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The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert is located in the
Desert Beach. It is unlocked after obtaining (and reading)
Your father's MacGuffin diary (see the
Quest for the Holy MacGuffin).
A primary stat of 120 is suggested. If your main stat isn't high enough, you'll see the following message:
- You head towards the desert, but then you remember that you haven't bothered naming your horse yet, and also that you are scared because the monsters in there are really hard.
(It is recommended that you have at least 120 <mainstat> to adventure here.)
On October 29, 2013 this zone's mechanics were changed for the Quest for the Holy MacGuffin. Most non-combat adventures were subsequently retired. See The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert (Dehydrated) and The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert (Ultrahydrated) to find an archive of the old desert.
Combat Adventures
Non-combat Adventures
Retired Adventures
Notes
- Underneath this zone's image are a bunch of zonefont images that display the words "(X% explored)", referring to your progress in discovering the Pyramid within the Quest for the Holy MacGuffin.
- The first time that you adventure here without Ultrahydrated will give you 10 turns of the Ultrahydrated effect and unlock An Oasis. If you acquire Ultrahydrated from something like a wish or a diabolic pizza, you will still unlock the Oasis on the next un-Ultrahydrated turn.
- Already sort of thirsty, you set out to explore the vast and trackless wastes.
- As you're about to collapse from dehydration, you stagger over one last dune to discover a verdant oasis. Just what you needed!
- Despite taking place after the combat concludes, doing the first adventure only results in 10 turns of Ultrahydrated if it was a free insta-kill.
- Adventuring here without Ultrahydrated while the Pyramid quest is underway (exploration < 100%) will confer random negative effects, listed below.
- Defeating a monster in this zone increases your exploration score by 1%. There are several ways to improve this:
- The following items can be used to instantly increase exploration score:
- Post-combat messages:
- With Ultrahydrated:
- Well hydrated, you continue your efforts to explore the vast desert.
- With Ultrahydrated and a UV-resistant compass equipped:
- Well hydrated and equipped with your trusty UV-resistant compass, you continue your efforts to explore the vast desert.
- With Ultrahydrated and an ornate dowsing rod equipped:
- Well hydrated and equipped with your trusty dowsing rod, you continue your efforts to explore the vast desert.
- With Ultrahydrated and a Melodramedary active:
- You follow <familiar> further into the desert, since he seems to have a much better idea of where he's going than you do.
- With Ultrahydrated and a Survival knife active:
- With the compass in the hilt of your survival knife, you quickly find new areas.
- Without Ultrahydrated:
- Already sort of thirsty, you set out to explore the vast and trackless wastes.
- And then, if you have the Blacklight Bulb:
- The blacklight on your motorcycle makes it really easy to see stuff in the bright sunlight!
- And then, with Ultrahydrated:
- You climb a rock chimney and get a good view of your surroundings.
- or
- You crest a dune and survey the nearby area.
- or
- You fall off a cliff, but on the way down you get a fantastic view of the surrounding desert!
- or
- You see a cool rock formation you've never seen before.
- or
- You see another oasis in the distance, but it turns out to be a mirage.
- or
- You walk for a few miles in one direction, then follow your footprints back.
- And then, sometimes, for the first time
- You find one of Gnasir's manual pages half-buried in a sand dune.
- or, afterwards
- You find some more worm-riding manual pages under a nearby rock.
- And then, without Ultrahydrated:
- You become delirious with thirst, and as you wander aimlessly through the sand dunes, you see a figure up ahead. As you get closer, he keeps disappearing and reappearing -- to your left, to your right, then right behind you. You spin around and see that the figure has bronze skin, warpaint, a feathered headdress, and is wearing nothing but a loincloth.
- "Follow me," he says, in a deep, echoing voice. "I am your spirit guide."
- He turns and you follow him, silently, until you've lost track of time and space. Just when you feel like you're about to have some kind of deep, searing insight, he turns and seems surprised to find you there.
- "You're still following me?" he says. "I was just yanking your chain, man. I can't believe you fell for that!" and he disappears.
- Great. Not only are you even more lost than you were before, but now you're exhausted from all the walking.
- or
- After a few hours of mostly ineffectual exploring, you collapse, parched, in a path[sic] of cactus.
- You remember reading somewhere that you can cut open a cactus and get water out of it, but when you try it, it turns out that this particular species of cactus contains not water, but a powerful poison.
- or
- You become delirious with thirst, getting completely lost. Finally, you stop and sit down.
- "Screw this," you think, "I'm an Adventurer, for crying out loud! We're renowned for our direction sense!"
- You close your eyes and concentrate on picturing yourself on a map of your surroundings. You imagine a big map in front of you stuck in a post on the ground. It shows a vast expanse of featureless desert -- so vast, in fact, that it takes up the entire surface of the map. There's a compass rose at the bottom, and a little X with "you are here" written above it in the center of the map.
- You stare for a while at the beige rectangle with the X in the middle of it, then walk off again, feeling your confidence in your mental navigation skills slip just a little.
- or
- You collapse from dehydration, and wake up a few hours later with a really bad sunburn.
- or
- Gasping for water, you crest a dune in the desert and find a bunch of vultures feasting upon the carcass of some unidentifiable animal. You think of several hundred lawyer jokes, and are about to move on when you notice one of the vultures appears to be wearing a cowboy hat. It looks at you (the vulture, not the hat), its beady little eyes gleaming with predatory intelligence.
- "Look, everybody, I'm a cowboy!" it says. "Howdy, howdy, howdy."
- Clearly, you're cracking up.
- or
- Dry as a bone, you stumble blindly through the desert until you get caught in a sandstorm. The stinging, whirling sand gives you a really, really deep exfoliation. When it's done, you're just skin and bones, only without the skin.
- And then
- You should really go back to that Oasis and get a drink.
- And then
Desert exploration +X%
- After exploration reaches 10%, your next Adventure in this zone will be the noncombat which reveals Gnasir's Place.
- Defeating monsters in this zone while Ultrahydrated and while the Pyramid quest is underway has a chance of dropping 1 to 3 worm-riding manual pages.
- The probability of at least one page dropping starts at 25% and increases by 25% each time pages fail to drop, to 50%, 75%, then 100%.
- The first time pages drop, you will receive 1 page. Subsequent times, you receive 2 or 3 pages with equal probability. You will never go over 15 pages, as the pages can only drop 1 or 2 if needed instead of more.
- Wandering monsters and free fights can drop pages.
- On average, gathering all the pages takes 17 turns after you have found Gnasir, but can be as low as 8 and as high as 27.
- You can turn in 15 worm-riding manual pages to Gnasir's Place in order to obtain the worm-riding hooks, which can be used with a drum machine for an instant +30% desert exploration.
- After getting 100% exploration, after the normal messages and effects above (ending before +X%):
- Desert exploration COMPLETE!
- Adventuring here after the Pyramid does not confer random negative effects.
History
References
- "Arid, Extra-Dry" is a reference to Arrid Extra Dry antiperspirant.
- Most of the adventures here are a reference to Frank Herbert's Dune.
- The message "You head towards the desert, but then you remember that you haven't bothered naming your horse yet, and also that you are scared because the monsters in there are really hard." is a reference to the Dewey Bunnell song, A Horse with No Name.
- The vulture saying "Look, everybody, I'm a cowboy! Howdy, howdy, howdy" is a reference to a 1983 comic from Gary Larson's The Far Side.
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A Sietch in Time
How Dry I Am
Midnight Sun
