#forest vault

[missnight0wl]

MC’s visions

In light of my recent post about Legilimency in HPHM, I made a more in-depth analysis of MC’s visions throughout the story.

1) The very first vision in the Artefact Room (Y1Ch4)

MC and Rowan were searching there for the book on duelling which was supposed to help them prepare to defend themselves from Merula. At first, MC heard only their name while Brother Theme was playing.

Notice that MC didn’t recognise the voice as Jacob’s - they thought it was Rowan. Then, at the end of the scene, MC had the first proper vision.

In general, you can say it’s a warning for MC about the danger to come.

2) After touching the Snowflake Door, optional (Y2Ch4)

It happened when MC and Rowan explored the Icy Corridor for the first time and if a player chose the option to open the door (locked with the courage attribute).

There was no voice and no Brother Theme (though I suppose it could be because it’s a fairly short AND optional scene). Still, it had a similar character to the previous vision: it’s a warning and a clue about what MC would have to deal with. Although, the part about Voldemort is a bit confusing to me. It’s obviously foreshadowing for MC’s Boggart. But if we assume that it’s indeed sent by someone like Jacob, there are basically two options:

Jacob is a Seer (or something) and predicted a form of MC’s Boggart,

Jacob actually sent his memory, meaning that Voldemort was also his worst fear.

Now, I know that You-Know-Who was said to be a common Boggart form during and after the war. But while I can kind of see how it could work for MC, it doesn’t make much sense for Jacob. He was already hiding from R by the time of the Vault of Fear, after all. Unless, of course, he thought that R might have something to do with the Dark Lord...

3) The Vault of Ice (Y2Ch10)

No Brother Theme was playing, and interestingly, MC identifies the voice as Jacob’s. But even though they’re both described as “Mysterious Voice”, it’s unclear to me whether it’s the same voice as in the previous year and MC had a sudden epiphany just now, perhaps the voice was clearer this time, or maybe it’s a  different voice entirely. Either way, this “vision” seems to be odd in comparison to the previous two. For one, MC didn’t mention seeing anything - just hearing. And more importantly, the message was... oddly vague. We really didn’t get much to go by, and the whole “her” thing? Like, dude... if you want to warn your sibling at least use a FREAKING NAME! I can’t help but feel like it’s more of order with emotional undertone than a warning intended to be helpful.

4) The Vault of Fear (Y3Ch9)

Here, Brother Theme is playing again. I keep pointing it out because while it seems that the game is using it simply as a stirring melody recently, I don’t think it was always the case. The years 1-3 were created under the original team, so I want to believe that they weren’t using Bother Theme coincidentally. That being said, we’re also back to a warning character of that short message, or rather encouraging. Admittedly, no images are accompanying it, however, it’s implied that the whole final duel was happening in MC’s mind so it could’ve been interfering.

5) The Forest Vault (Y4Ch16)

No Brother Theme, no images. Ordering tone again, very vague information, playing on MC’s emotions. And notice that MC talks here about hearing while the first two visions were clearly about seeing.

Final thoughts

To sum up, we have:

the Artefact Room: little words, visual images, warning/clues, Brother Theme;

the Snowflake Door: no words, visual images, warning/clues, no Brother Theme;

the Vault of Ice: more words, no visual images, orders based on emotions, no Brother Theme;

the Vault of Fear: little words, no visual images, warning/support, Brother Theme;

the Forest Vault: more words, no visual images, orders based on emotions, no Brother Theme.

I’d say that we can distinguish two groups from that. The first one contains the Artefact Room, the Snowflake Door, and the Vault of Fear. The second group is with the Vault of Ice and the Forest Valt. Moreover, when you think about it, the first group is more like Jacob as presented before Y5Ch30: caring, supportive, worried about people, trying to help his sibling. The second one is vault!Jacob: referring to MC’s feelings and making them chase after him by not delivering any real answers.

[missnight0wl]

Which of the Cursed Vaults so far is your favorite?

Oh, that’s an interesting question! Although, I am quite terrible when it comes to picking favourites…

Hm, even though Y4 is my absolute favourite in general, I think I have to say that the Vault of Fear from Y3 is my favourite Cursed Vault. Admittedly, the Boggarts weren’t the most fascinating curse, but I like the structure of it. I like that we first needed the book to open the passage in the Restricted Section, and then a broken wand to open the column. Plus, it involved a kind of a riddle (“To open, a wizard must make the ultimate sacrifice.”), and I’d love it if the story had more elements like that. Of course, then the writers would have to pay more attention to the whole mystery… Back to the Vault, though. It’s also very interesting how it was heavily implied that the final duel between MC and Boggart!Voldemort took place in MC’s mind, and it’d be neat if that issue came back in the future.

Now, as for the other Vaults. The Vault of Ice was kind of underwhelming, to be honest. I understand that it’s the first vault, so it makes sense that it was easier and less complicated, but still. I think it could’ve been done better. Also, I wish to learn more if there were any consequences after it was messed with in Y5 (by Pettigrew and when Rakepick revived the Ice Knight for Sir Cadogan’s TLSQ).

The Forest Vault was a bit of a mess. First of all, it was never really explained how the Sleepwalking Curse worked. Like, we had Madam Pomfrey saying that “the longer curse last, the longer they sleep”, but we don’t know how many victims there were overall or how often it happened, so I feel like it wasn’t very meaningful information. It can also be concluded that the curse was drawing the victims towards the vault, but then we also had Torvus who was redirecting them back to the castle. The thing is that from what Charlie told us, it sounded like the students were still sleepwalking, so… it’s not a very effective curse if you ask me. I mean, they should rather go back on the track to the Forest, right? Though, now that I think about it, I wonder if it’s not because Torvus has a connection to the Cursed Vaults through the arrow, and so his actions could influence the victims differently… Either way, we also had a problem with the Acromantula. The story they told us suggested that they set their nest there in Jacob’s times. However, what was guarding the vault before? Was it based on “luck” that some creature would attack the victims? Was there a specific guard who went extinct?

Finally, the Portrait Vault was just… a big disappointment. It’s all over the place, there’s no rhyme or reason to it, and it just really annoys me. I’m also actually pissed off that the game insists on calling it “the Buried Vault” when this aspect was totally ignored for most of the time. When the kids were inside, they literally couldn’t tell if they’re underground or not, and it was never elaborated.

To be fair, all of the Vaults left some unanswered questions. It could (and should) have been said more about each of them. I wouldn’t mind at all having even multiple chapters dedicated to their mechanism. But in the end, I suppose that the Vault of Fear was the best thought-out.

Let me know if you have the favourite Cursed Vault! ^^ (both @nuttydelphox and whoever sees it - it’s a cool topic to discuss!)

[missnight0wl]

I’ve just had a possible epiphany as to why Rakepick didn’t go with MC to the Forest Vault and was only helping us indirectly (which is one of the things that don’t really make much sense about her, and it was never addressed). If Patricia was indeed in the Forest Vault with our brother – as I suspect – she could’ve been worried that the Acromantula would recognise her and mention her relationship with Jacob.

[missnight0wl]

Guess what? I did the Cursed Vaults symbol!

[missnight0wl]

Y3Ch10:

So it’s one more of the things that were mentioned once and never brought up again. But wouldn’t it be funny if it turned out that Jacob put it as a clue that Rakepick would help us with the Forest Vault?

She directed us to Professor Kettleburn who told us how to get to the Forbidden Forest. She lent us Sickleworth who did a great job at finding the missing arrowhead. She taught us Arania Exumai which we used to defeat the Acromantula.

I really don’t think it was R who signed a map, it’s not their style. They’re sending rather direct messages. Even if it’s them who put the clues in the Vaults, it’s just odd that nothing else was marked like that before or after.

[missnight0wl]

I mean... I’m probably just as biased as Bill, and I bet you know that, Patty. But okay.

Well, in the previous year he was the one who asked me in the first place to help with the Forest Vault. After Ben’s attack, he was the one reassuring me that we have to continue our mission. So why exactly are you surprised, Bill?