So... Greenwise finishes telling me about the range of awesome 'powers', which now extend to beyond simply jumping about (although I'd be ok with just doing that for a good few sessions). Now it seems there's Higher Listening, Hunter Mode and... Transformation for strings to my bow, together with more know-how about the 'fabric' and finding 'Insights'. What gets to me though is... Transformation!? I'm already looking around, instinctively spotting insects on grass stems, beetles and noticing different types of low-flying birds darting over hedgerows. He means I can become many of these fast-moving creatures or tiny, minuscule bugs? Each with survival powers of their own... "Ohhh... Mmm... Gee...!"
But then the Guardian holds my arm – more firmly this time. My suit responds to the grip. He looks intensely at me, and for a moment I think I can make out a green glow of fire, lining his already green eyes, set in his nut-brown face. The fire glints; it's a really cool effect.
"For now... keep moving. Watch the skies. Don't be taken by surprise or stay out in the open... and you'll buy time so that you can... get better."
"I'm on it..." is all I can manage. But it's true. I'm into all this. I'm well game, even.
"Summon me again when you get to the forest, but if the sun is below the horizon, I cannot come. Farewell, player... for now.... we'll play us a good game, eh?" Flashing a toothy grin and winking, he then transforms 'onto' a bird that swoops suddenly towards us; some owl of some kind. It's got these long sort of eyebrows, which make it look... wise and cool. I just watch – dumbly – as he flies off towards the Scots Pines lining the headland above the mouth of the estuary. Maybe he 'lives' round here. I'm not sure, but I thought I saw some kind of house earlier, beyond the field, when I was up in the air.
I think I could live here. It sure beats my flat. And it's nearly – or not too far – from being real. Alone again, I'm left to green dust motes drifting in the soft wind like gemstones; birdsong, the noise and the stunning sight of those far waves whispering their continual break-up onto the wide shore below this field of golden, swaying barley.
Hey... I'm free! Mind = blown. What shall I do? Where will I go?
Well, I'm never one for following a main quest path. Not when the basic tuition has finished and everything is then.... open. I always like to test things, when I'm fresh into a game; a kid in a sweetshop, or sandbox. [That's why maybe, I end up very soon after – stuck in the mud and bog by the river. You remember the place? Where I started this crazy, engrossing dream-log. Although, maybe the other reason is something that Greenwise failed to tell me, but we'll come to that soon enough...]
The only limit to all this freedom are the marks on my arm.
Tattoo marks:
ENERGY = 50%
POWER = 70%
So it appears that Focus or super-jumping or whatever is taking up a fair bit of juice. Considering I've only done three or four jumps so far; I'm wary of the expenditure.
But of course I do more. I manage to get a few more successful solo super jumps under my belt, or cloak, as I leave the corn field far behind and move up into the island. I descend, arms outstretched, landing at a point where I can see more open land, with sparse trees. I'm loving the jumping, and am feeling properly fired-up about all the powers and stuff, but I'm still worrying over everything he'd said about the survival and the sun going down.
Just then, however, out of the blue, that's kinda what happens; and I find out why Greenwise has been so shifty since I first met him hours ago. Well, it feels like hours after all the info he's pressed into me.
I suddenly have much more than I'm ready to handle on my plate. Prepared? No. (But isn't this always the way, eh? Despite a load of tutorial.)
The sky – already dim – now turns much darker. But it's not time for sleepy bye-byes folks. Not at all. It's some kind of... smoke coming over the line of trees which mark the start of a dense, imposing forest. The river runs through the open fields before it's swallowed by that forest, and my plan is to stick close to it and follow it.
But I begin to see... two black, smoking dots, like airborne insects, crawling into view above the tree-tops, through the air, in some broken attempt at flying. Then I start to make out long, impressive things they're carrying. And I've little doubt they're hunting for me...
So... I begin a bit of frantic jumping towards the river. Trouble is... I still suck at the focussing thing. I can't visualise in my head the correct balance of elements to trigger a decent jump. And I realise it's boggy – peat or something, weighing my feet down. I jump again, badly. I look up and see these flying burnt human things are... much... closer. I'm under pressure. Then I miss a stepping stone. I get stuck.
[And this is where we came in...]
Such a feeling of helplessness so early on in the grip of this world is not something I'm going to forget quickly. In fact, I'm going to do everything I can to make damn sure it doesn't happen again. Even if that means putting up with Greenwise for many more sessions.
But right now I'm doing everything I can to focus myself out of there, raising hands quickly, trying to concentrate. It's Luke Skywalker trapped upside down on planet Hoth all over again. Only I realise how hard it is to think when you're stuck and there's monsters homing in. Nearly impossible. But the mud is shifting slightly. I might just get free if I get more time.
But I don't have time. So I just stop for a second and stare. These Stokerguys are more than impressive. They're so blackened as though singed from an almighty furnace. Their thin forms move crookedly, impeded somewhat, by being airborne; at the mercy of the air; trying to get closer to the ground. They don't need to make low moaning noises as they're more than scary enough, with just the sound of their tatty clothes flapping in the wind, their stoker-sticks knocking against each other's in their attempt to descend and skewer me on one of the points. Now and then it sounds like they're trying to talk but have no tongues.
ENERGY = 10%
POWER = 30%
Without a shadow of a doubt they're going to get me. Take me off. Whatever it was Greenwise said. I whisper for the old mage anyway, but hold little hope of an appearance. I think about jacking-out, but inside the game they would still take me away; my absent avatar body. I find myself just hoping they'll get stuck too, or their lances, in this mud, but one of them just pulls it free like a giant pin out of a cushion.
We've said our prayers and now we wait for death...
But just then a torch burns and cuts through the evening gloom. It's moving. It comes through the air and lands close to me in a burst of sparks and light. It surprises these two Stokermen assigned to my 'collection', instantly into confusion. They back up, forced to drift upwards again as the sparks spread outwards from the torch in all directions. I stare stupidly at the tree-line of the forest, its dense safety and big trees more illuminated – quite near, but still so... far... and wish now I had tried the transforming thing before making this crossing. But I've no idea if any bugs or animals are nearby to transform into. But I do see, something... no... someone... emerging...
Is it Greenwise? No, it's someone else. Thinner and shabbier. But he jumps as soon as he's in the field, landing expertly on a stone near the river. He moves so fast to my rescue I promise myself that one day I will move as masterfully as he.
The two Stokermen are both readying for another stab, each raising their long, thin staffs steadily for some fatal poke at me – or us. But I never really get a good look at them, even in the torchlight. I'm like a rabbit I've seen, in some video online, tossed into a lion's cage. I cower down, hoping the sharp teeth will pass over me, so I can run for cover. But I can't even run, so I just squint towards the river, and the figure who is my only chance of a lifeline, thinking that at least, this is just a game.
I only realise later how the lifeline reaches me exactly. The stranger picks up a large stone and throws it with two hands nearby so he can jump closer, which he does swiftly after yelling at me: "Get ready to jump!" It's very muddy and the stone makes a large thud. He follows soon after, and landing easily on top of it he reaches out, clasps my arm firmly and starts to try and haul me out and up into the air. I summon the best kind of super-jump I can manage at the same time, with the result that, suddenly – I'm flung skywards, freed from the ground, soaring above the field, up through the middle of the floating figures, and can escape into a controlled, if rapid descent into the tree cover. I don't see how my rescuer manages to escape, although I assume it's via some impressive move, or backflip, as I hear a crackle of dust behind me. I think I also make out a terrible, guttural moan from one of the wraiths as I leave them fast below me... but after this I'm too busy crash-landing, heavily.
...But that's how I made it into the dark safety of the forest, standing up just to lean on a nearby tree for support.
I won't deny that just then I felt... pretty cool; a bit lucky, and... glad that you guys should get to see the full capture one day. It could be worthy of over a few hundred thousand hits. I find myself already trying to come up with a catchy title: 'The Rabbit is Freed', or something, would be more truthful, at this stage. But I feel some anger too, to be fair, at having been thrown into what feels like a golden cage right now, almost. Maybe I'll get some real answers from the stranger...
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STOKERMEN ATTACKS
Suddenly the sunshine is blocked and you realise shadows are beginning to fall across the land... These are the twisting, airborne figures of the Stokermen, seeking for new souls to gather from the game-scape...
Their strange black shapes fill the sky, looking horrifically out of place...
INTO THE HIGH TREE FOREST
Players can follow the river across a muddy plain into a dark forest.
This area involves some use of accurate, focussed jumping, as the mud is so boggy in places that a player can become embedded, especially if they don't select, with some care, harder areas or stepping stones to land on.
If they become stuck in the wetland, they will have to transform or jump with great strength to break free. They may summon Greenwise to advise them, if it's not yet dark. If still at an early stage they may even be taken by Stokermen. Staying close to the river, its creatures or hiding in water may also provide some escape.
Staying out in the open will never be recommended by Greenwise.
SECRET AREA: The Lake
This area is located down in the estuary, hidden by thick undergrowth or vegetation growing near to the shoreline, a little away from the beach.
A vision can be 'found' here, of the 'Knife, Burning', or else it can be shared by another player in, or around, the High Tree Forest.
If a player, heeding a whispered summons, manages to cross the lake (by executing accurate jump combinations), then this will 'activate' the vision, temporarily replacing visuals of immediate surroundings.
Fountellion visions can motivate a player from game fatigue with the main quest-path, and can provide some restoration of power, depending.
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