Day 84: Bad nightmares and "behavioural genetics"...

     I had very little sleep last night, considering... I had a bad dream... Well, it was more like a nightmare, on a par with the ones I had about the temple that eventually turned out to exist! So I'm a little apprehensive... It was thundering... It was also raining, and I was standing before the strange tower we had found yesterday. The entire Lone 7 was there, all standing in a line staring up at the sky. It was inky black... Lightning streaked the night sky like scars... Then as another bolt of lightning illuminated the surrounding area, we saw a figure atop the tower... THE figure... I couldn't tell if it was male or female, but they were wearing some form of armour, with a Knights' Templar type of helm, with a 'T' shape exposing an inky black face with piercing red eyes... He threw his hands into the air and several bolts of lightning struck the antennae at the top of the tower. Blue energy coursed through the conducting rod, entering the tower... Nothing seemed to happen; the figure lowered their arms, and it continued to rain. Then the ground began to shake violently! After a few moments of regaining our balance, the ground still tumbling, the sand was split in two, and the master portal erupted from below, the obsidian frame barely visible against the night sky! It rose high into the air; it was at least five or six times bigger than a standard portal, and the centre was already active! The tower began to collapse into the fresh hole, whilst the master portal continued to rise! It stopped a few hundred metres above the ground, the iridescent purple rift warping and coalescing. Then hundreds of Creepers began to pour from the portal, followed by other creatures of unimaginable scale! As the creatures entered Minecraftia, the surrounding area began to change from dirt and sand to horrid blood stone, and glowing minerals. The creatures kept emerging from the portal, growing in size and number! It was at that point I woke up... I really hope there is nothing to that nightmare...

     After waking up, I went with THEROS and the others to see OROTHO, and see if he made any headway with the data UOPETA managed to collect yesterday. As we approached, we could all tell he had managed to understand something; he had a smug expression on his face, and he wasn't rambling to himself or rushing back and forth...

"So did you manage to make anything of the data, OROTHO?"

"Yes, and some more! The data in this report seems to be related to electrostatic equations... This is a definitive link to our previous theories, and ties in with the paper I wrote awhile back on the uses of lightning. I doubt you read any of it, but it relates to Coulomb's Law which..."

"If you would, can you stick to the matter at hand?"

OROTHO looked a little put out by COLUS' statement, but nonetheless got back to the topic in question:

"Yes, well... It seems that our initial theorem was correct; this is the master portal, or some more significantly powerful one... It requires electrostatic discharge to activate it, which is provided in the form of a bolt of lightning using the iron rod as a conducting medium. However, there are some aspects to this paper I don't quite yet understand, but from what I can guess, they appear to suggest some form of network... The master portal can only be activated when this network is established, but I cannot understand what the network refers to. I require more data in this area to do so..."

OROTHO barely paused to breath, and was subsequently light headed afterwards. Gaining his breath, he turned and put the paper down on the desk...

"Anything else?"

COLUS probed further, in the hopes that OROTHO had managed to uncover more vital information:

"As a matter of fact, yes! I believe I have found a possible theorem regarding the behaviour of the Creepers when they are within range of the Solus stone! As SYEONYX informed me of, Creepers show a noticeable fear of this stone, and will recoil at the sight of it, however my initial thoughts couldn't pinpoint any reason for this... I conducted a series of tests; putting the Creepers under various forms of stress and then exposing them to the stone, and every time they showed greater fear to the stone than any of the experimental scenarios. So much so, in one experiment, all of the contained Creepers attempted to drown themselves to get away from it, despite it being behind the glass!"

"What does this mean? What did you conclude?"

"It's genetic! There is no reason why the Creepers should be afraid of this stone; testing on the zombies showed no promising results, which leaves me to believe it is linked to the Creepers on a genetic level!"

"How so?"

OROTHO shrugged. He wandered over to the table with the stone on it and picked it up, staring at it up close from numerous angles.

"There are a number of theories: they could have been conditioned to be afraid of it, or more likely it was used in some way to alter their genetics, although the details of which I cannot say. However, I can almost guarantee that it has a link to the time when we noticed the change in behaviour of the Creepers."

I thought back and remembered reading in Jonas' diary about the group coming across the Creepers, but initial interaction showed that they posed no threat. After disappearing for awhile, they returned, and Jonas was injured in an unprovoked attack, when one of the Creepers blew up! Then it hit me! The book! The 'Codex Solis'! I had found a book within the first few weeks of arriving and found in contained data about the Creepers, and some form of transmogrification experiment! I told the others of this:

"What? Where is this book?"

I told them it was back at the house. It was likely to still be there; if the figure and HoN Co. were behind the behavioural change in the Creepers, then the book was unlikely to be of any interest to them. They asked me what it said, but I told them it was written in Latin, and I had to have some of it translated by HoN Co. ...

"Did they seem overly interested in this when you informed them?"

They seemed to think it was just another random find of no significance, but then again they didn't seem surprised... Had it been staring me in the face the entire time? I hadn't even questioned their lack of surprise at the time, and yet it was an incredibly significant lack of interest!

"Don't worry, you weren't to know. That book could prove to be invaluable though. Can you remember anything that might help us? Anything that might prevent us from having to retrieve it? The journey to your house would be dangerous enough, without having to gain access and then find it!"

I said that the book mentioned 'lapis lazuli', some form of decorative stone that seemed pivotal to the entire experiment...

"Lapis lazuli? But that's just a useless ornamental stone... It has no elemental or chemical properties that make it useful in any form of experiment... It's inert... Why would the book mention it?"

I shrugged. I knew about as much as they did. But now I knew that a quest to retrieve the book may be next on the list... I was definitely going on that expedition!

   nbsp; After we all left the lab, I headed off to the library to talk to AMPHIS. I needed to know if there was any data in the Creepers that was stored there that I might be able to use or compare to what I remember from the Codex Solis. When I got there, AMPHIS had his back to me with a wolf at his feet, which I initially thought was Chiron. As I entered, the wolf came straight over to me, panting, tail wagging. AMPHIS turned to see where the wolf had gone and spotted me:

"Ah, I see you've met Hermes then? Seems we have similar tastes in names for our companions! Named him after the Greek messenger God. You know? Because he's very good at delivering notes, as you know too well!"

Hermes seemed delighted to see me, but after some affection, he wandered back to AMPHIS' side.

"So, what can I do for you? Anything of interest?"

I asked AMPHIS if he had any books or papers written about Creepers in relation to the new information OROTHO had informed us of.

"Erm... Well, I know OROTHO has written tons about the Creepers... He's obsessed with them, although I don't know how much use to you they are. They're mainly papers explaining behavioural patterns, anatomy and responses to experimental scenarios. If is is any use to you, it's on the bottom floor, on the walls to the left, right and straight ahead from the stairs."

I thanked AMPHIS and made my way down. I was still astounded at the mass amount of information they had stored here, and even more so by how much OROTHO had written himself! I got to the bottom, expecting a huge mess of papers and records. But each shelf was neatly stacked and catalogued, presumably by AMPHIS. I scanned each shelf carefully, looking at the titles of some of papers: "Genetic variation in allele frequency", "Creeper #013 dissection and internal anatomic study", "Cognitive processes or a Creeper" and hundreds more... Eventually I found a paper that seemed to contain the data I needed: "Theorems to Creeper behaviour change". Finding a table, I sat down, opened the file and began reading. Well, the bits I could understand, at least...