Part 8: Episode 4: Ant Terrorism

_{Episode 4: Ant Terrorism}



We went inside the mouth of a personified tree and came out with a bucket of its mucus. Now we can take on the ant hill seen to the left. Pill up!









The hill before you is made up tiny bits of sand that have been collected from various areas.

The door is locked. I asked the thread how we'd have to unlock the door. The closest guess was:

The real solution is much simpler than that, I'm afraid. This isn't Gabriel Knight. No, our key is this bad boy:


A brick of C4. No charges or detonator, just the wad. This is a dream, so science and ballistics do not matter.




You throw the brick at the door, half expecting nothing to happen, when it explodes and blows the door off of the hill! Must have been plastic explosive.

Keep in mind that we found that C4 inside a pop can. Do you have any idea how many tiny wads of plastic explosive you may have ingested in your lifetime? Your stomach is an improvised explosive device. You are a human bomb, and CliffyB has the detonator.






Let's go inside the hill.



The scene before you is an interesting one. Three exits and a mirror beckon to you. The floor of the anthole is assembled from the finest stone. The only sound from above is that of the wind blowing.

That mirror is kind of crooked... I mean, aside from the baffling angle thing. I should probably straighten it.



Well, I got a nail out of the deal. And a safe to crack! But no glass shards, since I have no need to pick flowers in this game.

The nail is slightly bent at the end but it will serve for whatever purpose you can think of.

Moving on to the left door...



A cheery guard holds his post in the center of the alcove.



His name is Clifford. One could suggest that Cliffy inserted himself as an ant as part of a projection of his teenaged low self-esteem and agraghaghraraghahublububababagronk.


Hi, I'm Tyler. And you are...
Clifford. I'm a guard, in case you didn't notice. My wife's in the other room, she won't talk to anyone unless they speak to me first.
Where did you get all these coins?
Oh, here and there. They show up in different spots at different times...
What does your, um, -breed- of ants eat?
Fruit. Most of the tiny creatures around here eat it too. It's all that's available! And, it isn't that bad.


Clifford's a fantastic guard. He's not only chatting up strangers in his house, but he's chatting up terrorists that just blew their way in. And now that we've talked to him, we can visit his wife. You're doing a heckuva job. So let's mack on the ant queen in the middle room.



A burnt-out lightbulb sits next to the Ant. The walls are made of a dried mud that has cracked here and there.




Hi, I'm Tyler. Are you the Ant Queen?
No, I'm the Ant King... Of COURSE I'm the Ant Queen! Sheesh! Who else would I be???
Why do you keep your husband in the other room?
Because he asked too many stupid questions! No, seriously, I need someone to guard our 'coin collection' until I have my kids. Plus, he's supposed to keep people like YOU out.
Why do you lock your door?
Protection is essential when living amoungst(sic) idiots like that cat and dog in the barn! But now since YOU blew the stupid thing off we'll have to just get a new one <sigh>.

Tyler, you're a dick. Just laying it out there. In the final room, we find...



Various magical fruits sit on the floor waiting to be consumed.

And that's it! Mostly a useless visit, but we did get a nail out of the bombing attack. And I know just where to use it.







Now we can go higher and, god willing, blow it up.



You are now in the heart of the tree. The leaves are so thick that you cannot even see the barn from here. The leaves of the tree seem to glow with a life of their own. Strange glowing fruit adorns the core of the tree.

Is that... is that penguin wearing a snuggie?




My name's Ty. What's yours?
Robyn. Usually. Unless the pig flies west over Guam...
Soooo, anything of interest around here?
Around here? Not much... My life consists of flying around here and stealing one item a day from some poor sap. I then hide it...
Can I, um, get killed around here?
Get killed? I haven't yet, so you won't...
What do you know about that barn?
There are two mischevous(sic) animals fighting away in there. I don't know what to do about them, if you make one move the other will attack...
Why do these trees have faces on them?
It adds atmosphere. Why else???


OH MY GOD THE WACKY!!! He's so random!!!!! Robyn was ten years too early to be on a Hot Topic lunchbox. Cliffy, you were a boy ahead of your time. Robyn does have one use, though. See where his, uh, wing-like thing is sort of pointing? That's a new screen. Let's hop over there now.



A small spider web hammock rests on the branch you're on (which, by the way, keeps bobbing up and down).

There's a small block of pixels here hiding some of Robyn's stolen goods.




The key is little and ordinary, however a ridiculous looking troll doll with an enormous green afro is chained to it...

Hands up who here remembers the troll doll craze in the 90's? What's that? No one gives a damn? That's the correct answer! Now that we have a key, we can use it on this safe:



So my question to you, with all the knowledge of this game you have now, what's inside the safe?