Part 114: Searching

Music: On the Rocks




At least there's a place in this hotel that Rosa didn't have to clean.

What's goin' on?



We noticed.

Yeah. This is why we got cooled, Louie. Somebody didn't want us finding this.

How did they make this anyway? Why did putting a full whiskey bottle open up a secret passage? And Dunning is already inside, so how did he manage to undo the puzzle?

Aw, man!
Did you know this place had a basement?
I had no idea! The only one who ever comes down here is Mr. Smith. Do you think that he...
Yeah, I do.
So what next, Hyde?
What do you think? I'm gonna follow the rabbit down the hole.
Not by yourself, you ain't! I'm goin' too!
No. Stay here with Rosa.
No way, man! No damn way! I'm goin' with you!
You'll do what I tell you to do, and I'm telling you to wait here.
Gimme one good reason!
I need backup. I don't know what's down there. If something happens, you're going to have to come haul my ass out of the fire.

And how would Louie know if something did happen? :thunk:

I'll se that he stays put, Mr. Hyde.
If you're not back in an hour, I'll send Louis after you. For what good that'll do...

One hour is kind of a long time...

Yeah, all right, Hyde. Be careful, brother.



Don't do anything crazy, brother. Ya dig?

Oh, be careful, Mr. Hyde! I don't like this one bit!

Let's go downstairs.



Who knew there was a place like this under the hotel?

New Music: The Last Sleep


We're now in a brand newa area of the hotel, complete with its own map music. The neat thing down here is that when Kyle walks, the footstep sound echoes.



The underpass itself is very small. It's shaped like a mirrored 'L'. It ends in a recess that's definitely not a hidden door inside a hidden area or anything.



Instead let's go to the normal door inside the hidden area. The door with a bar on the outside as a lock. I'm sure that nothing will go wrong!



Bar

I moved the bar out of the way.



Shelves, huh? Those look interesting.



Let's do the usual rounds.



Cabinet 5

*Footsteps sound*





What the...? I heard someone bar the door.

Damn! I think that thing's airtight! The door's been closed from the outside! I better figure out a way out of here fast, or I'm a goner.

So basically Kyle went down alone and got trapped after 5 minutes.



*Kyle tries banging on the door*

Door won't open...



Obviously knocking does nothing. And there's no handle so we can't even try to get out. Let's just get back to examining things.


Cabinet 5 There are some dust-covered books in the shelf. Guess no one reads around here.

Book Title on the spine of the book reads, "Osterzone, the Phantom Painter."
This is all about the discovery of Osterzone's works. It was published in 1963. And it was written by...
Robert Evans.

Hold it... There's something stuck in between the pages. That's the little girl I saw in the photo from Dunning's room. This must be Dunning and Jenny.


There's a date written on the back of the photo.

Cabinet 6 There's an old guest register here.
What do we have here? The guest register from two years ago.
Let's see if I can find Grace in here.
(Here she is. August 1977. Grace Woodward. This proves it. Grace was here two years ago.)
Cabinet 7 This is a pretty random filing system.
Cabinet 8 There's a book on the shelf. It's called Life Trivia.

Book

How to sharpen cutlery, huh? This should be fascinating...
"It's common practice to use whetstone or crock sticks to sharpen blades. But did you know you can also use aluminium foil? -Instructions- Take the blade you wish to sharpen, and use it to cut up some aluminium foil. You'll be shocked at how sharp the blade becomes!"
101 uses for pencil lead? This is the dumbest book ever...
"Pencil lead is great! And it's actually graphite mixed with clay. But it's still great! It can be used to lubricate and increase the conductivity of electrical contacts! Just grind the pencil lead into powder and sprinkle it on electrical contact points!"
Sounds simple enough.
Cabinet 9 Nothing interesting written here.
Cabinet 10



It's getting...hard to...breathe...

I know that you're running out of air, but we still need to investigate!

Cabinet 10 The shelves are crammed full of files.
Cabinet 11 The labels are peeling off. I can't read anything.
Boxes There are some boxes piled up on the floor.





Box Boxes are so dirty they've changed colors.



I'm getting...dizzy...





Top drawer There's something in the drawer.

Box There's a lockbox in the drawer.

We can't solve this puzzle now! We must investigate before it's too late!
Wonder what the combination is?
Bottom drawer There's something in the drawer.

Scissors These scissors are dull. I couldn't cut hot butter with these things.
File I found a file.
Machine There's a machine with a monitor and keyboard on the table. There's a switch to the right side of the machine.
What's this thing supposed to be? Might as well turn it on and hope it doesn't blow up. Huh?
Nothing happened. That seems odd...

Like Kyle said, nothing will happen if we didn't turn on the power. However, the power will automatically turn back off. Seems we can't use it now.
Note



We're too late!

Music: Countdown
...Urrgh...aaa...
C-can't...







I know that they used the correct music this time, but Kyle's deadpan face really sucks the tension.



Especially since they're too lazy to make a new Game Over screen. Even just a white screen would've been more effective!

Anyway, who to blame for this one... I can't blame Rosa and Louie since Kyle told them to stay upstairs. I can't blame Kyle since it's kinda late for that. I also can't blame the obvious suspect Dunning because spoilers. So let's go with...

FoolyCharged" post="482878118 posted:

I'm not sure how, but it is definitely Jeff's fault.

Last time I said not to blame Jeff. But now that I really have no idea who to blame, let's blame Jeff!


Dunning: 7
Rosa: 7
Jeff: 7
Louie: 6
Martin: 4
Iris: 3
Melissa: 2
Helen: 1
Kevin: 1

Especially since Jeff is the only one who's score is close to the hotel staffs. And because this is the hardest-to-avoid Game Over, let's throw a bonus one! Who's it going to be?

Mraagvpeine" post="486086220 posted:

I'm gonna go on a limb and say a magician.

This is referring to who set up the secret door, but works here too!


Dunning: 7
Rosa: 7
Jeff: 7
Louie: 6
Martin: 4
Iris: 3
Melissa: 2
Helen: 2
Kevin: 1

For this Game Over, you don't actually have a time limit. Every time you examine an item that doesn't lead to the solution, you'll add a count. When that count reaches multiples of 5, a scene plays with the 15 point scene being the one that triggers the Game Over.

So if you don't have any idea what to do and just examine things randomly, you'll get this Game Over a lot. Speaking of examining things randomly, let's continue doing exactly that!

Music: The Last Sleep


Note It's paper with some weird ink on it. How can I read this?

And when I said the Game Over here is the hardest one to avoid? This note is why. You'll see how later.
Table It's an old wooden table.
Chair It's an old wooden chair.
Cable This cable's attached to the machine on the table.
I wonder if this is plugged in all the way.

Zoomed-in cable The machine on the table is plugged into the socket.
It's plugged in, but... It doesn't look like it's making enough contact. That means it's not going to conduct electricity.
Toolbox There's a toolbox under the table.

Hammer Hey, look. A hammer. I love hammers.

(Never turn down a hammer. Who knows when I'll need to thump somebody.)

Now that we've examined everything, let's actually try not to die.



First, we examine the Life Trivia, guest register, and Dunning's photo. The guest register isn't required now, but might as well.



Remember: 518. That's the number for the lock.





Letter There's an old envelope inside the lockbox.

Sender's name isn't anywhere on the envelope.



I won't ask anything further of you. However, our secret must never be revealed. Keep silent, and I promise that Jenny will one day be returned to you. Go back to Hotel Dusk. Be patient. September 9. 1972. Robert Evans.
Evans sent this letter to Dunning seven years ago. That's the same time Evans closed up his gallery and disappeared.

He doesn't really disappear, though. He was visiting Mila every month.

Our secret must never be revealed... What do these letters at the end mean? I wonder if it's some kind of code.



And then we examined the cable and found out that it's loose. So we do what the trivia book said would help.



Use pencil on file

Hey, I can use this to sharpen my pencil, and...



We just have to rub the pencil against the file.



Riveting.



Kyle said that he's going to sharpen his pencil, but that doesn't look sharp to me.

That should be enough.



This should improve the contacts on that plug.

After that, we use graphite powder on cable






Cable The machine on the table is plugged into the socket.
Powder There's a bunch of graphite powder around the plug.



We grab the hammer which is also not required now. Unfortunately, we can't try busting down the door with it (or the crowbar). And now for the most obscure part:

Use black light on note



This is obscure because YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE THE BLACK LIGHT AT THIS POINT, AND YOU CAN'T GET IT BETWEEN STARTING CHAPTER 10 AND NOW! Remember, we found it in the storage. We can't leave the wine cellar since we entered it.

Yeah... you can see why many people got stuck there. Oh, and the best part? This number is randomized. The letters in the letter are also randomized. You can get the number without the black light. One method is to play this on an actual DS and view it at an angle. The other method requires using the machine, so let's get to that.



Since we have the number and code, we can just input it and press enter.



But if you don't have the number (because of black light), the second method is to guess the number.

The problem is that one wrong guess result in one count toward the Game Over.

So you can guess at most 15 wrong times.

And the number here goes up to 30.

The third method is to spoil yourself on the final message.

This computer works by using ROT(number) on the code, so in this case we're going to apply ROT-18 toward the code.

ROT-(number) means replacing a letter with the (number) letter after it.

In this case the A (first letter) would become S (19th letter), B would become T, C would become U, and so forth.

That means you CAN work out what the number would be, but, as I said, you need to know what the final message would be.

And that is why this Game Over is the hardest to avoid.

Thankfully, since I grabbed the black light, I don't have to deal with all of that.

I guess that's our reward for exploring and examining everything.

Or maybe just bad game design.

That's also possible.

As for the message itself?

Here it is.