Quill-Weave: Research

 

You are now Quill-Weave.


FakelyMcSuggestor wrote:
QW: Expatiate.

Nice word.

Anyway, after spending all of yesterday cooped up in your house pouring over old historical documents from the Reman Dynasty, you’ve decided to get out and perform some first-hand research for your upcoming historical fiction series, Path of the Doomstones.

As the name would imply, the series revolves around the “Doomstones”, the twenty-one ancient stone monoliths scattered throughout Cyrodiil. The monuments themselves date back to the first era, and most of them are named after constellations. Popular myth holds that the Doomstones harbor great magical power. Like most popular myth, you expect this to be complete bullshit.

However, you do pride yourself on the historical accuracy of your work. And, given that one of these Doomstones was apparently pissing distance from your house, you pretty much had no excuse not to check it out. If it turns out these Doomstones actually do hold some kind of magical power, your entire historical fiction series built on the assumption that they are just rocks is going to look pretty silly.

No, worse: it’ll look like fantasy.

And so here you are, at what – according to your research – is known as the “Lady Stone”. Quite frankly, you’d rather be doing something else. Maybe going bar oscillating (that’s bar hopping in a shitty port town with only two bars), or writing the nineteenth draft of that meandering and incoherent letter you’re going to be sending up to Chorrol on the next available courier. But no, you have an authorial obligation to determine that this rock is not magical.

There certainly doesn’t look to be anything magical about it.

It looks like a fucking rock.


obviousCommandgiver wrote:
Don’t kick it with your foot. Try placing your hand on the doomstone’s surface.

Yes, after centuries of mystery surrounding these stones, it turns out all someone had to do to activate their powers was touch them.

But no, really, nothing happens.

It feels like a fucking rock.


_Horrible_Roleplayer_ wrote:
In me homeland of skyrim, I hath encountered many of a devious trap or doorway triggered by physical force. Wield yon bow, yon lizard, and treat thou stone to arrow-feast.

It’s worth a shot; you’re here to discount possibilities, after all.

There are no obvious targets or anything on the Doomstone to shoot at, but if they made it that tall any magical trigger would probably be near the top, out of reach of animals and the like. You’re not the best shot, but a couple arrows to the top parts of the stone shouldn’t be a problem.

Nobody was around to see you do that and you will never be able to repeat it, ever.

Regardless, the doomstone remains nonresponsive.


adventuregamer wrote:
What about those chain things around you? Maybe you have to do something with them to activate the doomstone

They look like regular, hanging chains. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of pulley mechanism, meaning there’s probably no tedious, guesswork-heavy chain-pulling puzzle. Which you’re thankful for. Shit like that is why you left Jesan’s D&D group.

You guess there still could be some kind of magical trigger built into the chains, but without knowing the enchanter or his motivations there would be no way to tell what you need to do.


FakelyMcSuggestor wrote:
QW: This is the Lady Stone, right? Perhaps old-timey damsels in distress were chained up there, and the stone would activate after noble heroes came and rescued them.

There aren’t enough people here to stage any actual daring rescues, so you just end up playing all the roles yourself.

After kidnapping yourself and chaining you to a pillar for an evil sacrifice, you dramatically burst into the stone circle at the last moment and defeat yourself, rescuing you and freeing her from captivity, after which the two (one?) of you stroll off into the sunset.

The whole thing is incredibly silly.

The Doomstone remains unimpressed by your performance.

But no, really, you’re only a few hundred feet from the coast. These pillars were probably for chaining up boats or something.


ItalianArgonian wrote:
So chain a boat to it?

You didn’t expect that to actually do anything, but you’ve always wanted to use that useless skill for something.


adventuregamer wrote:
Inspect those runes. They could hold a clue.

The runes, as far as you are able to tell, are a bunch of meaningless scribbles. In all your second-hand research, you haven’t found so much as a translation or even interpretation of them. Their only noteworthy feature is apparently that they are phosphorescent red, and you’ll just have to take the book’s word on that one.


ColorfulHorse6 wrote:
Kiss the doomstone.

What.


ColorfulHorse6 wrote:
It’s the “Lady Stone”. Protagonists (the typical recipients of magical powers) always kiss the lady at the end of the story.


ItalianArgonian wrote:
In some cultures, kissing certain rocks is considered good luck.

Counterpoint: it’s a fucking rock.


ColorfulHorse6 wrote:
Are you… shirking your writerly research duties?

Despite prohibitive facial anatomy, you give it your all and passionately make out with the doomstone.

It tastes like a fucking rock and, unsurprisingly, accomplishes a net total of absolutely nothing.


RegularReader wrote:
>Quill-Weave: use parkour on the doomstone.

You can’t just “use p…”

After about an hour of hopping from pillar to pillar, you finally manage to surmount the doomstone. Even wearing a skirt, you are the queen of jumping. It’s you.

The doomstone, being an inanimate and nonmagical piece of rock, remains stoically unimpressed by your feat.


adventuregamer wrote:
Maybe you should just wait until nighttime and see if the time of day has any effect.

May as well. You brought dinner with you.

And you guess it would make sense, a stone named after a constellation only working when the constellations are visible.

As you wait, your thoughts drift back to Katia. They’ve been doing that a lot lately, something you blame on the fact that you certainly could have met her under less memorable circumstances.

Your friends already poke fun at you for handing out charity like a priest of Mara hands out religious pamphlets, but really, you’re just a sucker for happy endings. Not that you’d ever let your peers in the writing community know that. Katia was someone who seemed like she really needed your help. Wherever she is right now, you hope she’s doing okay.

And not about to do something incredibly stupid.

Welp, time flies when you’re sitting on a fifteen foot monolith and consuming a copious amount of rum and chocolate-dipped apples. It’s a cloudless night and the stars and moons are out in full force. Prime conditions for the operation of a constellation-powered Doomstone, if that’s what this is.

Welp. Nothing.

You guess it’s time to call it a night.


_Horrible_Roleplayer_ wrote:
With the sun gone to lighter lands, it is the time to reassess those triggers, friend argonian! Draw yon bow!


adventuregamer wrote:
The chain puzzle might only work under starlight. You should check those out again.


FakelyMcSuggestor wrote:
QW: Now that the stars are out, you should give the dramatic rescue scene another shot. Maybe they have to witness it.


ItalianArgonian wrote:
Is your origami boat still secure? It didn’t fall off the chain, did it?


ColorfulHorse6 wrote:
Kiss the doomstone again. Everyone knows nighttime is when all the passionate kisses happen.

  • Relth

    Or don’t. Your call.

    • Jirky-Kake

      Do. My call.

      • sheogorath

        No eat cheese. Nobody’s call!

        • Iridell

          Cheese! For Everyone!

  • Warm Sands

    Just wanted to ask… exactly what does a fucking rock “take” like when you kiss it?
    :p

    • Kazerad

      Ack, I knew there was SOME typo I fixed after giving this original to Ch’marr. Re-fixed!

  • Armael

    oh boy, dat erotic kissing scene.

    • Eating

      >makes strong effort to prevent Katia/QW romance
      >not very hesitant to show QW being romatic to a rock

      I will never understand Kazerad.

      • Niveon

        It’s hard to romantically fanboy a rock.

  • Not-so-common-sense

    Panels 8 and 9’s animations don’t seem to play for me, any chance the problem is at your end Kaz or is it just me?

    • Kazerad

      Are you using Chrome? Sometimes Chrome decides that a gif should no longer loop, because it is racist against gifs.

      • Not-so-common-sense

        Seems to be working now, maybe my computer was being mean (does Firefox usually have these problems?). Thanks anyway.

  • Melkor

    So is this going to be regularly updated or anything?

  • Katias

    It may sound odd, but are you religious? Why not pray to one of those many gods/daedric princes? Chances are it was crated by some religious nut for something… Religiony…The only question is which? Chances are the stone wouldn’t respond to a false prophet.

  • TG

    I love the names of the fake command givers

    • Katias

      I gave the name “Katias” to my first WoW character when the game launched in 2004. I still use the name for most things internet, ranging from forums to other games (Like the Elderscrolls series and DnD). It’s what I identify myself as online, and while it’s close to Katia, I don’t see the need to change it since it’s already a different name. Also, I recently started reading Prequel (3 days or so ago). While enjoying the content Kazerad has to offer, I overlooked the part where you DON’T submit commands on this page. I understand my mistake now: My bad. So…Sorry?

      • trisk

        Pretty sure you’re not what he was referring to, look at the names of the commands actually used up on the page and see how they relate to the commands given. Like:
        obviousCommandgiver wrote:
        Don’t kick it with your foot. Try placing your hand on the doomstone’s surface.
        or
        _Horrible_Roleplayer_ wrote:
        In me homeland of skyrim, I hath encountered many of a devious trap or doorway triggered by physical force. Wield yon bow, yon lizard, and treat thou stone to arrow-feast.

        lol

        Neat coincidence though, with the Katia/Katias thing

  • Thekal

    Well this “fucking rock” is clearly not responding to you. Basically, you don’t have any magical powers nor magical items for the rock to “recognize you”. I would say that Katia’s “Pineaple trick” is magical enough to “turn this thing on”, but she’s not here. Anyway, you’re not here just to prove these Doomstones to be magical, you’re mainly here to write a book.Why not giving Anvil a visit. It’s close by, and people in Mages guild or Tavern could give you some information about this “fucking rock”. More information -> Better book.
    Also, could you show us your inventory so we know what we’re working here with ?

    P.S.: Nice “fucking rock parkour” skills. Bugs me why somone as agile decided to be a writer.

    • trisk

      Figure she’ll have to give Anvil a visit sooner or later considering she lives there, and why would she ask around, i’m sure you’ve seen what happens when NPCs say things to NPCs, she wants to find out about Doomstones not mudcrabs or the fighter’s guild. And, well, i’m not sure about that PS thing either, her class is acrobat and she’s a trainer in it, even though she’s a writer, who is never actually seen writing ingame and whose books are not available to be read. I guess she just finds it useful, after the quest where she lures mountain lions into some lady’s basement she says “You’ve got to be light on your feet to make it around here, and that’s something I’m good at.” & in the randomized babble of other NPCs sometimes they mention something vaguely creepy about how in shape she is from how much she travels to research for her books, so i guess it’s suppose to be the agility is somewhat of a RESULT of the writer-y-ness, maybe?

      also pretty sure this sidestory was over, with the commands and stuff, before it was even posted here by the way
      for some reason i liked the thing about Katia activating a Doomstone by pineapple magicks

  • bobucles

    If it’s a rock based on a constellation, shouldn’t the markings resemble that constellation in SOME way? Perhaps your view from the top might have revealed a special rock layout or something.

    Alternatively…

    Look at the rock and press “E”. Then check your menu to see if you got hit with any magic.

    • trisk

      Space not E, this isn’t Skyrim.

      ‘n Quilly is an NPC i don’t think she can “press” anything

  • Jorin

    I’ll never understand this- if Argonians are colorblind, why are the males red and the females green? Gosh, Oblivion…

    • Kazerad

      But Quill-Weave is red!

      Also, she’s the only one you definitively know is colorblind. The little kid in Kvatch refers to Sigrid as the “blue and gold lady”.

      • RylanSword

        WELL Quill’s also very likely lesbian.

  • CATS

    this is probably not being updated…but
    clearly there’s probably some sort of sacrificial thing required here…blood is required for sacrificial sarcen stones,not slobbery tonque lashings…no matter how sexy.

  • Tallhyperboy

    Stand atop the lady stone again and see if viewing the ruins from a birds eye view reveals any clues.

  • Unidentified BA

    This is my favorite part of the entire comic I think. I love how it is written, I love the jokes, and I love the way the animation plays out. It’s very fun to read.

  • Steven Steven

    Maybe try chipping a piece off? Cracking it?
    Or maybe you could splash some sea water on it? I dunno.

  • RylanSword

    Wait for the moonlight. Maybe try repeating some things once the moon strikes it with its light.