Originally Posted by Wállácê

How hard is it to understand that Fooruman doesn't affect any weight in any way?!

Now do what WR plus what I said...

You have no proof to back this up.

Rad, go with Torkell's idea.

EDIT: And besides, the note would've said Fooruman - 0 if that's what Rad intended.

Ask L33tz4n to summon a Radium.

I'll get here in a bit, preoccupied with schoolage for a while =|

The door was interesting, but we could come back. "I want to check the scale again," I explained to the group, who drudgingly followed me back as returned to the past split, turned the wheel, and went back to the scale.
"Leetzan, summon up the Mythslayer and AWA. We might need to know how much they weigh too."
Leetzan muttered something about how she was glad I hadn't found any medical equipment, raised her hand, and called forth the Mythslayer and Accupuncturist. Both went through my weighing process, returning 152 and 121, respectively.
"Fooruman," I ordered next, "get on the scale with Uberbob." The two of them cramped onto the scale. Its needle went all the way to the maximum and stopped.
"I'm very self-conscious about my weight," Fooruman said with a hint of sorrow.
"How much DO you weigh?" Faw asked the old wizard.
"To the third power."
I had become accustomed to this kind of crap. "To the third power," I reiterated.
"Yes. Had the scale gone that high, it would have read 2,197,000."
"I don't think the scale could hold 2,197,000."
He shrugged. "Probably not. But it's okay, because my mass is much less than that."
"Alright then. Let's go back to the door." Logic never wins against a canoeist.

Some walking and wheelturning later, we were back at the door. I examined it closely; there was no handle, but a large keyhole. I tried putting my fingers in the keyhole and pulling it open, but to no avail. I turned the wheel and tried again. The door still wouldn't open, but light, warm steam sprayed from where the pipe met the cliff face.
"Maybe we need a key," Fawriel proposed.
"No, really? Who would've thought!"
"I'm not usually one to agree, but I think he's right," Uberbob added. Fooruman nodded as well.

Turn the wheel and follow the pipe to the right. See if Leetzan is allright.

(alias "do what Emp said")

Oh, sorry Emp, I forgot to do that. It was late D=.

"Leetzan, are you allright?" I misspelled.
"Um.. yes. Why? Am I doing something wrong?"
"Oh, no. I was just curious... I guess. Let's go right."
I gave the wheel a turn and we (now eight in strength) continued down the cold pathway. Soon we reached another split, one way (the heated) going to the left and the other going into a large machine. Just to the right of the machine was the river of smoking liquid.
"What do you think it does?" Faw asked, examining the contraption.
Fooruman rowed up to the device, leaning over the edge of his canoe and caressing it with his tongue. After a moment of deep thought, he concluded "It's a pump."
"... how do you know that?"
"I checked the filename."

It's 'all right'! Double L, with a space.

Examine pump and its cogs. Look for any controls.

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

It's 'all right'! Double L, with a space.

I think in Americaland it's "alright", with one L and no space. It might be a US-England difference, though.

EDIT: you edited your post D=

US-British difference. But there are many who use that here too.

Updated map: http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/9915/mapqi3.png
I have changed the location of the tower and edited the river based on what we've seen so far. I think the pipe across the river leads to the tower, and that all bodies of liquid are joined together, but I'm not sure.

Go to the river, try to examine how deep is it.

The machine didn't look to have any input devices at all. I tried turning each of the three visible gears myself, but they wouldn't budge.
I decided to check the river next. I stuck my katana straight down into the liquid. Almost all of it was submerged except for the handle, meaning the river was around three feet in depth. Even if I didn't have to swim, I didn't particularly want to wade it.

See if the pump is on or not, and listen for any sounds, then turn the wheel on the pipe.

I pressed my ear against the cold metal of the pump to block out the sound of the wind around me, listening for any signs of activity from the machine itself. It seemed perfectly quiet. "Hey," I called back to the party, "someone turn the wheel."
The Mythslayer jumped to it, giving the wheel a mighty crank. I heard a faint noise coming from the machine, and suddenly the leftmost gear began to spin like mad, producing a loud "squeeksqueeksqueeksqueek" as it went.
Nothing else happened.
Uberbob looked at the machine. "Hmm.. it almost looks as though something blatantly obvious and easily replacable is missing!"

My, could it possibly be a gear!? =O
Looks a lot like Myst to me. Including the subtly destroyed machinery.
Anyone else of the opinion that we should head back to the dome and try out the weight stuff? Seems to be the only place where nothing's amiss except for the solution.

Yes, there needs to be a middle cog. Right now there's a gap between the two. Ask Faw for his machine parts he picked up in the Birclaw Brothers' mansion.

If I hadn't already drawn the graphics I would've made it a chain that you needed and thrown you all for such a loop.

I turned to the more realistic of our healers. "Faw, let me see those machine parts you've been carrying around. He complied, giving me a handful of metal bits. I looked through them; wires, pipes, screws, a plastic fan blade, and a few metal connectors. "Faw, you steal the crappiest machine pieces."

Are the pipe-looking things coming up vertically from the pump hollow at the top?

;( Turn wheel back, go left.

I'm not too sure - the wheel could of opened something up somewhere else and Uberbob's just stuffing around again. Or it hasn't.

EDIT - Or there's some sort of pipe missing! Or a wheel. Or something.

Originally Posted by Fawriel

My, could it possibly be a gear!? =O
Looks a lot like Myst to me. Including the subtly destroyed machinery.
Anyone else of the opinion that we should head back to the dome and try out the weight stuff? Seems to be the only place where nothing's amiss except for the solution.

Now that you mention it, it does remind me of the Channelwood Age.

Originally Posted by Innocent

I'm not too sure - the wheel could of opened something up somewhere else and Uberbob's just stuffing around again. Or it hasn't.

EDIT - Or there's some sort of pipe missing! Or a wheel. Or something.

Yeah, a cog is missing, and no, I don't think spinning the little tiny left-most cog opened anything, anywhere.

By the way, I...well, you know what I've done.

So, shall we go and explore further or head back to the dome?

Turn wheel and go left!

I'm with WR

Same

Back. And Ae, they are not hollow on top.

I grabbed the wheel and gave it a turn, rerouting the power from the pump and abruptly silencing the squeaky cog. I continued down the left pipe and the rest of the party followed.
Soon, the pipe branched off once again, a cold pipe to the right and a heated one directly before us. The thick red fog surrounded us on all sides, though there was a faint golden glow eminating from the left. I could just barely hear a hissing noise ahead of us.

look left

"Oh, hey," I thought to myself, "I almost forgot my neck could do that." So that's what everyone was staring at so intently.

Go forwards until you meet with the ominous beam of ominous light!

I was a bit hesitant to deviate from the pipe, but the light seemed to be emitting a warmth of its own. I crossed the pipe and walked ahead until I reached the yellow glow. Two thick shafts of light were shining down from far above.
"Where are they coming from?" L33tz4n asked, perhaps rhetorically.
"The ceiling. Probabaly the surface, maybe the ice cave," I answered.
Araches looked up, squinting her eyes. "If we could throw a rope or something, maybe we could find a way back to the surfa-"
"Wait!" Fawriel interrupted, "you want to go back? We've spent weeks trying to get here in the first place, fought our way through demons, foliage, snowmen, British avians, and inanimate objects, suffered insurmountable pain and agony, and you want to go back?"
She shrugged. "Well, we'd know where the hole was. We could go get a burger, sleep in beds or something and come back."
"Oh. Yeah, I'm all for that."
As nice as that sounded, it didn't look like we'd be able to throw a rope that far.

Pick up rock!
Look into the lights, and try to see the ceiling.

Go back to the pipes, and go left (down the heated one where we haven't been).

EDIT: Map updated. http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8845/mapye9.png
I can guess where we'll be going if we go left, but let's do it anyway. We might find a cog.

Only stupid people look into lights D=.

It was a nice, well-lit place with a smooth ground, except for the rock. It was just sitting there, being a rock. Existing in a place otherwise devoid of small rocks. It might be kind of nice to pick up.
"No!" exclaimed my Superego, "Shuri, you can't pick up a rock! Only Uberbob would pick up rocks. Even Fawriel only picked up shiny rocks."
"But Shuri," my Id retorted, "this rock could be direly important. So few other things around here are pocket-sized."
If it had arms, my Superego would have crossed them. "It's not pocket sized. Her pockets are too small; it wouldn't fit."
"I bet it would. Pick it up and try, Shuri," Id urged.
"Don't Shur! It's a trap! He wants you to pick up the rock!"
"Yes, I kind of caught onto that," I responded. "What about ego? What does she have to say?"
Ego piped up. "This is way over my head."
"Ego, you suck."
"I still firmly believe you should leave the rock," Superego concluded. "Think of your reputation! Think of your sanity!"
"Actually," I pointed out, "I'm having a vivid four-sided conversation with the Freudian repsentation of my personality. I think sanity isn't a valid argument."

"SHURI!!" Uberbob screamed in my ear.
"What? What is it?"
"You've been standing there for two minutes. Are you okay?"
"Oh.. yeah, fine. Just.. taking a nap."
"With your eyes open?"
"I'm that badass." I noticed Uberbob was holding the rock. "You picked up the rock?"
"Yeah. I'm going to carry it in case we need it later."
"Oh. Okay, cool." I sighed with relief of a problem solved.

As soon as we got bored with the shiny light went back to the pipe and took a left. Disappointingly, it simply led to another dead end and broken pipe.

'k. Head back to the valve, rotate it, and head the other way!

I have a feeling we are close to the end of exploring all the pipes...

The things ToU characters go through...
Go with Puffie's commands.

EDIT: Huh, from the picture, the rock looks like a lump of gold.

Take a look into the broken pipe.

The rock looks gold from the light, WR =P

I glanced into the end of the pipe, but it seemed to just contain steam. So, without any cans or anything to pry open on its jagged edge, I decided to head back, turn the valve, and take a left.
Soon the pipe took us to another narrow stream, thin enough to step over. On the other side was a rock mass with a pipe coming out of it. I felt the pipe; it was heated.

Ask Fooruman and the FooCanoe to go explore the streams while the rest of the party covers the land-area

Ask Fooruman to lick the lights.
Adam, neither the fooruman nor Canoe know how to swim. Besides, we think the streams are too cold (we *think*..we haven't tried swimming in there yet ).

Follow the heated pipe left.

Yes, do that.