Airships Through a Lagstorm

I will return to the little tour of CDS states in a bit, but I wanted to mention the Shadow of the 13 mystery/RP game going on now in New Babbage. Both Dr. Fabre and Miss Carver have mentioned it in their Journals (as has New World News, but Mr. Au gets enough hits that he doesn't need the publicity), but I thought I should plug it as well.

Constructed and executed by the multi-talented Master Loki Eliot, the mystery starts with the discovery of a body, and some barrels that appear to have come from the sky. After that...? We will have to see if other clues present themselves. My understanding is that the clues are fixed in place and do not require any particular interactions with Babbagers (a good thing, given the different times that people are in-world), and can be approached as time permits.

I tried twice to make some headway, but I confess I was beaten back both times by lag so horrid that I could hardly move. Babbage is a laggy place at best, but this past week has been a hard one on the grid, for reasons that I don't understand. I can only hope it gets better.

Babbage seems to have had an influx of urchins, or perhaps they have just become more visible. I mis-identified the gender of one, due in part to the lag (things weren't rezzing well) (and young sir, the long hair didn't help), so my apologies to him for that, as I think he was out of range when I sent my apology via chat. Are they related to the game? Time will tell.

Babbage has become a large place, and those who are not residents are likely to find themselves at a disadvantage. The Shadow of the 13 Aetherweb site has a map of Babbage with a few sites helpfully marked, but it takes me so long to find anyplace that it's tough sledding for me at best. I can only hope that I can find a location that a clue references.

In any event, the idea is a smashing one, and I commend Master Loki for putting everything together.

(Apologies for the title to Crosby, Stills, and Nash and their "Horses Through a Rainstorm.")

Edit 1/13/10: Lag was less last night, almost back to New Babbage's usual "it's a little laggy in here" self. Whether this was because of a grid-wide improvement, or rebooting Babbage, or simply fewer people in the sim, I don't know. I was able to find several clues - though what they all mean I still have no idea.