Super Smash Quest - Story - Chapter 364: Timeless Underwater Machines
Date: 3:16:44 PM, December 13th to 6:30:20 PM, December 13th;
5:19:46 PM, December 14th to 6:31:16 PM, December 14th, 2006.
Metal Man (GM): El Session De La Neuvo Grande Rollos
Metal is, again, looking at the map, looking somewhat relieved, but also still on guard. He flips through a thinned stack of papers.
Metal Man: "That was a close call. Without the mystery intervention, we'd have been toast. And our timing caused the Magellean Military to be heavily damaged. We can safely ignore the so-called Light Side for now, unless you like fighting remnants and digging for stuff."
"Our major issues are now two, and in this half of the planet."
*He brings up a map, with several locations, and... little Robot Master names. *
"Our first issue is Dr. Wily's Robot Masters, which have set up shop in various locations around the world. All we know are their names and locations."
Dragoshi: "...And those are...?"
Metal Man: "Darkman was in Saffron City; Armsman is in Kakariko; Knifeman in Port Destiny; Cloakman on the Second Moon; MadMan on Gunicard; PortalMan hiding in Quester Hunter HQ; Psychoman in the Arctic Wastes; and I seriously can't tell where ManMan is. The closest thing may be a strange area named 'Exception' we once entered before."
Dragoshi: "..." *Twitches* "...What the HECK was Wily smoking when he came up with these names?"
Metal Man: "They aren't serious threats, but reports of menacingly dancing robots keep on coming in from those areas."
Fizban: "They aren't very original, I admit..."
Dragoshi: "...I say we should get rid of PortalMan."
Metal Man: "Besides that, though, we have a minor lead on the location of Iggy. It's a remote thing, but in the very bottom of the wrecked lab Ivo once had, there was some sort of trans-time search engine."
Fizban: "...'trans-time'?"
Metal Man: "It doesn't work anymore, but it's likely to have some remnant of information it had when it functioned. That would easily know where his castle was."
Fizban: "Is that similar to time travel?"
Metal Man: "Ivo Robotnik perfected Time Travel at an unknown date and proceeded to travel all across time, attacking us until he supposedly died on Turion. Wily also has some sort of time travel--he used it long before Ivo--but it seems to only go forwards."
Editor's Note: News to me. He seemingly never died and just was trapped in the X-Zone, and all we really saw was some strange after-image created by it that had been pretending to be him.
Fizban: "Remarkable!"
Metal Man: "Trevor and Sephiroth were both suspected of handling related magic/technology, although we never found any traces of it with them. Ivo's base is the most accessible... and that isn't saying much."
"It's deep underwater, more than 3/4 flooded, and chronologically unstable from the time travel experiments performed there."
"But the machine possesses knowledge only one who traveled across time would have, if you know the right stuff to get it working."
"It's more difficult a mission, but the rewards can be high; it may know where Wily is."
Fizban: "That sounds like a more logical step. Collect the information needed to make our lives easier against this Doctor Wily."
Metal Man: "...Be warned that you'll likely wander through several time periods to get to it; while all would be underwater, an underwater prison was there for hundreds of years before any base. But, still, it's up to you; a Robot master, Ivo's ruined base, or Light Side exploration."
Fizban: "It is not up to myself alone. What say the other Questers?"
Dragoshi: "I still say we get rid of PortalMan, since it might by a bit bad in the long run if one of our enemies' minions were HIDING inside our base of operations... Unless anyone has any logical objections."
Metal Man: "...Not our base, but rather Quester Hunter HQ's base."
Dragoshi: "...Ah, sorry."
"...I must've nodded off"
Metal Man: "Our base remains secure, especially since this side of the world is almost 80% secure."
Dragoshi: "And, seeing as THAT's the case... Hmmm..."
Metal Man (GM): So you don't miss them again: "But, still, it's up to you; a Robot master, Ivo's ruined base, or Light Side exploration."
Fizban: "I believe that ruined base is our best choice."
Dragoshi thinks about the three choices, and comes to a decision...
Fizban: "...well? What say you, Master Helldusk?"
Dragoshi: .oO(...Robot Masters, I guess... But, still... Eh. Those'll be dealt with later) "Simple. I believe we should go to the remains of Ivo's base. The Light Side and Robot Masters can wait."
Metal Man: "Okay, that's two votes. Unless some other people have a vote in mind, I guess we can go with that."
Scott Gibson is there but he's relatively quiet. He seems to be in sort of an autopilot / shrug in follow mood.
Darkdata: "So Aribar, got any two's?"
Metal Man: "Well, anyway, the warp is open. There is a precaution or two: You will have to swim through some areas."
Scott Gibson: "Swimming... fun..."
Metal Man (GM): The warp area lights up, and glows blue from the probable water content down there.
Scott Gibson: "Let's rock." *Scott heads into the warp with Roxy shortly behind.*
Dragoshi nods, then enters the warp.
Metal Man (GM): *WARP* *WARP*
On your way there, things get... complex. You feel almost wet as you travel through miles of water via light.
Eventually, you appear inside a large, deep underwater room, which has about three functioning lights in the ceiling. It's cold, misty, and the floor has pools of water on it. Large windows show the ocean outside.
Scott Gibson stands there a sec in the universal 'I feel soaked' stance. "Why do I feel reeeeally damp?"
Metal Man (GM): Unexpectedly, you also see Aribar and (Whatever Darkdata looks like) with you... that water must have altered the warp somehow.
Scott Gibson: "Whoa! Who the-"
Dragoshi: "...Huh."
Darkdata: "Heh" *Half-Smile.*
Metal Man (GM): The way ahead's door is locked, and the room's machines are mostly offline. Except for one computer, which appears to be constantly blinking.
Scott Gibson: "Who the hell are you guys?" *Scott isn't holding his guitar but it's strapped to his back.*
Computer: "ONLINE. CHECKING... ERROR: SYSTEM LINK SEVERED."
Aribar looks about, a bit confused as to his surroundings. The elf isn't much taller than his 'warp companion', and sports short brown hair, blue eyes, and a royal blue outfit consisting of armor and a long cloak.
Metal Man (GM): The area is covered in Eggman insignias, although they're moot when everything but the life support is busted; and you can tell it won't be long until even that fails.
Scott Gibson doesn't make a move for his guitar. He gets that newbie feeling again.
Aribar also only has a single arm... His right one's missing. The elf puts a hand on the sheathed short sword at his side and turns towards the Questers. "Hrm... Greetings."
Dragoshi: "'Ello"
Scott Gibson: "Yo... Uh, and you two are?"
Fizban: "...Aribar!"
Scott Gibson: "!?"
Darkdata: "I think it would be pol-" *Is cut off by the yell.*
Scott Gibson just stares wide eyed. O_O;
"You know this guy?"
Fizban: "Good to see you again, lad! Good to see you!"
Aribar blinks, looking at the older wizard... This is odd. "Ah, ah... M-master? What are you...? Umm..." Looks to the Questers, and to the new person, and back to Fizban...
Fizban: "Ah, yes. You know of my wandering ways, lad. I happened upon these fellows and... well... here I am."
Darkdata sits down and just watches this moment play out.
Scott Gibson looks to Darkdata..."Well, might as well into m'self. Scott Gibson, or Scotty, whatever you're cool with." He extends a hand.
Aribar: "This is... That's a Quester, so this is Nintendus, correct?"
Darkdata: "Ah thanks" *Grabs the hand and gets up.*
Fizban: "Aye, lad. Welcome back to the flock, I should say."
Dragoshi: "...Yep."
Metal Man (GM): Aribar: You'd recognize this room; Ivo once held you here.
'Cept now it's been beaten up.
Aribar: "I curse teleportation spells..." *The elf glances about the room once more and shudders as he realizes what this chamber is...*
Darkdata: "Heh, I guess this is the world that fate chose."
Aribar mutters a question under his breath before looking to Scott and Darkdata. "Well, ahh... Greetings. I suppose a name would be polite... Aribar Hunter, Archmage of the Champions of Whaller and former Quester at your service."
Darkdata: *Blinks as if remembering something* "Ah yes I guess I should introduce myself, My name is Darkdata."
Metal Man (GM): The door that's locked has a glitchy LCD monitor next to it, which is saying a distorted "SOS... SOS... SOS..." over and over again.
Scott Gibson: "Scott Gibson, as I said before. So you're the infamous Aribar I take it?" *Turns to Ari*
Fizban: "Now that we have some new fellows to help us out, I believe we should continue, aye?"
Dragoshi: *And, Drag just stays silent, and looks at the door.*
Fizban: *Moves over to join Dragoshi* "...have you found anything?"
Metal Man (GM): The door has a keypad, although it looks shorted out. On closer inspection, the door is rusted shut.
Darkdata: "I guess it could not hurt to follow you guys, this is the world I belong to for now. Also who is the silent one?"
Aribar: "Ah, aye... I'm just a, ah... Dabbler in magic I suppose... Errr..." *The elf's a little embarrassed at being called infamous.*
Scott Gibson: "Silent? Nobody I know fits that quota. Well, infamous is a bit strong I guess."
Dragoshi: "...No. Just wondering when or how for that matter are we going to open up that door."
Scott Gibson: "I've heard you name kicked around HQ a few times."
Fizban: "Master Scott, I believe your talents are needed here."
Scott Gibson unslings his guitar.
"Yeah... Time to get to work."
Aribar: "Ah... As to this room... I've been trapped in here once long, long ago... But I don't believe I can help you now."
Scott Gibson: "We need to bust it open or hack it open?"
Dragoshi: "...Hack it. ...If that fails, then bust it down."
Scott Gibson nods. "One hack-job comin' up."
He looks for a port to plug his guitar in.
Darkdata: *Looks over to Dragoshi* "I don't believe I caught your name, would you care to share it?"
Metal Man (GM): You find one; it's corroded. Do you try it anyway?
Scott Gibson: "There we go." *Plugs it in.*
Dragoshi: "Huh? Oh, right. Name's Dragoshi L. Helldusk."
Metal Man (GM): You plug it in, however the computer is unresponsive.
Something about "Massive IO Error."
Darkdata: "Oh, that's a bit long, Can I just call you Draggy?" *Another half-smile.*
Scott Gibson pings a couple of strings attempting to contact the computer but gets nothing. He then unplugs his guitar and steps back a bit. "You guys may wanna step back. Looks like I'm swingin'."
Dragoshi: "...No. I don't mind Drag or Drago, though."
Aribar obliges the rockstar.
Scott Gibson gets into position after everyone moves back and swings a heavy strike to the door in homerun fashion.
He curses under his breath. That didn't work...
Dragoshi: "...Mind if I take a crack at it?"
Scott Gibson: "Can I get one more swing?"
Metal Man (GM): *Bonk* It bounces off the door.
Dragoshi: "...Fine. One more."
Scott Gibson nods with a grin.
"Huah!"
Metal Man (GM): The door cracks open and slides open slowly... revealing a downward hallway full of busted robots.
Scott Gibson: "Ba-zing."
Dragoshi: *Onward!*
Scott Gibson: "Let's rock."
Metal Man (GM): They're old Eggrobos, armed with pistols and such... the water gets deeper as you go, until it eventually reaches your ankles.
Darkdata: "Nice hit."
Scott Gibson heads down with Roxy following closely. She revvs excitedly.
"Thanks."
"Robots... Ugh..."
"Even rusty ones piss me off."
Metal Man (GM): The robots begin throwing sparks around.....
Scott Gibson: "Hey-whoa!"
Metal Man (GM): Before you know it, five of them stand up, all in various states of disrepair.
Darkdata: "Oh, lovely, just what are those?"
Metal Man (GM): One is missing a head, the other a left arm, the other a foot, another its hands, and a fifth with no legs or lower half at all.
Scott Gibson: "Well, time to take care of business." *raises his guitar to an attack stance.*
"Trouble."
Dragoshi: *Quickly draws out his shotgun.*
Aribar hrms and continues after the others, but stops behind them as the robots rise. The elf unsheaths Moonlight. The elegant shortsword glows as if the pale light of the moon resided in the blade. "Great..."
Metal Man (GM): Somehow, they all wield guns. And they don't seem like they know how to die.
Darkdata: *Still holding his staff.*
Metal Man (GM): One moment.
Now turn order checks.
Order: Dragoshi, Robots, Aribar, Scott, Darkdata
Water, water, everywhere
Dragoshi: *And, Dragoshi starts off this turn by using his shotgun o' dewm to hit two robots with Ice Tornado!* (Using shotgun's first ability to hit two people with one attack)
Metal Man (GM): Order: Dragoshi, Robots, Aribar, Scott, Darkdata, Fizban
Darkdata: "Ah, just wondering; Are those things living? Or non living?"
Metal Man (GM): Hit, hit
Aribar: "Robots are constructs; nonliving machines."
Scott Gibson: "Soul-less killing machines... that do anything for you?"
Darkdata: "Ah well that's good to know, We don't have those things on the world I came from."
Dragoshi: *And, he finishes this turn off with...*
Scott Gibson: "Want some? There's too damn many in my universe."
Dragoshi: *A tarantula!*
Darkdata: "Non living things like that would not stand a chance in my world."
Metal Man (GM): Hit
Dragoshi: *EoT.*
Scott Gibson: "Good to know. You can have all of them you want out of my world."
Metal Man (GM): Robots
Robot 1 fires 4 weak laser shots at Dragoshi.
15 damage per hit.
Dragoshi: *...Damn their luck.*
Metal Man (GM): Robot 2 walks up to Dragoshi and attempts to spin around fast enough to whip him with a broken arm.
Dragoshi: *Which he dances out of the way of!*
Metal Man (GM): 50 damage, 1 knockback if that hits.
He then fires two shots at Dragoshi.
CRIT, hit, 15 damage per hit
Dragoshi: *...Oh, COME ON!*
Metal Man (GM): Robot 3 thrashes at Scott twice.
50 damage, 1 knockback per hit.
Robot 4 fires four times at Aribar.
Scott Gibson takes one to the jaw and flies back a bit.
Metal Man (GM): 15 damage per hit.
Aribar is too slow to dodge any of the lasers...
Metal Man (GM): Robot 5 thrashes once at Fizban, then shoots at Scott.
50 damage, 1 knockback at Fizban
Scott Gibson: "Sunnova malfunctioning bitch!"
Metal Man (GM): 15 damage per hit, target: Scott
Scott Gibson gets blasted. Damn these guys are bastards.
Darkdata: "Wow I guess, I am just lucky." *Small smile.*
Aribar decides to unleash some payback upon the robot who fired upon him; Aribar unleashes eight diamond missiles upon the mechanical terror! (Gem Missile 4)
Metal Man (GM): Hit miss hit hit hit hit hit hit
The robot is battered by the attacks.
Scott Gibson wipes a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth from that nasty smack to the jaw. He curses under his breath and leaps at the closest robot for an el grab and steal!
"C'mere you metal asswipe!"
Metal Man (GM): You grab a chip-laden arm off of the robot. It doesn't seem to care.
Darkdata: "These robot things don't like water, do they?"
Scott Gibson holds the arm in his free left hand and with his SG in his right he swings a heavy homerun swing. Doesn't seem like a good idea to use Ride the Lightning down here.
Metal Man (GM): They're wading in the water. They seem unable to notice.
Hit.
Scott Gibson: "How'da ya like that!?"
Metal Man (GM): It is knocked back, then gets back up and walks mindlessly back.
Scott Gibson then swings at it in a wild series of strikes swiping at the relentless robot.
He then steps back a bit and ends his turn. EoT
Metal Man (GM): Hit hit hit
Scott Gibson: "Your motherboard loves me!" *Scott says with a slight reference to the robot's lineage.*
Darkdata: "Well guess it's time to test my luck" *Starts singing something, it's hard to hear but it ends in 'Torrunttu Water'* (elemental things 'round the area to fly at one enemy. TP Cost 4)
Metal Man (GM): Hit.
One robot is submerged in water. It takes 30 damage, but, unlike an organic being, does not drown. Thus it survives the attack.
But that magic eats your turn, sooo...
Fizban looks upon Ari with a bit of a frown before he turns to target the same robot Aribar did. Most of his own magic won't do much good, so he launches into a AGGRESSIVE ATTACK and fires off two series of magic missiles before grabbing it and throwing it back with a flaming hand, clubbing it with his staff as it flies backwards.
Metal Man (GM): All hit
Darkdata: "Wait metal is an element right?" *Hits head.*
Dragoshi: "...I think so."
Scott Gibson chuckles as he makes a joke in his head about that metal comment.
Aribar: "Metal... Heavily refined earth I believe."
Metal Man (GM): It is mangled quite a bit, but walks right back, ready to take even more damage.
Scott Gibson: "They're freakin' punch-me-clowns."
Darkdata: *Hits head on staff,* "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
Dragoshi: "...Yep." *And, Drag, not wanting to waste time decides to just go and test his luck... And, a mech appears, and attempts to mow down the weakest robot with it's Loldeathlazors while a tarantula attacks!*
Metal Man (GM): Hit, hit
Dragoshi: *EoT.*
Metal Man (GM): The first robot explodes, then the second one takes more damage.
Robots
The Second Robot shoots at Dragoshi four times.
15 damage per hit.
Dragoshi dances out of the way of two of those.
Metal Man (GM): Robot 3 tries to club Aribar once...
50 damage, 1 knockback...
...Then shoots at Darkdata twice.
Aribar is smacked by the robot and knocked back...
Metal Man (GM): 15 damage per hit.
Robot 4 shoots up Scott.
15 damage per hit.
Robot 5 smacks at Fizban twice.
Darkdata: "Ow" *Frowns.*
Metal Man (GM): 50 damage per hit.
Aribar raises Moonlight into the air; snow and sleet follow the blade before he thrusts it forth towards the third robot. He decides to get up close and personal then and unleash three powerful strikes upon the scrapheap. (Blizzard, Warlock's Bane 3)
*Turn ova... Waah.*
Metal Man (GM): All hit.
No freeze.
Scott Gibson pops a quick shroom and then unleashes a fast homerun swing...(more coming)
"You want metal?! Here it is!"
Metal Man (GM): Hit.
Scott Gibson moves his guitar into a playing position and kicks into a heavy metal riff rife with tons of show-offy solo bits until the fretboard gets so hot from the friction that it catches fire. He then channels the flames into a ball and then launches the screaming skull-shaped ball of fire at the robot swinging like a pinch hitter.
"JUMP IN THE FI-AH!!!!"
Darkdata: "Toasty."
Metal Man (GM): Hit.
Scott Gibson: "Eat it!" *Scott then flips the robot off.*
*EoT.*
Metal Man (GM): DING! DING! DING! 3 coins land on Scott for no reason.
Scott Gibson looks confused for a sec then picks up the coins.
Darkdata sings a odd tune, it reminds you of something popping.
"Shatter the Robot!"
Aribar: "Excellent work!"
Dragoshi: "...Niiiice."
Fizban: *Is revived on his turn?*
Scott Gibson: "Kick ass! Now let's mop up the rest of em'!"
Darkdata: *EoT.*
Metal Man (GM): 3 robots remaining.
Fizban revives with 2 TP, then, firing off a blast of fire at that danged Robot 5, and if it's dead, then the nearest to death robot.
Dragoshi: *And, Dragoshi starts off his turn by pumping the shotgun, then aiming carefully, as two bursts of reddish-yellow fire strike the two weakest robots.*
Darkdata: *After recovering* "This is why they would not be able to survive in my old world, the strongest songweavers could take down 100's of them."
Scott Gibson chuckles a bit. "Sounds like a swingin' place, man."
Darkdata: "As you can tell, I am not one of the strongest..."
Metal Man (GM): Robot 2 bites the dust, Robot 3 is critical, Robot 5 nominal.
Scott Gibson: "Better than nothin'."
Dragoshi: *Then Drag pumps it again as this time a rapid-fire barrage of water aims to strike the two weakest down.*
Metal Man (GM): Two misses
Dragoshi: *EoT.*
Metal Man (GM): Robot 5 is all that remains.
Darkdata: "Joy, here come the robots."
Metal Man (GM): Robots
Robot 5 tries to smack Dragoshi twice.
50 damage per hit... wow... a crit!
1 knockback, too.
Dragoshi: "Or robot in thi-" *Oh, SCREW YOU KO'd due to stupid luck.*
Darkdata: "Wow, you seem to have the worst luck Draggy."
Aribar decides to let the power of earth rip the final robot to shred; eight more diamond missiles appear around the elf and tear into the eggrobo's metal.
Metal Man (GM): Hit miss miss miss hit hit hit hit
Robot 5 is still standing... sans most of his head and arms.
Darkdata: "Well, I guess it's safe to say the robot is going to break"
Scott Gibson triggers into an aggressive attack and leaps at the last steel assailant with a quick midair flip to get some momentum as his guitar slams down on what would be its head with a heavy swing.
He finishes that strike then follows up with a massive uppercutting swing of the same attack.
Metal Man (GM): Hit, hit
Scott Gibson lands then surveys the massive 70 dmg he served up hoping that did the job.
Metal Man (GM): It's blown apart. +3000 EXP to all. They also drop old, rusted pistols on the ground.
Scott Gibson: "One last thing before you go!" *He flips the robot off again but right in front of where its face should be. * *EoT.*
Metal Man (GM): Their arms are also roughly club-like.
Scott Gibson then grabs two of the pistols.
Dragoshi gets up, revived by now.
Metal Man (GM): Rusted Egg-robo Pistol: +1 to-hit, +1 to range on ranged moves
Dragoshi grabs a pistol as well.
Digifanatic seems to have run in a bit late on the scene..."Hello, fol--" .oO(Wait, WHAT?! Is that Ari, or did Alexia's technique malfunction again?!)
Darkdata: "I see nothing useful here. So what is next?"
Digifanatic: "Alexia? Did you try to do that move again?"
Darkdata: "Hmm, Who might you be?, Friends of Draggy and company?"
Dragoshi: "...Don't call me that."
Scott Gibson: "Yo guys, welcome to the party."
Fizban: "Ah, welcome."
Aribar blinks and looks to Digi... "Err... 'allo, Digi. No, it's me."
Digifanatic: "Oh, me? Ah. Hello. I am actually one of the older Questers. My name is Ian Hoffman, but most people here call me by my original identity here, as my--hey, long time no see! I apologize, newer ally."
Fizban: "Aye! It IS Aribar."
Darkdata: "Questers?"
Digifanatic: "Yeah. That is our collective name."
Darkdata: "Hmm, I guess my questions on this can wait till we get out of here."
Dragoshi: *Nods.*
Digifanatic: "Anyways, like I was saying, my name is Ian, but everyone calls me by my alias which I first used to call myself. It's Digifanatic, after an interest of mine, but more often it's Digi for short."
Scott Gibson: "Yeah, better than standing around."
Digifanatic: "You can call me whatever as long as it's one of the three. Or a variant of..."
Scott Gibson: "Anyway... let's roll."
Darkdata: "Digi and Draggy" *Does sort of a ^_^ face.*
Dragoshi: "..."
Scott Gibson heads toward the next area with Roxy in tow.
Dragoshi: *Facepalms.*
Digifanatic: "So... my my my... our old friend, Mr. Hunter. I admit I respected your decision when you left but I knew you'd come back. I had a feeling that you'd, at the very least, say hello or something, but it looks like Metal got you right back in the game, huh?"
Darkdata walks to the next area following Scott, singing "Draggy he is so funny, Draggy he is so silly, Draggy..."
Aribar: "Ah, I do apologize about leaving before... I had to help my family and country back on Whaller."
Digifanatic: "No, no, no, that's fine. Like I said, I respected that choice."
Aribar: "It was actually a bit of a mistake coming back here... A miscast teleportation spell... Again."
Digifanatic: "Ah... I'm sorry I mentioned, uh... her. See, a bunch of missions back she transformed into you by accident."
"Of course, we all got a big kick out of it."
Aribar: "...Huh. I see."
Dragoshi: "...Yea."
Digifanatic: "Missing arm and all."
Aribar lets out a little chuckle, then coughs and mutters a few 'ows'.
Digifanatic: "The interesting thing is how she's put up with your departure quite well, as far as I know."
Dragoshi: *Nods.*
Aribar: "Ah..."
Digifanatic: "It's not like I've seen bawling or anything, claiming she was the one that had you leaving. Then again, she could have been doing things about the scenario in her room that I'm unaware of, hence the 'as far as I know' part."
Aribar: "Aye... Well, at least one thing about Nintendus seems to be the same."
"Lasers still hurt... A lot..."
Digifanatic: "That, and the planet's screwed up."
Dragoshi: "...Could be weirder."
Digifanatic: "Yeah."
Aribar sheaths Moonlight and digs around in his pack for some... Really old... Ivantek restoration vials and downs them. "Oh? Now what's wrong?"
Scott Gibson walks back to the group as they're still talking amongst themselves.
Darkdata: *Walks back into the room, still humming something that sounds a lot like Draggy oh Draggy* "So what else can you tell me about this world?"
Scott Gibson: "Aside from the fact that it makes my old day job look easy?"
Digifanatic: "Heh..."
Darkdata: "Heh..."
Aribar: "Nintendus is a very interesting... And dangerous place, Darkdata."
Digifanatic: *Turns back to the new guy--well, the new guy to all the older Questers, that is* "Oh, Darkdata is your name? Good timing, I was just about to ask."
Metal Man (GM): The way ahead opens... not good.
Darkdata: "Oh,I never told you did I?, Yes it is."
Metal Man (GM): It's a stairway downwards, that has been flooded entirely.
Digifanatic: "Oh, alright."
Darkdata: "Too bad it was not like a bath, there there would be a plug to pull."
Digifanatic: *Sigh* "Anyone have any air tanks? I have a phone, but I'd just like to know if anyone has some tanks available first."
Scott Gibson: "I need one."
Aribar: "I... Hrm. I have a dangerous idea."
Digifanatic: "Okay, one for Scott... yes, Ari?"
Scott Gibson flips his own dex open. "Yo Metal, we're about to head for a quick dip. Roxy can't do any swimming if you catch my drift. Can I get a warp for her to head back?"
Metal Man (GM): No. You see that it leads down to the next level, too.
Aribar walks over to the water and tries to... Bend it. He just tries to part a small pathway a couple feet down under the surface to test his magical powers. "I think I may be able to cast a spell..." (Energy Control: Water!)
Metal Man: (Dex) "Warp activated."
Metal Man (GM): Roxy vanishes.
Scott Gibson: "Thanks."
Digifanatic: "Scott, speaking of, are your guitars going to be alright?"
Metal Man (GM): Ariabr: MNT check... you can feel the strain already.
Digifanatic: "I mean, with their size and wiring, wouldn't they get messed up?"
Scott Gibson: "Yeah, when I had them modded I made sure to waterproof them."
Digifanatic: "Oh, alright."
Scott Gibson: "Figured I'd need it for this line of work."
Digifanatic: "Good point."
Scott Gibson inserts a plug into the plug hole of his guitar to prevent anything from getting in there and slings his axe.
"I'm good, just need that air-tank."
Digifanatic: "Ah."
Fizban: "...so I suppose we swim from now on?"
Digifanatic: "Same here..."
Scott Gibson: "Got a phone?"
Digifanatic: "I do, I'm just curious of Ari's idea."
Darkdata: "I do, though all I can do is swing my staff under water."
Metal Man (GM): Aribar tries his hardest to move the water... but there's too much. It'd flood the entire area you were just in and trickle back down even with a perfect roll.
Aribar: "Grrr..." *The elf holds the water back for a little bit, but the task is obviously beyond him.* "I thought I could push the water aside with my magic, or even create an air bubble for us, but it's too much... I don't even know if I could do it while channeling both the air and water."
Fizban: "Aribar, you haven't learned much in your time away, haven't you?"
Digifanatic: "Okay."
Fizban: "Even magic in the most powerful of hands cannot be used all the time. Especially when an element dominates so much of this place."
Digifanatic: "Raise your hand if you need a breathing apparatus."
*He raises hand.*
Darkdata: *Hand goes up.*
Dragoshi doesn't.
Scott Gibson raises a hand.
Darkdata: *Hand goes down.*
Fizban raises his hand as well, chuckling.
Aribar: "Ahh... I suppose Orlando's lessons about channeling water were a bit wasted upon me... Sorry, master..." *He raises his hand for Digi.*
Digifanatic: "Okay, I see three, okay, four... Alright. I'll handle this."
Scott Gibson: "Just let me know how much I owe ya."
Digifanatic: "Nah, it's fine. I'm a nice guy, I'll pay for them all."
Scott Gibson shrugs.
Digifanatic takes out his cell phone and dials up for the maximum five Air Tanks, having one for backup...
Aribar: "Are you sure?"
Digifanatic: "Yeah. I've got plenty of cash."
Metal Man (GM): The air tanks make this task much easier, but they will be depleted by it.
Dragoshi pulls out an Air Tank of his own.
Metal Man (GM): Anyone without an air tank/other way to breathe down there?
Darkdata: *Debates something* "How much does pure silver go for in this world?"
Editor's Note: Since SSQ was emulating an insane world where everyone pays for everything in the equivalent of GP from D&D, probably the same conversion rate of SP to GP in D&D.
Scott Gibson shrugs at Darkdata.
Aribar: "I... Ah... Haven't the slightest idea."
Digifanatic gives everyone who needs an air tank one, keeping the last one...
Metal Man (GM): No? Good for you. You may then proceed to go underwater.
Digifanatic: "That should work..."
Scott Gibson straps on an airtank and checks it. Living on an island he's learned how to scuba dive.
Aribar thanks Digi and readies to put it on to head underwater.
Digifanatic slips his air tank on.
Darkdata: "Ah well" *Gives Digi a 1/4 fist size piece of pure silver.*
Scott Gibson swan dives into the water and starts a'swimmin'.
Digifanatic: "Oh, thanks."
Smash Dex: "Silver; a commonly used junk material."
Digifanatic: "Figures..."
Darkdata: "Ah well."
Smash Dex: "Occasionally useful in killing undead."
Darkdata: "That's all I had anyway."
Editor's Note: I guess though for GMing reasons I didn't want him to have any money on him? ...That still doesn't make any sense though, I think I would have gone with it being worth a small amount if I were to GM this today.
Digifanatic: "I see..."
Darkdata dives into the water after putting on the air tank.
Digifanatic: "Like I said, I've got a good amount of money... I'll be fine."
*He starts breathing into the tank and heads on in.*
Dragoshi puts the air tank on, then heads in after turning it on.
Digifanatic: *Turned it on, obviously...*
Darkdata: *Bubble bubble bubble Dra bubble ggy.*
Metal Man (GM): In the water, you see the collapsed elevator shaft ahead.
Go deeper, or straight ahead?
Nope! :p
Scott Gibson hand signals that he's heading forward then does so toward the elevator shaft.
Dragoshi: *Follows.*
Darkdata: *Follows.*
Digifanatic follows...
Metal Man (GM): You go ahead a bit, and find a slight upward slope, where the water cannot reach above. You're now in an isolated area, with an elevator shaft going down, deeper into the water. The room is dimly lit, the windows are cracked and slowly leaking in water.
You can also go down a pit beyond the elevator up ahead, also filled with water.
Scott Gibson looks around the leaky room. Pits are usually bad news.
Digifanatic examines the shaft, flashes an index finger downward, and shrugs his shoulders at the others.
Metal Man (GM): The pit actually leads further downward.
Dragoshi: *Nods.*
Darkdata: *Mental note: Find out what the finger means.*
Metal Man (GM): Here, you're literally going down a wrecked sector down to a possibly more functional place. There is air here, too.
Only wrecked, dead computers and flickery lights.
Scott Gibson sees the wrecked room then decides to head down with the others.
Digifanatic points to the shaft again, and at Scott... he nods his head and then shakes it.
Metal Man (GM): After a 3-foot jump, you land in the shaft and begin going downward.
Dragoshi: *Downward, ho! Or somethin'*
Metal Man (GM): You reach the bottom; a flooded floor. You can go back, or forwards, from here... the water is murky and all you can see here are more wrecked, dead robots.
Digifanatic heads down for at least a small bit of time...
Scott Gibson points back up as soon as Digi is finished searching.
Darkdata: *On auto follow.*
Dragoshi: *Up, we go.*
Metal Man (GM): You're back at the shaft area.
Scott Gibson swims up the shaft back toward the leaky room.
Digifanatic goes back up where the others are...
Dragoshi: *Forward, march!*
Digifanatic: *To the leaky room!*
Metal Man (GM): You're already in that room.
Now where do you go?
Digifanatic heads down that second pit then...
Darkdata follows Digi.
Dragoshi: *Follows.*
Aribar follows the digifanatical one.
Metal Man (GM): You head down the second pit...
You find it goes very far down... in fact, one more open area to the bottom left, and another enclosed shaft down to your bottom right. You may pick either.
Digifanatic points to the right.
Dragoshi: *To the right.*
Aribar heads towards that shaft then.
Fizban nods and follows, his robe billowing out behind him, staff in one hand.
Metal Man (GM): Going down the shaft, things get darker, and darker. You eventually hit the bottom... there's a rusted door which would allow you to continue, but it's stuck shut currently.
Darkdata looks at Scott and then at Draggy.
Digifanatic motions everyone to head back up.
Aribar unsheaths Moonlight to shed some light on the situation and starts back up...
Fizban grumbles in his head, glancing to Digi and backing up.
Darkdata: *Follows Head: Wow, this is what it's like to be under water without a bubble.*
Digifanatic heads down that left shaft.
Dragoshi motions for everyone to back up, so he can try to summon a Black Dog and have it knock down the door.
Metal Man (GM): Everyone else goes up some. Digi goes down the left shaft. Dragoshi: Roll it.
Digifanatic tries to get others to follow him if at all possible...
Darkdata follows Digi.
Dragoshi shakes his head in annoyance.
Metal Man (GM): The door is not opened.
Dragoshi: *Let's try that again... And, if it fails he follows the others.*
Metal Man (GM): Darkdata follows Digi... down on the left shaft, it appears one is close to exiting the watery maze.
The door blasts open, revealing... the area by the left shaft. Huh.
Dragoshi: *...Shrugs, then goes through it.*
Metal Man (GM): At the bottom of the left shaft is another set of underwater stairs going down.
Aribar belatedly follows Digi...
Digifanatic walks down the stairs...
Darkdata keeps following Digi.
Metal Man (GM): They go one level down, or you can take a door to go further left.
Fizban follows as well, swimming downward.
Dragoshi: *Downward!*
Metal Man (GM): You continue downward.
You encounter an underwater hallway, with a locked door on the end... it's active.
The LCD on it says "Door locked to Seal out water."
Digifanatic points back, and then points to the door, shrugging his shoulders again?
Metal Man (GM): You can mess with it.
Fizban thinks to himself as he looks about, wondering what is beyond the door. He motions to Digi and motions back to the door.
Aribar inwardly sighs and goes back to check out that door at the last change in direction. He'd rather not pour more water in on them.
Darkdata motions them to back away from the door.
Dragoshi does so.
Digifanatic does back away, keeping a fair distance behind.
Metal Man (GM): That other door is open, but meaningless; this is the only door that appears to be useful.
Darkdata tries to attack with crystal notes.
Metal Man (GM): They ping off the door.
Dragoshi: *And, if that fails... OHGODMECH.*
Darkdata backs away fast.
Metal Man (GM): The door continues to hold.
Dragoshi: *One more time...*
Aribar comes back to the others... And sees them trying to destroy the door...
Metal Man (GM): The door finally breaks. Alarms go off, and the water pours in... however, a huge metal plate shuts behind all of you, sealing out the water. And your way back.
Dragoshi: *Forward, I guess.*
Digifanatic decides to rush across and move on...
Aribar shakes his head and starts after the others...
Darkdata: *Bubbles Follows.*
Metal Man (GM): Here you see a fully active area. The lights have turned on from the emergency, and there's provisions locked up everywhere.
A computer console sits, unused.
Digifanatic checks out the console...
Metal Man (GM): It's an Eggman console, waiting for someone to sign in. It seems to control this part of the base.
Dragoshi walks over to it.
Metal Man (GM): It needs a password to be activated... but it can help you if you do get it to work.
Darkdata sits in the water, it's kind of a funny site.
Dragoshi: *Would prolly' try to hack it... What kind of Computer Use check would be needed?*
Darkdata gets up out of the water.
Aribar follows the others over to the console. "I really dislike water now..."
Darkdata: "Well that was stupid of me."
Digifanatic decides to shut off his air tank for the time being when he sticks his head out...
"Ah... that is SO much better."
Darkdata shuts off air tank until it's needed.
Dragoshi: *Shuts his airtank off as well* "Quite."
Fizban: *Rings out his beard and hat* "Aye, regular, yet stale air, is always better than air in a can."
Digifanatic: "Heh..."
*He tries to figure out a password for this... *
*Hack check!*
Darkdata: "That was fun!" *Smiles* "Although a pain to move with. I think I will search around maybe the password is on a note somewhere."
Metal Man (GM): You hack it to accept a bunch of errors as a password.
Computer: "User asdfgah, area is isolated. Air supply limited. Danger level 150%. Defenses offline. Areas below that one are limited in stability. Input command."
Aribar walks over to some of the locked up provisions and looks to see if there might be any restorative or useful items stashed there... Assuming he can check. He listens to the others at the console, but really he has no idea what they're doing with the computer.
Darkdata wonders if he will find anything while searching.
Metal Man (GM): They're locked, but you see months and months of food.
Darkdata finds a soggy note where all the ink ran off of it. Stupid water.
Aribar heads back over to the others...
Digifanatic types in a 'help' command.
Darkdata: "One more time can't hurt. Stupid water"
Computer: "This computer can unlock any door or storage area, but only in this area."
Metal Man (GM): Darkdata discovers a sharp hunk of metal. Not much to find down here.
Darkdata: "Joy" *Joins the group.*
Digifanatic tries inserting a 'map' command to see how much else around this bottom section they haven't checked yet.
Metal Man (GM): It shows a series of boxes that make up rooms, showing a variety of flooded ones above, and below three rows of boxes with ???s in them, followed by one deeper, large chamber, the time machine room, which has two ?s and an !
Digifanatic: "Ah, here we go..."
Aribar: "Let's see... We came here for info on an Iggy, right? Maybe we can get that here..."
Dragoshi: "Aye."
Digifanatic: "Ah yes... him..."
*He looks for some page labeled "Iggy" or something else to that extent...*
Computer: "Unknown."
Digifanatic: "Though that time machine room looks like our next stop... Huh."
"Apparently they thought we were going to access this long after it was abandoned."
Darkdata: *Check see if the other rooms are flooded.*
Metal Man (GM): Down below? Only ? marks.
Aribar: "Robotniks would be the type to plan for our demise even after his bases are abandoned..."
Digifanatic: "Yeah, so he shuts down most of the vital information, leaving us somewhat screwed."
Metal Man (GM): Anything else? There's a door ahead, but it's locked.
Digifanatic: "So... with all this in mind, do you think we should just hit the bottom level?"
Dragoshi: "Yes."
Darkdata: "Why not."
Digifanatic: "Alright."
Aribar: "Mmmm... Might as well."
Digifanatic transfers the map to his Dex (if he can), just in case some of the upcoming rooms are dry... it'd be useful.
He shuts down after he transfers the map (or can't).
Metal Man (GM): You can't really shut it down. You log out, though.
Digifanatic: "Okay then..."
*He checks out the locked door ahead to see how it can be unlocked...*
Metal Man (GM): You realize the computer was the only way to unlock it... and you logged out of it.
*pause.*
Digifanatic: "Oh, crap!"
Metal Man (GM): +500 EXP to all for so far
Metal Man (GM): Continuation
The Questers are in the lit-up computer room down below the ocean; the door ahead is locked, and Digi just logged out of the computer needed to open it.
Digifanatic: "Hmm... well, I should be able to get back to it..."
*He goes back to the computer and logs on as the same account he did before.*
Aribar just stands near the door; sword out and wondering if there's a flood on the other side.
Darkdata: *Looks bored* *Ah while you do that I will search around.*
Metal Man (GM): It manages to log on; but, subtly, it says... "Last log on: 25 years ago."
Digifanatic: "Whoa...25 years ago? That's probably just a bug or something..."
Editor's Note: Unless it's me logging onto that computer, given that was about 20 years ago from today!
Metal Man (GM): Darkdata looks around... picks up a piece of paper that crumbles in his hands.
Aribar: "...What about 25 years?"
Digifanatic goes back to the map and sees if there's a control to unlock the door in front of them there.
Darkdata: "Well this is pointless. What did you say Digi?"
Digifanatic: "The computer says that someone last logged on to it 25 years ago. Which, as I said, was probably just an odd bug in the system when I hacked into it..."
Darkdata: "Well, you did say this area was chronologically unstable."
Metal Man (GM): You can just type in 'unlock door' as it said last time you logged on.
Digifanatic types that then.
Fizban: "Aye, I remember that much. Though, I don't know much about these computer things."
Scott Gibson: "That's where I come in."
Darkdata: "Good thing I am not the only one. So what else can these computer things do?"
Metal Man (GM): The door opens... then rusts... then unrusts... back and forth.
Aribar raises Moonlight as the door opens and hopes that there's no more egg robos behind the door...
Fizban: "...remarkable."
Metal Man (GM): The lights are beginning to flicker, and whenever they are off, it is seen they are entirely busted.
Scott Gibson: "Now this is weird."
Fizban: "Time is actively shifting back and forth."
Digifanatic: "Something..."
Metal Man (GM): Ahead of the door is a massive rectangular chamber, with a variety of machines. Time is stable in there... ... too stable. The clocks don't move when you look in there.
Aribar: "I loathe time travel..."
Scott Gibson: "I think I remember someone mentioning something about this Ivo guy having time travel. This could be part of it."
Darkdata: "Yes well, all we can do is venture forward."
Fizban: "Aye, but we must continue on. Come."
Scott Gibson: "Might as well." *Heads to the stable rectangular room.*
Fizban leads the way this time, absolutely fascinated by all of this, and moving into the large room.
Aribar starts towards the new room.
Darkdata: *Follows.*
Digifanatic moves on with the others.
Metal Man (GM): Entering in, you begin to see some trippy stuff. You see the outline of Ivo Robotnik walk in, check on the machine, and walk out.
Occasionally Charles is also seen wandering around, staring at things you can't see and gasping at something or other.
Scott Gibson: "Damn, This is some pretty messed up stuff."
Metal Man (GM): You also see an evil Skyhigh walk through, as well as the Questers from Turion wander by.
Later, Julian walks through another way and briefly fights with the Skyhigh...
Darkdata: "I wonder, what would be found in this area? and would it be stable or move through time" *Looks at some of the things happening* "My, I would have to agree Scott."
Aribar: "By Erwin... What's wrong with this place?"
Fizban: "To put it mildly. However, we must not let these distract us." *Looks around for any exits, hallways, or anything particularly interesting that does not have to do with the images.*
Scott Gibson: "I haven't seen anything like this since the time Hendrix and I slipped some shrooms."
Metal Man (GM): It continues like that, randomly; a zombie Ruvyn walks through, looking like a sniper; Orlando Florida is dragged around by Questers...
Digifanatic: "Heh..."
Metal Man (GM): The Void wanders through as well, and a copy of SIMBER appears and talks to no one.
Digifanatic: "Just don't get too nuts with them, though..."
Metal Man (GM): There's a door out... but there's a problem with it. It's constantly traveling backwards and forwards through time.
Darkdata: "What can stabilize time?"
Metal Man (GM): So it alternates between a gaping hole, a rusted hulk, debris, water, and fully operational, open and closed.
Darkdata: "Does anyone know?"
Aribar: "Mmmm... No idea..."
Metal Man (GM): The machines themselves appear responsible for this chaos... but no amount of Ivo Robotnik reappearances seem to fix it.
Scott Gibson: "Nothin'."
Fizban: "Time is something curious and odd. I know what I know of magic, nothing more."
Scott Gibson: "Guess tech can be a form of magic."
Digifanatic: "Well... I guess we just try to enter it the best we can..."
Darkdata: "Well when in doubt, look about."
Scott Gibson: "Gotta go with newbie on that one."
Digifanatic: *Also searches around.*
Aribar: "If I was more skilled in, ah, certain abilities I might be able to hold the door still... Unfortunately, it seems like we'll need to just chance the door." *Looks around to make sure there might not be another exit.*
Metal Man (GM): Searching around doesn't really work here.
You find objects, even grab at them, and they vanish.
Darkdata: "Lovely, as crazy as the rest of this place."
Metal Man (GM): There's no other exit; the door you came through is gone, even!
Fizban: "I would suppose the best idea would be to use that device to try to stabilize it. Or... we take the risk."
Scott Gibson watches the door to see if there's any sort of pattern to its time shifting.
Metal Man (GM): Only the computer terminals are stable... well... sorta.
Darkdata: "Scott you said you had skills in these computers, right?"
Metal Man (GM): The door moves unpredictably and dangerously; anything that gets too close seems to be dismembered and sprayed all over the place.
Digifanatic: "Ari? You still have the Chaos Control?"
Metal Man (GM): As seen by the bits and pieces of a robot or two which tried the door.
Scott Gibson: "Well, yeah, I'm good with comps."
Aribar: "Err... Aye, I do. Unfortunately, I've sort of let my mastery of it slip... I don't think I could freeze the time around the door anymore."
Scott Gibson steps over to the computer Darkdata mentions.
Digifanatic: "Ah. Well, at least it was worth posing, if nothing else."
Scott Gibson then tries to put his hands on the computer's keyboard/console/input device/whatever to try and see if he can work with it.
Metal Man (GM): You put your hands on it; it stops flickering and shows a command line interface... you just don't know the commands.
Scott Gibson: "Well, at least it works. I don't know what to put in though."
Digifanatic: "Okay..." *Walks over.*
Darkdata: "Does not look to friendly, is there anyway to ask it for help?"
Digifanatic: "Try something simple like 'stop'."
Fizban looks calmly at the door. What bit of time power he knows of is of the magic of this world. He hrms softly...
"Aribar..."
Scott Gibson: "How about we try a help menu."
Aribar: "Err... Yes? Ahh. Yes, Master, I mean."
Scott Gibson tries to type something to the effect of "help menu" into the computer to see if that works.
Fizban: "Very good. You still remember. Yes, while I am your master, you know of this world's magic more than I do. What relevance does it have to the magic of our world?"
Metal Man (GM): The computer beeps. Then a holographic screen appears before Scott.
Fizban: "So far, I have been able to cast the Art, however I've been able to do it much more regularly. Still, it lacks the... effect it did before."
Metal Man (GM): It shows the controls to the machine... 'The Time Stabilizer'
Digifanatic watches on with Scott.
"That looks good."
Scott Gibson: "That's what we're lookin' for."
Metal Man (GM): It's simple, yet dangerous. 'Current conditions: 95% failure'
Scott Gibson frowns.
Metal Man (GM): 'Imminent destruction of time; Time Disaster imminent'
Darkdata: "Try kicking it?" *Joking Smile.*
Digifanatic: "Destruction of time?!"
Scott Gibson: "I'm not touching it then."
Metal Man (GM): It can either stop, slow down, speed up, or reverse time, like the buttons on a VCR.
Darkdata: "What other choice is there?"
Scott Gibson groans a bit.
Metal Man (GM): For some reason you think all of the other ones are useless but one. Must be the cat you swore you saw in the corner of your eye.
Aribar: "I've suffered the same effects, Master; our spells seem to draw energy from Nintendus itself instead of ourselves... Unfortunately, I haven't really noted any other effects."
Scott Gibson: "Huh?" *Looks to where he thought he saw a cat on the screen.*
Darkdata: "Slowing down... Not stopping might be good..."
Digifanatic: "Agreed. Don't want to stop time..."
Fizban: "Yes... yes, that would make sense..."
Digifanatic: "But it would be best to go back a considerable time, just to at least be safe. Rewind and then slo-mo..."
Darkdata: "Any hidden buttons?"
Scott Gibson: "I think this panel is rigged. Looks like we have a Gibby situation."
Digifanatic: "Heh... they were preparing for him?"
Scott Gibson: "Probably."
Digifanatic: .oO(Yup... he's keeping Garrick.)
Scott Gibson: "I have a gut feeling that all but one of these things will poof us out of existence. Question is which one?"
Digifanatic: "Or something worse..."
Fizban: "Hmmm? Oh, what is it you are doing?"
*He moves over the computer, his attention drawn to them.*
Aribar: "Eeh... I don't think we should mess with time at all."
Digifanatic: "Hmmm... maybe the 25 years thing was something to screw with our minds?"
Scott Gibson: "More or less we need to figure out what button is the RIGHT one."
Digifanatic carefully eyes the screen for anything similar to that cat...
Fizban: "Am I correct in assuming they will effect time?"
*He looks over the commands.*
Scott Gibson: "Yeah. I'd recommend not touching anything. If the universe gets froze or winked out I'd rather that be my fault than someone else's."
Digifanatic: "Yeah..."
.oO(And Julian would probably do less to him than me.)
Fizban: "Well... the motion of time itself will not harm us, I believe. I would suggest slowing it down."
Scott Gibson: .oO(Scott Gibson... destroyer of the universe... has a ring to it.)
Metal Man (GM): All the buttons on a VCR, simple enough. One useful, rest useless.
Digifanatic: "Now, one second... perhaps it may be best to try to destroy the door area with some ranged maneuvers?"
Darkdata: "I think time has it too unstable."
Scott Gibson: "And risk destabilizing the fragile time shifting already in here?"
Digifanatic: "Right."
Darkdata: "And anything that gets close 'poofs'"
Fizban: "Oh, away with you all."
Scott Gibson: "Pretty much."
Digifanatic: "Yeah, I understand. That's fine."
Fizban: *Gently moves everyone to the side, looking at the computer, grumbling.*
Scott Gibson: "Whoa! Gramps, let's not press stuff on a whim!"
Fizban: "Now... let me see... I think I'll try this one."
Digifanatic: "I was just thinking that seen as how the door is not the system, though... that's how I came to that idea."
Darkdata: "Well, guess it's up to fate now"
Metal Man (GM): Time slows down. The meter hits 96%. That doesn't seem to open the way out, though.
Scott Gibson cringes in a duck'n'cover position then realizes that nothing's exploded yet.
Fizban: "...well, that wasn't it..."
Darkdata: "Hmm let me have a try, the meter is up right, what happens if it's brought back? What if rewinding time fixes it?"
Scott Gibson: "NOOOO!" *Reaches out to stop him.*
Fizban: "...let's see... how about... hmm?"
Darkdata: "I never said I was going to press anything."
*He sidesteps.*
Fizban: *Stops, looking at Scott* "...well, how do you suspect us to continue on if we do not use this??"
Scott Gibson: "Hold up! There's- oh... shit..."
Metal Man (GM): Digi: You discover nothing. Looks like you're going to have to think what will make it possible to use that door.
Darkdata: *Might as well think too.*
Fizban: "...ah ha! I believe I know now!"
Digifanatic checks the computer to see if there's any way to escape that menu and to try something else.
Fizban: "Move aside, Mr. Fanatic."
Digifanatic: "No. I at least want the help menu! Please..."
Scott Gibson: "Hold on a sec!"
Digifanatic: "Alright. Scott? What were you thinking?"
Metal Man (GM): No way to escape the menu.
It is the only menu.
Scott Gibson: "Can we try not pressing buttons that could inevitably destroy the universe and think a sec. Stevie Rays' ghost... jeeze..."
Fizban watches the door, watching the different types flicker off and on. With it's slowed down state, it should be easier to react to each different type of door. Fizban will wait until the door that is active and open is appeared, then presses STOP.
Darkdata: *Plays a random non magical song* "Well guess I will relax for a bit."
Digifanatic: "Hey, haven't heard you reference him before today."
Scott Gibson: "I don't use that expression often enough."
Dragoshi: "...Right."
Digifanatic: "Heh... in place of Lennon's or something? Okay, enough of random music trivia."
Scott Gibson: "Not much of a Lennon fan."
Metal Man (GM): The door suddenly stops flickering.
Digifanatic: "Back to the situation at hand."
Dragoshi: "...Huh."
Scott Gibson nods.
Metal Man (GM): The thing hits 97% and stays there; better hope nobody uses it 3 more times.
Scott Gibson: "It's stopped?"
Digifanatic: .oO(Not hard or bluesy enough for him, I guess...)
Metal Man (GM): You can continue onwards.
Darkdata: "So what did the door stop on?"
Metal Man (GM): The only door. The one ahead. It's a hole.
Scott Gibson: "That's what I wanna know."
*He heads through slowly.*
Fizban: "...see?! You should all listen to your elders more often!"
Digifanatic: "Okay... that looks fine enough, but this is getting traumatic."
Dragoshi: *Yea. Let's do that. And slowly.*
Darkdata: *Follows.*
Digifanatic moves on again...
Fizban grumbles at the lot of them, especially Scott and Digi, then moves onward.
Aribar follows his Master...
Darkdata: *Mutters something about still thinking we should have used re-wind*
*Keeps following.*
Metal Man (GM): Going ahead, you find yourself in another strange room. Evil Eggman. He doesn't appear to believe in straight-forward design.
Scott Gibson: "This guy could really use a decorator."
Digifanatic: "Heh..."
Metal Man (GM): There's a way down, but it has a big ol' metal panel blocking it, and a series of random letters on the floor. N A E M G Y G I K O P Q N G E A M T L S C N
Dragoshi: "..." .oO(Now that's just stating the obvious)
Metal Man (GM): There's only 6 slots on a weird sign to plug them in to, though.
Digifanatic looks at the letters.
Dragoshi: "...Maybe we're supposed to make a word out of those?"
Metal Man (GM): The area is hastily held together with chain link fence and concrete. It looks like it was broken once before you finally busted this base.
Digifanatic: "I may be a bit bold, but if it's NOT 'Eggman' I don't know what is."
Scott Gibson: "I hope you're right."
Aribar: "...Putting letters into slots? Hrm. I dunno, Digi. He would probably be vain enough."
Fizban: "E-G-G-M-A-N. It would fit perfectly."
Digifanatic: "Yeah... And I can't think of much else."
Scott Gibson: "Might as well try it."
Digifanatic: "Except 'Master' or something."
Fizban: "One moment. Let me at least see something first."
Digifanatic decides to put in the 'EGGMAN' code into the slots.
*Or not*
*Will let Fizban speak.*
Dragoshi: "...Vain ENOUGH? Please. Those two words never make sense together. But that's just me" *Shrugs.*
Scott Gibson: "What's the word, Fiz?"
Fizban grabs Digi's shoulder before he can and checks something quickly. He looks over all the random letters, seeing if there's any scratches of them being inserted before. Or anything else. Residue of grease or some other lubricant, any markings that might show it has been inserted into the open slots.
Digifanatic: "Oh, alright. If you have an idea, please go ahead."
Metal Man (GM): No scratches or any previous markings.
It appears relatively new.
Scott Gibson: "Guess we've gotta play it by ear."
Fizban: "...it cannot be 'master' anyway, Mister Fanatic."
Digifanatic: "Huh... I thought there was an 'R' somewhere. Oh well."
Fizban: "There is no 'r'."
Darkdata: "Did this Eggman have any family members?"
Digifanatic: "Exactly, heh... None with six letters that I can think of."
Editor's Note: G E R A L D anyone? Granted, there is no R. So not possible with that puzzle.
Fizban: *Will take the blame for this one again, slipping EGGMAN into the slots.*
Digifanatic: "Well, 'Shadow' doesn't have proper letters..."
Aribar: "Errrm... Gerald I believe. Ivan... No, not six letters. Hrm."
Digifanatic: "No R's, again."
Dragoshi: "Yep."
Aribar: "Eggman sounds like the best to me."
Scott Gibson: "Go for it, Fiz."
Darkdata: "Wow Fizban, you like to tempt fate."
Metal Man (GM): The slots light up, and the door opens.
Digifanatic: "Yup... first impression."
Darkdata: "And he was right..."
Dragoshi: "...Mhm."
Fizban: "That is because I am old."
Metal Man (GM): Eggman, while a genius, lacks the foresight that people eventually realize he's vain and will try his name before any decoy ones.
Fizban: "If I die, it is no loss. I have seen most of my time, though I do not wish to go yet."
Digifanatic: "Heh. Go with the wisdom schtick, huh? That, too, I suppose."
*He walks through...*
Darkdata: "Shall we go on?"
Scott Gibson sighs with relief. "We owe you again, Gramps." He claps the wizard on the shoulder then forges ahead and peeks into the room.
Dragoshi: "..." *Onward.*
Darkdata follows after Digi.
Metal Man (GM): These stairs go down to the next lower level... where it appears the labs were.
Fizban: "You Questers are much too interesting to leave alone just yet. And my protege' is here too. I must not leave him again."
*He moves on.*
Digifanatic: "Ah yes..."
Darkdata: "Now, there HAS to be something here."
Aribar follows the others down to the lower level.
Darkdata: "But what, will it be?"
Aribar: "Probably another trap..."
Dragoshi: "Yep. Always with the traps."
Metal Man (GM): Here, you see clearly what Ivo was working on.
Scott Gibson: "I tend to think a little more optimistic."
Metal Man (GM): Models of time machines, including the final (completed) one, as well as models of the Dimensional Cannon... including a crazy one, unfinished, labeled 'Egg Cannon'
Scott Gibson: "Loot!"
Metal Man (GM): Also on a bulletin board nearby is the Gravity Egg and Nah Rasur.
Dragoshi: "...Egg Cannon?"
Metal Man (GM): Diagrams, of course.
Digifanatic: "Oh hooooooooooo... THOOOOOOSE things again!"
Fizban: "...why would one want a cannon that fires eggs?"
Digifanatic: "It's just a name."
Scott Gibson goes over and takes photos of the diagrams with his dex.
Digifanatic: "Like they've said, the guy is vain."
Darkdata: "I wonder if there is anything else on that board."
Dragoshi: "..."
Darkdata: "Heh, I can tell by Draggy's silence he must agree"
Metal Man (GM): The final thing of interest are a few papers labeled 'Correspondence'
They are the newest, wrinkled, but otherwise not yellowed like the rest.
Dragoshi takes those.
Fizban: *...hmm?*
Dragoshi: *Then proceeds to read them.*
Aribar looks around at the various mechanical designs... "So, has Eggman been dealt with? Is he behind bars or dead yet?"
Scott Gibson then looks to the models of the Egg Cannon and Time Machine. He tries to make sure they're not bugged by tapping them an inch over with a finger.
Metal Man (GM): They are merely plastic models; no bugs.
Dragoshi: "Presumed dead since the whole 'Nah Rasur' thing."
Metal Man (GM): The correspondence is vague, but it is written in Eggman's handwriting.
Scott Gibson picks them up and looks over them detail by detail.
"Guy seems to looooove his models."
Metal Man (GM): 'Obtained necessary information on time device from a business associate nearby. Said it should allow 100% chance of success. Knowledge of Questers by person is inspiring.'
Aribar: "Hrm... I see."
Dragoshi: "...Business associate?"
Fizban: "...let us continue on."
Metal Man (GM): 'Construction of Gravity Egg completed. Still working on final project. Unknown information gained from the associate has allowed me some extra time.'
The final line is such;
Fizban looks around for the next doorway out.
Metal Man (GM): 'Defeated by Questers; last project pending.'
Scott Gibson finally puts the statues down and looks at the massive final version of the Time Machine.
Alexia warps in
"Hey, sorr--ARI?!"
Metal Man (GM): The picture, you mean? The final real version is downstairs.
Dragoshi: "...Huh. Might be of importance later." *Pockets it.*
Aribar looks to Alexia. "Ah... Err... 'allo."
Darkdata: "You mentioned something about a family member named with an r, who would that be?"
Metal Man (GM): The next doorway down is shut, but not locked; it has a piece of paper on it.
Fizban moves toward it and reads.
Metal Man (GM): 'Area below this point has been rendered unstable - Avoid entering if you value your safety. -Eggman'
Darkdata: "Oh, it seems we have another guest, Pleasure to meet you, I am Darkdata."
Alexia: "'Lo..."
*She keeps glancing incredulously at Ari.*
Fizban hrms softly at the note, checking both sides, then balls it up, throws it over his shoulder, and opens the door.
Scott Gibson looks over to Alexia, "Wha'sup, Alexia?"
Metal Man (GM): A weird noise is heard; the entire room begins wavering, like it'd look through gas. Only there is no gas...
Dragoshi does the same as Scott, then looks back at the door, then foll-Or not.
Scott Gibson: "Whoa..."
Darkdata: "Woo, more messed up time."
Scott Gibson: "I'm trippin, man... trippin!"
Aribar: "Now what's going on...?"
Alexia: "...Stand guard, everyone."
Metal Man (GM): An eerie purple light can be seen through the door, which leads to a vault door on the floor.
Alexia takes out her gun.
Fizban: "...interesting... come."
Darkdata searches for a rock.
Metal Man (GM): No rocks down here.
Darkdata: "Wait you."
*Or scrap metal or something.*
Metal Man (GM): It is cracked in several places. Computers on it appear to be beeping angrily. 'DANGER: near to collapse. Do not open.'
Scott Gibson slowly follows Fizban like a drunk. This time crap is really messing with him. Must be part of the whole N.O. thing.
Metal Man (GM): There is some hunks of scrap metal around.
Fizban moves down the steps slowly, his staff held in it's casting position as he goes.
Aribar follows the others down the steps... He doesn't like this.
Metal Man (GM): You can open it easily; just unscrew the hatch.
Darkdata: "So much for testing first."
Metal Man (GM): However the distortion must come from it.
Fizban: "...Master Dex?"
Dragoshi: *Slowly follows behind the others.*
Fizban taps his pocket where the red device is located.
Darkdata picks up a small piece of scrap metal and follows them.
Smash Dex: "Danger: Time distortion. Unknown effects."
Scott Gibson: "Mind if I ask why you're always doing that, Darkdata?"
Aribar: "I really don't like this... Should we even be down here?"
Fizban: "Could you kindly restate our mission objective?"
Smash Dex: "It appears that, whereas chaos is radioactive, time is... distortiative. Go down... there... and rescue data on Iggy from the wreck. It may be too dangerous."
Darkdata: "I am picking it up to throw down ahead of us."
Fizban: "Ah, yes, well, we do not have enough about this Iggy."
Scott Gibson: "Oh."
Fizban: "The only way on is through that door."
Darkdata: "Too late now I guess, so are we going to go forward?"
Metal Man (GM): No, the hatch is shut.
Scott Gibson: "Quite frankly I'm a bit skittish of glowy purple doors and wavering space-time. Dunno why..."
Metal Man (GM): You'll need to open it to throw it down there.
Fizban: "Then we should continue onward... I have done much so far, I don't think one more will hurt."
Scott Gibson goes over and tries to open it then. Looks like there's no other way.
Fizban: "...or Master Scott will."
Metal Man (GM): It opens up... the computers make a high pitched screech before dying.
Scott Gibson: "Weird."
Darkdata: "Well that sounds delightful."
Alexia: "...This is gonna end in tears..."
Fizban: "We have no other choice."
Metal Man (GM): The wavery-ness begins to effect your movements; everything seems to be squishy now. Sound is screwed up, almost like you're underwater.
You can continue down, where it seems to only get worse.
Alexia: "...What the HECK?"
Fizban: "Co-o-o-o-ome..."
Darkdata: "Oookayy."
Dragoshi: "...Riiiiiiight."
Fizban moves slowly, as if wadding through water, through the gate and onward.
Darkdata: *Follows.*
Alexia follows the others.
Scott Gibson: "For the love of Hendrix..."
Aribar follows his Masters and the others down, wondering if he's cursed or blessed...
Scott Gibson follows the others slowly.
Metal Man (GM): Going down, colors begin to randomly morph into other ones.
Alexia: "..."
Dragoshi: *Anyway... Drag follows.*
Metal Man (GM): Clocks? Forget them. They all say "99:99."
Nope. Not yet.
Dragoshi: "...It only gets from here, I bet."
Metal Man (GM): You're in the final level before the time machine itself.
Darkdata: "I might be able to help with the colors, to stabilize them. Should I try?"
Alexia snorts. "What next? Stepping into a puddle of chair?"
Fizban: "No magic. No powers. Not yet, anyway."
"We shan't risk it."
Metal Man (GM): This area is, apparently, completely lost in time and space.
Darkdata: "Hmm, well it's 'calm' here"
Metal Man (GM): Bits and pieces of rooms from all across time and space are here; the Archelago's cockpit, R&R, Charles' tower...
Aribar: "Couldn't you guys ask Bowser for information on his children instead of trudging down here?"
Alexia: "THIS is your idea of calm?"
Metal Man (GM): You see a cave wall with a marble ceiling and a mud floor.
Darkdata: "Well are we fighting?"
Metal Man (GM): Sticks and other objects float around for no reason.
Dragoshi: "...Eh. Calm or not..."
Alexia watches the stuff float around.
Darkdata looks at the other objects.
Fizban looks for anything that stays stable, un-floating, and if not, he moves toward the time machine itself, if it is visible.
Alexia: "I think I'd rather BE fighting, thank you."
Metal Man (GM): You don't need a search check for that. And the time machine is a level below this one.
You must cross... the hallway of insanity.
Fizban: "Move quickly... we do not know what awaits us here..."
Metal Man (GM): A few signs taped with duct-tape, the only thing that seems to stick down here, say 'TURN BACK FOR YOUR OWN SAKE'
There's a spinning door at the end; it glows oddly.
Darkdata: "Soooo on we go then?"
Aribar looks at the signs... "When have we ever listened to reason?" The elf continues on...
Fizban begins moving, making for that door at as fast of a walk he can manage.
Alexia heads forward, ducking around flying garbage, and opens the door at the end.
Dragoshi: "It's worked a few times before, but... Eh." *Onward!*
Metal Man (GM): Aribar walks on, as flying tables and crossword puzzles orbit him and then abruptly morph into chocolate bars, which explode, harming no one but making a mess. A chocolate mess.
Tasty, though.
Pieces of the floor occasionally rip off and trade places with pieces of the ceiling.
Aribar: "You know, to totally jinx everything... Anyone wonder why we've been mostly untouched down here?"
Darkdata: "Looks like someone wants to trap us."
Dragoshi: "...Simple. We haven't fought anything aside from those five robots. ...I think"
Metal Man (GM): After seeing books write themselves and ice cream cones appear out of thin air... you reach the door, which opens up, revealing a green staircase down.
Alexia downwards!
Dragoshi goes down the staircase, and if for some inane reason it turns red, he stops.
Aribar steps lightly down the stairs while keeping an eye on the floor below.
Fizban does keep moving as well, quickly though.
Metal Man (GM): You finally reach the bottom... ... you wish you hadn't.
The burnt time machine is floating mid-air, with a spherical space of just air (no floor, or anything) surrounding it.