Metroplexity

This does not prevent the albino crocodile from dragging you underwater with its Roll In Sewage attack, whether you gain it in the round the croc uses the attack or have it active from a previous round.

My suspicion is that the third skill requires a skill from the injector like Eclipse Conduit, Healing Factor, or Slags Eater or maybe Undying Heart. There don't seem to be any earthly effects that cause a noticeable physical change that would count as an improvement. (Unearthly effects might work if they're part of a category that also includes earthly ones, but it seems unlikely that the skill would only be triggered by unearthly effects.)

Goat legs normally give +2 Evasion Power and -2 Stealth Power. I'm getting +4 Evasion Power instead of the expected +2. Negative Stealth Power is not doubled.

Cat eyes normally give +2 Stealth Defense and -2 Ranged Power. I'm getting +4 Stealth Defense instead of the expected +2. Negative Ranged Power is not doubled.

Bone Spikes normally give +4 Melee Power and +2 Melee Defense. I'm getting +4 Melee Power, +2 Melee Defense and +4 Ranged Defense. That's very weird.

Elbow spikes are not giving any bonus at all other than the normal +1 Melee Power, +1 Stealth Power, +1 Melee Defense.

So, it's still pretty early, but to toss out a theory…

I'm thinking that the skill you get depends on your active effects. Monstrous Form comes from stuff that describes visible mutations. So probably both of Bone Spikes and Bone Scales counted for Al, I wouldn't be surprised if Parasitic Eye qualifies, things like that.

Undying Will probably comes from effects that describe major injuries. So Severely Charred, and probably stuff like Torn Flesh, Ruptured Organs, Rasping Teeth…

For a third skill, maybe stuff that doesn't fall into the first categories, but gives things like Strength or Reflexes bonuses? If it is just stat improvements it would seem Perception doesn't count, or the bonus from Ocean Sight isn't enough.

I got a similar result to Crypto's and got a skill. Potentially 5 more skills to final, from skills ID.

Andrea's report divides the cases into three broad groups. She cautions that those with more visible symptoms appear more frequently, which may be caused by bias in testing.

The largest and most visible group experience extreme morphological changes. Many require surgery to remove entirely new limbs, while others' records end abruptly.

You feel as though you've already begun walking this path yourself without ever knowing. As you consider the path, your flesh churns and rearranges itself.

The middle group show some changes, still appearing fundamentally human but different from their previous appearance. Andrea notes most of these changes sound subjectively like improvements.

The third and smallest group is the one she spends the most time on, noting commonalities of abnormal recovery rate and long-term memory loss. None of these individuals possessed valid documentation.

Although that certainly sounds familiar, it's hard to guess what lessons might be hiding in here, waiting for you.

You've learned a new Skill: Monstrous Form

You regain 49 hit points!

When I got the above I had:
Bone Spikes (15) (**which counts as counterculture cyberware; probably the trigger?)
Bone Scales (35)
Didn't note equipment.

Looks like the base result is this:

Andrea's report divides the cases into three broad groups. She cautions that those with more visible symptoms appear more frequently, which may be caused by bias in testing.

The largest and most visible group experience extreme morphological changes. Many require surgery to remove entirely new limbs, while others' records end abruptly.

The middle group show some changes, still appearing fundamentally human but different from their previous appearance. Andrea notes most of these changes sound subjectively like improvements.

The third and smallest group is the one she spends the most time on, noting commonalities of abnormal recovery rate and long-term memory loss. None of these individuals possessed valid documentation.

Although that certainly sounds familiar, it's hard to guess what lessons might be hiding in here, waiting for you.

Then, if you qualify for a skill it inserts a new line after the relevant line, and then some stuff at the end.

Same result from records lady for asking about Andrea's files if you've given her a flask or not.

My guess is that the "canonical place" the dusty stuff has in the Metroplex storyline is related to patient 2946, as described in Boris' personal logs and elsewhere in the Secured Files from the MBR Lab. We know she was brought in for medical treatment, which fits with the medical themes present in the dusty items. Furthermore, the foreshadowing we get in the file with all the REDACTED bits suggests she'll eventually play an important role in the game's plot.

Unfortunately, you can't actually adventure in Ground Zero so I'm not sure what practical implications this has.

I note that the message for poisoning the queen:

"The pain is unbearable, like needles digging into your flesh, but it soon passes and you find yourself staring at the world with clearer eyes."

this is NOT a failure condition (though it was reported as such on the wiki, probably by me), and can be repeated. Also of significance is the other non-failure message:

When the pain stops, you find yourself somewhere entirely different… somewhere simultaneously clearer and more complicated.

For the first message, nothing special with Clear Eyes active. Does Clear Eyes interact anywhere in the dusty encounters? Maybe another thing to test since it's described as "It's amazing how much clearer your vision is with all the grime and smog of city life washed out of it. You could get used to this."

Trying to Stand Your Ground with a mislit rusted sword or replica sword while Channeling Matsuo doesn't do anything special.

For what it's worth, I went to The Slags and tried crafting the mislit items, plus loose eyeball and serpent powder, with the items on this list and found nothing new. I wasn't Etheric, though. Also tried crafting with the shining mirror shard and found nothing.

I noticed on the wiki the following message that Greywind reported back in 2011:

(Only when used Outside the Slags or inside The Slags and with no combinable items in your inventory):

You play with the shard for a while, but only two things seem to reflect in it. One is you. The other is a monstrous vortex of green energy swirling over Ground Zero at the center of the Slags.

You check over your shoulder. Thankfully there doesn't actually seem to be a sky-devouring vortex hanging over the Slags. Wheh.

This seems really significant in light of the most recent podcast (#54) hint to look at crafting and Mag's extensive testing that hasn't lead to anything new yet.

edit: minor bug fixed; some new messages discovered.

Just randomly using it again, and got another one of the previously found messages with the bit about the map appended:

You go over the papers. The writing isn't in a language you know… it doesn't even really resemble any languages you've seen. Even comparison to that language database doesn't shed any light on the situation.

Something about it seems oddly similar to the map, however.

Since it still mentions the language database in the first part of the message, I suppose it's probably not helpful for the second part.

Tested all cooking ingredients against each other, and as of March 21st, 2020 we seem to have found everything with the available ingredients.

Data: 7, 7, 7, 8, 7, 8

Nothing special versus the Spectral Sailor, with or without the smoldering gun and/or tome of binding.

I'm trying to followup on this podcast hint:

The other category of thing also kind of involves stuff outside the mirror in a way, in that it doesn't require adventures in the mirror, but taking a different look at crafting and getting into the right groove with that.

I'm in the Summer (Lo/serpent) zone. I've given the maiden a snake skin and thereby unlocked A Reflection of the Path Before You. I have over 100 energy of Maiden's Perspective, and Fae Sight is active. So I feel like I'm in a right mindset to do special mirror crafting, if there is any. I've got at least one of each mislit and reflected item in my inventory.

Things I've tried:

• removing the antique floor mirror from my house to see if I can repair it with empty shards, either by crafting (doesn't show up as a component) or by [use]ing shards

Then, with "Fractured Reflection" as my last-visited zone (so that I'm "in" the mirror even if the hint suggests this wouldn't matter):

• checked all kinds of crafting (even Coding, just in case) to look for newly-craftable items
• checked my known recipes to see if any new recipes have silently and mysteriously appeared
• used an empty shard to see if anything new appears in the dropdown
• checked to see if there's a new multi-use option for shards (nope)
• [use]d a bunch empty shards to make mislit items to see if anything about that process has changed
• checked to see if any mislit or reflected items have gained a [use] link
• brute force tested every chemistry component in my inventory (not a totally complete collection, but fairly extensive) with mislit snake skin, on the theory that it's the most summer zone-y item so the most likely to have a special crafting result unlock (and also because there's a gap in Recipes by ID right after two other mislit snake skin recipes)
• EDIT: I also tested everything I have with the mislit flower, also to no avail.

There seem to be three missing mirror items and three corresponding recipe gaps, so it looks like maybe one zone doesn't have a special crafting recipe. But the other recipes gaps are in the vicinity of the mislit wolf tooth (Winter) and the mislit strands (Autumn), so it's probably the Spring zone that's the odd one out.

I haven't actually beaten the snake game in this incarnation (I gave the maiden a snake skin I had lying around from a previous incarnation) so I'm working on doing that now.

I notice there are three mislit weapons: the mislit mask, mislit rusted sword, and mislit torch. There's no mislit weapon that comes directly from the summer zone, but while the mislit mask comes from the Autumn zone, it's clear that the maiden in the summer zone has one. So if we're looking for a chain 6 technique (probably Ranged, maybe Stealth) to go along with Behind the Mask (chain 3), Clashing Blow (chain 4), and Blazing Torch (chain 5), seems like mislit mask doing double duty for both Autumn and Summer is our best bet. It's a long shot, but maybe having all four techniques in your deck is a prerequisite for unlocking special mirror crafting options.

Okay, got some art in along with this month's avatar, so black pasta can become a reality :)

Cheers!
Kinak

Getting the same results as Crypto. No change using one with Lotus Map and Fae Sight active. Nothing new sober with Ardent Investigator either.

The hint about being similar to the map is sort of double-edged sword. On one hand it could be hinting that we need to get a mysterious language database (since other map-related attempts haven't borne fruit). If that doesn't pan out, though, my worry is that maybe it's cluing that the blotted document skill is an alternative skill from the database and is mutex with Lotus Map.

So, I forgot to save the exact message I got the first time using these, but it indicated that I still needed to use the Survey of Modern Poetry for more information. So I did that, got the result for identifying the text as similar to node poems. I then used another, and got this result which is a slight change from previous messaging:

You go over the papers. The writing isn't in a language you know… it doesn't even really resemble any languages you've seen. Even comparison to the runes on that puzzle doesn't shed any light on the situation.

Something about it seems oddly similar to the map, however.

Also:

You go over the papers. The writing isn't in a language you know… it doesn't even really resemble any languages you've seen. Even comparison to the tablet shard doesn't shed any light on the situation.

Something about it seems oddly similar to the map, however.

I've tried using a yellowing map and ancient notes, but no obvious changes on either of those, and they don't seem to have changed what I get here.