Memories

The Memories of Team Volo (Work in Progress)

As with any ARG, the community comes together to try and solve the puzzles posed by the Game Master, with this comes struggles and desperation. This leads to hilarious moments that we have shared as a community. Here are a few:

Immortal Fortress - The Original Soundtrack

All the songs that were referenced in this game - either directly or by the players - has been put together in a Spotify playlist available for your listening pleasure HERE.

The official soundtrack, along with most of the reasons chosen, are:

1. Backseat Freestyle by Kendrick Lamar (part of the Band Names puzzle)
2. Saturday Night by the Bay City Rollers (part of the Band Names puzzle)
3. Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani (part of the Band Names puzzle)
4. Mermaid by Train (part of the Band Names puzzle)
5. Washington, D.C. by The Magnetic Fields (part of the Band Names puzzle)
6. F.I.N.E. by Aerosmith (part of the Band Names puzzle)
7. The Safety Dance by Men Without Hats (part of the Band Names puzzle)
8. Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers (part of the Band Names puzzle)
9. One Last Time from the Hamilton Original Soundtrack (referenced several times, including the line "teach them how to say goodbye" during the ARG's endgame)
10. "The Major General Song" from The Pirates of Penzance (see below)
11. Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music (was referenced when trying to decipher the Tuning Fork puzzle)
12. The Elements Song by Tom Lehrer ([citation needed])
13. Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (referenced originally by @BrainClouds originally as a possible somatic component, then followed up by other players)
14. Tonight from West Side Story ([citation needed])

Math Deer Reel

At one point in the ARG, we received various pictures from Adam Glover. Three of these pictures were the math problems, the blurry deer, and the fishing rod. This was discovered to be code for Material, however Team Volo was not 100% sure since it seemed like a big stretch (Math-Deer-Reel). This led to a small conflict inside the group were we could not come to an agreement. This led to various members changing their names to represent the confusion. Some examples are M, The Calculus Fawn (Marcian Tobay and The Pishing Deer (GoodGuyGonzo). Other jokes were made on how people were over analyzing the pictures.

Vertically Symmetrical Letters

I honestly have no idea how we got here. We somehow thought that one of the components was disguised in the Monster Glyphs. We were correct but our form of logic in the beginning was not. Team Volo believed that we had to take the vertically symmetrical letters or glyphs and create a word out of them to solve the puzzle. We were so wrong.

The Theme Song

I am the very model of a #NoStoneUnturned helpful therial

I’ve spell components verbal and somatic and material

I know the glyphs of Elminster but the ciphers are mysterial

With shields and clues and lots of symbols multiserial

I’m very well acquainted too, with planes like the ethereal

We’ve delved into the photos, and #TeamVolo’s near-asterial

About the puzzles given we have proposed in chat many a guess

And we cannot stop wondering and it is quite a source of stress…

(lyrics compliments of @CarolineTheGeek)

This song was created in the downtime between clues when it turns out we had all the clues we needed. Based on The Major-General song from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, this song was created by @CarolineTheGeek in our Discord channel.

The Hottest new album of 2018

When Team Volo was stuck during our brainstorm of what the somantic component could be, it was offered that we should all send in videos of us trying different hand gestures to Adam's twitter. It devolved later into the idea that all of Team Volo should make a video of us using sign language and screaming "ADAM IS VOLO" and posting it for the world to see. Mind you, this was about to be a revolutionary music video called Adam is Volo featuring #TeamVolo and newest craze of sign language dancing.

"______ Bard"

Oh boy, how Team Volo got here is a story. We were creating anagrams out of the monsters names to find out if we could discover component for the spell to restore Adam's memories. This led to various wacky combinations most of which led to the word Bard combined with another word or words. Some examples are: Girl Bard (see above), Crude Bard ***I dont know who made this one***, OCD Bard ***dont know***. In conclusion, user GoodGuyGonzo combined all these guesses and came up with the nickname "OCD Crude Girl Bard" for the Discord server.

Sign Language FTW

There was heavy debate on the somatic component of the spell. There was speculation that there might have not been any somatic component at all. Once we saw Adam's twitter pictures we knew this had to be it. In a matter of minutes, Team Volo managed to decode the pictures to say "Sign Recall". After a couple of minutes of waiting for the confirmation, the community was getting anxious and started proposing ideas of singing the verbal "Adam is Volo" while signing RECALL all the while holding or throwing a handful of glitter to represent the diamond. Discord user Marcian Tobay finally decided to tweet a video of himself signing the word RECALL. Minutes Later we received a conformation that the signing of RECALL was the correct answer. He got it by milliseconds as the whole community was right behind his back posting ASL videos to restore Adam's memories. That day Team Volo celebrated as their hard work had finally paid off, but we still had a lot more work to do.

Predicting the Future

@DLIMedia jokingly predicted six days earlier that they might end up using sign language and semaphore code.

Whether it was planned or inspired by this post, both ended up being components in the somatic component puzzle on Instagram. Was it a lucky guess or was he the Sage the whole time feeding us hints. The world may never know.

The Romance Novel

Once Adam remembered he was Volo all along, he contacted Immortal Fortress to let him know that the stone was in the safest of places (LIES!!!!!!) and that he remembers only the fondest of memories with him and wine. The community, especially Discord user Marcian Tobay, started and OTP of both of the characters. However, later during the conversation he was unsure if they were truly made for each other, or if they should take a break apart.

Hacker Man

We made progress in the ARG for sure, sometime we would solve puzzles the second they were released but other times the answer would be right in front of us but we wouldn't know until days later. Discord user Vorttu, created a program that would count the amount of I's in Instagram captions. Although the code never came to use. He was known as Hacker Man to all of us (not really just me but I am the editor so whatever).

The Teapot

At one point, in the Discord channel, @GoodGuyGonzo made a comment that "The room is the inside of a teapot". That quickly escalated into @BazGC actually creating "The High Teapot" as a wondrous item:

The High Teapot (across two posts because it's that long a description...)

wondrous Item, uncommon (?)

This plain looking metal teapot appears mundane at first glance, but closer inspection reveals the short phrase "there's always time for tea" is engraved in the side.

If the teapot is filled with boiling water and you utter the inscription aloud then the teapot is considered 'armed' and must be used within 15 minutes.

If any water is poured out the spout before the 15 minutes are up, then you and up to 5 willing creatures of your choice within 10ft of you feel yourselves being shrunk down and pulled towards the spout of the teapot. Anyone watching sees you all get pulled into the spout itself which a pocket dimension located inside the teapot. The teapot then gently floats to the ground and the inscription changes to read 'tea time'.

The dimension you find yourselves in is furnished with a round table covered by a tablecloth and surrounded by 6 chairs (one sized appropriately for each creature). A fine selection of sandwiches and cakes is laid out on the table alongside a large teapot and six teacups. A servant is stood beside the table (name and form decided by the DM) and invites you all to sit around the table and relax over a nice cup of tea and a light snack.(edited)

Time passes quicker in the teapot that the outside world and an hour inside the teapot passes in 10 minutes to an outside observer. If anyone attempts to open the teapot during this time then they find the lid is stuck down and can't be opened. If shaken, the sound of liquid can be heard, however attempting to pour any of the water out is unsuccessful. If the teapot is somehow destroyed during this time then the occupants are violently returned to the outside of the teapot. They are Tiny Sized creatures until a Remove Curse or Wish Spell returns them to their original size.

Whilst inside the teapot you find yourselves unable to cast any type of spell (including from magic items) and you cannot be targetted by any form of divination spell. At the end of the hour, the servant advises you all that your break is over. Provided that you drank at least one cup of tea and consumed some food then this allows you to have the benefits of a short rest provided you remain in the teapot until the end of the hour. You can also carry out any other light activity covered by the rules on short rests as required.

As soon as the break is over, you and any other creatures who entered with you emerge from the spout of the teapot and slowly return to your previous sizes over a period of 6 seconds. Unless the teapot was moved you return to the nearest unoccupied spaces around the teapot, however if the teapot has been moved or placed into an extraplanar space or other dimension like a bag of holding then you all emerge into that space instead. Once the teapot has been armed, speaking the incantation will have no effect until the next dawn, at which time the inscription will glow with a golden colour before returning to its regular form.

This was followed by a few references to the Utah Teapot, which was followed by someone mentioning how a D&D game once had a dungeon crawl use a room modeled after the Cornell Box. Things got weird from there.

The Various Eyes / I's

Many of Team Volo made speculations that this ARG was a buildup for the Stream of Many Eyes. So naturally, we would scramble and find anything that was related to an Eye, that would include the letter I. Our most popular moment was when we counted the amount of I's in the Instagram captions. Or when we looked up every beholder and cross referenced it with clues and hints.

David of the Flor

Once we returned Volo's memories Team Volo started to ask him questions of what he remebered. This led to an awkward conversation between Volo and Immortal Fortress which can only be explained by Volo rolling a nat one for Charisma. However, some good came out of this. Discord User DLIMedia was renamed David of the Flor by none other than the Great Volo himself.

https://twitter.com/Glovers_Travels/status/996208432024768512

Oh Captain, My Captain

On 5/16, David Flor (@BrainClouds on Twitter) commented on the fact that @Glovers_Travels did not follow @immortal4tress, even though the latter does follow the former.

I'm bothered that @Glovers_Travels isn't following @immortal4tress.

I'm also bothered that Captain Crunch and Mr. Peanut have VERIFIED Twitter accounts and I don't, so your mileage may vary.

#TeamVolo #NoStoneUnturned - @BrainClouds, 5/12 @ 12:24AM

The following exchange between @BrainClouds and @Glovers_Travels ensued...

Duly remedied! Is Captain Crunch a great naval leader of your Earth? - @Glovers_Travels, 5/17 @ 2:13PM

I cannot speak on behalf of the U.S. Navy, so you're going to have to ask @RealCapnCrunch I'm afraid. #TeamVolo #NoStoneUnturned - @BrainClouds, 5/17 @ 2:42PM

How did you attain the rank of captain, @RealCapnCrunch ? I am interested to learn the exploits of all the heroes of your world. - @Glovers_Travels, 5/17 @ 2:46PM

Master volo the captain crunch is like an ilusion - @AlarconNahuel, 5/17 @ 2:53PM

He must be a convincing illusion indeed if he tricked Twitter into "verifying" him! - @Glovers_Travels, 5/17 @ 2:56PM

I wonder if a person who is not of your world, like my humble self, is also eligible to be Verified. - @Glovers_Travels, 5/17 @ 2:58PM

We are still waiting for @RealCapnCrunch to respond...