Episode 62: Correctly guessing many things that are not the password, and curious turn of events
try 'for the most curious'
for the most beautiful
for the most curious
for the most beautiful
:
"For the most curious?"
:
"No.":
"For the most beautiful?":
"No."Friedship is magic?
:
"Friendship is magic?":
"No."No
Michael
Celestia
Discord
Dragons are awesome
Gem
:
"No?":
"...no, but I'll grant that it would have been hilarious if I'd been telling you the password this entire time and you hadn't guessed it.":
"Michael?":
"No.":
"Celestia?":
"No.":
"Discord?":
"No.":
"Dragons are awesome?":
"Obviously not, if cliff racers managed to make them extinct.":
"Gem?":
"You're not very good at this, are you?":
"I guess not.":
"Try 'rogokath.'":
"Rogokath?":
"Heheh. No, it's not rogokath, outlander. And it's not rokogath either! Bwahahaha!"He bursts out into laughter.
:
"What's so funny??":
"Heh, it doesn't translate into Cyrodilic well." He wipes tears from his eyes.
"But you obviously haven't seen any of Baloth Kul's stage comedies if you don't get it.":
"Actually, no. I haven't.":
"That's ok. He's more well known for his horror works anyway. But I prefer a good laugh to a good scream."I honestly don't want to be here shouting dictionaries at him all night
Wild mass guessing doesn't seem like a good strategy here. Maybe you could guess if you at least had
something to go on, but with no way to even begin to narrow it down, this is going nowhere.
Try the following passwords: Again. Mattress. ~. `. Honesty. May. Sturgeon. Haddock. Swordfish. Discord. Curious. Truth. Love. The American Way.
You briefly wonder if the voices are even trying. But hey, 'the password is always swordfish' right? May as well try.
:
"Swordfish?":
"What's that?":
"It's a kind of a fish, but as a password it's a reference to an old Marx Brothers movie that almost nobody's actually seen, but is used as a shout-out in other media. It would actually have been a clever password if you'd been guarding Rainbow Dash's place, since the movie is called 'Horse Feathers' and she's a pegasus. Although it would have worked for Pinkie Pie too, since Harpo Marx in that movie played a character called Pinky. Actually, yeah. That would have been kind of cool now that I think about it."The ferryman blinks a few times then slowly opens his mouth to reply but you cut him off.
:
"I'm sorry. Don't mind me. You obviously have no idea what I'm talking about."He shrugs.
give him a coin or two, maybe its a ferryman over river Styx thing.
Give a single gold coin.
GIVE HIM THE FORTUITOUS GOLD COIN YOU FOUND ON THE GROUND BEFORE MEETING "APPLEJACK"
Give him a coin.
pay him with the coin
Let us show him the coin(as opposed to random gold)
You're unsure how you're supposed to identify one single gold coin that you randomly tossed into your coinpurse out of the dozens of other coins that were already in there, but you pull out a handful and inspect them. Some are cleaner than others, but you didn't really examine the one you found on the ground so you've no idea which is which.
:
"Hey, would you accept a bribe?":
"No. Oh, wait, that's not a guess? Well, maybe. How much of a bribe?":
"This gold coin.":
"What, are you serious?":
"Yes?":
"No.":
"What about two?":
"Listen, outlander. Bribery is an honored tradition among my people that goes back centuries. But I'm insulted you think that's all I'm worth."Try chatting him up a little bit. Ask where he would take you if you knew the password. Inquire about other people who used his services. Solicit hints about the password.
:
"But you would take me if I paid you enough?":
"I'm not saying I would. But I'm not saying I wouldn't.":
"Where would you take me if I gave you the right password, anyway?":
"You already asked me that."Oh, right. You did.
:
"Can you just tell me what the password is?":
"Sure. I could do that.":
"Great. What is it?":
"I'm not telling you.":
"But you just said-":
"That I could. Not that I would."Either this guy is a literal djinni or his employer is paying him to toy with people. Or maybe he's just been out here by himself so long that he figures this is his only chance for entertainment.
:
"Actually, why are you even here? I mean, this in the middle of nowhere. And your boat's in a lake. A passworded boat in a lake? Where could you possibly even take me that I couldn't get to just by walking around?":
"My employer is a woman of many mysteries.":
"Who is she?":
"A woman of many mysteries."Offer him the apple.
Consider offering him the paper wrapped object you have.
also try giving him the apple
Be wary of the paper wrapped object in the sack though, don't touch it. It tries mentally dominate you when you do, rather nasty that.
That thing you just spoke to used illusions to fool you and made you go all Gollum on that "apple"
Hmm. Given what happened last time you handled it, you're hesitant to casually pull it out and risk 'going Gollum' again. But it wouldn't hurt to ask. Probably.
:
"Instead of gold, would you accept a golden apple?":
"What's an apple?":
"It's a kind of fruit.":
"...oh, that's one of those exotic Imperial fruits, isn't it? Red and roundish, right?":
"Well, actually this one's yellow, but yes. They come in red, green, yellow and a couple with mixed colors.":
"I'll pass. Free food is one of the better perks of this job.":
"One of? What else?":
"200 gold a month is the big one.":
"200 gold?":
"Yep! It's great. I used to be a farmer. That was good for a roof over my head and more whickwheat than I could stand, but I didn't care for the lifestyle. Didn't exactly offer much future either.":
"And standing in the woods harassing people for passwords they obviously don't know does?":
"No, but 200 gold a month does. Do you have any idea how little money a whickwheat farmer makes selling their portion of the harvest? You might as well just eat it. If you like whickwheat, anyway.":
"So how'd you get this job?":
"A few weeks ago some Altmer marched into my house and offered to hire me before she even introduced herself. Sure, I gave up the house that came with working for the Duke, but I got paid 200 gold upfront just to stand here and ferry people around. Those who know the password, that is.":
"How often does that happen?"He shrugs.
:
"There've been a few."It's possible you've completely misread the situation. This doesn't sound like 'daedric japery' at all.
:
"You're not associated with daedra at all, are you?":
"What? No, of course not."Caius said he thought the new stronghold belonged to Duke Dren. Is it possible that's all that's going on here? This guy was already in the Duke's employ. It's possible one of the foremen simply promoted within his own workforce. Although it seems strange to pay a farmer that much when they could have assigned a guard instead.
:
"So...let me guess: if I did give you the password, you'd take me to a new stronghold under construction that belongs to Duke Dren?"His eyebrows both raise in surprise. Then he frowns as if he's considering it.
:
"I think...I'm unable to confirm or deny that.":
"Can't or won't?":
"I...it never occurred to me that the Duke might own the place. He's not the one who hired me, and I haven't seen him since I've been here...but I never saw him when I worked his fields either."So he doesn't even know. Maybe you're going about this all wrong.
Find "Applejack" at Dren plantation.
the new construction near Dren Plantation. Being located near an existing plantation makes me suspect it's a farm itself, and Applejack is shown working on her farm fairly frequently. The odds that her equivalent is there at any given moment sounds reasonably likely
Try the following passwords: Again. Mattress. ~. `. Honesty. May. Sturgeon. Haddock. Swordfish. Discord. Curious. Truth. Love. The American Way.
You originally only even came here looking for Applejack, thinking that since she's the only member of the mane six you haven't knowingly seen, and being that she's a farmer...she'd probably be near the plantation and that the stronghold rumored to be out here is probably hers. If that's true, then the password is probably something that relates to her, right?
:
"Is the password honesty?":
"No."You take a deep breath of anticipation.
:
"Apple. The password is apple.":
"Wrong again."Come to think of it, he didn't even even recognize what an apple was right away. You have a difficult time imagining any employee of Applejack's not being intimately familiar with apples. Out of guesses, you sit down and try to think this out.
Bella Manor belongs to Adorabella, and you're guessing that she somehow corresponds to Rarity. Castle Awesome belongs to Awesomicus Maximus, who seems to correspond with Rainbow Dash. And Tel Uvirith belongs to SexyWithers, who apparently corresponds with Princess Luna. If you could figure out who owns this stronghold, would you be able to guess their password? Maybe...but not necessarily. If it were Twilight, for example, it would be obvious to try something like 'books' or 'magic' or 'Starswirl the Bearded' or something. But at the same time, sure she
likes those things, but it would be equally in character for Twilight to pick something you couldn't possibly anticipate like the Fibonacci sequence or the first dozen digits of pi.
Worse, there seems to be a pattern mismatch. The 'mane six' of the MLP cast are Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack. Why does Luna have a stronghold? She's kind of a secondary character. If all three strongholds were associated with mane characters, it would be easy to guess that this one probably did too. But Luna has only ever even appeared in half a dozen episodes over 4 seasons. If she has a stronghold...who else is here? The CMC? Cherilee? Derpy? There are
dozens of characters it could possibly be. And that opens up a terrible can of worms. You're pretty sure that these people are 'somehow associated' with MLP characters, but how and why? Are they actually here having assumed Morrowind personas? Is every person in all of Morrowind associated with a pony? Are they playing a game and interfacing with this world somehow? Are you in 'Morrowind Online' being played from Equestria? If so there could easily be hundreds or
thousands of ponies here somehow and any of them might have a stronghold. Even if you could identify which pony was associated with this stronghold. you're only guessing that it's a character you'd even know the name of. What if it belongs to background pony #372? Of course, that's just speculation. It could be, like the voices have suggested, that this is all a hallucinatory fever dream in your head, or you could be subconsciously engaging with CHIM and all these pony-personality-people only even exist because you're dreaming them up. If so, it's unlikely the stronghold would belong to some insignificant background character. It would be some pony you know. But even that still leaves dozens of possibillities.
There is of course also the possibility that Caius suggested. He seemed to think the fourth stronghold belonged to Duke Dren personally. After all, in Morrowind the game, constructed strongholds are all associated with a Great House. Adorabella is in House Hlalu , Awesomicus is in House Redoran and SexyWithers is in House Telvanni. If there's a fourth stronghold and it
doesn't belong to the Duke, then which Great House is it associated with?
could be playing with the Sixth House mod
...well, there is that possibility, yes. If somebody, or some pony joined House Dagoth and is building a stronghold, that might explain why its location isn't public knowledge. But if so, then who does it belong to? Discord? Nightmare Moon? Trixie? Or is the pony thing not even applicable here? After all, there are a bunch of House Dagoth strongholds in vanilla Morrowind. Ilunibi, Kogoruhn, etc. That you know of, Dagoth Ur's forces have attacked two villages: Khuul and Seyda Neen. He's obviously not limited to vanilla behavior. It's possible he might be building new bases. But if so, would he pay a farmer 200 gold to ferry anyone with a password to the place?
Return to town (We're right next to Pelegiad, apparently, so go there and buy some damn supplies already. Also, check the prices on that woman's restore magika potion ingredients.
+1
maybe go over to the nearest town for supplies.
Best return when you feel ready Michael, be wary of the Nix Hounds.
get back to a safe place, heal and resupply.
You say goodbye to the ferryman and begin navigating your way back. You saw an Imperial style settlement on your way here. Pelagiad, you think.
Unfortunately it seems a slaughterfish has noticed you during your time here, and the direct path through the water is no longer safe.
:
"Hey, could you ferry me across to the other side?":
"What's the password?"You facepalm
:
"Haha, just kidding. Sure, 10 gold and I'll take you.":
"Ten gold? For real? I could throw a rock the distance I'm asking you to take me.":
"Sure, and if you could throw yourself as easily as a rock, I wouldn't ask for so much. But with a slaughterfish in the water, I figure ten gold is a fair price."Sadly, given your inability to heal he might be right. But you only have 51 gold at the moment, and you just have a difficult time bringing yourself to pay 20% of it to have him take you 100 feet. Instead you head further inland to the crossing point you used on the way here and cross where the distance across the lake is shorter.
Health is now 51/61It only even managed to bite you twice. You're tempted to just kill it, but figure it's safer to conserve health for later. You still have some ground to cover, and you saw a nix hound on the way here. What's that shadow on the ground?
Health is now 48BAD!
You immediately turn back towards the water. You've fought slaughterfish before, albeit with Draren healing you. Unlike the cliff racer now pecking at your head, those you know for certain you can kill. Maybe if you kill it, you can swim mostly underwater back to the ferryman and hope he'll help with the cliff racer?
...or not. Seems the slaughterfish has a friend now, and you're sandwiched between the two of them in the water and the cliff racer in the air.
health is now 37You're taking too many hits. It might be better to fight one cliff racer now than two slaughterfish now plus a cliff racer later. You've no idea if you can make it all the way back to the ferry. Climbing back onto shore you start swinging madly at the cliff racer, hoping you've become strong enough to kill it.
Health is now 18No good. You're hitting it. It's taking damage. But it would be a losing battle alone, and two mudcrabs are en route to join in. If you'd started out at at full health against a cliff racer, even then you don't think you'd quite be able to beat it. Best you can hope for is to run. Maybe if you get lucky you can make it to Pelegiad.
Health is now 12You don't think you're going to make it.
Health is now 2You're not going to make it. It a fit of anger you turn around and jab your knife into the cliff racer one last time before it pecks you in the face. It hurts for just a moment, but you're still standing so you swing again...or at least, you try. Apparently you dropped your dagger. You can't seem to find it. For that matter why can't you feel your arm anymore? You then watch, dumbfounded as the cliff racer suddenly turns and flies off.
What just happened? Did it change its mind? What's going on? Confused, you look down.
Oh. You're dead.
Wait. You're
dead?
Ok, no need to panic. This has happened before, right? What happened last time? You don't remember. Actually, you only even know that you've died before because the voices said so. You don't remember it at all. Does that mean that in a moment you'll respawn and everything will be fine except you'll lose your memory of having died?
You wait.
Nothing happens.
:
"Hello?"There's no answer. At least not right away. You look around and see that the mudcrabs have wandered off. You can't even see the cliff racer. They left your body untouched, aside from the killing you part. Apparently the creatures here only kill adventurers, they don't actually eat them. Odd.
:
"Can anyone hear me?"You can still see and hear. And there are sensations that could possibly be described as "feeling." Actually, yes. That's definitely the sensation of feeling. But you're not sure what you're feeling. There's a curious lack of
weight. That feeling of the weight of your body when you sit in a chair? Your feet on the ground? That's gone. No feeling of breathing either. You look down at your body and - wait. Which way is down?
You have a terrifying moment of extreme vertigo as you suddenly lose track of which way is up or down. You can't feel gravity. You can't turn, yet somehow you can see behind you. Behind? Which way is behind? You can see your body on the ground, but you can see the hill and you can see the sky...all at once? Can you move? You try to turn to your left, but you have no idea which way 'left' is and you feel yourself fall...into yourself?
Now you're on the ground looking up at the sky. At least that's what it felt like. But you can still see the ground and it doesn't seem to be any closer, and you obviously don't have a body to 'fall' with. It's all terribly disorienting. You try to close your eyes to help you focus, but again...no eyes.
:
"Is anyone there?"You're not sure anyone can hear you. You're probably not actually calling out. Actually, you're certain of that. You're not 'speaking' and you're not hearing your own voice. You're...doing something else.
:
"If anyone can hear me, please answer."You feel a tingle. Is that...magicka? It is! You look through the planet at the sun still a good distance below the horizon. It's probably an hour until morning, but you can clearly see the stream of magicka from the sun and its warmth reassures you tremendously.
You can see magicka. You can feel magicka. Can you cast spells? You feel around in...whatever you are. Is that...yes! You definitely have a magicka pool, and you can feel the sunlight restoring it right now. Now you just need to...wait, where's your fleabite spell? You look in the place where you're accustomed to having your destruction spellforms and you don't feel anything. No destruction school. No fleabite spell. Nothing to channel magicka into.
Well, that's frustrating.
:
"Voices? Are you there? I think I'm dead."
Level 9
Health: N/A
Armor rating: N/A
Magicka 37/73
44.4 Intelligence (40)
42.0 Willpower (40)
45.2 Personality (40)
? Luck (50)
What do you do?
Author
Topic: Marooned in Morrowind (FINISHED) (Read 434751 times)