No seriously. I just woke up an hour ago after a really weird dream playing this uncanny Rain World mod called “Artificer Prequel”. I wanna write it down here as quick as I can before I forget
#Some weird dream I had last night
fallow lake
Granted it’s “prequel”, right? So it’s Arti before pups, before the eye scar, and before scavs. So boot up new Arti save file, wake up in a friggin space station. One of those cryo chambers made to keep you under while you wait for the right time to wake up. And apparently Arti could already understand English cuz queue the disturbing welcome aboard distant mall voice in the supposed to be pleasant tone. Apparently we were woken up to be tasked with making a few critical ship repairs. I know this is already the plot premise of another YouTube series I’m blanking on the name at the moment
Anyway we’re not far towards moving towards our first repair objective when we’re interrupted by a lil drone similar to Sofanthiel but this one’s silvery blue. Immediately the new friend warns us to ignore the original repair objective. Freaking out and mumbling to itself that it thought it’s evacuated all of them already. This time I listen and double back from whence I came to a new tutorial area kinda similar to the beginning of base game, except to show off new mechanics.
As you’d imagine, gravity is in constant flux. In some rooms it works normally, in some it’s off and on, and in some there’s little to none. Essentially 5P. But the other new one is that oxygen is a mechanic. Which actually affects Arti’s abilities. In a room with low oxygen explosions are kinda wimpy, and you gotta slow and catch your breath after like Gourm after throwing a spear. And overall you’re a lil more sluggish. In rooms with over concentrated oxygen levels your explosion is amplified and can sling you across entire rooms at high speeds. And in rooms with no oxygen at all, well, lil drone friend warns you to get out immediately. But you can’t explode in these rooms. Explosions require oxygen.
There wasn’t really a rain timer or anything. Shelters were there still but there was no need for them? Except to save progress I guess. There were a few creatures about. Grapple worms, lantern mice, and scavs surprisingly. Granted I’m Arti, so I immediately try to kill em all and die in the scuffle. But when I run that cycle back and re approach them the ain’t really concerned with me. I kinda feel dumb cuz I see both of Arti’s eyes just fine and remember this is before she even had pups. But then I realize the scavs are still moving with purpose. They seem a little more concerned with running away from something else.
And yea next few rooms oh dear lord I see what they’re running from. These things were horrifying. Imagine crossing a leviathan from Rain World with the Eater of Worlds from Terraria, then add countless spider-like appendages all over the main body. And they would scream. A thunderous roar that would disrupt lighting and electronics. And if one was after you for too long, would get the attention of more of them. According to lil drone friend, these were things that breached the space station from outside.
The rest of the campaign there on out was just objective: survive those guys. Occasionally see some other random creatures but seeing anything else was bad news. You didn’t want to make any noise. Scavs were at least smart enough to figure that out but seeing a lizard bumbling about brought the same kinda fear as hearing an alarm clock go off in the middle of a zombie infested building. I would clear outta there asap before like three of those space nightmare worms rolled in to kill that lizard
Right before the end I realize our drone friend was navigating me to an escape pod. Problem was we had to slip past one of the first breaches in the station’s hull. And the point of the highest structural damage. So queue one last chase sequence Metroid style with three of these worms finding me immediately, making enough noise that more of them start breaking in from outside the space station. More hull breaches setting off new alarms making more noise and attracting more of them. It became a stampede including every work in the station plus a half dozen new invites. Screen shaking, oxygen and gravity in total flux. An entire platforming sequence of holy smokes how am I supposed to survive this?? But we eventually make it to a lil escape pod. We detach immediately and start hurdling towards earth.
Drone friend is trying to keep me positive as we find a place to land. But there’s some concern in its voice. Like a huh… I don’t know how much better your odds are gonna be down here… of course it doesn’t say this but we both think it as we approach the surface close enough to see in detail the full grey, concrete, dead landscape. From orbit it almost looks worse than the space station. But what choice did we have now? We were now in re-entry. With one last cutscene of lil Artificer in a lil space ship crashing down. It was a rough landing, and Arti barely hobbles out of there, still disoriented. Drone friend didn’t survive the impact. And with one last reverie of looking back to the wrecked pod then turning to look at the stars, we turn our attention ahead and find ourselves in a familiar location. It was the outskirts.
Yeah I know it doesn’t make sense, but it’s kinda concerning that it almost does. Like I said I am literally recording a dream that I just woke up from an hour ago. Just that my first thought was ”hey this could be cool if it were a real mod”. Granted I’d have to learn how to mod rain world first
azure phoenix
Perchance. and i mean Perchance 
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Could i get what you smoked