Tenth

A few notes before you read:

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This thread was originally created on the MSPA forums, and will run in parallel with this thread. Suggestions will be accepted from both threads.

The original thread can be seen here: https://mspaforums.com/showthread.php?39153-Tenth It would be worth checking the thread from time to time just to see what other people are thinking and in case solutions have already been found there. (The same is true of this thread for those reading on the MSPA forums.)

Nom de Plume is known to some on this forum by another name. I would appreciate it if those in the know would refrain from publicly stating what that other name is. Thanks! For those not in the know, the secret is not very interesting. Don't worry. For those who aren't sure if they know or not, feel free to ask for confirmation. Preferably with the other account, because that's more amusing.

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TENTH

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Open box, get phat lewt.

You take the silk scarf from around the box first and drape it around your shoulders. It smells of faded perfume: pungent but oddly pleasant.

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Inside the box amongst a swathe off tissue paper you find a gun and a holster. There is also a note attached to the box which you take off and look at.

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Inspect the gun. How many rounds does it hold in its magazine, does it even have ammo, etc. Can we even use this gun?

You slide out the magazine of the hand pistol and examine the contents. Judging from the marks on it, this is a 9mm handgun and holds thirteen rounds. It doesn't have a safety catch, but on the trigger there's a small switch, not unlike as with the design on a Glock. Yeah. It's like a smaller version of one of those.

It looks legit. It's certainly got the weight to it, but you're a little nervous about firing it in an enclosed space to find out. Getting hit by a ricocheted bullet would be far from ideal in a place like this.

>Inspect picture on wall behind you. Not only is it dripping with religious symbolism, but it also has the letter "X" on it.

Looks like this has been painted on to the wall. Its black paint is odd, out of place in this sterile white room, but the image itself is familiar. Maybe it was a story? A story about angels, that you heard and remembered?

You don't know, because you remember nothing.

You know things, certainly. The first twenty decimals of Pi, the names and order of the planets, how to disassemble and reassemble a handgun. Things like that. The alphabet. Numbers.

A B C, I II III. The basic knowledge accumulated over a life that is absolutely useless 99% of the time.

But memories... Nothing. How long have you been unconscious down here? Why are you here? Who put you here? Did you know them?

And less pressing, but equally important questions. Do you have a family? Friends? Will anyone worry that you're gone? Did anyone love you, hate you, aspire to be you?

You don't know. And while, quite naturally, that scares you, a small part of you can't help but revel in the incredible freedom of it.

>You have a gun now, gallivant around as if you own the place, no one can tell you what to do now. Now I will tell you to go south and head out of the door.

> Go south

PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

You enter the next room but, aside from a smug devil someone daubed onto the wall, there is nothing to shoot here.

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> Explore as many of the rooms as are accessible.

Figure out the details later.

This seems sensible. But alas! Upon trying the other door you find it to be locked. Unless you can find some way to open it, you're stuck in here until then.

>Inspect debris, and then look at switch thing.

The items on the floor appear to be pieces of plastic pipe, fairly thick, cut in half lengthways and then again at the ends. The first one is longer, and about half as wide as the other. The second pipe part is about a handlength in width, and just a bit longer in length.

It's not clear where they came from.

With no leads there, you turn the switch from 0 to 1. A clear liquid trickles out of the slits in the sides of the indent in the floor and runs into the semicircular indent.

>Peek through archways on the south wall

Looking through, the running water curves around to the left. Judging from what you can see, you would say that it is a flipped version of the indent on this side of the room, but you can't say for sure.

You hear the liquid splashing down into more liquid on the other side of the wall. And, curiously, you can also hear a faint rattling of metal.

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INVENTORY

1. Gun and holster.
2. A silk scarf that smells faintly of perfume.

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> Turn off the water. Does it drain away or stay in the half-pipe?

The liquid drains away completely when you flip the dial back to 0.

Unsurprisingly, the rattling noise also stops, in addition to the sound of the fluid falling into further liquid.

> Turn the water back on and check the eastern door again.

The door remains locked, despite the recontinued flow of liquid. However, during this attempt you notice a key hole in the door. It seems clear what you need to find, but it also appears that the actual act of doing so will pose more of a challenge to your intellect.

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> Inspect painting on western wall.

The handiwork is near identical to that of the first wall painting you saw. The frenzied hand of the writing is similar too, and you would be confident enough to say that they are works of the same fevered mind. In spite of this, you are hardly as inspired as you were when you viewed the other painting. The only thing that triggers your imagination is I. One. That seems significant. And- wait.

What's that?



You peel off the tape and free a ceramic tile from the wall. You ought to have noticed it sooner, seeing as the devil was just about pointing at it. The tile itself has a pleasant weight to it and a black line painted neatly on it. There's nothing else of interest, but if the painter thought it so important so as to leave it for you, you feel you may as well hold on to it.

> Turn water off.
> Direct water from the delivery indent towards the easternmost archway by blocking the water flow towards the western-most archway. Accomplish this by setting the edges of a pipe piece against the western-most lip of the delivery indent and the outer lip of the circular indent. Use the larger piece.
> Turn water on.
> Drop the smaller pipe piece cavity-up in the stream. so that it travels clock-wise through the archways

The larger pipe fits into the indent snugly. Although you have to hold it in place, it redirects the water excellently. Pleased that the plan is working so far, you drop in the smaller piece of pipe...



...And upon shuffling around to view the half-arch better, are rewarded with the source of the rattling noise, sat on the smaller pipe.



Examining it, you find it to be a key attached to a spherical object of some sort. It appears to have two halves, and although the outside of it feels like plastic of some sort, it's surprisingly heavy.

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You're not entirely sure what to make of this one.

You're equally unsure about wanting to see what's in the incongruous room. (Incongruous for two reasons: the decor and the fact the door is wide open. You're getting a feeling that the mysteriously locked variety is more common around here.)

The message on the door itself also fails to inspire any confidence.

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>Inspect the area of the wall marked with the dashed line.

Inside the dotted lines there is a metal panel set in the wall. You immediately try and prise it out, but the craftmanship of the entire affair is marvellous and it is completely flush with the wall. You can't even dig in your fingernails in the gap at the edge of the panel. Kind of a bastard, to be honest. Pressing on the metal doesn't do anything either. If you want to get it out you'll have to find some other method of doing so.

>Examine the symbols in the two corners of the checkerboard.

>Press on this area, and also press on the "S" square.

The symbols on the chessboard appear to be nothing more exciting than a letter S and a letter F. The squares they're situated on seem to be no different than the others on the board, and as with the metal panel pressing on them seems to progress nothing at all.

>Close the door on the Eastern wall. See if there is any graffiti behind it.

You slide the door closed carefully, making sure not to fully push it back. It doesn't look like it was meant to be opened from this side of the wall.

A... letter? It's taped to the wall. You weren't expecting this, you'll be honest.

'You said I should stay with you, tell you what you need to know when you wake up. But you didn't wake up. Not after a day. Not after two days. So things won't make sense for you, but I did as you asked. I left the snippets you gave me around the test chambers. You'll find them. I blinded the Watcher, like like you asked. As long as you take the snippets with you, it'll never know.

I won't see you for a while. Perhaps never again. I think the enemy got in. There's noises - screaming, explosions, death. I probably won't survive that. And you might never wake up.

Are you alive?

Why did you have to betray us?

Turn over now.'

On the other side you find another piece of paper taped to the first.

'THE WATCHER FEARS US. HE SHOULD. HE CREATED MONSTERS.'

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I guess it is too much to hope that southern door is open? Oh you have a key, use it on that door.

Test the door to the south with your key. If it doesn't open, it doesn't look like you've got anywhere else to go.

The key doesn't work. You can't claim to be too surprised, seeing as it's already been used once. But while you're looking at it...

What's this ball thing for? A floatation device? Are they normally this heavy? And you're certain you can hear something rattling inside...

You should try using the "I" tile to interact with this floor pattern. Place it on one of the black tiles, or some such.

It seems unlikely. The floor tiles are very cold and hard, like marble, but the tile strikes as being made of something closer to clay. Not only that, but the sizes are quite dissonant and there doesn't seem to be any way of applying the tile. It was worth a try, though.

>Okay, looks like we're gonna have to proceed to the eastern room and see what lies there.

> Look through the door to the east, then test the door to the south with your key. If it doesn't open, it doesn't look like you've got anywhere else to go.

If not then try the east door.

A little hesitant, you step into the gloom and allow your eyes to adjust from the brilliant white of the previous rooms.



Ah...

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Check out the window on that door.

> Can you see through that window in the door? Assuming it's a window.

Look through Door Window.

The first thing you try, quite instinctively, is to push the door open. It doesn't move. So you peer through the glass, through the gloom of the other side.





It's quite a sight to behold. Ceilings and walls have collapsed, taking each other down with them. Curiously, a black flag sits among the mess. A great deal of rubble seems to have fallen against the door, explaining its unwillingness to open. You wonder what happened. The letter mentioned explosions... perhaps that was it. And for lack of another exit, the writer probably left through this door.

You wonder if they survived. Or if they're there now, crushed under the rubble. Just out of sight.

You hope not. It sounded like you knew each other, once.

Perhaps you even liked each other.

You don't think about much for a moment, preoccupied as you are with the sudden ache in your chest.

Before everything - sit down.

The stool is quite good quality, incidentally.

>Examine screens.

>Inspect the device!

>Inspect the computer screen, it might shed some light on what's been going on.

There are ten small screens, plus one long one. The long screen is blank. The small screens appear to have been intended to show camera feeds, labelled from one to ten. The first nine show nothing but white lines moving across a black screen, but the tenth...

Someone appears to be saying hello.

But you don't know who, you don't know why, and although it does seem familiar you can't claim to know if you're even the intended recipient. Seraph. Is that a name? Doesn't seem like it...

But it's largely irrelevant because you don't even know where that room is.

>Is that a hand scanner I see? Use it.

Hand scanner is worth a try.

> Place hand on the part of the machine that seems to resemble it.

Now use the hand scanner.

>Use the hand scanner, maybe it will let you access it in that way.

The machine whirrs for a moment, and then it quite graciously welcomes you. Assuming you are Tenth. You'd hope so, considering that you seem to have their fingerprints.



While you seem to have been locked out from the majority of the computer's functions (a security breach seems a mild term for having your walls knocked down) it does acquiesce in granting access to what appears to be a chat room of sorts.

Assuming the dating and times are accurate, it is twelve minutes past three (in the morning?) on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, 3457 years after an arbitrary starting point. You wish you hadn't forgotten the minutiae of the year system. It's a little irksome.

And The Watcher is trying to talk to you.

The Watcher [03:12:54]: Tenth. You're alive.
The Watcher [03:12:55]: It's a little ironic. In a tragic manner, perhaps.
The Watcher [03:12:55]: In any case...
The Watcher [03:12:56]: Report on your situation, General.
The Watcher [03:12:57]: I'll be honest, the thing I most interested in right now is the status of Guardian First.
The Watcher [03:12:58]: Tell me your Guardian is with you, Tenth.
The Watcher [03:13:00]: Tell me, please, that we are not completely fucked.

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> "First continues to be of assistance; don't know why you would think otherwise. No significant progress to report, I'm afraid. I'll get back to you once I have something more... concrete."
> Log off before the Watcher can object.

Tenth [03:13:39]:First continues to be of assistance; don't know why you would think otherwise. No significant progress to report, I'm afraid. I'll get back to you once I have something more... concrete.

You slam your hand back onto the scanner before The Watcher can reply, but it seems they still succeed in sending one or two words your way.

The screen flickers, then goes blank.



You don't know why you did that. You don't know where you are, your only hope for clarity has abandoned you and this Watcher was offering some kind of understanding.

By all rights, it was bloody stupid.

And yet: you're convinced that was the right thing to do. There's a memory stirring (or perhaps a feeling, mere conviction) in your mind, something you'll remember if you can just focus-



Damn it! You got distracted and now the feeling's gone. Whatever you were about to recall, it's scurried off back into the depths of your amnesia. And all you've got to show for it is an abusive note, which you assume to be from the Watcher.

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String: tencolumnsinthetempleebeshieeidwydnawnedihsbotitrenopytwluaotpimhhlptpoeeaeidofetasnlcininhpinpheivsiineiistetsetrftoseamchoyaoaareeefoundstsodcugnltasfaofhiytttprdatnlwohrkeiytoobeoiblohosvrotutuskooefitoiaduriwstrtwotisaaheiiwhgssticstnaiostsatctnnmeadlroed

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Okay.
Be rational. This guy has something you want, you have something he wants.
He wants... you... to do something for him. You want information.
Log. The Fuck. Back. On.

>Concur with above poster, log back in.

I'm not inclined to log back in to the console. First, because I'm the one who suggested we log off to begin with. Second, because the Watcher has yet to be proven trustworthy. Third, because it wants us to report in person, so I imagine logging back in to talk would only piss it off.

Let's consider this.



The Watcher has the advantage over you, and the advantage is twofold: first, they have something you want – knowledge – and secondly, they can use said knowledge in any way they want to run circles around you. You don't know if you have anything to bargain with, but the Watcher probably will. The Watcher could also feed you lies or manipulate you, and you would have no way of knowing.

Your sole advantage remains in lying and corrupting that which the Watcher knows with false knowledge, while yourself retaining an understanding of what is really true. But it's far too easy to err, especially when you know so little. Back to that problem.

Of course, all these fears could be nothing but paranoia. Mere unease, planted by the letter. You can't trust that either, not really.

So it comes down to this: is potentially false knowledge better or worse than nothing?

And considering that, are you sure you want to communicate with the Watcher again?

Until you figure that out, you're going to investigate some things.

> Inspect the keyboard. Anything odd or unusual?

It's just a keyboard. You can type with it just fine so you assume previous familiarity.

> How thick is the glass window?

Not thick. You could smash it easily, assuming it's just normal glass. It probably is. You wouldn't go to the effort to make special glass just to fit it in a wooden door.

> See if this isn't one of those piano benches with an interior compartment.

The stool does indeed seem to have a lid and a compartment inside. You tilt it, and something slides across the interior. Unfortunately, it is locked and requires a somewhat old fashioned key, you would imagine. Judging from the lock, anyway.

> Inspect the room for possible locations of cameras, concealed or otherwise.

Ah. Maybe you should have cast a glance upwards before now.

Something gleams in the corner of the room. You're going to take a closer look.



It's a camera. But somebody took it out. Possibly with a bullet. Either way, it's certainly not doing much.

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>Examine Eye painting, is it just an eye-painting, or could it be something more sinister?

Broken as the thoughts of your painter friend may seem, they do seem to be trying to tell you something. The eye fits their style. And you doubt that they put the painting in such a place without a reason.

So if you take the painting of the eye as having a meaning, then perhaps it is more than just a painting...

> Return to the previous room.

There isn't much you can do here now. You return.

> Inspect the dotted lines around the metal panel. Are they segments of tape? If so, peel them off. If not, then of what material are they comprised? Pay special attention to the scissors symbol.
> Try tracing the dotted lines with your clay tile. With the black line towards the wall, start at the scissors and proceed counter-clockwise.

You examine the dotted lines again. Unlike the sloppy painting of the messages on the walls, these appear to have been done with a spray can and a stencil. Unfortunately, that does just make them paint. Nothing special.

> Inspect the checkerboard tiles. Is there one you can pry loose?

You investigate the checkerboard tiles, and find them to be just that. Also nothing unusual.

> Inspect the room for possible locations of cameras, concealed or otherwise.

Ah.



It's in a similar state to the previous camera you saw. A crossed out eye is painted here too. Two of them, in fact, but the smaller one seems a little different.

> Inspect the symbol on the door to the console room.

Another gift from the painter. A shield, perhaps? Yes... a shield. You think...

...you think...



...you remember something. But the shapes are vague, the meanings swept away. Shield and sword.



Sword and shield.

And fiddle with that key-sphere some more. See if you can twist the halves off or something.

Mind still whirling a little from the half-remembered, you turn you attention to the key of the door in Room 0. It's a little stiff, but the two halves untwist just fine.



A strangely shaped magnet and another tile. Not the same as the other tile, though. They're the same size, but the black stripe on this one is thicker. Odd.

What do you do?

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>Would it be that you are supposed to battle some kind of great foe? Were you a knight?

You'd like that. Out of all of the possibilities, you can't imagine a better past than to be a gallant knight, serving justice and acting out of honour, the evildoers of the land falling in your wake.

A wonderful fairytale.

But the role laid out for you seems to be a darker one. Something terrible happened, and the Watcher blames you. Even your painter

'why did you have to betray us?'

places fault with you. It's possible they had some faith in you, but now they're

DEAD

somewhere else. Who do you have left to judge you favourably? Fifth, maybe? He might be

DEAD

alive still. Maybe he can help.

You don't want to be a monster. You don't want blood on your hands. You don't want them to be

DEAD



You need to get out of here.

What do you do?

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> Get up. If you weren't a knight before, you can sure as hell try to be one now. Which means that, if there's any chance of doing some good, you're going to take it. And that means that you need to get moving.

...Yes. You are no Sir, not yet, and perhaps not ever, but you can act as one. You can do something.

You can stand.



The uncertainty and fear threaten to overwhelm you, but you can do this. You will do this.

> Think. If you stop thinking, you have failed. Order your thoughts.

You will not be lost.

> Five options: open the bench, remove the section of wall, find the significance of the chess board, figure out Five's message, or contact the Watcher again and ask for a solution. Figure out which of these to focus on.

> The last is unacceptable. The Watcher is not yet trustworthy. It's likely he will never be. The bench requires a key; you cannot risk breaking the lock for fear of destroying whatever is inside.

You will not be weak.

And you will not be reckless.

> You might be able to use the magnet to pull the section of wall out, assuming it's made of magnetic material.

The haze lifts, and one sorely needed solution clicks into place. You're feeling better already.

Of course. The magnet will give you the grip you need to remove the panel.



It slides out easily and reveals a small cache of items.



Another tile, an envelope and a strange sculpture. The second item demands the most attention, so you slide it out carefully and flip it open. It contains a single sheet of paper.



The words printed upon the paper read as follows:

‘I was War.

I was the lone man. Hands red, heart black, my eyes always to the North.

I was the exalted woman. One hand held steel, the other poison. I marched my army endlessly to the Northeast.

I was the iron noble. My sword was not my own. I fled far to the West, and then to the South.

I was the man of cloth. I promised glory brighter than death. They believed me even as they fell, and I walked both South and East until the end.

I was the hated follower, feathered black on fields of red. I followed the carnage North, always lurking one step behind.

I was the common soldier. I died and I died and I died and yet I still walked on in futile advance.

I was War.’

In the darkness of your memory a thousand stories swell up, just out of reach, then vanish again. Something about this... poem? seems familiar, in a vague sort of sense.

There is a point to this, and you will find it.

What do you do?

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> But hey! Another one of those tiles! Also, examine that sculpture. How heavy is it? Can we look at it from another angle?

You examine the sculpture carefully. It's reasonably heavy, perhaps a kilogram or so, but curiously seems to be more weighted towards the base of it. In terms of appearance it's not intricate: the shape is simply that of a cuboid with two smaller cuboids of equal size cut out from the top.

If you had to judge the stone it was carved from, you would guess some kind of white marble.

It also appears to have a folded up card taped to the back of it, so you peel that off and unfold it.



Another so-called snippet. Apparently written by yourself? You think that's what the letter from earlier was getting at.

You wonder what war the writer is referring to. Who is fighting? Why?

It seems more likely for the Iron Noble to be the Knight, and the Hated Follower the Rook. It would be best to keep these other things aside for now and check the checkerboard(?) in the center of the room.

There isn't much to check. You've examined it once before. The tiles are cold and smooth, carved from some kind of stone. You don't know much about rocks, so you're going to guess marble again. There are sixty-four tiles arranged in an eight by eight square, half black and half white with the colours alternating. Pressing the 'S' and'F' does nothing. You'll assume the same for the other tiles.

What do you do?

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>Try placing that on 'S'.

Seems reasonable.



And sure enough, a satisfying 'click' confirms your suspicions. Further investigation proves that the sculpture is now stuck the board, but it can still slide vertically, horizontally and diagonally on the board.



What do you do?

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Try sliding it straight to the F square. That's almost certainly not the solution, but it's worth seeing if anything will happen.