Hey Discworld fans and followers, @modiphius has secured a license to make games based on Sir Terry’s Discworld! Super stocked I also sent them my art 🤷♂️ 🤞
But anyway, they seem really genuine and excited about working on this project and have a survey for Discworld fans so they can understand why people love the books as best as possible which I think is a beautiful way to make a game.
I love this game so much. I got it from one of my dad's friends when he learned that I'd read at least some Pratchett then, and I still remember him crying with laughter over what you do to get into the Faerie court. It was pretty funny, though.
I remember this being fairly easy to play. Not any super crazy puzzles as far as I remember, and I am very stupid. The characters are, of course, wonderful.
And I get the intro Death song stuck in my head from time to time even after all these years.
Time to continue my exploration and gathering information on what it takes to be a hero. Next up I went to the Inn to see what was happening there now.
Inn:
New stuff outside!
We've got an inn/bar-keeper, a sailor, Gaspode the Wonder Dog who talks and his wooden man, I mean totally normally man and not a weird puppet? at all.
Gaspode was basically using the wooden man as a ventriloquist dummy and every time I tried to talk to the sailor Gaspode would take over there, too. I tried giving Gaspode the bone, but he just spat it out when I tried talking to the sailor and I lost it. I reloaded then left for now but would be back.
Street:
Toy Shop: the toy bin had new toys: this time a dinosaur! Otherwise things were unchanged.
Dino.
I didn't find much else of interest in the Street areas, although the fishmonger was back and no longer being tormented, I mean loved on, by the toilet octopus.
Shades:
Hovel: Found a knife in a bag of thief's tools.
House of Negotiable Affection: I chatted with one of the ladies there and found out a hero should have camel-flage (possibly a kind of perfume according to her?)
My last location in the city was the newly opened Sybil Ramkin's Dragon Sanctuary for swamp dragons which are far less dangerous than the current full dragon terrorizing the city. Swamp dragons are mostly a terror to themselves with their tendency to explode very easily.
I met her at the door after knocking but she told me to come round the back as she's feeding her darlings.
So to the dragon pens!
And this has gotta be a Monkey Island reference. "That's the second largest woman I've ever seen!"
Monkey Island: "That's the second biggest monkey head I've ever seen!"
Unless they're both referencing something else.
There were a few things to do here. I scooped up a nail and a leash. She seemed fine with me just taking the leash... Of course I had to examine all the dragons it would let me.
There was also a blue rosette and ribbon, but I couldn't grab it without Sybil chatting at me. It was a reward for one of her prize winning dragons. The dunnyking, er, custard king, was calling his custard blue ribbon custard, the best custard. So I figured there's a connection there.
I chatted with Sybil and discovered she WAS the woman at the barber's from early in the game as I wondered. I also learned of the swamp dragons' drive to eat anything that will help work their digestion up for flames but will often overdo it and explode. One of them sadly exploded during the conversation.
I moved on and decided to deal with the areas outside the city next.
I went to the woods only to find the barber still there still waiting on the girl ever coming to meet him. I didn't get anything else though.
I next went to the Edge of the World, or rather I tried to but then things took a little diversion.
As Rincewind started to enter the water a big monster showed up.
By its many eyes and tentacles I can only assume it's meant to be a Thing from the Dungeon DImensions, which I'm not sure the game has mentioned yet or I may have forgotten. It's possible one of the wizards referred to it before. Either way, things weren't looking good for our wizard here until a giant hand suddenly came down and scooped him away leaving him in a tight place.
Then I was shown a scene of the gods in Dunmanifestin. The gods were arguing about cheating and trying to swap dice. The God, Offler seems to be planning another meeting with one of his monks. This was all, I assume, meant to be in reference to some events in the first books, but it felt like it came from nowhere in this game and would probably confuse players who hadn't read The Colour of Magic... I guess it's a note that the gods are watching and life on the Disc is all a game to them. Certainly, Rincewind's fate is.
Anyway, after a bit of back and forth it had turned out Lady Luck (I assume her) had whisked away Rincewind and stashed him in her bosom... She released him again and placed him back on the Disc.
Then I was back to my own devices and continued on my way to the Edge of the World where I found nothing new.
After all of that diversion and potential foreshadowing, there's really nothing to do but carry on business as usual. I moved onto the mountain pass, but found nothing there either, so I continued on to Nanny Ogg's place. She's home now and was knitting.
By examining a very long winding string of wool, Rincewind started following it until finding a hatch that led out back where I found a mallet and a sheep!
Aside from getting the mallet and appreciating the sheep I wasn't sure what else to do here, so I made note of Her Wooliness and took off again.
Cue another wander and fiddling with items while I tried to figure out what to do next and what I might have missed.
I went again to the inn, and tried the bone again, but still resulted in Gaspode spitting it back out with no further hints. So, I left and went to the dungeon to see if I could get another bone. That wasn't a problem and while I was there I took another look at the mouse-hole. Just like way back when I was trying to get an imp, I tied the twine to the worm and set the worm on the hole. A rat came out and Rincewind caught it.
Examining and using it revealed it had a zipper on its back and was actually just a rat costume for... an imp! Or possibly the same imp! So I've got the imp back for the camera.
I realized I forgot to go to the brotherhood's hideout when I was doing my city sweep, so I went there, did the usual password at the door and got handed a custard tart. I will never be free of custard.
Back at Nanny Ogg's I took a photo of the sheep.
I went back to Sybil's and this time figured out how to get the blue rosette by knocking at the front door to summon Sybil then leaving her without saying anything to go back to the pens and snag the ribbon before she came back.
I've had that framed octopus picture for ages. I was able to put the sheep picture in it instead... I look forward to seeing what that'll be used for.
I went again to the toy shop thinking maybe I could somehow glue the blue ribbon? Get it to stick to the custard tart container? I dunno. That didn't work but I realized, sticky! I needed something sticky to keep Gaspode from spitting out the bone. And so I glued up the bone. That would hopefully solve my problem with Gaspode.
Yeah, the gluey bone kept Gaspode from spitting it back out, so I was able to talk to the sailor without interference this time. He wanted some milk but I was able to get some from the barkeep then he talked.
He told me some tales about Amazon women, but also, importantly the topic of his tattoo came up. However, he won't say where he got it until his parrot, Polly, is found. He gave me a whistle to summon the parrot.
The only place I've seen birds is at the edge of the world, so I went back there again and with the whistle was able to summon Polly. He stayed in the air and like a stereotypical parrot, he did the ol' Polly want a cracker. I didn't have crackers, but I had a firecracker... I launched it at him knocking him into the water, but still out of reach. He's fine just a bit stunned. I tried the butterfly net and Rincewind did do an animation with it reaching out, but it couldn't reach.
I hit a point of just trying stuff on stuff. I thought maybe the snake might be involved somehow? Since it's long? Turned out I could stiffen it with starch and make it longer with the fertilizer for an extremely long stiff snake with magic markings and even with a knob on the end.
It didn't work for extending the butterfly net, but a knob on the end brings a wizard's staff to mind and Windle still had one, so I went back to UU. And swapped his staff again.
I got an extending stick which I could attach to my butterfly net and I caught the parrot at last.
Triumphant, I brought him back to the sailor only to discover that I had dropped his whistle. Now, something had gone by when I was catching Polly and I guess that must have been the whistle and I didn't realize. That was his handcrafted Hublander whistle from his mother, so now he was too distraught to talk still and I had to go back and find the whistle that was swept over the edge of the world.
At first I thought with the fork there looking like part of a slingshot maybe I'd need to launch something. Like maybe one of the birds had scooped the whistle or caught a fish that caught the whistle as the game had made a point that the birds catch fish going over the edge.
With that in mind I thought of the rubber belt as part of the dunnyking's machine. I was able to use the knife to cut away the belt and get it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the answer.
I needed to use the magic hat with the endless ribbons. That led to a ribbon rope going over the edge that I was able to use to climb down.
Part way down I had another run-in with Death who's just watching as usual as it's not time yet, but he dropped some more foreshadowing for seeing Rincewind again in the Square...
Then I climbed further down to end up on the shell of the Great A'Tuin itself, the world turtle.
The whistle was just lying on the shell and I was able to grab it. I didn't see anything else but hopefully didn't miss anything. I left anyway.
After all that, I was able to finally find out how to get a tattoo: go to the barber. That's it. I suspected it'd be him.
Except, he's still waiting for the girl. I stopped by his shop just in case and it was a good thing I did as I had missed a pair of scissors and an appointment book with nice big pages. I brought the book to the milkmaid/actress to get her to sign it which she did.
I then went to see the barber in the woods who was too busy thinking about her to come back, but with the signed appointment book was convinced she would come in for an appointment, so he went back.
Finally, I thought. Before I went back, since I had to pass through the City Gate anyway, I talked to Nobby again now I had collected a bunch of information about what a hero needs. I was able to try different combos of things to get the odds again and confirm what I learned.
Trying everything resulted in odds too high. It's gotta be exactly 1 million. The combination I'll need is:
Magic Talisman
Mustache
Birthmark
Magic Book
Camo-flage
Sword that goes ting
Six items again. I'm hoping the dragon summoning book counts as the magic book, though, so that I only need to find five items and I was well on the way for the birthmark as that's what the tattoo would cover.
So, I moved on to the barber and talked with him. He went into somewhat graphic detail about giving a tattoo and Rincewind chickened out. However, he offered another suggestion: a temporary transfer fake tattoo. His son gets them with bubblegum. His son is the lovable street starfish. And so this all continues...
I went to talk to the street urchin, but he wouldn't just give me one because he's collecting them.
So I needed to figure out some way to get it from him while he's holding it up being all taunting. Or I need to do something to him before that stage. I don't know, but the steps to get this tattoo feel never-ending and that's just one of the items.
I also talked to the old folks again while I was in the square in case they had anything helpful. I had the option to ask about the magic talisman that I must not have checked back on with them. They suggested the "Eye of Offler" in the secret temple of Offler. Only the bravest, most fantastic adventurer could stand a chance of finding out where the temple is. I figured on that braggart in the Broken Drum.
So, my next steps will be to take a last look at my current stuff with this street urchin and then if nothing works there, start pursuing the Temple of Offler in hopes that maybe I'll find something helpful along the way.
Hopefully next time will come much progress on getting these items.
I love Discworld the book series by Terry Pratchett and have done so since I was 13 when I first discovered it by taking Soul Music out of the school library. I'm currently doing a chronological reread and figured I might as well go all in and play the games too while I'm at it. Well, the first two anyway. There are three games, well actually four. Apparently there was an interactive fiction game in 1986 for The Colour of Magic, but I know nothing more beyond that and never see it mentioned. (Have to say I am curious though). For purposes here, however, three games. The first two pull events from the books, while the third focuses on an original character in an original story and that's Discworld Noir, which I would love to try sometime but getting it to run looks like more of a hassle. So for now the first two games.
That said I don't know if I'll go straight to the second one after this one or have some other stuff in between. I'll see how I'm feeling and how things are looking as I already have plans for November and I may want some short stuff for October.
I watched a friend play the second game several years ago, but I don't remember much and I'm pretty sure we didn't do the first game. What I've played so far hasn't been familiar. I'm pretty sure this is a blind play-through and if it's not it may as well be.
As for the Discworld itself, if you don't know, it's a magical flat world resting on the backs of four elephants standing on the back of a giant turtle, the Great A'tuin, drifting through space. Reality tends to be...thin. Things have a tendency to slip through.
This first game pulls its general plot from Guards! Guards! which surrounds a brotherhood summoning an actual dragon to the city of Ankh-Morpork. Dragons at this point in time only exist as much smaller swamp dragons which are far less dangerous aside from having a tendency to explode. The book is the first book in the city watch arc. The game, however, uses the character Rincewind as the main protagonist. Rincewind is a wizard, or wizzard, of the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork. He's actually terrible at magic, but in his heart, he's a wizard. So, clearly the progression of this plot is going to go completely differently. Which I am okay with and it's nice the game could be played by someone who's never read the books. And it's drawing inspiration without stomping all over its source material and making you wonder why they didn't do their own thing, so I'm okay with it. I just need to tamp down on my own nit-pickiness for smaller details. Inspired by, inspired by. While still being recognizable. Excuse me I may have some aggravations with a certain other...'adaptation but oh no not really'. If you know you know, if you don't, don't worry about it. Ahem.
The game opens with a shot of the Discworld and the Great A'Tuin.
Introducing the Discworld.
Then we get the summoning ritual:
Dragon! Dragon!
Dragon!
Ominous peeking through the wall. Dragon!
And I'm already wondering who may or may not be involved from the book. Like, is the Supreme Grand Master still there heading this up? Are they the same person? It's an interesting thing both knowing and not knowing the plot at all.
From here we're gifted a scene of an Ankh-Morpork street with Death waiting and a drunk ambling down the street.
That's Ankh-Morpork all right.
I'm not sure about Death's voice, but I'm also very used to Christopher Lee from the animated adaptations of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters (and Christopher Lee, come on, just an unfair fight really) or Ian Richardson from the Hogfather movie adaptation. They did add some effects so he's still got some IMPACT though. Still some sense of speaking in caps. And he's not a main character here anyway. I wonder how much he will pop up... How many deaths will there be? Will Rincewind have a near-Death experience?
The drunk ran into him briefly and got an ominous see you soon. Which... Yeah. The drunk proceeded into an alley and was saved from a mugging by being fried by dragon fire.
With that grisly affair complete we move on to see the Unseen University.
I was given another scene of the Bursar speaking with the Archchancellor talking about the rumours of the dragon. The Bursar notes that dragons don't exist unless you believe in them. Belief is extremely important on the Disc. Nevertheless there seems to be one and it's the university's civic duty to do something about it, so he sends the Bursar off to fetch Rincewind. Do you hate Rincewind, Archchancellor, is that it?
A note about the Archchancellor. He seems to be meant to be Ridcully from the books, and by the point of Guards! Guards! he certainly was the Archchancellor and have been for several books. He hasn't felt very much like Ridcully at this point though and if it wasn't for an 'unhygienic' comment I'd be uncertain if it was him or not. The game just has him labelled as Arch chancellor so I'm sticking with that instead. Except making it the one word it's meant to be. Split in two words is driving me a little nuts.
A note about this whole intro: there's been a fly buzzing around every scene from the drunkard coming on screen, then it bothered Death and continued on through the Archchancellor and Bursar's conversation. I have no idea what to make of that if it's going to be relevant or what. Complete mystery. In some ways it feels like it's just a fun guide to follow as you move through the intro, but also... why?
And finally we move in to Rincewind being woken up by the Bursar banging on his door letting him know the Archchancellor wants to see him, and I was finally given control.
I had a few different things to examine, like the totally not-ominous shape outside to which Rincewind said:
"Yes - a mysterious shape, a sinister shape - a shape fraught with... shapeness.
It must be a plot element - otherwise there'd be a better label!"
I can't remember the exact label. I think it was something like 'mysterious shape' or was that exactly.
The wardrobe had no knob to open it with. Turns out I could have opened it then but I didn't have a handle on the controls yet. Sometimes... it pays to look at manuals! Something I did not do until a little later.
And on top of the wardrobe was the sleeping Luggage. The Luggage is also from the books. It's made of sapient pearwood and rage and will follow its owner everywhere and anywhere on its many legs. At least when it's not sleeping here anyway. I couldn't rouse it yet.
With my examinations complete and my seeming inability to do anything yet I left to go explore the university.
And got traumatized by stairs.
I mean it's a point and click. No manual movement here. You can't die. But the Sierra stair trauma is real, especially after King's Quest IV... After my little moment of gratitude that this isn't King's Quest and the stairs cannot harm me, I started exploring.
I found my way to the dining hall and got my first conversation the UI of which was sure familiar. I had to laugh that I'm playing this after Sam & Max Hit the Road. It's the same system!
This also made me go find a manual to see what these options actually mean and learn other controls.
So from left to right we have
Big smile - greeting
Clown - sarcasm
Question mark - question
Cloud (has an animated lightning bolt I didn't catch) - anger
Waving hand - goodbye
And then other topics can appear too.
I also found out that left clicking is for moving, of course I knew that. Right clicking examines. I'd figure that out. But most importantly, double clicking is how you interact. I also found out if you click on Rincewind you can access his teeny tiny two item inventory which is more like one item because once you get money, it sticks so you only ever have room to carry one other item on his person. The rest is for the Luggage when it's acquired.
I chatted with the wizards which while entertaining didn't give me anything too terribly useful to know at this point which is fine: mostly just chatter about wizardry and the dragon rumours. I like talking to all the people anyway. And Windle Poons was there too! He's an important character in one of the books.
In my continued exploration I found a storage room and got my first inventory item--a broom. I always get excited for my first item.
I also found a statue and a groaner:
I checked out the library and got an aside? An instructional aside? A game equivalent of a footnote as a nod to the books' footnotes?
There were a couple of these informative bits, one explaining the Librarian who is an orangutan--he was turned into one in a magical accident and refused to be changed back--and another discussing L-Space.
So far I've only seen these in the library.
Here's a whole page about L-Space! https://wiki.lspace.org/L-space
So a fun thing here I wasn't expecting and they don't explain at all so purely for book readers. The character giving these little lessons is Twoflower made clear by the glasses and camera, ahem, iconograph. He was in the first two books and was the Disc's first tourist. Circumstances led him and Rincewind to be travelling together and many antics ensued. He was also the original owner of the Luggage.
See? I can do asides too. Back to the game.
I also chatted with the Librarian "Ook!". And was told I'd need a library card to take anything out after much back and forth. I did get a little irked that a lot of the dialogue options led Rincewind to calling him a monkey, which is something you Do Not Do with the Librarian if you don't want the wrath of an orangutan. You do not want the wrath of an orangutan. Rincewind kept getting head bopped. Hard. It's just Rincewind of the books would know better! And he and the Librarian end up getting along pretty well. Then I reminded myself of 'inspired by' and carried on. Things are just going to be different. Not looking at anything horrifically egregious so far; it's okay. Even Rincewind himself isn't exactly right here in other ways either. Just hush that part of my brain.
I finally made my way to the Archchancellor and found out what he wanted.
Unseen University needed to be 'properly represented' in attempts to dispose of the dragon. Can't have some yokel slaying it and have people wondering what wizards are for. Then he sent me to go fetch a copy of Featherwinkle's Concise Compendium of Dragon Lairs from the library.
I ended up going back to Rincewind's room first, and with my knowledge of double clicking was able to open the wardrobe with a little magic and get a pouch of money. With the broom I was able to prod the Luggage awake and get it to join me.
Then back to the library where I was able to just request the book. No card needed when it's a request from the Archchancellor I suppose. Or the Librarian was trying to be rid of me earlier.
I brought the book back and the Archchancellor found the formula for Recoglimento's Neverfailing Dragon's Lair Revealer. He was quick to halt Rincewind's protests as well with making sure his performance would be brought to the attention of the university board when they review his grant next year. Ah, university politics.
So the formula, which thankfully can be accessed when checking the book again, so it's always handy needs four ingredients:
A staff of tumultuous thermaturgy.
A miniature creature of excitable chitters
A container made of the strongest ferrous metal
Dragon's breath! Ulp!
I got a voice actor joke too when I kept trying to talk to the Archancellor:
Archchancellor: "No time for idle chatter."
Rincewind: "Well, sorry. As if I can help who supplies my voice."
Rincewind is voiced by Eric Idle. Heehee.
I have goals now! Good old adventure game object collecting!
Next up I'll do another sweep of the university in case anything changed, then check out whatever can be checked out on the grounds and presumably head into the city proper.
Accidental hiatus but I'm back. To recap I was struggling and needed one more ingredient for the spell to find the dragon's lair. I called my last post a chronicle of errors. It was even more so than I knew. I said may the search not lead me to even more agony. It did, just not in the way I expected. I started out here on the search for the still-needed magic coil.
I did some wandering, checking out places again with no luck until I thought to go back to the alley rooftops as it had been a while since I'd been there and I hadn't checked it out as thoroughly as other places. Surprise, surprise I had missed a tower in the background I could get to. I got over there to dangle off a flag pole and get a nice view of the dragon. Also a conversation with Death who happened to be passing by.
Rincewind is not willing to let go of life at this point in time, so Death headed off. Just another day in Rincewind's life.
The flagpole had a tip at the end to interact with. I was thinking through items that could hang there and the mirror had string to hang with. Of course I had to go back down to ground level since the Luggage wasn't going to be getting up here. Put Rincewind's pockets to use. I do wish he could carry two items though. Have some options.
I wasn't sure what the mirror would do if this worked at all--maybe shine light somewhere useful?
It did work and light was shone around...catching the attention of the dragon who flew over to admire itself.
Then it blew flame at the mirror breaking the string and the mirror fell all the way back down to be caught by the lovely Luggage. I went to check out what the state the mirror was in now and...
and...
Dragon Breath... a breathed-on-mirror for my dragon breath. Which, yeah, makes sense...but...argh! Certainly makes more sense than what I had thought with the hair roller.
The hair roller was the magic coil all along; the thing I'd been looking for was already found... I mean the connection--brimstone!--had felt awfully tenuous but I'd made it before realizing the magic coil was even a thing, thinking I only needed four ingredients and it just...stuck. Not one of my finer moments.
Venting through save file names.
But hey, at least I've got them all now! Now it was time for my triumphant return to the Archchancellor. For real this time.
At last all the ingredients! Forget the bumbling and mistakes!
And the Archchancellor put them all together into a dragon detecting device. Rincewind meanwhile has a whole pile of gold in his head to daydream about it, so decides he wants that detector himself. With the ye olde "look behind you something weird" trick, Rincewind distracted the Archchancellor and grabbed the device for himself. Now I know we're in an alternate universe because book Rincewind would be fleeing at top speed with the device handled and out of his hands. He gets to go back to boring? Yes please! On the other hand the call of gold and riches is strong I suppose.
Anyway, I was thrown back out into the city map and had to run around it until I got some good rapid beeping and a new location was revealed. A barn.
The dragon's lair! Gold!
Gold gold gold! But once all the gold was loaded into the Luggage, the dragon made itself known. Uh oh.
Or less uh oh as it turns out. The dragon isn't happy about being dragged here. A secret brotherhood has control of him and has been using him for their evil deeds. He just wants to go back to his own dimension of rest. So, the dragon makes a request: find the brotherhood and find each of the six gold artifacts they used to summon and control him. Bring the artifacts to him and he can sever the connection they have over him. First go find the one who stole the book of summoning from the Unseen University library. Also get moving because he can feel himself being built up for another rampage. Good times!
And it's time for Act II! Is this a 2 act game or a 3 act game (probably 3?)? Or more! I have no idea.
I missed the Act I image at the start of the game, so here's II at least.
Before I left the lair I also found and grabbed a screwdriver.
Knowing I needed to track down a book thief I headed back to the library for clues. I didn't get anything useful out of the Librarian but I did still have the sleazy man to deal with.
Something I may have forgotten to mention last time, but if not, reminders certainly don't hurt, is that this guy wasn't willing to give his golden banana for anything...except maybe all the gold in the kingdom. So I started handing him all the dragon gold and Rincewind convinced him that was indeed in all the gold in their kingdom, well democracy. Sorry, Rincewind, didn't get to stay rich for long. I was given the golden banana and showing it to the Librarian led him to opening a door into L-Space. So, I went into L-Space.
It brought me to a past night in the Library where I was able to see a thief come in, steal the book and leave through a secret passage. Leaving L-Space and coming back resets things.
I tried taking the book myself and leaving and ended up in Death's Domain. I think that's where it was meant to be anyway.
The four horsemen of the apocalypse were playing some kind of card game and after some silly conversation I was booted back out. I assume my efforts were paradox causing. So no taking the book!
What I was actually meant to do was follow the thief into the secret passage, where I was brought back out to the city but at night.
The thief ran around for a while before he finally settled at a new location to go check out.
There's a drainpipe and rain barrel. Might be relevant but I haven't found how yet. The forbidding door had a forbidding knocker I could use.
Brother Doorkeeper talked through the door slot but refused to say anything because Rincewind is clearly not part of the brotherhood. Not even dressed right. Nothing forbidding or black about him.
I assume I need something black to wear. I see a few possibilities: steal something, dye something, or I dunno, singe his clothing? Probably not that third option but who knows!
I left to explore night Ankh-Morpork some more.
I found Rincewind passed out drunk on the park bench from that counterwise wine had earlier. There was also a butterfly.
I also found a butterfly. A multiverse of ramifications. Of course I tried to catch it with the net; what could go wrong? It flew up to the lamp and stayed there out of reach.
I carried on.
I was able to go to the inn and enter the room. There was the guy who had been...will be? in the Broken Drum. I remembered his story about being scared of some eldritch being entering his room and stealing his gate pass. All the steps were told! But I seem to need some way to get him to seemingly pass out, or Rincewind won't go far because the guy is all alert. The guy had talked about the being bursting through the door, so something there? I also have no need for a gatepass right now anyway. So, something for future referennce?
I went to the Street as well, which mostly didn't have much for me, but Igneous's pottery shop was open and I was able to snag a pot off the window sill. I think he's the same troll as the one at the Psychia-trickerist's too?
I couldn't find anything else to do, so I headed back through L-Space to the current day, figuring I could maybe find something helpful to bring back. Back in the present time I didn't really know what to do or where to go so I did the rounds checking everywhere again. Lots of stuff changed.
Palace:
The guards wouldn't let me pass and I couldn't get them to knock each other out to sneak by like before.
Park:
The lamp now had water and a fish swimming in it. That was sure some butterfly.
Inn:
The rom was now accessible. I found some bubble bath in its bathroom
Cite Gate:
A crate with fireworks and a keg of gun powder. I got to take both...
Sator Square:
One of the old men was collapsed with a poison dart. Or faking it? The others weren't concerned anyway.
The amazon woman was deciding to take a different approach to the men slaughtering for severity-based attacks based on severity of the lust
The UU chef was in the stockade
Unseen University:
The Archchancellor was gone from the room
There was cornflour to get in the kitchen
I was able to light a match and light a lamp in the storage closet so I could actually see. I found starch on a shelf - New Jiffy-bril instant starch - stiffens anything
In the back area that leads to the kitchen I was able to take a garbage can full of garbage. Yay?
Street:
The fish monger had some different stuff to say that was still not helpful. Mostly punny.
There's a monk of Offler preaching on the corner. He's always been there, but I think I may have skipped mentioning him before. He has dark robes so there's promise there but beats me what to do if there's anything to that. He's also really annoying because the text and his mouthing lasts way longer than the actual voicing and actions are stalled until he shuts up. Briefly. Before the next line.
The bargain bin stock in the toy shop changed and I got a Hogfather doll.
The woman left the barber but I couldn't find anything to do with the now-empty chair.
Alley:
The alchemist has made progress towards clickies but hasn't had any luck getting good actors
The tile that launches you up to the rooftops doesn't seem to work anymore.
Livery Stable:
I grabbed more corn for the sake of having more corn because why not. Still don't know what to do about the donkey
Hideout:
I can now access it in the present, but couldn't find anything to do there. In fact I couldn't seem to even use the knocker.
Broken Drum:
Didn't see anything more I could do. That said, I probably could stand to check it out more thoroughly again.
And after all that I'm not sure what to do now. I need Secret Brotherhood-worthy clothing, somehow...
Just because I could, I used my matches with the firecrackers and lit one. So... now I have a lit firecracker hanging out in the Luggage. Not dangerous at all!
Otherwise, I've probably just missed something. That's usually the case. I am piling up a lot of inventory items though. Hopefully I'll be back with mission accomplished and getting a good start on finding those artifacts. Is bringing those golden artifacts to the dragon a good idea? I have some doubts. Dragons are tricky, but we shall see. Either way being under control of the brotherhood is bad too. Or maybe he is totally on the up and up and will go back home when released. For now? I wander! And hopefully solve problems.
I've been making some both serious and joking parallels with Sam & Max Hit the Road as that was the last game I played here. There was the conversation system comparison--they're the same system. And there was my vendetta against the ball of twine and another ball of twine coming up here. Well now, here's another one: post three equals me getting stuck along with a healthy dose of agony. This is a chronicle of errors. Here we go.
It started well enough. First it was palace time. The lineup to see the Patrician had a peasant to petition about the dragon. "Who wants to have their family charbroiled by a dragon? Soot's hell to shift."
Then there was Nanny Ogg! I have no idea what she's doing here, but she's here. She's also got a certain recipe book of custards, including a recipe for a love potion in there. I assume that will be relevant at some point.
And at the head of the line a thief from the guild to discuss an increase in their theft quotas for the duration of the dragon emergency.
Twoflower here with the Thieves Guild knowledge.
There was also a Fool and his Chucky the jester staff. I could interact with both of them, so that's probably important? But other than an insane (or seemingly so) conversation for a thoroughly exasperated Rincewind, I didn't glean anything useful yet. I'm certainly getting a large list of 'for later?' possibilities here.
And finally the Patrician. One day there may be an adaptation of Lord Vetinari I am wholly satisfied with, but it is not this day. I'm not a fan of this voice for him either. Anyhoo, Rincewind tried to cautiously and hypothetically approach the topic of the dragon. The Patrician wasn't having it and there were threats of visiting the "Information Retrieval Technicians" in the dungeons.
"There are no such things as dragons. They are a physical impossibility." Now what the full purpose and meaning of those statements are I'm not sure yet. We'll see how Vetinari-y he is here... Hopefully he's close to the book in this regard at least. For now a dead-end there.
There was a door that led to a fancy bathroom where I found a nice little mirror, so this visit wasn't a total bust.
I carried onto my last unchecked location on the map (I think; I thought haha): the city gate, where I found Nobby, Carrot and Sergeant Colon. Nobby and Carrot were accessible anyway. Colon was hungover up a guard-tower.
Carrot, the one in front of the gate, is a new recruit to the City Watch--all three of them. Definitely take an alternate universe approach here. No Vimes! Of course if he did exist, this would be a different game since he'd be dealing with this dragon situation. He's the main protagonist of the city watch arc.
And Carrot is very flattened to his literal mindedness and law abiding-ness. Overly so. He kept trying to arrest Rincewind for various things.
Nobby was fine I guess, but oof Carrot. Carrot my man they kind of did you dirty.
I also still didn't get much of help here! Though they are aware of someone running around stealing small items. cough.
Couldn't be us, nosiree. We'll just be on our way, my ol' Luggage and me.
I feel like I've been a bit complain-y, so I want to say I am overall enjoying myself quite a lot. I just think they fell into a habit of pushing some jokes too hard so they lose their humour. They also sometimes get overly reductionist with a lot of characters rather than simply not getting a full picture because they are just side NPCs. I don't know; it's a fine line to walk, but unfortunately I feel like there's some tripping over it here.
Back to the game, I had no firm idea what to do now. I'd been hoping I'd get more out of those last two locations, so I did a bit more wandering. I tried talking to the barber again after having talked to the woman dressed like a milk maid but nothing came of that. I went back to the psychia-trickerist and nothing more there for me either. Then I decided to check out the alley again. Something I'd forgotten to mention last time was there were periodic little explosions there. I was guessing the Alchemist's Guild may be nearby. I was sort of right.
I found out, somewhat accidentally, that when stepping on the tile that launches you, you can still move. There's a short period of time before it launches you, so you can just...step off. Oops. As it turns out I'd missed part of the alley before and found a building with... an Alchemist!
He's working with octo-cellulose to make moving pictures, or clickies. Now we're into Moving Pictures the book territory. He also has a camera. Cameras on the Disc work by having an imp inside paint the picture. There were also some apparatuses, a sink, a fireplace, strips of film and a flask with cooking oil.
But the camera. I was able to look in the camera and see the imp. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to take the imp at this point, but I was glad I knew where he was at least. I'd been wondering.
Outside was also a drainpipe and a mouse hole. I couldn't find a use for those yet either.
At this point, I still had no idea what to do about the dragon breath either (unless it's something to do with the dragon periodically burning a piece of the map, but my options on the map are limited... [spoiler alert: it wasn't]), but at least I knew where the imp was! Only one ingredient left that's a total mystery. Ha...ha...
However, now I also got stuck. Well, I ended up, due to an accident, making a little progress on things, but not in any immediately helpful way.
I'm a bit annoyed at myself because for now at least I'm avoiding checking a guide or hints. I wanted to check that I was using skills correctly, currently only pickpocket, and tried looking that up specifically rather than looking up the game manual. My mistake. That gave me a bunch of previews of walkthrough results instead and I ended up seeing a couple things. One to throw a tomato at the tax man in the stocks. And two, something about a hair roller on the woman at the barbershop.
It's not like I could forget either of those so I did the tomato. It didn't result in anything directly but when I went to get another tomato to keep one in my inventory, this time when picking one up there was a worm in the tomato and a mouse or rat went running by and Rincewind dropped the tomato. The tomato went splat on the mouse/rat I think (it all happened fast), the worm got free and the rodent ran off, and I was able to pick up the worm. I'm not sure if that's because I threw the tomato at the taxman and so it became a trigger or if it could have happened anytime the rodent runs by for some kind of timing-based puzzle, with the taxman being a way to get rid of the tomato so you can get another one or what. Either way I got a worm I guess.
My first thought was bait. I don't have anything I could use as a fishing rod nor any reason to need one right now, but I figured I'd try running with that idea anyway and try the twine with the worm. It worked so now I have a worm with string.
Turns out you can get two worms as long as one of them has the string. I briefly had a worm with string and just a worm. Then I gave the second worm string and so it became the same item and they merged into one I guess. Ah well, fun while it lasted.
As for the hair roller, I went back to the barber and yeah the woman had one in her hair that I missed before. Examining it led to a conversation about how those curls would be so traditional of her, but she wants to be at the head of fashion so the barber removed the hair roller for her. So, that's a thing that's done and I have no idea why or what do with. It's not like I got to keep the roller myself.
These weren't immediately helpful but they did end up so later. So, darn accidental guide usage.
I wandered aimlessly trying to find things I missed. I ultimately ended up coming back to the barber again--I kept not actually getting anything from there and there had to be something. This whole situation is just a string of accidents. Turns out while waving my cursor around I spotted a pocket on the barber. I tried pick-pocketing, but he spotted me. I talked to him to get him daydreaming about the milk maid again and then was able to pick his pocket and got the hair roller. I also examined the woman and found out she smelled faintly of brimstone. Are you making a connection, reader? Because I sure didn't!
Since I finally did a successful pick-pocketing I wondered if I might have missed anything with the sleazy hourglass holding guy in the library. While that aspect didn't go anywhere I did see that he had a golden banana in his ear that I'd missed before--his ticket to all of the library, gets you into the shelves, and gets you special service from the librarian.
I couldn't figure out how to get the banana off him if you can, so onto the pile of things to solve later.
While I was in the university anyway I stopped by the archchancellor's office just in case. And then I solved the dragon's breath by pure accident. Errors and accidents is the name of the game for this post after all! I wondered what would happen if you gave him other items. The hair roller seemed to have a notable point of being metal. So I just happened to choose it and... it was the item needed for the dragon's breath.
Let me tell you the brief rush of confusion and panic that flashed by though. Like can you give him anything? Can you lose items permanently?? Can you dead-end yourself after all??? When did I last save???? Then it hit me: woman smelling of brimstone. Passed onto the hair-roller. Close enough to dragon's breath, I guess. And just to make all this even better is that I had made a connection! If I had just carried the thought... See, when I saw she smelled faintly of brimstone, my first thought was "oh no, is she meant to be Sybil Ramkin?" because she doesn't seem anything like Sybil, but you know Sybil takes care of swamp dragons, so that could be why brimstone. Swamp dragons. Dragons. sigh. At least it was another ingredient so only one left! I thought.
I still had no idea what to do about that dang imp. Nobby had mentioned the Broken Drum and I was wondering if I might be missing a location entirely, while also worrying if I was maybe just missing something at the Alchemist's. I was getting kind of worried about not knowing what to focus on. Well, it turned out I was missing a location.
There it was, dinky little bit on the map that looks no different from anywhere else.
But a new location means new items. At least that's always the hope and it was the case here although they didn't end up being helpful to my current cause.
I had a chat with the bored bouncer troll who thumped Rincewind several times because Rinecewind kept saying words that rhymed with thump and he misheard I guess. It was another joke that went too long...
Then I headed inside.
I had several people to talk to:
the pair of Hublanders (same as Red Sorghum) who were just itching for a fight
the poor beat up guy who I guess got into a fight
a scared fellow who had his gate pass stolen by a ghost he thinks. He went on at length in quite some detail
the bartender
and Fleabart the Incredible, a major braggart
The gate pass seems like it may be relevant but not yet. Conversing with Fleabart led to getting a couple tankards of beer that could be shared with him or kept. I shared first then did it again and kept the drinks.
I chatted with the barkeep and got another drink and so kept the resultant empty tankard. And I scooped some safety matches off the bar.
There was a trapdoor leading to a very dark space. It was too dark to do anything and the matches don't seem to be helpful on their own. I left it for now. As well.
Since I missed the Broken Drum on the map, I wondered if I missed other areas. Sure enough:
I missed a livery stable. I like this map in some ways, but man there is just 0 indication of locations to visit. I was doing a sweeping the mouse all over in a pixel hunt at this point.
I thought I got a screencap of the livery stable. I guess I did not. Well, there was a little stable, a cart, a sack of corn and a donkey that appeared under the weather and has a tail that could be interacted with. I got some corn and made note of the donkey.
Corn! My saviour! I knew exactly what to do if not how exactly it would help. Back to the alchemist and that flask of cooking oil.
Popcorn! Or as they know it, banged-corn! (A Moving Pictures the book thing).
With the Alchemist hiding from the unexpected rain of snacks I was able to try to grab the imp. Except the imp ran away into the sink and down the drainpipe outside and into the mouse hole. But that was okay! I was riding the high of finding solutions and making progress and knowing what I was doing rather than stumbling into things accidentally. It was worm on a string time. I figured I could send it in after the imp or use it as bait. The imp was drawn out by the worm on a string and Rincewind snagged the imp.
Who's my good worm. You are, yes you are. Mission accomplished!
I wandered back to the Archchancellor feeling all good and ready to see this spell come into fruition and...
And he took the imp and sent me on my way as he always does.
You know earlier how I said this, "Only one ingredient left that's a total mystery." You know how I said this was a post of errors? Yeah, here's the biggest one. My apparently not so good observation skills strike again. Turns out I managed to miss seeing and hearing an ingredient entirely! I guess there was a total mystery ingredient!
That's right. I also need a magic coil, or, for more detail: 'a spiral of neverfailing induction'. I did see it before; I just didn't... register it somehow. I haven't a clue where this is. I wasn't keeping any eye out for anything like this. I'm just staring at my notes desperately trying to narrow down where I haven't found anything or didn't find much and hoping like heck I'm not missing yet another location entirely somehow. Gently screaming.
I did pop back to the Broken Drum. New location and all. I learn my lessons. ish. I talked to the barkeep again and got some Counterwise wine that Rincewind drunk but I got to keep the glass.
Basically made of grapes from the future. Rincewind doesn't remember last night. Rincewind's hangover happened yesterday.
Meanwhile I've gone from sweet sweet victory to what now? Where is this coil??
Locations that I've gotten nothing or very little from:
Fishmongers: I got an octopus portrait I may have forgotten to mention but that's it. There's that swordfish, and caviar
Inn
Park
Palace only gave me mirror
Livery Stable only gave me corn and still have sad or sick donkey unresolved
Dunnyking machine area
City gate
So maybe something from one of those. I think I've now found all the locations on the map. I really swept around it with my mouse after the Broken Drum and livery stable.
So, next time it's time to find the Fifth Ingredient. May it not lead me to even more agony.
