In Xanadu: The Mystery Begins

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Code:

NOTICE: All spots have been filled as of Nov. 30th.

Jeremie Belpois has a secret.
While this unassuming bookworm appears to be just another student at Kadic Academy, in reality he and his friends hold a secret of such monumental calamity that it could change the world forever. A month ago, while on a search for salvageable electronics in the abandoned ruins of a car factory, he came upon the mysterious supercomputer hidden within the rusting bowels of the factory. Apparently long forgotten, the computer nevertheless hummed to life at his command and allowed him entrance to the strange virtual world called Xanadu.

Soon, they will discover that their secret has a terrible price...

Background Information
The backgrounds for each character is more or less the same as in the show, though feel free to make changes if you wish as long as they are not incredibly drastic. For this story, it takes place shortly after Odd has been introduced to the group, starting roughly the next day from the events that happen in the Garage Kids pilot. Jeremie, Ulrich, and Yumi have only been to Xanadu three times previously, have explored very little of the strange world, and know even less of its history and nature. They all have realized that their powers carry over into the real world, and have used them on several occasions previously (which is why you start with fewer Energy Points than maximum). In addition, you know that whatever evil force resides on Xanadu (which you all colloquially call 'ghosts') can affect the real world by taking over one of the massive towers on Xanadu, and have previously caused earthquakes, snowstorms, and other natural disasters. The 'ghosts' appear at random and attack on sight, and have once before appeared in the real world. Other than that, you are all relatively new to the world of Xanadu, but you know you must keep its secret safe. As such, you do not use your powers in front of people if there is a risk of them realizing what is going on.

Important Gameplay Information
-When your character says something, please prefix it with your character's name so that we know it is a spoken phrase, and write it inside of a 'Quote' code. For example:

Odd: Jeremie, I think the factory is in danger!

-When you wish to ask something out of character, please use the 'code' format so that it is obvious what you are saying is out of character:

Code:

This is said out of character

-If you wish to do something that actively affects the game world (trying to lie to someone, attack a monster, solve a puzzle), at the end of the post include the two traits you wish to use in order to face the problem. For example:

Odd: I swear to you Mrs. Hertz, my dog ate my homework! [Manipulation + Charisma]

If you do not do this and it is an action that I think warrants a Trait check, I will choose for you in that instance and judge your character's success or failure based on that.
-In the same fashion as above, note when you use an Ability.
-I will keep this first post updated as far as your Traits, Abilities, and current Energy Points go, so you can always check it to see their values at any time.


Avatar Form: The Knight
Weapon: The Shortsword
Traits

Physical	Strength: 1	Coordination: 1	Skill: 1	Stamina: 1	Resolve: 4
Mental	Smarts: 3	Innocence: 1	Reason: 3	Experience: 1	Wits: 4
Social	Charisma: 2	Manipulation: 2	Looks: 1	Composure: 4	Reputation: 1

Power: Chronos

Basic	Superior	Advanced
Slow Time	?	?
?	?
?

Energy Points: 6 /10


Avatar Form: The Samurai
Weapon: The Katana
Traits

Physical	Strength: 1	Coordination: 3	Skill: 4	Stamina: 2	Resolve: 2
Mental	Smarts: 2	Innocence: 1	Reason: 2	Experience: 2	Wits: 3
Social	Charisma: 1	Manipulation: 1	Looks: 2	Composure: 3	Reputation: 1

Power: Mercuria

Basic	Superior	Advanced
Super Speed	?	?
?	?
?

Energy Points: 6 /10


Avatar Form: The Geisha
Weapon: The War Fan
Traits

Physical	Strength: 1	Coordination: 3	Skill: 2	Stamina: 3	Resolve: 3
Mental	Smarts: 1	Innocence: 1	Reason: 1	Experience: 2	Wits: 3
Social	Charisma: 3	Manipulation: 1	Looks: 3	Composure: 2	Reputation: 2

Power: Bunraku

Basic	Superior	Advanced
Ghost Touch	?	?
?	?
?

Energy Points: 5 /10


Avatar Form: The Trickster
Weapon: The Weighted Walking Stick
Traits

Physical	Strength: 2	Coordination: 2	Skill: 1	Stamina: 2	Resolve: 3
Mental	Smarts: 1	Innocence: 2	Reason: 1	Experience: 2	Wits: 2
Social	Charisma: 2	Manipulation: 3	Looks: 2	Composure: 3	Reputation: 2

Power: Ferine

Basic	Superior	Advanced
Animal Form	?	?
?	?
?

Energy Points: 7 /10

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Chapter 1: The Second City
With Odd now in the group, you all hope that you and your friends will be enough to keep the real world safe from what lurks in the digital world of Xanadu. Aside from having to balance your real-world concerns with keeping your fantastic powers a secret, things have been looking up and you all leave class each day eagerly waiting to explore more of Xanadu and learn its secrets.

Location: Dormitory Roof


With the final bell, the four of you leave your respective classes and meet at your hang-out spot on the dormitory roof. While technically against the rules, it gives you a commanding view of the school and the surrounding areas, including the rusting roof of the factory on the horizon. With Odd as your new friend in your pact of secrecy, things should be more interesting from now on.

Code:

The three of you may begin roleplaying from here, and I will narrate as you go.  Good luck and enjoy!

[Railen]

Jeremie doesn't feel too talkative today. In fact, he never really does. Not as much as the others, at least. He leans over the ceiling and looks over the trees and the buildings, thinking about Xanadu and all his previous experiences with computers. The one they discovered now is in no way similar to everything he's seen in his studies. And yet, it seems to be build ages ago. Fascinating, yet scary.

He gets carried away completely in his thinking world, momentarily not paying attention to what happens around him.

[Stella Luce 333]

We all sat in akwrd silnce, watng for sombdy to begn spekng. Yestrdy's evnts seemd to be on all of our minds...

[Coto524]

Odd looked down over the railing.

Odd: Jim's on his patrols. Better get moving soon.

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Ulrich smirked as he responded to Odd's observation:

Ulrich: If I didn't know better, I would think you might be excited to go back to Xanadu, Odd. You looked a little scared back there.

As a cool breeze blows by where the group hangs out, Jeremie's laptop suddenly chimes loudly, much to his surprise. As he looks down, a new window has popped up from the secure wireless connection to the supercomputer. Apparently, it has finished the through scan he had begun when he first discovered the supercomputer. He had completely forgotten! The connection's command prompt lept into action:

>PROCESS/SCANSUITE Complete
>Working...
>
>
>
>Working...
>
>
>
>Running EXEC.BAT

Puzzled, he watches as the computer hums and within seconds four more windows have come up, displaying views of Xanadu he had never seen before:

>SCANSUITE/TOPOGRAPHY/ELEVATION.BAT

>SCANSUITE/NODE/TOWER.BAT

>SCANSUITE/TOPOGRAPHY/POINT_TEMPERATURE.BAT

>SCANSUITE/TOPOGRAPHY/POINT_ELEVATION.BAT

>SCANSUITE
>Finished

[Railen]

It -always- beeps at the time he expects it the least. As Jeremie opens up h is laptop, he looks a bit puzzled at first. The scan worked quite optimal, but some aspects are still unclear to him. The things he does understand however, are pretty awesome.

Jeremie: "Seems like Xanadu is bigger than we thought, guys. Either it has four sectors, four elevations or a big plain that changes constantly. We haven't seen anything yet-"

[Coto524]

Odd looks over Jeremie's shoulder.

Odd: Wow, Xanadu looks awesome!

He noticed that, for some reason, the towers were labelled using the NATO-phonetic alphabet. He wouldn't have if they hadn't just done it in class.

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Ulrich stared intently at the maps over Jeremie's other shoulder. After a few seconds, a flash of inspiration hit him:

Ulrich: This looks familiar... those yellow lines look like the streams I saw last time. If that's true...

He pondered it further, before stabbing his finger towards the tower labeled "Echo November" on the screen.

Ulrich: I think that's where we came in yesterday. I followed the ghosts over that mountain to... 'Bravo Quebec'. Hmm.

[Railen]

As Odd and Ulrich bow over the screen (that doesn't happen often), Jeremie leans back against the railing and takes out his notepad and a pen. As soon as the two objects connects, an endless series of numbers spread over the once-white paper.

Jeremie: "More importantly, if there's a map, that means we should be able to control where we spawn. I should do another datacheck for coordinates."

[Stella Luce 333]

Yumi: Hey, what dos that red scren meen? I don't relly like the looks of it...

[Railen]

Jeremie's pen keeps flying in wonderful spirals over his little sheet.

Jeremie: "I'm not quite sure. My best guess it's that it's an exact replica of the landscape we visited, but that it's located somewhere else. Pretty much like a backup."

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Ulrich: We didn't see anything else while we were there. Couldn't these all be different scans of Xanadu's surface?

[Railen]

Jeremie nods at that. Since when is Ulrich so smart?

Jeremie: "That would by my second best guess. Either way, there's only one way we can find out, right?"

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Ulrich: Should we go today? I'm excited to just explore without having to focus on fighting ghosts.

[Railen]

Jeremie tucks the notebook and pen back in his pocket, smiling.

Jeremie: "Exactly my thoughts. What're we waiting for?"

[Coto524]

Odd smiled

Odd: Let's go after school. It's beef and ale pie today for supper. Delicious.

[Stella Luce 333]

I rolld my eyes.

Yumi: This time yestrdy, you were suddnly sent to a virtel world full of ghosts & dangr, & all you can thnk of is food?

[Railen]

Jeremie has other plans for the day. Efficiency is one of his strong feats, or so he thinks.

Jeremie: "Dinner is ages from now. What if we quickly hop to Xanadu, then be back in time for your beloved beef? Unless, of course, you'd rather make homework in between."

Jeremie whistles innocently. He has, of course, completed all tasks and studied for all incoming tests, but this time around he isn't planning to let anyone copy. Not too much, at least.

[Stella Luce 333]

Yumi: Sonds good to me. My parnts arn't expctng me home for a while...

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Everyone nods in agreement and you all head off to the factory, though Odd takes up the rear to sullenly contemplate his empty stomach. The trip over to the factory is uneventful.



The factory is as you left it, and the supercomputer remains at the ready.

[Railen]

Jeremie automatically walks over to the keyboard to manually send everyone off. This sure will get a routine for him, he thinks. And yet, there is so much more to learn about this interface.

Jeremie: "Everyone ready? You know where to go!"

[Coto524]

Odd eagerly bounced up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He stood in a scanner.

Odd: Let's go! Now!

[Stella Luce 333]

I steppd into anthr empty scannr.

Looks like food isn't so imprtnt to you now...

[Keeper Of Secrets]

Ulrich casually takes the last available scanner:

Ulrich: I thought so.

---------------------------------------------------------------


Seated in front of the array of screens that monitor the supercomputer, Jeremie checks the various readouts, each ticking off numbers and code at an amazing pace:

Code:

/CHECK>01.46.82.38.5>RADIOISOTOPE GENERATOR STATUS="SAFE">TEMP_VAR=+0.23C
/CHECK>01.46.82.38.6>RADIOISOTOPE GENERATOR STATUS="SAFE">TEMP_VAR=+0.19C
/CHECK>01.46.82.38.7>RADIOISOTOPE GENERATOR STATUS="SAFE">TEMP_VAR=+0.20C
/CHECK>01.46.82.38.8>RADIOISOTOPE GENERATOR STATUS="SAFE">TEMP_VAR=+0.09C
/CHECK>01.46.82.38.9>RADIOISOTOPE GENERATOR STATUS="SAFE">TEMP_VAR=+0.13C

Code:

/CHECK>01.46.82.38.6>FOCUS INTEGRITY="YES">SIN_VARIANCE=1.22E-37
/CHECK>01.46.82.38.7>FOCUS INTEGRITY="YES">SIN_VARIANCE=1.22E-37
/CHECK>01.46.82.38.8>FOCUS INTEGRITY="YES">SIN_VARIANCE=1.23E-37
/CHECK>01.46.82.38.9>FOCUS INTEGRITY="YES">SIN_VARIANCE=1.22E-37

You hear Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi's scanners snap closed above you as you turn to the primary screen in front of you:

Code:

/SCANSET(S1=READY S2=READY S3=READY)>NODESET(EC/NO)
/INPUT>01.46.82.38.9>

Jeremie knows the basic commands, such as how to virtualize the group from this line command and how to set it on a timed virtualization so he can join them on Xanadu. Another adjacent screen to the primary monitor displays the four scan readouts that he saw on his laptop.

[Sponsored content]