Earthbound – Day 10

–Day 10–

The journey to Grateful Dead Valley from Twoson isn’t a very long one. In fact, it’s right on the other side of a rather short cave system. Saving Paula is going to be a piece of cake.

On second thought, maybe this is going to be a bit difficult. We aren’t too far into the valley, and already there’s an inconvenience. The bridge is out, so it looks like we’re going to have to take the long way around to the Happy-Happy Village at the other end.

Also, I don’t want to alarm anyone, but there is a lot of UFO activity in the area, making this a rather dangerous place to be. On the plus side, we found out how the Teddy Bear actually helps during battle. While fighting, occasionally the enemy will attack the Teddy Bear instead of Ness. The Teddy Bear actually does have quite a bit of health, but unfortunately it will eventually break and be gone forever. It’s a cool mechanic, but I don’t think it’s something I’ll be wasting my money on. Those Teddy Bears were actually kind of expensive.

Today simply doesn’t seem to be my day for saving Paula. Just a little ways upstream from the broken bridge is another obstacle blocking the path. This time, it’s an “Iron Pencil” statue. Maybe this is what the Suporma is for, I don’t think it will work, but I’m not really sure what else I’m supposed to do to get around this thing.

And just like I thought, no, that didn’t do anything to help me. In fact it doesn’t seem like it did anything at all. After playing a little song, the whole thing just broke. A lot of good that did, I want my $200 back!

Nothing else with me does anything good, so we head back to town to regroup. I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do right now. We’ll just have to ask around and see if we can pick up some clues. In the meantime, Ness took a bit of damage in the valley, so we’re going to take a quick nap at the hotel to recover. Coincidentally, this looks like it might have been the right thing to do. While sleeping, Paula reaches out telepathically to Ness again. So that’s good, we at least know she’s still alive, but she doesn’t really give us any new information to help her.

As soon as we leave the Hotel, Paula’s dad goes running by calling out to her. He really is the last person in town to realize she’s been kidnapped, isn’t he? Once again, it seems like this is a good lead, but after catching up to him in front of the Preschool, we really don’t gain any new information. He directs us to Everdred, but Everdred already had nothing new to say to us.

Maybe one of the inventers can make something to help. Orange kid is of no use right now. He doesn’t even offer to fix the Suporma that broke after one use. How about if we give Apple kid some food like he was asking for earlier? Maybe if he gets some food he’ll actually invent something to help us.

After getting some food in his stomach, Apple Kid is quick to ask Ness to invest some money in his inventions. I’m a bit hesitant though, I kind of regret the last $200 I invested, but I don’t have many options at the moment. So once again I invest $200 into the mystery creations of these inventers.

Unlike Orange Kid, Apple Kid has nothing to immediately offer me. However, the mouse living with him blocks the exit to give us a “thank you” present for being so nice to his master. He hands us a Receiver Phone, a device which functions similar to a pager. It can receive messages, but it’s incapable of making any calls itself. That sounds useful in general, but not really all that helpful for our current problem.

Maybe I’m not supposed to go save Paula right away. Maybe I’m supposed to take the bus to Threek first and find help there. Wait a second, One-tt, Two-son, and Three-k? I see what you’re doing game, don’t think I wouldn’t notice. Anyway, let’s take the bus to Threek and see if we can recruit some help over there.

Once again, this is a task which is easier said than done. Apparently the tunnel between Twoson and Threek is full of ghosts. They don’t seem immediately dangerous, however, they have magic ghost powers which turn the bus around and make it impossible to make it to Threek yet. So it looks like we’re stuck here in Twoson for the moment. It also means SOMEONE here in town knows how to help us, we just need to find them.

Join me next time as we comb through Twoson looking for whatever it is we need to get past the Iron Pencil statue. Hang tight Paula, We’re still coming to save you!