take.
07-10-2011, 04:38 PM
This is based on the story of jvk1166z.esp, a very real mod for The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. However unlike JVK, this story is completely fiction.
Some older Fiesta players may have remembered a very strange Fiesta mod that was released back in September of 2007 by an unknown user, just a few months after the game itself was released. The mod was called fiesta23f.shn, it was applied to the game by
placing it in the "ressystem" folder. For some reason, when applied to ressystem, it would
delete all the other files in the folder with the exception of a single notepad file named "chatlog".
(Quick explanation for Fiesta mods, they modify various aspects of your character such as apperance, but only you
can see the changes and other users can't)
At first, this mod was thought to be malware. Upon starting the game, the user would be able to get to the server select screen,
but clicking any server would immediately freeze up the Fiesta screen, as if it was trying to take you to the
character select screen, but couldn't. It would stay on server select for almost 45 minutes before abruptly booting the
user to the desktop. If you waited that long, you would find that your copy of Fiesta was corrupted, meaning you had to uninstall and reinstall
the entire game, some users even reported having hard drive problems after attempting to play the mod. The mod was trying to do something,
but nobody knew exactly what it was because it couldn't be opened by any known program. Eventually this mod was labeled
as malware and people stopped using it completely.
The mod came back up about 6 months later on an obscure Fiesta fansite that is no longer up today.
An anonymous user posted the mod, along with advising people to download an earlier game client, and
delete the patcher from the Fiesta folder, preventing it from patching to the current version. Word got around that this
worked, and people started playing the mod again. Upon starting the game, you would be stuck at server select for about 10 minutes,
presumably loading the mod. before being taken to the character select screen. fiesta23f was a whopping 4.2 Gigabytes in file size
so it's assumed that's why it took so long to load the game.
The first thing players noticed is that there were no characters except for a Level 50 nameless CleverFighter on the
screen when character select finally came up. It was a generic fighter with the default look and level 50 armor equipped.
It was later discovered that if you played the game without the mod after this, your characters would be back to normal again.
No one knew why the mod wouldn't let you use your characters. It also wasn't thought that the Game would allow such a mod to run,
but it didn't prompt the "client illegally manipulated" text box to come up.
If you chose this character, it would start normally and you would be in Roumen where
all the new users spawn near Remi with Level 50 armor and a level 50 two handed sword. There were players all around as if it was the normal game. The first thing players noticed was when you talk to Remi, she has no beginner's quest for you. It's just a blank dialogue box when you talk to her. Users also reported that
they couldn't get into the options menu, making it impossible to relog your character.
It was soon discovered that no NPC in Roumen would say ANYTHING, with the exception of Town Chief Roumenous who
gave you a single message in what looked like Hex code.
Whats more is while there were all the other players moving around Roumen like normal, they wouldn't react to you in any way.
fiesta23f users tried to get the attention of normal players, but it was as if the normal players couldn't see the mod users at all.
Upon talking to Roumenous, you'll find that he has a single quest available, since the text was all in Hex code,
Nobody knew what Roumenous was saying it until someone got a Hex code translator and deciphered the message. Apparently, it was
a quest having to do with a dungeon simply called "The Vault". The objective was "Reach the bottom" The entrance to the dungeon was
always somewhere random in Forest of Tides. Trying to go through any portal aside from Forest of Tides would immediately
crash the game to the desktop, and you would have to start over.
The Vault loading screen seemed to be a heavily rendered, darker version of the Forest Of Tides loading screen, with the same text.
Upon entering The Vault, you would find yourself at the beginning of what looked like The Tower of Iyzel, except going
downward instead of upward. This didn't seem strange until about a year and half later when the real Tower of Iyzel was released,
as the tower hadn't been released in early 2008. As players went down the staircase, it was reported at it took almost a
full 20 minutes to reach the very bottom. It also got slightly darker every minute or so that you continued down the stairs.
There were no monsters from the top to bottom of the staircase, although some users reported hearing an ear wrenchingly loud
screeching noise about halfway through the descent that made them jump clear out of their seats.
At the bottom of the staircase was a portal, entering this portal brought you to another staircase, this time with mobs.
The mobs seemed to have the same model as Marlone soldiers. Some people thought they were only slightly different but still very similar.
The mobs didn't attack because the players were level 50. Even attacking one of the monsters would boot you to the desktop and you'd
have to start all over again from the very beginning. The second staircase went on for about ten minutes before reaching another portal.
The handful of users that made it past the second staircase reported that there was a room exactly like Battlezone 1,
except it was completely void of mobs and people. The map looped itself around in such a way that it was almost
like another downward spiral. This time it was a whole 30 minutes of Battlezone 1 scenery going downward.
As users went downward the game never got any brighter, some had to turn the brightness on their monitor up all the
way to even see the game.
At the end of the Battlezone loop was ANOTHER staircase leading downward. Alot of users got fed up at this point and
stopped playing the mod. The few people who continued, reported that there was a sign on the wall right before the next portal
that prompted the user to check the notepad file that was left in their Fiesta folder. There was now a message in Hex code
in the notepad file that translated into "Beware, he is at the end". The users who went through that portal found yet
another downward staircase, this one took a full hour to reach the bottom, and there were said to be strange noises
coming from an unknown source. By then it was reported to be almost pitch blackwith a single torch on the wall every
100 or so in game feet. Another portal was at the end of this staircase.
Everyone except for one person quit playing the mod after entering the next portal, and seeing ANOTHER downward staircase.
The one player that did continue downward reported seeing strange things out of the corner of his eye, and that
the weird noises from the previous map had gotten louder and louder. Reaching the end of that staircase after 30 minutes,
he reported seeing 2 models of Town Chief Roumenous, both with their eyes wide open and bleeding. The NPC's also had a
simulated worried expression on their faces, which wasn't thought to be possible for any NPC in Fiesta. Talking to the
NPC's got a blank dialogue box with no text. There was another portal.
All of this is from what this one user said now. After this portal, there is what seems to be a hallway, which was actually well lit
considering the earlier levels of The Vault. This hallway went on for 5 minutes before leading to another hallway leading downward.
He went through at least seven hallways, all of which were about 5 minutes long. The hallways got more and more decrepit as he
continued to go forward. The noises from before got louder and clearer. He claimed that there were some voices as well, but he couldn't
make them out. The user found a path that led to 3 different portals and decided to enter one at random. Doing so triggered a loading
screen that hadn't been seen in any version of Fiesta before. Followed by being booted to the desktop. Of course, the user got upset
about this and quit the mod, knowing he would have to start all over again from the beginning of The Vault.
To this day, nobody knows whats at the end of The Vault. Nobody knows who even made the mod. Every person that played
fiesta23f back in 2008 reported having nightmares about it, some reported briefly seeing Roumenous out of the corner
of their eye at random. All of them have stopped playing Fiesta all together, and if asked about their experience
with the mod, they will ignore you and walk away. There are allegedly no known copies of the mod left circulating on the internet.
Some older Fiesta players may have remembered a very strange Fiesta mod that was released back in September of 2007 by an unknown user, just a few months after the game itself was released. The mod was called fiesta23f.shn, it was applied to the game by
placing it in the "ressystem" folder. For some reason, when applied to ressystem, it would
delete all the other files in the folder with the exception of a single notepad file named "chatlog".
(Quick explanation for Fiesta mods, they modify various aspects of your character such as apperance, but only you
can see the changes and other users can't)
At first, this mod was thought to be malware. Upon starting the game, the user would be able to get to the server select screen,
but clicking any server would immediately freeze up the Fiesta screen, as if it was trying to take you to the
character select screen, but couldn't. It would stay on server select for almost 45 minutes before abruptly booting the
user to the desktop. If you waited that long, you would find that your copy of Fiesta was corrupted, meaning you had to uninstall and reinstall
the entire game, some users even reported having hard drive problems after attempting to play the mod. The mod was trying to do something,
but nobody knew exactly what it was because it couldn't be opened by any known program. Eventually this mod was labeled
as malware and people stopped using it completely.
The mod came back up about 6 months later on an obscure Fiesta fansite that is no longer up today.
An anonymous user posted the mod, along with advising people to download an earlier game client, and
delete the patcher from the Fiesta folder, preventing it from patching to the current version. Word got around that this
worked, and people started playing the mod again. Upon starting the game, you would be stuck at server select for about 10 minutes,
presumably loading the mod. before being taken to the character select screen. fiesta23f was a whopping 4.2 Gigabytes in file size
so it's assumed that's why it took so long to load the game.
The first thing players noticed is that there were no characters except for a Level 50 nameless CleverFighter on the
screen when character select finally came up. It was a generic fighter with the default look and level 50 armor equipped.
It was later discovered that if you played the game without the mod after this, your characters would be back to normal again.
No one knew why the mod wouldn't let you use your characters. It also wasn't thought that the Game would allow such a mod to run,
but it didn't prompt the "client illegally manipulated" text box to come up.
If you chose this character, it would start normally and you would be in Roumen where
all the new users spawn near Remi with Level 50 armor and a level 50 two handed sword. There were players all around as if it was the normal game. The first thing players noticed was when you talk to Remi, she has no beginner's quest for you. It's just a blank dialogue box when you talk to her. Users also reported that
they couldn't get into the options menu, making it impossible to relog your character.
It was soon discovered that no NPC in Roumen would say ANYTHING, with the exception of Town Chief Roumenous who
gave you a single message in what looked like Hex code.
Whats more is while there were all the other players moving around Roumen like normal, they wouldn't react to you in any way.
fiesta23f users tried to get the attention of normal players, but it was as if the normal players couldn't see the mod users at all.
Upon talking to Roumenous, you'll find that he has a single quest available, since the text was all in Hex code,
Nobody knew what Roumenous was saying it until someone got a Hex code translator and deciphered the message. Apparently, it was
a quest having to do with a dungeon simply called "The Vault". The objective was "Reach the bottom" The entrance to the dungeon was
always somewhere random in Forest of Tides. Trying to go through any portal aside from Forest of Tides would immediately
crash the game to the desktop, and you would have to start over.
The Vault loading screen seemed to be a heavily rendered, darker version of the Forest Of Tides loading screen, with the same text.
Upon entering The Vault, you would find yourself at the beginning of what looked like The Tower of Iyzel, except going
downward instead of upward. This didn't seem strange until about a year and half later when the real Tower of Iyzel was released,
as the tower hadn't been released in early 2008. As players went down the staircase, it was reported at it took almost a
full 20 minutes to reach the very bottom. It also got slightly darker every minute or so that you continued down the stairs.
There were no monsters from the top to bottom of the staircase, although some users reported hearing an ear wrenchingly loud
screeching noise about halfway through the descent that made them jump clear out of their seats.
At the bottom of the staircase was a portal, entering this portal brought you to another staircase, this time with mobs.
The mobs seemed to have the same model as Marlone soldiers. Some people thought they were only slightly different but still very similar.
The mobs didn't attack because the players were level 50. Even attacking one of the monsters would boot you to the desktop and you'd
have to start all over again from the very beginning. The second staircase went on for about ten minutes before reaching another portal.
The handful of users that made it past the second staircase reported that there was a room exactly like Battlezone 1,
except it was completely void of mobs and people. The map looped itself around in such a way that it was almost
like another downward spiral. This time it was a whole 30 minutes of Battlezone 1 scenery going downward.
As users went downward the game never got any brighter, some had to turn the brightness on their monitor up all the
way to even see the game.
At the end of the Battlezone loop was ANOTHER staircase leading downward. Alot of users got fed up at this point and
stopped playing the mod. The few people who continued, reported that there was a sign on the wall right before the next portal
that prompted the user to check the notepad file that was left in their Fiesta folder. There was now a message in Hex code
in the notepad file that translated into "Beware, he is at the end". The users who went through that portal found yet
another downward staircase, this one took a full hour to reach the bottom, and there were said to be strange noises
coming from an unknown source. By then it was reported to be almost pitch blackwith a single torch on the wall every
100 or so in game feet. Another portal was at the end of this staircase.
Everyone except for one person quit playing the mod after entering the next portal, and seeing ANOTHER downward staircase.
The one player that did continue downward reported seeing strange things out of the corner of his eye, and that
the weird noises from the previous map had gotten louder and louder. Reaching the end of that staircase after 30 minutes,
he reported seeing 2 models of Town Chief Roumenous, both with their eyes wide open and bleeding. The NPC's also had a
simulated worried expression on their faces, which wasn't thought to be possible for any NPC in Fiesta. Talking to the
NPC's got a blank dialogue box with no text. There was another portal.
All of this is from what this one user said now. After this portal, there is what seems to be a hallway, which was actually well lit
considering the earlier levels of The Vault. This hallway went on for 5 minutes before leading to another hallway leading downward.
He went through at least seven hallways, all of which were about 5 minutes long. The hallways got more and more decrepit as he
continued to go forward. The noises from before got louder and clearer. He claimed that there were some voices as well, but he couldn't
make them out. The user found a path that led to 3 different portals and decided to enter one at random. Doing so triggered a loading
screen that hadn't been seen in any version of Fiesta before. Followed by being booted to the desktop. Of course, the user got upset
about this and quit the mod, knowing he would have to start all over again from the beginning of The Vault.
To this day, nobody knows whats at the end of The Vault. Nobody knows who even made the mod. Every person that played
fiesta23f back in 2008 reported having nightmares about it, some reported briefly seeing Roumenous out of the corner
of their eye at random. All of them have stopped playing Fiesta all together, and if asked about their experience
with the mod, they will ignore you and walk away. There are allegedly no known copies of the mod left circulating on the internet.