Blaugust Entry, Day 24
Today was a day off from work. A large part of it was spent with my son. He turned four yesterday. We went to the forest preserve, took a walk on the bike trail, kicked the soccer ball around, rolled it down repeatedly off a hill, and picked up some acorns. Then, we went to the mall and visited the Lego store, then to the kid’s play-place, then to McD’s for lunch and a big serving of soft-serve ice cream. I took him to the music store to see if he would be interested in anything – I think he enjoyed pressing buttons on keyboards and turning turntables more than actually making sounds. I got him a cheap harmonica in the end. It’s a start, at least.
The evening was spent playing ARK and The Longest Journey. I have to say it was an interesting adventure in both.
In ARK, I went out on a hunting expedition with my Trike and Dilophosaurus to a nearby watering hole. It was a total disaster.
I wanted to find some larger prey, and maybe a Raptor to tame. I took on what I thought was a lone Trike. There were two of them. After a bit of a scramble, we managed to take care of them. It wasn’t over yet. I’m still getting used to my dinos’ aggression settings, and because of the way it was set, my Dilo decided to attack a pair of Stegos which were peacefully munching on grass. Armed with tranquilizer arrows, I ran to the rescue with my Trike and managed to finish them both off. I used quite a few of my arrows by then.
Deciding that I should head back, I pulled out my map and compass, as the terrain was heavily wooded and very hard to see past my surroundings. The path I took led me straight into a Carno, a big, bad, meat-eating machi…dino. It was one of those frozen, “Oh, shit…” moments. My dinos were set to passive aggression after the Stego incident, so they didn’t fight back. Amidst the confusion, I managed to set my Dilo’s aggression back to fight the Carno. I used up the rest of my remaining tranquilizer arrows on it while it managed to mortally wound my Trike. It killed my Dilo as well just before it went down. I barely escaped with my life.
I salvaged what I could of the meat and saddle from the corpses, and with no ammunition left, I checked my map once more and bolted for the direction of the shoreline where my fort would be. I made it home, breathless and shaken. It was my first major encounter and loss since my series of death as a naked straggler on the beach. I wish I had remembered to run Forge in the background so I would have something to show of it. Afterward, I tamed a couple more Dilos and another Trike to take the place of the old one. I need to practice controlling my dinos better so I don’t repeat this incident the next time I go out.
Later in the day, I spent some more time playing The Longest Journey. I finally reached Chapter Four, and it’s starting to get interesting. The long dialogues haven’t changed. One thing the game doesn’t lack is exposition and backstory. I pulled out my anatomy coloring book and set to work.
The one major conversation which impressed me so far today, and maybe in this game, is the one with Abnaxus, the Venar. They are a species who somehow transcend time, and perceive the past, present, and the future simultaneously. Their speech reflects this, and really brings about a fantastic flavor to the narrative beyond the usual fantasy and sci-fi tropes.
I was also impressed by the selection of books at the Sentinel Enclave’s library. They are akin to the lore books found in the Elder Scroll Series, but instead of being scattered throughout the world, there were these dozen or so selected books presented in this one location. Some were histories of the land, some were tales of legends, but they fleshed out the world of Arcadia with their selective glimpses into this magical world. From what I could gather from all the details of prophecies and whereabouts of sacred objects for my mission, it seems like I have a very long way to go. The Longest Journey, indeed.
Onward, to Day 25!
This month-long blogging challenge is almost over! For more info and more bloggers, check out the official Blaugust page.
Music Challenge #11
A Track-a-day Challenge as an exercise in establishing efficient creative-workflow.
Ugh.. the mix is pretty bad. That’s what happens when you use the same tone for all the guitar parts with a careless use of reverb. I apologize.
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