Since I opened the bonus room yesterday, I got to start my day off on the West Path.
I took the microchips into the trading post, exchanging them for a coin purse and compass; I also got to open my first Mora Jai box. I'm usually good at doing Mora Jai without any help. You can figure out which color goes in the corners by just clicking around to see which color lights up. At that point it's just a game of poking buttons a lot.
If I want to do anything else with the trading post, I'll need the thingy that sets the stuff on fire -- which is a very technical description. That's not happening outside Mt. Holly Manor, so...here we go, I suppose.
Fingers crossed I get the foundation today.
Planning Ahead
I got the security room really early (rank two?!), so I decided to increase the security to high and unlock the doors without power. If I run into any security doors before finding the breaker room, they'll be useless to me...but they're useless without a card anyway.
I poked around the terminal for the first time in a while. All household staff left on November 4th, three days before my arrival. They're all getting extended paid leave. So the longer it takes me to get through everything, the more free money they get. That seems fair. This giant house surely isn't short on money. It's scattered all over higgledy-piggledy half the time. Pay the workers!
Of course, this does not seem to apply to Mrs. Babbage. I wonder, is she the statue/image/character depicted with a scepter and shield, or was that Her Ladyship? I don't really want to think of Her Ladyship being listed with household staff, but such dignity is given to the staff, maybe it's not an insult.
I also requested a magnifying glass so I can make the burny thing whenever it shows up in the commissary. Look at me, thinking ahead.
Apropos of nothing, it lowkey bothers me that the terminals don't actually look period-appropriate. (I think this is 1993?) The typography is all wrong. But they're clearly going for aesthetic above accuracy, which make sense for a fantasy property, and I should chill the heck out.
The Great Alzara
I headed into the rumpus room for the first time this play-through. I've seen the vision from The Great Alzara in the past, although it didn't make much sense to me then.
Great news! It doesn't make much sense to me now, either.
I feel silly making guesses at the imagery and message, but...maybe searching for the rogue moon door on a white sand beach (overlooked by Mt. Holly) is searching for a way to my mother? A way to truth?
A black cat tied to an unmoving red flag makes me wonder if that's my mom. The cat. I'm getting the feeling my mom vanished into hiding after being forced to cooperate with Red forces by my father, whose allegiance seems implicated by the red letters he wrote Uncle Whatsisface.
I'm sure* this will make more sense later.
(*lol)
Disappointment smells like sauna
I ended this day without accomplishing very much. It's worse than spending way too long on a single day like yesterday, even if it was a bit of a trial to get through it with my crummy attention span.
My run ended with the dead end sauna, blocking off the whole east wing. Thanks sauna! I take some comfort knowing that means I get another 20 steps to waste tomorrow, and ending in the Planetarium will give me an extra star, I guess.
It feels like this entire run was wasted just so that I could have a better run tomorrow. Boo.
Notes on Exploration
The upgraded store room doesn't look any different in its iterations. Bit disappointing, if you ask me.
A red note (aka a lie) tells me that a safe code is 9083. So that's not the code for a safe. It doesn't seem to matter when it doesn't even say which safe that would be.
I'm reading everything, including stuff I've read on this play-through, because I'm certain SOMETHING tells me how to do the buttons in the breaker room. No dice, though.
I did not get the foundation.
Hilariously, ending with a West-Facing Manor and a planetarium means the planetarium is just...floating somewhere. Not connected.