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Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

All right, :siren:voting is closed:siren:

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Jvie
Aug 10, 2012






















The attack had... stopped? Across the plains people were flabbergasted. One moment they had been attacked by an army of weird monsters and now they were nowhere to be seen. Only the inhabitants of one particular village could see what was going on. A gigantic blob of goo had appeared and sucked in all of the monsters. One by one the villagers emerged from their basements and closets to see if it was safe. Attempts to remove the blob from the premises proved fruitless but at least it was not doing anything. In fact it appeared to be shrinking! Perfect, they were saved! The villagers sighed in relief and danced on the streets. There was nothing to fear anymore! They had already sent word to Jerichrochet, soon enough someone would arrive to get rid of the weird blob. A farmer strolled up to the strange apparation. He wanted, really wanted, to have a laugh at the thing before it would be gone.



In a blink he was cut in half. A wet, loose tentacle fell limp to the ground. It's movements were awkward, inexperienced, but it was quickly learning how to coordinate. After a few fumbled attempts it enveloped the halves of the dead farmer and dragged them into the blob's misty depths. The onlookers could see his remains drift ever deeper into the mass. Unseen forces tugged at him, tearing him apart, and dissolving him into string. Among those looking were the farmer's own family. His neighbours and friends. As the corpse was being digested, the onlookers, formed a line. They took a step, and then another. Without a word they approached the blob and walked into it's body and were devoured. One by one they walked into their deaths while an invisible audience laughed and laughed and laughed.



A lot had happened in a little time. EVery golemegoo on Middle had been transported into a single location, and then shrunk down into minuscule size. Despite the sheer weirdness of the situation, Locus-255 had found it easy to follow along. Dividing it's thoughts among it's copies to maintain focus even as each individual Mind was shrunk down, re-establishing control of the goons, all while figuring out how to adapt to life as a microscopic organism. Locus itself was surprised how quick it had been to do, how easy it had been! Whatever this goo enveloping the golemegoo was, it was keeping them fed and free of distractions from the Progooram. The goons had fallen into line and were acting as parts of a greater whole as they were meant to! Not only were they able to form limbs and grab food from the outside, their combined mental might made it trivial to take control of the inferior lifeforms out there! The colony was invincible! No, Goolony.

The Goolony devoured the village, and then the monster hunters that arrived from Jerichrochet. From their brains it learned of the woes plaguing the city. Negrandi's resources were stretched thin with keeping the city and it's colonies running even as the lake they depended on drained into the Below, all while Nottum had taken tons of soldiers on his quest to wage war on the Horrusk. The brain cluster of Locuses pondered the situation for a long while (several seconds from the perspective of lesser beings). The Goolony was powerful, but it was still a pale shadow of what it could become with more time and food. But the world wouldn't wait. There would not be another opportunity like this to conquer Jerichrochet. Rav was also in disarray, but their widespread practice of Calarity countered one of the Goolony's strongest weapons. Locus"55 made it's decision. It formed the goons into a great limb, and pushed the Goolony towards Jerichrochet.

(The Goolony rises! And embarks on a journey to conquer Jerichrochet!)

Microlos posted:

Microlos has gathered and shrunk the golemegoo: 15

High power: No negative side effects for golemegoo!

All the golemegoo have been gathered inside of Microlos's form, shrunken down to microscopoic sizes, and are being kept fed by the god's power.
Thanks to the Curse of Villainy, Locus-255 was able to quickly understand and master it's current condition, and progooram the golemegoo into a seamless colony/organism, the Goolony, with individual golemegoo acting as cells.
They are currently occupying the physical form Microlos, but the colony will stay together even if they get left on their own.

The Goolony is still rather inexperienced and clumsy, but the combined mental might of millions of golemegoo is enough to crush all but the strongest of Minds.



-~X~-

For what felt like an eternity, Amale fell. Until she didn't. From the absolute darkness, spoke a voice



quote:

"You shall have dominion over the lower half of the Middle. The Below shall be your Above and the Above of all that follows you to the Underside. You will be an avatar of the Center, your symbol an arrow pointing down at the top of your world. Build the Middle into a place where both the Topside and Underside can coexist."

"...what-"

The force holding her weakened. She felt herself slipping.

"W-wait! What's your nameeeeeeee-"

And she fell again. Ever deeper, ever further into the inky blackness- *boing* She bounced from something. Something cold.



Whatever she was resting on, it bent under her weight, but didn't seem to break. As her eyes grew accumustomed to the total darkness she started to see something beneath her. Red clouds, drifting in some sort of current. Separating them from her was a whitish layer of... something soft. She was able to push her arm through it and pull out a piece of whatever was beneath. A wet, red piece of goop. It smelled of Tsohg, but why would there be something like it down here. Wait a minute. This white thing couldn't possibly be-



-the Wailing Wall?

quote:

A nameless spirit has made Amale it's champion: 11

Amale is Brave, Curious, Flipped and Skilled in Raveolution

The Above is her Below and Below her Above. In practical terms this means that for her, gravity points upwards. She has been given the quest of building a world on the Middle's underside, and is able to Flip other beings so that they too can live there.

She can survive on the Underside by eating bits of the Tsoggoth but it's pretty empty and lonely down there.

She has the powers of a Hero, but something seems off...

-~X~-





Nottum sighed. Perhaps there would be no more pain.



He was raised from the jagged ground by a soft wind. He felt weightless, and all around him, he could see other lights rising from the dark. There was the gurgling of fluid, and the warriors went home.

---

Along Nottum's force rose the Crow lake. An immense upwards stream that raced along the cut surface of the land. The lake carefully filtered of the Tsoggoth and raised back into it's rightful place. Already Lorbydas and Rem could see the joy in the faces of the people of coastal villages, fishers who had already been making preparations for moving away to the redlands to become farmers. The lake was the center of the lives of countless people and animals. Now that it had returned, people all across it's shores swung their limbs in large arcs, signing words of reverence to whatever gods were responsible.

Korbydas held the final piece. The plug that would complete the lake once more. He placed it down, and he saw that it was good. The land was whole again. Most of it at least. The eastern reach had been finely crushed and devoured by the Tsoggoth. Recovering it should be possible with his power, but even now he could feel his time running short. As Rem placed last of the surviving warriors onto the shore of the lake, his grip broke for a moment. It was coming. The Above shone down brightly upon him and Korbydas. Up here, wrapped up in the affairs of gods it was easy to forget how bright it was, how painful. They had accomplished much, seen their will happen, their potential realized. They had been gods, but now they could feel the weight pulling on them, the prize of the Above. They wouldn't last under it's burning blaze. It was unfair. It was not their time yet. All the previous pantheons had been given more time on this world. Yet there was nothing to be done. Time weighted heavily on them. They took their last look at the Middle as whiteness filled their view.


Teamwork posted:

Korbydas has worked to heal the Middle: 11
Rem has worked to heal the Middle: 13

The great southern crow lake has been returned to it's rightful place. All the swimming creatues and floating plants have been rescued, and Life has resumed.
The broken eastern edge of Middle has been fixed up somewhat, but the easter reach remains the lake of muck below.
Nottum and all of his troops in which even a slighest spark of Life remains have been healed and returned home.



-~X~-



Phantom observed as the Mind before her was torn in two by it's desire to create someone new. The halves each then tore themselves in two, and then all those did the same. Again and again. Phantom did not interwene. It was none of her business what the Minds did with the medium she had given them. That did not however mean that she wouldn't interact with the After-Thought at all. dffse Her attention turned to a slimy presence. A lumbering mass that floated through the After-Thought, still getting used to being free of a body. The Mind of a Horrusk. All lost Minds made their way to this place and the Horrusk were no exception, even if many of the other Minds hoped so.
The Horrusk had been unpleasant neighbours. They took great offense to other Minds "thinking too loudly" and generally made a nuisance of themselves. Phant she had made the After-Thought to accomodate each Mind in the exact way it desired. If someone did not want to be accosted by the dead Horrusk, they should be able to easily isolate themselves from them, but somehow the Horrusk kept skirting the rules, invading the spaces of other Minds and harassing them in effort to shut them up. Actually it was no longer a mystery how they were doing it. The Cutting Words had shattered the veil of mystery surrounding the creatures, leaving their secrets plainly in Phantom's view. Power of the defiant god Pseye the Mind lingered in the Horrusk, granting them the ability to warp the After-Thought. This would not do. This would not do at all. Phantom took a view of the After-Thought as a whole, of all the Minds within. The Minds had been strengthening themselves. Now the time had come for them to be called to action. She made her declaration, inviting the Minds to join her. She was not disappointed. Recently perished warriors from Nottum's guard and many zealous individuals that were overjoyed to stand alongside a god.

And then, there were also Minds that were simply desperate to leave their dreams, to escape the black emptiness and do something real. Even if it killed them, again.

---

The parailogia recoiled in shock and awe as the gates of After-Thought were flung open and the host of Minds erupted out. They trailed behind Phantom through the blackness of nothing, down to the bottom of the world. There they found what remained of the Horrusk. Most were dead, broken by the fall, but some still clung to their lives. Most of all the giant, the colossus of the east. The shell of the beast had been fractured, and vast pseudopods of the Tsoggoth assaulted it relentlessly, beating and prying, doing their hardest to crack it's crust and partake of the one meat that the Tsoggoth was permitted. Yet the giant held on. It had retreated deep into it's metallic shell, all of it's openings sealed with boulders and white hot Power. None of these were obstacles to Phantom. She brushed the veil of stolen godhood aside and led her Minds inside.

Adoboo leered from the sidelines. He looked at Phantom with naked hunger. How far the mighty have fallen. The cook was a non-issue. Phantom had one of her Minds pin him down so she could focus her full attention on the Mind of the horrusk looming before her. It was a twisted thing. A chaotic, confused mess, as if it had once been broken and never properly healed, yet it had only kept on growing. There was no order to the thing. Perhaps that was why Phantom had thought that she could overpower it, until it was too late. Droplets of gods fell on her. First slowly, then fast. Each of them left a hole in her. Before she could retreat, a rainstorm of broken pieces of gods fell upon her, and she was no more.

The Lost Minds cried in anguish as their god fell apart. Like a starving beast Adoboo burst forth and descended upon the remains. The Minds were filled with rage, yet there was no time to interwene. Nothing had changed. The mission had to completed. They threw themselves at the Mind of the Horrusk. Thinking destruction upon it, digging and tearing. They might as well have been insects trying to sting a Paraiba. Like with their god, the torrent of jagged shrapnel flayed them to shreds.

The rain of glass shards died down. All was still in the minds of the Horrusk, aside from the mad feast of the former cook. All was well. The Horrusk finally sighed in relief and lowered it's guard. A stab of pain brought it back to full atention. No. All was not well. Not well at all.



A stream of gas was escaping through a crack in the giant Horrusk's shell. But that was not the true wound, merely a symptom. A sign of the crack in it's Mind from which God was leaking. Who had done this? The insolent god or it's tiny cronies? There was no way to know. There was no way to stop the leak.

(Phantom has accomplished puncturing the essence of the Horrusk. What remains of the consumed gods is leaking out, slowly.)

---

It had started with a camp of pilgrims. Now the final pieces of a temple were being crystallized into place. The faithful of Silence had found their paradise, their Above on Middle. Here by the blue tree of Silence, where no Sound dared to enter. Nothing could be better.




Then the tree bloomed again. It's once white flowers now shone in all colors of the Above, with such radiance that it hurt to look at. The head priestess of the commune flew up to it's branches, and plucked a flower. It was nothing like she had seen before. So beautiful, so prickly to touch! As she held it she could feel a warmth spreading through her body.




She felt powerful.

(The power of the consumed gods is also leaking through the southern tree, where it rains down upon the people living by it.)


Phantom posted:

Phantom has tried to free the gods consumed by the Horrusk: 2

Partial Critical Failure: Phantom falls to 0 HP and dies!

Low power: Reduced effect.
Help from the Minds Phantom has prepared: Increased effect.

Horrusk could have forced a reroll but they didn't bother.

Phantom has succeeded in creating a wound in the collective essence of the Horrusk from which the remains of the consumed gods are leaking out.
The main effect so far is that the power is flowing out of the great southern tree, and into everything around it.




-~X~-




The time keepers had not predicted this. By all prior knowledge, the current pantheon to grace Middle should have had more time to act. But there was no mistaking it. The Tree of Ages was in full bloom. The fourth era of gods was nearing it's end.


Jvie fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Apr 24, 2019

Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

The fourth era of gods has concluded a little "earlier" than normal. However, we are not quite done here! For the surviving gods I require your Remnants! :siren:


DIVINE REMNANTS posted:


Surviving gods: Korbydas 3/3, Microlos 2/3, Rem 1/3

If your god survived to the end of the era, they will leave behind a remnant of their influence. It's power is determined by your remaining HP.
  • 3HP - Artifact. Great, lasting remnant of your power, it can be used once per Era.
  • 2HP - Miracle. Powerful but fragile. It can be used only once before being gone.
  • 1HP - Idol. Weak remains continually affecting the world. They give a minor passive effect to their surroundings.

If your god has survived, indicate three concepts that describe the remnant's effect (Eg. Tool, Flying, Weapon), OR give a suggestion for a effect what you want.

Do note that I'll be moving on to the intermission fairly soon. Get your remnants submitted in time!

Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

Whoops, I forgot the new god symbol from the update. Its in there now.

TheNabster
Apr 26, 2014

"Today I will cause problems on purpose"
I don't have a fixed idea for what Rem should leave so I'll leave it up to the GM

Monument, Memory, Death

TheNabster fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Apr 24, 2019

Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH
Microlos, Miracle

Goo-rowth, In The Nick Of Slime, Goo-randeur

I'm thinking a miracle that makes the goolony build a living building or other great item rapidly just as its needed, but if you have anything better go ahead

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
Truth, Depth, Repair

Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

https://i.imgur.com/PkDZCc3.mp4




The air was thick with red mist. The city of Rav stood still. It's streets had been tunred into a sucking swamp from which twisted things grew. and people .
Tsohg was poison. An elixir that tempted people with eternal youth and robbed them of their reason. By the time an evacuation was organized, a lot of the city's populance were too intoxicated to willingly leave. And even if they did, what then? The largest city on Middle (don't believe the people saying that Jerichrochet is the largest) couldn't simply all leave their lives behind. Without the valley's fields they had no food to eat. People on the plains had already reached the limit of what the land could support and turned to crops grown from Tsohg so leaving the valley wouldn't solve anything. So Triton did what he could to keep from everything collapsing while trying to clean up the city.

The land and the air itself were filled with General Tsohg's curse. With each passing day the citizens found themselves healthier, stronger, but also more confused. Except for some. Those who had mastered the truths of Calarity found their Minds unharmed even as raw Tsohg coursed through their bodies.



"Councilman Barit has evacuated to countryside. Its just our crew running the city now. Fine job boss."

"I... did not plan this. I would never have done something like this!"

"Sure you didn't." *wink* *wink*

"..."

---

Upon his unwanted throne, Triton lamented. Perhaps the other Heroes had been right. Perhaps it was the will of the gods that Heroes would rule the Middle. Even so he would not accept it! A nation was not a whim of a tyrant! It was the sum of every person living in it! It did not matter if these people were of use to him or not. He could not simply stand aside and watch them rot.

"There must be a way to set things right. To save our city before it's people devolve into beasts."

The sound of splashing mud got Triton's attention. He turned to see a hunched over figure approaching, trawling through the red muck. The stranger was clad head to toe in black rags in a desperate effort to fend off the poison of the land. From the depths of his hood, a pained, cracking voice spoke.

"There is only one who can save the city."

The wretched figure revealed a key, and offered it to Triton with outstretched arms.

"There is only one who can tame the Tsohg."




-~X~-

Negrandi spread open a map of the Middle onto her desk. She manifested a quill, started writing down notes but soon stopped. She sighed deeply. She hadn't slept an eyeful after the world had been broken and the lake drained. It was now back, thank the gods, but her work was still far from done. The eastern reach had disappeared into the depths taking the Horrusk with it but also Nottum's entire army. This was.. not good. But mourning would have to wait a little longer. Negrandi looked at her map again. Ever more areas had been outlined in red. The appearance of the redlands had saved her realm from collapse, but it was still far from clear if the crops grown from them were truly safe to eat. Tests would have to be performed, procedures drafted. And now reports were coming in that a strange new monster had descended from the mountains. She did not have time for this! As if on cue, a courier burst into the room.

"My lady! T-the monster! The monster is coming down the river!!"

"I know."

She gestured to shoo the hyperventilating courier out.

"There are plenty of troops waiting by the Grove of Knowledge. In the worst case scenario the paratridge will take care of it."

"The monster has already broken through them! Its-"





"The soldiers are all marching towards the city!"



"The beast has turned them agaisnt us! Even our giant, somehow!"























---

Negrandi furrowed her brow. This was bad. What- whatever this thing was, it could cause massive destruction by taking control of even her giant warriors. This was going to get ugly... It was then that another courier arrived, to bring her word of an army that had just appeared from the east.



-~X~-

Phantom had never returned. The parailogia mourned, but not too much. They knew they would be reunited with her in the After-Thought once their term was up. They would uphold their oath. To protect the After from any intruders. From any creeping influence! From the red creeping corruption devouring the earth itself!

The most senior of the parailogia took stance on a rock bridge over a chasm that was the last obstacle in the Tosggoth's path.

"Begone foul beast!



She had little hope of stopping it. What could one person do against this kind of monster? The earth itself was coming to life, eager to devour all lifeless matter before it. With each passing second, it crept closer to the boundary of After-Thought. The purpose of the dead was to be consumed. The battle was hopeless. Tsoggoth was spreading through the earth like a fungus, assimilating all matter, enclosing in on After-Thought from every direction. The parailogia could only slow down the inevitable. Nothing short of digging out the entire After-Thought and taking it away could keep it from the Tsoggoth's grasp. After days of fierce digging and cutting, the parailogia lost. Tsoggoth's pseudopods had reached the boundary. The slimy appendage touched the crystalline wonder and slowly moved across it, tasting it. It lingered for a moment, and then, pulled away. The Tsoggoth turned it's back to the After-Thought.



The parailogia collapsed from relief. Nobody stopped to ask where the msyterious gravestone had come from.




-~X~-






Not a creature stirred. All was silent. Here at the top of the world the air was thin and invisible. If one climbed to a roof and looked straight ahead the world was divided cleanly in two. Above, light. Below, darkness. Up there, one would hear the crushing silence of a city abandoned. Of empty streets, of cold homes.

Margerite wandered the city. Her only company her echoing footseps. In time she came to the market square, where she finally collapsed and cried. She could have prevented this. She should have done something, anything!




-~X~-




Where did the case of Adoboo belong? Guilty? Innocent? Boodica frowned. Now that he had disappeared along with the Horrusk, the Daughters of Justice had been able to dig into the affairs of his kitchen. They found evidence that Adoboo had been hiding a lot of questionable activites from her. She didn't really care about that anymore. What she had been hoping to find was evidence for whether or not the cook had actually been tasked by a goddess to protect the Horrusk, or if he had been making fun of her with his whole monologue. She sighed and looked out of her window, over the rooftops of Dead Neck City, to the distant glowing spire of the Broken School. The answers would remain hidden from her.


-~X~-






"-and that's what I used to do before I became a Hero."

"No offense but you've led a real boring life."

"Reading is not boring!"

"Heh."

Amale turned the page of her book.

"Well I'm not really judging. You're an all right fellow."

"You can stay in the Underside as long as you like."

"...That'd be nice. I don't really have anyone missing me on the upside."

Amale grinned.

"Well I have! I'll just have to bring them here as well."

She leafed through the book while eating a handful of the weird green bits Ipso had brought over.

"Think about it. A world of our own. We can make anything we want of it."

"Only I can Flip things so they don't fall from here, that means that nobody I don't like can come to the Underside!"

"We can bring over all the decent people and leave the tossers behind. Fix everything."

"Uh, I- I think I'd rather go back home. If you don't mind..."

Ipso took a look at the emptiness around them.

"I wonder if you'll get any takers on your offer."

"Oh, I'll make it work."

She pointed down through the Wailing Wall. No longer was there a mixture of Crow and Tsoggoth and other refuse obsucring the bottom of the world.

"The red goop is crawling into the ground. Soon enough we can go through the Wall and set up shop on solid ground."

"...We just need a few plants to spruce it up and its all good to live on."


Amale could tell that Ipso wasn't convinced. Bah.

---

"So where'd you get this book? Also on the beach?"

"...No, that one was in a locked cupboard, in the room with the food. I had to pick the lock to get it out."

"Hah. Oh, look at this!"



"It says here that once a person used Tsohg to animate a monster he had built out of dead corpses. And there's a description on how he did it!"

"So even if nobody wants to come here we are all set. We'll just build our own people! Haha!"

"...Haha. Ha."

"I'm serious! We animate some bodies, get them fruit from the Grove of Knowledge, and we have our own competent workers!"

"That's... both gross and unethical. And besides, it doesn't look like the book goes into any more detail than that he injected Tsohg into the body."

"That's not going to get you anywhere."

"Already ahead of you. You know what happened to the guy who made the monster? He was taken by the Daughters of Justice, and his memories preserved in the Broken School."

"...You intend to use the key."



"Yeah. If that other book is correct, this will open up any memory in the school."

Amale's grin widened.

"Even the ones that it's creator left behind. Think about it! With this we can see the memories of a god!"

"Umm, excuse me? I'm still here...."

"..."

"Are you sure you aren't getting ahead of yourself? Building a home here is a fine goal, but you keep thinking up ever larger and larger quests for yourself!"

"You don't get anywhere in life by being modest! And besides, why'd you bring all this junk from the green place if you don't want to see it used?"

"...I guess I am complicit in this."

---

Later.

"So, earlier you tried worming out of telling me what brought you down here."

"...Its a long story."

"And are you in a hurry, mister 'I have no one missing me'?"

"...Like I said. A god sent me."

"Korbydas he is called... Was called."

"He wanted me to discover the true nature of the world. To find out what truly shapes existence."

"Like Subtle Truths? The whole: 'we are only perceiving a shadow of the truth' thing? You buy into that stuff?"

"I did not say that. Its not that simple."

Ipso was quiet for a good while.

"I think the truth is more gray than that."

"So I followed the path the god left me. Then one day I felt something passing through me. Like waves in a pond."

"I followed them to their source down here. Simple as that. I descended wi-"























"THIEVES"





"RUFFIANS"






"AT LAST I FIND YOU"















"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING"





"YOU- Y-YOU CAN'T JUST TAKE ALL THIS STUFF!!!"





"INCONCEIVABLE"





"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS TRANSGRESSION WITH YOUR LIVE-"



























"...!"














"..."

"..."

"...What if there will ever be another person like that?"



"There will not."







---





















"Come here."

"?"

"I think I've figured out what we should do next."

"The Underside is empty for the moment. I don't think I can bring enough items from the green space to build a settlement from."

"But this-"

Ipso splayed a book open and pointed to a page.



"-this will fix that problem. It is 'abondoned in the empty City of Lights' so grabbing it will be no issue."

"That's perfect! Let's go!"

"Ummmmm..."

Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

The gods were gone once more. The departing deities left behind a world roiled in confusion and conflict. In times like these, a Hero (or a Villain) is needed to lead the world into a new era.




Many such individuals stood at the crossroads of destiny. Virtuous Triton, the gluttonous Node #183, ever vigilant Boodica, the far-sighted Negrandi, unstoppable Nottum, the vile Locus-255, wise Ipso, brave Amale and many others. Each of them could make a decision that would change the course of history. Yet they could not all share the spotlight. Only one would have to be chosen.








But that is not what we are really here for, is it?

Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70MFp-JFUnM

Jvie
Aug 10, 2012



And that is it. This is the end, my beautiful friend. My heartfelt thanks go to all of you who stuck with the game till the bitter end. I could not ask for better players.
It has been a real adventure. What started out as a fan work Of Dog Kisser's god game morphed into some sort of video art project. Hah. That really killed the thread's momentum, but in the end I don't think I regret doing the videos. However, should I run another game I would make sure not to get sucked into something like that again! The main thing I do regret is failing to give proper spotlight to many god actions and their consequences. A lot ended up simmering for a long while without proper representation, while things that are easier to depict, like huge landmarks (Tree of Ages, Great Chain) got worked in constantly since it was so easy. Oh well...


But anyhow, Q&A! If any of you have questions about the game I would be more than happy to answer them!

Aabcehmu
Apr 27, 2013

Confusion As a Natural State of Being
Towards the end of the third age, when I as the Hand died, the narration mentioned there being something strange about how the arm to which the Hand was connected which rose up from Below wasn't consumed along with the Hand itself. Did you have anything in the back of mind regarding that, or was it just a throwaway mystery (considering it naturally never got picked up by anyone else afterwards)?

Arcanuse
Mar 15, 2019

Right-o, questions it is.

Q. Who, or rather, what, was that fellow about to do... Something, and ended up taking quite the fall?
Q. There was something quite big up there, looming over what I assume was a city. What was it?
Edit Q. I could have sworn that way back when the gemego got a healthy dose of Tsohg, that it wasn't every gemego that got Tsohggy. That deep underground, some gemego still survived. Pretty much irrelevant for the remainder of the game, but there they were. Did make it to the end, or did they bite the dust at some point?

Arcanuse fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Apr 25, 2019

vorebane
Feb 2, 2009

"I like Ur and Kavodel and Enki being nice to people for some reason."

Wrong Voter amongst wrong voters
I have no words for how fun this was. How tough would stoppping the Horrusk have been before we let their timer lapse?

Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

vorebane posted:

I have no words for how fun this was. How tough would stoppping the Horrusk have been before we let their timer lapse?

Thanks. Hard to say in retrospect. I intended them to be fairly sticky, but a good roll could have slowed them down enough that they never reached full power before the end.


Aabcehmu posted:

Towards the end of the third age, when I as the Hand died, the narration mentioned there being something strange about how the arm to which the Hand was connected which rose up from Below wasn't consumed along with the Hand itself. Did you have anything in the back of mind regarding that, or was it just a throwaway mystery (considering it naturally never got picked up by anyone else afterwards)?
Actually, that does tie into something. I was thinking of running an intermission that, rather than following a Hero in CYOA style, would have been a small RPG with four or so players controlling characters on the Middle. I didn't make a final decision of what the nature of the player characters would have been in the world, but one idea was that they would be vessels created or possessed by spirits in order to see the world without dying like gods. So the implication that The Hand, or rather, it's owner had found a loophole in the death clause was leading up to this. So that's it.

That and also a mysterious abyss hand was very cool.

quote:

Edit Q. I could have sworn that way back when the gemego got a healthy dose of Tsohg, that it wasn't every gemego that got Tsohggy. That deep underground, some gemego still survived. Pretty much irrelevant for the remainder of the game, but there they were. Did make it to the end, or did they bite the dust at some point?
The surviving gemego never came up again, yeah. They were rare enough that you'd never find one unless you were really looking for them. That means they remained happily isolated until the Tsoggoth started eating them along with the ground.



Arcanuse posted:

Right-o, questions it is.

Q. Who, or rather, what, was that fellow about to do... Something, and ended up taking quite the fall?
Q. There was something quite big up there, looming over what I assume was a city. What was it?

I'm not sure how much to say. This gets into what questions an author should answer. So while I had a line of thought that led me to putting these elements in, while there was an underlying logic to the setting, I don't think all of that should be exposed.

The true value of a story is in what it made you think and feel. So while I had a framework I followed, a notion of a world with it's own rules, this was a means to an end. What I was doing was chasing an experience, a feeling. Chasing it, and hopefully also conveying it to all of you.

So, question: What was the blue person? Answer: Very justifiably angry at Ipso for grabbing everything he could get his grubby mitts on. :v:

Jvie fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Apr 25, 2019

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
Ipso did nothing wrong. :colbert:

paper bag with a face
Jun 2, 2007

The blue man is obviously some kind of production assistant or perhaps a gaffer.

Scribbleykins
Apr 29, 2010

Any scientist with the right background can brew his own booze.

...

What do you mean electrolytes aren't used for brewing booze? That's silly!

...

Well when all you have are chunks of TNE and an overly large water ration, all the world looks like a still!
Grimey Drawer
Thank you for running this, Jvie! I had great fun as Armatur, and even more fun seeing the results of everyone's antics and your frankly amazing mini-movies. Shame they burned you out, but all of them were still really fun to watch and I'm amazed and impressed you put the effort in.

Lux Anima
Apr 17, 2016


Dinosaur Gum
n o + + u m // m u + + o n
u o + + n w \\ w n + + o u

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Jvie
Aug 10, 2012

Scribbleykins posted:

Thank you for running this, Jvie! I had great fun as Armatur, and even more fun seeing the results of everyone's antics and your frankly amazing mini-movies. Shame they burned you out, but all of them were still really fun to watch and I'm amazed and impressed you put the effort in.

Thank you. Armatur was certainly fun on my end as well. Getting the updates together was a hassle at times but I like to think it all worked out well in the end.

But once more, my heartfelt thanks go to all of you for posted in this thread. There would not have been a Middle without you. Have a great time! I'll hopefully see you again if I get my other game idea off the ground at some point.

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