While Director Mitty and his subordinates investigate the worrisome issue of a division gone rogue, I receive news.
Some heartening: Isabell Nona and her husband, having made no progress with their observing of the Guardian, propose we cunning girls try and talk to it.
Some disheartening: should I err upon answering the Guardian’s riddles, it will be the death of me.
Understood. But tell me, Nona, what does it look like?
We board a vehicle with the Nonas; then a short while after disembark, as we brothel girls alone make to enter the Guardian’s abode.
Its flesh moves as if water in a river. Currents run along its limbs and face. Its mane is ever a-squirm with the fluidity of ripples; and where individual hairs should be, I descry the most minute rivulets constantly flowing yet never truly moving. With a voice that evoked the rubbing together of two granite blocks, it declared:
– “There are four goblets in the room. All contain a lethal poison. You must drink from one if you wish to pass. However, only one of you needs to drink. But be aware! Your fates are linked, and what happens to one will happen to all. You may choose amongst yourselves who will be the one to drink.”
– Who are you? “I am the Gate Guardian, of course. As that suggests, I guard the gate. If your question is instead what am I, rather than who, then I shall simply respond I am not what I seem.”
– What are you guarding? “The Gate to the Valley Of Pillars. I have no doubt the next question from you shall be why I am guarding the gate…”
– Why a game? “Because I adore games. It lets me know my new friends and their worth.”
– Can we leave? “The way back is shut. There is no power or artifice amongst you to open it again.”
– The goblets; they are all poisoned? “Yes, with a virulent concoction will kill most things drink it. Be they machine, man, or a ghost from the Barrens.”
– What’s the point, then? “That is the game, friend.”
– Only one of us has to drink? “Yes, one of you. I leave the choosing to you.”
– How can I choose? “The goblets are all different, as are your companions. Seek not for wisdom outside this chamber. The answer is here. Closer than you may know.”
(Perception check)
– My companions; how many of them do I have? The beast bared it teeths in a wide grimace you recognised as a smile. “One more than you may think. They are amongst you, moving unseen.”
– Can you see them? “No. They are not something can be seen by such as I. Yet, I mark their presence all the same.” The smile grew wider.
– Who are they? “I am afraid I cannot answer this question. Not because I am stingy with truth; because I do not know.”
Do I have, in me as Revel inside Jack, the reincarnation or continuation of some being? Is that the voice I hear, mine-but-not-mine? Is it something in that vein? That could make sense, I guess.
As for the goblets themselves:
– The goblet was burning hot to the touch, and the liquid inside smelled like a rich broth.
– The goblet was freezing cold to the touch, and the liquid inside smelled of expensive perfumes.
– The goblet was cold to the touch, and the liquid inside smelled of exotic spices.
– The goblet was warm to the touch, and the liquid inside smelled like a decaying corpse.
It’s the fourth one. Something, someone inside me, and the stench of a corpse… Has to be the fourth goblet.
You tilted your head back and poured the clear liquid down your throat. Strangely, you felt nothing. It was as if the drink was whisked away down someone else’s throat. Then your body felt light, as if you were falling a great distance.
– “You have won my game fairly, by my own rules. Now you must depart, and I thank you for releasing me.”
Releasing you? Oh, so this was not his volition; he was constrained into it.
Once on the other side of the now guardianless gate, I chance upon a DBTP:
I activate it and a heartbeat later a team of Mitty’s men warp in, guns at the ready as they sweep the environs; then a minute later the Nonas follow. In passing, Isabell mentions Mitty thoroughly investigated the rogue division problem and how, with some violence, he handled the matter in a more-or-less discreet fashion. Though only the grunts were thusly handled, as that division’s leadership could simply not be found, and are presumed to have taken refuge in the Abyss.
Since this is a blind playthrough, and I don’t have a habit of reloading saves during a first playthrough, I don’t know what would happen were I or a companion to drink from another goblet. Game over, possibly? Or a single character dies? Permanently lowered stats for everyone? Halitosis, and no one wants to have sex with me ever again? I don’t know; I’ll see that during my second playthrough.
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