Ok_loop

There is something really fun about watching the characters learn the dungeon, go into shops, get concerned about skills and training and quests, all the MMORPG tropes feel really quaint and a pleasure to read about.

!This is slowly faded out in the writing and by the time we get to Parade of Horribles it’s almost completely gone.!<

!I understand why, as the scope of the book increases so does the character’s concerns and focus and it makes sense that we lose “resolution” on the small scale. But I realise I miss it, it’s a lot of fun reading about the small game-like details.!<

!I hope Ascendancy Wars has a return to the details in some way.!<

!The lore drop that Sydnee gives was pretty epic, there was references to ancient lore and a poem (or poems?), but one aspect that I found really compelling when when she revealed that Scolo’s attacks each have names, and then she started saying the titles of the books in backwards order.!<

!I looked over at my bookshelf and read the titles backwards and had a real “what the fuck” moment!< >!😂😂!<

!I don’t know how to parse this info, I’ve been kicking around a few theories:!<

!- Carl himself will be the name of final attack. Maybe as a primal he can merge or meld with scolo or the AI?!<

!- Is the final attack total control of the entire real universe?!<

!- The first attack

When Carl first hears the AI, it says that the Crawl was “Option 3”. What were the first two options?!

Secondly, the AI says that “additional rules” will come into play if and when Crawlers reach the tenth floor. I don’t recall any additional rules?

This fucking scenario man. Three goes and it all came down to a final +2 pull on my very last turn. Victory at last but man it was rough.

RNG gods hated me, there were ten curses in the monster deck that I just kept missing.

I played on Level 3 and having my allies all be on level 1 really sucked. It felt like I needed to have power ballad out the whole time just to have some hope of getting damage past the shields.

I will say, I felt like a genius using the push card to move archers into their own traps, that was cool. But I did not enjoy the shaman healing that stupid golem 😂😂

Fun scenario but absolutely brutal difficulty. I think playing solo is at least twice as hard as with group

I was really looking forward to a scene where Grace introduces Rocky to human music, I thought this could have been woven in so beautifully and Andy was building it up with constant references to the vast archive on HM and the Beatles references ect…but the moment never came.

Philip K Dick’s post-humous book “The Owl in the Daylight” talks about the idea of a human heaven is often seeing lights…but what if there was a being who viewed heaven has the human world of music? It’s a wonderful thought that I was expecting to be explored here, and Rocky would have made the perfect vessel for this exploration.

Maybe the movie will play with this idea?

Wow. What a ride. I feel like I’ve just come out of a two week daze. I didn’t know anything about this book except that it was highly recommended, and it felt breathtaking to read. I loved every single page.

Below are just my ramblings for posterity sake, not sure if this will be of interest to anyone reading. I do recognise it's been a quarter of a century since this book was published and I’m sure everything important has already been said.

I’ve been reflecting on the narrative layers and I find them really astounding: We are reading a dissertation on an in-universe film that may or may or not exist, containing real and fake references to real and fake people, which is summarised and

Is anyone tracking which puzzles in the game have genuine multiple solutions? It seems to be a theme almost.

The ones I know of:

• !Chess Puzzle!<

• !Tomb Puzzle / Angle order!<

• !Microchips in multiple places!<

• !Multiple Admin Keys!<

I’ve often wondered about >!8 realms in 8 months!< map and if there is another solution there.

As the title says, I think I'm fairly late game but I have no idea what to do next. Ive:

• !Ascended the throne room!<

• !Bought and read a big handful of Blue Tents Notes!<

• !Completed the Tunnel parlor game!<

...and now after like 90 hours I am at a real loss as to what to do next. Some questions that remain which I might need a nudge to pursue:

• !Numeric Cores...? I read the note but don't know how they really work or where to find / use them!<

• !A New Clue and the manuscript had a lot of information I know I didn't understand. The references to the signs and the obvious train station puzzle...I have no idea how to use that information to do anything!<

• !Dare Mode &

…the cut scenes from the Rumpus room again? I feel like I missed a lot with the first few.