Lost Desert Plot Disc #82 (Summary in First Post)

[deadlypker]

Yellow Grarrl (he is a scarab, right?): no tatoo on any picture

No, remember in the first chpater when Tomos and Nabile stole a fruit from a stall, that Grarrl owned the stall. He was forced to work with them later.

[jojoneo]

You know I went back and read the plot yesterday and noticed the scarab tattoos. I wondered if they were always there and I just never noticed. Then I realized they were predominantly in the 1st chapter and as we all know that's a looooooooooooooooong time ago! So I let it go.

Last night I was looking at the tablet and noticed the scarab at the top. So I went through the shop wiz and bought a few scarab items. Didn't do anything so I played a bit and sold them back.

Now YOU bring it up. That makes me think. Almost like the first time we saw the symbols appear in the comic (the ones we clicked to get the prophecy). First time I saw those I wondered if they were always there or if I just missed them. Obviously they were added when TNT was ready for that plot development. Could it be the same here? Are they trying to get us focussing on scarabs?

[Pia321]

I think the yellow Graarl was a merchant.

But you got me thinking about the other scarabs- the ones that got dumped on us when we worked the prophecy out. I wonder if they had any meaning at all, if they were meant to be a link to the thief Scarabs.

There sure seem to be a lot of different things being used in this plot. Scarabs, scamanders, furniture...oi.

I'm waiting for the next chapter to see if a scamander shows up anywhere.

why I mentioned the grarrl is that in chapter 8, page 2 it says in the first frame: "Menawhile, in a quiet part of Sakhmet. Some of the Desert Scarabs are trying to come up with a plan." In that frame you see the blue techo, red zafara, Horace and the yellow grarrl.

I tabbed thru the whole comic when looking for the symbols for the tablet and nothing more was clickable. Now when I tab thru I can only tab thru the first pages of the comics... not the second, third and fourh. this is for all the chapters. Dont know if it is my computer or what.

EDIT: there are scarabs on the bottom of the comics as well as on the tablet.... In the Neopedia artickle of the desert Scarabs it says they have the tatoo on their upper arm, not which one, and there is a picture of Tomos, Nabile (with a ripped shirt where her tatoo is) both with tatoos on their left arm and Horace with a tatoo on his right arm.... thinking of buying some scarab items...

[Noteka2015]

I just noticed the obvious: Nabile is copying the symbols from the first pillar in the exact order they are. She added the Set (pillar) symbol at the beginning of the first line, then Ra (sun) at the end.

AAAAH! Epiphany! Set and Ra are both symbols from the Astral library. What if the three pillars Nabile is trying to translate are connected to the three library doors?


Okay, I've gone into the temple and read the Set scroll. It kicked me out as usual, but once the lockout time is done I'll go back and read the Ra scroll.

Can someone try going into their Astral library and just reading the scrolls in the order they're laid out?

[IanB]

I just noticed the obvious: Nabile is copying the symbols from the first pillar in the exact order they are. She added the Set (pillar) symbol at the beginning of the first line, then Ra (sun) at the end.

What she actually added at the beginning is "Set=" as though she is translating the Set symbol to something else, this is one of the reasons why I think we have to translate the tablet and get a new phrase.

There are lots of other reasons. We have got one translation when we completed the tablet which resulted in being covered in scarabs. Why? Why does the fortune teller say we should re-examine the tablet? What was the point in saying the translation at the statue? It achieved absolutely nothing.

Maybe the clue will be in the next chapter but I can't see any point in sitting around waiting for that, or the next phase of interior decorating (where's the puzzle in shifting furniture?) when it might be staring us in the face right now.

Does anyone have any ideas? Seen anything that might be attributing words/phrases/letters to the different symbols? If so, please share.

As a starter, what about the pop-up phrase that appears in the comic at the boxes where the concealed symbols are?

[Noteka2015]

As a starter, what about the pop-up phrase that appears in the comic at the boxes where the concealed symbols are?

How do you mean? The actual text of the comic?

See I don't think we've got enough information to translate anything yet, but maybe I'm wrong. It's just that Nabile seems to pull Set and Ra out of nowhere- so how are we expected to work out the rest?

I don't know. Part of the tablets she is translating are obscured anyway- I think that means we aren't expected to literally translate anything- just to connect the tablets with something we've seen before.

[Pia321]

There are lots of other reasons. We have got one translation when we completed the tablet which resulted in being covered in scarabs. Why? Why does the fortune teller say we should re-examine the tablet? What was the point in saying the translation at the statue? It achieved absolutely nothing.

I agree! That has got me wondering alot lately. There are no reason to tell the statue the translation. You get the avie before you have to tell the statue anything and you only get covered in scarabs? I thought maybe you would be part of the scarabs team in the war? but maybe there is something else we should tell the statue... re-translate the tablet?

But then how do we do that? It was actually simple with the last translation: the symbols in the comic became clickable and you just clicked them in the order of your tablet.

Now when you click on the symbols the pop-up window comes up. No matter which one you click first. And we dont know what to translate the symbols into? letters? I know ppl have tried to use anagrams and come up with words, but some ppl have the same symbol three times in a row? The symbols cant correspond to letters because there are no words with 3 letters in a row.

I have alos tried to go to the doors on my tablet. Just using the riddle infront of my temple (yellow oval doors) and going to the doors in the same order as on my tablet. I only got to 5 or something because I got bored I guess, but you get the trap every time.... Maybe going to all the doors (like we did to find the statue) in the same order as on the tablet will shuffle the tablet into somethingelse?

Edit: maybe the thieves who stole the furniture was the scarabs?

[IanB]

but maybe there is something else we should tell the statue... re-translate the tablet?

That's my guess

But then how do we do that? It was actually simple with the last translation: the symbols in the comic became clickable and you just clicked them in the order of your tablet.

Yes it was simple, but someone said this plot was going to be harder, perhaps this is one of the harder parts. There's absolutely nothing hard about shifting furniture!

but some ppl have the same symbol three times in a row? The symbols cant correspond to letters because there are no words with 3 letters in a row.

There can if you run the words together, "seeemilyplay' has 3 but it makes sense doesn't it? It's also possible if they were 2 on one row and 1 on another, if the tablet translates into 1 word per row.

Maybe going to all the doors (like we did to find the statue) in the same order as on the tablet will shuffle the tablet into somethingelse?

There's all sort of possibilities in the temple (sadly I'm locked out right now!), for example extra rooms (an armoury?), or something that can be done in the libraries (my current favourite as that's where Nabile seems to be)

Hey! I just won 10000nps on the wheel of excitement which also got me an avi! Sorry mods, totally off topic but never had it happen before!

[Pia321]

I have to go now. I tried the library since I wont be online for 12 hours. I went to the library with the scroll according to the first symbol on my tablet and got the normal "reads the scroll" (not understanding it).

Good luck to you all!

Edit: yes, I believe there are something with the library and maybe there are new rooms, I searched my temple a week ago and there was no new rooms then... but maybe now?

Looking forward to see what you find out when I come back. Hopefully tomorrow....

Edit: I cant seem to leave...this is addictive!
Just one last thought: to enter the temple again after telling the statue the prophesy you had to give her a wrong one! this also doesnt seem right... You should think the goal with the statue was something else....

and I think that this plot is divided into two: moving things and figuring the plot out. You dont have to complete the tablet to get into the repository, just find the statue and read the right scroll. Hopefully the next step of moving scrolls will depend on your pets intelligence my pet has an iq of 404. Not the top but far from the bottom

Good bye for the last time...

[IanB]

I have to go now. I tried the library since I wont be online for 12 hours. I went to the library with the scroll according to the first symbol on my tablet and got the normal "reads the scroll" (not understanding it).

Yes, but it also says something like "gains a little insight" - what does that mean?

[bumpty85]

you know, i just won 10000NP on excitement today too. maybe it's a way to say our work didn't go unappreciated

[supRNurs]

I have to go now. I tried the library since I wont be online for 12 hours. I went to the library with the scroll according to the first symbol on my tablet and got the normal "reads the scroll" (not understanding it).

Yes, but it also says something like "gains a little insight" - what does that mean?

Dictionary.com defines insight as:

The capacity to discern the true nature of a situation; penetration.
The act or outcome of grasping the inward or hidden nature of things or of perceiving in an intuitive manner.

so, you gain a little bit of that.

It defines understood as:

To perceive and comprehend the nature and significance of; grasp.
To know thoroughly by close contact or long experience with.
To grasp or comprehend the meaning intended or expressed by (another)
To comprehend the language, sounds, form, or symbols of.

And a few others.

For those interested in the last frame of Chapter 10 in the comic, we discussed it in split 79. It seems Nabile is attempting to translate the glyphs she sees on the tablets into the glyphs from our tablets. I isolated the glyphs from the comic:

<img src="http://www.filehigh.com/serve/6219/45604.jpg" border="0" />

It seems she has translated set and ra for us. I can't tell if set = the first two symbols from the first row of the first tablet or only the first and if ra = the last two symbols on the first row of the tablet or only the last one. At any rate, some of the other glyphs seemed like obvious equivalents to our tablet glyphs. However, I couldn't figure out an equivalent for all of them.

Edit: I can't figure out why my image tag isn't working

Last edited by supRNurs on Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[sn00t]

I've also done alot of looking into variable translations of the tablet and haven't come up with anything.

I've anagrammed the current prophecy, attempted to do a symbol->letter decodification, even tried to use the parchment puzzler avvie as a template for decodification. All to no avail, of course.

I wonder if the fact that one needn't have completed the tablet in order to follow the plot thus far is key to the fact that the fortune teller's statement regarding the tablet has remained. In other words, maybe her statement is directed towards those who have not yet completed the tablet, not toward people who have.

But then, how does completing the tablet help? The teller states that examining the tablet will help "figure something else out". Completing the tablet has helped us do nothing but get the avatar and get scarabbed. What are we missing?

[Noteka2015]

I wonder if the fact that one needn't have completed the tablet in order to follow the plot thus far is key to the fact that the fortune teller's statement regarding the tablet has remained. In other words, maybe her statement is directed towards those who have not yet completed the tablet, not toward people who have.

How so? One had to complete the tablet to get the prophecy to tell it to the statue to be able to access the Repository. Right?

Or was the only thing necessary to access the rep reading the scroll with the symbol from under the statue?

If it's the latter I spent two days getting my tablet completed for no reason. I thought I needed it to get to the Rep.

[IanB]

Yes, but it also says something like "gains a little insight" - what does that mean?
Dictionary.com defines insight as:
The capacity to discern the true nature of a situation; penetration.
The act or outcome of grasping the inward or hidden nature of things or of perceiving in an intuitive manner.

so, you gain a little bit of that.

Thank you. I do understand the definition of these words but I can see that my "what does that mean?" was open to misinterpretation, sorry. What I really meant was - exactly what "insight" are we getting from 'reading the wrong scroll'? None that I can see, so why put it there? Perhaps to mislead (although goodness knows we don't need any more of that!) or perhaps as a clue that something actually is happening?
Just a thought.

Ian

Edit:

How so? One had to complete the tablet to get the prophecy to tell it to the statue to be able to access the Repository. Right?

Or was the only thing necessary to access the rep reading the scroll with the symbol from under the statue?

If it's the latter I spent two days getting my tablet completed for no reason. I thought I needed it to get to the Rep.

I have certainly seen posts here from people who have accessed the repo without completing their tablet so it isn't that. Was it needed to get the passcode to the repo(?), I have no idea - I believe that the list was obtained from the code and I don't know anyone who actually got the code from the game by "legitimate" means (I don't even know how the codes should really have been obtained!), so perhaps there was something there from completing it?

JasEdit: Do not double post. If you were the last to post and you want to add more, please use the "edit" button in the top right of each of your posts. Thank you.