Dave, tired of phrasing things in familiar terms, attempts to expand the image of the moon on another spatial axis - no doubt this is something that is entirely necessary, he thinks. So he wracks his brain, trying to imagine a fourth dimension of space this moon of his may expand into.
Fortunately for him, he's got a fertile imagination! With the image in his mind, Dave begins to invent brand new ways of extending it further still, many pieces of this puzzle of his beginning to fall into place as he considers the problem. He believes he may be reaching a certain level of mental capacity, since it slightly hurts to even think about the image he's got in his mind. All he can do right now is to keep it in place, and try not to think too hard about the implications of it all. If only he had something to jot all this down on. But he is as regrettably without pants or tools as always.
* * * * *
Larry, after banging on the door a few more times, heads over to the hotel's front desk, where the robot-thing still awaits him, looking as silly and directionless in life as ever. Its glassy eyes stare out at him, and Larry feels a pang of sadness for but a moment before he notices that there appears to be no pen or paper anywhere on the front desk, which seems to have a very minimalistic look.
This means, Larry realizes, that he needs to ask this thing before him for either of those things, probably. This is a distasteful avenue of action, and in other circumstances Larry would not ever lower himself to it. But right now, he may have no other choice. He must, to his regret, acknowledge that the creature before him is in some way a person. Humanize it. Find out something about it, rather than just leave without knowing anything at all or caring.
* * * * *
Having had enough of the yammering in plain sight, the group begin to move on,
THE DUNKER leading the way as they enter the moat and circle around the castle.
On the way,
Eta engages Joanie in some enlightening conversation.
"So, you said you were working with some other 'master wizards', like Pillton. Is this little expedition related to them in any way?""Exactamundo! You see, two of them are dead! Murdered! And someone's responsible!""Fat guy thought we should go look for who did it.""And then do, like, justice and whatnot!""So... we're going to look for...""Suspicious things to bother, investigate and interrogate in the ruins! It is our first and only lead at the moment, since we have no idea about anything!""I see! That's good, I guess!""We're probably not going to find any-" Shauna begins to say, but the entire group stops in front of what looks like an open manhole. Two people are loitering in front of it - one young man with messy blond hair, and one oddly shrouded, taller individual wearing a wide-brimmed hat.
"Suspicious individuals loitering about in the dead of night," Joanie says in a mysterious voice.
"Next to an open sewer, no less."* * * * *
John, after telling James that he can freely stay behind if he wants, an opportunity that James thankfully accepts while climbing right out, and asking Menkau to come help him if it seems like he may have drowned in sewage, something that Menkau solemnly promises to do if it occurs to him, descends fully into the terrible depths of the sewers, getting on his hands and knees while keeping his phone above the rather foul water to use as a flashlight. It helps a little bit, though not much, and slightly impedes his progress. Locking in on the leyline, John crawls onward.
[John's body roll: 2]
He crawls forward a bit, but the fact is, the cellphone impedes his crawling progress quite a bit, and the rather thin, nigh-unbreathable air is of no help, either. Feeling like he may be putting himself in danger, John crawls back, climbing a little bit up the ladder, taking several deep breaths.
If he wants to do this, he suspects he'll need to do it blindly, using only his magical sense to get there. Problem is, though, once he gets over to the leyline, how is he going to get out?