Resolving Stalkers Season 5 [Archive] - Pokémon Crossroads Forum

View Full Version : Resolving Stalkers Season 5

Neo Emolga

02-27-2021, 11:11 PM

Well, first thing first, I had to start this poll as I’m really struggling to keep Stalkers 5 going and I think the number of remaining people that are still participating is very low at this point (to the point where I don’t think completing the game under the standard method is possible now). I can’t blame the people who left, either, I haven’t been that active and this has been going on since October. I also haven’t gotten much done in the way of narrative posts because I’m busy and I’m kind of burnt out as well.

So here are the options on how we could go forward with this to finally finish this up, because I think it’s time. I’ll admit I pulled the same mistake that was done in Season 2. I made Stalkers 5 too big and too long and by the time I realized what I did wrong, it got to be too late and despite attempts to make things easier, it just hasn't been easier on me anyway.

I don’t want to outright pull the plug and end it (unless everyone agrees to it), so here’s some remaining alternatives that I think might be good to do to give this some decent closure. As nice as it sounds, there’s no “let’s just keep going as is” option because I’ve tried doing that and it’s just wearing me out and not working despite my best intentions and efforts.

OPTION #1 - KEEP GOING, BUT IN A STRIPPED-DOWN VERSION

This is the ultimate “let’s just cut to the chase already” scenario. And this is what it entails.

It will be assumed all components of the Sin Purge Ritual (United Universe, Holy Divinefire Reedmer, and Dawnlight Reckoning Summing) have been completed. Where it currently stands, these things are about 50% done. With these considered done, there’s 0% chance of a bad ending (under normal circumstances, the less of these three parts you had completed, the worse the ending would have been).

All Stalkers revealed. You’ll know exactly who the Stalkers are, as it will be assumed you finished all the routes and got to see who is who. I also have noticed a few of the puzzles have been abandoned and things are stuck at a deadlock because of that (and it hasn't been realized yet). It’s another thing that’s telling me the cord needs to be cut on that.

Searching and Interviewing are no longer options. You won’t need to do this, and you guys have more than enough weaponry, armor, and money to do what would be left. So what exactly would there be left to do? The simple answer is whoever is left in the game will fight off the remaining Stalkers and once the last Stalker is eliminated, you win. Basically, whoever is still left in the game will arm themselves to the teeth, you guys pick which Stalker you all want to fight, and the battle will play out so there’s at least some game and storyline element feeling to it along with some closure of having earned the ending.

The Phylacteries will be taken out. Instead, you’ll have to fight every Stalker, though you guys will probably not have too much trouble with it as long as whoever is remaining gears up.

OPTION #2 – FAST FORWARD TO THE ENDING

Personally, this is probably the option I’d choose.

Simply put, I just write the ending as if all the remaining components were completed successfully and you see what I had in mind for the ultimate ending. This also means Stalkers RPG is done for good and we close the book on it.

OPTION #3 – JUST END

Kind of like a Monopoly game that’s gone on until 2am, sometimes it’s just best to end it and get on with life. In terms of the overall storyline, this ends the game as if it didn’t happen.

The only difference between this and Option #2 is the slim possibility I may decide to try and “restart” Season 5 but with a MUCH smaller package. Certain things will need to be removed. Combat, while nice, just takes too long and takes too much energy to resolve. Map would be much smaller, Stalker routes would be much smaller, I might consider taking out weapons and just have armor and jewelry for dealing with traps and such. But again, this all is under a big “IF” umbrella that’s no guarantee, because I’m badly sacked for time and energy.

So with all that said, please vote on what option you’d like to go with. I’m leaving this open until March 5th, but if there’s a tie or I don’t get more than five votes, I’m going to default to Option #2.

EmeraldSky Noblejanobii Scytherwolf SlickSlack Lychee AD Suicune’s Fire Shruikan Chibi Altaria Bulbasaur James-Typhlosion TylerNinetales

02-28-2021, 12:00 AM

I accidently picked option 1. I meant option 2. Sadge.

Lychee

02-28-2021, 03:31 AM

I appreciate all the effort you've put in is monumental!
But yes, this hulking beast has so many add-ons and cool features that it's become unwieldy to play! I'm glad you've addressed it.

That said, I hate to leave things undone- I'd rather see everyone die in an accelerated fireball of a bad end than just leave the thread to languish forever. "Fast forward to the end" doesnt have to be a full win.

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 09:17 AM

I think we should go for the stripped down ending. Sure, it may be less satisfying as all this work would be done for us, it would also be a perfect run as if everyone banded together even if they weren't here.

But with the way Neo describes this 'Ultimate Ending' it's actually rather enticing to me, even though I've already voted. Regardless, it'll never be the true end of the Stalkers. As Neo said, spinoffs and other things anecdotally possible! So whatever you do is perfectly fine by me.

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 12:07 PM

I accidently picked option 1. I meant option 2. Sadge.

No worries, thanks for the heads up about that.

I appreciate all the effort you've put in is monumental!
But yes, this hulking beast has so many add-ons and cool features that it's become unwieldy to play! I'm glad you've addressed it.

That said, I hate to leave things undone- I'd rather see everyone die in an accelerated fireball of a bad end than just leave the thread to languish forever. "Fast forward to the end" doesnt have to be a full win.

Yeah, in trying to make this the grand finale, it ended up being way too demanding and unwieldly. I really wanted to make the combat and inventory system work because it seemed so nice on paper, but it’s an absolute doozy to put the time and energy into and I have found myself plugging multiple hours into individual posts because of it. Before in previous seasons, it was maybe 30-45 minutes, which wasn’t so bad. It was also easier when there was only one item or thing to find in each location. When you plop in like 3-4 like I did for this one, add a combat instance, and have to roll things like loot drops, that bumps it up significantly. Individually those things don’t seem too bad. When you pile all those little things up together, it becomes a flood.

In hindsight, the issues were:

The combat system is cool, but it’s too much of an extra to tack on. Even if it works and is fully functional (have to credit Suicune’s Fire for managing to come up with a great working system), it’s just a lot of extra time required and I also made too much use of it with adding random encounters. Not to mention Huskpuppet’s route had a whopping 9 combat encounters intended, so even though you had done 2 of them, there were 7 more to go. 4 would have made more sense.
Stalker routes (the path that the players need to take to find the Phylactery and discover who the Stalker is) were too darn long again. I get this crazy fix of great ideas to use for them, they pile up, and then when they get put together, it’s a mess for me to manage and I see the players having a tough time with them. I’m also looking back at some of the Sin Purge ritual stuff and I did the same thing with those as well.
Some of the puzzles for Stalker routes were too difficult and I saw two of them go abandoned (The Corrupted Children’s Book and the Deranged Codec).
Player inventories were probably too big as well. Utopian Aspect was a nifty idea, but not really needed. If I dropped combat, then weapons weren’t needed either. I think armor and jewelry would have been fine as shields and bonuses to stats to deal with the traps and stuff that were around. But even so, a lot of people didn’t really even bother with the equipment stuff (they had heaps of items to choose from, but didn’t really bother picking anything out to equip). That pretty much tells me it wasn’t needed and people weren’t really too attached to it, so I think it could be completely stripped out. Season 3 didn’t have them and it worked fine.
Map size was huge. I really wanted to try and make a city setting work for once (especially because it was to be the site of the ultimate end) and boom, it just doesn’t. Small towns and villages are really the only thing that work for this. 40 or fewer searchable locations and a suspect list of 30 or less just make more sense.

But yeah, like you said, too many add-ons and features made this a time-devouring beast. I found it hard to set aside the time to do narration posts for Stalkers simply because it required huge chunks of it (also requires me to have like 9 tabs open for all the stuff involved!) and splitting them up into multiple sittings does make it tricky to pick it back up again as I would need to remember what I updated and what I didn’t. That’s very prone to mistakes…

Where Stalkers had its appeal before is just reading about your character doing stuff and finding out what dark things they run into. Looking back, that should have been more of the focus.

In the end, I would way prefer to resolve it some fashion rather than let it hang indefinitely. To me, closure in some way, even if the idea didn’t quite work out as intended, has to happen eventually. Leaving people hanging isn’t fun and nobody likes that…

I think we should go for the stripped down ending. Sure, it may be less satisfying as all this work would be done for us, it would also be a perfect run as if everyone banded together even if they weren't here.

But with the way Neo describes this 'Ultimate Ending' it's actually rather enticing to me, even though I've already voted. Regardless, it'll never be the true end of the Stalkers. As Neo said, spinoffs and other things anecdotally possible! So whatever you do is perfectly fine by me.

You would get the good ending either way. Option 1 just has the final Stalker battles, chopping out all the long narration stuff I did for the other posts. When it comes to the battles themselves, there would only be a max of four players involved, though. Having everyone in the same battle would be massive and hard for me to manage.

Spinoffs are possible. There was a parody version of Stalkers called “Squawkers” released on an April Fools Day that essentially took the same game engine but made everything silly, goofy, and cartoonish. And it actually worked, although that didn’t finish either because another major PXR event was coming up and I couldn’t manage both. But it proved you could reskin the game to different themes and such. Doesn’t need to be horror every time and exploring other possibilities could be fun.

While I don’t want to make any promises (been so busy lately), I may revisit the game engine for something else, building something akin to it with a different theme and genre. And yeah, I would try my darnest not to go overboard with it again.

I think a “rebranded” version of Stalkers that has really only the needed essentials to make it fun, less of the heavy unneeded baggage, and prepared in a way that keeps it short and sweet would be what I would do moving forward.

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 01:38 PM

EmeraldSky

02-28-2021, 03:26 PM

I'd still be open to the idea of a "fantasy" Stalkers spinoff. (unearth a fallen wizard's final plan and stop it, maybe?)

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 06:37 PM

Either way, I'm happy with our outcome. Maybe more people would join Stalkers for its simplicity, and that way we could go longer and stronger together. I would personally prefer battling the Stalkers, because I'm neutral over Labyrinth, Huskpuppet, Twistagen and Exclude, while freaking AMGERY with Obscene (They've done most of the murders if I'm right.) and Astralnox. Jeez, he or she is everywhere!
Revenge would be fine and all, but hey. I'm just curious to know who these peeps are.

Obscene had such a TWISTED surprise at the end of the route. It was set where you guys would put these three book pages together:

https://i.imgur.com/64UxznB.jpg
[1st Part of Death’s Lullaby]

https://i.imgur.com/DvBQQys.jpg
[2nd Part of Death’s Lullaby]

https://i.imgur.com/gIflNyO.jpg
[3rd Part of Death’s Lullaby]

And then actually have to actually fight Shi and Kammo together. And these bastards were set to be NASTY! It was definitely one of those fights where you'd need multiple peeps (although with the addition of the Shadowmarch gear, it probably wouldn't have been so bad...).

Astralnox was supposed to get progressively creepier, even beyond the finding your own head thing that a few people came across. There were four instances where you'd get a jigsaw puzzle (thinking about it now, four jigsaw puzzles was probably too much as well). Whoever stumbled across the puzzle would get the puzzle personalized to have their name on it with a picture of them completely EFFED UP. And heck, you saw that Pikachu and Pichu find the differences puzzle. That's what you would have looked like on these things!

I'd still be open to the idea of a "fantasy" Stalkers spinoff. (unearth a fallen wizard's final plan and stop it, maybe?)

Totally a possibility. I think of all the genres out there that I could use, fantasy seems to be the one that's the most applicable that I haven't done yet.

But yeah, I wouldn't do a post-apocalyptic scenario again. That's gotten it's time to shine already, although I'll admit it's fun to work with.

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 07:12 PM

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 07:40 PM

Huh. A double battle, and I'm pretty sure neither Kammo OR Shi is on the suspect list, so we would have needed to kill two Pokemon just to find out the identify of Obscene?
What. The. Profanity.

And those custom jigsaws you mentioned... tbh, I'm actually rather curious to see what mine would look like. I'm not easily grossed out unless it's trypophobia. Yikes...
Like, I'm a bit disappointed that this is having an abrupt-ish end but there's gonna be more to come. I'm sure of it!

Also I wonder if you passed that message on to Aglome that I wasn't afraid of dying... I wonder if he would have sent a Stalker for me just because of that lmao.

Yeah, Kammo and Shi were meant to be these horrifying storybook characters that appeared throughout Obscene's route. I figured people wouldn't be too concerned about them until you suddenly realized "crap, Obscene made these creepy freaks a reality." But yeah, they were at the very tail end of Obscene's route and you would have needed to pulverize them both to figure out Obscene's identity.

The biggest bummer for me is coming up with these awesome ideas, great graphics to go along with them, and bleh, they don't get used and players never discover these dark surprises. But yeah, I think I need to ease up on the number of puzzles involved as well. 2-3 for the whole thing isn't bad but having like a dozen of the darn things in one Season is a bit excessive...

As for the Astralnox jigsaw puzzles, you would have seen yourself as a Pokemon all bloodied up, warped, and deranged. Eh well. All that I have right now are just what would have been the four puzzles with silhouette placeholders on it, so they're not quite as fascinating. I had intended to add the warped Pokemon once there was a player who discovered them.

And yeah, once Aglome Oen triggered a bad trypophobia reaction with one of my players back in Season 1 with his first grizzly appearance, no less. I had to sit down and have a really long chat with him about that...

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 07:46 PM

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 08:12 PM

...Well then. I won't be browsing through THAT season when I see the history of the Stalkers. I feel bad for whoever had that reaction.

Still, now I think about the Stalkers we've seen the least of. I think its been Twistagen? I wonder how...actually, different question. Besides from Obscene's thing, which other Stalker had the biggest end of a route?

Not to worry, all the content that triggered it was taken out. But yeah, it was totally unintentional and I felt bad about it...

Labyrinth's route actually had three dead ends to it. You just get a creepy message at the end of those false routes and that's it. And there were three Security lockpick mazes to do! And yeah, that's too many mazes. XP

Also, the Twistagen Codec was probably WAY too hard:

https://i.imgur.com/tDjXGdD.jpg

Know what you're supposed to do?

For this, you would need to unscramble all the words on the bottom. And then whatever is circled in red will be a word that needs to be found on the hexagon word search above. Yeah, this was probably a little too brutal. :P

Now, the funny thing about the Stalkers is they're all suspects that were never interviewed. In Season 4, it just so happened that two Stalkers were interviewed on the first Day cycle. XD

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 08:23 PM

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 08:32 PM

It's probably just me, but some of that text just looks a bit mirrored to me.. but three false routes? I guess they don't call them Labyrinth for nothing.
So..would you mind translating that from Twistagen Hell to English so we know what they were saying?

Yep, Labyrinth's route was a literal labyrinth. XD

As for the Twistagen Hell:

"They SKITTER about as the THREAT of sin continues to TORMENT them.
There is no ESCAPE from the END as DEATH proves their FUTILE attempts.

TWIST into DAMNATION"

Lovely greeting card, it is. XD

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 08:37 PM

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 09:00 PM

Interesting. Also I'm asking this much is because we're getting the chance to unearth everything way, WAY earlier then what it would normally be so my brain was like:

I see this as an absolute win!

So yeah.. I'm just gonna be asking about these routes if that's fine by you. If so, then hippity hoppity Exclude's route is soon to be my property. What the profanity will that erasing twit have?

This is the full extract from my Stalker notes, but yeah, here's the whole kit n' caboodle. I get pretty detailed when I flesh this stuff out:

EXCLUDE – Shas the Chimchar
Backstory
Throughout most of his childhood, Shas has been left out. Bullied, thought of as ugly, stupid, and naïve, he was left out of school gatherings, had very few friends, and found himself alone despite hating that sense of loneliness. As if life wasn’t bad enough, the OMEN strike resulted in both of his parents and his sister getting killed and now he is alone. Even in difficult times, the surviving children and adults have done nothing for him and he’s been barely able to survive on his own, relying on the refugee food bank to keep himself alive.

EXCLUDE showed itself to Shas.
For the longest time, Shas had kept his frustration and despair bottled up. His parents always tried and taught Shas to be a good boy and work hard, but given his situation now, it seemed pointless and he had begun to believe that good Pokémon were just destined to suffer. And he was almost willing to accept a life of suffering until Exclude revealed himself.

It wasn’t hard for Exclude to enrapture Shas. Exclude spoke to Shas and encouraged him to get angry and get payback rather than just submit to despair. It started with a few exercises of stealing food from a Plusle and punching a Meowth that got in his way. At first, it got him to be even more hated, but that’s when Exclude went into the next stage.

How EXCLUDE twisted Shas's expectation
It was payback time. Exclude had fully taken over Shas, much to his nefarious delight, though in this case, Shas didn’t mind it, as if letting Exclude take over the wheel was perfectly fine to him. Shas wished for everyone else to feel the same way he felt. Left out, alone, and treated unfairly.

And that was Exclude’s specialty.

Murder process and signature
Exclude smothers victims with a heavy, black ichor that envelops around them and carries it into nothingness, leaving only a few small black puddles and blots behind. It’s often impossible to tell who was the victim, if there was a victim. These blots appear all along Exclude’s route even in places where there was no victim, so you would never be able to truly tell if, when, and how it happened and to who.

The creepiest feature of Exclude’s murders is there are no details. There is no crime investigation because no one finds a murdered victim. The Doom Tracker just goes up by one with a mysterious and dark ominous message, and what’s more is the victim isn’t marked as “DEAD” on the reference sheet. Instead, they’re simply deleted, wiped, and gone as if they were never there to begin with while the remaining civilians get renumbered. Even the notes that were part of the team record (interviews, roles, items obtained) are wiped as well. If they held any key items, those items get moved over to a civilian that best replaces them and hasn’t been interviewed yet.

Font:
Rush (https://www.dafont.com/rush.font)

Summary of story/route:
Exclude’s route involves a lot of Purity damage and traps are common as well. A common theme on Eclude’s route is blackness. Pictures, objects, and things are very often blotted out with blackness and heavy, black ichor. Touching it is soul-burning and agonizing and it’s definitely not something you want to have your last bit of Purity lost to.

Memento: Happy 7th Birthday Card. It’s from Shas’s mother, father, and sister, wishing Shas a happy birthday. To Shas, it was his best birthday and he’s held onto it ever since, even long after the rest of his family passed away. This is all he has left as evidence of the memory, but it’s been a long time since he’s looked at it. On it are encouraging messages from his family, how they’re proud of him and wish the best for him.

Getting this particular memento is much tougher, but the reward is significantly higher as Shas feels more strengthened by this than other Stalkers.

(18) Graybench Industrial Warehouse

[AG0143 Module]

(27) Vinatech Sterilization Plant

{Damaged Sublevel Door: Replacement AG0143 Module AND +Electric Type+}

{Upper Ledge: +Flying Type}

[#872 Key]

(35) Keepers™ Self-Storage Center

{Storage Unit #872: #872 Keyhole AND <Repair>}

[Happy 7th Birthday Card]

Exclude's Stalker Route

https://i.imgur.com/IELsAAZ.png

In general, Exclude’s route isn’t too heavy on puzzles and just has one really tough one, but it makes up for it by having a lot of steps involved and generally requires more typings to be involved. It’s likely going to mean Emissaries will need to switch it up or get Escorting involved. In the meantime, the players will find some rather creepy blotted out pictures along the way instead. Along the way, Exclude’s route doesn’t do any Health or even Sanity damage. But it does do MASSIVE Purity damage.

To make it to the final Chamber of the Divided Zero, players need to collect three medallions. [Medallion of Oblivion], [Medallion of the Void], and [Medallion of Erasure].

PATH OF THE MEDALLION OF OBLIVION

This path isn’t too complicated. Players will first need to get into the Ethereal Chamber, which is only accessible to Ghost types. They’ll get the Hollow Soul Stone, which then gets placed into the Missing Soul Statue, which then produces the Medallion of Oblivion.

(46) Ashen Park (ABANDONED)

{Ethereal Chamber: +Ghost Type+}

[Hollow Soul Stone]

(23) The Becker Building (ABANDONED)

{Missing Soul Statue: Missing Soul Stone}

#[Medallion of Oblivion] Black Expurgation Presence (10 Purity Damage)#
=The Blotted Depiction= (https://i.imgur.com/dTmNLtX.jpg)

PATH OF THE MEDALLION OF THE VOID

Similar to the Oblivion’s path, this path takes the same kind of structure, although with some more Purity damage along the way. So a bit more hazardous. If they’re not careful with making sure they’ve got high Purity to spare, some players may end up dead from this!

(76b) The OMEN Crater – OMEN Crater Northwest, Ruined East Residential District (ABANDONED)

{Rubble Ravine: +Ground Type+}

#[Cold Black Key] Black Expurgation Presence (5 Purity Damage)#

(83) Exacta City Treatment and Desalination Plant (ABANDONED)

#{Gateway to Nothingness: Cold Black Keyhole} Black Expurgation Presence (5 Purity Damage)#

#[Medallion of Erasure] Black Expurgation Presence (10 Purity Damage)#

PATH OF THE MEDALLION OF ERASURE

While lighter on the hazards compared to Void’s, this one is trickier for the sudoku puzzle parts. Thankfully, the puzzle doesn’t cause Purity damage either. It’s just more unsettling.

18. Mika the Boltund

Puzzle Graphic: =Blotted Sudoku Part 1= (https://i.imgur.com/Ep0IVGg.jpg)

(5) Electrical Substation

Puzzle Graphic: =Blotted Sudoku Part 2= (https://i.imgur.com/omevxSS.jpg)

16. Princess Samona the Amaura

Puzzle Graphic: =Blotted Sudoku Part 3= (https://i.imgur.com/SupTeZu.jpg)

Finishing the sudoku will create the [9-Digit Code 1993381627] item.

(29) MoonCrest Corporate Offices (ABANDONED)

{Empty Tumbler Number Lock: 9-Digit Code}

#[Medallion of Erasure] Black Expurgation Presence (10 Purity Damage)#
=The Smothered Depiction= (https://i.imgur.com/VDfIyFD.jpg)

IT ALL COMES TOGETHER

The end of Exclude’s route has black, black, black everywhere as if the Rolling Stones got their way. Whoever does this better have their Purity in good shape and better make sure those Medallions are disarmed, or they’re getting swallowed. Disarming the door itself is also needed or the @@ will just outright kill you. :x

(48) The Cobal Estate (ABANDONED)

#{Chamber of the Divided Zero: Mark of Oblivion AND Mark of the Void AND Mark of Erasure} Black Expurgation Presence (10 Purity Damage)#

@Endless Sea of Existence Purged – (15 Purity Damage)@
THE INFINITE BLACK (https://i.imgur.com/G7lQHPS.gif) – [Exclude’s Phylactery]

Puzzles:

https://i.imgur.com/kkZd0F7.jpg
Fully visible sudoku puzzle (Reference only, or in case they really get stuck and need a hint after collecting all three parts)

https://i.imgur.com/Ep0IVGg.jpg
=Blackened Sudoku Puzzle Part 1=

https://i.imgur.com/omevxSS.jpg
=Blackened Sudoku Puzzle Part 2=

https://i.imgur.com/SupTeZu.jpg
=Blackened Sudoku Puzzle Part 3=

https://i.imgur.com/rctvO2q.jpg
Final solution to the Blackened Sudoku Puzzle after Parts 1, 2, and 3 are combined and the puzzle is solved. The 9-digit code that gets created will be 193381627

Graphics:

https://i.imgur.com/dTmNLtX.jpg
=The Blotted Depiction=

https://i.imgur.com/VDfIyFD.jpg
=The Smothered Depiction=

https://i.imgur.com/G7lQHPS.gif
THE INFINITE BLACK

Let me know if you want to see the others!

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 09:12 PM

Shas, huh? I never really made the depiction that he was just alone and Exclude did that stuff. I just assumed he was a jerk! Anyways, let's see who the freak Obscene is next.

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 09:20 PM

Shas, huh? I never really made the depiction that he was just alone and Exclude did that stuff. I just assumed he was a jerk! Anyways, let's see who the freak Obscene is next.

Yeah, each Stalker has their own backstory. Usually it's not what you think it is!

Anywho, here's Obscene. >:3

OBSCENE – Alishia the Milotic
Backstory
Alishia was always the creative and dreamer type, seeking new ways to leverage her rather vivid imagination and wonder. Throughout her life, she always pursued many arts and crafts, mainly with children in mind, wrote several children’s stories, and kept a very childlike wonder to herself that she sometimes shared with others. However, she always had difficulty getting her work off the ground.

OBSCENE showed itself to Alishia.
Obscene pretended to be a big fan of Alishia’s work. Alishia was at first skeptical, finding the spirit to be intrusive as Obscene had delved much into her creative works to learn as much about her prospective victim as she could. While Alishia voiced her distain for going into her “private works” at first, Obscene explained that what she had create was of incredible quality for children and that she needed to get her work out there for kids to appreciate and talk about. Obscene’s knowledge and appreciation for her creative works’ lore impressed Alishia and the Milotic really began to think maybe she was right and her work was great enough to be experienced and loved by children.

How OBSCENE twisted Alishia's expectation
Alishia allowed Obscene to get too her in mind as she was naïve. Where Alishia once dreamed of mystical and fantastical realms full of childish color and imagination, Obscene twisted them into works of madness and horror like a horrendously nightmarish Alice in Wonderland. Her creative work had become freakishly incoherent and violated logic and reason, reading like a children’s book from hell or a deranged Dr. Seuss story.

Murder process and signature
Victims become “characters” in her macabre creative works for children. They get stories, poems, pictures made for them like a twisted caricature. She renames them, dresses them to fit another persona like a bad kid’s TV show, and then proceeds to do the unthinkable to them, cutting and carving them into something they don’t recognize, or making a silly tragic back story for them and then make that story a twisted reality. And they all end with a horrific “happy ending” such as internal organs happy to be free of their chest confines, or a severed head happily living out its own life away from a body that slowed them down.

Font: Ashes to Ashes (https://www.dafont.com/ashes-to-ashes.font)

Summary of story/route:
Obscene’s route focuses mainly on childhood things. Toys, books, stories, and the like, but with darker, horrific twists.

Memento: A Day With My Friend Butterfree book. It was the only children’s book that she has held onto for many years and was her favorite story when she was a child and her mother read it to her. The pages are faded, the spine is broken, and some of the pages have little tears or wrinkles, but for the most part, it’s still legible and the pictures are still visible. It reminds Alishia of her own childhood and how much she wanted to write a story that would have as much of an impact on children as this story had the same kind of impact on her.

If presented to Obscene before the battle, Alishia just scoffs at the book and doesn’t even look at it, believing it’s a piece of old papery trash that isn’t even worth starting a fire with.

The [“A Day with My Friend Butterfree” Book] has two paths that get to it. The book itself is locked inside a rusted safe with a combination lock. The Emissaries need both the combination as well as a chemical spray to remove the rust just enough so they can open the safe, or else it just stays shut.

(30) Hazelwood Fuel Corporate Office (ABANDONED)

{Splintered Cabinet: +Fighting Type+}

[18, 7, 27 Combination]

(73) Whiteridge Central Station (ABANDONED)

{Injured Scorbunny: <Medicine> (https://i.imgur.com/mF9klXM.jpg)}

[De-Rusta Spray]

(45) Cedarwood Apartments (ABANDONED)

{Rusted Safe: Rust Remedy AND 3 number Safe Combination}

[A Day With My Friend Butterfree Children’s Book]

Obscene's Stalker Route

https://i.imgur.com/M7kdXqe.png

The main objective of Obscene’s route is to reassemble the three parts of the Death’s Lullaby. Where Labyrinth’s route is chock full of <Security> use, Obscene’s focuses more on getting these three parts together to reach the Playrooms.

PATH OF THE 1ST PART OF DEATH’S LULLABY

For Part 1, Emissaries will find a Defiled Music Box, but it’s missing some parts. Without the and the , it’s not going to do anything. But players beware, putting it back together is going to set off a trap of pain. They’ll eat some Purity and Sanity damage.

The Song Drum can be found from 51. Borsei the Clefairy, who honestly would love to just get rid of the damn thing, but has only been holding off on chucking it because she thinks it’s bound to be to something important. That and it has blood on it, making her wonder what the deal with it is, but she’ll fork it up to anyone who gives her a good Rapport score that she can pass it along to. Meanwhile, the Winding Shaft can be found at the 80 Boyle Factory.

[b]51. Borsei the Clefairy

[b]#[Bloodstained Music Box Song Drum] Contagion Affliction – POISON (3 Health Damage)#

(80) Boyle Factory

#[Bloodstained Winding Shaft] Contagion Affliction – POISON (4 Health Damage)#

(42) The Candle Mansion (ABANDONED)

{Defiled Music Box: Missing Music Box Song Drum AND Missing Winding Shaft}

#Horrendous Wailing Melody – (6 Sanity Damage, 6 Purity Damage)
[1st Part of Death’s Lullaby]

PATH OF THE 2nd PART OF DEATH’S LULLABY

The second part requires Emissaries to locate [The Abortion Dagger] from Kector the Hakamo-o, who thought it might make for a good self defense weapon, but an Emissary with good rapport can talk him out of keeping it and handing it to the Emissaries. It does cause some Purity damage, though. Once they’ve got the dagger, it’s mainly a matter of taking it to the {Unborn Child Egg} and stuffing it in (it works like a key). It unleashes a seriously unholy scream while the Emissary hears creepy kiddie voices in their head (“Singing children, Jonathan!”).

49. Kector the Hakamo-o

#[The Abortion Dagger] Demonic Aura (5 Purity Damage)#

(41) Canopy Art Museum (ABANDONED)

{The Unborn Child Egg: Abortion Deed}

#Unholy Scream – (8 Sanity Damage, 5 Purity Damage)
=Kammo Wall Jingle= (https://i.imgur.com/1uNqMo1.png)
[2nd Part of Death’s Lullaby]

PATH OF THE 3rd PART OF DEATH’S LULLABY

Part three of the route is the hardest and is likely the last part of the route that the players will complete. First, they need to find the grizzly spot the differences puzzle found in a really hideous children’s book and get the two-digit access key to the Nursery Door Electronic Lock. Then, they need to perform Technical on the lock itself to unscramble the data system, and that’s pretty much a word search with numbers.

Once unlocked, in order to get to the Phylactery, the players need to fight and kill Shi the Dedenne and Kammo the Banette. Oh, the players thought they were just nasty storybook characters? Surprise, they actually need to kill them. Chances are good if the Emissaries go as a group, they’ll probably get through fine, but if only one member of the team goes it alone and their equipment isn’t too hot, they might have issues!

(21) Edjas Memorial Public Library

#[Corrupted Children’s Book: <<Instances of Corruption>> (https://i.imgur.com/5xXnq3h.png ) / =Glimpse of the Past= (https://i.imgur.com/sNoJwOM.jpg)] Abomination Infestation (10 Purity Damage, 10 Sanity Damage)#

[Nursery Door Code 19]

(74) Luminous Shopping Center

{Nursery Door Electronic Lock: <Technical> AND Nursery Door Code}

[url=https://i.imgur.com/Mqf6JhI.png]<Technical> (https://i.imgur.com/Mqf6JhI.png)

[3rd Part of Death’s Lullaby]

(70) Daluco Toy Store (ABANDONED)

{The Playrooms Entrance: 1st Part of Death’s Lullaby AND 2nd Part of Death’s Lullaby AND 3rd Part of Death’s Lullaby}

@Deranged Reanimated Abomination – (3 Sanity Damage, 3 Purity Damage)@
THE PLAYROOMS (https://i.imgur.com/12pJUTx.gif)
*FIGHT with Shi the Dedenne and Kammo the Banette*
[Obscene’s Phylactery]

Puzzles:
https://i.imgur.com/5xXnq3h.png
The Instances of Corruption puzzle! Basically find the differences. Don’t stare at this too long.
NOTE: Posting the WRONG answer results in 5 Sanity and 5 Purity damage. You don’t want to trial and error this one, Emissaries! Make sure they’re warned about this, though!

https://i.imgur.com/ufpP7Q3.png
Instances of Corruption solution! 19 Instances in total. Once the correct answer is posted, the [Nursery Door Code 19] is created.

https://i.imgur.com/sNoJwOM.jpg
The pre-corrupted version (=Glimpse of the Past=) that will be given to the players to compare against the effed-up version.

https://i.imgur.com/Mqf6JhI.png
When the players use <Technical> on the {Nursery Door Electronic Lock}. It’s a word search (number search) to simulate hacking/reprogramming the lock.

https://i.imgur.com/9Gnbjmz.png
Nursery Door Lock solution. Easy cheesy.

https://i.imgur.com/mF9klXM.jpg
<Medicine> on Scorbunny

https://i.imgur.com/gGQdMGK.jpg
<Medicine> on Scorbunny solution

Graphics:

https://i.imgur.com/1uNqMo1.png
=Kammo Wall Jingle=

https://i.imgur.com/64UxznB.jpg
[1st Part of Death’s Lullaby]

https://i.imgur.com/DvBQQys.jpg
[2nd Part of Death’s Lullaby]

https://i.imgur.com/gIflNyO.jpg
[3rd Part of Death’s Lullaby]

https://i.imgur.com/12pJUTx.gif
=Abomination Vision= from the Playrooms

C0L0R3D

02-28-2021, 09:25 PM

Noblejanobii

02-28-2021, 10:11 PM

Yeah the reveals are always kind of interesting. I remember there was one season, 3? I think?, where one of the stalkers ended up being the first interview I did that route so I was completely heartbroken to discover it was her all along. My character ended up not being the one to take her out, which I feel like would’ve been a more fun conclusion, but I still vividly remember the shock and how betrayed I felt upon the initial reveal. XD

Lychee

02-28-2021, 11:20 PM

Ah, such cool reveals! And gosh, there was SO much more along each path. I love being able to see all the puzzles and am a bit sad we never got to solve them.

Speaking of spin-offs, I feel like it would be kinda cool to make a simple/smaller version of stalkers in RPGmaker to play as a quirky lil videogame... just to give to friends/PXR to try, for fun, for halloween this year! Would anyone be against that?

Neo Emolga

02-28-2021, 11:58 PM

The Milotic? Wow, I hadn't even payed attention to them. Heck, we wouldn't even find out if was her because Borsei is, you know...kind of dead thanks to Astralnox. Speaking of them, let's see who Astralnox is and if he actually a Pokemon I dislike anyways!

Yeah, Alishia went pretty unnoticed for the entire game. Usually in Stalkers they get at least a little bit of attention, but in this one, it just didn’t happen with Alishia.

Anyway, as requested, here’s Astralnox’s!

ASTRALNOX – Daxu the Gengar
Backstory
Daxu was always an extroverted social butterfly, which seems almost odd as a descriptor considering his species as a Gengar. But nonetheless, Daxu always seemed like a fun guy to be around. He made conversations about you rather than about himself. As a result, he had gained a lot of friends over the years and suddenly this “ghost guy” that usually was known for being nefarious didn’t seem so bad.

ASTRALNOX showed itself to Daxu.
It was quite an innocent encounter at first. Astralnox had found Daxu as a “spirit without a body” and pretended to be lost and not sure where he was supposed to be. Daxu, curious to know more about this “lost soul,” tried to get to know Astralnox a little better and learn more about him.

How ASTRALNOX twisted Daxu's expectation
Astralnox leveraged the OMEN attack against Daxu. Daxu never had experienced fear like this before, but thankfully he was one of the first to make it to the refugee encampment. Problem was, a lot of his friends and buddies didn’t and Daxu wasn’t sure if they’re still in the Reach or if they’re dead. He wanted to become one of the Seekers to venture into the Reach to look for survivors, but he was still considered a civilian and only the Pokémon allowed to be considered official Seekers are all members of Aurorawatch.

Astralnox said to hell with that and offered to help Daxu sneak out and go into the Reach to look for clues and any signs of his missing friends. Daxu, feeling like Astralnox really care about him and his friends, took him on his offer.

Murder process and signature
Daxu went from being a social butterfly to becoming a stalker in the truest sense. He wanted to learn everything about everyone, and Astralnox is constantly feeding him this raw, hideous, naked power of knowledge. Instead of finding friends, Daxu hunts out victims and wants to know everything, every little tidbit about them in a disturbing way. Victims killed by Daxu/Astralnox have all their information revealed as if Investigate was performed on them, only it’s useless because they’re dead and obviously not Stalkers themselves. But how does Astralnox even get this power? No one really knows.

Font: Grungy Style (https://www.dafont.com/grungy-style.font)

Summary of story/route:
Astralnox’s main focus is a ridiculous amount of 4th wall breaking and Sanity damage is a real super trend on his route. Stalker graphics and items suddenly become customized on the Emissary finding them! Puzzles and graphics feature the Emissaries! Likes and dislikes that the players have are featured in his route! And they’re twisted and deranged in every way you can imagine. As much as possible is prepared in advance as far as graphics go, but there will be placeholders for things that are customized specifically for the player who comes across these twisted things.

Traps and hazards are hideous, they’re specifically customized to deal terrible amounts of Health damage specifically for the Emissary walking into them. Fire type? Get ready for some water and ground traps. Dragon? Here’s some ice and dragon breaths coming right up. It’ll feel like rotten luck in the beginning but eventually when players see everything they run into is specifically designed for them, they’ll catch on to the trend and it’ll be freaky.

Memento: An old Hollyville High School yearbook. Flipping through it, Emissaries will be presented with pictures of sports clubs, school plays, and of course, photo pages of all the students. Daxu was only a Haunter back then and deceptively his name will be among a long list of randomly generated Pokémon names. In order to realize whose Memento this is, they’ll need to compare the list of town civilians with the list of names in the yearbook to see who it belongs to.

If presented with the yearbook prior to the final battle, Daxu will just claim he doesn’t have the time to sign it and will go back to focusing on figuring out what he can do to find his lost friends.

Getting the yearbook is a bit trickier than most mementos. It requires the Emissaries to find the “Wall Vault” safe, which is in terrible shape and needs a new circuit board, needs to be reprogrammed, and even after all that, still needs the original 8-digit passcode.

(14b) Western Side Aurorawatch Military Bunker

[Damaged “Wall Vault” Circuit Board: <Repair>

(84) J&T Trucking (ABANDONED)]

{Injured Lucario: <Medicine>}

[8-digit Passcode]

(17) North Heights Storage (ABANDONED)

{“Wall Vault” Safe: Missing Circuit Board AND <Technical> AND <8-Digit Passcode>}

[Hollyville High School Yearbook Memento]

Astralnox's Stalker Route

https://i.imgur.com/7a3KE9B.png

The main feature of Astralnox’s Stalker route is its freakish tendencies to break the fourth wall and make it personal with the Emissaries. Anywhere there is a **Custom** mark, the player that comes across it gets inserted into that item or feature. So say if a Bob the Pikachu character comes across the **Custom** Payment, it’s their Bob the Pikachu character that’s going to be on the item or image (jigsaw puzzle in cases of Payments). Initially, it does some Sanity damage to see their own self getting placed into macabre items and situations (seeing their own head, putting together a puzzle with them looking freakish). If it so happens that they already have an item of the same type made for them, then another Emissary is chosen at random (so at most only one player will have a Payment and Head each).

What’s worse is when the items are turned in as offerings, they function like a voodoo doll and the Emissaries tied to the item take damage! This can be brutal as Emissaries can now take damage outside of their own turns, which could be fatal if they’re not ready for it!

The route itself focuses on ultimately The Fourfold Dark Payment, where the tortured depictions of four Emissaries are paid. Each of these Payments is pretty brutal. Essentially, whoever comes across the Payment has a deranged and twisted image of their Pokémon character put into a freakish jigsaw puzzle. Puzzle needs to be assembled, and then needs to be readied for the Fourfold Dark Payment. It’s brutal.

XXXs = Character’s Name
YYYs = Character’s Pokémon Species

PATH OF THE FIRST DARK PAYMENT

To get the first Payment, the Emissaries need to bring three of their own Emissary heads to {The Assembly of Heads} for sacrifice. Essentially, to any Emissary, coming across your own severed head is going to do Sanity Damage upon first discovery (3 Sanity damage up front) and then handling the head does one more (to anyone using it). But when taken to the {Assembly of Heads}, the ensuring sacrificial holocaust causes some Health damage then (3 Health). It’s a good warning and prelude as to what this route is all about!

(20) Exacta City Police Precinct (ABANDONED)

#Macabre Discovery – Decapitated Self (8 Sanity Damage)
#[Head of XXX the YYY] Macabre Presence – (3 Sanity Damage)#

(39) Newpoint Building (ABANDONED)

#Macabre Discovery – Decapitated Self (8 Sanity Damage)
#[Head of XXX the YYY] Macabre Presence – (3 Sanity Damage)#

(52) West Exacta River Bridge (ABANDONED)

#Macabre Discovery – Decapitated Self (8 Sanity Damage)
#[Head of XXX the YYY] Macabre Presence – (3 Sanity Damage)#

(40) Memorial Heart Hospital (ABANDONED)

#{Assembly of Heads Sacrificial Altar: Head Mount AND Head Mount AND Head Mount} Infernal Essence – (5 Sanity Damage and 5 Purity Damage)#
==Using the Heads causes 7 Health and 7 Sanity Damage to each of the head owners==

[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

PATH OF THE SECOND DARK PAYMENT

Super, super easy, there’s essentially no legwork to this at all. In fact, it’s scary for the fact that anyone can come across this wicked thing and be totally unprepared for it. Too bad, you’ve become Dark Payment #2 whether you like it or not! Also, there’s a nice booby trap by it that customizes itself to be super-effective against whoever blunders into it!

(69) Westmarch Manufacturing Compound (ABANDONED)

#Deranged Element – SUPER-EFFECTIVE TYPE (6 Health Damage, 6 Purity Damage)#
[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

PATH OF THE THIRD DARK PAYMENT

Just so peeps don’t get too cozy, this part has the player lose a chunk of their Purity or Sanity up front and it gets handed to them in item form! But wait, there’s more! When it gets used at the Oblivion Offering at the lovely tourist attraction of the very heart of the OMEN crater, it chews up some more. Oh, and whoever does that Oblivion Offering gets the next Dark Payment made for them, also! Boy, what a deal!

(54a) Exacta City Maximum Security Prison – Main Prison Structure (ABANDONED)

#Siphon Soul (6 Purity Damage)#

(71) Erodos Elder Care (ABANDONED)

#Siphon Lucidity (6 Sanity Damage)#
[Serenity of XXX the YYY]

(76) The OMEN Crater (ABANDONED)

#{Oblivion Offering: Craving for Innocence AND Craving for Serenity} Unholy Nefarious Essence – (6 Sanity Damage and 6 Purity Damage)#
==[i]Causes 10 Purity Damage to the Innocence owner==
==Causes 10 Sanity Damage to the Serenity owner==

[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

PATH OF THE FOURTH DARK PAYMENT

The fourth Dark Payment is a little on the easy side. It’s similar to the third, except a player gives up some of their blood as the tribute offering and it’s used for a fountain. Once the blood gets the fountain running, the player who gave up the blood takes more health damage while the one inserting it gets a Dark Payment customized just for them!

(78) Tancel Bottling Plant (ABANDONED)

#Siphon Extractor (6 Health Damage)#
[Blood of XXX the YYY]

(46) Ashen Park (ABANDONED)

{Dried Fountain: Offering of Blood}
#Deranged Element – SUPER-EFFECTIVE TYPE (5 Health Damage, 5 Sanity Damage)#
==Causes 10 Health Damage to the Blood owner==

[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

FINAL STRETCH

And here’s where it all comes together!

(64) Bridgeheights Tower (ABANDONED)

{The Fourfold Dark Payment: Dark Payment AND Dark Payment AND Dark Payment AND Dark Payment}
#Deranged Element – SUPER-EFFECTIVE TYPE (5 Health Damage, 5 Sanity Damage)#
==Causes 15 Health, 15 Sanity, and 15 Purity Damage each Dark Payment owner==

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF SOULS (https://i.imgur.com/d4nhuhH.gif) [Astralnox’s Phylactery]

Puzzles:

https://i.imgur.com/BuN3b9g.jpg
[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY] Template
XXX’s get filled in with the character’s name, YYY’s with the character’s species, and that Pikachu Silhouette placeholder gets filled in with a very effed-up image of whoever the victim is! Makes for a lovely jigsaw puzzle the whole family can enjoy!

https://i.imgur.com/jqcl7o3.jpg
[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY] Template
Same as the first one, but this time in a creepy factory setting! Nothing like seeing your own character look twisted, deranged, and all zombie-like, eh? Best is doing it piece by piece via a jigsaw!

https://i.imgur.com/t6dsvH0.jpg
[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY] Template
I mean really, what did you think was going to happen when you decided to pay the OMEN crater a visit and chuck the materialized innocence and serenity of your player friends into oblivion? Something happy? Nah, you got a fresh Dark Payment made after yourself, that’s what!

https://i.imgur.com/0sgV9iL.jpg
It’s like a walk in the park! Except the park is evil. And haunted. And you’re there, looking all twisted up and stuff. Oof!

https://i.imgur.com/7CxyrgE.jpg
Lucario <Medicine>

https://i.imgur.com/CcnsEJV.jpg
Lucario <Medicine> Solutions

Graphics:

https://i.imgur.com/d4nhuhH.gif
From the Torture Chamber of Souls! Welcome, friend!

Yeah the reveals are always kind of interesting. I remember there was one season, 3? I think?, where one of the stalkers ended up being the first interview I did that route so I was completely heartbroken to discover it was her all along. My character ended up not being the one to take her out, which I feel like would’ve been a more fun conclusion, but I still vividly remember the shock and how betrayed I felt upon the initial reveal. XD

Yeah, I think it was Franny the Mismagius from Season 3, who ended up being Bloodwish. Writing up her exorcism was pretty crazy. A battle with an abomination right in the middle of a children’s hospital with kids too sick to move. That’s definitely dicey!

Also, my absolute favorite Stalker of all time… Yandil the Smeargle as Overkill. This was a naughty reverse psychology experiment that preyed on peoples’ tendencies to tread carefully and the results were hilarious. The Stalker that everyone in town blamed and talked about and accused of being a Stalker. And there was plenty of evidence, also! It’s just I made it seem too easy. Too easy to believe and yet everyone was right.

Ah, such cool reveals! And gosh, there was SO much more along each path. I love being able to see all the puzzles and am a bit sad we never got to solve them.

Speaking of spin-offs, I feel like it would be kinda cool to make a simple/smaller version of stalkers in RPGmaker to play as a quirky lil videogame... just to give to friends/PXR to try, for fun, for halloween this year! Would anyone be against that?

It would be awesome to see Stalkers as a video game, but I have very, very limited programming experience and I’ve never used RPGmaker, so I don’t even know how to get started with it. And yeah, there was a LOT more to Season 5, and even I tried to make things easier with Syrax the Espeon helping out, but it just wasn’t doing the job. If it was really close and coming down to the wire, I’d say ah, just keep on trucking through it, but nah, there’s just so much extra stuff to go through and I’m just burnt. Oof.

I think if I were to do this again, it HAS to be much smaller with a lot of these "extra features" out no matter how nice they seem. See, Season 1 and Season 3 worked GREAT, but the issue I had with Season 2 and 5 was just getting carried away with add-ons and “oh, gotta make this the grand finale, so… here’s a heap of stuff I think will be great.” It ended up being too much extra baggage, even if it looks like it would be awesome to see implemented.

These lessons learned are painful. :P

Noblejanobii

03-01-2021, 12:35 AM

Lychee

03-01-2021, 04:01 AM

Ah!! I remember hearing about that smeargle when we figured out a butterfree was a stalker in a later season! Whew boy there was some good discussion about what to do with him.

And oh, Neo! I wasnt saying YOU should make it!
I want to! And I was looking for your permission to give it a go. It's your concept originally, right? Can I try?

C0L0R3D

03-01-2021, 08:00 AM

Oof, just wanting to help his friends and Daxu got overtaken? Yikes, I feel bad for him now... anyway, let's see what Labyrinth's been hiding next.

Neo Emolga

03-01-2021, 11:54 PM

Man I remember Overkill because I think he was one of the two stalkers that we straight up knew was a stalker but didn’t want to believe was one because it was so obvious!

And yeah it was Franny!! So betrayed TuT

The crazy thing was everyone had uncovered absolutely everything there was to find about Overkill/Yandil, but there were still doubts. It wasn’t until the Sin Purge Ritual happened that people realized “oh, it really was him all along.” XD

And yeah, poor Franny. It was ugly what happened to her.

Ah!! I remember hearing about that smeargle when we figured out a butterfree was a stalker in a later season! Whew boy there was some good discussion about what to do with him.

And oh, Neo! I wasnt saying YOU should make it!
I want to! And I was looking for your permission to give it a go. It's your concept originally, right? Can I try?

Ah yeah, Orin. Man, that guy had a crazy backstory. XD And yep, that dude was very controversial!

Hey, give it a shot if you feel up for it! I don’t know much about that stuff but if you want to take a swing at it, try it and hopefully things go well and smoothly with it. :3

Oof, just wanting to help his friends and Daxu got overtaken? Yikes, I feel bad for him now... anyway, let's see what Labyrinth's been hiding next.

Yeah, no one suspects the friendly Gengar. XD

As for Labyrinth, sure! Bet you weren’t expecting this!

LABYRINTH – Taliea the Azumarill
Backstory
Once the mother of a beautiful, growing family, Taliea is now alone. Unknown to most, she’s suffering from dementia. She barely survived the OMEN strikes three months ago and believes she was separated from her husband, Kartin the Clefable, and her two Azurill children, Tali and Kakon. Despite her dementia, she vividly describes mobs of fleeing, panicked Pokémon causing the family to become separated, and Taliea has been desperately trying to beg with Axken and Nytalia to search for them in the Reach, only to be denied because it’s too dangerous. Frustrated, depressed, and a bit angry, she was only able to sit by hopelessly as continuous earthquakes rock and further twist an already ravaged world.

The truth is Kartin, Tali, and Kakon died in an apartment complex fire three years ago. She never got to see the bodies, so their deaths never felt real to her in the first place. Her ongoing hallucinations of them and their voices get her thinking they’re still alive. After the OMEN strike, it pushed her further into the brink of insanity, believing the hysteria is what caused her to become separated from them.

LABYRINTH showed herself to Taliea.
A mother’s desperation was exactly the kind of prey Labyrinth was hoping for. The dark spirit had found Taliea, pretending to be a spirit guide that could help Taliea track down her family in the Reach. Labyrinth promised to conceal her, protect her, and help her look for signs that could lead up to her missing family members.

How Labyrinth twisted Taliea's expectation
Labyrinth tricked Taliea by first having her wander around aimlessly, pursuing false leads created by her hallucinations while having her think she was making progress. At times, Taliea was led to believe she was finding breadcrumbs of clues that might lead to her family’s whereabouts, but instead, she slowly became a puppet for Labyrinth after putting her last traces of trust into the spirit that betrayed her.

Murder process and signature
Labyrinth’s victims are killed from wanderlust, losing their way in a delusional maze of false turns and predatory illusions that constantly causes them to find familiar things completely foreign among never-ending corridors and pathways. The effect is exhausting mentally and physically exhausting, and victims find themselves braindead, never escaping from a maze that only existed in their mind.

Font: Coraje Leve (https://www.dafont.com/coraje.font)

Summary of story/route:
The big mystery behind Taliea and Labyrinth will get the Emissaries wondering is her family actually still alive, or were they just additional victims of the Reach or the OMEN strike three months ago? During the whole route, Taliea’s story seems very believable and her story is described in vivid details. Taliea also seems very rational when players interview her and she shares similar experiences with others that lost friends or family in the OMEN strike and don’t know where they are.

Labyrinth’s route focuses on just being plain lost and has a confusing feeling to it. Several parts of her route even have dead ends or strange clues that actually don’t help in any way at the end or just leave messages of perplexity to the players.

Memento: Kartin, Tali, and Kakon funeral mass cards

The existence of these cards has been buried deep within the confines of Taleia’s mind. Her dementia has caused her to forget them and where in the house they were, but they exist. But there was a time three years ago when she had to work with the funeral parlor to pick the imagery and the prayer on them, as well as to confirm the full name. If the Emissaries present the cards to her before the fight, Taliea simply turns away in a suspicious fashion, calling them fake or claiming she’s got “really important other things to take care of.”

27. Vemmi the Banette[u]

<Diplomacy> OR $200 Sochas$ - [Dusty Lilligant Dancer Figurine]

[u](44) Namasha Apartment Lofts

{Dusty Dancer Plate: Missing Dancer Figurine}

#Incindinary Explosive – FIRE (5 Health Damage)#
[Burnt Trunk Key]

(33) Blue Brook Residential Buildings

{Burnt Trunk: Burnt Trunk Keyhole}

[Funeral Cards Memento]

LABYRINTH's Stalker Route

https://i.imgur.com/JcCeOw8.png

Because mazes are Labyrinth’s main theme, there’s quite a bit of lockpicking to be done, as lockpickers get treated to a maze to do. The other thing about Labyrinth’s route is that there are also three smaller “false” routes that just take the players to a cryptic message and do nothing else. So the whole route itself is mazes within a maze. The “true” route has more maze-like themes, including the woven, knotted, and twisted tributes. The others seem slightly related, but nah, they just go nowhere.

FALSE ROUTE ONE

False Route #1 is fairly simple and doesn’t really lay on the hurt for the players. Collect both the Left and the Right Hands of The Forgotten One Statue (a Mr Mime without hands) and be treated to a Cryptic Message that won’t advance things. It’s just a dead end. :P

(12) Daybreak School

Left Hand of the Forgotten One

(8) Sapphire Oasis Jewelry Store

Right Hand of the Forgotten One

(28) Riverside Park

{The Forgotten One Statue: Missing Left Hand AND Missing Right Hand}

=Forgotten Cryptic Message= (https://i.imgur.com/FYTp1uQ.png)

FALSE ROUTE TWO

False Route #2 is the biggest suck out of all of them, as it’s the longest and even has a <Security> instance and maze only to get nothing but another Cryptic Message. Also, unlike False Route #1, FR#2 has the Emissaries going into more dangerous territory! Here, the Emissaries collect two [Glass Sobble Eye]s and bring it over to the {Grave of the Lonely Sobble: Missing Glass Sobble Eye AND Missing Glass Sobble Eye}. What’s even more aggravating about this False Route is that there’s a few traps around on the eyes and the grave itself!

(53) West Exacta River Bridge (ABANDONED)

The Blasted Door: <Security> (https://i.imgur.com/6x8m0ca.png)

#[Glass Sobble Eye] Morose Conduit – WATER (4 Sanity Damage)#

(77) Jano Clinic and Urgent Care (ABANDONED)

Tight Rubble Pit: <Small Pokémon Size>

#[Glass Sobble Eye] Morose Conduit – WATER (4 Sanity Damage)#

(34a) Hymn of Rebirth Cemetery

#{Grave of the Lonely Sobble: Glass Stone Sobble Eye AND Missing Glass Sobble Eye} Horrendous Isolation Aura – WATER (6 Sanity Damage)

=Lonely Cryptic Message= (https://i.imgur.com/eacMQCc.png)

FALSE ROUTE THREE

False Route #3 isn’t quite as nasty as #2, but it’s not as painless as #1. It mainly features two useless items, the [Enigmatic Watch] and the [Enigmatic Hourglass] that go into the {Timeless Chamber Hatch}, which then takes them to the third but not actually useful Cryptic Message. The theme of this little useless route is lost time.

(50) Oaktrail Retail Stores (ABANDONED)

#[Enigmatic Watch] Unhinged Complexities – STEEL (4 Sanity Damage, 4 Purity Damage)

(66) Greenyard Apartments Ruins (ABANDONED)

#[Enigmatic Hourglass] Hollow Hallucination – GROUND (4 Sanity Damage, 4 Purity Damage)

(75) Treadstone Community College (ABANDONED)

{Timeless Chamber Hatch: Missing Watch AND Missing Hourglass}#The Disillusioned

=Aging Cryptic Message= (https://i.imgur.com/eacMQCc.png)

THE TRUE ROUTE

The True Route is a tinge bit more complicated. First, the Emissaries need to get the three Bands, and from those Bands, the three Tributes. And it all has to do with mazes with two more Lockpicking puzzles to do. Traps in these cases often cause Health damage.

(26) Kindred Park (ABANDONED)

#{The Coiled Door: <Security> (https://i.imgur.com/mvtAr13.png)} Deranged Rose Thorns – GRASS (4 Health Damage, 4 Purity Damage)

[Band of Resolve]

(38) Akiseth Construction (ABANDONED)

#{Frustration Pedestal: Resolve Corrective} Mental Anguish – PSYCHIC (6 Health Damage)

[The Woven Tribute]

43. Esler the Malamar

<Diplomacy> - [Band of Infinity]

(76c) OMEN Crater Southwest, Ruined Commercial District (ABANDONED)

#{Endless Pit: Resolve Infinity} Soulfrozen Agony - ICE (6 Health Damage, 6 Purity Damage, 6 Sanity Damage)

[The Knotted Tribute]

(79) Feroz Distribution Center (ABANDONED)

#{The Warped Lock: <Security> (https://i.imgur.com/ScjpFri.png)} Ethereal Agony – GHOST (4 Sanity Damage, 4 Purity Damage)#

[Bloodstained Toy Maze Cube]

(70) Daluco Toy Store (ABANDONED)

#{The Wandering Child Mount: Toy Maze Containment} Barbed Edges – NORMAL (6 Health Damage)#

[Band of Focus]

(63) Dortan Storage Facility (ABANDONED)

#{Altar of Confusion: Resolve Focus} Fae Bewilderment – FAIRY (5 Health Damage, 7 Sanity Damage)#

[The Twisted Tribute]

(86) The Foreman Building (ABANDONED)

@{The Dark Labyrinth Wall: Woven Tribute AND Knotted Tribute AND Twisted Tribute} Corrupted Shadow Presence – DARK (4 Health Damage, 6 Sanity Damage, 6 Purity Damage)#

[The Twisted Tribute]
THE WINDING ENIGMA (https://i.imgur.com/8K2BrRr.gif)
@Bewildering Abyssal Presence (10 Sanity Damage, 10 Purity Damage)@
[Labyrinth’s Phylactery]#
=Winding Enigma Message= (https://i.imgur.com/S3AlIws.png)

Puzzles:

https://i.imgur.com/6x8m0ca.png
The Blasted Door Lockpicking

https://i.imgur.com/qPhFhZc.jpg
The Blasted Door Lockpicking Solution

https://i.imgur.com/mvtAr13.png
The Coiled Door Lockpicking

https://i.imgur.com/Ktijc5M.png
The Coiled Door Lockpicking Solution

https://i.imgur.com/ScjpFri.png
The Warped Door Lockpicking

https://i.imgur.com/66pR536.png
The Warped Door Lockpicking Solution

Graphics:

https://i.imgur.com/FYTp1uQ.png
=Forgotten Cryptic Message=

https://i.imgur.com/eacMQCc.png
=Lonely Cryptic Message=

https://i.imgur.com/puLMKHB.png
=Timeless Cryptic Message=

https://i.imgur.com/S3AlIws.png
=Winding Enigma Message=

https://i.imgur.com/8K2BrRr.gif
At the end of Labyrinth’s Route

C0L0R3D

03-02-2021, 08:53 AM

Neo Emolga

03-04-2021, 01:36 AM

0_0
That's just screwed up, Neo....good job. You make me want to do a Stalker like RP myself sometimes, even if I'm clueless on how to do it. Anywho, that's four Stalkers off the list if I'm right. So, Huskpuppet. We know they're confirmed female, but which female is it?

It's... a lot of work, although don't do as much as I did. If I kept it sane and was something I could handle, eh... this poll never would have been necessary, but ah well. :P I think individually, the Stalkers were fine, but when you put them all together, it just ends up being monstrously huge collectively. Where I think this would shine more is having more graphics, less junk to have to sift through. The graphics are fun and I'm always more than happy to pop them in there. And they don't have to be puzzles either, just creepy deranged notes and crap on walls is always fun. >:3

Huskpuppet wasn't anything too fancy, just the three diary pages that you guys found and then 9 battles, but you'll get to see her background story. I'll also show Twistagen while we're here so that will cover all of them.

TWISTAGEN – Jagin the Floatzel
Backstory
Architect by trade, Jagin was known to be a designer of buildings and took pride in his work. As his personality goes, he’s very meticulous with extreme attention to detail. Despite being very well organized and sometimes obsessive about quality, he was more concerned about maximizing efficiency than doing anything creative with his buildings just for time and money’s sake. However, the major stumbling block he came across time and time again was time.

TWISTAGEN showed itself to Jagin.
Twistagen approached Jagin very business-like, knowing that was simply the way Jagin operated. “Faster, better, cheaper” was the motto that Twistagen promised, though Jagin was skeptical at first and had already heard plenty of other gimmicks that failed to deliver. Twistagen not only promised to teach Jagin how to create building designs that would perform their function beautifully, but that he would have access to resources that would be able to construct these building designs quickly and effectively in very little time. What he needed Jagin’s help was finding contractors and clients that would have the spaces reserved within Exacta. Jagin, with Twistagen guiding him, would then create new and improved buildings with a new and revolutionary style that was sure to reshape Exacta’s skyline.

How TWISTAGEN twisted Jagin's expectation
What Twistagen showed Jagin were structures straight out of the Abyss, mainly to Twistagen’s amusement. Jagin, very skeptical of how his clients would react when they saw unholy ziggurats, foreboding towers, and other macabre structures, decided the deal was off despite Twistagen’s claims of efficiency. But it was too late, and Jagin had already allowed Twistagen to sink into him just enough to take over the skeptical Floatzel. Where Jagin was once orderly, his persona became deranged, twisted, chaotic, and scrambled. But never random. Twistagen forced Jagin to take what was once in order, and make it utterly distorted.

Murder process and signature
Twistagen’s victims are found with their flesh and bones twisted, pulled, scrambled, and chaotically arranged like a hideous puppet wrap. Meanwhile, Twistagen’s writings and images are puppet-wrapped and warped in macabre ways. Words are often rearranged into chaotic anagrams of their previous forms.

Font:
DK Mothman (https://www.dafont.com/dk-mothman.font)

Summary of story/route:
Twistagen has scrambled most of Jagin’s work, putting what appears to be mindless scrawl on his pictures and documents, but the letters can be rearranged to form words. “Decoding” most of Twistagen’s texts gives clues as to where the next pieces of the route are. Twistagen adores and is proud of his own chaos, keeping a kind of deranged and demonic diary of his allocates and dark work.

Memento: Jagin’s Diploma in Architectural Engineering from Goldmarch University. Despite having a rough childhood, graduating from a very tough and high-level Ivy League-like school was the start of a better life and fulfillment of Jagin’s dreams.

Thankfully, the Emissaries don’t need to go too far. The entire Memento mini-route is all at one location, but it’s got a number of steps. Also, it gives a vital clue, Jagin is a Stalker, but they definitely need to do the rest of his route if they don’t want to get wrecked when they fight him.

(67) Ruined Rexem Skyscraper (ABANDONED)

{Damaged Elevator: ^Medium Pokémon^}

{Rubble-Filled Hallways: +Rock Type+}

{Secured Steel Locker: <Lockpick> (https://i.imgur.com/ZgiHjjQ.png)}

[Jagin’s Diploma in Architectural Engineering Memento]

Twistagens's Stalker Route
https://i.imgur.com/MGmLvaG.png

Twistagen’s route starts relatively tame, and then goes down a very dark, grizzly rabbit hole. At the end, the Emissaries have to deal with an ugly and painful room made of flesh and nasty mechanical parts like someone messed up making a giant cyborg. To get in there, they need to find three hideous parts to open The Mechanical Chaos Flesh Door. Yeah, whoever goes inside better know what they’re doing and be ready for anything.

PATH OF THE MECHANIZED BONE KEY OF SUAGINH

Probably the trickiest of the three parts, to get the bone key, players need to crack open the Torture Cage of the Damned with the Deranged Codec and the Wrath Stone of NECOMID. The Codec requires <Technical> work on it once they get it from Salio the Murkrow with good rapport. Saadat the Dewott just needs a good rapport interview to fork over the Wrath Stone of NECOMID, which he’s honestly more than happy to get rid of (a low rapport score might make him think the Emissary is up to no good with it).

59. Salio the Murkrow

#[Deranged Codec: <Technical> (https://i.imgur.com/MGmLvaG.png)] Insanity Presence – (5 Sanity Damage)#

#[Deranged Codec Primed] Infernal Presence – (5 Sanity Damage)

10. [SQE] Saadat the Dewott

#[Wrath Stone of the NECOMID] Mind-warp Presence – (2 Sanity Damage)#

(82a) Vancedyke Shipping Center – Vancedyke Shipyard and Receiving

#{Torture Cage of the MADEND#

#[Mechanized Bone Key of SUAGINH] Abomination Visions – (6 Sanity Damage)

PATH OF THE APPARATUS OF EIMYSR

Because misery loves company! The path for the Apparatus of EIMYSR is fairly straightforward. Get the Schism Key from Vio and bring it to the Schism Chamber! Only thing is Vio doesn’t give up the key easily. Despite not being a Stalker, she’s still a little crazy and possessive about it, so only Diplomacy will work.

39. Vio the Hatterene: <Diplomacy>

#[Twisted Schism Key] Angst Essence – POISON (3 Sanity Damage)#

(32) Exacta Fire Department Building

#[The Schism Chamber: Twisted Schism Keyhole] Agony Ichor – POISON (3 Sanity Damage)#

#[Apparatus of EIMYSR} – Draconic Agony – DRAGON (6 Sanity Damage)

PATH OF THE BLOODY RAZOR CHAIN MECHANISM OF TAHE

It’s got a crazy long name, but it’s quite a nasty thing. First, players need to meet up with Lucky and Isaiah and they get the [Punch Card Key] from them, which needs to be taken to the keycard reader at the manufacturing floor. After finding an usual, demonic machine, they need a Steel type Pokémon to dismantle the machine to get the .

(3) Redstone Motel

[b][Punch Card Key]

(80) Boyle Factory

{Ruined Manufacturing Floor Punch Card Reader: Punch Card Access}

#{Infernal Machine: +Steel Type+} Aura of Depredation – STEEL (5 Sanity and 5 Purity Damage)

#[Bloody Razor Chain Mechanism of TAHE] Bloody Infernal Ichor Edges – STEEL (7 Health Damage, 5 Purity Damage)

IT COMES TOGETHER

Imagine a twisted room made of moving, consuming flesh with mechanical gadgets and junk mixed in. That’s this place! Whoever goes in there better make sure they’re in good shape, because there’s a lot of mess in there that they’re bound to not forget!

(25) NECC Chemical Plant

#[The Mechanical Chaos Flesh Door: Keyhole of ANGUISH AND Socket of MISERY AND Disrupted Engine of HATE} Hellish Infernal Charge – ELECTRIC (5 Health Damage, 5 Purity Damage)#

@FLESH WARPING CONSUMPTION (7 Health Damage, 7 Sanity Damage, 7 Purity Damage)@
THE LIVING FLESH ROOM (https://i.imgur.com/gIfmU83.gif) – [Twistagen’s Phylactery]

BONUSES

These extra wall messages give some insight as to who to talk to for pieces of Twistagen’s route. If they can unscramble them, the first will lead them to Salio the Murkrow while the second will point them toward Vio the Hatterene. Not necessary to find, but helpful nonetheless.

(15) Sunberry Motel

Graphic: =Twisted Wall Message= (https://i.imgur.com/ufdN5Ie.png)

(36) Auto Acolytes Vehicle Repair Center (ABANDONED)

Graphic: =Macabre Stone Message= (https://i.imgur.com/bQQmOS2.png)

Puzzles:

https://i.imgur.com/tDjXGdD.jpg
[Deranged Codec] Puzzle

https://i.imgur.com/nU4sNx5.jpg
[Deranged Codec] Solution

https://i.imgur.com/ZgiHjjQ.png
{Secured Steel Locker: <Lockpick>} Memento Lock

https://i.imgur.com/6JsUKQw.png
Secured Steel Locker Lockpick Solution

Graphics:

https://i.imgur.com/ufdN5Ie.png
=Twisted Wall Message=
Actually reads:
“You can talk to Salio
Salio sleeps with it
But it drives the child mad
Maybe he can be
My future disciple”

Gives the players a clue that Salio the Murkrow has the Deranged Codec.

https://i.imgur.com/bQQmOS2.png
=Macabre Stone Message=
Actually reads:
“I can sense in the darkness
Vio
Damn Vio
That stone does not belong
To her
Consume her
Consume her whole!”

https://i.imgur.com/gIfmU83.gif
THE LIVING FLESH ROOM VISION

HUSKPUPPET - Fiveria the Musharna
Backstory
Once a kind and gentle soul, Fiveria was the kind of lady that loved to sew and create dolls and plushies for children, very often free of charge. As a widow, it helped her get her mind off of the recent loss of her husband, Ebber the Grumpig, but she enjoyed the feeling of creating little dolls and plush toys for good children, especially for their birthdays and holidays.

As time went on, Fiveria’s paws became crippled with arthritis, and trying to do the work she used to love was becoming more and more painful. For her, it was depressing, and soon enough, the feelings of loneliness and helplessness were closing in on her again.

HUSKPUPPET showed itself to Fiveria. Huskpuppet whispered to Fiveria during one of her nightly prayer sessions. At first, Fiveria believed the dark spirit was in fact good based by her arrival, and Huskpuppet played it off that way. The dark Enthraller first lied to Fiveria, claiming her dead husband was in good hands when really Huskpuppet had no knowledge regarding his whereabouts. And then, pretending to be sympathetic about Fiveria’s arthritis pains, mentioned that she might have a solution for that. Fiveria, liking the idea of being able to use her paws again, was expecting Huskpuppet to bestow a cure, but Huskpuppet fooled Fiveria into thinking it was more of a exercise and physical therapy process.

How HUSKPUPPET twisted Fiveria's expectation
Fiveria slowly surrendered herself to Huskpuppet’s guidance and control, wanting to regain the full use of her paws and create dolls again. What first started off as a few simple hand exercises eventually turned into assimilation. At first, Fiveria was slowly feeling better, but Huskpuppet told her in order for her to fully recover, she needed more control. Once it was too late to go back, Huskpuppet took full control over the Musharna’s body, and used her passion to create abominations.

Murder process and signature
Victims are first impaled through the eyes, and then the grotesque process of sucking out all their innards through their eye sockets and mouth begins until they are completely empty, warping bones and large organs in order to vacuum them out. Then, once the dark work is completed, victims are filled with a demonically possessed stuffing, causing the corpses to become reanimated.

Font: Skeetch (https://www.dafont.com/skeetch.font)

Summary of story/route:
Huskpuppet’s route is combat hell. Almost every step of the way involves running into a gutted and reanimated victim or some demonically possessed doll that attacks whoever runs into them. Meanwhile, Sanity damage is a common theme.

Huskpuppet’s route involves finding nine of her puppets, all of which used to be normal, living Pokémon. Each of the nine puppets is carrying a fragment of the Undeath Keystone which is needed to unlock her DEMONIC PUPPET WORKSHOP, which isn’t a place for the faint of heart (and involves more attacking reanimated puppets). These nine puppets are scattered about Exacta City in random locations, but there are three diary entries. Each diary entry gives a clue as to the behavior of the three puppets and where they can be found. So either the Emissaries will stumble into these puppets at random, or they can use these entries as a guide and be prepared. Chances are good it’ll be a combination of both until the Undeath Keystone is completed.

Memento: The Worn Heart Plush. It was Fiveria’s first creation in a sewing class she made as a child, and she originally made it for her mother. It brings happy memories of how her mother was impressed by its creation, and she tried to hold onto it the best she could despite all that’s happened.

If the Emissaries try to present it to her early, she claims she has no interest in it and “isn’t buying anything today.”

68. Racha the Skwovet

[Bunnelby Doll Head]

(51) Frasha’s Seafood Restaurant (ABANDONED)

{Headless Bunnelby Doll: Missing Head}

[Forgotten Metallic Footlocker Key]

(85) South Valley Industrial Storage Units (ABANDONED)

{Forgotten Metal Footlocker: +Grass Type+ AND ^Large Pokémon^ AND Forgotten Metallic Footlocker Keyhole}

[Worn Heart Plush Memento]

Huskpuppet's Stalker Route

https://i.imgur.com/pWZWb4d.jpg

Huskpuppet’s puppets behave like normal combatants, but besides doing Health damage, they’ll also attack the Emissary’s Purity. Their Loot Wheel behaves as follows:

HUSKPUPPET PUPPET LOOT WHEEL
100% Chance – 50-300 Sochas
20% Chance of |AW| Adds a 1d6 of (Randomized Element) damage
20% Chance of |DA| +2 Maximum Health Stat
10% Chance of [|JY| +2 Maximum Sanity Stat
5% Chance of |AA| Infernal Vigor (10% Chance of doubling damage)

(54) Exacta City Maximum Security Prison (ABANDONED)

Enco the Electrode “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 1= (https://i.imgur.com/JEmVOwB.png)

(65) Kothmart (ABANDONED)

Vraid the Kabutops “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 2= (https://i.imgur.com/OK1ILhx.png)

(68) Petro Now Gasoline and Convenience Store (ABANDONED)

Rabin the Dustox “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 3= (https://i.imgur.com/oJmNNaI.png)

(72) Valsa Hotel Ruins (ABANDONED)

Rugo the Panpour “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 4= (https://i.imgur.com/40LraZb.png)

(76a) The OMEN Crater – OMEN Crater Northwest, Ruined Residential District (ABANDONED)

Kray the Nidorino “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 5= (https://i.imgur.com/778sGDP.png)

(81) Ruined Vancedyke Warehouses (ABANDONED)

Enra the Hariyama “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 6= (https://i.imgur.com/Os3mU1H.png)

(58b) East Jadewater Apartment Building (ABANDONED)

Teeshay the Hatenna “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 7= (https://i.imgur.com/UzPQvCu.png)

(53) East Exacta River Bridge (ABANDONED)

Ercho the Thwackey “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 8= (https://i.imgur.com/95zx6XG.png)

(66) Greenyard Apartment Ruins (ABANDONED)

Mappa the Dreepy “Puppet” Encounter
=Fragment 9= (https://i.imgur.com/DsCaSdl.png)

(88) The Headmaster Houses (ABANDONED)

#{Undeath Vault of Reanimation: Missing Undeath Keystone} Infernal Deranged Essence (4 Sanity Damage, 2 Purity Damage)

DEMONIC PUPPET WORKSHOP (https://i.imgur.com/ag9Su6y.gif) – Huskpuppet’s Phylactery

DIARY ENTRIES

(22) Kenja Apartment Building

Graphic: =Huskpuppet Diary Entry 1= (https://i.imgur.com/NbZ8I5G.png)

(19) The Shaymin Café (ABANDONED)

Graphic: =Huskpuppet Diary Entry 2= (https://i.imgur.com/HmlsVff.png)

(33) Blue Brook Residential Buildings (ABANDONED)

Graphic: =Huskpuppet Diary Entry 3= (https://i.imgur.com/WHp2zBj.png)

Puzzles:

https://i.imgur.com/JEmVOwB.png
=Fragment 1=

https://i.imgur.com/OK1ILhx.png
=Fragment 2=

https://i.imgur.com/oJmNNaI.png
=Fragment 3=

https://i.imgur.com/40LraZb.png
=Fragment 4=

https://i.imgur.com/778sGDP.png
=Fragment 5=

https://i.imgur.com/Os3mU1H.png
=Fragment 6=

https://i.imgur.com/UzPQvCu.png
=Fragment 7=

https://i.imgur.com/95zx6XG.png
=Fragment 8=

https://i.imgur.com/DsCaSdl.png
=Fragment 9=

https://i.imgur.com/MMTCrY7.png
[Undeath Keystone] (Completed)

Graphics:

https://i.imgur.com/NbZ8I5G.png
=Huskpuppet Diary Entry 1=

https://i.imgur.com/HmlsVff.png
=Huskpuppet Diary Entry 2=

https://i.imgur.com/WHp2zBj.png
=Huskpuppet Diary Entry 3=

C0L0R3D

03-04-2021, 09:03 AM

Well, that tidied up all our loose ends!
Labyrinth was taking advantage of Taelia's grief and dementia....
Obscene caused Alishia to believe that they were a fan...
Astralnox was baiting out Daxu with hope and finding his friends....
Twistagen warped Jagin's expectations to make better buildings...
Huskpuppet confused Fiveria into believing she could make dolls again...
and Exclude basically became Shas' nightmarish friend.

Everyone besides from Shas got their hopes twisted into something they truly LOATHED....
But seriously, great job.

Edit: I made pictures of what the Stalker spirits would look like with a physical form bc i was bored, they're a bit small but I think you can just open the image in another tab and zoom in that way
1977

Neo Emolga

03-09-2021, 12:27 AM

It was a close call, but the verdict is “Fast forward to the ending” (given how AD meant to go for this option rather option #1). Personally, I think even with the stripped-down version, you guys would likely pulverize the Stalkers with the Shadowmarch gear, which I was okay with, but there wouldn’t be any threat of losing doing this.

I’ll try to get to writing up the ending this week, but first some background on it so when you read it, it makes sense.

The situation was meant to become increasingly morbid with every Stalker you defeated. You wouldn’t have seen too much with the first three Stalkers eliminated, but once #3 was gone, the Abyss would start sending in soldiers and assassins to make the situation more difficult and you would have noticed darker days and bizarre macabre weather patterns. So in addition to fighting OMEN infected, you would have been rolling random chances of facing these guys, too. And then when there was only one Stalker remaining, the Abyss would send in their absolute nastiest elite officers. On top of all this, things around Exacta City would have become really plunged into darkness. This would all be leading up to the final battle between Utopia and the realm of the living versus the Abyss, which you'll read about in the ending.
The ending will play out as if you completed all the steps of the Sin Purge Ritual. This was also meant to include the rescue of Hoopa and Blazewing the Latias (who would have helped with some of the Sin Purge Ritual steps). Blazewing was in fact the Utopia Angel that would have been purifying stuff and breaking Phylacteries.
This will also be the ultimate end of the Stalkers RPG. In terms of the five-Season ongoing storyline, yes, since all five Seasons are loosely connected (having some exposure to the other Seasons will make you appreciate the ending a bit more, but it’s not necessary). You’ll see hints to old familiar friends and followers from the previous Seasons (and in fact there are connected references to those other worlds in the ending). Once you read the ending, you’ll know why Season 6 won’t be a thing.

Though no promises, I may run something similar to Stalkers in the distant future that uses major components of the game’s play system and will likely have a very similar look and feel, but will have some distinct differences. However, a large amount of the addon extra stuff that was weighing me down too much to resolve will definitely be stripped, so combat would go (or would be very simplified into single dice-roll outcomes), most if not all of the inventory stuff would go including money and stores, and so would the stuff that doesn’t really get used often enough to hassle with it. They were nice attempts and were fun to try, but they’re just unwieldly, unfortunately. What the theme of it would be, not sure yet, but the fantasy theme kind of resonates with me.

In closing, I definitely want to thank everyone who participated in this, even if you were only active for one cycle or so. I apologize I just couldn’t keep up with it and it’s always a bummer to me when sometimes doesn’t get completed the way I wanted it to, but eh, it happens. Overall, I hope you had fun with it, there will definitely be other events at PXR and I hope you join in on them.

EmeraldSky Noblejanobii Scytherwolf SlickSlack Lychee AD Suicune’s Fire Shruikan Chibi Altaria Bulbasaur James-Typhlosion TylerNinetales