puckintheisles

[puckintheisles]

9: finally meeting that goofy guy

It's an impressive castle, at least.

Puck gets a seated ovation. How omnipotent is this Prince/God/Otherwise Leadership Figure? Does he know about the murder? Is it murder if the guard behind him didn't care? Either way, he sets off into the sort of conversation Puck's really started getting used to.

Great. Useful. After a long-winded explanation that Puck is in charge of saving the realm, which quite honestly seems like a real chore that he doesn't really want to do but feels kinda obligated to because once again he has read too many fantasy novels to question it, he tells Puck to go to Xedillian and hands him a handy reference book to go over on his way. Apparently it is used to "deal with" the unworthy treasure hunters mucking around the place.

All these morally questionable acts aside, Hirrus' house had both a cool magic ring and a sick new outfit. check out that dementia drip

[puckintheisles]

8: puck kills a man in cold blood (he asked nicely)

Crucible proves to be an interesting place. Puck manages to find an inn for the night before he has to go meet Sheogorath, because the odds of him needing to be fully rested and alert seem pretty high by this point. The innkeeper is very sick and tells them to find a cure for her, which gets added to the ever-growing to-do list.

After paying 20 septims for a room he explores the city for a bit. A stranger demands that he meet him by this sewer grate after dark, and they decide against standing around in the mysterious brown water.

Uh... huh. They hear him out. Well, under normal circumstances, there is plenty of advice to give here, but this whole realm seems pretty messed up. Looks like Puck's out to kill yet another man, this time in cold blood. He at least agrees to do it in a way that seems accidental.

The bedroom at the inn is very nice, actually. They get a full night of rest before heading out towards that castle. But on the way, a familiar face is standing suspiciously close to a very high ledge.

Puck grabs his keys at the bottom then heads inside to go meet this madgod. They can get that reward later.

[puckintheisles]

welcome to the shivering isles: pinned post edition

in my sims 2 gameplay on @plumbogs, I somehow fucked up and sent Puck Summerdream (and Juliette Capp) into the nether, and I felt bad just letting their story end there. So after thinking on what silly thing I could do to explain their absence, Puck is now in the Shivering Isles. yay.

you can read the gameplay in order (on desktop, because tumblr mobile sucks). i have a queue that should post up to 4 times a day but it's rarely going to be filled because i play very slowly.

the game is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, specifically the Shivering Isles expansion. the blog assumes you have a basic knowledge of the game and dialogue, but if you need to follow along there's the UESP wiki's articles on the main quest plus a number of playthroughs on Youtube with the dialogue included.

fair warning if you're unfamiliar, but since it's a game from 2006 about madness/insanity/etc it's full of topics such as suicide, mental illness, whatnot done in the era-typical insensitive way. reader discretion is advised

[puckintheisles]

7: sprint through the swamp

Dementia is exactly as it was described. Constant rain and swampland, plus a lot of creatures and some robed dudes that still want to kill him. He decides against risking getting hit with knives and large axes and just runs away to hide. Eventually, he loses the combatants.

The swamps almost have a sort of charm to them, honestly. Even if they're creepy and smell bad. The road's a bit less twisted this way, though. Puck learns that it's a lot easier to use a bow if he's sneaking, and that if he's quick enough the focus from not actively being attacked makes his shot a lot more effective. It feels pretty cruel to attack first, but at this point he's just gotta survive.

Is that a city in the distance? Puck breathes a sigh of relief. Still not as confident as they could be, they cautiously approach. It could be full of more robed ax-wielding foes.

The blue humanoid standing guard is not only nonviolent, but actually can answer some of his questions. They reached New Sheoth! This is where that Mad God guy lives, and if anyone has the power to get him back home it should be him.

[puckintheisles]

6: All We Do Is Go In Circles

It's barely an hour into the journey before Puck starts to get a little lost. And then he gets attacked by a tree. A tree-creature. Really, he isn't sure. He manages to slay it. He keeps a strip of the bark just in case it's somehow useful. They're really getting the hang of self-defense. Unfortunately, self-defense requires being attacked first.

A climb to the top of this rock provides a decent view of the landscape. They do have a map but are thoroughly lost. He can see some kind of wall or building in the distance and decides to head towards it, but not before fighting off another tree thing.

He found the road again! He followed it and... hey, this place is familiar. They got turned around in the journey, back to the gates. Judging by the map, the Dementia route is a bit more straightforward, so he decides to brave that one instead even if it sounds a bit gloomier. All these bright colors are actually disorienting.

oh. yeah. that's gloomy.

[puckintheisles]

5: a place to sleep?

Well, it serves as a very interesting landscape. Puck adventures through giant mushroom forests under roots in a sunny fantasy landscape. Maybe it isn't too bad.

It starts getting pretty dark and there's not a lot of civilization around. They neglected to find any kind of camping situation and can't just sleep on the plain ground, but a side path leads to what looks like a building. Maybe someone lives there and can offer up a room?

He ventures closer. There's bedrolls all over, some food lying around, and clearly someone lives here. It doesn't feel right to just start sleeping, so he decides to seek out some kind of human (or otherwise sapient being) to try to talk to.

He found a man that attacked him on sight. As much as they didn't want to actually kill a human (or human-adjacent being, because they really aren't sure what's going on here), he was faced off with some horrible summoned creature and a crazed robed dude running at him with an axe. And it hurt. He had to grab his knife and start slashing. With the only living thing in the area vanquished, he gave into an uneasy and not-quite-fulfilling sleep. Plus he nabbed a fair amount of the food sitting around.

He woke up at sunrise the next day and set back on the path. Is this real? Is he actually killing things? Do they have to consider the morality of all these actions? Whatever it is, they really didn't want to think about what would happen if the very-real-pain of getting hit with an axe would kill them forever. He had college to get back to, after all.

[puckintheisles]

4: YESSSS! KILL!!!!!!!!

While waiting for Jayred to finish those arrows, Puck heads back to town. He tries to talk to the locals, but most of them seem a bit unhinged. This one keeps threatening to kill him. Her apprentice is pretty nice, and he makes unspecified small talk until she trusts them enough to share that Relmyna's tears are like poison to the gatekeeper. He really doesn't want to wait around until midnight and try to risk getting caught by her while she's crying, so he settles on reading a book downstairs, specifically the one about some king he picked up from the table when he first got here.

He navigates to Jayred's house, which is a normal location for normal people. Jayred was practicing his archery. Puck managed to get a few shots in just to make sure he knew what he was trying to do. The arrows were done. It was time to go kill that thing. It was a terrifying battle, but having some help made all the difference.

despite it all, the beast was slain. Puck kinda had to cut the keys out of it. It was pretty awful, and they're probably getting haunted for life by that blade larger than themselves swinging for them. it'll be a great story once he gets home. and has years of therapy. Haskill, the man who greeted him, phased in out of nowhere and congratulated him, then gave some much-needed explanation of what to do next. He could choose to go through Mania, which was bright and colorful but absolutely had some kind of catch about madness. Alternatively, he could enter Dementia, which sounded pretty miserable and he doubted there wasn't some kind of catch about madness too. He took the one that sounded more pleasant.

ah fuck it's foggy out here. at least there's some greenery.

[puckintheisles]

3: skeletons? in MY gardens of flesh and bone?

He wandered back to the town as it was getting very dark. The first building was promising. His hopes were right, as the inside seemed to be some kind of inn. The innkeeper was tired and not particularly useful, but she also didn't seem to care about charging for a room. He had money on them from the boat. It was handy for buying some food, consisting of some familiar items such as bread and pears and whatever a baliwog leg was.

He went upstairs and just searched for a bed. The room next door was empty, but clearly occupied by someone who was really into leaving around piles of corpses and whatnot. Concerning, to say the least, but they really were too tired to think about it. Despite it all, there was a full night of sleep to be gained.

The events of the day before were not a dream at all. He woke up in the gross bed, went down to buy another pear, and recalled the events of before. Simple order of events demand that he has to just kill that thing. He braves speaking to a few residents around town, who reveal that this one guy is also trying to kill that thing.

He seems nice. Puck doesn't really have it in him to question and just nods and hopes for the best. Jayred tells him that the secret to killing the gatekeeper is the bones of a different gatekeeper. He just needs someone to unlock the Gardens of Flesh and Bone. Puck has a bad feeling those gardens have nothing to do with nice flowers.

This dude takes off at an unreasonable speed. Puck's in pretty fine shape, but they struggle to keep up. dude means business. the cardio from this adventure is going to go far if and when he gets back home.

He hands Puck a lockpick and tells him to get the gate open. They're just thankful that they thought learning to lockpick in middle school to seem badass and cool actually came in handy someday. He nails it on the first try, only to be assaulted by a skeleton. like, a living skeleton with a big fucking axe. it just starts swinging at him. how the fuck is it even holding an axe?

He realizes that he can do things like shoot fireballs out of his hands and do some kind of healing magic now. He needs to work on his archery skills a bit, though. Apparently you can't be shaking violently and screaming and crying while trying to use a bow or you miss a lot. Whatever. This pile of bones is picked apart by Jayred and Puck is left to his own devices while he sets out to make some arrows. Fortunately, they don't actually have to say much to get by. People here seem content with rambling as long as they're prompted with a "what?" and "why?".

[puckintheisles]

2: we're going to have to kill this guy, puck

Once the butterflies cleared away, the only option really was to follow the path. The landscape was very unfamiliar. completely alien. Puck was quite unsure about all this. The walk was fine up until he saw some weird man or creature in the distance. The thing noticed him, too, and even though he tried to look friendly it came at him with a fucking knife. Puck grabbed his own dagger and started swinging. getting into a knife fight with a frogman wasn't in his plans. Was this a person? Either way, Puck Summerdream has taken his first life.

hey, it's a statue of whatever that thing was. hopefully it's not like some kind of important cultural icon. As he followed the path it revealed a ramshackle town of sorts. They proceed with caution because honestly who knows what to expect.

These two have a chat about some gatekeeper about to fight off adventurers. He braves talking to the one, who claims he's the mayor and introduces himself as Shelden. They don't talk long and soon both of the others sprint uphill and Puck lets his curiosity win.

what the fuck. those people were slaughtered. what the fuck is that. Puck realizes this is far beyond any LARP at all. he's actually going to have to kill that thing. Well. He read enough fantasy books as a kid to know how this goes. They decide to walk back to town and find somewhere to hopefully catch a little sleep. maybe there's something edible around here, too, because he is not taking any chances with those mushroom trees.

the sky only proves more unfamiliar.

[puckintheisles]

1: where the fuck is he

The last thing Puck Summerdream remembered was moving out of the dorm with his friend-and-neighbor Juliette. He'd just finished his freshman year of college. but now he's on a boat. nothing looks right and something feels wrong. He wanders around. There's some food to pick through, but the only thing to drink is an entire bottle of cheap wine. That sounds like an awful idea but a guy has to keep hydrated.

There's a number of books, and they're all speaking absolute nonsense. He leafs through a few of them and gets the barest grasp of the situation. He knew there was a secret society on campus that allegedly kidnaps students once they are selected, but it mentioned nothing about a very detailed LARP situation. He settles on just riding out the rest of the journey. He is released and given a small supply of items that are apparently his to keep, including a whole sword. that feels very ominous.

He arrives at this filthy city with a strong suspicion this is definitely not a LARP. The locals have no clue what a Veronaville is. One of them does bring up a "strange door" that popped up nearby. Puck considers going inside the local city, but it's kinda sketchy. Nobody should go to Bravil, and a mystery portal sounds like the fastest way to either get home or go deeper into the mess.

and of course it's in the middle of a giant lake. it's already raining, he's already soaked, so he just hops in and gets swimming. It's a good thing he learned how to swim as a kid.

He reached the island sopping wet and miserable, and it sure does seem like a magic portal of sorts. Some guy jumps out of it and starts getting violent. Puck hides behind a rock with some kind of cat lady. His family situation introduced him to the idea of all sorts of paranormal magic nonsense, but even then it seems a bit too out-there. Whatever. He's a bit too shy to really ask what's going on, especially since that guard fellow seems especially ready to cut down people in his way.

this sounds like something tybalt would say, he figures, even if it's coming from some unknown source beyond the portal. it's worth a shot. He doesn't want to swim back to that city.

sure. at this point anything makes sense. this dude tells him to have a seat and chat for a bit. maybe he has answers. he does not, really, but he does seem to understand that Puck is not from here. might as well stick around and find out what it's all about.

the room explodes into butterflies. this is fine.