cold ethyl, why are you so cold?

Discord Designs is closing one of their satellite stores, and for a limited time (until the rental runs out, the creator, Miss Kallisti Burn, has said) all two-packs of hair she has in that satellite store is 20 Lindens per pack.

This? Is in the nature of a very nice deal, go check it out.

Also, Treasure of Dragon in Desicalm is having a little haunted hunt.



Mr. Salfa Merlin (he's the fellow on the right) has made quite the inventive thing, this October. I expect similar things to be all the rage next year.

There are some glitches, though, and I'll explain those a bit later.

First off, when you rez everything in, you'll see a large poster--in Japanese. Click it to get the HUD object--it's a HUD-based haunt--and you'll also receive two notecards of instructions, one in Japanese, one in English.

First glitch: the one in English? Is in Japanese.

Loosely translated, this is what it says:

Click the poster to get the HUD. It starts in an off state. Click 'Introduction' button in the far upper right corner. Turn your Sounds to high.

Once 'Introduction' button is pressed, yellow text will scroll up in local chat. This is the story which will advance you, room to room. Once the story completes, and you press the Next button to the end of the first story, you'll be given a notecard with a landmark in it. Click on the landmark; you'll be at the next stage.

The game consists of three rooms.

Chat will also occur when you click on things in each of the three rooms. Click on everything, you never know what will be a clue.

Some items will simply say things; some will give you items.

To highlight items for use, left-click on them; the frame around them will turn gold from silver. Once selected, click the object in each room you want to use them with, and if that object can use that item, it will tell you so.

Sometimes you need to click a lot on certain items. It will eventually work, be patient.

Be careful to accept all notecards sent to you from the game; if you hit 'delete' or 'destroy' you won't be able to advance and finish.

If you have to leave during the run of the game, just detach the HUD. When you come back, and reattach the HUD, you should be taken back to that stage. If not, simply follow the instructions and get the the usual way.

If things aren't working, type 'reset' and all game functions--and all gathered items, be sure!--will vanish, and you'll start from scratch.

When the game ends, if you've done everything correctly, you'll receive a special game-based gift.

Now. Let's break this down a tad. First, you put on the HUD, which runs the length of your screen along the upper top. The far right corner is the Introduction button. Pressing it will make your screen go dead black, save for the Introduction button, the Cancel button, and the Next button.

This is normal. Don't freak out.

Read the story, then accept the notecard, and you're off. Once the port clears, so will your screen, and you'll be able to see things again.

It's a creepy and unnerving effect, to be sure, and I can see easy potential ways for something like this to be misused. On the other hand, it's sometimes cool to play along, too, and there's nothing--as far as I know--that can hurt you running through the three rooms. Also, because you're not dragging physical items from your inventory, but instead, pictured items from the top of the HUD, there's no possibility of inventory loss. We were all rather relieved by that.



This is the end room, and this was another little patch of unnerving--because rooms one and two are in Desicalm, and the third room...is not. Being ported to another entire sim while blind...I had to inhale a few times and remind myself the Japanese were not going to dump me into frothing, rabid tentacle beasts--at least without telling me so, beforehand.

Other than the hints given as the storyline advances, there's nothing that tells you, 'Do this here and with this and then go do this'. Other people may tell you, but the game itself won't. Barring that, however, it's not that hard to figure out, and when things work, you're treated to a lovely little in-HUD display, a sweet trill of repeating music, and the gift of the hunt.

All in all, worthwhile going through. Kudos to Mr. Merlin, and his friends, for putting it together.

Miss Lora Chadbourne tells me that Haunted Saddlemead is bigger and better than ever this year. Considering it charmed our very socks off last year, I'm more than looking forward to a revisitation. I'll keep you posted.

Also--having now foraged through the archives for the Saddlemead link--you people! You've plainly lost your minds. When on all the grid did I get more than fifty thousand visits on the wee blog that could?!?

*falls over thud*

I feel some sort of commemoration is in order, but what?

Well, I'll think of something. No idea what. But something.