OOTS #1219 - The Discussion Thread

[Olinser]

In the abstract, it is a fine idea.

Concretely speaking, it does not fit in this story, because the doors are so perfectly unidentifiable. If the doors had unique names or numbers on them, I could imagine there is a puzzle to be solved, such as you suggest. But The Giant would have dropped hints well before this point in the story.

Call the Chekow's Anti-Gun. When no mention of a gun has occurred in the story, you can't have a hidden gun pulled out from behind some books on the shelf in the third act, and used to immediately kill an important character.

What are you talking about, unidentifiable?

Literally every single door is different. They have different handles, colors, wood patterns, number of wood slats in the door, hinges (type/size/placement), single/double door, and size. Not a single one is repeated in the entire wall - most obviously shown in comic 1039. That's a pretty big neon sign that there is a clear way to identify exactly what door/pattern is correct, we just don't know what it is yet.

If I came across this setup in a game or D&D session, I would ASSUME that I needed a clue/code that I hadn't found yet, like Spelunky 2, the jar room where there are hundreds of very SIMILIAR, but distinct jars, where you obviously need to find the code for that run (although finding it can be tricky if you don't know), and I would keep an eye out for it as I continued my adventures - or look for rumors in the tavern.

Or maybe we DO know, it was encoded in Serini's journal, and Xykon hasn't bothered to look for it.

Which is exactly how the OOTS would find the correct path to the Gate - steal/acquire the journal, realize what the code is, and use it to access the Gate.