05 - Louder Than Words

Quest 5 - Louder Than Words

Rewards:

1000 experience points

Udumo LaBranche Lesson

The next quest we are going to tackle can be started in a few different ways. One way is to explore around inside the Mindscape and stumble upon some of the quest-relevant items and locations. Although that is a perfectly fine way to get into the quest, we’ll start at the beginning by talking to Udumo in Ordolus. Udumo’s home is located right in the middle of town (remember you have a town map in your inventory).

New Character!

Udumo LaBranche

Disposition:

Job:

Hobby:

Creator Commentary:

Eccentric

Armorsmith

Designing complicated puzzles

Udumo LaBranche was designed to look like a black Albert Einstein. He is afflicted with schizophasia but is not schizophrenic. Rather, the transposed words in his speech are cognitively close to the “correct” words he means to say.

After talking to Udumo, it is obvious the man has some form of speech impediment. John deduces that Glenton might know more about his condition.

Creator Commentary: Udumo’s speech condition, known as schizophasia or word salad, was inspired by Anders similar affliction in the Battlestar Galactica episode No Exit.

1. Ask Glenton about Udumo.

After talking to Glenton in his estate, it seems that Udumo can write his thoughts coherently but only in his special journal. Glenton suggests visiting the Mindscape in Udumo’s house to find some clue as to where his journal may have gone.

2. Search Udumo’s home inside the Mindscape.

Since the Mindscape is a shared dream world in the Logomancer, you can enter it by sleeping in beds. The most obvious entrance is right inside Udumo’s house, so you can try sleeping there first.

The party ends up at Exit 1 in the Mindscape version of Udumo’s house. Ardus comments that this wouldn’t be as easy as he thought. We need to get to either Exit 2 or 3 so we can get to Point A, which is our quest objective.

We’re going to follow Ardus’ suggestion and enter the Mindscape through the Seaside Inn and Suites. Head there in the waking world and talk to the clerk at the front desk, Harlon Waits, to get your access to your room. Harlon Waits has plenty to say but we’ll talk to him more in another quest.

Head to Room 203 “Seafoam Suite” and examine the bed there to enter the Mindscape. Exit the Inn and you will emerge on the hazy streets of the Mindscape version of Ordolus.

There are a number of Exits on the map. We need to get inside Udumo’s house at Exit 2 right now. To do this, you could walk all the way around or use the hidden hallway that connects the Mindscape version of Ordolessian Trends at Exit 1 and Udumo’s house at Exit 2. Similarly, there is a hidden hallway connecting Exit 3 (Oppangelsk’s Hattery) and Exit 4 (Sindarin’s House), but we won’t use that until later.

A - Treasure chest containing a Straight Answer

B - Treasure chest containing 2x Bulwarks of the Mind

C - The staircase that leads to point B

For now, step just inside Ordlessian Trends at exit 1 to get the Epiphany hidden in a treasure chest behind the counter. After that, head back out into the streets to collect some more treasures and take a closer look at the enemies that are wandering around the Mindscape city.

The Straight Answer will improve one character’s Elocution, which means their special skills will do more damage. The Bulwark of the Mind will improve their Resistance by 5, which will reduce an enemy’s Elocution when figuring out damage against them.

New Enemy!

Strawman

Willpower (WP):

Persuasion:

Elocution:

Experience:

AP:

450

150

Erudition (EP):

Confidence:

Resistance:

Gold:

Level:

Drop Rates:

AI Behaviors:

Creator Commentary:

Guilty Front (4%)

Strawmen are very basic enemies but will sometimes use Compound Sentence which attacks twice.

If the party is greater than level 15, they can more rarely use the Call of the Void skill which is very strong.

The Strawman is based on the informal logical fallacy known as a strawman argument.

Creator Commentary: The Strawman is based on the informal logical fallacy of the same name, but is also the general term for the creatures found inside the Mindscape in the Logomancer as a whole. The idea is that the straw man represents the real life phenomenon of making fake arguments in your head - practicing for eventualities that never come. Since the Mindscape is a mental world, these thoughts, obsessions, emotions and arguments manifest as weird creatures. For the most part, they are harmless since “dying” in the Mindscape just means you wake up, but there are other things in the Mindscape than just Straw Men.

New Enemy!

Vonley

Willpower (WP):

Persuasion:

Elocution:

Experience:

AP:

1,200

160

150

Erudition (EP):

Confidence:

Resistance:

Gold:

Level:

Drop Rates:

AI Behaviors:

Creator Commentary:

Vonleys are always under the logos state, which means they are always weak to pathos attacks.

They can use Moralize and Q.E.D. which is a nasty combo if both hit.

Vonleys are inspired by the Trapper enemies from Final Fantasy VI.

New Enemy!

Maltruist

Willpower (WP):

Persuasion:

Elocution:

Experience:

AP:

2,500

100

350

180

Erudition (EP):

Confidence:

Resistance:

Gold:

Level:

150

Drop Rates:

AI Behaviors:

Creator Commentary:

Maltruists can use Morality Play and Indictment, but are otherwise unremarkable.

If the party is greater than level 12, they can also use the Guarded skill to raise their RES.

Maltruist’s name is a portmanteau of mal and altruist. Why do they have CRT TVs on their hands and a Cylon-esque helmet? I don’t know.

New Enemy!

Unchained Id

Willpower (WP):

Persuasion:

Elocution:

Experience:

AP:

3,000

200

160

200

Erudition (EP):

Confidence:

Resistance:

Gold:

Level:

Drop Rates:

AI Behaviors:

Creator Commentary:

Unchained Ids can use the Dysphemism skill to deal a lot of pathos damage and also heal themselves with Second Wind if their WP gets lower than 40%.

Of course, they also have a 33% chance to Self-Destruct if their WP is lower than 50%.

Unchained Id’s name comes from the id, one of the three parts of the mind posited by Freude. The id is the unorganized and impulsive chaos of the subconscious mind.

Their self-destruct ability comes from the Bomb enemies in the Final Fantasy games.

If you have been following along, the party should now be around level 10. This is a good level to be in order to fight through the 2 Unchained Id enemies that are guarding the treasure at Point A. If they are still too tough, you can always come back later!

After collecting the two treasure chests, head through Exit 2 to find the next objective, a Mindscape version of Udumo’s journal.

Examine the journal and John will deduce that the real journal is hidden inside the Water Spine Cavern. John and Ardus also have a conversation about the nature of logomancy, a topic I’m sure will never come up again (sarcasm).

Creator Commentary: There’s a few different conversations that can happen when examining the Mindscape journal. If the quest isn’t active, Ardus will say he should remember it for later. If Cynthia’s not in the party, John will make his deduction alone. If Cynthia is in the party, then she will offer up information on the Water Spine Cavern. Finally, if the player has already gone through the first quest with Glenton past the point where Cynthia mentions the Water Spine Cavern as part of a local myth, then John will mention that as well.

To get to the Water Spine Cavern, we’ll need to wake up from the Mindscape first. You can do that by examining any bed you can find. The closest one is inside Sindarin’s Shop at Exit 4. You won’t wake up in Sindarin’s shop, though, you’ll still wake up back at the Inn where we entered the Mindscape earlier.

3. Investigate the Water Spine Cavern.

Head out the north-east exit of Ordolus to get to the Crossroads again.

This time we are taking Exit 2 north to the Water Spine Cavern Entrance.

There’s only one way to go on this map, so head north and enter the Water Spine Cavern proper.

You’ll know you’re in the right place when the music changes and everything gets atmospheric and cavey (is that a word?).

There are two exits, Exit 1 is where we came in. Exit 2 is a bed that leads to the Mindscape version of the Water Spine Cavern. We’ll go there shortly, but first, examine the shining treasure chest at point A. It’s locked with a four digit code. Assuming you were not incredibly lucky and guessed correctly the combination, two new quest objectives will pop up about exploring the cavern for clues to the combination.

Creator Commentary: The music for Water Spine Cavern is inspired by the Nobuo Uematsu composed song “Find Your Way” from the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack. I wanted the track to be something that you wouldn’t mind listening to a lot since the Water Spine puzzle was meant to require a lot of note taking.

4. Search the cavern for clues.

5. Deduce the combination to Udumo’s safe.

The first clue is found at point B. The note says that Udumo was disappointed that the tumblers on the lock go up to nine.

The second clue is found at point C. The note here says that Udumo found visualizing things easier in the Mindscape and had a bed moved in. This is remind players (like you!) that beds will allow them to enter the Mindscape. So let’s go to sleep!

The third clue is at point A in the Mindscape version of the Water Spine Cavern. The note says that the diamond is nothing. Up is first after nothing. Right is second after nothing. Down is third after nothing and Left is fourth after nothing.

The fourth clue is located at point B. This note has three drawings you can look at for more context on how to figure out the final combination.

The first image shows a drawing that equals 0005.

The second image shows a drawing that equals 0017.

The third image shows a drawing that equals 1,075.

Creator Commentary: These handdrawn notes are supposed to be directly from Udumo. The first image features one of the many oblique references in the game to a mysterious tower (remember the Composer’s conversation at the beginning of the game?). The second and third drawings feature humorous insights into Udumo’s mind as he was apparently thinking about making fire armor, i.e., armor that was literally on fire.

Moving on to point C we actually find a treasure chest that contains a Window of Opportunity.

Heading further east, we reach the fifth clue at point D. Udumo says that this is the number he decided on and that he had to have 5 digits to convert properly to the 10 digit tumblers.

This is a very important clue since it is actually the solution to the entire puzzle!

At point E we find our sixth and final clue. The note says that Udumo hoped the tumblers he ordered wouldn’t go past 4 and that numbers are entered from the right to the left.

The eagle-eyed player may notice an area behind the waterfall at point G that leads to point H. We’ll return here in a later quest to see what is going on behind the waterfall. For now, examine point F in order to access the combination drawing machine.

This treasure chest will allow you to deduce the glyph numbering system that Udumo uses. Based on the third and sixth clue, we know that Udumo is using a quinary system of numbering, i.e., base-5. This means that he isn’t intending on using digits past 4 (0,1,2,3,4 are the five digits in quinary). Clue number three also tells us the secret of the glyphs. Up is 1, Right is 2, Down is 3, Left is 4 and Diamond is nothing.

By examining the treasure chest combination machine and canceling 4 times in a row (essentially inputting 0 four different times), the drawing that is created is a Diamond (nothing) which can be interpreted as 0000.

Clue number six also tells us that numbers are entered into the machine from right to left. This means the ones place, followed by the tens place, then the hundreds place, then the thousands place (of course these are the terms for base-10, but I digress). So, if you input Diamond, Up, Diamond, Diamond you would be entering the digits 0100, but since they are written right to left it would actually be 0010, which simplifies to 10. 10 when converted from base-5 to base-10 equals 5.

Another example, let’s recreate the second drawing in the fourth clue. 17 when converted from base-10 to base-5 equals 32 (3x5 + 2x1 = 32). To input 32 into the treasure chest combination machine we need to write it from right to left. So we input 2 first which is Right, then we input 3 which is Down. The other two digits are 0 so we cancel twice to input two Diamonds. Thus the input into the machine in order is 2300, then reversed to correct for writing it backwards equals 0032. The drawing that the machine creates is identical to the second drawing from clue number four. Thus, we can conclude that 32 in base-5 is equal to 17 in base-10 which is true.

How do we figure out the solution from the drawing in clue five? We first need to figure out what the digits are. The digits on the glyphs are based on how many ticks away from the center the lines are. So the closest digit is 3 since there’s a tick right next to the bottom of the Diamond in the middle. The second digit is 2 since the right facing branch is two ticks away from the center. Remember that the first tick is the edge of the diamond itself!

Looking at the image, we can see that the third digit is 0 since there is no branch that has a wide line at the third tick’s position. The fourth digit is 1 since the upward branch is four ticks away from the diamond. Finally, the fifth digit is 4 because the left branch is five ticks away from the diamond.

According to clue five, Udumo had to have a 5 digit number to convert properly to the 10 digit tumblers. Our 5 digit number is 32014 that we then reverse to get the numbers in the right order to 41023. But the treasure chest combination machine only goes up to four digits, how can we find out a five digit number, you ask? The answer here is the magic of the internet, or a calculator, or a mathematician friend. All we have to do is convert 41,023 from base-5 to base-10. 41,023 converts to 2,638 in base-10. This four digit combination is the solution to the shining chest in the waking world!

6. Deliver Udumo’s journal.

Now that we have Udumo’s journal, all we have to do is return it to him in Ordolus.

For our efforts, Udumo LaBranche will now teach lessons to the party. His lessons are “detail-oriented” as he puts it, which means that only a Researcher such as Cynthia can make use of them.

Creator Commentary: The quinary puzzle and the bizarre glyph-based numbering system is inspired by an even more painfully complicated base conversion puzzle in the Cyan game, Riven.

The previous part of the walkthrough was Doesn't Hurt to be Prepared, the next part is Edited for Content