CD-NCS04 (Dec 18, 2017)
Puzzle
“Storybook Limbo.”
See: C-NCS03 | Knowledge | 4 Words
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: Far more Knowledge than Different Receipt, really. What other magical 'storybook' also exists in the CaD-universe?
Clue 2: I'm not talking about the Otherworld, mind you. This is the main reason why there's a 'See: C-NCS03' - what's the receipt about?.
Clue 3: Have you seen its sign? A yellow one?
Answer and Explanation
Answer: The King In Yellow
Explanation: There is another 'storybook' in existence that features someone in Limbo - in this case, the book known as The King In Yellow. The clue is effectively a 'red herring' in that you're not supposed to focus on the nature of the Nutcracker's storybook, but rather, the Blight's.
Summary of Receipt
Summary
Transcript
NUMBER: NCS04
PRIORITY: AND
DATE: 18-12-17
CUSTOMER & ORDER: FLORIDA, COFFEE BLACK
SERVER: MANAGER
What… what have we done…?
S.O.T.
The Nutcracker: HA… HA… HA… LOOK AT ALL OF THE SCRAMBLING MICE! DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD STAND AGAINST ME? AGAINST US? AGAINST THE DARK? THIS IS MY DOMAIN NOW!
[The Nutcracker's jaw dropped down as another blast of umbral energy prepared to fire.]
Manager: Oh, bugger off, mate. You've had your fun. Only way you can be anything is in fantasy lands, choice?
[The Nutcracker's jaw snapped shut as it turned to face the Manager.]
The Nutcracker: OH YOU THINK SO? I AM… SO MUCH MORE THAN YOU ARE! MORE THAN A WASHED-UP… PATHETIC… WARLOCK. YOU CAN'T EVEN USE YOUR POWERS WITHOUT… DADDY WICKED… GIVING YOU A… SPANKING!
H.R.: Gross… You want to see our powers, you oversized nutjob?
Big Guy: Let's begin.
[Hoffmann, oozing thick black ink from his eyes and mouth, rose up from the top of the Nutcracker.]
Hoffmann: You fools! Do you really think your pitiful magic can overcome the enchantments I've woven? The power of the bleak and black Everdark? The Nutcracker is invincible!
The Nutcracker: HA… HA… HA…
[The Nutcracker's jaw swung open again, fixed on the trio.]
Manager: Ready when you lot are.
H.R.: Let's do it. For the Cafe. For Florida.
Big Guy: To shut them up.
[A surge of dark, suffocating energy erupted from the trio, merging into a blinding torrent of bright xanthic flames which burned pitch black at their core. The air trembled and the ground cracked as the reality-melting fire converged on the Nutcracker and Hoffmann.]
Hoffmann: YOU FOOLS! YOU'LL DESTROY EVERYTHING!!!
The Nutcracker: AGHHHHHH!! I CAN'T LOSE! I WON'T—
[The Wicked Blight Flame engulfed the Nutcracker and Hoffmann, its dark searing tendrils tearing apart the enchanted construct and the toy maker, atom by atom from reality itself. As each atom was ripped apart, a few atoms distinctively begun to click together with a mechanical whir.]
Wicked: Burn.
Manager: …Shit.
[The winter wonderland slowly melted away in a hallucinogenic funk as the tinsel twisted into thin shattering fractals as the flurries of snow started falling up into the sky before bursting in puffs of soot.]
H.R.: It… it can't be. He can't be here.
Big Guy: He is.
Wicked: As you are protected—so am I. Isn't it delightful? Their screams?
Manager: You—
Wicked: Silence. We made a deal. You have used my powers without due recompense for far too long.
[The Wicked raised its charred skeletal hand wrapping H.R. in a blazing crystalline pattern.]
H.R.: AGHHH!
Manager & Big Guy: [H.R.]!
Wicked: A third.
[The Wicked left the CaDCom transcription range.]
E.O.T.