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xyzzysqrlNancy Drew in the house, y'all! Recognize! ... I... yeah I'm sorry about that. Let's just get on with this. When we last left Nancy Drew, she'd met three NPCs and agreed to do shit for all of them. Em's bug collecting went perfectly well and we nailed that, netting a nice stealth suit to use in infiltrating Shadow Moses island... wait. Wrong script. We're gonna sneak up on birds. BUT FIRST, let's go file things in roman numerals for the Park Ranger so he'll get our cabin water tested and tell us if it's fatal or not, and also thrust newspaper clippings at him in a vaguely accusing fashion.
So basically as soon as I get there I lunge at Ranger Akers and grill him in the LEAST SUBTLE FASHION IMAGINABLE. ("I found a newspaper article and HEY DO YOU KNOW WILLIAM AKERS, MICKY MALONE'S RIGHT HAND MAN?") He ripostes. ("I am in no way related to the henchman of a two-bit gangster.") ...well played, Jeff. Well played indeed. BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS PHOTOGRAPH, HMM? Now, this he knows. That's Malone and his "Main Squeeze", Vivian Burnett. The picture, judging by the year of the car in the background, was taken in 1928. ...well, okay, he's good at his job. Rolls well on his Local Lore table, anyway.
With little else to do but grill Jeff for information I'm not going to get ("Why not check out the Database of Fascinating Factoids I put together on the PC?" Oh god he thinks they're USEFUL. *snrk*) I get sorting. You guys? I HATE roman numerals, you guys. Who would be masocistic enough to label all their files things like "MCMXXXIII" nowadays? It is DUMB. I sort them out anyway. It takes me like two hours to sort four columns of five folders. LUCKILY the ones I actually have to read are highlighted at the end of all this or I'd be in real trouble. All reading recipies for apple crumb cake from the thirties and stuff. Anyway STUFF IS READ.
SUMMARIZED:
- An article from 1925 about Mickey Malone moving in. Agent Waldo Mathias of the Department of Justice (hey, remember he was brought up?) declared he'd keep a close eye on the situation. AND NOW HE'S DEAD. ...well... I guess he's dead because it was the twenties. BUT STILL.
- An article from 1932 detailing how Mickey Malone was dragged out of the house and arrested in his pajamas for tax evasion. Agent Mathias was smug. Malone claimed innocence.
- An article from 1941 about Malone dying in prison.
- And an article from 1997 about Emily Griffen, a "local shopkeeper", getting busted for dredging the lake for antiques.
When I get back to Ranger Akers, it turns out he actually has results from the water test! Let's open that up and HOLY CRAP.
Well, I'm glad I didn't drink any of that. Maybe I'll stick to the Aquagina. Ranger Akers -also- passes along a Jr. Ranger pin. For my jacket. ... Yeah, I'm totally gonna wear a little skunk-head on my jacket at all times. Ahahaha. That'll... *pin on* *leave*
I figure Sally will want to know that the water in the well will straight-up murder your ass if you drink it, so I give her a call. And then sit back and wait through a huge infodump as Nancy babbles -everything ever- to Sally. All about the dogs, and theories of the case, and the rotten floorboards, and the graveyard, and I was apparently supposed to be calling her as often as Bess and the Hardys! Oopsie. Anyway, after lots and lots of talk, I get to her about DEATHWATER and she is totally shocked. Has no idea where it came from! So... uh... well. That point is done, anyway.
I guess it's time to go out and TAKE PICTURES OF BIRDS. So I do. Luckily Nancy's drawn on the map where she saw the ones that flew away, so I go right back there and camera-ize them. All of them except the "Red Tailed Hawk". Sigh. I sleep and run back to Red and I'm all like "REEEED I CAN'T FIND THE HAAAAWK" and he is like "siiigh" and gives me some advice, like "Hang out near the remains of that big tree near your cabin. With your eyes open. And your mouth shut."
I love you too, Red. They will never find your body.
Right. Back to the cabin, sleep until day... oh hey, his advice actually works. Nancy spots a hawk on the roof of the cabin and snaps a picture of it... sitting on a MYSTERIOUS SPEAKER? She zooms back in for a closer look. And someone decks her in the back of the head and the screen goes black.
When she wakes up, she's in the tool shed. Her hands and legs are tied up. And the shed is on fire, with the fire spreading rapidly towards a large can marked "GAS".
It is a bad day to be Nancy Drew. However, she is -still- Nancy Drew, Adventure Heroine. "I may be tied up, but I can still KICK." And she does, in fact, kick damn near everything in the toolshed, steadily working her way through a logic puzzle that involves FIRE AND FLAMES and shelves and rolling mobile objects until a scythe secured on the wall drops down and she can cut herself free. After that it's pretty easy to put out the fire with the bucket of water alongside the pump.
First Red stops by to scold Nancy for starting a fire. When she claims someone else did it, he shrugs and wanders off. Then Ranger Akers stops by and gives Nancy a ticket for starting a fire that endangers park property. Finally, Em shows up and gushes over poor Nancy, giving her tea and fretting over her for nearly getting killed.
...hm.
Funny. How exactly does she know that? Not that I can ask. Nancy relates all of this to Sally on the phone, and resolves to explore the house further until she can figure out what she's so close to that someone would try to kill her over it. I obligingly tromp back down into the basement and start poking the walls. Eventually I come upon the most obvious loose panel in the world (how did I MISS this thing) and a safe behind it, with a note. "Malone's Unlucky Day". Well, from the files that could be the date of his arrest or the date of his death. I head back and check out the file on his arrest, and Nancy helpfully notes that this was 012932... which is of course the safe combo. But... "THE DIAL IS BLOCKED!" Nancy complains. There's a small hole in it, so I stick in the Jr Ranger pin. That worked. I'm glad I got that thing now. Okay, NOW the combo... success.
Oh my god there is mouse poop EVERYWHERE. I equip the hantavirus avoidance kit and find... the diary of William Akers. Joe Aker's father. And ... yeah, Jeff Akers' grand-dad. Thought so. There's a LOT of information about how the dogs will lead the way to the BRICKS OF SOLID GOLD that Malone stole, and so on and so on. There's also a speakeasy somewhere on the property. Interesting. Oh, and the dog tombstones were Malone's idea from jail, for some reason. Hrrm. I even get a little "map" of sorts, which Nancy will presumably fill in as I go.
This is Iggy's favorite spot, on the porch of the house. Presumably I need to find out where the others liked to go somehow. I feel like I'm closing in on the ending, but it's time first to make the rounds and talk to everyone again. Red, Jeff, and Em, anyway.
RED: Shocked I managed to get the bird pictures. "You're a credit to your generation." he begrudges. "Why are you sitting in front of a big pile of gas cans?" Nancy wonders. Red ran out of gas mysteriously earlier in the day and bought them from Em's store. Huh. I tell him that huge piles of gold may be buried on the property. "That's interesting. But I don't care." ... Yeah, I dunno, this guy's too much of a dick to be a suspect.
JEFF: Found "Vivian Whitmore", the woman in the picture. New phone number! I also ask about the obvious mob connections, and Jeff gets -angry-. Yes, his dad was the son of a mob flunkie. But his dad spent his whole life trying to make sure people forgot about it. ...Eventually he calms down and apologizes. It was an unprofessional outburst. And no, nobody ever found any gold. If they had, he'd have a different life. ... I think Jeff is still on the suspect list, m'self. But not as strongly as I feel about...
EM: She doesn't have much to say, but when I mention the gold buried somewhere, she huffs that nobody's ever found it and it's dangerous and crazy to go looking what with the dogs prowling around. Yeaaaah. Sure.
With Em, I exhaust my last pre-existing lead. It looks like my only option is to phone up Vivian and ask her about her past life as a mob moll. But first...
*ring* *ring*
Frank: "H'lo?"
Nancy: "Hi Frank!"
*ACTUAL IN-GAME DIALOGUE!*
Frank: "Oh, hey Nancy. Joe, pick up the phone! It's Nancy! Joe's in the kitchen. He worked up an appetite watching me clean out the car."
Joe: "Mmhmf. Hi Nancy."
Nancy: "Hi, Joe. Whatcha eating?"
Joe: "Sandwich. It's either roast beef or really old turkey. ... I can't tell. And don't care."
*ACTUAL IN GAME DIALOGUE STOPS HERE!*
Joe: "So what's going on?"
Nancy: "Someone tried to kill me. Hit me over the head and left me tied up in a burning shed."
Frank: "That old gag? Let me guess, handy garden shears, you cut the ropes...?"
Nancy: "Loosely-secured scythe, actually."
Joe: "Old-school."
Nancy: "So here's what's been going on..."
*time passes*
Nancy: "...and there's supposed to be gold -somewhere- on the property."
Joe: "Bricks of gold from a mob heist. I can NOT believe we're stuck here doing yard work."
Frank: "No kidding. You found a treasure map or something, right?"
Nancy: "It's incomplete. ...So if you guys were six hundred pounds of solid gold, where would YOU be?"
Joe: "I can't even guess. The speakeasy, maybe?"
Frank: "So I guess you'll be doing more phone work after this, huh?"
Nancy: "Yeah. Could you guys call Bess and George, and tell them I nearly died?"
Frank: "We should what."
Nancy: "They said you guys swap all the stories anyway, so I figure it's no hassle. I gotta get on this case."
Joe: "We should tell YOUR best friends about your near-death while you chase clues."
Nancy: "Yup!"
...
Joe: "Well, okay. It's what we'd ask of you if we were in your shoes."
Frank: "See you later, Nancy!"
Nancy: "Bye, you two!"
*click*
Join me next time! I am going to finish this game in the next update or two, I SWEAR.
Do you guys mind this? Am I spamming it up too much with these updates?
So basically as soon as I get there I lunge at Ranger Akers and grill him in the LEAST SUBTLE FASHION IMAGINABLE. ("I found a newspaper article and HEY DO YOU KNOW WILLIAM AKERS, MICKY MALONE'S RIGHT HAND MAN?") He ripostes. ("I am in no way related to the henchman of a two-bit gangster.") ...well played, Jeff. Well played indeed. BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS PHOTOGRAPH, HMM? Now, this he knows. That's Malone and his "Main Squeeze", Vivian Burnett. The picture, judging by the year of the car in the background, was taken in 1928. ...well, okay, he's good at his job. Rolls well on his Local Lore table, anyway.
With little else to do but grill Jeff for information I'm not going to get ("Why not check out the Database of Fascinating Factoids I put together on the PC?" Oh god he thinks they're USEFUL. *snrk*) I get sorting. You guys? I HATE roman numerals, you guys. Who would be masocistic enough to label all their files things like "MCMXXXIII" nowadays? It is DUMB. I sort them out anyway. It takes me like two hours to sort four columns of five folders. LUCKILY the ones I actually have to read are highlighted at the end of all this or I'd be in real trouble. All reading recipies for apple crumb cake from the thirties and stuff. Anyway STUFF IS READ.
SUMMARIZED:
- An article from 1925 about Mickey Malone moving in. Agent Waldo Mathias of the Department of Justice (hey, remember he was brought up?) declared he'd keep a close eye on the situation. AND NOW HE'S DEAD. ...well... I guess he's dead because it was the twenties. BUT STILL.
- An article from 1932 detailing how Mickey Malone was dragged out of the house and arrested in his pajamas for tax evasion. Agent Mathias was smug. Malone claimed innocence.
- An article from 1941 about Malone dying in prison.
- And an article from 1997 about Emily Griffen, a "local shopkeeper", getting busted for dredging the lake for antiques.
When I get back to Ranger Akers, it turns out he actually has results from the water test! Let's open that up and HOLY CRAP.
Well, I'm glad I didn't drink any of that. Maybe I'll stick to the Aquagina. Ranger Akers -also- passes along a Jr. Ranger pin. For my jacket. ... Yeah, I'm totally gonna wear a little skunk-head on my jacket at all times. Ahahaha. That'll... *pin on* *leave*
I figure Sally will want to know that the water in the well will straight-up murder your ass if you drink it, so I give her a call. And then sit back and wait through a huge infodump as Nancy babbles -everything ever- to Sally. All about the dogs, and theories of the case, and the rotten floorboards, and the graveyard, and I was apparently supposed to be calling her as often as Bess and the Hardys! Oopsie. Anyway, after lots and lots of talk, I get to her about DEATHWATER and she is totally shocked. Has no idea where it came from! So... uh... well. That point is done, anyway.
I guess it's time to go out and TAKE PICTURES OF BIRDS. So I do. Luckily Nancy's drawn on the map where she saw the ones that flew away, so I go right back there and camera-ize them. All of them except the "Red Tailed Hawk". Sigh. I sleep and run back to Red and I'm all like "REEEED I CAN'T FIND THE HAAAAWK" and he is like "siiigh" and gives me some advice, like "Hang out near the remains of that big tree near your cabin. With your eyes open. And your mouth shut."
I love you too, Red. They will never find your body.
Right. Back to the cabin, sleep until day... oh hey, his advice actually works. Nancy spots a hawk on the roof of the cabin and snaps a picture of it... sitting on a MYSTERIOUS SPEAKER? She zooms back in for a closer look. And someone decks her in the back of the head and the screen goes black.
When she wakes up, she's in the tool shed. Her hands and legs are tied up. And the shed is on fire, with the fire spreading rapidly towards a large can marked "GAS".
It is a bad day to be Nancy Drew. However, she is -still- Nancy Drew, Adventure Heroine. "I may be tied up, but I can still KICK." And she does, in fact, kick damn near everything in the toolshed, steadily working her way through a logic puzzle that involves FIRE AND FLAMES and shelves and rolling mobile objects until a scythe secured on the wall drops down and she can cut herself free. After that it's pretty easy to put out the fire with the bucket of water alongside the pump.
First Red stops by to scold Nancy for starting a fire. When she claims someone else did it, he shrugs and wanders off. Then Ranger Akers stops by and gives Nancy a ticket for starting a fire that endangers park property. Finally, Em shows up and gushes over poor Nancy, giving her tea and fretting over her for nearly getting killed.
...hm.
Funny. How exactly does she know that? Not that I can ask. Nancy relates all of this to Sally on the phone, and resolves to explore the house further until she can figure out what she's so close to that someone would try to kill her over it. I obligingly tromp back down into the basement and start poking the walls. Eventually I come upon the most obvious loose panel in the world (how did I MISS this thing) and a safe behind it, with a note. "Malone's Unlucky Day". Well, from the files that could be the date of his arrest or the date of his death. I head back and check out the file on his arrest, and Nancy helpfully notes that this was 012932... which is of course the safe combo. But... "THE DIAL IS BLOCKED!" Nancy complains. There's a small hole in it, so I stick in the Jr Ranger pin. That worked. I'm glad I got that thing now. Okay, NOW the combo... success.
Oh my god there is mouse poop EVERYWHERE. I equip the hantavirus avoidance kit and find... the diary of William Akers. Joe Aker's father. And ... yeah, Jeff Akers' grand-dad. Thought so. There's a LOT of information about how the dogs will lead the way to the BRICKS OF SOLID GOLD that Malone stole, and so on and so on. There's also a speakeasy somewhere on the property. Interesting. Oh, and the dog tombstones were Malone's idea from jail, for some reason. Hrrm. I even get a little "map" of sorts, which Nancy will presumably fill in as I go.
This is Iggy's favorite spot, on the porch of the house. Presumably I need to find out where the others liked to go somehow. I feel like I'm closing in on the ending, but it's time first to make the rounds and talk to everyone again. Red, Jeff, and Em, anyway.
RED: Shocked I managed to get the bird pictures. "You're a credit to your generation." he begrudges. "Why are you sitting in front of a big pile of gas cans?" Nancy wonders. Red ran out of gas mysteriously earlier in the day and bought them from Em's store. Huh. I tell him that huge piles of gold may be buried on the property. "That's interesting. But I don't care." ... Yeah, I dunno, this guy's too much of a dick to be a suspect.
JEFF: Found "Vivian Whitmore", the woman in the picture. New phone number! I also ask about the obvious mob connections, and Jeff gets -angry-. Yes, his dad was the son of a mob flunkie. But his dad spent his whole life trying to make sure people forgot about it. ...Eventually he calms down and apologizes. It was an unprofessional outburst. And no, nobody ever found any gold. If they had, he'd have a different life. ... I think Jeff is still on the suspect list, m'self. But not as strongly as I feel about...
EM: She doesn't have much to say, but when I mention the gold buried somewhere, she huffs that nobody's ever found it and it's dangerous and crazy to go looking what with the dogs prowling around. Yeaaaah. Sure.
With Em, I exhaust my last pre-existing lead. It looks like my only option is to phone up Vivian and ask her about her past life as a mob moll. But first...
*ring* *ring*
Frank: "H'lo?"
Nancy: "Hi Frank!"
*ACTUAL IN-GAME DIALOGUE!*
Frank: "Oh, hey Nancy. Joe, pick up the phone! It's Nancy! Joe's in the kitchen. He worked up an appetite watching me clean out the car."
Joe: "Mmhmf. Hi Nancy."
Nancy: "Hi, Joe. Whatcha eating?"
Joe: "Sandwich. It's either roast beef or really old turkey. ... I can't tell. And don't care."
*ACTUAL IN GAME DIALOGUE STOPS HERE!*
Joe: "So what's going on?"
Nancy: "Someone tried to kill me. Hit me over the head and left me tied up in a burning shed."
Frank: "That old gag? Let me guess, handy garden shears, you cut the ropes...?"
Nancy: "Loosely-secured scythe, actually."
Joe: "Old-school."
Nancy: "So here's what's been going on..."
*time passes*
Nancy: "...and there's supposed to be gold -somewhere- on the property."
Joe: "Bricks of gold from a mob heist. I can NOT believe we're stuck here doing yard work."
Frank: "No kidding. You found a treasure map or something, right?"
Nancy: "It's incomplete. ...So if you guys were six hundred pounds of solid gold, where would YOU be?"
Joe: "I can't even guess. The speakeasy, maybe?"
Frank: "So I guess you'll be doing more phone work after this, huh?"
Nancy: "Yeah. Could you guys call Bess and George, and tell them I nearly died?"
Frank: "We should what."
Nancy: "They said you guys swap all the stories anyway, so I figure it's no hassle. I gotta get on this case."
Joe: "We should tell YOUR best friends about your near-death while you chase clues."
Nancy: "Yup!"
...
Joe: "Well, okay. It's what we'd ask of you if we were in your shoes."
Frank: "See you later, Nancy!"
Nancy: "Bye, you two!"
*click*
Join me next time! I am going to finish this game in the next update or two, I SWEAR.
Do you guys mind this? Am I spamming it up too much with these updates?
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-09 06:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-09 04:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 05:11 am (UTC)Nancy: "Someone tried to kill me. Hit me over the head and left me tied up in a burning shed."
Frank: "That old gag? Let me guess, handy garden shears, you cut the ropes...?"
Nancy: "Loosely-secured scythe, actually."
Joe: "Old-school."
It must be nice to be a fiction novel protagonist where being hit in the head hard enough to lose consciousness is a regular yet minor inconvenience and not a huge deal that's frequently fatal in itself.