Mithos Yggdrasil (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
antreegonist) wrote2011-10-06 01:47 pm
antreegonist) wrote2011-10-06 01:47 pm
Entry tags:
FIREBIRD GAME NOTES
OVERALL
Without too many spoilers: this game was something much smaller and more controlled than a heartgame, but some of the elements were similar and you were inside Firebird! So rooms had some things that were important to her, experiments, hints to her story/what makes her tick, etc.
Basically, she had a problem! It is not gone! But you guys made it a lot more bearable for now. Think of it as the Persona version of taking extra-strength Nyquil.
EXPLORATION
I. CENTRAL ROOM
You find yourself in a small triangular room with high, high walls. All three walls are made of glass. Through one, all you see is white light moving in strange angular patterns. Through the second, the same white light forms great starbursts. Through the third, the light coils and wheels.
It's quite bright. The floor is made of ruddy beaten copper. The ceiling is a vast mirror. In the middle of the floor is a great copper bowl filled with something white and wavering, like smoke.
You find three copper tokens in your hand. They are flat, shaped like apples. Engraved on each is the word OPEN.
ACTIONS
+ EXAMINE WALLS (BEFORE INTERACTION WITH BOWL)
The walls are warm. Whatever the lights are, they're on the other side. They make you dizzy.
+ TRY TO USE/DESTROY TOKENS (THOUGH PEOPLE CAN POCKET THEM/INVENTORY THEM/ETC)
You find them back in your hand, as though you hadn't done anything. (There was one possible effect in this room, but no one found it.)
+ TRY TO BREAK ANYTHING IN THE ROOM
Feather patterns radiate out from where you struck, and then vanish. You have caused no damage.
+ EXAMINE BOWL
On the rim of the bowl, words are carved; you have to follow them around to read everything.
The rim says, AND HE PUSHED ON THROUGH THE DARK FOREST WITHOUT EVEN A TORCH TO LIGHT HIS WAY, TOWARDS THE SOUND OF SINGING. Between 'AND' and 'SINGING' are three identical small keyholes. They are the wrong shape for your team key.
The bowl is filled with white ash. Nestled in it are the two halves of a great white egg, and held between them is the smoky thing. It's pretty formless, but in its movements you can make out the features of a gaunt, humanoid face, screwed up in pain.
+ TRY TO GET SMOKE THING'S ATTENTION
No response, no acknowledgment that you are even there.
+ ATTEMPT TO PHYSICALLY SHIFT BOWL ITEMS IN ANY WAY
It's deadly cold. You may want to pull away before you get stuck there.
There's a click. Images carve themselves on the glass walls: a flowering tree over the angular lights, a leafy tree over the starbursts, and a tree laden with apples over the coiling lights. Around each tree appears the outline of a door. You hear Firebird's voice.
"Where will you go first? Remember that you need three keys; use the time you are bound to wisely."
+ MISC (EVENING THE FIELD)
Special powers were locked! Flight also counted as a special ability and was locked! If you couldn't read then Firebird read things out for you; she sounded wistful. If you were an animal your forepaws also became human-level dexterous.
PICK A DOOR
The glass is warm under your hands. You can push the door open easily.
II. FLOWERING TREE (SPRING), theme ANIMAL
You’re in a thick forest, faint mist drifting lazily around your feet. It’s a little chilly, a little damp, but not uncomfortable. Birds chirp and insects buzz lazily all around you, unconcerned by your presence. What little you can see of the sky is pale and cloudless.
A faint trail winds into the trees to your right.
ACTIONS
+ CLIMB A TREE
It’s kind of slippery, very hard to grip and climb, a little unreal-feeling under your hands. Most of the branches are quite high up.
(If players try to keep climbing then they slip, fall, and get the wind knocked out of them.)
+ INTERACT WITH THE WILDLIFE
(Birds, butterflies, dragonflies; catchable. Everything is lush and healthy. No flowers or fruits though.)
+ FOLLOW THE PATH
You find a very large clearing. Thirteen pedestals of some dark stone ring it; they must have had statues on them once, but these have been cleanly broken away, and only the (human? hopefully?) feet are left on each one. Who knows where the rest of each statue is.
In the center of the clearing is the lone intact statue: a huge dark serpent about thirteen feet high, mouth wide open. It's exquisitely carved, but its four fangs are missing, so it looks pretty goofy right now.
A red fox is seated on the other side of the clearing, eyeing you. It's carrying a lump of raw meat in its mouth.
+ INTERACT WITH THE STATUES
Cool dark stone. They are all too solid and heavy to move. Behind four of them you find solid copper fangs that match the snake statue.
+ PUT ANYTHING IN SNAKE MOUTH (APART FROM SLOTTING IN FANGS)
The stone jaws start to close veeery slowlyyyy. (Eventually the item would be crushed.)
+ INTERACT WITH THE FOX
(The fox was intelligent, suspicious, but not entirely unfriendly! There was no way to touch it. If people ignored it it just hung around. If people were friendly enough it would give them the meat. If people were too pushy/unfriendly it bolted and took the meat with it. If people offered it a trade (that was not a token) they would also get the meat. It would not give you hints as to where to place the tokens, but it could lead you to the fangs or get you lost in the woods.)
+ FIT THE FANGS IN
There's a faint click somewhere under your feet, but that's all that happens.
+ EXAMINE THE MEAT
It's a lump of meat the size of a fist. It's gooshy and heavy and has fox drool on it.
(Inside is a fragment of stone that matches the broken statues--a chunk bearing a stone eye.)
+ ENTER THE WOODS (OFF-TRAIL)
It gets dimmer as you go, the mist thicker. Very quiet. Only the sound of your breathing and the crunch of your footsteps breaks the silence. The forest is lush and trackless, though much less thorny and unforgiving to travel through than Aather.
(Players get lost. They start hearing a chorus of voices singing in a strange language. They're quite sweet but don't sound quite human. If they follow the singing, it leads them back to where they originally started, with one difference: the surrounding trees' trunks are now all scorched and blackened. If they don't follow the singing then they stay lost. The more you do this the worse off the trees get.)
+ USE TOKENS
Here.
III. LEAFY TREE (SUMMER), theme VEGETABLE
You’re in a small, low-ceilinged one-room house, somewhat like a team cabin but built of a dark shiny stone. There are plants growing all over the walls and floor and ceiling—ivy twined with some sort of black vine. Try not to trip. It’s also scorching hot; there are no windows, and the only door is the one you came through.
There is a bed, a cabinet big enough to hold a man, a wooden desk with a single drawer, and a table in the middle of the room with thirteen copper figurines arranged in a circle upon it. There's something else in the middle of the circle.
ACTIONS
+ SEARCH THE BED
It was neatly made until you started messing with it! All you find are a bundle of papers shoved under the pillow. Each of them has a single note of music on it, writ large in black ink.
+ OPEN THE CABINET
Inside it is empty, but for a single red apple.
+ EAT/EXAMINE THE APPLE
You spot a wormhole near the top of it when you pick it up. Eating it might not be a great idea.
(If you open up the apple then yes, there's a wiggly white worm in it.)
+ RIP DOWN VINES/IVY
They come free of the wall but then start twining around your arms. Oh no!
(Players can get free, they just have to struggle really hard.)
+ SEARCH THE DESK
You find . . . the skeleton of a cat in the drawer. It's bleached white, the bones hung together with copper wire. An anatomically-correct copper heart is wired within its ribcage.
(The cat can be taken apart. It's also poseable.)
+ EXAMINE THE CIRCLE
The figurines are faceless, abstract humanoids with their arms upraised. Each is about six inches high, and they are very shiny.
In the middle of the circle they form is the skeleton of a small songbird, the bones hung together with copper wire. A perfect copper feather is wired within its ribcage.
(The bird can be taken apart. It's also poseable.)
+ STICK WORM/APPLE IN MIDDLE OF FIGURES
There is a hard thump from the cabinet. (This was a hint to examine the cabinet more.)
+ MOVE THE CABINET
(It's heavy and takes a lot of effort.)
There's a door behind here. Open it?
+ OPEN DOOR
It's dark.
+ GO THROUGH DOOR
It shuts behind you and you can't find it again.
(You wander. There are no landmarks, no reference points. You start to hear a chorus of voices singing; they are sweet but not quite human. If you follow them the door eventually reappears and you can reenter the little house. It looks much the same as you left it--except now everything is covered in a fine layer of pale ash. If you don't follow the voices then you stay lost. The more you do this the thicker the ash gets.)
USE TOKENS
Here.
IV. FRUITING TREE (AUTUMN), theme MINERAL
You're in a hallway lined with floor-length mirrors, five on each side. The door you came through is inset into a wooden wall behind you; another wooden wall blocks off the opposite end of the corridor. The high ceiling is copper, with stylized suns and birds carved upon it. The floor is opaque black rock. It’s rather chilly.
ACTIONS
+ EXAMINE MIRRORS
Most of the mirrors appear to be ordinary mirrors! They reflect you into infinity even if you're a vampire (and you could swear that one of your reflections, just out of the range of your vision, is waving at you.)
Two of them--the third from the door on your left side, and the fifth from the door on your right--display a shadow figure of you, dark and indistinct at the edges, rather than a true reflection.
+ KEEP VERY STILL AND WATCH YOUR SHADOW REFLECTION
. . . after a minute, it starts to move on its own and dance a little jig. Well then.
(Otherwise it acts like a normal reflection would.)
+ TOUCH THE MIRRORS
There's a ripple in the glass between your fingers and the shadow-fingers. It feels cool and smooth and unyielding, but...perhaps if you pushed...?
+ PUSH
Your hand begins to sink through. It takes a bit of effort, but it looks like you can enter the mirror.
+ ATTACK THE MIRROR/S
Craccckkk. It shatters with a satisfying crash. Behind it is opaque black wall.
(All the ordinary mirrors could be smashed! The player can smash only one of the shadow mirrors. Behind that one they'll find a blank flat sheet of copper, the size of a playing card, with sharp edges. However, they won't be able to smash the other special mirror no matter how hard they try.
Players will also only be able to enter one of the shadow mirrors. If they enter without having broken anything, the second mirror will not be there.)
+ ENTER SHADOWMIRROR
You find yourself on a wide expanse of flat grey ground, with the mirror behind you. A harsh wind is blowing.
A huge mural has been drawn on the ground with charcoal. A few other sticks of charcoal lie near it, as though carelessly left behind by the artist.
(If players have broken hall mirrors: twenty feet away, you see the glint of another mirror.)
+ EXAMINE CHARCOAL
There are three pieces. One is hot to the touch, one is very cold, and one is lukewarm.
(HOT: you can draw new stuff on the ground. COLD: you can erase things. LUKEWARM: you can smudge things and make smudgy marks. OH NO FAIRYTALE PHOTOSHOP)
+ EXAMINE THE SECOND MIRROR
This one gives no reflection at all, but ripples when you touch it.
+ ENTER THE SECOND MIRROR
(It disappears behind you. You enter another flat grey space with no landmarks. You are lost. A chorus of voices begins to sing: they sound sweet, but not quite human, and you can't understand the words. They will lead you to another mirror door and you'll return to the mural room. The mural has changed into a flat black circle. If you choose not to follow then you stay lost etc. The more you do this the bigger the circle grows.)
USE TOKENS
Here.
V. THREE KEYS
POSSIBILITIES, MOST TO LEAST POINTS: GOLD KEY, COPPER KEY, BRASS KEY. ORDER OF KEYS DIDN'T MATTER.
+ [brass brass brass] / [brass brass copper]
The eggshells crack but do not shatter. The smoky thing lets out a high, discordant wail of pain. You abruptly find yourself back in the Ring.
+ [brass copper gold] / [brass copper copper] / [brass brass gold] / [copper copper copper]
The eggshells shatter apart, and the smoky thing collapses silently into the bowl, weaving and writhing. But it can't seem to get out... You abruptly find yourself back in the Ring.
+ [brass gold gold] / [copper copper gold] / [copper gold gold] / [gold gold gold]
The eggshells shatter and crumble, and the mirror overhead vanishes to reveal blue cloudless sky. The smoky thing darts up and out, and disappears. You feel--oddly relieved. The room fades slowly around you, until you find yourself back in the Ring.
+ [gold gold gold]
You would have gotten a favour from Firebird as well :|b
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR PLAYING AND MAKING THIS MAGICAL ♥ AND ALSO THANK YOU LLOYD MOST AMAZING CORUNNER BAW. If you want to ask more questions about the game you can do so here! I reserve the right to answer with ':)' though.
Without too many spoilers: this game was something much smaller and more controlled than a heartgame, but some of the elements were similar and you were inside Firebird! So rooms had some things that were important to her, experiments, hints to her story/what makes her tick, etc.
Basically, she had a problem! It is not gone! But you guys made it a lot more bearable for now. Think of it as the Persona version of taking extra-strength Nyquil.
EXPLORATION
I. CENTRAL ROOM
You find yourself in a small triangular room with high, high walls. All three walls are made of glass. Through one, all you see is white light moving in strange angular patterns. Through the second, the same white light forms great starbursts. Through the third, the light coils and wheels.
It's quite bright. The floor is made of ruddy beaten copper. The ceiling is a vast mirror. In the middle of the floor is a great copper bowl filled with something white and wavering, like smoke.
You find three copper tokens in your hand. They are flat, shaped like apples. Engraved on each is the word OPEN.
ACTIONS
+ EXAMINE WALLS (BEFORE INTERACTION WITH BOWL)
The walls are warm. Whatever the lights are, they're on the other side. They make you dizzy.
+ TRY TO USE/DESTROY TOKENS (THOUGH PEOPLE CAN POCKET THEM/INVENTORY THEM/ETC)
You find them back in your hand, as though you hadn't done anything. (There was one possible effect in this room, but no one found it.)
+ TRY TO BREAK ANYTHING IN THE ROOM
Feather patterns radiate out from where you struck, and then vanish. You have caused no damage.
+ EXAMINE BOWL
On the rim of the bowl, words are carved; you have to follow them around to read everything.
The rim says, AND HE PUSHED ON THROUGH THE DARK FOREST WITHOUT EVEN A TORCH TO LIGHT HIS WAY, TOWARDS THE SOUND OF SINGING. Between 'AND' and 'SINGING' are three identical small keyholes. They are the wrong shape for your team key.
The bowl is filled with white ash. Nestled in it are the two halves of a great white egg, and held between them is the smoky thing. It's pretty formless, but in its movements you can make out the features of a gaunt, humanoid face, screwed up in pain.
+ TRY TO GET SMOKE THING'S ATTENTION
No response, no acknowledgment that you are even there.
+ ATTEMPT TO PHYSICALLY SHIFT BOWL ITEMS IN ANY WAY
It's deadly cold. You may want to pull away before you get stuck there.
There's a click. Images carve themselves on the glass walls: a flowering tree over the angular lights, a leafy tree over the starbursts, and a tree laden with apples over the coiling lights. Around each tree appears the outline of a door. You hear Firebird's voice.
"Where will you go first? Remember that you need three keys; use the time you are bound to wisely."
+ MISC (EVENING THE FIELD)
Special powers were locked! Flight also counted as a special ability and was locked! If you couldn't read then Firebird read things out for you; she sounded wistful. If you were an animal your forepaws also became human-level dexterous.
PICK A DOOR
The glass is warm under your hands. You can push the door open easily.
II. FLOWERING TREE (SPRING), theme ANIMAL
You’re in a thick forest, faint mist drifting lazily around your feet. It’s a little chilly, a little damp, but not uncomfortable. Birds chirp and insects buzz lazily all around you, unconcerned by your presence. What little you can see of the sky is pale and cloudless.
A faint trail winds into the trees to your right.
ACTIONS
+ CLIMB A TREE
It’s kind of slippery, very hard to grip and climb, a little unreal-feeling under your hands. Most of the branches are quite high up.
(If players try to keep climbing then they slip, fall, and get the wind knocked out of them.)
+ INTERACT WITH THE WILDLIFE
(Birds, butterflies, dragonflies; catchable. Everything is lush and healthy. No flowers or fruits though.)
+ FOLLOW THE PATH
You find a very large clearing. Thirteen pedestals of some dark stone ring it; they must have had statues on them once, but these have been cleanly broken away, and only the (human? hopefully?) feet are left on each one. Who knows where the rest of each statue is.
In the center of the clearing is the lone intact statue: a huge dark serpent about thirteen feet high, mouth wide open. It's exquisitely carved, but its four fangs are missing, so it looks pretty goofy right now.
A red fox is seated on the other side of the clearing, eyeing you. It's carrying a lump of raw meat in its mouth.
+ INTERACT WITH THE STATUES
Cool dark stone. They are all too solid and heavy to move. Behind four of them you find solid copper fangs that match the snake statue.
+ PUT ANYTHING IN SNAKE MOUTH (APART FROM SLOTTING IN FANGS)
The stone jaws start to close veeery slowlyyyy. (Eventually the item would be crushed.)
+ INTERACT WITH THE FOX
(The fox was intelligent, suspicious, but not entirely unfriendly! There was no way to touch it. If people ignored it it just hung around. If people were friendly enough it would give them the meat. If people were too pushy/unfriendly it bolted and took the meat with it. If people offered it a trade (that was not a token) they would also get the meat. It would not give you hints as to where to place the tokens, but it could lead you to the fangs or get you lost in the woods.)
+ FIT THE FANGS IN
There's a faint click somewhere under your feet, but that's all that happens.
+ EXAMINE THE MEAT
It's a lump of meat the size of a fist. It's gooshy and heavy and has fox drool on it.
(Inside is a fragment of stone that matches the broken statues--a chunk bearing a stone eye.)
+ ENTER THE WOODS (OFF-TRAIL)
It gets dimmer as you go, the mist thicker. Very quiet. Only the sound of your breathing and the crunch of your footsteps breaks the silence. The forest is lush and trackless, though much less thorny and unforgiving to travel through than Aather.
(Players get lost. They start hearing a chorus of voices singing in a strange language. They're quite sweet but don't sound quite human. If they follow the singing, it leads them back to where they originally started, with one difference: the surrounding trees' trunks are now all scorched and blackened. If they don't follow the singing then they stay lost. The more you do this the worse off the trees get.)
+ USE TOKENS
Here.
III. LEAFY TREE (SUMMER), theme VEGETABLE
You’re in a small, low-ceilinged one-room house, somewhat like a team cabin but built of a dark shiny stone. There are plants growing all over the walls and floor and ceiling—ivy twined with some sort of black vine. Try not to trip. It’s also scorching hot; there are no windows, and the only door is the one you came through.
There is a bed, a cabinet big enough to hold a man, a wooden desk with a single drawer, and a table in the middle of the room with thirteen copper figurines arranged in a circle upon it. There's something else in the middle of the circle.
ACTIONS
+ SEARCH THE BED
It was neatly made until you started messing with it! All you find are a bundle of papers shoved under the pillow. Each of them has a single note of music on it, writ large in black ink.
+ OPEN THE CABINET
Inside it is empty, but for a single red apple.
+ EAT/EXAMINE THE APPLE
You spot a wormhole near the top of it when you pick it up. Eating it might not be a great idea.
(If you open up the apple then yes, there's a wiggly white worm in it.)
+ RIP DOWN VINES/IVY
They come free of the wall but then start twining around your arms. Oh no!
(Players can get free, they just have to struggle really hard.)
+ SEARCH THE DESK
You find . . . the skeleton of a cat in the drawer. It's bleached white, the bones hung together with copper wire. An anatomically-correct copper heart is wired within its ribcage.
(The cat can be taken apart. It's also poseable.)
+ EXAMINE THE CIRCLE
The figurines are faceless, abstract humanoids with their arms upraised. Each is about six inches high, and they are very shiny.
In the middle of the circle they form is the skeleton of a small songbird, the bones hung together with copper wire. A perfect copper feather is wired within its ribcage.
(The bird can be taken apart. It's also poseable.)
+ STICK WORM/APPLE IN MIDDLE OF FIGURES
There is a hard thump from the cabinet. (This was a hint to examine the cabinet more.)
+ MOVE THE CABINET
(It's heavy and takes a lot of effort.)
There's a door behind here. Open it?
+ OPEN DOOR
It's dark.
+ GO THROUGH DOOR
It shuts behind you and you can't find it again.
(You wander. There are no landmarks, no reference points. You start to hear a chorus of voices singing; they are sweet but not quite human. If you follow them the door eventually reappears and you can reenter the little house. It looks much the same as you left it--except now everything is covered in a fine layer of pale ash. If you don't follow the voices then you stay lost. The more you do this the thicker the ash gets.)
USE TOKENS
Here.
IV. FRUITING TREE (AUTUMN), theme MINERAL
You're in a hallway lined with floor-length mirrors, five on each side. The door you came through is inset into a wooden wall behind you; another wooden wall blocks off the opposite end of the corridor. The high ceiling is copper, with stylized suns and birds carved upon it. The floor is opaque black rock. It’s rather chilly.
ACTIONS
+ EXAMINE MIRRORS
Most of the mirrors appear to be ordinary mirrors! They reflect you into infinity even if you're a vampire (and you could swear that one of your reflections, just out of the range of your vision, is waving at you.)
Two of them--the third from the door on your left side, and the fifth from the door on your right--display a shadow figure of you, dark and indistinct at the edges, rather than a true reflection.
+ KEEP VERY STILL AND WATCH YOUR SHADOW REFLECTION
. . . after a minute, it starts to move on its own and dance a little jig. Well then.
(Otherwise it acts like a normal reflection would.)
+ TOUCH THE MIRRORS
There's a ripple in the glass between your fingers and the shadow-fingers. It feels cool and smooth and unyielding, but...perhaps if you pushed...?
+ PUSH
Your hand begins to sink through. It takes a bit of effort, but it looks like you can enter the mirror.
+ ATTACK THE MIRROR/S
Craccckkk. It shatters with a satisfying crash. Behind it is opaque black wall.
(All the ordinary mirrors could be smashed! The player can smash only one of the shadow mirrors. Behind that one they'll find a blank flat sheet of copper, the size of a playing card, with sharp edges. However, they won't be able to smash the other special mirror no matter how hard they try.
Players will also only be able to enter one of the shadow mirrors. If they enter without having broken anything, the second mirror will not be there.)
+ ENTER SHADOWMIRROR
You find yourself on a wide expanse of flat grey ground, with the mirror behind you. A harsh wind is blowing.
A huge mural has been drawn on the ground with charcoal. A few other sticks of charcoal lie near it, as though carelessly left behind by the artist.
(If players have broken hall mirrors: twenty feet away, you see the glint of another mirror.)
+ EXAMINE CHARCOAL
There are three pieces. One is hot to the touch, one is very cold, and one is lukewarm.
(HOT: you can draw new stuff on the ground. COLD: you can erase things. LUKEWARM: you can smudge things and make smudgy marks. OH NO FAIRYTALE PHOTOSHOP)
+ EXAMINE THE SECOND MIRROR
This one gives no reflection at all, but ripples when you touch it.
+ ENTER THE SECOND MIRROR
(It disappears behind you. You enter another flat grey space with no landmarks. You are lost. A chorus of voices begins to sing: they sound sweet, but not quite human, and you can't understand the words. They will lead you to another mirror door and you'll return to the mural room. The mural has changed into a flat black circle. If you choose not to follow then you stay lost etc. The more you do this the bigger the circle grows.)
USE TOKENS
Here.
V. THREE KEYS
POSSIBILITIES, MOST TO LEAST POINTS: GOLD KEY, COPPER KEY, BRASS KEY. ORDER OF KEYS DIDN'T MATTER.
+ [brass brass brass] / [brass brass copper]
The eggshells crack but do not shatter. The smoky thing lets out a high, discordant wail of pain. You abruptly find yourself back in the Ring.
+ [brass copper gold] / [brass copper copper] / [brass brass gold] / [copper copper copper]
The eggshells shatter apart, and the smoky thing collapses silently into the bowl, weaving and writhing. But it can't seem to get out... You abruptly find yourself back in the Ring.
+ [brass gold gold] / [copper copper gold] / [copper gold gold] / [gold gold gold]
The eggshells shatter and crumble, and the mirror overhead vanishes to reveal blue cloudless sky. The smoky thing darts up and out, and disappears. You feel--oddly relieved. The room fades slowly around you, until you find yourself back in the Ring.
+ [gold gold gold]
You would have gotten a favour from Firebird as well :|b
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR PLAYING AND MAKING THIS MAGICAL ♥ AND ALSO THANK YOU LLOYD MOST AMAZING CORUNNER BAW. If you want to ask more questions about the game you can do so here! I reserve the right to answer with ':)' though.
TOKEN USE
SPRING
SUMMER
AUTUMN