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Post by jcarter on Feb 7, 2019 8:37:40 GMT -5
re: things not fitting or out of place
this is a game that's nearly 30 years old and has had dozens of people driving by, implementing their vision, and then running off. it struggles with its identity in numerous ways: lore, code, combat, player self-agency, etc.
afaik, there's no actual mission statement or overrarching document saying what the themes/goals are, so you get a lot of weird, schizophrenic design decisions. there was notes from ness in the leak that basically said gith weren't supposed to be developed or have culture: they were supposed to just be faceless bad guys as the Zalanthan version of D&D orcs. i think anaiah said there was nothing in the documentation about the sandlord. a dude who runs one of the few major cities in defiance of allanak has no background or documentation at all. how, as a storyteller, are you supposed to work with that?
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vulcan
staff puppet account
Posts: 28
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Post by vulcan on Feb 7, 2019 11:33:59 GMT -5
What are the weirdest, scariest, most obscure or interesting places you've explored? Most people have gone through the sewers at some point, but it's still one of the more fascinating places. It's huge and there's not a whole lot there, the main dangers being plague rats, falling, and the potential for sewer horrors (though I never saw one). I explored most of it once and found a weird hideout with chests and a bunch of worthless crap. Probably some gick's hideout.Never explored the sewers, except for part of it where I think I climbed part of the shield wall into a cave that led into the sewers? I think there were some flying lizards or something there that were supposed to be used to create poison that shuts down magickers. I could be totally off base and wrong though, I never messed around with poison creation and this was around the time before Kurac reclaimed Luirs. The so-called Sorcerer's Tomb near Luir's is small but curious. It's like something out of a D&D campaign and really doesn't feel like it belongs in this world at all. I went down there one time and some invisible being began to cast spells at me while saying all sorts of crazy shit. It was obviously scripted, not an animation, as it kept repeating the same few phrases while casting useless spells. It blocked the exits off with sand walls, blinded me, cast earthquake a couple of times, and then... seemed to run out of mana, because it stopped doing anything besides spewing ominous things like "I'm gonna kill your whole family" until the spells wore off and I could just walk out.This I did explore quite a bit, and got to the tomb. It was right outside Tan Sarek (I think that was how it was spelled). Didn't run into any spell casting anythings, it was a pretty uneventful little delve. Just found a spot to forage up some stone I think and a giant underwater lake/waterfall with the tomb behind a hidden exit, I think? I thought it was nifty if weird. Far east of Allanak past the salt flats are some canyons with plateaus above them where cactus-men live. That's another one of those things that felt bizarre and didn't suit the setting. Just living cactus walking around and attacking you. Didn't seem to be anything else there.Now this I thought was actually thematic, because Dark Sun had sentient/psionic plants. Didn't think it was weird or out of place due to that. I just remember them being fairly easy to kill and there being a large cavity/hole up there from a meteor strike I meant to go back and forage in but never got around to it. Never been to any of the planes or anything but I did once go through a broken exit in Tuluk and end up trapped in a weird three-room area containing... Muk Utep. The version that once visited Tuluk in the flesh. I think it was an immense, crimson-braided man or something similar. He was just standing there and I couldn't get back out until a staffer moved me.That is funny because I remember talking to someone who saw Muk Utep and said he was just a head in a jar that would look at you and glare and stuff. When did he reattach his head? I like the out of the way odd places that really don't serve much use, it adds atmosphere I think, and makes the world feel larger. Supposedly there are crypts below the sewers in allanak with cultists and stuff? Never been there so dunno for sure. Undertuluk had an interesting crypt area with undead roaming around. |
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Post by psyxypher on Feb 7, 2019 12:19:53 GMT -5
Never been to any of the planes or anything but I did once go through a broken exit in Tuluk and end up trapped in a weird three-room area containing... Muk Utep. The version that once visited Tuluk in the flesh. I think it was an immense, crimson-braided man or something similar. He was just standing there and I couldn't get back out until a staffer moved me. That is funny because I remember talking to someone who saw Muk Utep and said he was just a head in a jar that would look at you and glare and stuff. When did he reattach his head? According to document from the Staff Wiki, that head in a jar isn't Muk...it's his brother. His name is "Anaxas Utep" and apparently Muk decapitated him. It didn't kill him since, like the Sorcerer Kings, he made himself immortal.
Tek apparently also did something similar with his own father. I'm starting to think it might just be a cultural thing from that time. That, or the Sorcerer Kings are really just...eccentric, putting it lightly.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2019 12:21:13 GMT -5
What are the weirdest, scariest, most obscure or interesting places you've explored? Most people have gone through the sewers at some point, but it's still one of the more fascinating places. It's huge and there's not a whole lot there, the main dangers being plague rats, falling, and the potential for sewer horrors (though I never saw one). I explored most of it once and found a weird hideout with chests and a bunch of worthless crap. Probably some gick's hideout.Never explored the sewers, except for part of it where I think I climbed part of the shield wall into a cave that led into the sewers? I think there were some flying lizards or something there that were supposed to be used to create poison that shuts down magickers. I could be totally off base and wrong though, I never messed around with poison creation and this was around the time before Kurac reclaimed Luirs. The so-called Sorcerer's Tomb near Luir's is small but curious. It's like something out of a D&D campaign and really doesn't feel like it belongs in this world at all. I went down there one time and some invisible being began to cast spells at me while saying all sorts of crazy shit. It was obviously scripted, not an animation, as it kept repeating the same few phrases while casting useless spells. It blocked the exits off with sand walls, blinded me, cast earthquake a couple of times, and then... seemed to run out of mana, because it stopped doing anything besides spewing ominous things like "I'm gonna kill your whole family" until the spells wore off and I could just walk out.This I did explore quite a bit, and got to the tomb. It was right outside Tan Sarek (I think that was how it was spelled). Didn't run into any spell casting anythings, it was a pretty uneventful little delve. Just found a spot to forage up some stone I think and a giant underwater lake/waterfall with the tomb behind a hidden exit, I think? I thought it was nifty if weird. Far east of Allanak past the salt flats are some canyons with plateaus above them where cactus-men live. That's another one of those things that felt bizarre and didn't suit the setting. Just living cactus walking around and attacking you. Didn't seem to be anything else there.Now this I thought was actually thematic, because Dark Sun had sentient/psionic plants. Didn't think it was weird or out of place due to that. I just remember them being fairly easy to kill and there being a large cavity/hole up there from a meteor strike I meant to go back and forage in but never got around to it. Never been to any of the planes or anything but I did once go through a broken exit in Tuluk and end up trapped in a weird three-room area containing... Muk Utep. The version that once visited Tuluk in the flesh. I think it was an immense, crimson-braided man or something similar. He was just standing there and I couldn't get back out until a staffer moved me.That is funny because I remember talking to someone who saw Muk Utep and said he was just a head in a jar that would look at you and glare and stuff. When did he reattach his head? I like the out of the way odd places that really don't serve much use, it adds atmosphere I think, and makes the world feel larger. Supposedly there are crypts below the sewers in allanak with cultists and stuff? Never been there so dunno for sure. Undertuluk had an interesting crypt area with undead roaming around.
My top 4:
There is a cave crevice you can climb down to that is marked as an openable exit. None of my pcs who got to it could open it. It is described as a crevice blocked by a rockfall, with only deep darkness beyond. It is my candidate for the entrance to the plane of Drov, if such a thing is codedly in game.
The watch tower in the north built in a 3 room deep gully. It was fully manned by soldiers and a jihaen when I was there last but... a tower with no view struck me as hilarious. There may have been a redacted or hidden cave entrance that my pc was unable to find.
The nine room climb down to the blast crater where the original kryl hive was.
The obsidian tomb inscribed with the signs of all seven elements. I am guessing it was a holdover from an Anyali plot or the Jihaen rebellion.
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kannot
Clueless newb
Posts: 126
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Post by kannot on Feb 26, 2019 15:37:46 GMT -5
I explored most of it once and found a weird hideout with chests and a bunch of worthless crap. Probably some gick's hideout. Not sure which one you're talking about, but there used to be a time when the vegetarian cult would brew their potatos there for the vegan bonus. If this is the quit-safe room, it was used by a pretty serious faction. |
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goat
staff puppet account
Posts: 4
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Post by goat on Mar 18, 2019 8:17:21 GMT -5
Found a cave south of Tuluk a few years back that's behind a door with an insect head on it. The cave itself is lined entirely with bone, and at the end is a hole with an ankheg in it. Tried killing it once, and got pretty damn close, but then I think an IMM took control of it because it suddenly started emoting and its accuracy went up.
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muddy
Clueless newb
Posts: 61
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Post by muddy on Apr 8, 2019 12:45:59 GMT -5
Never saw the winged Drove Beetle or the NPC Ginka you get the hermide coated vine/clubs from. Was always just out of reach for my PCs. I died once trying to tame the moss-covered warbeetle at the Halfling place, seen the Gnu roaming by the swarm of Kryl you can get the poison Glands from. Last I was up there, they had changed the landscape where the heavy forested areas drain your stamina at an accelerate rate.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 8, 2019 17:48:12 GMT -5
Found a cave south of Tuluk a few years back that's behind a door with an insect head on it. The cave itself is lined entirely with bone, and at the end is a hole with an ankheg in it. Tried killing it once, and got pretty damn close, but then I think an IMM took control of it because it suddenly started emoting and its accuracy went up. I had a pc who periodically hunted and killed that ankheg. Most of those kills were 200-300 hp ankhegs. The one time this pc encountered a imm controlled ankheg, and the one time another pc of mine was in a group that encountered one, both of those controlled ankheg had 600 hp.
My completely unjustified theory is that imms run around with all AI stats because its funny, and bring those stats into possessed monsters. I've seen the problem with a possessed stilt lizard before, as well.
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Post by trollageddon on Apr 12, 2019 11:36:02 GMT -5
I don't think I have a huge trove of experience finding cool or obscure places in the sands.
I did however think of a couple of cool places I've been, that I'll point out because they're no longer available and because they were pretty neat.
Undertuluk has already been mentioned. I didn't play in it extensively, but I bumped into a couple of people in Undertuluk and they were weird and/or interesting.
The other neat place was Red Storm East. I'm very tempted to do a separate write up about it. It wasn't really big, and maybe was only about twelve rooms or so. The cool thing about Red Storm East was that if you were there, it was because you wanted to get the heck away from the in crowd. And so the couple of times that I actually bumped into somebody there, both times it was very quiet guys that were happy to chat but didn't want to make it personal. No discussion about politics, no offers to help get me into the Jaxa Pah or anything. Wanderers.
But mostly it was empty. I must have spent 100 hours there. Maybe 500. And only those two times did I run into anybody. The last cool feature of Red Storm East was that it had the very cheapest commercial water available in the game. Worth the trek, in my opinion.
Oh well, it's gone now. Sorry you missed it noobs. Cool little place.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2019 15:17:22 GMT -5
Found a cave south of Tuluk a few years back that's behind a door with an insect head on it. The cave itself is lined entirely with bone, and at the end is a hole with an ankheg in it. Tried killing it once, and got pretty damn close, but then I think an IMM took control of it because it suddenly started emoting and its accuracy went up. I had a pc who periodically hunted and killed that ankheg. Most of those kills were 200-300 hp ankhegs. The one time this pc encountered a imm controlled ankheg, and the one time another pc of mine was in a group that encountered one, both of those controlled ankheg had 600 hp.
My completely unjustified theory is that imms run around with all AI stats because its funny, and bring those stats into possessed monsters. I've seen the problem with a possessed stilt lizard before, as well.
It doesnt work that way. If a staffer posseses an npc, the npc keeps it's natural stats. It's possible that the staffer altered the stats manually before possessing. But since you're mentioning your friend met 'two' ankhegs at the same time, then it was definitely part of an event. In which case the npcs were created to suit the strength of the players involved. It's always a little anticlimatic when big scary monsters arrive and die in a near instant. Errors do happen though when the staffer is inexperienced enough to do some weird stats and kills half the game's playerbase in an instant. Definitely happened before.
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jkarr
GDB Superstar
Posts: 2,070
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Post by jkarr on Apr 12, 2019 15:28:09 GMT -5
I had a pc who periodically hunted and killed that ankheg. Most of those kills were 200-300 hp ankhegs. The one time this pc encountered a imm controlled ankheg, and the one time another pc of mine was in a group that encountered one, both of those controlled ankheg had 600 hp.
My completely unjustified theory is that imms run around with all AI stats because its funny, and bring those stats into possessed monsters. I've seen the problem with a possessed stilt lizard before, as well.
It doesnt work that way. If a staffer posseses an npc, the npc keeps it's natural stats. It's possible that the staffer altered the stats manually before possessing. But since you're mentioning your friend met 'two' ankhegs at the same time, then it was definitely part of an event. In which case the npcs were created to suit the strength of the players involved. It's always a little anticlimatic when big scary monsters arrive and die in a near instant. Errors do happen though when the staffer is inexperienced enough to do some weird stats and kills half the game's playerbase in an instant. Definitely happened before.
reread the bold again he didnt say two at once he said both of the times that there was an immcontrolled ankheg each had 600hp |
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2019 15:53:25 GMT -5
It doesnt work that way. If a staffer posseses an npc, the npc keeps it's natural stats. It's possible that the staffer altered the stats manually before possessing. But since you're mentioning your friend met 'two' ankhegs at the same time, then it was definitely part of an event. In which case the npcs were created to suit the strength of the players involved. It's always a little anticlimatic when big scary monsters arrive and die in a near instant. Errors do happen though when the staffer is inexperienced enough to do some weird stats and kills half the game's playerbase in an instant. Definitely happened before.
reread the bold again he didnt say two at once he said both of the times that there was an immcontrolled ankheg each had 600hp
God. My bad. I really should stop reading shit on these little screens. The point remains obviously, but I really should improve on reading comprehension.
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Post by picklehead on Apr 12, 2019 21:16:04 GMT -5
There was a pillar that you could enter not too far from where the ankheg is. Went there with the Bloodriders back in the day. Was some sort of ancient dwarven tomb, basically. Coffins and such. No cool loot or anything that we found, but it got plenty of imm attention (Ness), who put out a ton of echoes and, if I remember right, a dwarven spirit or something got involved. One member got permanently deafened by the experience. Was pretty cool.
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Post by triskelion on May 6, 2019 4:50:46 GMT -5
The meteor cave in the cactus mountains is very cool. It has a nasty debuff/drain effect that isn't seen anywhere else in the game, along with some glass you can mine that I think Kadius has some unique recipes for. There is an abandoned GMH house camp outside it now. There was really no way for any of my PCs to figure this out IC, but I am 99 percent sure that the debuff is radiation poisoning. The meteor is radioactive. The closer you get to it the more damage you take and you get lingering hp drain and symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning like nausea and burning sensations.
I don't know if anybody has ever made it all the way to the meteor and survived. It could have cool shit in it. Though I vaguely remember hearing that the cool shit in it was removed after somebody posted spoilers for that plot.
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najdorf
Displaced Tuluki
Posts: 265 
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Post by najdorf on May 6, 2019 9:25:56 GMT -5
As a whiran I once got teleported to a halfling villlage near the SILT sea! I always thought they were only in the north. Does anyone else know what place is that?
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