oh also we’ll need a camera account
don’t forget that
yeah, that’s cool! since you’re a mod, it’s probably best that you make the alt anyway.
minorly tweaked the rituals in the library to have requirements more in line with the requirements of other rituals
soooo, we’re not going to outright start the game until Chapter 4 of YTTD ends
but I think it’d be fine if we started a prologue?
alright i’m going to begin the prologue
this won’t exactly be the uh
actual game for a while yet
but i don’t want to leave everyone just hanging on their classcards for 2 days, you know
2-A: Game Room
The Game Room seems to be roughly divided into four areas. In one corner is a shelf full of board games, tall enough to reach the ceiling. In another corner is a set of three arcade machines. In the third corner is a bookshelf full of materials for table-top roleplaying games. In the fourth corner and spilling into the middle of the room is three smaller tables, with four chairs around each of them, and a large table with eight chairs. Two of the tables seem to be full – one with some sort of arrangement of marbles, the other with a chess set.
also there’s a net here now
PUZZLE 1: MARBLES
On this table, you see marbles arranged in five rows of four marbles each. Each marble is placed in a marble holder, and below those five rows is a row of four blank marble holders. Next to each row is an oval bowl, with black and white marbles in it. You also see a large bowl with red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple marbles. The overall arrangement looks like this:
solution
This is actually a fairly well-known game, that involves trying to find the right “combination” of colors. In this case, the combination is ORANGE-ORANGE-BLUE-YELLOW, in that order. Black marbles mean ‘a correct colored marble in the right place,’ white means ‘a correct marble in the wrong place.’
When the correct marbles are placed in the last row, a hidden compartment in the table opens up, containing a photo.
You see a photo of a mangled body, bound with thick ropes to some sort of wooden pillar. The body is bleeding heavily from a wound in its side, and someone has written “SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS, ASSHOLE” in blood on the ground below the pillar. But two things about the photograph don’t quite make sense – it looks like the photograph was taken on the Ritual Plaza, even though you’ve never seen something like that, and the body is wearing what appears to be Derps’s distinctive clothing.
[this is lore:tm: clueing to the time loop]
PUZZLE #2: CHESS
You see a chess board laid out before you. However, although you don’t know very much about chess, you can tell that the configuration of the pieces is bizarre and possibly nonsensical. It looks like this:
*A note next to the board reads “Remember the value of algebra :)”
solution
Using algebraic notation, and looking only at the letter components, the pieces in each row can be read as ACEG A ADEF CEFH, which can be rearranged with either brute force or by using the approximate “value” of the pieces (yes I know that’s kind of a fake concept) to CAGE A DEAF CHEF. Solve this by putting the “cage” from Mouse Trap around the deaf Chef card from Restaurant Rivals.
Once the puzzle is solved, the writing on the card is replaced with a note:
We don’t know why you’re doing this, but we’re begging you to stop. Whatever your goals are, torturing a bunch of innocent people won’t help you achieve any of them. We know you resent us, but please, this isn’t what we wanted.
In a different handwriting, below the note:
You’re the ones choosing not to stop this, not me.
Board Game Shelf
Most of the games just have their normal components. Exceptions/notable tm board games are noted. Searching the shelf gives the list (but not anything notable inside)
- Settlers of Catan
- 7 Wonders
- Restaurant Rivals - The box contains several components, such as a board, various ingredients cards, and cards representing each of the chefs and their unique characteristics. [if they’ve decrypted the chef message, or they ask about it] One of the chefs, Louis Gagnon, is deaf.
- Betrayal at House on the Hill
- Mouse Trap - The box contains a Mouse Trap board, with various items for building a contraption, such as a tiny plastic bridge, a tiny plastic staircase, and a tiny plastic cage.
- Avalon - In addition to the normal pieces used for the game, you find a rolled up tape measure.
- Scrabble
- Dominion
- Ticket-to-Ride
- Dixit - if Light, specifically, attempts to use the Dixit cards for a tarot reading, he will get appropriate Dixit cards
Arcade Machines (all prizes taken)
Looking at this corner, you see three arcade games: Tetris, Pong, and Asteroids. All of them appear to be fully functional.
[if someone asks to play a game, we give them a link to Tetris, Pong, or Asteroids. For Tetris, they need to get a score of at least 500,000. For Pong, they need to get to a score of 10 on default settings without the AI getting more than 2 points. For Asteroids, they need to get a score of 10,000. Succeeding at any of these will trigger a hidden compartment to open in the side of the machine.]
[If katze, the Ultimate Gamer, tries any of these, the score she needs to get is halved.]
Tetris compartment: longbow with 2 arrows
Pong compartment: machete
Asteroids compartment: a pair of handcuffs and a key
RPG Shelf
The bookshelf has four shelves. You notice a set of sourcebooks on the bottom shelf, a large collection of miniatures on the second shelf, several beautiful sets of dice on the third shelf, and laminated maps, a DM screen, Expo markers, blank character sheets for several common systems, and several pencils on the top shelf.
Shelf 1
- D&D 5e player’s handbook
- D&D 5e Dungeon Master’s Guide
- D&D 5e Monster Manual
- Mordenkainen’s Tomb of Foes
- Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
- Eldritch Wizardry (1976) (this is not accompanied by any other similarly old sourcebooks
- Pathfinder Beastiary 4 [inspection of this book reveals that it has been hollowed out, containing a medallion with a scarab beetle on it. (the medallion allows its wearer to recover +5 percent more AP per hour of sleep, they notice this the first time they try to sleep with the medallion in their possession)]
- Pathfinder Ultimate Wilderness
- Pathfinder Planar adventures
Shelf 2
- About thirty painted miniatures
- About ten unpainted miniatures
- Five small paintbrushes and a set of acrylic paints
Shelf 3
- Lots and lots of dice
Shelf 4
- see above
“Let me explain the truth of the first murder of the Ultimate Hunt…”
In this case, the motive of the killer was important. Although it would seem there was only a single motive in play- the lack of a meaningful Monoluna file, there was in fact a second motive- the Maltese Raven. The Raven was an artifact that had no actual purpose except to make people believe it was important and dangerous, and make people kill each other as a consequence. Sonja Eriksson, believing the artifact to genuinely be powerful, burned it to ashes at the Obelisk. Although to them it seemed like nothing happened, to everybody else something very important did happen- they received a vision falsely claiming that Jane was attempting to kill them.
Very few people seriously believed this, of course, but it did prompt action from a group of players who gathered together to look for Jane before a hypothetical person who genuinely would kill Jane in preemptive self-defense. Amongst the last to join this group was the Blackened in this case, who started formulating a plan to exploit the motive. Their plan was to assasinate Sonja to make it look like it was somebody who did not know that the vision was false, thereby erliminating themselves from the pool of suspects.
They planned to use two rituals they had learned about in the Library to perform this killing- a ritual requiring a victim’s heart to seal the room, and a ritual requiring a piece of marble in order to leave the crime scene undetected. To gain the marble neccecary, they slammed their rusty sword onto a pillar in the bank’s waiting room to chip the marble and gain a usable piece. Using this, they entered the first step of their plan- eliminating the possibility of a witness. To do so, the Blackened entered Alex Bracknell’s room while they were writing strange, fatalistic messages on the wall, and knocked them unconcious using the flat of their sword.
Their plan encountered a hitch, however, as Harleck Abode was staying in the Blackened’s target’s room. Panicking, the Blackened decided to make do with the unconcious body they had already. They dragged the unconcious body to the shower, and using a needle they’d broken off from a compass in a geometry set, which was unusually sharp, they slit Alex Bracknell’s trachea. The victim died soon after.
Next, they used the marble to become invisible, and their sword to extract the victim’s heart and seal the room, then washed the blood off their clothing and sword using the shower. They dropped the bloodied compass point down the drain, believing this to dispose of the evidence- however, the nanotech that Alex Bracknell was dependent on was washed down the drain, clogging it. This meant the killer left behind two crucial pieces of evidence- the marble dust from the ritual, and the murder weapon.
Leaving invisibly, the final stage of their plan occurred. They went to their dorm room and changed clothes, then took the damp clothes they were wearing in the shower and placed them in the Kitchen’s oven. The oven was turned on, and after 30 minutes, the clothing was reduced to unrecognisable ashes, just as the killer became visible once again inside of their own room.
That was how you did it, wasn’t it…
@SirDerpsALot, Josephine Farrierson, the Ultimate Historian!
Broken Tower
Compared to the pristine rest of the castle, the broken tower is… disturbingly distorted. The stones are laced with a strange, off-colour ashen complexion that stops right at the doorway. The floor is taken up by an elaborate series of runes depicting scenes of carnage and death. In the center of the room is a large pearl, fixed into the floor securely by a complex series of bolts and plates. A typewritten note is tucked next to the pearl.
Public Items: Bricks, Pearl, Note
Bricks - Nothing special, but they’re discoloured as if they’ve been covered in ash.
Pearl - Monoluna, Aretena and Monkeuma are not able to communicate with players in the same room as the pearl- essentially, the pearl is the only artifact that can do anything to the bears. The Mastermind can still see into the room using the security camera.
Note - On the front, the note reads:
HOLD THIS CLOSE TO YOUR CHEST. DO NOT LET CLOTHO, LACHESIS, ATROPOS OR ANY OF THE OTHER 14 SUBJECTS READ THIS. TURN THIS OVER WHEN YOU ARE ALONE, AND BE SURE IT’S NOT IN SHOT OF THE CAMERA
On the back the note reads:
Do not tell anybody about the contents of this note. Burn it as soon as possible. Somebody here is siding with the Fates, and I believe that the same will hold true for your game, as well. They have five people hostage in the Town Square. Your task is simple- do not let anybody remove the Pearl. If the Pearl is removed, Clotho and Lachesis will restore this tower to its’ original state, before it was destroyed- this will spell certain defeat for you. Only this pearl’s presence is stopping them from rebuilding it. Burn this note, and be sure to heed my instructions.
lore explanation
So, obviously the names of the Three Fates are us- we’ve changed our old names because we’re bored of them, given that we’ve hosted this killing game over 7,000 times. The idea is that this is both a lore thing- it exposes the existence of a previous killing game, although not the fact that it’s a time loop, but it also has gameplay consequences- if they decide to remove the pearl anyway, we will create a tower with an almost obscene amount of weapons in it for use by the Blackened. Basically, something that benefits the Mastermind and people who want to kill.
This note dates from the 8th iteration, and the idea is that during that iteration, someobdy destroyed the tower for fear it was too dangerous to keep alive.
1-B: Dining Room
You open the door to reveal a large dining room. On the far end of the room, you see a buffet table, with several dishes on top of it. In the middle of the room is a dining room table with sixteen place settings; above the dining table is a glittering chandelier. A painting hangs on the wall.
Buffet table has three dishes on it:
- A stuffed turkey on a silver platter, with a carving knife sticking out of it
- A bowl of cranberry sauce, with a metal serving spoon
- A china plate with a sticky toffee pudding on top of it
The turkey and cranberry sauce are both Good Healthy Food, the toffee pudding is Good Unhealthy Food. Each has five servings. [all food is gone]
Inside of the buffet table, there are:
- Eight champagne glasses
- Three iron skewers
- A stack of four trivets
The dining room table has:
- Sixteen place settings, consisting of a placemat, a china plate, a butter knife, a spoon, and two forks (a regular fork and a dessert fork)
- A large tablecloth
- Sixteen chairs
The painting is a replica of The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli. Checking the back of the painting reveals a razor blade.
Corridor puzzle (this gets its own post because it’s spread over six rooms)
(in description for Star Corridor, Moon Corridor, Sun Corridor, Earth Corridor, Blade Corridor: The door to the corridor has a circular bronze indentation, with tiny writing engraved around the edges.)
upon inspecting the writing:
Sun Corridor: The writing reads, “Perseverance is the key.”
Moon Corridor: The writing reads, “I. Llf aw vr llgkqpxv, vinxznrf xd fv kxmseg.”
Star Corridor: The writing reads, “II. Jjei mj s hmsg os dpdsu, ktzpciai sjx pgym wzga.”
Earth Corridor: The writing reads, “III. Yltvv aw olv rnotpvkk, en fioxgr pw pgy vvv.”
Blade Corridor: The writing reads, “IV. Wugr xw kzi hsdeav awie llz lfue vmroj ls olv nrzx.”
Solution
This is a Viginere Cipher, made slightly more complicated by the fact that the I. - IV. are not part of the ciphertext, but rather are Roman numerals to tell you what order to put the sentences in. Decoding the sentences translates to:
Moon corridor: I. Who is an ultimate, destined to be strong
Star corridor: II. What is a drop of blood, spelling out your sign
Earth corridor: III. Where is the ramparts, as broken as you are
Blade corridor: IV. When is the moment when the hour ticks to the next
The solution to the puzzle is to go to the Broken Ramparts and draw your wrist sign on the roof in your own blood, at exactly the point when the hour changes (or realistically a few minutes around that to account for timing issues). The first time someone manages to do this, they get the following message:
As you finish drawing the symbol on the roof, it burns with a searingly bright light. Your head feels like it’s splitting in two as you see a vision of yourself, carrying a lance, racing desperately across the ramparts – but in this vision, the ramparts aren’t broken. Then, the vision recedes, and you find yourself holding the lance you saw in the vision.
Further solvers of the puzzle get the same vision but no spear.
Biology Lab 2-C
The biology lab has a large desk at the front of the room, four lab tables (each with storage underneath), and two glass cabinets. The lab tables are labelled 1-4 and the cabinets are labelled 1 and 2. In the corner of the room is an eye wash station.
Large Desk: The desk has a coffee mug with “#1 tutor,” a stack of worksheets on Mendellian genetics, a first-aid kit (Min), and what seems to be a printout of an article (Min).
- the~~ first aid kit ~~contains bandages, a packet with a small disinfectant wipe, and aloe vera ointment
- the
articlereads:
Utilitarianism and the Far Future: The Case for Climate Action
By Kelsey Alexander
For decades, utilitarians have debated the correct amount to be concerned about the experiences of people in the future. Most people have the intuition that the lives of people now, who already exist, matter more than the lives of potential people in the future. Yet at the same time, most people also have the intuition that the lives of potential future people matter more than zero. Were the human race to be wiped out by a nuclear war, doubtless it would be a tragedy beyond just the deaths of billions of people; we would be losing our entire future.
Even if we assume that the lives of people in the future are worth only a tiny fraction of the amount that the lives of people who already exist are worth, the case for action is clear. Imagine that the lives of each person who might someday exist is worth a tenth, or even a hundredth, of the amount that the life of a living person is worth. Now realize that there are trillions of potential people. It is clear that it would be worth even a fairly significant increase in the difficulty of our lives for the sake of making their lives better.
But climate change is a serious threat to the flourishing of future people. Even if it required that every person alive today be tortured, preventing climate change would likely increase the total amount of human happiness.
The article cuts off there.
[this is lore described as nerd philosophy stuff, presenting the idea that the Mastermind might be doing a Harmful Thing now to prevent Future Suffering]
Lab table 1: The table contains a box of rubber gloves, three pairs of lab goggles, a dissection kit with a scalpel (Night), and a guide to the internal organs of starfish.
Lab table 2: The table contains four pairs of lab goggles, a balance, and a thermometer.
Lab table 3: The lab table contains two pairs of lab goggles, a test tube holder with two test tubes inside (kat), and a pack of pH strips.
Lab table 4: The lab table contains three pairs of lab goggles, a bottle labelled “Sodium Acetate,” and a box of plastic pipettes.
Cabinet 1: The cabinet contains a microscope, a box of blank microscope slides, a lab coat, and a roll of paper towels.
Cabinet 2: The cabinet contains a dichotomous key for identifying trees, a box of test tubes, an extra-thick Sharpie, a bottle containing an unidentified clear liquid [passing an Int% role reveals that the liquid is sodium hydroxide], and a wrench.
2-B: Chemistry Lab
As you enter the Chemistry Lab, you see four fume hoods, each with an associated set of drawers, labelled A through D. In the center of the room is a large lab table with a sink and a built in cabinet. On the far side of the room is a metal cabinet with a combination lock and a note taped to the outside. The cabinet is labelled CHEMICAL STORAGE. A copy of the Periodic Table of the Elements hangs on the wall.
Puzzle: Chemical storage
The note reads:
I can’t believe our tutor is making us pass a history test just to tell us the password to the storage cabinet. It’s like she doesn’t trust us or something! Not only that, she’s making us memorize the exact dates. I can barely even keep the order straight. This is ridiculous! And half these events are super obscure, too…
Paschal III’s antipapacy ends
Battle of Maserfield begins
Assassination of Julius Caesar
Ausculta Fili addressed
Pius II dies
American Minerva first published
Domitian becomes emperor
Silent Night first sung
Peace of Ambois
Solution
Each of these events has a corresponding date (all of them have a Day that’s the Consistently Agreed Upon Date, whether or not that date is accurate)
find the date for each of them, order them in terms of year, and then associate each date with a letter (e.g. the 1st is A, the 2nd is B, etc.). This gives:
O - 15 - Assassination of Julius Caesar, March 15th, 44 BCE
N - 14 - Domitian becomes emperor, September 14th, 81
E - 5 - Battle of Maserfield begins, August 5th, 641
T - 20 - Paschal III’s antipapacy ends, September 20th, 1168 [this is marginally more obscure, it’s easier to find by searching for his death]
E - 5 - Ausculta Fili addressed, December 5, 1301
N - 14 - Pius II dies, August 14, 1464
S - 19 - Peace of Ambois, March 19, 1563
I - 9 - American Minerva first published, December 9, 1793
X - 24 - Silent Night first sung, December 25, 1818
1-10-6 unlocks the combination lock
Chem cabinet (once unlocked): The chem cabinet contains a row of chemicals in neat bottles. Each bottle contains roughly 500 mL of chemicals, and each is labelled. From left to right, you see: Acetone, Hydrochloric Acid, Lithium Hydroxide, Pentanoic Acid, Dihydrogen Monoxide, Sodium Cyanide. All of them appear to be liquids; presumably those that wouldn’t normally be liquid at room temperature are dissolved in an aqueous solution.
(All the bottles are accurately labelled; the chemicals inside are varying levels of dangerous (except for the literal water). They can also be combined to produce new and exciting dangerous chemicals.)
Big table in center
On top of the table:
- Centrifuge
- Spectrophotometer
- A
boxof empty cuvettes (box is cut apart and disassembled, cuvettes are still there)
Inside the table:
- 100 mL volumetric flask
- Four wash bottles filled with an unknown clear liquid (passing an Int*2% roll reveals that the liquid is literally just water)
- Several items that appear to you to be bent glass pipes [this is a real thing that chem labs have]
- A box of empty test tubes
Inside the fume hood drawers
- All sets of drawers contain a 50 mL graduated cylinder, a 250 mL beaker, a ring support and ring stand, a 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask, an evaporating dish, a watch glass, and a glass stir rod.
- Drawer A additionally contains two pens.
- Drawer B additionally contains a
box of rubber bands. - Drawer C additionally contains a
stress ball with a smiley face on it. - Drawer D additionally contains a
roll of duct tape and a bottle full of glitter.
3-A - Broken Ramparts
3-B - Research Roof
3-C - Pedestal Roof
2-A - Game Room
2-B - Chemistry Lab
2-C - Biology Lab
1-A - Drawing Room
1-B - Dining Room
1-C - Library
1-D - Ruined Tower
Entrance Hall
Sun Corridor
Moon Corridor
Star Corridor
Earth Corridor
Blade Corridor
crossed off = room is done
Drwaing Room
You enter a luxuriously decorated room, furnished with a gilded table, three imposing chairs and a sofa. The room is dominated by a fireplace filled with a large, crackling fire, above which is the taxidermised head of a large deer.
Carved into the antlers of the deceased deer are strange symbols…
Most concerning of all, of course, is the pistol which is framed on the wall, covered in dust.
Sofa
- Benath one of the cushions is a short sickle. While it’s there, all players who try to sit on the sofa get the message: *"Something about this sofa feels lumpy…"
Deer Bust
- Inspecting the bust further, you find a fine, ornately carved poem near the bottom of the bust:
Heed not the bringer of light,
To the horn of trials take your sight,
Four fore score shows through the maze
And shows to you the number of malaise.Think to how lightning shadows a brain,
To decode the past of your pain
In these mirrored embers that are your home
Empty fires you must comb.
Table:
- Has two table knives, a bowl of chocolate cookies (Good Unhealthy Food) and a glass vase containing a statice and a crysanthemum.
Pistol:
- Contains no bullets, but has the inscription “BENEATH EVERY TREE” on it. Every tree in the forest has a bullet buried underneath it that can be found easily.
Fireplace:
- Hidden underneath the firewood there is a printed note with the following message:
Leaders of Project Jormungandr
- Sir Timoleon Silverheart, Ultimate Banker
- The Rt. Honourable Albert Abode MP
- Daphne Fansleigh-Reynolds, Duchess of the Atlantic Wastes
- Boden Eriksson, Táknmynd Apothecary
- Professor Kobayashi Asuka, SHSL Moral Philosopher
- Conrad Bombardier, L’Ultime Saboteur
Mission Statement: To reverse the effects of Project Ouroboros before it kills any more Ultimates.
Puzzle Solutions:
The left antler has 01BDA written on it in norse runes: which is 7130 in Base 10. The poem indicates computers- both to point towards hexidecimal as the method of encryption and to indicate that this is intended as the password for the computer in the Observatory, and to make them want to inspect that computer more.
The note in the fireplace is really more of a superfluous lore detail, but it does inform the players that the people who put them in the time loop aren’t the same people who are keeping them there. I also thought taking advantage of the fact that it’s Super High School Level [Talent] rather than Ultimate [Talent] in Japan to put more Ultimates into the lore without contradicting previous details was a… neat solution.
The Ultimates present for Project Jormungandr also show what the priorities of the project- they want to remove everyone from the time loop without harming them, as evidenced by the presence of the Moral Philosopher and the Apothecary. This also indicates that the people outside of the killing game aren’t the enemies this time- the only enemies are within.
1 Like
okay
5 rooms and a few corridors (which I fully intend to be sparser than the rooms left
this is acheivable
Is the “Pedestal Roof” a type of roof that really exists, or just a roof with some pedestals on it?