Game 24: Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess - Do the Brainwarp

Raven Journal Entry 4: “I must be getting close now to my goal of saving Sci Fi from the protozorqs. I have bypassed the dreaded Dreams of Slime room, where I believe other Divo’s are sacrificed, and have instead made it into the Gallery maze past The Concourse. There I have found two rebels named Ash and Normajeen, who are a father and daughter hiding out in the caverns. Strangely, I have just resuscitated a long dead mummy we discovered in a tomb beneath the cavern, but I know not what purpose it might have. There is still much to explore, so perhaps things will become clearer in time.”

The Concourse: Only Divo's may enter

So, I’d made it through the Five Ordeals, and now found myself in The Concourse as a Divo. I had no real purpose at this point apart from saving Sci Fi, wherever she might be. I didn’t yet know whether I’d removed the time limit altogether, or whether it was simply going to start over with another hour ticking down. The concourse had four doors leading off it, being the Guard-Room, the Dreams of Slime, and two that were simply called Passage. I decided, as I normally do, to take the doors from left to right. The first door was blocked by a protozorq who demanded I “do not hang around, Divo. Go into the chamber of dreams.” Well that sounded like the door named Dreams of Slime, but I thought I’d stick to the plan before taking that option.

Somehow I highly doubt the truth is worth dreaming!

It turned out the second and third doors were also blocked, with the protozorq guards giving me exactly the same message. It looked like I was going to have to take the Dreams of Slime pathway anyway. Before I did that though, I spent a little bit of time exploring The Concourse thoroughly. That same damn engraving that had appeared a couple of times before was on the wall, yet it still meant nothing to me. There was also a Holo Holo on the wall, which if I haven’t described it already, is a screen displaying propaganda on tap. “All must be ready for the final spawning! Zorq drools.” I briefly considered changing sides after such a stirring speech, but eventually decided to continue down the path of righteousness I’d chosen. Most interestingly though, Gauss had the following to say when I used my Tune In power: “faithful to water not dreem.” It didn’t mean anything to me, but I noted it for future reference.

This bloody engraving better make sense by the end of the game

With no other apparent option available, I tried to enter the Dreams of Slime. The protozorq guarding that door once again stopped me, but he merely demanded I reveal my egg to him. I did so, and then found myself in a room full of other Divos sleeping on matresses. The protozorq on guard told me that “Zorq has been kind to you, Divo. Dream.” Clearly I was supposed to use one of the mattresses and go to sleep, so that’s what I did. On awakening, I found myself strapped to an altar in a place called Placating the Powers, where I watched powerless as I was sacrificed to Deilos. I restored my game and re-entered the Dreams of Slime hoping to find something to do or some way of avoiding being killed, but I couldn’t. No matter what I did, I always ended up on that altar.

Wasn't there a scene like this in Conan the Barbarian, but with more boobs?!

I restored once again back to The Concourse, but this time I tried to figure out if there was another path I could take. Guass seemed to be suggesting that I could avoid dreaming somehow, but I wasn’t sure how. I turned to my sci powers, and was stoked to find that if I used the Brainwarp power on one of the guards, it gave me enough time to enter the room they were guarding unopposed! I therefore went back to the original plan of checking out each pathway from left to right. The left most doorway took me to the Guard-Room, where I was confronted by “many protozorqs”. Gauss just had time to tell me that I’d gone through the “rongdor” before I was slaughtered where I stood. So...door number one was not the way to go.

Noshit!

The second door took me into a passage with some bars at the end. Through the bars I could see a chamber, half-filled with water, and there was also a bolt I could interact with just next to them. I pulled the bolt and there was a loud clunk, but nothing I could see had changed. I then passed through the bars and found myself in The Powers of the Abyss. I haven’t mentioned this room before, but I did find myself there a couple of times earlier on. It’s where I fell when I purposely jumped down the hole in the ground in The Noose, but since it was also home of the hungry Deilos, who quickly tore me to shreds, I figured it was a place I didn’t want to be. I was surprised to find myself back there now, and started to wonder whether the room served another purpose. After all, Gauss had mentioned water.

Do you care to let me see it?

I quickly realised I could use the Sticky Fingers sci power to climb into a tube in the ceiling, but there didn’t appear to be any way of getting through a slab at the top. I always ended up thrown back into the water with Deilos, and eventually dying. Even if I pulled the bolt in the chamber and then tried to retreat back to The Concourse, I was immediately confronted, and killed by, the protozorq guards. I was going to have to try door number three! This passage immediately looked more promising, first taking me into a vacant corridor, which then turned left up some stairs to another passageway that had a door off to the left and ended with a toad’s head carving. The door led to a room called Ante-Chamber, but I thought I’d investigate the carving before proceeding that way.

Shodan's little sister had none of her kin's sex appeal!

As usual, I checked in with Gauss to see whether he had anything insightful to offer. “Sumthingznot kleer” was all he had to say. I inspected the toad’s head and was told that the eye appeared worn out. I was then able to interact with the eye itself, and pressing it made the wall spin round, and me with it! The room I found myself in was called A Hidden Place, and there was a cadaver lying in the middle of the floor. There was also a lever on the wall and a trap-door on the wall, but I couldn’t help but wonder whether searching the cadaver would offer positive results. I chose to “go and search” the body, and was immediately crushed when the ceiling dropped to the floor. Well I guess that’s what happened to the dead guy!

Well if you'd described the cadaver as being strangely flat, I may not have attempted it!

I restored and made my way back to the hidden room, then tried to pull the lever with the same result (death by ceiling). I eventually figured out that I needed to use the Sci Shift sci power to pull the lever from a distance, which would then allow me to pass through the trap-door. The cadaver appeared to be nothing more than a red herring, and an effective one at that. Only time will tell whether I was actually supposed to do something with it! Through the trap-door I found myself in an ominous place named Gallery. It was the colour of fire, and there was nothing there apart from a passageway at the end. I took it!

Raven's vindaloo ramification art exhibition failed to find an audience

Through that exit was yet another room called Gallery, but this one had two exits. Oh oh! Was this a dreaded maze!? I opened up Excel in preparation and began mapping my progress in case things got complicated. I took the left passage and found myself in Pink Gallery, which strangely looked exactly the same as the other passageways and had nothing resembling the colour pink. I pushed ahead and found a trap-door in the next room. On entering it, I was a bit shocked when I suddenly appeared back in The Noose. It turns out there’s a small trap-door high up on the wall in The Noose that I only discovered when I used my Zone Scan sci power. I couldn’t reach the trap-door now that I was in The Noose, so I restored back to the beginning of the Gallery maze.

Pink Gallery: Not pink

This time I went straight ahead from the second Gallery room before taking the next left. I was now in a room called Downward Gallery, and pushing ahead brought me to a room with Water flowing into it. Entering the water took me straight back to The Powers of the Abyss, which is the room beneath The Noose where Deilos attacks and kills me. So far, taking any path off the straight and narrow in “the maze” had resulted in bad results, so I restored once again to the first Gallery room and moved straight ahead four screens. I found myself in a cavern, and there were two people standing in front of me!

Ash and Normajeen's presence was a welcome change to the solitary task at hand

I recognised the characters straight away from the presentation that was part of the game’s introduction. They were Ash (described as an old gink) and his daughter Normajeen. At first they were very sceptical about me, but I obeyed their orders to remain still and told them the truth when asked questions, eventually winning them over. Unfortunately, despite me being friendly to them, Gauss quickly alerted the Netwerk of their location, much to their disgust. The two of them appeared to be rebels, who are now hiding in the cavern from the Protozorq. That would make them my allies! Eventually the conversation ran out, and while there were two doors ahead that I still had to check out, I highly doubted there was nothing I was supposed to do with Ash and Normajeen.

Um...sorry?

Gauss was of no help, but a Zone Scan revealed a stone slab beneath Ash, which he got off as soon as he realised I’d located it. The two of them had been unable to open it, despite trying for quite some time. I simply clicked the slab and selected lift to open up what turned out to be a tomb with a mummy in it!  The Objects in the Room light came on, and clicking it revealed that there was a flask and a bean in the tomb. I picked them up and then began investigating the tomb. I found an inscription that said “Prass will drink to dispel the mists of mind. Feed this to dead prass, that he may live once more to die.” It seemed pretty obvious that I needed to give the flask and bean to the mummy, so that’s exactly what I did. The mummy opened its eyes!

...then does absolutely nothing...at all!

I felt like I was onto something big by awakening the mummy, yet I didn’t seem to be able to do anything else with it. Unwinding its bandages resulted in it disintegrating, so surely that wasn’t the right thing to do. Talking to Ash and Nomajeen revealed nothing else either after restoring, so I just had to leave the cavern behind and move on through the Gallery maze. I’ll have to end this post here, despite feeling like I’m getting quite close to some sort of climax. I really am getting to the end of this insanely busy time at work, but in the meantime I have to limit my time spent gaming and posting to just enough to feel like I’m making progress. I have no idea how long Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess actually is, but if Ilmari’s comment about expecting a Won post shortly comes to fruition, it may happen in the next few days.

Oh boo hoo hoo...we all have bad days you know!

Session Time: 1 hours 00 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours 00 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: I've written a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!