By Will Moczarski
The last time I ended my narration on a cliffhanger, promising a grisly death scene - however, that was only half true. But more about that in a while. When we last left the game we were busy collecting items to build a Leyden jar and subsequently conduct the famous Kite/Key experiment in order to get Ben Franklin out of his cozy hot tub. On the surface of it he promised to help me with my experiment if I topped up his tub with some hot water - however, my secret agenda is to get the man back into science, obviously.
And that's not even the only obstacle Pepper is currently facing. Lockjaw has - unbeknownst to Pepper - managed to escape from Ima's room but is still inside Penn Mansion, hiding in the fireplace. Poor Richard appears to have been kidnapped by the Redcoats. And the success of Uncle Fred's plan to turn the United States of America back into a colony of the United Kingdom is still becoming more likely by the minute.
But let us take stock first regarding our immediate main quest goals. We need the following items for the Leyden jar:
- an iron rod
- a rubber stopper (check)
- water
- tin (check)
- a jar (check but it's still filled with cabbage)
For the Kite/Key experiment we'll need:
- a fine silk kite
- a silken string (check)
- a brass key (check)
- a Leyden jar (working on it)
Let's deal with emptying the jar first. When I was busy distributing Poor Richard's proverbs I happened upon a goat that hadn't been there before. It's standing there right next to the gambling beatnik without any explanation whatsoever. I tried to feed it the tomato but the game remarked that Pepper might want to use it elsewhere. Then I tried the cabbage jar and the goat duly emptied it for me. I've got an empty jar now!
And now, after the introductory phase, the exploration phase, and the fetch quest opening phase we are entering the adventurer's purgatory. Have you ever run out of clues and had to resort to trying everything on everything, and to periodically checking all of the screens again for missed or new clues? That's what I call the adventurer's purgatory. In this case, even my goal was clear but I simply didn't know how to achieve it. I simply didn't know where to get the iron rod or the fine silk kite. And let me tell you, the answers were really blowin' in the wind this time...
After about half an hour of revisiting every screen and checking out everything yet again (and some rooms are cluttered with items you cannot interact with) I found the iron rod right next to Ben's hot tub. It's well hidden and looks like an element that belongs to the construction. Had I been primed to expect more pixel hunting from this game (Simon, I'm looking at you!) I might have found it sooner but up to this point Pepper's Adventures had been quite fair about that.
There is no-one in the world who would describe the next puzzle as "quite fair". After an hour of desperation I returned to Sally and tried to solve the "distract her and grab the matches" puzzle. At some point I half-seriously used the tomato on Sally and then on Pepper. Cue our grisly death scene. Yes, I admit it's fake but it sure looks real to Sally! The true casualty, however, was my adventurer's spirit. I was of a mind to throw my computer out of the window. Serves me right for volunteering to play a Sierra game. "Don't worry", they said. "It's for kids."
Poor Sally doesn't actually think that Pepper died. She IS a gullible one, though. Pepper tells her to make some hot water in order to stymy a possible infection and Sally obliges, heating up her father's tub in the process.
It's possible that this was clued and I simply didn't pay attention. Scold me in the comments if that's the case. Serves me right then but after so many meaningless and repetitive conversations about the same topics over and over again it may have slipped past me at some point. If there was no clue that I missed I think that it's a brutal puzzle, made worse by the game's previous cavalier attitude towards its own difficulty.
If you managed to come up with the self attack of the killer tomato the reward is a random bout of time-traveling to Ben Franklin's youth. The next time you exit the house through the front door a strange feeling engulfs Pepper and takes her back, quite literally. She finds herself next to a small pond with a young Ben Franklin bathing in the nude. Involuntarily, I might add, because his rascal friend Darcy stole his clothes. And now I have to say...at least the game made me learn something: I'm quick to pick up the picnic cloth and use it on Pepper now that I know it's a thing in this game. This little ghost play scares Darcy off and I can valiantly hand Ben his clothes.
Ben is thankful and takes me back to his candle shop. I can do a bit of exploring there, using the truth button on several items and learn about Ben's years as an apprentice - well, some of them, because he actually learned quite a few trades in his earlier days. After a while Ben enters the room and the two kids talk about work like grownups do. Ben mentions that he hates making candles. Pepper thanks him for dinner and then Ben suddenly remembers that he forgot to buy wicks for his father when he was in town. Faced with domestic violence Ben stalls for time and fortunately we still have that gnarly piece of string. I give it to Ben and he is eternally thankful, giving me a fine silk kite as a token of his gratitude.
Now I get where the game is coming from education-wise with the trip to Benjamin Franklin's youth - still it happens a bit out of leftfield. The usual logic plotholes that always apply to time travel aside, it's a weird section altogether. However, the screens contain some really pretty bits of pixel art so I won't complain too much. Also, the game has returned to a much easier difficulty for now.
Well, now we should have everything we need for the Kite/Key experiment, shouldn't we? When Ben asks Pepper to go swimming with him the next day she's quite embarrassed by the thought and disappears into thin air. Ben is a bit surprised, although not as much as you and me might be. And thus Pepper returns to the present which is already the past, of course. Back to the hot tub!
If you paid attention you know that I withheld some information here, namely that the tomato scene will not only make you travel back in time but also enable you to make some hot water for Ben. Having held up my end of the deal I return to ye ol' slacker and assemble the Leyden jar in his face. But wait, I forgot to get the water for my jar! Maybe I can just steal some from Ben's tub? Fortunately, it works. I was getting worried I might have to go back to purgatory.
I can now give all of the necessary items to Ben, and he will reluctantly go outside into the (conveniently) approaching thunderstorm with me. I'll show, rather than tell you, the experiment:
And that's it, folks. Ben is healed and leaves me alone to tell Deborah all about it. Then there's another short quiz and act 3 is history. And although this post was a bit shorter than the last one it seems like a good place to stop. Next time we witness the return of Lockjaw and make George Harrison proud.
Session time: 1.5 hours
Total time: 4 hours 20 minutes
Not yours, Ben, don't be scared now!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many parents chuckled at the movie reference there, reading over their kid's head. Nicely done.
Absolutely. The game is full of little jokes that only adults would understand. Over their kid's head, indeed.
DeleteIt's possible that this was clued and I simply didn't pay attention. Scold me in the comments if that's the case.
ReplyDeleteWeeelll... I think it was pretty well clued up when Sally says that the only reason she would boil some water is if there was some kind of emergency. And the "tomato sauce as blood" is a pretty well-known cartoonish trope.
I agree that the trope is well-known. To me, the clue was rather obscure, though, for two reasons: I was confused by the fact that it was only one ripe tomato. I can see the association of a bunch of tomatoes with tomato sauce and then artificial blood but one tomato? Didn't see it. Also, using the tomato on Pepper may be justifiable in hindsight - at the time it seemed like an obscure thing to do. But maybe that's just me. Sometimes one player's easy-peasy is another player's stumbling block.
Delete