#discworld_log

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 8

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.

Argh!!!

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 1

The Adventurer’s Log

Release Date: 1995

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.

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 4

The Adventurer's Log

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.

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 3

The Adventurer's Log

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.

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 10

Heigh ho, it's time. It's finale time!

It was also gently scream and get more help time. I still needed the sword. I had no idea where to get the sword. Not one clue, at least none that I ever picked up on. The Amazon woman has a sword but it wasn't her. So I consulted Universal Hint System (UHS) yet again.

Oh no, no, it was Chucky! Freaking Chucky torturing me again even though he's the one in the torture chamber.

I guess you're meant to see the bottom bit of the staff as a pommel?? I didn't really notice it; it was just a part of him. Like the end cap or something. I just, how? How would you guess this?

Well, he needed to be stretched out to get the sword to pop out, but the rack he's on was missing a crank, so I had to go find that. It was on the well in the forest. That at least was easy to get--just use the screwdriver.

Then attach the crank to the rack and he gets stretched and presto, one sword.

One sword that went ploink. I needed it to go tink. The torturer said it was out of tune and suggested bringing it to a dwarf mine for tuning up. I had no idea where a mine was, but the only dwarf I knew was corporal Carrot, so I went to the city gate, talked to him and had the option to ask about the sword, and the mine location was on the map. Hooray for something simple!

I went to the mine which was also simple. Everything was going easily enough until I talked to the smith there and Rincewind just had to stick his foot in it.

He just had to bring up having to find more things in return for getting the sword tuned when the dwarf was ready to just do it!

This was not the level of self-awareness I wanted from this game at this point. If I had come across it earlier, sure maybe, but at this point I was ready to throttle him. Regardless, now Rincewind's done it and after a bit of hemming and hawing the dwarf asked for some elderberry wine.

So, I went back to the Broken Drum to ask for some, but it's down in the cellar where there is a plague of, er, foxes, because the bartender was confused. It's of course, actually rats down there.

I was very tired of trying to find ways to get in that cellar by this point, so once again UHS saved the day by directing me to the inn.

The inn room's door has been stuck open because, after a bit of fiddling with the door, it turned out there was a bogeyman hiding behind it. A bogeyman too scared to come out even for a cellar full of rats. He never got to have a proper experience going to zoos and getting practice scaring smaller beings before moving up as would have been the proper education for a bogeyman I guess. Now was his chance with the cellar rats, if he could be coaxed out.

I took the trusty screwdriver to the door to remove its hinges, freeing the bogeyman to go wherever he pleases with the door.

He headed off to the cellar for me to go try scaring the rats.

He was successful and the cellar was lit at last. I was able to get some elderberry wine from one of the casks, finding a use for my empty tankard finally.

Examining the tankard makes a comment about it getting pitted. So, I was a little worried the wine would eat through it or something. I'm not sure if that's exactly what happened, but when I returned to the mines, the Luggage came staggering in all drunk. And the tankard was still intact, but empty so I don't know.

I had to go back and get more because this whole bit is just one more thing isn't it? This time I had Rincewind carry it and then it was fine. Maybe the Luggage just likes elderberry wine... Either way I gave it to the dwarf and he tuned up my sword. Ting!

With everything in hand now, I was brought directly to the Square where everyone had gathered.

It turned out Lady Sybil as a virgin was going to get sacrificed to the dragon, but everyone was hopeful the hero would show up because a hero always does in these circumstances. And he has!

All armed up with our various items and ready for action! It's a million to one chance, but it just might work.

The dragon was less impressed.

Rincewind cast his spell and turned his sword into a missile thing.

He launched it off only for it to miss. However, the dragon blew flame and the missile came back around to block it. A million to one chance of that happening!

And so with a current stalemate we moved to Act IV and the final confrontation.

Act IV started in the square still but the dragon was gone for now. Now while the game diverts from the book, Guards! Guards!, a lot, like a lot a lot, I figured the final fight would follow elements of the book and so I suspected I knew what to do right away which was to get to Sybil's dragon pens.

With Sybil still bound to the rock I was able to grab her key though it took quite a bit of waving the cursor around to actually find it. Then I went to the pens and unlocked them and was able to scoop up Mambo the 16th.

Also labelled as M16 in the inventory, siiigh.

Now, earlier Sybil had talked about dragons needing to eat a lot to fuel their flames, so it was time to feed him. In general she and her dragons were important clues for this act.

I really thought now would be the time to use that lantern oil but no. I had to feed him a firecracker, hot coals from the swordsmith and for some reason had to use him with Nanny Ogg's empty cauldron?

Once he was fueled up it was back to the square for the final face-off.

They traded some shots but then Mambo started getting lovey-dovey on the dragon. Things just needed a little push...

Custard. It always came down to the bloody custard. I had to throw the love potion custard tart at the dragon.

And she, being a she as it turns out, fell for Mambo...

And to some various chatter from the characters she and Mambo flew off together happy and in love.

The End.

Almost.

There was a final scene with Death showing up to the now-empty square with various excuses as to why he was late. Then he sat into a sighing sort of sulk.

To be honest I was sort of feeling him here by this point. I don't really like that the love potion was needed for that. Feels kind of gross.

Everyone else went for drinks and celebration.

It was a long road to get here, but there it is! Done and dusted! I feel like I ought to have more to say, but well, onto my final thoughts.

--

Final Thoughts

It's not a bad game. I was feeling some exasperation and a bit fed up toward the end and I'm sure that came through, but I did generally enjoy myself playing it. I would say it's rough around the edges, however. For a while now I've been thinking I would sum up most of my issues as 'too much.' And I can definitely see why it has the reputation for being hard that it does.

There are a lot of locations, a lot of inventory, some humour that feels belabored or jokes that felt overused, and relatedly while I'm always down for conversation in games, even some of them felt too long sometimes. Just a Lot. And the game probably could have been a bit shorter.

A few other things:

Some puzzle were perfectly manageable. Some took some extra thought and some fell into the trap of how do you even figure this out that often plagues classic adventure games. Still mad about the Chucky sword.

It's buggy in some places. There are a couple spots where when an animation is meant to play sometimes everything just gets stalled up and I couldn't even access menus. This happened to me a few times in the library at night and in the Temple of Offler.

And finally one other thing that kind of bugged me was the skills. You get the pickpocketing and the secret handshake and use them... once each. They basically just sit as icons in Rincewind's personal inventory for the rest of the game. Why are they so underutilized? Why even bother by that point and not simply alter the puzzles with items instead? It ended up feeling like a very extraneous system that could have been good! And then just got...ignored.

That all said, there was plenty I did enjoy. While some humour didn't land, at other points it did. It was fun to wander around a version of Ankh-Morpork and a pretty good one at that. I liked quite a bit of the voice acting, especially Rincewind. While some, especially later puzzles, drove me bananas there were plenty I did like. It was vibrant and certainly had its charms.

I would warn book lovers to very much hold the game and series separately. Treat it like some kind of alternate universe, a different leg in the trousers of time.

My patience was wearing thin through Act III, but I'm still glad I played it. I feel like my negatives are a lot longer than my positives but my positive points are broad important strokes. I will be playing Discworld II, and I hope it smoothed out some of the rougher issues. That won't be the next game, but it will come and I'm looking forward to it, too.

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 9

Part 9 in which I finally lose my mind and start using hints from Universal Hint System (referred to as UHS from now on) a lot more after a bunch of flailing around working on more than one item at a time, because nothing felt like it was working, and there had to be progress somewhere. This Act has wrecked me. The first chunk of this will look all over the place because I was all over the place.

As a reminder of things still needed: A tattoo for the birthmark - so close! Mustache Sword Magic book/spell Camo-flage Magic talisman

So everything.

Carrying on and staring helplessly at notes for things still unsolved, I had the thought that I could scrape the mud off the number plate on the cart at the livery stable with a spatula. No. The muddy plate was to remain unsolved for now still.

While I was at the stable, I tried scissors with the donkey tail and got threatened by the donkey.

I was fairly sure this luxuriant black tail would be related to the mustache somehow and thought maybe I'd need some way to distract the donkey or lift its mood since examining it talks about it seems under the weather.

Nothing I had seemed to do anything, so I switched tracks to the magic talisman and went to talk to the bragging adventurer in the Drum. Once I got him more beer he just fed me a pack of poorly told lies.

I needed the truth potion from Nanny Ogg, but still wasn't sure how to get it, so hint 1. The love potion custard tart. I forgot you could even use stuff on Rincewind.

So I used that and gave Nanny Ogg a big ol' smooch.

She gave me the truth potion and I used it on the beer for the adventurer. He realized I'd spiked it with something though and did the ol' look over there distraction at a picture of a prize winning animal.

Rincewind pointed out a different picture, then the adventurer went again, and there was nothing more to point out, so Rincewind got stuck with drinking the truth potion beer and rambled a bit about some of the stuff we've done in the game to the adventurer's confusion.

There's the wooden beam by the table. I tried hanging up the sheep picture, but the barkeeper will only let award winning animals be displayed.

I realized I could give the blue rosette to the sheep and get another picture.

A champion! As she deserves. Just look at all the already spun wool she's providing

I went through the whole beer switcheroo again, and with the added sheep portrait there was enough distractions for the truth potion beer to be on the adventurer's side. He drank up and admitted to being a lying weasel and that the temple is in a jungle over a gorge and could be found on any map. That opened the gorge location on my map.

I headed straight there and ran into the black monk of Offler from earlier in the game. We got into a tussle.

And he dropped Rincewind into the river far below.

Thankfully, the Luggage always follows and took care of the gators giving chase, so Rincewind clambered back up the paths and returned to the bridge.

I tried using the magic carpet thinking maybe I could fly over the gorge or get stopped from falling. Right solution; wrong reasoning. The carpet gets laid over the bridge and then when the monk approaches, Rincewind yanks it out from under him causing him to fall leaving the bridge free to cross.

I arrived at the Temple of Offler.

Very Indiana Jones inspired place, full of traps. There was even a hat and whip on the hat stand. I also scooped a bandana from there.

Rincewind makes a comment about not wanting to even look at the path. I tried the blindfold on him and that worked as far as doing anything, but since he can't see there was still no way to actually cross.

Just set off a lot of traps and when done, he had an arrow sticking through his hat that he tossed aside. That hat is good for something.

Once again, I couldn't figure out what to do and left to pursue other goals or hope for more information.

And the throwing up hands in despair and getting hints started here.

I found out there was something to do with the spatula in the Shades. Turns out you can scrape away the soot where the person got fried by the dragon for human-shaped soot. Double clicking it in the inventory turns it into a pile of soot. This can apparently be used to disguise yourself as a dragon victim--thus the camo-flage. So that's one item down I guess??

Then it was back to getting that blasted tattoo. Another hint led to the tower which I had completely forgotten about yet again, and it apparently overlooks the square, which I either didn't know or forgot. When I examined the tower it says that but I don't remember if it did in previous acts.

Anyway with the knowledge of that, I figured out I could use the rubber belt as a bungee rope basically and drop down to pluck away the fake tattoo from the street starfish.

Took Rincewind a few bounces but he got it in the end. Finally!

Two of the items acquired!

Since I was already well on the way to getting the Eye of Offler for the magic talisman I went back to the Temple of Offler.

Hints again sigh. I needed to use the leash on the luggage. I didn't realize you could even use inventory on the Luggage. With Rincewind blindfolded and the Luggage not having a care in the world about traps, it was able to lead the blinded Rincewind through the path to the altar.

I couldn't just grab the jewel, but figured I'd need to swap it. I found some sand. I thought, ah, fill something with the sand, like my paper bag and swap them. No. Well, yes and no, but not the paper bag. Oh no. UHS, I give you the floor:

Don't ask why, but your money pouch is the only thing that you can put the sand in.

I'm asking why! The money pouch is like the skills and sticks to Rincewind's inventory. It's never even been used as an inventory item. I've basically been treating it as a passive thing that's let me get items that should be paid for. Is that what Indiana Jones used as well? I don't know! I've only seen a couple of the movies and that was years ago. I barely remember anything about them outside of commonly referenced things.

I got the Eye of Offler anyway so there's my magic talisman.

I got the classic escape sequence with running away from a giant rolling rock.

Once outside it turned out to be a tiny ball and just kind of bounced off Rincewind's foot and onward. Tempered drama.

I returned to Ankh-Morpork to start working on the mustache. I confirmed with UHS I was right about needing the donkey, but I really had no idea what to do and was faced with this oh-so comforting message.

As a first hint here, the troll is a red herring. Don't bother to try to take his moustache or follow his lead or anything like that. And as a bit of a warning, some parts of this solution require some pretty big leaps of faith (and leaps in the subtlety of the hints).

I'm a little annoyed because I probably could have fumbled my way through at least part of the solution based off things I still had noted as needing solving or suspicious even if I would have been confused by the end goal. But I was stymied by having straight up missed an item.

That dirty number plate on the cart has been bugging me for a while and I kept thinking the foamy water would be needed to clean it, but I needed something to clean with. I missed a brush in the fool's bathroom.

So the goal here was to get the donkey elsewhere into a position to cut some of the tail. There have been a number of comments of "Did anyone get the number of that donkey cart" when someone, usually Rincewind, gets stunned. However, the assassin at the alley rooftops does it when falling too. I'd long forgotten that and needed the hint for that.

So, you take the ladder that got put back up there on his route, by cutting the bit of rope holding it in place with the knife. I got that bit! Then the assassin falls and asks that question.

If you've cleaned the number plate you find out the number plate says Sore Ass.

If you hadn't cleaned it yet...like me... you have to go through dropping the ladder all over again.

Once that's done the donkey is gone from the stable and ends up in the stocks in the square.

From there simply cut a bit of the tail and presto there's a mustache!

I don't think I would have ever deliberately put all that together... especially since I was already going on the wrong train of thought in regards to the donkey. Still, mustache acquired.

I still needed the sword and the magic book. It'd be nice to think the dragon summoning book would count, but it's actually a spell you need, so to the library. Unlike the convolutions of the other items I just needed to the find the book in the shelves. Essentially a pixel hunt. Yay.

Rincewind read the book and got a spell or the book read him. Either way he's got a spell rattling around his head now and in my inventory.

All I had left to get is the sword! I had no idea how to get that!

Thank you Universal Hint System! I'll probably come running back to you some more for the sword, but I want to give it a whack at least...

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 7

Part 7 and onward in my longest game here yet. In which I get that last artifact and finally make it to Act III and beyond!

But first that artifact. I knew the Fool had it, but I wasn't sure what it actually was. I assumed it might be his Chucky staff or something inside it. No, it turned out to be his hat with golden bells. I got a bit irked because for all five of the other people their artifact could be examined and was treated as an interactable. The hat? Absolutely nothing. I knew it thanks to a hint. I get you're supposed to know by the gold, but it broke the pattern already set by five, five! other artifacts!

Anyway, once over that hurdle and after a bit of a break from the game, I figured I'd need him to get to the bath in the bathroom to put his hat on the hat stand in the bathroom. Which, by the way, that room's music is obnoxiously louder than everywhere else for some reason. Everything about this Fool was out to get me.

I dumped the garbage can over his head. That'd get him dirty and smelly all right.

He fled to the bathroom and I followed to find him in the tub, thankfully curtained off, his hat on the hat stand as hoped, and his staff guarding the way.

Freaking Chucky.

But easily handled by adding the bubble bath and blinding Chucky with all the bubbles and foam.

I grabbed the hat and got out of there.

All six artifacts acquired!

I'd already dropped off the previous five with the dragon, so it was time to bring the last one at last.

I said something along the lines of nothing could possibly go wrong in bringing all the artifacts to the dragon. Perfectly safe thing to do.

With the last one given, he was free! ...To start enacting revenge on the world, the brotherhood, and oops, lastly Rincewind too because he had been at the ritual. Who'dathunk.

Rincewind skedaddled but now we had a new problem. Stop this dragon from coming for him later and I guess everyone else, too. After some initial what nowing it came down to having to stop the ritual from having happened the previous night.

But first I wandered and went back to the palace and discovered Nanny Ogg was gone now, so I guessed she got her seller's permit and sure enough she'd moved to the Square. She was selling a magic carpet and in her stall was her custard recipe book which she was not willing to sell.

I got the magic carpet and carried on...

Okay, so for this particular session I was already feeling kind of irritable and impatient, so while I still didn't succumb to a guide, I did go inch my way a little bit into what Universal Hint System had to say.

The ritual needed to be stopped which meant going back to that night. You can take the dragon summoning book that the thief steals, but that doesn't do anything. In fact the ritual still takes place exactly the same as always -- which does beg the question of what the book is actually doing here. Anyway, instead of just taking the book you need to replace it with something else for the thief to take. I used UHS as far as needing to get the thief to take something. Once I was on the right path it was a matter of 'okay, clearly need a different book'. And the only book I knew of was that custard book, so back I went.

I went through Nanny Ogg's conversation options again and in one of them, she gets flirty and tries a kiss pose which leaves her distracted enough to whisk away the book. So that turned out to be easy.

The book on its own isn't enough though. You gotta use them together to swap the covers, then put the newly decorated custard book in the shelf for the thief to steal, and then it's back to the hideout where Rincewind stayed outside this time to eavesdrop.

The ritual started out the same as usual but once it was time to use the book, it became custard time.

Too much oozy love custard leaking out the door... ick.

With the brotherhood otherwise engaged and the dragon not summoned, Rincewind raced back to the castle feeling quite the hero.

Which no one believed because the dragon didn't get summoned this time and dragons don't exist.

Rincewind kept insisting on the dragon being real and then... well they're summoned by belief, so...

In came the dragon with some new decorating techniques, adding a nice big hole to the castle. Despite the fiddling with time, the dragon still seemed to recognize Rincewind? So, maybe it sort of sits outside time? I dunno.

But that brought me to Act III at last!

So, Rincewind got out of there, as a Rincewind do, but now there's a dragon in the palace. Now there needs to be a hero, and I guess it was time to step up to the plate...?

It seemed like a full round was needed again for changes. I went to the city gate first and chatted with the guards. For a chance to defeat the dragon the odds have got to be a million to one because "It's a million to one chance but it might just work." And statements like that can't fail in a narrative.

This conversation brought up a little window to try different things on Rincewind to change or check the odds.

For now at least I only had the options of a tattoo, mask and magic book. Any combination of them wasn't getting the odds where I needed them. So it was time to start exploring and finding out what makes a hero.

Square: I next went to the square where I discovered that the old man who hadn't been doing so well, is in fact... not.

He's a gravestone now. Oh dear, oh dear.

Turns out he was still getting some comments from... down there? And the others seem to think he's still faking, so I dunno with these guys.

They continued to be not particularly helpful though did wind their way to talking about the traditional sacrifice of a virgin bound to a rock for the dragon.

Dibbler: now selling a leech weight loss program. After some arguing back and forth I got a paper bag of leeches. Examining the bag in the inventory took out the leeches. Two items in one!

Amazon Woman: Rincewind started to tentatively broach the subject of virgins and rocks but turns out she's not anymore. Someone bested her...at tiddly-winks.

Stall: Like the tomatoes, when I took one, the poor mouse went by now on a crutch and the egg dropped and broke over it... unleashing a snake?? I got the snake anyway. And I took another egg that I got to keep.

Psychia-trickerist: Not anymore! It's a casting office for the "Clickies". Film is starting to take off!

The troll is going by "Flint" now and reckons a hero should have a black mustache. He's got a lichen one going himself.

The girl is all into being a star now and was willing to give me her "ottograph" named after her agent, Otto, if I could bring her some nice paper.

Dunnyking: Also not the Dunnyking anymore, but now the custard king. The custard just never ends.

That was the Square done for now, so I headed to the alley next.

Rooftops: I got another scene of an assassin training on the rooftops. There's a replacement ladder but when I went up I couldn't take it. It can be interacted with though... Something for later.

Alchemist's home: He's figured out banged grains (popcorn)--gotta have the appropriate snacks for movies, but he's been purchasing expensive premium grain. Rincewind suggested he get some at the livery stable instead for a lot cheaper, so he took off leaving me free to steal the camera box, or 'impstamatic'.

Moving on...

Livery Stable: Corn's gone and the donkey is still under the weather. But I could examine the bumper of the cart where there two stickers or plates: one for Sybil Ramkin's Dragon Sanctuary which opened a new location! Yay! And one too muddy to read.

From there I went to check the barn.

Barn: I guess the dragon didn't stay in the palace because he was back there. Otherwise nothing to do that I found.

Palace: The guards were back. I got through them with the ink blot again, more wife insulting sigh.

I was assaulted by noise on entering because there is now a smoke device where the dragon had landed before.

It's loud...

Now the line to see the Patrician had the University chef, the little guy who got beat up at the Broken Drum, and still the peasant

The bathroom was unchanged and in fact the bubble bath was still bubbling

In the area with the smoke device I was able to now enter the dungeons. Here I found a couple people in cells to chat with--a thief doing time ahead of time to get it done now with the efficiency only the Patrician can bring, and the guy I got the golden banana from who was arrested for having all the gold in the kingdom, oops...

There was a mousehole with eyes peering out, and an iron maiden. Just things to keep in mind.

And I found the torture room with the Fool and the torturer who had been the tax collector but got promoted. They're the same department.

Not much but annoyance from the Fool.

I got a bone from the skeleton and then left for now.

Unseen University:

Library: Mostly unchanged but the door to L-Space is closed now

Kitchen: Got a spatula

Dining Hall: Learned from the Lecturer of Recent Runes that a Hero should have a magic talisman

Archchancellor's Office: I got his hat! It was just sitting on his desk. And when I examined his hat a bunny and handkerchiefs poked out: a seemingly endless string of them in there.

Broken Drum: Also mostly unchanged. However, there was a drink on the shelf - Klatchian cactus juice with a worm wriggling inside, that once I examined, I was able to order. That got me the worm that seems drunk. Happy, but drunk.

I still have several places just within in the city let alone outside it to check out, so the exploration and item gathering will continue next time.

[theadventurerslog]

Discworld | Part 6

Last time I ended off with looking for the golden artifacts and I'd found 1/6. I decided my next step would be to try dealing with the fishmonger so back I went.

I looked him over and discovered he had a gold belt buckle. Just trying to take it resulted in him pulling a sword from his swordfish–another reason for the name!–in threat. "Ah the old sword in a swordfish trick!" So obviously it’s not going to be that simple, but you gotta try stuff for science, right? Right.

Something else that had been bugging me as a "This is clearly something that is part of a puzzle" thing, has been the caviar beside him. He reaches out periodically to grab and eat some. It seemed fairly clear to me that I would need to put something in there for him to grab instead.

You know what else has been bugging me since the start of the game? That wizard apprentice's prunes. Caviar. Prunes. Octopus in the toilet. Yeah.

I needed to finally get those prunes. I wasn't entirely sure how. I went back to the Unseen University but had no success except what else is there that I hadn't yet found a use for? The gong in the dining hall. I still didn't have anything to hit the gong with. What might one use for a gong? A drum stick.

There was, keyword 'was' when I was done with things, a drumstick as part of the sign for the Drum/Broken Drum tavern. There had been a fight the previous night. A fight I could start that previous night. I think I said I saw a lot of L-Space. Yeah, that kept up as it was time to return to the previous night again.

I started a fight by messing with a guy's glass, the troll bouncer went in to break that up or make it worse, who knows.

Either way it left me free to use the ladder to climb the sign and break off a drum stick.

Then I returned to the present day leaving more destruction from that night and went back to the university to finally hit the gong!

And that summoned the apprentice to eat, leaving his bag of prunes free for the taking. Two things here finally resolved and it felt great.

Feeling very cheerful and a bit smug, I waltzed back to the fishmonger and watched as I successfully added the prunes to the caviar and he successfully ate one and erm, successfully needed the facilities.

He zipped off to the outhouse and I followed. I could see his belt buckle under the outhouse door and... I couldn't grab it. I'd try and he'd just reach down and stop me. And I stared aghast because there's an octopus in that toilet! How did this not work! How was he not reacting more? The things this game makes me say!

I left the alley which also caused the fishmonger to leave as well. I went back in to check on the octopus and it was indeed there. I stared at my inventory wondering what the heck to do now.

The octopus needed to be, shall we say clingier. Perhaps, more attracted? Loving even.

Yeah, I fed it the love potion custard.

I set things off again with the prunes.

Mission accomplished.

Poor fishmonger was grabbed? Hugged? Um, otherwise incapacitated leaving his belt buckle free for the taking.

2/6 golden artifacts acquired!

I wasn't really sure what to do next. I knew the chimney sweep had one. I was suspicious of the toymaker. I wasn't sure about the others.

But, I decided with the pot emptied of its custard, I figured it wouldn't hurt to go back to the wishing well and grab more water.

The barber/dentist was still waiting there. No milkmaid for him yet oh dear.

I grabbed my water and carried on, but made note of him still waiting.

I also discovered, as is my way that I missed another location out there on the outside map! I missed the edge of the world, at the, well, edge.

I got over there to find a rainbow, and coconuts and a lantern and a place to maybe use a fishing pole should I get one or the equivalent. I was able to get the coconuts and the lantern. I used the screwdriver on the coconut to get some coconut milk.

This game drives me over the edge sometimes too, Rincewind.

I took off back into the city to try the lantern with the Broken Drum's pitch black cellar, but while the lantern has oil sloshing around, I'm not sure it was actually lit and I couldn't seem to light it myself if it wasn't. So, that was a bust again. The cellar is turning into another long-term niggle.

I did some wandering and went back to the inn where I discovered I could add the soap to my pot of water for some frothy water. Not helpful right now, but I'm sure it will be.

I decided to give the palace another whack now that I have so much more inventory and I figured if I missed all those clues with the brotherhood maybe there was something else I missed with the guards.

One of them mentioned the psychia-trickerist and there was still talk about the guard's ugly wife (sigh). I tried one of the ink blots and the other guard compared it to the guy's wife causing another fight and allowing me back in at last. This also caused them to leave permanently at least for now, which is nice.

Things had changed a bit now. The thief was gone, Nanny Ogg had moved up in line and the tax collector who had been in the stocks was in line now.

The peasant was still there and informed me the thief had gone back to The Shades.

And that has led to The Shades finally being open to me, so in I went. One note I've forgotten to mention and I hoped it would be resolved in the Shades is that at night the outhouse door has graffiti on it that read:

"Prove that you're a man! See Sally at the House of Negotiable Affection and ask for a "Special"!

So my hopes going in to the Shades were as follows:

-Find the house of negotiable affection and get the proof

-Use said proof with the street urchin to progress things with hopefully the toy maker which will maybe somehow lead to another artifact?

-Find the thief and his artifact!

-Find something to help with the chimney sweep for getting his artifact too?

In we go...

For all the danger vibes, it's a deathless point and click game still. So far, anyway, it was pretty easy-going.

I first found a mason with a golden trowel, ahah. Which makes far more sense than my other guesses; that's what I get for basing them solely on people I'd met so far.

He was having a bit of a time with his underthings--getting worn out, breezy, y'know. Clearly a case of get him a replacement and get the trowel in return.

I also found the thief's hovel and was able to use the ladder to cross over to it but the thief who was seemingly asleep woke and shoved me back out when I got too close.

I wasn't sure what to do about that, so I carried on with the exploration.

Lastly was the House of Negotiable Affection.

I talked to the ladies, but didn't really get much in the way of anything useful.

As it is technically still daytime, despite what the Shades look like and I had seen the graffiti with the clue about the house at night, I figured I'd go back and try then.

That was the ticket. I was able to talk to Sally and ask for a special, ohh la la.

Which turned out to be custard.

She further elaborated with a saying from her granny "good kissing only lasts five minutes but good cookery lasts for years." I'll take good cooking any day.

Anyway, when I got back out I had golden bloomers so there was my proof to bring to the street urchin, but first I stopped by the thief's hovel again and while I was able to enter the only thing I could interact with was a bed. Still a big shrug there at this point.

So I went back to the day and the street urchin, presented my proof of being a man and learned the secret handshake. The old timers were, once again, used as a training exercise.

And I got a well-padded bra out of it?? Or stole it? Glorified pick pocketing? I don't know; I'm a bit vague on what was happening here.

And that confusion continued when I went back to try it on the mason and he was satisfied with what he got from Rincewind??--and gave me the golden trowel. I really didn't quite catch what happened. Were his underthings taken? He was holding something white.

At least I got a third artifact! And oops, the toymaker was not involved in any of this.

Three more to go:

Thief Chimney Sweep The Fool

I was however stuck on all three of these.

After much wandering, mental screaming and staring and apparently doing things in the wrong order! I got some friend help and got into the thief's hovel. The problem was waking him, so I needed to muffle the ladder. The padded bra was the key but I had tried to use it on the ladder before when it was already out. I needed to combine them in my inventory. With that sorted I was able to get in.

The thief was sleeping with a golden key dangling. I tried to take it, he rolled over. I was able to get him to roll back by tickling his feet with the feather. I tried to take it, failed again. Tickled again, tried again and got it, so I guess it got loosened? Or something? I got it anyway, so four artifacts down!

And then there were two more to go...

I went for the chimney sweep next. I figured from his conversation I might need to knock him down. There are chimneys on the rooftops within reach. There is a big fireplace in the alchemist's place. I thought something explosive. Either sending it up or down the chimney. I was part way right but missing the initial step.

Thanks to another friend hint I realized I needed to drop the Hogfather doll down the chimney. Because like Santa. I just... that damn doll has been in my inventory for so long I kind of forgot it? Even though it's right there? I just sort of stopped registering it. I also wondered if it and the donkey toy were fun optional things because the donkey toys never showed up at the toy shop again making it seem missable. Of course it could be once you scoop the donkey only then do the Hogfather dolls show up, but I didn't know that! I'm kind of irritated I didn't get that one. I feel like I should have been able to figure that out. Some kind of damn item blindness.

Get in the chimney, you lil' bastard.

I dropped him down there, the chimney got clogged, the alchemist's place filled with smoke and the fire went out. The chimney sweep came to clean that chimney and while I could talk to him, I still couldn't take his gold broom. He had a sword too like the fishmonger, but this time a sword in the chimney trick.

So, down I went to the alchemist's and it was time for that explosion. I put the keg of gunpowder in the now empty fireplace, attached the twine which was fed through the sink out into the drain pipe. (and yet the twine still persists in my inventory, it's truly endless). I went outside and lit my new fuse and boom!

The chimney sweep was knocked off the roofs and the broom was sent flying to land in the Luggage.

Five artifacts acquired! I've dropped them all off with the dragon.

One more artifact left. Next time it's time to figure out how to get it from the Fool. And what it even is, for that matter.