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The Mansion of E - Wednesday , October 14 , 2009 [[On a landing, heading up the Great Chasm. An advertisement for Uncle Bob's place is in the background. Overhead float mysterious spiral-shaped lights.]] / Sylvester: But anyway. These lights. Whatever they are. Before, you had to sorta careful about- ... / [[He jerks his gaze away.]] / Sylvester: Whoa. Yeah. Even worse than before. / [[He turns to Rosemary, who is still staring up.]] / Sylvester: Rosemary! You don't want to look directly at them; they might- / [[She's off flying in the mental ozone..]] / Sylvester: do that. / Rosemary: wheee! / Sylvester: Well. Now we have *two* things we will never ever tell Lenore about. / Rosemary: neverever! / {{Lenore is Sylvester's sister. The other thing was nearly-addictive treefruit.}}
The Mansion of E - Thursday , October 15 , 2009 [[Climbing away from the River of Fire. Rosemary has been entranced by overhead spiral-lights. Sylvester waves his hand in her face.]] / Sylvester: Rosemary! Hey! / Sylvester: Don't ever look at the lights in this tunnel! / [[Rosemary snaps out of it, raises the Can Opener back into position.]] / Rosemary: Yes. Of course. / Rosemary: ...What were we talking about again? / [[Sylvester turns to go.]] / Sylvester: Hammerspace Corporation Poke-Kits. / [[Rosemary holds her Poke-Kit up.]] / Rosemary: Ah, yes. Handy little things, aren't they? / Sylvester: Couldn't say. Our family had one, but it disappeared years ago.
The Mansion of E - Friday , October 16 , 2009 [[Climbing between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm. Rosemary holds up her Poke Kit.]] / Sylvester: Always heard that Hammerspace made quality products. Poke Kits still work, even after the Crash? / Rosemary: Yes. Doesn't work /as well/, I guess. There's just room "inside" for.. a few small items. / Sylvester: Beats carrying a purse around. ..If you've ever used a purse. / Rosemary: Aunt Eva used to make me carry one when we went to- / [[The Can-Opener disappears into the Poke Kit.]] / Rosemary: . . . / Rosemary: . . .Temple.
The Mansion of E - Saturday , October 17 , 2009 [[Climbing away from the River of Fire.]] / Rosemary: AARRRGH! / [[Sylvester turns back to her. She is holding her Poke Kit openly in her hand.]] / Sylvester: What? What is it? / Rosemary: The.. the Can-Opener fits inside the Poke-Kit! / [[Rosemary brings the Can Opener back into view.]] / Sylvester: ... And.. that's a problem. / Rosemary: Yes! There was never remotely enough room before! / Sylvester: Ah. Once again, I suspect, welcome to the Mansion of E.. / Sylvester: Or more accurately, welcome to the local Magic-Trickle..
The Mansion of E - Sunday , October 18 , 2009 Narration: Sundays in SubShaft 44f / [[Chunner is near the floor. Crud is further down, out of sight.]] / Cully: You actually said, /sir/, that wearing helmets was now mandatory! / Chunner: Did I? Well, something must have distracted me after that. / [[Chunner looks down.]] / Cully: You were d- we were staring at you. Sir. / Chunner: There. You see? Made me self-conscious and I changed my mind. / [[Chunner gets up, and puts his own helmet back on, just as three more spheres drop from the ceiling; two of them <> off the helmets. Crud pokes his head into view, as the third heads for him.]] / Chunner: And now I can change it back. / Crud: Why are you two wearing splorp-catchers on your heads?
 
The Mansion of E - Monday , October 19 , 2009 [[Between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm. Rosemary holds up her Poke Kit.]] / Sylvester: Remember how we talked about trickle-points... / Rosemary: And I said I've been on them before. There's a huge one under the SAR. The Poke-Kit never did this! / Sylvester: Uh huh. That's a feature of this one. It tends to make magical gadgets work better. / Rosemary: Like the Crash never even happened? / [[Outline depicting the folk heroes mentioned below.]] / Sylvester: Oh no. You won't be able to carry around a whole library/arsenel like.. do they tell Readman and Billsmith stories out West? / Rosemary: Oh, yes. Zeke knew dozens of them.
The Mansion of E - Tuesday , October 20 , 2009 [[In the Basement, climbing away from the River of Fire. Rosemary is displaying her Hammerspace Poke-Kit]] / Sylvester: The Poke-Kit should continue to function better as long as you stay near the Mansion. / Rosemary: Define "near". / Sylvester: You'll be able to go as far as the village. Beyond that.. / Rosemary: I'm not risking it. What if it.. swallows.. the Can-Opener. / [[Outline of the fictional characters Readman and Billsmith standing on a tropical beach, surrounded by the books and other objects which have come spilling out of their Poke-Kits.]] / Sylvester: Didn't Zeke ever tell you Readman and Billsmith Go To Aruba? Poke-Kits spit stuff out if they enter a low-magic area. / Rosemary: I'm not trusting my luck to an old story- / Sylvester: It's also in the PK instruction book. Which we /didn't/ lose. Another item for your reading list? / Rosemary: ... Yes. OK.
The Mansion of E - Wednesday , October 21 , 2009 [[Climbing away from the River of Fire.]] / Rosemary: So.. the Mansion is right on top of the Magic-Trickle? / Sylvester: As far as you or I are concerned, yes. / Rosemary: As opposed to.. who? / Sylvester: Relevant Authories [sic] have claimed that the actual center is closer to the Spike. / [[Outline of the Mansion with the Spike in the background. On one of the Mansion's towers, a vision of a siege-pot blooms.]] / Rosemary: ..The same Spike in the forest that Spatchcock was going on about? / Sylvester: Yes. It's- / Rosemary: I think I saw it this morning, from the tower. / Sylvester: Oh. Right. Sorry I didn't point it out. Someone impulsively distracted me. / Rosemary: That was rude. Point them out, and I'll punch 'em for you.
The Mansion of E - Thursday , October 22 , 2009 [[Between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm.]] / Rosemary: So which of the Earls of E built the Spike? It was you, wasn't it? / Sylvester: None of them. Us. Like the Mansion, it was here when we arrived. / Rosemary: So you don't know who built it? / Sylvester: What do you mean, of course we.. Oh. Right. You're from Out West. You might not- / Rosemary: WHO? / [[Outline of an Ettin magically floating a slab of building material into place.]] / Sylvester: It was the Ettins, Rosemary. / Sylvester: That script of theirs is plastered all over it. / Sylvester: And it's made from those interlocking slabs of "durasteel" they used on everything..
The Mansion of E - Friday , October 23 , 2009 [[On the stairs between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm. A large sign on the wall warns of stairs and entrancing lights.]] / Rosemary: What does my being a Westerner have to do with anything? / Sylvester: Just, there aren't any Ettin artifacts out there. ..Right? / [[Map of what is now a western portion of "Mansionland", marked with dots. A skull and crossbones indicates the Infernal Engine.]] / Rosemary: Well.. right. I guess. / Sylvester: That's because it was mostly Sneech territory. / Sylvester: They had colonies all along.. under.. the Ridgebacks and the Enginetails / [[Outline of southern part of the country, now divided into Human provinces and labeled.]] / Rosemary: Sneeches!? The Sneeches are all down in Wirtvale! / Sylvester: That's where the the /survivors/ now live, yes.
 
The Mansion of E - Saturday , October 24 , 2009 [[Climbing away from the River of Fire.]] / Rosemary: The Sneeches are "survivors"? Survivors of what? / Sylvester: mm. If a disinterested observer arrived from, oh, the Moon- / Rosemary: Are you being hypothetical here, or are there actually people living- / [[Outline of an Ettin rocketship blasting off towards the Moon.]] / Sylvester: Someone back in WorldDawn built all those Rings and Squares and Sankofites up there. And later on the Ettins sent at least one "void-ship" to investigate them. / Sylvester: But yes. If a hypothetical visitor asked you what happened in the end to the Ettins.. what would you tell hir? / [[Outline of the launching facility being destroyed at some later date.]] / Rosemary: They all died. In a war or something. / Sylvester: um hum. A war with the Sneeches.
The Mansion of E - Sunday , October 25 , 2009 Narration: Sundays In SubShaft 44f. / [[With a <>, green spheres fall from above and hit the Gnolls on the head. <> off Cully and Chunner's helmets, and <> off Crud as he lies on the ground.]] / [[The same, except the spheres are purple or pink.]] / [[And then orange. The one hitting Crud ricochets and hits Chunner in the side of the head.]] / Cully, looking at Crud: ..Shouldn't we.. do something? / Chunner: About /what/? / Crud: ow
The Mansion of E - Monday , October 26 , 2009 [[Climbing between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm.]] / Rosemary: Why.. why I have never heard about this before? / Sylvester: I subscribe to the theory that people.. Humans at least.. simply don't like to think about it. / [[Outline of a jet flying across the sky, with the moon and night sky overhead. The sea is below, and under that, a submarine approaches a collection of organic-looking towers.]] / Sylvester: Like I said, the Ettins went to the Moon. / Sylvester: They built airships that somehow flew without using liftgas. / Sylvester: Submerger-boats that could carry ambassadors to the Ichyoids. / [[Outline of a collection of species looking a large jagged cavern mouth.]] / Sylvester: And now.. we.. and the Motihauls and the Gobules and all the rest.. share a world with the creatures that destroyed them.
The Mansion of E - Tuesday , October 27 , 2009 [[Climbing away from the River of Fire.]] / Rosemary: I knew Sneeches were dangerous, but.. if they are so all-powerful then why do they skulk around in- / Sylvester: I never said it was /easy/. / [[Outline of mountains being hit with some sort of massive vibrations.]] / Sylvester: The reason, probably, you never heard about all those Ridgeback Sneech colonies is that they're mostly /gone/. / [[Outline of a scene of general destruction.]] / Sylvester: The evidence is, the Sneeches came within a hairsbreath of being rendered extinct along with their enemy. As bad as The Crash. maybe worse. / Rosemary: Leaving the survivors skulking around in caves in Wirtvale? / Sylvester: Broadly, yes.
The Mansion of E - Wednesday , October 28 , 2009 [[Under the spinning lights, Rosemary and Sylvester climb stairs between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm.]] / Sylvester: . . . / Rosemary: . . . / Rosemary: So, basically, we're about to go annoy an entire colony of grumpy bitter xenophobes who could kill not just us, but everyone in the entire country? / Sylvester: No no. Just the entire province. I imagine Aunt Eva and Zeke are safe. / Rosemary: Oh. OK Then!
 
The Mansion of E - Thursday , October 29 , 2009 [[Rosemary and Sylvester leave the River of Fire, discussing Sneeches. An outline of a Human harvesting a growth from a Sneech-den, with an observer (also Human) taking notes]] / Sylvester: I should say.. we're not walking into a certain death trap here. Down in Wirtvale, there's a whole industry... / Rosemary: Filching goodies from Sneech dens. I know. Hack N' Slash talked about it, because people hire them to.. ahem.. / Sylvester: Hack and Slash. / Rosemary: And Edwird had a copy of Minkeybeen's book. Um. Sylvester Minkeybeen. Following The Sneechmen, if he wrote more than one. / [[Outline of Minkeybeen and another Human getting into serious trouble in a Sneechden.]] / Sylvester: Nope. Just the one! / Rosemary: But, as I think we discussed this morning, there are different types of Sneeches.. / Sylvester: Yep. Something my namesake learned to his presumed regret, while working on the sequel.
The Mansion of E - Friday , October 30 , 2009 [[Climbing stairs between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm.]] / Sylvester: We won't reach the Sneech colony just yet, but still.. in case you find yourself there.. without me. / Rosemary: Yes. / Sylvester: So. / Sylvester: Alabastar Sneeches. They are better than some, because they are.. consistent. / Sylvester: There are rules. Unspoken, had to learned by trial and error, but still, if you stick to them, seven times out eight, you'll be all right. / Sylvester: Number one: there is a clear main path through the colony. Stay on it at all times, and /keep moving/. / Sylvester: If you're lucky, you won't even see any.. locals. If you do, don't make eye contact, don't speak to them. / Sylvester: Don't touch /anything/. Unless.. and this is a big unless.. one of the Sneeches /actively/ gives you something. / Rosemary: That happens? / Sylvester: Yes. Especially if it's.. been a long time since any Humans have visited.
The Mansion of E - Saturday , October 31 , 2009 Rosemary: And what sort of.. treats.. do the Sneeches hand out? / Sylvester: It varies wildly. Philbert got an amusing party trick. / [[Outline of Philbert using his Sneech-device to spell HAPPY HALLOWEEN in light.]] / Sylvester: Audra's.. gift.. whatever it was.. ended up costing her a *hand*. All she's ever quoted as saying is "it was worth it." / [[Outline of Audra emerging from her Sneech-walk with her hand glowing.]]
The Mansion of E - Sunday , November 1 , 2009 Narration: Sundays In SubShaft 44f / [[Every panel, there is a <> and three spheres fall from above, hitting the Gnolls on their heads. The spheres <> off Cully and Chunner's helmets, and <> off Crud, who is lying out of sight on the floor.]] / Cully: I'm going to help him. I see his helmet right there. / Chunner: Kid, /leave it!/ / [[A purple boulder-sized sphere falls, crushing Chunner.]] / <> / [[Cully has picked up Crud's helmet and is shielding him with it. A small sphere <> off the top of the one that landed on Chunner.]] / Chunner, weakly: ok, fine, if you /have/ to... / Cully: Thank you, sir.
The Mansion of E - Monday , November 2 , 2009 [[Outline of University-graduate Sylvester entering the Mansion's Sneech den with a torch.]] / Rosemary: So.. what, the Earls all spent time hanging out in the Sneech colony? / Sylvester: No. Early on, it became part of the.. anointment ceremony.. for the new Earl-to-be to walk through the colony. Alone. / [[Outline of Sylvester emerging at the other end of the den, where Omega the Oracle and his Uncle Sylvester are waiting.]] / Rosemary: . . . What did the Sneeches give- / Sylvester: Nothing. I didn't even see one. / Sylvester: And please note, I am not complaining or feeling slighted in any way.
 
The Mansion of E - Tuesday , November 3 , 2009 [[Outline of a Sneech's hand giving a triangular object to a worried Human male.]] / {{It looks like the Triforce from the Zelda series of computer games.}} / Sylvester: There are, of course, guidelines for dealing with Sneech "gifts". First off, you're going to have to take It, whatever It is. / Sylvester: The Sneech will.. insist. / [[Outline of the man gingerly carrying the triangle away from the Sneech den.]] / Sylvester: However.. once you get out of eyeshot, it's marginally safe to throw It away. / Rosemary: ..They say Sneeches have good eyesight. / Sylvester: Yes. If It's not.. burning a hole in your hand.. it's /safer/ to wait until you leave the colony, /then/ throw it away. / [[Outline of the triangle being put via mechanical arm with a collection of objects: a symbol monkey, a Ichyoid statuette, and a small flower in a pot.]] / Sylvester: If you absolutely have to keep It, you should at least store It in the Quiet Room.
The Mansion of E - Wednesday , November 4 , 2009 [[Climbing away from the River of Fire.]] / Sylvester: ..Annnd you don't know what the Quiet Room is. I really need to show you around upstairs one of these days. / Sylvester: Heh. The Spindizzies are going to /love/ you. / Rosemary: . . . / [[Outline of a Human operating a machine-arm which extends out of sight off the edge of the panel.]] / Sylvester: But anyway. The Quiet Room is a.. gap.. in the Mansion's structure, in which magic-powered items... keep quiet. / Sylvester: And so yes, you don't want to take your Poke Kit in there. Or yourself. It's.. really quiet.
The Mansion of E - Thursday , November 5 , 2009 [[Climbing between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm.]] / Rosemary: And where is this Quiet Room? / Sylvester: If I'm not around to show you, go find Amos. Or Nellie. / Rosemary: Not the Scary Lady? / Sylvester: Who? Oh. No. She might react- No. Amos or Nellie. Tell them.. / Sylvester: Heh. Tell them I said that Omega would have really really hated you. And after that.. do whatever you can to help Mortimer. / Rosemary: Fine. / Rosemary: Is that description something for me to be proud of? / Sylvester: I at least intend it as a compliment, but right now, let's stick to Sneeches.
The Mansion of E - Friday , November 6 , 2009 [[Climbing stairs between the River of Fire and the Great Chasm.]] / Rosemary: Fine again. I have a Sneech question. If this was "Ettin territory", why do you.. we.. even have a colony of Sneeches here? / Sylvester: sigh. The same reason we have Motihauls and Troglodytes and.. Pales. There's a small Pale fort, in the forest, hundreds of miles from any desert. / [[Outline of the Pale's Camp in the Forest of E.]] / Rosemary: ...Just one fort? What do Pales do, when they don't have other forts to fight with? / Sylvester: The Nexus seems to keep them busy, but I regret I lack any details. / Sylvester: To answer your original question. The Ettins collected them, brought them all here. It was sort of a.. / [[Outline of a Pale behind bars in the Chamber of Extreme Aridity, while a Sneech's hand gets zapped by a watching Ettin.]] / Sylvester: Ah, zark. Let's not mince words. It was a zoo. The Ettins kept their fellow sentients locked up in a zarking zoo. / Sylvester: Except the Sneeches. They were evidently more like.. Prisoners of war. / Sylvester: Research subjects.
The Mansion of E - Saturday , November 7 , 2009 [[A map of the portion of the Basement near the Riddle Grotto, with arrows pointing towards various off-panel locations.]] / Rosemary: So.. where was this Ettin zoo located? / Sylvester: Eh? Down here in the Basement, of course. / Sylvester: And no, we didn't get terribly near it today. / [[A map of the Ettin's zoo, as it was when it was set up.]] / Sylvester: Even now, most of the.. displays still function automatically. Camora mentioned them. Whatisface's "Crocogator Pit." / Rosemary: "Nubby", I believe. / Sylvester: Right. That has to be the Motihaul swamp. And the "Chamber of Extreme Aridity". The Pales.
 
The Mansion of E - Sunday , November 8 , 2009 Narration: Sundays In SubShaft 44f / [[Spheres are falling from above with a <>. A large one has crushed Chunner. Cully is shielding Crud with a pie-tin, when another large one lands where he, Cully, had been standing before.]] / <> / [[Cully drags Crud to one side.]] / <> / [[A third "boulder" lands where Crud had been laying.]] / <> / Cully: They're going to blow up now, or something, aren't they? / Chunner: or something. / Crud: hi, chunner! / Chunner: hello, crud. / {{The symbols on the various small spheres are a tribute to the board game Settlers of Catan.}}
The Mansion of E - Monday , November 9 , 2009 [[Outline of a Pale emerging from a broken-open hole, witnessed by a male Motihaul and an Ooze. A Helipath is overhead.]] / Rosemary: But you just said the Pales are out in the forest. / Sylvester: Like all the other species, after the Ettins were gone, they eventually got out of their exhibit. Started roaming the Basement. / [[Outline of Pales climbing a broken-looking shaft towards red light above.]] / Sylvester: Then, after the Crash, we Humans were essentially gone, and they left the Basement all together. Settled in the ruins of Eetown. / Rosemary: Why? / Sylvester: The romantic in me likes to think they needed to be under the open sky., but for all I /know/, the others drove them out.
The Mansion of E - Tuesday , November 10 , 2009 [[Outline of some Humans hiking across a possibly-tropical landscape.]] / Rosemary: And I suppose you're going to try and tell me your ancestors broke out of the Human exhibit in the zoo, and took over the Mansion? / Sylvester: Oh no. We came the hard way, like most everyone else. The long generational Trek from the Deep Jungles of the south. / [[An Ettin makes figures in the air, which an Eyebolt transcribes. The Ettin also tosses a bit of garbage to a Gobule.]] / Sylvester: There /was/ no Human exhibit. Also, evidently, none for the Eyebolts, Gobules or Gnolls. / Sylvester: The first two, they were doing what they do now. Working as clerks, I guess, and garbagemen. Critters. / [[Two Gnolls are feeding on scraps as some sort of sphere comes flying in, spewing something.]] / {{It's some kind of pest-killing device.}} / Sylvester: The Gnolls were vermin. As near as we can tell. Even low-level Ettin records are fragmentary and difficult to translate at the best of times. / Rosemary: So we Humans were /special/, huh? / Sylvester: ...Never once have researchers turned up even the slightest / mention of Humans in Ettin records. Take that how you will.
The Mansion of E - Wednesday , November 11 , 2009 [[Climbing away from the River of Fire, towards the Great Chasm.]] / Rosemary: Did you learn all this about Ettins and Sneeches at the University? / Sylvester: Yes. The E family scholarship limited me to the "prudent and reasonable" , but if I had had a free choice.. I would have become an archeologist. / [[Outline of Humans landing a small boat on a pillared shore.]] / Sylvester: In a truly perfect world.. I would have maybe gone off to Abalone with Nimue. They are, were, doing fascinating work out there. / Rosemary: They're pretty sure now that's where we Humans came into the country, across the Sea of Shells on rafts from Tiranog.
The Mansion of E - Thursday , November 12 , 2009 [[A map of part of southern "Mansionland", with the country of Thekla to the south.]] / Rosemary: So those Shibolithians who always go on about having the oldest settlements in the country are lying? I'm shocked. / Sylvester: Heh. Well. Yes and no. Do you really want to go into details about all this? / Rosemary: We're going into detail about /everything/. / [[Outline of a Human male crawling across a desert meeting two Pales.]] / Sylvester: OK. Yes, Humans also made it across the desert on foot, from what is now Thekla. / Sylvester: But the climate was evidently different. The desert was even worse than it is now. And the Pales were already in residence.
 

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