#AA3333

[whichcraft]

[ COLOR ]

Hey, so. Maybe this is a stupid question, but I guess I just figure that sometimes somebody's gotta be That Guy and ask it, so:

Has anybody actually done that quest about burying people alive, and relatedly, are we all in basically general agreement that as quests go that one is pretty fucked up? Like I'm just wondering if we've got a consensus on that here.

...

Okay and I guess if you DID do it, did you get anything good out of it, or was it one of those backfire quests where instead of a sweet prize you just get horror and sadness? Again, just wondering. Professional curiosity.

Comments

[whichcraft]

I mean, it SEEMS like there's an escalation going on here, but I think it's also important to look at what the town is doing when one of us acts on it. Like, do we get rewarded for doing the shitty thing, or is it some kind of trap quest where if you do it, you actually get shafted.

I had nightmares for like a week after I did the color-stealing one, for example. So why make us do it in the first place? Just to see if we'll resist?

[messianic]

That's true too. Maybe we should look at it from a fairy tale perspective? Why would this sort of quest be a thing? Why are the "rewards" the way they are? Everything here seems like some sort of fairy tale, so it has to be for a reason, right?

[whichcraft]

Ummmm. Okay, let's see. Sketchy fairy tale stuff is usually about following directions? Like, you don't see a lot of fairy tale things that encourage critical thinking, it's more along the lines of "do what you're told instead of being a skeptic because you were told this for a reason".

I mean, there are exceptions, but fairy tales were teaching tools. So the lesson they taught over and over was keep your word and do as you're told.

[messianic]

You're right, I think. From what I remember from fairy tales, that's a pretty strong theme.

Which makes the stealing color quest kind of an oddity, I think... the nightmares were totally a punishment, right? Not a reward for following the instructions.

[whichcraft]

I'd definitely call them a punishment.

But what's weird is that — I mean, they were definitely bad nightmares, but they were specific nightmares. Not just things that would scare me. It was the same thing, over and over again, and I got to feeling like it was trying to tell me something so I followed it out into the woods.

The people I went with are both gone now, but I remember. It was some hinky shit but I think the people who lived here in the past went out into the woods for some reason, like I did, and I was following the same trail that they walked.

[messianic]

That's...kind of alarming. Does that mean that the townspeople also stole color somehow? If it's a cause and effect thing.

Or maybe if it's a punishment, it's a punishment the townspeople had to deal with too.

Did you find anything useful out there?

[whichcraft]

Yeah, the path led to this giant-ass tree in an open clearing in the woods, and some weird specter things that were hanging out there. We tried to talk to them but when we did we just got hit with this barrage of psychic mumbo-jumbo about how our true love was doomed.

Sounded kind of like the little fairy tale that Mr. F keeps updating every time we get a new set of quests, if you ask me.

[messianic]

Yeah, that sounds almost worryingly similar. I didn't think it was just a story with the way it keeps updating. It's too important to be that.

But now I'm starting to think it's even more relevant than I thought about before.

I hope it's not a "doomed to repeat it" sort of scenario.