Day 87: UOPETA's back!!!

     UOPETA came back late last night it seems... He slipped through under the cover of darkness, and we woke to find him there waiting for us! A little creepy, but it just shows he's good at what he does. He's taken hundreds of images, a few of which he took for me to put into my diary, but the ones for use with the additional information are incredibly detailed! Just like I mentioned, he was able to scale the cliff at the far end of my area and has taken some brilliant surveillance images. He's also made a mental list of the guard locations and routes they take, but has since noted them down. We're all excited to see what the current state of the house is in, especially myself! I was half expecting to see my house in ruins, with destroyed walls, but everything seems like nothing has happened... Everything is still in place from when I left it a few weeks back, although the number of guards posted there seems to have increased... It looks as though they're still expecting me to come back. Not likely!

     We've all been crowded around the discussion table now for a few hours, discussing the situation displayed in the images:

"I don't know how many guards were there when you left, but they are mainly concentrated around the house. It would make getting the book very difficult. It was pretty much as you stated: the house was easy enough to spot from my elevated position, and the wall runs around the entire area. The beached HoN Co. ship is still there, but it seems that the guards are utilising it for some reason, maybe supplies... Excellent architecture on that house by the way! Brilliant location to look down on everything..."

"What about the guards? What are the patrols like? What areas do they cover?"

UOPETA took the map he had been given and began drawing over it, concentrating on the areas around and on the walls. Eventually he handed it back

"There are guards posted on every wall turret - another nice addition! - and a few along the wall itself. Two guards are posted at the entrance of each interior gate, at the front and back, and there is a guard wandering around the ship almost all of the time. As far as the house goes, I spotted a minimum of four separate guards within the house itself, and a few posted on the outside porch area. I think some of the guards may rotate shifts between the house and the mineshaft, but if we're going to get that book, we're going to have to take out a few guards, get in quick and then make a run for it! There's no way anyone is getting in and out without being seen!"

"We had better hope that OROTHO makes some headway with the experiments then, otherwise we could be facing a rather dangerous mission ahead of us!"

"Oh? Did something happen when I was away then?"

We all burst out laughing, apart from OROTHO who was totally oblivious to all of this and was starring intently at a particular image.

"OROTHO had a 'breakthrough' yesterday involving Creeper blood and lapis lazuli! He's on his way to finding the root of its use, and maybe removing the need to get the book!"

     I've spent the time looking through each image and the only noticeable change in the area I can spot is something has happened to the gates... It looks like they've been improved! Instead of the South-facing gate having a series of pistons push up a layer of sand, both gates now have secure cobblestone doors! What have they done? What have I done? Had I inadvertently given them a secure compound to use? I had set them up in a secure, defensible location with access to supplies, a fall back point and to top it off, there was a welcome cake there when I left! I had practically left them everything they needed! I'm feeling really bad now... COLUS has reassured me that I wasn't to know this was to happen. I'm just kicking myself at how many signs I ignored which were staring me in the face... I followed him to the science lab to watch OROTHO, and maybe help out where necessary. OROTHO was entirely engrossed with a series of glass tubes with odd coloured chemicals contained in them. COLUS told me he was trying to extract the constituent elements of the stone, along with any impurities to determine the cause of the explosion. He then would add a small amount to a few drops of Creeper blood, and add some synthetic adrenaline. If an explosion ensued, we would know the element or chemical that caused Creepers to be volatile, and then we could work towards a way to suppress it. So far, nothing had been found that created this reaction, and even when it did, OROTHO would need to locate the areas where the Creepers secreted the substance in the first place! We all had our fingers crossed that OROTHO could manage it so there was no need to retrieve the book. I had my doubts though...

     AMPHIS, UOPETA and THEROS have been working together to compile the images and maps to ensure there is a record of it, although I hoped there wouldn't be a need to bring them out for some time! COLUS is still with OROTHO, and I've joined THEXIS to help with cataloging the intel. THEXIS needed to know everything about the guards in terms of defenses, armour, weaponry, patrol routes and other finer details. With all of this information, THEXIS is very good at predicting future routes, and where it is best to go during specific moments in time to avoid being discovered. UOPETA swears by THEXIS' methods so everyone is very good at their allocated job. It seemed I however still need to find my niche...

Syeonyx signing off