The Creeper Plant Problem (TCPP)

Vika

So! In all seriousness away from Vika's public post.

This was one of the trolliest things I think the garden has ever made. Thanks to @Sartan who no doubt made this plant to show us the true suffering of mortality as it yanks us back into the same room four times. A big thanks to the Garden, (@Nicola, @Ictinus, @AnyoneelseImayofforgotten)

A lot of people are asking how I figured it out, and I'll tell you the beginning to the end of the story and you can share how much you hate these plants to give one last hurrah to these bloody things.

So I always knew they were there, but never really had to deal with them outside of slipping into the eastern part of delos. But then I had a duel with someone and was about to claim victory. They tumbled west and I tried to follow, and got snagged back immediately. I tried three more times in rapid succession and shot past them. Then they cured out and put ice on the ground, and that made sitting on creepers worse when trying to chase.

I was pretty salty and angry at this point and spent roughly three hours, trying every ability I could. I had @Miriew, @Kaiu, @Elisella, @Locki, @Keorin, @Roselyn, @Emiya, @Kaden, @Asani, @Gloern, and probably a few other people I'm forgetting. This is a list of most of the things we tried up until we burnt off a layer and got a new message, so:

Things that have not worked on the creeper:
firewall,
firelash,
lighting on fire with tinderbox,
pull,
push,
uproot,
twist,
DEMON/ANGEL scorch,
holobomb,
attacking,
crucible,
exterminating,
incandescence,
red dragon breathrain,
red dragon breathstorm,
THREE HOLOCAUSTS,  (Be proud @Aegoth)
remove,
harvest,
shake,
hugalaz,
othala,
artificing inferno with firelord crucible, 
every poisonous formulation ability
educe salt.

So after doing all of this we've seemed to strip a layer? As you can see above lighting on fire with a tinderbox wasn't working. So when I returned from a break and went through the list again imagine my surprise when I got this message:

Without any means of purification, an insidious creeper rebuffs your attempts to set it alight.

So at some point, through the spam, something peeled off and we got to like a stage 2 of the creeper plant. It seemed to universally unlock it? 

So we once again went through EVERYTHING on the list, and added in the last 2 in this phase. I thought "There's no way this thing can survive a room BEING ON FIRE, with it RAINING FIRE."

Sadly, it totally lived. We all brainstormed a bit and we let it go, discussing it here and there and I didnt touch it for a small bit.

I reflected on a quest specific to Mhaldorians in the Vasnari mountains, it has a part where you have to purify something. Which is why I felt maybe Sartan made this quest? I thought maybe it would be similar and fire had to be the key. (Turns out nope)

Now we were all gathered at the Cyrene arena (We being your one and only Vashnarian Shield) and talking about combat, classes, and it was brought up about Alchemist. We were discussing with Neraka about if you actually had to be in dual trans in Alchemist to perform well in PvP. So I was going through every ability in Alchemy when I got to AB SALT.

Syntax:

EDUCE SALT

Extra Information:

Symbol: A bisected circle.

Works on/against:

Self

Cooldown:

3.00 seconds of equilibrium

Resource:

200 mana

Details:

The energy of salt, first of the primes, will purge your body of afflictions.  

It seemed to fit the idea that maybe we had to cast an active cure onto them to purify them? So I rushed @Roselyn over and was like EDUCE SALT! And nothing, and @Saerene, @Keorin, and @Emiya ended up over and then the wild idea of "Well, salt is a purifier. And it's poisonous to plants." So we out rifted salt, dropped the salt, and LIGHT CREEPER and BAMBAMBAM.

Everyone was actually in shock. I had to quicklook about four times in a row before the celebration came out. It was super fun. I organized the shield, gave everyone 50 salt, and sent them out into the reaches of Sapience to repel the creeper vine threat.

I lost the log of me doing this in all my excitement, and I wish I had taken the time to log it all before going through a couple hundred rooms looking for creeper plants. But it's gone in the backlog. 

(This just in. Someone has the last little bit of me sending out Taskforce Shield: https://pastebin.com/UiEqZqnK )

Personally, for me, this is a testament of how fun the game can be. Even something troll-y and annoying as the creeper vine can evoke some serious thought, bring together a lot of the playerbase (We all wanted it dead!), and create a really great and silly RP moment. It was great fun to actually see a result and get a flood of thank-yous and people being impressed.

If the Garden can answer though, was there an RP point to these plants? Was there some back story behind them? I tried poking at a Botanist, a few Eleusians liked to brag about Nature's formidablity. Also what stripped the first layer? We went through A LOT of abilities, and I'm sad I missed the line that allowed us to try and burn it.

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED OUT!

Asmodron

Well done.

The Krymenian have also been investigating the creeper plants. Congrats on finding how to remove them.

Vika

ALSO @Shirszae SHE HELPED TOO. IM SORRY SHIRSZAE, I JUST WOKE UP.

Roselyn

Screw those creepers.. We put out the firelord area ability, two firewalls, Firestorm and dropped several holocaust all in one go. Delos should by, all rights, be burned to the ground. Or at least that one room. But, that said this was pretty funny to figure out and brainstorm ideas with @Vika A+

Also: City faction(Vika): 1
Nature: 0 (WE HAVE MORE SALT THEN YOU DO SEEDS I DARE YOU)

Kiet

blocked for ruining endless source of amusement

Skye

and here I've been mentally preparing for some Nature event in which we all get forest enemied for setting fire to creepers. >_>

Khaibit

-runs around planting more seeds- I don't appreciate someone destroying my creeper in Mannaseh.. I had been tending to that thing

Babel

We would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling adventurers.

Rangor

Rally Eleusis - People are burning plants again. KILL THEM ALL!

[Deleted User]

Rangor said:

Rally Eleusis - People are burning plants again. KILL THEM ALL!

Yes, rally. Hopefully Eleusians will be burned just as much.

Caelan

Skye said:

and here I've been mentally preparing for some Nature event in which we all get forest enemied for setting fire to creepers. >_>

Rangor said:

Rally Eleusis - People are burning plants again. KILL THEM ALL!

Stand by!? 

Prythe

Vika said:

So! In all seriousness away from Vika's public post.

This was one of the trolliest things I think the garden has ever made. Thanks to @Sartan who no doubt made this plant to show us the true suffering of mortality as it yanks us back into the same room four times. A big thanks to the Garden, (@Nicola, @Ictinus, @AnyoneelseImayofforgotten)

A lot of people are asking how I figured it out, and I'll tell you the beginning to the end of the story and you can share how much you hate these plants to give one last hurrah to these bloody things.

So I always knew they were there, but never really had to deal with them outside of slipping into the eastern part of delos. But then I had a duel with someone and was about to claim victory. They tumbled west and I tried to follow, and got snagged back immediately. I tried three more times in rapid succession and shot past them. Then they cured out and put ice on the ground, and that made sitting on creepers worse when trying to chase.

I was pretty salty and angry at this point and spent roughly three hours, trying every ability I could. I had @Miriew, @Kaiu, @Elisella, @Locki, @Keorin, @Roselyn, @Emiya, @Kaden, @Asani, @Gloern, and probably a few other people I'm forgetting. This is a list of most of the things we tried up until we burnt off a layer and got a new message, so:

Things that have not worked on the creeper:
firewall,
firelash,
lighting on fire with tinderbox,
pull,
push,
uproot,
twist,
DEMON/ANGEL scorch,
holobomb,
attacking,
crucible,
exterminating,
incandescence,
red dragon breathrain,
red dragon breathstorm,
THREE HOLOCAUSTS,  (Be proud @Aegoth)
remove,
harvest,
shake,
hugalaz,
othala,
artificing inferno with firelord crucible, 
every poisonous formulation ability
educe salt.

So after doing all of this we've seemed to strip a layer? As you can see above lighting on fire with a tinderbox wasn't working. So when I returned from a break and went through the list again imagine my surprise when I got this message:

Without any means of purification, an insidious creeper rebuffs your attempts to set it alight.

So at some point, through the spam, something peeled off and we got to like a stage 2 of the creeper plant. It seemed to universally unlock it? 

So we once again went through EVERYTHING on the list, and added in the last 2 in this phase. I thought "There's no way this thing can survive a room BEING ON FIRE, with it RAINING FIRE."

Sadly, it totally lived. We all brainstormed a bit and we let it go, discussing it here and there and I didnt touch it for a small bit.

I reflected on a quest specific to Mhaldorians in the Vasnari mountains, it has a part where you have to purify something. Which is why I felt maybe Sartan made this quest? I thought maybe it would be similar and fire had to be the key. (Turns out nope)

Now we were all gathered at the Cyrene arena (We being your one and only Vashnarian Shield) and talking about combat, classes, and it was brought up about Alchemist. We were discussing with Neraka about if you actually had to be in dual trans in Alchemist to perform well in PvP. So I was going through every ability in Alchemy when I got to AB SALT.

Syntax:

EDUCE SALT

Extra Information:

Symbol: A bisected circle.

Works on/against:

Self

Cooldown:

3.00 seconds of equilibrium

Resource:

200 mana

Details:

The energy of salt, first of the primes, will purge your body of afflictions.  

It seemed to fit the idea that maybe we had to cast an active cure onto them to purify them? So I rushed @Roselyn over and was like EDUCE SALT! And nothing, and @Saerene, @Keorin, and @Emiya ended up over and then the wild idea of "Well, salt is a purifier. And it's poisonous to plants." So we out rifted salt, dropped the salt, and LIGHT CREEPER and BAMBAMBAM.

Everyone was actually in shock. I had to quicklook about four times in a row before the celebration came out. It was super fun. I organized the shield, gave everyone 50 salt, and sent them out into the reaches of Sapience to repel the creeper vine threat.

I lost the log of me doing this in all my excitement, and I wish I had taken the time to log it all before going through a couple hundred rooms looking for creeper plants. But it's gone in the backlog. 

(This just in. Someone has the last little bit of me sending out Taskforce Shield: https://pastebin.com/UiEqZqnK )

Personally, for me, this is a testament of how fun the game can be. Even something troll-y and annoying as the creeper vine can evoke some serious thought, bring together a lot of the playerbase (We all wanted it dead!), and create a really great and silly RP moment. It was great fun to actually see a result and get a flood of thank-yous and people being impressed.

If the Garden can answer though, was there an RP point to these plants? Was there some back story behind them? I tried poking at a Botanist, a few Eleusians liked to brag about Nature's formidablity. Also what stripped the first layer? We went through A LOT of abilities, and I'm sad I missed the line that allowed us to try and burn it.

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED OUT!

Yeah. I remember when we were first trying to rid ourselves of these in the subs. We tried everything listed above (I think you were there?).

We also (@bronislav) tried the "mushroom" like ability from the Fire Tank.

Great job finally figuring it out!