Lost Desert Plot Discussion #127 (Summary in First Post)

[Confused, lost & help]

I finally got hold of my second useless crystal and now I can't get the light in the model room. I've been checking it every hour since about 11 this morning and its now 4.30 in the afternoon. Come back light!!! PPPPLLLLEEEAAAASSSSEEEE. Tell me I haven't wasted the last few weeks of my life on a mission I can't complete/

[Archimedes]

It felt like the terms of the curse changed in this plot almost as often as the foreman changed jobs!

Here here ... more often actually

First it was 'has to marry a princess'

then 'when true love unites'

and finally 'has to marry a Qasalan princess'

And I think one that I missed

[TopsyTourny]

I finally got hold of my second useless crystal and now I can't get the light in the model room. I've been checking it every hour since about 11 this morning and its now 4.30 in the afternoon. Come back light!!! PPPPLLLLEEEAAAASSSSEEEE. Tell me I haven't wasted the last few weeks of my life on a mission I can't complete/

Your light comes on at the same time every day. So if it came on at 11am for your first crystal, it will be on at the same time for all crystals. Plus at 8 hour increments.

[IanB]

Lets not forget what to do with this mysterious scroll!!

Plus...

Who is megan?

What of the sceptre of qasala?

Did the foreman ever find his boxes of food??

Plus we haven't really done much with the scrolls in the temple (but at 12 hours a knock I'm not risking it again - I got caught like that last time ) . And why were they in 3 different rooms (is there a significance to the groupings?)? And why those diagrams on the scroll room doors (maybe they just had to put *something* on them).

[Confused, lost & help]

I finally got hold of my second useless crystal and now I can't get the light in the model room. I've been checking it every hour since about 11 this morning and its now 4.30 in the afternoon. Come back light!!! PPPPLLLLEEEAAAASSSSEEEE. Tell me I haven't wasted the last few weeks of my life on a mission I can't complete/

Your light comes on at the same time every day. So if it came on at 11am for your first crystal, it will be on at the same time for all crystals. Plus at 8 hour increments.

It was on at this time yesterday. Oh well. Maybe its just trying to give me a nervous breakdown. I shall just sit here and keep pressing refresh like a woman posessed as I have been doing all day today.

[anjuna]

In the sarcastic words of the comic-loving character on The Simpsons:

"Werst ending eveeeeer."

I assume if it were really the end, there would be some indication of that by TNT and either nothing or one last thing for us to do (did you automatically get points in the Mystery Island plot just for finishing, or did you have to also persue claiming your own prizes)? On the other hand, if there IS more to do and Darkest Faerie is 4 days away, and TNT won't give us a nudge, then maybe it really IS over. And the ending just plain sucks. Or maybe TNT is being kind not to cut this plot short and instead will "sort of end it" to release Darkest Faerie, then use those "puzzles" after plot end to extend the adventure? That would be nicer than a hasty halt.

Perhaps the lesson here is that life is not always like a faerie tale.

Having said that, I am still in disbelief, and agree that the curse does NOT seem overturned, the zombies are obviously not "disappeared" (we don't even know exactly what Kingdom(s) Nabile and Jazan are rebuilding). Nabile indeed looks "culture-shocked" and paranoid of the food being offered to her. I also agree that even in a faerie tale land, there is no such thing as "true love just because you read someone's thousand-year-old history in an ancient tomb and feel sorry for him. That is pity; not true love. Poor Tomos has been rejected, and I suspect jealous of Jazan since he either wanted Nabile for himself, or just always expected them to be side-by-side friends. Maybe the war is yet to come, and Tomos will start it.



EDIT: It's almost as if the comic is saying "...and Jazan and Nabile lived happily ever after..." whist forgetting all the other characters in the story. I mean, aren't Tomos and many others still in the Sakhmet palace hiding out underground, so to speak? I saw camels and gifts but no Scorchio following Jazan and Nabile to Qasala. Personally, I think Nabile made a hasty decision to break a curse. And I don't believe she truly loves Jazan. I think she "unconditionally" loves him in a more universal way, perhaps. As in she has no reason to hate him, but has sympathetic mercy in her heart. Noble, indeed, but not true love.

Last edited by anjuna on Fri Nov 11, 2005 5:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Archimedes]

It was on at this time yesterday. Oh well. Maybe its just trying to give me a nervous breakdown. I shall just sit here and keep pressing refresh like a woman posessed as I have been doing all day today.

Hang in there. I know it's extremely frustrating at times. Btw I think you know but just in case - you only need to refresh once during each hour, so you can do something else and just check up on it. No need to constantly refresh.

Edit: Just re-read your first post. Oops.

[background_noise]

I just haven't got my message about sharp eye yet and I've ran around the scroll repository in the exact order that was stated on my tablet and lights...

I'm really sorry to hear that. Only other things I can suggest are: going back to see the Fortune Teller and getting out of the repository and going back in and starting over. If you have another live body who is willing to sit with you, have them watch while you work. It sometimes helps to have a second pair of eyes watching while you search, especially with a task as big as the scroll search. Good hunting!

[mercurius]

Did anyone say the rest of their prophecy to the faerie statue yet? This is after showing her the mysterious scroll obtained after 4th crystal.

The fortune teller listens as you tell her the tale of finding the mystery scroll in the map room of the scroll repository. "Amazing! No wonder those architects were so tight-lipped about what they were building. Let met take a look at that scroll." You hand it to her. "Hmm... yes... I see... Ah ha! Of course! This is in an ancient dialect of Sakhmetian, and I think I recognize it. I believe it says... well, there's a lot of nonsense up front, but finally it says, 'The curse of Jazan will make Sakhmet disappear,' which is an awful lot like that prophecy you found before. But then it continues: 'Jazan must marry a true princess of Qasala to break the curse.' That explains why he wanted to marry Amira, but... she's not a Qasalan princess. Is she?" The fortune teller looks confused. "I wonder how we'll pull that off." She hands the scroll back to you.

edit: This is what my Fortune Teller said, it may be different for each person.

[supRNurs]

But what if neera was half qusalan! she would be a quasalan princess and her daughters amd granddaughter on and on would be as well... well diluted, yes, but still having royal blood.

I just have to add another "what if" to that list y'all were making:
And what if the fortune teller is simply an idiot (she's told us before she is not a professor of ancient languages) that gets the symbols for Qasala and Sakhmet confused?

i'm also questioning why tomos is considered a hero in the story. also, why did he yell at nabile not to marry him? and aren't those mummies considered monsters? is that what qasalan ppl really look like?

Tomos found the Ring of Lost, which took he and Nabile to Sakhmet. Most likely, he yelled at Nabile not to marry Jazan because he still sees Jazan as evil and not "good underneath the curse" as Nabile does.
The monsters that disappeared, in my opinion, were the ones that Jazan created (ie. Scordax.) The curse that was lifted was also the one that Jazan created on the city of Sakhmet, hence the comic tells us that the city of Sakhmet returned to the living (NOT Qasala.)
The "mummies" from Qasala appear to remain cursed, perhaps because the curse on Qasala and Jazan has NOT been lifted. The comic never told us the ring (Royal Wedding Ring, IMHO) would lift a curse all by itself. It simply said the ring would HELP to lift a curse.

Edit:

Did anyone say the rest of their prophecy to the faerie statue yet? This is after showing her the mysterious scroll obtained after 4th crystal.
<snip fortune teller quote>

Yes, several of us have tried the phrase from the tablet (each person's was different), and the fortune teller's new translations, "The curse of Jazan will make Sakhmet disappear," and "Jazan must marry a true princess of Qasala to break the curse." in every permutation we could come up with. I have also tried exchanging "Sakhmet" for "Qasala" and vice versa.

Last edited by supRNurs on Fri Nov 11, 2005 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Kess]

In my own personl, private version of the story, the story of princess neera being exiled for marrying a peasant was just a cover story made to protect the reputations of the ruling desert families, who were all interbred anyway.

"Princess Neera" the ancestor of our protagonist Ixi, was actually a powerful necromancer. Jazan's family exiled her. She's still around, because she's undead, disguised as a mummy of course. "The curse" was part of her centuries-old plan for revenge on Jazan and his kin. She covertly guided and manipulated Tomas and Nabile's little tour of the Quasala ruins so that Nabile would feel sympathy for the evil Jazan, and marry him. That would end the curse and make him mortal again. Then Neera could kill Jazan in his sleep and Nabile, her own granddaughter, would rule the evil city of Qasala and all the undead minions there.

The big dragon is just a global-sized RE, and has nothing to do with the plot.:

"Something has happened! A gigantic two headed scorchio flies by and strafes your city with fire! Hope you are having fun!"

The sceptre of Qasala is the murder weapon. "I accuse Princess Neela, in the repository, with the candlestick, uh I mean with the sceptre of Qasala."

Megan is Adam's cousin and he had to give her a mention in the plot because he lost a thumb-wrestling match to her back at christmas.

The foreman actually recieved the boxes of food, but substituted sawdust for all his ingredients, because mummies don't know any better. He was stealing the boxes of food and selling them on the black market, along with all the library furniture he conspired to steal. He's a bad, bad, yurble. He blugeoned you, remember?

Anyway, that's my take on the "real" behind the scenes plot.

Oh and your mysterious scroll? It's neohome furniture. It's actually one of things that you hang a roll of toilet tissue from.

[anjuna]

And, didn't Nabile have *any* idea what she would be getting herself into?

I mean what did she think? It would be all peaches and cream after she *said* she loves Jazan? She didn't think too far ahead here, about potentially ruling a Qasalan kingdom of mummies and zombies.

Also, I remember something about Qasala is not the only thing that will live again, after "the" curse is broken. I agree it seems like Sakhmet is almost "fine" now, but Qasala still seems very cursed, if there are still undead roaming around (and where is that darn Scorchio?). I think Nabile looks confused, because this is not what she was expecting either. I think she realizes she made a mistake and Jazan's curse has not been lifted?

EDIT: Jazan doesn't look any less wicked to me, and zooming in on the last frame, it almost appears Nabile is *refusing* food. Now why is that? (Her head is to the side, and her hand is up as if to say "No, thank you.")

[supRNurs]

Plus we haven't really done much with the scrolls in the temple (but at 12 hours a knock I'm not risking it again - I got caught like that last time ) . And why were they in 3 different rooms (is there a significance to the groupings?)? And why those diagrams on the scroll room doors (maybe they just had to put *something* on them).

The scrolls were arranged in the three different libraries to enable us to find them. The significance in the grouping can be found in the scrolls' descriptions, which are riddles pointing to the diagrams on the scroll room doors. Of course, had they wanted to come up with more riddles, they could have placed 3 scrolls each in 4 libraries, or 2 each in 6....

Edit: Kess -

[Kess]

Nabile looks so uncomfortable in that last frame because she is afraid that she will be frozen for being involved in a marriage between two pets. One trip to the lab ray and we could have a riot on our hands.

[Trick]

Nabile looks so uncomfortable in that last frame because she is afraid that she will be frozen for being involved in a marriage between two pets. One trip to the lab ray and we could have a riot on our hands.

Hee, it's funny 'cause it's true xD