The shy specimen · Velstraven · Morass Games Wiki

An optional room of chapter 3. When you walk in, the room card reads: The shy specimen hides from visitors; its perch behavior is unrecorded.

Narrated walkthrough

The shy specimen from its entrance — The shy specimen: how to solve it

Getting there

Chapter 3, third upper floor. Optional room north of the Lens-cleaning room; it also connects round through the Roofward overlook to the Reverse-view alcove.

What is wrong

"The shy specimen hides from visitors; its perch behavior is unrecorded." The creature keeps to a shelter by the near (visitor) perch. It ventures out to the far perch only now and then, and retreats whenever anyone is within 2.5 m. Its look is a placeholder; what matters is how it behaves.

What you can work

Specimen: The creature. It shuffles from its shelter to the far perch and back, and draws in from anyone standing close.
Perch: The far perch across the nook, in clear view of the viewing slit.
Visitor perch: An empty perch right beside the shelter, where visitors once stood.
Observation: The viewing slit, a few paces back from the perches.
Reading lamp: Optional light to read the room by: Handle toggles it, Heat lights it, Supply liquid douses it, Place light roots a lasting flame blossom in its cup. It works none of the room's fittings.
Reading shutter: Optional: Handle or Orient opens a high window for daylight from a second angle. It works none of the room's fittings.

Solution

A nudge

A sound away from you, at the far perch, draws the specimen out there. The whistle keeps sounding until you dismiss it.

The full solution

From the viewing slit, aim at the far Perch and cast Place sound (Wind, Growth, Water).
A sound away from you, at the far perch, draws the specimen out there. The whistle keeps sounding until you dismiss it.
What you see: "A grown whistle sounds at the distant observation perch." The perch reads "A whistle sounds from it; the specimen comes out to it whenever no one crowds close."
Stay at the viewing slit, keep the specimen centred in view and stand still for about three seconds once it reaches the far perch.
It takes about five seconds to come out. It only counts as observed while you stay more than 2.5 m away, stand still and keep a clear view of it.
What you see: "Quiet observation records the specimen's perch behavior. The shy specimen settled."
(Optional) Handle the Observation slit while it is still out.
If the automatic record has not fired, the slit records it by hand once the watch is complete.
What you see: "You record the specimen's visible perch behavior."

Other ways that work

Decoy (Fire, Water, Will) on the Visitor perch: "A massless visitor silhouette turns at the separate perch." With a figure standing there, the specimen keeps out on the far perch.
No spell: it comes out on its own for about ten seconds of every twenty. Wait at the slit, keep still and watch it when it appears.

Watch for

Walking closer than 2.5 m sends it straight back to its shelter and resets the watch.
Moving, looking away or letting something block the view resets the three-second watch.
Casts aimed at the specimen itself only keep it tucked away. A sound or figure right beside the shelter does not draw it out either; it has to be at the far side.
Handling the slit too early refuses: "The specimen has not remained in clear view long enough to compare its behavior."

If it goes wrong

There is no failed state. If it retreats, step back and wait or recast.
Hold R for one second ("Keep holding to restart from the room's autosave"), or use the pause door "Restart from autosave", to put the room back as it was when you walked in: "Automatic room-entry save restored." Rooms you settled earlier stay settled.

Achievements here

The Shy Specimen: Optional: solve the shy specimen.

Spells used

Place sound, Decoy.