Part 16

Sorry for the blueballs last time- this update is going to have many more images than usual thanks to conversations.

And I couldn't resist answering that post

We were walking down a long, wide hall, with the door locked behind us.

Monsters are found in clumps of four or five, and we have nowhere to go but through them.

A very, very long hall. It looks like it runs all the way around the perimeter of Need A Light.

One last group of monsters...

...and a door fades out of the gloom.

It opens to us, revealing another of our comrades.

But when we go through, it closes behind us. Let's see what else we brought to this godforsaken place.

The M-79 is not only an absurdly powerful gun, but it can also use multiple types of ammo. We've already found an HE cartridge for it, but this guy is packing a different one.

Switching ammo types requires a trip to the inventory window, making it a pain to do in combat. Fortunately, HE rounds are really the only ones worth using since they will one-shot almost any monster in the game.

We only have one HE cartridge, but we can soon change that:

Pretty soon, we have a nice collection of HE cartridges.

Lock and load.

Yellow crystal, I choose you!

You should meet that cold guy we found in the pyramid. I'm sure you'd get along famously.

I thought you just said I was stuck in here

I'm not entirely sure I want to know what happened to the rest of the team now, but I don't seem to have a choice.

There's a second dead guy a ways down to the corridor.

Projectile cartridges aren't as strong as HE cartridges, so we'll stick with the latter. There really should be a reason to use projectiles, but there isn't. I'll explain why when it matters

This is really not looking good.

Really, really not.

With this in hand, we can be extracted in style by helicopter once we escape the pyramid. Without it, we have to walk, which takes 8 hours. Something to keep in mind if we ever do set the bomb timer.

Of course, if you try to wuss out and call for extraction right now:

Now then:

A nightmare jumps out and scares the crap out of me. First kill with the grenade launcher

A fourth dead American, the flashlight he dropped and-

aw, shit.

The huge blue guy shoots dual fireballs from his arms, and they really hurt!

It won't stop it just eats up grenades get away from me

This guy is tough- it takes about 15 grenades to put him down for the count. This is made difficult by the fact that the grenade launcher takes about 2 seconds to reload (unless you do it manually in the inventory), but you have several twisting corridors to retreat down.

After taking enough punishment he bursts into flames and sort of boils away into the ceiling. Phew.

This boss is never named in the game. The hint book calls it the Big Blue Meanie. Those small indie game developers sure are a cheeky lot.

By defeating the Big Blue Meanie we win another radio beacon, another worthless M-16, and some more grenades. And one last conversation.

A huge blue creature, you say?

It's not that hard. The other guy seemed to manage fine.

Ed is actually way back in the center room. Looks like Bungie could have used an editor dead people have faulty memories.

Wait... This is Steven... there was something I was supposed to ask him... Oh, right.

The bomb code is provided in the game manual: 2870334. The last 4 digits are never given in the game; a bit of old-school copy protection. But if you fail to remember that Sean told you to ask Steven about the bomb code (and he asks before the big fight, so it's very easy to forget), you won't be able to beat the game because the bomb will reject the unmodified code. That's a screw worthy of a *Quest game

Beyond the last body is a door and a dark corridor.

If we had just run past the door, all the monsters would have poured into the hallway behind us and we probably would have gotten killed if we hadn't remembered to rest. Then you have to go all the way back and try again

Well fuck that in the ear.

Beyond the door is a veritable treasure trove of... treasure. One of each kind of potion we've found so far, and this:

The amethyst ring has a subtle but annoying property: While wearing it, crystals take longer to recharge. Don't wear it, but at least it's worth 1 point and $31,000.

The door leads back into the long hall.

Oh, hey, a bunch of friends. Let's try out one of those fragmentation grenades.

I was a fraction too late for the muzzle flash. Frag grenades hit everything in the immediate area, but they're not all that useful so I'm going to just make a few of them and primarily use HEs.

Beyond the monsters is a door. It's the leftmost of the two doors I saw at the end of the last update.

It closes behind me as well.

There's only one member of our team left to find. I hope he kept that bomb with him.

Next update: