The Longing-ist Playthrough: Day 2 – 02/01/2022 – 398 Days 19 Hours 07 Minutes and 29 Seconds to go…

“I dreamed about my death. First I heard a scream, and then I fell from a great height.”

The Shade

Well, that’s certainly a point to start on. I’m suddenly rather thankful I didn’t ask him to jump down to the [crystal mine]… I decided to draw another sketch before I left for the evening, and flicking through the choices with the new colours I realised that I could combine them to make different and better pictures! That’s a pretty sweet feature! The ones using black, white and red are all pretty terrifying though! I asked the Shade to draw a crescent moon in black and white and he did a good job – a perfect bad moon now hangs above the desk. Shade mentions that time moves more quickly in the presence of beautiful art, and indeed, the timer has sped up again. Time to get out of here.

Opening the menu, I ask the Shade to return to the [moss room]; I didn’t really know where to start but I know I left some unfinished business in that spiky corridor that I wanted to check out. I watched on as the Shade pottered his way through the tunnels up to the [moss room], asking him to stop and collect any loose coal on the way. Rather annoyingly, you have to tell him his destination again each time you stop, but I felt like getting a stock of coal was more important than having to keep clicking over and again. 

Watching him shuffle his way around the maze of tunnels, I released I was getting kind of attached to the little coal-skinned fella. It feels weird to just call him ‘The Shade’ when we’re going to be hanging out for the best part of a year – I should probably give him a name. I decided on ‘Monty’ since my girlfriend, quite rightly, pointed out that he bears a decent resemblance to ol’ Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons. Sorry buddy, but it was that or Smeagol and we know how it ends for him, so…

We reached the [moss room] and to my surprise, the moss was ready to be harvested! Awesome news. Though I have no idea what I’ll use it for…  I asked Monty to walk the length of the long room in both directions and probably picked up around ten pieces in total, which feels like a pretty good haul. In the process Monty muttered something about using it to build something comfy for himself, and I seriously hope it’s a bed. I genuinely feel crappy having him sleep on the cold floors of the cave. 

With that all done I ask Monty to head to the spiky-looking corridor from yesterday. Heading left we find more moss but that’s not ready yet… (never mind – I can always grab that tomorrow…), and eventually a dead end. Backtracking to the right, we came to a deepish divot in the ground right that’s in front of a tall wall – there’s no way Monty will be able to get up there. Looking and listening closely, there’s a dripping from the roof and it’s falling right into the big divot.

“This little droplet is going a lot of hard work” 

Monty

Dammit, another delay in exploring!  Monty tells me that it’ll take about a month for the little droplet to fill up the hole completely so I guess we’re not getting up there until bloody February! Maybe we can get there from the other side? I checked my screenshotted map and it certainly looks like I can make it from the other side, so I sent Monty on his way.

Nice try, dummy. 

Ah, shit. It turns out the other way around is the blocked door to the [library]. Well, at least we know that’s entirely off limits for now. Wondering what to do with ourselves, I decided to check that screenshot map again and head for as high up as we can go – there seems to be a network of tunnels up there that we definitely didn’t get chance to explore last night. On the way up there Monty stumbles on a broken piece of wood that he thinks would help him make a bed… Jackpot – but was that there yesterday? Did I miss it?

Monty arrives at a new area; the bottom of a zig-zagged staircase that he says leads to the caves ‘beyond the Earthen Palace’.

“I don’t think the King would like it if I ventured out there.”

Monty

Hmm, maybe we should turn back? There’s slow and sinister organ music here that certainly looks to dissuade me from going any further, but I decide to go just on just a little bit. I’m sure Monty will warn me before we break the rules. Reaching the top of the stairs, I see a large and imposing closed door in the centre of the wall.

“This is the exit of the palace. I’m allowed to explore other parts of the kingdom, but I should be careful”

Monty

Awesome – so he is allowed here. I ask Monty to open the doors, but like the first ones we encountered, these are old and incredibly stiff. Monty comments that they’ll take two hours to full open and that’s longer than I’m expecting to hang out with him today. I guess I know where we’re going tomorrow though…

With that blockade we leave the [exit of the Palace] wander around a little bit, accidentally ending up at the [broken stair]. I remember Monty’s dream about the great fall, and hope that it’s actually a hint about where to go next, and so send him in that direction. I seriously hope it’s a clue and not a premonition of what will happen when he does what I’m about to ask him to do… 

Arriving at the drop near the [crystal mine], I take a deep breath and sidle Monty to the edge… And just when I’m expecting to get the option to ‘Jump Down’, Monty points out that there’s a pile of moss growing below that will provide him a soft landing… In two weeks. God dammit. What now?

We head back to the [treasure room] and double-check the other routes, including a small staircase that I think we missed yesterday, but after consulting the map, I think we’ve been everywhere that we can get to for now. Have to wait for the exit to open and check up there in the morning. I ask Monty to head back home in the hopes that a bed will have been built but when we arrive there’s no change yet. I guess it was a long shot. I took a quick glance over the books that were available to read on the bookshelf but nothing really caught my eye… Moby Dick – I must have tried to read that book about 10 times over the past few years and gave up every time.

Deciding that we’d want a swift start tomorrow, I sent Monty back up to the [exit of the Palace] to wait for the doors to open and called it a night.

Continue reading: Day 3