![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xyzzysqrlLast time on Secrets Can Kill, I developed corkboard poisoning and had to be put down. Further reports will be written by Slinkie Splash the bichromatic two-headed ottersnake. Slinkie Splash has decided to put this game aside and play Bejeweled 3 for 85 hours because quote "Oooh, shinies!" unquote. We hope you enjoy this new direction in blogging.
...all right, no, let's ... actually do this. LAST TIME on Secrets Can Kill, we met some of the student body. They are all suspicious. We then used a soda machine to set off an alarm to provide a diversion so we could sneak into the teacher's lounge, because ... because logic and proportion have fallen softly dead. And also there were several word puzzles.
To be honest, I have no idea how much of the game I've finished. I do really enjoy point and click adventure games, but this feels more like a Professor Layton game without the solid "you solved that puzzle, way to go!" feedback. I feel like all I'm doing here is taking endless screenshots of corkboards. I can't tell what kind of progress I'm making here or even if things ARE progressing, and it's actually putting me off the game.
Now I feel like I've identified my problem. I'm sick of corkboards. So you know what? I'm gonna MENTION the puzzles on those and what they solve to, but there will be no more 15-image posts of endless word problems. I trust you all got the point and I'm deeply sick of it, so they're going away. If you can identify something that's not fun and remove it from your play, the play becomes more fun.
NOW let's dive back in.
Before slipping into the Teacher's Lounge, I realize now is a great time to get a look at what Connie's been writing in her notebook. It's a long, slightly depressed letter to someone she clearly has a Thing for, about how she cares about them and wants to confess her feelings, and sometimes when she's driving she pretends they're in the car and has long conversations with them where it's just amazing, and she doesn't know if she's crazy for doing this...
Eventually I notice that one of the crossed-out lines refers to her crush as "the student council president". Daryl? Huh! I really have to get back and chat with him about all this.
It's very uncomfortably personal in a high school girl sort of way. I imagine Nancy cocking an eyebrow all Mr. Spock and muttering "Fascinating." Maybe she'll ask Ned if he ever imagines her in the car with him and talks to her.
(Incidentally Ned Nickerson in the 70s TV series is AMAZING. He looks like a young Bill Gates. This version of Ned is forever canon to me now.)
With Connie's inner thoughts revealed, it's into the teacher's lounge. Nearby bulletin board is just "CL D2" in big letters, like Jake didn't want anyone to miss it. Fridge, coffee machine... ooh, hello. A PC. Login: Eloise Drew, Password: O Wise Elder.
You ever miss Windows 95?
From the PC we:
Print a copy of a security report.
Learn Jake Rogers was on bulletin board duty (NO REALLY THERE IS NO WAY I WOULD HAVE GUESSED)
Check a to-do list which lets us know the Library computers aren't on the school network yet (interesting) and "English Essays Through The Ages" is missing from the library. (We found that in Jake's locker. We still don't know why.)
There's also a to-do maintance list which notes that the password needs to be changed on the boiler room door. Wonder what it is. Wonder if it's...
This is why you don't keep a BIG PLAINTEXT LIST OF PASSWORDS on your PC, guys. (Read down the first letter of each password. Ha.) Don't see a boiler room password here though, unless it's "maintenance room". Hm. Let's look at that security report we printed.
Connie's backpack moved to the lost and found... that may still be there. Toolbox from Dillon HVAC left in boiler room. May also still be there. Also, the security guard surprised two arguing figures outside the gym at 8:30 PM. One dark haired suspect in a football jersey with "8" and/or "0" on it... I think we've seen that guy. And one red-haired suspect in a green windbreaker. ... I'm unsure, there, have we seen anyone with red hair? Maybe Jake was a redhead? I dunno.
...Let a locked-out "exchange student" in to retrieve his homework... yadda yadda... found a number of students soaping the windows, including Daryl Grey, as part of a senior prank... found a young man at the base of stairs, attempted CPR, see Police Report for further... That would be the murder. And the form is signed "Digital Security Form: 66-2583-4373".
Well. That puts everybody except POTENTIALLY Connie at or near the scene of the crime on the appropriate night, and introduces a redheaded student we haven't seen yet.read_alicia's theory about EVERYONE doing in the victim gathers up still more steam.
There's also a map, letters around which spell out "a trophy was not the only prize but also money of a greater size - Ag D1". Additionally there's a report from Grey Enterprises on the shelf.
Oof. Leaking money, leaking military hardware secrets... that's not good for any company. Oh, who am I kidding, they'll blame the economy and apply for a government bailout. The only other thing to interact with in this room is the Senior Final Papers drawer. Inside is Hal Tanaka's essay, and...
...you know I swear I'm getting deja vu from this. Where have I seen this before...
...Oh. In "English Essays Through The Ages", located in Jake's locker. VERY interesting. ...wait a moment, Prudence Rutherford? I remember Prudence. We designed her some outfits. (Oh my god that poor woman.) I wonder if Hal will start dressing like her too...
On the way out of the teacher's lounge, Nancy's phone rings.
"Mitch Dillon", is it? How about we call him back?
Mitch: "Dillon Air Conditioning Repair." (Same voice and all.)
Nancy: "Hello, this is Nancy Drew. You just called me and threatened my life. Why?"
Mitch: "Uhhhh... no I didn't."
Nancy: "You did. I got your caller ID number."
Mitch: "NO I DIDN'T! If you're having problems with your AIR CONDITIONING, I'm sure I can send someone to OFFER A PERMANENT SOLUTION!"
Nancy: "Are you threatening me -again?-"
Mitch: "NOOOO! This is an AIR CONDITIONING SHOP!"
Nancy: "I'm not playing this game with you." *hangs up*
Well that went all of nowhere. Not sure what I expected to be honest. Kinda love Nancy's casual "not dealing with your bullshit" tone though. More mystery games need the option to call the bad guy and mock him savagely. ... The only problem of course is I have no idea if "Mitch Dillon" is a pseudonym or how they fit into the story so far... or so I thought until I reviewed above and noticed that the toolbox in the boiler room came from Dillon HVAC.
Now I'm REALLY curious about how all this fits together. Unfortunately the maintenance room door is locked and needs a passcode...
...and I've forgotten all the braille I used to know from helping out the blind student at my middle school. I think "N" is the top right? Anyway, I'm pretty sure they'll have something about this in the library. Let's head out there... which takes us through the Study Dome. Nancy pauses to confront Hal about the essay...
...and Hal fesses up at once. His family won't let him stay in the US unless he has a scholarship, so he started taking on extra classes and working extra hard. Before he knew it, he was buried in work. So he took one shortcut, copied one essay, and Jake found out somehow and blackmailed him. He's been stuck doing all Jake's homework for the entire year.
"So, did you kill him?" Nancy "Tactmaster" Drew asks.
"No." Oh well okay then. "I KNOW the value of a human life! I am studying to be a DOCTOR." All right, all right. But... do you have any idea who might have?
Daryl, eh? Funny how many fingers point at the Gray family here. Let's stop in at the diner once we're done in the library. Off to the library doors, open them with the key, and Nancy starts ransacking shelves for info. Among other things we find:
- A magazine! 'Hectinol' is a steroid often used/abused by athletes. Also one of the drugs swiped from the drug store in that robbery.
- There's a student art exhibit, which I'm pretty sure is actual fanart drawn by Her Interactive fans. Some of it's not bad.
There's a set of map drawers. The fifth one slides open and contains this:
Which aside from giving us Na:L3 also gives us a puzzle. Uhm. Reading just the red letters gets "If anything happens to me sear" ... so we should make him a nice steak? Oh, wait. Reading the blue letters continues the thought. "ch under my combo in catalog". Search under his locker combo, I guess, in the card catalog. Dewy decimal? 500s are Baffling Puzzle Bullshit now?
I do spend a while flipping through the various books in the bookshelves. From there I get a braille alphabet:
Which is handy because little dots. Nancy finds a guide to kanji and recognizes the character on Connie's necklace as "Crane". Like the Crane school of Judo, perhaps? I also spend a lot of time grabbing red herrings off the shelf, like a guidebook to Marie Antonette or a handbook about lycanthropy or a guidebook to identifying types of rare gemstone. I can't imagine these things play a part in our current mystery.
I also want to call attention to the book my cursor's over in this screen.
I am SO SAD I cannot read this one.
Eventually I find the card catalog computer. Let's see...
Seriously, Jake? Okay, that's listed in Reference... But I can't actually get behind the reference desk, so I assume his seat is somewhere else. Wander around the library for a while... more books. Crystal skulls? Eventually there's a seat with "JAKE WAS HERE" in a nearby notepad, so I check some chairs...
Gotcha.
...fffffuck what is this. Back up to the chemistry book...
Seriously. A 19-part keycode lock. Jake Rogers, I wish you were alive, so I could meet you and punch you in the nose.
NEXT TIME: *facedesk, facedesk, facedesk*
...all right, no, let's ... actually do this. LAST TIME on Secrets Can Kill, we met some of the student body. They are all suspicious. We then used a soda machine to set off an alarm to provide a diversion so we could sneak into the teacher's lounge, because ... because logic and proportion have fallen softly dead. And also there were several word puzzles.
To be honest, I have no idea how much of the game I've finished. I do really enjoy point and click adventure games, but this feels more like a Professor Layton game without the solid "you solved that puzzle, way to go!" feedback. I feel like all I'm doing here is taking endless screenshots of corkboards. I can't tell what kind of progress I'm making here or even if things ARE progressing, and it's actually putting me off the game.
Now I feel like I've identified my problem. I'm sick of corkboards. So you know what? I'm gonna MENTION the puzzles on those and what they solve to, but there will be no more 15-image posts of endless word problems. I trust you all got the point and I'm deeply sick of it, so they're going away. If you can identify something that's not fun and remove it from your play, the play becomes more fun.
NOW let's dive back in.
Before slipping into the Teacher's Lounge, I realize now is a great time to get a look at what Connie's been writing in her notebook. It's a long, slightly depressed letter to someone she clearly has a Thing for, about how she cares about them and wants to confess her feelings, and sometimes when she's driving she pretends they're in the car and has long conversations with them where it's just amazing, and she doesn't know if she's crazy for doing this...
Eventually I notice that one of the crossed-out lines refers to her crush as "the student council president". Daryl? Huh! I really have to get back and chat with him about all this.
It's very uncomfortably personal in a high school girl sort of way. I imagine Nancy cocking an eyebrow all Mr. Spock and muttering "Fascinating." Maybe she'll ask Ned if he ever imagines her in the car with him and talks to her.
(Incidentally Ned Nickerson in the 70s TV series is AMAZING. He looks like a young Bill Gates. This version of Ned is forever canon to me now.)
With Connie's inner thoughts revealed, it's into the teacher's lounge. Nearby bulletin board is just "CL D2" in big letters, like Jake didn't want anyone to miss it. Fridge, coffee machine... ooh, hello. A PC. Login: Eloise Drew, Password: O Wise Elder.
You ever miss Windows 95?
From the PC we:
Print a copy of a security report.
Learn Jake Rogers was on bulletin board duty (NO REALLY THERE IS NO WAY I WOULD HAVE GUESSED)
Check a to-do list which lets us know the Library computers aren't on the school network yet (interesting) and "English Essays Through The Ages" is missing from the library. (We found that in Jake's locker. We still don't know why.)
There's also a to-do maintance list which notes that the password needs to be changed on the boiler room door. Wonder what it is. Wonder if it's...
This is why you don't keep a BIG PLAINTEXT LIST OF PASSWORDS on your PC, guys. (Read down the first letter of each password. Ha.) Don't see a boiler room password here though, unless it's "maintenance room". Hm. Let's look at that security report we printed.
Connie's backpack moved to the lost and found... that may still be there. Toolbox from Dillon HVAC left in boiler room. May also still be there. Also, the security guard surprised two arguing figures outside the gym at 8:30 PM. One dark haired suspect in a football jersey with "8" and/or "0" on it... I think we've seen that guy. And one red-haired suspect in a green windbreaker. ... I'm unsure, there, have we seen anyone with red hair? Maybe Jake was a redhead? I dunno.
...Let a locked-out "exchange student" in to retrieve his homework... yadda yadda... found a number of students soaping the windows, including Daryl Grey, as part of a senior prank... found a young man at the base of stairs, attempted CPR, see Police Report for further... That would be the murder. And the form is signed "Digital Security Form: 66-2583-4373".
Well. That puts everybody except POTENTIALLY Connie at or near the scene of the crime on the appropriate night, and introduces a redheaded student we haven't seen yet.
read_alicia's theory about EVERYONE doing in the victim gathers up still more steam.There's also a map, letters around which spell out "a trophy was not the only prize but also money of a greater size - Ag D1". Additionally there's a report from Grey Enterprises on the shelf.
Oof. Leaking money, leaking military hardware secrets... that's not good for any company. Oh, who am I kidding, they'll blame the economy and apply for a government bailout. The only other thing to interact with in this room is the Senior Final Papers drawer. Inside is Hal Tanaka's essay, and...
...you know I swear I'm getting deja vu from this. Where have I seen this before...
...Oh. In "English Essays Through The Ages", located in Jake's locker. VERY interesting. ...wait a moment, Prudence Rutherford? I remember Prudence. We designed her some outfits. (Oh my god that poor woman.) I wonder if Hal will start dressing like her too...
On the way out of the teacher's lounge, Nancy's phone rings.
"Mitch Dillon", is it? How about we call him back?
Mitch: "Dillon Air Conditioning Repair." (Same voice and all.)
Nancy: "Hello, this is Nancy Drew. You just called me and threatened my life. Why?"
Mitch: "Uhhhh... no I didn't."
Nancy: "You did. I got your caller ID number."
Mitch: "NO I DIDN'T! If you're having problems with your AIR CONDITIONING, I'm sure I can send someone to OFFER A PERMANENT SOLUTION!"
Nancy: "Are you threatening me -again?-"
Mitch: "NOOOO! This is an AIR CONDITIONING SHOP!"
Nancy: "I'm not playing this game with you." *hangs up*
Well that went all of nowhere. Not sure what I expected to be honest. Kinda love Nancy's casual "not dealing with your bullshit" tone though. More mystery games need the option to call the bad guy and mock him savagely. ... The only problem of course is I have no idea if "Mitch Dillon" is a pseudonym or how they fit into the story so far... or so I thought until I reviewed above and noticed that the toolbox in the boiler room came from Dillon HVAC.
Now I'm REALLY curious about how all this fits together. Unfortunately the maintenance room door is locked and needs a passcode...
...and I've forgotten all the braille I used to know from helping out the blind student at my middle school. I think "N" is the top right? Anyway, I'm pretty sure they'll have something about this in the library. Let's head out there... which takes us through the Study Dome. Nancy pauses to confront Hal about the essay...
...and Hal fesses up at once. His family won't let him stay in the US unless he has a scholarship, so he started taking on extra classes and working extra hard. Before he knew it, he was buried in work. So he took one shortcut, copied one essay, and Jake found out somehow and blackmailed him. He's been stuck doing all Jake's homework for the entire year.
"So, did you kill him?" Nancy "Tactmaster" Drew asks.
"No." Oh well okay then. "I KNOW the value of a human life! I am studying to be a DOCTOR." All right, all right. But... do you have any idea who might have?
Daryl, eh? Funny how many fingers point at the Gray family here. Let's stop in at the diner once we're done in the library. Off to the library doors, open them with the key, and Nancy starts ransacking shelves for info. Among other things we find:
- A magazine! 'Hectinol' is a steroid often used/abused by athletes. Also one of the drugs swiped from the drug store in that robbery.
- There's a student art exhibit, which I'm pretty sure is actual fanart drawn by Her Interactive fans. Some of it's not bad.
There's a set of map drawers. The fifth one slides open and contains this:
Which aside from giving us Na:L3 also gives us a puzzle. Uhm. Reading just the red letters gets "If anything happens to me sear" ... so we should make him a nice steak? Oh, wait. Reading the blue letters continues the thought. "ch under my combo in catalog". Search under his locker combo, I guess, in the card catalog. Dewy decimal? 500s are Baffling Puzzle Bullshit now?
I do spend a while flipping through the various books in the bookshelves. From there I get a braille alphabet:
Which is handy because little dots. Nancy finds a guide to kanji and recognizes the character on Connie's necklace as "Crane". Like the Crane school of Judo, perhaps? I also spend a lot of time grabbing red herrings off the shelf, like a guidebook to Marie Antonette or a handbook about lycanthropy or a guidebook to identifying types of rare gemstone. I can't imagine these things play a part in our current mystery.
I also want to call attention to the book my cursor's over in this screen.
I am SO SAD I cannot read this one.
Eventually I find the card catalog computer. Let's see...
Seriously, Jake? Okay, that's listed in Reference... But I can't actually get behind the reference desk, so I assume his seat is somewhere else. Wander around the library for a while... more books. Crystal skulls? Eventually there's a seat with "JAKE WAS HERE" in a nearby notepad, so I check some chairs...
Gotcha.
...fffffuck what is this. Back up to the chemistry book...
Seriously. A 19-part keycode lock. Jake Rogers, I wish you were alive, so I could meet you and punch you in the nose.
NEXT TIME: *facedesk, facedesk, facedesk*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-04-14 08:01 am (UTC)I can't say I LIKE this much, but I'm not HATING it exactly.