Editing Obduction Exploration Guide (section)

= Maray - The Jungle Standoff =

{{ExplorationGuideGreenBar|Finding the Red Beam}}

A whole new world — Maray. It’s a beautiful place - lush and green, waterfalls and streams. Home to the species known as the Villein. There is more than meets the eye here. This is where there was a hitch in the plans. Something happened that you’ll need to discover — and hopefully make a little sense of it all.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Entry Deja Vu?}}
Do you recognize this place? If you explored enough of Kaptar you found a seed-swap device that brought you very close to where you start here in Maray. If you haven’t explored Kaptar, then it looks like you’ll just have a very short visit to Maray — you’ll need to find your way through a chunk of Kaptar, swap to Maray, and open up the door to get any further.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Bridges and Swaps}}
Farley left a message here that says to stay calm and head to the bridge. Unfortunately, the bridge seems to be gone. Oh well; there’s bound to be another way to cross over this river canyon. Maybe the seed-swap devices will come in handy.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Another Beam}}
You should find your way toward a strange white Villein structure. From the front of it, you can see a red beam in the distance like the one in Hunrath. The strange building you’re in seems to have a device that might help — you know what to do. And you might just get a rather surprising call.

{{ExplorationGuideRedBar|More Help: Hints and Bits - Spoiler Alert}}

=== Story Bits ===
{{ExplorationGuideStoryBits|finding-the-red-beam|<p>Maray is home to the Villein. The Villein are a macro-nomadic species, living for long periods on a planet until it becomes unfit — at which time they pack up their belongings and launch themselves (in a kind of stasis) across the universe to find a new home. To accomplish such things, they are obviously technologically advanced, having developed the tools to extrude and construct elements almost instantaneously.</p>

<p>This particular scoop of Maray came from a section of their home planet that was becoming uninhabitable — they were preparing to launch to a new home when they found themselves abducted here. Because of their culture of moving on, then were perhaps the most prepared to deal with the idea of taken far from home.</p>}}

=== Gameplay Hints ===
{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|finding-the-red-beam|There’s not a bridge here. Maybe there’s one somewhere else.|There’s a natural stone bridge in Hunrath . . . hmmmm.|Swap. Walk. Swap. Cross.|Use the seed-swap device next to the canyon to swap to Hunrath. Then backtrack in Hunrath to the seed-swap device you used to get here to Maray. Swap back and you’ll see that you’ve got a bridge in place.}}

{{ExplorationGuideGreenBar|A Walk to the Panels}}

Well, you’ve disabled the red beam, and you know what that means — hopefully you know what that means. Sooo . . . make your way along the lovely paths of Maray — it’s quite beautiful here. The paths weave around quite a bit — find your way to another Villein structure where you’ll be required to deal with some interesting Villein control panels.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Paths and Deeper Paths}}
There are some lovely places around this area. Take your time and enjoy the sights and sounds — it’s gonna get tough ahead. Not all of the paths are particularly obvious.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Alien Technology Structure}}
If you’ve made your way around the paths and through the dome and back, then you’ve found yourself inside another strange Villein structure. This one has strange stuff along the walls, a great view out the front, and some strange control panels on both doors.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Bridge Building}}
You’ve seen the Villein control panel before — in the garage in Hunrath. You probably found a worksheet with a very rudimentary explanation of what it’s about. Your personality and how you play the game will determine how deeply you delved into the control panel. Either way, you should experiment with these and see what they do.

{{ExplorationGuideRedBar|More Help: Hints and Bits - Spoiler Alert}}

=== Story Bits ===
{{ExplorationGuideStoryBits|a-walk-to-the-panels|<p>The Villein technology is controlled primary through their low-frequency vocalizations. They speak and things happen. The various control panels with blue blobs were built almost exclusively to be used by other species who visit.</p>

<p>They are comfortable both above and below the water — extracting oxygen through microscopic pores in their skin when necessary. But you don’t see many around, this place seems deserted — like Hunrath.</p>

<p>How about the Mayor popping up all of sudden again. As if we didn’t get enough of his messages in Hunrath, now he’s desperately expecting us to save him.</p>}}

=== Gameplay Hints ===
{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|a-walk-to-the-panels|Explore the various paths: in the jungle and on the control panels.|There’s a slightly hidden path. You’ll find it. The control panels are a bit more complicated, but experimenting with them will give you good feedback.|The control panels are made up of the blobs that you can connect and disconnect by dragging, and enter by pushing the large button on top. Make a Villein bridge.|If you need more help with the control panel try looking at the worksheet you found in the garage - or even playing with the device in the garage. You can experiment and get through. You can make a bridge by connecting a bunch of blobs. Beyond that — here’s a tidbit of technical info: the control panels are made up of five separate digits, and each digit represents a number from 0 to 3.}}

{{ExplorationGuideGreenBar|A Gauntlet of Swaps}}

Hopefully you enjoyed your little walk in the woods, because now things start getting a little tougher. This next section of Maray is protecting something, and you’re going to have to make your way through a series of locks on a grand scale.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|More Than a Simple Swap}}
You should be fairly comfortable with the idea of swapping by this point. When you use a seed-swap device, it swaps with a sphere in the other world. This first small Villein structure will require you to think a bit more about the swapping idea. There are seed-swap devices that seem to overlap. Hopefully your brain doesn’t hurt yet - you’re going to need it as you move on.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Swap and Spin}}
Now this is getting good — or bad — depending on how much you enjoy this kind of thing. This next Villein structure has multiple seed-swap devices and it throws in a rotational element.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Swap and Go Around}}
Now you’ve come to another set of overlapping swap spheres. This one is similar to the first, but you may need to take a step back to get this one figured out. Hope you're learning well, you’ll need all of this for the grand finale.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Swap, Spin, Spin, Swap, Spin, Swap . . .}}
It all comes down to this. Ride the elevator to the top and behold your final challenge in the Gauntlet - what’s come to be affectionally known as Puzzlelisimo. There is one path in and multiple paths out. You’ll need to get to all of the exits in order to proceed.

{{ExplorationGuideRedBar|More Help: Hints and Bits - Spoiler Alert}}

=== Story Bits ===
{{ExplorationGuideStoryBits|a-gauntlet-of-swaps|<p>Something here was being protected. The Villein went through a lot of trouble to extrude the structures and devices in this area, and they did it with the close cooperation of the people from Hunrath, evidently.</p>

<p>And the Mayor continues to beckon. The Villein certainly appear to have him pinned down. But something doesn’t seem quite right — his English is much worse, and he has these strange lapses and pauses. Hopefully everything is okay.</p>}}

=== Gameplay Hints ===
{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|a-gauntlet-of-swaps|While going through the swaps of the Gauntlet, keep this in mind - what’s on the other side of this swap?|Make sure you know what’s on each side of each swap, and be open to the possibility of a little backtracking.|You’re swapping to make clear paths at first. But then you’ll be looking for a way to build a bridge.|Swap, swap, move, swap, rotate, swap, rotate, move, swap, backtrack, swap . . . wait . . . uh . . . move then backtrack . . . or is it swap then swap . . . never mind. There’s a lot of swapping, rotating, moving, with a bit of backtracking. Once you get the idea, things should fall into place. Sorry, this one is on you. Good luck!}}

{{ExplorationGuideGreenBar|Pod Riding}}

Congratulations! You made it past some of the hard stuff. Now you’ve got a little ride to take and some final exploring to do before getting to the tree in this world . . . if you make it.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Make and Take a Pod}}
This facility you’ve made it to has to do with pods of some sort. You should be able to make one and take a little ride. The ride will take you to where some stuff is going down.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|The Storage Facility }}
Well, stuff happened on the way here. Now you need to explore all around this place and figure out just what happened to whom. Some deeper knowledge of the Villein control panel might come in handy, but is not strictly required.

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Beyond the Pods}}
After doing some stuff in the facility, you should be able to get farther. But now you’re getting to some crazy stuff. A body on the ground, a large ominous device, and a guard post with a blue beam device. What does this all mean? Choose wisely!

{{ExplorationGuideSmallTitle|Another Tree}}
Hopefully you chose wisely and you are able to progress to another tree. You know what to do there.

{{ExplorationGuideRedBar|More Help: Hints and Bits - Spoiler Alert}}

=== Story Bits ===
{{ExplorationGuideStoryBits|pod-riding|<p>As confusing as it seems, this answers some questions. A battle went down, but C.W. was waiting for either things to be destroyed or his fellow humans to come home. The reason that everything was at a standstill was because a small battle was still going on here in Maray.</p>

<p>A Mofang arrived here, with a massive weapon meant to destroy this place. The Villein were ready for it, but they weren’t ready to see Josef arrive. The masquerade bought the Mofang just enough time to shoot one of the Villein guards, but a second Villein guard, Trar, forced the Mofang away from his bomb. A standoff ensued . . . until you arrived.</p>

<p>Now with the standoff over, the surviving Villein communicates as best as he can. And as you progress past this area, he starts the process that will eventually release the survivors who were being protected in the pods.</p>}}

=== Gameplay Hints ===
{{ExplorationGuideGameplayHints|pod-riding|Look for somebody with something to say.|The Villein has a number for you. Figure out what to do with it.|That number is meant to give you some information. Look around where the Villein is and see what it might refer to.|The number refers to a pod in the storage facility. Use what you know about the Villein numbers and the control panels and find the right pod. Then you can proceed to use the blue beam on some dangerous stuff ahead.}}