'n Hamster's crew, and still looks hungover.
We return to Mortimer, talking to the Nomes. Nitfol doesn't know what Spindizzies are but he does know about the Mansion, because his father was a scholar who owned two and a half books. We see Nitfol's father with two books, one labelled "Socks", the other "Cookiedice", which is the name of one of the Hollows where we see Fuzzes living in the future. Mortimer mentions the library at the Mansion – Fizmo doesn't believe such a thing is possible, but Nitfol has heard stories of large book collections in the past, or at least scroll collections. We see a shadowy image of a female Nome filing scrolls on big racks. Mortimer describes the library as being in the Ivory Tower, which leads to a long digression about behemoth teeth (if behemoths are really elephants, Mortimer has a very confused idea of what they look like), and he mentions that there is an apartment at the top, with a pool, but nobody lives in it now, "most of the time". He mentions that the tower was built by Ludwig, which leads to a very muddled conversation, because the Nomes know Ludwig as a cult figure worshipped by some people in the Basement. Mortimer manages to explain about the Spindizzies and how literal they are, and how he once told Charles he felt trapped and Charles told him about the mist barrier. Mortimer thinks the Spindizzies might know how to bring the barrier down: Fizmo thinks this is fantasy, but Nitfol wants to meet them. Nitfol and Fizmo go off to confer, while Thrash seeks to attract Mortimer's attention to something, and Mortimer wonders aloud whether this is the same Pale (Thrash) he met yesterday with Frowgler – it is – and he can tell that Thrash senses something wrong.
We return to Zamyatin Spire, where Svetlana is disturbed by Frederick's whistling, because music is discouraged except in the gym and at culture festivals. She takes him to a stern-looking Senior Archivix, who wasn't expecting them – Frederick tells this woman his name, but says she doesn't need to know Svetlana's.
In Eetown, Aloysius gives a wall-eyed look to a stuffed gull. Ilsa brings cocoa (which he has never had before) for Aloysius, herb tea for Olaf and tripewater for the gull. Olaf says he's not a nice person (echoing Rhid) but he's an old man and he has had to keep his books locked away because Omega didn't want people to see them, but now she's gone and her influence is waning, he has been hoping for someone like Aloysius to come along. He told Ash to tell Aloysius to stay away from the magic because he knew it would lure him in. Aloysius correctly surmises that Olaf wants him as an apprentice. Olaf says his only love Mamie, after whom his boat is named, died fifty years ago (in the Crash), so if Aloysius comes every day he can, and learns magic and veterinary medicine, when Olaf dies he will leave his house and all his money to Aloysius, aside from a bit for Ilsa.
Olaf tells Aloysius that no wizwitch could channel all the forms of magic, but some were generalists who could do a little of a lot, and some, known as Hedgewizwitches, could do only one thing but did it very well. Mamie was one, because all she could do was heal, but very well, even though she didn't have a very nurturing personality. Aloysius is another – an "Animal Empathist", hence his link with the gull.
Mortimer is still talking to Thrash, and shows him his umbrella. He tells the Pale that he is a wizard and asks if that's the problem, and Thrash shakes his head. Meanwhile Nitfol tells Fizmo he isn't going to go off with Mortimer immediately, but he will at some point, because Zpeaker and the Nexus also thought the barrier could be brought down, and if Nitfol's political plan fails they will at least have a means of leaving. Thrash draws Mortimer's attention to the fact that Spyders are creeping up on them.
Frederick speaks to the Senior Archivix, whose name is Anushka Zhdanov. She tells him he is allowed to access archives up to Level Three, but won't say how many levels there are above that. He asks for information on Spindizzies. She asks if he is a Yurpslander, and when he says he is, she calls for someone named Snegurka and sends her to fetch a file (calling her a lackwit).
Olaf tells Aloysius that neither of them is a full wizard, but that in theory if you make the right thaum machine you can mimic any power. However, there isn't enough energy around post-Crash, so animal empathy is impossible to mimic and no one will be "horning in" on Aloysius's skill. There are no other empaths in the area, but there are a few other wizwitches of other kinds – some who know what they are (we see Myrrh, Amos Grubb and Mortimer) and some who don't (we see a teenage boy in a soft baggy hat, who is probably Ricky of the famous Ricky and Wendell, and a short teenage girl with a lot of long, bushy hair) and who he doesn't think could handle being told.
12: The New Level [05/02/2018 – 01/05/2016] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall strips #5222–end] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips start–#5299] At the start of the chapter we see Melba Corrigan's blobwart-vending cart and her pet pig Wilbur sitting in front of a large bush. Her hat is lying on the bush, and two butterflies (not flutterbys) fly up from behind it. They represent sex and/or kisses, and she is behind the bush with Arthur the Weirdo. Faint words on the hedge appear to spell out "Nutella weather person" – I've no idea why.
Rosemary and Sylvester arrive back at Eetown's South Road Gate. Sylvester would rather go home, but Rosemary reminds him that he needs to collect the post, and says that it probably wasn't a villager in a boat that took them to Alwin. They both think it was probably Mortimer, by magic, which means he has immense innate power and the potential to be "quite something".
Meanwhile, Mortimer's party start to back away from a Spyder, which begins to spew thick ropes of web at them, while another one boxes them in from behind. But Thrash slashes their web-ropes with his sickle and beats down the one in front of Mortimer. It's not clear whether he has killed it or not, but he probably has, as later they will pass a dead one in that direction.
Meanwhile, Senior Archivix Anushka offers Frederick a chair and a cup of tea while he waits for his file. Svetlana is impressed and concerned, as teachairs are only offered to important guests, and she isn't authorised to associate with important guests, but doesn't wish to leave. The Archivix gives Frederick permission for Svetlana to stay and have tea too, but Svetlana says it's not Anushka's decision to make.
Olaf thinks Aloysius can handle being told he has magic, but also that an empathist can't do much harm (but they can do some: we see a silhouette of a bear being sicced on somebody). He warns him not to tell anyone else about his magic, because there are people – the picture implies it's official, government people – looking to capture functioning wizwitches. It's possible that Aloysius may have other, minor talents as well as his main one – Mamie did (including, it's implied, skin-stimulation during sex) – and there are tests for this, but Olaf can't administer them. Amos and Frederick both could, but Frederick won't.
Rosemary suggests that if Mortimer is going to be "something" so will Sylvester, since Mortimer obeys him. As they talk, a Vagabond flutterby – a creature with which Mortimer has a strong affinity – comes to them with a scrap of cloth tied around it, bearing a message apparently written in blood.
Back to Mortimer's party. We will later learn that the timeline is disjointed, because these scenes with Mortimer must have happened while Rosemary and Sylvester were on Alwin Island. The Pales are fighting off the Spyders, and kill at least one behind Mortimer, but the Spyders keep coming and keep flinging web at them. Prompted by Nitfol, Mortimer has a moment of crisis where he decides he will no longer be either a follower or a causer of problems, and he shoots magical force from his umbrella-wand, declaring that there will be no more killing or dying (and gives himself an electric shock). The surviving Spyders run off, and we see two Spyders discussing the fact that they had thought all Human wizwitches had been killed in the Crash, and that this raises the possibility that there may still be Humans who are able to "talk" (perhaps this means Aloysius's animal empathy) and they must call a conclave to discuss this.
Svetlana confirms to Frederick that it is her boss (or at least, the person who told her to watch Frederick) who decides whether she may stay and drink tea or not. She has a number as well as a name – 23-42-5258.8. Frederick addresses the security bugs in the walls and asks for Svetlana to be made his guide, stating her name and number, and since nobody answers with an objection, Svetlana is officially promoted to that role. She isn't sure what she thinks about this, as she had enjoyed being a waitress, but eventually she makes a firm decision to sit down and embrace her promotion, and she does quite like her cup of tea.
Olaf tells Aloysius that Amos gave up being an active wizard before the Crash (although we see old!Amos lighting a candle with magic) – we know this was to do with Myrrh, but Olaf will only tell Aloysius about it if Aloysius agrees to be trained. Amos has already asked Olaf to come to the Mansion to discuss something, so he will take Aloysius with him, but Aloysius shouldn't mention his possible apprenticeship etc. to Amos's wife Nellie. They have a complex misunderstanding about what "having views" means, which leads to mention of an apparently blind woman called Gretta Weed, who in the metaphorical sense sees further than Nellie. Gretta is brighter than Nellie, and Saffron brighter than Gretta, but Olaf is more concerned with their open-mindedness to new possibilities. They discuss the fact that once he is trained, Aloysius will have the choice to stay in Eetown or to move elsewhere: we see an image of him as an adult healing horses for Nimue in Abalone.
Once they have found a private spot, Sylvester reads his message, which says "Open Training Gate. Urgent." This refers to one of the Panegates at the Mansion. Sylvester still has to complete business in town but will rush through it. We see him ask the sausage vendor, Claudia, what people are talking about – which is really all the news from the Mansion. She has been selling(?) a lot of sausages because people are anxious/excited about the changes, and warns them that Saffron is "in a mood".
Fizmo and Nitfol are surprised and impressed that Mortimer is a wizard, and reveal in conversation that Fizmo works for Frowgler, and Nitfol sort-of does too. We see Frowgler underground, talking to a Shallow Wyrm named Parkin who is guarding the Circle at the World's End. Fizmo says Frowgler can see the future (which Mortimer cannot), and warned her about a job she took. We see her underground in her hazmat suit, looking at a little creature similar to a Shallow Wyrm but probably not one (no head crest), which is growling at her. Mortimer says Frowgler gave him good advice, but he works for his brother Sylvester, not for Frowgler. He tells them Sylvester is a sort of mayor, avoiding the charged word "Earl" by chance or design.
Svetlana reveals that she prefers kvass to tea, although this is against her culture. The Spire folk drink actual tea, but tea in Yurpsland is usually brewed from other plants. Frederick himself drinks – cautiously – things brewed by Myrrh. They get onto discussing Yurplejuice – neither Svetlana nor Anoshka has tasted it, because it's restricted, and even in Yurpsland it's regulated.
Olaf tells Aloysius about the other half of his business – the first half is treating sick animals, the second half is making and selling thaum-powered gadgets. He has always refused to make magical weapons – Zap-Tridents – partly out of morality and partly in case someone buys one and then kills him to prevent him making any for anyone else. In any case they only work at Tricklepoints, such as the one under the Mansion. To make his own gadgets work away from a Tricklepoint he has built big, cumbersome energy collectors. Aloysius shows Olaf the Laughter Marble, and Olaf says it does party tricks, which he will show him in the workshop.
13: Thicket [02/05/2018 – 16/11/2018] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5313–#5502] Sylvester says Claudia will be shifting a lot more sausages, because more changes are coming, because he is planning to be more pro-active. He and Rosemary discuss Mayor Saffron's temper: "in a mood" isn't so bad, it's when she's "in a snit" you need to worry, but it was her father who could really make her angry.
Mortimer says he arrived here (in the woods) by accident, but now he's here he will help the Nomes. He asks why they are there and Fizmo says they are going to "that Crystal Thicket". We will learn later that they are looking for a flower that grows only there, which can be used to induce Raviners to spew ichor, which they need for whatever takeover scheme Nitfol cooked up with the Nexus. Nitfol is initially angry with her for telling, but Fizmo says that if Mortimer (with his evident magical power) is working for Mayor Koyeeb they're all dead anyway. Nitfol discusses good and bad leaders with Mortimer (we see an outline of what might be an assassination being prepared), and Mortimer correctly concludes that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb. He is still willing to help, on the understanding that Nitfol wants to remove Koyeeb for an ethical reason (i.e. because he is very bad at his job) and that he isn't planning to kill him. He knows where the Crystal Thicket is.
Frederick tells Svetlana and Anoshka about Yurplejuice, which he hasn't had since the funeral of Mariah, the Mansion's groom, when they still had horses. He doesn't seem to know he just missed sharing some at breakfast that morning, when he and Myrrh announced their retirement and didn't sit down to share what the family were eating and drinking. It's made in Wirtvale, and the stuff which Yurpsland exports is second-rate, but the best brands are wonderful. This leads to a conversation about funerals: the Spire folk file their dead on shelves in a catacomb, but they do have a ceremony (and their elderly do get to retire in comfort, so they're not a totally brutal society). They talk about the fact that Spire folk are trained for their jobs, but Frederick had to muddle through as both wizard and Regent, and didn't do a terrific job, in his own opinion.
We see Myrrh emerging from a hole in a rocky floor, into a cavern where there are many pink stalactites and stalagmites (probably artificial: they look too smooth to be natural). She is preceded by a butterfly – perhaps signifying that she and Jones have had sex. In the cavern is a giant Metalmin who knows what she is – it addresses her as "zarkette" – and challenges her to a game of Warboard, the local version of chess. We see the woman with puffy white hair watching Myrrh and the Metalmin on a screen: this is the same woman who was earlier seen overseeing the team who were discussing the fact that Frederick wasn't being knocked out by what they had fed him.
Back to Rosemary and Sylvester, still discussing Saffron Stout, and Saffron's father, who died when Sylvester was five, and her mother, who kept small yappy dogs. Neither was at all communicative about their past. Mention is made of Wendell's fish-fermenting scheme, which evidently stank the village out and made everybody angry.
Mortimer tells the Nomes that even though the forest completely surrounds the Thicket, there is a magical way of getting where they're going and skipping the forest part. He tries to compare Panegates with the treewarping the Nomes do, which requires planning and equipment. Nitfol knows about twistpoints, but Mortimer says Panegates are safer, and there's one that leads to the edge of the Thicket. He has to explain that it's Panegate, not Paingate. Yes, Nitfol and Fizmo can both read, and they know what window-panes are, although Fizmo says only nobs like the mayor and Piu can afford them. Mention is made of Fizmo's married sister Fweep.
Meanwhile, Frederick says that Spire folk who do badly at their jobs get sacked. Yurpsland is a young, recently unified (134 years ago) country which hasn't worked out how to do things yet, whereas the Spire regime is 400+ years old, when the city was built (although not entirely completed) by Dmitri I. He speaks about a Yurpslander named Owen Gregiry, who wrote a study on the Spires, and they discuss various Spire monarchs: Feodore II, who began the Great Expansion; Feodore III who "obtained" the Outer Shoals; and the famous Ivana III, who fought off the Wendigoes. Frederick is more interested in Vasily II, who wanted to introduce changes.
We flash to Violet Hopkirk, telling her mother she's going out but will be back in time for supper. Young Ash, her brother, offers to help make supper while she's out. We see the Flittermouse in her tower, watching Violet through a telescope as she sets out: she has a Juneteenth flag on one of her mailbags. Then we see Eunice calling Ricky and Wendell, the odd-jobbers, to come out from a hole surrounded by a wooden structure, because Saffron needs them: they are doing something which involves bags of coloured liquid. Then we see former Guardian Terin Flem, sitting on a rock talking to his grandchildren Stephan and Sparrow. He is going to wait at the rock until he sees the Mansion party come by on their way out of the village.
We see Rosemary and Sylvester discussing the mayor of her home town, how as an orphan she was a problem for him, and how her Aunt Eva came home, and Zeke persuaded her to take her orphan niece in. Eva was also seen as a problem because she had run off to the wicked big city (Nye), picked up foreign ways and then returned rich. There are things Rosemary wonders about Eva's return, but she's not going to talk about it in town where there are potential eavesdroppers.
Mortimer and the Nomes agree that it would be as tedious to trek to the Mansion to find the Panegate as it would be to go to the Thicket on foot, and as far as Mortimer knows they won't be able to locate the Panegate at the Thicket end, or open it from that side if they could find it. He assumes they are going to the Thicket to find a particular flower. He tells them not to tell him their plans, so he can't inadvertently give the game away.
We cut to Sylvester's brother Ace, with spear and rucksack, walking through an unknown town (later we will learn that it's called Jagger Junction) in the west of Yurpsland and meeting up with a blonde Nome woman wearing a long skirt and a hat with a flower in it. He shows her a similar flower – which he was reluctant to wear in his hat. As he is Ace, she takes the nom de guerre Diamond (Ace suggests Joker, and says if she doesn't want to be called one she shouldn't dress like one). As they walk through the town, in the background we see a very odd face, or maybe a mask, with slanted oval eyes, watching them from some sort of battlement, and they pass a poster with a kind of alien face on it: or perhaps a safety mask. Other, more Human faces peer round corners at them wherever they walk. Ace comments on the fact that they are being followed, and asks if they are friends of Diamond's, or at least allies.
Cut to the Mansion's butler Schmedley, standing in front of a large, open book and holding a cake with candles, to celebrate fifteen years since the strip began. There are twelve candles on the cake, and three flutterbys flying around it. A Fuzz watches from a trunk of the Tree.
Frederick and Anushka discuss rules of succession. In the Spires the rulers are matched by a Matriarch or Patriarch of opposite sex to the ruler, and who bears the mystic Gear until it's time to hand it on to the new ruler. Vasily II the would-be change-maker died young (as did Yorik II, who drowned while swimming in Lake Laputa), and Frederick suggests that his death was suspiciously convenient.
The village fishermen are deeply interested in Rosemary's hat. Coming from where she does, she is able to discuss fishing with them. One called Tom even invites them for a drink, but she and Sylvester have too much to do, and Sylvester says later in private that having the Earl in the inn would be a buzz-kill – nearly as bad as an Oracle in the pub.
Fizmo is curious about the smell of sphagnum dust which still hangs around Mortimer. She and Nitfol discuss the birth of Fizmo's niece Faift, in a way which implies that Nomes can choose the gender of their foetus – although Nitfol denies it when Mortimer asks. Fizmo is horrified to realise she is now an auntie, and remembers she needs to ask the village healer Piu for Stiflebloom. Nitfol is an only child. We see an image of him as a boy, holding a thin staff which is the Ŧ with the slanted crossbar.
Diamond says that Ace is an object of great local interest, which is why people are spying on them: some of the spies are "allies of temporary convenience" and others are enemies. We see a graffito which says "IN THE NAME OF THE" and then a circle with three small circles or holes in it. Ace identifies Diamond as being a Nome with dyed-blonde hair. She asks whether there was another option, and he says there are always options (we are shown that he is thinking of Myrrh, so of people who are in disguise and might not be what they superficially appear) but sometimes all the options are bad, and he learned that from "you people". "You people" could be the organisation for which Diamond works, or just people "here" (later described as "Out West"), where Ace has been for a while. Ace comes from "Back East": the boundary between the two is Nye, the gamblig den. Diamond regards people from the East as posh, privileged and soft. Diamond came to Jagger Junction from somewhere "much, much worse" than here, which makes Ace say he questions her Nomishness. When Ace says he doubts her Nomishness he probably means that the only places he knows of that are much worse than this are Zark and Fratz, but it is later heavily hinted that Diamond was a slave-labourer who escaped from the Infernal Engine. They are watched by a young male Nome, standing in a doorway: we will later learn that he is called Uffer. Ace and Diamond come to a plain, unmarked door in a wall, which Ace says people must only come to if they are already welcome there. It opens before them.
Frederick tells Anushka that he ended up taking over running his "Spire" and training his successor (Sylvester) because the official leader (Willoughby) was no good at it. We see him training Sylvester to deal with a machine that has the Ŧ sticking off it. Willoughby died in the Noodle Incident, which the Spire folk haven't heard about. Frederick says he would have thought everyone to the ends of the known world would have heard of it, and this leads to a discussion of an island called Solla Sollew, which Svetlana says is the island at the farthest edge of the Revealed World, and which Frederick says an explorer described as "alive and burning". Anushka says that Solla Sollew isn't the farthest place from the Spires, just hard to reach because of magic-storms from the Glow Confection mountain range: the farthest point is the Biloka Penninsula on the far side of the Deep Southeastern Jungles. Frederick does not know why the town of Noodle is called Noodle, but the Noodle Incident is the most interesting thing that ever happened there, and they even have a museum about it.
Rosemary and Sylvester discuss the local fishermen. Tom Bawcock, the senior fisherman, is unmarried but has a thing going with Gretta Weed. Rosemary thinks one of the fishermen, Ernie Corrigan, is cute, and the feeling appears to be mutual. It's OK for Mansionites other than the Earl to hang out in the local pub, and many have done so, but not Nirvana for unspecified reasons. Sylvester goes to collect post from Mr Gray.
Mortimer's party, discussing Stiflebloom, pass what looks like a dead Spyder. Fizmo left their village because Nome girls were being encouraged to get pregnant instead of taking Stiflebloom. She talks bout how she and Kulkad were hired to go down into the Hot Zone in suits. She couldn't see much through the helmet, and can't really describe what they were monitoring. Mortimer says Sylvester will want to know, and Nitfol should want to know too if he's going to be a leader, so Fizmo says the thing they were watching was a sort of stone growth.
Ace and Diamond pass two guards, and climb stairs to visit a Mr Shadwell, Diamond's boss. Ace fusses about the lack of a handrail, and Diamond says he reminds her of Algernon Jones, the hero of Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. At the top of the stairs, they find Mr Shadwell seated dead at his desk, with some kind of wound on his chest.
Frederick wasn't present at the Noodle Incident and didn't hear about it till days later, because they didn't have a Sparkwire – a telegraph system. Sparkwire operators seem to be all women, who wear antennae like the ones the Spire people wear, although in the Spires they signify citizenship. The Spire ones seem to be implants – at least, they're not just attached to a band like the ones worn by Sparkwire operatives.
In Noodle there is a museum about the Incident, but it isn't very accurate. In the Spires, Solovyov Spire is all museums, and they're accurate (we see a display case with the Ŧ on top), but some can only be visited by people with a high security clearance. Svetlana has been to the ones she's allowed to see: Frederick says "And the exhibits gave you no reason to doubt their accuracy?" and Svetlana replies "Negative", which is ambiguous.
While Sylvester is talking to Mr Gray, some village children ask Rosemary how she, Sylvester and Mortimer got out of the inn without anybody seeing them go. She says they used a one-time magic door.
[Cut to Cap'n Hamster, talking to the sapient sea plant on Piratestash Island about how they are both rare life-forms, and how he bounces from ship to gaol (his cage in Nevus's collection) and back, and how he was swept to this location by a freak wave, and the fact that his parents (who had a ship named Grenache) told him that somewhere across the waves there would by a pirate girl for him, and he will search till he finds her.]
Fizmo tells Mortimer that when she was down in the Hot Zone, she had a button to push (and then run away) if the thing she was watching started to move. Technology doesn't work well down there, which was why they needed live watchers, but the button was shielded. Fizmo says she saw a rock grow legs and walk. Nitfol asks if it talked – she says no. Nitfol is not surprised by her story, because he has heard stories from when Nomes called Hotdiggers used to mine down close to the Hot Zone.
Diamond says she will pay Ace (who seems to be some kind of bodyguard, like Rosemary) to help her get away from the town, as she was Shadwell's "little mascot" and probably won't survive him for long if she stays. Ace agrees on condition that she doesn't lie to him, and that she tells him where the thing he came to collect is. She opens a wall safe and gives Ace a sort of snow globe thing with a figure in it – a long-robed figure juggling the numbers 007.
Frederick has never been to the Noodle museum, or the ones in the Spires, but has heard testimony he believes (from Sylvester, about Noodle, and Svetlana about the Spires). He leaves it open whether he trusts the Spire museums or not. Svetlana starts to say "Is not what I am denying! Am saying you should not be—" and then glances nervously at the walls and says it's nothing. Frederick says Willoughby set off some kind of chain reaction which badly damaged much of Noodle, but no-one except Willoughby died. The incident happened in part because of poor maintenance in Noodle, but that part of the story was hushed up.
Mr Gray is concerned that there may be things which, unofficially, Sylvester should tell him about. They have a verbal skirmish in which Sylvester avoids telling him anything. He collects his post, rejoins Rosemary and says it may have been a tactical error for Mortimer to let people see that his umbrellla could be used as a weapon – Mr Gray is of course a government agent, and after Mortimer placed his umbrella in a weapons-holder he looked it up in the Compendium of Official Threats, so now he suspects that Mortimer is a wizard.
Nitfol says that one of his ancestors, Nikmo, found a talking rock in the deeps, although most of the records of what it said were lost. Nikmo brought the rock home to the surface, but it stopped talking and he was ridiculed for saying it had. Family history says Nikmo later snuck the rock back into the deeps and it came back to life. He told his daughter Margi about it. Margi became a famous adventuress and had a son, Jindak (mobile hanging over cradle, with Ŧ). Margi told Jindak that she thought Nikmo went back later to visit the rock, but she herself could never find it. Mortimer asks about the surviving records of what the rock said, and Nitfol says that the rock said it had been broken off from a larger boulder during a natural upheaval.
We see Violet sneaking past behind Terin Flem, who is still keeping a lookout: later comments suggest he really isn't of her creeping through the trees behind him. She walks to the Mansion's gardens, where she startles Nellie Grubb, in her role as gardener.
Ace tells Diamond to place another globe, called a Zoinkglobe, into the safe. He had arranged to give Mr Shadwell this one in return for the one with the juggler, and now Shadwell's heirs can have it. He tells Diamond not to steal stuff from the safe unless they need it to survive, so she takes a small plaque with Shadwell's sigil on it, used to show that the bearer is in his favour. Ace comments that Louis and Buddy, the security guards, had let him up there with a spear and an unsearched pack, so they are either incompetent or part of whatever is going on. Silhouette of railing decorated with Ŧ.
We return to the Spires, where Frederick is talking about the official enquiry into the Noodle Incident. The Spires have official enquiries too – Svetlana says "Except when conditioned by circumstances", Frederick replies "Like when a gal happens to be carrying a big needle?" and Anushka says they don't talk about that here. Frederick says that what he has said came from his own experience, not from Svetlana. He says that Willoughby was scapegoated (although he really was somewhat to blame) – then a woman named Snegurka arrives with a file which was requested earlier (presumably the one on Spindizzies).
Part Seven: Seats of Power [19/11/2018 – 01/12/2021] 01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion. Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle. Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking. Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him. Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both). Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree. Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly. Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out. Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer". Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled. 02: Entangled [05/02/2018 – 03/05/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5584–#5661] Mortimer and the two Nomes wonder nervously what will happen if the Pales don't return from squid-chasing. The scene switches to the Pale camp, where Zpeaker is telling Vezza how the Pales grow their tools. The tools do not grow from plants but are in some way related to the Pales themselves and this is critical information, so he will need to ask the Nexus for permission to show her. Vezza, being young, can hear the Pales' supersonic voices: Zpeaker says all their communication is sonic "except Zcopers". [Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.] Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee. Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor. Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting. The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket. We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts. Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back. Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are. Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards. Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood. Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect. Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head. 03: No Turning Back [06/05/2019 – 01/08/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5675–#5752] Mortimer's party progress, keeping together. Mortimer, being taller, can see a large, distant rock which he thinks is near the Panegate. Nitfol says one direction is as good as another, and Mortimer says the direction of the Thicket (the jumble of crystals) is bad. Another Ŧ on a rock in the distance. Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as. Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been". We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother. Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before. Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed. For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt. Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling. Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ. Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle. Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock. Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could. Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters. He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them. 04: Fallout [02/08/2019 – 30/10/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5759–#5848] Not-Shmelcathy tells Myrrh she doesn't see the point of clothes unless it's exceptionally cold: then admits that's the default state in the Spires for a third of the year. Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of". Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was. We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin. Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible. Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon. According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl". Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic. Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice. Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach. Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her. Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them. Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington. Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers. Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business. Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!" Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that. 05: Going Home [04/11/2019 – 27/12/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5855–#5899] The Eyebolt formerly known as not-Schmelcathy says that her name is Simplicity (despite the name on the screen by her desk). She is bubbling with answers to questions Myrrh doesn't want to ask (demons are sensitive about favours and counter-favours). She says "we" (presumably the Eyebolts) can sense auras and that it's important that Myrrh know what she is confronting. Myrrh assumes she is talking about the Operator. There is a side conversation about Jones, who we see apparently getting clothes from Alena and Idita. Simplicity says that the Operator is much more powerful than either Myrrh or Jones, and he has visited the Spires, but he's still only part of the problem. We see an image of the Operator having a power-bar about two and a half times Myrrh's, but it's like a small stream compared to a raging river when measured against the Power Simplicity is thinking of. Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one. Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt. The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers. Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one. Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question. Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped. 06: Diplomacy [30/12/2019 – 13/02/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5909–#5958] Comshaw reveals that when they found the door to the Mansion open, the Council had deliberately aimed a Dornbeast through the door to test what would happen. Sylvester confirms that they are Human and that he is The Earl. Rosemary is his trusty assistant, and Skradt is Comshaw's. Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.] Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing. Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home. Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock. Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome. Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin". An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree. 07: Exit Strategies [24/02/2020 – 26/06/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5986–#6084] Ivana takes Frederick and Svetlana to a Diplomatic Quarantine Facility, for guests who are important but disruptive. There are covered plates of cakes: one of the covers has a Ŧ on it. Frederick will not be allowed to interact with anyone else, except Svetlana whose duties are not yet complete. Frederick assumes this will be so until he goes back to the docks, but Ivana says he's never been at the docks. Svetlana asks if he walked from Yurpsland, but Ivana says he and Myrrh didn't appear via any known entrance, which is part of why he's interesting. Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can. Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees. Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach. Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond". Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way. Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished. Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open. Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave. Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip. Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen. Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl. Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her. Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear. We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar. Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation. Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well. An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist. Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises. They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years). They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough). After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole. At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires. 08: High Level Meetings [29/06/2020 – 09/10/2020] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6098–#6188] Diamond is very concerned that she hadn't known Blas was in town: it suggests her situational awareness is slipping, and that's dangerous. If she had known, she might or might not have told Shadwell, who sometimes had people killed, but only when absolutely necessary: Ace says his employers are the same, except more genteel about it. Wooden Ŧ among planks behind them, and metal one acting as a sort of tap. Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap. Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket. Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat. A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them. Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived. At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket. Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch). Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs. In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home. Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background. An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting. Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall. They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ). More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX. Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded. 09: It All Comes Together [13/10/2020 – 19/02/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6202–#6318] Svetlana agrees that she will go with Frederick to Audravania. At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres. We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together. A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar. Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown. Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes. Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade. Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos. Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower. Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire. Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something". Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings. Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs. In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits. Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement. The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went. 10: Unexplored Territory [22/02/2021 – 28/05/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6325–#6416] This chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Unexplored Territory, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto. We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm. The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect". Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it. Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing). Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles. Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned. Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself. It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought. Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat. Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality. Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock. 11: New Clothes [01/06/2021 – 03/09/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6423–#6514] Diamond and Ace have moved out of the trace left by the Infernal Engine, and Ace can feel the difference. He wants to know how Jagger Junction ended up this rough (Diamond doesn't know or care), and says if in the future there's anything he can do to fix it, he will. A fairly large Fuzz, maybe cat-sized, is lurking in a small dustbin. Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia. This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine. They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned. Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns. Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in. Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it. Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears. Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree. Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol). Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future. 12: Advice and Council [07/09/2021 – 01/12/2021] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6521–#6577] Rosemary advises Fizmo to really listen to what other people say and to not talk – or swear – much during the Council meeting. Outwith that meeting, she should definitely tell Nitfol what she thinks, about everything. Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works. Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette. Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves. Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers. Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end. Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction. Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: Flight [19/11/2018 – 04/02/2019] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #5509–#5571] Rosemary and Sylvester leave Eetown, discussing whether or not Mortimer will do anything illegal with his umbrella, for a given value of "illegal". Some countries encourage magic, some ban it, but Yurpsland has no unified policy. They leave any other Eetown-related problems for another time and set out for the Mansion.
Mortimer and his party come to a barrier of webbing which marks the edge of Spyder territory, heading outwards towards things the Spyders want to keep out (Tree-Squid, as it turns out). They cut through the web but are left rather gummed up: Fizmo wants Nitfol to ban Spyders from "the Workd" (i.e. the area inside the barrier mist) when he is mayor. They begin to pass scattered fragments of ruined stone walls, and even a skeleton. Nitfol and Fizmo have not been this way before – their parents' and previous generations sometimes journeyed to the Thicket to collect the flower they're looking for and other special plants, but the mortality rate was high. Nitfol has more confidence in their safety now because they have the three Pales with them – somebody in the trees throws a rock at them and Thrash casually deflects it with his sickle.
Nellie tells Violet that being there, at the Mansion, isn't safe. Violet tells her her mother wants to marry her to someone called Tim Tonbee who is above her social status, in order to advance her. Violet thinks this is foolish, both because Tim will want to marry a girl of his own class, and because the life of an aristocratic housewife is not much better than that of a working class one. She's an expert inkwrangler, but girls aren't allowed to work on the rigs because it's thought they'll bring bad luck, and they aren't allowed to work in The Barn (where she currently inkwrangles) after they marry. She doesn't want to join the Navy because she doesn't want to kill people, and she can't be an Oracle because she doesn't hear the Brush in her heart. She doesn't fancy clerking.
Ace and Diamond walk out past the guards Louis and Buddy, telling them Mr Shadwell does not wish to be disturbed. Louis and Buddy wonder why Ace (a professional guard) gave them a disappointed look as he left. On their way out Ace and Diamond are accosted by two more serious-looking men, called Mr Stirscrim and Trymund, who ask who Ace is. Trymund says he's probably the Mundiv rep. Ace says that Dalton Mundivagant (his uncle, although he doesn't say that) sent him.
Back in the Spires, Snegurka hands the file to Anushka, and seems disturbed by the fact that Frederick thanks her. Anushka hands the file to Frederick, but won't tell him who authorised her to give it to anyone who asked about Spindizzies. Frederick and Svetlana prepare to leave, but he pauses and asks Anushka if she is married and has children (yes to both).
Mortimer's party are being bombarded with rocks by a group of Tree-Squids. This is the point where Mortimer ends up with web draped over his shirt again and a scrape on his cheek, as we saw he had just before Olaf picked Rosemary and Sylvester up in his boat. Since then Rosemary and Sylvester have sailed to land, walked back to Eetown, receive the flutterby message, spoken to the fishermen and collected the Mansion's post from Sherman Gray, so these scenes with Mortimer are running about an hour behind Sylvester's scenes. Mortimer and the Nomes take cover in the long grass and head for the Thicket: Nitfol says the Pales can take care of themselves. Fizmo says they need Umboz, the Squid-Coaxer, but Nitfol says these are different from the village squids. We see a brief scene of Umboz, Vezza and Piu getting on very well with the Pales at their hive. Piu seems to be learning new techniques from a Pale doctor, and Vezza and Zpeaker are looking at a device which looks like an organic version of an Ettin tool. Meanwhile the rocks stop coming because Thrash has knocked at least one of the Tree-Squids out of their tree.
Violet tells Nellie she wants to be her apprentice gardener. Nellie is dumbstruck. She tells Violet that she isn't getting paid because she is officially retired, but Violet says the next one will be paid. She listens out for news, and knows Sylvester has been making money on stocks and will soon need new staff, as the old guard get ever older. Nellie warns Violet again that the Mansion isn't safe and her parents would never agree to her working there, but Violet says she will leave home when she comes of age. Behind them is a bush which has the Ŧ built into it repeatedly.
Mr Stirscrim and Trymund wonder why Shadwell sent them to Rowade if the swap was happening today (sounds like somebody got them out of the way). Ace and Diamond say they made the swap and "didn't hear any complaints". Diamond shows Stirscrim the pass with Shadwell's sigil and he lets them by, but he is still uneasy. Diamond tells Ace privately that Shadwell's habit was to foster rivalry among his troops, but when Stirscrim and Trymund do work together they have a fair amount of clout. She doesn't know which would come out on top if they fought. Ace asks her to show him the subtlest way out.
Anushka says her kids turned out OK "for the most part". Frederick regrets not having children of his own. His nephew Willoughby became his foster son but he died. He tried again with Willoughby's children and they too mostly turned out OK (we see that he is doubtful about Mortimer and Lenore) and with other kids who came around (we see a girl with long curly hair looking at his Fugehorn). He tells Anushka to tell her kids she loves them and give them the advice she wants to give them, because there might not be a next time. Svetlana looks stressed. She and Frederick leave and we see Snegurka come to make sure Anushka has heard an urgent debriefing summons. Anushka says she has, and calls Snegurka "ninnyhammer".
Thrash jumps down from the trees to rejoin the other two Pales. A hail of rocks follows and Scrawl (the antler-bearing Pale) looks puzzled.
[Out-take – we see Nimue in her orchard, alive and well and growing oranges among the butterflies, but the scene is partly greyed out because there is so little magic in Abalone. After this Rob provided a whole sequence of four strips of Rosemary going on a blind date, and said that it was canonical, but as it is set at some indefinite time in the future I've left it in the Supplementary Art section. It does show us that the Mansion has a set Portal Point for people to teleport through.]
Nellie tells Violet to go home for now, and not to wander off the path, and she will discuss with Amos and "His Grace" the possibility of taking her on as an apprentice. And Violet will find the right boy "Or girl, if that is what you prefer" (Violet mutters "I like.. boys") some day, even if it's not Tim Tonbee.
Ace and Diamond go through a small door marked "Nome" into an underground complex (with rats) where Ace has to walk bent over. It looks as though the street has risen about five feet higher up than its original level, and now they are down where street level used to be. They are briefly accosted by a male Nome with a scarred cheek. He is a Highscaler, a sort of steeplejack, named Uffer, who works in "The Heights" (and whom we have previously seen watching them from a doorway when Ace first arrived), but they ignore him. It is hinted later that he is in love with Diamond. We learn that Rowade, where Stirscrim and Trymund were sent, is one of these Heights, and another is called Peezkor.
Svetlana still looks stressed. She starts to tell Frederick he must do something, when another woman named Idita Yudashkin comes to re-dress Svetlana in clothing suited to a higher rank, if she is going to escort Frederick. Svetlana looks even less happy. She is taken to a booth (resembling a photographic portrait booth in a supermarket), where an ironic-looking woman named Alena Gazinskaya whom she knows from their training in Burdekin Spire is assisting.
The Pales rejoin Mortimer and the Nomes, but the Tree-Squid are still throwing occasional stones at them. Mortimer doesn't want to use magic again and Nitfol agrees, at least for the moment, so they set off into the brambles under Nitfol's command, using the Pales' sickles and Fizmo's pruning pole to cut through. We see a rock with the Ŧ on top. Nitfol is looking more and more like a leader. Eventually they come to a giant, pink, glowing, three-pronged crystal set in a base: Mortimer says it marks the start of the Thicket.
We cut to Rosemary and Sylvester, walking away from the town at a dignified pace they have to maintain until they pass Terin. Rosemary asks why the provincial flag is the E symbol, given that Audra played down her history. It may have had something to do with taxes, and been picked because goods with the E stamp were so widespread in the area – we see that they sold self-sealing stem bolts.
Ace and Diamond run into more Nomes, led by a very hostile older man called Roquat. He tells Ace to get out – Ace moves Diamond aside and says he'll get out when Roquat gets out of the way. Roquat draws a knife, so Ace knocks him and his companions down. As Ace and Diamond leave, one of the downed Nomes warns Ace that Diamond will stab him in the back.
Svetlana and Idita enter the booth, which has two instances of the Ŧ on a small screen, while Alena, who has a weapon with a rotating blade, stands guard. She and Frederick engage in mild banter, although she says he's a disruptive influence. There is mention of "The Tsar of All Thembria": Thembria being a largeish country next door to Mechana where the Spires are.
Fizmo asks Mortimer why Humans built the Thicket, and he says the Ettins built it. Fizmo has never heard of them. Mortimer asks if the others have. Nitfol has heard stories of The Earl fighting a two-headed giant called Ettin (real Ettins had one head but two brains). Thrash indicates that this is untrue and that he knows about real Ettins. Sylvester gives them a brief history lesson and says he doesn't know why the Ettins built the Thicket, and that they are probably already too close to it – in the distance we can see a jumble of the giant glowy pink shards.
Sylvester and Rosemary discuss the flag of Moonin, which shows the ancient towers called the Beacons, but some people would prefer a lobster. The islands in that area have always fought: a leader named Wirtanen who had a lobster flag briefly united the islands, but he didn't rule the deep landsiders who have their own flags. Rosemary agrees that the current, Beacon flag is boring, but doesn't care otherwise. They reach Terin Flem, still sitting on his rock at the edge of the village and whittling wood.
Diamond is glad Ace didn't kill anyone, even though she's willing to kill if necessary. She has something she needs to do which she says will be fine so long as there isn't a Backwash. This is a wave of magical power which surges out from the Infernal Engine, which extends underground and moves east at a rate of a few centimetres a year. Where they are, it used to be, and it has left part of itself in place as it moved on, so they are still to some extent inside it. The Heights are jumbles of high beams left by the Engine, which generate magical items whenever a Backwash hits, and which Highscalers like Uffer collect.
Frederick and Alena discuss the fact that clothes in the Spires are designed by a committee, while Eetown they are mostly designed by a particular married couple, the Gaberdines. We se Spire tailors working on a uniform on a clothes dummy which has a Ŧ in place of a head.
Rosemary and Sylvester tell Terin Flem about their discussion about flags, and they talk about the very plain flag of Morlock, which symbolises the union of two halves, farm and forge (another Ŧ in the image, disguised as a plant, and another on the point of a roof); about Rosemary's travels and about the possibility of magic's eventual return. Terin, the former Guardian, believes the current lack of magic is a test from the Brush: but a test to build their strength, not the punishment Omega saw it as.
Here the comic switched from comicgenesis.com to the-comic.org as its main platform, marked by a pair of Panegates. The first, with an open aperture, shows the Mansion as it is now, by daylight and in a good state of repair, surrounded by tidy buildings and with "Comic Fury" written in the clouds. The second, criss-crossed by a grid, shows the Mansion standing battered against a red sky: just the Ettin-made towers and the Gatestone, with its peripheral buildings missing and replaced by encroaching forest. This second gate is labelled in Ettiin script "What could have been".
We see Ace and Diamond, still talking about how the trailing back end of the Infernal Engine stretches across the Wide World. Diamond has an exaggerated view of how low-tech Audravania and its capital, Glome, are (another Ŧ on the roof of a mill), and she asks if Audra was real. Ace confirms that she was (another Ŧ in view of Audra) – but doesn't say she was his four-greats grandmother.
Back at the Spires, we see two guards in front of some sort of memorial, then Frederick still talking to Alena about clothes, and about preservation wrappers for clothes, which Alena says were invented in the Spires. Alena thinks Frederick's clothes more appropriate than those of most visitors, and Frederick wonders if his grandmother Lucidia, Ernest's wife, imported them from the Spires along with the wrappers. Alena doesn't have enough education to know about historical Spire styles. At this point Svetlana and Idita emerge from the booth: Svetlana's new outfit is plainer and less "cute" than before.
Mortimer, Nitfol and party forge ahead, but Mortimer feels uneasy, and some of their tools are beginning to spark at the tips. Thrash agrees with him that the air feels strange. We cut away to see the Crystal Thicket (which they have not yet reached) glowing in an ominous silence. They come to a place marked with E symbols (and another Ŧ, this time an actual wooden object), which Mortimer says is not itself the Panegate near the Thicket, but is the place where it happens. Fizmo is becoming glassy-eyed.
For Pride month 2019 there's a cutaway to a couple named Horace and Peter (almost certainly the Hooper and Pandowny who were mentioned before) sharing a picnic, with Yurplejuice, then we return to Rosemary and Sylvester. They take their leave of Terin Flem. Before they go, he asks Rosemary whether her self-professed travels via the Merrow took her to a town or village called Fumbremuf. She recognises it, as it has a lighthouse, and an inn called The Crowded Nest which has a sculpture of a giant bird's nest on the roof (both had to be rebuilt after the Crash: yet another Ŧ on the roof of the pub). As a young man Terin drank there a lot, until he heard the call of the Brush (Ŧ among the rocks), and he is glad to hear it survived the Crash, even though it had to be rebuilt.
Ace and Diamond come to a hidden panel in the wall, behind which Diamond has stored her emergency supplies, because in her experience there always comes a day when Nomes, or she in particular, need to make a quick getaway (Ŧ worked into the supports of the space). The late Shadwell had treated her like a mascot and dressed her up in the sort of suit a middle-class Human woman would wear to a moderately formal social event, but now she can change into something more practical for travelling.
Back at the Spires, Frederick admires Svetlana's new outfit. She signs a form to confirm delivery and the rather grim, humourless Idita leaves. Frederick says "Be seeing you" which Idita takes as a comment on her visibility, but Svetlana realises he is thinking they might need her again. She says she's not likely to be elevated again, but he is concerned she might be demoted again after he leaves. They discuss the rules, and whether she might want to be de-elevated: she isn't sure, but likes the fact that her new outfit doesn't have neck ruffles as the old one did. Another Ŧ.
Back in the woods, Mortimer and co. see wavering lines of force emanating from the Crystal Thicket beyond the trees (between them and it are a rock and an enormous wooden Ŧ). First Fizmo sits down hard, then Nitfol kneels to see if she's OK and collapses to the ground, although Fizmo herself is at least still conscious, and we see that the crystals are now humming. Mortimer wants to leave but the Pales don't, and Thrash is able to revive Fizmo by touching her with his sickle.
Rosemary and Sylvester are now out of Terin's hearing range (though not the dog Byron's) and feel more free to talk. Rosemary comments on how clean the village is, then that they are being watched by somebody who is better at concealment than Aloysius Culpepper was. Sylvester demands that the person show themselves. A young woman with long pink hair, a wand and a witch's hat, but otherwise wearing clothes similar to Rosemary's, appears out of thin air in front of them: Rosemary draws her sword, Sylvester exclaims "You?!?" and the woman swears and disappears again in a kind of dazzling flash, after which you can just see the tip of her hat disappearing behind a distant rock.
Meanwhile, Diamond puts on gloves and dyes her blonde hair brown, then dresses in shabby travelling clothes. Ace thinks that now she has got away from the danger their contract is over so she should pay him and he'll leave, especially as he is now more conspicuous than she is, but she says she still needs him. It seems that where she lives, Nomes are subject to a lot of prejudice. Even in Audravania, which she refers to as "tea-and-crumpet land" (which suggests that it's a stand-in for the UK), Nomes don't go into Eetown and mingle, even though legally they could.
Frederick tells Svetlana she can be his guide for as long as she wants, but she tells him he needs to leave the Spires and get a ship back to Yurpsland, where it's safe for him to talk as freely as he does. The Spires face the inland Sea of Plinths and she says that to get back to Yurpsland he would need to sail, then ride, then sail again. He thanks her for her concern, but won't leave without Myrrh. He says he's deliberately been pushy with his questions and wonders why the Spire high-ups haven't reacted. She asks if he came especially to ask obnoxious questions and he said no, he's tagging along with Myrrh, and she came for the Spodnipradlo Spire Arenas, where she can use her full strength to fight battle bots, instead of having to hold her strength back all the time in order not to hurt anyone (another Ŧ). Then she got diverted onto other matters.
He tells Svetlana that Myrrh is a demon from Zark, and she says there were rumours to that effect. They discuss different types of demon. Myrrh is a "Forest of Kaylu" type, mostly Human-sized and shaped. In the Spires, locally-summoned demons (Snowgrass types) measure their strength in the Grinding Depths (we see one big enough to have trees on his head, wrestling with cogwheels, and looking suggestively similar to the spirit of the Tree in the Basement). More Ŧs, on the image of Myrrh and that of the Snowgrass demon. Djinns and Demons go to a Spire of Learning to teach, except for the insectoid Jungle Demons, who are banished. Woods-demons, Myrrh's type, are put through a "labyrinth of challenges" which not all succeed at, though she hasn't heard of any dying. We see an image of Jones, the flautist, dropping naked from some sort of hatch and landing in a box or bowl. Frederick assumes Myrrh will undertake the labyrinth, and asks what she'll find when she finishes it? Svetlana says he'll need to ask Myrrh, and Frederick says he's not sure if he's still up to "paying for one of her answers" (which probably means athletic sex). We see Myrrh ascend through a hatch into a chamber where an unseen presence (which we later learn is the Eyebolt not-called-Shmelcathy) offers her clothes if she wants them.
Thrash offers Fizmo a staff, and Mortimer tells her to accept and keep hold of it or she will pass out like Nitfol. He pulls Nitfol to his feet and places his, Nitfol's, hand on the same staff, and Nitfol revives. Mortimer likens the emanations of the Thicket to those he has heard about deep underground (we see the Trogtrap by the Great Chasm, which sent its prisoners crazy). Fizmo asks if it's a fume and Nitfol says no, it's a magical "blort" and that he has heard of this happening to the old Nome miners (along with physically poisonous fumes). Mortimer tells them not to let go of the pole. He feels he himself is protected by holding his umbrella wand. He asks Thrash if all Pale weapons are also wands (so that that's why they are protected) and Thrash indicates "sort of".
Rosemary takes over, as official bodyguard, and hastens Sylvester away from where they met the strange woman, who Rosemary thinks ran off after dazzling them, rather than vanishing magically. Sylvester agrees that wizwitches can blend into chaotic environments, but not actually turn invisble. Rosemary says the woman looked as surprised as they were, and wonders if she was suddenly dropped there, as she herself was.
We indeed see the woman running, and then using magic to give herself extra lift while climbing up onto a rock, watched by Violet from behind a rock. She stops and warns Violet to keep quiet until she says otherwise, in a kind of southern-USA drawl, and then disappears (and it does look as if she vanishes, despite what Sylvester said). Meanwhile, Rosemary points out that the woman was wearing a Mansion of E uniform similar to her own, and Sylvester says yes, the uniform is that of a family "witch-minion", and the woman's name is Georgette Spelvin.
Ace tells Diamond that as far as he knows there were no restrictions on the Nomes in Audravania, they just preferred to keep to themselves, in their trees. Diamond has never heard of Nomes living in trees. She says that here, a lone Nome drudge on the streets is fair game, especially once the news of Shadwell's death gets out. She needs to pass herself off as Ace's "little mascot" so no-one else tries to claim her, and he mustn't show her any respect in public, or people will think he's odd. He tells her his family are odd. Diamond doesn't seem to have family, or doesn't talk about them. They agree that since Shadwell kept the peace in the Junction, a lot of people will want to keep his death quiet as long as possible.
Meanwhile, Svetlana admits she doesn't know how long the woods-demon test takes, or even if it truly exists, and we see not-Schmelcathy preparing to answer any questions a now-clothed Myrrh may have. First she opens a connection she says she "forgot to open": it looks like despite her comment about not understanding the need for clothes, she prevented spies from looking in until Myrrh was dressed. Not-Schmelcathy says the tests are for the benefit of the observers, not the subjects, for the information they gather. As for her, Myrrh says she's doing what Eyebolts were created to do, filling a middle-management role (more Ŧs). Not-Schmelcathy says Myrrh has been here less than a century and is still tied to her first human anchor, so there is much she doesn't know: we see a silhouette image of a female Eyebolt commanding scared-looking humans, and apparently directing a ceiling-mounted weapon.
According to the flag-bearing Pale, Fizmo and Nitfol should not and probably could not break the Pale staff, so they are tied together. They discuss the fact that Pale weapons are hard to break, and it was having access to them which enabled the Nomes to survive the Nome/Gnoll war. Pales don't really have names, just titles. Mortimer dubs the one carrying the pennant "Flag" (later "FlagPale"), and the one carrying an antler uses it to scratch writing on a stone, indicating that he is called "Scrawl".
Sylvester says Georgette was his casual girlfriend at university, before he met Nimue. She wasn't a student, but a hostess at a fancy inn in the town, greeting guests (Ŧ on hat). He doesn't know if that was her only duty. They met at a party, and she was good fun, no not his first sexual experience but she was his lover and helped him to loosen up and try things he wouldn't otherwise have tried: we see an image of the two of them on a multicoloured ground like the refractive rings formed when a CD catches the light, which was previously used to indicate the effects of glitterberries. He didn't know that she was a witch, but in retrospect there were signs. They split up after a fight and both went their own way without undue trauma. He hadn't seen her again until today. He begins to tell Rosemary something ironic.
Terin Flem is still on his rock, but about to go home, when Violet joins him. She tells him about sneaking past him – he pulls a face and says he's getting old – and applying to be Nellie's apprentice, which he thinks is a good idea. She tells him about her day: she thinks Rosemary is a witch because she knew that she, Violet, was there, but the other one "with long blossom-tint hair! Like Miss Celia Phahann in that book!" was definitely a witch (Ŧ on witch's hat), and Sylvester recognised her and wasn't happy about it, and Rosemary made a sword appear. ["That book", a copy of which is being passed around town, sounds like a racy novel but we learn later that Celia is the name of the love-interest in Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption, which is meant to be pompous and worthy.] Terin says he was trained at the High Temple to recognise a witch and Rosemary isn't one, just using a magical device, and trained to know when she's being watched. She tells him the other one could float, and told her not to tell anyone. She's telling him because she wants an adult to know, but he mustn't tell unless he really has to. He promises, and warns her not to tell her mother about wanting to be Nellie's apprentice.
Diamond tells Ace that if a backwash from the Infernal Engine comes through the tunnels while they're in there they'll probably die, but there are usually warning signs and some sort of schedule (Ŧ in example Nome's pack). Some people did survive it, although a bit battered. Ace surmises (based on his knowledge of his ancestor Angus) that people will sometimes have been deliberately fed to the backwash. Diamond is amazed that he knows his family history so far back, or at least Sylvester knows it for him. Sylvester doesn't get a "biffa" nickname like "Ace". Ace isn't going to say his brother is the Earl of E, but he allows that he's a "manager". Diamond believes Ace is working for the Mundivagants – she doesn't know he is one. Ŧ on mental image of coach.
Frederick is thinking of going off to read the Spindizzies folder, but then he asks Svetlana what she wants to do most of all, right now? Whatever it is, he'll do it with her.
Myrrh says not-Schmelcathy can read auras, which not-Schmelcathy agrees with. Not-Schmelcathy congratulates Myrrh on keeping Frederick alive so long, and says that currently he is gleefully demolishing a young woman's ability to do her assigned job. Myrrh says "Occasionally he makes me so proud". Meanwhile, Myrrh quotes a classic text, which not-Schmelcathy knows: "Questions are a burden. Answers a prison to oneself". Not-Schmelcathy is tolerated for her education: Eyebolts may be more powerful than Myrrh knows, but here in the Spires the Administrators are human. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them.
Out-take: as a tribute to Rob's cousin Harriet, who had just died, we see the young Amos working as assistant librarian to a doughty Head Librarian named Harriet Hummington.
Mortimer confirms that not all Pales can write. Nitfol says Scrawl could have mentioned his talent sooner. Scrawl is also able to swap his shield and antler from hand to hand faster than the eye can see. Nitfol and Fizmo still feel a bit woozy, so Nitfol tells Mortimer to lead. Mortimer is briefly annoyed, but then accepts that he is "the grown up magicker". He tells the others to rest while he and Thrash go to collect the flowers.
Sylvester says the ironic thing is that Georgette would have made a better Lady of E than Nimue, because she'd be a good hostess and that's a big part of the job. Nimue was brilliant but was goofy rather than witty, and wedded to her family's orange-growing business.
Shadwell had rivals known as "the Other Side". If he were said to have retired to Aruba...? Diamond doesn't know where Aruba is, but agrees that "Such a hypothetical situation would be terribly multifaceted". Ace mutters that she got at a dictionary, but not an atlas. Diamond says that now that they are about to re-enter "civilized climes" and elaving the death zone (or at least the death by Engine backwash zone) she needs to stop sounding posh, in case it attracts attention. As they prepare to enter what Diamond says is called the Sourworks, someone shouts "YOU!"
Frederick and Svetlana agree that the Spires have "Champagne and vodka lagoons. Wendigo habitats." but Svetlana says it's all just more city. She has no family or boyfriend, as there's a lack of suitable candidates (as she says this a waitress, carrying a white cat on a tray, passes them and gives her a flirtatious look: we saw before that they have a bakery where there are cats). They agree to have a sitdown while Frederick reads his Spindizzy files and Svetlana thinks about what she wants: she says she likes him, but wishes she'd never met him. He says it's not the first time he's heard that.
Mortimer and Thrash go to collect the flower. Mortimer is concerned that Thrash's life is dull, and thinks maybe he should teach him to read, or Threnody should. His sister Lilith was a good teacher. He realises that Threnody wanted to train Lil as an Oracle, but Lilith went off with their mother Dorothea to keep her out of trouble. Perhaps it's not too late for her to train when she gets back. They reach the flower: it has symbols on the petals, like very curly Ŧs with a dot above each one.
Sylvester says he and Nimue bonded over orchard management, but if he had known at the time that Georgette was a witch, he might have seen her as an asset to the Mansion (image of witch with a staff which is a Ŧ topped with an E). If she turns up again he wants Rosemary to let her speak to him, but Rosemary says only if she leaves the hat and wand behind. At this point they reach the Mansion and Schmedley tells them there are guests waiting in the Gatestone to speak to Sylvester. These turn out to be Comshaw and Skradt.
The person Ace and Diamond have run into turns out to be a wealthy and well-known Nome baker named Blas Cakenom (image of cake decorated with Ŧ). He is concerned that when they last met, at a place called Spytgiven, Ace hurried away on urgent business and left him with some gift he hadn't paid for, and that affects his reputation, so he's tracked Ace in order to repay him. He treats Diamond like dirt. Ace says he had to leave with their business unfinished because something came up "with the Flibblers" that was important to his employers.
Frederick and Svetlana discuss newspapers and other sources of information, and lifts: we see a lift in Audravania shifting bozes labelled COOKIES and DICE. They take a lift, which turns out to contain a very stern woman named Ivana Klubin who is acting as lift-operator, although Svetlana says she isn't one.
Simplicity tells Myrrh that along with herself and the Operator, there is another much more powerful entity in the same region. It is somebody all Myrrh's power cannot touch (view of metaphorical tendrils, with Ŧ). It is heavily implied in the visuals that Simplicity is talking about God in the Spike, but she says the source of power could be either very high up or very far down, so it could be whatever is in the Hot Zone. She again tells Myrrh to ask her a question.
Thrash digs up the flower (we see another Ŧ at the base of a broken pillar), with roots and some earth, and he and Mortimer take it back to their party and place it in a pot in Nitfol's backpack. But the crystals are flaring all around and Mortimer fears they are trapped.
Blas says he cannot accept an unpaid gift from Ace because his people might think he is "selling out to the hulks". "Hulks" seems to be what Nomes in his area call Humans. Evidently they knew each other in a place called Joyjerm, where Ace had more to do than follow Blas's affairs, so he asks for an explanation. Blas says Humans like Ace are privileged, not having to live on sufferance among people bigger and stronger than them, een though Ace is "not in line to be King or anything": of course he is, albeit very distantly. Image of a king with a Ŧ on his sceptre. But Yurpslander Nomes like himself are also privileged, relative to Nomes elsewhere (sample Nome fugitive carrying items with Ŧ on top), and that gives them a responsibility towards other Nomes; and he personally has the greatest responsibility of all. [This is despite the fact that he dismissively adresses Diamaond as "Drudge", so he's a snob if not a racist.]
Svetlana begs Ivana not to hurt Frederick. Ivana treats this as a formal, official request. Svetlana says it can't be an official request because she hasn't filled in a request-form, but Ivana says Svetlana's new rank gives her the right to make verbal requests. Svetlana is unnerved, but says it's her duty to protect this important guest. Frederick asks Ivana why he is important. Ivana says it's not about Myrrh because "Forest-grade Zarkite anchors are well-documented", but that Yurpslander demithaumaturges are less well known and more intriguing.
Meanwhile, Myrrh is becoming annoyed with Simplicity, and has to fight not to revert to her demon form. Simplicity says that becoming annoyed is rare enough to be refreshing for her. Myrrh agrees that she craves novelty, although she was a bit annoyed with Zay yesterday. Simplicity asks if Myrrh is one of those who wish to return to Zark: Myrrh says that's irrelevant because even the Spires don't have the technology to send her back. Simplicity says it's a paradox: Myrrh requires an anchor (Frederick) in order to interface with this world, but she can't return to Zark because the reduction in thaumflow constricts access, and that it's not irrelevant: those like Jones who regard this world as a playground enjoy it even more, knowing they aren't likely to snap back, but those like the Operator who see it as a prison feel it closing in on them even tighter. Myyrh says she has no immediate desire to return to Zark anyway because this place, flimsy and erratic though it is, is more interesting than her home.
Mortimer goes to check the perimeter of the Thicket to see if they can get out. Scrawl rather than Thrash accompanies him, because Mortimer is useful enough to be protected, but that's not as important as protecting the flower. When they return, Mortimer confirms to the rest of the party that they are trapped. Ŧ emanating fron bunch of crystals. This must happenning around the time Rosemary and Sylvester made landfall at Olaf's private dock.
Sylvester explains that he isn't claiming all the exploits which Basement-dwellers attribute to The Earl, because it's a hereditary position and there have been many of them. Image of Prime Boogieman with a Ŧ on his hat. Comshaw likens them to Nome kings from before the war. Sylvester asks how Comshaw and Skradt got past the barrier Myrrh set on the Basement door: Comshaw says they couldn't get near it (so they had to come via the forest) and wants to know the technique, but Sylvester says their in-house door-sealing expert (Myrrh) isn't in-house right now. Comshaw explains about the tunnel to the forest, and yes, they did encounter the repeller poles at the forest border, but they can be overcome.
Ace asks if Blas is the secret king of all Nomes. He's being facetious, but Blas says every Nome colony has a king (he doesn't know about the Mansion Nomes, who no longer have one, just a mayor) but no, he isn't Joyjerm's. Ots Mealmon is king, and he lives at the edge of town, as far from the Human hulks as possible. Blas is just a baker, but a successful one: he's well-to-do even by Human standards, and by Nome ones he is fabulously rich. Ace asks why Blas didn't just hire somebody to do this job, but Blas says he's more than a rich baker, he's himself, and some things have to be done in person. And the payment to Ace needs witnesses, and more than just a— he was probably going to say "drudge", but thought better of it and said "One solitary Nome of uncertain origin".
An out-take shows Ig the Saur, near the Pit (judging from the dead tree), admiring the Glowgem he got from Niddle's pack. There is a crackle of energy (which includes a Ŧ) between the gem and the tree.
Myrrh tells Simplicity that Zark is all order and rigid hierarchy where her own rank was quite low – we see her wielding some sort of tool – although she was once mandated to attend a presentation given by the Operator, who "resided up in the heights". We see him speaking from a balcony supported by and decorated with Ŧs (and also "32g" which is one of the SubShafts). Compared to Zark, the Spires are "a rickety little pleasure camp", although even in Zark, however ordered it was, there were conflicts of personality and unexpected events. One day when she was working in Zark, the structure around her dissolved into a hole and she was sucked through into chaos and flowing power. Simplicity says there was no record of a demon rampage in Audravania at that time, and Myrrh says that Frederick and his team contained her long enough for Frederick to fit her with the restraining collar which also tied her to his anchorage. Despite the collar she is much freer in this world than she was in Zark – we see her casting a curvy Ŧ – and she means to stay with Frederick as long as she can.
Mortimer is feeling unwell but he's still keeping going. Scrawl however collapses to the ground, half-conscious. Fizmo says Mortimer is the magicker and must do something. Mortimer says he's not a magicker yet, he can only open doors and.... He has an idea but then says no, "they" disappeared when the Thicket started playing up. In the distance we see a flutterby. Ŧ scratched on a large rock amongst the trees.
Sylvester says it will require reflection to decide what modern relationships between Mansion- and Basement-dwellers should be, but meanwhile he has an urgent task Comshaw and Skradt might be interested in. Skradt asks about Sylvester's glasses and Sylvester explains what they do, and that they were developed over a long time by people in several different nations. Yes, they could probably be adpated for other species, but the person who makes them isn't currently here. Comshaw comments that Sylvester seems to be short-handed. Near-Ŧ with slanted bar on wall: there's actually a third crossbar at the bottom but it's hidden by a dialogue balloon. Ŧ on roof of optician's coach.
Yes, if Ace gives Blas his address, Blas could choose to send the money to him publicly, if necessary with a public performance by the Herald's Guild. Ace gives Blas his new address (written, not spoken out loud, in case of listeners), or at least his post restante address: it's in Mundivagant Place, Alloy. They go their separate ways, but before they do, Blas advises both Ace and Diamond to capitalise on their gifts to make the world a better place, rather than just working for a paycheck. It is revealed that he has lost his right hand, and wears a hook, and when he departs he is polite to "Ms. Diamond".
Svetlana asks whether Frederick and Myrrh entered the city covertly, but Ivana says they just appeared in the middle of the city. No, thaumaturges can't become invisible, or fly (for a given definition of "flight") except with devices Frederick doesn't have: they simply appeared. They establish that Svetlana is now authorised to hear Frederick's explanation, but he is evasive. Frederick says he understands why they are worried about finding out there's an unknown security breach, to the point that he would have expected an interview with "Those gals with the boots and the needles", but instead they let him and Myrrh wander around, and now they're still being polite and civil, which must mean they're very important. Ivana reveals that she has the boots and the needle: somehow, perhaps literally by magic, she not only produces a big needle here, but turns her boots and the trim on her uniform from grey to red. Frederick acts scared, but in a sarcastic way.
Simplicity comments that Myrrh protects Frederick and extends his lifespan so he can continue to anchor her, and extends the anchoring to those around him so they survive too. Myrrh agrees but says some fit into the scheme better than others. What happens if she outlives Frederick? We see an image of Myrrh standing by a grave with a Brush symbol on which she has hung her collar: Ŧ on a stone in the background. Simplicity says many Zarkers deliberately breed human family lines to act as their ongoing anchor: Myrrh recoils and says that that would be repulsive, and Simplicity is impressed because this is an atypical reaction. No-one will ever truly replace Frederick, but yes, she has considered a new anchor for when Frederick finally dies: we see her in silhouette sitting at a table with what looks to be Rufus. Simplicity asks what happens if the candidate refuses and then Frederick dies: Myrrh briefly lapses towards demon form amd says she has just thought of something, but she doesn't say what. She says they are done here, but Simplicity stays her and says they are only nearly finished.
Sylvester's party set off into the Mansion proper. He starts to tell Comshaw and Skradt about Panegates: Skradt has already heard of them from a Human book he read as a hatchling. The book has a Ŧ on the spine. Sylvester has to explain to Comshaw that it's "pane", not "pain", and that a Panegate is a stable, fixed twistpoint. Skradt knows from the book he read that you step through and end up somewhere else. Sylvester explains that they take a lot of power and of infrastructure in the walls in order to run, and that they have a "puzzle lock" (really a security keypad) which is difficult to open.
Ace wonders why Diamond didn't go with Blas, but she says Blas is "an even bigger Algernon" than Ace and besides, Blas is staying in the Junction and she wants to leave.
Frederick herds Svetlana behind him to protect her, and challenges Ivana to tell him how she expects using her needle to end. Tall though Ivana is, he can still loom over her and look down at her like a father to a child, and of course he knows if she tried anything serious, Myrrh would let rip.
Mortimer sees a flutterby, different from normal ones and with wide bands on its abdomen.
Myrrh, in a temper with Simplicity's delays, snaps WHAT? and Simplicity says now she has asked a question, and it didn't harm her, so now she can ask another. Myrrh asks why it's important to her, and Simplicity replies that answering questions is her function and the reason the Spire people tolerate her, and that that tolerance enables her to survive and to guide events "in productive and non-disruptive direction". Ŧ on a device behind Myrrh. Simplicity wants the government of the Spire city to continue, but also the people of the city. We see the fluffy-haired woman monitoring them, and two women feeding what might be baby birds in a bowl.
Simplicity supposes Myrrh will think her a naive idealist, but Myrrh says no, she herself has spent fifty years (dating from the Crash rather than from when she was first summoned, evidently) keeping Frederick happy by protecting the people around him. She shares her bed with her own anchor, but Simplicity is mated to her job. Myrrh says Simplicity keeps her anchor in her braincase. Myrrh can tell from her accent that Simplicity wasn't "popped out of [her] birthsack" (similar to what was previously said about tunnel rat reproduction) in the Spires, and Sinplicity says no, she was born in Sandwall. Few Eyebolts ever come to the Spires because they have a malign reputation among Eyebolts, but she herself happened to come to the Spires at the right time to prove her usefulness at a critical juncture, and she's remained ever since, watched every second and a virtual prisoner: but, as Myrrh said, this is pretty-much what her species does in any case. Her mental image shows her chained to a wall and menaced by a needle-gal: Ŧs on a lamp above her.
Myrrh comments that Simplicity isn't a fellow Zarker or "something else" wearing a mask, so where does she get so much information? Simplicity won't tell, as "exclusiveness is source of ongoing productiveness". Myrrh says that the way Eyebolts are wired means they can't be forced to tell, and asks whether people have died fighting for control of access to Simplicity? Simplicity says it's a moral burden she must bear.
We see an out-take of a Wilf with a glowing green sword and an oatmeal-coloured robe, facing off with a Gobblem with black armour and a glowing red sword, watched by a Jibjib: it probably has something to do with Star Wars. Ŧ on top of a pillar.
Myrrh says that Zamyatin Spire exists to bring people like her to ask Simplicity questions. Simplicity says that the Zarkite Testing Complex occupies a large part of the Spire, but they test all interesting visitors. Yes, Frederick is being tested (Ŧ on device in corner monitoring Frederick) but tests may be passive observation, and often work better if a component (we see an image of Svetlana) doesn't know they are a component: but a Zarkite would know that. They are thrust into this world without warning, even the Operator, and have to learn the anchoring process immediately (we see what looks like Jones bursting power onto a male Human who isn't Jebediah). Simplicity predicts that some day it will be possible to detect arriving Zarkites and send experts to help them adjust, and perhaps build a system enabling voluntary travel, although Myrrh says the magic would need to be restored to full strength first. She starts to ask what caused the Crash, but Simplicty says she must end the conversation for now because "certain quarters" are becoming impatient, but Myrrh is welcome to come back some day, as Simplicity indicates that she has enjoyed their conversation.
Frederick says he'll show Ivana how they appeared, but only after Myrrh joins them: at that point Myrrh arrives down a chute. Myrrh is intrigued by Svetlana, who is nervous about it. Ŧs on wall behind them. They bond over a bit of cautious banter about Frederick. Ivana demands information, and her needle aquires a writhing red thread, but Frederick says he will show, not tell, but not right here, and if he and Myrrh are important enough they will all walk out right now. They don't have to interact with citizens. Ivana issues "additional threats" as a formality but accepts. As they leave the room Svetlana lifts a cover off a dish and swipes a little purple cake: Myrrh sees her do so, smirks and starts a conversation about the fame of Spire pastries (image of reearcher eating at "pi" table, with a big bug sitting on a Ŧ). Svetlana isn't sure of her title now: Ivana says she is a Junior-Grade Visitation Coordinator. Myrrh asks if she enjoys it and Svetlana says it's terrifying, but contact with Frederick is stimulating. They are getting on surprisingly well.
An out-take/flashback shows Rosemary juggling on stage, next to a guitarist.
Svetlana was assigned to her restaurant job: Frederick explains the process of job applications. But Svetlana did get regular schooling, then testing, then was assigned to restauarant work and trained specifically for that: not just waitressing but also some preparation for promotion to a managerial role (image of her carrying a cake with Ŧ on top). Myrrh seems to be sizing her up as a prospective Lady of E. They establish that the opinions of visitors have some influence: Svetlana is afraid Frederick is about to sack her in order to get her out of danger (lamp in background with Ŧ on top), and tells him she's an adult and wants to do this job. Frederick says OK, but she's free to leave at any time: Myrrh says that she on the other hand holds people to their promises.
They get in a lift, with Ivana operating it: Myrrh says she's had enough of lift operators recently, and Ivana says she feels the same about Zarkite visitors. They are probably both talking about the same individual. Svetlana has ridden in a lift before: in fact they have a special Festival of Elevation where they carry lights (on Ŧ-shaped shafts) to the heights of the Spires. Yurpsland has a Festival of Popular Delusions, and also the Sky Trek, where they walk right across the nation. Frederick says that when he was Svetlana's age "my brothers and I" almost died doing the trek: this indicates that Quincy isn't his only brother. At least the Sky Trek isn't annual (it was mentioned previously that the next one is due in five years).
They arrive near where Frederick and Myrrh's backtrace ends. Frederick says they had a light brunch (which Svetlana correctly interprets) somewhere else (the massive Thanksgiving meal we saw before), and then Myrrh decided she wanted to visit the Spires, which means he'd already eaten a huge meal a few hours before the huge meal he ate at the Spires. Ivana's red thread is beginning to glow. She has been told that mid-level Zarkites can't infiltrate undetected as they leave a thaumic trail: Frederick says one of those things isn't true, and challenges her and "whoever else is listening" to work out which. We see the puffy-haired woman listening, but also a Human-shaped and probably male (very flat-chested) person with long brown hair, whose face is hidden by monitoring machinery, similar to the warthrone hood we saw Mr Hand using. There's no obvious scale and no obvious indication of species, other than having hair, and beige skin on a hand too substantial to be that of a Gnoll: they could be Human, Nome, Zarkite but probably not Trog (not green enough).
After Myrrh and Frederick arrived they ran into friends from Yurpsland, Jones and Jebediah: Myrrh admits that Jones is her friend. They are a couple (even though Jebediah is a great grandfather: presumably he's bi), but Jebediah Moningside isn't a Zarker or a thaumaturge, just a maker of magical devices (Ŧ on one of his gadgets). He is old now, so this may be his and Jones's last trip. Ivana asks them about Carandin, the person whose battle-bots Myrrh fought in the arena (Ŧ emanating from his glass): Frederick barely knows him, and Myrrh only knows him well enough to know he would be at a particular social event, the Splurgeburg Picnic. Svetlana, who has been trained to know about all kinds of meals, explains picnics to Ivana. Image of picnic at which a child is waving a Juneteenth flag on a Ŧ-shaped pole.
At this point Frederick starts to feel something strange, like a storm brewing, but magical rather than electrical. They reach the room Frederick and Myrrh arrived through, and Frederick starts talking about tesseracts. Ŧ in lighted window behind them, and on a rooftop in mental image of Spires.
Then we have an out-take which shows what appears to be Diamond, wearing a mask (or muzzle) and heavy work-gloves and carrying a light, escaping through a hatch from what looks like it may be part of the Infernal Engine. Another metal Ŧ acting as a tap.
Sylvester agrees with Skradt – who is showing himself to be an interesting and educated fellow – that the Mansion has multiple Panegates, but he says they can't open most of them (we see Ludwig trying to open one with a device whose powersurge includes a Ŧ). His own talents are in paperwork. Rosemary demonstrates hers by drawing her sword from her Poke Kit, and Comshaw works out that she has a personalised, portable treewarp and wants to learn how (Ŧ on a screen on a gadget in the corner). They reach the Panegate to the Thicket.
Frederick asks whether Svetlana is authorised to learn about tesseracts, or should she be excused? Ivana promotes Svetlana again on the spot: she is deeply unnerved, and Myrrh gives her a consoling pat.
A Spire citizen wrote an authoritative book on tesseracts (which seems to be another word for twistpoints in this context), and Ivana says that's not how Frederick arrived because they can detect them (and that they are very short-lived). Frederick says they can detect them opening, but what happens if the tesseract is already open when they turn on their detectors? Ivana goes off to consult somebody: Svetlana tells him to flee, right now, but some sort of weapon descends from the ceiling and threatens them.
Yes, Idita (but Frederick calls her Edita and Rob's notes call her Adita) and Alena will come soon to upgrade Svetlana's clothes, and she will need upgraded antennae too. Antennae are earned, at sixteen: those who don't qualify go to the Outer Sectors, although they may earn them later. Ŧ on screen/window in background. Ivana returns before Svetlana can say whether they actually do anything. She says Fredrick's hypothesis is feasible, but tesseracts (even theoretical artificial ones) are short-lived.
At this point Svetlana says Myrrh is "destabilising". She is breaking down into her Zarkite form, to the point of growing horns aand a tail. Frederick holds her, and she says there are "Powers and Principalities. Here. Now." (yes, more than one, which Frederick says is new) like oceans colliding and Frederick says yes, but it will be words not water washing over them. Meanwhile Ivasna's red thread ceases to glow, though it still writhes in the air, and there is a flood of letters over the screen, not all of which I can read, but they include "ANAR" and "RANG". This probably coincides roughly with the flaring of the Crystal Thicket.
Now we have a series of vignettes. Violet returns home, hugs her mother, apologises for unspecified offences and says she doesn't hate Tim Tonbee (the man her mother wants her to marry). Olaf Larssen shows a bit of magical machinery to Aloysius, both of them wearing goggles as the machine tests the Laughter Marble, while the gull sleeps underneath the table on top of an upside-down bucket labelled "MINE" (a Finding Nemo reference). A Spindizzy gives Sina, Skuy and a male Trog, probably Grik, a lecture about the structure of the solar system, in a Spindizzy Chamber which is attached to Leny Hall. Agorn and Furphy sit in a sheltered niche in the rocks, protecting Furphy's two Jibjib eggs (which look like Easter eggs) from a group who are hunting for them: Agorn says if nothing is real, which is Furphy's philosophy, they could leave them to their fate, but Furphy says they're real enough to deserve a chance at life (Ŧ among the rocks). Snerk, accompanied by Zil, eyes up one of the two known exits from the enclosed Saur habitat: it has a keypad lock (Ŧ on wall above the hatch).
Back at the Mansion, the party is about to open the Panegate when Skradt says that something is happening. Nellie and Amos are discussing Violet, when Amos too says that something is happening: in both cases vague letters pass across the screen. Amos says it feels like focussed power blowing past them, like when magical tramcars used to go past. We see Nirvana Clepe and Anabelle S (Mz Teree) and, separately, Schmedley also experiencing the flood of words. Schmedley just sighs.
In the Spire, the "noise" ends with giant random letters plus tiny letters spelling "STRABNGER", and Myrrh returns to Humanish form. Svetlana asks Ivana what "that" was. Ivana doesn't know, and goes away to enquire. The red thread in her needle, which is usually wriggling with green power, is now not only no longer glowing but has gone limp, but as she leaves it begins to revive. Svetlana asks Frederick and he says it was two vast magical powers meeting head-on. These are entities of a type much more powerful even than Sneeches, and Frederick thinks there's one at home.
Ivana returns and tells him to continue his demonstration. He says the Ettins built stable tesseracts, not documentd due to the Sneech war. This leads to a side discussion about Sneeches: Ivana won't say whether there are any Sneeches in the Spires, and says it's irrelevant. At that, we see a Charcoal Sneech speaking through an aperture to somebody in a Hazmat suit (who speaks using the Spire font). Like Myrrh, the Sneech says "Oceans colliding!" and the person in the Hazmat suit says there's a vigorous debate about what it was. There is a Ŧ as part of its background.
An unexplained out-take shows frost-miners in Thull at Crag Sinross, which Sherman Gray came from. There is a Ŧ on one of their tooteroil lamps, and also on the frost-stars which they are harvesting.
Svetlana confirms that her promotion means she is authorised to ask about the Sneeches, but she tells Frederick to continue explaining the tesseract. She says she's not sorry they met, but she is a loyal citizen and he's still a disruptive outsider, so she won't answer all his questions, and besides, he is about to leave (so she won't see him again). But then a fluffy-haired woman (not the one we have seen monitoring them), whose name is Natalya Mitrofanova, arrives, says they are moving from security to diplomacy, and sends Ivana away. There are Ŧs as part of the design of the back wall.
They establish that Svetlana was working for the Diplomatic Corps, even as a waitress, and that Natalya is in charge of diplomatic relations with Yurpsland. She has been to the Yurpsland Capital (we see her looking at a Yurpsland squared Y of which the stem is a Ŧ). The information gained by studying Frederick and Myrrh, plus the recent surge, makes her think that the Mansion is atypical and they wish to examine it. Frederick and Myrrh will be permitted to leave on condition they take a permanent observer with them, preferably Svetlana. Svetlana may refuse if she wishes, and she won't be demoted, but she is the best choice. Frederick and Myrrh are both quite keen. Svetlana will become the Spires' Audravanian consul, with a salary and expenses (yes, in Simoleons, the Yurpsland currency), assist Spire citizens and send diplomatic messages via Panegate rather than Sparkwire (one of the Sparkwire poles is a Ŧ).
More out-takes. For Mad Hatter Day we see a rather dirty and battered-looking female Motihaul among hat-boxes, watched by a Fuzz. She is wearing the same clothes as Agita's daughter Rishathra, but looks more mature. At the same time she is still rather young-looking and strained: she may be the Motihail we saw with future!Mortimer. Ig sits on a rock, still contemplating his Glowgem. Hax (wearing something like a sticking plaster over the scrape he got escaping from Camora) and a female Fixit named Octox stand in an archway which has their name over the door, watching other Fixits scampering past. Octox's name over the door is spelled OCŦOX.
Finally, we see Niddle lying on his back in a nest, watching faint pink vision-lines above him which sketch out an image of Wrawa, draped in bandages, eyes shut as if in a trance, summoning whatever it is she was summoning in the parallel Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strip. Perhaps she has succeeded.
At the Mansion Skradt, who clearly has magical ability, says that whatever it is has stopped. No-one knows what it was. If it's linked to the glowing crystals in the Thicket the link isn't simple, because the crystals started to gather power about an hour ago. They look through the Panegate and Rosemary sees people by the Thicket. On either side of the Panegate are giant flowers in pots, and the flowers have Ŧs on their centres.
We then jump back about an hour to Mortimer saying that the striped flutterby is different, and Nitfol says it's called a Vagabond and that there are stories about them. Fizmo says that her father said they could fly outside the world (bearing in mind that to these Nomes the world is circumscribed by some kind of barrier around The Spike). Mortimer gets Thrash to cut a strip from his shirt and tells Scrawl to prick his finger, and use the blood to write "Open training gate. Urgent" on the strip of cloth. This is why Sylvester didn't recognise it as being from Mortimer: it's not in his handwriting. Mortimer ties the strip to the flutterby and sends it to Sylvester. We see it fly "outside the world" towards Eetown, across skies on which the clouds spell out "Black cat – navy – cranky – co workers" and over a ruin with a Ŧ on the roof, and find Sylvester. We then see a rapid recap of Sylvester's journey from the point where he received the message (this time we see a gate in the distance with a Ŧ on it) to the point where he reached the Panegate, interspersed with scenes of Mortimer and co. getting more dizzy and sick as they waited for rescue, in order to bring the two timelines back together.
A Hallowe'en out-take shows Ace and Diamond, still in the tunnels, passing a giant pumpkin lantern, from the top of which they are watched by one of the small round Fuzzes, who is wearing a wizwitch's or Oracle's tall hat which is much too big for it. There is a wooden Ŧ with a slanting crossbar.
Relieved of its message, the Vagabond passes a wooden pier with a broken wooden Ŧ and heads out to sea, past Piratestash Island, much shat upon by gulls. It arrives at a point where a small, low rock with a flat top, perhaps a foot across, sticks out a few inches from the water, and it circles over the water next to the rock. The top of a green tube, a little smaller than the rock, rises out of the water and the Vagabond dives down it and disappears. The two stories, Mortimer's and the recap of Sylvester's, march in step until we get back to the point where Rosemary spots Mortimer through the Panegate, by which point he is unconscious. Sylvester opens the Panegate and a powerful wave of magic and light surges through, dazzling Skradt. All four of them cross the Panegate to rescue Mortimer's party, although Skradt has to wear a cloth tied round his eyes (he wears it around his neck when not venturing into bright light). Rosemary carries the two Nomes, one under each arm, and Skradt does the same with FlagPale and Scrawl. Comshaw guides Thrash, whom he recognises, and who is still able to walk, and Sylvester assists Mortimer in some way we aren't shown.
Ace and Diamond are passing through the bowels of the Sourworks, which are some kind of half-ruined factory and are unusually deserted. Nobody knows why it's called that, but Ace remembers that his grandmother Agnes, the good cook and refugee from East Arcadia, had referred to herself or someone she knew in her home region "toiling in the sourworks". Another wooden Ŧ in the background, and a wire-like one sticking out of a bowl of mash in a meal cooked by Agnes.
Idita and an "antenna gal" named Officer Khrehov arrive to upgrade Svetlana again. Svetlana goes off with them, looking apprehensive, and is warned that the antenna upgrade will be "moderately painful". Natalya and Frederick sit down to drink tea, although Myrrh prefers to stand on a seat. Another Ŧ on a background panel/window, and one on the pincers useed in the upgrade.
Mortimer and co. are safely back in the Mansion, all still a bit stunned. Sylvester reveals that they could have found one of the same flower they nearly died for in the Mansion's conservatory. [Out-take of Hopobefever with a staff/torch, striding up a slope.] Mortimer didn't know because he hasn't been to the conservatory since an incident with the pudding plants, probably connected to his magic,which led to Nellie chasing him away. Sylvester pats his head and says to ask Amos.
Comshaw and Nitfol share a friend, the late Boffin, who thought well of Nitfol's solitary intellectual endeavours: we see Nitfol standing on a branch of his late home-tree, the branch being tipped with a Ŧ. Nitfol says he and Fizmo only recently teamed up, and pats her shoulder: she looks startled. Nitfol says they wanted the flower to stimulate Raviners to produce their ichor, which they needed, and Comshaw drops a further bombshell by saying that a female Motihaul named Swidnica sells Raviner ichor by the bottle in Sidestep Hall. Perhaps she will trade some for the flower.
Two vignettes: Snoot is feeling fed up (there is some kind of purple tendril hanging down, tipped with a Ŧ), and Crispin is settled by a cozy fire.
Comshaw assumes that "that idiot Koyeeb" sent Nitfol for the ichor: Nitfol corrects him. Sylvester wants to establish contact with local leaders, and asks Nitfol to take a message to Koyeeb, but Nitfol says he may not see Koyeeb anytime soon, so Sylvester considers a letter. Most Nomes are literate. Mortimer starts to say "But.. but they said that.." and then clams up, probably thinking of Nitfol's plan to overthrow Koyeeb. The party are able to stand, although Fizmo is weirdly quiet, apparently hypnotised by Mortimer. Mortimer is afraid that he has fascinated her the same way he did Rosemary, because of the proximity of the gems in the Thicket, and that forever after he will have to be aware of everything he does in case he accidentally enslaves somebody to his will. He tells Fizmo to say something and she says "Something".
Diamond says the people in this Sourworks also call themselves toilers. The place is full of glowing green lights which she says "make some kinda 'drippings'" when the toilers poke them with "things": this suggests some connection with Sneech squeezings.
Svetlana yelps as her new antennae are installed, monitored by both Ivana and Simplicity. Simplity's screen now reads "SNOOP". The mysterious brown-haired male also listens in on Natalya and Frederick and talks, rather impatiently, with a female-human-shaped Metalmin named. We hear Frederick ask how often Natalya herself has suffered through this procedure: she says four times, and he says rather scornfully that he supposes she's going to say "achievement is only possible through sacrifice". Vasilisa thinks that Frederick's concern for Svetlana is a sentimental weakness which can be exploited. Meanwhile, at an unspecified location blocky letters run along the edge of a machine, spelling out "CURMUDGEON" and "BIGWIG", and the words "THEY ARE THE CENTER ARE MOST PERILOUS" hang in the air above them, formed from curling tendrils of green light, similar to the thing below the Hot Zone at the Mansion that communicates in tendrils of white light: this seems to be happening in a vast space in front of where the brown-haired man(?) sits, because a tiny, or in this case probably far distant, Metalmin that looks like Vasilisa can be seen at top left. It is possible that Vasilisa, who has two antennae ending in green lights, inspired the fashion for Spire folk (or at least the women: when we see an image of Natalya's recently-late husband he's not wearing them) to wear antennae with bobbles on the end, although the Spire humans have grey bobbles on theirs.
In a series of vignettes we also see SuperRock, the rock with legs, talking to GeezerRock, who says that the reason it asked SuperRock whether it was just going to sit there is that "the last time one of us sprouted legs" it caused big trouble. A Nome named Marmotte, wearing a groundhog costume and scared by his own shadow, passes Ace and Diamond, still in the Sourworks among the green lights (Ace asks if the green lights zap your brain). The Operator thinks of Myrrh as a "vapid little twit" who wasn't ready to visit the Spires, but he means to try to get the attention of a male someone who might be ready. Tand thinks that none of this makes sense unless there are two "mask things", implying that Frowgler night be one of the Great Powers: she is in a rock shaft lined with little alcoves in which are varied, mostly ornamental items she has probably collected. Peripatet drives his cart at speed past a sign that says "REMAIN CALM — ALL IS WELL" and another that says "WORK NAKED": both signs may relate to Fixits.
Mortimer instructs Fizmo to go live her own life and to "do her thing" with Nitfol. Rosemary, having been there, smiles benignly down at her. Sylvester starts to talk about official contact with Nome and Pale leaders and the people here being a stand-in, but Rosemary interrupts to ask who the Pales are, knowing they are dangerous. Nitfol introduces them. Sylvester introduces Comshaw and Skradt to the others, and says he wants all of them to accompany him to speak to the Interspecies Coordinating Council in the Basement.
The chapter ends with a frivolous, but evidently canonical, flashback to before Myrrh fought the robots in the arenas. A Spire official sets her up on a blind date (Frederick is OK with this) with a demon-succubus named Amaranthe who comes from a different webcomic. It does explain where the summer-garden-party hat that Myrrh was wearing in the Thanksgiving lunch and chess scenes went.
Sylvester wants Nitfol and Fizmo to come along on his diplomatic mission to the Basement. Mortimer warns him they don't live in the village any more, carefully skirting the whole "incipient coup d'etat" issue, but Nitfol says they can see that word reaches the appropriate authority at the first opportunity: Fizmo gives him the side-eye because she knows he means "I hope to be the appropriate authority soon". Sylvester asks Thrash if the Pales want to come but Thrash turns his back and it's Scrawl who nods, because that's his job, not Thrash's. Nitfol tells them of the existence of Zpeaker, who had to be physically alterred so they can hear his voice. Mortimer asks who Boffin was: he was a Gnoll who was a forest expert, which even in the worst case resulted in tradeable forest artefacts. We see an unknown male Motihaul marketing a flower in a pot to two ditto.
We see Digger, talking to an aged Shallow Wyrm named Vim. Vim addresses him as Rodolph (which means that he is the "boss" the Remnent said that Cully would be working for by conveying the HJ42). Vim is a hermit and doesn't want to come out to talk, but Digger insists and asks him what the overwhelming surge they just felt was. Vim says that "Two very important and powerful people" met and reached some kind of compromise. Digger says it came from below the Aspect Entire, and Vim says it came from someone much farther down and more important than that. He asks whether Digger means to continue with his plan to change the world, and Digger says he does. Vim also suggests that Digger can't read, but this may be sarcasm.
The Aspect Entire may be the Ent-like manifestation of the Tree which spoke to Rosemary. If you search Rob's archive for "aspect" the answers include a lot of strips in which the word "aspect" doesn't come up in the dialogue or any included text, but in which Rosemary is talking to the Ent-alike, which suggests that Rob has labelled the Ent's dialogue as being spoken by "Aspect".
Ace confirms that where he comes from there are indeed lights that zap your brain, and plenty of trouble although you had to go looking for it, which Diamond sees as luxury. They enter the Emerald Zone, where there are a few plants growing, and pass a Nome woman in green and a mildly suspicious hat (for St Patrick's Day) and then emerge into the light at last and see a few people: a soldier lecturing a human woman, three Nomes, and a shaggy, Labrador-sized dark-brown dog, who we will later see has a prosthetic hind leg, and who Diamond says is smarter than he looks. One of the Names seems to be an "officer's batman", carrying gear for the Human soldier, but doesn't look at all happy about it.
Frederick supposes that his sarcy remark about "achievement is only possible through sacrifice" wasn't very diplomatic, and says that Myrrh would be better at this, but he doesn't trust her not to do something truly drastic if she feels it will benefit him personally. Natalya had a similarly loyal husband called Gregor, a marine biologist working in the Sea of Plinths, but he died two years ago (he doesn't have antennae, so probably they are a female thing).
Comshaw says that at best, Boffin's forest imports could have led (did lead?) to a social revolution and great trade opportunities: we see Faddle marketing his beetles onna stick. The E family now live mainly by growing and selling apples. In the Basement most people eat Treefruit and various fungi, plus Gnolls eat beetles. Trogs also eat beetles, and Skradt eats flutterbys, but unlike Gnolls, Trogs cook their food. We also see a female Motihaul eating dainty cakes, a Helipath soaking up liquid from cups, a Shallow Wyrm eating what looks like watermelon, and the Gobule Devura eating stinking garbage. Nomes grow crops and eat non-sapient Jibjibs. Pales eat best of all: we see that they have cornfields, fruit-trees, Jibjibs, sheep, fishing, many types of giant fungi and some unidentifiable thing like a quadrupedal arthropod with only four legs (possibly related to the Pales themselves). Just recently, the Humans have been eating fish and seaweed: there might be a market for that in the Basement, because the Ichyoids make it hard for Basement-dwellers to visit the ocean by constructing obstacles.
Comshaw hasn't visited the Ichyoids: no-one ("not even Crud") since Othar has. This leads to a conversation about Othar, who went to places Because They Were There, whereas Comshaw goes because people pay him to: we see him carrying a fish in a jar, which might have something to do with "fish-strands". They talk about exploring in general; the fact that Othar disappeared, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast; and the fact that Motihauls can breathe in fresh water but not in salt, but Othar was able to use magic to filter the salt out. Othar was athletic and self-confident but there are disagreements abouty whether he was intelligent. His tad Otharson was bright but came to a bad end (we see him looking furtive and holding a jar labelled "COUNTING BEANS"), but his grandtad Othara is redeeming the family name (Skradt mutters "if you like self-confident explorers": he's still quite diffident about speaking up). Comshaw thinks that Othara is a better explorer than her grandsire – better prepared, for one thing – and Nitfol, who has met her, agrees. We see Nitfol satanding on a branch of his late home-tree again, but now the Ŧ at the end of the branch has put out leaves and become a treelet. Fizmo also met her while training to go down into the Hot Zone (Othara wasn't meant to be there). Skradt has seen her bravely standing up to possibly-Guttle. Scrawl "says" (by head-shaking) that she hasn't got as far as the Pales, but we see an image of Othara sneaking past behind some trees while Thrash, FlagPale and Scrawl pass by in the foreground and don't see her. Finally we see Wrawa, still in a trance, draped in bandages and observed by a small Fuzz, speaking to Othara and saying she'll be retaining Othara's services. Her voice-font has changed in a way that suggests she might be possessed by whatever she summoned.
Natalya starts to talk about the capital of Yurpsland, which she starts to call Yurpo—, but Frederick asks what she knows about his home spire. She knows that it is "currently" called The Mansion of E. The area is known for puddings and lumbar, and before the crash Eetown was much busier and was the jump-off point for expeditions to the Great Eastern Continent, but now it lives by producing lanternfish oil and octopus ink. But even at Eetowen's busiest there was very little information about or mention of the Mansion. There was news about events at the Party Palace, which is close to the Mansion but not in it (mention is made again of Stanton Sardoodle and his notorious play Phallic Object which was performed there), but no news of the Mansion itself.
It's evident that the people outside the Sourworks had been told to clear the area: one asks Diamond if they can go back in now. They were told to leave because some bigwig was coming through, and they think (wrongly) that Ace might be he. One of them refers to Ace as Diamond's "owner", indicating that the status of a drudge/mascot is effectively "slave". Ace starts to say that it was probably... and then thinks better of it. Possibly he was thinking of Blas, since even though he's a Nome, he's rich. One of the Nomes nearly recognises Diamond: the three-legged dog definitely does, but she bribes him with a treat from Ace's pack and says once he's bought, he stays bought.
Fizmo is both impressed and politically offended by the fact that the Mansion has such vast storage rooms: we see whole rooms for quintains and for fudge nuts. Sylvester confirms that he owns all of it because "Have the stories not reached the forest? I am the Earl of E." He is becoming both more confident and more arrogant as the awe in which the Basement-dwellers hold the Earl sinks in: like Mortimer he is settling into his role, now Frederick and Myrrh are no longer there to take the strain. Then he relaxes and says he's willing to share, and would the Nomes like new clothes? Rosemary says Nitfol definitely needs a new hat.
Natalya says Frederick triggered the recent event, or at least was able to identify it to Svetlana. She confirms that the Great Wheels under the Spires are huge, constantly turning and too dangerous for Humans to approach them, and Frederick says there are similarly dangerous zones in the depths of the Mansion (he seems to be thinking of the depths of the Chasm), and he will cancel their arrangement if she tries to order Svetlana to go down there. He says that there's a king and queen at the top of the Spires, but down in the Wheels there's a person who's a lot more powerful. We see the brown-haired individual, listening and commenting that the word "person" is "somewhat appropriate", which suggests that either this being is themselves the deep ruler and is being self-deprecating, or the deep ruler of the Spires is either the Charcoal Sneech we saw, or a Zarkite, or a machine with personality.
Sylvester has Nome-sized clothes in store, made for Nomes from other times and places: Fizmo and Nitfol hadn't known that there were other Nome villages outside their circumscribed world. Comshaw asks if there are Gnoll villages, but Sylvester says no. Skradt looks distressed, even though he has yet to learn that outside the region of the Spire, Trogs are livestock.
Rosemary tells Comshaw about wild Gnolls elsewhere, who live in bushes and go "Eep" a lot, and Sylvester says Trogs elsewhere are like the ones in the Basement in that they come in different strands. We see examples of three Trogs outside the Basement: a scarred, wild-looking one; a collared one who appears to be livestock; and one who is not only sophisticated but wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a sceptre. This leads to a rather confused conversation about Darkpelters and about the Trog lifecycle. Sylvester had been under the mistaken impression that the big, savage Trog whom Rosemary killed by the lift was a different, larger and less intelligent race or species of Trog (kind-of like the way Sawtooths are larger, less intelligent Saurs), rather than a once-intelligent person like Skradt who had decayed into dementia.
This in turn leads to a conversation about the fact that Skradt means to take the Plunge when he starts to change. Sylvester suppresses any possible argument from Rosemary and advises that if they can circumvent the Jibjib Flap, who runs a monopoly on Chasm crossings, they should send somebody down below the Plunge-spot and have a look at what's down there (image of a petrified Skradt dangling on a rope). They discusses the physiologial and behavioural differences between Darkpelters and regular Trogs: evidently some Trogs think their S&M tendencies are evil, but Skradt doesn't (could their desire to be dominated be linked to the fact that many Trogs outside the Basement are domesticated?). Sylvester mentions the existence of some colour-based racism among Humans in their world. An out-take for Father's Day shows Sylvester first as a child with Willoughby, then slightly older with Frederick and a glowing task machine.
They get back onto clothes. The only clothes the Mansion has for Trogs are ones that were made as a joke for playing "dress-up" with livestock Trogs, but Rosemary has heard that there are some areas where non-Basement Trogs (presumably intelligent ones) wear clothes voluntarily. We see a Trog lady in a veiled hat, and a Trog man wearing a warm hat and gloves in a snowstorm: some of the snowflakes end in Ŧs but the motif seems to have been largely abandoned.
Natalya says that she can officially state that the House of Rossum is the recognised ruler of the Spire city. She agrees with Frederick that perhaps some day they might meet to discuss things unofficially. She has met the king and queen. Frederick hasn't met the King of Yurpsland but has been present at a speech given by one of their kings (before the Crash, evidently, and Amos was with him). At this point Svetlana returns.
Ace asks Diamond what her plans are. She says if she told him it would be a lie and would violate their agreement (in which she promised to tell him the truth), so he asks her what her dream would be if a Djinn were to grant her a wish, and says she's allowed to lie. She says her dream is of a room of her own, with a cosy chair where she can sit by a fire and read: but we see an image of her sitting in the same chair on a clifftop overlooking the destruction of the Infernal Engine. We have already seen what looks like Diamond escaping from a jumble of red machinery: it seems likely that the hellish place she came from was inside the Infernal Engine, like the Human woman Syn who married Angus. Ace's dream is of a place where he fits in.
Back onto clothes, discussing what Nomes would wear to formal occasions (they do have feasts and festivals, especially as most of them now live above-ground and are subject to seasonal changes: we see Piu in a snowstorm, again with some of the snowflakes tipped with Ŧs). Pales apparently wear woollen jackets in cold weather, and they made woollen or sheepskin boots for Fizmo and Nitfol. Nitfol definitely needs a new hat, but Fizmo's hat is very nice. She confirms that it was made by the expert Eetown Human tailor Genrick Gaberdine and was given to her by her boss – meaning Frowgler. Sylvester asks her to pass on a message that he would like to meet Frowgler. This leads into a discussion about currency, because Nitfol thinks many Nomes would like to purchase Genrick's hats. Sylvester says they would need to set up a currency exchange "With, no offense intended, official personages" and Nitfol says they'll have to work on that: Fizmo gives him the side-eye again. Fizmo is fed-up with her outfit, other than the hat, and would like to ceremonially burn it.
Svetlana is ready to leave, and has no-one she needs to say goodbye to. Frederick says maybe somebody is zapping his brain (the scene shifts to Myrrh, wearing a small smirk) but he has the sense that it's very important that Svetlana comes with him, so he tells all the various listeners to either expedite matters or butt out. Natalya says that's fine once they've gathered Svetlana's equipment and personal mementoes: a small, wheeled skip appears.
Ace and Diamond discuss Algernon from Lo the Plow Shall Till the Soil of Redemption. He didn't intentionally kill anyone (although the villain, Mortimer Gree, does die) and he got the girl (called Celia, so this is probably the book Violet was talking about). Ace is glad the story worked out for Algernon in the book: we see an image of Ace sitting holding a spear and looking at a group of grave-markers, which suggests he is the survivor of a bloody battle or disaster. If a Djinn ever shows up for Ace, he's not looking for True Love but for a clearly-defined enemy to fight, literally or metaphorically. He mentions that he has a brother named after Mortimer Gree.
Fizmo has ended up in a posh if rather shapeless green dress, with help from Rosemary. She realises, with some horror, that if she sticks with Nitfol she will have to "[swan] around in zarking outfits with zarking nobs" forever. She thinks Rosemary is a nob who got "nob lessons": Rosemary says her lessons were about taking orders, but in the end she disobeyed. But Sylvester, yes, he did have nob lessons and knows what he's doing. They discuss the fact that Fizmo is not so much Nitfol's team-mate as she is taking orders from him, and from Piu and Umboz (whom she calls "the doof"), but yes, she probably would like to marry Nitfol, even though she's not in love with him as such. But she left and went to work in the Hot Zone to get away from the social pressure in the Nome village to conform, marry, have kids, and she would like to meet outsider Nomes even if it's just somebody different to talk to (though there's a slight implication this might involve romantic prospects other than Nitfol).
Meanwhile, Nitfol is outfitted with new clothes, still brown but much smarter and with a Fixit-like hat. Sylvester follows him to see if there's anything Nitfol wants to talk about in private, away from the others. Nitfol, who has not yet told Sylvester he is aiming for the leadership, says there isn't, but there probably will be in the future.
Svetlana will be taking all her belongings with her. The deigns on the wall behind have changed from Ŧs to something a lot more complicated. Frederick slaps a wall and the ghost form of a Panegate appears – showing that Mortimer was wrong to think that Panegates can only be opened from the Mansion end. He warns Svetlana that there is a lip over which her cart will have to be lifted, and that when she steps through she will be in Audravania. He declines to tell Natalya any more than that about how it works.
Diamond (who doesn't have any siblings that she's aware of) asks what Morrtimer does for a living, and Ace says not much, and that Mortimer needs to get out more and figure out what to do with his life. Ace has suggested to Mortimer that he should make a living through his ability to train flutterbys to do tricks: Diamond says oh, so Mortimer is "one of those Critter Empaths" Trymund used to talk about. Ace is surprised at the suggestion. Also Diamond confirms that they do have Flutterbys here in the West, some places more than others, and we see her hatless in a dark place filled with red light, with a lot of flutterbys: again, this could be inside the Infernal Engine, especially as she has the same gloves and light we saw in the escape vignette.
Now we get a series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see a Deep Wyrm whom we have previously seen talking to Maggle (and who is almost certainly Yaypo, although the shape of his face has changed since he first appeared) give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be the rock-with-legs, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from.
Fizmo wonders if they'll have to wear these formal clothes forever, but Nitfol tells her she looks "quite pleasant". Comshaw says that talking to all these people will be the Council's best day ever. Mortimer is going as he is, as formal wear doesn't suit him (although wearing a shirt with a strip torn off the bottom is going a long way the other way). They set off, and Comshaw gives Sylvester a run-down on who's on the Council: Preznit, Eyebolt; Wunk, Gnoll; Aprat, Helipath; Doyen, Trog; and Gavzada, female Motihaul. Head of Security Chumley doubles as representative for the Boogiemen and Ecadems. The Gobules couldn't stop fighting long enough to agree on a representative. The Ichyoids declined politely, the Oozes declines less politely and the Ghasts approve of the Council but feel it's not for them. Queen Snakes are difficult even to find to make contact with; Shallow Wyrms fight worse than Gobules (we see Ang of the Ring of the Uppermost Spire and Conspue of the Ring of the Newborn Word in their helmets, shouting at each other); Deep Wyrms rarely leave the Hot Zone (we see Syth); and the Nomes and Jibjibs get treated as an afterthought. Nitfol means to change that, but Fizmo says the Jibjibs can take care of themselves.
Comshaw informs the party that his grandsire was Compline, who killed a lot of Nomes in the war, but he doesn't mean to follow in his footsteps. Skradt says his grandhatcher worked in the Skimgibber pits, and only rose to Senior Skim-Toiler, so he wasn't going to follow in his footsteps either. Humans use Skimgibbers (a weird sort of mollusc-thing) too, to filter their water, but don't have dedicated Skimgibber-raisers.
Svetlana crosses the Panegate, and yelps as she feels the dislocation of place. Some kind of machinery lifts and transfers her cart, and Frederick and Myrrh are ready to go. So they are arriving at one end of the Mansion as Sylvester and Mortimer are departing from the other end.
Ace had forgotten that there were probably still thaumslingers around. He asks if Trymund is one: Diamond doesn't know, but says he did things which were "impressive if they were.. normal", and he did know a lot about magic. She has witnessed a Thaumslinger at work: we see that they were a female Motihaul, blasting out a glowing SOS in some sort of mine, and Diamond was wearing the work gloves we see in the possibly-Infernal-Engine scene. It looks as though Diamond and this Motihaul were both captives and the Motihaul broke them out using magic. Ace has seen Amos e.g. lighting candles with magic, but hasn't seen big magic such as Diamond witnessed. Ace says that since Trymund's rival Stirscrim is still alive Trymund probably isn't a wizard: Diamond says Stirscrim is definitely not a wizard, but shouldn't be underestimated. They leave the outskirts of Jagger Junction.
Now we get another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M Darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons.
At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day.
The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off.
Part Eight: New Days [30/10/2022 – present] After a long hiatus while Robert took care of other issues, the strip resumed thrice-weekly in autumn 2022 with a story which initially forms the main narrative at this point, but which begins a long way in the future relative to Rosemary, Mortimer and Sylvester. It picks up the story of the mini-Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile and became the central storyline in Sunday in the Hollows. 3375, in the far future, then narrates the events of the original timeline which, if Audravanian legend is to be believed, he must have learned from a Willigig. Either that, or the Willigig took him back into the distant past and then he simply lived forwards through all of it. 01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River. There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.] They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms. Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before. For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. 3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her. Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives. We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting. Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead. The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different. Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff. They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change. At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool". Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three. 02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later. Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash. Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH". Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank. The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in. Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing. They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him. Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing. Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction. Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll. They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems. Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world. The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener. Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal). Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one. Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government. All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating. Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people. They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person. In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub. Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!" In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other. They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling. That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them). Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends. More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy. Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist). The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's. Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her. Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel. They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm. She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline. 03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today. Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area. As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone". Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her. We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs. Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance. Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees. Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning. Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid. Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor. In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900. 04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign. We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed. The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section. Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises. Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home. Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case. Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall. Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. . On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them. After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper. At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick. Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall. 05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it. Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much. A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground. Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic. Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines. Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
01: The Old Chap [30/10/2022 – 02/05/2023] The future story begins with a young female Fuzz with, or wearing, antennae ending in green bobbles (like those worn in the Spires except those had grey bobbles), sitting on a rock next to an apple-green strip which seems to be her ground-surface, similar to the green floor in a Sneech den but a brighter colour. This scene may be outside, as there are plants around (so the green surface could be moss), although she is also next to a rock wall in which there are caves. A lime-green male Smyt named Nart, wearing a hat, greets her as Grekcora. Grekcora suggests that they go peer in the River but Nart says the peering platform is closed because the River blorped, so she suggests that they go talk to The Old Chap. They pass a "Hume Detector" with a distored E on top, which is picking up something, and Grekcora says that The Old Chap says Humes certainly used to be real, and when she's an Oracle (but she says "Orcle") and Nart is a Guard(ian) they'll go look for them. [We see an elderly Smyt eating a Thanksgiving feast.] Or they could sail the River, which isn't water, using a special boat like a storied boat called the Gnolplunger. Nart wants to see her come up with a new thing to do: his Uncle Frim (who we will learn is the elderly Smyt we just saw eating) already looked for the start of the River.
There's an out-take where we see a Fuzz teacher who is wearing more complex antennae like those of senior Spire Humans, teaching a class about plants, then Nart says they might not get paired, even though everybody wants them to be: Uncle Frim was meant to be a Guard but it didn't work out. He confirms that he's part of the "everybody" who wants them to pair, and Grekcora decides to come up with a new thing right now. They pass Uncle Frim, who says yes, The Old Chap is awake. [In what sense can a Metalmin, which we will learn that the Old Chap is, not be awake? Recharging, maybe.]
They enter the doorway of a kind of building, maybe 18" high and in Eman (or Winnifrite) colours. Inside, there are a lot of panels on the walls, like picture frames or monitor screens, but all blank: but each (apart from one which seems to be open) has what looks like a control panel at bottom right, one of them with a visible E on it. Nart calls them "Non-Forbidden Hatches of Mystery": possibly they are Panegates. They pass a "color-spewer" which looks like a simpler and much smaller version of the fountain that used to be in Time Hall, and come to what looks like one of the transport-booth-bots from the Hollows, except mounted on a platform and without the head and the flailing arms.
Grekcora touches a sort of beacon and the booth opens and The Old Chap emerges. He is the marmoset-sized Metalmin 3375 from the Sunday in the Hollows strips, still with his hat but plus a sort of metal goatee beard. We do not know whether he lives in the booth, or whether it transported him there from elsewhere, but he seems to be tethered by a cable to something inside the booth: he's pretty old, especially if the Willigig took him back to the time of the Wifts and then he lived forwards, so presumably it's powering/charging him. Grekcora says that everybody comes to hear how he and great-ultra uncle Frizzlegarb came down to the Shore and found the Boat – we see a toy-sized, pedal-operated paddle-boat – and how they sailed the Snapperchomp Sea and found the Island. But now she asks him to tell them something new: something he's never told anyone before.
For thoughts on the location of this civilisation, and how it relates to the likely location of the Hollows, see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows.
3375 begins to tell Nart and Grekcora about Ace the Hume and Diamond the Nom, who were a team like himself and Frizzlegarb (suggesting they stay together and become famous), and both of whom he says "iswas", confirming that he is speaking in the future, relative to the main strip. We see Ace and Diamond at the Jagger Junction boundary stone. Ace assumes his contract with Diamond is over now they have left the Junction, but Diamond says they won't truly have left it till they are a day's steady travel away. Given that she was just Shadwell's "little mascot", Ace doesn't think she has much to fear, but Diamond says she has to assume someone is hunting her.
Diamond doesn't think Shadwell's killer was either Stirscrim or Trymund, as both would have planned it better. Anyone who seeks to replace Shadwell will need to offer balance and stability; however bad Jagger Junction is it was a lot worse before Shadwell. Now everything falls apart. If it was either Stirscrim or Trymund they would have prepared, and despatched their rival first: now their best option is a duel. She speaks of "a crowd of strivers" at the bottom of the heap, any of whom might have thought that killing Shadwell would make an opening. Ace is more concerned with what terrain is upcoming: Diamond thinks he shows admirable focus. On Valentine's day we see the tops of the heads and the eyes of two creatures courting behind a rock in the distance behind Ace and Diamond: they lok a bit like Fuzzes, but light grey and Gnoll-sized. Diamond's idea of a "crowd of strivers" also included a Gnoll-sized Fuzz, carrying knives.
We then briefly see Uffer, sitting high up among the ruins and gantries above chaos in the streets, and hoping he never sees Diamond again. We don't know if that's because he doesn't want to see her, or because he wants her to stay safe. He is carrying a sort of pruning hook which looks as though it has blood on it, suggesting that he may be the one who killed Shadwell. However, it doesn't prove it, because we also saw a Human man in the streets of Jagger Junction with a sword with blood on it, so there's clearly been fighting.
Ace hopes to come back someday to fix things, but right now, he's leaving. He came in via the Grudgeslopes, which is the main route in, but they are leaving via the Spleenflats. Briefly, back in town, we see a tall male Human (or possibly a Boogieman, since we can't see the top of the head) soldier saying one of the "big boys" is looking for Diamond. The three-legged dog passes by in silence. Meanwhile, Diamond says she hasn't been out here before, because showing interest in leaving was dangerous, but she's looked at maps and knows they need to turn north at a place called the Omnishambles. Mortimer says she reminds him of Sylvester, always planning ahead.
The Old Chap confirms to Nart and Grekcora that he is now going to talk about Ace's brother, who is in a different place and doing something different.
Sylvester is happy, because he's finally getting to do his job as Earl. Mortimer thinks he might enjoy his new job too, but Nitfol says he intends to be thoroughly miserable. Fizmo and Skradt had enough of being miserable in their last jobs, so they intend to be happy this time. Skradt asks the Pales whether they enjoy their jobs, and FlagPale waggles his staff.
They come to the newly sealed door. Rosemary and Sylvester can't feel the magical seal (although the rest can), so they go ahead to open it. There are posters on the walls for various plays, and Comshaw feels that one for It's Magic, Magic Baby has just changed, although we viewers don't see a change.
At the door, Sylvester says touching Myrrh's bar may be unpleasant but not harmful. He taps it, then lifts and immediately drops it, but now it's less glowy. Mortimer feels the force go away: Comshaw comments on the fact that he can sense it but the other Humans can't, and Mortimer says he's new at "not being the designated fool".
Rosemary and Sylvester open the door, and find themselves face to face with Hopobefever. She says she's not there to kill them, but to officially request assistance regarding the Sneeches, and she apologises for her past actions. Sylvester confirms she realy is there officially because she has an official staff. Skradt, some distance away, can smell that a female Ghast is present, and Fizmo said she met a scary female Ghast when she was being trained for work in the Hot Zone (it's not clear whether the Ghast herself was in the Hot Zone or just in the Basement, but we've previously seen her leading a Dornbeast). Mortimer approaches Hopobefever, and Sylvester is afraid he will be attacked. Mortimer asks if she's alright now, having seen her being mind-controlled before: she says she is better, but that having been exposed to the Operator she may never be "ALL right!" She says that the Sneeches have disappeared: Sylvester says he's aware, but he has no specific thoughts... then he has a specific thought, and calls them all to gather round. Hopobefever tells them her Council Police squad has been disbanded, and she is now a High Pool Emissary, Grade Three.
02: Tunnel Vision [04/05/2023 – 18/06/2024] [Overlaps Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips #6771–#6805] Once again, this chapter was originally called Deeper Diplomacy and that's what the label on the first image originally said, but Rob later changed it to Tunnel Vision, and recycled the original name later.
Sylvester introduces the party to Hopobefever, including the fact that he is the 23rd Earl of E and that Ludwig was one of his predecessors. She had already heard of Thrash.
Knowing that they have different senses from his, Sylvester asks if any of them sense anything in that corridor. Comshaw and Skradt can smell that "the Clawblaster" (Myrrh) has been through recently. Skradt also senses an "anti-smell" and Hopobever concurs: there's no background scent from before the visitors of the last few days, as if the place had been cleansed recently, in more than the usual sense: Ghasts can do it a bit, but not this much. Sylvester asks who could do that? Flagpale bangs his staff, and Fizmo says that FlagPales remember stuff, and he's telling Scrawl what to write: Scrawl scratches out "SNEECH".
Sylvester suggests that the Sneeches came through, used a Panegate to get to some distant safe place, and covered their traces. Rosemary asks why they didn't lock the door behind them, but Hpobfvfr says they are alien and might not register the existence of the lock. Sylvester says they need to see if there is a cleansed trail to a Panegate, or elsewhere, but right now thet are going to the Council, and will Hpobfvfr come with them? She is willing but says she'll probably be replaced by somebody of higher rank.
The Nomes know very little about Sneeches, so the others fill them in. Sylvester says their organic wiring extends far beyond their nominal territory, and they may have inspired the aurilnodes. Hopobefever says the Ghasts have long been concerned about the safety of the nodes. Aurilnodes and human Sparkwires have to be explained to the Nomes. Hopobefever says the aurilnodes are modified from the Tree. Auril was interested in sound, and collected Human mechanisms, but Sylvester bets the Sneeches helped him and then listened in.
Fizmo asks why they are all still alive, if Sneeches are so powerful? Sylvester agrees that Sneeches are aggressive, fight each other and have reason to fear other species, and Humans have seen them do terrible things, but the local type (Alabaster Sneeches) are less hostile than most. Nitfol says maybe there's something that can control them, and Sylvester agrees that that might be what they are fleeing.
They come to the door with the demon-head over it, which leads to what used to be Sneech territory, and which is next door to the elevator with the real demon, whom Sylvester warns them about. The carved demon has been there longer than the Operator has, and from before Wilhelmina the sculptress. This leads to a discussion about the Mansion's records: the people in the Basement have been there since before Humans, and the Ghasts remember Humans arriving. They were prisoners, but the Humans destroyed their captors. She asks how they did it: Sylvester says he was hoping she could tell him.
Scrawl attracts their attention and starts writing. Skradt asks why Zpeaker didn't come along: Nitfol says Thrash and Zpeaker don't get on, as they were created to do opposite things. Scrawl writes "Hoomen Nexus then shell power". Sylvester thinks "Human Nexus" is the first Earl, but no, Scrawl doesn't know what power he had in his shell. Sylvester would like to speak to the Pale Nexus. The Pales agree that the Nexus might be willing.
Comshaw is going to take them to the Council via the new forest tunnel, which is slow but safer than the Sneech den and much safer than the elevator. There's also a twistpoint option, which is very fast, and which is how he came before, but it has mental costs. Crazy Rhid helped to build the tunnel, but now he's disappeared. Hpobfvfr says that despite the image Rhid liked to project, he honoured his contracts and was meticulous in his research. Skradt says Rhid killed Leny, and Hpobfvfr says he also assaulted Sepfrbfrx, but she wasn't speaking of his morality. Sylvester says some murders are committed sanely. Fizmo and Mortimer have never killed anyone, unless Mortimer hit a Spyder with his magic, but Pales seem to kill without compunction.
Rosemary has of course killed several people, although it was always they who forced the issue, and the first time she had to kill a Human she threw up afterwards. She chose her profession knowingly, and was trained to kill. Comshaw is interested in her training: she says some Nomes have done it but she has no idea how they'd react to a Gnoll wanting to enroll.
They come to a hole in the wall, with a sign over it saying "HOME". On one side there's an arrow pointing one way, labelled "HUMANS?" and on the other side another arrow and something we don't get to read properly this time, but we know from before that is says "SNEECHS". Skradt scratches off the question-mark after "HUMANS". The sign above the tunnel says "HOME" but Nitfol jokes that it looks like "NOME". A notice just inside the tunnel says "STAY ON PATH AT ALL TIMES": Sylvester thanks them for posting this notice at the Human end of the tunnel. The tunnel is lit by GBOLs, which Fizmo – who was taught about them when she was training for her job in the Hot Zone – says are "live globs" which are placed in a glass ball and fed by the Tree. Other than that, she was taught that a lot of things were dangerous to touch [an out-take shows Cap'n Hamster for Talk Like a Pirate day]: even glowgems.
Nitfol thinks this was a trick to stop gullible forest dwellers from getting rich, but the others agree that glowgems do more than glow, and could be dangerous in the Hot Zone. No-one knows where they come from, except that they are somehow spat out by the Hot Zone, and Hpobfvfr says there is evidence that that spitting-out is directed. There is a mysterious force in the depths below them: Ludwig called it the Great and Terrible Engine. Fizmo was set to watching a glowing, twisting surface in the Hot Zone, but Hpobfvfr says it's thought that this is just a crust or shield and the Engine is farther down. Sylvester says that Audra poked the Engine, and it didn't take kindly to it. Hpobfvfr says that Comshaw would poke it if he were paid enough, but he says there aren't enough glowgems in the world.
The Ghasts have been studying the phenomenon, and unlike generations of prospectors they have had some success in predicting where glowgems will appear, which they keep quiet about as they already face prejudice, and are vulnerable because of their need for specific breeding pools. It's almost impossible to start up new pools: their only success, the Southeastern Pool, requires constant maintenance. So, as Comshaw says, everyone hates them because they're "big and scary", but theyre stuck in the Basement and can't leave. Sylvester says that instead of doing something drastic, they promote the Council, but Hpobfvfr says some Ghasts have proposed drastic options. It is pragmatism that keeps them peaceful: they have seen indications that the whole world is being "managed". We see an image of a vaste hand – a four-fingered human hand, which suggests a fourth-wall breach, and that the "manager" being referred to is Rob himself. The lines of force coming from the four-fingered hand look similar to the lines on the Can-Opener.
Hpobfvfr says that there was a popular theory the management were Humans. Sylvester says he'd be proud if it had been him, because "managing everything" is his job and he's mostly failed. Mortimer says no, he's good at fixing things, but Sylvester says he should have visited the Basement before. Hpobfvfr says they need to be aware that whatever the manager is, it might not approve of their association. Nitfol says jokingly that someone has already tried to kill them, thinking of the Spyders (he and Fizmo discuss whether Spyder attacks are personal).
Hopobfvfr says the manager is not all-seeing (we see the same four-fingered hand, but with an eye in the palm, watching a Trog who might steal eggs while behind it a hand steals other eggs) and violent attacks aren't its style, but.... Comshaw says it's God: that is, the person controlling the Fixits. The Basement-dwellers have to explain Fixits to the rest, and Fizmo says that one of her instructors "down in the phizzpit" was a female Motihaul who wore a hat with an eye-buckle. But the only fellow-worker whose name she knew was Kulkad, a fellow Nome. Yes, Comshaw knows Camora was previously wearing one.
Sylvester says the whole Fixit thing is ridiculous: one slip and their whole plot would come crashing down, as indeed it did. Hpobfvfr says yes, not only is their world being managed, but it's possibly being managed by an incompetent. She only learned about this while she was absorbing information in the Pool as she recovered from her run-in with the Operator. Before that, she was out of favour for wasting her time as a police-officer, when as a Highpooler she should be in government.
All they know is that "God" lives somewhere high up. Sylvester can't issue a flat denial that God lives in the Mansion, because there are areas of the Mansion that are hard to access. He considers hiring Comshaw and Skradt to investigate. They discuss the Ettins: Hpobfvfr and the Pales aleady knew about them as the ones who once held them in bondage. It was probably the Ettins who built the Mansion and hollowed out the Basement (unless it was Gobblems before them), and there are still doors in the Mansion that the family can't open, corridors they can't safely walk down (we see the G455 Guardinator bot) and many places where God could hide. The family have learned quite a lot, but there have been setbacks (sometimes fatal ones), and without their creators to maintain them the systems of the world are deteriorating.
Hpobfvfr thinks that the Sneeches leaving will make things worse. Sylvester has a thought about Sneeches and God and Panegates which he isn't sharing. He thinks that God is a local power and may not understand the Wide World. Sylvester does, at least more than anyone else there, because of his travel and education. Skradt would like to learn too: Sylvester says right now you have to be Human and rich, so Skradt says he should teach people.
They come to the stairs, which some forest people need to have explained, but Nitfol and Fizmo say even the Pales have stairs all over their Camp (then don't confirm that they've been there: they discuss it in whispers but Skradt can hear them). Hpobfvfr asks Skradt what prompted his career change: he wants people to like him; he wants to learn how to beat up three people at once; and he wants to be a better person.
In an aside, we see the Gnoll guards Frag and Forfind discussing the defence of Le Tree. Through a gap in a wall we glimpse the battered-looking female Motihaul we have seen before, being looked at by a slimegrub.
Comshaw says the tunnel was built on land no-one else wanted. Consequently, although the stairs are OK their ceiling is possessed by a loud, annoying apparition of a face and hand that Skradt says looks like those of an Ooze (Fizmo says Oozes look weird but think normal), and that goes "SSSLOOOccRRRKK!!!"
In a series of vignettes shared with the Saturdays in the Basement) strips, we see Nitid (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) hovering and brooding, and Chunner (from the Sundays in the SubShafts strips) making a Cat's Cradle with Bokonon's string: he must have learned how from Crud. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. Vezza observes that young Pales actually are pale, at least comparatively – a sort of ash-grey – and Zpeaker confirms it. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more large dominoes (a continuation of something that happened in Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall). Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby.
The apparition is a bit deafening, so Mortimer points his umbrella at it and orders it to be quiet. Skradt and the Nomes are impressed, and wonder what else he can do: Fizmo says the whole world is going to find out, today. FlagPale prods at the now-silent apparition with his flag, and Hpobfvfr thinks that the urge to poke things best left alone is universal. Comshaw says there's a warning about the apparition at the important (Basement) end of the stair. Skradt asks Mortimer whether anyone can do magic: Mortimer says not every person, but at least some non-Human species can. [Out-take: Crumpton the Motihaul Candle Monk thinks "Not again!"] Hopobefever says there have been Ghast magickers in the past, but none that she's aware of at present: however, Ghasts from different Pools don't mingle much. We see Vipthiboo and Sopovefe, glowering at each other.
They drift onto Ghast naming conventions. Hpobfvfr is actually High Pool First of Batch 354, but the number is assumed, since "we are deep in the 300s". So her initials are H P O F O B and then she was allowed to pick an informal name based on that. Nomes follow the Edict of Zork, a long-ago priest of the Brush who told them to "pick something new and cool" (before that they had an unofficial fixed list of options). Pales don't usually have names. Boogiemen pick theirs from a Human book. Gnolls have names ritually picked by their family Finagler, and Helipaths aren't telling.
That leads on to Helipath reproduction. A dying Helipath can choose to anchor themselves anywhere, before they die and bud, but it's safer to do it in a special place reserved for the purpose, where they can hire Trogs to protect their buddlings from Slimegrubs. They can't eat the things themselves as they don't have mouths, and talk by alterring the pitch and tone of their liftinators (here called levitators, because Rob forgot what he'd called them).
Comshaw gives them a rapid run through the Council again, and Skradt says Gavzada wants Preznit's job. The Council are gaining power, and now have troops, but they are far from ruling the world, and Mayor Koyeeb should be warned that if he allies with the Council he'll make enemies of Guttle, Nevus and Agita. On the other hand, if the Nomes are now friends with the Pales again, people will want to be their friends.
More vignettes. The two Trundlebugs on the far side of the Panegate stand on a vaguely anteater-shaped flower, looking at a ribbon of glowing energy which has eyes, and is surrounded by Mediaeval lettering I'm not sure of. The first word is "guard", the second looks like "stifl" but could possibly be "stife", which is a strong smell. Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository (from the Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath strips) Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". The Tick-Tock Gnoll we saw at the Remnent (SubShaft Celebrations) stands looking out from a sort of metal balcony, baring his teeth. As Ace and Diamond draw away from the Junction and the toxic path of the Infernal Engine, Diamond is impressed to see a wild muckroot plant that is healthy and edible. Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. Fantod and the Flittermouse play a complex card-and-dice game called Quincunx, which is evidently timed against an egg-timer: Arthur the Weirdo is silent and thoughtful. The Flittermouse says he's being "weird in an atypical way": we see Melba Corrigan, last seen (sort of) behind a bush with Arthur, and now looking smug and happy and dreamy.
Now the story snaps forwards again to The Old Chap. Grekcora asks how many people are in this story, and he says all of them: yes, her and Nart too. She asks how the story ends and he says he has insufficient data: he knows some of it, but not what happens to her and Nart. Nart is glad. The viewpoint flashes forwards and we see an older Nart and Grekcora, probably outside as there are what look like mountains in the distance, and an even taller artificial struture with red lights on it. Grekcora wears slightly more elaborate antennae and a bright green wizwitch/Oracle hat and cloak, and Nart has a scarred muzzle, wears armour and carries a shield with a triangle-in-circle symbol like the one used by the paramilitary group called the Quincunx, although the Quincunx's triangle was solid and this is an outline. They are standing back to back on a rock, besieged by Biters: Nart very calmly whacks them with a mallet, and Grekcora slings magic from her hands as power crackles from her hat and antennae. The Biters each wear an anklet, suggesting they are either culturally sophisticated or being controlled: these anklets look like the wristlets worn by the Saurs living in the artificial Saur habitat in Sylvester's time (although theirs are on the left ankle, and the Saurs' were on the right wrist).
The fact that Grekcora is an Oracle who uses magic shows that Omega's magic-hating strand of the religion of the Brush lost the debate, at least among Fuzzes. The fact that her antennae are live suggests a connection between those antennae; the Wyrms' "eating" ritual whereby Shallow and Deep Wyrms fuse mentally and physically; the fact that a Shallow Wyrm (Rowbynn) is able to form a similar if less permanent connection to a Gnoll (Shabash) through furrows in her scalp which resemble those on a Deep Wyrm; and the way Fixits are able to lock in to the scalps of their victims, of many species. It hasn't been established whether or not the antennae worn by Spire Humans are active in the same way as Grekcora's.
Further forwards into the future, we see a much older and greyer Grekcora, on her own. Her hat and cloak are now trimmed with red and her antennae much more elaborate. She carries a staff tipped with a star (possibly a Human magicker's wand), and stands next to a magenta, hooked pole which loooks like a Fuzz-sized version of the poles in the Spindizzy chamber at the Mansion. Great power crackles from her hat and antennae, and the Plant (or at least a sapient Plant) is with her, with a red-and-green ball on the end of one of its twigs. She is definitely outside, because it's snowing. She stands on a high, jagged rock: there are towering flames in the foreground, and a lash of bright white energy in front of her.
Back in the period of Grekcora's childhood, 3375 says he does partially know the endings of the other characters, the ones in his story, and yes, they do eventually get off the stair. Grekcora asks if they can skip ahead to Sylvester's big speech to the Council: 3375 partially complies, by moving the story ahead to where they come to the end of the tunnel.
They come out near Le Tree, and Sylvester says he needs to stop there first. Hpobfvfr says neither he nor Rosemary will be welcome there, and Sylvester says that's why he needs to go there. Mortimer is getting weird sensations from the area: they agree that people have been fighting there, and Comshaw says Guttle has cut off the garbage collection. Fizmo is impressed by how finished it all is, with a proper ceiling: Nitfol wonders where the rubble from the Ettins' excavations went, and Hpobfvfr says probably into the Great Chasm.
She suggests that the Pales could move back into their Basement habitat if they liked, and then they would no longer need to smear their bodies with a protective coating: they decline.
03: Deeper Diplomacy [20/06/2024 – 28/12/2024] They come to the entrance of Le Tree and Frag says that it's closed (as an Ooze carryibng a Juneteenth flag oozes past). Sylvester says he's Human and wants to speak to Snoot, and Frag tells them to wait there, then goes and tells Snoot that it's his, Snoot's, job to tell them to leave if he wants them to. Sylvester tells them all to wait and keep quiet, but Fizmo means to go on talking. Comshaw tells them that despite appearances Frag is bright and a good fighter (and is really called Fraggelton, but doesn't like it). As they wait, an anxious-looking female Eyebolt drives past them in a cart labelled CTV: we previously saw her in Root Hall, wearing a hat which looked as if it was probably a Fixit, but now she is hatless. There is a small crackle of energy between her and FlagPale. Nitfol asks Skradt about his work for Nevus, but he doesn't want to discuss it and Fizmo supports him. Meanwhile Hpobfvfr waylays a passing Ghast (Sopovefe from the bucket chain) and orders him to take a message home, where he wanted to go anyway. He has the same thought that Rosemary had on Sylvester's behalf, when he wished for a boat and Olaf's boat appeared: he wishes he also had a lot of money in a secure vault, just in case wishes are coming true today.
Snoot emerges and Sylvester asks him to pass along his apologies to Nevus for yesterday's disruption, along with a big handful of paper to defray costs. Right now he is heading to the Council, but if Nevus would like to meet with their party at a later date, it can be arranged, and Sylvester would certainly like to meet him personally and, separately, to meet with Agita and Guttle. He then makes Snoot an offer to take over from Schmedley as Chief Butler in the Mansion, paid in paper, and leaves him to think about it. Comshaw comments on how fast Sylvester makes a hiring decision, and Sylvester says he's been formally trained in that area.
As Snoot ponders, Skradt asks him to tell Nevus that he, Skradt, has quit, and that Root Hall will deal with Ogdoad's Sneech Squeezings scheme. He says he's keeping up Comshaw's reputation for honesty (since Comshaw was asked to pass on that message), but Fizmo, who functions as a kind of Greek chorus, says his reputation is as "a guy who goes around causin' trouble and pokin' phizz that should be left alone".
Mortimer thinks Snoot would be a good choice for butler. Nitfol thinks he can see marketing opportunities down here. Hpobfvfr warns Sylvester that she has sent a message to her leaders and will probably be replaced on the team, as Snoot goes to pass on the message to Nevus. Sylvester reminds Rosemary that if Snoot accepts his offer, he will outrank her.
We cut away to see Kronk, Leny's friend, looking rather sadly at a sort of giant crystal lamp somewhere in Leny Hall; and Telic warning Rhid that his experiments will continue to be extremely painful. Rhid isn't concerned. Agorn and Furphy have evaded the people who were hunting the Jibjib eggs, and are striding up a slope with Furphy carrying the eggs. He says it's time to return the eggs safely to their parents and then go on to their next jobs.
Meanwhile, in the forest above, Umboz's brother Frotz and Comshaw's cousin Louch, both seemingly hurrying away from something, meet up by accident on the edge of the ruins of Eetown-that-was. Louch recognises Frotz, and says he was looking for Frotz's brother Umboz. Louch, the son of an intelligent Gnoll woman from the Basement (an aunt of Comshaw's who had to run off for reasons Louch doesn't know), wants to improve his own lot and/or that of the forest Gnolls generally, instead of lurking in holes, eating worms and stealing the Nomes' crops, and he hopes Umboz might be able to help them. Frotz says that Umboz has wrecked his life, that forest Nome society is "stupid and broken" and that the Mayor is trying to kill him because of Umboz, and even aside from that because their birth-rate is too low he fears being forced to marry someone like Tiza (the one who smells funny, because she is a coppersmith). Louch persuades him that they should both run away, find the forest end of the tunnel to the Basement and seek out their subterranean relatives. Frotz has no-one he wants to bring with him. He is making a stand against the Mayor and trying to do something good because when Koyeeb involved him in the raiding party against the Gnoll village, he prayed for deliverance and his prayers were answered by an apparition (actually Frowgler wearing Strode's frock and pumpkin head), so now he feels he has a debt to repay. He and Louch exchange names and arrive at the gated tunnel entrance.
Meanwhile, Camora and Niddle discuss Comshaw's absence. Niddle is sure that he would know if Comshaw died, and he feels Comshaw will outlive both of them, but Camora still worries. They discuss what would have been different (and less good) if Camora had married Belmay, her parents' pick, and his likely Finagler Wittol, and Comshaw and Niddle had married Mimsy (Witttol is now with Sina and Sprocket, and better suited). Niddle talks about how he felt big forces from the Hot Zone passing by earlier in the day, and felt whatever Wrawa (whose name he doesn't know) was doing. He thinks he will pay Comshaw (so he'll take the job seriously) to go talk to Wrawa. Meanwhile there are other changes affecting them as a trio which he won't discuss till Comshaw gets back: Camora triies to wheedle him into telling her, but he covers her mouth and eyes with his hands and sends her to sleep, then lies awake musing that he, Wittol, Furphy and the Placettes all understand different aspects of some great truth, and Wrawa perhaps understands too much of it. We see two Placettes tapping on yellow crystals with a mallet and as a result having a vision of Niddle (drawn in scratchy outlines like the vision Niddle himself earlier had of Wrawa), and then the Shallow Wyrm guru Father Vim has a vision of them and thinks that getting information by tapping on rocks is cheating. Then he sees Sylvester and Comshaw going about their official business: a Trundlebug joins him and seems to be seeing what he sees.
Sylvester's party come to the entrance to the Council chambers, where a gate – made by the Eman family and salvaged – clangs up into the ceiling to let them in. This leads to Sylvester telling Comshaw that his smith/armourer, Sheldon, might want to liaise with Hesper, the Helipath armourer. They have attracted an army of gawpers, including Skradt's cousin Stonwal the snout-balancer, whose hat has met with an accident. At this point the Ŧ symbol recurs, and thereafter appears in most strips. Hpobfvfr gets into a conversation about the rarity of Pales in the Basement with a female Eyebolt named Fidginfain, daughter of Epinkion, and her friend and mount Doss, a male Gobule. Fidginfain and Doss saw the Fixit-ridden Pale buying Fleebs in Barter Hall the previous morning.
Thanksgiving 2024 shows Frizzlegarb and 3375 arriving at a maritime island – probably the one where they will meet the Willigig – and encountering an unexplained table laden with food, which Frizzlegarb views with deep suspicion. Then we see the adult Grekcora and Nart, attired as Orcle and Guard (and at this point Nart's shield shows only a green circle, without the red triangle it had when we saw it before), looking at the same table and realising that "old 3375's" stories were true. Assuming that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found the table before the Willigig transported them back in time to before the Forest of Burzee, by Grekcora's day it's several generations old (Frizzlegarb was her great ultra uncle), but not thousands of years. But then we see that a female Gobblem made the table, so either the table really is thousands of years old, or Gobblems still exist. The fact that the table incorporates the "MoE" logo when that name for the Mansion is less than a thousand years old suggests the latter, although since a Willigig was involved they may have gone back thousands of years to the hayday of the Gobblems, commissioned the table and its design, then brought it forwards again. We see that the Gobblem's third eye is a separate critter, integrated like a Shallow Wyrm on a Deep one, and that close up a Gobblem just looks like a high-tech Gnoll with a pointy nose, deeper-set eyes and no head-hair. The "third eye" symbiont has just one eye of its own, and could be a primitive Fleeb, and/or an ancestral Fixit. This explains why Shabash has grooves on her skull that Rowbynn was able to integrate with. The backpack equipment the Gobblem is wearing is connected to her with prongs in the same way as the equipment we previously saw worn by an Ichyoid.
Meanwhile, Fizmo asks Mortimer if he's been down there before. He says yes, but Rufus came down more, and he doesn't know where Rufus is but wouldn't be surprised if he turned up. Skradt tells them about his brother Skikand, who disappeared while prospecting in the Hot Zone. We see Rufus watching them on a monitor.
In the run-up to New Year we see Anathama talking to Bokonon, who is watching Flutterbys in some sort of grove, while Clochard is off reading books. A Fuzz watches them. Frowgler thinks about the fact that "everybody" is waiting for him to make a speech, but he goes off to have a nap first, passing a Fuzz-sized welder's mask. Mr Hand dozes in his Emegency Warthrone, while the bug-zapper protects his Roshambo figure. The Tree spies on Sylvester's party via a section of itself which growes by the Council gate, then relays that information as some kind of projection (or perhaps scratches on the wall) being generated by what looks like Sneech-grown plant technology as The Great Riddler and one of the tentacled whatnots watch. Finally we see the sort of bright white lines that emanate from the unknown great power, woo-hooing over reaching strip #6900.
04: Aimless Wandering [31/12/2024 – 10/06/2025] We return to Datuhkazu Hollow in the far future for seven strips, then the scene shifts to Ace and Diamond, camping among ruins some distance from Jagger Junction. Diamond has never seen full-size trees before. Ace starts to warn her about killer trees which talk to you, and she reveals that she grew up in the Infernal Engine, where things talking to you was a Very Bad Sign.
We see Edgar the demon looking at a cactus in a desert scene. In the background is what looks like a Pale fortification, so this may be the Great Dry west of Plinth, where the Pales fight their wars. Lilith is seen packing a backpack, as she and Dorothea are about to head back to the Mansion; although she is reluctant and considers telling her mother that she is going to stay behind. Lenore, in dark glasses, is in posh-looking room, probably in the capital, with someone's photograph on a dresser: behind her a female demon named Marilith unlocks the door, and demands that Lenore come with her and do as she says, in payment of a favour owed.
The main backbone of this chapter follows the story of Lenore and Marilith, in sequence, but it also hops back and forth through the kind of canonical out-takes that normally go into the fanart section.
Nearer home, Prunella is in the greenhouse, tending the same flowers Nitfol went to the Crystal Thicket to find. Protus, in an unknown time period, teaches one of the small, primitive Fuzzes to make fire using a bow drill: but the Fuzz's society must already be moderately sophisticated, as there is a squared-off Fuzz-sized door behind him. The young male Gobule Twiz shows Maw one of the new chambers they are finding off Leny Hall, containing abandoned tools and devices, and even wood, which is a great rarity. They are watched by a small Fuzz carrying a burning torch. Meanwhile Speck sits in a low-ceilinged passage, enjoying eating debris from the battle (including what looks like parts of a dead Ooze): she is surrounded by fire, smoke and loud noises.
Then we get a series of flashbacks. Lenore and Lilith, aged about nine, dressed in girly frocks and bows but Lenore already in dark glasses and a grim expression, watch Mortimer, who looks about twelve, entertaining them with a Willie the Wendigo string puppet. He is wearing a propeller beanie and a Roshambo T-shirt. For Valentine's day, a battered Comshaw, his bare scalp covered with sticking plasters, courts Camora with a flower, while she is still expecting to partner Belmay (she carries a basket with "B+C" on it). Adolescent Faddle (already not paying attention), Niddle and Wittol are given a Finagling lecture by an older male Finagler named Belkoff. Behind them various brightly coloured objects hang from a beam, and three glass domes showcase a small Fuzz, a tiny sapling and an unidentifiable cube. Then we see Niddle, adult but at some point in the past, talking to the Operator (who wishes he would go away) and hoping the Operator will find somebody who can help him. A young Sylvester (who looks ten but can't be older than five) shows his grandfather Quincy a book on gleaning, as they stand by the fence of a field of crops. Young Nimue, in an academic mortar board, waits at a coach station and waves to somebody: it's not clear whether she is waving to her family as she heads to university, or to Sylvester as she heads back home.
Then we have a flash-forwards: Lizshella and another Gnoll nun with dark green hair, named AnoSima, are seen in rapt meditation at SubShrine 44f. Back in the past again, we see Svetlana Rostova as a teenager, apparently being picked on by Alena Gazinskaya and Dominika Poltavseva, also teens. Behind them are lockers and a display of models of the planets. Back in the present, the death of Gene Hackman is commemorated by showing him in his role as the surveillance expert Harry Caul from The Conversation, spying on Lenore and Marilith as they walk through the streets: Lenore is carrying a rather suspicious-looking carrying case.
Back in the past, well pre-Crash (we glimpse an airship though a window), Frederick, Quincy and Amos, aged about six or seven, are grouped around a table where Frederick is levitating building blocks. The table is a man-sized version of the tiny Gobblem-made one that Frizzlegarb and 3375 found. In the much more recent past, Baldy holds Rosemary up as she juggles Indian clubs. We glimpse - in an unknown time-frame - the three towering Beacons in the Bay of Runes: although they possibly date back to the Dawn Wars they are "live" (whether or not they are inhabited), with lighted windows at the top, and power lashing out to disrupt the passage of a small fishing boat. Then we see Tansy Rugan, aged about twelve, in a back alley brandishing a knife at a soldier (who seems more amused than anything else): she is already wearing a glowing triangle on a string round her wrist. There is already a crude version of the Quincunx triangle-in-circle painted on the wall.
Next, Frederick and Myrrh celebrate Lenore's graduation from Whovian College (Myrrh's hair is silver, not white). Lenore as a child looks at a shattered, dead Metalmin with a plant growing from its face-plate in the Basement, while Lilith goes off to feed Fern. A very young Rosemary, perhaps six or seven, climbs the ruined Gobblem tower: a Flutterby flutters by, and the end of a pointy spike lifts like a cap to allow an eye to watch her. It looks like a purple Raviner, or perhaps a baby Ooze. On the stone is a frog glyph. Marilith tells Lenore she is now one of the watched rather than a watcher. Young adult Rosemary, in sailor's gear, climbs in the rigging of the ship The Oshinoxtra. A 10-ish Lenore tries, with the limited energy available post-Crash, to levitate the same blocks we saw child!Frederick working with. Teen!Mortimer, watched by Ace, approaches the same shattered Metalmin as Lenore, and it zaps him. .
On the streets of the capital, Marilith orders Lenore to tell the truth (does the 'fluence work though dark glasses?) and asks her why she chose to make a deal with Marilith, and Lenore says she badly needed help and Myrrh is wiser and more dangerous. In the past we see young Rufus shut down the broken Metalmin in the Basement, using an Ettin tool. Child!Lilith carries boxes for her mother Dorothea: in the background is a beetle in a hat. It is not clear whether this is a toy, or one of the Science Bugs. Back in the present Lenore and Marilith discuss Myrrh, and how asking Myrrh for help would have hurt Lenore's pride. Marilithy thinks Myrrh has an advantage from having been summoned by Frederick, and says her own summoner was an idiot. They briefly discuss Jones and Jebidiah, who are peripatetic. Child!Lilith happily learns cooking from her grandmother Agnes. In Moonin Rosemary, who has not yet joined Hack'n'Slash, passes by on the far side of a wall from two H&S operatives – one of whom is Tansy. A Nome in plate armour, carrying a weapon similar to the Can-Opener, stands guard over the Forbidden Vault of Mystery. At the Cakehouse Dance in Eetown, a boy named Lintal Efflore offers a flower to teenage Lenore: Lilith already has a flower, albeit a smaller one. Marilith confirms that Lenore has no partner who might disrupt her work (although she's had casual flings in the past). Quincy, Frederick and Jasper Eman, as young men on the Sky Trek pre-Crash, climb a mountain trail marked with blue-and-white rocks. Lenore, in the family library, opens a book on the history of Whovian College. Marilith broadly approves of a Workers' Revolutionary but warns Lenore to ignore his message. We briefly return to Datuhkazu Hollow again, where Takapeny refers to legends of a Lady Laynorr who was assigned tasks (and says that it all worked out OK for her). The Eman brothers' Sky Trek ended at a temple or observatory where Jasper left, angrily. Young Comshaw, still with hair, goes on a risky expedition with Boffin: this is probably when his hair was lost and Boffin was killed, as we see that a piece of equipment is about to fall on them.
After a return to the Hollows we see Myrrh in bed with Frederick, asking him about Jasper. Her hair is black with white patches, and Frederick's is a dark grey, so this is before Lenore's graduation. Frederick says he hasn't seen Jasper for 40 years: he previously said he was Svetlana's age when he went on the Sky Trek (and, from what we see, quarelled with Jasper), so here he is about 63. Marilith, who is very irritable, starts to establish rules between her and Lenore: Lenore wonders what it would take to really annoy Myrrh. In a flashback we see Tansy stab and kill her Hack N Slash supervisor Harvold Mulk, whom we saw her with earlier. We see the some-years-ago Myrrh, with badger-striped hair, being lectured by a Fuzz who is under a glass dome, pointing to an easel on which is displayed a Ŧ sign: she promises Frederick not to intervene in Jasper's life, assuming him to be still alive, unless he is in imminent danger of not being. The lecture may have soemthing to do with Jasper.
At an unknown date – but probably in the future since it's before they met the Willigig – we see Frizzlegarb and 3375, after leaving the Thanksgiving table made by the Gobblem smith. Now they stand among bushes and stone buildings (or ruins), looking at a signpost which points two ways, to "CERTAIN DEATH" and to "RELATIVE SAFETY". The sign, and two lights or switches mounted in the ground, are in Eman or Winnifrite colours. Frizzlegarb fears the sign may be a trick.
Marilith does something to Lenore's smoked glasses which causes white lines to show the direction of Lenore's gaze. We see the young Frederick and Myrrh, both dark-haired, floating in some kind of light/energy bubble; and the young Rosemary, wearing her traveller's backpack, rescuing Edwird from two female muggers who seem to be part of an organised gang (both wear green masks and an @ symbol): there is a Quincunx sign on the wall.
05: Laser-Like Focus [12/06/2025 – present] This chapter concentrates on Marilith and Lenore, but still hops about a bit, including occasional visits to the Hollows. Marilith says that the lines on Lenore's glasses will enable her to see whether Lenore is paying attention. In the past Myrrh, with a net, stalks the Fuzz lecturer, who is lecturing two Smyts. Frederick looks sadly at the mechanism in which we saw the younger him and Myrrh floating: it no longer works, and he thinks that even if it still did work Myrrh would only be humouring him if they used it.
Watched by a Fuzz, Marilith and Lenore come to a shop called Lindenbrack's which sells equipment for people venturing into the undercity. Marilith orders Lenore to spill her thoughts and we learn that she wants to access the family's scholarship fund, even though as far as we know this is after she graduated from Whovian College, since she refers to her twin Lilith – the only person she doesn't hate – being away on a trip with their mother. Lenore says nobody cares whether there will be an heir, another Earl of E, but Marilith says that Myrrh cares very much.
A 4th of July out-take shows Marilith and Lenore with a firework, and then we get flashbacks. Past!Myrrh is worried by what the Fuzz lecturer tells her, which involves the same crackling white swirls we later see from the Power under the Basement. Ferrule the family lawyer gives the younger Lenore the application form for Whovian College. In the presumed far future (since they haven't met the Willigig yet) Frizzlegarb chooses the path signposted to CERTAIN DEATH, and 3375 goes along out of curiosity. There is a FNORD graffito on a rock in the foreground.
Lenore tells Marilith that she will not kill anyone even if Marilith orders her to (it's possible she may have killed in the past, but in self-defence: a guy tried to rape her, she whacked him with a statue and she doesn't know whether he survived). Marilith says she will definitely not cause her to kill anyone, as she doesn't want to be sent back to Zark: despite popular belief, the Crash didn't cut off all access to Zark and Fratz, only constricted the passages between them so that access became difficult and painful. Lenore finds she can still lie to Marilith if she's being sarcastic.
Sundays in the SubShafts [03/09/2006 – 28/09/2014] The timeline of the SubShaft 44f strips is confusing. The series is used as a foil for seasonal gags about e.g. Hallowe'en but given how short-lived Gnolls are, the jokes for a given season are certainly not taking place annually within the story, and the strip for 25th March 2012 and comments by Rob confirm that these events are happening roughly parallel with events in the main strip, meaning that up until 16th July 2013 they take place during the course of a single day. There is interaction between the two timelines, if you pay attention, even though they are often weeks or months out of phase: in particular the HJ42 and the Hitchhiking Gem pass between the main story and the SubShaft one. This also means that even though it initially appears to be just a bit of holiday fluff, and is often wilfully silly, the SubShafts series contains information important to the main plotlines.
Because the SubShafts series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps. Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule. Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean. A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World. After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God. We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding. We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark. While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water. Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days. Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes. A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully. A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant. As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie. Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way. They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong. We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere). Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society. In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols. Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional. Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history. They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for. The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie. Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate. They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit. While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there. Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears. Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it. Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts. Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus. Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake. The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now. In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature. Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God. She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing. Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it. Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation. Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts. Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future. Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute. Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires. Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there. Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her. Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it. Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta. The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past. Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud. One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME". Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer. As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish. It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea. Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected. Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded. Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life. It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". ` The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side. Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read. Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit. Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person. A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance. Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator. Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct. The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room. They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch. Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade). We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain). We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside. In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look. Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears. SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman. Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed. Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth. Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend. For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair. At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner. For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way? For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet. For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in. We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit. Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 1 :: Distractions [03/09/2006 – 11/10/2009] [Overlaps the end of Bad Rubbish to The Great Chasm.] The story begins with Skuy's boyfriend Cully moving to the tangle of little machinery-filled tunnels called the SubShafts to get away from trouble with Nevus: a trouble which probably occurred not more than a couple of months or less than a couple of weeks before the start of the main story (long enough ago to find out that nobody wanted to hire him now: recent enough that the matter was still fresh). Cully arrives in SubShaft 44f and meets his new Gnoll room-mates, Chunner and Crud. Crud is the botanist who grew the Crudbean, and is very touchy and excitable about it, and about Mugwumps.
Cully comments that the stalagmites he can see are just painted on the wall behind them, and Crud says "You only wish that was paint!" 44f seems to be a low-grade locale, as SubShafts go, although we will learn that it's not as bad as some. Cully was directed there by somebody called Coprolite, and is replacing someone called Cunskite who came to some sort of bad end (we later learn he probably had a heart attack after a wild sex-session with their female neighbours). It was Cunskite who smeared whatever-it-is on the walls to make fake stalagmites. Their being there is seen as a punishment detail, even for their supervisors. Coprolite's name suggests he is an Eyebolt, but we're told he has a lot of lichen growing on him, which was what got him sent to the SubShafts, and that there was an incident with blobwarts which suggested mental illness: this makes him sound more like a Gobule.
Coprolite is being punished, and so is his supervisor Draffsack, and so is his supervisor Egrote, and the chain goes up to Agita, Guttle and Zanoola (Nevus's wife). Crud says Rhid said even the Sneeches were being punished, and yes, he knew Rhid, who helped with the Crudbean – then freaks out because he thought about the Crudbean.
A chute sends down tokens which warn of an event about to happen. The first event is that their tunnel fills with Sneech squeezings, which are illegal in private hands after the war and the Breach, but the nobs in Crescent Hall kept the Last Bridge open partly so they could collect Sneech squeezings to use in dodgy money-making schemes. As they get close to drowning in the electric-green liquid, which creates an X-ray effect so their bones can be seen through it, Cully shouts out about the Crudbean and the Mugwumps and Crud goes into a frenzy and disperses it. Exposure to the squeezings causes magical effects – they are briefly dressed as leprechauns with dyed-green fur and green hats, and Crud says that "old Patick" wore a hat like this, only black – possibly a Fixit. Afterwards he says they saw a glimpse of "Someplace else", and that Rhid said Sneeches have so many eyes they can see beyond the end of the World.
After a series of magical changes Cully is left holding an Easter Egg with an "E" on it, and Crud finds a string belonging to Bokonon (the friend of Digger, Anathama and Clochard who was actually there to compile a report on Crud), and plays cat's cradle. Cully's egg hatches into an aggressive, abusive life-form which Cully eats (and is able to do so because Gnolls have the second-most efficient stomachs, after Gobules), causing him to develop hiccups which are cured with a weird and complicated cure developed by the eccentric genius Eyebolt healer Loomboggle. Chunner, we learn, is Bokonon's replacement, after Bokonon left, he said, to climb to the top of the world and thumb his nose at God.
We learn that Rhid is an expert on Sneeches, often goes to talk to them, and says (in contrast with Umboz) that they are people like anybody else, but he kept his visits to them a secret from most people and wasn't involved with Crescent Hall. Crud used Sneech squeezings from Rhid to make the Crudbean (which he can now discuss without freaking out – but not Mugwumps, so Chunner still can't ask him what they are). Crud was trying to develop a self-feeding plant that would require less tending than the fungi they usually grow, but people were nagging him for a quick result so he used Sneech squeezings in the project and his bean became too self-feeding.
We learn that nearly all the SubShafts are occupied and some are much worse to live in. 44h has a machine that spits out holiday fireworks (they are bombed by one for Independence Day). 45f, directly below them, is much worse than theirs. A machine in their own shaft spits out Sploo, a kind of mousse in various flavours (but itself capable of eating things, from what we saw when Mortimer got soaked in it). For the strip's fourth anniversary a spewberry Sploo cake with four candles lands on Cully's head, then explodes. Their machine also turns the lights off at a handclap. Crud turns the lights off, but there's no easy way to turn them on again, and something in the dark takes him. A thing like a pincer holding a charging-up laser weapon appears and gives some light, but it zaps Cully and Chunner (usually it does something else, also bad but unspecified) while they are trying to turn the regular lights back on by throwing rocks at a switch. They manage to hit the switch, despite the zapper trying to shoot down all their rocks, and that tells someone in 42c to turn on the lights: but the zapper goes out and they have to wait in the dark.
While they are waiting, holiday illuminations come on: a woohoo for the 1500th strip and then lights for Hallowe'en, which they call "Wintergate", and then for Thanksgiving. We learn that Cully at least tries to read old books, that the Boogiemen were damaged (in Chunner's opinion) by reading just one Human book, and that Chunner used to be a champion snout balancer. Crud returns, saying that "they" let him go because he told them there was a new guy. "They" carry Cully away and turn out to be two randy female Gnolls (who we later learn are called Dandilli and Dipsoma, and they have a third called Difonia whom we don't really meet at this point, although she can be glimpsed peering around the trunk of the tree) about whose attentions Cully has mixed feelings. Cunskite died after being carried off by them, but he was old and infirm. They live in a SubShaft which is actually quite nice, with a branch of the Tree and running (or at least dripping) water.
Meanwhile, the lights go back on in 44f, a Boogieman named Clive turns up, and Crud senses a temporary change in reality. Clive washes the purple Sploo off Chunner and Crud, just before the pipe spews out yellow paint onto the wall. Clive comes every 42 days.
Cully, looking stressed, returns with Treefruit given him by the girls, saying that "the scary one" made him flibble her feet. Chunner says the girls only grab them when it goes dark, because they're ashamed to be seen with them in public. The fruit tastes bad, but the fruit in the Fluffy Foofoo Cave is worse, and in the Place No One Talks About, deep below, it's worse still. [This is where the Placettes, the female Finaglers, live: there's a suggestion that these foul fruits taste OK to females.] Crud used to be engaged to Cacocala: they went to the Fluffy Foofoo Cave together but the fruit was so bad he threw up on her, and she dumped her tweebowl out on his head. Crud snaps his fingers and the machine sends them Dornbeast-wart Sploo pie, to which Chunner is allergic but which attracts flutterbys, which they eat, except one who steals Cully's earwax: a valuable commodity which can be swapped for gumblocks in SubShaft 38g. The pie tins make good helmets, although Chunner takes his off because he says they make them look like Nomes.
A thing like a WW2 shipping mine lands on Crud, counts down in Ettin then fires off rockets most of which fly off to other SubShafts. Crud gets stuck inside it when Chunner knocks the lid closed, so he presses a button which causes a magical event in which the other two are decolourised. Crud sings or whistles and the pincer/laser-zapper thing reappears, speaking in Ettin script, and Crud talks to it, or to whoever is operating it, tells it not to yell because the deaf one is somebody in 32g, and says that Cully may be more suitable than Chunner to take his, Crud's, place. The zapper and Bokonon told Crud things about what's going on with the SubShafts which may or may not be true, and which he will gradually tell to Cully.
A glove on an expanding gantry thing, called the Taphand, taps Crud on the shoulder and draws his attention to Cully and Chunner, so he sends it to get a thing to summon a thing to recolourise them. This involves Crud using a green, egg-shapeed gadget to inflate a balloon, and another sort of zapping pincer, and a box labelled "REPIGMENTER THINGIE" which descends from the ceiling on a pole and then spits out green dye (maybe Sneech squeezings?) which Crud catches in his pie-dish helmet and then spits in, causing a sort of magical flare, then holds out to catch a drip from the Repigmenter. Pellets of dye called Chromabits are generated and then poured on Cully, reviving him, but the experience is unpleasant.
As circles of blue light cover them and change the decor of the walls, Crud tells Cully that their being there is a job, of sorts – the Machines in the SubShafts are all linked and the SubShafts need people in them in order to function. But it needs to be people with some kind of open eccentricity, not closed cynics like Chunner. Crud shows Cully how to repigment Chunner – this is speeded up by the arrival of a celebratory banner generator which is sent to get the repigmenter summoner thingie.
Once Chunner is revived, the machine sends them three objects one of which is a seed for a plant, which is called a Framebreaker because one of them broke Swartwouter's Great Frame, which Chunner says was a public service. The Framebreaker turns into a flowering bush which fills their frame and covers their activites. The blossoms attract irritating doom-bees and then the plant dies away again, showering the area with more seeds. Slimegrubs bite into the seeds and set off magical images similar to those seen/generated by Eyebolt weirders. Rhid thought Framebreakers were related to the Tree in some way.
They are visited by a mad Gnoll called Pliskin, whom Cully had believed dead, and who lives in 45f with Plotz and Pelf. The people down there have to suck on an air-tube and referee daily tunnel rat/Lurker fights. The farther down, the worse the SubShafts get – Crud tells a legend of there being an 86p down in the Hot Zone, "where gems bloom like flowers, the Squirms fill bottomless pits, and rocks walk about and talk". Chunner dismisses this as a tall tale but Crud as we will later learn has been to the Hot Zone (even though not to 86p) and his description of it is not unreasonable. Squirms are creatures similar to Wyrms but much bigger and not sapient. We learn about a religious figure called Father Groat, now dead but known to Crud and Chunner in their youth – Groat had a dead Squirm on display. Groat fought Sachem, last of the High Schemers, and threw him into the Chasm after Sachem tried to stab him with a Shivblade – that is, a knife which had belonged to Shiv, Compline and Caytid's Schemer, during the Nome War. The Riddler, God, D[igger] and the Pale Nexus, and someone called the Grumpy Pincher who is probably a figment of Crud's imagination, were all around during the Nome War and it was thanks to the Nexus that the Nomes weren't wiped out. Cully, unlike Chunner, is sure that wiping them out would have been wrong.
We also learn that when he was designing his Bean, Crud used Nome blobwarts purchased for him by Boffin, who had huge feet and a wooden Poking stick. Open-air, forest blobwarts are twice as large and twice as stupid as Basement ones (many things in the Basement are brighter than elsewhere).
Cully complains that the Framebreaker carried off his helmet: but it was lodged on the Machine, and falls off to land on his head. They are buried first by pink bubbles, then by green "antibubbles" which reverse the effects of the pink bubbles. Crud remembers who Clive is – a thing which he keeps forgetting – but can't answer Cully's question about why the SubShafts need them: Chunner says they deal with Distractions and somehow that makes everything work better, but no-one knows why. Crud and Chunner agree that Clive has a very silly hat, and the Machine drops a ball and bongs Cully's helmet.
Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals [18/10/2009 – 05/08/2012] [Overlaps The Great Chasm to Career Paths.] Crud has lost his pie-tin helmet, and round coloured rocks(?) start falling and bonking them. While they are discussing this, enormous egg-shaped Individual Emergency Shelter Pods arrive. Cunskite had mentioned these: their presence suggests imminent severe trouble, and the last time they appeared was when Altholen triggered a Breach in the River of Fire. The pods open up and shelter them. Crud says they signify that something very bad is about to happen but won't say what in case it spread alarm, which spreads alarm: a fact which he says he must raise at the next scattering of the Paradox Society.
In a late Christmas out-take we see Difonia, Dandilli and Dipsoma drinking beetlenog in their luxurious SubShaft, and their machine decorated with Brush symbols.
Aerial Sanitation Filters are mentioned, grown by the Tree elsewhere and carried down into the SubShafts, as the Tree itself doesn't grow well there (except in Difonia and co's pad). The same gadget which puts up holiday messages starts displaying relevant quotes. These inspire conversation in which we learn that Chunner used to date, casually, a prominent Gnoll woman called Buccula (Camora's mother) who now owns a fungus farm along with Choller (Camora's father). Cully believes that Buccula sealed the Breach, but the others agree with Anathama that it was the Trogs Kronk and Yurd who did so. It was considered politically inconvenient that it should be two Trogs and their "scruffy friends" who did it – Crud mentions Digger in this context but Chunner pulls him up, and Crud pretends Digger is fictional.
Crud has seen strange stories grow around Groat and Yurd, whom he knew in life (and he clearly knows Digger is real though he's pretending he doesn't), so he believes that the Earl and Yurp the demon king and Ludwig were also probably all real. The Nexus and the Riddler are old enough to know. We learn that Crud is an Ear of the Brush (and his fiancée Cacocala was a Beebler), Chunner used to be in the Doomsayers' Guild, Cully is a Ludwigite and most Basement people now assume Ludwig was a Gnoll. Crud says all they now know for sure about Humans is that they were probably bipeds. Cully is angry with the Riddler and the Nexus for letting the past be forgotten, and says if he ever gets out of the SubShafts he will go and ask the Nexus: none of them notice the sign-thing is now flashing up real history.
They see a tunnel rat got up as an Easter Bunny and Crud says it must be spring (it's established in the main strip that it's mid April). There is some conversation about the fact that tunnel rats bear live young "like we do", but Crud says "There's this sort of development sac, and they shoot out of—" which sounds like they might be marsupials. The tunnel rat leaves a square egg which hatches into a sort of magical firework called a foomer – first flower shapes and then a rain of coloured sparks and a "foom" noise which causes everything they say afterwards to sound like foom. Protus arrives, not in the normal world but in another dimension where they are partially present. He talks about taking advantage of the fact that their bodies are in the SubShafts, then he briefly shows them an outside view of a galaxy. He says that this is the goal of all of them, and worth striving for.
The trio snap back to the SubShaft and Crud says that's not how he remembers Protus looking, but Chunner steers him away from talking about what Protus is doing, as he did with any mention of Digger. Cully says Protus told Skibble, who told Shilpit, who told him, that Protus is working on a ring of pylons. Cully had never seen Protus before this time, but his father Cozen did. His mother's name was Shangie.
Crud mentions that Cozen nearly killed Chunner, and Chunner threatens to muzzle him with Mr Snoutclamp. It was apparently some sort of accident while Cozen and Chunner were both young and among a group working on an unspecified project together. Cozen went on to become a beetle rancher but Chunner became a snout-balancer (a kind of athlete). Crud also knew Cozen and Shangie, their Finagler Mulct and their whelps, Cully and his sister, who now runs the ranch with her mate.
They talk about the Wyrm lifecycle: Chunner thinks the SubShafts would be improved if some Deep Wyrm were to eat Nevus, but Crud, who visited the Hot Zone (in the same kind of protective suit Fizmo wore) while designing his Bean (advised by a male Deep Wyrm called Syntch), knows that this "Eating" isn't literal but some part of their breeding cycle, and says it won't happen with Nevus because Nevus has Tainted himself. Crud speaks of fields of crystals where the Wyrms graze, and police types called Cousins who hurried him away, and who answer to an official called Mother-Something (possibly the Mother Byng who was mentioned before) who may be their actual mother. Nevus is Tainted because he is too materialistic and because he has mated with Zanoola, another Shallow Wyrm. Crud's informant was a female Deep Wyrm – the females rarely come as high as the Basement nowadays but one called Olywa used to be a well-known character, a friend of Theophan the Rotund. Skibble also went down to the Hot Zone but he broke the faceplate of the suit.
While they are discussing Wyrms, a blue cloud covers them, then breaks into little pompoms and drifts away, leaving behind a tiny blue dart, self-propelled by a green flame (this first appears on 19th September 2010, just above and behind Chunner's head, as one of the blue pompoms reforms into a triangle: on the same day some of the pompoms have the letters A V A S T on them). They end by discussing the Crudbean and find that Crud still reacts violently to the name Comshaw (and that Comshaw used one of Rhid's bombs to destroy the Crudbean). Crud attacks first Chunner and then Cully, who fends him off with Chunner's pie-dish helmet. Crud then heads off to the right, screaming. He passes Vonbrawn in 44h, then runs through the Shimmerstacks in 44i before crashing into a big brass bell in 44j, half-deafening Cully and Chunner and wakening Strode in 45d. Strode is a very aggressive female Motihaul, carrying a big mallet and wearing a pumpkin mask, and famous for having smashed her way into the Hall of the Brush and done something unspecified there.
Cully and Chunner run away, pursued by Strode: the little blue and green dart flies after them. While they are away, flutterbys and flowers and a machine like a four-limbed mechanical starfish and little multicoloured Raviners with their eyes on stalks appear, and the back wall of the SubShaft opens like a door and the face of an enormous, sinister-looking Metalmin (not one we've seen before, and Robert has said it doesn't have a full-length humanoid body) peers in through the gap, like a man peering into a fishtank. Then Crud is heard returning and the back wall closes and all the wildlife disappears.
Crud, now on his own, is passed by two tiny robots, one chasing another (the subject of a bad pun) then by two more tiny robots dragging a machine (ditto). A voice instructs him to pull a lever on this machine. He refuses, so a dalek-thing appears and threatens to shoot him. He still refuses, considering his life of no worth, so it threatens to shoot a mechanical cat. He pulls the lever and all the machines leave except the cat. Crud pats it and talks about a real cat he met once near the Hall of Death (a.k.a. the Eman Hall of Achievement): he knew what it was because he saw a cat in a book belonging to Crispin the Boogieman. A mechanical mouse appears, and the mechanical cat goes off after it.
Crud still fears that the presence of the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods means that a major upheaval is coming, and that he may have triggered it by pulling the lever. Cully reappears, fired down a chute and accompanied by the blue dart, but Chunner isn't with him. There is mention of a bribeable person named Bakeesh who controls an airlock which gives access from the outside to Input Processing for the SubShafts.
Cully didn't come via Input Processing. He has been with the almost-mythical female Gnoll Tuttle, who gave him the HJ42. The timing suggests that this is after the HJ42 falls through the floor of the crater and Mortimer and the beaver shark get Twisted into the Ettinworks. Crud recognises it, in that he has seen it or something like it with Protus.
Chunner reappears. Chunner and Cully tell their story – they ran off pursued by Strode, and through two people Crud calls Snitchers, a Trog and a Gnoll, both wearing Fixits. Strode attacked the Snitchers instead. Chunner and Cully passed through a twisty corridor of lethal spikes which mustn't be touched, then 44d where the people lived on the ceiling and they had to touch Palptat's Touchpiles. Then 44c where the staff wore helmets and offered them a choice between a flower, a snake and a stone and Cully chose the flower (although he nearly chose the snake), then 44a where they met Callithump, a female Gnoll who has a SubShaft to herself, and used to be some sort of item with Rhid. She's been in the SubShafts longer than anyone except Coprolite (who stays in his office) and she understands them best of anyone (Crud warns Cully that the Shafts are constantly changing and reconfiguring themselves). She seemed to be expecting them – or at least, expecting somebody, and they'll do – and is pleased that they brought a flower and not yet another snake.
The scene shifts to flashback. Callithump asked where Cully's little friend was – he doesn't know who is meant. The little blue and green dart flies into view. Callithump pushes Cully into a mechanical portal and places the flower in a pot in the mechanism, and the machine zaps and vanishes both Cully and the flower. Strode appears and Chunner bolts, leaving Callithump muttering about a "flippered menace", presumably Frowgler, being happy now.
In the present time, Cully says the portal wasn't a twistpoint, and we learn that there is a "secret" twistpoint in Helignoll Hall which comes out near the Mansion, and that using Twistpoints affects Gnolls (Cully, anyway) badly and causes a temporary change of mental state. This will be the twistpoint that we will learn that Comshaw used when he appeared downstairs in the Mansion the morning after Rosemary killed the Dornbeast with a vase (probably about eight hours ago in-universe). Crud speaks about filtering devices in the Basement machinery which "swoomp" small pests away to another location, and thinks Callithump has scaled this effect up. Crud tells them a lot about how the system maintains its balance and keeps pests out of the machinery. In the background the blue dart appears to catch (and eat?) some small brightly-coloured flying creature.
Flashback again. Having been swoomped, Cully arrives in front of some machinery being operated by Tuttle, who speaks like a Communist revolutionary and welcomes him to "Behind the Scenes" (we will learn that this place is very deep down). Tuttle wears a Nome miner's helmet (like Rosemary's but without the wings), and an eyepatch so she has one dark- and one light-adapted eye. The blue dart has come with Cully – Tuttle speaks as if it is a person, telling them "both" to come with her. Tuttle is a friend of Cully's late mother Shangie and praises him for standing up to Nevus. They walk past a large machine which contains either a big fishtank or a window/Panegate into the sea, and a wall of constantly changing Manglish letters and numbers. We learn that Coprolite "the lump", Draffsack "the shadow" and Egrote "the spooting phizzer" decide who goes to the SubShafts, but Tuttle came there off her own bat. Callithump and Chunner, she says, came to the SubShafts more or less on a whim but she was recruited to come here by a "he" (probably Digger Odel) she won't name who's been around a long time and realised they were being lied to about the nature of the world. They are going up against God.
She refers to a "Sage" who showed up recently and is "hopping around" being helpful, which is probably Frowgler. The Sage wanted Cully brought in to carry something. Tuttle persuaded the SubShafts to help her set it up – they are semi-alive (not in an organic sense), and fond of her. They like Cully, too, and approve of what they are both doing.
Back in the present, Cully says Tuttle told him Dandilli and her friends get a Tree branch etc because the SubShafts like them, but Chunner and Crud aren't what they want – Crud is too disturbed and Chunner too closed and too competitive. In the background, the blue dart is dragging some sort of small Uncle Sam party hat behind it.
Fading back to flashback, Tuttle takes Cully to what looks like the Ettinworks and out along a bridge to a doughnut-shaped portal which calls itself the Remnent [sic] and is the last of the original function of the SubShafts. It has a randomly-shaped non-Ettin look, so it might go all the way back to Gobblems and Wilfs. There is a mention of "old Febrifuge" who watches over the Favors Repository, and Tuttle says this thing serves a similar function: it's not the heart of the SubShafts, which is deep down where mere mortals can't literally gum up the gears, but it's a place for advice and mediation.
Cully asks where is the thing he is to take back to 44f, and the machine speaks to him and tells him the thing is inside itself, and "I contain multitudes". It seems to be, or include, an adjustable Panegate with many outlets. It shows them a space Tuttle says is "the Highest Room" – that is, the highest point in the SubShafts.
Cully asks the machine who is the "boss" he is agreeing to work for by doing this, and the machine says it's Rodolph the Boogieman – which seems to surprise Tuttle, or at least the name Rodolph does (we will learn later that this is Digger Odel). The thing he is to carry is the HJ42, which the machine says stands for "The 42nd noteworthy item collected by the Henrick-Joost Expedition", and is a remote-viewing device. Cully asks what the SubShafts are and the machine gives a variety of answers all of which confirm that they are special in both past and future.
Cully and Tuttle step through the portal into the Highest Room of the SubShafts, where chutes leading down from higher still disgorge their contents into a tub of sand. Items in the tub include the HJ42, a magical gun with which Tuttle shoots the blue dart, injecting it with extra power, and a fleeb which seems to be sending electrical signals with its antennae. Cully is to take the HJ42 to SubShaft 44f and hang on to it till tomorrow, doing nothing at all with it. Someone familiar will come to collect it. Tuttle greases Cully and sends him back to 44f by chute.
Back in the present, Cully, Chunner and Crud agree to go on pretending Tuttle is a myth, to protect her. Crud asks whether the Infinity Pit and the Blorgons are also real? With that, the Taphand appears and presses a button on the HJ42, which goes ZORP, the sound for a leap forwards in time. Callithump hears them – we see she has Strode hooked up to wires.
Cully is taken forwards to a future time when the SubShafts (the 44s, at least) are now SubShrines. He meets a female Gnoll with green hair, named LizShella, wearing violet-blue clothes which resemble a nun's habit and are in Eman-family colours, and speaking in a different dialect. She says they are in "SubShrine Forty Four, Alcove of Flutterbys": behind her is a giant model of a flutterby and a table covered with presumably-holy items, tricked out in the Eman colours. She takes Cully to meet an elderly male Human, Mr Flip, who comments that Humans aren't allowed in the shrines. He is sitting next to an Ettin-style control. He says that the day Cully will die will be Day H, and this could be Day J "or maybe G", so it's possible this is happening during (but at the end of) Cully's lifespan and he will live to see this without being zorped there.
Mr Flip tells Cully Gnolls are special and will help to make the SubShafts and other things better. Just before Cully snaps back to his own time, Mr Flip tells him to remember the numbers on the control panel (Cully is able to recall them without difficulty: "314 159 265 358 97 93 23 846"), and that if he says them aloud at a time of great need, help will come. These are the same numbers which the Tree gave to Rosemary to secure the sub-pocket of her Poke Kit in which she stored the seed which it gave her.
Cully snaps back to his own time in the same place where Mr Flip was, and the blue dart meets him there. He walks back to 44f and tells Crud and Chunner the HJ42 is just a twistpoint-generator which dumped him in the corridor – he leaves out the time-travel bit. He asks what the Infinity Pit which Crud mentioned earlier is and establishes that it's the same thing that Ludwigites (of which he is one) call the Earlbreak. It is clear that Ludwigite doctrine contains a genuine if confused memory of the deep experimental shaft which Audra dug and which set off the widening of the Great Chasm, and Ludwig dedicating himself to repairing the damage. Cully's version of the story is even more confused than usual: in his version the Earl cracked the earth in order to reach "the Far-Cave of Yurp, the Demon King", causing both the Earl and Yurp to drop out of the world, and then King Opolis sent Ludwig to repair it.
Difonia rushes past, shouting about a dangerous thing which is coming, and accompanied by what seems to be her own flying dart – only hers is magenta, and more rounded in shape than Cully's one, a bit like an ice-cream cone. Cully's blue dart, whose shape has grown more elaborate over time, disappears in apparent pursuit of this magenta one. Emergency shutters clang down up and down the SubShafts to either side of them, as the blue dart returns with a new magenta spot on it. They are just preparing to release one of the shutters, which they can do after an interval, when the Individual Emergency Shelter Pods deploy fully and clamp down, locking them all in individual steel eggs, supposedly designed by Ludwig, which are comfortable and well-provided enough to stay in for a long time, and from which they can still talk back and forth. The blue dart darts away, and water gradually fills the SubShaft, which the Gnolls see from pop-up viewing ports. The dart returns, swimming, but now it's entirely magenta.
The water seems to be fresh – it has fish called Chompersnaps in it that Cully says are freshwater fish – so no Ichyoids will be able to reach them: Cully says that the HJ42/Zorper (only he doesn't call it that, just "this thing") is very safe here. However we later see evidence that Chompernaps, aka Snapperchomps, also live in the sea and thus are anadromous (able to live in both fresh and salt water), like salmon. They don't know if all the SubShafts are flooded, but in case they are Crud mentions the possibility of Master System Controls way down in the semi-legendary 86p, which we know is deep in the Hot Zone. Chunner realises that Cully is thinking of sending his magical dart (which has been swimming around them) to operate the controls: he thinks this is a daft idea but the magenta dart dives down out of sight without being instructed. Crud goes to sleep, but Chunner and Cully discuss experimenting with the knobs and buttons in the pods, should the dart fail to free them, and as a last resort Chunner gives Cully permission to use the Zorper to save himself. A stuffed crocogator, possibly the one fronm Rhid's place, floats past.
Since Chunner knew his father, Cully asks about Chunner's parents. Chunner's father died when Chunner was a whelp, possibly eaten by a Dornbeast: Chunner remembers him telling stories about the Nome War, but doesn't know what his job was (it seems to have been something mysterious). His mother, who was careless by nature, worked for Nevus's predecessor Fizywug, who was more pleasant than Nevus. He has a sister who may still be alive but if so she's in the mysterious "place" and he's not going to go there to check. We learn later that this means she is a female with the Finagler gene, and works as a Placette. According to Chunner, Crud's parents were respectable fungi-farmers (this has been mentioned before: it was seeing how hard they had to work which inspired Crud to try to breed a self-feeding, self-tending crop plant) – but Rhid's parents performed some strange experiment on him which possibly explains the way he is now. There must have been something odd going on with Crud's parents as well, however, for them to have named him Crud.
One of the things drifting past is a little plaque with cut-out letters, which looks like the ones passed to Mortimer and Myrrh by whoever lives in the corridor off the Ettin underhub. This one says "NAME", or possibly "NOME".
Chunner goes to sleep, after first reassuring Cully that not all days in the SubShafts are as busy as this one, and mentioning Ignavia in 32g, who spins theories about what's going on. Before Cully himself can go to sleep (night-dreaming of taking Skuy with him and finding a Somewhere Else to live), Crud wakes and asks him about where the Zorper took him. Cully tells him a little bit about it, and Crud tells him not to tell him any more, nor to tell anyone else – and implies that something similar happened to Othar, the Motihaul explorer.
As the three sleep, a giant, glowing version of the trumpet-mouthed tooterfish (a marine fish!) swims past, trailing bright yellow tendrils, celebrating the strip's ninth anniversary. After that a sort of glowing yellow worm swims past them the other way and "looks" (if it has eyes) at some complex controls guarding the mouth of a pipe-width tunnel. The machine with the controls is labelled Tishabav, a version of Tisha b'Av, a Jewish fast day dedicated to remembering the destruction of the Temple. The glowing worm sets off some sort of alarm and is sucked into a metal pipe. This is the first appearance of the "fish-strand" which is later so important. We will be told later that fish-strands come from Dreamfish, so the giant glowing tooterfish-like thing must be a Dreamfish.
It's noteworthy that the water in which the fish-strand forms contains fish called Chompersnaps, aka Snapperchomps, and the mini-Metalmin who will later be powered by the fish-strand will be famous for sailing the Snapperchomp Sea.
Sundays in the SubShafts :: Backstage [12/08/2012 – 30/06/2013] [Overlaps Career Paths to The End of the Day.] The action shifts away from 44f for the moment. We see that the pipe into which the yellow worm disappeared is connected to a gadget called Ludwig's Automatic Flotsam/Jetsam Sorting Machine. Near the machine is a robotic left hand labelled "Sinister", and a strange mechanical creature like a tiny three-legged dog with a single glowing yellow eye and either a wide blue tail or a blue creature sitting on its backside. The yellow worm flows down the pipe past the letters TAN (or perhaps TRN) and then is shoomped into a small transparent bottle/dome next to a Gnoll called Impavid in SubShaft 32g. The tank has a light which pings and changes colour when the worm arrives, suggesting that it is expected.
Amidst much complex machinery Impavid takes the worm-thing past a sign saying "WATER WORKS" and more of the transparent domes, to another Gnoll, Imbosk, who says it is a "fish-strand", shed by a Dreamfish but "sort of alive" in its own right. Their third member, Ignavia, would know more, but is sleeping. The presence of the fish-strand tells Imbosk the SubShafts must be flooded.
Impavid puts the fish-strand into a designated receptacle and it is sucked up a tube towards someone on a higher level: we see the pipe it goes through passing various items, including a battered-looking Fixit. It is piped into a machine called an "O-ZONE 2374 MULE DSPNCR" which sheds a little blue thing like a cross between a toy car and a plastic rhino, about the size of a hamster and now containing the fish-strand which can be a glimpsed through a window on the side. The eye-panel of the "mule" lights up and it extends a tail-like, glowing antenna, rolls down a slope and moves a box of electronics by head-butting it along. The box has a screen which displays messages – first "3300 WOO HOO" and then a series of instructions: "HOLD"; "WAIT"; "DEPLOY"; "HOLD2"; "WAIT2"; "AND"; "SHIFT"; "PLUG". The mule seems to be following instructions: the box sends out some sort of signal from an antenna and then on the word "PLUG" it drops into a square slot designed to hold it. The mule now interacts with a series of other machines (one of which has a window flashing up "FNORD IZ HERE") which it clears out of its path by bopping buttons with its "nose" and then extending an arm with which to push buttons and manipulate keys, thereby opening a long sequence of puzzle doors beyond which it knocks on a door marked "GET MY ATTENTION" and is met by a female Shallow Wyrm named Grump, who tells it that it has passed the test, and welcomes it to life.
It seems that the fish-strand and the Metalmin mule between them are now a composite, self-aware being fit to act as a servitor maintaining the SubShaft mechanisms. Grump speaks of the SubShafts themselves as being a similar sort of composite entity, aware and growing ever biggwer down there in the dark. The new composite life-form is assessed by a machine and laser-branded with a name, which turns out to be a number (the number of that day's strip), 3375. The machine extrudes a sucker-pad on a spring, which attaches to 3375 and downloads education into it, after which 3375 can communicate by means of the fish-strand, still visible through the window on its side, forming itself into letters. Asked if it has any firther questions, 3375 signals "NAY"; Grump privately hopes that one day one of them will answer "AYE". `
The newly-educated 3375 is sent to be assessed and assigned a task by a giant Metalmin (similar to but probably not the same as the one we saw peering in through a door in the back of SubShaft 44f when the Gnolls ran away from Strode – it has different "ears"). 3375 is placed on a platform supported on a jointed arm extending from the back of a thing like a lorry about the size of a Jack Russell terrier, which drives away, and transports it to a new location where it is met by a Smyt named Graf who is operating a control console, and tells it it is just in time. Another mule Metalmin, 3438, stands at the side.
Graf is supervising a chute which clangs three times, signalling something incoming from outside the Shafts. Down the chute and into a sand-bin comes the Hitchking Gem which we saw Agorn deposit: Graf dislikes it and it is moved away by a mechanical grabber, then transferred into the grasp of the two mules, who carry it away and place it onto a lift platform which descends a shaft labelled "40". It disappears down the shaft and there is a vigorous splash, suggesting it has reached the flooded level of the SubShafts. Water then pours out of the shaft: 3438 clamps onto some kind of magnet but 3375 is washed past and the flood bowls it along a tunnel, before dumping it and the water out into a deep shaft, at the top of which is a cut-out sign saying "NOW", in the same solid font as the cut-out letters we've seen being passed as messages but in reverse. A few strange coloured things which may be flowers grow out of the sides of the shaft. 3375 falls towards a red glow which probably indicates the Hot Zone: deep below there is a second sign, like the one that says "NOW", but it's too far away and small to read.
Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 3 :: Awakenings [04/08/2013 – 04/05/2014] [Overlaps Rise and Shine to A Change in the Scene.] The three Gnolls spend the night sleeping in their pods, which we're told are comfortable. In the morning first Cully and then Crud awake, still in their pods, as more odd things continue to drift past through the water. As Chunner sleeps, Crud expands on his previous remarks about Othar, who he says genuinely did interesting, daring things but who also wasn't that concerned with describing his experiences accurately. Othar claimed to have swum through a mysterious "Serendipity Pool" which only appears when you're not looking for it, and there met a talking frog who said they were having the conversation in the future (the fact that this conversation was "in the future" resolves the problem that Othar disappeared many years ago but Frowgler only recently appeared: Othar's future was, broadly, the main strip's present). [Legend also says Frizzlegarb swam through a pool before meeting a Willygig, although that could be a warped memeory of the Snapperchomp Sea.] Othar is meant to have just disappeared, but Crud thinks he must have died, since he disappeared a long time ago and never returned. Crud knew Otharson, son of Othar and father of Othara: Otharson met with some memorable, widely-known death. He was bred to reproduce his father's talents, treating reproduction as a business transaction, but the experiment failed in some way. Crud himself threw himself into his own failed experiment with the Bean after Cacocala died: he hopes to be of use here in the SubShafts, where at least he isn't the most frightening and unstable thing in the room, and he suspects that Bokonon knew more about the SubShafts than he let on. As they speak, various objects drift past, including children's toys, a ballot box and a dead Fixit.
Cully asks what he should do with the Zorper in an emergency, especially where he should use it to escape to. Crud talks about Heart, Brain and Spleen Ladders, says that there's a Heart Ladder nearby on Cully's side that he could use to climb up, and he tells Cully if he has to flee, to go to Ignavia in SubShaft 32g – this is the same SubShaft where the fish-strand was processed, that became the mule-bot. Ignavia was banished for talking about something called the V.F.W.. Brain Ladders are always safe to use, Heart Laders are safe only down to level 45 and Spleen Ladders are never safe. A female called Temmy who tends to fall into holes and currently lives in the SubShafts suffered some kind of damage from a Spleen Ladder, although it clearly wasn't fatal. For whatever reason, she is not a happy person.
A thing called a sankofit is mentioned as something you should touch if you get the chance.
Temmy would be suited to living in a mysterious Place No One Talks About which is not the true Hot Zone (and not the place where Fizmo was working), and which Crud once briefly visited by accident, while exploring: Cully is amazed they let him live. We will learn later that this is the Place where female Finaglers usually end up. Temmy is compared to Bung's friend Faddle, a failed Finagler who is "insanely lucky" in an odd way, and Crud says that could be said of all Finaglers but they mustn't talk about it. They talk about places Crud has been – he visited the Grotto of the Jellyfish, which is in Ichyoid territory and which since the Breach has been guarded by Diwali and her Lights and by the Zero Task Cavern (later the future-Fuzzes will speak about the Zero Tasker), but this was before that. Crud says that Chunner had a distressing experience when the Breach – which affected even the Ichyoid Grottos – happened, but his and Cacocala's experience was "cryptic". They saw a vision of vast half-formed structures or organisms, which he likens to the half-finished machinery at the end of the "Long Path", the Ettin particle accelerator.
Cully starts to ask Crud about Cacocala's death, then decides not to in case Crud has one of his mad fits and damages his pod whilst still underwater. Chunner wakes up, swearing. Cully and Crud avoid telling him what they've been discussing; Cully starts to speculate about using the Zorper to escape when there is a parping noise offstage. Simultaneously, the back wall of the chamber opens like a door, as it did before when the giant Metalmin peered in, and the water drains away. They discuss whether this was arranged by the little dart thing or whether it happened automatically, and Chunner predicts that if the SubShafts are doing something helpful like that they'll soon be doing much worse. A grabbing gadget appears above Crud's pod, and then generates a burning light between its claws, which says "tick tock" in Ettin. They are wondering whether to open their pods when Difonia comes by (without her dart), looking a bit damp and bedraggled but urging everyone to rejoice. Cully – who looks very stunned and bedraggled – manages to open his pod, while the claw-light continues to chunter seemingly random words in Ettin, and the back of the chamber is still open onto darkness and dripping water. Cully has just noticed this and started to tell the others when Protus appears and reclaims the Zorper, telling Cully to tell Temmy that her suspicions concerning the Remnent are correct.
The Hitchhiking Gem then falls out of the delivery chute, glowing, and bonks Cully. They discuss it, mentioning an Almind who had some diamonds, and Crud starts to say it looks like ones he saw in the Place No One Talks About – at this the gem shuts off its glow with an audible "blip", and when Chunner says Cully should ditch it it disappears from Cully's hand, as it did from Niddle's. First Crud and then Chunner open their pods, and Chunner then asks Cully what he'd been going to say before Protus arrived. Cully points to the open back of the room.
They all peer down into what to them is a pitch-black descending shaft, and the point of view shifts so we see the wall they were previously facing. Cully has a psychic sense of some sort of presence or power down there. They discuss finding some kind of light-source which they could lower into the hole, using Bokonon's string, and Cully suggests using the pods. Cully and Crud close their pods and begin testing buttons, while Chunner keeps watch.
Sunday in the SubShafts :: Meanwhile.... [11/05/2014 – 28/09/2014] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Barriers and Gates.] We see Agita the Motihaul in Root Hall, talking to her young daughter Rishathra, who is reading Human books. She finds the lettering easy to master but doesn't recognise some of the words used (they are names of Prime Oracles). Agita's umbrella looks a lot like Myrrh's/Mortimer's, but green (and with a built-in blade).
We then see a series of snapshots of what's going on in other SubShafts. Dandilli and Dipsoma, who are fishing in their water bowl, comment on the fact that Difonia never came back after running about telling people to rejoice. We see that Difonia is with Callithump, who has herself, Difonia and Strode the mad Motihaul linked up by electronic sensors of some kind. She seems to be bullying Difonia into taking part (although as Difonia is at best a borderline rapist she's not in any position to complain).
We see Imbosk and Impavid processing a rabid Fleeb, while Ignavia, offstage bottom-left, shouts comments which suggest he may be more than a little deaf: obviously he is the deaf person in 32g with "that hair" that Crud referred to. We see Palptat, Proda and their third partner, Pok, hanging from the ceiling in 44d and wondering about the origin of a butterfly which is flitting by their Touchpiles; and the three helmeted characters in 44c, still holding snake, flower and stone (or whatever it is: it's blue and lumpy) and talking unintelligibly. In 44j, an unknown male Gnoll stands ready to ring a Big Brass Bell. In 45d, which is probably directly below Palptat, an unknown female with a spear stands looking through a door into a chamber containing stasis pods labelled Strode, Vlada and Upsy – Strode's pod has been broken open from the inside.
In 44h, a cross-looking male named Vonbrawn wears luminous lime-green bandages forming an eye-patch and an arm-sling, the legacy of an earlier mad-fit by Crud. An Ettin machine lowers itself from a hatch in the roof and offers him a choice between onion rings or chocolate eclairs – he chooses onion rings. Instead of onion rings, however, a pillar-shaped object called the blooper extrudes a cone-shaped thing with a drinking straw in it from its top, which alarms Vonbrawn enough that he calls his shaft-mate Oppen to come and have a look.
Meanwhile, the thing which had offered Vonbrawn onion-rings spits out a grey metal dart. It flies through 44g next door (presumably) to 44f – where Cully and Crud are still in closed pods which clack as the thing goes past (probably, although we don't see this, they had previously opened up their viewing turrets and clacked them closed again in alarm), and Chunner just stands and watches it – and then out through the open gap at the back of their shaft, and down into the depths. It passes the giant Metalmin whom we earlier saw peering into 44f, and then a second similar Metalmin, and flies on down and down into the Hot Zone, where it descends through a glowing blue artificial shaft, which protects it from the heat. At the bottom it shouts "Hey you" to attract the attention of an entity we haven't seen yet. This entity, which expresses itself in curling tendrils of white light which form words (similar to the curling green light we saw at the Spires in the chamber in front of the brown-haired watcher and Vasilisa), greets the dart, and we see that various pieces of mechanical debris are floating weightlessly above it – including the mini-Metalmin 3375, who seems to be still in working order, since its lights are still on. The voice is sorting this debris into categories: 3375 doesn't belong with the usual detritus but the voice says that it's too late to send 3375 back so it will "send you on ahead for that.. change inside and" 3375 is enveloped in a flash of light, and disappears.
SubShaft Celebrations [30/06/2018 – present] To start with we see the Remnent [sic], in the eye of which a "Ticktockgnoll" with a clock on his chest cries "Repent, Harlequin" while pointing to what we later learn is Tuttle, wearing a jester's hat, while two other Gnolls (one male, one female, otherwise unidentifiable) look on. This was to commemorate the death of Harlan Ellison, who was partly responsible for Star Trek's Guardian of Forever time gateway on which The Remnent is based, and who famously wrote a short story called "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman.
Later, on New Year's Eve 2018 and then New Year's Day 2019, we see Tuttle, still in the jester's cap, go to a complex mechanical doorway or framed screen labelled "do not touch", and touch it. This is the doorway-thing Callithump uses in her experiments. Tuttle leaves, as power lashes out across the doorway. Callithump and Strode come along. Callithump says someone has disobeyed her "do not touch" sign, which is "Ex-cellent!", and now a surge has been blasted through the SubShafts and could do anything. She calls Strode to her, addressing her as "minion", and says they must go and prepare. Amazingly, Strode is nervous. It is possible that Callithump made Difonia her minion as well, since Difonia and Strode were hooked up at the same time. Meanwhile Tuttle goes to a sort of desk decorated with an ammonite-shaped colour-whirl, and is pleased to see a burst of energy which flashes "surge detected". She throws the jester's hat into the energy, where it is destroyed.
Next we see Tuttle climbing a stack of what look like brightly-coloured packing boxes. She passes a group of vaguely humanoid sculptures in various shades of beige and brown, joined together to point to a bright light, to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next she comes to a man-sized mechanical marmot to celebrate Groundhog Day. It is looking back nervously at a shadow cast not by itself but by a second, much more predatory figure, similar to the first but with jagged teeth.
Shabash is crowded to the side of a rocky shaft by giant letters spelling "Filler", forming the first of a week of oddments because Rob had had a rough weekend.
For President's Day we see Tuttle in a place where there are giant coins with the faces of Human bigwigs embossed on them. For St Patrick's Day we see Imbosk in SubShaft 32g, watching a shamrock pop into being in a glass dome at the side of his chair.
At Easter, we see Vonbrawn (who is sleeping), Oppen and a Gnoll woman called Ghodird in SubShaft 44h, receiving a painted egg and putting it with others, apparently to hatch. On May Day Tuttle carries a lamp past a maypole; in the foreground are a bell and a giant Metalmin hand, clutching a spanner.
For Mother's Day 2019 we see four vignettes of Comshaw's mother holding a tray with items on it including a bottle of what looks like perfume; an unnamed Gnoll woman holding a Glowgem, with a Fleeb in a glass case and some kind of weathervane arrow behind her (we've seen her before, also with a Glowgem); Anathama with a poking stick; and Tuttle with her torch, in front of a clock which has both a digital readout and an analog hand. For Father's Day the vignettes show Comfrey, Comshaw's father, with a Glowgem; an unknown male Gnoll sitting at a table on which is a bowl of fruit (according to the pattern he must be the mate of the woman with the Glowgem); Clochard, the mate of Anathama, in front of some sort of plumbing; and Skritch standing in a field of flowers: is he connected to Tuttle in some way?
For Labor Day 2019 Tuttle dozes slumped back in a seat, her legs draped across a rucksack, surrounded by odd small devices which include a miniature palm tree and one of the little hamster-sized Metalmin "mules", similar to 3375 but with a number ending 50. There's a scrawled Ŧ on top of her tooteroil lamp, which stays there for the next whole sequence of strips showing Tuttle, but slowly becomes more substantial and "real". For Indigenous Peoples' Day Tuttle, wearing a rucksack and carrying her torch, gazes down into a rocky crevice from which a male and female Eyebolt gaze back with dubious expressions. The male may be Mondegren. For Hallowe'en, Tuttle climbs up past a spider's web and peers over the edge of a rock shelf to see an unknown Shallow Wyrm wearing a black cape, who shouts "Boogity!" and scares her. For Thanksgiving, Tuttle, carrying the caped Wyrm, comes to a laden table where a spike-haired old male Gnoll and another Shallow Wyrm wearing a tall hat are already seated. For Yule, same scene except the two Wyrms are placing crowns (?) on a Yule log on the table, a ghost is emanating from it and the spike-haired old Gnoll is sliding away, possibly down a chimney, and Tuttle has taken off her helmet.
For Hanukah 2019, an unknown female Gnoll is suspended from a harness on a metal arm as she lights giant electronic candles by touching them with a central candle pulled up on a cable from the centre of a menorah. For New Year's Eve, we see Tuttle still seated at the same table with the two Wyrms, but this time on the table is some kind of wind-up mechanical gadget labelled Komodo 3000, which is shooting out streamers of coloured smoke. On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, who may or may not be in a SubShaft (there's a window in the background), decorating a Christmas tree (but we know that in the Basement it's called a Bloom tree) by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. There are Ŧs decorating the pot the tree is in.
We then jump ahead to Hallowe'en 2023, where we see Crud looking dubiously at a purple pumpkin lantern which he is holding up; then for Valentine's Day 2024 we see Chunner, sitting in one of the egg-shaped protective pods and making a cat's cradle, in front of a notice board which says "BMINE 4EVER MORE". Presumably he learned the string game from Crud. Then we see the Ticktockgnoll whom we saw before, shouting at Tuttle, but now he is just standing glaring out from a kind of pulpit.
Saturdays in the Basement [03/05/2014 – present] These strips ran every Saturday for more than seven years and show what is going on in the Basement, parallel with what's happening above ground to Rosemary and co.. I decided to split them off onto a separate page to make the action easier to follow. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo. Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees. [Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.] Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. ` Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop. Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone. Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling. We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin. "Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall. Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome. The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them. The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over". We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again. Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited. They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people. The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in. On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits. As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin. The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked. Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies. Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount. Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler. A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts. Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms. Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over. Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn. Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process. Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base. Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before. Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through. Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something. They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert. Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red. Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks. Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping. [Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.] Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain. Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot. The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere. A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it. Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall. In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her. The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...." Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy. They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat. We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across. Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year. Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED". Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights. Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T. Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together". Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs. For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks. It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means. Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint. There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger". There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly. Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit. In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism". For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator. Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss. Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from. Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture. Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons. At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off. In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby. Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous. From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree. Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world. To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last". After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep. On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub. For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise. For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell. For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt. A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives. On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible. The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs. Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft. After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted". Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them. The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows. Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
Saturdays in the Basement :: Nests [03/05/2014 – 08/08/2015] [Overlaps A Change in the Scene to Eetown – The Temple.] The scene opens with a cavern on the wall of which is a cross between a set of bunk-beds and two layers of miniature, open-fronted rooms, made from wooden beams. These are labelled with the names of a group of female Gnoll warren-mates – Hiltsa, Lanwja, Piranom, Pergola, Skuy, Islupis, Ambri and Irnissa. Islupis is not present, or at least not visible, and Ambri is off-stage except for her hand. All we can see of Piranom is her feet (wearing shoes, in odd colours) and the ends of long hair. Hiltsa, who looks very bad-tempered, is throwing stones at the board behind Lawnja's head. Irnissa reports that Skuy and Pergola didn't come home last night. Skuy then appears and tells Irnissa and Piranom that she is moving to Leny Hall, has just come back to get her belongings and that she'll never take a mate and is leaving because she has a proper job as Sina's assistant at Leny Hall. Irnissa intends to stay at home where it's safe. We then see Skuy carrying her belongings (which mainly consist of balls of purple light) past a memorial to the Nome War, and passing the Gnoll security guards Forfind and Findfor and the Ghast soldier Dipixbofo.
Scarrow, a Poker, and Boromir visit the site of The Gibber and met an ancient Gnoll named Deodand. He was one of those who were in Helignew Hall and were overwhelmed and incorporated into The Gibber: now he is himself again, but dying of old age as they watch. As The Gibber he and his companions lost self-awareness and looked only outwards but they saw everything, including "God's tunnels, down there in the dark". They assume both that The Gibber's loss of power was due to the Sneeches leaving and that the Council will have sent Skibble to check: but in fact they've sent Othara. She finds no Sneeches and says aloud that that means the entire far side of the Chasm is now open for exploration: Hamble, lurking in the hole in the floor made by Chauncy and Edgar, agrees.
[Meanwhile in an outtake a female Gnoll named Carmal delivers a pie-in-the-face to Dap, ordered by Tuft to celebrate "their" anniversary – actually the strip's eleventh anniversary. Carmal evidently is some kind of courier or perhaps a Kissogram girl.]
Hamble and Squeeb discuss Othara. Hamble has thought of killing her to discourage explorers, but decides she is more useful alive: he's waiting for somebody else. `
Meanwhile, we see Wrawa (female Trog) wake from her exhausted sleep, swathed in bandages and stil doped-up from what Rhid used on her. Kottle the (Gnoll) Healer tries to speak to her but she runs off and he sends Maggle (another female Trog) to follow her and keep an eye on her. She runs past a crowd of people who know her, and Satyrsong fears that in some sense she is no longer Wrawa. Maggle is alarmed to see that Wrawa appears to be heading for the Great Chasm, but when Wrawa reaches The Plunge and stands hovering at the edge, and Maggle calls out to her not to do it, Wrawa replies "Don't do what?" and seems not to know where she is. Her voice has changed very much. We see that the gap in the fence at the plunge-point originally led not to a sheer fall but to what may be an extensible bridge, which is now tucked in under the lip of the drop.
Wrawa says that she can smell something on the breeze and she is the second person to do something, and then says that she is going to prepare something for the people who will follow her and then jumps off the Plunge point in a calm, abstracted way that suggests she knows there's a soft landing below. Maggle tells Kottle she's gone, but she's aware that Wrawa might return and Wrawa of course lands in the bushes down in the Chasm. She avoids being sucked into the chute, and instead walks along the top of it to the Hamble's well-stocked bolthole on the far side of the Chasm, where she meets Hamble and Squeeb, who have evidently gone back down there to live even though they may venture elsewhere. Wrawa remembers and likes Hamble from her childhood, and tells him how she has been affected by Rhid's chemicals and by the death of Leny. She has become psychic in some way and "heard" Hamble's trap. We see that Rhid himself has ended up in Telic's hospital, called the Humane Zone.
Hamble warns Wrawa that this place, the deep-down Trog habitat, has an effect on people, but Wrawa seems quite keen on the idea and wants to absorb the atmosphere. She is aware of Hamble's ambitions to return to the world and make his mark; she doesn't intend to oppose him, nor to assist him at this point (and secretly feels that it will make little difference if she does). She goes to sleep, hanging upside down from the ceiling.
We see Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr awake in her sleeping pool, called by a voice of unknown origin.
"Somewhat previously" on the same day, Ploot arrives to check on Urwyn, who has nothing to report, as there has been no activity around the elevator. Unnoticed by them, a Smyt Sherlock Holmes and Watson pass by, stalked or followed by another Smyt. Ploot fills Urwyn in with what's been going on with Sina and the new hall, and two Ghast medics, Vptwbotw and Vpfbotw, arrive with a Porta-Pool to collect the dead Hpthbvtw. Ploot prepares to drag the dead Gobule, whom he recognizes as one of Guttle's servants (it's Chuw), away to Maw. Urwyn thanks Ploot for watching out for him and we are shown that what looks like Urwyn's friend Zugo, but wearing armour, is also watching from a crack in the wall.
Meanwhile the Ghasts wheel their Porta-Pool past various characters in and around Leny Hall. We see the Gnoll Muscod giving a heart-shaped flower to Folla, and two Gobules from Maw's household pushing some kind of large wheel. We see Catmorlo talking to Furphy; Satyrsong peeking at Krink; the Helipath sign-writer, Nitid, painting LENY HALL SOUTH over a door; and Voog and an unknown and very ragged female Motihaul. They pass a well where an Ichyoid is drawing water; a male lightpelter Trog being led on a lead by a female Nome; a Jibjib; Frag guarding the entrance to Le Tree; and a female Motihaul pushing glass domes containing blue flowers in a cart labelled DIWALI. On the walls are posters warning people about Fixits. In Time Hall they pass an Ooze; a Trog whom we saw before in Bowel Hall; and the Gnoll Pizzle talking to the male Motihaul Candle Monk named Crumpton. Then another Ichyoid at another well; another Ooze; a female Gnoll water-seller named Bujold; and a Fixit information desk, manned by a Boogieman. At the desk are a Gnoll with a flower in his hair (i.e. a Bloomer) whom we have seen before, and Mingent the Gobule and a male Trog, Mingent with a bump on his head which suggests that a Fixit has been struck off him, and the Trog carrying a very battered hat (not a Fixit, from the look of it). On the desk a dead Fixit is on display under a glass dome.
The two Ghast medics take the Porta-Pool to Amorph Hall. The area is still under lockdown, so there is nobody to meet the funeral party except Stirrer Hptwfvth and Apprentice Stirrer Hpthfvx, and a chap called Septwbfn, who pushes a handcart labelled Tangible Karma which has a tunnel rat standing on top (who is called Mandibles, and protects the fungus stock from Slimegrubs), and who gives the medics a free fungus to compensate them for having had to go near the Operator. The two Stirrers pass a Dornbeast and place the Porta-Pool on a mark on the floor and a strange, elaborate machine, acquired directly from the SubShafts (not from the SubShaft manager Egrote) and normally cloaked from any notice, descends from the ceiling to hover over the pool and probe or stir the contents and decontaminate them. It seems that the SubShafts themselves are sapient but nobody knows for sure: there is a Ghast team studying them.
The two Ghast Stirrers Hptwfvth and Hpthfvx bring the Porta-Poll containing the remains of Hpthbvtw – a.k.a. High Pool Third of Batch Three Hundred and Fifty Two – to the pool whence he came, and prepare to stir him back into it, with a ceremonial speech about his memories and dreams being added back into the common pool and into the Official Record. We see this happening. The Pool is full of half-heard voices murmuring about random events from their life, including one who says "It's finally over".
We go back to Squadron Leader Hpobfvfr sleeping in her pool again, and being called again to wake up. It can't be Hpthbvtw who is calling Hpobfvfr, since we saw her being called before he was added back into the pool, but it does seem like it's probably the same pool, filled with the same random comments, including "the turtle race went very quickly this year", "where there is no plan there is no hope" and "fnord is here". Some essence of the pool speaks to Hpobfvfr, taking on Hpthbvtw's form (and having some of his memories now), but she objects to that so it becomes her mother (in the sense of "egg donor") Hpobvo instead. The pool, the collective consciousness, approves of Hpobfvfr's willingness to go against convention, and wants the Ghasts to go out and "engage the world", especially now with Humans reappearing and the Sneeches leaving. The pool consciousness explains to Hpobfvfr that their world, the Basement, runs on machinery behind the walls which is powered by Sneech squeezings (probably produced by the colony plants, not the Sneeches themselves), and without the Sneeches it's already beginning to fail. It wants Hpobfvfr to go talk to the Humans, who may have useful information. She is quite keen to talk to Mortimer again.
Saturdays in the Basement :: Tests [15/08/2015 – 26/03/2016] [Overlaps Eetown – The Temple to Revelations.] We see Shabash, one of the female Gnolls who shot at Agorn by mistake for Bromir, walking nervously through a dark place, scaring away a Doom Bee and a sort of miniature, non-sapient Trogette called a Lizhopper. She passes a gap in the wall through which we see Maggle the Trog running across a lighted space, probably following Wrawa, then Shabash surprises and is surprised by Faddle in the dark. He was sleeping in a hollow under a pile of leaves or cloths and she nearly trod on him. She can smell that Faddle has been in The Place No-One Talks About, which turns out to be the cave where he was taken by and to the female Gnolls in collars who caught him before, and whom he refers to as Placettes. Along with "the usual phizz" they told him that the world was ending in some sense, and gave him a task to perform. Now that she knows he's acting for the Placettes, Shabash calls him "Sir". Following their accidental attack on Agorn, Fanga and Shabash have split up in order to go to ground: Faddle suspects the Placettes of having engineered this to leave Shabash free to be recruited.
They are joined by Carmal, who has been instructed in a vision to come and meet the Placettes' Assigned One. We see the vision in black-and-white flashback, and it looks suspiciously like Frowgler wearing the pumpkin-head costume in which he scared the Nomes. Carmal does odd jobs for people, even if they're silly (like a pie in the face), but unlike Shabash that doesn't include killing people.
The Placettes have given Faddle three Glowgem-like shapes which have to be inserted into sockets on some important mechanism on an upper level: Carmal likens it to "shapeboards that whelps play with", but the image of the board looks like an Ettin keypad. The three shapes have to be inserted all at the same time into slots which are too far apart for one person to reach them simultaneously, presumably as a safety measure. They are dangerous in some way – possibly radioactive – but Faddle is better able to handle them than "normal" people (perhaps because as a Finagler he's not likely to reproduce), and has been given a backpack with a protective lining to carry them in.
On their way, they pass through a "Wintergate" cave which is basically a permanent Hallowe'en display. They have to wear seasonal hats while in the Wintergate cave, and this prompts Carmal to tell Faddle about Fixits.
As they reach the edge of the area inhabited by organized Basement society, they meet a Queen Snake (a kind of giant serpent) named Marsslina, who is an aquaintance of Faddle's. We learn that the Queen Snakes and the Ecadems have some sort of secretive joint society and have their own underground greenhouse for growing food (although Queen Snakes mainly eat tunnel rats), but their garden has been raided by Biters and so Marsslina is having to forage for a pudding-gourd for their own version of Thanksgiving. After Marsslina has moved on, Faddle says that Queen Snakes prefer to be called Empress Snakes and the three Gnolls discuss the terms Queen, Empress and Emperor, and mention is made of a former Nome queen named Obidil. We learn that some Basement dwellers have traditional folklore about an all-powerful ancient Emperor named Ett, who is a fusion/confusion of the Ettins with the three early Earls named Ettric and their successors Ettrath and Ettwin.
The Placettes seem to have some kind of government status, since Gnolls just do as they say even if it's dangerous. Faddle reckons he and Shabash and Carmal have been chosen for this particular mission to and beyond the risky Fringes because they're expendable, whereas people like Mimsy and Piranom are too valuable to the Placettes to be risked.
Faddle and co. pass through dense outgrowths of The Tree to reach a chamber full of Ettin machines, including a thing with horns and three glowing green "eyes". They drop the objects they've been carrying into slots on the machines. There's some kind of joke here about square pegs in round holes, or about wedge-shaped cylinders, because all three objects apppear triangular, the holes are a triangle, a circle and a square but the objects fit all three. A Human male named Mr Norton (who is really in the Spike with the Fixits, and who might be Rufus under another name) speaks to them through the machines and tells them that these machines are being activated because the technology which depended on Sneech Squeezings will soon fail. Shabash leaves, but Carmal stays to hear him out and she and Faddle agree to perform other tasks for Norton, in exchange for Glowgems. This will involve entering the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies.
Why is Norton probably Rufus? He says "That really is one of my names. I was never terribly fond of it before, but now.. it seems appropriate". The Eman boys all have multiple names. Then he says his multiple names were "Originally attached to persons of renown. In certain circles. Norton was also... elevated to responsibilities somewhat against his will." Although we don't learn this until about five months later, Norton Bival was the reluctant rebuilder of Glome and first Governator of Audravania, so the "certain circles" are people of high rank in Audravania. At the end of the chapter we see a rear view of him, with smooth rounded dark hair, being given a message by the young female Fixit Vix and her Nome mount.
Saturdays in the Basement :: Shabash and Rowbynn [02/04/2016 – 01/07/2017] [Overlaps Revelations to Wreaking Havoc.] Coming away from the Ettin machines Shabash gets lost, confused by all the Tree branches, and falls down a shaft at the fringes of the Basement. She lands in a reservoir, whence she is fished out and dumped into a dry service area by a green creature with a lot of tentacles and a long thin neck terminating in just eyes. It appears to be intelligent, since we see it start to fill in the hole in the ceiling through which Shabash fell, and it's using sophisticated tools. It's also holding a frog – who isn't Frowgler.
A maintenance bot then trundles up behind Shabash and first bonks and then tases her in an effort to get her to leave, seeing her as an intruder. She gets up to go, sees what she has been talking to and is amazed, because she can see it's a Metalmin and she thought all the Metalmins were long dead. The bot tells her it is the property of the Eman family and she doesn't like the idea that something sapient(ish) can be property. She names it Sparky. Sparky tells her to take her queries to "Facilities Manager Elizabeth Merrill" and the sound of the name, combined with the fact that Sparky is good at maths, makes Shabash think the Emans are Eyebolts.
Shabash sets off to explore, believing that she can smell Eyebolts, but after climbing down a slope studded with broken beams what she finds is a container garden under artificial lights. Beyond that, she finds Telic the Helipath Healer's new inpatient ward, and Crazy Rhid, heavily bandaged and strapped into a hospital bed (so presumably Comshaw's mother, the nurse, knows Rhid is there). Telic turns out to be rather sinister. S/he injects Shabash with a paralysing agent in case she is there to murder hir – a reasonable precaution given her profession – but once Shabash is helpless s/he starts to ruminate out loud about using her as a test subject, a clinical guinea pig. Rhid however talks hir out of it (and incidentally acknowledges both that he is a murderer himself, and that he has some well-intentioned long-term goal) so Telic dumps Shabash out in a corridor and locks the door behind her. Rhid gives Telic permission to experiment on him instead, since he isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but Telic says s/he mustn't damage him too much – because Digger Odel still has a use for him, not because of any moral qualms.
Shabash is very collapsed. As she lies on her back, trying to recover from the drug Telic gave her, a male Shallow Wyrm named Rowbynn drops down from somewhere high up and lands on her snout. Rowbynn is studying the quasi-sexual Wyrm process of "Eating", which turns out to be a kind of fusion. The Shallow Wyrm attaches to "Hooks and Trenches" on the skull of a Deep Wyrm – both male, apparently, so perhaps also female to female – and becomes permanently bound in place. The two then form a mental and physical gestalt organism which returns to the Hot Zone and stays there. Rowbynn finds that Shabash too has Hooks and Trenches, of a sort – which, as he acknowledges, raises interesting biological questions – and he is able to form a temporary bond with her which enables them to speak mind to mind, rather as we saw Hax speaking to Camora mind to mind before he took her over.
Rowbynn is a member of the inner circle of the Ring of Clear Air, and as such his official rôle is to lie around being pampered and building up his strength in order to compete in some official contest to do with Eating rituals. But he had a lively mind and wanted something more, so he began investigating Shallow Wyrm society and mapping the extent of it through information he could glean while remaining with his own ring, and was surprised by how many and how different the rings were. We see vignettes of Vim, captain of the guard to the hostile Ring of the Uppermost Spire, stalking Sneckdraw the spy, and also of Kryt the observer, observing. Eventually that wasn't enough to satisfy Rowbynn's need for knowledge so he escaped from his minders and went exploring. He suspects that many others have done the same, and we see a vignette of Urwyn.
Rowbynn tells Shabash that she will be able to break the link with him if she wants to, but if she lets him stay he can help her with her current lifestyle, and has "advantageous secrets to share". He knows where there are caches of Human artefacts and knowledge, located by himself or by other Wyrms, and in return he wants her help in learning more about Fixits. He is very interested in them because the way they take over their "mounts'" minds seems similar to the Eating process.
Shabash explains that she has a problem, related to the fact that she and Fanga were retained to assassinate Bromir. Rowbynn is aware of Bromir, who is "the hero of the Tubish Vat incident". Instead they attacked the very similar-looking Agorn, who is on a list of Gnolls who mustn't be killed. The List also includes Agorn's son Furphy, Comshaw, Mimsy, Niddle, Wittol, Swodswal and Catmorlo among others. Rowbynn hadn't known about the list but says something odd is going on with the Gnolls, and asks who created the List? Shabash went into hiding because she feared Agorn would report her to "some nob" but admits she isn't sure any of them know they are protected: she is pretty sure Agorn doesn't know. Rowbynn says a social facade is being maintained, and we see part of a pair of giant jaws depositing an apple for Agita. He says that an unknown nob or nobs is pushing society, especially the Gnolls, in a particular direction, but he doesn't know what or why. He is investigating out of curiosity rather than a desire to expose the truth. We see an image of Rowbynn being laughed at by another Shallow Wyrm, and the other Wyrm has a thick, solid Ŧ on their bed-base.
Shabash is hungry so they end the psychic conversation. It took less time than it felt like, but even so a hopeful slimegrub is about to bite her ear. Slimegrubs are not really edible unless fricaseed, so Rowbynn directs her to a branch of the Tree. She has had a tiring and perplexing day, so after she has eaten Rowbynn directs her to a sleeping niche, with a Ŧ on the wall. They establish silent communication and then both fall asleep, and find themselves in a shared dream, against a purple backdrop with random scrawls on it including a Ŧ. Above them they can see the famous Skibble (although we cannot), although he doesn't look as Rowbynn imagined him – Shabash says he wears disguises. The dream becomes ever more bizarre – Rowbynn says Skibble is juggling feral ABOLs. Shabash wants to challenge Skibble with a tesselator, which appears in her hand, but Rowbynn says the Grumpy Pincher ate all the tesselators, twice. Shabash charges, Rowbynn goes to her aid (becoming enormous in the process), and Skibble confines them to a tight space for a zillion years "or 'til we bowbing wake up". They flibble. The tesselator has acquired a Ŧ that wasn't there before.
Saturdays in the Basement :: Leny Hall [08/07/2017 – 24/02/2018] [Overlaps Wreaking Havoc to The New Level.] We see Pergola the Gnoll, near Leny Hall, looking at light spilling down from a gap in the ceiling and supporting a tiny fir tree. She has never seen a single tree on its own before, not part of The Tree, and tells Maggle the Trog that a woman called Swinthin had told her about free-standing trees, after she and some others had gone outside to the forest to capture Raviners for breeding, so they could extract Raviner ichor (we see a female Motihaul named Swidnica selling six varieties of it), but the Raviners got loose and became a pest. Pergola has never dared to venture above ground herself, even after the tunnel was put in, because of the scary stories (in her imagination Nomes seem as scary as Spyders and Tree-Squids) and because it all seemed overwhelming. She loves plants and manages to nurture a few with artificial light, but she thinks if she saw plants growing freely in the sun and rain she would stay up there and never come home. Maggle has been to the doorway and only saw clouds and rain and too much light which hurt her eyes, but she is willing to go out with Pergola and make sure she comes back. Pergola asks Maggle to tell Sina about the tree and the gap to the outside which they could work on to make their own exit – and which forest creatures can enter through.
Maggle says Sina is so busy now she doesn't get to speak to her directly – we see Maggle talking to a female Eyebolt secretary, presumably Nikhedonia – and that Sina and Sprocket are busy talking to Spindizzies. Maggle hasn't been to see the Spindizzies because they aren't letting "ordinary folks" in and anyway she has no particular questions to ask them, even though she spends a lot of time exploring, even to the edge of the Hot Zone. She does it for fun, and often gets into trouble – she's not driven like Pergola. Pergola grew up on a fungus farm but became more interested in the weeds. Maggle works on a farm at times, to earn money when she gets bored with eating treefruit, fungi and slimegrubs. Most people can't eat slimegrubs, but Maggle is a darkpelter Trog and is special. Darkpelters only crop up occasionally and randomly. They are resistant to poisons, and more likely to pair up with Nomes (although Maggle has her eye on a fellow Trog, "'cept for the way he makes a living" – it'll probably turn out to be Skradt). Because of her resistance to toxins she helped to eradicate a dangerous plant called a jab-bramble the poison from which has harmful uses – we see a flash of Rhid doing something sinister with a bottle of something.
They meet up with Finimbrun, who is carrying a large domino, maybe 10" long. Rhid had left a set scattered around, and Finimbrun doesn't know what they are or whether they are dangerous or not, so he's going to collect and contain them. Pergola is wary of devices but Finimbrun thinks she's a hypocrite, because plants are just as dangerous and she was involved with the Crudbean, or at least knew Crud. She and Crud had neigbouring plots. He was sad after the death of his mate Cacocala, and had a lot of equipment which was being funded by somebody else. She was nearby when the Crudbean erupted, but so were many other people. Comshaw interviewed her and then killed the Crudbean with one of Rhid's devices, and Pergola profited because souvenir hunters bought all her plants in the hope that they had been contaminated with traces of Crudbean, although it still wasn't enough for her to get her own place. She wrongly assumes Crud died with his bean. Finimbrun lives with Kashkavala, who is an animal expert and food technician (she's trying to make cheese in Kine Hall). We see her talking to a tunnel rat called Snert.
Timf calls Pergola to come and sort out some blorp plants, so she goes off, leaving Maggle looking warily at a flickering light. There is an odd little scene where Tuft the Gobule and Dap the Gnoll are agreeing that some large-scale thing has gone wrong, but Dap can't be arsed to find out what. Off to the side of them we see a machine that seems to be flaring off gas, and has lights which change from green to red.
Saturdays in the Basement :: Nitid the Helipath [03/03/2018 – present] [Overlaps The New Level to Tunnel Vision.] We see Nitid the Helipath sign-writer hovering in front of a wall covered in graffiti, including a thing which looks like a cross between the sign of the Quincunx and the symbol on the Sneech dohickey. The triangle-in-circle part of it has an open, line-drawn triangle, like the one we will see in the far future on Nart's shield, but this one has a green triangle in a red circle, and Nart's will be the reverse, red in green. The Quincunx uses a solid triangle, with both triangle and circle in red. In this case, the green triangle has a distorted and rotated E in it, and the circle has two lines coming off that end with T-bars above question marks.
Nitid goes to speak to Flange the engineer: an awkward, stiff conversation. Flange, who is working on a junction box, is on hir own because Sprocket the Gnoll has gone off courting with Sina, which Helipaths consider very inefficient. There are a lot of wiring problems at the moment – Nitid wonders if this is to do with the previous day, which the Observatory staff say was The Day That Changed Everything, but Flange is sceptical. S/he and Sprocket did some work at the Observatory and were not impressed by their record-keeping.
[Out-take: we see an elderly male Gnoll named Skritch fishing in Sand Point Fish Grotto, to commemorate the death of Patrick McManus. Skritch has managed to wrap his line round a limb of the Tree.]
Nitid asks Flange if s/he recognises the particular symbol at the centre of the triangle-in-circle graffito. Flange says if it were rotated it would become a symbol important to Humans (it's the fancy capital E). Flange is inclined to believe that Humans still exist, but not certain.
Flange goes off to do more engineering work, and Nitid goes to Time Hall, where s/he talks to a female Ecadem named Fyke. Fyke is sad because yesterday the male Ecadem named Smyth, who was working as a bouncer, died in the fight at Le Tree, without ever having found a mate, and there are so few Ecadems left. His friends had tried to talk him out of taking such a dangerous job (we see an image of Hpobfvfr lifting and throwing the Ichyoid, Gill), as Ecadems are fragile, as shown when so many died during the Breach (we see the dead giving of rainbow lines of magic, one of them ending in a Ŧ). Fyke has her name painted on her side, which Nitid refreshes for her for free. She has vague bits of graffiti scratched on her, including a sort of wavery Ŧ, which turns up a lot.
The flank label has something to do with the worship of the Brush. The sect to which Fyke, who is a bit of a fanatic, belongs, have their names painted on their flanks so that Any who Witness will know who they are. Fyke says "We all be gathered here, this place and time, to serve the Brush. Including Those Who Witness. They not be the Brush's.. emissaries. Those be elsewhere." They believe that the Emmissaries of the Brush live behind the Sun, which inverts into the Moon at night, "covered with Signs and Seals of terrible portent". If the moon were to be breached "something awesome and terrible would be released", but it is the duty of all creatures gathered here to breach the sun, "to reach the Emissaries and show we be ready for the next stage." This may be a confused memory of the fact that the Ettins had a moonbase, and the Ecadems were brought to the Mansionverse through an Ettin Panegate from elsewhere.
A Jibjib named Speedy (the one who flew across the Riddler's grotto without being caught) tried to fly to the sun to do this, but fell back exhausted. Fyke thinks they should build a tower to reach the sun, using the Mansion as a base. She thinks the Council will do this sort of thing; Nitid "melded" in favour of sending the Helipath Aprat to join the Council but believes it won't achieve much because Agita, Nevus and Guttle will thwart it.
Fyke starts to warn Nitid that the Hall of the Brush, which opens off Time Hall, is full of false sects who will lead him astray, but is called away by a Boogieman named Trevor to help deal with a situation. Trevor is her new [something beginning with M that we don't get to hear], replacing Geoff in that role after some kind of reorganisation. Nitid enters the Hall of the Brush (we can see there is a Ŧ in the rafters), monitored through a jagged gap high up the wall by a female Eyebolt named Evulgate (Ŧ on the cupboard behind her), who reports to a male ditto named Fremescent who is situated farther up a shaft above her. Evulgate is collecting credits awarded to her for sharp observation, but needs another 23 credits before she will even be told what events are credit-worthy. Of course since both open off Time Hall, the Hall of the Brush must be at least fairly close to Root Hall.
In the Hall of the Brush, Nitid speaks to an elderly-looking Gobule priest of the Brush named Kalon. Nitid isn't really sure why s/he came: Kalon goes through a list of possibilities and they decide that Nitid feels alienated from hir community. S/he does not want to talk to Nefast, a Helipath who is an Ear of the Brush, so Kalon suggests s/he should talk to Febrifuge. Febrifuge is somebody who keeps a record of favours owed, as a kind of currency, but that's not why Kalon thinks Nitid should speak to him or her.
The Hall of the Brush is full of different sects. We see a male Trog holding a flower in a pot, wearing a flower on his head and declaring that "The Bloom is Eternal" to a Gnoll Doomsayer who says that "The End is Nigh", and a male Motihaul (probably Crumpton) with a hooded robe and a candle debating theology with a Gnoll Beebler. He seems to understand "Beeble beeble beeble" as having intelligible content. At Febrifuge's door Nitid meets Shona, who has come to deposit a favour to return the one done her by Comshaw and Niddle the day before, when they gave her advice about her Finagler Wubb. Nitid lets her go ahead and she says OK, but she doesn't owe Nitid a favour for it. Above and left of the door is a sign that says "Cat herder", but the cat's face is a drawing and its nose and mouth are a Ŧ. A male Gnoll, a Spelling Guild member, OKs Nitid's spelling of hir own name on hir own forehead. The Guildsman then goes and shouts at two Doomsayers who have spelled their placards wrong. Meanwhile Pizzle (who seems to be a plant and fungus enthusiast) turns up and asks Nitid to exchange one seed for another, which Nitid does. A marching band with tiny flags pass by low down in the frame, and the Gnoll Irnissa appears with two plants in a pot, and says that the League of Short People are on the march. Digger could join, but he's not much of a joiner, so we must assume these are Shallow Wyrms, Fuzzes and Smyts and/or Sciencebugs. At least some of them are people with feet as they go "tromp, tromp, tromp...."
Irnissa is just there to deliver plants, and assumes Nitid is also there as a professional. They discuss Leny Hall – Irnissa thinks anyone going near Crazy Rhid's old place is crazy themselves – and a male Motihaul in a lurid superhero costume and a horned helmet passes them, carrying a large grasshopper impaled on a fork. Nitid tells Irnissa that Shona is in with Febrifuge, depositing favours she owes to Comshaw and Niddle. Irnissa considers Niddle far more impressive than Comshaw and says he's changing the world through his Finagling, although she herself only "fools around" (we see her with Dap) and doesn't mate as such (generally only couples with a Finagler have young). She thinks Comshaw married Camora for her money, and that really he loves Mimsy.
They discuss Helipath culture. Helipaths bud as clones from a dead parent, so to keep them from growing up too alike littermates are trained separately, and Helipaths in general don't socialise with each other much. They disapprove of anything they consider frivolous, including art for art's sake, and working at the Observatory. Lucint is a social pariah because he works at the Observatory, so he never leaves it and is excluded from the occasional but significant Helipath gatherings. We see Gnolls and Trogs who earn money in frivolous ways: Sina arranging parties, and Stonwal the snout-balancer, with a Ŧ on his hat.
We learn that Irnissa's housemate Piranom is an artist who makes artistic "spewings" using fungi and similar ingredients which work best if collected at night; while Lawnja teaches Gnoll children, as well as doing something unspecified with slimegrubs; and Hiltsa is a fungus-farmer and competition Tosser. We also see that Satyrsong acts as warren guard. Helipaths take part in The Games only if they demonstrate marketable skills. Nitid hirself dislikes games, and prefers to visit the Cavern of Serene Shimmering. Irnissa goes to the Tubish Vats (a play on the Jewish festival Tu b'Shevat, the New Year for Trees) to toss pepons, which seems to be their version of bowling. Half of all Helipaths are allergic to the Tubish Vats. This may be connected to why Helipaths do not fly over the Great Chasm, or even speak of it, although now the Sneeches have left other people are paying Jibjibs to fly them across.
Irnissa departs as the trashy Gobule Mingent (whom she thought had been banned from the Hall of the Brush) comes to annoy Nitid. They are joined by a Boogieman called Graham who is carrying a Christmas tree (but he calls it a Blooms tree) (this was 23rd December 2019) harvested from the forest, in a pot decorated with Ŧs. Mingent comments that Digger has been paid to clear out a killer tree (which we saw here). On 4th January 2020 we see two female Gnolls, probably not in a SubShaft because we see a window in the background, decorating the same tree by hanging flowers on it: one named Dimpchada complains that the decorating is late, while her colleague says it's early for next year.
Mingent fills Nitid in on events elsewhere. The Council and the Ghasts are Human-hunting; the people in Leny Hall have secret information (from the Spindizzies) which has excited them; Guttle (whom he calls Guzzle) is plotting revenge for the auction; a mystery person (could be any of Hamble, Wrawa, Othara, Sylvester, Rosemary, Annabelle, Nirvana or Myrrh) is causing trouble on the far side of the Chasm; Agita is making deals with God who has "hired some new guy" (probably Rufus); and something is happening in the Chamber of the Screaming Meemies, which the Helipaths avoid. We cut away and see Carmal, Faddle and a tunnel rat named Thesar working on machines in the Chamber: Thesar wears a litle jacket and seems to be at least semi-sapient. Since we last saw them Carmal has aquired a crown and a choker collar, and Faddle addresses her as "Your Highness". Then we see Wrawa, still draped in bandages, currently living in the Trogtrap on the side of the Great Chasm. She is performing an incantation to some force or entity which she feels is coming, but "there is something more you NEED".
Because there are so many places Helipaths can't or won't go, Nitid wonders privately whether they come from elsewhere (it's been indicated before that they and the Ecadems were imported by the Ettins through Panegates). S/he and Mingent discuss the long wait to see Febrifuge, and Mingent decides to just barge in and see what's happening. Nitid follows reluctantly, feeling s/he needs to make some urgent decision, but Febrifuge's room is empty aside from a desk with a small round Fuzz sitting on a perch. Nitid taps the Fuzz (who we will learn is called Dinger) and it warbles, acting as a bell. Febrifuge's desk is decorated with a Ŧ with two uprights.
Febrifuge, an elderly Gnoll of unknown gender dressed in hooded robes, appears from a back room and denies that Shona or Mingent are there. Nitid says that s/he has come for advice, mentions Furphy's spiritual theories about nothing being real, which have made hir wonder how much of what they all think they know is actually wrong, and says that s/he has been having dreams. Febrifuge says that s/he deals in favours, not dreams, and suggests that Nitid should talk to the various priests in the Hall, but Nitid says they are too biased in favour of their own cults, and asks Febrifuge to listen as a formal, tradeable favour, to which Febrifuge agrees. Dinger's perch suddenly grows a second crossbar and turns into a Ŧ instead of a T.
Nitid says that s/he has been dreaming about tall Nomes with small ears, and Febrifuge tells hir these sound like Humans. Nitid describes two particular Humans who sound like Sylvester and Svetlana: Febrifuge recognises Sylvester from the description as being one of the Humans who came to the Basement yesterday, but doesn't recognise Svetlana. Nitid has also seen Rosemary in her winged hat, and Snoot, the Motihaul restauranteur, but he sees Snoot in "alien surroundings" (later, Sylvester will offer Snoot a job in the Mansion, so Nitid is seeing the future), which include a bucket of items including a Ŧ. We cut away to see Snoot talking to Erud, his head of security at Le Tree. He is pleased to hear that Squeeb hasn't returned – but then gets a message that his manager, Spatchcock, wants to see him: there is a coloured wooden or metal Ŧ lying on a rock base. We see Shabash and Rowbynn looking at a dead Fixit under a glass dome, and Rowbynn agrees that he would like to see a live one. We also see Frowgler talking to one of the tentacled whatsits (one with darker eyes than we've seen before, but perhaps their eyes change): it is using a chalkboard on which it has written "RECOGITION" [sic] with an arrow pointing to Frowgler, and Frowgler says that it's inevitable, that Myrrh knows too and that "it's all coming together".
Nitid says that s/he also dreams of more Humans and of a Gnoll trio, and Febrifuge tells hir to go talk to the Humans – much to hir alarm. In an out-take for Hanukah 2020 the Fixits we know as "Age" and "Beauty" and their Gnoll mounts are seen holding up a menorah, evidently electrical as it is tethered by a cable, with a rainbow sequence of candles. Meanwhile, Febrifuge demands a return favour – that Nitid carry and deliver a book to return it to the Boogieman leader named Crispin, saving Febrifuge hirself the nuisance of climbing a lot of Boogie-sized stairs.
For New Year 2021 Pergola holds a plant with a large mauve flower which is spewing out vision lines, watched by Timf and Maggle: all are wearing anti-COVID masks.
It is mentioned that the Boogies also have a sacred book that they let no-one else see, but this one is just a regular book. Febrifuge then retires to a back room, where Shona and Mingent (and Mingent's attendant flies, in a bottle) are waiting. Nitid sets off for Brawl Hall, where the Boogies and Ecadems live. A cutaway shows Bung talking to his potted flower – which appears to be sapient – about somebody having got in to see "Father Vim", a deep thinker who is almost at "Riddler level", and who "May not be a person much longer". The primary person named Vim whom we have met is the Shallow Wyrm who is Captain of the Guard at the Ring of the Uppermost Spire. However, a couple of weeks earlier in the main strip we briefly met a very old and reclusive Shallow Wyrm, also called Vim, who was discusisng the recent energy surge with Digger and is presumably the Vim Bung means.
Nitid reaches Brawl Hall, and we see that somehow s/he has acquired up and down arrows drawn on hir back, pointing to one of the cups on hir belt, and which weren't there when s/he entered the Hall of the Brush. The cup is the one in which s/he deposited the seed s/he swapped with Pizzle, and s/he did reach up there with an arm while making the swap: but it was one of the three back arms which are not tipped with paint.
There are two doors inside, one leading to the Boogiemen side and one to the Ecadems. Nitid is surprised to be met by a Boogie without a hat (they've probably dispensed with them to avoid Fixits), but the Boogie tells him even greater changes are coming, and not just the chance to speak to Humans. [In an out-take for May Day, two Gobules wonder whether a Maypole is edible.] Now that the Sneeches have left, there are no more Squeezings, causing problems with the power to the Aurilnodes and the lights. This Boogieman later describes himself as "Bentley the second-rank datascrounger".
There follows a range of vignettes. The elderly female Trog Espy, who works near the Observatory, watches water dripping into a bowl. The Trog Odum hangs upside down to sleep, but has an uneasy feeling he is being watched: high up among the stalactites near his feet, a Shallow Wyrm looks out from a hole. Maggle leaps joyfully down from rock to rock, past niches on which are two small Fuzzes, one of whom holds a Juneteenth flag. A male Motihaul named Wkirp sells gongs (in memory of Frank Bonner) and two Placettes, whom we have seen before with Faddle, bong a gong, surrounded by glowing yellow crystals. Their doing so sets crystals ringing (could they be responsible for the hum in the crystal Thicket?), including one which alerts an unknown, battle-scarred female Gobule, sitting on a ledge watched by an unknown Shallow Wyrm peering from a hole, and a small Fuzz with a staff. This Gobule responds to the signal by kicking a small rock off the ledge, from a stock which she has piled up handy. The rock bounces down through a series of channels, passing a Smyt who is driving a sort of tethered space capsule, then down between metal machines, finally bonging a broken, one-horned horned helmet worn by a female Gnoll, who responds by ringing a bell. A Shallow Wyrm, watching, asks why they don't just have the rock ring the bell directly.
Meanwhile, Nitid talks to Bentley, who says that he patches up problems in the behind-the-scenes places "we ain't supposed to talk about", the most famous being the one with the female Gnolls. We cut away to see a machine – speaking with the voice of what is probably Norton/Rufus – giving new instructions to the Metalmins Hector and Nunsuch and to another dog-like Metalmin similar to Nunsuch, but seemingly tethered to a flexible pipe (this is probably the Penfold who was mentioned before); and a female Spindizzy looking at an odd machine with a stylised picture of a teddy-bear on the front, and on which a metal boot seems to be about to crush a fly which is sitting on a fruit.
In response to what Bentley just said, Nitid refers to the Placettes as female Finaglers, but Bentley says they are different and more scary: that the Finaglers only do things to other Gnolls, but the "no-talk gals" are doing something to everyone else. Through the crystals they tend, they are connected to all the Basement machinery, although he doesn't think they are in charge. He has worked in the SubShafts, scrubbing down the Gnoll workers there, and has come to think that the SubShafts are alive and in control and are progressing towards some mysterious purpose. In addition, he says the Ichyoids have been draping tendrils around (we see an Ichyoid apparently snipping a cable from something that looks like an underwater aurilnode), and Skibble (whom Nitid has never seen) has been committing "his usual hooliganism".
For Labor Day, a Helipath works at a forge, with an unknown Shallow Wyrm sitting on hir head: the Helipath does not have a liftinator (Rob says it got burned off), and is supported by a belt on the end of two metal arms. This is the armourer Hesper, and Rob implied that the Wyrm speaks for them since they don't have a liftinator.
Nitid in turn tells Bentley that Sprocket and Flange have ended their partnership, which Bentley already knew. Bentley comments that Sprocket has mated with Sina of Leny Hall, and that the late Leny did something other Trogs refuse to discuss.
Now we get another series of vignettes. In the Hot Zone we see the Deep Wyrm Yaypo give a dubious look to a rock he is passing. It looks like it may be SuperRock, pretending to be just a stone, but a little crackle of energy comes off it. Ahz tells Skiv (these are the two flower-worm creatures on the Growth at Le Tree) to relax, things aren't that weird, but Skiv talks about a "she", presumably Tand, who "didn't die when she disconnected", and he can feel that she is out there talking to people. Timf rests against a tree-trunk, brooding. Gulch tells her students Gip, Gif and Glub that no-one knows what all the things are, and she has no idea what "this thing" is: the thing is some sort of lamp-like mechanism attached to a plug as drawn by Escher. The Shallow Wyrm Sneckdraw, mounted on his bat, flies towards a little birdbox-like house which hangs just under the ceiling of a cavern, built into a shaped stalactite and next to a hook for the bat to hang from.
Nitid says that Geoff (a Boogieman) and the Ecadem Fyke are no longer affiliated: this is unwelcome news to Bentley, who hurries away. Nitid conveys the book to Crispin, who accepts it with thanks but no other comment: Nitid isn't sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he didn't get yet another lecture.
Now we get still another series of catch-up vignettes. The Nome Rezrov tells his S&M darkpelter Hogminny that if she doesn't stop talking he'll take her name away, and she says "Promises, promises!" The Eyebolt Trugabely, one of the skritchers we saw before, is still Weirding, conjuring shapes above his desk and looking sad. Protus has stored the HJ42 in a box set into a natural rock wall. On Armistice Day Sprocket, wrench in hand, approaches a ruined Metalmin, either to fix or to dismantle it: the Metalmin appears inactive, but is also clutching a wrench. A curly-haired Gnoll with a pencil works on an endless production line, drawing strip cartoons.
At this point, in late 2021, Rob went on hiatus (aside from a few seasonal entries in the fanart section) for nearly a year while dealing with family issues, after which he resumed work on the strip, but switched to posting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rather than every day. The very last strip of this phase of the story shows what looks like the same rather battered and grubby female Motihaul we saw in the Mad Hatter Day strip, clinging on to the edge of a rock shelf. We don't know whether she is climbing up, or trying not to fall off.
In another series of Basement vignettes which began posting just over two years later, Frag and Forfind stand wary guard outside Le Tree. Above them is a ragged hole in the wall, through which we glimpse the same battered female Motihaul, watched by a slimegrub. We see Nitid hovering and brooding. The Gnoll Troat is seen trying to persuade two Gobules, Tono and Valn, whom we have seen before in Time Hall, that they should set up residence in an empty cave where "... anyone else comes 'long, Bam! We're ready, n' get the drop on 'em". Above him, on a ledge, Hamble – still with Squeeb strapped to his arm – prepares to drop a rock on him. He has evidently decided to cross the Chasm. One of Guttle's employees tells him that things with Nevus are going as expected, but something weird is happening with Agita. The Gnoll Finimbrun bricks up the entrance to a cave in which are six or more of Rhid's large dominoes. Sneckdraw dozes at the window of his birdbox house, lines of force coming off him, and the chimney smoking: his bat sleeps hanging from its perch nearby.
Meanwhile, Crumpton the Candle Monk thinks that something is happening again, and Shabash and Rowbynn stand by a railing, looking down from a high point. We don't see what they're looking at, but Shabash says it's bigger and more glowing than when she saw it as a whelp, so it's probably the River of Fire. Ploot manipulates a dead Gobule (Chuw) with his tail: there are still some small flames in the foreground, and someone throws a stone at them. In the Favors Repository Febrifuge tells Mingent and Shona to stay where they are while s/he goes out for a bit, as they have "very messy Favor tangles to unknot". Timf and Pergola hold hands, watched by a Fuzz: Timf looks a bit nervous.
From this point on the main timeline and Basement timeline rejoin, as Sylvester and Comshaw's party reach Le Tree.
Smyt Celebrations [30/11/2015 – 05/10/2020 and 24/11/2022 – present] We see a variety of scenes from the lives of Smyts and other small sapient species, concentrating on celebrations and rituals which match up with Human ones in our world.
To begin with we see a group of small creatures at least some of whom are Smyts (their outlines are lost in bright light, but you can just see the beaks) being dazzled by the light from what looks like the tip of Mortimer's umbrella. Next we see a Christmas scene which just shows a Smyt in a green bobble-hat, looking at a Christmas tree (or in this context, possibly a Bloom tree) across a gulf between two rocks, but this is followed by an elaborate New Year scene showing a large, multi-coloured group of Smyts and Fuzzes having a party. A Smyt woman in a chef's hat is stirring a large bowl of some kind of hot drink or soup and distributing it in tiny white mugs, and behind her is what seems to be one end of a laden buffet table. Super Smyt is present, standing on a tall narrow pillar, and there is a Trundlebug rider. On some of the wider rock pillars are the faint outlines of the faces of some of Rob's fellow ComicGenesis artists. Most intriguingly, the party-goers that we can see are nineteen Smyts, one Trundlebug, two small round Fuzzes and a Shallow Wyrm. Despite the combat between Smyts and Fuzzes which we have seen on other occasions, the small fry evidently have their own version of a multi-species Basement society. On 18th January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see the Christmas Smyt who has used a grappling hook to cross the gulf to the Christmas Tree, which is alive and growing on a ledge, and who is now using the tree itself as a stage in a climb up to the open air, sun and flowers, where blades of grass spell out "Free at last".
After that we see several disconnected vignettes. On Groundhog Day/Candlemas we see two female Smyts playing with an artificial, Human-scale lamp which makes their shadows big and impressive (and for some reason red-eyed and not following their movements, so the shadows have become independent apparitions). On Valentine's Day the two small Fuzzes from the New Year party hold hands on top of a giant pink heart. Next, for reasons I don't know, we see a Smyt official wondering whether to push a big red button in a time of crisis. On Leap Day Super Smyt leaps to the rescue of two other Smyts who are in a cage on the roof of a prison (or of one of them, anyway: one is tied up and the other may be a villain); and on St Patrick's Day a green Smyt in a floor-length robe herds snakes away using a simple shepherd's crook. For Arbor Day, nine Smyts are seen partying in a tree, while a fruit-bat tries to sleep.
On U.S. Memorial Day we see a miniature open-air graveyard in which the graves are marked by twigs thrust upright into the ground and ringed with small stones. Two Smyts are barbecuing sausages, while the green, robed Smyt from the St Patrick's Day strip explains the ceremony to a teenage boy. Next is another solemn strip in which eight variously-coloured Smyts and two of the small round Fuzzes are seen gazing at a rainbow flag, to commemorate those killed in the mass-shooting at Pulse, the Orlando gay nightclub.
For Father's Day, a male Smyt with striped horns picks coloured fruits which spell out "Happy Paday" while his son and daughter watch, with a Juneteenth flag on the wall behind them. The father and son were previously seen in the Bad Penny out-take early in the series. The next day a group of underground Smyts celebrate the Summer Solstice by dancing around a miniature dolmen and a model of a stylised sun which they no longer recognise.
For the Fourth of July a large group of Smyts and Fuzzes watch a Smyt in a crash-helmet, carrying flaming coloured fireworks, being flung from a mangonel to land (if he's lucky) in an underground lake. For the strip's thirteenth birthday on 16th July two Smyts climb to the top of a giant cake, and on 13th August 2016 a Smyt cook makes extra-hot salsa to commemorate the sudden death of Rob's cousin Darrell.
For Labor Day a cross-section through a tunnel system shows Smyts at work on various tasks: a sculptor; a weaver; a farmer; an apothecary; a blacksmith; a carpenter; a baker; a bricklayer; a miner; a fisherman; and one who was watching the bricklayer but seems to be about to fall into the fishpond. For Columbus Day a would-be settler Smyt in a boat is discouraged from landing on the Far Eastern Shore by a native Smyt.
A Fuzz dresses up as a Smyt and a Smyt as a Fuzz for Hallowe'en, and over the next two days Smyts parade in skull masks for the Day of the Dead, then lay them on the graves of loved ones. The rest of that week is all Smyts, not all for specific holidays. A Smyt male nurse gives soup to a female patient in bed. To celebrate a victory by the Chicago Cubs, Smyts play baseball, watched by an audience including two monks who think it's a harmless expression of tribalism, preferable to war. On Guy Fawkes Night Smyts gather round a bonfire, and one of them daydreams about explosives.
On Armistice Day two Smyts, a one-eyed veteran and a youngster, discuss war. To round off the year, a pair of Thanksgiving strips show two Smyts eating until they are insensible.
The death of comics artist Stan Lee in 2018 is marked by a strip featuring SpyderSmyt who "Does whatever a Spyder might" – except maths. In 2019 the death of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca, is marked by a scene of a spaceship piloted by a roguish-looking male Smyt (with a mouth, and Human arms), whose actions are being questioned by an anxious male Fuzz (mini-Wookie) – one of the purple ones with three antennae – who speaks excellent, upper-class English. The Smyt is saying, in a sort of scrambled cod-runic script, "Relax pal we ain't dead yet". Thee are Ŧs on the backs of their chairs.
Also in 2019 the popularity of Godzilla films is celebrated with a scene of a very large, scarred male Trog with Ŧs on his arms attacking a rock formation which is hotly defended by a lot of little brown Smyt soldiers, wearing grey caps. They try to drive him off using tiny mangonels and flaming cones as a Vagabond flutterby flies past, looking like an aircraft.
After this the Smyt strips only appear intermittently. Global Teachers' Day 2020 shows a scarred female Gnoll with a blackboard and pointer, teaching letters and numbers to a mixed class of Smyts, Fuzzes and one Trundlebug. A boatload of green Smyts face two Fuzzes on the shore for Indigenous Peoples Day. A Batman Smyt commemorates the death of Kevin Conroy. Thanksgiving 2022 shows an elderly, bright green male Smyt (Nart's Unc Frim) sitting down alone to a big plate of food, and the death of Bob McGrath of Sesame Street is marked with a scene of a green Fuzz lurking in a dustbin, a green Smyt in a knitted jumper and a corner of the anatomy of a near-Human-sized yellow "Big Bird" Fuzz. The Fourth of July 2023 has Frowgler shooting out coloured sparks for an excited audience of Smyts and Fuzzes, and the strip's 20th anniversary shows a tiny Smyt, with knife and fork, gazing up at a huge, sparkly cakeshroom. Thanksgiving 2023 shows a tiny Smyt clutching a fork, gazing up at a joint of meat a hundred times bigger than himself, and thinking "Challenge accepted".
Sunday in the Hollows [05/10/2014 – 07/11/2021] The Hollows series picks up from the end of the SubShaft 44f strips, with the adventures of the hamster-sized Metalmin 3375 which began at the end of Sundays in SubShaft 44f part 2 :: Upheavals, took up most of Sundays in the SubShafts: Backstage, and continued towards the end of Sundays in the SubShafts: Meanwhile, but the timeline appears to have jumped forwards into the far future, at least as the tiny Fuzzes measure time, with Humans a distant memory to them.
The location of the Hollows, and of the Fuzz civilisation that we see in the main timeline, is uncertain: there is evidence both that they are in the Basement in Audravania and that they are under the Spires in Mechana. For an examination of the evidence see thoughts on various plot points: locating the Hollows.
Because the Hollows series is so long that it causes loading problems if displayed on a single page, I have split it into sections, but these are mine rather than Rob's. Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry. A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky". Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor. Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar. They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt. Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini. 3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day). They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on. Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement. We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys. They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things. Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them. Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles. Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow. Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.] Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so. 3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off. We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks. Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood. As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things. They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting. 3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question. They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up. Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays. Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride. They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION". Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive. First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it. The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls. Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches. I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later. Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong. She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake. Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches. Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does. Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be. They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration. Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight. Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified. Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at. They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about. She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately. Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead. Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again. We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit. When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him. The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois. The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall. Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London). Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl. Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame. Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock. When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around. Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow. The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to. That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period. Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past. Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story. After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful. After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb. Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion. Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated. A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page. Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed. If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames If you are seeing this text, your browser does not support inline frames
Sunday in Summerfather Hollow [05/10/2014 – 27/11/2016] We see that Mule 3375 is now buried under soil or sand in the middle of a dry plain or arena dotted with dead trees and aloe-like plants, and surrounded by stone slabs. The strip's label says it has been "Sent on Ahead", suggesting the scene is in the future relative to the main action. 3375's head and hands (which are new) break the surface, so it can see all around. We do not know whether 3375 has been conscious and thinking, and even having varied experiences, for all the intervening time, or whether subjectively it's still only about six hours since it was a tendril on a Dreamfish and a little toy car with complex circuitry.
A large, elongated Fuzz named Frizzlegarb (presumably the Frizzlegarb of legend, whom Rosemary and Sylvester thought might have been a surviving Wilf and who had possibly been sent into their past by a Willigig), wearing a hat and a rucksack, comes and talks to 3375 and encourages it to dig itself out. While it is doing so, Frizzlegarb asks if it was sent by "Ol' whosis Bigshot Downbelow" – 3375 nods, so it understands speech, but it cannot speak – and says that the Zerotasker itself gave him the job of assisting newcomers. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 having been sent "up here, like the others" and says that somebody named Dada will help it to talk. He warns 3375 to hurry and dig itself out before a "Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster" crunches the hole. 3375 climbs all the way out and we see that it has been re-modelled into a more manlike (or, given its small size, Smyt-like) bipedal shape. Frizlegarb is evidently used to dealing specifically with adapted Mules, because he says "Just remember, you got legs now, instead of wheels". Once 3375 has got the hang of walking on two legs it ambles off after Frizzlegarb voluntarily, and a metal plunger descends from the ceiling, attached to some sort of hose, and crushes the area around the hole to make it smooth again. Frizzlegarb leads 3375 past a toy Dalek with the Brush drawn on it, and past a sort of crude menorah and a crossword grid, and tells him there are a series of Hollows. This one is the Arrival Hollow, and fairly safe, but the Fogg Hollow and Yalda Hollow are dangerous. Getting from one Hollow to another can be "sorta tricky".
Frizzlegarb leads 3375 to a sort of cone-shaped transporter or lift, about 18" high (i.e. a bit over twice as tall as Frizzlegarb), which is a speaking machine which tries to drive them away with threats and flailing metal arms. But Frizzlegarb says this is a kind of test, like the one 3375 went though "right after ya got shed offa that fish-thing", confirming that he has dealt before not just with bots but specifically with Mules. He knows which buttons to press and the pair enter a chamber inside the cone, which shuts behind them. After the door closes, another metal plunger slams down to the ground where they had been standing. This one has two pilots inside it – probably more large Fuzzes (we only see the eyes, but they are the same size as Frizzlegarb's eyes). They are probably female, both because Rob draws females with coloured rings around the iris (one has red rings and one green) and because we will learn that most of the Fuzzes in these Hollows seem to be female. They are annoyed that the "new guy" is already gone, curse Frizzlegarb and expect that their master will be angry. After this second plunger has retracted back into the sky/ceiling, a plant standing at the side is seen to think that it had better report all of this – it looks like the same plant which was with the pirate hamster, but older and more ragged. It sends up some sort of bud or bubble on a long stem to carry information to the roots of a plant on a higher floor.
Frizzlegarb and 3375 emerge from the machine in a different hollow, the Hollow of Statues, with another plant (possibly this is a higher floor and the plant which received the message), and several statues of (apparently) Humans. Frizzlegarb says "And Frim's your uncle": evidently Frim is, like Bob, a common name, since Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora will have a Smyt friend who really does have an Uncle Frim. These statues are so old and information about them has drifted so much that Frizzlegarb describes a statue of a King Archibald as "Kinger Chybald", who carries a shield and a spade. Legend says he could use his magic spade to dig though so he could pass from anywhere to anywhere easily: perhaps a memory of Panegates. The statues include The Ponderer, which is Rodin's Thinker but in a wizwitch hat; The Stoic, who is Spock, to mark the death of Leonard Nimoy; a vulture representing mortality; and symbolic abstract shapes representing fire and water, and smoke and mirrors. 3375 exmines itself in a mirror on this one. In the foreground are very badly-made sculptures of walruses, resembling the mistaken idea which Juniper got from Rosemary's description of one. Frizzlegarb refers to 3375 as a Metmin, warns hir about Hollows filled with real fire or water, and mentions a real Hollow of the Smoking Mirror, saying that the mirror there is a liar.
They come to a giant painted Easter egg, on a base with "GO FOR BROKE" written on it. Frizzlegarb starts to explain mortal reproduction, and the egg cracks open to reveal a snaky-looking machine called a Boonbot, which gives them gifts. Frizzlegarb, who heard about Boonbots from somebody named Hofmin, is given a Keystaff, a mechanism all of which were believed to have been destroyed during a revolt by a group called Winnifites or Winnifrites (Protus was talking about Winnifred to Olaf, and later evidence suggests that the blue nun Lizshella whom Cully met in the future was a Winnifrite). The next boon, given to both of them, is that they are zapped by the Boonbot – and by a second bot, or maybe an extension of the Boonbot, which seems to be inside a model cake – and vanished to somewhere else just before the plunger with the two probably-Fuzz pilots crashes down where they'd been standing. We learn that the pilots are called Matachin (red eyes) and Mirador (green eyes). They can sniff that Frizzlegarb's trail came here and then stopped, and they serve a master who rants and dribbles and whose sanity they doubt.
Frizzlegarb and 3375 arrive, dazed, at a new location in between the extended forefingers of two hand-shaped sculptures which contain some kind of transporter machinery, and seem to be the hands of a stylized face drawn in thin lines on the wall. Frizzlegarb says they are in an inhabited hollow called Summerfather Hollow, where they shouldn't have arrived for some time, or together. He had expected just to show 3375 around until he/it found something to do. Frizzlegarb will stick with 3375 because the Zero-Tasker told him to, and will get angry if he doesn't do his job, even though he would have been free to refuse to take it on: we learn that this is some presumably-mortal being who communicates through bots, and buys services with information. The Winnifrites wanted this knowledge to be free. While they are talking one of the fingertips, and later a pillar in the background, pop out weird signs: one of then looks like a Fuzz-sized bikini.
3375 will need to pay to recharge, but not for a long time. The Keystaff opens special doors and performs other significant tasks which were fought over in the past. 3375 remains 3375 for the moment but will eventually choose a significant name, as someone called Flitch did. He doesn't know why the Zero-Tasker is called that (but there was a Zero-Task cavern in the Basement in Sylvester's day).
They meet another Fuzz, called Takapeny, who knows Frizzlegarb and calls him a gadabout. She is surprised to see a bot like 3375 in Summerfather, and even more surprised to learn that he can't talk. They need to get a hat from a hat tree for 3375 – Summerfather does have a hat tree, although only Grade A, not Grade AAA. The Fuzzes both call 3375 "Mr." 3375, and later he will be The Old Chap, so I'll call him "he" from here on.
Takapeny won't tell them what she was doing in this area – she starts to say she came to speak to the... something starting with "Gr", then changes her mind and says it's none of their business and not important, and she will take them to the hat tree. We see that she was in fact going to speak to three of the sessile snake creatures, growing out of a plant or anenome-like structure similar to the one at Le Tree (but with different snakes), so "Gr—" was probably The Growth. The snakes fear that her non-appearance may jeopardize something called the Summerfather Operation. They are two male heads, and a female in the middle, raising the possibility that Tand broke free from between Ahz and Skiv, which was later confirmed. They are linked to what looks like part of The Tree from the Basement.
We learn that Summerfather Hollow is well-equipped with gadgets, including a giant (or at least Human-sized) marshmallow maker and toaster, which means it must have a Component Fabricator. All or at least many hollows have a top-secret zone called the Very Secure Area where they each work on some mysterious Central Device. The possibility of spies from Wintermother Hollow is mentioned. Frizzlegarb has to keep moving because he has no home hollow – it is hinted that his home hollow was destroyed while he was on one of his journeys.
They pass a locked, smallish-Human-sized but Ettin-like door which Summerfather are trying to open; all or many of the Hollows have one, all labelled FCM and a number. The word "SCRAM" keeps appearing, on the door, on a wall and spelled out in sculptures of green one-eyed snake-things.
Eventually Frizzlegarb may apply for membership of another occupied hollow, if someone sponsors him, or find an unoccupied one and set up a new colony. On the wall behind them as they speak is a Japanese-looking drawing of Frowgler with something man-shaped but naked, skeletal and vaguely demonic, and the same size as himself. Takapeny and Frizzlegarb discuss other hollows he has visited, including the Purple Zone beyond Terminus Hollow, which is quite extreme and hostile (their own zone, with the chestnut Fuzzes, is the Brick Zone). Purple-Zoners wear their hair in three tufts ending in bobbles or antennae: legend paints them as baby-eating pagans with lobster-claws on their heads but they are just regular people who aren't very welcoming to outsiders. He has also visited the Steps of the Dead (each step chest-height to him); and the Central Hollow, which he found peaceful but dull. We see Fuzz wizwitches or Oracles, or perhaps statues of them with lighted eyes, standing on tall pillars with flowers at the base. He also visited somewhere where he met an armoured Fuzz with a sword and a boar's-head banner; and a terrible place called Bundtmoc Hollow. There are friendly monks in Humsoc Hollow, who shoot bows and ride Peddlebugs: possibly the same as Trundlebugs, although they'd need to be about chipmunk-sized for these Fuzzes to ride them.
Note that among the humans of Sylvester's time, the Oracles of the Brush were quite hostile to magic. But here in the future, among the Fuzzes, the kind of hat which people of Sylvester's day associated with wizwitches are now worn by Oracles.
Frizzlegarb has had two marital partners, one male, one female, but neither marriage worked out. The female partner did a lot of travelling with him (we will later learn that her name is Jordsullva). The male partner lived in a fortified settlement called a Bailiwick and Takapeny wants to know how come Frizzlegarb was allowed in when the Bailiwicks are usually sealed to strangers, and how it happens that he seems to go everywhere and be admitted anywhere so casually. Frizzlegarb says that people tend to just label something impossible without trying it, so he does try it and sometimes it really is impossible, and sometimes it isn't. The three things he considers truly impossible are reaching the Inner Central Hollow, sailing the Snapperchomp Sea and meeting a living Smyt. They seem to be extinct, or at least the Fuzzes have no access to them: the only sapients Takapeny knows of, now or in the past, are other Fuzzes, and bots [and The Growth, but she's not admitting to that in company.]. Her religion tells her that Fuzzes were promised that they would be the only talkers. However, there's a preserved dead Smyt in a museum in Fadewell Hollow.
Takapeny takes them to the Hat Tree, where hats grow like fruits [could this be connnected to the formation of Fixits? there's a joke here where Frizzlegarb says that hats don't talk, as far as he knows], and 3375 chooses one. Frizzlegarb and 3375 head off, looking for someone who will teach 3375 to speak. On the way 3375 confirms, by gesture, that he has seen a live Smyt. Now that the Boonbot has jumped them to Summerfather Hollow the usual voice trainer Dada in Guth Hollow is a long and risky journey away, so Frizzlegarb instead intends to take 3375 to his aunt Haravmilca. They pass another big Easter Egg quickly, not wanting to see what might pop out of this one. Meanwhile Takapeny procedes to a meeting with a Ms Twed, who is the female sessile-snake thing growing out of the Growth we saw earlier. The male heads close down into their buds for the duration. Twed refers to "this week's session". [Takapeny must be lying when she says she believes that only Fuzzes and bots can talk.]
Another cone-shaped transport mechanism, but one which Frizzlegarb says has never worked, refuses to speak to Frizzlegarb and 3375, even when Frizzlegarb knocks on it with his staff, but is later seen talking to a plant (which again looks like the one from Station V3 and later the hamster's pirate ship). Being touched by the Keystaff has unlocked its ability to do so.
3375 and Frizzlegarb pass a drawing of a Metalmin like 3375 wielding a hammer, then meet Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's "official" mother (in that she raised him, but didn't give birth to him), who doesn't like the idea of enlisting her biological sister Haravmilca to teach 3375 to speak, because Haravmilca will be smug about it. Mention is made of a male named Okapple who is responsible in some way for minding their technology, and for whom Struhaitta is responsible in a way she isn't for her sister. Okapple seems to be Struhaitta's unofficial partner, so he may be Frizzlegarb's foster father. He usually works in another area but has taken over minding the new tech in Summerfather Hollow because the regular guy, Apeltu, has disappeared, although Struhaitta thinks he's just sloped off.
We see an out-take of a female Fuzz in a red and cream hat, with a pick and a backpack, climbing among tall purple spires ringed with beige plants in Nestcrowd Hollow. This, we will learn, is Frizzlegarb's former wife Jordsullva. Near her, on top of a pillar, is what looks like a birds' nest, but the "birds" have springs for necks.
Frizzlegarb's sister, not named, is with the Undersiders and likely to stay there, and his some-time wife Jordsullva whom he isn't supposed to mention is "in NestCrowd, collecting nesttext". Struhaitta warns him against contacting this woman and says that she's dangerous, not just to him but to everybody, because she meddles with things Struhaitta thinks shouldn't be meddled with. Frizzlegarb says he has no urge to be a hero [another in-joke, since he will become a folk-hero in Audravania]. They discuss the fact that Frizzlegarb and 3375 haven't been to see "our hosts in the central Hollow", which seems to be a good decision, and that Struhaitta is there to speak to an Oracle. It seems these future Fuzzes have embraced the religion of the Brush, also mentioned in relation to the Purple Zoners. Frizzlegarb and 3375 will also need to speak to the Oracle, but Struhaitta warns them she's in a bad mood.
As Frizzlegarb and 3375 walk along, Frizzlegarb explains that Struhaitta isn't his biolgical mother (who he thinks is probably dead) but his "official" mother, who raised him. The sister who is with the Undersiders (who live down in a dark zone) is Struhaitta's biological daughter. Most inhabited Hollows have an Oracle, and Oracles are chosen as children and trained in Spuman Hollow. Okaple's tech skills are passed down from generation to generation – he is training a male called Crakovkey. Struhaitta is disappointed because either Frizzlegarb or his sister should have been the tech trainee, but they both did other things.
They come to the Oracle Hocrosbin, who is wearing a magical pointed hat and who demands to know why Frizzlegarb has a Keystaff, and when he says it was a gift she mutters about the boonbots handing them out. She mentions Sentinals, who are supposed to be mythical but she tells Frizzlegard they're real and he'll be finding out a lot about them. She is concerned about the fact that 3375 is going to be processed by Haravmilca, because Haravmilca is "an intellectual trouble-maker and a stirrer of pots". She prophesies that they will nevertheless go to Haravmilca, she will train 3375 and the results will be exciting.
3375 asks by gesture how Hocrosbin's magical hat works and she says she doesn't know. It clarifies her thoughts, but to know how they would have to ask a "Hooman". She assures Frizzlegarb that Humans are or were real, and looked like the statues they passed earlier. Humans died or went beyond the Edge after a catastrophe which might be the Crash, or the Poking of the Hot Zone, or something else (especially if we are in the former Spires). She assures him that Smyts are real too, and Frizzlegarb says he'll have to get a boat and cross the Snapperchomp Sea to find them. Hocrosbin says she'll expect a full report – if he survives. As for the hat, a Fuzz explorer named Capistran found a "skulk", a hiding place, where there were Human drawings of how to make the wizard hats. A tech named Avgrado recreated and tested one. She tells Frizzlegarb to go experiment with the Keystaff – and compliments 3375 on his hat. After they have left, Hocrosbin "communes" mentally with another Oracle named Nacha, in order to pass on news. Frizzlegarb tells 3375 that Oracles share information with each other but not always with other people, and then only if you ask the right question.
They reach the edge of Summerfather Hollow where they choose to use a thing called a Hugrunner to shift them to the next Hollow, instead of going by the stairs. The Hugrunner is a big funnel-like thing which shoots out tentacles and picks them up.
Sunday in Cookiedice Hollow [04/12/2016 – 21/01/2018] The Hugrunner transfers Frizzlegarb and 3375 to the far side of a wall which is probably both high and wide. Frizzlegarb says that in some places it's possible to climb to the top of the wall, but that it isn't worth it because it is "all jagged 'n jumbled up there". It sounds like their hollows are recesses in some kind of ruin – perhaps Human or Ettin rooms which have lost their roof. There are two hollows which can be accessed only by going over the wall: one, called Noodlering, is inhabited and the other is just called "Keep Out", and seems to be full of flames. Now they are in Cookiedice Hollow, which is almost uninhabited but has been claimed by Summerfather as space into which to expand if they need to. It contains statues of a giant biscuit and two dice (each about 10" across), hence the name. There is a hollow called Joygerm, also named after something which is in it. Joyjerm was the name of the town where Ace knew Blas, the Nome baker, and also Joy Germs was the name of some kind of bath salt in Sylvester's time. Cookiedice was the name of a book owned by Nitfol's father: but given the evidence that Frizzlegarb was later whisked back through time by a Willigig and became a hero in the past of Audravania, it's moot whether the Hollow was named after the book or vice versa. We also see a lift in Audravania shifting boxes labelled COOKIES and DICE. Summerfather was apparently named by somebody who came there on their summer holidays.
Suddenly a big (by their standards) metal cylinder on the end of a flexible arm/tube slams down in front of them. Frizzlegarb calls it an Armored Insertion Station, and says it comes from Aboveside. All these devices which slam down from above – the Crackle-Crunching-Crisp-Cruster, the device piloted by Metachin and Mirador, and now this AIS – are the same shade of dark amaranth, as if it's some company's livery. Inside it is someone named Anskatkwet, who has borrowed it without asking, in order to come and warn Frizzlegarb he is in danger of death – or even if he would survive, it's imperative to get 3375 processed, soon, by Haravmilca, and to keep him away from Dada, the usual voice-trainer/bot-processor. The AIS opens up and extrudes a ramp, and Anskatkwet tells them to get onboard. She will take them to Haravmilca, who lives some distance away: to get there the pod will take them Aboveside, which Frizzlegarb says is a place no-one goes, and then make adjustments to where it comes down again. Anskatkwet isn't willing to tell them how she has access to the Aboveside. Frizzlegarb gives 3375 the choice whether to go with Anskatkwet or not, and 3375 chooses to accept the offer of a ride.
They climb into the AIS, Frizzlegarb going first to make sure he isn't left behind. Anskatkwet has disabled the important buttons, but still tells them not to touch anything, except bars to hold on to. The AIS moves upwards out of shot, and then we see an irregular crack in the wall open up to reveal floodlights and a medium-sized Metalmin, who releases a flutterby from a container, points at it as it flies away, and says something too small to read. Higher up, a net emerges from a hatch and tries and fails to catch the flutterby, and a mechanical voice announces "FLUTTERBY NETTING ATTEMPT FAILED. FLUTTERBY STILL TRACKING ARMORED INSERTION STATION".
Frizzlegarb and 3375 are shut in a compartment, initially lit only by the lights from display panels, while Anskatkwet (aka Anskat) is in a control room above them. The hatch between them is locked, but 3375 points to the key Frizzlegarb carries. The compartment begins to fill with Walpur Gas (this was a May Eve/Walpurgisnacht strip) – Anskat sounds apologetic about it and says that "it won't—" something and that she'll make sure they get to Haravmilca, but Frizzlegarb uses his Keystaff to open the hatch between them and climb up into the control section. He tells Anskat he's resistant to the gas, but she refuses to shut it off, telling him that if he's still conscious when they arrive Aboveside, he'll be killed, but if they're both unconscious he might live. He goes back down, closes the hatch and falls asleep, after telling 3375 he's the wrong guy for this job and they should have got a hero, while Anskat vents the gas from her half so she can stay at the controls. She tells 3375, who is now effectively alone, to act aloof and let her do the talking when they arrive.
First a largeish red and yellow bot and then a smaller grey one stick their heads into the compartment to look at 3375, as Frizzlegarb sleeps in the corner. The grey one is a BureaucratBot which quizzes 3375 (who still cannot talk) about the fact that the AIS is listed as stolen. Anskat says she is 3375's Official Spokesbeing and that the AIS isn't stolen, because 3375 made an Emergency Requisition, and now he requests that it be shifted to Hollow 5C-28. The bot says his requisition rights are not unlimited but they do cover that, and asks why he needs to go there. Anskat says 3375's cargo must be taken there – the cargo being Frizzlegarb. It agrees, but says Frizzlegarb must remain dormant, and places a small, kettle-shaped bot to watch them (it is red with three zigzag yellow prongs which spit magic). Before leaving, the BureaucratBot tells Anskat to tell 3375 that it likes his hat. Anskat tells 3375 to grab a rail as they are about to move: as they do so the unconscious Frizzlegarb's hat falls over his eyes, and 3375 adjusts it.
The movement of the AIS involves a lot of clanking and banging. It travels through an Inversion Zone where all colours become their opposite (3375 becomes khaki and Frizzlegarb cyan), then the Twisfer [sic] Zone where they are shaken to a blur. Then they join onto an unseen Coupling Station from which they are meant to drop down into the new Hollow, although there is an unscheduled pause before they start moving. No sooner have they started moving than something unseen but loud clamps onto them, and Anskat complains that she has been unexpectedly locked out of the controls.
Another largeish red and yellow bot sticks its head in to look at 3375, spitting magic, and accuses him of trespassing under false pretenses. The kettle-bot sparks magic as well, but then the power shuts down, switching off both bots and leaving 3375 in almost complete darkness. Anskat asks if 3375 is still active and he knocks on the wall. She says she doesn't know why he is still active, but maybe it's because he hasn't been processed yet, and maybe when they are processed something else is added: presumably a remote control which means they can be switched off from a distance. She starts to say something about not all of "you" popping out of the ground the way 3375 did, when the AIS lurches.
I have no idea why, since the date was 10th December 2017 and I can't see anything significant which happened that day or the day before, but suddenly we get a snapshot from Nestcrowd Hollow. We see three of the tall narrow purple spires, each with a flat top ringed by beige plants. On top of one in the background is a springy wire attached to what looks like a stick of dynamite, or perhaps a candle, instead of the bird heads we saw before. On top of the one in the foreground a Fuzz of unknown gender (but probably male as very flat-chested) is lying on his or her back on a flat rock, eyes covered by a towel, being scolded by Jordsullva. She asks if he(?) is alive and he says maybe and to check back later.
Anskat doesn't know why the power is out, but at least the AIS is still descending. She says there are important people "up there" who argue about how the Hollows should go. She works for one, although she's never seen them in the flesh, only talked to them through a machine (which has a triangular screen-onna-stick which looks like a detached part of the Djinnoscope), and they may be the one who has shut off the power. She is fond of Frizzlegarb but hasn't told him about this. She says that 3375 hasn't shut off because he hasn't been processed yet, and that Dada, the usual voice trainer, must be doing something to bots like him when he processes them, to enable them to be remotely closed down. Whoever shut the power off, which she hopes is her boss, must agree with her that whatever Dada is doing is wrong.
She speculates that 3375 must be important, and maybe if Haravmilca processes him and gives him a voice he will tell them that what they have been told about the "robot before-place" is all lies (although clearly not all of it is, because Frizzlegarb at one point mentioned 3375 being generated from a fish-strand). Then she sees a light outside, so she knows not everything has powered down, and Frizzlegarb begins to wake.
Sunday in Datuhkazu Hollow [28/01/2018 – 07/11/2021] Anskat tells 3375 they are arriving in Datuhkazu Hollow, which has a distinctive smell and is filled with abstract blue shapes, a little bit like Sneech growths but in blue rather than green. She tells him to wake Frizzlegarb and prepare to get away from the AIS immediately. They touch down and Frizzlegarb uses his blue Keystaff to open the hatches.
Literally running isn't possible because there are many holes in the ground, but they move away from the AIS as fast as possible. It retracts upwards into the air and then explodes behind them. Anskat thinks it was sabotaged rather than shot down, but doesn't know whether it was done by an enemy seeking to prevent 3375 from reaching Haravmilca, or a friend covering their tracks. They do have friends, some with an interest in Frizzlegarb, but more who are protecting 3375. Frizzlegarb was hired to be there when 3375 emerged from the ground, even before anyone knew it would be that bot in particular who emerged: he works out from this that Dada is doing more to the new bots than giving them voices, and someone wants a clean unmodified bot to get a voice from Haravmilca instead, to avoid whatever Dada does.
Anskat says that the "nobs" who regulate the Hollows (including the Guardians and the Zero Tasker) are arguing with unusual intensity about how best to do it. Her employer wants change. Frizzlegarb likes things the way they are, but says if Dada is messing with the bots without their permission that isn't right, so he'll help with getting 3375 to Haravmilca. He is concerned that the pro-Dada nobs will drop another AIS and use it to kill Haravmilca, but Anskat says both sides of nobs agree there are certain individuals who are important and must not be killed – echoing Shabash's list of unkillable Gnolls. Haravmilca is on that list, so the closer they get to her the safer they'll be.
They come to a group of stylised golden statues like giant chess pieces, maybe 4ft tall, which are believed to be "Chybald"'s Minions. One of them is a kind of winged totem pole with a stack of heads carved on it, the top one being a Ghast – Anskat called it the Wing-ed Ter-roar and says it was Chybald's enforcer. The others are believed by the Fuzzes to represent characters called Vicious, who forged Chybald's shovel; Violent, who bred killer-plants; Verminal, who bred Droolbeasts; Vim, who stirred up a vast explosion; and two who are always linked, called Volar and Vex, who organised Chybald's followers. It's pretty clear Verminal is Dorn I of E; Violent is Linus the combat-botanist; Vicious is possibly Griffington or Ludwig; and Vim could be Audrey, or the Gnoll Altholen who caused the Breach, or could be Sylvester causing an explosion which in the main timeline is yet to come. They believe that Chybald would dig a hole with his magic shovel and send the Ter-roar through. His organisation, and maybe him, was destroyed in a Great Conflagration.
Anskat says Chybald restored order in a time of crisis, but at the cost of many lives, even if he wasn't responsible for the Great Conflagration (and he may have been). Now there are new troubles – people disppearing, not just Apeltu; an eruption in Bundtmoc which slopped over the walls into the neighbouring Hollows; and the Ostreaites attacking the Bailiwick where Frizzlegarb's ex husband lives (Ŧ on the Bailiwick). She doesn't know if the ex survived or not. Frizzlegarb says he doesn't hate his ex – Anskat says he doesn't hate or love anybody and should never marry again (image of Frizzlegarb and Jordsullva parting, with a Ŧ near Frizzlegarb). He still likes and trusts Anskat even now he knows she works for a nob, or at least trusts her to do what she thinks is right, "all ethical n' ruthless", but he expects to come twelfth in her priorities – she says he's in the top eight.
Just as they come to a marker at the edge of Haravmilca's home ground, they hear another explosion behind them. They cross into her home territory (the whole Hollow is hers, but this is the part she lives in and defends) and the Fuzzes tell 3375 not to touch anything because it isn't safe. They pass a violent-looking teddy bear called the growlbear, which Anskat knows represents a real ceature that lives elsewhere. It and many other odd statues around the place were commissioned by Haravmilca. One of them is a gorilla-sized thing which is labelled "Taurus" but looks nothing like a bull – more like a cross betweem a blue dragon and an ape, with random tufts of orange fur, and a red devil sitting on its shoulder. One of them appears to be a Fuzz religious figure, unidentified.
Andskat tells them to keep moving, but then they come to a weird, jumbled sort of metal building with a Ŧ above the entrance, which tells them to halt and state their business. We see a flutterby being sent out with a message. As they wait to be let in, lines with Ŧs emanate from the ditch between them and the gate. Frizzlegarb says Anskat has always been working for her boss and asks if it's the Zero-Tasker, the one he works for – she won't say – and they reminisce about a fun holiday in an amusement spot called Plushanim Hollow (it looks like it involves jumping off a high spot into deep fluff). They are allowed inside, into a passage whose ceiling is hung with odd objects, including what looks like a very small Ecadem tail-stinger, and an Escher-esque plug like the one we saw Gulch looking at.
They come to a designated waiting area, and establish that 3375 can read the signs. Frizzlegarb says not all bots can read, and maybe Dada knows why. They discuss how Anskat found them with the AIS, and how Frizzlegarb and 3375 got from the Arrival Hollow to Cookiedice in the first place. Somebody arranged it, but if it was Anskat's boss she doesn't know. There are many questions she would like answered, and one is why Frizzlegarb is carrying his Keystaff, which she calls a fake Winnifrite Induction Slotter. It might work as an induction key, or it might do something dangerous. She tells him to sell it to someone she doesn't care about.
She knows the Keystaff is fake because it's cyan, and a real Winnifrite Keystaff would be periwinkle blue, like all their gear. This suggests that the giant blue-clad Gnoll nun Lizshella whom Cully met when the HJ42 bounced him into the future was a Winnifrite (as well as being a play on Blue Nun wine). Anskat will neither confirm nor deny that they are working for the same boss, but either way wants to report separately.
Anskat is starting to say she doesn't think she and Frizzlegarb... when a bubbly meet-and-greet girl called Chexyabatree brings them snacks – Frizzlegarb has met her before, on his travels, along with some rather hostile peasant types, in a gloomy place called Trazgenvis. 3375 mustn't eat (or whatever bots do) as he is about to have work done. She checks that he is willing to go ahead and leads him away, while the other two go to an Extended Waiting Area, which is very comfortable, and has a clothes-rack in the shape of a Ŧ. Frizzlegarb jokes that he doesn't trust Anskat not to nick his stuff, and Anskat is havering about finishing what she'd been saying. Eventually she admits she is fond of Frizzlegarb, and that she is afraid their assignments will send them in different directions so they won't see each other again, or not for a long time. They discuss the fact that 3375 is likeable and different and many people want to hear what he has to say. Frizzlegarb can't swear to how long the voice-making process will take, because bots usually leave their escorts once they're fixed, and Dada has a plushpit which Anskat suspects is there specifically to distract escorts from what's going on. They expect that it will take at least an hour or two for 3375 to get his voice, so they decide to spend it having sex – or at least something sex-adjacent which involves a lot of singing. There is a luxurious nest with a Ŧ at one end and a T at the other. We learn that their full names are Frizzlegarb Flintlesticks (which we heard used before by Struhaitta) and Anskatwet Frindsismead.
Haravmilca comes to see what they're up to, wearing an Oracle's/magicker's hat, and examines the key. With her wand, she summons a sort of cage on a rope, which descends from the ceiling. It contains a pillar-shaped box which seems to be labelled FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN. She taps it with the key and it pops its lid off and emits some kind of red lines of force, then rises out of sight again.
We see 3375 being scanned. Chexyabatree comes to tell him the scan is done, then leads him through a complex of gadgets and bridges. Haravmilca inherited it from her teacher Koffbiscot, who inherited it from Defmutat, and each of them added to it. She thinks Haravmilca is doing this fast to prove she's better than Dada, whose name is properly Dadahobit.
When they reach Haravmilca she is wearing a hat like an electric colander. She talks to 3375 about how there seems to be a pattern in which life, and inter-group contact, is intentionally made more complex for the Hollow-dwellers, all under the control of "... the Guardians, and the Zerotasker, and the Fallback". She guides 3375 to stand on a platform, where he removes his hat and it is replaced with a metal cone. A strong current is passed through him.
The scene shifts to Frizzlegarb and Anskat, dozing in the nest together but then agreeing to part, because Anskat says Frizzlegarb has become insufferable. Then we see an unknown female Fuzz standing on top of a bust of Spock and looking through a brass telescope, one limb of which ends in a Ŧ, to mark the death of DC Fontana. Next we see a female Fuzz holding up masks of Comedy and Tragedy, watched suspiciously by a male Fuzz who is lurking in a dustbin, to mark the deaths of Caroll Spinney and Rene Auberjonois.
The light first dims and then goes off completely in the nest area: perhaps a fuse has blown due to all the power being channelled through 3375. Frizzlegarb rummages in his kit and finds a torch called a munglight that the two of them won in Plushanim. They set off in the dark to find Haravmilca and 3375. After some rather confused wandering, they are found by a female Fuzz named Prufrieda, wearing a witch's hat which indicates that she is the Oracle for Datuhkazu. Anskat knows her, but didn't know she'd become an Oracle. Prufrieda takes them in hand and leads them, saying news was passed from Oracle to Oracle that someone would be coming there with a voice-seeking robot, and that the lights failing is to be expected because someone or ones will want to snatch 3375. Ŧ on the wall behind them. As Oracle, she feels responsible for 3375's safety, but she really hopes he will leave at once with Frizzlegarb and Anskat and take the trouble he represents with him. She mentions a predecessor to Defmutat, named Tiourasnal, who broke open the first Bailiwick Vault, among other things. Giant Ŧ behind Tiourasnal. Anskat says she feels they need to know more about Tiourasnal, but Prufrieda says not right now. Another Ŧ on the wall.
Prufrieda leads them on a route installed by the Oracles and that passes through a storeroom, where they are stopped by a female security guard named Lujisix. She is annoyed to learn that the Oracles have a super-sneakpath through there, just as she suspected, but she lets them pass because she's been told to let Frizzlegarb through – but to stop someone named Aichiscetch, who seems to have a reputation for violence and insurrection. Frizzlegarb says he hasn't met him, but Anskat says he has, in a cuddlepile in Plushanim. Prufrieda regrets not having been there, and says that the founder of her Order, a Fuzz named Hazellrob, suffered a lot in her life and advised her followers to seize any undamaging happiness they could (another distorted T behind the image of Hazellrob). They pass a variety of strange things on the shelves of the store, including an enormous fleeb (or statue of one) about as big as the Fuzzes: although as the Fuzzes are about 8" tall I suppose it's only about 50% bigger than normal. They also pass doors with strange labels, including "AUNTIE ENTITIES" and "DOLLY SISTERS" (Auntie Entity is a character in Mad Max, and Dolly Sisters is a district in London).
Lujisix guides them to a place where they meet 3375, who is able to speak, rather creakily, and tells them Haravmilca finished working on him and then left. Prufrieda summons them to her urgently. There's an out-take for Yom Kippur, showing Takapeny sitting on top of a stone pillar with an apple, a shofar and a broken chain, and watching a flutterby. It emerges that Anskat distrusts Prufrieda as an Oracle because they were at school together, and Prufrieda was a clown as a girl.
Now there's another out-take, showing the unknown Fuzz and Jordsullva, but this time it's Jordsullva who is meditating on a rock with her eyes covered and her hat off, being overseen by the other, probably-male Fuzz (mostly off-stage) who says she needs to decide whether she is alive or just moving (another distorted Ŧ on the rock). We also see Takapeny, looking a bit untidy, asking Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's mother, whether Frizzlegarb came to see her, but she says he didn't (which is a lie) – another sloped Ŧ on a bottle she is holding. A word that seems to be "CRIKET" runs along the bottom of the frame.
Prufrieda is on unfamiliar ground, but says a predecessor left a message for her to follow. They can hear crashes and bangs above them as somebody fights for control in order to take 3375. Haravmilca has regained enough power to the systems for Prufrieda to be able to open a door and usher them inside a secret tunnel, which leads them to a drop where they have to climb down rungs, although they are still above ground. They pass holes in the rocks that they can't see, with odd things in them: one has a tiny palm tree in a pot with "RIP JW" on it. They make it down, overlooked by a flower in a pot (which in this world could be a sapient spy) on a ledge above them, although Anskat falls the last bit.
For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we see a flashback to Frizzlegarb and one of the Purple Zone Fuzzes with the three ball-tipped tufts or antennae, looking warily at each other from either side of a rock.
When they reach the Oracle Egress, the others turn their backs so as not to see how Prufrieda opens the door. Once it's open she looks out and says it's a one-way trip: they have to descend an unfolding multi-section ramp with a drop at the end. They say goodbye and Frizzlegarb, Anskat and 3375 slide out. After some discussion, they separate, Anskat going one way and Frizzlegarb and 3375 another. Frizzlegarb and 3375 set off talking about names, and Frizzlegarb's love-life, and stopping to look at a statue of a turtle (actually it looks more like a tortoise, but Frizzlegarb says it's a swimming creature, still extant in distant waters). Frizzlegarb says 3375 is free now and should choose a name, but 3375 says he needs more information. We see Anskat opening a secret, Ettin-shaped but Fuzz-sized door and going to report to a machine which is similar to part of the Djinnoscope. On the way she passes a kind of tiny bird-box with a smoking chimney, suggesting that really tiny sapients such as the Sciencebugs are still around.
Frizzlegarb and 3375 come to one of the conical relocation booths, alongside which is one of the spindly thinking plants. This booth too has never been active, but Frizzlegarb taps the booth with his key and it opens up into a transport bot, of the same design as the one in Arrival Hollow. It transports them to a booth in a place of green hills, where there is a much thicker thinking plant. Meanwhile we see an armed and armoured Fuzz interrogating Haravmilca, who is busy with the FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES DO NOT OPEN device, and swears, truthfully, that there is (now) no bot in her hollow.
The transport bot warns Frizzlegarb and 3375 that they are in a hazardous location, but Frizzlegarb says he knows where they are, and it's not a hollow. They emerge somewhere which seems to be outside in a natural landscape in a way that the Hollows are not. They pass a statue of Cap'n Hamster which has "Arrr!" carved on the base: Frizzlegarb refers to him as "Mr Arrr" and doesn't know who he is. For some reason the rolling hills behind them are decorated with the words "NA NA NA NA NA NA NA BATMAN". They begin to climb steps up a slope: behind them the hills bear the words "RIVERS AND [something] FYRE FLUX". At the top of the slope, they look out over the Snapperchomp Sea. Frizzlegarb says no-one he's heard of has crossed it and lived, but now that he's learned people can leave the Hollows and get to the Aboveside, he wonders about it. He asks what 3375 saw in the AIS while he was asleep: the egress guardian robot and portions of three other robots. Now Frizzlegarb knows he's supposed to use the key, but he isn't sure he wants to.
That marks the end of the main Hollows section. From here, the story of Frizzlegarb and 3375 ties in to the opening scenes of Chapter Eight: New Days, which opens with a now-ancient 3375 talking about his own and the E family's past to a long-dead Frizzlegarb's many-greats niece Grekcora (who is wearing antennae). Now he is known as The Old Chap, and we don't find out whether he ever had another name. We learn that he and Frizzlegarb found a tiny paddle-boat, in which the two of them sailed across the Snapperchomp Sea to an island. Perhaps the boat had once belonged to Cap'n Hamster, although it isn't the Pretty Lady, which had a wind-up key and a cabin. Later we see that on the island they came to a Fuzz-sized table spread with a feast, and made by a Gobblem smith: the table is still there in Grekcora's day. If Audravanian legend is to be believed, on the island they met a Willigig, who connected Frizzlegarb to the distant past of the Northwoods in some way and also presumably taught 3375 about the detailed history of the E family, at least as far forwards as the full lives of Rosemary, Sylvester and Mortimer. He is certainly fulfilling Anskat's hope that he would be able tell them the true story of the past, at least quite a lot of it. Since he's a bot, it's conceivable that he was taken into the remote past by the Willigig and then just lived through all of history, although his stories are mainly about the Rosemary/Sylvester period.
Either way, he probably didn't get to tell the people of the Hollows about the robot-before-time, unless he did it when he passed through their time-period again after having been dropped off in the past.
Finally, because there's really nowhere else to put it, for Hallowe'en 2021 we see three cone-shaped orange gourds cut like pumpkin lanterns: above them flies one of the elongated future Fuzzes who is dressed as a bat and wearing a witch's/Oracle's hat, but you can see that they are supported on a string, not really flying. It was actually published just before the end of the scene with Frizzlegarb and 3375 on the beach, but I moved it back one place in order to preserve the flow of the story.
After Frizzlegarb [31/12/2024 – present] Three years later Rob returned to this arc: on the last day of 2024 Haravmilca is seen watching her FREDLES GRUNT BUGGIES device spitting out the letters "2025", then we see Anskat resting exhausted by the Zero-Tasker machine, feeling conflicted about what she has just done and saying that the machine will never be able to understand her emotions about it, even though it will still be tasking when her child's children are dust. It looks like a Fuzz-sized version of part of the Djinnoscope at the Mansion, suggesting that it was made by Factor-E, or that both were made by the Ettins. It gives her leave to take a break, and we then see her next to another similar machine, but apparently outside (there are green rolling hillocks, rocks, and distant glimpses of ruined towers), watching her young daughter who is playing with a strip of some cyan material. They are joined by Struhaitta, Frizzlegarb's foster mother, who is wearing a black hat and looking mournful.
After that we see Takapeny, wearing a royal blue ribbon in her hat instead of the lime-green she wore before, reporting to Ms Twed, the plant-growth-thing, who suspects her of withholding information. Some time after that – long enough for the hat-ribbon to have faded to a paler blue, according to Rob – we see Takapeny standing under the Hugrunner, which has probably just transported her, and looking at a sign pointing to Humsoc Hollow, where the monks live. Later we see her after having apparently been trained by the monks, carrying a bow and arrows and accompanied by a Peddlebug (which turns out to be a Trundlebog-shaped Metalmin about the size of a guinea-pig, bearing in mind that Takapeny herself is the size of a hamster), looking at a direction-arrow which points up a nearly sheer mountainside in Nestcrowd Hollow. The Peddlebug is coloured in the same royal blue and periwinkle livery as 3375. The mountainside proves to be a "nestpillar" which Takapeny has to climb to find Jordsullva (who is still lying with her eyes covered on a flat rock on the top of the pillar): as Takapeny climbs she thinks about the legends of a Lady Laynorr (presumably Lenore) who had to perform tasks, but for whom it worked out OK. At the summit, she finds Jordsullva on her rock and asks if she is alive and Jordsullva says she's beginning to think so. Jordsullva says to ask "our friend there" why she is lying there: her eyes are covered so she can't see that the guy she ws meditating with has gone. Takapeney tells her his name is Jakk; he has gone; and the people in charge sent her to collect Jordsullva for some unknown reason connected to her former relationship with Frizzlegarb.
Mansionverse Gazeteer [25/07/2013 – 30/12/2018] The gazeteer shows snapshots of a variety of countries and cities around the Mansionverse, beginning with a sequence which Rob drew earlier and which shows a zoom-in from the whole solar system right down to an aerial view of the Mansion.
Yurpsland, Our Yurpsland [20/01/2020 – present] Vignettes of people, places and customs around Yurpsland, the country where the Mansion of E is situated.
A Far Distant Place [23/03/2015 – 25/12/2017] A series of visual and verbal gags involving truncated-cone-shaped creatures glimpsed through a Panegate. It began as a one-week out-take in November 2015 and then continued as a series of special holiday shots: I have also included other cartoons about these creatures which Rob has uploaded at other times and places, such as on the MoE Facebook page.
Guest art, fanart and supplementary illustrations by the author Includes holiday specials and voting rewards by Rob which don't really fit in anywhere else. It contains some canonical scenes that didn't fit elsewhere, including but not limited to various characters enjoying holidays on the beach; interesting Mansionverse factoids; portraits of historical characters; Rosemary on her travels, looking at a memorial; Forfind and Blem(?) defending Le Tree; Ace in his soldiering days, camping by a graveyard; scenes of the E-family lawyer and of Sylvester as a student; of Rosemary as a child; of Hindenburgh feasting; of the Founding Oracles and of Comshaw's grandparents; of an Ettin; of the Roshambo comic and of Wille the Wendigo; of Captain Hamster and his crew; of Sylvester's mother and sister on their travels; the Mundivagant family; political and religious figures; tutors at the university and at Hack'n'Slash; Rosemary's family and ancestors; soldiers in a war; parents of villagers; past Weirdos and tutors; Nomes hiding from persecution; Rosemary on a same-sex blind-date and Mortimer on a blind-date with an alien, both at some point in the future, and Violet on a date with a nerdy boy, all the dates being crossovers from other comics; a Wendigo artist, and a Jibjib artist painting a portrait of a Fuzz; the Hermit who may or may not be a demon; Rosemary juggling on stage; a remote-controlled Samurai warrior-bot; a Motihaul gong-seller; a Saur actor; a Gnoll roller-skater; Kashkavala running a petting zoo; Skuy using a brush to paint a line-art portrait of her boyfriend Cully while dancing with her eyes closed.
