Wingnut Archives
The archives are an amazing and unexpected place within the quaint and usually backwater Stonebarrow. The room is ornate and detailed; carefully crafted spiraling bookcases wrap around the walls and goes up several stories. The shelves are neatly filled with papers, books, and items what are likely diagrams. The center of the floor are several ornately carved chairs all positioned around a circular table. There are seams in the table, which seem to indicate that panels can swing up into drafting desks as needed.

"That elevator… I thought it was going to squish us into the ceiling," Amelia says, shuddering a bit. "Why do you make things so scary like that? I mean, if the door jammed… we'd be jam."

"That is the point. It keeps the intruders out … or kills them if they make it far enough," Zahn comments from where he's working with the lift controls. "And you can open your eyes again." Grinning, he locks the elevator in place once the platform is level with the floor and steps off. "Welcome to the archives! You're the first Blacktail to … well, ever be in here."

Amy looks up and up at the spiraling bookcases. "Wow, all this paper… you have some gizmo to put out fires in here, I hope!" she comments

"Chemicals that when mixed, suck the air out of the room. You wouldn't want to be in here if it was activated," Zahn warns. "And this isn't all of it. This is just the most recent stuff. We'll have to just … turn back time." Zahn's got … an amazingly impish grin on his face. "Care to guess how?"

"Um," Amy begins, then squints her eyes as she tries to think like a Wingnut. "The walls spin around to reveal new shelves? Or go up and down? Or… something hits us on the heads?" she guesses.

"Close, actually. Very good," Zahnrad says approvingly. He goes around and shuts the few side doors that there are. Then after rubbing his hands together, he walks to the center table and lifts up a section. Underneath are a series of valve-wheels and levers. He pops his knuckles.

"Should I grab onto something for this?" Amelia asks nervously.

"Don't you … trust me?" Zahn asks and waggles his brow.

Grinning a bit maniacally, Zahnrad whirls one of the wheels around. There's s thunk in the distance and the sound of rushing water. Sections of the floor lift up and two large wooden gears slide upwards at an angle. They slot into the seams that join the spiraling stairs and bookcases. With a groan, they start to turn. All around the two, the walls spin slowly, almost like a giant corkscrew. Since there's no outside visibility it's hard to tell if the walls are spinning or if the floor is. Up and up the walls start to climb. Sections of the books and papers disappear into the ceiling above while older tomes and works seem to grow up from the floor. All in all, it's rather nausea inducing.

Having to close her eyes, Amy crouches down on the floor to ride out the experience. "I'm getting dizzy… are we moving or are the shelves moving?" she asks.

"You tell me," Zahnrad says as he spins the wheel and the sound of water starts to fade. "What do you think was spinning?"

Tail twitching, Amy ponders. "Well, it would be easier to move the floor and ceiling up and down, I think."

"True, it would be easier. Now think like a Wingnut," Zahn reminds her.

While Amelia is left to ponder that, Zahnrad walks over to the book cases and rubs his chin in thought. "Never thought I'd look through this old mess," he muses. "Now, Abner, Abner … should be some of the first journals."

Amy blinks. "You can't be moving the walls… that's… " she starts to say, ending with, "silly! They're too heavy, and… are they in one piece? Or like… individual shelves on… uh… tracks?"

The journals would likely be kept with the original dam blueprints and genealogical records from when the clan was founded in 6037.

"Sure you can move walls. The inside is hollow. It's the outside walls, an inner sleeve of walls, then the central pedestals and such. Cylinders within cylinders," Zahnrad remarks absently. "All water powered." He starts walking along the shelves now, tracing back the dates slowly. "Knowing my luck, it'll be missing," he mutters.

There! Behind a glass door are a series of bound journals, each with the familiar writing on the spines of dates followed by 'A.W.'

Zahn reaches for the books, then stops just before his fingers touch the glass. "Heh, no, it wouldn't be this easy," he comments. The Kadie examines the glass enclosure for any sign of traps.

The glass is held in a solid looking frame, with no obvious hinges, handles or knobs.

Zahnrad tests to see if he can slide the glass to the side at all.

It stays firmly in place. There doesn't seem to be any give from side to side or up and down.

Zahnrad licks his palm then splats it to the glass like a suction cup. He then tries to pull the glass out. Never fails for a Wingnut to try something weird.

Nope, no results with 'pulling' on the glass either. "Is something wrong?" Amy asks after the licking. "Are you craving salt?"

"Oh, the books are sealed," Zahn comments as he tests to see if the entire section slides out or not.

With nothing to grip onto, it's difficult to say if the section slides out like a drawer or not. There are regular shelves above and below it, filled with rolled up plans (and copies of those plans… with new copies done every few years, just in case the originals wear out).

"Hmm. Alternatively, maybe there's a way to go behind this. Breaking the glass would be bad," Zahnrad notes. So, he steps to the side and starts inspecting the bookcase for a hidden door.

Amelia comes over to peer at the case. "Umm… okay, don't take this the wrong way Zahn, but if Wingnuts like to make things counterintuitive… " she says, and then pushes on the glass. Sure enough the 'drawer' presses inward, and then springs out forward a few inches.

Zahn grumbles and shakes his head. Now he tries to pull it out a little further.

The drawer slides out. There's no top, so the journals are easy to get out now.

The dark Kadie smiles proudly and swishes her tail. "Hah! You have to 'close' it to open it."

"Now, it would probably be one of the last ones," Zahnrad reasons out loud. So, that's the journal he goes for first. "So, going to change your clan name, then?" he asks, bemused.

"Not until you ask me to officially," Amelia says. The last journal in the series is labeled 'Notes 6040-6041 A. W.'

"Date matches," Zahn comments and pulls the journal. He slides the drawer back for now and walks towards the center of the table. "And what if I wanted to join your clan?"

"I think you'd still have to ask me to marry you first," Amy says with a grin, and goes to peek over Zahn's shoulder at the journal once he sits down.

"I can't do that yet," Zahnrad notes, then looks up at Amelia. "I haven't caught you and made you 'submit'," he asserts with a grin.

"Heh!" Amy says, and puts her hands on Zahn's shoulders while grinning.

"And to do that I need to measure out the right size club to bludgeon you with… " Zahnrad adds, still grinning. But as all things with Kadies, his attention shifts again and he's back to looking at the journal. He starts flipping through it slowly, looking for the phrase 'Blood from a Stone'.

The first half of the journal deals with the final details and scheduling of the dam's construction, ending with a page that just has, "Done, finally!" written on it, followed by the date and Abner's signature. The next page after that… is missing. As are several more, maybe thirty altogether. And they weren't torn out, but carefully cut out close to the spine.

"Someone has removed entries," Zahn growls as he leans in to examine the cuts. "Did your clan also remove some of his work?"

"I'm not even sure how we got the head," Amelia says. "Officially… he was just found with his head cut off. Everyone just figures that someone in the Wingnut ranks let in one of us to do the deed."

"I know. Father mentioned to me after we started … anyway, that's part of the reason the Kettenrads aren't the most liked in the clan: suspicion it was someone in our line. I always wondered and it was never talked about until now. Anyway, what about unofficially?" Zahnrad asks next.

"But I bet there are a lot of people that wouldn't want a record of whatever made Abner go nuts easy to find," Amy says. "And unofficially… well, nobody knows. We took the head to make sure it wasn't destroyed, since we couldn't afford to make a statue. It's sort of the same situation in our clan: nobody knows who did it, and nobody ever confessed. I mean… we'd have lynched the assassin."

"I would have thought you'd have given him or her a hero's welcome home," Zahn admits and closes the book. He rubs the back of his neck and closes his eyes. "It could have also been one of us. Uncovered whatever he was up to and stopped it."

"A hero? For killing a Clan founder?" Amelia asks, sounding surprised. "Abner Wingnut was crazy, but… I think most of the people back then figured he snapped from the stress, and would calm down eventually. That he wouldn't really make good on his threat to flood the town."

"Hard to say. He might have actually done it. You've seen Gunther go on a tear, after all," Zahn points out. "And yes, killing a clan founder. Your clan stuffed his head. They were proud. Anyway, no one is still around who actually knew Abner that I know of and would have any possible idea about what this is about. I wonder if Abner himself hid the pages. In Clover's dream … his pages did say 'find me'."

"Buffy might have known him," Amelia says. "She was alive back then. Do you think Abner was killed for something totally different from trying to take over the town?"

Getting an idea, Zahn flips through the journal again. He then stops there and looks up. "Do you think Buffy would actually accept an audience to ask about him? And I have possible theories on what could have happened if it wasn't a Wingnut or a Blacktail that did it. But it's a bit far fetched and grim."

"Trolls?" Amy asks. "Or… suicide?"

"As for asking Buffy, we don't have to ask her ourselves," Amelia points out. "We can just ask Miranda to ask her for us. And if she says she knows something more about it, then we can see about talking to her face to face."

"Possibly both. Remember that Clover's head was plugged in and filled with stuff? What if the trolls need a living person to store information and they came to reclaim him? Wouldn't you rather die than become some thing connected to something all the time?" Zahnrad offers with a shrug. He flips through the journal again, looking for any mention of deep cavern exploration.

The journal only talks about the dam and the reconstruction of the town at the new shoreline. If Abner ever took time off to go spelunking, he'd never have gotten any sleep.

"Here's another question … was Abner born here, or did he arrive here?" Zahn wonders out loud. "Maybe he escaped to here."

There is, however, a small comment in the section that talks about the building of the Weaver area: "Foundations needed extra reinforcement due to uncovered, flooded underground chamber. Would have made a nice basement, if dry."

"I assume he was from here," Amelia says. "As far as I know, we're the only Kadie colony in eastern Sylvania."

Zahn pauses and taps that page. "Underground chamber under the Weavers? Hmmmm, that sounds worth exploring. Would need an otter to do it, though," he complains. "And you can't trust them to focus long enough or tell you the truth."

"What about Gunther and his otter suit?" Amelia asks. "Has he got it working?"

"He can swim well enough … but that doesn't solve his need to breathe regularly," Zahn notes, "And would you trust him going in there alone?"

Tail swishing, Amelia tries to decide if Gunther could be trusted more than otters could. "Hmmm, how about Silas then? He hardly talks to anyone, and seems… trustworthy."

"Maaaybe. With Gunther as escort, perhaps. Heck, we don't even know if it's still there," Zahnrad points out. He stands and heads back to the shelves to return the book.

"Maybe it's in the town plans?" Amy suggests. "Isn't there a sewer system under the town?"

"Unfortunately. Sewer duty stinks," Zahnrad mutters.

Zahn pushes the cabinet in so that it then pops back out and he slips the book away. "So, it sounds like there are two fronts to explore. Ask Miranda to talk to Buffy for us. Maybe we can offer that gypsy bat as a bribe, too. Then while waiting, ask Silas about some deep diving." He then starts walking along the shelves, tapping his claws over the book spines and looking for one of the older town blueprint sets.

"Zahn, can I ask a stupid question?" Amelia asks.

"Ask away," Zahn says.

"Well, back when the Clan was first started and the town was being rebuilt, would the Wingnuts have just used existing tunnels for the sewer if they came across them?" Amy asks.

"If they were structurally sound, yes. There was a lot to do and anything that could be reused would be," Zahn answers. "No point in wasting them or building a parallel."

"So… our town sewers could be troll tunnels then?" Amy asks. "Like… under every building?"

"That's not even remotely funny," Zahnrad notes.

"I'm not trying to be funny, I'm just thinking of Trollhaven," Amelia notes. "Trolls popping up out of the ground to eat zombies. How'd the trolls get there? Did they come from there to here? Either way, there must be an underground path they could have taken."

"It's possible, I … guess," Zahnrad grumbles, "But boy I'm glad the clan strongholds are somewhat different from the main town, at least." He grabs a pile of blueprints from the shelves and carries them back to the table, then spreads them out. "It'll take a bit to examine these … then afterward … didn't you want to see the 'hot tub'?"

Amy perks back up from her paranoid thoughts. "Oh, yeah! Assuming it doesn't move… "

"Hmm. Not yet it doesn't. That's not a bad idea, though," Zahnrad muses for a moment. Thankfully, the town plans take his mind away from wherever that was heading.