Do you go to the dungeon?

Soul monger bottle necks

DM said on 2019-06-17, 10:39

I want to talk about this problem generally rather than bringing up a specific bottle neck to lessen the risk for spoilers.

So for the first time, we are playing a campaign that has a specific goal or maguffin. The soul monger.

If we get in a situation where I believe that there is no way to get to it because of destroyed keys or whatever, I'll let you dorx know and we can talk about it. (And either give up on the campaign, or change something together or whatever.)

The "LucasArts principle"; unlike in Sierra or Infocom adventure games, you shouldn't be able to get stuck without knowing it.

(I might not be correct in my assessment but, I mean, I do have some inside info.)

For example if some of the puzzle cubes would've been destroyed before you got into the T9G.

There can be the case that you believe something is impossible that is possible but I don't know that you believe it is impossible and that can create a situation where you are stuck but I don't know that you're stuck. I currently don't think that that's the case, but, well, I wouldn't know that, would I?

For example in Omu if you thought there were only eight shrines or whatever. That would be a difficult situation, you wouldn't be stuck because there is that ninth shrine, but you wouldn't know about that ninth shrine. I can't read your minds so I don't know for sure what you're thinking about various edges & vectors.

Right now you are doing a lot of unraveling of the tangled ball of yarn that is the T9G so there's no problem. But that's why I wanted to bring up this philosophy now, before there's a specific problem.

Also I don't like specific goals & maguffins, I'm realizing. Open ended sandboxes are easier to run, if nothing else because of this bottleneck problem.

DM said on 2019-06-17, 11:15

The above is only related to the goal of Soul Monger; a side quest or whatever can get shut off or destroyed, that happens all the time

Mikael E said on 2019-06-17, 13:06

It is better to know that it up in smoke before we simply starts running in circles. That we lost the orange eye is still something we can fix from another dimension or getting Fox out of the void. I am more worried about the fact that we are feeding Gilirul the green goo, as I think it gets stronger and stronger by the minute.

Sandra said on 2019-06-17, 13:19

The goo is grey

Halo said on 2019-06-17, 14:16

Well while Gilirul might be the creature Withers was refering to and the grey goo might be related to the SM I don't think it is. The goo might just be another certain death trap that also makes it harder for us to travel on that lvl. It makes sense since the traps and monsters we encountered are just getting more and more dangerous the deeper we get. Anyhow we need to find a way to get past it

Ran said on 2019-06-18, 19:19

We can always try fly!

Halo said on 2019-06-19, 12:10

Don't think there where a way to fly over the slime? As I recall it was covering the whole passage to Giliruls lake.

But if we could find a way to block the flow, maybe with spells like stone wall or if we can drop enouch rubble down the hole in the shaft, then we could get enough time to pass by

Mikael E said on 2019-06-19, 12:48

Drop some rubble down the hole like the sarcophagus and old frankies maybe? Just a warning is that it might flow up from the middle hole where the gargoyles where then. You can always teleport in to the room if you want. But we still have at least 3 other none dead ends to explore. We also know a bit more about the warping ring, witters and the throne room now. Even if part of it where pure luck whit reading the wrong book(pressing the wrong pixel).

Sandra said on 2019-06-19, 13:07

⠉⠁⠗⠑⠋⠥⠇ ⠝⠕⠺

Mikael E said on 2019-06-19, 15:14

⠗⠕⠛⠑⠗

Sandra said on 2019-06-19, 15:23

Hmm, maybe the opposite approach is better. Pull every level, push every button, put your neck on every guillotine—leave no stone unturned

Mikael E said on 2019-06-19, 18:27

Naa it was just that we got 3 lucky breakes last time. And we know a bit more about the tombe.

Myrodan said on 2019-06-21, 10:36

Thanks for this! I appreciate having a maguffin and it being impossible to get to it would make striving for it feels bad to me.

Heh, I guess I missed the lucky breaks and the revelations, I'm eager to find out about them next time.

The Braille, is it OK to decode it, since it's in plain sight? Or not?

Sandra said on 2019-06-21, 10:42

The braille was more a joke for the pixel stuff since braille on a screen loox pixely. It says "careful now" in grade-1. A reference to the horrible & cruel minefield that is the T9G.

Myrodan said on 2019-06-21, 10:46

Ah dammit, it sounds like it would have been funny if I'd gotten it in time. Thanks.

Sandra said on 2019-06-21, 10:52

Well you're doing well to be careful around spoilers; I can def see how you'd misunderstand that to me some yuan-ti–specific or ghostwise–specific code. That wasn't my intent, the joke backfired, but that's on me. It wasn't that funny♥