Benie's Games Blog

What an ordeal I had yesterday. Power’s still on, and I’m so thankful. There are over 40,000 people in Louisville who are still without it. May God speed those utility trucks to get them out of the cold.
Logging in and asking what needs doing today, I noticed something different
outside (where I have my wagon parked). A sea serpent named ‘tinsel’. Clearly the GMs have been here when I was asleep (again). Walked over, and saw it was inside my wagon. Thankfully it didn’t kill my bison…

Focused on Carp for most of the day (even helping a bit with Fine Carp). Kchat meanwhile was talking about the black dragon slaying tomorrow. I’ve been on the fence if I wanted to include this with my impalong plans (and how best to do it).
They finally gave the hunters a general location where the slaying site would be, and the site is somewhere close to Vrock Landing.
After a long debate, I decided to stay here instead of go there. I actually would love get B2 up there and have him help to kill the dragon, but he doesn’t have prem and isn’t much of a fighter (he would just get in the way, really). And in my head, I’m reminded of what that one said about I would be wasting my time putting effort into my alt (that isn’t making him a priest). So those two things are what I discussed… nothing about what happened three years ago with the red drake near OR.

Nothing really exciting happened until after I got back from dinner. Immediately, I’m seeing named mobs and hearing combat. FINALLY, the GMs are here to cause chaos!!
After the mobs are all dead, Enki pops up behind me on the main deed road. Claims someone gave him wrong directions to get here, which is why there hasn’t been any real GM activity for the past five days.
Someone challenges Enki… not a smart move, and he accepted by ripping the person’s heart out (which killed them). My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the message in Event chat;
[19:35:11] Tiduzz looks very surprised as Enki suddenly rips the heart out of his body.
DAYUM son!! :O Do not challenge the head GM! Though later on, they accepted their fate and felt it was justified (especially after being brought back here).
More fun combat that lasted for a half an hour, until Enki finally had enough and left us. There’s also something I learned. One of the priests here… is one of the reasons why I moved to Cele. For they are the priest, of a certain not actually a champagne-drinking dragon. She’s here…fffffff. Thankfully she doesn’t seem to recognize me (and/or possibly acknowledge my existence). And that’s perfectly OK to me.
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Shrimpiie showed up after that (as I almost swear he’s trying to promote the final impalong of 2018, in Inde). He’s sparing with a few people, and also helping out here.
Even later after that, I’ve zoned out while back infront of a forge, from watching an hour long video on Youtube. Come back and Tiduzz is talking about dragons (in an odd way).
I look down and.. the fuck? I’m a baby hell horse. I then notice Tiduzz as a green drake, then make a crack about the upcoming dragon slaying. I say how I’m going to tell kchat there’s a green drake here and we’ll have a public slaying.
They start running, not sure if I’m joking or not. It was hilarious. Then Dracaa shows up as a green dragon.. nice, more potential to get hide and make my own dragon scale set!
Just acting like one of those dragon hunters… the bastards. RIP Emeriss the Ferocious.

People start turning into black drakes for some strange reason. I do as well. So we all line up to have some pictures taken (here and here(with Dracaa looking quite awesome)). Being a drake, this is what I see infront of me. So yeah, very limited visibility.
After the picture, we run for the arena to do battle with more mobs. Inside are these passive zombies. Start attacking them. As the second one is nearly down, lots and lots of hardened crocodiles start spawning under me, and I lose nearly half health!!
Son of a bitch, that GM catching me off-guard. lol It did get close after I armored up and went back in (thinking my axe was going to help heal me). Was down to 30% health. Fuckers are going to kill me.
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Heal up, making sure they don’t have that chance. With time, we take all of them out. More spawn in (like trolls mixed with crabs/wolves, and wild cats), and are taken down. And that was it for the night. Definitely makes up for losing power for five hours.

Day 3: Constantly imping is starting to take its toll on me. I’ve actually been trying to get my AH up, pissed it’s not anywhere close to 40 (it’s 30.95 currently).
I’m getting bored, and highly irritated at the game for not showing “is being imped by..”. They need to do something about what happens when there’s too many hands in the forge.

Not a single sighting of a GM today.. this is so odd for an impalong. Then again, they could still be coping with the loss of Tich (and that’s completely understandable). That, and they’re probably very busy working on keeping her memory alive (with this fishing overhaul thing).
Dracaa also said the fishing competition would be extended to today. But something came up and she couldn’t. Didn’t ask why, as that would be rude.
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But at least, I have some good news. I’m happy to report that I’ve reached 20 in Faith (and taking advantage of the 10% skillgain bonus).. and with it, I’ve also hit 80 Blacksmithing!! 😀 This is now my highest skill with DH, beating Digging by a large margin.
So, I think tomorrow, I’m shifting gears by getting on my wagon and go hunting for passive mobs. Because I would love to bring Uma here.. and I can’t as I can only care for up to four animals. And since those said four animals are attached to the wagon (and all Ven).. yeah.
There’s more than enough impers during the day, that I can step out and not be needed. So this gives me a chance to grind AH.
I’ll definitely be back before 5pm, to attend the maze event. After that, I might focus on Carp (or Fine Carp). Getting BS to 80, is a huge accomplishment… would hate to lose it to a troll. :/

Also, an unexpected thing happened last night. Around 2am, Emoo announced he was going to be doing his weekly ‘Wurm Wednesday’ stream in an hour from then. Typically, his streams are done when I’m going to bed. But this time he’s doing it 2 hours earlier. He mentioned he was coming to the ‘Luna Festival in Xanadu’.
“..Emoo is COMING HERE?! Oshi–!!” is going through my head. And sure enough, he showed up about 2:50am. You can see last night’s stream (as long as his previous recordings), here.
And I was on the stream (both in chat, and visually). Was losing my fucking mind with a well known and respected PvPer (and was once a GM) in our midsts, who’s been around before I joined the game in 2009.
This morning’s stream was a contest to see who had the best looking gear. Winner gets 20s, and a supreme adventure’s hat. There were three categories for the contest;
1. Best dressed (best use of dye).
2. Combat (looking intimidating).
3. Swimsuit (your best n00b clothing).
After the 3rd category, the three finalists were asked a series of questions from the judges, of how they feel about certain aspects of Wurm. One such as, what’s the one thing they want in Wurm. One of them actually said a request I had; trade ships, similar to wagoneers. Having a dock infront of my deed, and getting goods from other
servers (without having to go there myself) would be so fucking awesome.
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Emoo also mentioned of another contest going on (ran by the GMs), in the Wurm Online Facebook. Simply state your best memory about Wurm, to be entered in a drawing. This memory can be being helped by a village, taking down a dragon, fighting in a huge PvP battle, and then some.
The deadline is the 18th, and there will be three winners picked. 1st place gets a free month of prem time, as well as a shoutout on Valrei International. 2nd and 3rd place are TBD.
I… don’t really have any ‘good’ memories of Wurm that would be worth expressing to the GMs. So I’m not participating. Still, pretty nice prize. Not having to pay for prem for a month, would be awesome.

No GMs this day, but signs that they were here, have been popping up recently (such as a few adol raging nuggets, and ‘old Bacon’).
Meanwhile, I feel I’ve been pumping out rares left and right. Got two items rare today… now if only I was this lucky back home.

4:01pm (on the dot), the fishing competition happened. The location was just north of the deed (on the south side of Surefall Lake). We were given fishing poles, and told to catch the biggest fish you can catch in 15 minutes. After that time elapsed, to report to Dracaa so she can check the fish (by opening a trade window and showing your biggest catch). The winner gets to choose from an assortment of neat items (from what I heard).
There were three fishing competitions this day (each one within 4 hours apart from eachother).
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The first time, I caught a roach. Then got B2 on to step in for me (since, you know, he used to be my cook and we survived off of nasty Fish Stew). Sadly he didn’t come close to winning. The second time, the line snapped on the first attempt of getting a fish (but Dracaa was able to help with that) and he got second place. But, there are no prizes for that.
And the third time, he came very close, but didn’t win. 🙁 Oh well.
Dracaa hopes to have more of this tomorrow.

And that’s about it for the day. Other than what I posted in the General blog, it was an alright day. Had quite a lot of RL delays, though.

Lots of people here, and more incoming from parts unknown (either by boat, or by road). It’s like, nearly the entire population of the server is coming. This is so wild, it’s going to get so busy here. Hopefully I’ll hit 80 BS before the week is over.
Lots to imp as well. I’ve been busy all day.
Sadly I missed the first GM shenanigans, which happened at 7am this morning. And even more sadly, it was the only one that happened. A bit surprising. We waited all day for the arena to become active, but it never did.

A bit later in the day, a person going by the name of ‘Leander’ (one of the staff), starts talking about he’s the one that designed the deed, and is offering his services. And of course this grabbed my attention. Said they charge 1s, and depending on what they have to do, it could be more than that.
Said they’re going to do a forum post on it ‘soon’. So, if I actually do decide to move to Xan, I’ll likely look this person up for assistance. Though my brain reminds me of Saintdouglas, and how… awesome it was when it came to planning out Dragontail Hideaway.
But this person might know what I’m looking for, and would give it to me (for a price). But it’s a price I’ll definitely be willing to pay.

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More time passed and I was actually feeling overwhelmed with so many things to imp, to where I was getting bored and almost falling asleep infront of my computer.
This is when Dracaa (main host) announced that at 4pm tomorrow, there will be a fishing competition. But this, will be a very special event. It will be as a memorial to Tich; a long-standing GM who sadly lost her battle with cancer a week ago. Fishing, is what she enjoyed doing the most, and was in the process of overhauling it.
The GMs who are going through a lot of grief, are planning to continue her work. There is no ETA to this fishing overhaul, but this competition is a good way to keep her memory of making fishing fun again, alive.
I’ll likely have my alt doing this too, remembering that this is how myself and him started out (with him being my stew cook). Hopefully, fishing poles will be provided.. since, you know ..I don’t have to do it anymore (thanks to Refresh).
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And, that’s about it. As I said at the beginning, the GMs never shown up (when I was up). How dare they do it when I was sound asleep!!
Around 3 in the morning (and having reached 77 in Blacksmithing),  I told them that I’ve had enough and need a break. Took this time to explore areas of the deed that I didn’t, such as the huge underground section of their deed (where boat parking is available).
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Back at the site, new people come in who want to help (yet have no tools). It got quite crazy, but it wasn’t my problem (as I was very tired). Went to bed in one of their beds and logged for the night.

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Comparing LunaLong’s Day 1 to NEXALong.. there is no contest. This is the impalong I expected to attend.
Also, earlier in the day I told them that I needed to get my Mining skill up. Someone said they have an upcoming canal project, so if I’m going to get that skill past 50 (to become one step closer to being completely self-sufficient from needing outside help to re-imp tools/weapons/armor).. I HAVE to do this!

Currently writing from the LunaLong site. Left the NEXALong at exactly midnight, and arrived around 2:07am. Two hours. People called me crazy in kchat, including Shrimpiie saying it was going to take me 6 hours. lmao, no. I knew what I was doing.
I also decided to take B2 with me, instead of having him suicide once the NEXALong was over. The reason, is there’s more events planned on Day 4. And if he was to win one of these events, how would he bring his winnings to the wagon… if he’s going to suicide in order to get to Lormere?
Plus, IMO, the NEXALong is pretty much over with (once I stopped getting things to imp for a very long time).

So, Day 3 went on like this. It was a somewhat busy day. As since Day 2, in the morning I feel like shit (after waking up) and don’t really want to talk to anyone. But after some time I wake up and start talking to people.
Twice today, I ran out of things to imp. But I powered through and currently standing at 75.57 BS. That is pretty impressive skillgain in just three days! Considering starting a BS business of imping people’s stuff for money. Though I need a good supply of lumps to do this (not to mention a more efficient deed design).
I’ve also been praying to Vynora whenever I can (and remember to do so). Got my Favor up to 15.03. Hopefully I’ll hit 20 before the Lunalong’s over and take advantage of those sweet skillgains.
We had two GM encounters today. Aion (posing as a green dragon) blessed us by turning us all into gorillas, and Ferocity turning us into Nuggets (and trying to squish/eat us as a rift beast).
While that was happening, somehow I got diseased (first time during an impalong). And this disease lasted for a good long time. It thankfully wasn’t doing anything to my skills.
Finally went away about four hours later. Apparently, you got to keep your Food bar above 95% to ward off the sickness.

With nothing left to do, and it being 10pm, I debated if I should get going towards the LunaLong site in Kappa. While the others, started going crazy with beer and other alcoholic beverages being provided. Joined this fun, getting completely wasted. Reminded me of playing WoW, where you can become ‘completely smashed’ and have your messages be slurred. I actually got the ‘Drunkard’ title.. lol. Changed my title from ‘Dragonslayer Rider of Lormere’, to ‘Drunkard Rider of Lormere’. Quite funny.
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The rest of the night, I was twiddling my thumbs waiting for midnight (to say “bye guys, I’m going to the LunaLong!”) One person wanted to follow me, not knowing I was going to use the road network instead of a boat (because FUCK sailing around this humongous server).

Anyway, done with the NEXALong. Onto the next one!
And the LunaLong, I was able to park the wagon in a secured spot (with enchanted grass).
The place has an arena (similar to the Exo Impalong, underground). The place has proper organization of smithing. I feel I’m going to like it here, much better than the NEXALong.
I’ll be giving my final review of the NEXALong a day after the LunaLong is over (the 19th).
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Finally, I have conformation from Shrimpiie that there will be no Glasshollow Impalong this year (something about that Rocky is ‘out for two years’). So once his impalong is over, that’s it for 2018.
In addition, this makes the Lunalong the final impalong (on Xan) of 2018. Let’s hope it takes first place away from 2015’s. I would love to see it compete with the really fun events that ended that impalong.

Another day of helping out (and trying to avoid stepping on other impers’ toes). The lack of organization with these forges, nearly made me want to go over the host. Accidentally imping things that require WS (like a carving knife) instead of BS (a leather knife), is getting on my nerves.
Still, I worked with what I got. Once again there came a time where I had nothing blacksmithing related to do. Wanted to help with Carp, but I needed my carving knife imped (can’t do it myself because it uses WS).
Decided to go semi-AFK near the priest area, watching Youtube videos. A few hours later, the Combat tab starts flashing. Turn around and I’m seeing a goblin king being killed by a guy who’s also semi-AFK. Wow, goblins are pathetic. They’re like the anti-troll.
Something else happened. Heard that familiar sound of lots of things being carved at the same time. ‘Nugget’ (baby chickens) are back, as well as Beefalopes. No sign of a GM, though.
A few hours after dinnertime, a cart race takes shape. Of course I jump for it, knowing I missed out of Enki’s horse race (that I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to win a spot for
it). It took awhile until there were five racers (for the five carts).
It got funny one time, with people suggesting that we head all the way to Whitefay or Greymead dragging these things.. LMAO, no! It would take 2-3 hours to get there, and be extremely risky due to mobs! Fucking hell that was funny, though. Glad it wasn’t serious.
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The countdown started, I’m panicking because I wasn’t told to drag the cart. As the counter hits 1, I finally try and getting a permission issue. The racers start pulling ahead of me as I yell “Wait!!” to them.
It took 10 minutes until we finally figured out what was causing this odd issue. Turned out you have to friend the race starter in order to drag the cart. OK, Wurm. 😛
The race restarted, and I smacked my X key to autorun the second the race starter said “GO!!” ..And even though I was in the lead, I lost the race. Because you were supposed to go around the road directional token.. instead of keep going towards Summerholt.
Oh well. Went back to the forge and got back to work imping. That was definitely different for an activity, and it does raise the final vote of this place.

Night came, and things got slightly awkward. Jackjones (the host of this event) was imping items on the same forge as I was. Noticed the forge was low on fuel, and also noticed I no longer had access to the BSB that I used last night to refuel it. Jack claimed he doesn’t have perms to check, just like he doesn’t have perms to rename the forges.
…Who’s really running the show, when I hear this? Not having perms, as the host?? Wtf? This almost reminds me of my first Glasshollow impalong, where it was a real mess of permissions when allowing anyone to help.
Thankfully when he logged for the night, I had perms again. So it was a simple perimeter issue. Also, there’s more activity than there was last night. But since it’s the weekend, it’s to be expected.

Tomorrow is my final full day here at the NEXALong, before B2 and I head WSW towards the LunaLong. And I have a plan I just thought of in order to see (if any), their closing ceremony.
Take B2’s stuff and have DH get to the LunaLong. Once the NEXALong is officially over on the 11th, I can have B2 suicide and spawn him in Lormere. There I can pick him up and give him his stuff back.
I hope the plan works. In theory, it should (as it worked for Tulsi). But… you know Wurm. It loves to throw an overlooked Wogic wrench into my plans (aka the bison not eating a grass tile that a bush/tree is on). Such as, a champ mob in the town that B2 spawns near.
Always possible! Still remember that champ spider the first time I visited Tap Dance.

Day 1. I expected to see the place buzzing with activity, and lots to imp. Well… I don’t know how to say this, but Day ‘1’ has been quite disappointing. Hell, the NEXALong as a whole, is disappointing (to where it feels like an insult);
1. No arena for the devs to spawn named mobs.
2. No private bedrooms.. I pray this doesn’t become a problem later on.
3. Confusing, messy layout for an impalong site (the most disorganized site I’ve ever seen.. even worse than my deed in Cele. And that’s saying something).
4. Four ‘blacksmithing’ forges. Not named. Not runed. More like “just drop whatever it is, even if it’s not related to blacksmithing. We’ll figure it out later”. More disorganization.

For Day ‘1’, there was also a lack of things to imp. At least this eventually made sense to me, given how this is still the work week. I had also forgot to grab the small pottery amphora that I got from the last Impalong.. I also forgot to grab the huge axe I won (that I wanted to get Human’s Demise on it). Somehow, I lost that axe. Not in the wagon. Not in the boat.. not even back on the deed. It has completely vanished.
Oh well, I guess. A bit upsetting, but not a major loss. I can live without it.
I made two accomplishments this day. Got to 70 BS(currently sitting at 72.52), and got another person’s item rare. I’m now aiming for either 75 or 76 BS, as this is the maximum QL the iron lumps have here.

As for activities, there was only one (by Xallo), who tested us with trivia.. that only a few actually knew the answer enough to try to guess it (while the majority of us stayed quiet).
The question was, of what date Amish Estates was founded (in Xan). And as bias bullshit as can be, the owner of the deed (aka the host of the event) guessed correctly and won a prize, which wasn’t told to us.
I was actually surprised a majority of people didn’t even try to answer. It’s like, we’re all from different servers and just visiting for this event (which isn’t true, as most of them were either mayors or citizens).

The rest of the night, was myself being the only one in the smithing area. And it soon turned into… myself being the only one here.
May I remind you, this is Day ‘1’. Yet I seem to be the only one surprised and appalled by how inactive this is. Maybe it’s perfectly normal for it to happen at this location. But it also paints a quite concerning picture of the what the LunaLong’s going to be like (that happens in just a few days from today).
The LunaLong is also in a more remote location; not as quick to reach by boat. Perhaps, the impalongs in Xan (apart from the one in Glasshollow that may/not happen this
year) are mainly for the locals of the server. Just like the markets of these small servers.

Plus… where in the hell are all the boats!? Was this impalong simply not advertised correctly? This was the main reason why I chose the plan with the wagon; to park a bit of a distance away from the site, but still be close enough.
That, or like I said.. really bad planning and organization. Though, if the host (and his helpers) were too busy IRL to really plan for this event, then I’ll cut them some slack.

Tomorrow’s another day…

Standard night. Logged in about 10:22pm after buying prem.. which I soon realize after I didn’t have to (as I already had prem time going). But, oh well. It lasts ’till December 21st.
Also, it was sort of on my mind to throw one of these 5s bonuses (with the prem plan I
get) into deed upkeep, but I never actually did it. It completely slipped my mind.

Leaving the deed and going through the southern tunnel, I told War that I’m going to Xan for the two impalongs (and would be back in two weeks). Though, it would be actually 1&1/2 weeks.. but I digress.
After crossing over to Xan, he PMs me saying that the nearby Amish Estates deed lags like hell for him; how it’s “worse than Glasshollow”. Meanwhile, there seems to be a new bug with server time. Didn’t notice this when we left Cele, but definitely noticing it here.
Even though it was day in Cele, it’s pitch dark here in Xan. Docking the boat, suddenly Sol rises to where it should be.
Not sure if this bug is because of dual clienting, but I’m pretty sure it’s related to the update with fishing (due to a sad passing of Tich.. who I remember helping me years ago, with flatraising. Rest in peace, friend)….

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Back to our current situation. Gale from the SE, and it seems I didn’t go as far East as I needed to. Took much longer to get to the wagon, but eventually did. I had logged out B2 as I was heading there. When reaching, it was night for him yet day for me.
Hopping off the boat as him, about ten seconds it fixed itself, and we headed for the
NEXA Market as planned… but this was delayed due to this Wogic brilliance, that animals will refuse to graze on a grass tile if it has a tree or bush on it.
Ever heard of eating AROUND the tree?! No? Fuck you. So I had to look for grass tiles that aren’t on a deed. I needed a lot, as two of the bison were downright starving.
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After taking care of that BS, we finally made it to the NEXA Market. Looking around and listening for activity, I saw (and heard) none. It looked just like it did when I was pre-planning for the route from here to the LunaLong.
No imping. No extra boats, and only one person in local (named ‘Zyah’). It made me question if this was the actual spot. So I asked them, and kchat (who were busy talking about a Rift that just enabled a few minutes after we had arrived).
Someone in kchat said to go to G21 on the community map. Looking, it’s West of Summerholt.. in a mountain range. Uh, no? I’m pretty sure no-one would be doing an Impalong at such a remote location… lol. The person soon realized their mistake, and said to go to G24 (just East of me).
Someone else sent a pic, showing I was indeed at the location. While that was happening, this ‘Zyah’ person was talking in Local, saying that yes this is the spot. Still wasn’t fully convincing me… where’s the actual Impalong building? With how the deed looks, it doesn’t stick out like the others I’ve been to.
Parked the wagon, with grass tiles for the hungry bison, and took a look trying to find the site. And apparently it’s in this ‘NEXA Market Sanctuary B’ building (and it looks like an absolute mess). I can barely tell each and every floor, as its mixed with other assorted objects.

Let’s hope tomorrow makes more sense. I also hope that by using the ‘Impalong’ graphics settings, will reduce a lot of this lag that War said. Because if not, this would be my last NEXALong.

Every Assassin’s Creed game, featured a person inside the memories of someone in the past. Origins is no different… until it starts to break the 4th wall by literally telling me to “wake up”.
In some of these tombs, is an extra tomb with blackened, futuristic walls. And usually in the center is a device, that only works if you insert five silica to activate it. Each one mentions about “it has been XX days since the ‘Great Catastrophe'” (no clue what this was). And they seem to all be pointing at three things;
1. The present (as of the year the game was released).
2. Time.
3. The world to end.

These are the Precursors, similar to the beings in Subnautica (of how Silica is required to activate their devices). Thing is, with that game, it’s set in the future and is to be expected to see an ancient alien civilization… but in this game (with it supposed to be historically accurate), this has no place.
You could say that these guys are the beings that built the pyramids. That is, until they start talking about things one would see in their everyday modern life. What’s worse, is Bayek isn’t being bothered by these 4th wall breaking messages (of how they feel like they’re talking to the one playing the guy). Possibly, Layla; the person who’s going through Bayek’s memories.. telling her to “wake up”.
A possible connection to this, is the first time Bayek approaches one of these pillars (in the ‘Tomb of Smenkhkare’). It talks about the events of December 21st, 2012, when we were told the world would end. It mentions Desmond (the company behind the project of going through the minds of the past) launched a satellite (called the ‘global aurora borealis device’) that saved Earth from a powerful CME(Coronal Mass Ejection) of the sun, and how humanity went on with their lives of not knowing that the world was actually doomed that day.
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The scary, unnerving thing about it.. is these beings (as they claim) were the ones that were trying to doom humanity (but obviously failed in their mission). Their reasoning, is because they made mistakes and don’t want humanity to repeat them.
In another tomb, I swear it felt like as if this being was talking directly to me at times.
“Your mind, defines how much you can taste. How much you can feel. How much you can understand.”
“You experience what your brain allows you to perceive. We designed you to make sure to engineer your senses so you could perceive just what we wanted you to. Nothing more nor less.”
“There are parts of Time we preferred you to remain blinded to. It was a necessity.”

This is when it started to really hurt, and I remained silent as the person continued to speak harsh (but true) words…
“The real cage is not around you. It is in you. Your mind will not allow you to wander in uncharted territories.”
“A Faraday cage. for the mind. A concealed strait jacket.”
“Think. Think. Let your mind be free. Explore the borders of your reality.”

…….
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!