Duck:01 The Pilot

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Starring: El Poyo, File:Meowicon.gif Dr. Meow, File:Samicon.gif Sam Scoter
Guest Starring: Stan the Cameraman, Mr. Duck-san
Challenge: "Bulldog" Snootsmith, ancient Aztec water lock puzzle, repairing the airship
Location: Duckburg, Duckburg Sewers
Date Played: 18 February 2014

Mysterious Party

File:Samicon.gif Sam Scoter: The case is a pretty standard tail job. Somebody- nobody's saying who- wants to keep an eye on Duck-san's right-hand rat. Well, this bozo is organizing a party, and that means I've gotta crash. I'm dolled up like a penguin, scmoozing with the Glomgolds and bumping elbows with the McDucks. This isn't exactly my scene, and it only gets worse when Dr. Meow turns up. That cat isn't playing with a full deck.

Speaking of stacked decks- some of the guests are recruited to be in a game-show, myself included. I'm teamed up with Dr. Meow and a pile of muscle named Poyo, and we're in a race against all of the other teams to recover an ancient Aztec/Mayan airship and race it through the bridge.

From the journal of Dr. Meow, PHD, PHD, MS - I got invited to a party! After that incident with the high intensity laser show I never thought I'd have that happen. I swear people lose a few eyebrows and you get blacklisted. Anyway the test of the Atomic Cocktail Shaker (TM) went very well. If I can get the radiation levels down it will be a real success. That impatient Pinkerdown duck was there, and so was a face from the past I wish I could forget. Turns out the party was recruiting for a game show. Wonder if I can turn it into a weekly science series? Some puzzle to recover an ancient airship. I doubt the technology will be impressive but I do love a good puzzle!

El Poyo: I try to leave the ring but the ring won't leave me. This guy named Pelt came up to me, offering me a chance to be a contender again. Now, I'm pretty sure no one here in Duckburg knows of my unmasking, so it may be time to get a new start.

He handed me a ticket to a very swank party. I put on my best duds and entered like the cock of the walk. Somehow, I still felt under dressed.

The like of the McDucks and Glomgold were here, as well as other mixes of rich and famous. Thing were going pretty smoothly until we were all corralled by the host, Duck-san, into some sort of TV contest. Random cards were handed out to us to see who the teams were. By what I doubt was luck alone, I was grouped with the loony scientist at the bar that was trying to poison people and grizzled looking duck not trying to be poisoned.

They set us up with a camera man and told us we were on the hunt for a ancient airship and race it to the bridge. The race didn't start for a while, but I saw no harm wit leaving early. I had to check on some of the kids I try to take care of. IT just doesn't hurt that they are a fountain of information.

Sewer Crawl

File:Samicon.gif Sam Scoter: We duck out of the party early, to get a head start. It's not cheating, exactly, just… research. Research starts at the historical society, which is closed at the moment, but that's never stopped me. We break in and make some copies of useful documents, which gives us a few leads.

Most of them are goose-eggs. Snootsmith is playing with us, planting clues that lead to dead-ends, trying to keep the show "exciting". I'll show him exciting up one side of his head and down the other.

One of the other teams catches us down in the sewer and tries to make us bug off, but we're not having it. Poyo pounds them into a pulp. Their ring-leader got blown into the sewer water, and last I heard, he popped up out of the toilets in the Duckburg prison.

🎲 DM +1 point to the Beagle Boys

From the journal of Dr. Meow, PHD, PHD, MS - Luckily my team knows the value of research, unfortunately they use it outside of regular library hours. We wound up in the sewers of all places. (And me without my portable biohazard containment unit.) The puzzle was more complex than I thought with false leads to follow. Some rather rude fellows tried to steal our discovery, I mean after all we were there first! But my companions showed them the error of their ways rather spectacularly. I did use ultrascience to try to even the odds a bit. Can you believe the fools were not even aware of the explosive nature of methane?

El Poyo: This kids told us some weird writing they found in the sewers near the prison. It was a good start, but we didn't want to wander around for days trying to find where exactly to go.

Meow recommended going to the library, and Sam was skilled enough to get us inside. Now, I know it was past hours, but we didn't steal anything. Heck, they even made money from the copy machine!

We were able to narrow it down to four likely locations. The location that we had a little extra information for was the sewer location, confirmed by the maps, so we decided to head there first.

We got a little lost on our trek since the maps were so old, but we eventually got there. Sadly, we weren't alone. This roach named Bulldog followed us, and demanded we head back and leave. Sam got into a TNT one'upsmanship match with his team trying to claim the territory as their own. It was long before a fight broke out.

Bulldog pulled out a tommy-gun, but luckily it was poorly constructed and jammed almost every shot. I got winged, but nothing too bad. Stan got in a bit of trouble mid fight, but Meow was able to rescue him while Sam and I took care of Bulldog and his boys. Sadly, the one ant guy really started to bug me and I may have gone too far with the Guatamalian neck-breaker. If I had given him the Huffman, I would have killed the poor fool! Luckily, the peons of his crew were mostly OK while Bulldog got knocked off the edge into the water where he was drug toward Duckburg Prison.

Sadly, all out work was for not. After draining the water, we found that this was a false lead made by the production studio. We were not amused, but had little time to grumble about it. With the help of a little more wandering and research, we made our way to the next destination; the airbase.

Aztec Ruins

File:Samicon.gif Sam Scoter: By the military base, we find the jackpot- a complex Aztec temple complete with crazy traps and dangerous moving blocks. All three of us have to bump noggins and find a way to crack her open, only to find that the airship is wrecked. So we go back to thinking caps and figure out how to get the blamed thing airborne. There's still a roof over our heads, but I take care of that with a few sticks of dynamite, and then we're up-up-and-away. In the distance, we see one of the other teams also found an airship, so now it's a race to the finish line. There's just one problem.

None of us know how to fly this wacky contraption! That's okay, though, 'cause we're right by the military base. A little begging, a little pleading, and a little bribery, and voila- they give us a jet-powered tow. We win by a mile.

From the journal of Dr. Meow, PHD, PHD, MS - I was truly impressed with the complexity of the Aztec puzzle, for primitive materials it really did provide a mental workout. The "prize" (and I use that term very loosely) was possibly beautiful at one point in time, but the ages did take their toll. However with my skills and my companions ingenuity we did finally get the heap airborne. I see several areas that need improvement already. My first thought is an autopilot. I can fix anything but my driving leaves much to be desired. Luckily were were able to get a jet to give us a hand. (Primitive engines but effective, wonder if they would let me replace them with a overclocked scramjet?)

El Poyo: The airbase panned out for us, which was a nice change of pace for the sewers. We were able to get into the wrecked temple without being followed and found ourselves amid a giant puzzle to open the door to the floor below. This puzzle took brains, speed, and timing; something each one of us personified. With a little coaching and a few mock run, we were able to open the puzzle in time.

After clearing the puzzle, we found ourselves in the depths of some sort of storage area. Inside, we found a deflated whale along with some sort of ship-like vessel. Success?!?

We had to fix this thing up, and in a hurry. The task seemed hopeless; the place was in disarray, there was choking dirt everywhere, and time was running out. After a pep-talk from Sam, we were able to rally together and get it up in a rough but running state.

When we popped out of the ground, we were a bit surprised to see other airships, all of which were closer to the bridge than us. We did not know how, nor did we have the time to learn how to fly it. All looked homeless until I realized were were right next to the airbase.

I called down below, asking who wants to be famous and on TV. We got a volunteer that agreed to give us a tow by tying their jet to us and drag us to the finish line. I'm sure it didn't leave our ship in the best of shape, but we did win!

Aftermath

File:Samicon.gif Sam Scoter: 'Course, now we're looking at a second episode of this cracked TV series, and I think we're gonna be flying. Hopefully they let us bring a pilot this time…

🎲 DM Time Stress track had only the 5-stress mark remaining.

From the journal of Dr. Meow, PHD, PHD, MS - Looks like the show will continue. Hopefully I will get a chance to demonstrate more of the power of ultrascience. Wonder what is next? Hopefully my past won't come back to haunt me.(That face from home I mentioned earlier.)

El Poyo: We get paid, right?