Overlord's Orders XI

[Jasper]

If I could join that'd be great. I've never done one of these, but there's always a first time!

[James Gryphon]

I'm grateful; I'm hoping to get at least seven people for this, and every bit helps.

I'm going to be going out of town this Wednesday for Thanksgiving; I should be back Thursday night, so the game will probably begin then. (This gives me some more time to write plot, a necessary task I've been putting off.)

[Søren]

Very well. Have a nice trip!

[Delthion]

I'm grateful; I'm hoping to get at least seven people for this, and every bit helps.

I'm going to be going out of town this Wednesday for Thanksgiving; I should be back Thursday night, so the game will probably begin then. (This gives me some more time to write plot, a necessary task I've been putting off.)

I'll be out of town from Friday morning to Saturday evening. So would it be possible for it to begin Saturday?

[The Mask]

I'll join!

[James Gryphon]

I'll be out of town from Friday morning to Saturday evening. So would it be possible for it to begin Saturday?

Well, that's only two days; I'll probably run the first round longer than that. You should have time to get a reply in, even if you're not immediately available.

[James Gryphon]

Last call for registrations. I plan on making the opening post in the next six hours or so.

[James Gryphon]

Registrations are closed.

---

The Overlord waited with anticipation as the thrum, thrum of the starship's mighty engines began to slow, and finally stop altogether. "It's good to be going home... or something like it, anyway."

A light on the control panel flickered green, breaking him out of his reverie. "Back to business," he thought, "And not soon enough. It's time to take care of some things."

He looked down at the screen that monitored his servants, who were all shut up in individual glass chambers. Those chambers were useful for a quite many purposes, in fact, which the Overlord did not care to reveal to them at the time of their enclosure. For now, however, they were used solely for protecting his minions from the potentially hazardous effects of "The Change".

He pressed the button to release them from stasis. After waiting a moment for them to get their bearings, he began to speak.

"Welcome back to the real world. You've got a lot to do and not much time to do it in, so listen up."

"The truth of our current situation is a little more complicated than this, but all you need to know right now is that we've gone back in time. Specifically, back to the early 21st century. And you're going to get to visit one of the wonders of that time period, one of Sweden's gorgeous Ice Hotels. The whole thing is, in fact, made out of real ice. You'll need to blend in with the locals, so taking personal heating shields is out of the question. Appropriate winter garb will be provided for you in the teleportation room."

"Your mission here is very simple. Go down, spend three days, then come back. None of you have worked together before, so I'm hoping you'll use this time to do the whole 'bonding' jazz that those team-building books always rave about. Get acquainted with one another and don't destroy anything."

"There is one caveat -- you need to make sure that nobody takes your picture while you're down there. Having a photographic record of your presence could endanger your cover for future missions, as well as potentially disrupting this timeline. So don't let any exist."

---

Three days later...

"I can't say that I didn't expect things would go wrong, but I have to tell you, of all the mission teams I've ever put together, this is a new low for a first assignment. In three days, you managed to melt the hotel to the ground with a "dragon", shoot at five of the hotel's guests, and hijack a helicopter. Needless to say, I'm not impressed with your ability to keep a low profile."

"Also, on a more personal note, my inbox is full of millions of copies of pictures of the hotel and the surrounding area. It'll take ages to download them all, and I had to spend $1,000,000 for the extra storage space necessary to keep all those files on my email account. You're very lucky that I've always had an interest in this hotel; otherwise I wouldn't easily forgive you for causing this unwarranted expenditure. Which of you jokers thought to send all this to me in email instead of just bringing me the cameras' storage drives?"

"Explain to me how you all managed to achieve this amazing degree of failure. Speak up, quickly."

[Søren]

Your lordship, it is true that I was the one who hijacked the helicopter. But it was not of my own initiative sir. Delthion was the one who was firing the shots at the hotel guests, and we fears for our lives that the authorities would capture us and disrupt the timeline. So thus we needed a get away vehicle. I had sufficient understanding and knowledge of the aircraft that I was able to hijack and pilot it sir. But it was Delthions fault. If it wasn't for him firing shots at the hotel guest for who knows what reason, I wouldn't have been in it in the position of having to hijack the helicopter, in an effort to perserve the timeline and all that we hold most dear.

[SilentSam]

Lord, I must inform you that it was my idea to send the pictures, but I had to because LT Sandpaw and Jasper started smashing started smashing the cameras, and their storage drives because it was "fun". At first I tried to hide the storage drives, but LT Sandpaw found them. So I took the remaining ones and emailed them to you.

[Jasper]

My great and powerful Overlord, some of the things these miscreants have said is true, but they left out the most defining details in the situation, so allow me to clear it up for you.

As Soren said, it was indeed Delthion who was firing at the hotel guests, but that was because Soren had spotted a pretty human female, and in an effort to communicate with her, had gotten us spotted. The guests began to try taking pictures of us, and succeeded in taking one of Soren, still trying to reach the human. Delthion, in a somewhat rash effort to clean up the damage Soren had caused, began shooting at the guests, and told me to go and smash their cameras to get rid of the picture, because as you said, we can't allow pictures to exist of us. LT Sandpaw and I complied, but Sandpaw was also holding the cameras we had used to take pictures of the hotel, and he mistakenly smashed those along with the ones that the guests had been using. Luckily Sam managed to email the pictures on the camera before they were completely destroyed.

I apologize for the number of pictures that cost you so much extra, but The Mask spent the entire trip taking pictures of everything in sight - he even took several thousand of our hotel's toilet for some odd reason. I tried to convince Soren not to take the helicopter, since it would attract so much attention, but he insisted that he knew what was best, and blamed us for shooting at the guests - but that wasn't our fault! It was HIS for getting a picture taken of himself! We were just trying to clean up his mess!

As for the Dragon, I honestly don't know where to start with that. You see, Sweden is home to a massive white one, and it had loads of riches. While the rest of us were at the hotel taking care of our task, Taggerung of Redwall wanted to earn himself a little bit of extra money - likely linked to his recent purchases of sketchy materials that might be used to overthrow you, oh powerful overlord. He stole a precious gem worth billions, and fled back to the hotel with the dragon hot on his heels. In its rage the Dragon destroyed the entire hotel, and would have killed us too if I hadn't returned the gem Tagg stole to it, at great risk to my own well - being!

[Søren]

Your lordship, it is true that the woman I pursued was attractive in nature, but they is not the reason I pursued her. The reason is I had noticed that her camera's screen had a photo of Tagg stealing the gem. If this got out, then not only would they capture Tagg, who no doubt would tell the authorities we're on a mission, but would also trace is back to you oh lordship. It would disrupt the timeline as well as possibly putting you in danger. For if Tagg hadn't gotten greedy, then this situation would have never happened. It's all his fault.

[Delthion]

My gracious and great Overlord. I beg thy forgiveness for this terrible lack of discipline. I was rendered unconscious in the elevator for two days, then when I woke up, I had forgotten why I was there. I was very rude to your other servants due to the fact that I had no recollection of them, once again I beg your forgiveness, and hope that you will be able to do the same for the others. The blame goes to all of us, and I beg you to forgive all of us. Thank you my Overlord.

[LT Sandpaw]

Your Lordship it was very necessary to destroy the video devices and their storage units because it filmed Soren flirting with important officials. I admit it was very fun to find and destroy the cameras but it was for a good reason because we didn't want the officials enemy's seeing Soren and use it in a campaign disrupting the timeline. Sam tried to hide some of the storage units but I managed to find them in time. After the gunfire began I had to escape on the hijacked helicopter fearing for my life, but I didn't know it was hijacked I was told it was bought for "cheap".

[SilentSam]

Lord, I know that I hid the storage units, and emailed them to you, but I must inform you that ToR told me that the new storage for email is free for unlimited amount of space. I asked if he was sure, and he said yes. As for Mask, he HELPED ToR get the precious gem, as ToR said he would get part of the money.