The Well: Sollicitus

Genius builder/creator/storyteller Loki Eliot follows up on his wildly successful interactive exploration build The Well (2012) with an expanded and enhanced Halloween experience – The Well: Sollicitus. In the original, one followed a story about a little boy lost down a water well by attaching a HUD which told the story and gave clues. I won't give away the story but one had to dodge "shadows" that scared the willies out of everyone and visit horror-based vignettes that furthered the story.

This year, there are longer tunnels to explore, scarier [redacted], sometimes fatal choices, and the heart-stopping "shadows" are more demonic than ever. The Well: Sollicitus (SLurl) is a must-see event even, if like me, you don't care for the horror genre.

Start here. The experience is worth far more than the L$100 entrance fee but I'll let the cat out of the bag: If you live, there are gifts at the end. Note the two signs "Projectors Enabled!" and "Materials Enabled!" If you can see those, you are all set to jump into the fray. If not, you can still go, but you'll miss some of the great effects. For Materials – which make the tunnel walls slimy and the [redacted] more lifelike – you'll need the official Second Life viewer.

A screen-filling HUD provides the story (which you can follow at your pace) and interactive elements – those "fatal choices" I mentioned. Above is one of the vignettes from the life of the boy you are seeking.

This is the least scary place so bring clean underwear.

Depending on your fortune, the visit can take just a few minutes or it can take several tens of minutes, but in either case you'll probably want to take the challenge a few times so you can either best your own time or so you can see all the possible options. When you are done, visit this MySL page (there's a sign for it at The Well: Sollicitus to leave feedback. Loki did this last year and the comments led to several of this year's enhancements.