lathany

Yesterday was the fourth (I think) 100 Secrets game of the second season. We had reached the Capital of Evil Gobal Palace, so were ready to go in and try and find out why everyone had warned us against coming here.

The actual population, at first, seemed quite small and somewhat childless. However, we quickly learned (or at least Rat (

leathellin) did) that this was because the majority of the population worked (and lived?) underground. The typical day began at sunrise, and within half a hour was peak time at the market with many goods going underground. Then it eased off quickly, but remained somewhat open across the course of the day. Other elements of the city were:

The palace proper - The old Palace itself seemed somewhat abandoned (apart from the guard orgies), but there was a new palace building that I don't think we got into. It also had a garden we didn't get into.
The Divine Court - We learned that the ruler of the city was here, a certain Judge Porogan, the latest of a long line of judges (and he worked for the previous judge). Apparently it had been this way since the gods had given advice to the King and the Queen resulting in the King going after the Sun and the Queen going after the Moon (Neddra immediately had ideas that she had met both around Eyestone Hill). Apparently, both King and Queen are supposed to come back when the world ends (... a bit late to do anything really). This place was heavily guarded and we never went in.
Chambers of Devotion - This was Priest Central. Apparently people (Supplicants) would come here to send messages to the gods and answers (or not) would arrive in the morning. If there was no answer then the supplicant in question would be sent to meet the gods. (We had nasty ideas about what happened next - we think they were turned into the general population.) Whilst in the city, we discovered there was some sort of twenty second pause that happened at sunrise and sunset (discovered because anyone holding the Dashi amulet was immune) which was probably to do with the messages. We later learned that the priests never left or went underground.
Old Tower - Some sort of former town hall, I think. Certainly a place which had the remains of furniture, cooking facilities, records and writing equipment. This place had been gutted with fire.
Underground - Dark and with worm guards at the bottom of the stairs (I think they are called Dashi).
The West Gate - This had existed but was now bricked up, we're not sure why (but have theories).

The population was mostly wrong. By which I mean that they moved according to the same pattern, as though they were pre-programmed. Not everyone was like this - our barwoman was not and the boy that Rat found, Guwit, was not. Aryn (

quisalan) managed to get one of them to talk to her and she was able to help her out of that state (a woman at the market) and she apparently had come here from the north when she was very young.

(Note: I remember that one of the buildings has "something on top" that Aryn had seen, but I don't know which one.)

Once we felt we had seen enough - and did not fancy waiting for someone to attack us or take us underground - we left with Guwit. We travelled north along the road and back to the north east fort. We were followed by a mercenary sent by the priests that Aryn caught and Carlos (

shadowjon) sent away. Then we travelled north again and found a burned village. There, at night, Carlos observed Guwit perform a ritual that was supposed to stop him being summoned underground. We are trying to learn this. Also, I saw an animal with a diamond that Aryn befriended to briefly see a creature in a cavern also with a diamond. It led her to the murdered villagers. There were no children and we think those were taken to the capital.

We travelled north again and arrived at Relgen Tower. From there we learned that Gods Passage is a bridge over the Mezzochaine to Pharenis. Relgen Tower seems normal, although fortified against attacks (and they'd heard children were taken). We plan to go north again.

(

bateleur - spelling corrections?)

I finished another of my Christmas books this week - Day Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko and Vladimir Vasilyev. This is the second in the Night Watch series (which was a trilogy, but apparently there are now two more). I liked Day Watch, although perhaps not as much as the first one (which was called Night Watch). The series is about two sides which are sort of "good" and "evil" having a battle of magic and wits around a set of rules established to try and prevent complete war. The style is characterised by the protagonists not being the most powerful of their factions and forever trying to figure out what their bosses are actually scheming to do.

I've also replayed Recettear back up to the end of the debt (sort of official game end).

Finally, there was snow this morning.