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thequeendomhq · 7 days

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NAME. Ikaros AGE & BIRTH DATE. 567 & June 15th, 2457 GENDER & PRONOUNS. Cismale & He/Him NATIONALITY. Avalonian SPECIES. High Elvhen FACTION. N/A OCCUPATION. Prince of Avalon FACE CLAIM. Matthew Daddario

biography

( tw: n/a )

To reach out through time, through what is seen and felt, is a gift. That’s what Ikaros’ grandmother would whisper to him as he sat on her knee as a child, on the highest branch of the Laurelin where it seemed like the stars could fit in the palm of their hands. The monarch was a gentle soul, whose radiance passed to her daughter, and finally her grandson – Ikaros. The one who touches the sky, his name held meaning, as he reached with her under Mythal’s glade, a broken Eluvian not far from their spot. This was the honor that Ikaros was raised with.

An ambitious mother, a kind father – one that would let him down in more ways than one. His father frequented the glade, but that wasn’t Ikaros’ issue as a child. Nothing that he ever considered strange until it was too late, perhaps. As a child, Ikaros would run through the branches of the Laurelin, Arvandoril being his home. Yet the call of all the different sights to see, as magic created small biomes for him to uncover. There was nothing that could harm him within Avalon, though the Moongate was always barred to him. He was never allowed to pass through, not unless in the presence of another that would take him. Finding someone proved difficult, but it was for his own good, perhaps.

His ability manifested itself when he was deep within Mythal’s Glade. When another child went to shove and he simply moved out of the way, having seen that coming moments prior. It was a natural instinct, a reaction that he didn’t know how to control. The child fell, and a laugh escaped Ikaros before he could stop it. It was hard enough to remain friends with others, some remorseful part of Ikaros after being chastised by his family. He was heir to the throne, that was never an attitude befitting of a prince. So he learned the hard way. He learned to try and repress what his sight would show him, ignoring it at times if it meant another could win, or another could reap what they wouldn’t be able to with his help. Or sometimes he’d let them fail, a young and naive part of him glad that he could say I told you so.

What he didn’t see coming, however, was the sorrow that would befall his mother. His father had wandering eyes, no longer a noble spirit – and Ikaros turned away. He stood behind Titania, a young adult now that could see what was right and wrong. Though pieces of the puzzle made sense. Oberon’s time in Mythal’s Glade, a bastard who now had a bastard son to be raised on one of the highest branches. Ikaros’ favorite escape, somewhat tainted by the actions of his family. A shattered picture of perfection, Oberon was sent on his way – there was no hell like the wrath of Titania. Either way, Ikaros had a brother, someone that could not be blamed for the actions of their parents. Perhaps his only true friend, Ikaros held on to Abelas in the hopes that they wouldn’t have to have some weird generational issue.

As Ikaros got older, he learned that his precognition would simply take what it wanted. He could focus on something that he wanted, receive the vision that he desperately asked for. And as it kept going, the worse his headache would get. Visions would become unreliable, he wouldn’t be able to see straight, either. Fatigue that would leave him out of the light for days, locked away in the palace so he couldn’t be bothered. His grandmother would tell him that even gifts require penance, and while the gods had given the Elvhen an Oracle, he had to take care of himself, as well.

When Titania had deemed Ikaros old enough to venture out into Taravell on his own, it was with a warning. To not get too close, to make sure that he returned, there was a timeframe on everything. Ikaros would do as asked, though he wished to travel and learn what he could. He’d been to the Tower, he’d seen a crumbling Legionnaire Keep, and he’d seen Caribella. The places he’d heard of, the places he’d wanted to see and bring back to Avalon. He’d been to Lorien’dal, to live amongst the Silver Elvhen – all things his mother had done centuries upon centuries prior, only to be called back as distress filled his heart.

His grandmother had turned ill, a few days short of his three hundredth summer, the Blight having taken hold finally. His mother was crowned, and Ikaros was there to be the first to bend the knee to their new monarch. Titania was loved, and as her mother began to get more ill, there was terror that filled the hearts of the Elvhen. The Blight had been spreading so quickly, things that had normally seemed untouchable to the Elvhen becoming the things of waking nightmares.

Ikaros had watched as visions began to swarm his head, as nightmares began to become real. Blighted hands, a dying tree – the earth would shake as one fell from the Laurelin, another remembrance of a time where there was peace, and how it had shattered. Ikaros could feel the new weight of tradition and life fall on his shoulders, and while he would spend his time trying to give other Elvhen answers, he had to pull away. Titania would tell him that his time would come, he could help others but only if he took care of himself. Frustration would boil, and Ikaros would have to wonder if he would spend his life attempting to grasp at futures that weren’t his own.

Blighted hand after blighted hand, nightmares that would come to fruition – the more time he spent caged, Ikaros would wonder if he would ever see the sky again. So he did what he could within Avalon, told his mother and grandmother that he would return, and set out for answers within Taravell.

personality

+ observant, patient, perseverant – pessimistic, spoiled, manipulative

played by lauren. ???. she/her.

#the oracle #high elvhen

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katytheinspiredworkaholic · 3 years

Note

Hi friend! If you feel so inspired, how about a little blurb about a Reid/Hotch proposal?

Okay so... I’m so sorry this is like four months late, so you don’t just get a blurb you get a oneshot. Because you are one of my favorite and most dear supporters and I love you -- and also I’ve been dying to write a proposal for a while so here we go 💕 To everyone else who knows my obsession with Hotch’s line about the Moongate Gardens at sunset: I finally wrote a fic about it. I can die happy now and shut up about it.

Rating: PG for smooches and mentions that they sleep in the same bed

Warnings: none really, just super sappy and mushy like... really really stupidly fluffy. Gag worthy. I love it and hate it and love them even more than I hate myself so just enjoy the gooey lovey-dovey stuff.

Pairing: HotchReid

Word count: 2,401

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33276190

–

A Year in the Making

–

“At this rate, you’re going to make us late to dinner,” Spencer scolds, arm linked with Hotch’s in a way they don’t usually get to enjoy. Shoulder to shoulder, his arm woven through the older man’s, holding his forearm and feeling the solidarity there. Firm and comforting, confident -- Spencer adores it. Isn’t sure he’ll ever get used to it. “Our reservation is at 6:30.”

“And Antonia will hold our table, no matter how long we want to take,” Hotch points out, a small smirk of a smile turning at his lips handsomely. They had spent the whole afternoon at the Smithsonian's newest exhibit, Spencer reading every place card and notating his own past studies in between. Hotch getting the tour of a lifetime, as he always does. They are season pass holders to all the museum buildings, and usually they make a day of it with Jack, but today Hotch had brought them there mere hours before their dinner date. With access to the new permanent “Time and Navigation” exhibit at the Air and Space Museum, which he knew Spencer would be dying to see. They take the long way back to the parking lot; exit through the back of the Smithsonian Castle where the Enid A. Haupt gardens are, which is always Hotch’s favorite place.

Specifically the Moongate Gardens: a Japanese-style courtyard named after the circular stone archway, mirrored in shape by a fountain inlaid into the same pale stone, and surrounded by blossoming Sakura trees. It’s a chilly evening for that time of year, and they enter just before sunset -- another favorite event of Hotch’s. He’d brought Spencer there on one of their very first dates. At sunset, just like this, when the light colored stone soaks up the last golden rays of the sun, painting the whole courtyard as vibrant as the sky. It was one of the most beautiful sights Spencer had ever seen, told Hotch so that first time -- one year and three months ago. Hotch hadn’t answered with more than a soft, affirmative hum of agreement, but when Spencer had looked to him he saw that Hotch hadn’t been watching the sky or the scenic gardens around them at all. He’d been looking at Spencer.

They’d kissed until the sun dipped beyond the horizon. Ever since, the Moongate Garden has been a special place for them. Something they saved for the most special occasions, when it was appropriate to have emotion swallow them whole and they could savor the moment as long as needed.

Today was no such occasion; Spencer was sure of that.

And yet, Hotch was being unusually quiet. Not in the sense that he wasn’t talking, because their silences were always warm and companionable, but quiet in his mannerisms. Not revealing much of his thoughts or sentiments, keeping himself reserved -- and he only does that when he’s attempting to hide something. To keep it a surprise. Spencer was becoming just as good a profiler as Hotch is, as Gideon was, he can catch on to even the smallest hint of secret from the smallest micro-expression; but Hotch is also very skilled in keeping his emotions in check. An unspoken battle of wits that Spencer hadn’t even known he was a part of until they ventured into the garden. Mildly surprised at the turn, and somehow feeling he must have missed something --

But today isn’t anything special. It’s not an anniversary of any sort: it’s not their first date, their first kiss, nor the first time they said ‘I love you’. Spencer had been living with Jack and Hotch for less than six months, so that wasn’t it either. He remembers every date, every moment, with precision and accuracy and cherishes them beyond measure. He remembers all of it -- every date there is to remember.

Except for one.

There is one date Spencer doesn’t know, because it had only occurred for Aaron. But it changed his life, everything big and small, and he wants to make it just as important for the man on his arm. Holding his heart, without really knowing just how much.

“You’re really not going to tell me,” Spencer murmurs with a half smile, glancing at Hotch as they pass a couple leaving the garden, now having the space entirely to themselves.

“Tell you what?”

“What today is,” Spencer prods. “I don’t forget dates, so I’m sure you’re having fun holding this close to the chest.”

“A little bit,” Hotch admits, bringing them to the far side of the fountain, where a circular inlaid bench is set into the stonework.

“Alright,” Spencer laughs a bit, letting go of Aaron’s arm to take up his usual spot on the bench. “So out with it, enlighten me,” he teases further. A spark in his eye Hotch can never tire of, that never fails to steal his breath.

“You didn’t forget anything,” Hotch says with a small chuckle, as Spencer sits down. Hands on the edge of the bench in an endearing posture. Hotch sidles up to him, all warm dark eyes and secretive smiles. “We’ve been together 18 months.”

“And six days,” Spencer smiles fondly, curiosity in his gaze.

“But we’ve known each other much longer.”

Spencer pauses at that. His mind flipping through his mental rolodex calmly, that fond smile ebbing to something full of much more, love and time past and everything in between.

“Eleven years, five months, thirteen days,” he murmurs, and Hotch’s smile is so wide and adoring it captures all of his attention. Warmer than the last rays of the sun.

“That long?”

“The first day I saw you was in August, when Gideon got me into the FBI Academy and I was still technically a candidate,” Spencer says, a flush highlighting his cheeks and matching the hues of the sky. That had been a long time ago. He’d barely completed his third doctorate, had just decided to switch from sciences to humanities and pursue a career with the FBI. Aaron Hotchner had been the first person he met that embodied what an FBI Agent was supposed to be, in his eyes.

“There’s a lot of milestones I don’t remember with such accuracy,” Hotch says low and quiet in contemplation. Leaning against the stonework next to him, inside the circular design and close enough Spencer could knock his converses against his wingtips if he so desired. “I don’t remember what day I learned that you were joining our team, that you could do what you do, and how much it impressed me. But I remember the moment.” It had been the first time Spencer had taken his breath away, and made him smile, but he used to smile much more easily back then. “I also don’t remember the day I first looked at you and saw you differently. It feels like it should have been an epiphany, but it was a creeping thing that grew over… all those years,” he says, a little stunned it had really been that long. The astonishment echoing in his voice.

Spencer smiles and Hotch can’t help but reach out and take his hand, still standing beside where he sits on the stone blocks, the world around them turning rosy reds and oranges like it always does at sunset. But neither are looking at the sky.

“I don’t remember which day I decided I was going to ask you to dinner, because it took a very long time to gather the courage to do so.”

“I remember,” Spencer says with a breathless laugh, eyes bright. “You tried and backed out twice before you finally asked me. I was ready to say yes from the moment I realized what you wanted.”

Because of course he was. When words fail them, Hotch and Spencer always understand each other -- and it’s not often that words fail them. Hotch squeezes Spencer’s hands in his own, and doesn’t let them go. Once again working up the courage to speak what’s been on his mind and in his heart for the longest time.

“But there is one day that I do remember, with very precise accuracy.”

“This day,” Spencer elaborates, soft and still looking at him. A slight squint to his eyes as he tries to wrack his brain. “This day… last year?”

“Yes,” Hotch admits.

“We were… working, it was a Wednesday, we went on a trip together to the penitentiary upstate for an interview, and didn’t get back until late,” Spencer says, pulling the memories from thin air. “You -- you were worried we wouldn’t be able to work alone together, while being together, and we did very well that day. Got our interview, no incidents.” He gives him a slight look, the reminders of Chester Hardwick hanging over their heads and Hotch ducks his head a bit in admonishment. That had also been a very long time ago. “We did it, we were able to work together, and we went to our separate homes that night.”

“We did,” Hotch says, rubbing his thumb along the ridge of Spencer’s knuckles lovingly. “Do you remember when we left the BAU that night, in the hallway outside my office door?”

Spencer’s smile goes a little dazed, as his perfect memory recall brings up every frame of that moment.

“How could I ever forget?”

Outside Hotch’s office that night, he’d closed the door and was locking it as they were leaving, when he called to Spencer by his first name. They were one of the only remaining people on the floor, barely a soul around to hear him.

Spencer turned back to him, all unruly curls and his oversized sweater hanging off his shoulders. Soft and exhausted and ready for home. Aaron had felt an overwhelming urge to ask him to come back to his place. They spent all day together, but not ‘together’ like they’ve become so used to, and Aaron realized then that he doesn’t want to go home without Spencer. Ever. That what they have at work and what they have outside of it is a separate dynamic, and that they could handle this.

Could handle more.

Aaron thanked him, for everything that day, and Spencer only blinked once in mild confusion before he realized what Aaron meant. ‘Thanks for proving me wrong. Thank you for not tempting our predilections or our instinct to gravitate closer. Thank you for being you, unequivocally and earnestly you.’

And Spencer smiled at him, soft and tired and more in love than he probably meant to look. They hadn’t said it yet, wouldn’t for a few more weeks.

“Always.”

There was no specifics mentioned. Nothing narrowed down, just a feeling. A feeling Aaron doesn’t want to live without another moment longer.

“Good night, Aaron,” he murmured, barely contained longing there in those three words, and Aaron watched Spencer walk away with his heart thumping heavily in his chest.

“It was the first time I realized that I wanted to hear you say that every night. Beside me, in my bed -- our bed.” Spencer smiles even softer at Aaron’s words, because moving in with the Hotchners had been the best decision he’s ever made.

“It was the first time I saw… a future beyond next month, or next year. The first time I looked at you, walking away, and thought to myself --”

He sighs deeply then, head tilted and just looking at Spencer, and finally says the words he’s thought to himself over and over, moment after breath-taking moment, for the past year.

“I’m going to marry him, one day.”

Spencer’s breath catches, and he can’t seem to let it go again.

With Aaron’s hands still holding onto Spencer’s, he kneels down from where he stood, and grasps those slender palms tight, and asks --

“Dr. Spencer Reid, will you marry me?”

Spencer is floored. Feels the words wash over him like a tidal wave it’s so all encompassing, he had -- not expected the question in the slightest. Hadn’t been sure Aaron would want to marry again, had only hoped and kept contingency plans, but Spencer had been content to love him and live with him and build a family even without a marriage certificate.

But the question surges through him, drudges up every longing look and fleeting thought and romantic notion.

There is nothing in the world he wants more than to marry Aaron Hotchner.

“Yes,” he gasps out. “Yes, God yes!” And then Spencer’s all but tumbling off the stone bench and right into Aarons arms. Sending them both crashing onto the cold ground beneath them. He takes Aaron’s devastatingly handsome face in his hands and kisses him with so much fervor and passion it leaves them both gasping for air.

And then -- he smiles; bright, unbridled, kisses Aaron again so the man can taste it, feel it pressed against his own.

“I have a ring,” Aaron tries to tell him, between Spencer’s frantic, endearingly passionate kisses.

“So do I,” Spencer admits, and it stuns Aaron as Spencer kisses him slow and simmering. Wonderful. “At home, in my office, I didn’t know if you’d ever…”

“How could I not?” Aaron says, still stunned. “I love you,” he tells Spencer, low and spoken like Gospel. Like Scientific Fact. “I can’t imagine my life without you in it, and I intend to keep you in it. For as long as you’ll have me.”

“The rest of our lives sounds about right,” Spencer answers. His gaze follows Aaron’s hands as he reaches into his coat pocket for a small velvet box, reveals a silver banded ring, and puts it on Spencer’s finger. The young doctor watching as if in a trance.

When he looks back to Aaron, his eyes swimming in unshed tears, he kisses Aaron once more. Heavy and purposeful, so they feel every second passing slow as lost breath. As skipped heartbeats.

“I love you, too,” Spencer answers, as if it needs to be said. As if he doesn’t tell Aaron every day, every morning, every night.

And will continue to do so, every day that follows.

They stay there until the streetlights come on, wrapped up in one another, and the sun sets on the gardens surrounding them. They are very late to dinner. But Antonia does understand, and their table is indeed waiting for them when they finally arrive. And it continues to do so, every year on this day in early spring, for many, many years to come.

fin

#I can't decide if I like the panorama picture or not but it fits as a header photo so we're just going to go with it #but ANYWAY #I'm sorry this took forever and a fucking day but I hope it's everything you dreamed it would be #🎻 my wonderful friend #have some mushy gooey proposal fluff #with more backstory than is probably necessary #200followerasks #we're going to pretend I'm not over double that now #HotchReid #Heid #katyswriting #sr #asks from forever ago

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haphazardlyparked · 7 years

Text

pieces (continued!)

a continuation of my weird little fill for @gingerly-writing‘s prompt: “You broke me into pieces. It’s not my fault I put myself back together in a shape you don’t like.”

Third Month, 98 AS

The second time Emil meets Alaya, she’s the sixth out of eight dignitaries being introduced at Sohdu Square, the seat of Winsoh’s ruling Commission. Her full name is Alaya goh Mer, and she represents Fin Mer, a city-state on the far side of the Curled Sea. Her grey hair is plaited and wound around her head like a crown, her stride long and unfaltering as she crosses the Square.

When he sees those angular features and tanned skin, Emil feels like he’s been punched in the face.

At his position guarding the bright red-and-green moongate that opens into the Great Hall’s courtyard, Emil tenses, fingers curling into fists, mind uncomfortably abuzz because the first time Emil met Alaya goh Mer had been three nights before, when he had crossed the perimeter and broken into Sohtown’s only hotel to kill her in her sleep. She hadn’t looked dangerous then, her hair carelessly unbound and a soft expression on her face while she slept, but orders were orders and Emil was a professional dedicated to protecting his country.

He had been careful and precise with his wind-blades. She hadn’t woken at all while her pulse faded away; and when Emil was sure she was dead, he had cleaned the blood from her wound and applied synthetic flesh sutures to knit her skin together, hiding evidence of her murder before slipping out of her room. It had been late, but outland towns didn’t have any curfews, so Emil took extra care to avoid the townspeople still milling about in their thick winter coats, relying on his Sight to chart a sure, quiet path out of Sohtown.

He’d collected his electric bike at the town wall, driven the twenty miles back to Winsoh’s border, and passed back through the perimeter without issue. The Corps had been pleased when he reported his success, checking his Sight against his verbal report. Then, as a sign of their trust in him, they had assigned him to the security detail for the first outland diplomats to be allowed through the perimeter in thirteen years.

Now, Emil wonders if the stars are laughing at him.

Alaya goh Mer doesn’t so much as look at Emil, just one guard among many, but he’s hyperware of her as she approaches the bright red-and-green moon gate. She climbs the carpeted steps, bows gracefully before the Commission’s First Chair, and then turns to wave at the crowd gathered in the courtyard. She moves to the side, closer to Emil, as they announce the seventh diplomat, a somber-looking man from Dano.

Emil tries to focus on keeping watch over the crowd. Whenever he does steal a glance at Alaya goh Mer, she’s just standing there, politely smiling through the end of the introductions and the First Chair’s short speech on cooperation and peace between Winsoh and the Outland Federation.

When the whole contingent turns to pass through the gate and into the courtyard of the Great Hall, Emil’s close enough to hear Alaya goh Mer’s expressive sigh.

“Oh, it’s so beautiful,” she tells the somber man by her side, who looks surprised by her effusive outburst.

The courtyard’s gardens are decorated with yellow roses, a pleasant spring that contrasts the Outland’s current winter.

“I have more classic tastes,” the somber man grumbles. “I prefer my roses red.”

“Red’s nice, if you’re a romantic,” Emil hears Alaya goh Mer laugh. “But in the real classics, yellow roses represent life and resurrection.”

Emil suddenly feels like he’s being watched, but when he looks towards her again, she’s staring starry-eyed at the courtyard gardens.

“It’s a nice touch,” the somber man concedes.

Alaya goh Mer beams at him. “I agree. It’s a very fitting choice.”

His target’s image had been programmed into his Sight; Emil had never known her name. Maybe this diplomat and his target are relatives with similar looks. Maybe they really do let twin issues coexist on the other side of the perimeter.

But Emil knows, knows in his bones, that that this is the woman he killed. He feels like her bright smile is mocking him.

•••

Fourth Month, 98 AS

“I know your Commission is worried about the whole market incident,” Alaya goh Mer says without looking up. “But I don’t require a bodyguard.”

She’s lounging on a couch with her legs tucked under her, a book in hand, and Emil can’t stop looking at her bare feet. Out of the eight foreigners who’ve come to Winsoh, only she and the solemn man from Dano persist in keeping Winsoh’s barefooted fashion. Emil would prefer they donned Outland-style shoes.

Seeing the unmarked skin of Alaya goh Mer’s feet makes Emil uneasy, like he’s in the presence of some alien thing that’s unbound and boundless. It makes him think of her dead body in the Sohtown hotel.

“Consider me a guide, then,” Emil suggests with stiff politeness. He takes up a standing position just inside the door to Alaya goh Mer’s guest quarters.

Alaya goh Mer sets her book down. When she finally looks up at Emil, he finds himself drawn to the stylized leaves that make up the title of the book.

“You’re reading Winsohan poetry?” he blurts out, unable to keep the surprise from his voice.

Alaya goh Mer smiles, something small and different from the mocking thing Emil’s seen through his Sight and at the welcoming ceremony. It almost looks like a confession. “I have a soft spot for Cagyar’s freeform,” she explains, idly tapping her fingers against the book’s cover.

What do you think of The Misty Summers, Emil wants to ask, or why his freeform over Jan Micah's? Instead, with his attention now distracted away from the discomfort of her bare feet, Emil finds himself staring at Alaya’s sheepish smile and the way the sitting room lights dance in her eyes.

“Oh,” he says, and immediately feels a bit stupid for it. “I like his epics best.”

Alaya laughs. "But have you read any poetry from this volume? I borrowed it from one of your libraries." Ruefully, she adds, "We don't have libraries like yours anywhere in the Federation, not anymore."

The Federation, not the Outlands. The stark reminder of just who Alaya goh Mer is, and what she represents, snaps the sliding axis of Emil's perspective back into place. He glances back at her feet, with their unbroken stretch of tanned skin, and reminds himself that this is a dead woman walking. Boundless and dangerous. Emil is here to be neither bodyguard nor guide.

“Please continue to enjoy ours then, while you're here," he invites as formally as possible.

“Oh,” Alaya goh Mer says in a not-quite-earnest voice Emil can’t place. “I assure you, I will.”

•••

Tenth Month, 103 AS

“Emil.”

She says his name softly, lays a gentle hand on his shoulder, and Emil is wide-awake in an instant. He’s half out of his bedroll, the hilts of his knives in his hands with wind-blades half-formed, before he stops himself.

“Quietly,” Alaya says, straightening from her crouch and stepping back.

“What the fuck,” Emil bites out. He loosens his grip and lets the winds die away, but doesn’t let go of his hilts. Over on the other side of the campfire, shadows dance against Kara’s sleeping, motionless form. Alaya looks at Kara too, then back at Emil with a grim smile.

“Come on,” she gestures impatiently. “We’re going to go steal Rego’s Bell.”

The hard determination Emil sees reflected in Alaya’s flat stare sets him on edge. Apprehension curls in his gut.

Three days ago, they discovered the western Dano faction was coordinating their fighting with Winsohan allies using a Bell device. The Res has had its suspicions about the outbreak of fighting in Dano, which is why they sent Kara to investigate the would-be usurper Rego, but this is worse than anyone imagined. If they can get their hands on the Bell, they can probably prove that Winsohan agents haven’t just taken advantage of Dano’s infighting — they’ve instigated it by propping up Rego. It’s a direct breach of the noninterference clause in the Sealed Treaty.

It’s also exactly the kind of thing Winsoh’s Commission thinks it can get away with. The Commission’s arrogance angers Emil as much as it would any other outlander; he wants to get his hands on the Bell and wants to shove proof of the Commission’s treachery in Winsoh’s face.

But Emil doesn’t trust Alaya and her judgement.

It’s not just because he can’t look at her without feeling gutted, either. When he and Kara first set out for Dano, they had worked in an alert but comfortable tandem, confident in each other’s skills. Alaya’s presence has derailed that easy partnership. Since joining them, there’s been an uneasy tension between their small group that makes Emil feel brittle and off-balance.

Alaya blows hot and cold, sometimes playful enough to make even Emil laugh, sometimes turning on him with sharp eyes and a cutting tongue, and often uncharacteristically still, focused on something distant. Emil can’t rest when Alaya is around. She’s been testing Kara’s endless patience, too. Relentless — reckless, even — in their pursuit of Rego’s militia, Alaya has been driving them deeper into the thick of the fighting, insisting they can’t turn back yet.

“Kara thinks it’s too dangerous,” Emil reminds her coldly.

She scoffs. “Kara thinks a lot of things are too dangerous.”

“Don’t be so dismissive,” he snaps. “We’re already at the Byn river, twice as far as the Council gave us leave to go. Have you noticed how both banks are unsettled? There’s probably wisps out here that could kill us before we get within ten meters of Rego’s camp.”

“Alright, I see.” Alaya laughs that new, sharp laugh of hers. “You’re half an outland man now, but just as obedient as ever, aren’t you?”

She turns on her heel and heads out of the camp. “If I’m not back by midday tomorrow, return to the Council without me.”

Emil furiously wrestles himself out of his bedroll, steps into his boots, and strides after her. He catches her wrist when he’s close enough, pulling her to a stop. “You’re an idiot,” he growls when he’s sure he’s got her attention. “It’s a suicide mission, if you go alone.”

Further away from the fire, Emil can barely see the expression on Alaya’s face. Her voice is flat when she says, “It’s a suicide mission even if you come.”

Emil scowls in the dark. “I’ll improve our chances, at least.”

This time, Alaya’s laugh is quiet and familiar. “Protective as ever, too,” she murmurs.

For half a moment, Emil can imagine they’re back in her rooms in Sohdu, whiling away the hours before her next round of meetings. He squashes the thought.

•••

Fifth Month, 98 AS

“What the hell happened to you?”

The words are out of Emil’s mouth almost as soon as he lets himself into Alaya’s guest rooms. She’s curled up on the couch by the window, wearing outland trousers and a loose shirt, and her feet are covered in thin socks.

It’s the black eye and the dark, ugly bruise on her cheek that startles Emil. He crosses the room quickly, pushing Alaya’s legs off the couch gently so he can make room for himself next to her.

Alaya smiles widely, winces when the motion pulls at the muscles in her face, and then settles for something softer. “It’s nothing,” she tells Emil reassuringly. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking.”

Emil is not reassured. “Bullshit,” he says, reaching out to touch the left side of her face gently. She flinches when his fingers brush against her jaw — swollen, just as he thought, though not bruised like her cheek — and bites back a hiss when he presses at her black eye. “This wasn’t an accident.”

Surprise flickers across Alaya’s face before giving way to a huff of laughter. Emil doesn’t understand why, but Alaya is always so pleased when he calls her out on her subtle half-truths and baldfaced lies.

“No, believe me,” she protests playfully. “It was an accident. I wasn’t paying attention, and I accidentally walked into a petty thief’s fist.”

It’s a poor joke. Emil frowns. “Did you report the incident to the city corps?”

“Of course not, darling.” Alaya rolls her eyes. “I handled it myself.”

“Fighting’s outlawed in Winsoh, Alaya,” Emil reminds her. He brushes his fingers against her hairline, trails them through her silky grey locks. “You should’ve reported it to the local Sohdu corps. You could get into trouble, if anyone saw you. Where were your guards?”

“Apparently, they were busy with something else,” Alaya says with a strange smile. She shrugs. “So I guess no one saw me.” Reaching up, she slips her fingers around his wrist and pulls his hand from her face. “Relax, Emil. I’m fine.”

But Emil can’t shake the uneasy feeling in his stomach. Foreign diplomats shouldn’t be getting into fights in the streets of Sohdu — and what pickpocket would be stupid enough to target one of Winsoh’s outland guests? Maybe he should bring it up to the corps himself; they’d tighten the guard on the foreigners, if they knew about this. They would have to. If anything happens to the diplomats within the perimeter, it’ll reflect badly on Winsoh.

“You’re thinking too much.” Alaya threads her fingers through his, and squeezes his hand. “Why don’t you show me some of Winsoh’s famed medicines instead?”

“Alaya,” Emil hesitates. There’s so little that Emil can offer Alaya. His feels himself hunching slightly, ashamed that even this is beyond him. “I would, but — I’d have to write up an incident report. All of our supplies are regulated. They’d want to know what happened.”

For some reason, this makes Alaya laugh yet again. Alaya is always laughing, always smiling, but the more Emil is around her, the better he can tell the difference between her genuine, happy laughs and her other ones. This is one of her other ones, filled with something Emil can’t quite place.

“Fine, fine,” she tells him. “Forget I asked, darling. We won’t tell them how I’ve been naughty.” Using their joined hands, Alaya pulls Emil close enough that she can loop her other arm around his neck. There’s a slyness in her expression, and the heat in her eyes is full of promise. Emil feels himself flush with interest. “Why don’t you let me take you to bed,” Alaya suggests instead.

Emil’s breath catches in his throat. Stars above, but she’s beautiful, liquid amber eyes fixed on him, like he’s the only thing in the world right now. She’s got her private smile on now, the teasing, playful one that’s just for him. Emil leans into kiss it, loving the curl of her lips against his.

“Fine, fine,” he mimics her, when he pulls away. “Take me to bed, darling.”

“There’s my sweet guard,” Alaya purrs. She slides off the couch, tugging gently at Emil’s hand as she leads them through the moon-shaped arch that separates her sitting room from the bedroom.

Emil pretends he doesn’t see her limp.

#prompt response #gingerly-writing #nonlinear story #perimeter #writing #year of the orange

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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Genre Hopping: Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)

Delivering Our Report

We offer our report to Finnegan, and he asks us various questions about the case. The simple point and click nature makes this quite obvious, there are only so many potential answers to each question, and it should be obvious which is the most appropriate answer each time. After he is satisfied with our progress so far, he gives us half the reward money (100 gold pieces), and tells us to continue to Britain. He also asks if we need the Password to leave the city, which of course we do. This requires us to look up information from the manual in order to pass some basic copy protection questions. Nowadays with the GOG.com version, the answers are handily collated into a single list to make it easy to get past.

Answering these questions correctly gets us the password: “Blackbird”. This allows us to raise the portcullis that prevent our exit from Trinsic, and means we can head out into the wider world. From here, you are actually able to travel almost anywhere on the map (although some areas are locked, or require a ship or other means of travel). The game very much wants you to travel north, to Britain, and really that’s the best option at this point. So far, we have completed one quest, and killed precisely zero humans or monsters.

I haven’t talked about the combat system, the equipment, or experience and levelling up. For large parts of the game, this is how it continues, although there is plenty of combat once you find yourself in the wilderness or perhaps exploring one of the many dungeons. The towns and other settlements are much more designed around you talking to the various inhabitants, finding out about their problems, and occasionally being able to solve them.

The key aspects of an adventure gaming are here, solving puzzles and problems through investigation, conversation and item management. This sort of RPG feels very much of a similar type to Quest For Glory, with the relative safety of the towns and villages giving you opportunity to talk to the residents and help with their problems, while the combat in the wilderness and dungeons is often more of a side quest than any particular focus.

For someone that grew up with Sierra adventure games amongst others, Quest for Glory was my introduction to RPGs. From there, the Ultima games seemed much more suited to my interests than the likes of Wizardry or Might and Magic. Of course many RPGs and other genres would expand their gameplay mechanics in similar ways, as seen in the likes of System Shock, Fallout and so on.

Perhaps in the future, when we reach the appropriate years, such interesting crossovers of genre could be written about. Let me know in the comments if you have a particular favourite!

Written by Andy Panthro

We talk often about what makes something an “Adventure Game”, much like any genre this one was very loosely codified but I’m sure most of us would know one when they see one. Certainly we have already covered games that stray in some ways from accepted adventure gaming norms, most notably the Quest for Glory series which uses the classic Sierra graphical adventure gaming engine to deliver a fantastic RPG series.

The Ultima series was one of the earliest commercial RPG series, and one of the most popular through the 1980s and 90s. As Origin Systems developed this and other series, they were always wanting to be at the forefront of new technology and game design. The increased graphical fidelity of the Ultima series allowed them to increase the amount of unique characters, items, interactive elements and mechanics. The peak for this was surely Ultima 7, in which you can bake bread from flour and water, weave cloth from wool, and in the expansion pack even craft your own sword.

What the game also allowed, which to an extent was already present in Ultima 6, was a point and click interface that can be used to move and manipulate items in the world. Items could be hidden beneath other items, such as a key beneath a plant pot, objects could be stored inside other objects. A huge number of unique characters each having their own dialogue and in many cases their own homes, with appropriate items to be found within.

This meant that quest design could be so very much more varied. In older RPGs, you may expect to be fighting monsters and finding quest items at the bottom of a dungeon. Ultima 7 on the other hand contains so many quests that would not be out of place in any popular adventure game of the time. To fully explain how, let’s take a look at what could be considered the prologue of Ultima 7.

Trouble in Trinsic

The opening cinematic is a curious one, for those that don’t already know, the main character of the Ultima series is a human from Earth, summoned to provide assistance to the land of Britannia (formerly Sosaria in earlier games). This summoning is often done by key characters and friends from the land of Britannia in their time of need. The opening of Ultima 7 on the other hand, has your character mocked and taunted by a mysterious Guardian, and a strange red moongate in the circle of stones behind your house. Knowing that Britannia must be in trouble, you walk through the moongate to find yourself in the city of Trinsic.

Here you are in the game proper, and you see two people in conversation, something awful has happened. Your arrival is a surprise, and yet you have managed to appear right next to an old friend. Iolo the bard is a companion that has followed you through several adventures, and amongst the information he tells you is that it has been 200 Britannian years since you were last here, and that last night there was a terrible murder in the stables.

This begins an entire section that is used as both an introduction to the world and mechanics of the game, and as a tutorial and copy protection (more on that later). What is very important in this opening section, and was both surprising and fascinating in 1992 as it is today, is that this introduction involves absolutely no combat at all. You instead are tasked by the Mayor of Trinsic to investigate the murder of Christopher the blacksmith. Whereas other games of this era and later would have you fight a basement full of rats, or throw you into the wilderness to face random combat encounters, Ultima 7 was confident enough to try something quite different. Indeed even in the previous entry in this series, the first actions you took upon starting a new game were to fight a combat encounter.

What is more, the game engine is able to show you the entire grisly, ritualistic murder scene without having to have a text box explaining what has happened. You can see poor Christopher’s body, the blood, the candles, and even the bloody footprints of his attacker leaving the scene of the crime. Your job as Avatar of Virtue here in Britannia is to embody the virtue system, to save the land from peril, but in this game more than any previous, this task also involves solving the myriad and often serious problems that face the people of Britannia.

As with any good adventure game of this period, it’s often a good idea to have a notebook handy. There are many things you’ll want to make a log of, and there are so many little side quests and locations to keep track of. As you play, you’ll find yourself often crossing back and forth across the world and occasionally revisiting areas. For this first quest, I took note of the graphic and disturbing murder scene. In the centre of the stables lies a mutilated body of a man, besides which are four candles, a bucket of blood, and a key. Clicking and dragging the key on top of the Avatar puts it in his inventory. You can also move some of the other items, douse the candles and this provides me with an opportunity to discuss the rather interesting inventory system.

In early Ultima games, there were very few items, mostly either quest items, weapons, armour, and spell reagents. These might be displayed graphically in the world as simple tiles, but became merely a text list once you had them in your inventory or were browsing a shop. From Ultima 6, items were graphically represented both in the world and in the different character’s inventories. Ultima 7 continues this but with a greater graphical fidelity. Items in the world have different graphical sizes, but also have an assigned size and weight value. Containers have limits as to what size of items and how many items can fit within them. The positives for this are that it creates a much more immersive world, full of items you can pick up and interact with. Clicking and dragging to move items, double clicking to use items. It does also present some limitations, not least that your inventory can become very cluttered and it can be very easy to lose track of where items are (you must be especially careful with quest items). There are also some game-breaking bugs where items can disappear.

For the most part, this is an enjoyable and relatively intuitive system, rather than having to remember keyboard shortcuts. To open your backpack you can double-click on your character, then double click on your backpack (the keyboard shortcut to open your character sheet is “I”, pressing “I” multiple times will open the character sheets of each of your companions in succession). You can click and drag the key into your pack, along with any other items that you think might be useful. Double-clicking on a corpse opens a little coffin-shaped box with any items found within. Searching the rest of the stables will lead you to discover the body of a wingless gargoyle, impaled by a hay fork to the wall of his small room at the back of the stables. The gargoyle seems to have been murdered because of unfortunately being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The bloody footsteps lead out the back of the stables and then stop. The only way out is over a small set of steps over the fence, towards the eastern exit of this walled city.

Becoming the Detective

The next step is to talk to anyone and everyone that you can. The stables are run by a man named Petre, who lets us know that Christopher was the town blacksmith and he made shoes for the horses. The gargoyle’s name was Inamo, and he worked at the stables and lived in the back room. Since the murderer (or murderers!) seemed to escape to the east, it is worthwhile speaking with the guard at the east gate. The guard, Johnson, tells us that last night Gilberto was on guard, and he was found this morning lying wounded at his post. If you return to the Mayor at this point, he can give you an idea of where next to search. He first asks if you have searched the stables, and upon revealing that you found a key, he suggests asking Christopher’s son about it. He also recommends visiting Gilberto, who is recovering from a serious head injury at the local healer, as well as generally just asking every person in town about the murder.

He also reveals another piece of information, this is not the first time he has seen such a strange murder. The last time was four years ago, in the capital city of Britain. This will have to be our next stop, once our tasks here are complete. A quick visit to the healer lets us find Gilberto, who fills in some more of the details. He was struck just before dawn, and noticed that the ship “The Crown Jewel” had left in the ten minutes or so that he was unconscious. It is possible the killers took this ship, which was scheduled to leave for Britain. Another reason to travel to the Capital! He has little other information for us, so we head a little further down the street to the south, to visit Christopher’s place of work. There is nothing to use the key on here, but the place itself has been ransacked, and the laughter of the Guardian rings through our ears.

The Mayor said that Christopher’s son, Spark, lived with him in the North-west of the city, so perhaps he will be able to inform us about the key. Spark is a young man, fourteen years old (although his picture makes him look much younger), and although he is initially suspicious, he does agree to help. It is from Spark that we learn his father had recently joined the Fellowship, a new organisation that is unfamiliar to us, but seems to have spread across Britannia in recent years. There were troubles though, as Christopher had been arguing with the leader of the local Fellowship branch. Spark also lets us know that the key may unlock his father’s chest, found upstairs in his house. He also tells us that he might have seen the killers, a wingless gargoyle and a man with a hook for a hand. Finally, the boy asks to join our party to hunt for his father’s murderers. Bringing a teenager on a dangerous mission is perhaps not the best idea, but as Justice is one of the Eight Virtues, I accept his request and he joins the party.

Upstairs I do find a locked chest, which is opened with the key found next to Christopher’s body, and inside are three things: 100 gold pieces, a fellowship medallion, and a note saying “Thou hast received payment, make the delivery tonight”. What Christopher had made for these mysterious men, and why they killed him after receiving it, we will have to find out! Next step, interrogate Klog, the Fellowship leader, and see if he can shed any light on this matter. Klog resides with his wife Ellen, at the Fellowship branch in the centre of town. The building is quite large, and inside is reminiscent of a church, with pews facing towards a podium, where presumably sermons are delivered.

Trust Thy Brother

Klog himself greets us as the Avatar, it seems that word has spread quickly of our arrival. After the usual pleasantries, I enquire if he knows anything about the murders, and the first thing he mentions is that he has an alibi. Not suspicious at all, of course. Furthermore, he also gives us a Fellowship saying: “Worthiness Precedes Reward”, and suggests that Christopher must have done something wrong to have been murdered. So far this is giving me both a low opinion of Klog, and also his organisation. I decide to quiz him on the items I have found so far, but he denies any knowledge of any of them, save the medallion. He does mention that the argument was to do with Christopher wanting to leave the fellowship, and he accuses Christopher of “verbally assaulting” him.

As the Fellowship is an entirely new organisation since we were last in Britannia, I take the opportunity to ask about it. He tells me that the Fellowship is an organisation promoting a philosophy of “sanguine cognition”, based around the “Triad of Inner Strength”. This triad being, “Strive for Unity”, “Trust Thy Brother” and “Worthiness Precedes Reward”. He then asks me if I’d like to join, to which I reply “no”. He responds “Perhaps thou canst become enlightened another time”. If you reply “yes”, he tells you to visit Batlin in Britain to take a test to see if you can become a member. All roads lead to Britain, it seems. Speaking to his wife gives no further information, the only thing she talks about at any length is the Fellowship, repeating word-for-word the same speech as her husband. It does not take a genius to figure out that there may be something rotten at the heart of this organisation, and indeed the original game manual is in part written by Batlin of Britain, leader of the Fellowship, who gives his biased view on Britannia and the previous adventures of The Avatar. It is definitely worth reading the manual if you decide to play this game!

Our final stop before returning to the Mayor is to check in with the shipwright, to see if he has any information about the ship “The Crown Jewel”. The man’s name is Gargan, and he confirms that “The Crown Jewel” sailed for Britain early this morning. He is also initially dismissive of our descriptions of the potential murderers, before remembering that he did see two such people just before sunrise, providing confirmation of what Spark had seen. With no further questions or leads at this time, the Mayor will want our report. You can of course speak to several other people in the town, many of whom have interesting things to say, but for the sake of brevity it’s best for us to move on.

Delivering Our Report

Perhaps in the future, when we reach the appropriate years, such interesting crossovers of genre could be written about. Let me know in the comments if you have a particular favourite!

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/genre-hopping-ultima-vii-the-black-gate-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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The Black Gate Bonus: The Books of Britannia

One of many in-game books that make in-jokes and build lore.

I’d have to look through my notes to see what game first offered full-text books–not as plot devices but just as random background flavor and world-building. It might have been Ultima VI. But even if they appeared in earlier games, Ultima VII is the first game to treat them this extensively, with at least a couple of dozen different titles found on desks, nightstands, and bookcases throughout the homes and workplaces of the Britannian people. The castle alone had more than 15 different books.

Ultima VII admittedly doesn’t do as well with its books as many later titles. Many of them are goofy, or simply analogues of real-world titles, and not the world-building tomes that we find in, say, The Elder Scrolls series, the Infinity Engine games, or The Witcher series. Still, they’re fun and deserve some additional attention and analysis.

I thought I’d use this entry to organize that analysis, adding new books as I find them. I’m excluding some “plot” books that don’t have much text (like Morfin’s register of venom sales). I’ll add notes to future entries when this one has been updated. The books I’ve found so far are: The Apothecary’s Desk Reference by Fetoau. A book that accurately describes which potions have which effects. Very useful.

The Art of the Field Dressing by Creston, with a forward by Lady Leigh. It has some advice about cutting cloth into strips to bandage wounds, something that actually works in the game. While Lady Leigh is later found in the game, I don’t believe Creston is.

The Bioparaphysics of the Healing Arts by Lady Leigh. The bible for in-game healers. I believe Lady Leigh will be found later in Serpent’s Hold.

The Book of the Fellowship by Batlin of Britain. The first page of the game manual–the one time it makes sense for a real-life book to appear in the game.

Chicken Raising by Daheness Gon. A relatively useless instruction manual for raising chickens and producing eggs. The anatomical advice seems accurate, but I’m not sure how it helps in-game. Found on the shelf of a farmhouse, which makes sense.

Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang by Ian Fleming. The real-life 1964 book by the author better known for creating James Bond. Lead Ultima VII writer Raymond Benson later went on to become the official James Bond writer from 1997-2002.

With a couple of syllabic substitutions, this could easily have been a James Bond title.

Collected Plays by Raymundo. An anthology of plays by the guy who runs the theater in Britain. Play titles include Three on a Codpiece, The Trials of the Avatar, The Plagiarist, Clue, and Thumbs Down. “Raymundo” is the in-game avatar of lead writer Raymond Benson, and at least three of these plays are real plays written by Benson. Clue is a 1977 musical based on the board game–a full 8 years before the Tim Curry film. The Plagiarist and Thumbs Down are more obscure; I’m not sure when or if they were ever staged, but they were published as short stories by Amazon Shorts in 2006. Three on a Codpiece is described in-game as a performance art piece in which audience members “tear an undergarment into tiny pieces, after which they are placed in funeral urns and mixed with wheat paste . . . then the audience may glue the pieces anywhere on [the actor’s] body that they wish.” One Ultima site suggests this might be a reference to Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece (1965).

A Complete Guide to Britannian Minerals, Precious, and Semi-Precious Stones by B. Ledbetter. The book discusses some of Britannia’s natural resources, including veins of gold and lead. It is notable for a paragraph on blackrock, a “recently discovered” substance with little practical use, rumored to have a “profound effect” on magic. This will of course become a major part of the game’s plot. I don’t believe Ledbetter appears in-game. I thought it would be funny if it was the guy who runs the jewelry shop in Britain, but his name is Sean.

The Day It Didn’t Work by R. Allen G. A collection of essays about “overseeing a group of well-meaning misfits in a mechanical environment.” An obvious joke about Richard Allen Garriott and the staff at ORIGIN. Everything an Avatar Should Know about Sex. This book is blank after the title page. Ho-ho-ho. Or maybe it’s not a joke and it’s foreshadowing the upcoming unicorn encounter.

The Honorable Hound inn register. The guest list for this Trinsic inn has four recent names: Walter of Britain, Jaffe of Yew, Jaana, and Atans of Serpent’s Hold. Jaana is of course the Avatar’s companion going back to Ultima IV. I don’t believe the others are ever seen or heard from in the series.

How to Conquer the World in Three Easy Steps by Maximillian the Amazingly Mean. The ravings of a “megalomaniac cleric.” He plans to acquire VAS CORP (“Mass Kill”), which he thinks will make everyone fear him, and that not even Lord British himself is immune. I’m pretty sure that Lord British survives a VAS CORP (which is a real spell). Lord British doesn’t even die from VAS CORP IN BET MANI (“Armageddon”). Also, there are no “clerics” in this setting. As an aside, I wonder if employees of Vascorp Network Solutions know that to a portion of the public, their name means “Mass Death.”

Hubert’s Hair-Raising Adventure by Bill Peet. A real 1969 children’s book by a real author. It tells in rhyme how the proud lion Hubert had his mane scorched in a series of escalating misadventures. We learned about its presence in Britannia in Ultima VI, where Lord British spent every night reading it to Sherry the Mouse. I don’t know which idea is worse: that the adolescent Lord British was carrying the book while hiking through the English countryside, or that he later went back for it.

It’s good that Lord British has priorities.

Jesse’s Book of Performance Art by Jesse. A “controversial and eccentric Britannian actor” who has published a book of “scripts” for performance artists and argues that performance art is basically the same thing as acting. Jesse is an NPC in Britain who jokes about playing the Avatar and having only three lines: NAME, JOB, and BYE.

Key to the Black Gate. A cluebook to the game, found within the game (but without any of the actual text). Probably meant as a subtle in-game advertisement. Can you imagine needing a cluebook to solve this game?

A crummy commercial?!

Lord British: The Biography of Britannia’s Longtime Ruler by K. Bannos. The biography frankly acknowledges that Lord British is from another world. I wasn’t sure that was public knowledge until now. He entered Britannia through a moongate and became one of the rulers of the eight kingdoms of Sosaria. The people proclaimed them the king after he successfully dealt with Mondain, Minax, and Exodus. The book recounts his role in Ultima IV and Ultima V but ends just as the gargoyles become a threat in Ultima VI. Unfortunately, the text also re-affirms the idea that the Avatar is the same hero as the one who defeated Mondain, Minax, and Exodus–the dumbest retcon ORIGIN ever introduced.,

Part of Lord British’s bio. A party of Fuzzies defeated Exodus and nobody can convince me otherwise.

Mempto Rays: A Qualitative Study in Metaparaphilosophical Radiation by Mempto. Some rantings about Britannia always being bombarded by radiation “lethal to all non-living matter.” Probably meant as a send-up of pseudo-science in the modern world.

No One Leaves by R. Allen G. This sequel to The Day It Didn’t Work is a humorously-phrased paragraph about missed deadlines and forced overtime.

No Way to Jump by Desmonth. A treatise on tropes found in adventure stories. This is probably another in-joke about game development. After all, Ultima VII, for all its realism, does not allow the Avatar to jump. The issue continues into the present day and is found on TV Tropes as “The Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence.” Note that Ultima VIII does feature jumping and jumping puzzles.

On Acting by Laurence Olivier. Philosophical notes on acting “written by a noted thespian of a distant land.” The text notes that it was apparently “one of the many brought to Britannia by Lord British.” Why was the kid hiking with half a library on his back? Anyway, Sir Laurence did in fact publish a book of this title in 1986.

Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style by Francis Hodge. A “respected textbook” written by “an eminent professor emeritus from a university in a distant land.” It is in fact a real-world book, published in 1971 by a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Probably someone that Raymond Benson or someone on the staff at ORIGIN (which was based in Austin) knew. Hodge passed away in 2008.

The Salty Dog inn register. This inn and tavern in Paws lists seven recent visitors: Addom of Yew, The Avatar, Jalal of Britain, Tim of Yew, Blorn of Vesper, Sir Dupre, and Penelope of Cove. Addom is a traveling merchant who later shows up in Moonglow and plays a role in that city’s plot. To my knowledge, Jalal and Penelope never appear in the game, although I think Jalal appears in another register. Tim of Yew is also an unknown (there was a bard named Tim in Ultima V but he’d be long-dead). Blorn is an anti-Gargish racist who we later find in Vesper. The idea that Dupre recently visited a tavern is entirely within his character. The most disturbing entry is that someone is wandering around passing himself off as “The Avatar.”

Thou Art What Thee Eats by Fordras. A nutritional analysis that pre-dates the Atkins crazy by suggesting meats and vegetables ahead of carbohydrates. The author recommends certain foods in order, and I think it roughly corresponds with how filling those foods are in-game.

The Transitive Vampire by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. This is a real book by a real author, originally published in 1984. As best I can tell, it’s a real book about English grammar and syntax, but all the examples are vampire-themed and there are vampire illustrations. If there’s something deeper going on, someone’s going to have to tell me. I suppose if it actually gets people to read a book on grammar, there are no bad ideas.

Go figure.

Tren I, II, III, IV . . . XVII. An autobiography by “the obtuse mage” which “reveals Tren’s life in all of his incarnations as he continually strove to possess more powerful beings.” As far as I know, we never meet a mage called Tren, nor do we ever see an application of magic that involves possession of beings.

Up Is Out by Goodefellow. A treatise on gravity and mass, including “falling apples.” It’s a clear analogue to Isaac Newton, but I otherwise don’t know if the title and author are a reference to anything. If Goodefellow is an actual Britannian trying to research physics, his life is going to be rough.

Vargaz’s Stories of Legend. This anonymous book is subtitled Reasons Why One Should Never Build Doors Facing North or West. The book has two stories, one about a plague of locusts foretold by Father Antos (Ultima II and IV) which destroyed houses with north-facing doors. The other tale suggests that monsters fleeing sunlight are more likely to flee east and thus invade houses with west-facing doors.

The Wayfarer’s Inn register. This tavern in Britain lists five recent guests: John-Paul of Serpent’s Hold, Horffe of Serpent’s Hold, Featherbank of Moonglow, Tarvis of Buccaneer’s Den, and Shamino. I later found Shamino shacking up with an actress, so he probably only had to stay for one night. I don’t believe Tarvis or Featherbank appear in the game, but John-Paul is in fact the ruler of Serpent’s Hold and Horffe is his Gargish captain of the guard.

What a Fool Believes by P. Nolan. The book only has a brief paragraph, describing it as “the story of a bard, a blonde, and a bottle . . . a classic tale of the war between the sexes.” There’s a song of this name, of course, recorded by the Doobie Brothers and Aretha Franklin among others, but it doesn’t mention a blonde or a bottle and has no association with anyone named “Nolan” (although, in a weird twist, the R&B artist Nolan Porter did cover the song, but not until 2011).

The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum. The real book from the real world, except that in the real world, the author is L. Frank Baum. It is given a quick summary in-game. I assume it’s in Lord British’s castle because I stole it for him as part of an Ultima VI side-quest.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-black-gate-bonus-the-books-of-britannia/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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Game 363: Ultima VII: The Black Gate

A deceptively pleasant introductory screen.

Ultima VII: The Black Gate

United States ORIGIN Systems (developer and publisher)

Released in 1992 for DOS; 1994 for SNES

Forge of Virtue expansion released later in 1992 for DOS

Date Started: 20 March 2020

I first played Ultima VII in 1999. I had just purchased my first Windows laptop after 7 years of Mac-exclusive ownership, and I was ready to catch up on a decade of RPGs. I had staved off my addiction while serving in the Army Reserves, going to college, meeting my eventual wife, and starting my career, and it was best for all of those endeavors that I did. But life had settled down by then, and I was ready to take the risk.

The first two “new” RPGs that I played were Might and Magic VI and Ultima VII. (“New” being post-1990, when my Commodore 64 had died. By then, Ultima VII was 7 years old, of course, but I still think of it on the “new” side of the dividing line between “old” games and “new” games.) I had a similar reaction to each of them: initial distaste, followed by growing admiration, followed by absolute awe.

This may be the first CRPG with an expansion pack that takes place within the main quest.

But I still remember the reasons behind my initial reaction, and a few of them remain valid criticisms. I bought it as part of an Ultima anthology, so I would have played it after hitting Ultima IV-VI in quick succession. Compared to the small, crisp icons of the previous games, the Ultima VII characters seemed impossibly lanky and awkward. The creators must have taken to heart the criticisms of the tiny Ultima VI game window because they made the entire screen the game window–but then they zoomed it in so much that you still only see a tiny area.

They removed the ability to choose a character portrait, and I hated–still hate, really–the long blond-haired jerk that I’m forced to play. The guy looks like he’s about 50, which doesn’t bother me as much today as it did then. The typed keyword-based dialogue that I absolutely cherished had been replaced by clicking on words spoon-fed to you by the game. And then there was all the clicking! For the first time, the Ultima interface wasn’t using my beloved keyboard shortcuts but instead wanted me to click around on things. I hate that now and I hated it more then, when the mouse was still new and uncomfortable.

I still find everything about this screen annoying.

Finally, there was the plot. 200 years have passed?! And all my old companions are still alive?! Who is this Red Thanos taunting me through the computer screen? And what in Lord British’s name have they done to Lord British?!

This is all to say that I’m glad I’m not playing Ultima VII for the first time. This is a game that vastly benefits in a replay, at a point where I’ve accepted its weaknesses but also have a full understanding of its strengths. In fact, the position that I’m in right now–knowing that I’m in for a good game but not remembering much of it because I haven’t played it in maybe 13 years–is just about perfect.

So let’s back up and note all the things that the game does right, starting with the animated, voiced introduction, perfectly scored. The game opens on a pleasant scene of Britannia. A butterfly dances around a grassy hillside at the edge of a forest. There’s a lilting tune with a timbre suggesting an organ but a melody suggesting more of a flute.

The first appearance of the Guardian.

But after a few seconds, the music fades and is replaced with an ominous, themeless tune in a low register. Black and blue static fill the screen. A red face with glowing yellow eyes and teeth like rocks pushes through the screen to address the player directly:

Avatar! Know that Britannia has entered into a new age of enlightenment. Know that the time has finally come for the one true Lord of Britannia to take his place at the head of his people. Under my guidance, Britannia will flourish, and all the people shall rejoice and pay homage to their new Guardian! Know that you, too, shall knell before me, Avatar. You, too, shall soon acknowledge my authority, for I shall be your companion, your provider, and your master!

I would note that in contrast to the comically awful narrations at the beginning of both Ultima Underworld and Ultima VII: Part Two, the Guardian’s voice is reasonably well-acted by Arthur DiBianca, who I gather was just a programmer who happened to have a nice bass voice. The voice immediately gives us a paradox because the Guardian looks like an ape, an orc, a monster, yet his voice is clear, his speech intelligent and articulated. Just what kind of foe are we facing? One who knows who we are, who has the ability to push through into our world.

(Incidentally, having never played Ultima VIII or Ultima IX, I still don’t really know the answers to the questions about the Guardian’s origin and motivations. I know it’ll be tough, but I’d appreciate if no one spoils it.)

As the screen fades, the camera pulls back to show that the player is somehow playing Ultima VII on his computer, with a map of Britannia and a Moonstone sitting beside it. No, it doesn’t make sense. Don’t think about it.

I can’t not think about it. How is my character playing Ultima VII? Does he have his own character? How far down does it go?

“It has been a long time since your last visit to Britannia,” the title screen says, two years constituting “a long time” back in those heady days of annual releases. The character picks up his moonstone and heads out to the circle of stones in his back yard–only to find a moongate already there. Without hesitation, he plunges through to the title screen, which features not the triumphant, adventurous introductory music of most RPGs but rather a dark, dreadful march in 2/4 time. Something awful is coming, it says.

I’m not sure this ever gets answered.

Before we get into character creation and the opening moments of the game, let’s diverge to the manual, which is perhaps the most brilliant game manual of all time–a superlative unlikely to ever be broken now that game manuals no longer exist. It manages to educate the player on the basics of Britannia and the past Ultima games while perfectly serving the plot of the current game. It is the only manual that I know that was written by the game’s villain. I realize that’s a bit of a spoiler, but you’d have to be a particularly dense player to not realize that something is at least a little fishy with “Batlin of Britain,” and a veteran player of the Ultima series reads it with an escalating horror.

The manual is called The Book of Fellowship, and it describes the history, geography, and society of Britannia in the context of the growth of a quasi-religious/philosophical order called the Fellowship. Jimmy Maher has a particularly excellent article examining the parallels between the Fellowship and the Church of Scientology. (Garriott had apparently read a 1991 Time magazine exposé of the Church while the game was in its planning phase.) But I also see a lot of the (then-) growing “prosperity gospel” in the Fellowship, and Batlin strikes me as much of a Joel Osteen (although no one at ORIGIN would have been aware of him in 1992) as an L. Ron Hubbard. One particular analogue with prosperity theology (and not Scientology) is the organization’s “layered” approach to scripture. The Fellowship does not reject the Eight Virtues of the Avatar any more than prosperity theology rejects the Bible. It simply adds its own new layer of interpretation (simplification) on top of them, encouraging its followers to hold true to the past without really focusing on it. The emphasis is all on the new material–in the case of the Fellowship, their Triad of Inner Strength.

The manual begins with Batlin of Britain’s introduction of himself. He presents himself with false humility as just a regular man, a fellow “traveller” through life, who has happened to stumble upon a bit of wisdom that he wants to share. Throughout his biography, he brags-without-bragging that he has served in all eight of the classical Ultima roles: Born and raised by druids in Yew, a first career as a fighter in Jhelom, then as a bard in Britain; trained by a mage from Moonglow; serving for a while among a company of paladins in Trinsic and as a tinker in Minoc; and finally spending a sojourn with the rangers of Skara Brae before ending up as a humble shepherd in New Magincia. His series of portraits through these sessions show a square-jawed, hale, charismatic figure, and it’s no surprise when we actually meet him in-game to find a fatter, oilier version than is presented in the official portraits.

What kind of pretentious jackass divides his own biography into sections called “part the first” and “part the second”?

During his description of overcoming some wounds in Minoc, Batlin says:

A healer there told me that without the proper treatments (for which he charged outrageous prices) I would most probably die! I angrily sent him away. After a time I did mend. I had learned that the healing process takes place mostly in one’s mind and have since placed no trust in healers who greedily prey upon the afflicted.

Here is our first actual contradiction with the world as we’ve come to know it as an Avatar. It manages to parallel Scientology’s rejection of traditional psychology, sure, but also the Christian Science rejection of traditional medicine and perhaps “New Age” medicine in general.

He describes in his history how he met his two co-founders of the Fellowship, Elizabeth and Abraham (the “E.A.” being an intended swipe at Electronic Arts, which would have the last laugh by purchasing ORIGIN the same year), and how his experiences led him to develop the Triad of Inner Strength. If the casual reader is not yet convinced of Batlin’s villainy, it should become apparent in the section where he discusses the “ratification” of the Fellowship by Lord British. Though calling him “wise” and paying him obsequious homage, Batlin manages to paint the king as a capricious, dismissive sovereign, uninterested in the Fellowship until Batlin managed to “prove” himself with a display of confidence that manages to reflect the Fellowship’s own philosophies. The section brilliantly manages to associate Batlin with the king and the king’s favor (for those who still admire the king) while also planting a seed of doubt about Lord British’s fitness to rule.

What he does to the Avatar is less subtle but far more damaging. Batlin knows that if his Fellowship is going to replace the Eight Virtues as Britannia’s predominant theology, and if he himself is going to replace the Avatar as the spiritual figurehead, he must undo the Avatar. But the memory of the Avatar is too popular, his friends too influential, for Batlin to use a direct attack. Thus, he snipes and undermines and saps from all angles while pretending to admire the Avatar himself. “The Fellowship fully supports the Eight Virtues of the Avatar,” he says, but that “it is impossible to perfectly live up to them. Even the Avatar was unable to do so continuously and consistently.” Thus pretending to support the Eight Virtues while rejecting them, he introduces the Fellowship’s Triad of Inner Strength:

Strive for Unity: Work together to achieve common goals.

Trust Thy Brother: Don’t live your life full of suspicion and doubt.

Worthiness Precedes Reward: Do good for its own sake before expecting compensation.

Maher’s article points out how these three principles are not only kindergarten-level theology, but how easy it is to twist them towards evil ends. “Work together, don’t question, don’t ask anything in return” could be the motto of a fascist organization as easily as a charitable one.

Most of the slights against the Avatar occur during the second half of the manual, ominously titled “A Reinterpretation of the History of Britannia.” Batlin walks through the events of Ultima I through VI much as the previous game manuals did, but with the occasional anti-Avatar salvo disguised as support. For instance, after describing the events of Ultima II, he says:

While there have been speculations as to the motivations of the Avatar, there is insufficient evidence to show that the Avatar was driven to violence by jealously over Mondain’s romantic involvement with Minax. That being said, such theories are hereby denounced and should not be given consideration.

Soon afterwards, he “formally disagrees” with “those who say the Avatar should have handled [the events of Exodus] differently.” He casts aspersions–no, sorry, alludes to other people casting aspersions–on the Avatar’s motives in the Quest of the Avatar. As for Ultima VI: “Those who say that this terrible and destructive war could have been prevented had the Avatar not appropriated the Codex from its true owners are merely dissidents who are grossly misinformed.” Leaving aside the fact that the Avatar wasn’t the one who took the Codex, Batlin commits here the slimy politician’s trick of introducing a slur while simultaneously denying it, thus seeding doubt while trying to remain above it. I’ve learned the hard way to at least try to keep politics out of my blog, but it’s literally impossible not to think of Donald (“many people are saying”) Trump when reviewing this aspect of the Batlin character or indeed the Batlin character as a whole. If I didn’t say it here, someone would have filled in the blank in the comments as they did in the Maher article.

Aside from the undermining of the Eight Virtues, Lord British, and the Avatar, the manual is notable for numerous asides that make the veteran player eager to jump in and start swinging his sword. In his description of his time as a fighter, Batlin talks about “unruly lords wag[ing] war against each other . . . over Lord British’s objections.” Clearly, peace has broken down, but why? We later hear that Skara Brae is for some reason a “desolate ruin” (remind me to come back to another Batlin quote when I actually visit Skara Brae). Lock Lake near the city of Cove has become polluted. The town of Paws is said to be languishing in poverty. Some mysterious figure called the “Sultan of Spektran” has set up his own government on the island previously occupied by Sutek. The gargoyles have their own city, called Terfin, but there’s a suggestion that local mines might be exploiting them for labor. Runic writing has fallen out of favor. There have been recent droughts. And worst of all, magic has been breaking down and its practitioners going insane.

Perhaps the biggest shock is that it has been 200 years since the Avatar last visited Britannia. This is presumably since his last visit in Ultima VI, not Ultima Underworld. The manual makes no acknowledgement at all of the events of Underworld; no mention is made of a colony on the Isle of the Avatar, nor its destruction in a volcanic eruption.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar still has the best quest of the series, in my opinion, but Ultima VII may have the best plot. This isn’t the first time that a CRPG has featured writing and plotting worthy of a novel (I would probably give that award to Starflight), but it’s still rare in the era. I understand that we owe this depth of narrative to lead writer Raymond Benson, who would later go on to take over the James Bond novel series. Benson was a playwright and composer who had previously worked on computer adaptations of Stephen King’s The Mist (1985) and the James Bond games A View to a Kill (1985) and Goldfinger (1985). He was recruited by ORIGIN in 1991 and wrote some dialogue for Martian Dreams before beginning Ultima VII.

Someone like Benson was exactly what ORIGIN needed. The company may have “created worlds,” but they always did so in a way that was both a little sloppy and a little too tidy, with poor respect for their own canon. I have discussed at length my disappointment over the way the game treated the concept of “the Avatar” after Ultima IV. Well, here, in the opening documentation of Ultima VII, we have an in-game character who personifies that lack of respect, who manages to take the confusion over ORIGIN’s retcons–was the Avatar really the same hero who defeated Mondain?–and twist it to his own ends. When I finished the manual in 1999, I was never more eager to leap into a world and start putting things right. I am only slightly less eager now.

Note: To avoid loading transitions and other throwbacks to an earlier age, the developers of Ultima VII changed the way DOS allocates memory. Their solution required players to boot from a special disk. I remember that this created all kinds of problems when I originally tried to play the game in the late 1990s. Also, processors had gotten so much faster that the characters moved at lightning speed, and I had to use a special program called Mo’Slo to slow things down. I don’t think I ever got the sound working properly back then. The emulation era and the folks at GOG sure make this much easier.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-363-ultima-vii-the-black-gate/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

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Missed Classic: Ballyhoo – Circus Minimus

Written by Joe Pranevich

Welcome back! Last time out, we started into Infocom’s fourth mystery game, Ballyhoo. Unlike our previous mysteries, this one is not (yet!) a murder. Instead, we have a kidnapping… at a circus! We will have to use all of our investigative skills to find out who kidnapped the owner’s daughter and why, even though the owner doesn’t know we are helping and probably wouldn’t be that thrilled to find out that some random patron was snooping around his circus after closing time. Why are we doing this again? Because we secretly dream of the Big Top ourselves! And of being a detective, apparently. Actually, I have no idea why we’re doing this but someone has to save the girl and so it might as well be us.

I apologize for the small delay in getting this out. We’ve had “plague house” here at the local Infocom Marathon Headquarters and so much of my time has been spent either being sick, cleaning up after others being sick, or both at the same time. It doesn’t make for the best head-space for writing about a fun-filled circus holiday. To compensate, I’ve made this entry a bit longer than usual. As they say, send in the clowns!

Has anyone seen my moongate?

Walk Down Memory Lane

Last time out, I mapped out all of the circus that I could. This consisted of several circus acts including an animal menagerie; Andrew Jenny, the half-and-half person; Rimshaw, the hypnotist; Tina, the “fat lady”; plus the Big Top itself. A guarded turnstile blocked our way further south, presumably to the crew area. While exploring, I performed a hire-wire act in the empty Big Top, scoring me a lost child’s balloon which I must be careful not to drop or else it will fly away. I need to solve some puzzles if I am to advance.

The first “puzzle” that I know of is more like copy protection. The ticket included with the game has tons of fine print on it, but most importantly that three sessions with Rimshaw are included with the price of admission. This includes palm reading, hypnotism, and head-bump reading. I’m going to start this week by cashing in my extras.

While the palm reading reveals nothing but that I am going to have an interesting night, the hypnotism is surprisingly effective. I am cast back, as in a dream, several hours to when the circus was in full swing and I am sitting in the audience. The place is packed and everyone seems to be having a good time. This is a fully interactive dream, so I can interact with it in the usual Infocom way. Suddenly, I hear a rumble and a growl. What could it be? I look around, only to realize that it is my own stomach. I am hungry! (I confirm this with the “diagnose” command, a nice throwback to earlier Infocom games.) Just in the nick of time, a hawker comes to the end of my row selling tofu and peanuts. I yell down that I would like some peanuts and he flashes me the price on his fingers. I pass down that amount of money, but the press of the crowd is too much. My food never arrives and the hawker is quickly lost in the press of the crowd.

I’m still hungry, so I go in search of my peanuts. The crowd is too thick to the west, but I can push my way through to the east. I’m told that the exit is that way and down which is probably a hint. I chase the hawker through several rooms, but never catch up with him. The crowded bleachers form a maze. When I can head in his direction, I do, but I try to find routes down or east when I cannot. Eventually, I end up at the entrance to the Big Top with no hawker, but there is a concession stand set up where I can purchase food. Just as I arrive a monkey– a literal monkey!– lands on my back. I can’t get it off.

Cheeky monkey! (And a very important photo in the history of human-simian interaction.)

Before I continue, I’ll mention that this “monkey on my back” is a callback to the detective who, it is said, also had a monkey on his back when I saw him last. His monkey was drunkenness and it was explicitly a metaphorical monkey. It’s very cute that I am afflicted with a literal one. Regardless of the spiritual implications of the situation, the monkey does not let me leave the concession stand area including by going back into the Big Top. I choose instead to stand in line for the concession stand. Unfortunately, the line is long but shortly after I stand in it, a second shorter line opens up. I switch over to that line and wouldn’t you know it, the guy in front of me invites his friends– and entire baseball team– to cut in front of me. Now I’m in the long line once again. I switch to the short line, but everytime I do everyone else gets the same idea. It’s a puzzle!

Just being patient doesn’t cut it, nor does switching to the shorter line. I have to trick the crowd: if I pretend to get out of line to go to the short line, but instead stay in the long line, the people will cross like lemmings to the other side and leave me with a straight path to the front. I am forced to buy a chocolate covered banana which leaves me with exactly $12.81 in my pocket. I know I’m on the right path because that is precisely the amount of money that I started the game with. There is so much good humor here; it’s a very memorable sequence. Highlights for me are the realization that the audience members are shockingly born exactly one minute apart from each other (a sucker is, as they say, born every minute), plus the ribbing the game gives you as you pick the wrong line over and over again. It is clever enough to point out, for example, that the person you were standing in line behind just a bit ago just got there food. It’s all quite clever and my favorite part of the game so far.

Unfortunately, I make the mistake of feeding the banana to the monkey. He stays on my back and I seem to be stuck. I restore and try instead to throw the banana. He jumps off my back to get it and I am finally free of him, even if I am annoyed about the dead end. Heading back into the circus, still without food, I pass the hawker taking a break near the entrance. He tells me that he eventually gave me a granola bar and the guy sitting next to me still has it. But I didn’t order a granola bar! I need to go back in and get it off of him. I navigate the maze back to my seat and the sequence ends. I have ten more points! What was the purpose of that? Was there a clue to the kidnapping that I missed? I try playing through it all again, but I don’t see a clue if there is one. Could there be something else hidden in the crowd?

I ask Rimshaw to read the bumps on my head and he tells me two interesting bits of information:

For romance, a woman will soon come into my life.

For travel, I will soon visit the grand canyon.

Since I doubt either of those things will happen in this game, are those clues to future Infocom adventures? Rimshaw comments that I like Infocom adventures (how true!) and tells me that his favorite game is Enchanter, so that seems to be a good possibility. I think this is too early for Plundered Hearts to be referenced, but could those be references to Leather Goddesses and Trinity? I have played neither so I have no idea.

A 19th century hypnotist. With angels for some reason.

Interview with a (Former) Lion Tamer

After failing to find a way to get the radio from the bearded lady or how to get past the elephant, I work on passing through the turnstile into the crew area. That passage is guarded by “Harry”, a blind man inside of a repurposed (and burned-out) animal cage. We saw him let Chuckles and Thumb through in the beginning of the game, but he doesn’t recognize me to let me through. Since he’s blind, I can’t just wear the clown mask. I’ll have to come up with an alternative path.

As it turns out, Harry is a plethora of information about the rest of the circus staff. He’ll talk to me about just about everyone, with two special exceptions. In my conversations with him, I learn that:

Chuckles had a lot of pride in his craft, until… what? He doesn’t say.

Tina has tried to lose weight, but Munrab forces her to eat.

The Roustabout fell out of the social safety net and Munrab is forcing him to live in a cage instead of a trailer.

Jenny is trying to keep Andrew on the straight-and-narrow, but Andrew considers her a thorn in his side.

Rimshaw is worthless and we shouldn’t waste our money. (We already know that he’s a skilled hypnotist!)

Gottfried, the new lion tamer, is a glory hog and stays one step ahead of the ASPCA.

Munrab, the owner, is struggling. His dreams are not panning out and he is putting the squeeze on everyone. The circus is dangerous because of his pressure and cut corners.

Harry has less interesting things to say about the remaining staff (like Comrade Thumb) and doesn’t seem to know some names from the manual at all. I also learn that his blindness is caused by being mauled by one of the lions. He even shows me his scars. The two lions in the circus are Nimrod and Elsie. He pointedly tells me that Nimrod refuses the whip while Elsie can only be tamed by it. That won’t possibly come in handy later. I should note that he’ll only talk about this once so you better take good notes!

There is a small puzzle while talking to him, although it doesn’t seem to lead anywhere. If you ask about Chelsea, Munrab’s daughter, he tells you that he told you already. If you took good notes and realize that he didn’t do that, you can argue with him, eventually ending in a volley of “did not” and “did so” just like in cartoons. If you switch and say “did so”, he’ll get confused ala the Looney Tunes and say “did not” and then finally he’ll talk to you about Chelsea. At least at this point in the game however, all he says is that he hasn’t seen her all evening. A little underwhelming for the mini-puzzle that I had to pass through to get that information, but at least it was fun. Pointless trivia: this verbal sparring was first used in the Chuck Jones cartoon, Rabbit Fire, in 1951. Nearly 70-year old gags are still funny!

Even after all of those interviews and the trick to talk about Chelsea, none of that helps and I have to keep exploring.

Yummy discarded granola.

Healthy Snack

In my next explorations, I end up back under the bleachers in the Big Top. The entrance was moved since the stands have been put back into place, but I can now climb under the fabric of the tent on the Midway to gain access. Since I have been recently hypnotized, I recall where I was sitting and go there to discover the lost granola bar that the hawker tried (and failed) to give me. I could eat it myself, but knowing that the Fat Lady is trying to be on a diet, I go there instead.

In her room, she has been oblivious this whole time just listening to her radio. Her “room” is actually two connected rooms with her in the center. I am either on her left or her right, with passages to the northeast/southeast and northwest/southwest to cross to the other side. If I try to take the radio, she passes it into her other hand and I have to go to the opposite room to see it again. That much I had discovered last week. However, if I stand on the side with a free hand, I can give her the granola bar which causes her to notice me. She offers me her hand which I– after a moment of confusion– shake in a show of friendship. She puts down the radio in the process and I can head to the other room and grab it quickly, scoring a few more points in the process. Tina is portrayed as “simple” (my words, not theirs), a gentle giant, but it’s not at all flattering. Yes, it’s all for maximum pathos but it doesn’t completely sit right with me, especially since we’ve now essentially stolen a radio from an adult child. I hope at least she enjoyed her granola bar; it probably came from the granola mines of the Great Underground Empire.

That said, the radio is (for now) useless and only plays static. There’s an ad for a classical radio station that I mentioned last time so I follow the instructions to change the channel to AM 1070. That causes a brief burst of music before it returned to static. I try carrying the radio around the grounds to see if it gets reception somewhere else, but I never find any. It’ll have to be a mystery for later.

They’re finally here!

Send in the Clowns

Let’s skip over another one of those impossible-to-narrate sections where I screw around with stuff and nothing much works, but I discover one thing: I can open the balloon and breathe the helium inside. Thanks to my new (and very brief!) high-pitched voice, I impersonate a clown much more effectively and manage to fool Harry. Even though he’s blind, I put on the clown mask just to be on the safe side. He lets me through into the staff-only section of the circus. I hope that the mask is enough to fool anyone I might come across because I don’t have the rest of a clown outfit handy.

There are only two “rooms” back here, but both seem promising:

The east end has Katzenjammer’s trailer. He’s the new lion tamer. Both his trailer and an external baggage compartment are locked.

The west end has a dilapidated trailer with a warped front door. I try to pry it open, but do not succeed. It too is locked. More on that in a second.

The other interesting bit is that there is a pleated cloth wall in the north west. By climbing under the cloth, I arrive back in the prop tent. I also spot a piece of wood that wasn’t there before. In classic adventure game form, I reach down to pick it up and… well, I can’t spoil the joke by explaining it. I guess we’ll do a rare “screenshot of text”!

Profanity is funny!

In any event, the mousetrap and its accompanying cheese are now mine and I am sure that one or both will come in handy in the near future. More importantly, I can now go in and out of the staff area without passing through Harry’s gate, which is good because I am out of helium.

I head back and knock on the door of the trailer. Chuckles only glances at me a moment before letting me in, probably because I am still wearing Malcolm’s mask. (What happened to Malcolm anyway that he lost his mask and hasn’t been seen around the camp? Is that part of the mystery?) In a slang-ridden conversation– all helpfully translated by the circus slang section of the manual– Chuckles complains about “Johnny Tin Plate” (the detective) snooping around, but he’s pretty sure he won’t find their “grift” (illegal gambling) because you have to put “Annie Oakley” (ticket) under the old front. I file that information away. Comrade Thumb is also in there, but he mostly ignores me while staying on his bunk-bed. During the conversation, Chuckles pauses at one point to ask me to close the door, but he doesn’t catch on that I’m not who I say I am and I’m not dumb enough to do more than nod along. I expect that speaking will ruin the disguise. I search and find an ashtray with some ashes in it. Further snooping reveals that it the ashes include some unburned newsprint with a large-font letter “M” on it. Could this be a sign that one of the clowns worked on a ransom note? I haven’t seen the note yet, but ransom notes often use cut up newsprint, at least in detective fiction. After a few turns, he realizes that I am not Malcolm and kicks me out.

Text adventures seem old, but by this point we are only a year before Leisure Suit Larry. That version of blackjack (above) was one I spent many hours on as a kid.

Infocom’s First Minigame

I took the bit about the illegal gambling as my next clue, so I search for the “old front” and find it quickly behind the elephant tent. When I slide my ticket under, a compartment opens up into a gambling hall where circus-goers and staff seem to be having some fun. I’m not sure how anyone finds out about this place to get in, but I’m sure word gets around the seedier circles. My options at seem to be poker and blackjack, but the game doesn’t let you try poker as it is a private game. At first I think I can’t play blackjack either, but it’s just a verb problem. If you type “bet $1” (for example), the game starts.

This looks like Infocom’s first minigame! It’s actually quite simple, only using yes or no questions for all the game mechanics except betting. The maximum bet is $2 and I stick to that because I can always restore if I lose too much. I lose the first couple of hands, but soon the “won” hands stay about even with the “loss” ones. Blackjack is a fairly simple game, but I did not pay enough attention to tell if they accurately simulated multiple decks or did a new set every hand. The only missing feature is “splitting” hands. That’s when you are dealt two of the same card and are given the option of splitting them into two hands (with additional bet) so that they can be played individually. Even Leisure Suit Larry had that, but it’s not a huge deal. In the end, I can’t really get ahead without save-scumming and nothing magical happens when I double my money. If there’s a plot point here, I don’t see it… until I quit.

As soon as I get up to leave, my character gets an impulse to play one more hand. That time, instead of playing as before, there are taps on our feet. It only takes one hand to realize that the taps are revealing the value of the dealer’s hole card! That helps less than you might think and I still lose, but why is something helping me cheat? I sneak a peek under the table and it is Comrade Thumb! Is this his way to repay me for helping at the water fountain? The dealer quickly catching me looking under the table and realizes what is going on. He kicks both Thumb and I out of the gambling den and will no longer let me back in. I hope I didn’t miss anything. I can always restore if need be.

We can’t rewind; we’ve gone too far.

Radio Killed the Text Adventure Star

With no further leads, I embark on another round of searching for new things to do. I start behind the elephant tent near the gambling hall and realize immediately that I must not have tried hard enough before. My first discovery is that I can climb the cage there and then clamber further onto the elephant’s tent itself. It’s dark and I don’t have a destination in mind, so there’s no place it lets me go. The one good thing is that the radio works up there! It does me no good immediately, but knowing the radio works with altitude could be a clue. Climbing down from the cage causes you to fall off and die. Just kidding, you just fall off and bruise your ego, complete with a fake death scene. Cheeky.

The cage itself was my next win. I had thought for some reason that the cage door was on the inside of the elephant tent, that I was seeing the rear, but in fact this is the front. Peering inside– which I assume I could always have done but never thought of it– I see a pair of keys on a nail. Using my tightrope-walking pole, I can poke in and grab the keys and slide them down to me. Not surprisingly, the keys unlock the cage door and inside is a makeshift home for a person. A bit dehumanizing perhaps, but he or she does have a nice pair of cassette headphones which I pocket. There is also a bucket of raw meat which I’m going to assume wasn’t for him, unless we have a werewolf or something. The headphones have a location counter (currently 372) plus play, record, and rewind buttons.

I play the tape and at first don’t notice anything funny. It’s all Jimi Hendrix solos and the author didn’t even bother to find the names of real Hendrix songs. But when I rewind and play from the beginning, there is the distinct sound of Rimshaw hypnotizing someone from locations 124 to around 250. Did Rimshaw use these headphones to hypnotize someone into kidnapping Midrab’s daughter? Does the kidnapper even know that he or she did it?

No one will ever kill this radio star. Well, other than drugs.

The recording feature on the headphones is pretty neat. I am able to climb back up on top of the tent, play the radio, press record on the headphones, and then record as many turns of classical music as I want up until the end of the tape. The system is even smart enough to let me fast forward part of the way through the tape (past the hypnotism) and record only in the latter portion. It’s a pretty neat object, a neat little puzzle, and a clever bit of coding. I’m very impressed! It seems silly, but it’s one of the more clever object puzzles of the Infocom canon so far, which I was not expecting from Ballyhoo. Now I have “music to soothe the savage beast”. That sounds like it will come in handy! I also show the headphones to Rimshaw and he as an unguarded moment where he seems about to panic before he composes himself again. He’s guilty. It’s him and the clowns? I also realize they are too small to fit me so they might be for someone young. Were they Chelsea’s? Does she like Jimi Hendrix? I doubt it. Who did they belong to?

The keys do not just open up the the cage. Trying them around the yard reveals that they also open the gorilla’s cage on the other side of the elephant tent. The gorilla’s name is Mahler and he’s not completely happy to see me invade his space. If I stay too long or get too curious, he “kills” me with a fate worse than death: permanently maimed and forced to act as a circus freak. I am able to locate a trap door hidden under the straw in his cage, but going anywhere near it results in that death. The solution turns out to be the music, although I’m not sure I should do this yet. If you play the headphones, Mahler will snag them off of you and calmly listen to classical music. (Hendrix is not his thing.) That lets me open the trap door, but it is empty except for a red ribbon. What is the significant of the ribbon? I have no idea. Unfortunately, Mahler destroys the headphones as soon as the music stops. I make a note of this detour, but I still expect that I’ll need to hypnotize someone so restore back.

I did not wear a tutu while playing this segment.

Cowardly Lion Tamer

Leaving the menagerie, I find the detective slumped down on the midway. He’s alive, but barely. It doesn’t look like foul play, more like a drunken stupor. He’s still holding his “cure-all” flask and will not let it go. I try to search his coat but I am told that I cannot while he is wearing. He’s too heavy for me to get it off of him also and this could be something to come back to later, if I find some help. Is there a circus strongman around someplace? I was hoping that he had the ransom note in his pocket so I could compare it to the burned newsprint from the clowns’ trailer.

Trying my key all over the place, I discover that it doesn’t unlock any of the trailers or the main office, but it does unlike the storage compartment under the lion tamer’s trailer. It also unlocks the lions’ cage in the western ring of the Big Top. The storage compartment contains a bullwhip which I grab. I now have a whip, a chair, and a bucket of raw meat, plus access to a cage of wild lions. It’s my turn to be a lion tamer!

Letting myself in with the lions, I discover a large podium in the center of the ring and a closed grate to the south. The lions won’t let me near either. Although they are patient, I will get mauled if I stick around too long. My guess is that I am trying to “tame” the lions into letting me open the southern grate. From there, it’s either a place that I need to go or that they do, although I’m not sure which yet. Throwing the meat around calms the lions a bit, but they still do not let me go near the center podium. They do let me open the southern grate, but the game thinks that I am stupid for trying to climb in there so I’m guessing that was not the right call. Instead of tossing the meat immediately, I try the whip and chair. I spend a lot of time trying to find the right verb for whatever real tamers do with their chairs, but I eventually give up. Instead, I crack the whip over each of the lions. This is the point where I should remind you– and wish I had reminded myself– of Harry’s conversation about the lions. He said that Elsie could be tamed by the whip while Nimrod could not. Of course, I have no idea which is which and the game forces me to address them as the “shaggy lion” and the “smooth-bodied lion”. When I crack the whip over the shaggy lion, he gets really angry and kills me immediately. When I crack it over the smooth one, she calms down and goes into her routine. My guess is that is Elsie. That isn’t enough since she isn’t so docile that she lets me past.

And I admit that here’s where I took a hint. I was absolutely convinced that I needed to do something with the chair, but I could find no words that worked. In the process of looking up a walkthrough to see the command for the chair, I realize the real problem was that I didn’t crack the whip three times. The first time is just the start of the act. If you want her to do more, you have to keep doing it. Once she has been “tamed” three times, we can now open the grate again. Why Nimrod lets us now and not before Elsie was tamed will have to remain an exercise for the player. With the gate open, I can toss in the meat and… then what? I find that if I leave the cage and come back, they naturally went through the grate to retrieve the meat and that is good enough for me to be able to close them in. Lions managed! Now I can finally search the center podium to discover a cigarette case hidden underneath. What good does that do me?

It’s a mystery to everybody.

Wrapping Up

With no other leads, I start working on the (literal) case. Harry is still my best source of information for things around the circus and he tells me that the case belongs to Andrew. I take it to Andrew Jenny’s trailer and show it to both of them. Andrew doesn’t respond, but Jenny throws a fit. She fights with her other half, somehow remembering that she was involved in something that she didn’t want to be. Was she hypnotized? How do you hypnotize half of a half-and-half person? She reveals that Andrew and his “fellow thugs” are supposed to meet later this evening by Katz’s trailer. Jenny (somehow?) chases Andrew out of the tent and they are gone. Andrew is involved in this but not Jenny? That’s… logistically difficult. I’ll just roll with it. This means however that the clowns, Rimshaw, Andrew, and Katz are all involved. Is there anyone besides Jenny that is not?

I climb the stairs in their trailer and quickly discover that they are fake intended to lift you over a partition into another part of the otherwise flat trailer. On the other side of the partition is Andrew/Jenny’s half-and-half wardrobe with clothes that would make the Batman villain Two-Face envious. (Do you think he’ll be showing up in Batman Returns?) In the wardrobe is two outfits and I take both. Searching their pockets, I also discover a veil. I have a feeling that this will be enough to impersonate the duo myself. Why would I do that?

And that’s it for tonight. When I visit Katz’s trailer, I am told that it is too early. I spend time instead searching for new things to do but largely come up blank. Here is what I’m still working on:

I can’t find a way past the elephant into its tent. I was thinking that I could catch a mouse with the cheese, but I haven’t found one. Elephants hate mice, right?

I can’t wake up the detective or search him. He’s still dead drunk on the fairway.

I can’t get into either the office or the lion tamer’s trailer.

I can’t get the ribbon without destroying the headphones and I’m not certain I should do that yet.

This is a fun game, albeit a strange one. The circus-themed puzzles are unique for the games that we have played so far and that makes them somewhat more fun than they otherwise might be. Overall, the game is going a great job balancing out its humor with its darker mood. Not everything is perfect, but I’m pretty happy with the experience overall.

Time played: 6 hr 25 min Total time: 7 hr 35 min Inventory: mousetrap, President Taft, bucket, ribbon, skeleton key, newsprint, cheese morsel, ticket, headphones, gorilla suit, $19.81 (plus other stuff that I found but are storing such as the whip and stool) Score: 120 of 200 (60%)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/missed-classic-ballyhoo-circus-minimus/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

Text

Game 315: Lords of Time (1992)

Lords of Time

United States

Hollyware (developer and publisher)

Released in 1992 for Amiga

Date Started: 3 January 2019

Well, here’s an interesting find. Rarely does a game appear on my “upcoming” list with no one ever having commented on it, no one saying he was looking forward to it, and so forth. What makes this all the more unusual is that Lords of Time is a clear successor to a game that, eight years later, I still get grief for prematurely abandoning: MicroIllusions’ Faery Tale Adventure (1987). Lords‘ nominal developer is Steve Postma, not Adventure‘s David Joiner, but the development company, Hollyware, was reconstituted from the remnants of MicroIllusions, and it’s easy to see Postma being passed the existing code and engine and asked to create a new title.

The intervening five years have produced some growth in that engine. The axonometric perspective is the same, but the graphics are a bit better. There are more sound effects. Adventure‘s attributes–bravery, luck, kindness, vitality–have been replaced with a more standard set of RPG attributes: strength, dexterity, and intelligence. The inventory system is improved. But the joystick-based interface and the extremely basic combat system haven’t changed a bit. Neither have some thematic elements, including a pre-defined main character and a largely empty game world. It was that latter element that sunk my interest in the original game; we’ll see what happens here.

This guy probably couldn’t pronounce “flux anomaly.”

The backstory is, I feel, needlessly complex. Lord British only needed a moongate to bring the player to Britannia, but here the protagonist–goofily named “Major Thom,” an air force test pilot–arrives in The Realm when a “multidimensional friction propulsion generator” sends him through a “flux anomaly.” He crashes on a primitive planet with fantasy trappings. During a period of semi-consciousness after crashing, he sees a vision of an old man, who tells him to seek out the “human king Tanor.” He awakens to find a dagger and a Bag of Holding and sets off.

Couldn’t I have just gotten there by magic? That works for other franchises.

Where I come from, bub, people get to know each other before they start using “thou” and “thee.”

And he’s almost immediately killed. The initial stages of the game are laughably difficult. The character gets attacked by randomly-spawning spiders, fighters, and undead within seconds of start-up, and he has only a flimsy dagger to protect himself. (And when I say “spawn,” I mean they literally grow up from the ground right in front of you.) There are environmental menaces such as man-eating plants that kill you instantly if you wander into their radiuses. Spiders can inflict poison, which you have no way of curing. I must have reloaded 20 times in the first 10 minutes. (Fortunately, the game allows quick-saving in memory rather than just saving to disk.) The only advantages Thom has are an ability to run slightly faster than his enemies and slow regeneration of health as he runs.

Not a very hospitable planet.

The game comes with a map, but at the beginning you have no idea where you’ve crash landed, and in true Faery Tale Adventure tradition, the scale of the game window is extremely small. It could take easily take 30 minutes in real-time to cross the continent, even with no obstacles. I later figured that I’d arrived just east of the Dark Forest, in the southwest-central part of the map, but that was only after I made my way down to the coast and started feeling along the edges. Oh, and the character needs food and gets hungry during this process, too. On my first attempt, I was starving by the time I made it to Murkvale, and I only had time for a few conversations before I died.

The game map, with my travel route this session outlined in blue.

Combat involves simply pressing the FIRE button on the joystick, which waves your equipped weapon in the direction you’re facing, hopefully hitting an enemy. Sometimes subtle matters of distance and alignment prevent you from connecting (but, of course, not them from hitting you). Later, I guess there will be spells. I hope they supply a greater tactical challenge.

The rest of the interface is a little more complex than Adventure. Certain commands are always available, such as look, cast, search, and game options. These can be activated with individual keys, and hitting the SPACE bar brings up a menu with all available commands. The neat thing about the SPACE bar menu is that it also has contextual commands, based on where you’re standing and what you’re facing. Such commands might include drink from a well, read a sign, or search a cabinet.

I’m not sure why I need a branch from a tree, but the option is there.

On my second attempt, I made it to Murkvale before I died. The town has a tavern, a bank, an inn, a magic shop, and an arms and armor shop. It took me a while before I discovered that food, weirdly, is sold at the arms and armor shop. A portion of waybread costs 10 gold pieces, so I wasn’t able to buy much at the outset. I bought enough to sate my stomach and consider my next move.

A lot of the areas have text descriptions as you enter.

In towns, walking up to people causes an interaction interface to activate automatically, giving you various contextual options depending on the person. In the tavern, there were a few people I could converse with and get tips. I learned that enchanted dwarven armor is second-to-none, dragonsbane can be found in the mountains, and “Restoration” cures poison as well as restoring health. Towns also have private residences that you can loot (I’m not sure if there’s any penalty; there wasn’t in Adventure) and sleep in their beds.

Not all conversations result in hints.

From Murkvale, I followed the river north to what was marked on the map as a castle. (It’s one of two, but the other specifies that it’s a dwarven castle.) A town called Castleguard sat at the feet of the castle. To enter the town, I had to get past a guard with various options for persuasion and bribery. The first one I encountered, at the south gate, wouldn’t believe any of my excuses, but when I told the north guard I was there to purchase items, he waved me through. The town largely had the same types of services as in Murkvale.

The guard wasn’t impressed with any of my excuses.

I managed to find a suit of plate mail in one of the houses. Rather than wear it, I sold it for enough money to buy a short sword, some leather armor, and some more food. I had enough left over to bribe the guard at the castle gate, which was the only way I could get in.

The castle has a small dungeon. I think putting stocks inside a cell kind of misses the point.

Inside the castle, the king asked if I was the “one who rode in on a pillar of flame from a distant land.” I said I was. He said that only the archwizards Bessak and Kruel are able to help me return home, and between them only Bessak is likely to help. He lives in a citadel in the Dark Forest, where I just came from. I was a little disappointed that the king didn’t give me a more locally-relevant quest, or explain how he knew I’d arrived, or explain why he was interested in helping me, or really anything.

The king’s court consists of a king and one guard. I remember this emptiness characterized Faery Tale Adventure.

I slept, awoke in the dark, and started heading back to the Dark Forest. I soon discovered that not all enemies can be outrun. In particular, some kind of wolf or hound is more than capable of keeping pace. Moreover, when you get to an area dense with objects, like a forest, difficultly navigating around the trees means that even slow enemies can usually catch up with you. I must have reloaded two dozen times.

It’s easy to get lost, stuck, and swarmed with enemies in the forest.

Eventually, with some systematic exploration, I found what I think is the citadel. But the main door is locked and resistant to my attempts to bash it. This is where I leave off the first session. If I can’t figure out something in the area, I’ll start systematically exploring the other towns and keeps on the map.

Unfortunately, I have no keys or lockpicks.

I’m not sure about character development. I’ve been earning experience points, and my max hit points seem to have increased, but this isn’t like Faery Tale Adventure, where every successful combat directly raises your attributes. I’ve found a couple of “Increase Attribute” spells, but I don’t have the ability to cast them yet. The manual suggests I need to find various guilds to learn martial and magic skills.

I’m also not sure about the “score” business.

It’s an interesting RPG that I was in no way expecting. This is what I was looking forward to in 1992.

Time so far: 3 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-315-lords-of-time-1992/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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