No, seriously, I swear I haven't forgotten about this. I'm just an easily-distracted person.
But for all your patience, you get... a really short update! Can't really be helped; this is just one of those points in the game where they give you lots of prompts one after the other. I tried to pad it out a bit, but...
Either way, enough of that. Let's see who our man of mystery is.
"Well that's downright serendipitous, your stumbling into me. Yes, I can help you. And more than that, you're gonna help me."
1) "Huh? I've hardly told you anything yet."
2) "I doubt it."
3) "Who are you?"
> 3
"'Dustin' is my name. You don't have to tell me yours, Chief." Then he slaps you on the shoulder and heads for the door, turning once only to say, "We'll meet again. Be there."
Dustin exits the bar.
"Samson got the same threshold for how mucha your stories he can take in a day that I got. And the both of us is at our limits."
Samson chuckles a little underneath some grunting. The scraggly man shrugs and says, "Don't know what you mean. I haven't but said the same thing I always say. You get nothing new out of me."
The bartender nods knowingly.
It’ll be a while before we see Dustin again. We didn’t really have to meet him, but the characters in this game are fairly interesting, so we’ll be meeting them all at least once this LP.
In the meantime, let’s pad out this update and check out the western room.
> west
You move west.
Pool Room
This back room of the bar has little to offer to anyone who is not a fan of pool. The pool table stands among shadows and rickety shelves holding old trophies. East is the only exit.
Ominous.
There are a few things here we can pick up that might be useful later on, so let’s get looting. First up, one of the billiard balls.
> look pool table
It looks like a standard pool table, a couple feet off the ground, with a green felt surface, and a hole at each corner. But where are the balls and cues? You can see none of that.
Maybe they’re in one of the holes?
> look in hole
There is nothing intrinsically special about any of the holes on the pool table. You peek into the nearest one. It is empty.
...Or not. It might show up here in another chapter, so we’ll move on and check back later.
Next, monies!
> look trophies
There are many trophies of various shapes and sizes, corresponding to different athletic activities that somebody somewhere excelled at.
There should be a little change stuffed behind these old trophies. We’ll need all the money we can get.
> move trophies
You can't move the trophies.
Okay, uh. How about…
> look behind trophies
You look behind the trophies and find that somebody left $1.50 there! Must have been someone who lost a bet and didn't want to pay up completely. You pocket the money.
Zing! Might not seem like a lot, but in crazy PK Girl-world, a buck-fitty will buy quite a lot. Also, expect me to suck miserably at finding things hidden behind other things. The commands for finding hidden stuff (especially money) are usually really specific, and if you don't get it just right, you're out of luck.
Having successfully looted the bar, let’s go check and see if Laurie’s alright.
> south
You move south.
Street in Front of Bar
The street continues on east and west. The area north is occupied by a dingy bar. To the south is an alley. A solitary lamppost stands at a corner, partially lighting this darkened street. It could do with some company. Laurie is waiting for you under the lamppost.
Gradually Laurie tilts her head sideways and asks, "Are you done in there yet? My sister is being held somewhere and there is no time for carousing." She fails to keep indignation completely out of her tone.
1) "Hey, valuable information can sometimes be gleaned from hanging out in bars."
2) "After just one more drink. Hang on... Just kidding!"
3) "Yes, I'm sorry about that."
Turns out, she’s alive! And pissed we ditched her to hang with guys in a bar. Will we defuse the situation, or irritate Laurie further?
