Amalia, Irina, Mallipattra, and May (among many others - the incoming freshman class at Skyhold Academy is over 1000 students) arrive at the Academy and get their uniforms and room assignments, in a noisy and chaotic environment. As it happens, these four are assigned rooms next to each other and end up chatting a bit as they settle into their rooms (dormitory sized and sparsely furnished, but at least everyone gets their own). It also turns out they have the same tutor - Justine (probably not a big surprise - it would make sense to room students with the same tutor near each other).
Mallipattra is a local and clues the others in on some of the local details, like the Skyhold ventilation system and the anti-sandstorm wards at outside openings. Speaking of ventilation, Irina finds a small hole in one corner of her room (where the floor, the back wall, and the wall shared with Mallipattra's room meet) with a slight airflow coming from it. May's goggles can just barely make out a ward on the other side of the back wall, about 6" away, but they decide trying to burrow through the wall to get a better look probably isn't the best idea as they don't know what the ward is there for.
That night, horrible bugs invade from the labyrinth! (It's the Issen-Derin!) In a coordinated effort, at least two bugs get through and (according to later reports) head straight for Irina's room. They have no trouble getting through her door and attack Irina, poisoning her! Her cries arouse her three neighbors, and soon the group (with almost no combat training or skills) is desperately trying to hit the bugs - there's a small scarab sized one that skitters around and seems impossible to hit (hiding in Mallipattra's clothes at one point, which leads to a panicked disrobing) and poisons Mallipattra, but Amalia eventually manages to entangle the larger one in Irina's bedsheets and May gives it a good blow with a hammer she happened to have lying around (breaking the hammer in the process, sadly) and from there the bigger bug goes down quickly.
The smaller bug makes a run for it, but Sykes, one of the guards, shows up in pursuit of the bugs and takes it down with a ball of lightning from his enchanted sword. Sykes questions the four as to what happened to them, and then fills them in on what had happened below. Irina and Mallipattra (the ones poisoned by the bugs) are taken to Albert, an Academy healer, but thankfully there appears to be no lasting effect from the poison. Once they return, they join the others in their attempt to sleep for the rest of the night at a nearby guardpost (bugs, man!).
In the morning, all four sleepily head to their tutor and give her the details of the previous night as best they can remember. It's unclear what lessons she might have given subsequently, since no one was really in shape to absorb a lesson at that point.
The next day, with slightly better sleep, the four find themselves assigned extra training to increase their mana reservoirs, and also combat training with Professor Cramwell for three hours a week (although the actual lessons seem to take much longer). This is quite unexpected, as he doesn't normally deign to teach first years, implying that the higher ups think that whatever is up isn't done with yet and don't think the standard Academy defenses will be sufficient to protect these particular students, as well as that they think these four can actually get anything more than bruises from Cramwell's training.
As the quartet settles into the routines of life as students at Skyhold Academy, their attention turns back to one of the early mysteries they'd discovered - what the heck was up with that ward behind the wall in Irina's room? Mallipattra eventually gets Irina's permission to spore the room with a promise to clean up afterwards, and the fungal assault begins on the wall. It ends surprisingly quickly, as it turns out the wall near the air opening was not a wall after all, but a well disguised door!
In fact, it was a door with an anti-attention ward on it, which Mallipattra had unintentionally broken while trying to widen the airhole. With the ward non-functional, the door can be made out with a cursory inspection - flush to the wall, but obvious if you know what to look for, and where to look. However, there is no doorknob, no obvious hinges, and it won't open. After some fabric-based investigation by Amalia, it seems there are hinges on the far side, but no obvious doorknob, latch, bar or whatnot. However, as they haven't heard anything through the vent the whole time, May decides to jaunt to the far side, pops a light cantrip, and discovers a narrow hall running parallel to the back wall of the room. She also finds a still active ward laid out in metal on the back of the door (in addition to the now non-functional anti-attention one carved into the door) that's written with vastly different spellforms - in fact, she's never seen any quite like these (they're all squiggly!). That said, just from its placement it's clearly intended to, at the very least, warn if the (stone-melded) latch is opened.
With the group lacking a stone affinity, opening the door would require breaking both stone and ward, so May opts to just pull everyone over, as it seems safe enough. They wander along the corridor a bit, hearing distant tapping sounds that quickly die out. The corridor ranges from the end of the room on Mallipattra's side (and clearly got reworked to close it off at that point) to the far side, where it makes a right angle turn and heads away from the dorms, sloping slightly downhill. Following along, after a bit they find a fairly spacious (by dorm standards) room, with a nice bed, a mini-kitchen, a study area ... and large numbers of spiders lying in ambush!
Once the oblivious quartet enter the room, the spiders slam shut the two open doors and swarm them! Irina fights back, smacking one of the head-sized spiders soundly, but only dazing it rather than squashing it - an ominous sign! The spiders attempt to bite everyone, which turns out to be rather ineffective against Irina (thanks to her kinetic dampening) and Amalia (with her fibrous armor), but May and Mallipattra both suffer small puncture wounds. In addition, May is poisoned (3 bites on her unarmored forearms!), whereas Mallipattra's fungal symbiotes manage to counteract the poison. And it's a bad poison, quickly rendering May unconscious even as she ineffectively tries to make it back to safer corridors (the spiders having blocked the closed door with a ward on the far side), the last thing visible being a spider ... holding a syringe? But as the others stress over how to save her, a much larger spider squishes into the room from behind the other (formerly) closed door and overcomes them with terror and insanely long legs.
Regaining consciousness in what might be an abandoned larder, the four find themselves strung up on hooks by various implements (although it might instead be a wardrobe, as it's wood-paneled - both have hooks for hanging things up, after all!). Amalia quickly frees herself by untangling the fibers holding her up and then frees May, who was likewise restrained. Mallipattra does a zero-gravity jump to the ceiling, removing herself from the hook but not her manacles, which May manages to unlock. Irina simply (and slowly) transmutes enough of the metal lock holding her in place to break free as well. There's not much to explore, though, as the room is otherwise fairly bare. May takes a peek outside under the door, where she sees a room full of spiders, including two big ones! The two of the spiders seem to be engaging in some kind of debate or mating dance, but one eventually seems to concede, the door is opened and the four led out.
The spiders then try to communicate with the primitive humans using simple sound patterns, tapping on the floor. Eventually, the humans catch on to first a fibonacci sequence and then a prime number sequence, continuing the sequences and demonstrating their sapience despite their obvious shortcomings as spiders. The dialog switches to charades as the spider try to convey that they just want their privacy, and are perfectly willing to let the foolish humans go if they'll keep their mouths shut (the kitchens provide plenty of food for the spiders, after all). An agreement is made, and the humans go back to their rooms. May repairs the broken ward with great care, as she isn't skilled enough to recraft the whole thing, and soon the "wall" is back to being unbroken (save for the airhole, as before).
Safely back in their own rooms, the four read some books rescued from the hidden student room (after they'd been okayed by the spiders, who had perhaps been concerned the journals might leak knowledge of their presence). They're fairly dry (and dusty) reading, as the student who crafted the room and corridors recorded what he'd been up to. In addition to the dorm connection, there are also connections to a boy's bathroom, the third-year kitchen, and an abandoned (and sealed) blast-hardened lab (where the spider dance contest took place).
Irina (understandably) demands a new room, so May switches with her. A (previous) history of working with heteromorphs stands her well in dealing with things like intelligent spiders. And May talks with Professor Cramwell about getting access to a safe place to test explosions, as the spiders' labs might not be structurally sound anymore, what with the nearby walls having been dug through (and also being full of spiders, of course).
After several weeks of classes, Professor Cramwell has his least skilled students engage in a battle royale to evaluate said skills. The rules are simple - the first one standing alone in the 4m radius ring for 12 seconds straight wins! The contest gets off to a bloody start when Mallipattra, disappointed that her first clubbing of Irina had little effect, goes all out and absolutely clobbers Irina with her fungus stick, breaking Irina's shoulder. A pause is called as medics cart Irina off the field (and Irina strongly reconsiders her decision to not wear any armor).
During a scrum of the other three, May sets off an explosion, stunning all remaining contenders but not managing to actually take anyone down. Amalia and Mallipattra respond by teaming up and taking May down before she can finish the job; they then turn on each other. Amalia manages to grab Mallipattra by her undergarments, push her out of the ring, and holds her there for the 12 second count (in spite of Mallipattra's increasingly desperate attempts to break free) just as her fiber mana runs dry, winning the contest! First (Amalia) and last (Irina) prize get a special ninety minute one-on-one session with Professor Cramwell!
Midterms are coming! Kittens are going missing! May is secretly taking lessons in tappy spider language!
When Amalia goes to her geometry midterm, the proctor turns out to secretly be a prussian-speaking ninja (which is extra surprising given that no-one in this universe speaks prussian)! Fortunately, Amalia's test was the last of the quartet's, who hear the noise from where they were waiting outside the door and rush in, rescuing Amalia and trapping the ninja in the room with fungus and tinfoil. When security shows up, the ninja is found dead by cyanide capsule (kinda gruesome for the four, although they've likely seen worse in their past lives). In place of counseling, Amalia is given a new proctor and no extra time on her test (rude).
Midterms done, attention and hijinks turn to the missing kittens. Investigation reveals that they've all gone missing from rooms with ventilation ducts (as opposed to the transom ventilation in the quartet's wing). Investigation of a duct reveals a hidden ward which presumably allowed entrance to the room, except that it's unreadable by mere humans - in fact it's suspiciously similar in spellform style to the one found near the tappy spiders (although in chalk rather than metal), and Mallipattra's tasting of the vent also tastes like tappy spider! Everyone goes back to May's room and into the tappy spider area to query May's tutor. Assuming the worst, May attempts to ask about the kittens by drawing spider + kitten = larger spider. The spider apparently takes this as a challenge and, wielding three pieces of chalk at once, does an improved version! However, Irina wins the contest by (slowly) creating a sparse metal kitty sculpture, and the tutor reveals that, indeed, the spiders stole the kittens - to play with!
Turns out that spiders, much like humans, adore kittens (although not the grumpy older cat they also cat-napped). The spiders apparently got the idea from a book that one of the spiders starts to show everyone (about a girl and her kitten), but they're quickly stopped and hushed up by the other spiders, possibly because the book doesn't appear to have any pictures - the spiders can read Ithonian?! Well, it's clear they don't want to admit that, if it's even true, so the quartet let the subject drop (for now). Continuing on, the grumpy cat is turned over to the quartet, and it's fairly clear the kittens will be returned to prevent anyone else from suspecting the spiders' presence. Perhaps May will smuggle one in to them to help pay for her language lessons.
Finally, a group combat test, proctored by a fourth-year plant mage who summons animated plant monsters! The quartet struggles against various combinations of (handicapped) plant monsters, managing to take down some but rarely managing to fight through any given wave. It's yet another grueling (and bruising) combat session. When the difficulty is ramped up towards the end of the session, Mallipattra decides it's time to attack the plant mage (which they were told not to do), but is only blocked by Cramwell, rather than penalized.
After the last attack on the group (the rogue proctor), the powers what be decide they need a bit more security and require them to stay in pairs at all times (including bunking together - Mallipattra pairs up with Irina and Amalia with May) and assigns a female guard detail (plus Sykes) who take the two now empty rooms and try to blend in as students rather than the young battle mages they are (to limited effect). No one is that happy with the situation, but there's no arguing with the powers what be.
The group (guards included) are then assigned a field trip - they're to accompany a third-year field trip visiting nearby regions of the Endless Erg to study the desert's denizens and history (mostly the history, although you know which is going to feature more prominently in this writeup ;). There're three third-years going, along with two professors (one for each student group), the guards, and the usual ship crew.
However, before their ship sails, Mallipattra tries to sneak out to scout out the ship. She's spotted by one of the guards (Butch) who accompanies her on the outing, taking all the joy out of sneaking out. May tries to warn the tappy spiders that the rooms are going to have extra wards added, which could cause the existing wards in her room to be noticed and give them away, although her tutor doesn't seem that concerned. Speaking of her tutor, May's attempt to see if she can use writing to help with the language lessons is taken in an odd fashion, as her tutor agrees to allow her to have a page of writing translated to "spoken" tappy spider when hitting language mileposts, which is not exactly what May was thinking of. It's becoming more clear that tappy spider culture is noticeably different from local human culture, leading to some translation issues.
When everyone gets to the ship the next day, it turns out to be a smallish military ship, leading most of the passengers to be hammocked rather than bunked. Introductions are made as one of the third-years, Martha Wells, interrogates the first years and engages in general conversation. She's a sand mage, and her companions are Cedric, a cheese mage, and Greg, who she claims has no last name because he'll be the first to die. The professors are Justine Worthington (a blade mage) for the first-years and Henry Alpinos (a water mage) for the third-years.
As they set out, the students are given reading assignments of four books covering various aspects of the Endless Erg, the most interesting (covering the denizens) also being the shortest (Amalia claims one of the two copies of it). Martha comments that there won't be time for everyone to read everything, so best to farm out the four volumes so someone in each group can answer questions related to them. It turns out the ship will also be making a stop at a martial school teaching the arts of war. Cedric sounds out the first-years on the subject of dreams, saying he's had a recurring one about overthrowing an empire (and also of being caught up in the creation of one), but he doesn't get quite the response he was hoping for (as the first-years later find out).
Not long into the journey, although well away from Skyhold, the ship is attacked by a ship-sized sand lion! As the guards, crew, and professors deal with it (Justine wielding a giant broadsword), the students evacuate from the combat scene, heading to safer ground at a nearby rock outcropping. But before they can reach it a smaller sand lion (merely garbage truck sized) bursts out and attacks them! The third-years take the lead in the combat with Cedric slicing off part of its chitinous armor (and being trampled in return) and Greg removing one leg with a copper whip, although the first-years manage to put some hurt on it as well, with Amalia tangling it with rope (and later pummeling it with Cedric's cape, the unconscious Cedric still attached), Mallipattra sporing it (when she can get in range of the spiracles), and Irina sniping it with photon bursts. (Martha, apparently not having studied the reading covering sand lions, attempts to liquify the sand under it to no affect, although she subsequently finishes it off with a dehydration spell.)
After both combats finish up (Justine having apparently finished off the ship-sized sand lion once she got her limit break), Cedric is tended to and repairs start on the ship (which took a fair beating early in the fight). While that takes place, Irina checks with May, asking about memories of past lives. When May confirms Irina's suspicion that they both have such memories, Irina then asks Cedric about a name Martha had called him during the combat (Lucas), and Cedric continues the discussion about dreams with the first-years, telling them that his dreams are more like memories of a pair of past lives which are confusingly overlapped (as Anakin and Luke Skywalker). The first years also open up about their past life memories, such as they have. (Cedric also mentions having a solidity affinity.)
The ship repairs continue into the next day or two, and while everyone helps out (lugging supplies for the most part, unless (like May) they happen to know something about ship repair), there's still time for the conversation with Cedric to continue in private. It turns out that Cedric has asked others about their past lives (obliquely), and has found one or two others (I think?), but the first years are odd in being a group of people with them, and further having been grouped by the powers what be before any of them knew anything about the others. Conspiracy theories abound! Also, Martha knows that Cedric likes being called Lucas, but not why - he hasn't mentioned the past life stuff to her.
Finally, the ship is repaired, no more monsters attack, and it finishes getting to its destination - the Crag School! Run by Headmaster General Evelyn Crag (a friend of Justine's, as it happens), this school is dedicated to turning rough battle mages into finished officers, ready to fill in the middle ranks of any army that wants to actually be effective in the field. Or so the campus brochure goes, anyway. Apparently, in addition to some combat training (officers need to be able to survive, and being a field asset doesn't hurt, either), they cover tactics, touch on strategy, and double down on logistics (and likely cover some amount of military theory and history as well). The intended audience (for students) are those with two or more years towards being a battle mage, and the third years on the ship are coming to check out the school to see if it's for them (and likely vice versa).
The first years are assigned to cadet Rudolph Jones, a third year (well, first year at this school, but that was after two years elsewhere) who shows them around the place. It's a military style outpost with moderate defenses and somewhat spartan furnishings and fare (it doesn't help that they have to ship in pretty much everything as there's no source of water nearby; they do have some amount of stores, though). They're told what to do in the event of an alarm (which is mostly to congregate in the main gathering area and report to someone tasked with handling visitors). The beds may not be made from stone, but without an appropriate affinity they and the sheets are not easy to distinguish from such.
The next day, a combat exercise! The first years get to be prisoners (although it turns out to be more like a cornered squad, as they're not restrained or disarmed), while the third years join the rescue force (with most of the actual students split up among the two sides). It quickly turns out that while the first years might be lacking in raw power, the novelty of their unusual affinities (along with questionable choices by their captors) turn the tide in their favor, and they manage to escape from their three third year captors before the rescue force even shows up! Which, if anything, shows yet again why trying to keep mages captive is an exercise in frustration. Amalia's fiber affinity definitely proves powerful when the opponents wear clothes, Mallipattra's spores are beginning to become a serious threat, and Irina's prior combat training is proving that, at least at our level, simply being good at punching someone is practically a power on its own.
That night, an alarm! Everyone heads to the gathering area with their gear and helps set up (the first years provide labor, the third years provide runners). Before long, injured people start trickling in and combat supplies (ammo, mostly) start being sent out, but when a large reptilian head shows up over a nearby wall, it becomes clear that this is, in fact, no drill but an actual assault! Cedric draws his sword, while turns out to be a bladeless handle; he holds it over the bonfire and condenses the fire into a saber of burning light! (However, the area also dims a fair bit, as the former bonfire was providing a lot of the light.)
Drawn like a moth to flame, the garbage truck sized reptile leaps into the courtyard and swallows Cedric whole, as a second one peers over another wall of the courtyard. One of the riders of the first falls off just before the leap and is left clinging to the side of a building, while the officer on it, upon seeing his ride consume the primary target, tells everyone "Plan B! Go for the secondary targets!" and then uses a shock prod to try and convince his ride to cough Cedric back up (to no avail).
Like the closing scene from Blazing Saddles, chaos reigns in the courtyard as the general melee sweeps across it, invaders and defenders locked in mortal combat and jockeying for position among the giant lizards and bewildered first years. First years who shortly come under attack, as the remaining riders of the first lizard leap off and charge towards them through the melee! Soon Amalia and Irina are netted while other attackers open up with double barreled insect dispensers, belching insects on top of the two bound first years. Irina transmutes the net holding her into physical force and punches one of the nearby attackers, who turns out to have a glass jaw, and then starts sparring with two more.
Mallipattra puts her spore clouds to good effect, knocking out just about every dispensed insect (and not quite incapacitating Amalia and Irina), but eventually gets the attention of several invaders plus the officer, which is more than she can handle, although she gives a good accounting of herself. May appears from a nearby field hospital and pulls Amalia out of the line of fire (although not out of the net) and backs up Mallipattra. Amalia manages to wiggle out of the net and grabs the officer by his lapels, slamming him into the ground and generally abusing his authority.
Before long, the insects are dispensed with, the officers subdued, and the minions cowed. As it later turns out, that was in fact the main attack, as the rest of the force was a mere diversion and pulls back once their plan crumbles against the fierce opposition. Oh, and Cedric finally emerges from the reptile, spraying bloody guts across the courtyard and gasping for air (turns out the gizzard of a lizard is not the fun kind of bounce house).
Throughout the combat, various signs point to off-world influences, such as the officers wearing kevlar vests and sometimes breaking into prussian and the minions carrying shock tridents (which they are not very familiar with) and the officers shock prods (with which they are quite familiar). No doubt more clues about this mystery will be discovered when they are interrogated next session!
General Crag herself, along with the two professors (and with an audience of Cedric and the first years), interrogates Hans Gruberman, the leader of the attackers. While a carefully prepared concoction of various chemicals renders Hans quite talkative, he seems to have problems thinking on his own, and seems more used to being part of a collective. A collective, the Hive, which he talks about in broad strokes, along with details of the operation he was carrying out.
It seems he and his subordinate were sent into this world from another, using a minor labyrinth maybe 30 leagues away from Skyhold Academy, in an area of little interest. Prepared with valuable trade goods and various other supplies (mostly otherworldly weapons like the bug bazookas and the shock prods and tridents), they hired the services of local mercenaries and prepared the assault, apparently knowing in advance where Cedric (the primary target) and the first years (secondary targets) would be in advance of their arriving at the Crag School.
This was not their world's first attempt on Cedric! Apparently, it was more like the fourth (although technically one of them (the ninja proctor) ended up going after Amalia instead, presumably because the opportunity presented itself). The first years were discovered by accident during an attempt on Cedric, with only Amalia and Mallipattra being fully known to them (from having been bitten) {bit of a retcon here as originally it was Irina and Mallipattra who got bit, but Irina should have been immune to biting}.
The Hive that sent them seems to span one or more worlds, but it is having some local issues with either cohesiveness or ability to spread (Hans finds such concepts difficult to convey) because some essence has been lost from their world, possibly something like legends or myths (another concept that Hans has difficulty conveying), and whatever it is is contained in Cedric; the first years also apparently have whatever it is, albeit from a different locality that is also having the issue.
From the sounds of it, the Hive is a collective entity based around radio and scent, where humans are not part of the upper echelons but mere servitors (although partaking of the joyous beauty of being part of the whole). After some discussion following the interrogation, Cedric and the first years decide they aren't really interested in becoming part of this particular whole.
More discussion with the professors reveals that they knew of much of this already, and that this is not the first group the Hive has come after. However, apparently knowing too much about what is going on has strong negative side effects for those being targeted, and they refuse to reveal further details.
Thankfully, the remainder of the stay in the Crag School is uneventful, as is the journey back to Skyhold Academy. In fact, time passes to the mid-winter celebration with very little out of the ordinary taking place. That said, May does ask the tappy spiders what they know of all this, or tries to, but it quickly becomes clear she'll need further study into their language and culture before such a tricky question can even be asked, much less meaningfully answered.
And while May hits the stacks for research into various types of math (as well as other subjects related to her past life memories, like physics), Irina checks for records of the previous Hive-related cohorts that either vanished or died around the right timeframe based on hints the professors dropped (accidentally or not). She finds that one first year cohort simply vanished during a final exam in the labyrinth, which was quite unusual. When questioned about it, both Justine and Mallipattra's parents (one of whom was a labyrinth guard at the time) stonewall and refuse to talk about the incident.
When the solstice celebration finally comes around, the group is happy for the diversion - not for themselves so much as for anyone who might stop them from checking out one of the entrances to the labyrinth (their guards, who perhaps should have stopped this, have apparently become somewhat jaded to guard duty and quietly welcomed the change of scenery). The guards at the entrance, on the other hand, warn the group off just before swarms of dog-sized wasps stream out of nearby vents! The wasps quickly retreat, but the labyrinth entrance is then smashed open from inside by a now dazed centipede ram, and they swarm back in as both a giant scorpion and a Sith lord appear from the open entrance. Combat quickly ensues!
Cedric lights a table on fire, jumps up on it, and prepares to receive the Sith lord. The scorpion charges Mallipattra, its horrible clacking claws cutting great rents in her leather armor (not to mention her body)! The wasps swarm the other first years from one side and the guards from another! After some skirmishing, the wasps are found to mostly be ineffective (particularly against Irina, who is rapidly becoming the party brick) and the scorpion all too effective as it nearly slashes Mallipattra in half! Fortunately, it is not so intent upon her as to prevent her escape to higher ground, and May is able to give Mallipattra some healing to keep her from dying from the wounds. Meanwhile, Amalia and Irina combine forces on the scorpion and, with help from May and Mallipattra, take it down before it manages to savage anyone else. Cedric fights a losing battle with the Sith lord, but hangs on long enough for the other four to offer support, deciding the battle in his favor.
After having a number of high level healers attend to Mallipattra to repair all the scorpion-based damage, it occurs to the powers what be that maybe they could offer other resources to these anomalous first years, and they open the (less powerful) enchanted items stores. {Unfortunately, these cost character points, and everyone is fairly invested into building out their powers now, but they're available if people want to have some utility in a way their affinities don't offer, or justification for attacks or defenses they might not otherwise have.}
May finally gets a handle on the tappy spiders and starts understanding enough to actually communicate, and gets the tappy spider backstory! Turns out the group hiding in the walls are actually refugees from another dimension. They'd been specially modified (through genetic manipulation of future offspring) to be asteroid miners, and to live and work in outer space (apparently the larger spiders get used for transport and cargo hauling). They'd been out mining when communications with the homeworld started getting ... weird, apparently some sort of memetic virus (and everyone immediately jumps to the conclusion that it's related to the Hive). They eventually decided that they were better off emigrating, and they knew about a labyrinth they'd found on a nearby asteroid (which they hadn't told anyone about), so they made a perilous journey through various labyrinths and across scary worlds until they found one that seemed safe enough - ours.
In other news, it turns out that Irina and Mallipattra's past lives had exposure to fictional media that covered Cedric's past life (or lives, as it turns out), and they talk to him about it (like the fact that he apparently has memories of the past lives of both Anakin and Luke). While this might help him reconcile the conflicts between the two sets, this is an odd turn in general, and everyone wonders if their past lives are fictionalized in someone else's dimension. And if they're only fictional. (Not that anyone's thinking about that one too hard, for that way lies madness.)
Cedric goes missing! (You know it's gotta hurt when it takes three days before anyone notices and starts comparing notes.) An investigation by the first years reveals that he was attacked in his room by bugs! Who broke in! And who leave counters to prevent Mallipattra from tracking them down! Questioning the locals, they find someone who saw a couple of guards helping a third drunken guard away at about the right time, but run out of leads past that. They do tell Justine what they know, though.
But then Amalia finds a letter in one of her classrooms that mentions Cedric and offers a meeting to exchange information. Of course, she has to come alone. And, of course, she does not! Well, the others follow discretely after sneaking out of their rooms so the guards won't follow them (although they do leave notes to indicate where they went).
Amalia finds a lady waiting for her who introduces herself as Omega, and they banter a bit as she takes Amalia to a nearby storage room which features Cedric doing a Han Solo impression - encased in carbonite! Well, okay, bug goo as it turns out; the room also features two rather humanoid bug guards (not encased in bug goo). Amalia and Omega continue to banter for a while, with Omega talking about how she herself is the complete set of stories from her universe, but how the universes that Cedric and the others are from are now incomplete, missing vital stories, and that without those stories, they will soon cease to exist! Only we can save them, and all we have to do is return to our rightful places!
It's a nice pitch and, if Hans hadn't unintentionally salted that particular path earlier, it might have worked. Then again, Cedric's position really isn't helping the argument, but Amalia isn't familiar with his fiction, so might not have noticed which side Omega had placed her faction on (c.f., "Are we the baddies?").
At this point May, who's been eavesdropping on all this talk, decides to yoink Amalia from the room. Omega smirks as the bug guards goo both girls before May can perform the extraction, leaving them in the room where it happened, glued to the floor (and each other) while Irina and Mallipattra are left standing by themselves down the hall, around 28 meters away (from May, not from the door).
{In a slight retcon, the combat is restarted with Amalia and May ungooed, but, as the bug guards are faster, that quickly changes. Also, despite the impression that the goo is goo-like, it turns out to actually be kinda spider-webby (although not fibrous, much to Amalia's annoyance).}
Amalia is quickly gooed, but May is left ungooed, as the bugs don't seem interested in gooing her for some reason {bad intelligence - they think she'll be able to easily teleport out, but it's too sticky for that}. Instead, the second bug moves in to start laying out a beat-down on the gooed Amalia. Amalia responds by blinding the bugs, preventing any photons from reaching their eyes! Sadly, this does nothing, as the bugs can operate just fine by scent.
Mallipattra and Irina finally make it into the room, and the free bug goos Mallipattra and then starts beating her up. The four girls are mostly ineffectual, with wild shots wrecking minor havoc on the storeroom's various contents, as Amalia and Mallipattra are taken down. May, taking stock, flees the room. (Omega, for her part, does very little beyond observing the fight, although she does help one of the bugs to recover, perhaps cheering it on in some buggy fashion.)
Omega sends one of the bugs after May, who goos her and moves in for the beat-down. Unfortunately for him, May's the one who gets to deliver it! In the room, Irina remains remarkably unbeaten up, and both Amalia and Mallipattra recover, Amalia fleeing for a safer recovery spot and Mallipattra skating through the door with Irina. Sadly, the bug chases her, and Mallipattra goes down a second time. But with May's victory over her bug and Amalia's reappearance there's little question over the direction the fight will go.
Speaking of reappearances, Cedric breaks free of his gooite prison and attacks Omega, but not before she can spout a well-known line from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ("If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine"). Cedric's strike splits her unresisting robe in twain and dead beatles fall to the ground - it seems she was only ever a few score beatles in a trenchcoat.
(One other line of note from Omega mentioned "there can only be two", which seems to have something to do with the reason why they're only ever attacking in pairs.)
In any case, the fight won, the bugs are hauled before Justine, and much exposition is had. Justine heads off ("stay right here!") and returns after an interminable half hour of tense waiting (during the wait, Cedric speaks a bit about his time encased in goo - it seems he spent some of it dreaming of engaging in various adventures to rescue lost artifacts and place them in museums), accompanied with a number of higher ups, and more exposition is performed.
Amazingly, the higher ups decide the group has now figured out enough on their own that it's safe to give them some information about what's happening! The higher ups are part of an ongoing fight against the Expansionists, a dastardly organization that takes over entire universes by stealing all their stories and placing them under drm, controlling entire populations that no longer have any inspiring or uplifting legends to help them fight back against the invaders. And Cedric and the girls are part of that fight! The hope is that, with continued training, they may one day return to their true universes to lead the fight against the evil forces.
And it is no accident that people with memories of strange past lives are present in this universe, in this time - their group searches universes for Expansionist incursions and responds by siphoning some of the stories from them, embuing them into unborn children in this universe and then raising them (with any luck) to be resistance fighters. But the dangers to these children are many fold - in addition to attacks from the Expansionists attempting to retrieve the stories, if the story of the child's existence becomes too much of this universe, the embued stories vanish, leaving a perfectly ordinary child with no weird memories, and allowing the Expansionists to extend their control into the universe the story had been protecting.
As everyone's processing all that, the higher ups ask for specifics about past life memories and, with the help of a copy of the Index of Worlds, one of them tries to see if they can place those memories to any particular universes. (Given the size of the thing, good luck with that!)
Cedric gets his quarters moved over to the girl's hall (more or less, as their particular hall is all-girl).
Time passes, and training continues (for those still taking it, higher math is dropped in favor of more combat training). As the group is taking a break at the docks one night, May happens to spot some little fuzzy creatures leaving an anchored sandship and making their way towards the docks (and is spotted in turn).
Intrigued by the two dozen little critters sneaking out of a ship under cover of night, May and the group surreptitiously follow after them as they sneak under the docks and up into the academy. Well, as surreptitiously as they can - only Mallipattra is any good at hiding in a crowd, and there aren't even any crowds around to hide in or, in fact, pretty much anyone else. Plus, of course, the fuzzies had already noticed the girls noticing them.
The little fuzzies find a secluded spot and politely wait for their "sneaky" pursuers to join them. Conversation is limited at first, as the little fuzzies only say "yeek", but one of them hauls out a bulky handset and fiddles with it a bit, points to it, and then points to the girls. Getting the hint, May accepts the handset and, using Irina as a general purpose tool (thanks to her metal affinity), takes it apart and attempts to diagnose the isssue {do screws even exist on Anastis?}. While the technology involved was probably contemporaneous with the dinosaurs (vacuum tubes! individual transistors visible to the naked eye!), and the last time May fiddled with electronics was in a past life, she still manages to puzzle out the circuitry and has Irina re-lay a few traces to fix it, then returns the now working device. Which turns out to be a frequency shifter, as the fuzzies talk at ultrasonic frequencies!
While the primary fuzzy talker, who is quickly labeled the Professor, has rather limited Ithonian, he does speak English fluently, and while they're quite rusty at it all the group also speak English (at varying levels of fluency, including that it's been a lifetime since any of them actually spoke it).
The story Proffy relates is a sad one, but not a unique one - the tappy spiders's history was quite similar. Different universes, but the same story - suddenly, the world stopped making sense {as if a later book in a series had rewritten the original continuity}, and they managed to escape through a labyrinth. In the fuzzies case, many more of them than just the two dozen here managed to escape, but they decided to split up and look into different exits, since there was no guarantee any given exit would be hospitable.
Eventually, the girls decide it's time to bring in the people who know more about this stuff, and Irina and Mallipattra go and fetch Justine while May and Amalia transfer the fuzzies to a classroom in a mostly abandoned section of the academy. While waiting for Justine, Amalia puts her fiber affinity to use repairing backpacks and the like while May puts an attention ward on the door just in case someone wanders by.
Mallipattra and Irina eventually return with Justine in tow. With the girls translating Ithonian to English (and vice-versa), Justine inquires a bit more about what happened to the fuzzies and what their plans are, which unsurprisingly turns out to be finding a nice play to live. (Anastis apparently doesn't rate - May blames all the sand.) There's another reference to Galvachren's Atlas of Worlds, as Justine reveals that pretty much none of the exit points from the Academy labyrinth go anywhere nice (which does beg the question of which one the fuzzies came from and which one the Hive attackers came from, not to mention painting a grim picture of the fate of the other fuzzy expeditions).
After a bit, Justine decides she needs to bring in Professor Alpinos as well (and probably wants to grab coffee and some food, as she'd been sleeping earlier), so heads off. Meanwhile, the younger fuzzies have gone exploring, and one returns with a kitten and a tappy spider. By the time the professors return, a full-scale dance battle is on, which leads to some awkward questions ("You've been hiding more aliens from us this entire time?!" - awkward, amirite?). At least the girls managed to keep their promise to the tappy spiders - it wasn't their fault the profs caught on.
Once things settle back down, the professors decide the best course of action is to travel to a nearby labyrinth that has some better options. Somewhat concerningly, it's also the one that'd been used by Hans Gruberman to travel to Anastis. Some of the tappy spiders pipe up and say they'd like to come as well, and Alpinos decides his students should join, too, so it's to be quite the outing! Naturally, with two groups of otherworlders, military transport is called for, and the trip is uneventful.
At least, up to the point where everyone gets off the ship and heads up towards the entrance, at which point three dragons fly up in a menancing fashion! Figuring the dragons are too territorial to be reasoned with, the profs decide to push through, so they and the 3rd years engage the dragons while everyone else rushes forward to the run-down fortress that used to defend the labyrinth (or, more correctly, defend against the labyrinth). Unfortunately, it turns out a fourth dragon had been sleeping in the fortress. Wakened by the approaching horde, he emerges and sizes up the situation - frolicing little fuzzies, a squad of tappy spiders, and some adolescent humans. Seeing no real danger, he tries enticing one of the little fuzzies over, possibly to see if it would make a decent snack!
For their part, the adolescent humans decide it falls to them to protect the rest, so May directs the tappy spiders to take shelter and teleports ahead to intercept the dragon, followed by Irina and Mallipattra (okay, technically, those two went first, but May beat them on distance and managed to get the dragon's attention away from the fuzzy). Everyone is terrified at facing a huge dragon (which could literally kill them with a single blow, or cover them with literal napalm), but put on brave faces because they need to reassure their companions. Fortunately, the whappy tail, the chompy jaws, and the flaming napalm breath never quite connect with anyone, although certainly not for a lack of trying.
Mallipattra spores the dragon multiple times, until she finally runs out of mana. Irinia discovers that it's hard to get a solid hit on a huge beast covered with thick scales (she's being encouraged to get brass knuckles). Amalia plinks at it with pieces of sharp cloth, slowly eating away its hp. May takes herself out of the fight but manages to also blind the dragon for a whopping 12 segments. By the time the dragon regains sight (and hearing), it's taken enough damage it decides to call the whole thing off and, not wanting to be trapped in the fortress, heads off into the surrounding hills.
By this point the adult fuzzies have managed to collect the younger fuzzies, and they have joined the tappy spiders on the tappy spider cargo shuttle (aka, one of the big tappy spiders), which joins the fight at the tail end, turning the shuttle's communications maser on the dragon (which seems to have gotten the message). Once the dragon clears the field, everyone heads into the fortress, which also turns out to be the dragon's lair. And he was a hordy kind of dragon, so there is a horde! Not so much on the precious metals, sadly (like any reasonable being, he keeps those in a bank), but there are various enchanted items and pieces of art, all of which are perused (and possibly looted) while waiting for the professors and 3rd years to show up as they perform their orderly retreat, as the fight against the other three dragons is not going well.
Once inside the fortress, and while waiting for the professors and third years to make their way over, the fuzzies and spiders debark from the cargo shuttle (as it seems safe, it's more than a bit cramped in there, and it's not really designed for use at the bottom of a gravity well). Everyone looks around a bit and admires all the amazing (and mostly large and/or fragile) works of art. Irina, Mallipattra, and Amalia pocket some of the smaller pieces (mostly jewelry - Mallipattra seems partial to shiny bangles); surely nothing bad will come of this. It honestly never occurs to May to do so (see what I did there? ;).
The others quickly show up and lead everyone further in before the dragons decide to risk a fight amongst all the fragile valuables. Everyone is told that, in the extremely unlikely case of some members being separated from the others (like, choosing a completely random example, the first years), they should head to the planned exit on the third level, as regrouping before that will be highly unlikely. Said first years are assigned to the rearguard, as few (if any) attacks are likely to come from that direction, and they're mostly expected to shepherd the fuzzies and spiders (whom they can communicate with). The labyrinth proper is not far, and the walls quickly change from worked stone to geometrically perfect worked-like stone, where mana flows through what at first glance appear to be widely spaced divisions in the stone (giving them the semblance of large blocks). Amalia's spatial affinity sense dares her to stare into the abyss, as it seems there is nothing beyond the walls (not even space), but she retains her sanity. For now.
After a winding passage with no branches, the first T-junction arrives. Distracted by Cedric and pausing briefly to look at the passage not taken, the first years manage to lose the path (and everyone else) - apparently pathing decisions must be made quickly and decisively, or the labyrinth will decide for you (and according to Mallipattra, it seems to like playing tricks). As the group wonders what to do (be decisive, gang!), the labyrinth acts again, yanking the floor out from under them and dumping them onto the second level at a four-way intersection, with choices of dark, dank dark, swampy firelight, and comfy room. Everyone decides the comfy room must be a trap, so we explore the dark, as we can provide light (and at least it's not swampy).
Except it loops around to the swamp after all! And there's a lizard-thing ambush on the way! The lizards turn out to be fairly ineffective and are quickly driven off with minimal injuries (one nearly dies when Mallipattra discovers a severe mycelium allergy while attempting to perform first aid, but May provides an epipen equivalent that deflates the situation), but they also turn out to have more up their sleeves than thrown spears, sharp claws, and a thumping techno beat - once the group reaches the swamp proper they spy a lizard paying off a fire breathing ooze and then fleeing!
This attacker is effective, dealing out moderate burns to most before it's dispatched. On the positive side, Amalia's dredging of the ooze's swampy lair nets some amount of loot it had accumulated over time, likely some from lizard payoffs (various shiny coins) and some from fallen travelers {the hints in chapter eight having been too subtle, this time everyone is actively encouraged to spend some points on actual loot so the GM has stuff he can take away from the characters when they're inevitably captured and imprisoned}. May finds something that at first appears to be a pile of decaying plant detritus but turns out to be an outfit that seems crafted from very flexible yet surprisingly large and tough bromeliad leaves, and after a thorough cleaning (go cleaning cantrips!), decides to give it a try - it seems to be some kind of living alien environment suit (parse that phrase as you will). May shoves her old armor into her suitcase (this might require jumping up and down on it). To no one's surprise, Mallipattra manages to find some weird alien fungus in the pile, which for some weird alien reason has grown into a bracelet-like shape.
May also heals everyone's burns, although it'll take time for their wounds to fully recover {17 days for Irina (4 BODY, 7 REC), 8 days for May (2 BODY, 7 REC), and 7 days for Mallipattra (1 BODY, 4 REC), during which time further healing will have to overcome their patched but still healing injuries}.