Now that they had rested, the children and Judith Strauss decided to copy all the books from the secret library of Hotel Denouement since it was supposedly the last safe place for V.F.D. The Judge had already started a copy program with Heimlich Hospital's Record room by getting a government grant to add personnel to assist Hal with sorting all the incoming documents. Along with sorting she had also required that all current and future sorted paperwork would be copied and sent to the new WITI campus. In fact the campus was making serious headway on being developed with the coming assistance of the former members of the Caligar Carnival, the former lumber workers from Lucky Smells Lumbermill, and various other people that had needed a job once the V.F.D. fire-starters had been imprisoned. Although the construction work was sped up it didn't mean they were cutting corners on safety it was just a case of many hands making the work easier. The Judge and the children would occasionally stop work to hold either a safety seminar or a relax day to ensure that everyone was on the same page and had appropriate rest. In fact they had stopped by the site to do a brief check before continuing on their way to the hotel.
When the children and Judge Strauss arrived they beheld an imposing nine-story structure that stood on the edge of a lake, seemingly leaning forward as though it could fall into the lake at any moment. All of the letters and numbers that decorated the outside of the building were written backwards. This was because when leaning over the lake, the water shows the reflection of the structure with the labels correctly spelled. The building was covered with lilies and moss to imitate the lake's surface. Looking at the view the children discussed the work it must have taken to design and build such a unique hotel.
As they head in they see a lot of things like a line at the receptionists' desk, bellboys and bellgirls are rolling different luggage to the elevators, waiters and waitresses were bringing food and drinks to people who are sitting in the lobby, taxi drivers ushering their passengers in to join the line, dogs dragging their owners out for a walk, confused tourists looking quizzically at maps, rambunctious children were playing hide and seek amongst the potted plants, a man in a tuxedo playing tunes on the Grand Piano for anyone who cared to listen, members of the cleaning staff were polishing the green wooden floors, an enormous fountain in one corner of the room, and a woman standing in the opposite corner shouting a man's name over and over again in a crazed annoyed voice. There is a domed ceiling above the main lobby, from which hangs an enormous clock.
The clock in the lobby of the Hotel Denouement is the stuff of legend, a phrase which here means very famous for being very loud. It is located it the very center of the ceiling, at the very top of the dome, and when the clock announces the hour, its bells clang throughout the entire building, making an immense, deep noise that sounds like a certain word being uttered once for each hour. At this particular moment, it was three o'clock, and everyone in the hotel could hear the booming ring of the enormous bells of the clock, uttering the word three times in succession: Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! The children and Judge Strauss while awed at the spectacle, looks to see one of the Denouement brothers are at each end of the lobby. Either of them would be Frank or Ernest Denouement since Dewey was either was winding the clock, checking on the secret library, or taking turns with Kit Snicket-Denouement on watching their daughter Beatrice. They chose to head towards the brother who was standing next to a stack of Daily Punctilio handing out a copy to each patron making their way from reception to the elevator. The headline on the newspaper was a picture of Count Olaf claiming that his trial was to be held later that week. In a smaller part you could see a retraction of the murder charges for Fernald the hook handed man, congratulating him on rejoining with his estranged family.
On speaking with the Denouement brother, who turned out to be Frank, Duncan remarked that it looked like business was booming then he asked Frank where they could find Dewey. Turns out Dewey was on babysitting duty while Kit went out with her brother to apparently clean up some V.F.D. mistakes. Since the safest place at the hotel was the secret library that was where Dewey was taking care of the baby. They head to the sub-basement to meet Dewey. When they get there they see him exiting a door to get more baby formula and a set of diapers for Beatrice the baby. The children begin assisting him with the care of Beatrice, taking charge of changing and entertaining the baby while Judge Strauss went through the process of convincing Dewey to let them copy the contents of the now less than secret library.
Amazingly enough the library was an underwater version of the hotel where all the information is archived in a mirror image of the how the hotel itself is. While admiring the view Judge Strauss explained the new campus of WITI and it's goals of spreading knowledge and training everyone to use their minds to improve everyone's thinking process, not just a select few who kept them as secrets to the detriment of all. In fact they would work on making the city a leading center of innovation that would not only inspire the world to improve, but train new leaders who would go forth and make changes on how society ran. Judge Strauss said, "V.F.D. may have striven to douse the fires of strife, but all it did was dampen creativity and cause any of the remaining embers of strife to burn all the hotter. With access to this library we will be able to improve more lives and save the bright flames of creation. For fire may burn, but it can also nurture, warming us through the cold nights and lead us from the darkness into a brighter tomorrow."
Moved not only by her passion, but by the children's interactions with his daughter Dewey agreed to allow them to copy the contents of the library. As she went through setting up the process of setting up a scanning system to be run by the children and selected trustworthy individuals the Judge asked Dewey where his wife Kit had gone. Dewey replied, "She and her brother went to find out if anyone had survived on the former V.F.D. island where the Baudelaire's parents once washed ashore on. In fact it's where the Baudelaire's parents fell in love, they were even in charge of the island for a bit, but something happened and they ended up in the city. They said it may not have happened the way they wanted, but the city was a better place to raise their children. From seeing how happy the children are, I would have to agree."
After hearing that Judge Strauss thought, 'I definitely have to get an expedition setup quickly in order to save Kit Snicket-Denouement's life and anyone else I can save as well. This will take some work since the Great Unknown is exactly what it's called. No one has ever given a clear description of it, although from some of the records that Quigley has deciphered it may have been an experiment from one of V.F.D.'s mad scientists. It almost sounds like this world's only Kaiju. In any instance I've ever come across involving a Kaiju, people get wrecked. The best bet is to be stealthy, so I hope I can enlist the Widdershin family to assist.'
After thinking on that Judge Strauss knew she'd need the protagonists with her, even though she really didn't want to endanger them. So she setup the Quagmire siblings to run things while they were gone she contacted the Widdershins to setup for the voyage to the island. They would update the equipment that was in the submarine. Knowing it could take too long they tried contacting Kit through the telegram devices they had. They received the reply that all was well and that they were still on the way to the island. Hearing that Judge Strauss felt time was constricting and decided that while the Queequeg made it's way to pick them up she would ensure that the Baudelaires would gain the appropriate training to do basic repairs to ships and how to make drinkable water while at sea. While they trained she ordered a second submarine to be sent after them 3 weeks after they departed if they received no updates from the Queequeg.
When the Queequeg arrive the children now knew how to make basic repairs and 2 different ways to get drinkable water from the sea. They then exchanged the equipment in the Queequeg with new better devices. It took 2 weeks to do this, in the meantime more room was made in the submarine as well to prepare for possible additional people from the island. While they were making all these changes they did a daily check to make sure Kit and her crew were alright. It seemed that they had actually made it to the island unharmed and were in the process of trying to convince people to leave. Although as everyday that passed it seemed that Kit's crew were seemingly content on staying on the island and less inclined on returning to the ship. In fact they were starting to have desertions, with only one or two islanders showing some interest in leaving. Seeing a pattern Judge Strauss told Kit to gather the people interested in leaving and just going before whatever was occurring stranded her there. After all she had her daughter Beatrice to come back to. Hearing that Kit did so leaving with less crew than before and with only some of the islanders. That was when the transmissions cutout.
The Baudelaires and Judge Strauss got into the refurbished Queequeg and set out with the Widdershins family. The only crewmemeber to come with them was Phil the chef who was teaching Sunny the tricks of submarine cooking. The rest would be manning the emergency submarine to come after them in 3 weeks. This would leave enough room on the submarine to take at least 20 people. Supposedly the island is close enough that they should be able to get there in 3-4 days. With the improved sonar and communication technology they were able to take better readings of the surroundings avoiding the Great Unknown altogether and stayed in constant contact with the people in the city.
They reached the island in no time and were told by Ishmael the elder of the island that the ship had been damaged in a storm as the people had been leaving, causing Kit and her crew to be stranded. The children noticed that Kit and her crew looked like they had been drugged and acted like sheep. Ishmael offered them bland ceviche (raw fish) for lunch with servings of coconut cordial. Although interested in the new type of meal Sunny is prevented from eating or imbibing any of it by her siblings, due to how suspicious everything appeared. The Judge and the children smiled and pretended to eat while using the technique everyone uses of moving food on the plate and pretending to drink the cordial. The Whiddershins and Phil had stayed on the submarine and were waiting for them to come back. Having completed the meal they asked if Kit and her crew would come with them. She replied, "I've decided I like it here could you bring Dewey and my daughter here instead?" Hearing that Judge Strauss thought the best thing to do was get them eating and drinking other things than what was supplied by Ishmael since it was obvious that everyone there was drugged into submission.
The only thing preventing Judge Strauss from getting violent was the fact that the drugged individuals would be harmed. Of course all she really needed to do was get Ishmael out of the way, while the children worked their protagonist magic. So after pretending to accept Kit's words the children and Judge Strauss asked Ishmael if they could stay the night. He accepted gladly stating, "Call me Ish, I won't force you, but our island is strictly a nonviolent island, hostile actions are not allowed. Also traditionally we all enjoy coconut cordial at every meal and for all our hydration needs. Enjoy the stay." Afterwards he offered them another round of cordials, which this time they drank in front of the crowd of villagers. It tasted strange to the children, which they remarked upon at the moment the Judge let them know they were alone. She then explained the plan of action they would need to take to prevent a riot. She would distract Ishmael while the children would setup a filtration system to begin the cleansing of the islanders since taking so many drugged people onto a submarine was just asking for trouble.
Before going to rest she contacted the Queequeg with her radio to update them on the situation. She cautioned them to move a bit further from the island and to avoid consuming anything offered by the villagers since they appeared drugged. In fact call for the other submarine or a ship to come since the number of islanders were greater than anticipated. With that done she went to rest.
[Ding for preventing the destruction of the Hotel Denouement and the deaths of all who would have perished in the incident gain +1 to all stats, increase all current skills, and gain the perk Mind Palace this allows user to sort through all knowledge gained and allows user total recall of all user's memories. This perk absorbs the perks Bookworm, Eidetic Memory, and Jurisprudence to become Memory Palace any new perks involving the mind and learning will further boost this perk until it evolves once more. +150 Karma Once user learns some more skills or raises it to a higher degree they will evolve and combine as well.]
'Interesting, Status'
User 01010111
Age 63 Level 40 (exp 21300/40000)
Condition: Normalish (slightly drugged)
Stats
Strength 41H>42H
Dexterity 63H>64H
Constitution 87H>88H
Intelligence 64H>74H
Wisdom 60H>70H
Charisma 29H>30H
Skills
Acting F+, Basic Languages C+, Body Language E+>D, Camouflage F+>E, Camping J+, Car Mechanics H+>G, Cartography H+, Cleaning G+>F, Cold Resistance F+>E, Cooking G+>F, Cryptography H+, Digging F+, Disease Resistance I+, Dive D+, Driving G+>F, Enhanced Hearing D+, Enhanced Smell C+, Enhanced Swimming C+, Enhanced Touch F+, Enhanced Vision E+, Fire Resistance I+, Fist Fighting F+>E, Gardening I+, Gem Craft I+>H, Heat Resistance G+, Herpetology G+>F, Hypnotism H+>G, Night Vision H+, Maintenance F+, Mathematics F+>E, Marine Martial Arts H+>G, Medicine F+>E, Mycology I+, Parallel Thinking F+, Poison Resistance I+, Sailing I+, Shooting G+, Surgery H+>G, Taming I+, Teaching I+>H, Volleyball G+, Woodcraft I+>H, Writing I+>H, New Skills ( )
Perks
Ambidextrous, Contortionist, Entomorph: (Fall Armyworm), Fashion Sense, Lachrymose Leech, Leadership, Medusoid Mycelium, Memory Palace, Plantamorph: (Elm, Evergreen), Pupa, Snow Gnat, Stoic, Uncommon Physical Growth, Zoomorph: (Anchovy, Bass, Blue Wildebeest, Camel, Carp, Chicken, Crow, Cow, Crab, Deer, Eel, Goat, Goose, Hare, Horse, Impala, Kangaroo, Llama, Lobster, Mackerel, Mole, Mouse, Mussel, Octopus, Oyster, Pig, Pigeon, Possom, Prawn, Rabbit, Raccoon, Rat, Reindeer, Salmon, Sardine, Seagull, Sheep, Shrimp, Squid, Trout, Tuna, Turkey, Vole, Zebra), World Compass
Corpse Absorption Progress
Ant (.07932), Aphid (.00257), Bedbug (.00074), Bee (.00505), Centipede (.00015), Cockroach (.00725), Dandelion (.00027), Earwigs (.00086), Flea (.00046), Fly (.11812), Ivy (.069), Jellyfish (.00022), Lice (.00055), Mosquito (.07904), Moth (.00169), Pill Bug (.00189), Slug (.000504), Spider (.00059), Wasp (.03211), Worm (.00065)
Abilities:Tutorial Pocket. Sealed (Diagnose H+, Flight G+, Ink Squirt, Mild Poison Bite, Rally, Photosynthesis)
Achievements: Family Man, For The Family!, Fungicide, Globetrotter, Survivor
Karma: 957 Total Positive
