Tuesday, October 26, 2010

A-Mazing Caledon and Lagtoberville

Two events found the Jameson sisters heading in different directions last weekend. First, Rhianon decided to try her hand at the Caledon Cavorite Mines Halloween Killer Maze. I don't know everyone who had a hand in putting this together, but one instigator was Mr. Jayleden Miles, and there was clear evidence of the hand of Mr. Denver Hax.

This was part harvest time fun and part cavorite mines fundraiser. The adventurer finds her way into the maze, and the goal is to find both the exit and 31 ghostly Guvnahs. One is depicted below.


To be perfectly frank, the first goal is to stay alive. A variety of Bad Things can happen to a body as she wanders through the maze. Some are fatal. Some merely frighten a lady half to death. Clowns! Everyone is afraid of clowns, right?

Des finds himself trapped in a spider's web... and perhaps he's not alone.

Rhianon reports she found about half of the Guvnahs and, despite coming armed, was killed about a half-dozen times over the course of several hours. She took out a number of the beasts, though, so it wasn't a total loss.

The maze was hugely fun.

Meanwhile, Miss Orr noted that, although the organizers of Octoberville had previously announced they would not be staging a 2010 version of the mystery/hunt, someone must have had a change of heart, as Octoberville 2010 was under way.

I considered how much I wanted to try this, given the lagfest of the previous year and my frustration with not being able to solve some of the puzzle or find some of the objects. In the end, I gave in and visited. The lag has not improved.

Having worked my way through the sim for many days last year, this time I had greater familiarity with some of the basic buildings and some of the holdover puzzles, as well as an appreciation for what various objects looked like and where I might expect to find them. As a result, I made fairly good progress. I even solved one of the puzzles I failed to solve last year, which gave me a sense of accomplishment. (It was one of those puzzles that involves moving 15 tiles one at a time to form a picture. In a flashback to elementary school, I was moving the tiles and working toward a solution when a guy showed up and started clicking away. However, I'd like to think I'm a tad more mature than in elementary school, so I said nothing and waited for him to give up, which he did about 20 minutes later... despite having received a pretty good hint about how to solve the puzzle.) (And I'm not proud: I used the hint to solve it myself.)

One woman decided to reduce lag in an extreme way. (Scrawled on her stomach are the words "Say No To Lag.") I wanted to tell her that system hair and clothing would have gotten her the same result without the pumpkin ta-tas and the pumpkin over her crotch, but thought discretion was the better part of valor.


Anyway, no success again for me this year, but at least I didn't spend as much time obsessing about it before giving up, so that's something of a victory!

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