Part 7: The Tower, part 3
Having motored the maze, cuckooed the clock, and rejiggered the remote, we now finally have access to the top level of the attic.
Even though there's loose bits of machines here and there, this is easily the least cluttered room we've seen so far. It'd be downright spacious if it wasn't for that big, curved track in the middle of everything.
There's a drafting table in one corner of the room.
Our buddy Martin made a lot of things. (Some more useful than others.)
Hey, is that a hilariously mundane inventory item I see?
> Got Allen Wrench
Searching the rest of the attic turns up a few more items.
> Got Crank
> Got Cogs
In the back corner of the attic is another ladder. That's right, there's yet another floor to this place.
Only things up here are the mechanical hawks. This is where they hang out when they're not busy murdering intruders.
There's supposed to be three hawks, but I wrecked one trying to get past the cuckoo-clock gate.
I feel a little bad about that, to be honest. Though really it's Martin's fault for making such an obtuse "password."
Anyway, that's all that's up here. There's no actual point to this place, it's just so you can check out the hawks up close.
I'm almost done with the tower now.
There's a switch thingamajig on the far wall. It's locked down, but I can
----RECORD SCRATCH----
Birdman?
You're not supposed to be here. What are you doing?
WHY IS THAT TRACK PLAYING
I don't... huh? What?
Okay, so that never happened to me before. I had no idea Birdman could appear in the loft.
In the original recording, I sort of panicked at this point because I didn't know what was happening; I managed to skip the "flying away" cutscene with my frantic clicking, so I had to go back and re-record this segment.
That's when I discovered the best thing ever. See, you can thwart Birdman's antics downstairs by locking the windows, but there's nothing to lock up here. So the game lets you do something else instead!
Our reward for sending Birdman packing?
> Got Shell Lever
We get our stuff back. okay Martin's stuff but he's dead so it's our stuff now
(This is why I never saw this scene before - Birdman only shows up here if he's got the lever, and I always lock the window before he can take it!)
We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast, already in progress.
The lock on the switch can be released with the Allen wrench. Flip it, and...
Holy animal-themed flying machines, Batman!
Awesome.
Looks like the tank is empty, though. The good news is I don't have to search for fuel; Martin was a big believer in green energy.
The cogs and crank go on this thing here.
That's right, this is a hand-wound flying machine.
This will probably take a while. I'll give it a few turns, then take a look at the gauge to see if it's moved. Once I see some movement, I can get a rough estimate of how long I'll be here.
Three turns and it's almost halfway full already.
Now, I'm not going to complain about time unspent. I just don't feel as though twelve spins of a hand crank could possibly be enough. That's, like, the amount of effort I put into winding up the windows on my old car. Just how much resistance am I turning this crank against, anyway?
I don't think this game is very realistic, guys.
Violations of the conservation of energy aside, it's time to take off.
(If you send the fuel gauge into the red, the crank unwinds and you have to start over.)
End of Chapter
Next time: I talk to a girl.