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Hold off and look for an alternative since we can always go back and I imagine tracing Scott's journey from most to least lucid and following that path might do something interesting? Also: 'The tutorial fish produces a very tiny shiv' is a hell of a line. e: update on last page
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Feb 20, 2021 20:10
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Doopliss posted:
Oh nice, which ocean? I used to play on Sage ages ago a couple months after it opened, but it's been ages. Anyways, I think we should mute the blog - I'm worried that the wiki won't hold out much longer. Perhaps we can unmute it once the wiki is free?
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Feb 20, 2021 20:13
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dervival posted:Oh nice, which ocean? I used to play on Sage ages ago a couple months after it opened, but it's been ages. Leraika posted:I imagine tracing Scott's journey from most to least lucid and following that path might do something interesting?
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Feb 20, 2021 20:26
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Leraika posted:Hold off and look for an alternative since we can always go back and I imagine tracing Scott's journey from most to least lucid and following that path might do something interesting? I very much want to see art of Tutorial Fish and his tiny little shiv  Also this game's vibe has dragged me back into playing the Shark Game incremental clicker. I regret nothing. And also everything.
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Feb 20, 2021 20:28
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Black Robe posted:I very much want to see art of Tutorial Fish and his tiny little shiv
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Feb 20, 2021 20:36
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Don't kill the blog. We let some pesky lantern phish survive. Wouldn't be consistent to destroy someone's mental diary.
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Feb 20, 2021 21:59
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Doopliss posted:
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Feb 21, 2021 06:30
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Yapping Eevee posted:I got all but three of these, and a friend identified two of the others... But I haven't a clue what the 'sad and inspiring game about rectangles' is.  .cant cook creole bream posted:Don't kill the blog. We let some pesky lantern phish survive. Wouldn't be consistent to destroy someone's mental diary. Doopliss fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Feb 21, 2021 |
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Feb 21, 2021 07:03
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Yapping Eevee posted:I got all but three of these, and a friend identified two of the others... But I haven't a clue what the 'sad and inspiring game about rectangles' is. Pretty sure that one's Thomas was Alone.
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Feb 21, 2021 07:03
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What game is about preventing forest fires?
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Feb 21, 2021 09:04
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AweStriker posted:What game is about preventing forest fires? Firewatch, I think.
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Feb 21, 2021 09:27
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Nah, that game is about uselessly standing by and watching while a fire happens. It's right in the title.
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Feb 21, 2021 12:31
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Active content warnings: Spiders, Not being able to trust your senses  Welcome back. Last time, we pieced together the journal from Captain Winfield Scott's doomed research expedition and retreived the Mute spell from the Depths. This time, we're decidedly not using our new spell - that would be killing, and we've been working hard to avoid that. We'll worry about the trapped wiki later. We're here for a different reason. Way back at the beginning of this section, we gathered the following information from Omini:  Begin by the blog.Trumpet. Flutes. Trumpet. Flutes. Drums. Flutes. Trumpets. Flutes. Flutes. Having had a nasty bout of synesthesia last update, we now know that "trumpets" means "up", "flutes" means "left", and "drums" means "down". Let's see what we get by following those instructions.  Oddly, that just takes us back to the beginning, and that last "flutes" would take us into a wall. Might as well try, I suppose.  Would you look at that? There's a hidden room behind here with a rather interesting item in it. If we try to enter this room without taking that exact route, the game bounces us and suggests that we might be able to approach it if we had a different perspective.  I touch the memory.I touch the prophecy. It echoes in my mind with the power that comes with inevitability. Listen.   This might remind us of a minor character from Open Sorcery 1. The magical community is a small world, it seems. This is the Prophecy of Dark.It is one of the six Prophecies of Matter.  They are NOT mine.They each belong to someone else. Someone up there. In the physical world.  This story's stakes seem higher than expected. Did we attract some kind of doomsday cult's attention? Well, this...this probably explains why I'm here.At least partially. Someone does not want the prophecies delivered to the people they are destined for. Lucky we didn't beeline to the surface, I suppose. Sounds like there are five more of these to retrieve, and it sounds like the fate of the entire world might hang in the balance. Not that we have any leads beyond thorough exploring.  Aside from the blog, there's one more order of business in the Depths: Tracking down Captain Winfield Scott's webship. The game politely reorganizes the journal for us in chronological order, so it should be a simple matter of retracing the journal's steps. Winfield's first observation was a school of lantern phish and psychoplankton, which corresponds to the second east-most starting point.  The journal details a downward heading as Winfield descends past a colony of sea monkeys, changing headings after encountering some skeletal sharks.  Winfield sailed west, then was damaged by a roving shark. He stopped near a coral network filled with calcified Fear growths. As he was assessing the damage, he started suffering synesthesia and chose to sail up and out of the Depths.  But he didn't go up. The next entry states "Was mistaken in previous entry. Was not going up. Was going flutes" - in other words, west. By the time he realized his mistake, the path up was blocked, so he continued flutes until he could "trumpet again".  While we're following his path, we stumble on some webship ruins that I missed before. Prophesied: scrap, gasket, gear, order The Order mote is the real prize here, but we'll definitely take a bit of an HP cushion during websailing.  Winfield eventually found a way up, but his perception was well and truly muddled at this point, and he accidentally went "drums" instead. He should have bounced into a wall, but...  ...By a stroke of bad luck, he fell into one of the rare permeable dark walls in this place. And something about this place was unkind to him. Let's investigate the ship. Inside, the bathysphere has one room.In the pilot chair, I find the skeletal remains of an explorer. There is a deep sea aquarium full of dead samples.  There are cracks in the skull around where his ears once were.At first, I think he hit his head, but the shattered bone fragments burst outward. Purple-gray streaks mark where something leaked down his cheekbones. There is a nightmare nesting inside of his skull. The game gives us an option to take the nightmare, but that requires a spell we don't currently possess. Let's take a look at the final log entry. Winfield Scott posted:Depth: Mother He had a run in with something his mind couldn't handle. Presumably, something immediately below us. What else is there to find in this ship?  Huh. I guess that could come in handy if we capture some kind of sea monster, or...  Wait. gently caress this ship.  gently caress this zone.  Higher priorities.  Now that we've completed that extremely important detour, we can return to the world map.  The "Explore My Ship" option gives us a remarkable number of options for interacting with our octopus. For example, we can give it our electric guitar. The octopus explores the guitar.It discovers that the strings make sounds, which entertains it (and me) for quite a while. Eventually, it discards the instrument, and I reclaim it. Alternatively, "play with the octopus" gives us one of a few random play options. I search the cabinets of the ship for a new toy.I give the octopus a bowl. It squishes itself inside. It does not entirely fit. We can, of course, pet the octopus. I reach into the tank and offer my hand to the octopus.It pushes its mantle into my palm. I gently rub its skin. It feels slimy and velvety. Still not sure if "slimy velvet" is supposed to feel pleasant.  Eventually, we get back to business. We make a brief attempt to strip the bathysphere for parts, but it's both old tech and utterly ruined. We've fully explored the Depths, except for whatever's below Winfield's remians.  I really, really, REALLY want to know what's down there.What do I do? Content Warning: ..........Spiders......... As Pisces so eloquently pointed out, this area seems extremely dangerous, and it's likely that none of our memories fell deeper than the Depths. However, it seems like we need every resource we can get, and if the fate of the world is at stake we may be able to strike a deal. Do we explore below the Depths, or nope on out of here? There's no waiting and gathering more resources for this - only go or no go. Also, what do we name the octopus?
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Feb 21, 2021 20:31
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Well geez, if you'd told us we could get a home for our new friend we obviously would all have voted for this direction! Just Say No To Spiders - unless they're spider crabs, in which case very much yes. And we should name our friend Kraken. i couldn't think of anything funny okay
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Feb 21, 2021 21:41
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Black Robe posted:Well geez, if you'd told us we could get a home for our new friend we obviously would all have voted for this direction! I feel kinda bad about voting, because I played this game and don't want to influence the votes. But in that special case it was urgent and necessary.  Just imagine how many updates we would have had without our friend.Also, I don't quite know, but I don't think the smaller boats would have had space for the tank. For reference, petting an octopus feels good. That slick velvety feeling is nice. OP: What is your opinion on non-blind votes? Is it okay, if I don't spoil anything about my reasoning? cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Feb 21, 2021 |
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Feb 21, 2021 22:32
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cant cook creole bream posted:OP: What is your opinion on non-blind votes? Is it okay, if I don't spoil anything about my reasoning?
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Feb 21, 2021 22:41
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If we can go gather resources elsewhere and go look again in this "too deep" area later, it could be a good idea, certainly a new spell or two might make our lives easier.
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Feb 21, 2021 23:40
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SIGSEGV posted:If we can go gather resources elsewhere and go look again in this "too deep" area later, it could be a good idea, certainly a new spell or two might make our lives easier. Doopliss posted:There's no waiting and gathering more resources for this - only go or no go.
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Feb 21, 2021 23:42
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But I suppose we are actually at risk down there? In terms of risk to our stores of HP, objects and motes?
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Feb 21, 2021 23:57
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SIGSEGV posted:But I suppose we are actually at risk down there? In terms of risk to our stores of HP, objects and motes?
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Feb 22, 2021 00:23
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Well, time to swim too greedily and too deep.
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Feb 22, 2021 00:41
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Gotta see whatever elder gods live below the depths I imagine we might have to spend quite a few motes if spells are useless down there, but maybe it will be worth it!
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Feb 22, 2021 00:54
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Go down and see what's up with these spiders
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Feb 22, 2021 01:31
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I love the octobuddy ;___; Name him Ringo* and let him enjoy his octopus's garden in the shade while his guitar gently weeps. *(yes I know Ringo was the drummer, shh)
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Feb 22, 2021 01:42
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Leraika posted:I love the octobuddy ;___; I'm seconding Ringo for the name of the octopus. Octopuses probably make better drummers anyways.
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Feb 22, 2021 03:07
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Clearly our octolad is The Ocho, on account of the obvious: it prefers ESPN8's programming contents
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Feb 22, 2021 04:22
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I was going to say come back later before OP's update, but definitely go down and say hi since it's a matter of "go or no go"
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Feb 22, 2021 04:34
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There is an adventure, do you want to have it? Yes.
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Feb 22, 2021 05:02
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Oh man, how am I only just now finding this? I absolutely loved the first Open Sorcery! I remember there was actually an LP of it here on the forums a couple years back, but it only covered a couple of the endings and that led me to buying it myself (though I don't remember ever ACTUALLY finding everything...). Gonna toss another vote in for explore further. Also, fun fact for everyone else: this is actually the second Open Sorcery sequel. The first, named Jingle BEL/S, is about the protagonist of the first game going around trying to find Christmas presents for all her friends.
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Feb 22, 2021 11:33
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Double Plus Undead posted:There is an adventure, do you want to have it? Yes. serefin99 posted:I absolutely loved the first Open Sorcery! I remember there was actually an LP of it here on the forums a couple years back, but it only covered a couple of the endings and that led me to buying it myself
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Feb 22, 2021 16:25
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Doopliss posted:As it turns out, that was also me. I... Might like this series a bit too much. I bought the game based on your LP, so congrats on being a sale-driver. 
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Feb 22, 2021 17:03
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Doopliss posted:After my own heart. I briefly considered just taking it for granted that people would vote "yes" and ending last update on the first puzzle down there, but I figured this sequence had consequences that the thread should own. +1 to buying the first game (and Jingle BEL/S, and Sea++) after seeing your LP. Also there's no liking it too much, it's perfect and deserves all the love. Thanks for introducing people to it!
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Feb 22, 2021 18:27
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Active Content Warnings: ..............Spiders.............  Welcome back. Last time, we chose to name the octopus Ringo. Less importantly, we decided to explore whatever killed Winfield Scott below the Deep Web. Hopefully we're made of sterner stuff.  The background art disappears as we descend, and Pisces' sensory distortion begins to take a new form.  Beautiful black.Visible and tactile. Parting like curtains. And behind the curtains... The dizziness of space.The fever of unimagined jungles. Shapeless things lurk and caper and flounder at the edge of my vision.     A piercing gazecuts through the cockpit decompression the octopus flails in its tank I am caught in a captivating glance I am drawn out into the eyes  We can now consider ourselves at critical HP. She turns Her attention away.I am left in darkness.  We made it. But where did we make it?  Content Warning: Banger Our webship suffered a catastrophic breach, and we were pulled overboard. We can't properly perceive anything in this world - there's not even anything to cast spells on. There's a suggestion of an exit, but not something we can perceive enough to use. Ringo was in the ship when it went down. We're on death's door.  Each part of an object's description has three "possibilities" that we can cycle through. In order to interact with anything here, we need to fully perceive it. However, if we don't pick the description correctly, trying to do this will fail and cause us to take damage. We, uh, don't want to take damage right now. See if you can identify the correct combination. . . . . .  The mysterious misty shroud stuff has potential, but from what we've seen, weird fleshy spider stuff seems like a safer guess. I am looking at thick, white webbing.With some difficulty I pull it away. Beyond it is a massive eye, alive, but clear as glass. It looks at me. Through it I see a maddening vista. But I think, by looking at it the right way, I can unify it into something I understand. Just as I did with the webbing. This is... Better? Anyway, it opens up a new object on this room's main screen. Fleecy clouds and luminous vapors intermingle with absolute void over what is either a glittering city or an active volcano and I feel a migraine coming on. ==>  . . . . .  We're starting to see a pattern in these. It seems like one option corresponds to some sort of nice heavenly castle, one to an untamed occult wilderness, and one to a massive spider-like monster in an eldritch void. That makes this pretty solvable - after all, this place definitely isn't a heavenly castle. The wilderness stuff is a bit more appropriate, but it's still fundamentally earthly in nature, and we're far from earth. I see...a lot of unnerving poo poo.But being unnerved is better than being in intense, mental pain.  I can hear thousands of spiders.An infinity of arachnids, crawling through the veins around me. While we're here, we put the rest of this region to rights. Next up is the exit, and we'll see about getting out of here. The exit is made of bone/wood/dirt.It is girded by two twisted trees/pillars of teeth/a well wrought frame. I am looking at a spine-like staircase, each step a vertebrae.I hate stairs. Fortunately, I can still swim down here.  Now that we properly understand this area, the screen changes.  Oddly, the clock hasn't changed at all, and it seems solid enough that we can't recontextualize it like we can the rest of this place. Perhaps we can find an explanation to the south.  Wait, teatime? Symbols carved jagged into the wooden wall read:Teatime at 4:15 There's a lead as to the clock's purpose, though we still don't have any way of manipulating the clock. Regardless, our first priority should be opening the eastern path and securing an exit.  A tube, thick with veins, winds east.I've stabilized the way east.  A dead end. I don't know what good a key would do for a webwork of veins, but we don't know the rules to this place yet. Let's get this place in order and see if we can gather some information. From the top. Something flat and broad stands in the middle of this space.Its surface is fleshy scabbing/rough stone/shining cherry-wood. It is covered in cryptical engravings/a yellow-gray fibrinous membrane/a silk tablecloth. It smells of polish/dried blood/wet blood. It is a massive tumor, rising from the floor to a relatively flat and calloused surface.It is set for tea.  We seem to have a Muffet situation on our hands. So far, the clock and the teatime sign seem to be the most sturdy things in this world - seems that whoever reigns here very much wants us to prepare tea. Perhaps doing so would give us some benefits, or we might just get knocked to -5 health from the being's lethal attention.  I am looking at a wall of massive hexagonal honeycombs.There is a teapot inside of it. No way to pry open the honeycomb, nor to bash it open.  Although... I wonder...  Crap - we do not have the health to spare on chip damage. We shift it back to its proper form and move on to the south exit. The way south is made of white washed wood/rock/muscle.I detect the faint scent of bile/pies/smoke. I am looking at a fleshy opening into what appears to be a giant esophagus.I've stabilized the way south.  We're starting to get a feel for this place, but we're making no progress on either teatime or an escape. Hopefully south will bring better luck.  KEYS sound promising. Let's start there. I hear intoned syllables/birdsong/bizarre patterns from some alien and insoluble telegraphaccompanied by spectral bells and wild cries/solemn, leaden bells/light chiming. It is cheerful/frightening/ominous. I see a flickering impression of a key hanging in the air, but it's not quite existent. I hear strange and incomprehensible noises and a sort of ghastly ringing. The key is still a ghostly silhouette. Maybe once the rest of the screen has been clarified. On the walls I see archaic frescoes with sinister meaning/racks of pots and pans/ribs.They are made of bright copper/bone/basalt inlaid with tarnished silver. They are hideously carven/dented but well-made/arched and massive. There's some sort of glove here, but I can't make it out clearly. A massive set of ribs line the walls, arching upward above the belly.Again, it doesn't reveal the glove.  Last one. There is a giant organ here. I think it might be a liver?The organ is still except for an occasional slosh.  We clarified the room, but this doesn't get us any farther, and we're quickly running out of options. We need that key.  Let's try a more radical reimagining. It's not realistic, but it's still internally consistent, and it's something we can process.  It worked! We get the key, and our four precious health points are intact.  While we're here, maybe we can grab that glove. Since the area's no longer consistent, it reverts to the original art. I am looking at a handsome set of copper pans, hanging from the walls.Of particular interest is a worn but sturdy oven mitt. No idea what this is for, but we're not turning down an inventory item.  Let's see if we can grab that teapot on our way through Her Heart using the same principle. I am looking at some simple, oaken shelves.There is a teapot inside of it. Now that there's nothing in the way, we help ourselves to the teapot. Let's unlock the eastern route.  That's... Fair. The passage east is a door.It is blocked by a lock. Now that the passage east is something that a key would actually help with, the key does help, and we make our way into the zone's last room.  Our webship! Yes I can see my shipBUT there are monsters. I'm going to need to address that first. Fair. Let's put this place in order and bounce.   Less murdery than monsters, at least. Let's check out that liquid. I see crystal clear water/muddy, leaf spattered water/red, red blood.it flows in pulses/lazily/quickly. over white carven marble/stones and earth/membranous tissue.  We could fill our teapot with blood, but I'm pretty sure it would overwhelm the flavour of any tea leaves. I see spreading oaks/flowering bushes/giant spider legs.They are organized and well kept/gnarled and ancient/slowly moving. The air smells of loam/sulfur/sweet floral scents. I see long, black spider legs, pacing slowly along a silk thread, over the vaporous void below. The spiders don't seem interested in getting in our way. Let's assess the damage to our webship.  Ringo's fine. Also, our webship is fine. Seems a bit like a show of goodwill - the assault was real, and it seems to have been consciously repaired.  We could cut our losses and get back to saner waters, but that curiously that called us down here is starting to bubble up again - especially since the entity seems interested in talking. Let's see this through to the end.  We reinterpret this area hard, giving us a lovely herb garden and crystal clear water. I see neat rows of well kept camellia sinensis.Tea bushes. These bushes have begun to spread and thrive in the bright sunlight of the courtyard. We fill the teapot with fresh fountain water, then sprinkle some tea leaves in.  The parlor gets the same treatment. Much more appropriate if we're having tea.  Moving on to the "kitchen", we experiment with that third set of possible descriptions. Looks like a cthulhu-style temple.  A place for blood sacrifice. Perhaps it'll come up later, but hopefully it won't. This has been a low-murder playthrough so far.  Let's set up a proper workplace before we start. The vicious sacrificial altar turns into a much more reasonable stove.  Step 1, light the oven using a Fire mote. Using a... Fire mote. Okay. We can deal with this. There were some smoke vents back in the Abyssal Plain we could harvest Fire from. Taking a look at the Debugger, it seems like the entity in charge even gave us Her IP address - we can come back whenever we want, no additional trauma. We could nip over, *very narrowly* survive grabbing a Fire mote, then come back and light it up. Alternatively, [UNLOCKED] is there a more convenient way we could light this oven? Doopliss fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Feb 23, 2021 |
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Feb 23, 2021 06:15
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Well shucks - I'm glad to spread the entertainment around. A lot of the fun I get from this is watching other people talk about the games, and forcing myself to slow down and pay attention after a first playthrough.
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Feb 23, 2021 06:17
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It must have something to do with the idol in the temple setting. Turn the place back into a body, get some blood from the open artery with the tea pot, then pour the blood into the idol's mouth. Also, side note: as an arachnophobe, I am extremely thankful the developers didn't add any actual pictures of spiders to here.
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Feb 23, 2021 07:55
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The text mentioned that you can reconfigure the first room into a volcano, can you still do that and grab some fire there?
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Feb 23, 2021 14:27
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serefin99 posted:It must have something to do with the idol in the temple setting. Turn the place back into a body, get some blood from the open artery with the tea pot, then pour the blood into the idol's mouth.
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Feb 23, 2021 14:54
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 Active Content Warnings: ..................Spiders.................. Why not listen to this again? Welcome back. Last time, an alien being of immense power glanced at us, tearing open our webship and coming very close to killing us. This time, we're making that being a spot of tea. We're short on Fire motes to start the kettle boiling, so it's time for some lateral thinking. We start by morphing the stove back into a blood sacrifice altar.  We hop on back to our webship, shift the fountain back to an artery, and fill the teapot with blood.  We pour the blood into the blood sacrifice idol's mouth, causing it to glow menacingly and become "active". What does "active" mean?  Not much on its own, but when we turn it back into a stove it's now lit. We scurry back to the webship once again to get some proper tea water and put it on. I pour the cold tea out of the teapot and into the kettle. I let it stand until it boils. I pour it back into the teapot. We set the teapot on the parlor table - whenever The One Below is ready to join us, tea will be ready. The One Below won't be ready for a while, of course - She takes Her tea at 4:15, and we arrived here at noon. We've spent some time getting our footing, but so far it's only been... 0 hours and 0 minutes. Alright, we have ourselves a puzzle. There's not much in the way of any light sources at all around here to impact a sundial. Let's see if we can change that.  In retrospect, the giant spider monster wasn't any more realistic than either of the other worlds. It was spooky and eldritch, which felt appropriate, but in the end it's still just a giant bloodstained spider with a bunch of other spiders crawling around inside. Otherworldly alien consciousness it ain't. Whatever's down here, we still don't seem to understand it. I see a dark wasteland crowned by a massive black mountain.No, not a mountain. A volcano. It looks like it might erupt soon. The moon is Full. It is so clear and huge in the sky, I feel like I could reach out and touch it. I touch the moon.It is cold and pocked with craters. It's a little loose in the sky.  Let's see how a new moon works.  I'm not sure if we overshot or undershot. First Quarter - the midpoint between Full and New on the list the game gave us - puts us to 10:00.  Seems like Full is 12:00, and every item down on the list is an hour earlier. The Blood Moon is 9th on the list, so that would put us to 4:00. The clock is an ancient sundial whose mysterious shadow is cast even at night.It reads: 4:00 And so it does, but it seems like the moon can only alter the time in one-hour increments.  Perhaps we can get a bit more fine control out of the Solarium version. Again, the sun is so close that we can can reach out touch it.  The adventure game item sense comes in clutch again. We slip our oven mitt on and we're back in business.  We're aiming for 4:15, so mid afternoon? The clock is an ancient sundial whose mysterious shadow is cast even at night.It reads: 4:30 Nope. It looks like it's the same deal as the moon, decreasing by 15 minute increments as we go down the list. We move it over to the evening, and... The clock is an ancient sundial whose mysterious shadow is cast even at night.It reads: 4:45 Oh. Other way around this time. We slide it back up to mid-morning.  Perfect. Let's see if She's feeling punctual.   Despite the rest of the zone, She has only two facets. I see the Spider.Talk to the Spider. The Spider picks up a cup between two long legs.She draws the cup to her fangs. She crushes the cup and eats the tea-soaked porcelain. She offers me a scone. Of course we'll have a scone.  We... Don't regret the scone? I'm going to say we don't regret the scone.   What are you? She gestures to everything. Did you create the Web? She shakes Her head.She pauses. She nods. Why did you grab me? The Spider informs me, I'm not sure how, that I must go to the wailing pit.There is a woman there who is not what she should be. The Mother can give me details I will understand better. That's reasonable - I'm not sure why I thought the Spider would be the more talkative one. Let's unfocus our eyes for a moment and look at Her again.  The Mother appreciates that we set everything to "Her" facet before teatime, and we get a bit of a bonus.  You hear that sound? Past the skittering, the birdsong, and the howling? That's what profit sounds like. Same questions as before, hopefully more productively. Who are you? I am the Mother, dear. What is this place? My parlor, dear.I almost feel like the Spider was being more straight with us. Which version of this place is real? They are all true, dear.What you saw at first is true as well. But I am so glad you managed to interpret in a way that is not hurting your poor little mind. We don't get many visitors. It's so nice to have company. Did you create the Web? Not really, dear.At least not in the sense that you understand the world 'create.' Why did you grab me? The Mother takes a sip of tea. My daughter is trapped in the wailing pit.The world is trying to change Her. And in some ways, it is working. They took Her voice. When you cannot speak, you find ways to scream. Please be a dear and go there. Use the power you learned here to see Her as She should be. It sounds like we've got ourselves a quest. That's a bit more specific than the Spider could give us, but we still have some unanswered questions. The most important of those is probably "what and where is the wailing pit?". That's not something the Mother can tell us, though, so it seems that we're done here. Actually, not quite done here. We were rather rude to the Spider earlier, summoning Her into a cozy upper-middle-class house probably kept free of bugs. We scurry around the place, do some reinterpretation, and return.  You're alright, ancient unknowable consciousness. We'll return Your daughter/hatchling as soon as we can.  And now there really is nothing left for us down here.  Normally I'd call a vote on our next destination and end the update here, but this was a pretty short one, and it just so happens that the last vote was only a "tie" until like an hour before I posted the update. It was too late, but East was our actual winner.  Content warnings: ...............None................In honor of that, we'll be traveling to 743.7.4.3.  Seems harmless. Let's ignore it. I run straight through the flock of ideas.I gain 5 Momentum. [+5 from sails] [+5 from engines] [-5 from event] Exactly as dangerous as the lantern phish, it seems.  We know from last time what deals with Uncertainty Fog. I engage the Search Engine.I shield myself with Order and the confusion of the fog can't touch me. I gain 10 Momentum. [+5 from sails] [+5 from engines]  Seems Chaos-aligned - perhaps we should have saved our Search Engine for that. Uh...  I was genuinely, no-kayfabe not expecting that to work. Ringo is and remains the best.   This is about as different from the Depths as it gets.  Tranquil piano music plays in the background, getting slightly unpleasant as it loops. Sure, heavenly chamber with an actual angel inside. Let's strike up a conversation. I can tell this is an angel by all of the wings and eyes.It has twelve wings. It has twenty eyes. All in pairs. It opens the pale blue eyes on its brow and looks at me. Ah, a proper angel.  No need to rubberneck about the angel thing - we politely thank Soave. The angel dips its delicate neck-wings in acknowledgment of my thanks.It closes its eyes.  Okay, maybe a *little bit* of rubbernecking.  Yes. What does that mean?I mean. You're not just someone's idea of an angel. We're too far from the Web proper, and you're too solid to be just an idea. You're an actual angel. Yes. What does that mean? i Am A Tool Of God.i Follow Divine Will. i Am A Purpose. What is your purpose? This Place.Sanctuary. The eyelids on Soave's palms flutter as it thinks.After a moment it elaborates.  That's a JRPG-rear end prophecy. I wonder if it's related to ours. How long have you been here? Since Time Began. Have you been alone here all that time? Sometimes Sanctuary Is Sought.It Is Undestined, But Offered. But For Most Eons. The Sanctuary Is Empty. Are you lonely? Soave does not speak for a time.Its shoulder wings furl and unfurl. Its palm eyes flicker to the fountain. i Am Not Sure.Sometimes, i Think. Let's move on to the question everyone asks angels: Which religion is best?  And we get the classic answer. Unhelpful, but maybe too much to ask for. Let's prod a bit farther. Does god exist? And if so, what is god? We could get into various philosophical points here, but one of those is a bit jarring from someone who is deliberately not telling us anything about the nature of god. He Transcends Gender. Then why use male pronouns? So Scripture Has Written. Scripture written by humans. Yes. The game gives us an option to *not* get embroiled in an argument about god's pronouns with - I reiterate - a literal angel, but we're feeling scrappy and we don't seem to be in any danger. How do you decide which scripture to reference?When determining god's pronouns. Soave blinks three sets of eyes. i Do Not Decide. What determines it then? He Separated The Light From The Darkness.It Was Written Again And Again. The Chorus Of Prayers Turn To Him Not Her.  The game shunts us into a menu similar to our memory puzzles. quote:prime directive. Consider that by echoing our beliefs like that you're creating a sort of quote:so you don't confirm or deny details about god. Not even something as basic as god's existence. A sort of divine quote:calling god 'Him'. I don't know too much about true angelic history. But that might be partially the cause of certain systems of belief snowballing. quote:Your intention is to let humanity self-determine our relationship with god. You don't want to interfere with our ability to believe quote:you've visited anyone recently. You're clearly aware of your potential to influence human opinion, or you wouldn't be so conscientious about not taking away my faith-potential. Your position of authority quote:lends the idea credence. By parroting back popular beliefs, you perpetuate the status quo. Most basically by quote:eon-spanning echo chamber. An idea gains traction, and you echo it in your interactions with people. I don't know if . . . . . Your intention is to let humanity self-determine our relationship with god. You don't want to interfere with our ability to believe, so you don't confirm or deny details about god. Not even something as basic as god's existence. A sort of divine prime directive. Consider that by echoing our beliefs like that you're creating a sort of eon-spanning echo chamber. An idea gains traction, and you echo it in your interactions with people. I don't know if you've visited anyone recently. You're clearly aware of your potential to influence human opinion, or you wouldn't be so conscientious about not taking away my faith-potential. Your position of authority lends the idea credence. By parroting back popular beliefs, you perpetuate the status quo. Most basically by calling god 'Him'. I don't know too much about true angelic history. But that might be partially the cause of certain systems of belief snowballing. Does that make sense? The Valley EchoesAnd Begins An Avalanche Well put. This Is Not our Intent.Thank You For These Thoughts. Thank you for listening. If we go back into this dialogue branch, Soave has switched to They/Them pronouns for god. Does it bother you that we're god's favored children? Rain Does Not Envy Birds.Sky Does Not Envy Wolves. i Cannot Envy You. What about Lucifer? If that's a true story. Is that different? Soave's chest eyes flicker and its large, back wings flap once. The First Awareness Emergence.i Will Not Speak Of Him. We know of awareness emergence as a phenomenon where spirits bound to computer code become conscious and sapient. We saw the "lowercase i" thing Soave does in AI spirits that hadn't underwent awareness emergence.That raises some interesting questions about the relationship between god and Their angels - perhaps more than Soave intended. Rather than pressing the issue, let's take a look at the room Soave mentioned.  Clockwork and binary spill out of its back, gyrating with flickering calculations.The screen is made of black-light, studded with star-like text. It appears to be running Ubuntu. If we have a computer, maybe we can contact the surface for help. I play around with the computer.It has no Internet connection, but Motepad++ and my other preferred tools are installed and updated. It's nice to feel a proper tool under my fingertips. No such luck, but at least we spend a pleasant couple minutes. Let's chase it with a swim.  Not only delightful, but productively delightful. Something's off about this place, though. About the room to the north. Everything there is picked out of my mind to be tempting.Are you trying to convince me to stay? No.It Is The Nature Of This Place To Give Comfort. But You May Stay. If You Wish. Don't stay.Stay for a little while. Stay forever.  When Soave puts it like that, we could use a bit more rest and healing. Don't stay.Stay for a little while. Stay forever. Interesting, and a bit unnerving, but the siren call of 3-HP heals keeps us here a while longer. It's very comfortable here. My leg is no inconvenience since I can swim everywhere, and Soave is pleasant to talk to.I get the feeling it really appreciates the company. Recovered 3 health.  At this point, either of the lower options is a game over. Too many one-more-days and you don't have any days left. We'll bother Soave about leads on our memories and be on our way. I'm looking for my memories. Have you seen any of them? Soave points silently at the pool in the center of the room. There is a memory here.It is mine, but it is not mine. It thrums with potential. It matches the environment perfectly. It's broken into pieces ==> smashed on impact. I wonder if it disturbed the pool?.But I know the routine. I pick up the pieces and start to put them back together in an order that fits.  This one also brings to mind a character from Open Sorcery 1, though it's a bit less clear if you didn't play the Jingle BEL/S DLC.This is the last thing to do in the Light House before we head back out to the Deep Web, and we've only got two locations left. Should we head north along the path of least resistance, or west into the chaotically churning waters?. While we're here, though, this is a bastard of a memory. Very few syntactic cues to guide us - any of them could go in pretty much any position. [UNLOCKED]How do we figure out how to reassemble this? Doopliss fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Feb 25, 2021 |
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Feb 24, 2021 06:46
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I don't even know where to begin on piecing that memory together, so instead I will simply vote to go west once we're done with it. Because if video games have taught me anything, it's that if you encounter resistance, you're going the right way.
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Feb 24, 2021 07:34
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It's cool that you can save your fire mote there. So many puzzles can be solved with brute mote force, or some intricate way, which safes your resources. That's good game design. Let's go north.
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Feb 24, 2021 07:51
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