Part 20: The Fortress, part 2
That monster! Everywhere I go he's in my way! Everywhere! ARRRRGH!
Okay, let's calm down. I'm not trapped, not as long as I have the submarine. The problem is that the corridor and the statuary tower are the only two routes I have to the far side of the fortress. If I want to get over there - and I'm not leaving the fortress half-explored - I need to deal with the monster somehow.
Fighting the monster is out of the question. He's gotta be at least three times my weight in muscle, and the fortress is too cramped for me to take advantage of his clumsiness. Not to mention that my selection of bludgeons is currently limited to Aunt Thelma's umbrella. There's buzzsaws in the workshop, but I can't move them, nor is there any way to get the monster in there.
So forget violence. I'll have to use my wits.
Maybe I can squeeze out here into the courtyard, and climb up to the far tower from there? Kind of a long shot, but...
Wait. That track. "The Monster?" Why is that playing here?
Dark Being?! How the fuck did you get here?
Then again, he's left me on the beach twice now, so he must have some way of travelling by water. Maybe he's got a motorboat. You can track his progress by the trail of wounded manatees!
Ahem. I can't fit through this window - not that I'd really want to at the moment - but watching the Dark Being tease the monster has given me an idea.
I've got a fish in my inventory. I can use it as a lure. There's no good place to put it in the corridor, so I'll leave it up in the statuary tower instead.
The inner chamber is too easy to reach - I need the monster to be preoccupied for several minutes at the least. Getting all the way up here should take him a while.
Now I just need to make the fish visible somehow, so he knows it's up here.
Presto, trap set! Now, let's get back downstairs and wait for it to take the bait.
(status of fish: still alive)
It's still in the courtyard. I may have a bit of a wait on my hands.
While I'm waiting, I'll cut some more long planks to replace the ones that broke.
There! He's seen the bait. Time to get to work.
Moment of truth.
Success! Let's hurry across before Big Ugly gets back.
Across the bridge is a smithy of some kind. I've got no time for that, though!
When I was taking in the view earlier, I saw something on the top of this tower. Something... dangerous.
I was right! (And so was CrookedB, good eyes.)
Well, well. Look who's showed up for the party.
(status of fish: still alive)
Bertha doesn't come loaded, but the ingredients I need are close at hand.
> Got Cannonball
> Got Gunpowder
> Got Fuse
The gunpowder needs to go behind the cannonball, naturally. Loading it in reverse won't kill you, but you'll feel kind of silly when you fire it.
Also important is to get the cannon pointed in the right direction. The game is more than happy to let you fire it in the wrong direction!
Not that it really matters, since there's an unlimited supply of ammo, powder and fuses. But again, it's a rather silly mistake.
Here goes nothing.
M-M-MONSTER KILL
I'd stay and gloat, but I've got a burning urge to go see what he was guarding. Meet you at the statuary room!
(status of fish: still alive)
Let's see what's behind Door #1, now that the answer is not "a cave troll."
Okay, not exactly surprising.
One more good look at the fortress as a whole. We won't be here much longer, I'm afraid!
And out to sea... whoah. The volcano's closer than I though.
Man, look at that cloud of smoke! Maybe the priests were right about the Dark Being after all. That much pollution would cause major problems for anyone living nearby. If the cloud keeps growing...
Okay, found my resolve. This is the last tower. There better be something good inside.
It all makes sense now. Leonardo da Vinci was from this world. It explains so much.
There's a lever off to my right. You know what we do to levers in these parts? That's right. We pull them.
That spins the ornithopter right 'round baby, right 'round. so very sorry
Before I attend to that, though, there's something interesting on this table here.
> Got Fortress Key.
Odd. I haven't seen any locks in the fortress. All the doors were open, there weren't any chests or strongboxes...
Anyway! Let's take this bird for a spin.
Control Panel count: 14
So many buttons! ...sadly none of them work. Something's wrong. And if you've been paying attention to the last sixteen chapters at all, you can probably guess what the problem is.
See that over there? Power supply.
Hrrm. The crank's stuck. What if I switch that pointer from – to +?
Ah, and now that it's linked to the aircraft, I can spin the crank and charge its... battery? No, they don't have electricity here, they transfer power around by means of physical belts. Clockwork was Martin's shtick, so I don't the ornithopter would use a spring. Is there any other way of storing power that might work? I can't think of one.
EDIT: As pointed out by Dabir, blueprints for the ornithopter can be found in Martin's Roost, so this is one of his creations and probably is spring-powered.
I really should have had a counter for "restoring power to machines." Ah, hindsight.
Okay, now it's time to go!
...Welp.
End of Chapter