The Longing-ist Playthrough: Day 9 – 09/01/22 – 382 Days, 21 hours, 47 Minutes and 25 Seconds to go…

While I was keen to bounce back after a pretty disastrous Day 8, I didn’t have much time to spend with Monty on Sunday, with my gaming backlog and TV sports already on my agenda. I kept the play time really short, but my, oh, my was it a successful little session!

I picked up with Monty having finished the first volume of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, so I now fully expected him to have a good grasp on 19th century philosophy… Since he was so poorly versed in it before… 🙄 and we set off for [The Face in the Wall] after a few toots on the old horn. (It was a six-repeater, a long three-er and another six-repeater, for anyone keeping track.) I wanted to get the questions from the Face again, so that I knew what I had to work towards, and to try and cover up the cracks in my broken journalistic ego.

It was a quick ‘hi-howareyou-whatwerethosequestionsagain?’, some screenshots (which you can find below), and then on to the [crystal mines] to see if that moss had finished growing into a safe, albeit damp, crash pad yet. We toddled in the doorway and over to the ledge, and I was overjoyed when I saw Monty clamber off and let go, landing safely on his bony butt on the mound of lichen below! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! YES. Y-E-S!

As Monty walked across the lower platform, a pure white light came into view; it emanated from a huge cluster of white crystals jutting out from a broad pool. The music changed to a twinkly, mysterious affair, filled with bells, and a series of waterfalls became visible behind the gleaming white crystals. As much as I’d love to write that I was in awe of the crystals and transfixed by the mystery of the place, my brain was focused on one thing and one thing only… Get me my MATTOCKKKKKK! ⛏⛏⛏

I hurried Monty up the stairs and had him snatch up the mattock, lest it be stolen by some previously unseen, mischievous cave-beasty… It really would be just my luck. With the mattock safely in Monty’s hand, I was pretty happy with myself – we had just secured possibly the most valuable item in progressing our exploration to date, and I had only been playing for 20 minutes. Happy that the session had been a success even if I achieved nothing more for the rest of the way, I bid Monty cross the broad pool in order to explore what was beyond.

“The beauty of this waterfall reminds me why I love to serve the king.”

Monty

I mean, fair play. This is probably the nicest place we’ve visited so far, and if the king nurtured it to look like this then he deserves some credit. Monty waded through the pool, which at one point came right up to his nose – I was half worried he might be submerged entirely! It doesn’t bode well for you getting up the steep divot when the [water droplet] is finished, mate! The other side of the pool revealed a cave mouth that opened up to reveal a roughly hewn stone ramp way that doubled back over the waterfalls; it mostly likely linked up with the stairs where I found the mattock…

“I once dreamed that I was the king myself. What a beautiful dream that was.”

Monty

Wow. Now that was unexpected! I honestly hadn’t ever considered Monty to say something like that! I wonder, Monty, would you be a good king, or a tyrant? Monty finished wandering through the tunnels, which had slowly become less well-worked and began to look more natural, and indeed popped out at the top of the stairs near the mattock. There was a small white speck on the ground that turned out to be another piece of chalk so Monty scooped it up… Maybe there’s only so many uses in each one of these – I’m glad I found another one.

The environment here was strange; the stairs near the mattock were well carved from a dark, grey stone, but the caves beyond seemed only half-finished and looked to be of a wilder, more earthy material. Perhaps there was nothing in it, but it seemed like a place that was in transition (or something) and it stuck in my mind.

Monty then finished his loop and came out back at the [crystal pool] (which is now what I’ll call this place), so – mattock collected – I thought it was only right to try it out. I prompted Monty to whack at one of the smaller white gems protruding from the pool but when he warned me it would take some time to break, as the stone was so tough, I thought we’d better leave it for now and instead headed home.

I remembered another note from Monty’s diary… another one I have neglected to share here 😅… that the stone in [our room] was soft, and might be able to be excavated if he had a mattock. If that was true then I think I might be able to make more space by leaving Monty to dig a little overnight. We could make so much room for activities!

Arriving back home, I moved Monty to the far end of the room and, sure enough, he offered a prompt to start using the mattock in the corner! Amazing. I’ll leave him to it until tomorrow and see if we can’t make room for a bed…

“Let’s see how far I will get.”

Monty

Continue reading: Day 10