It is Tuesday evening. Vixa is running around the secret base, screaming some sort of craziness about the ghosts of all the destroying robots coming back to attack her. This rouses Voltage, who awakens from a strange dream about being at Valhalla Towers and talking to Iron Angel and Crimson Hunter. As she watches Vixa rushing about, she notices a blur now and then ... and she decides to investigate, by watching the security cameras, and then pausing the image now and then. Her gambit pays off: The blurred image is that of Ferrari, with a white sheet thrown over her head, and a couple of eyeholes cut out, chasing Vixa around and occasionally poking her from behind. Evidently, Ferrari has found something to keep herself entertained.

Voltage interrupts Ferrari's fun by intercepting the "blur" before it can chase after Vixa again. She then goes to locate her car ... but it's not there in the repair bay. In her dream, she had driven it out to Valhalla Towers. Groggily, she realizes that it wasn't a dream after all: she had actually gone out there, but then "woke up" back here.

Kathmandu, Scars and Rose emerge from their rooms, after a similar "nap". Rose is inspired, and takes over the meeting room, throwing a black lace tablecloth over the holographic projector table. She sets out a board with complex diagrams on it, then puts a bowl filled with water on top of that, and sets a pointer to float in the water. She sets several candles about the room - something that attracts the attention of Fireman, who finally gets back from his shift at work. Upon finding the source of the faint burning smell, he is satisfied that Rose is using proper candle holders and, therefore, there's no need to extinguish the flames. So, he heads on straight to his room to get some sleep.

Rose gathers up everyone to take part in her séance. She tries to command the spirits to come forth - the spirits of those who died in the original Morpheus Project incident. Nothing happens, and she gets several points of critique from others in the group who have opinions on supernatural matters. However, Voltage decides that maybe the "privacy field" around the meeting room could be interfering with attempts to contact the spirit world. So, she goes to turn that off.

A subsequent attempt at a séance is rewarded by several ghostly spirits appearing and sweeping around the room ... but the "special effects" are so cheesy that it's only impressive to the easily impressed. (Vixa is terrified. Fireman, unable to sleep with all the racket, comes to investigate, but ends up just curling up in a corner of the room to try to nap while all the weirdness is going on.) Based on previous research into the matter, our heroes suppose that the room, when the "privacy field" is on, is actually disconnected from Superior City, located in another "pocket reality" - or "on another server", as they explain it. They start talking about the Universe, about this parallel reality, and so forth, and suddenly, they start to feel a creepy feeling - more specifically, they notice a "ringing of the ears", when Fireman joins in on the conversation. Voltage switches the "privacy field" back on, and the ghosts go away - along with the "ear-ringing" that hints at the possible attention of a Guardian.

Our heroes, after some argument and experimentation, decide to try again. The privacy field, after all, was provided by Morpheus. They suppose that if he provided this "pocket" where the room is displaced when the field is on, perhaps this means that they are on the "Morpheus Server" - and perhaps they might have a closer connection to the spirits of those who died during the Morpheus Incident. However, Voltage notes that not all ghosts apparently dwell in some other server - Scars and herself serving as possible examples. She also can't help but notice the irony of a "bunch of ghosts" trying to hold a séance. This leads the group to start making several jokes about trying to conjure up the spirits of the living. (An earlier attempt to conjure up the spirit of "Damon Hauksbee" produced no results but a brief sensation of "being watched", and a light ear-ringing. Our heroes decided that perhaps it is safer to refer to "Iron Fist" instead of "Damon Hauksbee", so as better not to alert the watchdog systems to inappropriate discussions in the presence of NPCs.)

One thing that Voltage discovers is that Abigail XR-37 stops functioning when she goes into the meeting room, when the privacy screen is on. A check on her diagnostics reveals that, inside the sealed-off room, she doesn't have a connection with the base's central computer. The same problem plagues any cleaning robots that are brought into the room. What's worse, Scars tries to lift Abigail XR-37 off the table ... but he can't. (At least, not without great expenditure of effort, when usually it poses no problem to him to toss around dumptrucks.)

Voltage turns off the field, and our heroes spend some time plotting and planning. Scars interrogates Abigail, asking her weight. She indicates that she weighs 250 pounds - a bit more than she would appear for her body type, but not immensely surprising, given her mechanical innards - and, incidentally, a weight that Scars shouldn't even break a sweat trying to lift.

After some more plotting and planning, our heroes finally end up ordering Abigail (while the field is off) to sit on the table. (This upsets Rose's candles and bowl and other arrangements, but the base's cleaning droids tidy things back up.)

There is considerable fussing and fidgeting around, as everyone finds their places, punctuated by the occasional bout of goofing off. So, with the field back on again (and Abigail once again non-functioning), Rose tries to lead another séance, following the idea presented that perhaps a spirit might be able to possess the "body" of the android Abigail XR-37. She passes around the candles, asking everyone to hold his or her candle and "charge" it. Voltage takes this literally, and starts to melt the bottom of the candle, where it rests on her candlestick. The rest hold their lit candles in something very roughly resembling solemnity.

Something indeed happens this time around. Abigail's prone form begins to rise from the table, and ethereal tentacles start to spread out from her body. Her face melts away, revealing the metallic skull underneath, and her hair spreads out and drifts to create a horrible visage. When Rose demands the identity of this visitor, the android responds, in a raspy voice, "I am ABIGAIL."

And then, wispy forms start to appear in the room, but this time, they are far more insubstantial, seen only out of the corner of one's eyes, and invisible if looked at directly. The circle is broken and everyone scrambles about to try to deal with what looks like a hostile visitation by a spirit of the dead (or a major malfunction in Abigail's programming).

Voltage, however, bolts out of the room, rushes to the controls, and switches the field off. Abigail's body promptly collapses, the tentacles vanish, and her body starts enacting its self-repair mechanisms to start the slow process of patching up her synth-skin. The ghosts are nowhere to be seen. The little cleaning 'bots scurry in to start cleaning up the mess.

This prompts even more heated discussion about what might be going on, the wisdom of attempting things like this (or not), and whether it might be possible to "hack" into other parts of the Universe system. The privacy field is no longer up, and before long, everyone senses more "ear-ringing". This time, it doesn't dissipate merely by sitting still and being quiet, thinking happy thoughts about waffles or pancakes (waffles and pancakes being Vixa's favorite mental exercise to avoid unpleasant thoughts.)

Our heroes gather in the meeting room, behind the newly reinstated privacy field. Voltage watches, as a Guardian descends the lift, and starts to freely wander about the base, paying no apparent heed to the group gathered in the meeting room, even though the doorway is open and they should be clearly visible to anyone outside (if not audible). Then, she heads directly for the room. Fireman does his best to act like a "normal fireman", talking about the joys of putting out fires and such, while the others just try to be quiet and inconspicuous. The Guardian reaches the doorway ... then vanishes. Occasionally, a glimpse of purple hair or the edge of her costume can be seen hovering, chopped off, just outside the doorway, just outside the boundary of the privacy field. Within the room, however, there's no evidence of her presence. Just outside the privacy field, some lights cast on the floor: lights that appear to originate from within the meeting room, though the lights are presently still out, for the séance. The Guardian re-emerges, and floats out, and does something to summon all of the base's repair 'bots. They line up, and she begins examining them.

Voltage watches closely, trying to use her newly developed "static sense" to get a better feel for what might be going on. She starts to see hazy images, patterns in energy fields around the Guardian and the repair 'bots. As she focuses, they start to resolve into more meaningful patterns - symbols, streams of information. It suddenly occurs to her that the streams of information represent data. Rather than snapping back and shutting it out, she tries to concentrate even more ... and her mind is overwhelmed by the sudden flow of information!

Voltage's eyes roll back in her head, and she passes out, to the alarm of everyone else in the room. The Guardian stops examining the repair 'bots after a bit: they return to their business, scurry away, and she floats off to explore the rest of the base. Fireman rushes to give first aid to Voltage, while Kathmandu resolves to venture out of the security field to investigate; but, first, he transforms into his small cat form, and begins a meditation exercise, trying to imagine the "thought processes" of a cat - particularly an artificial one - so as not to attract undue attention from the Guardian.

He runs out, and then looks back toward the room where the others are hiding, wondering whether he'll see the room where his friends are hiding in the dark ... or whether he'll see an alternate room, one empty of any occupants, and with the lights turned on. For a brief moment, he sees both ... and the sight is so overwhelming, he immediately suffers from a violent nosebleed. Unfortunately, the "model" for the artificial "anime-style" nosebleed is scaled for his human form, so the poor little cat goes pinwheeling across the floor. Kathmandu takes a moment to gather his wits, and focus on the "lit" room. When he looks again, he can just see the room with the lights turned on - unoccupied. Kathmandu bounds into the room ... and from the point of view of all his friends hiding in the dark, it seems that the cat ceases to exist as soon as it crosses the threshold. Little-Cat Kathmandu chases cleaner 'bots, bats them around, runs this way and that, and generally behaves like a little cat. After a while, he's vaguely aware of the Guardian emerging from the living quarters; she goes up the lift, and presumably out of the base.

Once it seems that things are relatively "safe", Ferrari is sick of hanging around in the meeting room with everybody else fanning and fussing over Voltage. After all this distracting talk about waffles and pancakes, she decides she wants some, so she heads out of the room and into the med-bay area, where Voltage has set up a makeshift kitchenette. She fixes up some pancakes, and then heads back to the room; she doesn't see Kathmandu scampering about in the "alternate" meeting room. (But then, it's not like she's trying.) Kathmandu, for his part, makes a pointed attempt not to pay any particular attention to Ferrari, especially not when she spends a moment halfway through the doorway - making it appear that a decapitated and strangely mutilated woman is standing there, from the point of view of anyone standing in the "alternate" room.

Ferrari, for her part, gets a strange feeling from standing right there in the doorway, so she steps on in. Kathmandu heads on out of the room again, experimentally looks back at the meeting room to attempt to be able to visualize both at once again - but he is hit by another violent nosebleed, and goes skidding across the floor again.

Finally, Kathmandu closes his eyes, focuses on the version of the room that has his friends in it, and then heads into it. He returns to his human form, and finds the others there. Voltage, after a bit, groggily regains consciousness, but she's greatly weakened by the information overload she suffered. Our heroes excitedly argue about the implications of all this. Perhaps, it is suggested, Morpheus created a copy of the room that is located off of the Zeus server, and when they turn on the security field, the occupants are displaced to that copy. Furthermore, maybe that alternate room exists on the Morpheus server, and it could be possible to go from this room to Dungeonworld.

Along that line of reasoning, Voltage goes to the large display screen, where, the last time she tried using it, she had called up a display prompt that appeared to be for an archaic computer system that seemed to be tied to Morpheus. She fiddles around with the controls a bit, focusing on her theory, and then turns on the monitor. Unfortunately, the monitor doesn't seem to be working properly; it sends out a few sparks, as it's apparently damaged from that earlier incident with the "ghostly possession" of Abigail XR-37 during the séance. So, she heads out of the room and grabs one of the cleaner 'bots, and takes it into the meeting room. As soon as the cleaner 'bot passes into the security field, it goes limp, cut off from the central computer. Voltage pops open its shell and starts working with its systems, and finds that, while it has some on-board processing power to handle such things as walking and avoiding collisions, it's for the most part just a remote for the central computer system. Without a way to communicate with the base's central computer, it does nothing.

So, Voltage finds some currently unused parts in the room, and hooks the cleaner 'bot up to a cable that runs directly to the room's terminal. After a bit of work, it starts to operate again; apparently, this room, while it must be separate from the rest of the "base", has its own version of the base's computer system, to operate such things as the holographic projector, the terminal, and basic services for the room - and once the robot has a direct connection, it starts scurrying about to work on repairing the terminal. Or, at the very least, it does something with the terminal, so that it is at last able to turn on.

When the terminal turns on, there is a hazy image of a large island or mountain, or something remotely like it - a huge, roughly circular chunk of land that is floating in open air, surrounded by puffy clouds, and a starry night sky. It rotates slowly, so that, as viewed on the screen, Voltage can see that there is a large mountain in the center, with rocky features that very roughly resemble a crouching dragon. Ridges of mountains radiate out from the central mountain, dividing the island into three portions: one portion of forest, another of desert sands, and another is a vague, mist-shrouded expanse. On the forested portion, she can see, jutting out from the edge of the island, a clockwork tower. She can also see what looks like a medieval village, a large cemetery, a lake with a couple of streams branching out from it ... basically, all the features that she recalls seeing in Mysterio's map of "Dungeonworld" in that book at the "Heroes 'R' Us" base. Impulsively, Voltage touches the screen. There is a flash of light, Voltage vanishes, and the screen snaps out, switching off, as sparks spray from the damaged terminal.

Scars rushes up to the terminal, and hastily finds the circuit breakers that had blown out, and resets them. The screen comes back on, filled with an image of white ... but then it resolves into the form of Voltage (in her white overcoat) flying away from the viewpoint of the screen, plummeting toward the floating island. Scars tries to fiddle with the controls, to "zoom in" or "zoom out". He succeeds at "zooming out", which makes the island seem even further away, and then back in ... but meanwhile Voltage is still falling, and he sees something flying toward her. He calls for the others to join hands and touch the screen; confusion reigns in the room, as various of our heroes call out their concerns and ideas, but they comply, leaving Abigail XR-37 and the cleaner 'bot behind.

Suddenly, once they touch the screen, they are transported, and they find themselves plummeting, bursting through clouds, falling down toward the island that was portrayed in Mysterio's book. Still holding hands, they form a skydiver's ring. Although her voice is lost to the drowning sound of the wind, Rose calls out with everything she has to "the spirits", requesting their guidance and aid. This time, her efforts are finally rewarded - though it's not quite the sort of "spirit" she had in mind. A host of butterfly-winged faeries soar upward from the forest. They snatch up Voltage, pulling her away from the approaching nightmare beast - and they surround the other plummeting heroes, grabbing them and slowing their descent.

Voltage had been trying to steer her descent toward something vaguely "soft", so she had been veering her way toward what the map had identified as the Witch's Bog. What with the faeries helping her down, she finds herself still heading that way ... and she sets down with a soft splat in the mud. The others set down soon after, and the faeries wing away.

They call out to each other, and extract themselves from the sludge to blindly work their way toward each other. Kathmandu changes to his large sabertooth werecat form, so that he can take advantage of his night vision to better find the others. Voltage tries another tactic, pulling out a hairpin and electrically charging it to get it to glow and provide some faint illumination. They find that they are surrounded by strangely gnarled and twisted trees. Scars tries to go pick one up - feat that wouldn't normally pose a problem, but just as with his attempt to move Abigail, he fails to rip up a mere tree.

What's worse, the tree tries to rip up him. That is, it starts wrapping clinging vines around Scars, as the other trees stir to unnatural life. Ferrari springs into action, zipping through the sludge, to deliver a blow to the tree. Meanwhile, Voltage hastily tries to negotiate with the trees, explaining that she's just trying to find her way out of the bog - and, by the way, might they know the way out? Several of the trees point in the same direction - and Voltage wastes no time in heading in that direction, followed by the others. Scars also tries negotiating with the trees, and - once he sees an opening - heads after the others. The trees still seem intent on doing something to Ferrari, after her action, but fortunately they're nowhere near as fast as she is!

So, our heroes slog their way through the bog, keeping as clear as they can of any evil trees - but noting the solemn lines of animated trees pointing off in the direction that they should head.

Eventually, the trees begin to clear up, and the level of the ground under the muck begins to rise. They see, up ahead, a hut in the middle of a clearing. In front of the hut is a cauldron over a fire, and three witch hags dancing about it, making a nonsense chant. Voltage tries calling out and making introductions, but the witches are too busy in their ritual. A dead cat floating in the cauldron starts to rise, contort, and spill out of the goo. Its body stretches and tears, as the bones expand - turning the small dead cat into a large misshapen undead horror. While Voltage continues to try to parlay, the witches continue - and a second undead cat joins the fray.

At this point, our heroes decide that these witches aren't friendly, and rather than letting them continue to generate an army of undead cats, they spring into action to attack the cauldron. However, it seems that the trees are on the side of the witches, and they move to intercept.

A battle ensues, as the witches manage to conjure forth one more undead cat-monster to join their ranks, and then they personally focus on raining down destructive spells upon their "guests". Voltage, who is still weak from earlier, goes down quickly after a blow from a tree. Scars single-handedly fends off several animated trees and works his way toward the undead cats. Ferrari delivers flurries of punches to take out one cat, and then another, while Kathmandu, in his werecat form, tears into any enemy he can reach. Rose leaps atop the hut to get a good vantage point, and starts hurling roses at her enemies. One of the hags, who has been taking the brunt of our heroes' attacks, flees for the woods, but Rose takes her down with a focused attack before she can regenerate and rejoin the fight. One of the other witches, holding a spellbook, conjures a magical storm, causing strange magical energies to seep out from the hut, sending pain through Rose's small form. It would be easy enough for Rose to leap away, but she won't surrender her vantage-point: she focuses her attack on the lead witch, and takes her out. The spell immediately dissipates. The tide turns, and those heroes that still remain standing manage to take out the last of the undead cats, and to make some headway on the animated trees. Rose, though weakened, manages to target the last remaining hag - and then, as the hag falls, the spell animating the trees dissipates. The battle is over.

Strangely enough, all of our heroes who defeated one or more enemies find that they have some silver coins in their pockets - and Rose particularly has quite a few. Ferrari wastes no time in investigating the hut and looting it for anything useful. She finds what appears to be a magical potion; somehow, she inherently knows that it is a "Potion of Vitality", despite having no particular aptitude toward alchemy or magic-potion-making. She also finds a large tome called the "Tome of Roses", which has several spells in it. She tries casting one of the spells demonstrated earlier - the "Rain of Thorns" - but something goes wrong: a "rain of thorns" is summoned that rains down on herself.

Rose is annoyed that Ferrari should get the book before her - after all, it's the "Tome of Roses" - but Ferrari isn't interested in trading (and Rose has nothing but a bunch of silver coins to trade, anyway - and there seem to be plenty of those to go around).

The ground around the hut is a bit more solid, so our heroes gather up on the high ground. Scars goes to considerable trouble to empty out the cauldron, "clean" it out in some swamp water, then fill it up with murky water and let it boil for a while to get the silt to separate out, and to use it for cleaning. Once Fireman figures out what's going on - he reminds Scars that if it's clean water he wants - Fireman's the one to ask! So, after some hosing down, our heroes are something a little more closely resembling "clean". Voltage and Kathmandu eventually regain consciousness, but our heroes don't display their usual resilience after a battle. (Well, that is, with the exception of Scars, who recovers just as quickly as usual. In fact, now he seems to be regenerating even when he doesn't spend time to concentrate.)

Ferrari volunteers to scout ahead. She follows the direction they were taking so far, and when she heads out, she finds herself on the bank of a mist-shrouded lake. In the mist, she can vaguely make out a couple of bobbing red lights, like the glowing eyes of some massive beast out on the water. She decides not to stay around and wait for it to make its presence known, so she rushes back to the others and reports her findings. Based on this, our heroes discern that they had been heading north instead of south: the trees had betrayed them and pointed them in the wrong direction!

So, our heroes argue for a bit about whether they should rest up, but given their slowness in recovering, they guess that they need more serious attention than can be given by spending the night in a swamp. (There's also a fear that the witches might suddenly "respawn" and come back while they're sleeping.) Therefore, our heroes turn about and head the way they came. Kathmandu, who's badly beaten up from the battle, turns into small cat form, and rides on Vixa's back; Vixa and Rose take to the trees, leaping from branch to branch. Scars helps a badly battered Voltage along, while Ferrari is relatively unscathed, and scouts ahead, while Fireman probes the shadows with a flashlight.

Some time later, our heroes are frustrated when the bog begins to churn, and there's every indication that they're about to be attacked by a "wandering encounter". Strange monsters, a sort of cross between leeches and multi-headed snakes, rise from the bog and attack. Poor Voltage goes down fairly quickly. Kathmandu, unable to take any more abuse, leaps into a tree, while Fireman backs up against the base to protect him - and hose down the throttle-worms from a relatively safe distance. Scars is momentarily weakened by a poisonous gas belched out by the smallest of the throttle-worms, so he backs up to regroup with Fireman and to regain his strength. Ferrari runs up to one monster and then the other, wearing them down with her rapid-fire punches, while Rose whittles them down from a distance with barrages of sharp roses, and Scars rejoins the fight to bludgeon one of the larger monsters. Fireman, meanwhile, continues to hose down the monsters, preventing them from making further attacks while his comrades work at them. Ferrari guzzles down the Potion of Vitality, and she's restored to full fighting power - and, at last, the monsters are defeated. Voltage regains consciousness - but just barely. And, those heroes who defeated monsters find that their collections of silver coins have increased once more. (After some suggestions from Fireman, Rose reluctantly divides up her own large collection of silver coins and distributes it amongst the others.)

Time passes, as our heroes slog through the swamp, doing their best to avoid any additional encounters. The sky lights up with dawn, and eventually they come out onto dry and solid ground. It is early morning as they reach the north gates of the town of Silverbirch. They didn't get a clear look at their surroundings in the darkness, but under the glare of daylight, they find that this world has a surreal touch to it. The flowers in the grass seem reasonably real, except that they seem to be planted in regular repeating patterns, if one looks at a large section of the grass at one time. The cobbles of the road are arranged in repeated "tiles" - though occasionally turned 90 degrees this way or that for a little variety. When Rose tries to pick up a flower, she finds that it resists any attempt to uproot it. Similarly, a loose pebble isn't so loose after all.

A nearby tower seems almost as if it were constructed from cardboard painted with a detailed and "photorealistic" but ultimately flat stone pattern. Everything feels real enough, but everything in the environment seems artificial to one level or another. (The overall textures of the world are fairly flat and polygonal, though there are individual features - flowers, pebbles, etc. - that seem round and detailed in and of themselves. Furthermore, living inhabitants - peasants in the fields, travelers on the roads, workhorses, birds, etc. - seem to be more fluid and lifelike than the world that they live in.) Over at a well, our heroes toss in a few silver coins to see what will happen: for a brief moment, Fireman seems to be bathed in a blue aura ... but nothing particularly interesting happens. They experiment with other odd elements of their surroundings in similar fashion, trying to get something - anything - interesting and special to happen.

Over at the base of a tower along the road, there's an old man who calls out, repeatedly, "I'm looking for some adventurers to go on a quest!" He calls this, every few seconds, over and over again, until the adventurers approach him. They ask him about his quest, and about Silverbirch. His questions are halting, his vocabulary limited: he has a quest for the heroes to go on, but when he's asked any questions about the town, he confesses to know nothing about it, even though it's just an arrow-shot away. Once our heroes leave, he goes back to his mantra.

At the city gates, they observe a group of town guards. They all go through the same catalog of "idle motions", occasionally scratching here, posing like that, looking from side to side, in different orders, out of sync - but still, it's an eerie effect that they go through exactly the same motions for each action. When they approach, they are each asked to give their name and state their occupation. This prompts some confusion, as the guards don't seem to recognize some "occupations". Finally, Fireman introduces himself as "Fighterman", and that he is a "Fighter". This seems to be good enough, and he is welcomed to the Town of Silverbirch, and the gates are opened for him. Voltage passes herself off as a wizard, and Vixa as her familiar. Scars claims to be a monk. Ferrari introduces herself as a rogue - and this seems to cause the guards no concern at all as they welcome her to the city. Rose is confused about what to identify herself as. Kathmandu suggests that she say that she's a "witch". Rose does so ... and immediately the guards react with something resembling alarm. They summon the "Inquisitor", who asks Rose if she is a witch. Rose fumes at Kathmandu, and then says that it was a mistake: she's actually an "archer". The inquisitor takes her claim at face value, and welcomes her to the city, in the same tone of voice as the guard. Finally, Kathmandu introduces himself (and he's in human form at this time) as a monk.

In town, our heroes head straight for the inn, and get some rooms for the night. (Or day, or whatever, since it's still morning.) Scars, however, decides that, despite having gone through the entire night without any sleep, he's undamaged and therefore doesn't need to rest, so he leaves the others and goes to visit the "Temple of Meditation". There, he tries to inquire about "leveling up". He ends up taking part in a short contest against a monk, trying several times to hit the monk, and finally succeeding. After a single blow, he is surprised when the monk bows and claps his hands. He is declared to be an initiate, and he is presented with a set of robes, sandals and a white belt. Scars changes into more "native" attire, and returns to the inn; his subsequent attempts to find out more information about how he can learn "new techniques" are rebuffed by the claim that he must "go forth and prove himself worthy" before returning to the temple for further training.

Back at the inn, Scars finds that the others have already awakened from their sleep, though he hasn't even been gone for an hour. Our heroes mill about, exploring the town and trying to question the inhabitants. The monetary system seems a bit weird, to say the very least. In some places, something as simple as a loaf of Elven Waybread can cost a thousand silver pieces, while some basic food is offered for free. Kathmandu goes to the Temple of Meditation to take part in a test, where he earns his own white belt and initiation into the order. Voltage goes into a tinker's shop, where the tinker demonstrates the workings of golems and other constructs in this land. She examines one that the tinker claims is broken, and she finds that a lot of the mechanics inside remind her - somehow - of the interior of Scar's car before she reworked the engine.

Most of it is nonsense until she concentrates on it - and it seems to realign itself into something making at least a little more sense - save for a preponderance of crystals that are part of the machine, and add an element of magic. (And, alas, that obscure magical element is beyond Voltage's ability to reason out.) She does her best to fix the apparent problems with the mechanics, but as for the crystals, she hasn't a clue. Kathmandu comes in and observes, and remembers some pop culture nonsense about powers in crystals, and offers Voltage a few suggestions of how she can rearrange the crystals to simulate the paths of ley lines - or some other supernatural-sounding gobbledygook. With a bit of work, amazingly enough, the golem starts working. Voltage is rewarded with a wooden wrench as a symbol of her new membership in the Tinkers' Guild.

Ferrari visits the armory, where she manages to get a wooden dagger; the other weapons are ridiculously expensive - even something as simple as a "rusty dagger". The wooden dagger, however, is "free for new heroes". Next, she looks around, and finds a seedy-looking individual near an alleyway. She asks about where she might find a "thieves' guild". The seedy-looking girl says, "The unicorn flies by midnight." Ferrari makes up something about dragons, and, amazingly, the girl accepts it as the "password" ... or so it seems. The thief girl leads Ferrari down an alleyway, where Ferrari is ambushed by a group of thieves. They knock her out, take her stuff (including all her silver, the magic book, and the wooden dagger), and then dump her in the pool in the center of town.

Rose, meanwhile, ventures into the magic shop. At first, she is told that this isn't the proper place for her - Rose, an "archer", should go to the fletcher's shop. Rose insists that this was a mistake and that she's actually a wizard. So, the shopowner asks her to take part in a contest to prove her mettle. Suddenly, Rose is transported to somewhere high in the sky, standing on a cloud, facing the sorceress. She is instructed that only magical attacks will be allowed. Rose is at a loss: she only knows how to throw roses, and those apparently don't constitute a proper attack. So, how can she fight?

The sorceress starts lobbing glittering bolts of energy at her, and Rose dodges. Finally, frustration reaches its peak. Rose concentrates, calls out something that seems to her to be a spell, and calls forth a barrage of rose petals that strike the sorceress. Immediately, the battle ends, and they are back in the shop. The sorceress, unscathed, offers Rose a wooden wand to introduce her into the ranks of the spellcasters. She is instructed, however, that if she wishes to join a particular branch of magic, she will have to seek out the correct guild. The druids, for instance, are at the stone circle in the Edgewood. The high elves are at the Diamond Tower. There may be others, but Rose doesn't stay to learn more; she is in a sour mood that all she got for her trouble was a little wooden wand, so she storms out of the shop.

Our heroes gather in the town square after shopping for baked goods and miscellaneous things. They notice Ferrari floating in the water, so they rush over and fish her out. After a bit, Ferrari regains consciousness, and, after spitting out water and regaining her breath, is horrified to discover that she's without any silver! She tells the others about her misadventure, and laments that while they have been getting inducted into guilds and orders - she just got robbed.

Voltage notices an old man sitting by the side of the street, and offers him one of the biscuits from the bakery. He thanks her profusely, and offers her a bit of useful advice: he's heard that the password for getting into the Thieves' Guild is "But there are weasels in my pants" - which one is to say after hearing, "The unicorn flies by midnight." The heroes try asking him more questions, but he insists that he's too hungry to think. Voltage gives him another biscuit, but he offers no more information. However, when a different person gives him a biscuit, he recites his same speech of praise and thanks, and then offers some other tidbit of information about the area. Each time, someone else has to give him a biscuit, for it seems that he is able to consume an unlimited quantity of biscuits, but is still "too hungry to think" unless someone new gives him an offering.

Our heroes retire to the inn, in the hopes of finding some useful information. After all, isn't that where all good adventures start in computer fantasy RPGs? While they're there, a couple of wizards wander in. One is a tall man in flowing robes, with a staff topped with a stylized dragon's head; judging by the talk between the two, he is Lord Charis. His companion, an elven woman with long flowing black hair, crystal spectacles, and a dark green gown, is Lady Rowan. As our heroes eavesdrop, it seems that Lord Charis and Lady Rowan are expecting some other "adventurers" to arrive; they discuss the matter of how they will deal with Lady Rowan's evil twin sister, and restore her to her rightful place as the Queen of the Elves.

After a bit of listening in, Voltage comes to the conclusion that these aren't NPCs for some sort of "plot hook". (For instance, their vocabulary and their awareness of their own environment seems to be remarkably advanced compared to the behavior of other inhabitants of the town of Silverbirch.) Rather, Voltage supposes that they're players, involved in their own little plot. So, she approaches and introduces herself. Lady Rowan and Lord Charis seem a bit taken aback - particularly when they notice the others in Voltage's company (particularly the firefighter, who stands out as rather conspicuously anachronistic in his neon-lemon-yellow-and-black firefighter gear). Lord Charis begins to make noises about that fellow "Mysterio" and the whole "Dark Portal plot", expressing his hope that talk about that "plot" was all just a rumor or some self-serving prattle by Mysterio on the boards. He laments that now DungeonWorld will be overrun by do-gooders in spandex and capes, and how this place just isn't suited for it.

Then, Lady Rowan looks at Voltage curiously, and then with some surprise. Voltage, supposing that she's being recognized, reflexively tries to smooth back her hair and wipe off some of her make-up, but - too late - she realizes that this is exactly the thing not to do if she wishes to avoid the inevitable: Lady Rowan recognizes her as the late Renee Hauksbee. Lady Rowan is angered by this, demanding of Lord Charis how a character model like this would be allowed on the system. (Over the course of further discussion, our heroes are able to figure out that Lady Rowan and Lord Charis are no ordinary "players": they are apparently employees of Universe Corporation, and Lord Charis has something to do with the creation of character model "templates".)

Voltage tries to explain her situation - that she's an "AI" on the system, and yet a "ghost in the machine". She makes references to the "Morpheus Incident", but it's clear that Lord Charis and Lady Rowan have no idea what she's talking about: they've heard about the old "Morpheus" system, but nothing about any accident resulting in the deaths of everyone involved in the experiment. (After all, Dr. Wray himself, head of Universe Corporation, was involved in the old Morpheus Project - and he can't very well be dead, can he?)

Voltage, Scars and the others try to "explain" their situation further, but they mostly succeed in just convincing Lady Rowan and Lord Charis that, at the very least, there's something very odd about them. Lady Rowan writes them all off as a bunch of hackers with a very sick sense of humor, and she ends up leaving.

Lord Charis, however, remains a bit longer: he isn't convinced that Voltage is any sort of "ghost", but he does entertain the idea that she might at least be a self-aware artificial intelligence within the system - one that is apparently patterned after Damon Hauksbee's younger sister. He performs several diagnostic tests, conjuring up an "Avatar" - this reality's version of a "Guardian Muse" - to examine the strange visitors to this realm. To Lord Charis, Fireman registers as a highly advanced NPC firefighter. The others register as "players", but their points of origin are all from the Seattle "Universe" server, and their activity data suggests continuous activity. He posits the notion that they might be "bots": advanced programs running separately from the Universe system, rigged to go through Universe's player interface, and thus treated by the game as "players". However, the logs he accesses suggests that each of these "players" were still on the system earlier as "NPCs", and the "somehow-self-aware AI" theory seems more plausible. Our heroes learn that "Lord Charis" (still referred to as such, since he refuses to give his real name) sometimes serves in a "Guardian" role in Superior City, but he has no one assigned Guardian character: most of the Guardian characters are shared by multiple "administration staff members" who work in shifts. His main job is to generate new character model templates for heroes, and to improve existing ones. Apparently, he works out of the New York office for the Universe Corporation, and has no personal dealings with Damon Hauksbee or anyone out of the Seattle office.

Lord Charis vocalizes the idea that this might be some elaborate trick to play with him - perhaps by Damon, or someone else in the Seattle office - and, if so, he fails to find the humor. And, were it true, he seems unnerved by the idea of self-aware AIs on the Universe system. At last, he indicates that it's time for him to clock in, and start his real work. "Obviously, Lady Rowan must have warned the others, since they never showed up for our session." Since Voltage and the others ask for his help in finding the Hourglass of Temporality, he tells them that if they want to find that - for whatever reason - there are actually multiple places where it might pop up. One is in the Clockwork Tower. Another is in a mausoleum in the Old Cemetery. Yet another spot would be in the Diamond Tower of the High Elves. He indicates that the Hourglass of Temporality isn't particularly useful on its own: it's just a "key" item needed to be protected from the "curse", if one were to take on the Ancient Dragon at Dragonspire Peak.

Still, Voltage and the others seem intent upon going on a "quest" for this item. Rather than arguing any more on the matter, he offers our heroes a boon to help them out: he asks if any of them have a wand. Rose offers the wand that she got from the magic shop. Lord Charis explains that even though he has the security access to simply transport them to any one of the locations where the Hourglass is to be held, it would do them no good: the Hourglass isn't "physically" in any of those places right now. Rather, it would only manifest if some registered players hit the designated "trigger spots" that would start the action in the area - and bring the Hourglass into being. Still, he can rig up a "patch" that should help them avoid some of the "wandering monster" encounters that would make the journey especially long: he attaches the code hacks to the wand as an "anchor" for the heroes to take with them. He says that he can guarantee nothing - but that this should at the very least make the going a little bit easier on them.

In mid-sentence, as he's trying to explain that he really has to go - he vanishes.

At this, the heroes mill about, arguing about what to do next. Some of them start talking about ways to "waste time" in the town until Lord Charis and his companions might show up again the next morning. Rose seems particularly annoyed by this, wondering aloud just what the point was of getting that spell put on her "wand", if they have no intention of actually going after the Hourglass themselves. But she's especially annoyed when she discovers that, after some more arguing, her wand has gone missing. She sees a shadowy-looking figure disappearing out the front door, and gives pursuit.

Ferrari is faster, rushing out and discovering that the "shady girl" has shown up at the alley again, and shows no evidence of recognizing Ferrari from before. She uses the pass-phrase from the old man, which seems to work - but Rose rushes out and attacks the shady girl, supposing her to be the thief. The shady girl goes down in a hail of sharp roses, and suddenly several silver coins materialize and shoot for Rose's pocket. Ferrari protests, and for a bit there's a wrestling match as Ferrari tries to take Rose's silver pieces, but Rose bounds away. When Ferrari turns back around, the "shady girl" is there again, no worse for the wear. Ferrari tries the pass phrase again, and opens the way to the Thieves' Guild. This time, the others join her and they head in.

Rose sneaks into the Thieves' Guild, along with the others, and she pokes around until she finds a shady-looking character who happens to have the Tome of Roses and a wooden dagger. Rose manages to swipe the book, but she leaves the dagger behind - and Ferrari decides that she doesn't want it badly enough to try going for it herself. (Still, Ferrari tries her hand at pilfering miscellaneous other things, but gets caught in the act. This time - she runs away.)

Voltage manages to find a merchant who has a couple of strange artifacts - a magical-looking wrench, and some sort of techno-magical device. She doesn't have nearly enough money to match his prices, but she takes some miscellaneous junk that she picked up at the tinker's shop, and starts assembling it into a pair of "magic lamps" - using a combination of her own mechanical know-how, and her developing ability to tweak and twist Universe's reality by carefully controlling the relationship between her own observations and expectations, and Universe's attempts to match those expectations in order to "fill in the gaps". In short order, she has a couple of "magic lamps", and the merchant is so amazed that he gives her the wrench and the gizmo in exchange. By this point, it looks like various of the other heroes are just on the verge of getting into trouble in various ways, so she rounds them up, and they head back outside.

More arguing ensues, as everyone seems to have a different idea about what they should be doing in DungeonWorld - that is, for those who can even remember why they wanted to come here in the first place. Rose wants to go get the Hourglass and then find a way back "home". Scars, Fireman and Kathmandu seem to be more interested in finding ways to kill monsters, "level up", and get more powerful. (In fact, they start trying to come up with strategies to exploit the system - say, by finding that "shady looking thief", beating her up, getting some silver, then going away, coming back, and repeating the whole process until they're very rich.) Voltage seems to be torn between going off to the Clockwork Tower, or hanging around to see if Lord Charis shows up again. As it is, she decides that she really doesn't like it here in Dungeonworld: Superior City may be artificial, as she's come to discover, but DungeonWorld seems far more primitive and even more surreal than anything back in the city. Its lack of any technology for her to work with (at least, what she considers to be real technology) is even more unnerving, and she's uncomfortable with the "trick" that she's started to develop in subtly manipulating reality.

So, will our heroes go on a "quest"? Will they "level up"? Will they slay monsters and acquire much silver? Will they ever find a way back to Superior City? Find out this and more, in the next session of ... Superior City!