Triumph

391. Ablaut Bloat - Too many vowel alternations spoil the base

An ablaut is a change in the vowel between different forms of the same word (such as sing, sang, and sung). Ablaut Bloat would involve an excess of vowel changes - just as the clue indicates. The clue also riff off the saying "Too many cooks spoil the broth," but with base (as in the base of a word?) taking the place of broth.

Now you're grumbling about my answers?

YES +2 - you aren't getting any more points because you didn't display an appreciation of Bubble in this post

It's hard to appreciate something I had never heard of until doing google research to solve this puzzle.

YES +2 - although I wouldn't in any way say "famous scene," I'm fond of it:

The quote showed up on enough different google hits for me to conclude that it must somewhat well known, even if, as mentioned, above, I'd never heard of the show before. Clearly your, ah, appreciation, for British pop culture is much greater than mine (although since I know next to nothing about British pop culture, that's a low bar ).

Also, I totally got that Phantom of the Thraxx was a Phantom of the Opera reference...and then totally forgot to mention it.

372. Phantom of the Thraxx - Hidden Coleoptera

Thrax is bug-monster boss in the SNES game Secret of Evermore. Coleoptera is a palette-swap counterpart bug-monster boss fought in the same location later in the game.

405. H.W.F.M.C.O.T.I. - Not my sparky personality, but definitely the most memorably named

The letters stand for "Helper who finds missing children over the internet," which apparently is a joke personality type that originated on a website called The Spark.

373. Open Oaken Oblong Coffin - Yeah, but is it art?

Elements of dialogue exchange from a famous scene in the TV show Absolutely Fabulous (series in which the aforementioned Jane Horrocks played Bubble).

377. The Bubble bubble - In which Jane Horrocks briefly receives the appreciation she deserves

One of British actress Jane Horrocks most famous roles was a character named Bubble. The second "bubble" connects to "briefly" in the clue - bubbles are known for existing temporarily and then - POP - being gone.

370. Palimpcaestus of Finnegolfans Name - Recyclable elf consciousness streams from my hands

Okay, my first thought was that this might be some kind of reference to Fingolfin, high king of the Noldor - there's your elf. A palimpsest is, basically, a thing that gets recycled to use for a different purpose. And the book Finnegan's Wake, which seems to get a nod in the odd spelling of the name, is noted for its stream of consciousness writing. Did I get it?

368. Castle in the Air - Location of the Princesses of Rhyme and Reason

These princesses were at this castle in The Phantom Tollbooth.

375. Left Unjustified - Neoliberal text formatting

Mixes "left" and "liberal" as synonyms for political views with the idea of typed text being aligned (justified) along the right or left side of a page.

404. Landlord of the Pit - Sacrifices those they contract with for short-term gain

Refers to a Magic: the Gathering card named Lord of the Pit made you sacrifice your creatures or it would hurt you; the Landlord sacrifices them for gain instead of the avoid pain?

384. Sylak's Ineluctable Geneforge - Spawns plot holes every 300 turns

Reference to the silly Sylak items, most notably the one that over time could fill your inventory with bricks. Maybe combined with Geneforge because that's the series with some of Jeff's most famous plot holes (i.e. the lost continent)?

393. Twisty little PDNs (all alike) - A colossal undertaking

Riffs on the phrase from the game Colossal Cave.

389. Resistance is Septile - Sleep, StopSpell, and Surround will be assimilated

Clearly a reference to the famous Borg motto and their penchant for assimilating things.

A couple more ideas spontaneously popped into my head:

Learned Clois in G1 is memorable because she is basically the only character in the entire series to have figured out or at least to openly acknowledge that the Shapers didn't originally create serviles, but rather serviles were originally humans warped and modified by Shaper magic to serve as slaves. That's a huge world-building point that no one else in the entire Geneforge series really addresses and by extension it makes Clois a significant character.

Corata: he is the only member of the trio responsible for the Geneforge with whom you ever interact in a meaningful way. In addition to being partly responsible for the creation of the Geneforge, he is responsible for the creation of the Takers; the servantmind in the workshop says Corata prevented him from containing the poisons and actively wanted them to leak out. The sludge did so, tainting land in eastern Sucia and indirectly giving rise to the Takers. For his huge backstory role, I think he belongs on the list.

Maybe in a non-canonical G4 ending she survives to be a general, but I just checked the dialogue script and in G5 Alwan definitely says a drakon slew her.

...Miranda is DEAD in G5. Isn't she? Or have I confused her with someone else?

See above for why Miranda is listed as General.

*looks carefully*

You've got her category in the spreadsheet as Intrigue Figure, and you give her as an example of such of a figure in the OP. All that makes sense. But I still don't see anything explaining why you listed her title as General? I'm obviously missing something...?

What about Lark? She shows up in multiple games as a quest-giver.

For AEFTP: Kyass as a faction leader? Tor as a memorable NPC? The GIFTS as a collective local power?

For A2: Limoncelli as local power (his name is what really makes him memorable, though, LOL)? Dahris-Bok as local power? The Ten of Angierach as a local power?

A4 I think was his first appearance: Levitt, as a local power, I guess, or maybe even a sort of de facto faction leader?

Also, Dorikas first appeared in A4, not A5, and Melachion first appeared in A5, not A6

A6: Asterios as a memorable character (he blew up Cotra!)? The Slith boss trio, Ghavassa-Oss, Khrez-Yss, and Ess-Kalyn (as a collective faction leader)?

In G4, Miranda is an Agent, not a general.

Re: Ghaldring: he's technically first hinted to exist in the G2 ending, doesn't appear in-game until G4, and you have him listed for G3. LOL.

Ava1 needs Nicodemus as memorable character?

Ava2 needs Dheless as faction leader? Protus as...faction leader? Valens the drunken patriotic artist as memorable character?

For Nethergate, Bel as faction leader? Hathwisa as PC Partner?

Those are people who stand out in my mind for one reason or another as possible worthy of your list.

I can't speak for anyone else, but A. This is way long for a forum post (well, technically you made multiple posts, but it's one piece of writing), and B. I probably haven't been interested in fan fiction since I was 17 or something, so even if weren't long, it's not something I care about. Sorry.

In the spirit of those stupid buzzfeed lists with 500 entries, now I want to see "Every Spiderweb Character Ever Ranked From Worst to Best"

Gotta include a meaningless poll for readers that falsely implies what they think matters!

Off the top of my head:

Dedrik: I actually made a whole post about how stupid he is (and basically the rest of the Wyldrylm too).

Lankan: so much of the trouble on Harmony Isle comes down to Lankan being implausibly stupid.

Kyass: he's okay in AEFTP, but his appearance in A2CS was über-lame.

I'm kind of curious what is "pointless" about Starrus. I mean, he's far from a standout awesome character, but somebody had to show up as king, right? Not sure what about him could draw such "hate?"

The buttons along the bottom of the screen change between regular mode and combat mode. Specifically, the buttons for spells like Firebolt and Searer are only present while you're in combat (and likewise, the keyboard letters that set those spells to be your default attack only do that while you're in combat mode).

You should at least be able to able to cast Firebolt at this point. I don't remember if Searer needs more than 1 level of Battle Magic.

Now, if you go into combat mode and the buttons *don't* appear, then I'm stumped.

Rebel Endgame:

The Geneforge: Weird business here. If I click on Litalia to talk to her, the dialogue indicates I’m a rebel. But if I walk up near her, dialogue pops up that her talking to me as if I’m a Shaper. If I carry on that conversation, she becomes hostile, but if I just hit the Escape button to close out the dialogue box, she remains friendly.

Chadwick Prison: Be sneaky. Avoid the enemies, steal Chadwick’s key, and boom, you’re free.

Dhonal’s Keep version 2.0: it’ll really help if you messed up the Golems earlier in the game so that they won't bother you. It’s also helpful to enter the zone from the south gate; run east and follow the back alley north. Enter the door at the far northeast corner, and use the trap door to sneak into the Inner Keep.

Inner Keep version 2.0: take the corridor along the eastern side. Slip into the prison area by the side door.

And that’s it. Apparently my game is bugged? Because the imprisoned drakon that I was counting on to kill Rahul for me…isn’t there. I assume that if he were, I’d be able to lead him to Rahul, buff him, slay the foe, and escape. Since he's glitched out (?), there is literally no way for me kill Rahul that would be in keeping with the parameters of this play-through.

Has anyone else ever used the drakon imprisoned in the inner keep to help them kill Rahul? If you have, that would confirm that issue is just my save and not a problem with the game itself.

This brings my pacifist challenge G3 experiment to a close.

You should be able to do the main quests of GF4 and GF5 on normal difficulty if you have enough leadership and mechanics to recruit helpers for the zones where you have to kill some one.

I understand that on higher difficulties, the enemies are more powerful (thus the reason Mental Magic, which uses their strength against them, scales especially well on higher difficulties). Do friendly NPCs not experience a similar buffing process when you raise the difficulty setting?

Rebel Endgame

Spears East Dock: auto-cleared. I skipped the arrival fight by just running west to Icy End.

Icy End: auto-cleared. You needed to talk to Nazar to advance further with the Rebels, but Leadership will solve your problem with him.

Breeding Valley: auto-cleared.

Besieged Camp: you can walk around here fairly easily. I was able to poke my head into the Shaper cave and lure them out, leading them to the patrolling cryoas who killed them. You have to be careful that they don’t kill you before they get distracted by the cryoas, but it’s doable. Getting the three named shapers killed clears the zone.

Southern Gates: Just as dangerous as when you’re a Shaper. You can get here through Benerii-Eo Labs, unlock the gate, and thus clear the area.

Spire Forest: you can talk Khossos into leaving you alone, and for some reason although this didn’t clear the zone when I was a Shaper, it does clear the zone as a Rebel.

Mushroom Cave: I think this is cleared after you talk to the servant mind and tell it to open the doors to the next zone.

Benerii-Eo Gates: Pass the tests and you’ll clear the zone. You can use Leadership to satisfy the requirements. Oddly enough, when you swear loyalty to the Rebels, you can select truth or lie, and satisfy the test either way. Which is weird since you’re already locked into being a rebel.

Benerii-Eo Labs: well, this is a lot more pleasant as a Rebel. Cross the area to clear it. You can talk Tigh-Eye into letting you pass. And you should. I thought about using the Purification Crystal to kill rogue golem…but the golem basically kills me on sight, and I never get the chance to lead it anywhere.

Benerii-Eo Vat Core: You clear this area easily by entering from the Labs and using the machine to turn off the alarms / golems.

And that's it for tonight. Hopefully one more session will let me polish this off.

Tangent: I wish the idea of defecting Shapers hadn’t dropped from the series after G3. In G2 you had several Shapers who joined either the Barzites (including Barzhal himself) or the Awakened. In G3, you had Litalia, Hoge, Mooralas, that smith-guy on Gull whose name I forget, Greta, and potentially the PC. All these were Shaper characters who for a variety of motivations joined another side. Some are idealists, some are purely selfish, some actively serve the cause, some are passive collaborators. All the defectors represented, or had the potential to represent, interesting points of view, people who began from a foundation of Shaper orthodoxy and then made some accommodation to rebellious attitudes and actions. After G3, the only Shaper-turned-rebel characters to appear are holdovers from G3 (Greta, Litalia, and I guess Khyryk). The PC even ceased to be a Shaper, being instead either an avowed rebel or some rogue monstrosity of sketchy alignment.