Once, there were champions

==Briefing==
:"Things are looking better in here, to be sure, but it may not last. If you want to have any hope of stopping that bomb, you're going to have to find out what's behind all of this nonsense with Jack Thornside.
:"You may not believe this, but Jack was once one of Elanthia's top pinball champs, part of an elite group of pinball players from way back when. Well, those days are long gone, but those champs are still around somewhere. My advice is to find them and see if they have any insight on just what made Jack start hating games so much.
:"The only one I've seen recently is Pete Townshirend. He gets along these days playing music down at the tavern."
SummaryTalk to the old pinball champs.
==Walkthrough==
==Dialogue==
===During Quest===
:"Well, kid, either you go out and have a talk with the pinballers, or you and I are gonna have a talk about pins and balls. Got it?"
===Pete Townshirend===
: You enter the tavern and notice a man back in the corner setting up some music gear. You reckon this might be who you're looking for. You begin to ask him about Jack and he promptly smashes a nearby guitar before turning and calmly responding.
: "Jack Thornside. How there's a name I haven't heard since way back in the day. Like, the day before that day way back, man. We used to hang out at the arcade and play pinball for hours. We trip... I mean, flipped balls all day long on the ol' tables. I hate to say it, but we lost touch years ago, after he got all weird.
: "If you really want to find him, you should ask Mister Pinball Wizard. He was, like our elder, dude. If anyone kept tabs on any of the old gang, it'd be Mister Pinball Wizard for sure. Last I heard, he was working on fixing up old pinball table. You might find him looking for old junk parts."
===Mister Pinball Wizard===
: You stare in disbelief. Nevermind why he's playing a fully functional pinball machine in the middle of a junkyard, you're even more weirded out by that hat!
: "Pete sent you, did he? Well, Jack Thornside used to be one of the finest pinball players in Elanthia, and a pretty nice guy. He used to really look after my apprentice, Timmy, and that takes real patience. You have to understand, Timmy is deaf and blind and yet, under my instruction, he learned to play pinball.
: "Oh some folks said I should get a new Timmy, but we sure showed them all. The secret is simple. I taught Timmy to play by sense of smell. Don't look at me like that, it's true. Timmy might be blind and deaf, but that nose of his could pick up the difference between a bumper and a chute at ten paces. These days though, he's just a simple meat inspector at a local shop. And no, that's not a metaphor for anything. He really does inspect meat."
: The Wizard continues his reminiscence. "Yeah, Thornside never stopped hanging out with Timmy. He used to rant on about video games and Timmy was the only person who would sit through it all. Oh, the delicious irony."
:
===Timmy===
:Timmy Pinking
::You find Timmy deep in the freezer, sniffing around the racks of meat. He stops next to you and takes a deep whiff. He then takes a large permanent marker and draws a red X on you. He seems completely unmoved by your flailing and cursing. Yep, he sure is deaf and blind.
::Timmy continues on down the line sniffing packages of meat, occasionally marking a red X. Looks like you'll need to reach him through his nose. Perhaps Jack Thornside left something behind in his jail cell, Timmy might recognize the scent.
:::> To the jail!
: Your search through the empty jail cell quickly yields a handkerchief from the rag pile with the monogram "JT". Your fine detective skills pay off on this one.
: Something owned by Jack Thornside? Check. Jack Thornside scent? Check. Mucosal residue evidence? Double check. Should have looked for that last piece of evidence before touching it. Good thing you got that immunization shot when you enrolled.
Description after returning to Timmy with hankerchief:
: You find Timmy still hard at work. You hold Jack's handkerchief under his nose and he pauses. Timmy nods furiously and begins patting himself down. He quickly pulls a business card out of his pocket and hands it to you. The business card simply reads: "Frenzy, Associate Pawn Broker, Lower Townshire."
: This can only mean one thing- Road Trip!
: As you leave, you glance back at Timmy. Guess he was pretty helpful after all, so you decide to stuff Jack's handkerchief in his hand as a reward. Aren't you nice?
:
===Frenzy===
: "Heeeyyyyy! So, you wanna come to The Frenze and learn about Jackie Thornside, eh? Just be cool, man, be cool. Frenzy will get you on your way. Jackie, he used to love the pinball, man. He was one of the gang, you know what I mean?" Yeah man, you know what he means.
: "Then, one day, the arcade started getting these fancy video-ma-gamer things. Us pinballers started losing the respect we'd earned for being kings of the tables all those years. Kids started playing those video-da-hoopties and weren't lookin' up to us no more." Dreadful!
: "Yeah well, Jackie, he took it pretty hard. Started getting real dark and didn't hang with us. Most of us got over it and kept the dream alive. We pretty much wrote Jackie off when he started his lawyering. Belle took it bad though, man. She and Jackie used to have a thing, you know what I'm sayin'? If you want to track down Jackie, I'd ask Belle. She still likes to get out and shake her stuff. She always could do a mean funky chicken. Oh, and kid...?
: "Heeeeyyyyyy."
===Belle Bawtums===
:"You wanna know about Jackie, honey? Oh that makes my heart so sad. We used to be an item way back when, but Jackie got obsessed with the way video games started taking over the arcade. I think he just couldn't handle not being the center of attention anymore.
:
: "Oh he tried to play the new games, but he just couldn't get the hang of it. One day he left a note that said he was leaving for law school. He said he had some big plan to restore glory to the old arcade. He even..."
: Belle brings her hand up to her mouth and sobs before continuing. "...he even left me his lucky pinball! Oh, poor Jackie. He used to be so amazing."
:
: >>> Say, Belle, have you ever thought about finding Jack and reigniting that spark?
:
: "Oh heavens no, honey. Jack got real ugly." Wow, not really the southern belle answer you were expecting, but okay. Let's move on.
:
: "Listen, sweetie, if you want to stop Jack's plan, there may be something you can do. I've never told anyone this, but after Jack left... his lucky pinball... changed. It took on a life of its own and, well, it escaped. As Jack slipped further into darkness, his lucky pinball became evil.
:
: "These days it's known as The Mean Pinball and it's... out there. If you can stop The Mean Pinball you might just put a stop to Jack's evil plan, too. Jack and I would share the most romantic moonlit picnics when we were younger. If the Mean Pinball were looking for a place to hide; somewhere he knew Jack would never find it... that's where it would go."
===De-meaning the Pinball===
: After you deliver the killing blow to the Mean Pinball, you are nearly blinded by a flash of light. The released energy washes over you. In a matter of moments, memories and feelings that are not your own race through your brain. You see images of Jack's youth and his subsequent fall into bitterness and evil. You also feel a rumbling in your stomach, but you quickly realize you're just hungry.
: As you return to yourself, you see a small, shiny pinball on the ground. You pick it up and it makes you feel happy somehow. You quickly decide not to tell anyone that holding strange balls in your hand gives you delight. This journey has given you great insight into Jack Thornside's motives. You may understand why he hates video games, but he still deserves a supreme ass-whooping for the trouble he's caused. It's time to go back and tell Old Al what you learned.
==Quest Completion==
:"That's quite a story kid. Ol' Jack turning bad just because the arcade outgrew him. Good work on defeating that Mean Pinball and recovering Jack's Lucky Pinball. This may just be the key to clearing up this mess. Time for the real work to begin."
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Category:Quests
Category:Article stubs
Category:Nostalgya