Chapter 4: The glint colossus

Ondine at Corran

• Where: Corran square (Event_menders), the ring of menders around the well.
• When: act3.stage = 9 and the player arrives back at Corran. Sets act3.stage to 10.
• Who: Prelate Ondine Ash; four Warden menders; Aske; Tamsin.
• What happens: (Idea) Ondine has come to do it again. The colossus has stopped growing but the warp has not, and she will lay a second seal over the first at dawn: Corran will be held for another lifetime, and the warp with it. Her menders are setting pale blue seal-stones in a ring round the well. Aske walks into the ring and stands next to the girl. It is the scene Aske has avoided for twenty years. Ondine is not cruel and doesn't pretend: she knows what the first seal cost, she has read the Hour Stair records (every Speaker is shown them once, on taking office), and it changes nothing for her, because the seal held and the valley was saved. If Tamsin carries the records (act3.records = 2 or 4), she says so to Ondine's face, and Ondine answers her calmly, which is worse. Then the colossus stands up. The warp has been fed by the menders' stones, the same thing that happened at the Sallow warp. The menders fall back; Ondine pulls them out of Corran. Her terms: "Bring it down, and I'll wait. Fail, and we seal at dawn with you inside it."
• Player does: talk; one choice in the argument (backs Aske, backs Tamsin, or stays quiet). If the player has standing with the Evane (rep.evane ≥ 20), they can also ask Ondine to leave the stones unset; she refuses, and then sets fewer of them, which makes the colossus fight's first phase shorter.
• Content to make:
  • Yarn: Act3_Ondine_Arrive, Act3_Ondine_Aske, Act3_Ondine_Tamsin, Act3_Ondine_Terms.
  • Flags: act3.stage = 10, ondine.met_corran = 1, act3.stones_fewer if asked.
• Art and audio: (Idea) Ondine model (Art/Concepts/characters/ondine-ref-a.png); Warden mender model (four instances, mirrored poses); seal-stone props (reuse from 1.3, uncracked); colossus stand-up animation. Music: Ondine's theme (stately, symmetrical phrases), crossed with Aske's.
• Screens used: dialogue panel, cutscene.

(Idea) Lines to keep:

Ondine: You argued then too. You argued well. Then you cast, because you knew I was right.

Aske: I cast because I was a coward with a good excuse. You had the excuse.

Ondine (to Tamsin, if she has the records): I've read them, child. Every Speaker has. The Mere broke because we were too gentle with them. I don't intend to be gentle twice.

The glint colossus

• Where: Corran's warp (battle arena corran_warp; concept: Art/Concepts/world/arena-corran-warp-a.png).
• When: act3.stage = 10. Sets act3.stage to 11 on victory.
• Who: the glint colossus; Aske and Tamsin watch from the edge (Aske does not cast; Tamsin does not fight, because the open question on companions in battle is still open, see open question 6).
• What happens: (Idea) A three-phase boss on a glazed square at the warp's foot, the stilled townsfolk at the sides.
  1. The Mass (full health to 60%). A sweeping arm every 7 s; each hit on the colossus sheds a glint, up to three alive at a time. The arm draws back across the warp-light first: Repel staggers it in that window and cancels the blow. Gale clears the glints; Coil chips the body.
  2. The Crack (60% to 25%). Its chest plates crack and show the warp inside. Hits to the chest during a stagger do double damage: stagger it with Repel or Bulwark (Repel into Facet Seal), then Bevel Lash or Toll. Every 12 s a Warp Pulse does 20 damage that ignores shields; Hush stops it (if learned in Act 2).
  3. The Pull (25% to the end). It turns to the stilled townsfolk at the arena's edge and starts pulling them toward the warp. A 40 s timer shows on screen, and its blows come every 5 s. Linger halves the timer's pace while it lasts; Hasten helps land long threads. If the timer runs out, one glass figure cracks (it does not break, and the figure heals in chapter 5, but Aske reacts), and the fight goes on.
• Player does: fight; cast.
• Content to make:
  • Encounter: corran_colossus (the colossus with glint adds).
  • Yarn: Act3_Colossus_Before, Act3_Colossus_After; bark lines during the fight from Aske and Tamsin.
  • Flags: act3.stage = 11, corran.cracked_figure if The Pull's timer runs out.
• Art and audio: (Idea) Glint colossus battle model with a chest-crack VFX (the warp showing through cracked mirror plates), a pulling animation, and a death that splashes into a mirror-still pool; the cracked glass figure; the warp quietening (white light dimming). Music: boss theme with a heartbeat drum that stops when it falls.
• Screens used: battle HUD, glyph prompt, spell book (mid-fight, as now).

From Walkthrough: Act 3 › Chapter 4: The glint colossus