409 - Eat CAKE, get DEMIPIKE, go WEST

You cram some CAKE into your GOB.

You pick up the DEMIPIKE off the STOOL and reequip it as a CRUTCH.

You proceed WEST with the PARTY (SKULLY).

It's all very straightforward. Kind of disappointing, really, but sometimes that's just the way it is.

>Arrive WEST

408 - Panic, learn HORRIBLE TRUTH

DAVE informs you that the PUNCH contains a healthful amount of FLUORIDE, which helps to protect your TEETH. He pockets his TOOTHBRUSH and heads towards the door to the WEST.

You realize that you were panicking for nothing. DAVE'S a GREAT GUY.

DAVE informs you that the DUCT TAPE is in the BOILER ROOM, just a few screens away. He says he'll wait for you on the LANDING outside of the BREAK ROOM, but you can feel free to poke around, eat CAKE, or do whatever in here before joining him. What a GREAT GUY!

DAVE goes WEST, leaving you alone. What do you do?

>Eat CAKE, get DEMIPIKE, go WEST

407 - Drink PUNCH

You down the rest of your PUNCH. You happen to notice that SKULLY has remarkably clean TEETH. Simultaneously, you also notice that a strange LOOK has come over THE FACE OF DAVE.

There's probably no connection here. Nothing to worry about. Silly to even... think... such... hmm.

You put down your empty EMPTY RED CUP. Dave turns back to look at you, smiling.

He asks if you noticed anything special in your DRINK.

>Panic, learn HORRIBLE TRUTH

406 - Accept PUNCH

You accept a CUP OF PUNCH. The pinkish/purplish beverage is moderately tasty, if a bit sweet. Sadly, sipping it does not reinvigorate you the same way as, say, consuming an entire fully-cooked CHICKEN found by smashing open a BARREL.

You ask DAVE if he has any DUCT TAPE with which you could fashion for yourself a RUDIMENTARY SPLINT for your broken LEG. DAVE laughs. Of course he has DUCT TAPE! He didn't bring it to the BREAK ROOM, though. He didn't expect to need it at the PARTY.

Noting what he did, in fact, bring with him, you ask him what the DEAL is with the TOOTHBRUSH.

For a time, he doesn't reply.

Silently, Dave puts down his punch and hat, drawing the toothbrush from his pocket. His movements are smooth and deliberate, performing an action he had perfected a thousand times before. His countenance, sorrowful, is that born of a grief too deep to bear, a grief that each moment threatens its bearer's very soul. He turns away, contemplating the object of his despair. His stare goes beyond the toothbrush, beyond the walls of the break room, beyond the temple itself and through time to something in the past so drenched in sadness that even its reflection in his one good eye is almost enough to bring a man to tears. Finally, his voice, scarred by torments echoing across the gulf of time, wrenches itself from the very depths of Dave's being.

"Don't forget to brush your teeth," Dave says.

>Drink PUNCH

405 - Inquire about much-needed MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

You've been a real TROOPER about this whole "broken leg" thing, but the fact is, it is three or four hundred percent more painful than you've been letting on. You ask Dave (as he fetches himself a REFILL) whether (A) he is a DOCTOR or (B) if there is a MEDICAL FACILITY nearby. Dave laughs at the very NOTION that he is a DOCTOR and informs you that he's the HANDYMAN of the TEMPLE OF THE ANCIENT WEAPON. It's his job to keep everything up and running (and that ain't easy, mind you). There used to be a DOCTOR on site, but that was before the vicious series of deathtrap-related accidents that killed most of the STAFF in horrific sacrifices to sate the never-ending thirst of the dark---

Dave remembers his MANNERS and offers you PUNCH.

Would you like some punch?

>Accept PUNCH