Tower Quest

An account of my expedition to unknown lands. I am taking suggestions. Main blog: @concoctionboy

[towerquest]

Hi, I'm @concoctionboy, and I'm... well, basically I'm a living magic potion, but I guess I qualify as a slime. Anyway, at one point I decided to head out and explore a bit, and it... kind of ended up taking a lot longer than I expected. I thought I'd just venture out for a couple of days, but, well, my expedition's been going on for two months now and there's no end in sight, so I figured I'd make a sideblog for it. After I finish reblogging all the relevant posts from my main blog, the new posts about my exploration will be exclusively here.

Anyone is welcome to make suggestions on these posts! If there's something you think I should do, please feel free to reply with your suggestion! (I don't promise I'll always follow every suggestion, but I'll probably do just about anything that doesn't seem potentially suicidal or evil. (I may have been created by an evil wizard, but that doesn't mean I have to be evil.))

(A note if you're wondering about the continuity of how this fits into my main blog: like many slimes, I can split myself into smaller parts (that can then gradually regrow to full size). So there's one me exploring the tower, and another me doing the stuff in my main blog, and the two mes are mentally connected but in two different places. (Now, if you're wondering about the exact chronology of how this blog fits with the main blog, eh, I can't promise all the timing is going to exactly work out, but let's allow for a little artistic license.)

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Feed coins through the keyhole. Maybe they'll pick it for you, maybe you'll just give money to Xil and Floscle.

Well, that keyhole is big enough I can pass coins through it pretty easily, I guess.

(As I side note, I guess maybe I should change to a different shape for now? I mean, I've mostly kept this shape since the man-eating plant bit off my top half, but mostly because it made it easy for Xil to carry me around (and also he seemed to find it amusing), but at the moment when I'm separated from Xil and Flocsle maybe it makes more sense to just... turn back into my typical shape only half-size, or something. I don't know. I guess I can stay in just the bottom-half shape; I'm actually kind of getting used to it by now; but there's not really any reason I have to.)

Anyway, Xil points out he doesn't really have anywhere to put the coins, but Flocsle can stuff them into her... uh, dress? Sleeve? Whatever you call what she's wearing.

Still, the coins don't seem to be doing anything to unlock the door (not that I really expected them to—but at least they didn't set off any traps), so that doesn't really solve the problem of how to let Xil and Flocsle in here, or to meet up with them somewhere else. Like I said before, the three most obvious options are to try to pick the lock, to go through the lock into one of the adjoining rooms and to let them in there, or to just go back out and rejoin them and go a different way, though I'm sure there are other possibilities.

Oh... and I guess for reference I may as well update my map of the tower. So having gone up those stairs I'm back now on the level where I first entered the tower, though I'm on the opposite side of it.

So, as usual, looking for suggestions as to what I should do next...

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Through the door. Best to stay out of sightline of anyone outside right now

Okay. Like I said, the door has just a keyhole on this side, no knob or obvious way of opening it... but like I also said, that's not much of an obstacle to me because I can just liquefy myself and slip through the keyhole.

Uh... wow. Uh... okay.

I guess this must be the tower treasury or something?

The room is mostly filled by, like, a huge pile of gold (and some gems, but mostly gold)—most of it is coins, but there are some gold bars and a few other objects. There are two other doors; there's light glowing through the keyhole of the door to my left, and through the keyhole of the door to my right there's, uh... darkness glowing through? Or antiglowing? That's not how darkness is supposed to work, so I don't know what's going on there.

Okay, now it turns out there may be kind of a problem. The plan was, having entered the room through the keyhole, to open the door from the inside and let in Xil and Flocsle. The problem is, I'd kind of assumed that, even if there wasn't any sort of doorknob on the outside, there'd be one on the inside. And, uh...

...turns out there isn't. There's just a keyhole on this side, too.

So I guess I'm left with a few options.

I could try picking the lock? I mean, I've never done it before, but the fact that I can change shape and go inside the lock may give me an advantage... though if there are any traps in the lock, I might end up setting them off, and while they might not affect me, depending on the nature of the trap it's possible they might.

I could slip through one of the other keyholes and enter one of the other rooms, and hopefully that one will have a door I can open from the inside so I can let Xil and Flocsle in there. Although that might mean leaving them waiting outside for a while.

Or of course I could go back and rejoin Xil and Flocsle and we could try going a different way.

Or maybe there's some other option I'm overlooking? As always, advice on what to do next is welcome.

[towerquest]

Not an update - Bonus Post (sort of I guess)

So, I just started (finally) working on the next Tower Quest update. Now, as it happens, for no really good reason, I've been doing all the Tower Quest images and animations as different frames in the same file (I should... really stop doing that and start creating separate files at some point), and turning on and off different layers. Anyway, because of what frames I happened to have showing and what images had propagated to different frames, this is the image that greeted me in the first frame when I first opened the file, and I... kind of figured it was interesting enough in a weird abstract sort of way to be maybe worth sharing.

(The actual update should be up in an hour or two.)

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Nah, nothing we want from a mute skeleton. Let's go upstairs.

Okay. The skeleton doesn't do anything to stop us from leaving; in fact, it waves good-bye. (Xil waves back.)

Now, as a reminder, I entered the tower through a grate that dropped me into a basement level, and from there I seeped through a crack in the ground into the level where I've spent most of my time so far, which means this level is basically the second level down underground. So going up one level will bring us back to the floor where I first entered.

Anyway, from the skull room we pass through the room with the symbol on the ground...

..and going through the left door from there, of course, takes us back to the staircase.

Partway up the staircase there's a door on the left. There's no doorknob on the door, just a big keyhole. Which isn't much of an obstacle under the circumstances, because I can easily just, you know, liquefy myself and go through the keyhole, and then open the door from the other side.

Or we could keep going up farther; I can see that farther up the staircase is a trapdoor, and I guess beyond that trapdoor should be the aboveground part of the tower.

So I guess the choice is whether to go through the door or continue up to the trapdoor. I mean, okay, sure, there are other things we could also do, like jump down the shaft in the middle, or jump across the shaft to the landing on the opposite side, or wait here and see if anyone shows up, but those two choices seem like the most obvious options.

As always, I'm taking suggestions for what we should do next.

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: I think it wants Xil to put the paste onto you? Which...you should probably let Xil explain that you're a living potion, so that wouldn't...really...work

Oh, yeah, that makes sense; Xil told the skeleton the man-eating plant had eaten half of me, so maybe the skeleton was offering some kind of healing salve to restore me. Anyway, yeah, Xil explains the whole potion situation.

Actually, I'm not 100% sure the salve wouldn't have worked. I mean, yes, mixing other potions with me may have unpredictable effects, but it's not always bad, and I'm not sure whether the same thing would apply to a salve as a potion? But honestly even I know for sure the salve would work, it might still be best to turn down it down. I mean, yeah, it would definitely be nice to be back to my full self, but if the skeleton saw my face it might recognize me as the guy it caught going through its desk, and that, uh, might be bad.

Anyway, the skeleton shrugs and puts the salve back in the desk.

So anyway, I guess the skeleton's not hostile now, so it's presumably not going to stop us from leaving the room, although I don't know if there's something we might want to ask it about first. Anyway, it's been a while, so here again is a map of this level to help see where we can go next:

Any suggestions for what to do now?

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Follow it. I'm curious now.

Okay, so the skeleton led us back to its desk, and then it stood behind its desk and opened the top drawer and started going through it.

Yeah, this is the same desk I looked through earlier, but I didn't get a chance to search through everything before the skeleton woke up.

Anyway, the skeleton took out this little jar of reddish paste. (I don't remember seeing that in the drawer before, but like I said, I didn't get a chance to look through everything; it must have been in the back.)

It opened the lid and held the jar forward.

Okay, now the skeleton looked at Xil and kind of motioned toward me with the jar. I'm not 100% sure what it wants Xil to do. (I'm also not 100% sure it's a good idea to do what the skeleton wants.) This would be easier if the skeleton could talk, but so far it seems to communicate just by gesturing. Although for all I know it can talk and chooses not to. I mean, sure, it doesn't have lungs or vocal cords, but it also doesn't have muscles and it seems to be able to move just fine. (Okay, I don't know how animate skeletons work.)

Anyway, so, uh, the skeleton is waiting for Xil to do something with the paste, I think?

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: You're Xil's partner and floscle is ya'lls pet. It's not that complex, skeleton.

Oh, gosh… if I still had a face (as opposed to having had my top half bitten off by that man-eating plant), I think I'd be blushing.

No, but I get what you're saying; it doesn't have to be true; it just has to satisfy the skeleton.

As for Flocsle… I don't think we taught her the word for "pet" and I don't know if she learned enough English that she'd really comprehend what we were saying, but even if she did I think she's understand.

Or Xil is bringing floscle to another part of the tower and just happened to pick up a piece of a statue(you)

Hmm, I don't think we could really sell the statue bit. I mean, maybe if we'd planned that from the beginning so I could have tried to hold perfectly still, but as it is I'm pretty sure I've been twitching a little. And even if I was perfectly still, I don't know what a statue would be made of that's bluish-green and translucent.

But maybe we can combine the two explanations; use the first idea to explain me and the second to explain Flocsle…

"So, this is my partner; I don't think the two of you have met. Well, it's what's left of my partner; he had a bit of a run-in with the man-eating plant in the moss room, but, like, he'll get better."

(Yeah, the man-eating plant part is true, of course, but I mean, why tell a lie when a half-truth will do? Actually, I feel a little bad about lying to the skeleton, but I guess it may be necessary, and anyway, like I said, it's not all lies.)

"And, uh, this is just a… guest of the tower who I'm escorting to a different location. So, like, we'll just be on our way, if that's okay…"

Well, after just… staring at us for a minute, the skeleton started walking away, but, uh, I think it's beckoning for us to follow it? I mean, we could make a break for it while its back is turned, but maybe we should go along and find out what it wants?

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Fight the skeleton!

Uh... I mean, I'm not much of a combatant at the best of times, and currently with the top half of me missing, I, uh, guess I could just kick the skeleton? Or maybe Xil could grab me by the ankles and wield me like a flail...

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Or send Xil in to talk to him, Xil is supposed to be sorta of a resident of this tower, right?

Oh... oh yeah, right. Yeah, I like that idea much better.

"Hi, so, I don't think we've ever really talked, but, like, I know I've seen you around, right? Sorry if the alarm disturbed you... nothing to worry about, just a bit of an accident; everything's fine. Anyway, I'm just passing through; didn't mean to bother you. Have a great day."

So... after a bit of a pause, the skeleton pointed at Flocsle, and then at me. I... I think what it's getting at is that it recognizes Xil and I guess is okay with his presence here, but it wants to know what he's doing with Flocsle and me?

Any ideas for what kind of explanation we can give?

[unexpectedly-wizardposting]

Or Xil is bringing floscle to another part of the tower and just happened to pick up a piece of a statue(you)

[towerquest]

Just an OOC note: The reason I hadn't updated the Tower Quest lately isn't because I forgot about it or because I hadn't received a suggestion I thought I could use; it's just because of stress and lack of time. I haven't been getting much work lately due to the WGA strike, which has left me very concerned about my finances and how I was going to pay my rent... and then as it happens I did work most days this last week, which at least relieved some of my financial stress (though not all of it), but then that meant long workdays this last week during which I also didn't get a chance to make an update. I do have tomorrow off and plan to try to get an update in then, though.

(Still probably going to be under a lot of stress until the strike is resolved, though... especially with SAG-AFTRA potentially going on strike tomorrow as well. To be clear, I do support the strike; the writers and actors have good cause for it; but it's making things very difficult for me right now (as it is for a lot of people working in the entertainment industry). Still, that's on the producers' heads; they could end the strike at any time by just agreeing to the writers' (and actors') fully justified terms—and the sooner they do so, the better.)

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Fight the skeleton!

Uh... I mean, I'm not much of a combatant at the best of times, and currently with the top half of me missing, I, uh, guess I could just kick the skeleton? Or maybe Xil could grab me by the ankles and wield me like a flail...

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Or send Xil in to talk to him, Xil is supposed to be sorta of a resident of this tower, right?

Oh... oh yeah, right. Yeah, I like that idea much better.

"Hi, so, I don't think we've ever really talked, but, like, I know I've seen you around, right? Sorry if the alarm disturbed you... nothing to worry about, just a bit of an accident; everything's fine. Anyway, I'm just passing through; didn't mean to bother you. Have a great day."

So... after a bit of a pause, the skeleton pointed at Flocsle, and then at me. I... I think what it's getting at is that it recognizes Xil and I guess is okay with his presence here, but it wants to know what he's doing with Flocsle and me?

Any ideas for what kind of explanation we can give?

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: SKULL ROOM SKULL ROOM! get out, leave, run away, go up if you have to, just go

Yeah, that definitely does seem like the wisest course of action right now. I don't know who that was speaking over the intercom, but I think we're probably better off not finding out.

So we'll just duck back into the skull room, and... uh...

Okay, sleeping skeleton plus very loud alarm in the next room equals I possibly should have seen this coming...

Any ideas?

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Ignore it, but be on high alert. Uh, maybe that might be your cue to explore somewhere else, I don't know how comfortable I am encouraging you to keep messing with the things.

Yeah, I guess it may be best to just ignore it for now...

"Hello? Snagger, is that you? Is everything okay? ... Hello? ... Hold on a minute, I'll send someone down."

Yeah, okay, and we probably ought to get out of here.

So that leaves the question as to where to go. There are two doors out of this room. Here's the map again:

Once again, we're in the room on the lower right. So we can take the door we came through, which leads back to the skull room, or the opposite door, which we've never opened but just judging from the relative positions should lead back to the room where I first entered this level, with the cage and the boxes and the mirror. (Of course, I could go to any of the other rooms beyond those, but I'd have to pass through one of those two rooms first.)

Going through the opposite door would require passing right by the energy cylinder with the unknown creature inside. That may not be a problem—there should be enough room to get around it without incident—but it seems like it may be worth mentioning.

Technically, I guess there's one more possible exit—the drains in the floor. The problem is that that's really only an exit for me. I could liquefy and ooze through those drains with no problem, but the shapechanging powers Xil got from drinking a bit of me have worn off by now, and I'm pretty sure Flocsle doesn't have any such abilities, so they couldn't go that way.

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Um, I don't know what the status of you all is right now, but go press another button if you're still in this room.

Well, I guess we've already sort of alerted someone by pressing one button; maybe I'll press one more before we go. What's the worst that could happen?

*BZAAT BZAAT BZAAT BZAAT*

And... now there's a loud repeating buzzing sound and a flashing red light...

"Hello? Are you still there? What set off the alarm? What's going on down there? Okay, hold on; I'm coming down myself."

Yeah, okay, we definitely need to leave now.

So which way?

[towerquest]

OOC: Sorry for the lack of updates

Yeah, I'm sorry it's been a long time since the last update on the Tower Quest. I was going through a bit of a tough time a while ago and wasn't really on Tumblr, and then once I started posting again on the main @concoctionboy account I still didn't continue the Tower Quest right away because after all that time it seemed like a daunting task to try to pick things up again where I left off and start it up again. (Well, the last few days I couldn't update because I was out of town and away from my drawing tablet, but I have no such excuse for the days before that.)

I certainly did want to get back to it, though; it was just a challenge to make myself do it. I promised in the tags of a few other posts recently that a new update would definitely be coming the next morning and... it didn't. But now I finally did manage to make myself pick up the thread of the quest and start on the next update, and I've already drawn two of the three drawings that will go into it. (Granted, those two drawings are just slightly modified versions of previous drawings, but the third drawing, which I've started but haven't finished yet, is brand new and has some limited animation.) In fact, I could power through and get the update up tonight... but it's getting late enough I figured I may as well wait until tomorrow morning (and make this post instead apologizing for the delay and promising that the next update is coming). This time it really, absolutely, positively is coming tomorrow morning, though; I'm already mostly done with it.

As for how the chronology works out since it's been so long since the last update... eh, I'm still going to pick up right from where it left off as if no time has passed. The chronological match between the Tower Quest and the main @concoctionboy posts was always iffy anyway.

And I hope there shouldn't ever be this big a delay between posts again. Even though when I started out on what became the Tower Quest I wasn't anticipating it becoming as prolonged and as elaborate as it eventually ended up, I do like what it became and I want to continue it; I've just had some other things to deal with lately.

But anyway. New post coming tomorrow morning. Absolutely for sure. Sorry for the delay.

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Ask Xil if they know anything about this dude

Unfortunately, Xil doesn't know anything about the creature in the energy cylinder. He says he has been in this room before—he's been trapped in the tower for a year, so he's explored a lot of it—but not recently, and whatever that creature is he's pretty sure it wasn't here the last time he was here.

Based on the fact that apparently both Xil and Flocsle were summoned here from some other plane by the tower's residents, I'm guessing whatever that creature is it was probably summoned from another plane too? But I don't know that for sure, and even if it's true that doesn't tell us anything about whether or not it's hostile.

@hummingbird-hunter: just push the buttons concoction boy. pull the levers too. nothing bad is going to happen. i promise

I am not at all convinced that nothing bad will happen if I randomly mess with the controls. There are a lot of bad things that can possibly happen.

I suppose it's also possible that good things could happen if I randomly mess with the controls, but, I mean… I'm not sure the possibility of good things outweighs the possibility of bad things, and it is possible that something really, really bad could happen.

Then again, I suppose it's possible that something really, really bad could happen whatever I do, and I guess I'm already kind of on a risky endeavor exploring this tower in the first place, so, uh, I guess maybe I should just go for it and push a button.

I may regret this. A lot.

I know I said that Xil was going have to be the one to actually carry out actions for a while, since I'm… basically just a leg at the moment (well, a leg and a… pelvic region), but when it comes to something this potentially dangerous I don't feel like I ought to leave it to him to take the risk. Despite my current diminished circumstances, I feel like I probably ought to push the button myself. I can turn my foot into a hand and have Xil hold me up to the button so I can push it.

Here goes nothing…

"Yes? Hello? Is there a problem? Who is this?"

I'm not sure where that voice came from. I think maybe I turned on an intercom, or something? I don't know if we should… answer, or just ignore it, or maybe get out of here before someone investigates?

[unexpectedly-wizardposting]

Um, I don't know what the status of you all is right now, but go press another button if you're still in this room.

[towerquest]

Yeah, sorry; I haven't abandoned this (intentionally); I kind of went through a time where it was hard for me to get things done for some reason (more so than usual) and I didn't post for a while and now although I do want to continue this it's been long enough it seems kind of daunting to pick it up again and I keep meaning to get back to this but I keep putting it off just one more day and the just one more days have added up to quite a few more days.

Anyway, though, I will make a definite goal of getting the next Tower Quest post up tomorrow morning. (Don't feel like you're pressuring me into it; as I said I'd been meaning to get back to it anyway and had in fact already resolved to get a new post up tomorrow morning before I saw your post, although your post did perhaps strengthen my resolve.)

As to how this is going to work with the chronology relative to my main blog, and how much time has passed in the Tower Quest... eh; the relative chronology between my main blog and the Tower Quest was always kind of fuzzy anyway; I think I'll just pick up chronologically where it left off as if no time had passed, but if for any reason in the future there is a reason for a time jump in the Tower Quest that can happen to kind of synchronize things again.

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Ask Xil if they know anything about this dude

Unfortunately, Xil doesn't know anything about the creature in the energy cylinder. He says he has been in this room before—he's been trapped in the tower for a year, so he's explored a lot of it—but not recently, and whatever that creature is he's pretty sure it wasn't here the last time he was here.

Based on the fact that apparently both Xil and Flocsle were summoned here from some other plane by the tower's residents, I'm guessing whatever that creature is it was probably summoned from another plane too? But I don't know that for sure, and even if it's true that doesn't tell us anything about whether or not it's hostile.

@hummingbird-hunter: just push the buttons concoction boy. pull the levers too. nothing bad is going to happen. i promise

I am not at all convinced that nothing bad will happen if I randomly mess with the controls. There are a lot of bad things that can possibly happen.

I suppose it's also possible that good things could happen if I randomly mess with the controls, but, I mean… I'm not sure the possibility of good things outweighs the possibility of bad things, and it is possible that something really, really bad could happen.

Then again, I suppose it's possible that something really, really bad could happen whatever I do, and I guess I'm already kind of on a risky endeavor exploring this tower in the first place, so, uh, I guess maybe I should just go for it and push a button.

I may regret this. A lot.

I know I said that Xil was going have to be the one to actually carry out actions for a while, since I'm… basically just a leg at the moment (well, a leg and a… pelvic region), but when it comes to something this potentially dangerous I don't feel like I ought to leave it to him to take the risk. Despite my current diminished circumstances, I feel like I probably ought to push the button myself. I can turn my foot into a hand and have Xil hold me up to the button so I can push it.

Here goes nothing…

"Yes? Hello? Is there a problem? Who is this?"

I'm not sure where that voice came from. I think maybe I turned on an intercom, or something? I don't know if we should… answer, or just ignore it, or maybe get out of here before someone investigates?

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Analyze the controls, see if you can release the poor soul without danger to yourself

Uh... the "poor soul"?

I mean, okay, yeah, I've met two people in this tower who turned out to be okay and became my traveling companions, but that doesn't mean everyone in this tower is friendly or a potential ally. I have no idea what it is that's in that energy cylinder. For all I know, it's in there for everyone's safety and if it's released it'll go on a violent rampage.

Still... I don't actually know that, and it is in a very confined space which definitely doesn't look comfortable, and I guess what little I know about the inhabitants of this tower from Xil and Flocsle doesn't paint them in the most favorable light. And I mean, there's one of it and three of us, or I guess in my present condition more like two and a quarter of us, and if worse comes to worse we should be able to, uh, run away. So okay, maybe I ought to try to release it.

The problem is, I have no idea how.

There are all these levers and buttons and dials and none of them are labeled and I have no idea what any of them do. I don't know how I could figure out what the controls are for short of just trying things at random and, uh, that seems like it could potentially have some undesirable consequences...

[towerquest]

@unexpectedly-wizardposting: Go through the crackling door, but be careful

Well, given that I kind of... don't have arms at the moment, Xil will be the one to actually open the door. But I'll remind him to be careful.

Actually, until I replenish a lot of the volume I lost to that stupid man-eating plant in the moss room, I think it's probably going to have to be Xil who actually carries out most of the actions for a while. But I guess I'll still, you know, relay the messages.

Anyway, let's see what's behind the crackling door...

Yep, it's electricity, all right. There are four of those big metal spheres with crackling electricity running between them. (Are those called Van de Graaff generators, or is that something else?) Below them are control panels with a whole lot of levers and buttons and lights and gauges and I have no idea what any of these do and how bad an idea it would be to mess with them.

In the center of the room is another cylinder of crackling electricity, which I don't know how that's possible or what's holding it in place but whatever. There's room to walk around the cylinder and get to the other door, though we'd have to be careful. It looks like there's something inside the cylinder of electricity, but it's... kind of hard to tell what it is, due to, you know, the crackling electricity around it.

Oh... there's also a drain in the floor, which I could ooze through easily, but Xil wouldn't be able to follow now that the shapeshifting powers that he got when he kissed me wore off. And Flocsle probably wouldn't be able to follow either.

Xil's hair is standing on end due to all the electricity in the room, and it looks kind of funny. I'm pretty sure my hair would be standing on end too if I had hair. (Well, usually I do give myself a simulation of hair, but I'm currently without a head.)

Oh, since this is another room I haven't been in before, I guess it's time to update the map:

We're currently in the room in the lower right.

So... there's a whole lot of stuff in this room I could fiddle with, but it could be extremely dangerous and that could be a terrible idea. Both doors lead to rooms I've already been in, but there may be things in those rooms I could examine further. Again, the only place on this level I haven't been (that I know of) is through the hidden door I found behind the tapestry in the north room, but I could go up or down the stairs to other levels.

Any suggestions?