Kettenrad Workshop
Zahnrad's personal workshop. It's located near the Mint dam where Zahnrad spends a good deal of time working on the gearing that links the waterwheels to the various machines that are used in the Wingnut workshops and the Miller's paper mills. It's an unusual shop, even for a Wingnut. The door is, in fact, not really a door. It's a rather large wooden gear that's attached to a stabilizer bar. The bar has handles on it that allow visitors to pull and simply roll the gear out of the way on some makeshift wooden teeth that line the floor. Over the 'doorway' a plaque is mounted that reads "Kettenrad Workshop. If it's broken, we can fix it. If it's not broken, we can still fix it!"

It wasn't difficult to get Dr. Pike's permission to borrow the speaking-machine and voice cylinders from the castle. The Eee scientist was distracted by some other project that involved big glass jars and a gooey black liquid, and didn't even ask what Olivia wanted the device for. It was also handy to have Djivan carry the thing, as well, despite his complaints.

They were not the only ones bearing things, either, as Amelia arrived outside of Zahn's door at the same time, carrying a big wooden box. "Oh, hi there, Olivia!" the Kadie girl greets, noticing the machine in Djivan's arms (and not commenting on his wearing the sound horn as a hat). "The machine's not broken again, is it?" she asks.

"No! Ve decided it really de costume o' de great magic mushroom, vhich is me! So, ve need de rest adjusted so I kin vear it," Djivan says to Amelia. "Bow down before de great mushroom!"

Olivia smiles at her friend and shakes her head. "Oh no, the machine's fine. I just visited the castle so I could borrow it. I figured we should try listening to the rest of those sound cylinders and see if we can get any other information on the creatures Pike's ancestor was studying. They do sound a lot like that little weird thing we saw when we spent the night at your date place." After saying all this, she eyes Djivan strangely. "What in the world… ? Have you been drinking Emmett's home brews again? And in the middle of the day?"

"Bah, I jus' showing de worl' I a fungi!" Djivan quips, grinning hugely.

"Mushroom, eh?" Amy says with a smirk. "I guess that explains why your wagon is so… dark, moist and smelling of compost… " To Olivia, she says, "Oh, good, there might be information about the underground areas too then."

Olivia ahs and she nods briskly. "I hadn't thought about that possibility! That'd be fine, too! So, should we go in?" The Skeek gestures to the door with her hands full of cylinders.

Amelia raises her foot and kicks on the door to knock. "Zahn, I'm back!" she calls. "I've got the… thing. And Olivia is here too."

Apparently the door isn't secured at the moment because the kicking causes it to roll to the side. From inside, Zahnrad shouts, "Ack! No, don't open… "

Today must be the day no one likes fungus … because out from the workshop comes a buzzing pile of oddly shaped contraptions covered in what looks like staticky fluff and little propellers … and they all go right for Djivan! He doesn't even have time to move before he's pelted repeatedly by the odd contraptions.

"Ow, ack, hey!" Djivan complains as he hops around.

"Wasps!" Amy shouts, and ducks down with her tail wrapped around herself.

"Arrrgh, NOW what have you made, Zahn!?" Olivia shouts as she backs up a few paces and looks for some sort of cover. "Do they sting? Can I shoo them back inside?"

The whirring little maniacs spin down pretty quickly as it turns out. Of course for the Skreek, well, there are about a dozen of them tangled up in his fur. Spinning things tend to do that.

Zahn's head sticks out and he says, "Oops." Picking up one of the propeller armed piles of fluff, he says to Amelia, "Not a wasp, see? I call them Frizz-bees… "

"Uh… do they make honey?" Amelia asks lamely.

Olivia approaches Djivan cautiously. "Are you all right, dear?" she asks, freeing a hand just enough so she can pick one of the little things out of his fur and examine it.

"Chaos, mainly," Zahnrad explains as he goes about collecting them. "I took these from Gunther earlier. He was plotting to let them loose in the Boathouse," the Kadie explains.

"Why did they all hit Djivan though?" Amelia asks, once she's unwrapped herself. "He doesn't even look like an otter."

There actually isn't much to the device. A small piece of wood with a propeller attached to it. It's apparently 'wound' up by spinning the propeller and stretching out a makeshift strip of rubber. The 'body' is just covered in shed fur that has been glued on.

Olivia grins and mutters so that only Amy can hear, "Maybe it was his hat that confused them… "

"Probably because he's wearing that thing on his head like the otters tend to when they get drunk," Zahn offers.

"It cuz I jus' damn sexy an everything luv me," Djivan offers.

"No," Zahn says.

"Ves," goes the rat.

"All right, you two," Olivia jumps in. "Let's stop this insanity before it starts, okay?"

"Yeah, we have all new sorts of insanity to look into," Amelia notes, picking up her box again.

Zahn almost retorts 'no' again. But then he just smiles. He walks over to the Skreek, leans in, then says "NO!" into the small end of the sound horn. With the way that reverberates … Djivan, well, wobbles into the shop.

"I wonder if that'd work on the otters too," Amelia mutters, and then goes into the shop.

Olivia rolls her eyes heavenward and 'accidentally' bumps into Zahn as she enters the workshop, sticking her tongue out at him when he raises an eyebrow at her.

"You're welcome," Zahn says to Olivia as she passes. Grinning, he follows after the group. The Kadie deposits his armload of now defunct whirring things onto a crate, then goes to close the door. "So, I know why Amelia is here. We're trying to get ahead on a mystery. As for you, though, why are you here?" he asks Olivia.

"To annoy you, of course!" the Skeek replies, putting her cylinders on the floor and finally taking the sound horn off Djivan's head. When the Kadie boy raises his other eyebrow at her, she grins and continues. "And since we've already achieved that objective, we can move on to our other one… which is to listen to these cylinders, now that you've fixed the playing device. I want to know what else Dr. Pike's ancestor found out about those silvery-clawed creatures."

"Planning to trade the rat in for a better model, then. That's a worthy endeavor," Zahnrad quips and goes to clear a spot on one of his cluttered tables for the machine.

"I hate Kadies," Djivan mutters.

Amy also sets her box down on the corner of a table before going to help Olivia with the cylinders. "What order do they go in?" she asks the Skeek.

Djivan sets the box on the table and then picks up his 'hat from Olivia. But before he hands the sound horn over to Zahn to re-attach … he raises it to his lips and blows. FRRRAAAAAP!

"Oh give me that!" Zahnrad growls and swipes the horn. Rolling his eyes, he goes about reattaching it to the machine.

"Look out, Amelia, Zahn is horny!" Djivan declares. "Oh, wait, vou safe. Everyone knows dis Kadie is too scared t' do stuff!"

"They're cute when they're acting silly," Amy tells Olivia while glancing at the men. "Up to a point, anyway."

Zahn's fingers tap on the tabletop. Calmly, he walks over to a toolbox and picks up a really big wrench. "Your rat needs tightening," he tells Olivia as he marches towards Djivan.

Olivia sorts through the cylinders she's brought and holds up one with a particular little number scratched into one end. "I think this is the first one," she comments, rubbing the end of her nose idly. "That number looks Olympian to me and I believe it's a 1. Shall we try it?" Then she shoots Zahn an evil look and says, "Put that down and stick this thing in the machine, please? I'd like to keep my boyfriend in one piece! He's not a lot of good to me otherwise."

"Hep, hep! He tryin' t' wrench me away from you, Olivia!" Djivan laments … as he bravely tries to hide behind the Skeek.

Zahn … just shakes his head and drops the wrench. Defeated, he takes the first cylinder and goes to insert it into the machine. Once in place, he winds the device carefully and positions the needle. "Just say when and I'll flip it on," he says.

Amelia bites her lower lip, resisting the urge to say something about 'not a lot of good to me otherwise'… but then nothing would ever get accomplished.

Olivia quickly pulls out her pad of paper and a drawing pencil from the hidden inside pocket of her flowered hat. "I'm ready anytime!" she says.

Click goes the switch when Zahn flips it to the 'on' position.

There is the usual hiss and pop until the needle finds the groove, and a tinny voice says, "Entry number one. It's taken me a week to find a wax mixture that works well and can be made permanent, but it was worth it. This is much more efficient than using the imps. Their penmanship is even worse than Ipop's scrawl."

Olivia makes a note or two in her peculiar form of shorthand and listens for more, looking intent.

"My other experiments with the imps have been more fruitful, with the iconograph device being the most useful yet. The speed necessary to capture the image is hard on the imps though, and they wear out after only three or four images so far. I need to find a way to create a more robust strain."

"It's a good thing Gunther can't make imps. Just imagine what disasters that would create," Zahnrad notes from where he leans on a table.

"How do you make them anyway?" Amelia asks. "What are they?"

"Ask a mage," Zahn says with a shrug.

Olivia shakes her own head. "Don't look at me. Maybe Natasha would know? Or Master Qing."

"You may well be asking yourself what an imp is," the voice says. "It is my own variation on the common homunculus-type of golem. Mainly, it is much smaller and can be made to do complex tasks by means of an invested spirit."

"Mebbe dis t'ing is listinin' t' us," Djivan suggests.

Olivia makes a quick note on her pad to ask one of the mages she mentioned about 'invested spirits.'

"The creation process is far too detailed to fit onto one of these cylinders, however. My intent is to use the device to record comments and ideas as they come to me, or things I would not wish to put into writing. hissss is very clever, and I suspect he deliberately hides the breadth of his knowledge. He is an excellent retainer though, and I honestly could not have the time for my experiments without him handling the mundane tasks."

"Gotta be Igor," Zahn comments.

"I was wondering the same thing," Olivia agrees. "He has to be older than he lets on."

There is a bit of a pause in the audio, and then music begins to play. At least, it would be music if heard live – the recording is very tinny and warbles terribly. When the music stops, the voice of Orifice returns. "Entry number two. I hope that recorded properly. It took a tremendous effort to get the imps to play at any appreciable volume, and the tiny instruments were difficult to design. Poppop made them himself. I had the odd notion of fitting the miniature band into the strange shekelodeon machine in the wine cellar to provide music and sounds to go along with the action. The device is too complicated for me to figure out, however, even when it is running. Which reminds me, I need to have my assistant check the steam pipes – there seems to be a loss of pressure to the wine cellar."

"A huh what machine?" Zahn asks and perks up a bit. "I don't remember seeing any steam powered machines intact there."

"Oh, wait, that funky game thing," Zahnrad realizes.

"He must mean that," Amy agrees. "And it means the castle had steam power too."

The needle clicks as it reaches the end of the cylinder.

"Well, then I'll have to take over the castle," Zahnrad notes calmly.

Noting the end, Zahn flicks the device off and eases the first cylinder out, then sets it to the side. "Time for spinny thing number two… " he tells Olivia.

As the first cylinder ends, Olivia looks in her pile for the second one and locates it by its number – which she hopes she's reading right. She quietly hands it off to Zahn.

In that one goes. He winds the device up again to be sure it has enough spring power to keep going, then Zahn flicks the machine on again.

The tinny voice sounds almost out of breath this time. "Third entry, and I don't know where to begin! I recovered the device just outside the subterranean entrance to the manor house, and managed to wrangle it back to the castle for study. It seemed to use the standard steam connections, so I hooked it up. The noise is made was deafening! My ears are still ringing. I had stood it up in what I thought was the proper manner, but had to go down and turn off the steam mains myself to shut it off, since I could not go near it."

"Wonder if it's some sort of horn. The pressure you get from a steam pipe could make a really loud horn," Zahn muses, "But why? Seems a strange thing to build. And hmm, Manor house caves? I think I should check those out."

"Eh, whut? A steam tooter?" Djivan asks Zahn. "Dat's silly."

"When I managed to return to the southwest tower… it was gone! The whole tower! Dust was everywhere, and the machine seemed to be intact. I disconnected it and returned it to where I found it. I suspect now that it was a tunneling machine of some sort, using sound to bore through solid rock."

"Oooo, I could use one of those," Zahnrad muses … with a rather disturbing glint in his eye.

Olivia makes even more notes on her pad, her hand seeming to fly across the page. "Not sure it was an instrument, the way he described it made it sound more like a tool or something," she mutters. "Perhaps what it did along with the sound it made didn't allow him to go near it? And it sounds awfully big, whatever it was!" The rest of Orifice's commentary seems to bear her out and she looks pleased.

"Pah! Dat nothin'. I kin clear a tower m'self. Just gimme a good ol' pot of beans an some beer… " Djivan says, grinning.

"I don't think you want to bring a machine that turns rock into dust anywhere near the dam, Zahnrad," Amy points out. "What if Gunther got it? It seems like it could be used as a weapon too easily."

"Who said I would bring it here? I have other spots," Zahn comments, then grrks. "Er, no, I don't… Forget that."

The recording hisses and crackles for some time now, until the voice picks up again."- and that is why that particular mix must never be used again for the imps. One of them nearly escaped up into the castle! Pophiss must not find out about them, as I'm certain he would alert the witch, or worse, Lord Snapfish. These people would not know the difference between alchemy, demonology and necromancy and would surely drive me out of town, if not hang me."

"Other… " Amy begins to ask, until she's distracted by the oration. "Did he say necromancy?"

"Hmm? Alert who? Igor? I don't think Igor would care," Zahn notes, then nods to Amelia, "Yes, he did."

"Fourth entry. I've found the rest of the missing tower, stuck in a tree. I'm not going to try and move it. Maybe the tree will eventually overgrow the… ruin… and keep it hidden. I've been suffering headaches ever since I set off that machine. I may have to see the witch for a remedy." The rest of the cylinder seems to be blank.

Olivia looks grim as she taps her chin with her pencil. "Perhaps this explains the black room we found, then."

"The one Natasha and Qing have been using for their rituals?" Amelia asks Olivia.

"Interesting," Zahn notes and shuts the machine off. "Any more cylinders?"

"That's the one I'm thinking of. Maybe Orifice also used it for rituals to create the imps?" Olivia asks, then hands off cylinder number three to Zahn.

Out goes cylinder two, in goes cylinder three. Another check over the player and Zahn turns it back on.

"There was that room full of cages across the hall from it," Amy notes, nodding.

"Dis is boring," Djivan notes, "Vhen does it git to da kinky bat orgies?"

Olivia tries to shush the gypsy and suppress a grin at the same time.

"Isn't dat vhy vou borrowed dese?" Djivan asks Olivia innocently.

"Hisspopcrackle five. I must gather my thoughts. I cannot be certain of what I saw in the tunnels beneath the manor, beyond where the drilling machine lay. At first, I thought they were Skeeks, or Skeek children, but they were instead something from a nightmare. If they were real at all. Perhaps the medicine the witch gave me is reacting to the wine, and I imagined it all. The light was poor, too poor for me to try and bring the iconograph and a fresh imp along. I'm going to lie down for a bit. And find something to wash the stink of sulfur from my nose."

"Nope, 'frad those things are real, bucko," Zahnrad comments with a grin. "Seen 'em and smelled 'em."

Olivia leans forward a bit. "Now we're getting somewhere… " she mutters.

"Entry six. Feeling more clear headed now. I asked Igpop about local legends involving deformed Skeeks. He laughed and told me children's bedtime stories about trolls. Apparently, if a child misbehaves, the trolls will come and replace him with one of their own children, who will appear and act just like the original – but with better behavior. When I pushed for more information about the Skeeks of Stonebarrow, he told me there wasn't much known about them before the Bloodfur invasion, only that they were already here when it happened. I jokingly asked him if he was here then too, but he just smiled and gave me one of those evasive non-answers of his, as usual. I find that nearly as disturbing as his ability to always be there right when I need him, even though I don't notice him until he speaks."

"Probably because he's one of the troll children," Zahn notes.

"Dere ve agree," Djivan agrees.

"He doesn't look a troll though," Amy notes.

"He looks worse," Zahn notes, "And you realize this might explain what was in those crates… "

"Seventh entry. Hissss has been making noises to the north. Lord Snapfish really mustn't give in to that creature. There are whispers around town that he had sent a dragon against us, but that the witch had defeated it somehow. I'm sure I would have noticed a dragon on my morning flight, though. I really don't know how these rumors get started, but people are ready to grasp at any entertainment they can. On another note, I have a new pet, it seems. Pop brought him over today in a crude cage. It's only a Creen, but it keeps looking at me as if I were one of its bug-snacks. I tried to teach it a few words, put it only ever repeats that same horrid screaming nonsense about being in pain. I would let it free, but it's afraid to go outside. Silly creature."

The cylinder runs out at this point.

"Heh, wouldn't surprise me if that was Gaspode. What an annoying creature," Zahn mutters as he pulls out the cylinder. He sets that one to the side and waits for the next.

Olivia starts at this information. "I didn't know Creens could live this long!" she exclaims. "If this is Gaspode he's talking about. But it couldn't be… could it?" She looks uncertain for a moment, then hands off the next cylinder.

"Creens don't live that long, even if Igor might," Amelia says firmly. "And besides that eye-patch, Gaspode looked like he was all in one piece."

"And socks don't stick to walls," Zahn notes and glances towards Djivan. In goes the next cylinder and the machine is activated.

"What? It be art," Djivan says defensively.

"Entry eight. I have confirmed the existence of the troglodytes. I returned to where I first spotted them, but found nothing at first. A more thorough search turned up a passage to a lower level of tunnels. I could not tell how deep it went, though, but I suspect it may link up to the lower water table. This could mean that every well in the region is a potential passageway to the surface for these creatures. I intent to inspect the bottom of my well tomorrow."

"Heh, wise," Zahnrad notes at the comment about coming up through a well.

"Troglodytes, huh?" Olivia muses. "At least we have a name for these critters now… "

"We kin call em beanbags given how they can squish demselves an keep goin!" Djivan offers.

Zahn kicks Djivan's shin.

Olivia shoots the two boys another evil look. "C'mon, knock it off, willya? I'm trying to listen to this!" she huffs.

"He started it it," Djivan argues.

Olivia merely sighs and goes back to making notes.

"Enpoppop nine? Ten? I don't hisscracklepop. I'm soaked and… I can't… popcrackle chased me! I've shut off all of the water mains. I can't stand to think of where it comes from. crackle stitched up my wounds, and told me to be more careful around slippery surfaces. Haha! If he only knew. But now I have a plan. I think I can catch one of the big ones. I don't know if it's a different species, or just bigger because of its gender. I must examine one! If I hadn't thrown the imps at it… pop hissss click"

That seems to be the last entry on the cylinder.

"Heh, you should be careful when you tango with a monster," Zahnrad quips and unhooks the cylinder. Out that one comes. "How many left?" he asks Olivia.

Olivia looks before handing Zahn the next cylinder. "Just one more after this one."

Zahn slips this one in. Before starting the device, he winds it completely again and checks that nothing has shaken loose yet. Satisfied, he flicks it on.

"Hisssss ten. They are probing my defenses, I think. My dreams… never mind. I think they are trying to burrow through the walls. Clickpop says it's nerves, that I need to go outside more. But I can't risk it. Time is of the essence! This new imp will be able to capture one of the creatures, I'm certain. It is just… very taxing on me. The creation process demands so much from me it seems. But I must persevere. And I can't let crackle know. Maybe he already knows and is playing games with me, pretending not to hear the scratching or the… singing. I need to get rid of him!"

"See? I told you they sing," Zahn tells Amelia.

"The silver-clawed creatures sing? Is that what you're talking about?" Olivia asks, confused.

"Yes. Clover described them as singing too," Zahn says with a small shrug. "Oh, yeah, they attacked her recently. Well, sort of. They plugged her head in and tried to make her smart. She rejected it."

"Eleventh entry. Everything is in place. These monsters are not smarter than I am. I've stopped taking the witch's accursed 'medicine' so that I can hear them better. They are trying to tell me something, something amazing, I'm sure. They need me… I can be their god! Everything is in place. The well… the lure… the imps. I will have my proof and my answers. These things cannot be natural, and I'll prove it! I'll pophisssssclick" The cylinder runs out again.

"I wonder if they plugged him in. And be a god? Hah! I would be a better god than that wacko," Zahn comments as he swaps yet another cylinder. "Last one," he announces as he flicks the device on.

Olivia looks at Amelia, still confused. "What is this about plugging Clover's head in? I don't get it."

This one is the same one they heard in Pike's laboratory before. "Twelfth entry. I have manpopped to capture one of the hissites. It is secured in the old dungeon now, but I don't snarlpop how long before the others will come for it. So far, it has scratchpop docile enough. I have revised my first impresspop that the troglites where separated into two different races. Nor do the larger ones appear to be the result of scratchual dimorphism. My initial examination seems to indicate massive artificial enhancepop of the base creature. hisssss attempts at communication have been futile so far. I have to wonder if the creature can even hear at all. It just keeps… staring at me… with those glowing eyes. I see them in my dreams now, and sometimes I swear I can smell sulfur when I know there isn't any source nearby… "

"We've heard this before," Amelia points out. "He's going crazy, and blew up the other tower and stuff." She also frowns at something.

"What?" Zahn asks Amelia.

"Stop the cylinder," Amy asks.

Zahnrad stops the machine.

"What's going on?" Olivia asks, curious now.

Picking up one of the already-played cylinders, Amelia holds it next to the installed one. "They both look the same. Shiny and hard, I mean. But that doesn't make sense, right? If Orifice died while making this one, it wouldn't have this finished look would it?"

"Huh. You know, that's true. Someone made it afterward, perhaps. Or he survived," Zahn offers with a thought. "Maybe they made him their god. Right."

"Maybe the imps he talked about were… trained… to treat the cylinders for him?" Amy guesses.

"Maaaybe," Zahnrad relents. "The god idea is cooler, though."

"Or someone else preserved the cylinder and finished it for their own purposes?" Olivia asks quietly. "Perhaps not the imps, I mean."

"Probably ol' stitchy," Zahn offers.

"We found the broken recorder in the dungeon room with the skeletal arm," Amy recalls, rolling the cylinder in her hands. "I don't remember there being a cylinder in it or not."

"That's what I was wondering… Orifice did mention, even early on, before he went… loopy… that he didn't quite trust his 'assistant,'" Olivia says.

"Do you trust him?" Zahn asks Olivia.

"I vouldn' trust his toenail trimmins'," Djivan offers.

"But… you know how Igor is," Amy says, quietly. "He's all about getting the candles dribbly and the cobwebs right. It's all atmosphere for him, and playing the mysterious hunchback is probably part of that. He could be descended from the original assistant. Gaspode could have learned his cry from another Creen, and that one from the Creen before it, and so on."

"Or they could be the same ones," Zahn says, "Either way, he's weird and creepy."

"Not completely," Olivia says honestly to Zahn. "We did see his ability to turn up at just the right moment whenever we took the job cleaning out the castle's cellars. That makes me wonder about how much he knows… or how much he wants to keep everyone else from knowing."

"We don't know if those stitches are even real. It could all be stage makeup for all we know," Amelia says, then turns to Olivia. "We have to know for sure. You've got to get him naked and in a hot spring or something, Olivia!"

"I could have Gunther capture and interrogate him," Zahn offers with a grin.

"The way he appears and vanishes?" Amy asks, looking to Zahn. "Do you really think Gunther could catch him? He hardly ever leaves the castle that we know of."

"Actually, I bet Gunther could. He's smarter than he lets on, you know," Zahn says.

Olivia stares at Amelia as if she's lost her mind, too. "No way! I just got him to stop pursuing me and I am NOT about to start him up again! Besides, seeing a naked Igor is more than I could handle… I'd probably die from the shock."

"How much worse can he be than Djivan?" Amy asks. "A Skreek's a Skreek! I mean, if Igor really is grafting other bits onto himself, then… well, he might have made himself really impressive… "

"Or he removed all the troglodyte bits he used to have," Zahnrad points out.

"Hey, I much better dan dat freak!" Djivan asserts.

Amelia now gives Djivan a rather calculating look. "Djivan… you could invite him out for a night of carousing, couldn't you? Get him drunk? Dazzle him with some dancing girls to let his guard down?"

A panel in the floor pops open and Gunther's head sticks up. "No you're not," he declares. And as fast as his head appears, it disappears when the panel settles back into the floor with a thud

"I could try to do th… hey!" Djivan yelps when there's a momentary tiny Kadie head in the floor.

"Keep him out of here, Zahn," Amy whispers. "We can't let him see what's in the box!"

"Of course, Igor would have to get over his own hatred of Djivan for that plan to work," Olivia points out, frowning. "I seem to recall that he set Gaspode on him once! So what would motivate Igor to go carousing with him?"

"To get Djivan drunk so he'd say something Igor could use against him of course," Amelia points out. "Why else would men go out together?"

Zahn dutifully shoves a crate onto the panel that had just popped up.

"Or… well, there's Lili," Amy notes. "Her cousin is being kept at the castle. She could go look in on him, and invite Igor out… "

"Vell, dere vas dis one town vere de men vent out, gots drunk, and, vell … experimented," Djivan notes after a moment of thought. "Ve stayed avay from dat place."

Olivia still doesn't seem to like this plan but she nods as she concedes that last point to Amelia.

"Er, I know Liliana is a bit, uh, loose, but she would invite Igor out … why exactly?" Zahn asks.

"Well, maybe Lili will see it as a challenge or something," Amy says with a shrug. "How else are we going to find out if he's over a hundred or making trolls or something?"

"I still think he is a troll and has just been replacing his trollish bits," Zahn asserts.

"Out of a strange, sick sense of experimentation?" Olivia chimes in, smiling weakly. "Although Igor might just be her limit… "

"There's… Midge Sniffler," Amy notes, a bit reluctantly. "She was impressed with his living in a castle and all… "

"Vell, I bets Lili vould vant payment fer doing it … and her current obsession is Olivia. Vou jus' might haf t' go on a date vit her," Djivan tells the Skeek.

Olivia hides her face in her hands for a while. At last, the others hear her say in a muffled voice, "So, my choices are to snog Igor or snog Lili? Great… just great. Did I mention that I'm not the one into weird experimentation here?"

"No one said vou hadda snog em, just go out vit one o dem. Difference dere," Djivan points out.

"In any case, we really can't mess with Igor too much," Amelia says, with a sigh. "He's still our best surgeon. Could always just play the cylinder for him and ask about it."

"One could very well lead to the other, you know!" Olivia snaps back, glaring at the gypsy.

"I still can't believe you had him work on me when I was hurt," Zahn grumbles at Amelia, "Gods know what he stuck in me!"

Djivan holds up his hands. "Jus' sayin'. No one said vou hadda do any o' dat."

"You're alive, aren't you?" Amy asks Zahn with a raised eyebrow. "And you recovered really fast, too."

"Yeah, but how long before I grow horns or something, hmm?" Zahnrad grumbles.

"Horns aren't so bad," Amelia says with a wave of her hand. "Anyway… do you want to examine that item I brought for you, Zahn?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, I guess. Are you sure these two want to be around for that?" Zahn asks and waves to the rat and mouse.

"Well… you don't have to take it out of the box to look for what you want," Amy notes…

Olivia looks uncomfortable. "We can get out of here if this is a private matter," she says uneasily. "I don't mean to get into your personal business."

"I'm not sure what I'm looking for yet, other than some weird scars," Zahn says and peers at the box. "Which aren't likely there anyway. I mean, this is just a guess."

"I get into everyone's bidness! Vhat's inna box?" Djivan says ever so tactfully.

"A head," Amy tells the rat.

"Awesome! Issit shrunken?" Djivan asks next.

"You're disturbed," Zahn tells the rat.

"I ain't the one vho is looking atta dead head fer scars," Djivan counters.

"Of course not!" Amelia says, rolling her eyes. She opens the box, and lifts out the stuffed and mounted head of a Kadie. It's wearing glasses.

Olivia takes a quick step backward and peers even more uneasily at the stuffed Kadie head. "What in the world do you have this for?" she asks, wide-eyed.

"Huh, musta been nerd-huntin' day," Djivan observes sagely.

"This man held the whole town hostage and nearly became a despot," Amelia grumbles at Djivan. "He's also the founder of Clan Wingnut, architect of the Mint Dam, and a lot of other things so show some respect!"

"Can't you control him?" Zahn asks Olivia. "As for the head, it's, er, Abner Wingnut. The one who tried to take over the town. Anyway, to sum it up, when the trolls plugged into Clover's head, they somehow injected Abner's name and a date. So, I was thinking my ancestor had some sort of contacts with the trolls way back. I want to see if he has scars like Clover had."

"And just who had his head mounted on their wall, anyway?" the Skeek asks next, ignoring the jab about Djivan.

Abner had brown hair and gray fur. Amy is already looking through hair. "Ah, here's a seam, but it's probably from the mounting process," she notes. "His scalp is kinda bumpy and wrinkly though… could be from scars."

"Oh, it was in the meeting hall over at my Clan's estate," Amy explains to Olivia. "We've got Lord Druagh too, but his head doesn't talk anymore. He was the previous occupant of the Sealing Box we've got Valicross' body in now."

"Amelia's clan," Zahnrad notes as he starts looking through the hair now. Mainly, he's feeling for a uniform pattern of bumps. Natural wrinkles wouldn't have a pattern, most likely, afterall.

The wrinkles are stiff, so not likely the result of a loose fit on the 'skull'. And they do follow something of a semi-circular pattern.

"And before you ask," Amy tells Djivan, "We kept his head because the town couldn't afford to have a statue made."

Olivia just shakes her head in grim wonderment. "And this is why I'm not a warrior," she mutters to herself. "I couldn't handle staring at the trophies all day!"

Zahn starts trying to push the fur aside so he can see the skin directly. "They feel like a pattern. Maybe he did have interactions with the trolls. I wonder if he wrote anything down in the archives," he mutters.

The skin looks complete when Zahn looks. So the scars could have had time to heal over, although there isn't much hair growing from them.

Zahnrad rubs one of the spots firmly, trying to get a good feel of it and if it feels like any particular shape.

It just feels hard and vaguely circular, about an inch across.

"Would anyone get mad if I cut a tiny hole into one of the scars to see if there's anything under it?" Zahn asks and looks up.

"We only bring them out for special occasions now," Amy tells Olivia. "We don't want a lot of wear and tear on them."

Amy blinks at the request. "Cut into them? Uh… can you repair it afterwards?" she asks.

"Well, Olivia could sew it back," Zahn notes and looks at the Skeek.

Olivia looks rather disturbed by this suggestion but she does inch forward again to look more closely at the head and the preserved skin showing underneath the fur. Gingerly, she reaches out a finger to touch it and feels how leathery it is. Then she nods. "I could try, if no one minds a few stitches here and there," she says slowly. "I'd use gray thread to match his, um, fur."

Amy crosses her arms and frowns for a moment, but then nods. "Okay, just be careful to do it where it won't show much."

"Right, settled!" Zahnrad declares and goes to one of the crates in the far corner. He starts rummaging around. "I know I have Stephan's old fine point tools in here somewhere."

"Y'all no right," Djivan points out.

"What do you think you'll find?" Amelia asks. "Something inside the scar tissue?"

"Exactly," Zahn notes, "Like a ring of ceramic, metal, or something. A socket to plug something in," Zahnrad answers as he returns carrying a dusty, old, box. He sets it on the table and starts wiping off the dust.

"Like a Hooka?" Amy asks in surprise.

"Er, no," Zahnrad says as he opens up the toolbox. Inside is a set of incredibly delicate looking tools. All are neatly packed in a row, from fine-tipped screwdrivers, to polished wooden handles tipped with thin (and sharp) chitin blades. Zahn pulls out one of the bladed instruments and checks the tip. "Are there any scars near the back of the head, close to the point it's mounted? That would be the least visible."

After some poking around, Amy says, "Here's one at the back of the scalp."

"Right," Zahn says and goes to see where Amelia points. Once he locates the place, he carefully holds back the fur with one hand and tries to very delicately cut a half-circle slit into the ring of scar tissue, following the ridge of the bump.

While Zahn works, Olivia sidles back over to Amy and whispers, "Um, how has being 'plugged in' to something affected Clover? Is she okay? Or is she even weirder than she was before?"

The skin is well preserved, so there isn't any tearing. The scar tissue itself gives a bit of resistance, but nothing that blocks the scalpel.

Zahn cuts the crescent shape slowly and carefully. He tries to go all the way down to the bone. Once done, he pulls the flap back a bit, trying to see if there is anything there…

"She's… a bit more like Parsley, it seems," Amy whispers back. "She doesn't remember anything about being taken. No telling how much memory she's lost."

The keloid tissue adheres to the scalp and comes up with it. Apparently, it does extend all the way to the bone of the skull, and even there the bone looks a bit rough.

"So… she's functioning well enough, then?" the Skeek asks next. "No pain from this or anything? Just the memory loss?"

Zahn sets aside the knife and uses one of the delicate screwdrivers to do a bit of lifting and prodding of the skin, looking for anything under it that doesn't look like it belongs or is natural.

Amelia just shrugs. "It's probably too soon to really tell. Igor said she was still under the affect of tranquilizers, so even everything I just mentioned could be temporary."

Nothing looks out of place, beyond the deep scar tissue.

"Eh, nothing in here I can see. If I do much more I'll do some real damage," Zahnrad mutters and stops. "Time to sew up the head, Olivia," he adds as he's wiping the tools down and then packing them back away.

Olivia nods her thanks but seems quietly worried, even though this is the hated Clover they've been talking about.

"Do you want to cut into Clover's scars next?" Amy asks.

"Uh, no. she's alive and that would be gross," Zahnrad says and gives Amelia an odd look.

"Well, it's just that her's are… you know… fresh," Amelia says with a shrug.

"And as far as I know, I don't bear any scars like this, nor does any current clan member," Zahn points out when he closes up the toolkit. He can't help but feel on his own head to … well, just to be safe and all.

"No. I'm not cutting into someone's head when they're alive. I'm no doctor," Zahn asserts

"Good t'ing, too," Djivan mutters, "Vith how all vour stuff breaks."

"How long do you think it took for his scalp to heal over though?" Amy asks. "Clover didn't have any hair at all left. It'd be handy to know when Abner got the scars."

Olivia okay's to Zahn and takes off her rose hat again. Inside its hidden pocket she also keeps extra needles and a few long strings of thread. She pulls this tiny package out and mutters, "I think I have a leather needle in here… ah, there it is!" Then she sets to work repairing the little hole Zahn made, with a look of controlled distaste as she handles the head.

"We'd need to ask Igor that. I really don't know," Zahnrad admits. "Probably quite a while, but that's a guess."

"Well, like you said, maybe there's something in his journals," Amelia notes.

"Maybe so! And hey, if it made him as smart as the stories said, maybe I should seek out the trolls too," Zahnrad says and rubs his chin thoughtfully.

"Err, Abner went crazy and tried to take over the town, Zahn," Amy points out. "That could be the result of this, not his being smart."

"There's no real proof of that, though," Zahnrad points out.

Olivia quickly finishes her last stitches and snaps the end of the thread with her fingers. "That's done, thank goodness," she breathes, handing the head back to Amy for inspection. "I hope I made the needlework unnoticeable enough."

"Plenty of other Wingnuts are smart without having had their heads burned by trolls," Amy says as she accepts the head. She has to squint to find the repair. "Oh, that's great Olivia, I can barely see it and I'm trying to find it!" With a smile, she returns the head to its box.

"Yeah, but you can always be smarter," Zahn points out, "Besides, if there's a danger of insanity, that just means Clover will try to take over the town someday."

"Someday? It's what she was trying to do all along," Amy says. "Well… a certain part of it, anyway."

"Anyway, I guess I need to go to the archives and start digging. That'll likely be boring for you, Amelia. And well, Olivia can't go in there," Zahnrad notes.

"I guess you'll be bringing the gizmo and cylinders back to the castle then?" Amy asks Olivia.

"But, if you want to come with me to the Archive, Amelia, you're welcome to," Zahn comments, "We do have the hot tub in there."

Olivia nods absently. "I will, although I'm betting Dr. Pike won't even remember letting me borrow them," she notes, as if thinking about something else herself. "She seemed pretty busy with something when I talked to her. It looked like some new experiment."

"I'll be on guard for rogue vegetables then," Amelia notes, and then asks Zahn, "Hot Tub? Does it work?"

"Of course it does," Zahn answers. "Why would we have a broken tub?"

"It sounded like it wasn't ready when you had me over for dinner that first time," Amy says.

"That was a while ago. We got the kinks worked out," Zahn comments as he puts the small toolbox away.

"Vhat is a hot tub?" Djivan asks.

"It's a large tub for multiple people that hot water flows into and tubes are used to jet and swirl the water around. Automatic bubbles," Zahn explains.

"Oh! Kinna like vhen vou fart in de tub!" Djivan declares.

"Er, sorta. But without the smell," Zahnrad says, muzzle skewing a bit.

Amy gives Olivia a sympathetic look.

Olivia facepalms and starts collecting the wax cylinders. "And on that classy note, we'd better get out of here," she grumbles. Then she nods to the playing machine. "Would you carry that again for me, Djivan… and no hat this time, I don't want Dr. Pike complaining that we gunked the horn up with fur or something!"

"Awwww," Djivan complains as he collects the device. He even listens and doesn't put the horn on his head. "An here I vanted t' be all horny for yas!" He grins and gives Olivia a rather obviously exaggerated wink.

"I guess I could wash up a bit," Amelia says. "Since Djivan can't peek at me where the hot tub is."

"No like vou're much t' peek at," Djivan quips.

Olivia finally smiles a little and says, "That comes later, Djivan. Not in front of friends." Then she tugs at him with her free hand and tries to move him in the direction of the door, before he can start a real fight with Amelia.