|
Do we know what the Island is yet? If it wasn't referring to Throne and (I'm assuming) Ooze Island, it's possible that Moudler IS The Island in question. Doubler I'm guessing is some sort of replicating entity where each copy can also replicate (because quadratic/exponential growth is never a problem in games! he lied to himself)
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 01:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 14:26 |
|
|
t3isukone posted:Just binged this thread. This is incredible and I absolutely adore it. Thank you for taking interest and reading.  Thank you again to everyone participating and reading along. Hopefully voting will be stable in time for the spring and summer arcs.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 01:25
|
|
|
Randalor posted:Do we know what the Island is yet? If it wasn't referring to Throne and (I'm assuming) Ooze Island, it's possible that Moudler IS The Island in question. Doubler I'm guessing is some sort of replicating entity where each copy can also replicate (because quadratic/exponential growth is never a problem in games! he lied to himself)
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 01:26
|
|
|
Honestly I just thought this whole place was the Island. We shipwrecked and wound up here, after all.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 02:05
|
|
|
Lost End SkyOnce Upon A Time, I Did Dream Of You posted:You're nervous. Despite everything she told you, you're still nervous with a creeping cold fear that makes sitting uncomfortable and the jaw spasm. But you want to commit to it and donate to the cause. Even though you haven't made your mind up yet about the offer the Miner made, you still said yes when Miss Bella had a talk with you during those rainy weeks before the leave. Another Me, posted:She admitted that it was exaggerated. Soul manipulation was an art of angels and demons both, and she was experienced at it even in this now-mortal life. What this was didn't involve selling or whole souls or etc etc. It was 1%. Just a single 1% etched out from the core, solidified into a gem. We Can Never Be. posted:It really was easy. Miss Bella and the Doctor had the equivalent of soul anesthesia. It was a quiet hour of merciful nonself. When you woke, you felt blunted for a while, and then airy-light. Clean. There's a pendant now, half smooth and half jagged, of false gold and pearl black stone, transparent metallic under the light of the Sun. They say it went as good as it possibly could have. The unbreakable stone would be worn by the Miner as she walked to Megalith. You could be her bond to Home. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 03:51
|
|
|
so, part of our soul (maybe less than 1% at this point) is bound to (speculatively) merkja? also one possibility is that the island is what is left of Home after we, er, sunk it
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 04:08
|
|
|
Anguitenen appears to mean "serpent-bearer," if anyone else was wondering. (Possibly related to the constellation Ophiuchus? Not sure about this -- Google just spat out some sketchy dictionary sites.)
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 05:13
|
|
|
GilliamYaeger posted:We at least have some hints as to its true nature - according to Bella the destruction of the city at the start of the game (and the accompanying flesh monsters) was the work of the Island, which was looking for something there. I wonder who the people bombing the city were? I suspect the white-cloaked figure mentioned in that sequence is Bleeder, and the flesh monsters were his doing?
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 11:48
|
|
|
Previous guide entries have mentioned going to the Island after killing the lords as a sorta endgame area iirc. Might tie in that boasting about killing the lords to Moulder pisses the island off and makes it harder later. If there's a "pacifist" route it would presumably involve freeing the lords from the Island's influence. Of course, that assumes that it's possible, and doesn't help us not get terminated by Death.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 11:54
|
|
|
It's interesting to note that Dancer is a fight with all her Backups too, and we've vowed not to kill any of her Backups. If there's truly no pacifist option, that leaves us pretty solidly hosed unless we can manage to kill her while not fatally wounding any of the Backups, or unless we break the promise, which I get the feeling would be very, very bad. That's part of why I think there's got to be another way. Even if Dancer donated her soul to us willingly, it sounds like there's a possibility all her Backups would radiantly self-immolate if Dancer died. However, now we know there's a way to get the color of someone's soul without killing them or taking the whole soul, that gems of 1% of their soul can be created with their consent and with a ritual we don't know the details of. It sounds like that's going to be our non-murder goal here, since I think that would still fulfill the demands to bring all of their colors to Śmiercią so she can unlock... something. EDIT: quote:
quote:Śmiercią has tasked you with your only hope of escaping her scythe. You must journey from the shelter of the valley into the fallen lands beyond, where 7 Lords reign with their cults. Each must be slain, and their soul taken, such that Śmiercią will have a way to open Heaven and reclaim her daughter, whose death you are responsible for. Śmiercią wants them slain. Śmiercią needs their souls, with their unnatural colors. We can provide her the colors of their souls without slaying them. This is a very important clue. PetraCore fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Apr 13, 2021 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 17:58
|
|
|
I still have some questions about Moulder, as every other Lord's name appears to be a verb related to them-even Doubler, who seems to probably be some kind of shapeshifter? The heavy implications that it's a literal goddamn mountain are damaging my previous hypothesis that Moulder was referring to 'moldering' as in decay, but maybe it's about 'molding'. I'm honestly very intrigued by...pretty much all of the lords. Also I like that Bleeder likes dogs.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 18:47
|
|
|
PetraCore posted:It's interesting to note that Dancer is a fight with all her Backups too, and we've vowed not to kill any of her Backups. If there's truly no pacifist option, that leaves us pretty solidly hosed unless we can manage to kill her while not fatally wounding any of the Backups, or unless we break the promise, which I get the feeling would be very, very bad. That's part of why I think there's got to be another way.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 21:06
|
|
|
GilliamYaeger posted:So that means we need to find Bella, since as one of the people involved with this soul surgery she's our best lead on this, or hope she shows up in our dreams again. I guess that's even more reason to go to Jandoubi - Hider's there, and from what we know of her if anyone's likely to know what happened to the boat, it's the prophecy lady. So first we meet up with Dancer or Burner so they can introduce us, then we meet Hider and learn what happened to the ship's passengers, then we either find Bella and Aitvaras or find HOME, then we go around making puppy eyes at the Lords and asking them to please donate to our soul drive, it's for a good cause (that cause being our continued existence). Nobody dies, happy end. I also think, given that holding a soul gem leaves a connection, it's probably going to be pretty interesting to be holding multiple soul gems at once...
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 21:34
|
|
|
PetraCore posted:Well, there'll probably be some deaths just because it sounds like Moulder cannot be reasoned with and who knows how communicative Doubler is. I think we could probably talk Red and Blue into donating once we know it's an option in-character, though, and if all the harrowed Lords know each other and have some in with each other they might be able to help us make headway there. Probably still going to be fighting to earn respect. Doubler...Y'know, thinking about it, if it really does make identical copies of itself, couldn't we just subdue and capture one of those copies and bring that back to Smiercia? If we're just after the color rather than the whole soul, any sample size should work, right?
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 21:43
|
|
|
GilliamYaeger posted:If Moulder can't be reasoned with because it's functionally an inanimate object, then it also can't say no. Scraping off a bit of the color of its soul will probably be significantly easier than killing it, anyway.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2021 22:29
|
|
|
Clearly the answer is to juice a Doubler of color and then bail before things get to hairy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2021 00:45
|
|
|
I don't want to have to use cheeseburger magic enough to feed a doubler flock that's doubling by the day. First day, fine, second day, doable, by the time day 10 rolls around you're considering having them eat each other, and it's all downhill from there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2021 01:14
|
|
|
PetraCore posted:Okay but I'm imagining Doubler as a- in the web serial Worm, there was a superhero mentioned in passing called Kudzu, who could duplicate herself, then all of her duplicates could duplicate herself, then all of those duplicates could duplicate themselves, and anyway what I'm saying is grabbing one Doubler might mean you soon have 32.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2021 01:21
|
|
|
I'll admit I've been done on the "pacifist" route idea. Not because I don't like the idea, but because there were too many assumptions about what the game is - rather than an Omori, we might be playing a Bloodborne, so to speak. The soul gem idea is the first concrete plan that allows not killing lords while saving us. It still makes many assumptions though - is 1% of a soul enough to fulfill the bargain? The most important thing at the moment is just building up strength though. Plans mean little if we get ganked by the first tough mob in a monolith, and I'd be genuinely surprised if we don't have to fight at least one lord, if only to beat them into submission.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2021 08:59
|
|
|
Also worth pointing out that the soul gems are another way to get a unique color for Paprika Blue. Maybe we should ask if they know anything about the ritual?
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2021 09:04
|
|
|
GilliamYaeger posted:All we need to do is kill the Doublers as soon as they split off. Simple! I'm thinking we do something along the lines of suspend a Doubler above a meatgrinder or some other form of instant death floor and just let the duplicates fall in and die as they spawn. It's horribly cruel, but a better result for everybody involved than us killing Doubler completely or dying in the attempt. "Dear Sir or Madam, We at MC&D must ask that you cease your baseless accusations of the source of the meat used in MC&D products. Our meat is all locally sourced, and slaughtered feyly, ensuring that only the bare minimum of suffering and pain is inflicted to fully maximize the flavor of all meat used. We will strive to protect our reputation and any accusations to the contrary will be met with legal action." Razakai posted:I'll admit I've been done on the "pacifist" route idea. Not because I don't like the idea, but because there were too many assumptions about what the game is - rather than an Omori, we might be playing a Bloodborne, so to speak. To be fair, I'm pretty sure that the only reason why the "pacifist" idea even started was because no one wants to kill Dancer or Burner. I mean, the idea of "maybe we can get around killing the run-ending bosses and maybe even have them join us" is tempting, but there's a good chance we'll have to kill at least one.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2021 14:54
|
|
|
part of the problem is we're summer camp buds with half the lords we can reasonably aim to kill, and frankly Hider sounds like too much of a NEET to hate obviously we're going to kill bleeder and two out of three of the strong lords dont even seem to be self-aware Hunter kind of reminds me of my aunt hamming it up, so I'm sympathetic
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 02:22
|
|
|
Yeah, looking back at our encounter with Hunter, I get real "Granny Weatherwax" vibes from her. I mean, really all she did was shatter Tyrant's confidence (and justifiably knocked Tyrant down a peg or two on the Pride scale) and then Dancer showed up, and even then Hunter seemed like she was trying to protect Dancer from herself (warning her about dreaming lucidly).
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 03:10
|
|
|
 A droplet of rain wakes you, eyes open wide. ANXIETY: [ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][ ! ][70%] [SHOCK] STAND UP GUN DRAWN AIMED OUT-  ... You don't lower your gun. You just relax your stance, and sweep casually. It smells like so many perfumes and you're still shaking knees to jaw. Slowly, kneel. Get the slab of burnblessed wood, the weird magic bag. Keep aiming. ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][30%] [Aftershock] You exhale and slowly, slowly slowly crawl to hide under a lovely green river bush, a little hidespace where you can see the walls of the apartment and the river beside it, out of sight so you can get back in your mind. You feel- well no, you're not sick. Just sweaty and cold and itchy. You know you're ok, your body tells you you're going to be ok, but it's just such a hand-biting worry to come in from the out cold like this.  Relax. Relax. Assess. You know the Tyrant, is sullen? Sullen? Worried with gone. You let that go and accept your brain isn't very clean right now. So you feel out, gently, with the thoughts of your strained mutant neurons. Gently gently. Worried. Careful now. Please. The calm of that silver state. (Technique - The Silver Mind) 13[-3] - [1]+[4]+[2] = 7 - Success! You lower your gun. You exhale, and curl up with your eyes closed in your hidden place. There, there, behind your eyes- the silver reflection. Bright as day. You breathe with the special timing, and something unhinges in your body and allows you to cry. You do it silently, where you know nothing can hear on you and tattle to Śmiercią about it. You relax after a while more, rested and relieved. ANXIETY: [10%] [Silver Mind] You sit up to stretch and allow your brain to cool. Ok. There, in the reflection. You can see your mind faceted with a story. It makes no sense, because the Silver Mind was broken when experiencing it. Still is a little raw now, but the passive link is clean and durable. That's relief in meditation. You drift back into quiet half-waking, trying to make sense of the color blue, why you have a magic plate and bag, and also being smashed into the ground like a sack of unruly potatoes. You decide quickly that it can stay in the Silver Mind, and you'll just trust instinct. You know you're here about a uhhhh. An apartment? Yeah. Plus a blue bag. Ok. So there's this- you can see it right through the leaves. High walls, lot of them crumbling, the tops of the overgrown cubes vague in the afternoon gloom. Right right. You can manage this. Ok. The bush reveals you in leaving. You stretch out and redress yourself to be presentable. The suit makes it easy, thank goodness. Clean red regal. Gun ready but subdued, sword at side. You're still bizarrely energetic, the Mana soaked into your organs supplying limitless peak process. You jog lightly to jar yourself awake as you round the about towards the entrance of the displaced complex.  You squat down by the stone columns of the great walls, and peek around inside. Two apartments stand alive, flowering towers of glass and stone. Sure, someone can see you from their windows, but there's so much overgrowth and greenlife drenched in waterpools that you feel confident that slow movement, and trust in the Silver Mind, will get you inside without incident. Well. Which inside though? You look to the ruins of the apartment closest to you. Spilling green as though the ruined stone of the collapsed structure itself was feed for growth. It's taken over what looks like a small park in the west.  You scurry in and end up hiding under a longhang curtain of vines. It's starting to rain again, dribbling down the walls of leaves. You sit there for a while, looking up and down the open air hall. You look at the plate's warmly metallic gloss. Has the color of ichor. The bag looks really good! But to be honest, you've have too many burgers lately, and need a break. You have to be a good host. Guest? You're pretty sure that's the kind of colors you see reflected in the Silver Mind. So no touching for now. The apartments to the east and north both look intact. Northeast looks like rubble and a lot of missing land eaten by the river. There's the stone square center too, with evidence of habitation and color. Should think about which would be best to try investigating first, while there's still light. Unless disaster, this was going to be where you sleep tonight. If you can lock that down early, then you can spend all night messing with superstars and investigating for resources. [Silver Mind Passive - Superstars?] 17 - [5]+[3]+[4] = 12 - Success! [Lionheart] Uhhh, it's... yes it's right there, really far-off reflected in the silver. Shapes and ideas of the feeling. Dealing with 'superstars' of many kinds. Shock, preservationist, fusion, eternal, all the newborn art scenes. Ok ok, the point is that you have an idea how to deal with the Backup. Right? You can admit that to yourself with some confidence. You can handle them, best to worst. You just have to try. So keep your cool.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 04:37
|
|
|
PLAYER CHOICE - Which Woe First You've woken by a river, on a rainywarm spring afternoon. You're having trouble remembering what happened since you left the Hideout, but thanks to a strong re-uplink to your psychic power, you're in a calm state and able to act on blank memory. You know you got some superstars to deal with, first of who get pick at the plate and some burgers. But there's four places to check out, two of which are habitable. What's best to investigate first?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 04:38
|
|
|
If I were a superstar I would totally live in the overgrown tower.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 05:01
|
|
|
Remind me, what the hell was that about us being worried that someone??? would tattle to Smiercia?????? about us crying?????? Who tf even knows about her existing that isn't also out of this world? What kind of an anxiety is this? And even if they DID tattle, what possible problem could that cause??? So many questions.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 11:51
|
|
|
Regallion posted:Remind me, what the hell was that about us being worried that someone??? would tattle to Smiercia?????? about us crying??????
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 13:25
|
|
|
Can't wait until we have to engage in Lordly diplomacy as "you", roll triple 1s for anxiety and try to plug Hunter in the head with our revolver instead of having a nice chat.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 13:34
|
|
|
VOTING CLOSED - $200,000/m; riverside view; indoor garden/grocery Northeast [Center Square & River Tower] - 13 Southeast [Intact Tower] - 8 Southwest [Overgrown Garden & Ruin Tower] - 6 Northwest [Intact Tower] - 5 LOADING...  ...LOADING
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 21:57
|
|
|
Black August posted:$200,000/m; riverside view; indoor garden/grocery But enough about renting someone's closet turned into a flat in London, where's the update?
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 22:23
|
|
|
"Kwiat was already gone." 
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 22:34
|
|
|
Lordly corruptions, huh? From the context, it looks like they might be consequences for killing a Lord? Another reason to be dubious re: that course of action.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 23:39
|
|
|
Also, uh, that character appears to have punched Moulder to death. If Moulder is actually a mountain, that's... a lot.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2021 23:49
|
|
|
Antivehicular posted:Also, uh, that character appears to have punched Moulder to death. If Moulder is actually a mountain, that's... a lot. Also wow, Arms master Fist does not gently caress around, huh.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 01:13
|
|
|
So... did we just glitch the game so hard it crashed the entire
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2021 18:56
|
|
|
The Blue Book posted:"...suspects is where the finale likely takes place. There's been no other observable reason for its vast area, but low occurrence of events or relevance beyond a very high-level deadground, and residence of..."
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2021 07:36
|
|
|
Ah, so 100% anxiety isn't immediately lethal, good to know. The rest of this is rather concerning.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2021 13:20
|
|
|
You adjust your tie, and head out of your hiding spot to walk towards the collapsed northeast. The air is cool and clean with a pause in the rain, giving you a sense of entrance while you walk calmly. While distracting yourself trying to peek a look at the green windows, you nearly topple over some rebar on the ground. Looking down shows that there's an awful lot of refuse strewn around the stone ground. Mostly building materials and some... is that a broken buzzsaw? Plus a bunch of caulk and jars of dried out glitter. You keep following the ground down the alley, seeing more and more strange things. Behind some rain-and-metal filled barrels, you spot chalk drawings on the pavement; lots of little black stick figures standing on a piece of land with little green palm trees. That wouldn't be much to notice, but you realize that although the rain has washed them away, they're reforming, slowly crawling back to dry out into the stone again. Above the drawing is an admonishment, nearly faded, that says 'IT IS NOT ETERNAL'. There's a shitload of flags, drapes, and lights on the ground as well, though you can see it's because they were once attacked between the two buildings, most of them now fallen or hanging off the side of the intact apartments. You have fun crunching some glass underfoot, though you stop yourself when you realize how much noise it makes. Going more carefully, you reach the end of the alleyway to come out into the plaza between the apartments. It's not what you're expecting at all.  It's filled with a graveyard of decrepit wonders. The first one you nearly fall into, a pit full of paint. Paint that churns, slowly changes colors, and looks eternally fresh. There's trails all over the sides and around the edges suggesting bucket-fishing for good colors. You keep moving, not wanting to pause too long where you might be seen. You quickwalk behind a huge pile of deep-rusted mechanical parts next to a mountain of filthy rags, drenched with chemical fluids. A squat and wait gives you the time to listen - there's nothing but the steady blue noise of the river, an electric hum, and some machine-like quiet tumbling. Nothing else save the occasional roar of the towers when their overgrowth is tossed by a powerful wind. You decide it's ok to go in. Around rag mountain is a row of vending machines! But they're all busted. Not broken, but without power or maintenance, leaving emptied husks. None of them have coinslots, just small box inserts behind a stain glass screen. All kinds, as you stalk down them and read - Anymead, The Water Island, Mixelix, Beer Mood, Minerals, Ferrosoda, Senshensez, Fruit Pulpys, dozens more. You try a few when there's noise to cover your tinkering. (Vending Salvage) Rndm - [2]+[2]+[1] = 5 - Success!! ... ahhhhh!! Ah hah! The one called 'Mixelix' is lit up! Dimly. It's a small curved vending machine with a baroque design. Lots of burnished gold and bubbly glass filled with a luminescent honey. Smells lovely. You like it despite the wear and tear taking away a lot of what you assume was its previous glory. The little interface looks like it was left prepaid! It has a bunch of buttons to select, but there's a small gemstone screen with glasslit gold words. It explains it was the design of 'Lucy's Sad', as an 'easy feelgood', where a miracle fluid is used as the base for a wish-cocktail from one of eight unique designs, and over three modes of application. Cool, sure! You need to mash one of the buttons, quick. The machine glows. It lights up, rumbles, make a few very uncomfortable breaking sounds, but manages to dispense your choice and pops it out of the bottom slot. Wow. Very fancy little glass vial with filigree holder, with what looks like a cap to pop off for drinking, OR an autoinject option for emergencies! The third option is uh... you're can't find it or figure it out. That's fine. You pocket it and travel further in.  What a wonderland. It's the strangest combination of custom carnival, art booth showcases, gym and dance, hangout spots, and more esoteric areas. But they're all broken. Many buzz with ambient Mana powering it, but exposure and other unknowns leaves almost everything nonfunctional. But the lights, they warm the noon dark with color and camouflage comfort. You walk around the amusements and art pieces, absently thinking about this place at its best, with it as a destination for the winners of the Camp. When you turn a corner and reach one end of the plaza, you clearly see what was only hinted before.  A ferris wheel. Colorful and small. Still going... slow as sloth. Whatever powers it grinds with a noise more felt than heard, though it struggles to do so at more than some absolute minimal. It's shiny with the prior rain. You look at it, and your neurons feel cool and sharp. [The Silver Mind] The ferris wheel gives you a deeply tense feeling. Its size, the color, its slow spiral-march... not this wheel, no, this one isn't frightening. But something about ferris wheels warns you. You watch it turn for a while, and keep your heart slow while you stay in the fragile state of meditative calm. You carry on, and weave away from it to keep heading back towards the northeast area of the riverfelled building. While you weave through the dozens of broken magic wonders, you come to a grinding head-jerking stop when you pass by a shiny, red, pristine, operational, renewed-by-suffering CLAW GAME MACHINE.  Ahhh... it looks like there's some truly fabulous prizes inside. The crane is primed for one game before it wants another payment, which you don't have. You can try the game, but... losing a claw game right now would be such a let down after the score from the vending machine. But it's worth a shot, right? It looks like there's about three things you could have a realistic chance of angling out. So what's the angle?
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2021 06:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 5, 2024 14:26 |
|
|
For reference i do believe that an airy potion is invisibility and we could use a second one.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2021 08:57
|
|