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Completed Diary Of A (Mad?) Man - A Codexian Nightmare. (DREAMWEB) - COMPLETED

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
SO, how about getting to the next page. The final chapter is shaping up to be pretty big...


EDIT:
whoops, already there.
 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
< 12 > - < JUST THE JOKER REMAINS >



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The path I've taken brings me into dark depths of this abandoned church. Riccitiello must be somewhere beyond this point. I'm inclined to move on...

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I find myself in a small square room built from stone blocks. The ceiling is high above me and through the small opening in it I can see the dim light from inside the church. An ancient sarcophagus dominates the room :

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Bracing myself, I give the stone slab a heave...

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I take a look inside :

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Among the old bones, I discover a dagger and a couple of red gems :

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In a nearby jar I find a third identical gem. I put the candlesticks on the ground to empty some inventory space and check the room...

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There must be some way out !



A peculiar stone tile on the floor grabs my attention :

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These holes seem just right for the gems I found...

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For a while I feared that this might end up being my own tomb, but it seems luck is on my side.

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The caverns here are fairly wide. This tunnel leads off in two directions into the gloom. Occasionally I hear the distant dripping of water.

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A gate stands in my way. Its bars reach from floor to ceiling and each bar is a thick piece of metal. There is no lock or handle that I can see but the gate seems to come from a recess in the south wall.

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Brute force won't help me here, I decide to search the room behind me :

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So, someone was here recently. I'm getting close, but I'll have to find my way through first. As I keep on exploring the corridors, I come upon an imposing statue :

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It looks like some kind of mechanism, If only I knew the right symbol... Suddenly, I recall a drawing in that diary :

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No, this can't be... How would I know of this ?



How would I, really ?

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:KRRRRRRR:




A rattling sound is heard from the other side of the corridor, could I really...

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Somehow I was right. Refusing to think of the implications I move forward.

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I have found what appears to be the usual entrance into these underground rooms. Two large steel doors cover a doorway cut into the rock. These doors must lead to the room that was at the back of the church above me.

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My only option is to keep on walking down the corridor.

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There is some kind of cart here :

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And to my left, a dead end...

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ryan.png
No way ! Riccitiello is sure to be found in here, there must be something I've missed...



As I trace the walls of the corridor I make a startling discovery. There's some kind of door here !

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A key, great ! I use my skeleton key...


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Damn, it doesn't fit !



What kind of game is this, teasing me with key-less keyholes ? Pondering these questions I look back at the cart...


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Hmm, it rests opposite the door, if it were heavy enough, it could...



A cunning plant takes form in my mind. I start gathering all the rocks I can find :

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And load them into the cart :

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It looks heavy enough. I give it a huge push...

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:CRASH:



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:yeah:



I pick up the pace.

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Holy shit !



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The keepers suspected Riccitiello would reach Entropy. I think this is it...



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There is a sickening stench coming from the mutated remains of the priest. His flesh has stretched and split to grow into long veiny tendrils that reach across the room. Beyond them I can make out a bottomless pit....

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Unable to look at this spectacle any longer I lower my head. On the floor I spot a hole where a stone tile has been removed. Was someone else here ?

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Peering into the hole I can see a small room below.

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This appears to be a small storeroom of some description, although by the look of it the room hasn't been used for years. Through the open doorway I can see an underground railway platform.

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Amazingly, this appears to be an abandoned subway station.

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The tunnel is most worrying. The only light that I can see by is the light from the platform. The shingle between the rails is slippery and I am painfully aware of the live rail by my feet.

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I decide to go through the opening...

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WHOA !



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I find a man sitting on the floor, shuffling a deck of cards. Occasionally he picks one and throws it on a pile in front of him. When he raises his head I see a face distorted by madness and evil. He throws the cards away and stands up. He is Kotick. He is the Dealer.


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" Just the Joker remains, but not to save the day... "



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" I have lived a tortured life. So many victims. So many I have saved. "



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" I felt you coming closer to me. You see, in the end it is you who has faced death. "



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" Destruction of us is your own destruction. The keepers did not warn you of the consequences of your actions. "



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" When you die your force will be sent to the Dreamweb and wait for a controlling space. "



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" You will be caught in a vicious circle, searching for your way to escape the Earth. The other six have moved on, as we all will. "



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All this time I couldn't utter a word. His eyes glow with feral intelligence and deadly intent. I realize that I must act, or I will perish. My gun is the logical choice.



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But his knife is quicker...



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***










No, I can't die here ! The gun is slow, but my feet are faster !

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As I step into the tunnel, I hear the roaring of a coming train...



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SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER !



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At last... It has ended.



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I absorb the last of the seven, and return to the dreamweb.



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The commanding positions have been filled.



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We will now protect the web.



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From here you must return to your life. It will never be the same and the consequences will be great.



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I'm teleported back to the church.
Outside, sirens are howling.
It seems that the police has finally caught up with me.

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Put down your weapon and walk slowly towards us !



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I'm tired.
I'm drained.
I want this to end.
I haven't slept for days.
I want to sleep.
I know what I have to do.


My hand reaches inside my coat...


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***






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***






I can feel it as my essence, along with the other seven, leaves my dead body.


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They merge into one...


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And go back to the Dreamweb.


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The last thing I see, is the machine spitting out a ticket...


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A symbolic gesture perhaps, as I travel to the otherworld.


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...I think I hear laughter echoing in the vast halls of the Dreamweb...




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***







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ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
Nope. Don't expect any "happy" endings in Dreamweb. That's it. Used by the keepers, turned into their serial killer, hopefully killed some evil dudes, ended up getting killed by cops. Or maybe that was all the ravings of a man spiraling into madness. That's it. :smug:
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
Truly a trolling ending. Perfectly fitting this codexian lp :bravo:

(Seriously though, Dreamweb's ending was awesome, no happy ending for you). Then the Diary gives us another possible interpretation of the game's events which is even more disturbing.

PS: Why is it that in fiction those that supposedly pretend to be neutral are usually barely better then the villains (if not outright worse)??

PPS: Also, have the ending ost, which deserves to be heard (skip to 4:00).

 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
I deeply thank all my 10 faithful readers :salute:
This was a shitload of work, I will never do this again. (probably). But I had fun with it.

The soundtrack is indeed great. A perfect cyberpunk soundtrack and along with Alexander Brandon's DX soundtrack the best of their kind in video games. I've gathered both the in-game soundtrack (from the amiga version which had the best sound and some extra tracks) and the official soundtrack that was published in CD format and remixed/edited/merged some of it to give it bigger track length for the LP (I was planning to add youtube music videos for all chapters, but it was too much work :( ). So, if anyone wants them I've uploaded it to mediafire. Trust me, it's worth a listen :

LINK


.
 

Donaroriak

Augur
Joined
Jan 19, 2006
Messages
101
Project: Eternity
Loved this!
The game is great, although it feels a bit rushed in the later parts: at the start you can pick up a myriad of objects and they all have descriptions and actions, but then it devolves into mostly empty rooms.
 

Yoshiyyahu

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Messages
1,063
Goddamn this was excellent and brought back alot of memories. Dreamweb was always so sad and depressing, killing all these people with the knowledge that you are probably going to get fucked over eventually and have to kiss goodbye to your (albeit kinda crappy) life. Also, the soundtrack to this game was really nice, really set the mood for alot of the scenes.

Many thanks :bro:
 

Crane

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 8, 2013
Messages
1,245
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath
This was a fantastic Let's Play that actually inspired me to play through the game. Also, that soundtrack.



I remember years ago reading through an issue of computer gaming world magazine, and it had a section of "the 15 worst back stories of all time" in video games. They listed DreamWeb under this, saying:

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So, finding that issue of CGW again made me interested in finding out more about Donald Wandrei's story. The first problem is that its title is "The Lunatic Plague", not "A Plague of Lunacy". The second problem was that the story had only ever been published in an old magazine from the 30's.

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BUT! Through the magic of internet searching I found out that the story had been collected in an out-of-print anthology of pulp detective fiction, easily obtainable by buying second hand.

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So I bought the book and read through Donald Wandrei's story in an afternoon...

and I realized that it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of DreamWeb.

The premise of Wandrei's story (which is silly, features a Gary Stu protagonist named I.V. Frost, and requires that you suspend belief because I.V. figures out everything without a hint of trouble) is that there are a handful of people who have been committing strange acts (ex. an old guy was pushing a peanut up a sidewalk with his nose), refusing to stop, and when they're questioned by the police, they don't reveal anything. The "epidemic" is referred to by the protagonist as "a plague of lunacy". It has nothing to do with DreamWeb.

Well, I don't know why I thought other people would find that interesting, but there you go. Myth dispelled. Thanks again for the LP, ghostdog. May I ask how you made the title image?


The DreamWeb logo is as perfect as it could have been. Did you scan the box, or something?
 

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