Adventure Gamers - Forums

>get yam
I get the yam.

>put balm in bucket
There is a churning noise from within the brushed steel bucket and “belm” appears in letters of hot pink smoke. Then the smoke dissipates without result.

>pull switch
Nothing obvious happens.

I think you have to turn the switch on. I’m no longer ahead of you people, so I’m more of a participant now.

>wave b-remover at balm
I reset the device to b. For a moment, just a moment, the balm starts to turn into an old-fashioned coin representing the concept of “alm”; then it flickers out again uncertainly. Probably because “alms” is not really a plural form and “alm” is unattested in practice.

>turn on switch
The switch thunks over into the Reverse position.

>put balm in bucket
There is a churning noise from within the brushed steel bucket and “bulm” appears in letters of hot pink smoke. Then the smoke dissipates without result.

Huh?

>shoot balm with gun
The gun fires ruggedly into the balm, which shatters and then reforms as a lamb. He is white and fluffy, with a surprisingly long tail.

>put lamb in bucket
I pick up the yam.

There is a churning noise from within the brushed steel bucket and “lumb” appears in letters of hot pink smoke. Then the smoke dissipates without result.

The lamb gets out of the brushed steel bucket.

I don’t get it. Put something else in the bucket with a different vowel?

>i
I am equipped with the following essentials: an anagramming gun, your B-remover (upgraded to handle animates and abstracts), a backpack, a flash drive, a monocle, some Origin Paste, a pan (really the smuggled plans in disguise), a roll, and a tub of restoration gel.

I am also carrying some asparagus, a ball, a band, a bandana, a pair of Britishizing goggles, some broken components, a Catalan punt volat needle, a clock, a coat, a counter, a cross, a crumpled cocktail napkin, a draft document, a funnel, Guidebook to Anglophone Atlantis, a jotter, Journal of Third-World Economics, a keycard (which opens the small door), a leaflet, a letter, lime, a map of Slangovia, some members, a paper, a pass, a pic, a poppy, a ring (which opens the sturdy iron gate), a seer automaton, a shopping bag, a shrimp tail, a shuttle, a silver platter, a stick, Studies in Primary Language Acquisition, a stuffed octopus, an umlaut punch, a watch, a weight, a wig, a word, and a yam.

Of that collection, the flash drive, the leaflet, and the Origin Paste are packed away in the backpack, which is gaping wide open so everyone can see what’s inside.

I am wearing the monocle, the bandana, the ring (which opens the sturdy iron gate), and the wig.

>put gel on keycard
I dip out a fingertip-coating quantity of gel and rub it gently onto the keycard. With an audible SPLORT, the keycard becomes a card and a key.

>put card in bucket
There is a churning noise from within the brushed steel bucket, and a moment later I see inside a curd. A soft white clump of cheese substance.

There is a dismissive blatt from the monocle, and transposed over the curd is a faint, greenish image of some chard.

This appears to have unlocked the mechanism. With a growl, the boiler comes to life.

Light flashes within the boiler. All the meters twitch.

[Your score has gone up by one point and is now eighty-four.]

Success! Smart Pegbiter.

>x boiler
This frighteningly massive contraption has pipes and compression tanks and steam gauges and dents and rust stains. It trembles a little. The needles of the gauges twitch, but stay out of the red. A thick glass pane allows a view of one of the first chambers.

The boiler is currently switched on.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the boiler with the crosshairs.

>x pane
Water flows steadily through a large pipe. Floating on the surface of the water are bergs of ice; before they melt entirely, a zap from a b-remover converts them to ergs. Each time this happens, there is a flash of light and steam, and the pane of glass becomes temporarily too fogged up to see through. The steam gauge needles jump.

Gradually the passage of the water cools the pane down again.

But we still don’t have a cord. And we can’t put two objects in the bucket.

>goals
Here’s what I think I need to do:
  Escape the Bureau

We have to make a counter weight to put on a rope and raise a portcullis. But we need a cord for the synthesizer.

Pegbiter - 30 March 2021 05:18 AM

I’m not sure what we did though. Was the boiler activated by us successfully transforming anything in the bucket, or is the curd significant?

Yeah, I think so. Curd is a real word, yem is not.

What happens if we:

>turn on switch

We can turn the card into cerd or curd, but that’s it. I tried, curd refuses to become cord.

Ha! I was wrong, bad Karlok. I should have taken it out and put it back in.

>get curd
I take the curd.

>put it in bucket
There is a churning noise from within the brushed steel bucket, and a moment later I see inside a cord. This is the heaviest-duty cabling I’ve ever seen in my life: thick as a snake, covered in yellow sheathing, with a massive plug at each end.

The monocle pings happily as I sight the cord with the crosshairs.

The boiler growls but cannot become any more on than it already is.