Rata Mall - Zombie Chat

[RubberDuck]

The more Zombies you add, the more powerful you become.

\

Didn't know that detail.

So here's the short of it, we are weak, chronically weak, my combat ability is 1d4 and yours is 1d2, meaning if we come up against anyone strong they will almost always out roll us if they are rolling 1d6 or 1d7.

Different equipment can boost those stats, so we need to get armed and fast.

I only have enough serum to convert a total of 5 players, 2 remaining doses on my person and a top up for 2 more hidden away at the barbershop (assuming no one else has found it) There are immune players, so if i stick the wrong person we have to be ready to throw down. I am allowed to try and convince players to allow me to jab them willingly as well as trying to stick them while they are distracted.

How is your stick for combat? does it give you any advantages?

What I need from you now, is to know everything you know so far, who you have worked with, spoken to, and any relevant actions taken so far.

[RubberDuck]

Hmm ok,

I'm thinking we need to look for some environment kills, I considered locking you in the freezer when you went for the food, but it has an emergency hinge release on the interior.

I checked the stove, utensils, and microwave, to turn on the gas and put metal and paper in the microwave and turn on high, hoping to blow you up while you checked the room but the gas is not running and needs to be turned back on, so I'm thinking that should be a side goal, get the gas running and we can rig this room to blow, if we are lucky we might be able to take out some stronger players.

I think Green Crayons might have a gun and he's old, so perhaps easy to convert.

[RubberDuck]

What was your original role and win conditions, might need you to continue acting that one out once we go back into the Eatery.

[RubberDuck]

Character: Dr Lacey Higgs
Alignment: EVIL

You are a Zombie Queen hellbent on creating a Zombie Army on earth. Your goal is to convert or kill every remaining player, by means of a Zombie Virus.
If you are alone in a room with a player you may attempt to infect them with a Zombie Virus to which you are immune. You have a syringe in your possession you can stab people with. Not all players are able to be converted, so if you stab them, they will react (presumably angrily) so you can try to convince them to let you do it. By force or by sweet convincing words, either works. THere are up to 5 players you can infect. If you run out of Virus, there is more hidden in the Barbers shop - as long as no one else finds that first, you can replenish.

Once a person is a Zombie, their win condition changes to win alongside you. Any win condition they had previously is discarded.

Note: You *may* attempt to convert a player with other people present, but I will warn you up front - that's an exceptionally dangerous thing to do. You are counted as alone with a player if your Zombies are also present.

You are a tall, stunningly beautiful woman, with one blue eye and one green eye. You are dressed in jeans, and a plain white top. You are 32 years old.

Inventory
You are carrying:
Stopwatch on a chain
Aspirin
Bandages
Syringe with Zombie Fluid (Enough for 3 jabs)
Kettle
Newspaper

Base Strength
Your base strength is FOUR. This means if you attack a player, you will roll a 4 sided dice to determine if you win or not.
If you are carrying additional weapons, these may increase your strength.

Win Conditions
1. You must successfully convert at least one player to being a Zombie
2. Become the Sole Survivor by any means necessary. (With or without any Zombies who will win with you)

You check your stopwatch.

It's engraved with the name Dr Ben Nerrow.

You open it it up, and see that there is a photo of an old man. He's the one who invented the Zombie Virus. He's dead now, you think he might have once owned a store in this mall. The thought comes back to you - that's right - he was a little bit pyschopathic. He was going to be arrested, so he changed his identity and bought a store here in the mall. But the apocalypse took him to the grave.

A shame, because two of you with this virus would have been so much more powerful

[RubberDuck]

Regarding Puzzles:
In the hardware store with

MNO

Duck (Dr Lacey), Zag (Mark), Ariel (Carla), and CaptainMeme (Jia) was a CRT television with a pair of tv reception rabbit ears and connected to a 2nd hand VHS for sale which no one investigated. Maybe there was a VHS tape inside, did anyone think to turn it on to see what happened? There is a TV out here in the eatery by the ATMs, that turns on, but is lacking a remote or signal - maybe these things could have been used together to make a working object that could help us figure out a piece what's going on or how to progress something.

There was a clock in the HW store that could have been looked at, potentially yoinked for 2 more batteries which might be useful elsewhere. There was possibly a back room, why do I say that? The HW store CCTV camera was noted to be on and recording, meaning there either is a back room that camera is connected to perhaps a basic security setup like what you might find in a Pawn Broker, or the mall might have a central Security Operations room somewhere and if that's the case, there might also be weapon lockers with handguns, ammo, or batons, or first aid etc.. that Mall Cops could have been using pre-collapse of society. Also, if that [air quotes] "room" exists, it could theoretically be used to monitor all the other rooms that have working CCTV.
(Fingers crossed for a Paul Blart - Segway Scooter.)

I managed to snag 4x batteries from the two clocks here in the eatery (Did seriously none of you look at the map and think, what the hell is an OGUE CLOC and why are there two of them in the eatery?). Do I have a need for them, not yet, but they might come in useful, especially if we find a remote or other item that needs AA-batteries for instance, speaking of which, CaptainMeme (Jia), did the barcode scanner you found in the Hardware store work, does it turn on, can it be plugged in or does it need batteries to operate?

For example, there's a treadmill in the corner of the HW store that no one tried to look at or turn on. If nothing else someone should have at least tried to comically launch items off the treadmill at max speed.

I picked up a can of cola from the dispenser slot in the cola machine that apparently no one checked at the start. Maybe I need to make a man-eating plant burp, who knows.

One of the ATMs is displaying out of cash, and the other is ready and waiting for a card to be entered, so that could be an option to get cash for the Seer Machine (which players have already used successfully.)

The grill in the flip n burger turns on, so things can be heated up, if we had anything flammable we could light a fire, who knows maybe we might need to set the fire suppression system off in one of the stores at some point.

Obviously the bathrooms are now a source of water if we need it.

The stairs going up are bricked off and barricaded.

The stairs going down lead to a basement, which I'm assuming is one big room otherwise Amb would have updated the map or listed basement as a room that can now be travelled to?

The Elevator needs power, and we know there is a generator book which is potentially a how to guide.

We know there is a movie theatre but not sure where it is yet, which means there is potentially another set of toilets for movie patrons, a candy store/ticket purchase area, and the theatre room itself as well as a movie projector. Suspect it is on floor two of the complex and the elevator is the way to it and getting power to the elevator seems like a likely solution.

We still don't know details of what's in the other rooms.

[RubberDuck]

This is all I got out of Groza:

Forgive my frankness, but as your motives are still largely unknown, I trust we have an understanding that I am trying to help because it makes more information available rather than because of your feminine wiles. I doubt the dwarf will be so malleable either, though the young man in denim... perhaps. But I am more than willing to provide assistance as long as I deem your course proper.

You seemed to be scanning the room rather frenetically. Are you looking for something in particular? I observe that you are a doctor; I hope there is not some poor soul bleeding out on the street corner while we probe the mysteries of the mall?

[RubberDuck]

and Green Crayons

But what are you trying to do here at the mall?

I'm here to help others help themselves. If you've got an interesting thing you ultimately want to do, and it sounds fun, I'm happy to help out. If it sounds boring I... will probably still help, but not as enthusiastically.

Note that he wants to know what I'm doing while not sharing anything of his own.

[RubberDuck]

Ah forgive the copy past of the hardware store rant, I wrote that in anger, too many people trying to play this like its Mafia and only wanting to figure out people alignments rather than actually figure out the rooms.

[RubberDuck]

We can probably aggravate Green Crayons into trying to attack you, as you keep trying to steal from him, if I can lure him into a room somewhere with the promise of helping him take you out and ""patching him"" back up after the fight, we could jump him and then tell Pooky that GC tried to attack me and you had to save me from him?

[RubberDuck]

One thing that might come back to bite me is my whisper response to Groza, I wasn't expecting to pull a recruit as easily as I did, as I too thought Pooky was going to come in here.
I was trying to sell myself as being only useful as a doctor.. I was unaware of the growing stronger mechanic with more followers.


<Thank you>

I trust we have an understanding that I am trying to help because it makes more information available rather than because of your feminine wiles.

Agreed, I have a Hippocratic oath taken by my physicians doctoral degree, whereby I promise to observe ethical principles in the practice of medicine and to first do no harm. I am allowed to try to defend myself if attacked, though I am currently unarmed and not strong enough to win in melee combat.

The machine needs $20 or 1 point of Str to operate, I tried to use it, but I am not strong enough. Diplomacy is going to be the way forward for me here.

You seemed to be scanning the room rather frenetically.

In particular I am looking for medical supplies or items that might be made into make shift healing as well as trying to free things up to figure out this puzzle mall. Best way to solve this mystery is to investigate literally everything, push, pull, look at every item, don't you think?

There's a tv by the ATMs here that needs a remote control, those TV's usually are set to broadcast Mall specific ads, might be some clues if we can get it working, there was also a VHS and TV rabbit ears in the hardware store, but no one investigated them...
<Sarcastic Thanks to MNOWAX for idly doing nothing in the previous phase...is what it is.>.

I observe that you are a doctor;

Well aren't you the sharp one sugar, Given I am dressed in jeans, and a plain white top. Yes, in fact I am a doctor. Perhaps you spotted my bandages and aspirin?

I hope there is not some poor soul bleeding out on the street corner while we probe the mysteries of the mall?

I am a Doctor not a Surgeon, I currently only have a few bandages for bleeding, soluble aspirin for pain and some single use booster shots which provide +5 to next combat roll of which I cannot administer to myself.

Presently nothing I can do about grievous injuries save attempting to cauterize them with a hot knife. Hence why I was investigating the hotplate in the flip n grill. It's risky because of infection, it might buy someone time, A day, but without antibiotics or proper stitches.. you get the idea. Scrapes and bruises I can handle, and stitches if I had the right items, but removing a bullet isn't my forte so try not to get shot.

[RubberDuck]

Any chance you happen to know, or have any clues about the code to the secret door?

[RubberDuck]

The nonsensical writing "Remember her who created what you are trying to do".

What if this was aimed specifically your role BM? You might be the only player that had a need, or is capable of getting into the Brewery?

What if,

Her who created what you are trying to do

.. that could be you specifically what you were trying to do, which was brew alcohol. The original alcohol was beer, first brewed by the Egyptian women.

Ninkasi who is the tutelary goddess of beer in Sumerian mythology. I doubt most people here would know that beer was invented by women without some kind of in game hint.

Scholarly works from the early 1800 BC have translated various Sumerian documents. Among these is a poem with the English title, A Hymn to Ninkasi was poem which thought to be the first written recipe for brewing beer.

That stick of yours doesn't happen to have anything written on it does it or some kind of reference to an ancient female beer deity?

[RubberDuck]

Perhaps the Greek Thyrsus? Associated with Dionysus (or Bacchus) and his followers, the Satyrs and Maenads (or Bacchants), the a symbol of prosperity, fertility, hedonism, and pleasure/enjoyment in general.

[RubberDuck]

If I had to guess, I'd say what you were trying to do was BREW, which would be 2 7 3 9 going by the keypad letters.
Looks like someone already entered a dud number and scored first red skull, so we probably only have 3 attempts remaining before getting a lockout.

Let me know if you think I'm just crazy.

[RubberDuck]

Unless each skull turns green when a correct pin is entered.. so we might have to enter 4x different pins in the correct order for a total 16 correct digits.

Her who created what you are trying to do might be "The Hymn of Ninkasi"

thehymnofninkasi = 16 letters

Phrase: THEH | YMNO | FNIN | KASI
PIN#: 8434 | 9666 | 3646 | 5274

Food for thought. Or I'm the high one

[RubberDuck]

Unless each skull turns green when a correct pin is entered.. so we might have to enter 4x different pins in the correct order for a total 16 correct digits.

Her who created what you are trying to do might be "The Hymn

of

Ninkasi"

thehymnofninkasi

= 16 letters

Phrase: THEH | YMNO | FNIN | KASI
PIN#: 8434 | 9666 | 3646 | 5274

Food for thought. Or I'm the high one

Oops, "The Hymn TO Ninkasi" is the correct title.

Phrase: THEH | YMNT | ONIN | KASI
PIN#: 8434 | 9668 | 6646 | 5274

[RubberDuck]

Ambic confirmed it’s a just a 4 digit Pin with an incorrect entry flagged. Guessing Porochaz found the door and tried to enter a code. 3 chances remain.

[RubberDuck]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking in post 24?

I whispered him that I had booster shots that give a +5 combat boost to next combat roll in the hope that he would volunteer for a jab, (which I am allowed to do if a player consents)

I was just letting you know in case the lie comes back to bite me, I might now have to come up with an alibi as to why I shouldn't give him a shot, i.e. it's unethical as he might use it to murder an innocent, or if he turns out to be immune as to why it didn't work.

It might also work in our favor if he consents to it.

I can't find anything on the code.

Shall we try entering BREW 2 7 3 9?

I'm not sure what else to try doing at this point.

[RubberDuck]

Yes, I'm happy to take a punt on 2739. We could also try BEER? 2337?

Alright, I'll try BREW first, and failing that BEER. Will leave the last one available in case we fail both and need to come back to it later with better ideas, for all I know, the tries might reset after 48 hours.

[RubberDuck]

BREW was a fail, do you want to try attempting to enter beer?

Or would you prefer to leave it safer with two tries remaining?

I'm happy if you want to have a go at plugging the numbers in?

I'm not sure what else to do in here.

[RubberDuck]

Interesting observation Re: Green Crayons, however the game clearly states society collapsed 2 years ago and coming across people these days is exceptionally rare.

Given thus far we have seen Aliens reported, a Mutagenic zombie virus, Time travel, and a Magic alcohol diving stick, there is a literal dwarf walking around out there, and I have no idea what the heck is wrong with CaptainMeme's trance like talking. I'd say we have a full scale fallout-esque sci-fi universe on our hands and its stated the initial mobs of people trying to band together to rebuild society also fell apart.

With that in mind, there is probably no legal ownership of anything anymore, except by means of 'Might is Right.' Land deeds and purchases likely don't exist in this setting as there's no society to recognize or authenticate or endorse a sale.

As in, "This is mine or I'll kill you", type feudality.

Who is he going to purchase from, and with what legal currency? Money is effectively worthless with no economy, just scrap paper and metal.

What if he is Dr Ben Nerrow, who we know was old and slightly psychopathic. We also know that he changed his appearance, which could have been to become "Harold Temperton" If he did in fact own the mall and authorities were after him. He could have changed his appearance a second time and faked his death meaning the authorities might have passed the "ownership" of the mall to Ariel as she was thought only surviving relative.

I think there's too many tangents to explore, but I think its clear he isn't being upfront about his agenda.

[RubberDuck]

That's a good point. Might be just local society that collapsed, and i was wondering if this might be one of those things where we are all unaware characters in a story dimension like a book or show or game, sort of like a Truman show type reality etc.. Which might explain how I was unable to look back out into the "eatery dimension" (Other than Ambic maintaining game balance)

[RubberDuck]

You don't happen to know the name of the Brewery do you?

I'm just wondering about the presence of Red Skulls on the keypad, seems like an oddly specific indicator for a checkbox to have.

Maybe its the Red Skull Brewery? Maybe I'm clutching at straws.

[RubberDuck]

I think you over-estimate the strength of other players - I believe there are weaker players who are rolling around 1d4 too. I think i started at 1d6 and I was the 3rd strongest. so most are 1d5 and lower. As you say though, that's before weapons. My stick isn't really much of a weapon - it's a magic alcohol-finding stick.

Ok, Ambic clarified this for me. If we are in combat together, it is my dice roll + dice your roll vs the target's dice roll.

For example: If we both attack a player it's counted 1d4+1d2 vs 1d4

Therefore the minimum attack value we have is 2 and the current max is 6.

If we can pick up one more recruit, it will be 1d4+1d2+1d2
Giving us an attack range of d3-d8

We can still lose a fight this way. Because zombies are basically a 50/50 coin flip for rolling a 1 or a 2.
If we collectively roll 2+1+1 for a total of 4 and an opponent rolls 1d6 and gets 5, they can choose what happens as a result of that combat victory from 1. Kill 2.Rob, or 3. Knockout.
There is no Health Point system, so if we lose combat and the other player elects to kill, then whichever target they want is killed. (Meaning my aspirin is useless or has some other application)

It's slightly different if we are defending an attack, depending on who gets targeted, how and when the attack occurs i.e. Like how I attacked you from behind while you were performing another action, and lastly if any weapon modifiers are applied. i.e. Trying to bring a fist to a crossbow fight when the opponent is on the other side of the room.

[RubberDuck]

BM, In the book store, was there mention of copy of "Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus."

"Remember her who created what you are trying to do."

If the phrase was a clue left for me by Dr. Ben Nerrow (who owned a store in the mall), it might be referring to Mary Shelley, the Author and creator of Frankenstein's Monster. My flavor text indicated Nerrow owned a store in the Mall, it seems odd that there is a secret room hidden inside a cafe.

Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in the attic of his boarding house through an ambiguously described scientific method consisting of chemistry (from his time as a student at University of Ingolstadt) and alchemy

My role is also using science and chemistry to create undead.

"Zombies have a complex literary heritage, with antecedents ranging from Richard Matheson and H. P. Lovecraft to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein drawing on European folklore of the undead."

Zombie, -Wikipedia

Approximately 12 hours left until deadline.

[RubberDuck]

No body = not dead. (Technically you are already dead sooo)

Im testing our telepathic link in the thread to see if we can still do this chat here.

[RubberDuck]

I suspect Ambic would have locked this thread if it weren't possible for us to mind link, but he's in the process of bringing everyone back to the eatery and probably resolving last minute actions and events. Lets see what happens.

[RubberDuck]

Yes, interrogation time

[RubberDuck]

You have no idea how nervous I was trying to land another recruit after I lost the last one immediately, which made me look guilty as hell. Fortunately BM was vapourised, so they won’t find his body. But BM was cop cleared by Pooky in the bookstore in the first phase, and GC openly called BM corrupt in the eatery not knowing that Pooky had already cleared BM, Ariel and is planing on picking up talitha this round. Pooky BM and Ariel had also caught out GC lying about owning the mall.

BM had left me copious amounts of detail about Pooky’s group, which I spilled to Pooky claiming BM told me in good faith after I recruited him.

[RubberDuck]

Yes, BM confirmed the presence of the book.

However, Xavier (Porochaz) has indicated that the secret cafe door is his and claimed that he has the backstory to confirm it. His role is “allegedly” a take on Marty McFly (Back to the future) and Morty Smith (Rick and Morty)

He went into the cafe in the first phase and was able to communicate with Johannes (Groza) in the basement through the speakers. However is adamant that he couldn’t get the door open - this then leads to the question of how did he communicate with Johannes.

He said, “I hope you are a friend. What do you see?” This means he knew Johannes was alone in the basement but was unable to see the room fully. It sounds like he has access to some kind of life signs detector, I.e a map that shows where people are by name and can possibly use it to connect to cameras and intercoms. He may have seen our altercation, so we will need an alibi for why I jumped you, ko’d you. I think we should make a scene of me patching you up in case he is watching.

Groza and I suspect the freezer is a time travelling and interdimensional freezer that Xavier needs to fix. Xavier claims to be looking for parts to get back to his future. Johannes (Groza)suspects it is a communication console that allows Xavier to use intercoms and view cctv. Speaking of which we need to start dealing with cctv cameras. It also potentially opens up into a mini verse much like the Tardis does in Dr Who.

I believe he needs to power it which is why he is adamant on fixing the generators. I convinced him to fix the gas in the basement as well, but in reality this was so I could turn on the gas hobs (stove and a heater) in the cafe, one of which is by the freezer and place batteries in the cafe microwave on a delay start, this blowing the room up. Alternatively, to gas that room then remain in the eatery and light some item on the flip and grill hotplate and throw it into the gassed cafe while Xavier and any friends of his are going back to that freezer.

Xavier (Porto) claims there is a creature chasing him to drain him of his youth and is specifically after him.
I’m glad now that you’ve given me evidence of NPC enemies, this means it could be an npc instead of a player.

[RubberDuck]

Somewhere in this room is concealed, a vial or similar that I need to top up my syringe by +2

I currently have 1/3 doses remaining.. if we can find it (assuming another player hasn’t already taken it) I can top back up to 3 doses and attempt to recruit the remaining 3 players.

Means I really need to consider who is susceptible, I think anyone who is an alien or android(hive mind) is automatically going to be immune. This virus is for humans so we should consider that as a factor.

There are a total of 5 players that can be turned into zombies. Yourself and terry, were the first two, that means there are 3 players left who can be turned.

The rest of the players will need to be killed and I’m hoping we can land some traps or environmental kills to take out the majority. We might be able to convince Pooky and his gang to take out Green crayons as they have caught him lying twice already.

@

Ambic

, can we get an overview of our combined attack value zombies? Is it 1D4+2 for me + D2 + 1 -1 for Harry because of the effects of the crowbar, scissors, cane knife and -1 for the hold brick.

[RubberDuck]

Harry, I’ve noticed Pooky trying to loot as much cash as possible as well, he robbed the machines in the eatery for cash and tried the atm.. instead of ditching the gold brick we should try trade it to him, for one of his weapons and he gains the -1 to combat and loses a weapon.

BM and I estimated he was the strongest player at 1D7 and we know he has a +1 crow bar, and potentially has a second weapon, for a max of 1D7+2,l.
he has Ariel and talitha following him, he might be too tough to dispose of. Ariel trusts him for now, but is not convinced his lie detector makes him a good cop.

You might have had competition for the cash grab Win condition.

[RubberDuck]

Ducks convoluted plan for setting trap #1:

1. Heavy duty extension cable in hardware store.
2. Connect cable to basement generator #2 and basement water.
3. Turn off primary generator #1 before leaving.
4. Use barbershop shampoo on basement floor.
5. Victims slip on shampoo into electrified water when inspecting generator.

Ducks convoluted plan for setting trap #2:

Same thing but in barbershop.
1. Pour out water onto floor (I have a full kettle of water)
2. Plug in tampered hair clippers and leave in water
3. Carefully turn on power to clippers
4. Place shampoo.
5. Turn off lights
6. Push magazine stand hard up against light-switch to conceal the switch.
7. Next explorer goes zap

Ducks convoluted plan for setting trap #3:

1. Vent gas, ignite gas - simple.
2. Can be done in cafe, barbers and basement

Ducks convoluted plan for setting trap #4:

1. Have someone drink Cola + mentos, Xavier has the mentos, I have a cola and a Pepsi.

Ducks convoluted plan for setting trap #5:

1. Place heavy gold brick above barber door.
2. Carefully leave door ajar as we leave so next person has to open it.
3. Next person through gets a hefty gold brick to the head.
4. Person after that gets a gold brick and a -1 combat disadvantage.
..And as always, turn off light.

Ducks convoluted plan for setting trap #6:

1. Convince a player that running on the HW stores treadmill is required to open a door.
2. Pour shampoo on treadmill track
3. Strategically placed blade kills victim.

[RubberDuck]

I'm just going through my game notes on the previous Eatery phase. Xavier (Porochaz) whispered to me ask if knew what your code was for.

Give me $1 for me to tell you what the number 3748 means.

I told him it was probably a joke.. Give you a $1 to find out 3748 means "Nothing."

[RubberDuck]

Let me think about how this would play out..

Dice test:

Dr Lacey Higgs: (Crowbar +1, Sharp Scissors +1)

Original Roll String: 1d4

1 4-Sided Dice: (4) = 4

AND

Harry the Zombie: (Cane Knife Extended +1, Extremely Heavy Gold Ingot -1)

Original Roll String: 1d2

1 2-Sided Dice: (1) = 1

VS

Xavier Lynch: (Sharp Knife+1, Glass Shard +1)

Original Roll String: 1d4

1 4-Sided Dice: (3) = 3

[RubberDuck]

Thinking out loud, that would be:

Lacey: 4 + 2 = 6
Harry: 2 + 1 -1 =2
Total = 8

VS

Xavier: 4 + 2 = 6
w
So in theory we should..

mostly

win against the average player caught out on their own.. even if they are armed. We must then have a current minimum roll of 4 in the event that we both roll a 1, so still a chance we can lose.

E.g.
Lacey: D1+2 = 3
Harry: D1+1-1 = 1
Total = 4

If we get rid of the ingot, preferably onto another player.. that should up our minimum attack to D5, and if we get Harry a 2nd melee weapon that gives up us to a minimum of D6, meaning a 1D4+2 armed character like Xavier cannot out roll us if they are on their own.. but could do if they had another person in the room helping them or other items that modify combat.

"Attacks that are combined will mostly be Person A + Person B against Person C. Person B will add 1 to the dice roll result of the main attacker."

"Weapons may increase your base strength which means you roll a larger dice OR they may be added to the roll. It depends on the weapon, and potentially the scenario. Guns for example, add one afterwards because if you aim it you can cause hesitation on the other part. Knuckledusters would increase the roll strength."

Not currently factoring in for any unique role based abilities or defensive items people might have to mitigate combat.

[RubberDuck]

Johannes (Groza) Lies.. I was in the hardware store with him. He picked up nothing of the sort. He told Terry his briefcase was empty, and given we saw him in the eatery unable to put the pipe in.. I’d say he’s a hacker trying to find a specific device.

[RubberDuck]

Nope, I just checked. He wasn't there with us at all.

MNOWAX

RubberDuck is Dr.Lacey Higgs: Female, Early 30s Very Tall, Skinny, Stunningly beautiful - One blue eye, one green.
Zag is Mark Knorp: Male, Mid-Late 60s Short, to the point of dwarven, Hunchbacked, Two large lumps on face, one under and around the eye. Muscular.
Ariel is Carla Temperton: Female, Late Teens Medium Height, SEuropean accent
CaptainMeme is Jia Xing: Female, Early 30s Asian, Short, Athletic

Eatery - Game start
Room: He was in the basement - confirmed by Xavier (Porochaz) who communicated with him from the Cafe Secret door.
Eatery
Room: He was in the Bank with you, while Xavier went to the hardware store alone.
Eatery:
Phase 3: Xavier and Johannes are currently in the basement together.

They are up to something.

[RubberDuck]

What do you think about the possibility that Johannes can infect both computers and humans on behalf of the hive mind? Maybe he has the chips in that briefcase? Perhaps we should have Jia check Xavier (If he is alive) for a chip? They were alone in the basement as far as I know, and Ambic sent out a clarification on combat yesterday, meaning someone had to ask about it. I was already well versed in combat application, hence knowing to knocking you out so I could inject you. That clarification message was triggered by someone else 2 days after I converted you. Perhaps Johannes has tried to jump Xavier, that would explain why the gas isn't fixed.

I think its unlikely that Groza happened to "find" a Superhacking device just sitting in the eatery, or the basement which he has now gone down to a 2nd time and he just happened to know exactly how and where to use the device in the bank. He was particularly asking me earlier about whether there was a computer behind the secret door. I'll keep thinking on this.

Speaking of, everyone thus far has started with unique items, other than your cane, did you have anything?

[RubberDuck]

Another thing. You may have seen, but pooky/casey was the one that drove the truck into the eatery. We were told it seemed like he was being persued.

Hmmm, BM did tell to watch out for Talitha who was out in the carpark with Pooky that round. BM died before he could say why.

[RubberDuck]

Ok, Mostly good, Except I’ve been blindly and openly trusting absolutely everyone via whispers with copius amounts of up front detail. The reason I “trust” everyone is secretly I don’t care what their alignment is or their objectives are. I’m going to kill them all eventually anyway, so helping them was just to stop me getting attacked.

If we can refine this to be consistent with what I’ve been telling the others would be useful.

I convinced Pooky who is using a lie detector to confirm player alignments by using the details BM gave me that I recruited BM as a patient. BM was the first confirmed innocent character by pooky. Ariel was the second confirmed innocent.

I’ve also been working very heavily and openly with Groza about his puzzles.

I found $10,000 in the back room btw, I should give this to you as a show of good faith to help you with your win condition and I let you clean out the register as well.

I like a simple lie.. We came in here looking for a siphon for the fuel. I found a crowbar and cash and super glue which Ariel needs. I gave you the cash and opened the locked till for you with the crowbar. Nothing interesting happened. You asked me to show my arms and I complied. You explained the hive mind part but did not mention Jia or Johannes.

To date I have not asked one person for their alignment or true objective and blindly helped them for the greater good of my Hippocratic oath.

If you suggest at any point you thought I was acting weird, someone might recall it later and accuse me of being up to something. It also implies we might have had an altercation due to misunderstanding. I might not be the hive mind, but they could easily figure that I had another agenda requiring me to get to close to people.

A much better alibi is to say I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary at all and was overall quite helpful. I also already medically inspected you in front of everyone in the eatery and the result was that you were simply old, therefore there’s no need for me to do it again.

[RubberDuck]

Oh I hadn't realized you had done that intentionally. You can still tell them you did that intentionally because you all thought I was the hive person.

and I asked you if you were suffering the effects of Dementia.

[RubberDuck]

There's a chance that they will think I chose not to chip you because your arms were exposed and would have incriminated myself. But we can try it.

[RubberDuck]

Goddamn it, I look like I have Casey's crowbar..

[RubberDuck]

Talitha claimed to be morally grey and probably has less reason to side with Good now that Pooky is AWOL. Pooky hit four skulls. I don't know how Talitha knows that; Talitha wasn't with us. I will explain a bit more about this later.

Casey was not trying to run away from something with the truck; the truck was just malfunctioning. I believe there's manual in the hardware store for how to fix that type of truck but I stupidly didn't bring it with me.

[RubberDuck]

I'm keen to know what Carla gains from contradicting you. I believe your versions of events, I think groza will also confirm pooky trying to run away. We should probably try to check Ariel for a hive chip. Her behaviour is suddenly odd. Talitha might have chipped her in the carpark and then they both attacked Pooky in the cafe.

[RubberDuck]

Hmm, Ok.

I like your first impression, that desc does seem like he was trying to get away from 'something.' None of the others in the Carpark saw the need to flee from anything, so i'd wager they were the cause.

[RubberDuck]

I didn’t get the impression that Casey was being pursued... he told me also that the truck simply malfunctioned (or perhaps he said it publicly, I don’t recall anymore). What I recall is that he seemed a bit panicked, and then when the vehicle came to a halt he jumped out and dashed off. This seemed consistent with the malfunction story, so I didn’t give it much more thought.

Yvonne (Tali) says that she is a criminal with a good-side win condition, but she did say that she had a second win condition she wouldn’t share. Perhaps it is an evil-side condition.

I note that Talitha is now whispering to Groza.

[RubberDuck]

The cameras were on this last phase. They turned on and then turned off.

The prior two phases they were on intermittently as well.

According to Sir Leo (Green Crayons)

[RubberDuck]

Confirmed Jia got into the secret lab via the Cafe freezer door.

Yvonne got in through the laundry chute in the Fashion Store while Sir Leo was trying to allegedly kill her.

There is every chance they saw me cure you on cctv.

I noticed Yvonne said the cafe camera was an option - there is no cctv in the cafe that I know of. There is however cctv in the Hardware store and in the Barbershop, neither location were mentioned by Yvonne. There may be more than one lab present in the Mall.

I may have to tell them of how I cured you, we can show your arms are not microchipped to prove I'm not the hive mind recruiter that Jia is pursuing.
Lets see what happens.

[RubberDuck]

Ask him to back me

[RubberDuck]

This is what I will tell Captain Meme, I will no doubt be asked.

"As you can no doubt see from my heterochromia, I am a mutant. I have a healing serum that I can use to treat people. The base of which is formulated from my own cells and can be used as a powerful panacea. If my cells join to an afflicted person, they will endure a short seizure through the bonding process and will be cured of all ails, becoming my patient."

I am a Mutant Doctor trying to assist the last of society. My goal is to convert or assist as many possible remaining players, by means of a Healing Serum made from my own cells and Survive the Mall.
If I am alone in a room with a player I may attempt to convert them with the serum. I have a syringe in my possession that I can inject people with. Not all players are able to be converted, so if I inject and fail, they will react (presumably angrily) so I can try to convince them to let me do it. By force or by sweet convincing words, either works. There are up to 5 players I can convert.

My win condition required me to successfully convert at least one player to a patient.

1. You must successfully convert at least one player to being a Patient.
2. Survive by any means necessary. (With or without any Patients who will win with you.)

I was able to cure Terry (Battlemage) of his addiction to drugs/alcohol in the Cafe and in the Barbers I was able to cure Harry of his greed for money.

I also am carrying bandages, anti radiation pills, and steroids, of which I can use to assist the others in the mall.

[RubberDuck]

There are other players who already know i recruited BM, thats how i got in with Pooky

[RubberDuck]

you supported Jia and told me to deescalate.

[RubberDuck]

For the record, Groza knows what we are. He had the counter back story and knew id go for the absinthe in the barbers.

[RubberDuck]

His role is to find and destroy the zombie virus and its victims. Unfortunately i gave too much away

[RubberDuck]

We're just going to have to wing it from here.

[RubberDuck]

Yeah it was. Grozas goal was to destroy it, me and any of my followers.

[RubberDuck]

Its where Talitha was stashing her stolen loot.

Though i have no idea when it was left open.

[RubberDuck]

I've just caught out Talitha (Yvonne) lying about watching Ariel and Pooky in the Cafe via the cctv.

However, I have been collecting cctv camera's for parts, its how I got the laser pointer and why I took the batteries.

There was no CCTV camera depicted on the cafe map and I specifically looked for items that I could scavenge from. There is specifically no CCTV in the Cafe and I tried to look for one while I was in the Cafe.

Talitha is either:

A. Mistaken.
B. Lying
C. There's a camera hidden that I didn't know about.
D. Ariel's digital camera which was in the room at the time.

[RubberDuck]

What do you gain from taking her camera? What does she gain from giving it to you.

I'd question why she is offering it to you. It might be rigged or some kind of plot to set you up.

[RubberDuck]

The gold is irrelevant to you. Just casually tell her to keep the camera and the gold, I suspect there is something else going on.

[RubberDuck]

Well, I do want the camera, I'm just highly suspect of it.

I suspect the lab can connect to it, so they are effectively trying to bug us.

If she offers it to me, I might take it and sabotage it, or conceal it somehow.

[RubberDuck]

I am thinking of going to the Phone store next phase, I think its another room that has been largely forgotten, unsure if anyone else has been there. Someone else might realize this as well and decide to check it out. The focus of everyone else should be the lab, the cinemas, or the office which have been unlocked, so I'm hoping to catch a stray like Nexus.

We really need to get you a 2nd weapon.. and if we could just land one more zomb, we'd be strong enough to tank out the rest of the crew. Pooky and Battlemage were two of the strongest characters, its just sheer dumb luck that they died early. Our biggest threat now is the laser pistol and the full mob of players as well as people who may be close to winning.

You are welcome to join me, or choose your own room (note that you are d2+1 while on your own) or make other suggestions.

The Steroids' add a +1 to Str for a phase, so I am currently combat strength D4+3, if we both attack together for D4+3 + D2+1 giving us a combined attack range of <6-10>.

One more armed zombie would up that to (D4+3) +(D2+1), +(D2+1) for a range of <8-13> making us impossible to beat in a 3v2 fight.

The average combat strength in the game is D5 and most players have not seemed to realize that duel wielding 2x +1 weapons at once is valid.

To give you an example if both Yvonne and Jia attacked us that would be about (D4+1 weapon) (+1 support +1 weapon)

Simplified:
D4+D2+D2 +5 <8-13>
VS D4+3 <4-8>

[RubberDuck]

Correction:

Simplified:
D4+D2+D2 +5 <8-13>
VS D4+3 <4-7>

I typo'd the final number.

[RubberDuck]

I had 3 doses after refilling at the barbers. I have 2 shots left.

I do believe groza knows to watch out for the undead, and core specifics about my role backstory and the absinthe bottle, which we fortunately left in the barbers, I suggested to him it could be there still as we didn’t look for alcohols and that was Terry’s addiction role.

I’m starting to think he hasn’t linked the zombie virus as an intentional spread by a player. He knows it was my predecessor that created the virus and destroyed the world. I think he expects zombies to be the walking dead as in corpses but with everyone else flipping tables I’ve somehow got under the radar. So I’m literally just not saying anything about it and trying to keep him focused on Jia and the AL drones. I probably need to get rid of my stop watch though permanently. It will link me with the mad scientist behind the mall.

[RubberDuck]

That’s what I’ve told talitha, neither her nor Jia believe it’s a cure. They think I’ve been scavenging parts for something so I angled to tali towards being a Dr of science. I was trying to get batteries and lasers and using cctv for parts and hinted that I really wanted to get the tv going in eatery.

I made a deal with tali that I would give her an alibi because I knew her morally grey is just of capable of flipping evil at the end and she agreed.

[RubberDuck]

That seems overtly unnecessary. That guarantee's i'll be attacked. But if I die, you need to get the syringe.

[RubberDuck]

Ok that's fair, you need to try and stay away from me as much as possible in the thread, possibly even suggest killing me.

If I somehow survive the next room and pick up one more recruit, we should be able to tank the remaining players, but I will ask for feedback before doing so.

[RubberDuck]

Primate, did you pick up the helium tank from Leo? I need a distraction. I'm thinking having you puncture it so it flies around the room.

Identifiable people in the room are Jia (Pitchfork), Groza (Body shape and briefcase), Zag (Unconscious), Carla (Flashlight)

If you can cause a scene with the helium tank, by puncturing it with your knife.

I need long enough to Jab and restrain Groza so that no one notices me do it or that he's seizing.
I'll ko him if he doesn't turn into a zombie.
I'll take the gun
Then to quickly try jab cindy
Then I'll lights on while she's twitching
Use my laser pointer+gun on Talitha for accurate shot because of her chainmail armor and that leaves a fight with Jia, Xavier and Ariel.

If we turn either Cindy or Johannes, we will be strong enough to take all three.
Then finish off Mark who is unconscious.

I'm not confident I can pull of all these actions? If someone turns on the light before I've got the gun from Groza or jabbed Cindy.

What do you think?

[RubberDuck]

The helium tank is still on the ground by Leo, if you are willing to give this a shot, we could "Puncture helium nozzle so it flies around room."
Make sure you don't impale the tank itself or it may just blow up and point it away.

Let me know what you think, or if I'm just insane, or if you can create another distraction?

[RubberDuck]

I hope to hell that was you that just moved in the thread. If that helium tank is gone, someone else here can read my telepathy. There might be another telepath.

Hello?

[RubberDuck]

No, I'll leave it, you're notably better at this type of game than I am, so I'll defer to your judgement. I bet you're right, I'll probably get blamed for that lol.

[RubberDuck]

Is that a bluff or is Mark actually dead? Your best bet now would be to accuse me of doing the deed after threatening to kill zag earlier, claim that I probably killed zag to stop him from calling me out on my BS.

You should ask for a consensus from the room for Johannes to shoot me, as I'm most likely to be either the Drone or related to the mad scientist and it will benefit everyone to remove me so then they can focus on other tasks.

[RubberDuck]

Or not?? Is this a clever bluff on your part?

[RubberDuck]

I'm attempting to stash my syringe in my shoe, if I get incinerated, you need to be able to recover it, there are 2 doses left.

Groza has the counter role to mine and is likely immune, jia and ariel are probably immune also being top candidates for conversion, you're best chance of a convert is Cindy, but i do not know for sure.

Try to find a 2nd weapon. That will put you up to 1d2 +2 and hopefully give you a chance if you get jumped.

[RubberDuck]

If I get attacked I will fight alone. I have sent this to Ambic.

If I am killed in combat, make an action of putting all Lacey's items out in the open. At the same time PM ambic to pickpocket the syringe from my corpse. Then immediately ask where the syringe is. Everyone will assume Yvonne stole it off me.

[RubberDuck]

[quote="Zag]I find RubberDuck's story to be BS. "I was able to cure Terry (Battlemage) of his addiction to drugs/alcohol in the Cafe. He volunteered and then the moron jumped into the freezer insisting it lead to a brewery. In the Barbers I was able to treat Harry of his greed for money."

So you're saying his (now cured, supposedly) addiction led him to make a foolish choice to try to find a brewery and he accidentally died. Sounds like he refused the "treatment" so you killed him.

My goal is to find and kill the mad scientist who botched the job of making me. Sounds like you're it.[/quote]

He was very clearly referring to me. If anyone decides to call you on it, they might ask why you are trying to draw attention onto Yvonne.

[RubberDuck]

You quoted zag and said talitha? I was confused, because zag was talking to me?

[RubberDuck]

yeah, I'm just stupid. I clarified in the thread.

[RubberDuck]

I'm seriously amazed I'm not dead, given how arrogantly reckless I've been. Anyways.

So the young man is John the mixologer. Apparently he had some sort of connection to this place before he came back. He is one of the dead people in the carpark.

The old man in the photo that looks vaguely crazed and untrustworthy is who I believe is the scientist.

The other elderly man is my grandfather who was a good guy.

Based on when my grandpa was alive and how the photo appears, it was taken in between 2019 and late 2021. Before things got messed up.

My pocket watch:

It's engraved with the name Dr Ben Nerrow.

You open it it up, and see that there is a photo of an old man. He's the one who invented the Zombie Virus. He's dead now, you think he might have once owned a store in this mall. The thought comes back to you - that's right - he was a little bit pyschopathic. He was going to be arrested, so he changed his identity and bought a store here in the mall. But the apocalypse took him to the grave.

A shame, because two of you with this virus would have been so much more powerful

Xavier looks old when viewed from a mirror, we know he also owns the Cafe secret door and had the backstory to find the door in the first phase. He used the lab room in the first to contact Johannes. I need to have a look at him in a mirror, but I'm definitely leaning towards the fact he is the mad scientist who killed Zag, and possibly even Dr Ben Nerrow.

[RubberDuck]

Do you know that about xavier looking old in a mirror for sure or is that tali shit stirring?

Sir Leo told everyone, Yvonne fact checked it and confirmed it. Xavier was also reasonably concise about picking up mirror pieces too.

Also I think Ben Nerrow is probably the mad scientist people are talking about? That's the most obvious reading. You could pm ambic and ask if it's the same guy, now you've seen the photo.

Tried that - I compared both photos, mine and Carla's privately to Ambic -

"They look nothing alike."

This is not surprising given Dr Nerrow had successfully changed his appearance to buy a store in the Mall. So the photo I have is outdate.
My backstory indicates the apocalypse took him to the grave. However, what's to have stopped him faking his death and changing himself a second time to look younger?
I have no confirmation that he actually died.
The only way we could know for sure is having Xavier confirm it, and he'd think we were trying to pin him with being the mad scientist and deny it.

[RubberDuck]

Jia is 1d4 base + 1 pitchfork, +1 Johannes support & + 1 battle briefcase.

Effectively 1D4+3

[RubberDuck]

I'm alone in the phone store, looks like its already been searched and cleaned out. The walkie talkies that Casey (Pooky) was using were here, and I know he was in the carpark in ph 2 and then cafe in ph 3 - so it looks like this room was done & dusted back in the first phase.

Groza is in the cinema looking for the hidden way into the brewery, check seat k9. That's the way in afaik - Terry didn't tell me if there was a trick to opening it or not.

[RubberDuck]

Groza is already aware of the method to get into the brewery, so don't try to hide it from him if you decide to try something sneaky.

[RubberDuck]

VLADABOOOOOOOOOOM

The almighty sound of an explosion fills the room! Most phones on the shelves fall off. You are flung to the ground and end up with a bloody lip. The sound leaves your ears ringing. Whatever happened happened somewhere else in the mall.

What the hell was that!? Are you ok?

[RubberDuck]

Ok,

I found a walkie talkie and can talk to Ariel in the bathroom, but there is nothing interesting there. I think she was trying to stop the water leak, but has indicated there seems to be nothing she can do about it.

There was a control panel inside a panel light in the phone store, which was a puzzle picture. When solved there was a grinding noise behind the wall, but otherwise nothing happened. There's no secret doors or compartments in here (That I can find so far) and no other items.

Whatever the explosion was has caused grease to start leaking through cracks in the wall.

[RubberDuck]

Johannes is specifically on the lookout to destroy absinthe. Did he see you take it? Probably better not to admit to him that I told you about him needing to destroy it.

[RubberDuck]

Yeah, its the elevator shaft that was full of grease. The phone store is now lit up, smoke is filling the room. Talitha and I are probably toast - Literally.

I sent the lift down to try and smother it.

[RubberDuck]

Our room is filling with heavy smoke, so we might be about to die. If we don't make it - Good luck.

[RubberDuck]

Last time on the adventures of RubberDuck:

I found a walkie talkie and can talk to Ariel. She’s in the bathroom, blew a small hole in a wall and retrieved a box with her grandpas initials. The big explosion caused grease to leak through the wall of the phone store, which turned out to be from the elevator shaft. I climbed up into the 2nd floor office with tali, where we found evidence of Xavier being an alias, his real name is Carl X Hinevy which is an anagram of Xavier Lynch and he has a contract lease for several rooms in the mall. We think he is the mad scientist and most likely killed mark. We also found a pc lacking a monitor. A password for said pc. The code to the safe in fashion store. Cleared a jammed copy machine and got an unsigned template copy of a disclaimer stating the mall is empty and has nothing of value. We found the bank books detailing the gold owned by Ariels grandpa and just recently we found a book titled how to pickpocket which Tali lit on fire and threw down the elevator shaft so no one could use it, but that triggered a grease fire, burned down the phone store and I smothered the fire by sending the lift down (your welcome)

We also discovered that remote control is universal and works on all Tv’s.

The office has an exit but it’s locked and there’s no key. I am now wearing a kickass jacket, tali has a hard hat.

And we have handcuffs, I lent my syringe to tali who is going to try use it to incapacitate Xavier, because that’s what she thinks it does.

Oh and I totally learned how to pickpocket before the book got lit on fire.

That about sums it up

[RubberDuck]

Oh and there is a manhole in the carpark under a red car on the west side which leads to an irradiated tunnel that goes under the Bank, bookstore, bathroom and under the barbers. Pooky talitha and Ariel turned back when they got underneath the bathroom because of the radiation and Casey’s Geiger counter going off.

I however have anti radiation pills that increase the ability to withstand radiation.

[RubberDuck]

Human spaceship or alien? I figured Jia must have arrived in one. Also might be the technology the aliens want surrendered before we can have “peace”

[RubberDuck]

The pc is hooked to the room, so I’d say the monitor needs to be brought here instead.

[RubberDuck]

We got play back on some CCTV cameras

We saw a monster inside the fashion store having a fight with Cindy(Nexus), who then vanished (Nexus, not the monster).
We watched the monster trashing the now empty fashion store. Seriously, that thing is 8ft tall, at least.

By the way, I recognize that monster. It looks Terry, and has been combined with a Frankenstein Monster.

[RubberDuck]

Talitha found his Terry's fried body behind the door of the Lab, and now there is a walking Frankenstein made from his remains.

We know Jia didn't go the fashion store, because she's with you, that means Carl X Hinevy (Xavier Lynch) went there alone.

Therefore Xavier concocted that thing in the lab this phase.

[RubberDuck]

I hadn't even noticed this list, Talitha pointed it out. Terry and Casey were "Missing" instead of "Dead"
I'd say that means we can expect a Frankenstien Casey soon.

Missing:

Battle Mage

is Terry Young: Early 20s Unkempt, poorly shaved, Strong looking but bloodshot eyes. Carrying a stick and a wok

PookyTheMagicalBear

is Casey Ballentyne: Male,Early 30s Tall, Muscular, Scar across his face, slightly balding, tidy Beard, Dressed in Denim. A Bow across his shoulder, with two arrows. Carrying a very hefty 2ft cast iron crowbar.

Dead:

Green Crayons

is Sir Leo Mustelid: Modern Slimming Suit and Tie, Very Dapper, Overweight, Wrinkly. Carrying a pitchfork.

Zag

is Mark Knorp: Male, Mid-Late 60s Short, to the point of dwarven, Hunchbacked, Two large lumps on face, one under and around the eye. Muscular.

[RubberDuck]

Don't say anything at this stage.

Johannes, whispered that he checked the camera and Xaviers reflection on separate occasions previously and wasn't told they looked like the same person and claims he would have noticed if they were.

No one else has even bothered to respond to my whisper, they aren't interested at all.

This is even despite the fact we know Xavier owned the lab backstory, despite the fact we can show his reflection next to the camera, and despite the fact we have a contract that says he leased several rooms under the name 'Carl X Hinvey', which is an anagram of Xavier Lynch.

I don't know what to do if everyone else refuses to play the game and they aren't even interested in fact checking at all.

They either think I'm trying to frame him or that I'm straight up lying.

[RubberDuck]

It’s still on the truck. I couldn’t break it off, but it’s aimed at him.

[RubberDuck]

When did you see the photo?

[RubberDuck]

Tali is still asking why you were "cured" and she wasn't.

I told her that was probably my fault from being too open with details. I met my first wincon by injecting Terry. Both of us received confirmation of this and that Terry was stated to be free of his addiction. The needle definitely had a healing effect on Terry.

I said had no response from anyone else, but I assumed that was because I had already met the first condition and that it was Johannes idea to try use it on her kleptomania.

In all three cases the only noticeable effect was the seizure.

I said you were really just after money and had well over $10,000 and the gold ingot and that you were annoyed about losing the ingot when Carla took it.

If she interrogates you, perhaps try to show her how much cash you have and say that you thought you had to compete with another player for highest cash by end game and were trying to make it look like you were out of the running?

[RubberDuck]

Good call.

[RubberDuck]

Prepare for a fight, use your code phrase. I think its about to throw down in here.

[RubberDuck]

Cant.. talk.. must concentrate. Fighting creature.. with mind.

[RubberDuck]

prepare to take cover, tnt is coming in, I'm going to distract it one last time.

[RubberDuck]

It's already dead, so whats that going to achieve.

[RubberDuck]

There was a portal in the back of the Mr wok. Quick go and check there.

I went through it when I tried to take cover.

I'm somewhere else

[RubberDuck]

There's a portal/teleporter here and its working, but im not sure how to use it.

[RubberDuck]

I’m alive, afk for the day. I’m in the lab.

[RubberDuck]

I'm stuck in the lab for the rest of this phase.

So it appears we are all in an alien simulation. That’s why none of us can remember before the mall or why we each have our goals for no apparent reason. I knew where to look in the mall for certain items, but when I asked how do I know where to look for that. Who put it there, why do I know its there. I got no response.

While I was in the cafe, I tried to look back out into the eatery to see if anyone remained behind, but all I could see was the void. The simulation has limited memory so only rooms with characters in them can be loaded.

Stand in cafe door and look out to the Eatery other stores to see if anyone remained behind.

You are unable to see anyone. It's as if the eatery was in a parallel dimension somewhere.

The aliens want the secrets to the portal/teleportation or time travel from Xavier. I’d guess that means Xavier and perhaps Leo are real people and trapped in here and perhaps Jia and Johannes are aliens trying to steal the secrets.

Johannes even said he was after the secrets of the mall.

Jia also had a magic piece of paper written in an alien language that always shows the current code to the freezer door is. Though the lab entrances have since been destroyed.

I suspect rest of us don’t exist and are just characters to fill the story.

[RubberDuck]

Or, If I'm right, that could also mean we are all inside or connected to AL, Jia's Hive computer. Jia said one of the effects was losing memory from being connected and none of us seem to have any memory from before the mall.

[RubberDuck]

Xavier is with me, but he is listening to what I am saying on the radio and if talk out of turn, he will use the lab systems to kill me. There's some kind of automated defenses in here.

However, when Xavier described that he thought Jia was an alien trying to steal secrets from him. It made me think of the alien paper that Jia Yvonne stole of Jia, you then mentioned to Carla about possible memory loss from the time machine and she radioed the theory to me. I recalled that Jia said the AL Hive caused memory loss and that the paper was written in an alien language.

Then I recalled the scene from the Cafe where I was unable see back into the eatery from the store as if it was somewhere else.

He's overly not interested in me and muttering to himself about needing to get home. There's evidence the creature also attacked the lab here, so I don't think if he created them that he can control them, the other clone Mark Knorp also expressed a desire to kill the creator.

The time machine has been completely blown up to the point where Ambic has removed it from the lab, all the clones are dead, the only working device in here appears to be the teleportor/portal. All the exits are destroyed.

[RubberDuck]

Also, note that the time of day is slowly changing.

When I first turned off the lights and found the fake camera, I could still see everyone.

Later, when Jia turned of the lights to check for chips, I could only identify some by their silhouette.

Lastly, when Xavier turned off the lights, it was pitch black and I could not identify anyone.

If we said each phase theoretically was "1 hour" - for me that would be:
Eatery, HardWare, Eatery, Cafe, Eatery, Barbers, Eatery, PhoneStore, and the current Eatery phase.

I'd say we've been here for nine hours and it is now night time, perhaps 7pm if we started at 10am.

[RubberDuck]

Ambic said I can't leave the room during this phase, but it seems Xavier is far more interested in himself and his own goals, he said he isn't going to kill me as long as I don't try anything funny, he's mostly ignoring me.

Also, there's a chance my syringe can be combined with his creations, it's looking like I can add the virus to one during the creation process which makes it weaker than what FrankenMage was, but allows it to retain speed and intelligence and most importantly, answers to me.

[RubberDuck]

That's a reasonable assertation. I'm wondering if we can crash the simulation somehow.

I've been wondering about it ever since I wasn't able to say why I knew the serum was in the barbers or how it got there and I seem to be the only only to have encountered a glitch in the room dimensions.

I may be about to die, FrankenCasey just arrived.

[RubberDuck]

You can see into the other rooms

from

the eatery, but not the other way around.

[RubberDuck]

I think it's also plausible to see between rooms that are linked together by looking through doors etc.

It was possible to traverse from Cafe - Lab - Fashion Store in one room phase, but not back to the Eatery.

[RubberDuck]

Xavier already knows about the ship, there's a hole in the basement that drops down from the ship. Johannes is carrying a mummified alien arm from the basement that was wearing an alien ring containing the Trident symbol that dropped down into the basement. We think it might be a type of Signet/Key to the UFO.

I'm not sure the anti-rad meds will work on you being a zombie, but you also might be immune to radiation because you are already dead? I smashed the camera in the barbers, so Xavier wouldn't be able to see you in that room. I was wondering if you'd be willing to fetch the monitor from the Barbers so we can connect it to the pc in the office later?

I took a handful of candy in the cinema - I was planning to take a potassium iodide (Anti-rad) pill myself and secretly give everyone else a piece of candy instead and then walk right into the irradiated zone with them.

[RubberDuck]

Possibility: You could see the eatery because someone else was in the room actively doing something that also affected your area, so I'd argue that room needed to be rendered or loaded. When I looked, there was no one in eatery and it was as if the room didn't exist, because there was nothing that could happen in there.

I think the theory is worth investigating. I will note: I could still see the seer, pinball and pacman machines, but beyond that was non-existent. Ambic described it as if the eatery was in another dimension, so I'm guessing it's conditional loading or something.

[RubberDuck]

Ultimately it's up to you as to which room you visit, you are still useful to me in a fight if I need support, so you can decide where you'd prefer to go.

[RubberDuck]

Harry suddenly stands up, no longer wanting money. No longer breathing.

Harry looks at himself, and realises something is odd

Lacey explains. Harry has contracted a virus that makes him a zombie. It killed him, but behold, you live again as undead. You and him work together now.

Primate, your previous win condition is now changed. Your new win condition is as an undead zombie working with Rubber Duck to infect, or kill everyone in the mall.

A PM will explain more later

My virus killed you and is currently animating your body, so by definition you are Undead. You don't breathe, so presumably you don't eat or drink either. Frankenterry was unaffected by drinking rat poison, it's likely that drug effects won't work on you either.

Yes, Johannes said something about having keycard access for the Carpark to reach the highway. The tunnel indicated going under the Barbers, which Johannes says is the wrong direction for the UFO, so might be two ways to reach the same location, or something else entirely.

[RubberDuck]

FFS.. Johannes keeps asking me to tamper with the lab and for descriptions of everything in here. Frankencasey is right next to me and does whatever Xavier tells him to do. Xavier is armed and listening to my replies I say on radio and the room has some kind of defense system.. If I reply wrong even once I'm dead.

I need Johannes to stop asking me to do things on the radio - he is going to get me killed. Xavier said if I try to do anything or put one foot wrong in here, I'm as good as dead.

I've unbelievably convinced Xavier that I'm willing to work with him and Johannes is going to screw it all up because he won't shut up on the damn radio. Xavier has agree'd to let me go at the room change as long as I don't try to do anything. I just need to survive another 18 hours in here.

I'm can't touch a damn thing in here and I can't respond to Johannes interrogation questions.

Johannes isn't taking no for an answer.

[RubberDuck]

I'd have to do it without Xavier noticing. He's letting me hang on to the radio to convince the rest of you he isn't here. He'll notice if I suddenly turn it off.

[RubberDuck]

Good idea.

[RubberDuck]

I fed Johannes some bs and then said there's nothing else I can do in here and that I'm just waiting for the room change. Thanks for the advice

[RubberDuck]

Yvonne still has it, but she didn't steal it from me - I lent it to her so she could incapacitate Xavier, but we missed the chance and got away. I'll need to get it off her later.

[RubberDuck]

There’s a working monitor in the lab, Frankencasey cleared the rubble so it’s now possible to get from the lab to the cinema and use the elevator to the office in one phase.

So no need to go to the barbers.

Carpark next.

[RubberDuck]

I meant for me.

[RubberDuck]

When you get a chance check it for ammo, don't do it in front of Groza, also make sure it's locked and loaded and the safety is off.

Wouldn't want to have you fire a shot and here a -

click

- from no ammo or the safety being on.

You are also slow to use guns if attacked first fyi - Ambic told me when I recruited Terry that his reaction time with guns is not the same as mine would be, but depends on how and when they are used.

[RubberDuck]

Password is

Teleport!

In case you need it.

[RubberDuck]

Being as you're conveniently locked out of sight in the UFO.. now would be a good time to do a weapons check. I would even try PM'ing Ambic to take aim at something inside the ship, but don't actually fire - Just to see what the aiming dice defaults to.

What type of gun is it: pistol - revolver, laser etc and how much ammo do you have?

Groza529 lives in the United States and its the middle of the night there atm, so you may have to wait for him to come back online to let you out of the UFO.

Try to do it before Groza comes back and sees you playing with a gun.

[RubberDuck]

Make sure if you decide to test the aim, you engage the safety and unload it first. Don't want an accidental misfire and ricochet inside a closed metal capsule that you a currently occupying.

Safety first:
1. Treat every firearm as loaded.
2. Keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you're ready to fire.
2. Always point firearms in a safe direction.
3. Load a firearm only when ready to fire.
4. Identify your target beyond all doubt (and what is behind it)
5. Keep the weapon safety on until you intend to fire.
6. When ready to fire, use both hands and squeeze the trigger instead of pulling.

You might think I'm being pedantic, but it's the kind of secret dice roll mechanic Ambic likes to sneak into a game for when people have a habit of making generic statements & actions that could resolve multiple ways.

[RubberDuck]

I gave Johannes a piece of candy instead of potassium iodide, my plan was to irradiate him in the other tunnel.

I think we can possibly use the valves to try drown Yvonne in the basement.

[RubberDuck]

I told Xavier how to get to the office from the lab so hopefully he finds Carla and Jia and deals with them.

[RubberDuck]

That’s true.. if he has two Frankensteins at this point - he’s going to be very hard to beat in a melee fight. But he thinks I’m helping him, so I was hoping if we kill groza and take his “gun” we could then just use them to shoot Xavier.

[RubberDuck]

Ok, so there was a nuclear reactor under the lab powering the time machine, but it was destroyed with the time machine explosion, the radiation washed away from the tunnel flooding, which we drained by turning the water valves off. There was enough of a crack in the floor under the Lab for Johannes to shoot a laser gun like Jia's but brand new with an 80% insta kill hit rate. He also has a normal pistol and a crowbar. Johannes shot the Frankenstein machine destroying it instantly. FrankenCasey came charging in to defend the Lab, he's armed with a heavy crowbar and a crossbow. It's currently reinforcing the Lab cafe door. We could also see enough of the room to recognize that Cindy had not been Frankensteined.

[RubberDuck]

Yes, but the underground tunnel was next to the basement and Yvonne could hear us through the pipes in the wall. She said she heard us in the room when Johannes shot the machine. If I suddenly add, oh Johannes died several hours later she’ll know I’m lying.

I’m happy to still kill him here but feel like we need a better story, I like the flying the ship idea. Let’s kill him, put him on board fly the ship and crash it some more and we teleport to safety.

If we leave his body on board the ship no one else will be able to open it.

What do you think?

[RubberDuck]

The ship appears to be undamaged. I didn’t check the flight controls, but I’m assuming they’re also intact..

Hopefully the Ambic deity is with us.

Could also be Jia watching, Yvonne repeatedly keeps asking who the sorcerers are and theorised that Jia summoned her magic alone code paper.

[RubberDuck]

Alien* not alone <auto correct>

[RubberDuck]

Well in Bruce almighty’s case that awarded him God like powers for a week.. but as you’ve said to me previously you’re more like Nero.. and I’d prefer not to be eliminated by burning crucifix in the eatery.

[RubberDuck]

For context primate, I once suggested crashing the simulation by having everyone spam actions in different rooms to use up the virtual memory causing the simulation to crash.. but the response from the Mod God was very much not to continue pushing that idea upon threat of a Nero punishment on only me.

[RubberDuck]

Yes, I have to action say that I'm using the radio each phase. It's not automatically on.

Perhaps we should move into the carpark first. We left the cables connected from the reactor that i'd also like to go back and rip out in case it disables the portal and I'm just wondering if it is Jia watching us. Johannes might have sent Jia to the office and had her sneak to the brewery to check on us to try catch me in the act of attacking Johannes.

Tell Groza you want to see what we did in the tunnels to see if what we say is true? We'll pop a cap in him in the carpark, if you miss, i'll attack because im d4+2 and you can be my +1 support. Then we carry him out to the UFO - hopefully we get into his briefcase.

I think if we fire a shot outside, the cinema/brewery/office and basement may hear it and decide to start looking.

[RubberDuck]

I have sharp scissors +1, Crowbar +1

I have an extra pair of sharp scissors I stole off Xavier, which you can and if you extend that cane knife, which would make you a D2+2

Yvonnes chainmail and hard hat cancels out the effect of weapon bonuses, so we should probably incinerate her if we get the Raygun off Groza. Incidently he has already used it this phase so it's on recharge.

We know Groza's briefcase is extremely durable, even bullet proof so he may opt to block the shot. He has a crowbar and the briefcase which can be used as a weapon itself, so I'd guess he may be a D5+2

Best chance to shoot him is while he is performing another action, and send in your choice by pm so he doesn't see it in the thread. i.e. shoot him while his back is turned.

The drawback here is that is he's American and you're in the UK? Meaning he's mostly active around 2-3am your time.

[RubberDuck]

The absinthe you took from the brewery is just alcohol. (I think)

The one I took in the barbers was my serum hidden in an absinthe bottle, and Yvonne has my syringe still so there's no jabbing to be had.

[RubberDuck]

We've still got 3 days on the timer left, lets wait for him to come back online for now. I'm pretty sure I control your attacks anyway, so if he does something like an action, I'll have you pop a cap in him from behind, if we miss the shot, we both attack.

We take his guns, I still have 1x steriod left for another +1

Back in the eatery we take sides with xavier, help him kill ariel and talitha, then we shoot xavier and incinerate Casey.

Fingers crossed that gunslinging space cowboy died.

We can tweak it as we go? It's nearly game over at this point.

[RubberDuck]

Harry saw us leave go into the carpark and then immediately return to shut off the water valves and then leave again for several hours.

Now we're back here at the UFO after several hours of being away, having clearly done something that required the water being off.

We left the manhole cover open in the basement, so if he goes down the tunnel to see what we did, he will probably find the gold. He's likely going to want to go see what we were up to, being as it's clearly obvious we went and did something. Perhaps we should tell him about what we did in the tunnel?

I probably shouldn't have said that we had an adventure.. But also I'm wondering if we should quickly head back and rip the power cables out of the bottom of the Lab. The generators are in the basement which link to the tunnel and then up to the lab. I think I'd like to run back to the reactor and rip them out. I'd also like to see if Harry takes one of the gold bars.

Carla also told me the gold bars are called, "Extremely Heavy Gold Ingot" so maybe he won't be able to take all of them at once?

This is what I've whispered to Groza. There are 3 gold bars in the tunnel underneath the bank in the tunnel.

[RubberDuck]

We copied serial numbers from them for her, Groza has them written down. Carla has to identify specifically her Grandpa's gold. The filing cabinet in the office has her Grandpa's gold records which can be used to crosscheck the serial numbers.

The one you had wasn't a match and she plans to give it back to you.

She has an additional 4x ingots hidden in a box in the bathroom drain. (though she doesn't know that I know that)

[RubberDuck]

Did not see that coming.

Sorry dude

[RubberDuck]

That means game is almost over.