Hat Quest: an OOTS-shaped adventure

[kd7sov]

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Three months? I'm getting better at procrastination. Or something.

I wanted to do some fancy-schmancy animation here, but I couldn't figure out how. Ah, well.

(Asking irrelevant detailed questions about characters is always more fun than actually advancing the plot)

I've always thought so. Answering them, or taking three months to not answer them, can be too.

Go to the counter, and order one of EVERYTHING off the menu, for your 'friend' Yellow. . . That'll show him. That man has been your rival nemesis for far too long. This day, on the eve of your leave from the academy is the perfect time to get even!

I think you're confused. Hiero and No haven't met Yellow before, as far as we know; they went to school with Red. Also Yellow's a woman, but that hasn't been especially obvious so far.

inspect cloaked figure

You're sitting - or, well, standing, but it's the principle of the thing - at kind of a bad angle for inspecting, but you can tell a few things. Her cloak is definitely enchanted in some way, or the hood wouldn't be so dark. Which probably means she's got some reason to want anonymity. You have the niggling feeling that you've seen or heard of that kind of cloak before, maybe in relation to something religious, but you're not really sure.

You did manage to catch a glimpse of her belt buckle on the way over to the table. It's probably noteworthy.

>Admire new hair

Nothing new about it. Your mood influences how you look, and you're a bit too sad for purple hair right now. Unless and until you make some effort to change it, your hair will stay something like its natural color and shape.

What is the deal with that bandit mask(?) Noor is wearing? Is she planning on robbing a stagecoach or something? Is it actually part of her face? What species is she anyway?

Yeah, that's her face. It's the same as the hair, basically. The more you change, and the more different it is from how you already look, the more difficult it is. Probably she's just repigmented that part of her skin. You've never really asked why she goes for that look.

>Well, you might as well eat.

Yeah. That's what you're here for, isn't it?

The waitress tells you what they've got - Perpetual Stew, mostly beef-based; roast beef; turnip salad; stuff like that. No orders a bowl of stew and a mug of beer. What'll you have?

>hit on the waitress

That is incredibly appropriate! You'd never do such a thing! In front of No, anyway. Or before your sister actually leaves the room

[WaveOfBabies]

> Examine Yellowcloak's belt buckle.

Yellowcloak > Assume you're being checked out. React angrily.

[Donut64]

>fantasize about having the waitress' wonderful rack as a hat

[kd7sov]

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Iiiintroducing... scribble mode! Which is not done in Inkscape at all, but freehanded in Gimp. Although I imagine I could do it just as well/poorly in MS Paint.

> Examine Yellowcloak's belt buckle.

Oh, yes, that sounds like an excellent idea. Just get up and leave your friend, and the waitress who's ready to take your order, and wander over to stare at something someone else is wearing.

Besides, you can imagine how she'd react...





Okay, she probably doesn't actually breathe fire, but do you really want to take the chance? You've still got the scars from the woman who turned out to be a vampiric half-ogre. (And, luckily, drunk at the time.)

[Donut64]

>Request fried chicken

[Edrobot]

Lord English: Storm into the bar and order drinks for everyone!

[simon.clarkstone]

> Order the stew.
> Ask the whatever-it-is in the yellow cloak if you can get it anything.
> Ask barkeeper is there a job-seeking place around this town now/soon?

[kd7sov]

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Lord English: Storm into the bar and order drinks for everyone!

Yes, because I'm totally going to try to draw that. "Totally" is a word which here means "not even slightly".

> Order the stew.

Sure, sounds as good as anything else.



You... guess she's going to get it? You don't really remember how ordinary people do things anymore. At Isaakiah's, the more advanced students would teleport the food to the tables.

All things considered, it wasn't the worst thing on the duty roster.

> Ask barkeeper is there a job-seeking place around this town now/soon?

You probably could do that. He seems friendly enough, if rather generic.

Unfortunately, apart from it being dark out right now, there is an additional issue: it wouldn't do you any good. You're a wizard, so you can't do charms; you don't have a hat, so you can't legally do spells (and you can't do spells anywhere near other wizards without being detected, which rules out the civilized world). Like you noted before, combat is about the only way to make a living without either charms or spells, and since there's no war on the military isn't in great need of recruits. Besides, you'd rather be some kind of tinkerer or inventor, anyway.

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For the record: I'm not exclusively married to current-Hiero's viewpoint. Perspective-switch and time-jump commands are just as valid as any others in this adventure, if just as subject to authorial whim.

In other news, I brought you a surprise. It's just down there.

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The as-yet-unintroduced green girl wants to know how she got roped into this.

Also, Red would probably prefer a hat that fits better.

[Armok]

> jump forward until the next interesting thing.

[Curris]

The Stew ==> Have ordered the blue & white starred wizard. Upon meeting your mark, reveal your GREAT QUEST!

Hieronymus Mallelum ==> Refuse to take questing advice from enchanted soup!

The Stew ==> Expend the last of your magic trying to convince him to believe you, and return to being delicious soup.

[kd7sov]

> jump forward until the next interesting thing.

Seconds in the future...

(but not many)

In a remote laboratory under a largely inaccessible mountain, an elderly wizard named Zal Tuyo achieves success, at long last. He has managed to create a magical long-range electromagnetic communication device.



Unfortunately, he dies of a heart attack before he can get out to tell anyone.



The device is completely ruined in the centuries before his body is found, and all of his notes decay.

But that has nothing to do with Hiero.

> jump forward until the next interesting thing.

All right, all right.

Come morning, you feel considerably better. You set out through the outskirts of a nearby forest.

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What do you mean, there's only one tree?

So yeah, I hate making complicated stuff. One tree, one wall (well, technically three if you count the inn and the place where Dubois was, but I wouldnt' count Dubois'), and so on.

Incidentally, we're coming up on a scene that's going to involve a bunch of wizards, some of whom have their hats. I could use some suggestions so we don't get a bunch of abstract shapes like Zal's. Not that that wasn't fun, but.

[Curris]

Hats ==> Santa cap, Top hat, Dr. Suess hat. Waldo-stripped Toque, Burlap sack, Ski-mask, Cat ears, Ear muffs, Fractally convergent hat of triangles, Dunce cap, A flat mortarboard.

Hello little Spirit orb. We do see you! Why are you on the ground?

[simon.clarkstone]

I made some hats; how do I send them to you? Would you might if I just PMed you the XML?

[Armok]

> platonic solids

[kd7sov]

Sure, PMing stuff should be fine.

[Lazro]

>Read tiny green text

[Roselalonde]

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It's just not all that exciting at the beginning. And not many people read the cradle.

I only read the cradle. I also hate OOTS's art style.

> Yeah, read the clover text.

[Vancho1]

You mean,

"Are you going to notice me?
Hey, they're wizards, aren't they?
Any spirits following them around
that might see me?"

There's also a redhead in green visible in the orb.

[kd7sov]

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Fifty images! I think. I know I got miscounting at one point. Either way, I didn't actually do anything special. Maybe for 100?

Also, happy new year!

Hello little Spirit orb. We do see you! Why are you on the ground?

What?

>Read tiny green text

Um... Well, you could. But you thought you indicated something earlier about how your packing spell might be unstable. You'd really prefer to leave it alone until you get to where there are other wizards who can help if you need it.

[PriffyViole]

> Either person: Notice orb

[Lazro]

>Kick tree in frustration.

[Curris]

Being a wizard, indulge your natural laziness. Time to kick-back, relax. . . ==> Go take a short nap under that tree. You can use MAGIC to make up for lost time later!

[Lazro]

BUMPED.

And stuff...

[kd7sov]

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Can it be? Yes! I'm back!

There were issues, including my mouse dying and school overwhelming me and so on, but I should be able to update a bit more for a while.

> Either person: Notice orb

You are now No. There's something over there, by that tree.

You're not sure what it is. You send Hiero over to check it out.



Hang on, now that you're getting a better look...

You call for him to stop and hurry over there yourself.



Okay, that's really strange. You point it out to Hiero, but he doesn't seem to have any idea what you're talking about.

What is it that he's missing?

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As a reminder, No has an affinity with stone-spirits, rather than the unspecified type Hiero listens to. Whether you take this into account in your suggestions is, of course, up to you.

[Armok]

Yay! This is back!