Ruby Quest: Chapter 13-14

Ruby is somewhere

TOM is here

Say hello

>Say hello Ruby says hello. Tom says hello back. Tom says his eye hurts.

RED is here.

Red is holding a wooden disc.

Ask red to help with examining tom.

>Ask red to help with examining tom. Red says he is very, very tired of you asking. Red cuts ??? with the WOODEN DISC

Red is TWO COINS fishtank Gas is seeping into the room Vial ??? TOM Ruby tries RUBBER GLOVES access ??? doorway button

"WAKE UP!!!!"

">WAKE UP!!!!" This isn't real.

Ruby is in the dummy room.

Ruby's inventory feels lighter.

"Use eye disk on wall circle."

">Use eye disk on wall circle." Ruby doesn't have the eye disc. Ruby picks up the CROSS PEG from where she was just standing.

Ruby exits the dummy room. TOM is here.

"Greet tom, ask him if he has seen red, ask him how his eye/stomach are feeling."

">Greet tom, ask him if he has seen red, ask him how his eye/stomach are feeling." Tom says his stomach is feeling much better, but his eye is in severe pain. He doesn't know who "Red" is... but he does say that if you mean that person who keeps smiling, yes, he saw him. Red let Tom out of the room he was trapped in, just a few minutes ago. Tom came out to look for Ruby. Tom is glad to see Ruby. He says he thought she might be dead.

"Ask to look at Tom's eye!"

">Ask to look at Tom's eye!" Tom hesitantly agrees to let Ruby take a look at his eye.

Tom shakes Ruby gently by the shoulder. He asks if she is okay -- she just sort of blanked on him for a moment there.

"...ask Tom to walk to the other side of the room, she thinks she sees something."

">...ask Tom to walk to the other side of the room, she thinks she sees something." Tom tells Ruby there's no way he's walking across the room, as he doesn't want to fall into the gap. Tom tells Ruby she must not have noticed it. He says it's understandable, since she obviously hasn't been here for a while.

"Ask Tom what has happened in the time she has been gone."

">Ask Tom what has happened in the time she has been gone." Tom explains he's not sick anymore. He took an antidote three days ago. He hasn't seen much, since he's been locked in a room, but he says that he's been hearing loud creaking and cracking noises echoing from other rooms.

"Tell Tom to show you where he was locked up."

">Tell Tom to show you where he was locked up." Tom agrees, and leads Ruby up the access hatch.

...that's funny. Tom says this doorway was just open.

Inspect everything

>Inspect Everything There's a utilitarian metal hamper here. Something is inside. Ruby decides to get it. One moment. There's a pit in the center of the room, spattered with dried blood. Sitting in the center is a scrap of paper. Ruby will pick that up in just a second, too. The hatch in the southeast corner has a ladder, and looking down, it appears to lead into the cell room below. Something about that fact seems odd. The corner has some sort of strange, smooth organic growth latched onto two walls and the floor. It looks almost like skin.

Ruby picks up a SCRAP OF PAPER from the shallow pit. Ruby finds a FOOTY SOCK PAJAMA FOOT in the hamper, evidently torn from a full set of pajama bottoms and tied off at about the ankle. It's slightly heavy.

"Untie the footie pajama, dump out possible contents with care."

">Untie the footie pajama, dump out possible contents with care." Inside the FOOTY SOCK PAJAMA FOOT, there is a BLACK AND WHITE key. Ruby throws away the FOOTY SOCK PAJAMA FOOT. Her genre instinct tells her she won't need it.

"Examine the growth more closely, too. Is it full or hollow? Fleshi or what?" "Crawl down the southeastern hatch, if it looks like we can do it without falling."

" >Examine the growth more closely, too. Is it full or hollow? Fleshi or what?" It's smooth and fleshy. It's like skin. ">Crawl down the southeastern hatch, if it looks like we can do it without falling." The second hatch now has a ladder leading down. That wasn't there before.

Ruby descends the access hatch and enters the room below.

Pull lever

>Pull lever Ruby tries to pull the lever, but something's locking it from moving. It looks like part of the mechanism is missing, like a thin metal rod. About the size of a toothpick.

Ruby ties a small bit of string to the lever, then climbs back up to the room where she first awoke. Tom is still here, looking the door over in confusion.

Inspect Toms eye again

Tom says his eye still hurts. Or rather, it hurts where it's supposed to be.

Tom explains that he lost his eye while he was being dragged off to the room he spent the last few days in. The thing that brought him there did it. Ruby must just not have noticed, between her flashes and distractions.

"Ask Tom to describe the "thing" that brought him there, if he remembers."

" >Ask Tom to describe the "thing" that brought him there, if he remembers." Unfortunately, Tom says he didn't get a good look at whatever dragged him away. He was already sick. He says most of the pain of his eye has gone away by now. Poor Tom's lost his eye. Ruby hugs him for comfort.

Tom looks like he feels better. Ruby tells Tom what's happened. Tom explains he's been weak and despondent lately, and unfortunately can't help her with many details, except that the western door in the room with the big console (the one that the fishtank-door leads to) is the way into the room he was trapped in. They both agree that the only thing to do now is go forward.

"Explore what was once the z hatch"

">Explore what was once the z hatch" Tom and Ruby both go back down the access hatch to check the z- hatch. Also, there is a hook on the ground here -- but it is not sharp, and it is riveted firmly to the ground. It's essentially just a heavy- duty eyehook.

"Examine the symbol now above the z-hatch."

">Examine the symbol now above the z- hatch." Ruby has a feeling she's seen this before somewhere.

"Examine the black panel thingy. Then go through the hatch if the panel isn't intresting."

" >Examine the black panel thingy. Then go through the hatch if the panel isn't intresting." It's some sort of movable wall panel, but it won't budge. It must be remotely-controlled. Ruby and Tom both head through the Z-Hatch.

Ruby and Tom emerge in the back room. In the small closet to the east, on a shelf, there is a large metal safe. Instead of a combination lock, it has a spherical indentation about as big as Ruby's fist, like a socket. The room is also quite clean.

"See what is around the safe/shelves. Examine the bulb. Examine the lock more closely." "..Use key on safe?"

">See what is around the safe/shelves. Examine the bulb. Examine the lock more closely." The shelves are bare. The lightbulb is on, looking unremarkable and harsh. The lock is simply a spherical indentation -- there's nothing more significant about the socket to speak of. That's all there is to it. ">..Use key on safe?" Ruby uses the BLACK AND WHITE KEY on the WALL CABINET.

Inside the wall cabinet, Ruby finds another PAPER SCRAP. She also recovers an old-fashioned, black leather MEDICINE BAG.

Ruby can't open the MEDICINE BAG. There's a TINY PADLOCK of surprising strength keeping it closed.

"Go east. Bring Tom."

">Go east. Bring Tom." Ruby heads WEST (remember, the view was reversed on entering the back room) and -- now that the hatch is much larger -- she is able to take Tom with her into the side room behind the couch.

"ask tom to put his hand in the water tank, press the button on it."

">ask tom to put his hand in the water tank, press the button on it." Considering it's a GIANT BLENDER, Ruby decides not to ask Tom to put his hand inside. The window between the rooms is now sealed with a heavy plastic, perhaps to avoid breaking. The electrical panel has been covered up by a protective plate and marked with the symbol for electricity. There is an electrical outlet visible here.

"Uhh... Is that a hatch under the window? A little hatch maybe? Can it be opened?" "Check floor for scuff marks, footprints, etc."

">Uhh... Is that a hatch under the window? A little hatch maybe? Can it be opened?" The mail-slot style drawer between the rooms, which Ruby has used before, is now empty. It's also clean. ">Check floor for scuff marks, footprints, etc." Ruby heard you the first time, but there's nothing it yielded worth noting. So, no. Nothing.

"Examine the 3 thingy." "If it gives nothing of importance head back to dummy room with Tom"

">Examine the 3 thingy." The symbol looks familiar. Ruby remembers seeing that one, too. ">If it gives nothing of importance head back to dummy room with Tom" Ruby and Tom head back to the now-bisected room, and then the Dummy room.

As soon as Ruby re- enters the bisected room, the Z-Hatch inexplicably slams shut. Tom is sealed on the opposite side of the wall from Ruby.

"Again? This is getting kinda old. Go to console upstairs and enter open zhatch 211"

">Again? This is getting kinda old. Go to console upstairs and enter open zhatch 211" Ruby returns upstairs...

The person behind the door tosses a small, thin metal rod onto the floor. The door closes suddenly. Ruby recovers the THIN METAL ROD.

"Check on Tom." "whelp, go back to the lever/handle thing, put the rod back in place and give the fucker a tug"

">Check on Tom." Ruby can't check on Tom! He's sealed behind the Z-Hatch... and the terminal isn't working! It won't even light up! ">whelp, go back to the lever/handle thing, put the rod back in place and give the fucker a tug" Ruby climbs down......and replaces the metal rod into the lever.

Ruby pulls the lever up......only to find it has far more slack than she realized! Something in the room moves in response to the pulling of the lever, but Ruby can't really see it from here.

Ruby releases the lever, and it snaps back up (down?) into place. Something in the room moves, again.

"Pull it tight and tie it to one of the rungs of the ladder with the string!"

">Pull it tight and tie it to one of the rungs of the ladder with the string!" The thick cord easily snaps the flimsy string.

"bring lever up the ladder with you. If there is still slack head back down to side of room with the eye hook and attach lever to eye hook"

Ruby attempts to press the second button from the top... but it's been mashed in and broken! It looks like someone struck it hard with something. Or else they don't know their finger strength. ">bring lever up the ladder with you. If there is still slack head back down to side of room with the eye hook and attach lever to eye hook" Ruby heads upstairs... There sure is a lot of slack here.

Ruby hooks the lever's handle onto the eyehook.