A Letter From Skelly Manor | Let's speculate
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i looked at the news post again and i guess we were just "picking up his prescription" not strictly paying for it. but we bought everything else, r.i.p. our poor wallets :p
This post got EXCESSIVELY long, but I'm posting it anyway. I feel like this plot can't possibly end on Tuesday/before Morostide ends, right? I feel like there are just too many things that still need to be answered.
Like, Ian's injury that totally hasn't been being made a big deal of? What was the point of that? Is that really just... something that happened? Why was the Wulrm even there? Is this really a story where there's a whole diversion where one of the main characters gets attacked by, like, a giant tentacled centipede, and then he just... walks it off? Nothing happens because of that scene? No one brings it up again, or acts like it was unusual? What was the point of that? Just to get Ian out of the crypt with the Dungarde for a couple of days? Once he came back, the Dungarde just waited for him to leave to talk to us in private anyway!
Also, why is this suddenly an either-or thing? Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, Ian just said he needs Jaxon's "remains" to resurrect him. Why does he now need to have Jaxon's heart, specifically? Only Dungarde wanted Skelly hearts. Can Ian's machine not work with just like, a skeleton? Did he really go into this expecting to have, like, a fresh dead body to work with? Why did he assume he would have a heart available? Is there a reason beyond it being dramatic and romantic that the heart is the only necessary organ? Doesn't Jaxon need like, a brain, or lungs, or anything? Did Ian have every part of Snowflaik's perfectly preserved remains when he pet semataried her? How did he get the intact heart of this long-dead cat? Who preserved it? Why?!
ALSO also, why wouldn't both Jaxon and Dungarde end up being disappointed? How could Jaxon's heart possibly still be intact at all? The other Skellys, seems unlikely, but they're preserved in like, canopic jars in a magical crypt, so sure, whatever. Everything so far seems to imply that Jaxon's dead body is just lying out in the woods somewhere! This fool has been dead for decades! Since humans first started settling the area! If there's even still like, a skeleton sitting under a tree somewhere, it seems like they'd be pretty lucky.
Why is Noflaik the final plot-related challenger (that we know of)? Does that have any kind of significance? Just, an evil version of Snowflaik? Why? The only thing Snowflaik has done in this plot so far is play with an empty paper bag. Is it just because there's been an optional plot challenger for every second tomb so far, so they needed something tangentially connected to Jaxon for his? That seems... lame. Is it the real Snowflaik? Is it something we're just not supposed to think too hard about? Is it not actually canonical, but just something to throw in for the battlers among us?
Also, this is getting kind of meta, but don't plots usually have a prize shop of some kind? Isn't it usually run by some npc who's thanking us for our help in whatever we've been involved in? Who in the world would be rewarding us, and for what? The Dungarde, for freeing it? What does it have? Is it going to give us back all the magazines we paid for? Some broken magical armor? Some rocks? Some more pieces of Jaxon's dead relatives?
I don't know, maybe none of this has any significance. Maybe on Tuesday we just solve one more puzzle, throw one more heart to the Dungarde, Ian and Jaxon tearfully break up, and everything returns to the status quo except slightly worse for our involvement. But that just seems like such a lame resolution to a sidewide event, you know?
Anyway, here's my theory: Jaxon's body has actually been kicking it in the underground as a zombie for the last hundred or so years. The only way to rez Jaxon or Dungarde is to kill this totally oblivious zombie guy. Everyone goes home, no one gets a satisfying resolution, we've spent two plots and four years on the story of this relationship.
Whoops, maybe I should have spoilered that?
SPOILER (click to toggle)
Noflaik Plushie is one of the challenger prizes in the Item Directory, released at the same time as Wurlm and Pumgpulnug's prizes. Admittedly I'm only assuming that it drops from a challenger that is also named Noflaik, but its other drop seems to be "Questionable Canned Fillets", which seems like a weird thing for a non-cat based enemy to drop.
I still think the resolution will have something to do with all the crystals around the woods.
SPOILER (click to toggle)
Ooh, do you think there's a connection between Snowflaik/Noflaik and the Skedhu? I skimmed, so admittedly I don't remember the specifics about the Skedhu.
- "but maybe it's not dust in the wind!" the options are jaxon being left in the woods to rot or old man skelly interring his son in the family crypt as is proper to save face. there is, in my opinion, no third option that makes sense, and only one gives us a usable body. (i'd take "jaxon's body is a zombie/undead" as a cop-out, tbh.)
re/last challenger
also if noflaik isn't a representation of the actual damn skedhu or real snowflaik's resurrection failing, i'm gonna be grumbly
Also right there in camp "Not Okay With This." :c
RE: Noflaik
SPOILER (click to toggle)
I want to think Noflaik has to have some kind of significance, but then again, the last two plot challengers were just... there. They didn't even get mentioned. Not even like "Yo, Dungarde... you know there's some kind of weird pumpkin dog in here, right?" "Oh yeah don't worry he don't bite".
Also, Jensen, I know, right? Like, Dungarde, what do you even think we're going to find out there? Is there something in the soil in Shadowglen that keeps all bodies perfectly preserved, and all those spooky scary skeletons are imported?
And IDK the zombie/undead thing wasn't even really serious, I just hope this doesn't end up being like the last Omen Islands plot where it ends with us kind of wondering if we ever should have gotten involved at all, you know?
SPOILER (click to toggle)
I had my own thought though that I did share it with other people. What if the "Jekyll and Hyde" code names in part one became literal for Ian and Jaxon? I dout this may happen but that's one way they could stay together.
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i said this elsewhere, but i was cropping some screen caps and now i'm bothered... the npc dungarde avatar should have less armor in the dialogue parts, but it's still fully dressed. boo, strip the dungarde
well it's a crazy old crypt in a crazy old wood with lots of magic and stuff. stands to reason things would take shelter in there, i guess? but yeah, it would've been nice to have a mention of the harvester and the... pumpkin thing.
and i guess we'll just have to wait and see how they handle this last part. still not too impressed on how this last bit went down p:
we still don't know jaxon's remains' whereabouts and as far as we know, it's a "very powerful" heart, so it might be protected by magic or something.
all the noflaik questions: idk? wait until the actual thing comes out? if i recall correctly the last jaxian plot also introduced a lot of new challengers with no relevance to the story, but they always bring them back each morostide.
a lot of plots didn't have a prize shop. in fact, the last jaxian plot had no prize shop, and the prizes were stuff that ian left for us (+ some things that weren't supposed to be there, like )
Hmm... As depressing as this last plot part was, I feel like this might be a fakeout (if a pretty mean one).
A lot of rambling thoughts
This was bothering me for a while already, but isn't there something strange about the Dungarde? Jaxon pointed out back after we first met it that it can lie by omission. It's been pretty helpful for retrieving the Skelly hearts, but there's also been a pretty noticeable disconnect between how it talks about the other family members and how it talks about Jaxon's past; its descriptions for the others have been more general, with relatively few details past their most famous actions, or the fate they met. In contrast, its account of Jaxon's life has been pretty detailed, and this last part in particular even talked about how he felt.
"Each night on the journey he rested, but each morning he woke a little less the person he had been the night before. As he revisited each camp site, remembering the faces of the men he had begun to know, a sickness began to grow within him."
Even more rambling thoughts
Then there's some other oddities - it's assigned as the guardian of the crypt, yet knows the fate and whereabouts of Jaxon, who's the one Skelly whose body isn't housed there, and admits to knowing said whereabouts "with a clear sense of importance and pride."
It didn't mind Ian's presence when you first met it, but when he joins you later on, after he's been injured, "you get a strong sense of discomfort from the creature." and it later voices concern for Ian and responds warmly when you tell it that if Ian doesn't have the strength to do whatever it is that needs to be done, you will.
It claimed that it was blocking the signal of the walkie-talkie because it "wanted to tell the whole tale uninterrupted and free from interruptions," and "for selfish dramatics." In other words, it wanted Jaxon to not hear or interrupt what it had to say, for some reason. Jaxon, who happens to be missing his memories of the very things it tells you about.
Still more rambling thoughts
When Ian asked Jaxon about what you're getting into with the Dungarde, he had this to say:
"A Dungarde is bound into its armor through powerful magic, but the nature of the magic is a mystery to myself. It may be that the creature was enslaved using the natural chaos magic of the forests, for example, and so it would be necessary to retrieve sources of power from the natural world around us. (...) (The Dungarde would) Almost certainly (know what kind of magic it was bound by). If not, the remains of my ancestors may provide clues as to the nature of its servitude, so the family crypt would be the logical place to start."
And upon pressing the Dungarde about the magic it was bound by, this happened: Your mind is suddenly flooded with images and feelings: Faceless humanoid figures circling, speaking a language you cannot understand. Panic washing over you as you try to resist, try to fade from existence, but you are held back by some unknown force that sends shocks of pain through your being. Drops of thick red liquid, few at first, then more - enough to dip a brush in. The brush being used to cover the inside of a suit of armor with runes and symbols-
Red liquid of some sort was used to make magical runes, and the hearts of other Skelly family members who either committed atrocities of varying kinds (ranging from direct ones to neglect) or were betrayed and died in despair. Jaxon himself apparently died from the same ruby widow poison he was told to use on the people he grew to know, with the Dungarde describing it in a way that makes it sound like it was out of guilt for his actions.
Jaxon's own comments when prodding him about what he remembers also seem to point pretty strongly toward him not exactly having been keen on his life - he followed his father's orders out of fear of his anger because he was a "deeply vitriolic person," his siblings died in infancy, he admits to having had a lot of pressure on him and that he found his obligations as a Skelly "more difficult to handle" than his father, he had difficulty recognizing when people were speaking with a hidden edge to their polite demeanor (and managing it himself), and he notes that his difficulties made him a target of manipulation that his father was ridiculed for and disciplined him for in ways he refuses to speak about.
Final thoughts
It's still just speculation, of course, but I get the sinking feeling that the Dungarde might actually be a part of Jaxon, like his lingering guilt and despair given form and separated from his remains/ghost through the magic the Skelly family used to create the Dungardes. Going by the current Dungarde's account, Jaxon died before his father did, and the way he's been described, I can't imagine he'd be happy that his son opted for death with the same venom meant for the people he was "guiding" instead of continuing to do his job. If his past punishments were so severe that Jaxon won't speak about them, it wouldn't be too out there if he reacted to his death by forcing part of him to be the eternal guardian for their family crypt, I think. If true, then giving it Jaxon's heart is probably the right choice... but not an easy one for Ian, who doesn't know as much about the Dungarde as we do.
I had some extra thoughts on the Dungarde and the ruby widows based on some items, but this post's getting way too long, whoops. 😥
I'm pretty excited for the next step, in any case! The 2014 Morostide plot was one of my absolute favorites so far, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this followup one will turn out. 😊
I hope we get to choose in the end :P
is there any guide/walkthrough for the puzzles?
Might as well just post it while it's still on my mind:
On the Dungarde and ruby widows
There's actually been another Dungarde before! It's a challenger you could unlock with the Dungarde Signet, released as a cash shop opponent for Morostide back in 2015, with the news post found here. That one was purple, but otherwise it's pretty similar to this one. I don't have it unlocked myself, so I can't comment on its attack descriptions, but the description for the signet itself feels interesting in light of this plot:
[item2=Dungarde Signet] "This ring seems to have a lingering aura of despair."
Since the description connects that Dungarde to lingering feelings of despair, the same might go for the one in the current plot too. Something like lingering despair stemming from guilt, perhaps?
Ruby widows, meanwhile, were actually one of the rewards for the previous Morostide plot, and their description mentions something pretty interesting:
[item2=Pet Ruby Widows] "They're more magical enchanted gem than actual arachnid. So don't be TOO freaked out."
Since the ruby widows are magical, it wouldn't be surprising if their venom has magical properties too. Maybe it's even strong enough to allow it to be used for spells involving binding something...?
There might be a few other items with interesting descriptions in regards to this plot, but those two were the ones that came to mind after going through today's plot update.
: The TLDR's Morostide Plot Guide over in the Morostide forums includes solutions and guides for every puzzle for the step they unlocked in (so step 2 for Godfrey/Ambrose, and step 3 for Frideswithe/Thomasin). That's probably your best bet, I think.
I'm glad you posted your ramblings! Even if it doesn't pan out exactly like that, I think there is still hope for this to have a happy ending of sorts. People in the news comments have been really quick to jump on the "how dare you" train, but like... the story isn't even over yet. At least wait to see what actually happens before getting mad, lol.
But anyway, you bring up some good points and I'm also really looking forward to the next part of the plot ~
- Yeah, I don't usually post my thoughts on narrative-heavy plots while they're ongoing, but I saw that a lot of people were worried about how this'll wrap up because of this last update and figured it wouldn't hurt to share a different take. I can definitely see why people are worried (and I won't lie, my initial reaction was a similar sort of "I really hope they're not going there"; having recently dealt with another story that slipped into that trope for its neutral/standard ending probably contributed to that, though), but I think there's enough reason to believe it'll take a different turn, so I'm cautiously optimistic for now.
SPOILER (click to toggle)
I also saw someone bring up the possibility of the Dungarde being related to Jaxon's father, instead of Jaxon himself, and I think that's another option worth considering. I'm leaning more toward it having a connection to Jaxon than his father myself (mainly because of how it relays the events leading to Jaxon's death), but there's a few things (how much it knows about the Skelly family, its prideful demeanor at times, its insistence on bringing it Jaxon's heart next rather than any other remaining Skelly, the fact we don't actually know what happened to Jaxon's father IIRC...) that could definitely be read as pointing toward that. Based on what we currently know, I don't think that theory gels as well with the Dungarde's overall behavior (especially its seeming worry about Ian) as the theory that it's tied to Jaxon, but maybe it'd make more sense once we know a little more about what's going on.
No matter what, though, I'm pretty certain that the Dungarde's dialogue has a few clues to what's going to happen next - I don't think they would've had Jaxon point out that it always tell the truth but can still lie by omission if there wasn't something hidden in its statements (or in what it doesn't mention).
EDIT:
More rambling thoughts
Thinking about it a bit more, the Dungarde phrased itself in a way that makes it sound like Jaxon died by his own hand via the venom, but it never explicitly said so:
"Each night on the journey he rested, but each morning he woke a little less the person he had been the night before. As he revisited each camp site, remembering the faces of the men he had begun to know, a sickness began to grow in him. You see, Skedhu means mirror; goodness has nothing to fear from it, but for some, the monster is only their reflection, and it is impossible to hide from oneself. It takes only a drop to paralyze, scarcely more to kill. Young Master Skelly never returned home..." the Dungarde trails off, then says nothing.
It definitely implies he died from the venom (same description), but it doesn't specify the circumstances, and even trails off... and the sudden switch from talking about Jaxon's mental state to talking about the Skedhu to talking about the venom and Jaxon's death kind of makes it sound like the venom has something to do with the Skedhu, too. Maybe he's actually a similar case to Frideswithe - betrayed and killed by someone else (possibly his father or someone sent by him)... or, if the Dungarde really is him, possibly paralyzed with the venom and then forcibly turned into something else via the ritual from the Dungarde's memories? Hm.
It's going to be interesting to see where things go from here, that's for sure.
Is there anywhere I can go to re-read the plot dialogue??? (I knew I should have kept a record....) I really want to read it all again to see if there is anything that I missed. I'm just not convinced this plot is going to have a sad ending but I haven't the evidence to justify it.
Would be interesting if the users get to choose to either resurect the Dungarde or Jaxon..
Holiday Things
Pardon me, if this has been said/written before as I mostly skimmed through this thread '^^
There's something that's been bugging me about this "Skedhu business": Somewhere in the plot, it was stated that the Skedhu "becomes what it eats". As we've been "feeding" that Dungarde hearts, maybe the Dungarde is the Skedhu and it will eventually turn into a heart (for Jaxon)? Well, those were mostly "black" hearts, but maybe together with Jaxon's change of heart (which would be a play on words, has anyone brought that up already?) and his act of selflessness... maybe we'll have some "happy ending" after all?
And I agree with that the Dungarde might actually be a part of Jaxon. Jaxon himself stated that he had no memories about his death or the circumstances or anything else while the Dungarde gives us a detailled report about Jaxon's fate.
On another note, if I'm wrong on that first account and that Dungarde wants one more Skelly heart, I'm all for digging up Jaxon's father and taking THAT heart to the Dungarde. I mean that guy should be buried in that crypt somewhere... While Jaxon's remains most likely would be lying around in the wilderness for who knows how many decades/centuries and without any reassurances that there is something left of him after all this time?
Well, those would be my two cents about this plot so far '^^