Muppet Boy's Geatville

All sections in yellow are extrapolations and assumptions written by me or others.

After years of working in isolation, and only straying from the task to have some tea and biscuits, the device was completed! The other Shee had laughed at the idea that one could literally jump across dimensions and get to the mysterious spherical world with no physical effort at all, but he had persisted and those long nights of twiddling with DNA had paid off. Finally, here was the device that would allow his race to explore the rest of their universe with ease, and it was all his own work. He just couldn't wait to see the look on the others faces...

But that was where the problems started.

Albia seemed to be deserted, there was not a single trace of a Shee anywhere. Sure, the Norns, Grendels and Ettins were still running around the place but there was no sign of proper life forms. Checking out the communal laboratories revealed that a gigantic space ship had been constructed at some point in the past and the planet had been evacuated. Just how long had he been working? He knew that when he was problem-solving he was pretty hard to get through to, but surely someone would have come and informed him that everyone was leaving!

Still, with the amount of dust that was lying around it looked like they'd been gone for years - real Shee years rather than the accelerated time scale they'd made all their creations live in. Well, he'd just have to follow them and show them his great device! Any fool could make a spaceship but only he had the vision to create holes in space … or was it time? He had to admit he wasn't entirely sure what the device did exactly - that was evolution for you - but it did seem to make holes in something that allowed things to pass through to another place. A place that was very much like the place you were just in - but different. All his tests had confirmed this, and he'd even travelled through himself on many occasions. Come to think of it, he wasn't entirely sure that the here he was in now was the here he'd started in but he didn't consider that a great problem. It was close enough to his here to fool him and that was all that mattered.

So he'd begun growing a ship for the voyage; he could still detect the trail through space left by the others so actually tracking them down wasn't a problem. Catching them up, on the other hand, would require the kind of thinking that only he could do … something so clever that they would all congratulate him on his original thinking and reward him with a nice cup of tea, maybe two.

Late in the Albian night, so late as to be morning, a lone figure could be found hunched over a wooden table. The table's one short leg periodically threatened to upset the contents of the flasks and test tubes that covered its surface. The figure seemed to be talking to itself - a steady stream of chemical names and reactions, "Hmm, pyruvate, glucose... hmm, amino acid reacts with... no, it was glucose, wasn't it? Oh dear, oh dear... Maybe a cup of tea will help clear my head."

He stood and stretched; exchanging his hunched figure for that of a lanky Shee scientist. He had recently emerged from his private underground laboratory to find that the disk-shaped planet he inhabited was completely devoid of other Shee and he was left alone with a clutch of Norns, a few Grendels and his tools, flasks and test tubes.

The day before had been spent collecting clues of the other Shee's departure and a desperate search for hidden supplies of tea bags. As best he could tell, the Grendels had been making rather a mess of things and some sort of creature had been incubated in a very large test tube in the communal laboratories. He wasn't able to determine the thing's final size, but indications were it was large enough to hold a goodly number of Shee as well as a selection of plants and animals within itself. The Shee figured it had been a spaceship of some sort, based upon the genetic remnants strewn about some of the other underground laboratories. And since it wasn't anywhere about, it stood to reason that it was somewhere else entirely.

He wondered if they had taken the Ettins - they'd certainly come in handy now - but he hadn't seen any yet. They would have taken their precious Norns, but definitely would have left the Grendels behind. Frankly, he wasn't really that bothered by the lack of Shee company, but was somewhat upset to find the planet's supply of tea and biscuits was nearly non-existent. Impetus enough to find out where his companions had gone.

He soon decided that he needed his own transportation off the planet. There was plenty of spare genetic material around. He was sure he could improve on the other Shee's genetic tinkering so he set to work germinated a test tube with some of the extra genetic muck. "Goodness," he thought, "I'll certainly need a larger test tube."

Day 4 (Albian Year 1800) My transport creature is nearly half grown. I've decided to call her Capillata. I'm not sure it's actually female, but since ships are commonly named after the female of the species, I've decided to follow convention. I still need to figure out a way to escape the Albian atmosphere. I've not found many Norns on the planet, and only one Grendel so far, but I have found a couple of Ettins who I have pressed into my service. Still no tea to be found.

Day 8 (Albian Year 1800) Capillata is outgrowing her 10th test tube. She may need to be transferred to the Eastern Ocean soon to complete her growing cycle. I have begun to regret having taken on the two Ettins. I asked them to tidy my quarters and came back late one night to find that they had tidied every last piece of furniture out of the room. The room is certainly clean, but I've still not found a fresh shirt or a single pair of socks.

Day 14 (Albian Year 1800) I've gathered together a variety of plants and creatures for the voyage. Most importantly, I believe I have come up with a suitable alternative to tea. It's far too frothy and seems to taste best cold, but I think it will be acceptable once aged.

Day 28 (Albian Year 1800) Capillata is fully grown and seems anxious to be away. I've come up with a extremely clever (if I do say so myself) launch method. Now, if I could find a way of getting Capillata into the old volcano. Unfortunately, my launch method may increase the radioactivity down below, but I hardly think anyone will be around long enough to notice.

Day 42 (Albian Year 1800) The barbed docking protrusion on Capillata is fully formed and she's now been transferred to an are below the inactive volcano. I've designed food pods for the main living area and those are also nearly fully grown. I've decided not to take the Ettins but have left them explicit instructions as to what to do once I've left. I'm not hoping for much, but I can at least say I've done what I can. I'm taking Norn genomes, but won't take any from the planet. I do hope they will be alright...

The Volcano & Aftermath
In earth year 1998, the world of Albia began to shake. Lava began to spill from the Purple Mountains. The Shee City began to crack with the forces of an earthquake. Weather began to rip the surface of the world apart, revealing a rich new section of the world - the previously hidden 'Shee labs' - where norns had been cared for and machinery built. The volcano completely changed the surface of Albia, spurting new objects and animals into the air from below, where they'd been living ever since the shee left the world.
	In amongst the rubble came the Ettin. The species that used to help the shee by cleaning the labs. They too could now strive on the surface. Also released was some more norn eggs that the shee had been studying, and some grendels too - which, throughout their years of being accidentally locked away, had evolved differently. This can only be bad for Albia. Since the volcano and earthquakes, a diverse change in the weather has occurred, and now seasons, which before the eruption was never possible or even a concept, now rip through Albia, spreading rain and snow. Who knows what other planets are around... It is reported that there is a planet thriving with Grendels somewhere around. This planet is similar to Albia in a couple of ways, one being its two dimensional structure. It is also believed that a thriving Shee Civilisation is inhabiting a new truly three dimensional world somewhere outside of Albia's solar system.
	When the Capillata reached orbit, the last Shee adjusted for the path of the Shee Ship and took off. To make up for lost time he also crossed a thousand years of time to hopefully meet the other Shee before they abandoned ship. Almost instantly he was there, and docked with the ship using specially engineered docking clamps.
The Last Shee travels and experiments are detailed in the Stories section.
The History of Sphericus By Constructus Unstableous S. MSc Senior Engineer and saxophonist Day 1: Our perfect descent was interrupted by an attack from an unknown creature. Our vessel tried to avoid confrontation and was forced to make a controlled crash landing. Although we were free from injury, our vessel was beyond repair. We salvaged what we could and stepped onto our new home. Day 30: We have made a good camp on a huge grass plain. The indigenous life however is mostly harmless so far (see Biologist report), with one notable exception. The animal in question however is easily detected with our equipment. We have survived off of the tubers in the surrounding area, and made a protein-rich drink from a mixture of local ferns. The water is good and we are now self-sufficient. We are starting to put together some bio-machinery and research equipment. Day 112: We have experimented with Norns again. The template we brought with us has been augmented to allow for a better immune system, and our recent experimental subjects have lived considerably longer than normal. We still have had no real problems with the wildlife and we have not seen the creature that attacked our ship since our landing. Day 400: We now have a number of Norns alive and well on this planet. They seem to be considerably smarter and more sociable than our previous genetically engineered attempts. They even seem to enjoy helping us and our bio-machines farm the land, we are also well on the way to having a population of Ettins again. Day 450: A strange new creature wandered into our camp last night and got us all a bit worried. We have stepped up Ettin research so that we can start creating some defences. Day 480: A few of us have made a huge gate to try and stop some rather unpleasant animals from getting onto the savannah but just to be sure we are still going to get the Ettins to help us out. Day 511: The Norns seem to have befriended a small winged creature. It is a good relationship, the Norns are messy eaters and the little winged things eat up all the left overs. Day 600: The Ettins are now doing really well, they have built some remarkable structures (under our guidance of course) and have constructed some good defences. They have also carved out some rock which has allowed us to get to a new marshy area at low tide. There is a canyon that connects the grassland and the marshes but it is blocked with large rocks, we might employ the Ettins to move these one day. Day 690: We have a dam! The Ettins have helped us build a dam by excavating around and underneath a small mountain. Due to an oversight (on their part of course) there is now a huge chunk of land floating above the dam. As there is no connecting land to it, we don’t really know what to do with it. We were forced to go through some nasty forest areas to get to a suitable site nearby, and being tired we constructed a shelter in the forest to keep us safe through the nights. Day 721: We’ve decided to put a transport system in to help us get around. We’re are going to use the water systems at the dam and a smaller waterwheel on a waterfall to power it. We hope to get the system finished by the end of the year. Day 778: With more control over the water levels we have managed to gain control over the access to the marsh. Before, the tide had made construction difficult and dangerous, but now we have been able to build when and where we want, and can get to the marshes when we like. Day 812: The Ettins have disappeared into the marshes somehow they have built some tunnels into the foundations of the islands (presumably during low tide or after we built the dam). One of the tunnels seems to lead out onto an island and so we followed it, but there was no sign of our Ettins. We don’t know what they are doing up there.. Day 900: The Ettins might be a bit too industrious. They have started building things without our guidance. They look very nice but we are not sure what they are or how they work. Journals of Sphericus By Prof. Makeous breakeous Head technician Day 1000: Constructus Unstableous became bored with writing and has passed the honour on to myself while he tampers with some whale genomes. The Ettins have made seed launchers and irrigation devices which help out a lot and made farming the area much easier, although our bio-machines can work with these things to an extent as well. Day 1347: Some of our Ettins have gone missing and so has some of our equipment too! There is something strange going on here. Farming is still good though and our naturalist Linneous Unlikeus has done a fine job of documenting much of the wildlife. Day 1696: We have begun to construct a more permanent settlement in the rocks near our village. Unfortunately, stone carving isn’t one of our specialities; this might take quite some time. Day 1822: We have finally domesticated one of the larger indigenous animals. We call them Sunscreeches. They are large carnivorous animals and we have noticed that they soon return to their wild selves if not constantly kept under our supervision. We might train them to act as guardians so as to keep our village safe from any attacks from whatever else may be living here. Day 1969: Some large bird like creatures appeared today. They were circling above the Norns in a suspicious manner. Even more perturbing is that they came late in the day and stayed above us most of the night before going away at dawn. What could they want? Day 2000: Now things are really getting out of hand. We have barely begun the investigation of this world and the remaining Ettins loyal to us have started doing weird stuff with lava and the like. Mind you, we are hoping to learn their energy-taping techniques so we can use it ourselves. The problem is that the Ettins have never been very good at communication, it’s amazing how far they have got using trial and error methods alone. Day 2001: A Grendel! One of us saw a Grendel the other day up in the forest area. We were in quite a large team and the Grendel soon vanished from view, but where had it come from? None of us have made any Grendels! Day 2105: We have gone on a few exploratory expeditions and found out the following: There is a strong Grendel presence on Sphericus. There are some very odd creatures on this world (see Biological report) that don’t look at all friendly. There is a large desert area where at least part of our crashed ship lies; it looks like it must have fallen to the surface some time ago. From the desert you can plainly see a large scar upon the volcano where the ship must have first struck the surface before coming to a stop. Some of the ship memory is still intact, and so we may bring it back to camp to find out what has that happened in our absence. Via a remarkable contraption, Baronous Munchousenous managed to get up to the floating island. He reported things that defy explanation! He said that there were Ettins up there and they had somehow made a shining doorway that seemed to branch off in infinite directions and for infinite distances. He said it reminded him of the teleporters Marcus Intraneteous made on Albia. The cave system is definitely radioactive. We haven’t seen Sureous Doomous since he went to investigate it. Our expedition was cut short anyway when Grendels showed up in force. The Ettins have also begun some excavation and construction where the river bends, just before the dam. We have no clue as to what they might be building. We have constructed a bridge in the upper forest area to aid future exploration, and we have also set up a scientific base in the desert area. Dr. Bottleous Bubbleous has bravely decided to stay and make it a permanent base. The first task on the agenda is to get the train system fitted so that we can bring supplies to him and his team (and provide him with a good escape route!). Day 2222: Some of our Norns have disappeared. There are worrying signs of a struggle near the entrance to the lower forest area. One of the Norns that was in the area at the time has gone into hiding in the rocks near the Marshes and won’t talk to us - it looks very scared. There were those birds circling above us all night as well. Day 2433: The train system is nearly finished now. We have linked up most of the areas and the Dam boosts the energy enough to make it fully functional all year round. The Ettins appear to have nearly finished their construction as there seems to be very little work going on from where we could see. We haven’t yet had the chance to investigate further. Day 3201: It seems the Ettins are no longer exclusively our servants. The Grendels have taken some in to their pack and the poor deluded creatures have started making devices for their ugly green masters. We believe the large birds to be working for the Grendels as well, as we have often seen Grendels shortly after appearance of the huge birds. Day 3309: Disaster! A meteor has struck our dam generator! We have had to shut down most of the stations to conserve power. We only have the marshes, savannah, and lower forest stations active now, I do not like to be without an escape route in these times. Day 3312: We have found Sureous Doomous near the waterfall! He is very sick and cannot talk. We don’t know how he got there as he has a broken ankle and serious radiation sickness. We have taken him back to the village to provide better aid. Day 3397: The Grendels and their Ettin servants have taken over part of the train system. We have no idea how they can run all this stuff without the power from the dam. Day 3400: A Grendel raiding party broke into the savannah today and attempted to capture some of the Norns. We managed to keep the Grendels at bay by hurling rocks and seed at them with the Ettin catapults but we fear a stronger force may be massing. Day 3511: Courageous Maximus came back from a scouting expedition this afternoon completely white with fear. He’d lost three of the five sunscreeches that went with him and all of the four Norns! After the calming powers of a strong cup of Tuber tea had taken effect, he told us of a terrible sight. He had gone some way up in the forest area, past the broken dam power generator. There they had made a camp and set watches for the night. Late that night there was a viscous Grendel attack, Maximus’ defences were not nearly strong enough and they had to flee further up into the forest. During the escape the party broke up and went separate ways. The next night Maximus could not sleep for worry and fear, so he climbed a tree to hide and kept watch. What he saw terrified him, eight Grendels and four Ettins were carrying a huge Grendel-like creature down towards the lower forest area. The massive Grendel may well have been a Grendel Queen - it was so much larger than the others, and certainly incapable of moving far on its own. The Queen was followed by a huge army of Grendels; they took a good few minutes to walk past, such was their number. Maximus managed to stay downwind of them and snuck around the riverbank at low tide past the Grendel sentries. It looks as though the Grendels have gone completely out of control and it is time for us to escape while we still have our lives to escape with. Day 3699: We have found out how the Grendels got here. The Ship’s memory recorded a Grendel leaving the ship in the escape pod with us. It must have been clinging to the outside or something; maybe that was why that animal attacked us on the way down. If only we had been more cautious! The ship also tells us that after the Grendels had eaten everything on board and grown significantly in number, that they had gone berserk and become cannibals. The ship was extensively damaged under their care and attention – I hope it is still up there in space. Day 4023: Something is seriously wrong. The ground shook considerably this morning, but our seismic tests indicated it didn’t originate from the volcano, the Ettins are responsible for this. We are preparing to evacuate this area, we have enough resources now to make another ship but we don’t know how much warning we will have before we must leave. Day 4066: The Grendels are attacking! I am writing this from the East side of our village while a war wages on the West. They have us completely outnumbered and even though we still have superior machinery it was never really adapted for war. The Sunscreeches, Norns and Ettins are all trying to keep the Grendels at bay. Cannonous Fodderous has led an attack, but we Shee were never great warriors so we fear for his safety. It looks like we shall have to retreat to the Marshes and hope that we can bar the entrance with something quickly. Fortunately we have built our test ship already, but it hasn’t been tested or trained yet. We’ll have to take that with us and hope we can use it before the Grendels overpower us. As I write I can hear missiles strike our roof! Day 4068: We made it to the mashes with the ship, but we have received heavy casualties. I am standing by our makeshift untested ship as it warms up. Even from here we can hear the heavy pounding of the Grendel forces slowly weakening our last barricade. There was another great shaking of the ground early this morning and our ship reported that we had risen by some distance. It seems that the Ettins have tapped into more power than we knew possible! We are going to have to loose a few items to keep weight down. I have made a backup of this Journal to take with us. Whoever finds this, beware the Grendels! Sureous Doomous Personal Log I’m finished! This cave system is the death of me! I ventured in with caution, fissures and pools of water greeted me, as did small glowing plants. Pointed formations rose from the floor and pointed down from the ceiling resembling teeth of some huge monster. The caves are huge and it was difficult to see too far ahead because of the multitude of these cave teeth. Then a large dragon-like creature, something the likes of which I have never seen attacked me and in the escape I fell and broke my ankle! None of my communication devices seem to work either, and I am sure that I have radiation sickness creeping in - I’m done for! Ettins! Although I am barely able to write now, I feel I must document this amazing thing. Ettins have appeared and have begun building all sorts of contraptions. The have also enlisted the help of a very peculiar animal that burrowed through sheer rock right before my eyes! I have tried to get the Ettins to help me get out of here but they seem too busy to stop.

Experiments Of The Shee	Pre-Games
The Shee Exodus The Shee Abandon Ship	C3
Albia's Rediscovery By Humans	C1
The Last Shee in Albia The Volcano & Aftermath	C2
Exploration of Sphericus	Post-Games

Albia		Shee Ships	Game
Above Ground	Underground
Shee experiment in genetic engineering Ron & Eve born The Shee discover spherical worlds beyond their own.		-	Pre-Games
Shee abandon Albia, the Shee Ark begins its journey. Before they leave they leave two hatcheries full of eggs.
Most norns killed by grendels. Wild forest, Xmas, Ron and Mountain breeds appear. Some eggs remain in incubator 1.	All Ettins and some Grendels evolve underground, including the Magma norns. Some norn eggs remain in incubator 2	Shee Arrive In orbit of Sphericus	& Docking Station
	The Last Shee works for centuries.	Shee Driven from ship by grendel stowaways
		Humans discover Shee Ark
		Capillata Docks with Shee Ship
Humans discover Albia Hidden eggs are hatched from incubator 1.
The Volcano Erupts, killing many surface dwellers whilst releasing underground dwellers.	Last shee grows the Capillata ship. Last Shee launches the Capillata - using the volcano's eruption as launch		& Docking Station
Ettins re-build many structures on the last Shee's orders, including lifts to gain access to underground labs.
Labs & Ettin Discovered by humans, as are new grendel breeds. Norn eggs from incubator 2 are hatched		Last shee explores alternate worlds and takes samples of newly discovered breeds and conducts experiments that create other breeds. He warps in time to find the Ark.

Experiment 1 - Cyberlifogenis vicious
	The first experiment in genetics went horribly wrong and the unfortunate outcome was a nasty and bad mannered creature later known as a Grendel. The Shee quickly abandoned the experiment, but overlooked a few eggs that had been mislaid behind a dresser. Unfortunately, those eggs hatched and Grendels escaped to breed in the wild.


The Shee Exodus
Some years later the Shee came up with an uncharacteristically useful invention that allowed them to gaze into the Albian sky and see all the glittering stars up close. To their disgust, they realised that there were planets up there as well and they were spherical, rather than the inconvenient disk shape they were used to. They decided to set out in search of a more spherical home. It also seemed a pretty good way of getting away from the Grendels who were becoming more and more troublesome. The Shee gathered up all the Norns and Ettins they could find, along with a selection of plants and animals from the planet, and huddled them aboard a spaceship genetically engineered especially for the journey. Forgetting earlier lessons, the Shee neglected to check behind the furniture for leftover creature eggs and accidentally abandoned a number of creatures on Albia's surface. With no-one to look after them, the Norn died out shortly after the Shee left. The Shee thoughtfully provided a secret store of six Norn eggs in the Hatchery, just near the incubator machine to revive them. An endearing, peaceful and playful race, the Norns relied on the Shee to look after them. Only one living Grendel mother remains, in the tree houses of the Grendel lair and she has plenty of eggs left!
	Before the shee left, they locked some norns eggs away in hibernation in the shee caverns. As they locked the door for the last time, they forgot to release the other animals hidden below, and even locked in the ettin - a species that had helped the shee in the labs.... the ettin were trapped.

The History of Sphericus

Sureous Doomous Personal Log