@ -ZEN- [Hell End]

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Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Randalor posted:

Fire one Moloch Buster at the case of the second Moloch Buster so we can dual-wield that poo poo?

NUKED A NUKE!!

# ? Apr 29, 2022 21:24

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 08:24

Aabcehmu: Apr 27, 2013; Confusion As a Natural State of Being

I'm still hopeful that we'll get the chance to Suitify an unsealed Moloch Buster.

# ? Apr 29, 2022 21:59

PepperedMoth: Apr 8, 2022; Less salt, more pepper.

Randalor posted:

Fire one Moloch Buster at the case of the second Moloch Buster so we can dual-wield that poo poo?

One Moloch Buster for the PC, the other for Kwiat! Get the precious chibby some chicken-sized armor, figure out how to pump up her Strength stat, and then we can take her with us on our Megalith adventures! She's a smart chicken, I'm sure she'll pick up the Moloch Buster controls real quick.

More seriously--it looks like we might be going on Fire Joker's quest alone this time. Hopefully our previous jaunt-that-apparently-never-happened-yet down there has cleared the way a bit.

# ? Apr 29, 2022 22:07

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

HELP! HELP!!!

Fire Joker inclines her head with mild curiosity while you sweat and scream over the edge of the railing. She shrugs and finally you can stop nodding; your neck hurts. You stare out the cloud-cutting windows at the shine of light, and finally manage to re-place yourself within the current's deep.

Help. I could use something to help me down there. In the place where you want me to die. In the dryadic deep. The vanilla smells rotten-sweet. Help.

"Oh. Sure. I don't have a lot that's going to make a difference, but you can have all this and more once you get the growth-promoter."

^{Got 'Intense Potion'

Got 'Golden Potion'

Got 'Burnsun Bullet'}

You smile and thank the Liaison who hopes you die so you can stop making her this uncomfortable. You're so happy to become a disappointment. You know you need to ride the current down and out as fast as your legs allow, before you speak one more word that might trap you inside an eternal loop. You have to leave. You're

going deep deep down

You're on the pavement outside an hour later, crawling across rain-wetted rock as you finally escape the current. Your mighty lungs hurt from how fast you fill them up while your brain corrects so sharply you feel like you just woke up from a coma dream. Halfway through the street you push yourself up gasping, and stumble into a walk that just propels you flailing right onto the ground again. Ow.

ANXIE- NO! No. No. You can't even figure out how freaked out this makes you because your brain chemistry has barely settled yet; you may as well say your current emotional state is 'Apple'. Something was wrong inside that building, and your gut pulls your feet with an autonerve instinct. What is this?

The Silver Mind posted:

Can you hear me?

It's been a while.

But on that night, there was a reflection I left here: I promised I'd hold them. The colors of your emotions before the starshine and the sunbright. Follow their reflection, follow the patterns, get through this alive.

_{...can you hear me...}

You're leaning on the doorframe, and Bloodshop still isn't here for the first time. Why? So he can call you Burgersong? You squat where you first hid weeks ago, pulling the shroud up while you fight mad to shake off the nonsensical delays of your thoughts. Think. THINK!

(!ESP β) 11 [4]+[4]+[1] = 9 - Success!

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][30%]

Oh, oh God. Oh God thank God thank God. Oh it makes sense finally. Your thoughts finally finally order themselves back out of the current, chemistry clicking the flickers all back up to speed. Your sense of time, sense of self, sense of place. What the hell was that?! What is happening to this place? The worst is that the reflection is revealing that this is absolutely the COA you want to take if you want to get that drat pack and make this place safe. If it means getting away from that building, then great. You wonder, is this radiance?? You know somewhere in the reflection it's telling you that there's radiance here, but what just happened inside was something not quite like. You resolve to keep your cool, and wander languid to the southwest building ruins.

Stone collapse rises over you with sheets of green grown overhead, covering the ruin's dead. Flowers blossom about them in sinuous solar shapes, with those facing south and east stained a strange shade off-gold. You pass through wreck and rot to begin your dig deep gone down, by last finding the cellar door for the second's first time. The Silver Mind laces you gently up in the ideas it's been holding onto for these weeks, guiding carefully as it recollects to reflect all the phantom words you heard throughout that lost dark holy night.

The Silver Mind posted:

Sad solar sanctum. Was already in bad shape when they got here. The first wishes did a lot of the work to make it something beautiful. Living tower garden, wished full of life, wished full of life. All for the sake of those lost sickened sisters of the Island that the Dryad had saved, but now it was left to them to see to their care.

Above was the intentional lonely of grassy flower halls made quiet save for liquid echo. An art piece of the most intricate garden care, places to contemplate grief. The Sunburners would speak for their last times beside these stones.

You have to wander the sad old halls first. It feels nice on your tired shoes to walk over the mossgrass floor, and you bend down plenty of times to carefully drink from a dense and silent stream of water still hidden among the growths. Strangely, there doesn't seem to be any bugs here, despite it being fertile grounds. Nothing alive is among the flora at all. You make haste to remember how to redo the second of your first time, and take quick to the depths, first moving down among the wreck of the ground floor, then slipping into the dark of the wreckage beneath.

Further then, past warm stone rooms and increasing water, the air now thickening with warm vanilla. Flowers caress around every corner, dense thickets to swim and fall through. It's so frighteningly safe, bugless and clean, just soft soft soft in reception of your coming theft. Foam on the surface. Deeper down, into the wet ground, through the cellarways. Until you come to the descent. A broken door slip down stairspiral round through a hole in the floor into ankledeep clean waters of the drainage beneath, pale light catching from a grate above. Down deeper, into the green sound, through the waterways.

You find the beginning of the growth, your silver now reflecting spotlight clear. Emerald waterhalls. Mana so rich the air sparks motes with it. Further on would be the great underground gardenglass spirals, sculpted with waterways and solar lights. Keep going down... you can smell the vanilla strong in the air. When you inhale, so does someone else. When you hear them, they hear you. When you flipturn gundraw and feels your muscles spike, they let out a sound of horror and struggle to pull their mighty wound up in shielding of their face. She makes her voice known in the wet darkness, a tired and desperate sound of genuine fear.

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][40%] [Ready to...]

(Iron Saint's WL - Fright Check!) 16(-5) [6]+[2]+[2] = 10 - Success.

You keep your gun aimed until your brain finally matches the pattern. Merkja! She, wow, she looks absolutely terrible. Filthy, matted, torn up, struggling to move her iron arm around as a shield with the aid of her other. She's slipped against the moss-slicked walls, and her recognition of you has sent her heart into a dangerous spiral. She kicks, snarls, gulps in air, fights mad to adjust her body behind her arm, and finally collapses defensively while failing to articulate anything but the hyena-snarl words: "SHINING SHADOW"

What happened to her? Why is she so spooked? Nothing is coming to you. Maybe she's just in panic mode. You're on even ground with the Saint as far as you care, so you tuck your gun away and step back with a hand up in warding. The gesture gets Merkja even more riled up somehow, as she begins to throw her body away while muttering "GRAVITY... GRAVITY..."

This is making you anxious. Something isn't right. It doesn't help that you can smell her iron-strong blood, which wakes the parasite in your heart with another pitiful greedy mewl of plea for you to sup on something so powerful rare. You force it off, and try to think this through. Ok. Ok let's recap. You pissed off some sad ogres. You got a ride back to here. You're having REAL trouble with memory gaps about this place. You want Paprika's pack, you want to score a room here, you want to make peace with this nutjob circus cult. You can do this by going downground to grab a 'growth promoter' somewhere vaulted on the bottom floor. Stay in the bright, and out of the night, and be done before the last of the light. Right? Right.

So that makes enough sense. Now Merkja is here to complicate things. You have to decide how to handle her.

# ? May 5, 2022 03:03

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

Voting will end in the morning. Thanks for keeping up with reading. It's been an exceptionally difficult few weeks trying to balance work and life, but I get my car plates next Monday after working the Mother's Day weekend. Spring finally seems to be back again, which is a huge winter depression weight off the shoulders. In the meantime, have another vote of curiosity that'll end either later tonight or tomorrow with the route-vote.

[Blue Book Secrets]

# ? May 5, 2022 03:16

t3isukone: Dec 18, 2020; 13km away

We've gotten a bit about major Sunburners and the Backup have been a big presence, so IMO the Blackwings are the biggest unknown here.

# ? May 5, 2022 03:41

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Black August posted:

Voting will end in the morning. Thanks for keeping up with reading. It's been an exceptionally difficult few weeks trying to balance work and life, but I get my car plates next Monday after working the Mother's Day weekend. Spring finally seems to be back again, which is a huge winter depression weight off the shoulders. In the meantime, have another vote of curiosity that'll end either later tonight or tomorrow with the route-vote.

[Blue Book Secrets]

🙏

Thank you for continuing to write this incredible story

# ? May 5, 2022 03:48

GilliamYaeger: Jan 10, 2012; Call Gespenst!

I think we maaaaaay have traumatized her back when the Tyrant got loose. Just a little bit.

But man, whatever the gently caress's down here is enough to rattle the Iron Saint to the point of delerium. That's concerning as hell.

# ? May 5, 2022 04:40

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

GilliamYaeger posted:

I think we maaaaaay have traumatized her back when the Tyrant got loose. Just a little bit.

But man, whatever the gently caress's down here is enough to rattle the Iron Saint to the point of delerium. That's concerning as hell.

When we�re happy to see the anx meter return you know it�s Very Bad

# ? May 5, 2022 11:38

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

VOTING CLOSED - All Saints Are Dangerous

[Murderous Intent] Just do it. Mercy. - 0
Let me walk, to let me talk. [Tyrant Manifest Check 16] - 3
Leave her be and just keep going. - 1
Recall your first meet with her, and try to reflect out one of the Psychic's collodial arts. [!ESP Check 11] - 18
Risk the spend of precious time to sit there and wait her out a bit. - 11

Who are some of the most dangerous Backup? - 4
Who are some of the most dangerous Sunburners? - 6
Who are some of the most dangerous Blackwings? - 22

LOADING...

...LOADING

# ? May 5, 2022 20:16

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

The Blue Book posted:

THE BLACKWING CULT OF THE FIRST LORD
[Dust] - [Ghiron Demon] - [The Blackmetal Heart] - [The Patrol] - [Black Jet Drive] - [Ultrablack Suburb Police] - [Gug & Magug] - [The Blackmetal Bomber] - [Megamall] - [The Frenzied Opera] - [Tickets & Fines] - [Burner On The Runway] - [Gravitysmithing] - [The Midnight Fireworks Factory] - [Dustfall]

REMEMBER
* As a rule of thumb, all Blackwings are at minimum an AAA-Tier threat, with most pushing into S-Tier.

* While it's possible to fatally cripple Hunter by destroying all of the Blackwings, this proves to be so impractical as to be pointless.

* The Blackwings will have a difficult time interfering when you fight Hunter; she can't place all of her focus on a fight for her life while also maintaining the higher functions of the Blacklight System.

* Blackwings have some of the lowest tolerance of any entity in the game. They will use any excuse given to them to turn hostile against you.

* Actually disabling a Blackwing without violence is a tri-thrust assault of needing to shut down their psychic network, their divine connection, and their magitek installs. Violence is the only practical method, and they need a lot of it.

* Blackmetal is second only to adamant, and can only realistically be countered by one of adamant, diamond, protomatter, raw steel, or another source of blackmetal.

* When found outside of Dust the Blackwings are much better behaved, and will show preference for preservation if too far from the Blackmetal Heart.

* Even though they loathe her and abuse her, you must never show hostility or kindness to the Blackwing Griever. You must ignore her.

BAD
Sylvan Skinner
Rare unit with a *lot* of creepy dialogue. Hostile to Sylvans, even cultist ones.
Air Traffic Control Freak
Only dangerous if left alive and on alert before going on the runway.
Chatterbox
Excellent source of news and intel if you can fool them in the suburbs.
Blackball
Weird glass cannon unit with luck-manipulation powers found only in one area.
Patrol
The most basic unit. Always on the walk to help ease Hunter's skypaces.

WORSE
Vertibirdlet
Only a threat on the main street and in the higher buildings.
Top Gunner
Will absolutely skysnipe you if you don't have peak Defense.
UW-Unit
Always has a prototype version of one of the Old Owl's armaments.
Ultrasky Engine
Only a threat if you spend too much time on the rooftops, or attempt highflight.
Midnight Thunder
Uses Dark and Thunder elements taught hybrid by the Gods of Thunder.
Blacklight Bulletier
Would be trivial if not for DR-ignoring shots. Energy reflection is best.
Opera Knight
One of the three Blacklight Knights. Can exert vast psychic force.
Jet Knight
One of the three Blacklight Knights. Can exert intense magic force.
Imperial Knight
One of the three Blacklight Knights. Can exert pure divine force.
Vantanaut
Highly desirable suit. Tons of resistances and immunities. Extra rare.
Roadblocker
Another glass cannon, but one capable of blasting an entire street clean.
Black Grade Magi
Will often retreat to recharge, but their spells will always be AAA and S-Rank killers.

MOST DANGEROUS
Night Terror
Peak fear. Extremely experimental unit that went a little too Tyrant for the good of its dream subroutines. A core Id of Hunter was imprinted on this unit, leaving it bearing a little too much of her psychosis from the mental superpressures. It behaves bizarrely, alternating between three rough states known as 'Toughing', 'Hunting', and 'Apologetic'.

It has a sloped tanksuit of Moloch grade armor, and although it prefers to fight with its hands, it has absolutely no issue using any weapon or gun at hand. It's especially good with explosives and swords. But mainly, it behaves like a cross between a wolf and a bird, animal-running at high speed while trying to find angles to ambush from above in bird-leaps that can go from as high up as the skyscrapers! Worse is that they can rarely enter a fully Tyrannical state, in which they'll fight fully human and with an overdrive of their Blacklight System to produce boss-level damage.

When it's Apologetic, the best thing to do is to either give it space, or suffer its attentions while it tries to communicate. Eventually, the nightmare backload will overwhelm it again, and it'll be back into terror mode.

The Woman of the West
Weird unique unit. Calls herself the/a 'Ranger', and acts with inconsistent but complex intelligence. She dresses like a person, with a black rangering uniform and cloak to hide her mechanical features. She power-wields two blackmetal boardswords, and those along with her uniform can all drop if she's defeated. Which is usually impossible.

The Woman of the West is generally not hostile (even with bad cult relations), but several known and still-esoteric methods will provoke her into attacking. She always responds with 100% honesty to a request for a duel, even if it's not to the death. In strange edge case behavior, if an 'innocent' entity (defined as noncombative, whatever the reason) is threatened, she'll go to their defense to intercept the attack. While she can use ranged, she avoids doing so if at all possible. She knows a monster catalogue of sword techniques (especially good for Armsmasters with Blade rePlay), actually does have Master in the Ranger class, still has the same Tyrant power as every other Blackwing, and is extremely good at tracking once provoked to do so.

If forced to fight her, the priority is to try to keep her looped into close-range swordfighting, which is safer than her throwing out tech after tech while trying to set up a ranged sneak-kill. While escape is viable, if she's mad enough, she WILL wait for you to sleep before she waits for your to wake up and face the kill. Is the only way of getting the Ranger Star, a legendary relic. For whatever reason, she is the only Blackwing who is kind to the Griever, and her encounter completely changes if they come across one another.

Blackmetal Biker
Unique unit who seems to be allowed to act independently, with atypical Blackwing behavior. its body is integrated into a blackmetal bike that's capable of drive-climbing the buildings and mountains of the cities, giving it incredible mobility. It acts as a harrier, harassing, taunting, and delaying the character. They're only armed with a Blacklight Revolver and Blackbar, but they have a large toolkit of abilities, consumables, and tools they can use. They'll set traps, ambushes, alert other Blackwings, intentionally deceive other Blackwings just to fight you alone, watch a fight without getting involved at all, and sometimes it'll just play cat and mouse if it figures out you're much stronger or weaker than it is.

The best way to not make them a problem is to avoid it as much as possible. If the Blackmetal Biker rides up on the scene, then don't let it get the spotlight and just cut and run as hard as possible. The less excuses it has to indulge its nature, the less often it'll bother to pursue and try to make things interesting. For every beneficial thing they end up doing, there's ten times more cases where they'll set you up for a onerun end.

Do NOT agree to the Chicken Duel with them!

Shinesparker
Instantly-lethal unit of the Blackwing army. They wear the same kind of longbar rollers that Nelson Has Wheels uses, but theirs is regulated both by their automated systems, as well as being allowed to deploy and use feet. This, along with a Blacklight Engine, allows Shinesparks to build up absolutely devastating momentum. They can build up so much excess so fast that it becomes a kinetic storage issue, allowing them to turn their bodies into living subrelativity projectiles, caged by the might of the First Lord. When combined with other units being able to triangulate your location, Shinesparkers can be deadly enough to become a problem from out of nowhere; a onerunner once had a death from a Shinesparker managing to launch themselves from somewhere inside of Dust, all the way to the adjacent streets of Jandoubi miles away, hitting with a 3!

The trick to dealing with them is to attack immediately after they've missed a dash attack, since their HP drops to near-death for a few rounds. The problem is baiting one to do a dash without getting hit, and then managing to reach their position before they recover. Allowing a Blackwing Shinesparker to see you and then leaving the area almost guarantees that they'll try to dash-snipe you at some point, which forces you to deal with them every time they notice you.

Rogue Lord-Chassis
The ultimate threat of the blackmetal army. While the Old Owl may be an original one-and-only, its superior design was based off of a 'prototype' that was several discreet machines and systems of Dust that were hacked together while the cults were first trying to figure out their blessings. This first-attempt provided the idea necessary to construct the Old Owl, and was kept around to be used as one of the Blackwings. However, when installing the Blacklight System into the gigantic death machine, something went wrong when interfacing with the rigged systems. It went rogue, in the sense that it can only half-reliably take orders from and access the Blacklight System, which makes it act with violent unpredictability.

The Lord-Chassis is always a danger of the highest degree when traversing Dust. While nowhere near as lethal as the Old Owl, it's still armed with overkill systems and test-weapons, and runs off of an AI that is quite literally unpredictable. It likes to fight melee as much as using ranged, and sometimes randomly comes into a fight to ally itself with other Blackwings. Sometimes it'll stop fights, just to roost in a place in peace. Other times it'll behave in animal or bizarre ways that are easy to leave be. It can't fly, but it can leap and use its limited Tyrant systems to move dangerously fast when it wants to, and only the weakest tall buildings are safe from it climbing up to chase.

It's been seen to have access to Lordly elemental spells, artificial blood sorceries, grafted blackmetal weaponry, wielded magic artifacts found generated on the ground, intentionally looted artifacts found generated inside of containers, or even on other Blackwings! The one saving grace is that it goes dormant if Hunter is present, even if she isn't hostile. It's too unstable a system to persist if her attention is on the area.

# ? May 6, 2022 06:22

FAT BATMAN: Dec 12, 2009

Holy poo poo. These enemy descriptions make Dust seem like the kinda place where uh, sneaking is a necessity, but also impossible. You can�t even reliably disguise yourself as one of them because some of the units just randomly attack allies, or apparently have divine/magic/psy/tech detection abilities. The best case scenario is plotting a route where you only cross paths with glass cannon units and quick-kill them before they blare alarms or turn you into a smear.

# ? May 6, 2022 07:36

Arcanuse: Mar 15, 2019

Funny. Lot of good info, but who's Griever? A blackwing, sure, but for someone so dangerous it's a pointed absence.

# ? May 6, 2022 07:37

Stoner Sloth: Apr 2, 2019

Sounds like overcoming a Vantanaut might be a good way to pick up a suit with a ton of resistances though.

# ? May 6, 2022 07:42

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

Arcanuse posted:

Funny. Lot of good info, but who's Griever? A blackwing, sure, but for someone so dangerous it's a pointed absence.

We should ignore them, and I'm guessing this fact is so important that even knowing what Griever looks or acts like is dangerous

# ? May 6, 2022 08:27

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

Night Terror sounds way more like us than I'm completely comfortable with.

# ? May 6, 2022 08:58

Randalor: Sep 4, 2011

JT Jag posted:

We should ignore them, and I'm guessing this fact is so important that even knowing what Griever looks or acts like is dangerous

I'm torn on this. On the one hand, the blue book has been largely helpful in gleaning hints and advice. On the other hand, it's also written by a whole playerbase of Murder-Hobos whose first 20 reactions to something seem to be "How can I kill it or run away from it." The Woman of the West is kind to Griever, and if she is part of the system, it may be worth being kind to her as well. Maybe she would be able to give us some info on how to better survive the Blackwings.

# ? May 6, 2022 11:55

Razakai: Sep 15, 2007; People are afraid
To merge on the freeway
Disappear here

The book might tell us to avoid the chicken duel, but they haven't seen how swole our chicken is after dosing them up with potions. We should focus on turning Kwiat into something that can 1v1 a lord imo.

# ? May 6, 2022 12:00

Marluxia: May 8, 2008

Antivehicular posted:

Night Terror sounds way more like us than I'm completely comfortable with.

Ha, that was my first thought too.

Razakai posted:

The book might tell us to avoid the chicken duel, but they haven't seen how swole our chicken is after dosing them up with potions. We should focus on turning Kwiat into something that can 1v1 a lord imo.

Yeah, after reading all of that, what I'm hearing is do agree to a chicken duel :getin:

I think they meant a chicken duel in the sense of playing chicken with bikes, but that would be funnier if it actually did involve Kwiat.

# ? May 6, 2022 13:49

Regallion: Nov 11, 2012

The part i am confused by is how is it simultaneously possible to weaken Hunter by killing blackwings, while they also cannot reliably interfere with the fight because she needs to like ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL. Do they provide passive buffs just by existing? what's goin on here.

# ? May 6, 2022 14:00

Marluxia: May 8, 2008

Regallion posted:

The part i am confused by is how is it simultaneously possible to weaken Hunter by killing blackwings, while they also cannot reliably interfere with the fight because she needs to like ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL. Do they provide passive buffs just by existing? what's goin on here.

The Shinesparker entry mentions triangulation, so it might be even if they can't directly help out, they can still provide Hunter with environmental data by observing. Also, it's a network, so the more points in the network, the more Hunter has to help calculate.

# ? May 6, 2022 14:16

Randalor: Sep 4, 2011

Regallion posted:

The part i am confused by is how is it simultaneously possible to weaken Hunter by killing blackwings, while they also cannot reliably interfere with the fight because she needs to like ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL. Do they provide passive buffs just by existing? what's goin on here.

Considering that she's the only sane one of the 3 great Lords, and even then it's said that she's only hanging on to sanity by a thread, I wonder if it's more a case where she's able to distract herself from her own internal discord by running the blacking network and jumping from unit to unit whenever the internal discord starts to catch up, and the more blackwings that are destroyed, the less she's able to ignore her own mental issues. Kill enough and... well... "I am my own worst enemy".

# ? May 6, 2022 14:26

Radio Free Walrus: May 16, 2015

Marluxia posted:

The Shinesparker entry mentions triangulation, so it might be even if they can't directly help out, they can still provide Hunter with environmental data by observing. Also, it's a network, so the more points in the network, the more Hunter has to help calculate.

Knowing that even seeing things like The Parade can have deleterious effects, I wonder if the Old Owl has no built-in way to perceive the environment. It could be that the other units in the network are quite literally Hunter's eyes and ears.

On the topic of Kwiat, if the Moloch Buster is still down there despite us having it, so is the roomba. We could have two chicken chariots - no way the Blackmetal Biker can handle that!

# ? May 6, 2022 14:32

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

Regallion posted:

The part i am confused by is how is it simultaneously possible to weaken Hunter by killing blackwings, while they also cannot reliably interfere with the fight because she needs to like ASSUME DIRECT CONTROL. Do they provide passive buffs just by existing? what's goin on here.

I think it was mentioned by Smiercia previously, but since Hunter is both never asleep and never awake, constantly at maximum vigilance, she suffers from an enormous mental strain that she deals with by spreading out her subconscious thoughts and dreams to the Blackwings through the Blacklight System. When she's physically near Blackwings they end up taking the brunt of her stressload and go back into a more simplistic AI standby. Destroying them all would force her to bear the full of her strain, but actually doing that is much harder than simply killing Hunter.

# ? May 6, 2022 16:32

Randalor: Sep 4, 2011

Black August posted:

I think it was mentioned by Smiercia previously, but since Hunter is both never asleep and never awake, constantly at maximum vigilance, she suffers from an enormous mental strain that she deals with by spreading out her subconscious thoughts and dreams to the Blackwings through the Blacklight System. When she's physically near Blackwings they end up taking the brunt of her stressload and go back into a more simplistic AI standby. Destroying them all would force her to bear the full of her strain, but actually doing that is much harder than simply killing Hunter.

Randalor posted:

Considering that she's the only sane one of the 3 great Lords, and even then it's said that she's only hanging on to sanity by a thread, I wonder if it's more a case where she's able to distract herself from her own internal discord by running the blacking network and jumping from unit to unit whenever the internal discord starts to catch up, and the more blackwings that are destroyed, the less she's able to ignore her own mental issues. Kill enough and... well... "I am my own worst enemy".

So... called it?

# ? May 6, 2022 19:12

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

The Silver Mind posted:

"Heart surgery."

Yup. Heart surgery.

"Heart replacement surgery. An entirely new heart."

The Doctor calls it a heart transplant.

"Yeah but the... but it's not a real heart!"

No, it's better than an organic one, and more importantly it's not magical.

"Sorry. Sorry, I didn't know that was even possible. It really weirds me out."

You shrug, and nod, sipping your coffee. You're both on the porch to wait for the rainywarm dawn, while you explain how Grandma is currently evading MC&D so well. It was the simple matter of her heart getting replaced, so the still-throbbing iron organ of the Saint could then be trucked by cooler to the doors of MC&D, proof of purchase for her death at the hands of her own daughter. More importantly, the Miner had talked directly to Amey, cutting past Deimos, thus snagging the credit. Merkja was 'dead', though the cost of that was now MC&D wanted to know so much more about the one who managed the feat. The Miner had already made herself known at Eaumur, ironblooding her way around like a bully, defiling the masks that got passed out to all the Fae, biting off the ear of the last son of Oberon and Titania (while wearing the stolen dress from the wardrobe of the Last Princess), and a dozen other violations she barely got away with.

But the heart, well, that had just been crazy luck. There hadn't been any heart that could replace hers, artificial or no. But after the visiting ratlings, the trade alliance with the kobolds, the work of the Doctor, the engineering of the Dragon, a touch of the Mouse's evil luck, a silver gem of the Psychic, and then final blessings of the false gold: they had a mighty gilded clockwork heart, filled with chemistry real and divine seals, and a little glimmer psychic silver to get through to her Manaless skull. Now she had a heart that was vastly better than the one she left behind, and the Iron Saint could retire to the hidden love of a Home she thought lost. You can't help but tease Aitvaras as you explain how awesome it must have been for Mom to have slam dunked the cooler open to pull out the still power-beating iron heart of Saint Merkja. Like, drat. He pufts up reviled at having to think about it, squirming with wings batting your head to stop you from going on about the blood spraying out and melting nearby Fae like acid.

He's grouchily settled his head on your lap to be mollified with affection while you finish your coffee, watching the Sun finally crest the valley dark. That little bit of mastered silver making the heart possible... you haven't spoken to the Psychic in a while. You've been avoiding him since your last blowout. What's bothering you is that you know you're going to go back and apologize, and you're going to try again. You thought, you thought you'd just finally drop him and let it go. Just forget the work he asks you do. But it's there now because of him. Your psychic potential realized at that most basic level. A single solitary mutant-blued neuron, singing because it can project the reflection infinite. Now, there's nothing to be done with that weakest reflection... but reflect. Which it keeps doing. You keep thinking on it. All of your whys and ways, your past days. WHY you're unwell. Each moment held pure without emotion, cooled and gentled, allowing you to think on it without the dark coming to tear it down furious. His promise. The Silver Lining.

You have to see him again. You have to try again. The 8th Lord is smiling in the back of your thoughts again. You can't stop hearing the bells and your Grandma is alive because something in the metal made from your soul let her body accept the foreign heart as if it was coming home and it's another reason you want to be alive.

(!ESP β - Reflect That Silver Moment) 11 - [3]+[5]+[2] = 10 - Succe̸͜͢s̵̢̛s̨͜͞!͏̸̕͢͞
̸҉͏͝͠
̵̵̨̕͘V̷͡O̷̕͟T̀҉͠I͘͞͝NG CLOSED - What PSI Power To Use on Merkja?

PSI Collodial Biology ε ̵̨͝-̡҉̨̡ ̴̶0̀͜҉͏
P͡S͘͏̢͞I҉͘ ͏̛͘͜S̸̵̨̢i̧̡l͡͞v̸̶͞͞é҉̷͜ŗ̵͢͟ ҉̨̡͜͠F͟͝l̶͟a̶̵͘͜s̸h҉̷́͘ ̶̧έ҉ - 4
PSI Braincurse Ω - 0
PSI Mirror Ω - 3
PSI Clouding ε - 3 ̡̧̢́ ̨ ̴́͟͢ ̵̵̴͢͞ ̷͢͏̛ ̶͟ ͜͝ ̴̷̡ ҉̷͢͏̡ ̵͘҉̶̀ ̷̛̛͟͝ ̢̢̢̀͝ ̨̛͠ ̡̕ ̛͘ ̧̕͝͡ ̕ ͟҉ ͟͝҉ ̴҉́͜ ̛͢͜͠ ͏̷́͘ ̴̡̨͠͝ ͏̢͘ ̷̷͘̕͝ ̵̵̨͘͞ ̸̧̛ ̡͝͏̢ ̷͢ ̷̵̵̨ ̡͘͢͡ ̸̶̨͜ ͞͝͏҉͝ ͞͞͏̴̕ ͞͠ ̸̴͢͜͞ ̴̵̀҉ ̕͝͠͏ ̶͡͡͝ ̵̕ ́͝ ̢͏͞ ̢̡̛ ҉̀҉ ̡̀̀́ ̷͜͜

# ? May 6, 2022 19:18

taiyoko: Jan 10, 2008

That was one short vote, if I'd seen it, I'd have gone for colloidal biology.

# ? May 6, 2022 19:54

BigFactory: Sep 17, 2002

taiyoko posted:

That was one short vote, if I'd seen it, I'd have gone for colloidal biology.

It was a vote a year and a half ago

# ? May 6, 2022 20:04

taiyoko: Jan 10, 2008

BigFactory posted:

It was a vote a year and a half ago

Huh, so we're replaying that meeting then ...

E: but if this is based off our first meeting at the hideout, we didn't even have most of these powers yet. Guess it's glitched game doing glitched things.

taiyoko fucked around with this message at 20:21 on May 6, 2022

# ? May 6, 2022 20:17

Marluxia: May 8, 2008

BigFactory posted:

It was a vote a year and a half ago

Right, so a short vote then. Ended before it even started.

# ? May 6, 2022 20:18

Captain Foo: May 11, 2004; we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Diamond is extremely helpful for fighting black wings and we have diamond�

# ? May 6, 2022 21:41

OneWingedDevil: Aug 27, 2012

taiyoko posted:

Huh, so we're replaying that meeting then ...

E: but if this is based off our first meeting at the hideout, we didn't even have most of these powers yet. Guess it's glitched game doing glitched things.

Way back when, it was the Silver Mind that used those spells. Not us. Pretty sure they're all S-Tier spells as a result.

The vote wasn't the same though. Both Collodial Biology and Silver Flash are bolded, so I both are being used even though only Silver Flash won back then. Her full heal is going to come with some side effects, I guess.

# ? May 7, 2022 01:14

Marluxia: May 8, 2008

Yeah, I'd feel kinda bad if we ended up only making her confused, puking and crying as a result of trying to calm her down.

Otoh that does seem to be sop for calming our protagonist down.

# ? May 7, 2022 03:47

Grond: Mar 31, 2016

I'm wondering if the woman of the west is the Dark End version of the Ranger... Her class certainly fits, and her attitude as well. And we saw her engaging in a duel with our protagonist in a vision after the hangman game in Camp, so her preference for duels would also fit. And if I'm right then I wonder how the hell did she become a Blackwing, of all things.

Looks like if the person's will was strong before they became a Blackwing they retain most of their personality... Maybe? Which would be why the non fully robotic strongest units are more unique than the generic ones, I suppose. The rest get more overwhelmed by Hunter's ego. Maybe the situation with the griever is that it holds Hunter's internal self-loathing and guilt most strongly. Making all Blackwing units attack her because she hates that aspect of herself and therefore they hate that aspect of herself by association.

All of them except for the Ranger, because she's still lawful good no matter what happens. Maybe that's why in Home she was able to overcome her lycanthropy with Aitvaras. I'd assume her WL stat must be pretty high.

And hey! I believe that's the first time we've seen Holy End us refer to the Archer as the 8th Lord. I was thinking that the Home colony was essentially another cult. An atypical one since it wasn't born from the Island but hey. Ultimately I don't see much difference in the Archer using Buddhism to help the people of the colony cope with their trauma and someone like Dancer giving out pills like candy to help her flock or... whatever weird blood ritual Bleeder might have done to console the Congregation. Barring that one is obviously healthier than the others, but still.

Grond fucked around with this message at 13:47 on May 7, 2022

# ? May 7, 2022 12:08

pumpinglemma: Apr 28, 2009; DD: Fondly regard abomination.

Marluxia posted:

Yeah, I'd feel kinda bad if we ended up only making her confused, puking and crying as a result of trying to calm her down.

Otoh that does seem to be sop for calming our protagonist down.

If anything I'd say our protagonist has a huge phobia of puking, even moreso than their phobia of crying (for fear Smiercia will see it as weakness). I'm sure there's a reason for it, but there haven't been any hints towards it that I've picked up on.

# ? May 7, 2022 15:43

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

https://i.imgur.com/Z03468t.mp4

(PSI Colloidal Biology ε) 16 - [2]+[5]+[6] = 13 - Success.
[Silver]+[Iron]

It's okay. Grandma doesn't have to die now. You did it. You saved her life.

Happy Mother's Day!

# ? May 9, 2022 04:59

PepperedMoth: Apr 8, 2022; Less salt, more pepper.

Oh thank goodness. (Poor ~~Grandma~~ Saint Merkja has suffered enough these last few [in-game] days.)

# ? May 9, 2022 06:37

taiyoko: Jan 10, 2008

Interesting... I think this is the first time we've called Merkja "grandma" that wasn't in a holy end vision.

# ? May 10, 2022 04:15

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

https://i.imgur.com/Rjp0Q2u.mp4

The mushrooms flare up under your skull. They're warmed to light by the memory of that night. Rainbow spinsworls augment the sudden psychic recall of when you first met the Saint at the hideout, and you reach out to touch her without thinking. It barely works, by way of reflecting that exact moment down the line into a recreation present. Merkja slows and goes still.

You- you're not actually sure what just happened. Did the Silver Mind react with her iron? She's quietly half-asleep and breathing untroubled. Her pale fur has taken a distinctly silver hue, and the air is crisp with a pure scent. You kneel down and run a hand over her head, unaware that her life is slowly being tethered back out of its freefall. All you see is a tired gnoll now resting easy. You decide she's best left here and take a second to lay her down as well you can with her giant iron arm, covering her up with her overcoat so she's camouflaged, near some clean water, and comfortable.

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][30%]

You ache, but residual colloidal vapors soothe the edge of the bite and keep you calm enough to move with quiet. Your gun is gone and sword reslung; now is the time for the work to be done. Hurrying on, you begin descent into the greenfall, psychic silver reflecting the mushroom rainbow with the farcall of all the thoughts lost down in this long dark. Alone, alone, alone. Nobody is waiting for you at the border to the deep down. There is no Team Black Crows - just the lone champion, praying to always win. It's a sad lovely down in here, the skeleton of a future growing still through the wishloved earth. Metal grill walkways flowing with ferns, spilled sparkling black dirt so rich with mineral it springs out moss, the gentle longday rotation of colorwarm solar spheres casting the pitch black into shadow depths; the soft warm of the structure begs for bodies to occupy it, be they live or dead.

The stairways carry you further in, where glass waterways begin to network out of the walls and copper plates. Apartments! But they scare you, with their overgrown doors and conspicuously dark interiors. The vanilla scent shifts with the unsteady airflow, sometimes so strong your nose burns with rotstink. You keep following the instinct, your mind still unable to fully grasp the distortion of your visit to the apartments. The Dark has decided the only recourse is that instinct, summoning the Central Nervous and Garbage Disposal to ambulate along the unseen lines, walked again for the first time.

All this just to, just to what? Are you being honest? Just enough to want to cry and admit with no lie - you're doing this because you want to see Blue again. You want to be a Camp champ again. You know, you refuse to think on it to save your heart the cry but you know: you were walking the right road. You saw it, you swear, tourmaline sky and the girl with the cobweb pearl hair. That's what you want to walk towards. That's the hidden reflected by the silver, out from the back of the black. That's why by intent alone you're descending for the second-first, into the suicide sanctum. Get the growth promoter. Trade it for a room and a pack. Return the pack. Make the cult happy. Keep your promise.

The Dark posted:

But don't think too hard about your slay of Lord.
One dead. Six to go.

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][40%]

Oh, God. You lean on a long dark tree, and hold your belly as it twists hard enough to make you squirm in pain. It's too much again. You have to get this over with, and the honest is that the terror of having to go back out there empty handed is worse than whatever vanilla spiced hell is waiting for you. It's bad enough that immediately after this is over with, you must begin your intent to walk to Megalith in search of slay again. You know she's angry. You know she'll be FURIOUS if she catches you without at least half of them dead. You have to work faster. You must, or she'll change her mind and End End End.

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][50%]

You have to sit down for a while and shiver in the warm black. It's too much! You spit bile and bite your lip, and wait for the residual silver to ease you back into the walk. Everything hurts so bad and you're so scared, and the one relief Heaven sends is the pitch black that begins to clearly delineate where the cultists stopped trying, and stopped lying about wanting to deal with the nightmares they abandoned here. Now you can focus on death.

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][40%]

The vanilla smells awful! It's so thick you choke on it, spending a while rubbing your wet eyes. There's plenty of what came before; metal walks, green overgrowths, copper plates, glass waterpipes, solar lights, and all the hundred-evidence of homes half done before abandonment. It passes your mind as you navigate to the next stairs down; what are the cults trying to achieve exactly? Why do they love the Island for hurting them so bad? You let the thought race past while your body rigors itself ready to survive; you're here again, for the first time. Since it's the first time, that means Fire Joker won't be here until the second time, that means Bloodshop won't be here until the second time, that means Midnight Slack won't be here until the second time, that means Pax Pills won't be here until the second time, that means the Thunder King won't be here until the second time, but and ͝ ̶ ͘ ̨ ̕ ̀ an ̸ ͜ ͝ ́ ͢ ̧ ́ ̀ ̛ ͡ ͘ ̷ ͢ d, and are here for the first time!

̶ ͘ ̨ ̕ ̀ joined your party!
̸ ͜ ͝ ́ ͢ ̧ ́ ̀ ̛ ͡ ͘ ̷ ͢ joined your party!
and joined your party!

>

erground forest is huge, rolling with mud hills dense in moss and dark foliage. Immense clusters of midnight tropic flora mingles with rivergreenery. Carpets of the curling little vines. Pools of crystal water gathered from a half-finished autosprinkler system. Columns of light brought down from stone grates high above, precarious in their carvings and fit to cause collapse if they're breached. There's the occasional outpost of a solar lamplight, and even evidence of a mirror system to bring down more Sun. You see a skeleton of the complex visible among the overgrowth, parts of gemglass rooms and halls buried in luminant green.

Avoid the dark spaces and bulbs as best as possible. You're heading northeast and looking for a ritual case. That's the plan. Your feet slick down as you look at the long ladder back up. You keep bumping into▯and you grouse about needing space so you don't trip. But the lightpaths are so narrow and unsure... and you already know that for the first time, you'll walk right back into the second trap and risk your life when the lights go out. But for now, you have to play the quiet ways. You skulk and slink along the islands of light, listening to the ceaseless hum of the emerald deep. Glowing moss guides to where the thickets grow heaviest, sure signs of the growth promotion. You know one single misstep means death somewhere in the dark, and even your gloamed eyes can barely make out the sinister shapes of 'sleeping sisters'. Keep the lights on. Feed them. Don't let the sleepy sisters shout. Don't let the Island out.

Wait... look, there! The reflection reveals it! The silver shining shows, it knows, that for the first time you'll step right over here! Then the light will go out, and the roots will stand up. But not this time. That'll happen the second time. This time, you'll just push past▯and walk around to another pool of light to avoid it. Simple as that. Simple as stopping in the center of a lightpool, to see that the final hill is near; rolling green jungledark underground giving way to the final field where the growth promoter waits.

...wait. One of the great titan flowers at the edge of the pool; that black and violet unfurling, growing, fractal-expanding directly towards you and...

# ? May 11, 2022 01:36

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 08:24

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

[No.]

[How can this be happening?]

[There is no '3rd Year' Death Efflorescence. There is no Death Efflorescence boss fight, period. They're map-bound enemies, meant to be living traps in the Green Underground. Their interactions began and ended with crushing the character into a paste. How did it move? How is it a boss fight? What's going to happen? Killing one was an incredible feat, or one of sheer tedium with the right safe setup. There is no 'safe' setup in a boss fight.]

[What's wrong with these apartments? The entire area is behaving uncomfortably. A buggy half-playable mess was one thing, but these errors felt like a tattered curtain too hastily pulled back and then forth again, with something glittering behind them. There's nothing to be done but try to end the quest right this time, by returning whatever ends up at the bottom of that pit back to Fire Joker, to trigger what's hopefully the right afterparty and close-to-next-morning.]

[But first, there's a scythe to the throat of the onerun.]

# ? May 11, 2022 01:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > @ -ZEN- [Hell End]

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