Endgame

SP: 18 and immune to all elements is good enough for ~1350 gold.

"No need to call me that, Althior. Anyway, lets investigate the caped folk at the South Gate."

Not banned per se, it was just a one of kind drop from a Christmas Event.

"I have no idea. From what I gather, Vorpalis isn't like any other dragon, and neither was his brother. They're old. Like, really old. Propoganda from Mermont is calling Vorpalis "The Conqueror" - apparently he's been around since Mercution was whole and complete, perhaps even before then. Apparently he's the one who conquered this land originally, before all hell broke loose and we had to sink half of the continent - before Moone was even Moone. He's engrained in this place's history, deeper than I originally thought..." "We mustn't forget that, according to Lind - Vorpalis can also ignite the fog and make it explode. I have no idea of how he ever acquired it, though..."

Sandy, the crystal titan has about 4000 health less then it should, no? Does every gem give it plus 10 HP or plus 100?

Lucy and Sputnik shift uncomfortably near the vending machines, saying only what they need to. "Take a left and walk up the stone steps." "Seven in total."

I walk out the door, dissapointed. "It seems even some negative attitudes persist post-mortem."

"Wait a moment." I turn around, facing the shopkeeper. "Excuse me, Miss... I don't suppose you need anything done? We have a very sick girl who we think could use a product rom this store, and if you need some work carried out, we'd be happy to do it."

"Marlow. He's a loyal follower of Faust. Vorpalis wants to kill that demographic. Therefore, Marlow would attract Vorpalis's presence, and that'd be bad for me. Ergo, dragon magnet." Sputnik shrugs.

Content with leaving the little rodent to his business, I head into the store, and begin browsing their wares.

QM Note: Sandman said as much early on in the quest and in the hall, I believe. "They're not Heroes of Heroica, Lind, although you'e free to loot their corpses if you wish." Sandman shrugs. "Is it really smart to go through the forests and Algon, instead of just passing straight through one to Mermont?" "Marlow lives near the Cathedral and was very devout, so he was there often... and I believe Merlay lives in Mermont - she might be there." "Marlow is currently decorating the walls of the Cathedral, thanks to Vorpalis and Lind's smooth talking." Sputnik winces. "Ech. I was there, at the cathedral, you know - and as soon as I realized that Vorpalis was trying to kill any loyalists to Faust's, I left that place quick. I'd rather sleep outside here then in a building with a dragon magnet, you know?"

You can take their ashes back, since the lightning bolt probably incinerated them.

I thought I was doing an okay job of hosting 138. Until that puzzle.

"I'm not using the hotpsring water, its just the same principle." "We've known there was another group since the beginning." "On the outskirts of Mermont. Vorpalis must've placed a bounty on their heads or something; hopefully the same doesn't happen to you." QM Note: ...I'm an idiot. This is why you don't QM on three hours of sleep, folks. I'm not going to punish you for my mistake, so we're gonna move this along. If anyone wants to actually solve a puzzle, just PM me and I'll remix the colors so you can actually solve something. The contraption bursts to life and, and true to its name, puffs out a cloud of remedial smoke. "That... Shouldn't have... Worked... Uh, anyway. Thanks for the "percussive maitenance." Puffy is good to go."

Not for sale in Moone, unfortunately...

QM Note: You fell asleep at around midnight, and woke up roughly six hours later. "Hope you've brushed up on the next year or two's advancements, because things have changed pretty radically." And indeed, Lind could recognize very little of the complicated device... He would be unable to help repairing the main unit. "I'm not doing this for Yukumo." "Yeah, real nice, thanks. Let us get torn apart by the dragon." "N-no, that isn't... Look, I'm not even from Yukumo. I'm doing this for all of Moone. I'm not exactly too thrilled with Faust's rule - supposedly he's been Moone's one and only king, since the start - but I don't like seeing innocents die. So when Vorpalis conquered Mermont and started razing the farmlands, I ran from my forest workshop and ran here... And I noticed that the fog here was thinner, a lot thinner. And I think it's because of the steam from the hot spring, it kind of pushes Vorpalis's fog away, or waters it down, maybe. I can't fully tell. So, using a little metalwork and alchemy, I made a machine that sends out clouds of remedial steam, to counteract the fog. I call it Puffy. And it worked. 'Til the first adventurers came here, took it, and got killed down the line. A search party went out where the lightning struck, and sure enough... The found the bodies of the first group, and a crushed up Puffy. They brought it back to me, and I've been working on repairing it since. It got dinged up bad. I'm almost done - If I can pawn some grunt work off on you, though, just to speed up the process, that would be great." Fixing Puffy: -The panel is an eight by eight grid, with sixteen black tiles lying outside of it. Eight horizontal black tiles, eight vertical. The white tile doesn't do anything. -Each black tile contains a fuse of a primary color. We're going by primary colors of pigments, not light, so it's gonna be red, blue, or yellow. -The remaining fuses here are secondary colors. -Secondary colors on the grid are created when two primary colors from the black tiles intersect. Imagine each black tile on the top draws an imaginary line down, and the ones on the left an imaginary line to the right. Where these two lines intersect is where the corresponding fuse is. -Purple fuses are created from blue and red. -Orange fuses are created from red and yellow. -Green fuses are created from from blue and yellow. -Using the remaining fuses on the grey tiles, you must deduce the colors of all the fuses on the black tiles. -Don't forget that the fuses on the black tiles are only primary colors. No exceptions. "Easy enough, right? If you complete this, I should have the main unti up and running pretty soon... We can combine our efforts and get this thing running again." "Question. About... What this "Puffy" does. I get that it disperses the fog. But say someone is already under the fog's affects. Will it cure them?" "...I honestly can't say." "Hm. Well, we better get to work."

QM Note: I have to go for about 2-3 hours, so you'll get a proper update then, but it is currently morning (approx. 6-7 AM), overcast skies, with a 33% of precipitation.

"More Octoraiders?"

Or it could be neither.

"You look... disturbed." "...Do I know you? Anyway, it's meant to disperse the fog..." Lind checks the vending machines. Grand Potion (Restores 25 health to the target.) Costs 10 gold. *8 in stock!* Grand Tonic (Restores 15 ether to the target.) Costs 30 gold. *8 in stock!* Remedy (Removes all negative effects from the target.) Costs 10 gold. *8 in stock!*

I would encourage you to download paint.net, because it's A) Free and B) If you can pull off stuff like that in Word, I'd love to see what you can do with a bigger set of tools.

Considering that paint.net is pretty much photoshop by a different name, yes. Seriously, though, using MS Word must be excruciating, no?

Does MS word let you simulate SPACE-CLOTH? (Whether or not it is cloth from space or cloth made out of space is debatable.)

On today's episode of "Endgame gets slightly less terrible at Paint.net and learns the invert selection tool..." Just a little teaser.

"Donating to the pantry isn't an option, but if you want to head through the Commoner's Quarter after, I'm sure some poor soul would accept a bite to eat." "Moon elves just... aren't that plentiful anymore. Most are in Mermont, I think, or have already fled or been killed..." Lucy grimly leads the party to the hotsprings. Fog clouds the heroes eyes as they approach the location... It wasn't as serene as Eschaton, but it was certainly an attraction worth visiting. The water was steamy and inviting, pouring out from stone pyramids craved from a rock wall. Tiny geysers spray out, creating tiny rainbows as light passes through. A small pebble beach led into the waters. On a sunny day or a moonlit night, the water would be beautiful, but he effect was quite dampened by the foggy weather and dreary sky... "Yukumo's pride and joy. We have other, smaller hot springs for... more "romantic" purposes." Meanwhile, a man in front of the vending machines was furiously working on some sort of odd device. "Work, damn you!..."