What Was Part 46, "The Unclean"? (Patreon)

Evening lovely Patrons!

As many, if not all of you, should know Part 46 has concluded for Patrons and it was a wild one. I wanted to offer a little bit of insight into what Part 46 was and how it differed and hopefully answer some questions about it!

Malevolent has always been about trying new things; from the music, to the voices, to the perspective shifts, I've always toyed with the way I tell this story and Part 46 is no different. Rather than the narrative however, I decided to play with "you" - this time. I wanted to attempt to play an RPG with you for this Part and ultimately - I think we succeeded.

I'll explain how...

When thinking about this Part, I wanted it to be a little more self contained, a little less dependent on what's come before and little free from what comes next (though not entirely). I also wanted to take away your ability to vote and instead, make you roll.

For those unaware, rolling is the primary way to tell if you succeed or fail in an RPG and with this Part I thought it would be fun to roll instead of choose your solution. Each of the choices (save the last) in this Part would be a random chance of success or failure and the main "stat" that Arthur was rolling this part was "Constitution".

For ease in this experiment I decided Arthur's CON was 50 - meaning a straight coin flip would determine his success or failure but - since you can't decide which way a coin lands - I thought obfuscating the polls could serve as my 50/50 shot. That's why each poll was unknown. A flip of the coin, a roll of the die.

Now why obfuscate them at all? Why not just have two numbers or two random, unrelated words... why the PUZZLE. Well, I wanted accountability. When this inevitably came out and people felt like this wasn't exactly what they wanted in a chapter (perhaps some even calling "cheat") I wanted to point and say, "no, look... you can clearly see here that you 'failed' the roll". For the clever ones gaming it out, I used a text filter to hide the page, line and word for each poll option. Using the book "The King in Yellow" (a specific version I had sent to a patron) you could, and can now, validate what I had submitted. For ease, here's what they were:

Chapter 226:
F̴r̴i̸r̷a̷g̵r̸r̷a̵ ̶f̷r̸i̴r̸a̷ ̷a̴v̶a̶r̵ = Remain
F̴r̷i̵r̴a̷g̸l̶-̷r̵v̴t̵u̵g̷ ̸g̶u̵v̴e̶g̵l̴ ̶a̴v̸a̶r̷ = Follow

Chapter 227:
A̷v̵a̶r̵g̷l̶-̶r̸v̸t̶u̵g̴ ̴s̷b̵h̶e̶g̷r̵r̴a̵ ̷g̴u̶v̶e̸g̸r̷r̸a̴ = Purse**
B̷a̴r̸ ̵u̴h̷a̴q̷e̸r̴q̶ ̸n̴a̷q̶ ̷f̷r̸i̴r̴a̸g̵l̷-̸s̵b̸h̴e̸ ̵s̵b̶h̴e̸g̴r̸r̵a̴ ̸g̸u̴v̶e̷g̴r̶r̵a̴ = Moon*

Chapter 228:
R̵v̴t̷u̶g̸l̴-̵b̵a̵r̴ ̸s̶v̶s̷g̷r̷r̶a̷ ̸g̷j̸b̸ = Drink
R̸v̸t̵u̸g̸l̴-̴f̶r̶i̴r̷a̴ ̶a̸v̵a̵r̷g̷r̵r̸a̶ ̶s̷b̴h̴e̶g̶r̸r̵a̵ = Pass

Chapter 229:
R̶v̶t̴u̵g̴l̶-̷g̸j̷b̵ ̴g̸j̸r̵a̴g̵l̵ ̶f̵v̵k̶ = Sleep
B̴a̴r̷ ̵u̸h̶a̷q̶e̴r̴q̸ ̷n̵a̴q̴ ̷g̷j̴r̵a̴g̶l̵-̷f̷v̵k̴ ̸r̵v̸t̶u̷g̵r̵r̷a̶ ̷r̷v̴t̴u̶g̵ = Sleep

So as you can see, there is accountability above! I couldn't cheat or short change the options because you can now see what they are. I will clarify however, as I gave a major HINT before the final vote (I posted the book in question to my Instagram, leading to many people solving this little riddle) both SLEEP options resulted in the same answer. Why? Because you had already failed, sadly. In chapter 227 when you followed the lights, the dice were not in your favour and sadly, you had fallen under the "spell" of Horig and what comes next... (just be thankful you didn't Drink as well).

So there you have it! A bit of an explanation of what this part was, why it functioned the way it did and how it worked. I hope you had fun, if not, worry not we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming with this chapter and subsequent part - but trying new things is why were here so I hope you understand the reasoning behind this.

Any additional questions, I'll be happy to answer in the comments below OR during the next Live Stream (if it's a fun answer!)

Thank you all again so much for believing in this show and I hope those of you who enjoyed it... enjoyed it a lot!

Cheers,
Harlan

*Why "Moon"? Well, that was a mistake admittedly. It was meant to say light. I had messed up by using the same word number as the answer above it. Just a mistake. Whoops. lol
** Why Purse? Well, there is no mention of bag, handbag or satchel in the King in Yellow. Who knew?