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Amberly was silent for a moment.

: "I think...that so long as people like yourself and Claude are on the crew you may be able to keep the Captain from going that path. And of course, a number of others that are here would oppose him as well. I wish I could offer greater reassurance, but..."

I'd be open to a crime caper set in the SW universe. It's a big enough setting and there are enough disreputable characters in it to choose from. For some reason Solo just doesn't appeal to me.

Probably doesn't help that I've seen all of a single trailer for it. I didn't even know it had been released until this thread started going crazy.

Just to experiment, today's images will remain their normal, unaltered size. I will still crop out blank screens though.


Part 2: The Guardian of Angel Falls Guards Angel Falls

It's time to meet this "Apus Major" folks are talking about!



Folks on the Observatory have been telling us that Apus is extremely old, even by Celestrian standards. He certainly looks the part!

: "My congratulations on successfully completing your first task as a Guardian, Azrael. You have performed your duties well thus far, albeit under Aquila's watchful gaze."



Well, of course we are! But even if we weren't, the game progresses anyway.

: "And so we come to the next of your duties. I believe you have acquired a crystal of benevolessence, have you not? The essence of mortal gratitude. You must offer it to the Great World Tree, Yggdrasil, who shelters us with Her nurturing boughs from atop the Observatory. She will soon bear fruit at last. Go now, and do as I have instructed."



Now, the only way to get to Yggdrasil is to go back outside and head upwards. As I said before, it is rather nice out here. You can tell that the place used to be much grander, though. The Observatory is slowly crumbling.



This guy would have refused to let us pass before speaking to Apus.



A bit of explanation of the Celestrians' goal.



A few sets of stairs later we finally arrive at the great tree Herself.



We make our offer of benevolessence.





It gets absorbed by Yggdrasil, which sparkles for a short time.



Aquila joins us after the offering is complete.

: "Behold, Azrael...Is Yggdrasil, unto whom we offer the benevolessence we gather, not truly beautiful? Gathering and offering up benevolessence is the most sacred duty with which we Guardians are charged. I trust you will perform your duties well, Azrael, Guardian of Angel Falls."

With that, the cutscene ends. Aquila hangs out though, and we can talk to him for a conversation both mildly amusing and mildly unsettling.

: "I have been thinking, Azrael, Guardian of Angel Falls...To address you as 'Guardian of Angel Falls' is both convoluted and inconvenient. You will henceforth allow me to use this form of address only when formality dictates, I take it?"

We're given another Yes/No option here, but here's the thing: Celestrians are forbidden to disobey the orders of their superiors. If we try to say "No", Aquila pointedly reminds us of this fact. Something to keep in mind.

Anyway, our next goal is to speak to Apus Major and report in. Nothing interesting happens on the way down, just some NPCs talking about how Yggdrasil will soon bear fruit.

: "Well done, Azrael. And how did mighty Yggdrasil appear to you? She was fiercely aglow? Ho ho ho. It seems the time may soon be upon us. As I am sure you are aware, it is we Celestrians' duty to tend mighty Yggdrasil until such a time as She bears fruit. It is to this end that Guardians watch over mortalkind and gather benevolessence. And now, Azrael, Guardian of Angel Falls, I believe you know what you must do next. You are to return to the Protectorate and continue to gather benevolessence. ...This time without Aquila to accompany you. Make ready, and then speak with the female Celestrian who stands guard over the great portal on the floor below. May all of the bodies of the heavens watch over you, Azrael, Guardian of Angel Falls."



There is only one interesting thing going on at the Observatory. This Celestrian tells us about one of ours who descended to the Protectorate and never returned. Many other Celestrians searched for him, to no avail.



Well, enough of that. It's time to resume our Protectorate duties!





We land in Angel Falls, next to a conversation already in progress.



Meet Ivor, the dude trying for a pompadour.



He also has an inkling that something is amiss.

: "Really? Well it's said 'Azrael' for as long as I can remember."

: "And how long is that, exactly? Do you remember reading it before?"

: "Er...I...That's funny...I, I can't say that I do."

: "You see! Everyone around here's weird. It's only just changed, and everyone thinks it's been like that forever."

: "Ah-ha! It must be the work of the village Guardian, then!"

: "Don't be such a wally! There's no such thing as Guardians. They're just made-up rubbish. It's only Erinn who believes in all that nonsense. She's such a dumb, er...brunette."



And with that, we get to do something kinda fun! As the village Guardian, we get to float around and help folks with their troubles. We're completely invisible, of course, but luckily the people of Angel Falls like to speak their thoughts out loud.



Like so. Ivor's tsundere, while Erinn's oblivious enough to make a romcom protagonist facepalm. It's all very interesting.



(Un)fortunately, we can't give Ivor a good kick to the shins, or even a harmless tap on the shoulder.



Unless, that is, we talk to this kid first.



Heh.



...oh. Right.



A ghost apparently wanders the village at night.





A dog points us to a lost ring.



We return it to its rightful owner, a grieving widow.



Her gratitude is such that it produces a crystal of benevolessence.



This guy...is too tired to clean the stable. Ugh.



Picking up all of the manure is enough to earn more benevolessence. And now Azrael needs to wash his hands...



Stepping outside reveals that night has fallen. It's actually rather peaceful at night, with slower music and many NPCs sleeping in their beds.



Also a somewhat bitter housewife.



Well look who decided to check in on us!

: "You are taking your new role very seriously. I am glad to see this, Azrael. What is it? You feel that your old master does not trust you to work alone? It is my duty now to patrol the entire Protectorate. Though you guard it well, I must sometimes revisit my old territory. And as I am here, Azrael...There is one last lesson I must teach you. As Guardians, it is our duty to tend to our mortal flock. But this means more than merely watching over the living. Sometimes we must help those who have passed away, but whose souls continue to roam the land."





We find this pale-looking fella just a short ways away. His accent is...something else.



Unlike all the rest of the villagers, he can see us just fine.



He asks if he's dead. We tell him the truth.



He thanks Azrael for setting him straight, dropping this rather depressing line in the process.



As he fades away, he leaves a piece of benevolessence behind.

: "You have done well, Azrael. Thanks to your intervention, a mortal soul has made its peace, and is now at rest. The benevolessence of a departed soul shines more brilliantly than any."



We've done good work today. It's time to return to the Observatory.

---

Forgive the somewhat shorter update. The next one is going to have a lot of stuff happening without much opportunity for a break, so this seems like a natural spot to stop.

Mistem cheese porn in spoiler:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here is a pic of the cheeses when I open up the *true* Mistem cheese (which was on Tuesday):



Because they are a bit hard too see, I made some closeups today.  Here is the piece that is currently remaining of the left hand cheese:



That gives you a pretty good idea of the texture of the cheese.  I had another taste today and it's actually improving rapidly.  It's getting sharper.  Still not like a Caerphilly... It's hard to describe.  Some Parmesian notes are coming out.  It's actually very nice at the moment.  Of course, once you cut the cheese, the development is completely different, so I have no idea what the other cheeses will do while they are still closed.  But at least it provides some verification that the cheese needs age.  I'm a bit worried that the salt level will be a bit too high on the next cheeses (as I brined them a little bit differently than the oldest one)  --  so if you are doing this, I might cut back the brining time to 20 minutes for 500 ml and 45 for 1 litre.  More info next week when I open the next cheese.

This is a close up of the next cheese I will eat.  You can see that it's a bit pink in one of the holes on the side.  Also it's pinkish in the grooves on top.  That's mould called brevibacterium linens.  It's a mould that makes cheese very stinky, but also very delicious.  It's intentional on washed rind cheeses like meunster, epoisse, teleggio, etc.  It's not what I'm going for here, but it's not necessarily bad (and I've kept it under control with brine washes).  I'm pretty sure the mould got introduced by a cheese mat that I didn't sanitise properly.  I've since fixed that and I don't seem to be getting the mould on my new cheeses.



Here's the next one after that (which I will probably eat when it is 5-6 weeks old.  You'll notice this one is formed a little nicer than the previous one.  I made some changes to my mould (the form) which helped (slightly bigger holes on the side).  Also you can see that the top is flat (the bottom is still grooved from the bamboo cheese mat that I used when forming the cheese).



And finally here is the youngest and tallest one:



This one was made with 1 litre of homogenised milk, so it is taller.  It's having a real problem drying out, though... It's been over 2 weeks and it *still* hasn't dried out.  I'm not entirely sure why.  But the result has been that it's picked up some more mould.  I washed it today and took off a bit of blue mould (which I didn't take a picture of -- I probably should have).  The mould comes off super easily, so it's not a problem at all.

Anyway, that's all for now.  I'll post more pics and info if people are interested in the next few weeks.  BTW, I tried making a "washed curd" cheese with mesophilllic bateria which I was going to call "St. Evictus".  I ate it young (after about 5 days).  It was quite delicious, but not at all what I was going for, so I don't think it deserves the name.  I'll have to experiment some more.  I'm happy that I can make a mesophillic cheese with this technique (essentially adding buttermilk instead of yogurt and keeping the temp below 38C), but I have to experiment to find the best way of handling it.  Today I'm making a mistem like cheese, but with cheddaring.  Should be fun.

Do you have a cheese-making tutorial? You should make a cheese-making tutorial.

Heal Dustan!

A saiyan named Azrael it is!



He...gets to go to Other World?

Part 1: The Guardian of Angel Falls

These first few updates are going to be particularly plot-heavy; gotta get the requisite doomed hometowns and such out of the way. I'll split things up some so that it doesn't come in one large update.


(There's no voice acting in this game, don't worry.)

??: "If you're there, say something. Show yourself. Thus do the voices of the mortals plead, ever hopeful of proof of our existence. For how long now have we watched over their realm...? For how long have we Celestrians existed...?"









We get some brief glimpses of an idyllic village...



...overlooked by two angelic beings.



This is Tien Aquila, our mentor. Despite not appearing just yet, there's nothing particularly spoilerific about his name.

: "I must confess to having had my doubts when you became Guardian of the village in my stead. But its inhabitants' continued peace and safety is proof of your devotion."



: "You are worthy of your title indeed, Azrael, Guardian of Angel Falls."



Aquila notices something!




(Apparently no one has ever bothered to rip a spritesheet for the NPCs in this game. Thus, I must devote an entire screenshot to this geezer.)
(Erinn is the girl in front of him, if you couldn't guess.)

: "Oh, Grandpa. It's not much further now. I'm sure you'll make it."

Of course, this is an RPG. Saying such things practically invites trouble.







And right on cue, several monsters leap out of some nearby bushes!



They prepare to ambush Erinn and her grandpappy.

: "These wicked creatures must not be allowed to ambush innocent members of your flock, Azrael. Come, Guardian of Angel Falls, it is time to fulfil(sic) our duty as Celestrians!"




zooooooooooooom



We land next to the (understandably surprised) monsters, and engage in battle!



Two slimes and a cruelcumber. Easy meat for any half-way decent adventurer. Against Azrael and the mighty Aquila?



That's 19 damage, blame my lousy timing. Yeah, these guys are no threat. I'm not even going to bother with a combat explanation just yet.



Erinn and her grandpa walk right up the angelic beings that just saved their lives...and ignore them completely.

: "See, Grandpa! There's Angel Falls up ahead."



: "Oh, don't be so melodramatic, Grandpa! The village Guardian will have been watching over us all the way. Nothing bad could ever have happened to us."

Yeah...the entire way...hahaha 





Erinn starts to glow...





...and a strange crystal appears. It floats over to Azrael and lands in his hands.

: "Behold, Azrael. Benevolessence. The crystallization of the mortals' gratitude towards we who watch over them. As Celestrians, our cardinal duty is the offering up of this sacred substance unto mighty Yggdrasil, the Great World Tree. Come, Azrael. Let us return to the Observatory, that you may make your offering."





The two Celestrians take off, leaving a trail of feathers in their wake.





And they fly through dense clouds...



until



a



giant



structure



...is revealed. Welcome to the Observatory, home of the Celestrians.



The duo enter through a star-shaped hole in the floor. Aquila tells us to make a report immediately. He's got other matters to attend to, and so takes his leave.



With that, we are free to explore! DQIX, probably due to limitations imposed by the DS' hardware, uses a curious mix of sprites and 3D models for the various characters we'll encounter. It means you can usually pick out the important people, as they'll be actually rendered. On the top screen, we have an extremely useful map. The black dot is us.



Most of the NPCs don't say anything particularly interesting. This young Celestrian asks if it's true that mortal people cannot see Celestrians. As we saw with Erinn, this is indeed the case.



Her...father?...tells us why we go down to the world below (known as the Protectorate) and assist mortals.



This is where we save the game, as well as gain access to some additional functions. Divination will tell us how many experience points are needed to level up. Benediction will remove a curse (aka, a piece of cursed equipment) from a character, for a small fee. Curses don't come in until later.



Azrael hates pots and barrels nearly as much as Link does. Smashing them rarely yields much, maybe a few gold pieces, but it sure feels cathartic. The chest contains a Chimera Wing, which allows you to warp to towns you've visited previously.







This basically sums up the general view of mortals and the Protectorate in general. Celestrians are something of a snobbish lot.



I'm sure this won't come up later.



Stepping into a certain room starts a cutscene.

: "You assume too much, Columba. I also believe it is too soon for him to take on a Guardianship. It was Apus Major's decision."

: "Indeed? How amusing! I might have known."

: "It is no laughing matter. Azrael is but a fledgling. What if something were to happen in the Protectorate? Do you forget the tragedy of Corvus so soon?"

: "Hmph. No, of course not, but...we have been forbidden to talk of that matter here in the Observatory, have we not?"

: "........."



Busted!



The outside of the Observatory. A beautiful, if somewhat rundown, place. Some chests can be found, but they don't contain anything overly interesting. We'll be coming out here officially before long. I'll show it off then.



With that, there is nothing to do but progress. Which we will do...next time! This update's long enough as-is and I don't want to run into the character limit. The next update should be up later today or tomorrow.

: "Sure did. Well maybe not the King directly, but I guess threatening to attack his guests is basically the same thing."