The Grand Sphere
If this room lacked a floor, it would look as if it was a huge sphere. The room is approximately fifteen feet across and and fifteen feet high. The wooden walls have been polished to the point of being almost glasslike to the touch. The layers of black lacquer that have then been applied to the surface only enhance that effect. Only two things are immediately visible in the room; there is a large device that has numerous jutting 'arms' as part of it that is covered by a dusty sheet. On the far side is a ladder that leads up a hole cut into the otherwise seamless sphere.

"Well … how long have we been in here? I've lost track of time. Without any windows it seems rather timeless in this place," Zahnrad comments as he peers up at the 'starry sky'. "And this doesn't help much, heh. So. do you want to keep looking here or head back. And are you ever going to tell me how exactly you learned about this place and that key?"

"If I told you, you'd probably wish I hadn't," Amy explains, and looks to the ladder. "Maybe it's enough for tonight though. I don't want to have to hold onto your tail the whole way back."

"Er, not sure why I wouldn't want to know, but okay. As for getting back, we do have the lanterns we can use. Plus, there's nothing exactly wrong with having you close to me," Zahn says with a grin as he walks towards the ladder. "Want to see the room just above here, at least?"

"Sure!" Amy says, and follows to the ladder.

Pausing partway up the ladder, Zahn has to ask, "So, what's the snog rating of this room?" Grinning, the Kadie hurries up the ladder lest he be swatted.

"I don't know, what's the scale?" Amy asks with a giggle before climbing up after Zahn.

"Not really sure, but I bet Emmett has a scale for it," Zahnrad notes from somewhere above. Boy he can climb fast…

"How tall is this ladder?" Amy asks as she tries to keep up.

Observatory
The top of the tree has been cut away into a flat platform. Stretching out over it are ornate carvings of wood making yet another dome structure. The wood truss is extremely narrow as to not obscure much of the view from the top … which is rather impressive. From here Stonebarrow town can be seen in the distance, windows lit from the lamps and candles inside. Amazingly, Pike's residence can also be seen, as well as much of the Gnarly Wood as well. In the center of the platform is another contraption. A large central tube about two foot wide is mounted on some sort of complex gearing mechanism that seems to allow it to rotate in a complete circle as well as tilt from a horizontal, to a completely vertical position. An eyepiece sticks out from the lower side.

"Well, here we are, on top of the world. Well, not really but it feels like it," Zahnrad comments as he walks to the side and peers out through the roofing truss. "I opened up the dome when I came up here. It has retractable panels to shield the stuff from bad weather. Pity it's not all glass, but … that would be a lot of glass to make."

"That's an awfully big spyglass," Amelia notes, coming forward to get a closer look. "Has is been moved?"

"Not by me," Zahnrad comments, "I was a little wary of trying to move it after years of disuse. I'm not even sure who built it, to be honest. I don't recognize any of the tool marks."

"You don't think Stephan made it then?" Amy asks, then has a look through the eyepiece to see what Stephan had aimed it at last.

"Not all of it, at least. Might be older," Zahnrad comments, "But it was only a cursory look."
Through the lens Amelia can make out the window in one of the towers. Unfortunately, it seems to be aimed at the tower Pike has chosen for a bedroom. So, Amelia gets a very brief view of Rey and Pike … in rather shiny outfits with lots of buckles. Perhaps the Gods have some mercy, though, as a curtain is drawn shut before anything really weird becomes visible.

Amelia blinks at the view, and then looks up and around the telescope to see if she can see the castle at all on her own.

A couple lights in the distance is probably the castle. It's in roughly the right spot, anyway … waaaay on the horizon.

"Did you look through the eyepiece before I got here?" Amy asks Zahn, with her eyebrows raised up a bit in surprise.

"No. I was too busy trying to get the panels down. When I finally got those down I realized I had been gone quite a while and went to get you. Why do you ask? What is it aimed at?" Zahn asks and heads over to have a look.

"The castle tower," Amy notes. "I wonder what he was trying to see back then, before Dr. Pike moved in. Do you think her weird uncle was up there?"

"Well, depends on who was using it, or if it shifted over the years," Zahnrad points out as he peers through the eyepiece. "And if that tower was being used at all. But I suppose it's possible someone was keeping an eye on things at the castle, maybe. Or might have just been trying to sight out points for a horizon map."

"I guess we'll never know then," Amy says, then asks, "You don't like shiny buckles, do you?"

"Er, haven't really thought about what types of buckles I like. Why do you ask?" Zahn asks. "Do you like shiny buckles?"

"Never had any," Amy asks. "Just… uh… popped into my head for no reason, I suppose."

"Well … I could probably make some if you want. I could always redo that corset you had," Zahnrad offers.

"No more corsets please," Amy says quietly. "I like being able to breathe."

"Or … I could try making you some layered armor, maybe," Zahnrad considers and rubs his chin. He seems to lose interest in the idea, though, he goes and checks over the gearing to see if it can move freely.

"Gunther would go nuts here," Amelia notes. "He could spy on everyone from one place."

Zahn's tail puffs out. "Okay, first rule of the night; no one tells Gunther," he mutters.

"Would he even know about this place anyway?" Amy asks, tail twitching.

"He knows a bit about the old tree, but not much about what's in it. I mean, it was stripped when the clan moved," Zahn points out. "Not to mention this floor was locked."

"Well, if he catches us out here we can just claim to have been snogging I guess," Amy says with a grin. "That would make this spot 'contaminated' in his mind, I bet."

"Well, I couldn't bear to claim that if there wasn't some truth behind it," Zahnrad says, "For the safety of the town, of course. I'm willing to take one for the team… "

Amy puts her hands to her muzzle and giggles. "We can snog in bed," she says. "I want to get up early though to go see Madame Natasha about Clover."

"Gah, right. I nearly forgot about that. There's a mess I worry won't end well," Zahn says with a sigh as he fiddles a bit with some of the gears in the telescope. "And this thing needs some grease." Nothing like a Kadie's lack of focus at times…

"Did the roof thingy need any too?" Amelia asks, trying to see how the panels move.

"It could have used some, but the wood is old and shrunk a bit. So it had some give even without grease," Zahn explains and looks over. "The control wheel is on the far side of the room from the ladder, under a floor panel."

"What is it with floor panels," Amy mutters, and goes looking for it.

"They don't clutter the room," Zahnrad calls after Amelia. Sure enough, there is a panel sunk into the floor with two handholds cut in it.

Lifting out the panel, Amelia hopes the wheel at least has markings for which way to turn it.

Well, the designer of the room was kind enough here. There's a big wheel under the panel and a bit arrow pointing to the left with the words 'Open'. A similar arrow points to the right and says 'Close'.

Spitting into her palms first, Amy grabs the wheel and starts turning it to the right.

The wheel is pretty hard to turn and there's an uncomfortable scraping sound … but triangular pieces of wood slide out slowly all around the room and arch upward towards the central point of the dome. From Amelia's current perspective … it's sort of like being swallowed by a giant worm monster. The scraping gets Zahn's attention and he sits back. "Why are you closing up… ?" he asks.

"Hmmm?" Amy replies, stopping. "Oh, I didn't know how long it would take and figured it would be good to get started. I thought you'd be done with the gears and stuff on the spyglass since you didn't bring any grease… "

"Well, true," Zahnrad comments and sits back. "Go ahead and close it up and we'll head home for the night. Oh, if you want to come back and I'm not around, you do have permission to come here, given you're part of the clan technically."

"Thanks," Amy says, not having thought permission would be needed for an abandoned area in the first place. She goes back to cranking the dome shut.

It takes several minutes to close the dome (many, many, turns of the wheel). Zahnrad explains as it goes, "That's because you have to gear down a lot to be able to lift that much weight. If it was a one to one gearing you'd never be able to turn it." But, in the end the room is closed from the elements once more and Zahn is waiting near the ladder. "So, shall we?" he asks.

"Okay," Amy says, rubbing her now-sore arms. "Let's get some sleep. I hope Natasha will be in a good mood tomorrow too." And I'll have to come back here more often, so Stephan can keep teaching me how to figure out the way things work…