Investigation into the wood theft led to the abandoned mine, and after finally exploring it, they came across a place where people seemed to be living. These people were clad in robes and looked extremely suspicious. Since they definitely weren’t miners, the outsider adventurers defeated the creepy bunch and are now in the process of looting the area.
New bits of information keep coming in, each with the notification sound of a chiming bell.
Some sort of document has been discovered.
It’s covered in unfamiliar, indecipherable words, save for an epigraph at the very top of the page.
It reads: Dolor’s dames are known by three names, or together by one. Should their presence be your aim, then take these words and read on.. However, the one and only legible line is the title at the very top of the page.
It reads: “To Summon Our Ladies of Sorrow.”
“The last line’s in English. Can you read it, Princess?” Mr. Skelly asks.
“One of the words says ‘summon!’” the twins chime in.
I translate it for them. “It says ‘To Summon Our Ladies of Sorrow.’”
Information has been shared with you.
Some sort of document has been discovered.
It’s covered in unfamiliar, indecipherable words. However, the one and only legible line is the title at the very top of the page.
It reads: “To Summon Shub-Niggurath.”
“Really?! The three ladies and Shub-Niggurath?!” the twins cry out.
“The devs said there would be information meant to mislead us, right? Perhaps this is one of those things. We have to decide which one to investigate,” I speculate.
Information has been shared with you.
Some sort of formula has been discovered at the former residence of the earl. Can nobles really solve math problems like these? Even in our world, there aren’t many people capable of such a thing. Will we really be able to solve this?
Kruschtya Equation.
“An equation?” ask the twins.
“If it came from the manor, I would assume it’s not critical to the event. Lord Kurt, are you familiar with the Kruschtya Equation?”
“Kruschtya? Ah, you mean that unintelligible formula! We’re instructed to preserve it, even if we can’t solve it ourselves. I wouldn’t think there are many people capable of the task at all.”
Surely we’re not actually meant to solve the calculation ourselves. But then how do we use it?
Kruschtya Equation
Solution progresses as long as you look at this screen or keep this screen open while sitting down. Solution speed is influenced by intelligence, spirit, and equipped items.
I see. So, if we have the Kruschtya Equation UI open, it solves automatically based on our stats and equipment. It sounds like we can stay in any position if we keep the UI up, but if we’re sitting, we can work on other things in the meantime.
“Do they not want us to solve it? Solving the equation just makes Nyar show up,” says Mr. Alf.
“Is the equation his avatar?” I ask.
“As soon as you solve it, you’re the one who turns into Nyar.”
“That doesn’t sound very good,” I respond nervously.
“Based on where our progress is right now, I don’t think we’ll be able to solve it during the event at all.”
Without the stats of a pure magic player, the solution is out of my hands. I won’t touch it, myself. I don’t want the Book of the Elder Keys to explode—nor do I want to cross paths with Nyar.
Information has been shared with you.
The base inside the abandoned mine has been cleared and searched.
The captured occupants don’t seem eager to talk, but based on how they’re acting, there might still be more of them roaming free.
Investigate the recovered documents and track down the remainder of the suspicious group.
For now, you can bring your captives into town and let the professionals deal with them.
“It seems a new phase is upon us, my lieges. How shall we broach this development?” Mr. Musasabi messages the union.
“We should probably be looking into countermeasures while we also search for those survivors from the mine. What else is there to do?”
“But the survivors are probably trying to summon the beings from those documents. If we manage to decipher them, we might find a clue about where the survivors went.”
“Ah, I see.”
The servers with more people will have an easier time sending players to all corners of the map to investigate. But that just isn’t realistic on a server like ours.
“Our union will start by investigating the documents. Although, that will probably take us to the east,” I inform the others.
“The east and the south are the places that have been mentioned in the shared info, but we’ve cleared the south now. That just leaves the strange shadow in the east!”
“Are you here, Mr. Ertz?” I ask.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“I hear you’re in the north to gather lumber for that quest. Have you seen anything unusual?”
“Nope. We’ve got guards with us, but as far as I’ve seen and heard, it’s just a normal forest.”
“And the west is just a normal field too. I guess the east really is where we’ll make more progress.”
“My lieges, I am most curious about this strange shadow. Should this require a scouting mission?”
“Yeah, we could definitely send a few parties out for scouting. I’m sure the combat teams will enjoy it.”
After speaking with the party leaders in our union, we agree to keep the groups exploring the north and west in place, since we can’t seem to gather information about those areas in town. The team who went south will return to the city now that they’ve cleared the mine, gather whatever information they can, and then head east.
Aside from the few parties escorting the suspicious group back to town, everyone else can take unexplored routes for their return to help fill in the map. Some players in town and others who return from the escorting task will join the scouting mission in the eastern forest.
Of course, that’s not the story for our union members. Mr. Skelly posts updates about us on the BBS so the other players can plan around whatever we’re up to.
“We’ll be investigating the documents the suspicious men had in their possession,” I declare to the others.
The suspicious group was in possession of incomprehensible documents.
You’ll need different materials in order to decipher them, so search for something that might be of use.
To Summon Shub-Niggurath
Suspicious group’s note
The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young
Black Goddess of the Bountiful Harvest
To Summon Our Ladies of Sorrow
Suspicious group’s note
Our Lady of Tears
Our Lady of Sighs
Our Lady of Darkness
The event UI seems to be showing me the titles of different documents that exist.
To start, I’ll explain this to the earl and share our information with him. It will probably be quickest to have him assist us in finding the documents we need.
“Hmm. I see,” he replies.
“We’ll look into these documents, so please extract whatever information you can from the suspects.”
“Very well.”
“Also, are you in possession of any older documents? Specifically, anything that relates to outer ones,” I ask.
“I keep very old documents stored in my study, though I’m not certain they speak of the outer ones.”
“Can you think of anywhere else that might have them?”
“Perhaps the church, I imagine.”