Tuning in (not closed)

[Victoria Valentine]

Deciding that really, she doesn't want to leave things uninvestigated, Victoria found herself making her way back out to the focus of the energies on the Point. This time bearing her ritual blade, with her avatar striding behind her bearing a wand, her two forms took up position on opposite sides of the confluence, testing the ley lines for one that was safe to use as a conduit to explore past the nexus.

(open, though I don't know how much there will be for non-magical types to do)

[Narrator]

There was some turbulence on a select few ley lines, perhaps indicating a hostile environment beyond. At least one or two seemed safe, though.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria picked one that didn't seem to be the one she had gone through the last time.

How to do this.
Projecting through is the safest route.
But going physically can gather better information.
Maintaining a form here can provide an anchor.
More risk, but better rewards.
Yes.

On one side of the circle, the wand traced out mystic sigils, mirrored on the other side by the blade. Victoria chanted her spell, grounding one side of her consciousness here, then reaching up with one physical hand and touching the ley line, her mystical senses finding and extending into its power so that her hand could actually grab it to guide her, a spell of flight sending her on her way.

[Sean Hall]

Sean had finally started looking into the strange occurrences that had been bothering him for a bit now. His investigations seemed to line up with Victoria performing her ritual. Not entirely ignorant of ritual magic, so he could tell what she was doing (more or less).

Shouldn't let her go alone.

With that thought Sean began chanting a spell of his own intending to more or less follow in Victoria's wake.

[Narrator]

As the ley line was followed, the world around them blurred. Once their eyes refocused, the settlement around the inlet was much bigger, heavily industrialized with buildings stretching towards the sky of white marble and polished brass. Where the lighthouse's foundations were before there stretched an impossibly high tower, arcane machinery of brass and finely ground glass lenses churning atop it to cast a beam of light far out into the water.

[Victoria Valentine]

"I think I liked the last reality better," Victoria mused out loud, not seeming surprised at Sean's presence.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Well then..." Nailah says, opening her eyes and seeing the landscape and the two. Physically she's sitting in her room, meditating, but attempting to draw from the 'leaking' Heka seems to have drawn her along with Victoria and Sean.

[Sean Hall]

"Not a fan of industrial wastelands I take it," Sean said as he looked around, "I wonder how many different worlds intersect here."

[Victoria Valentine]

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'countless,' actually," Victoria said, looking around. She closed her eyes, reaching out with her magical senses to feel the ley lines in this reality to see if they were distinct from her own reality.

[Narrator]

It was... similar to how they had felt on the other side. One of them was the ley line they had followed, the others seemed unique to this world, or at least unknown to them previously.

What did feel different was that the presence of the lighthouse seemed to focus and regulate the flow of energy in a far more orderly manner than its absence had in their world.

[Sean Hall]

Sean actually pushed his senses outward trying to find magic finger prints in the area. After all the nexus could certainly be used both ways.

"The magic here feels so still," Sean said as he continued searching.

[Victoria Valentine]

"That might be because it's not being used much... it doesn't look like a very spiritual world. But... that. It can't be as simple as just building a tower to keep things contained, can it?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Must be a nexus of overlapping conduits connecting these worlds... And ours is... well I don't want to say broken but certainly not ordered like it is here." she says, standing up.

"And I think they might be using it, just much differently. Almost feels... domesticated."

[Narrator]

Sean was finding that at least at the lighthouse itself there was a very distinct impression. A meticulous hand, very precise and elegant in its efficiency... and older than anything here.

[Sean Hall]

"Domesticated is the right word," Sean said, "Something...ancient has molded this place."

Sean tried to see if there was a trail leading towards whatever had been molding this place to its will.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria frowned. "How could their magi have let this happen?"

She looked up at the tower, frowning. "I... suppose that it's worth a look."

[Narrator]

The trail of that particular signature was actually... on the other side. Not on the ley line they had followed, but on one of the other ones that went through the lighthouse.

[Sean Hall]

"Well, whatever did this isn't here any longer," Sean said, "It traveled along another ley line."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm not sure following it is going to do us any good, because I doubt it's anywhere near still."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Hm. Well, it probably would be in our interest to see what we can find out here," Victoria said as she started forward to the entrance of the tower.

[Sean Hall]

"We probably don't want to encounter whatever did this without knowing exactly what we're dealing with," Sean agreed.

[Narrator]

The entrance of the tower was finely wrought silver and brass upon wood. In lieu of a keyhole, it had a curious circular indentation, as well as a vertical slit far too large for a key.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria frowned, looking it over, and then did the simplest thing she could think of: She knocked.

[Narrator]

Nailah got a brief precognitive flash of an outline of a crested helmet, along with lines of red and blue. "-nt open. Not for you..."

[Nailah Weaver]

She spins around to the person coming up behind them.

"Who does it open for then?"

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria spun around to see who was coming.

[Narrator]

Indeed, there was a man in a jumpsuit, buttoned on both sides, and tall leather boots descending from the sky. Across the front of his jumpsuit was the Union Jack, and he wore a bronze Corinthian helmet crested in horse hair dyed bright red. Around his neck was a golden medallion on a chain that looked about the right diameter to fit in the circular depression.

"...bit rude to answer before I've said it, isn't it?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"If it's any consolidation, it gives me worse headaches than anybody else when they fail to 'answer' what they were going to. Nailah Weaver, Priestess of Sekhmet." she adds as an introduction.

[Narrator]

"It seems to me I ought to tell you where you are. You are on the border marches of Victoria the Alchemical Everqueen, long may her valves be properly calibrated."

"I also get the distinct impression you probably ought not be here."

[Victoria Valentine]

"More than likely. If it is any consolation, we won't be here for long," Victoria said, looking the figure over. "I believe I know who you are... or what you represent. I'm not sure what to call you, though."

[Narrator]

"Captain Britain will do, defender of the sanctity of Britannia Aeternus."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Oh really? Always pleasant when some things are the same," Victoria mused. "I am Victoria, of Those who Walk the Winding Way, though I doubt that title holds any meaning in your world."

[Narrator]

"And I don't see one of ours with you."

"Rather suspect you're from one of the broken links. Never have slipped through otherwise."

[Victoria Valentine]

"If you mean Captain Britain... no, we didn't bring her with us. And I suspect that you know more of the situation than we do. 'Broken links'?"

[Narrator]

"Oh, you needn't take it as an insult. Yes, it does mean you're somewhat... flotsam that I'll need to be sending back, but it's worse for your world than it is for mine."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Oh, there's no worry about us going back, we've no intention of staying. I'm rather hoping for an explanation on what it means, though," Victoria clarified.

[Nailah Weaver]

"You mean the broken conduit that lead us here. It seems to be... leaking into our world, in a way."

[Narrator]

"It's the most amazing construct in this or countless other worlds. It's just gotten... shabby, at spots."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Our lighthouse was destroyed some time back, but it didn't seem to have any adverse effects. We didn't notice anything odd unil recently, even."

[Narrator]

"It's only one line of defense, but matters could certainly get worse if you'd had... other incursions."

"Regardless, it ought to be entirely possible to repair it, as long as you've not done away with your Mastermind node. Then again, who would do a mad thing like that?"