Swamped Talk

Okay, there's a couple of things to get into here.

First, regarding Eighth's invention. There are a lot of things in this adventure where I introduce them but I don't entirely know where I'm going with them for a while.

The invention is not one of them. I've known what it is since not long after it was introduced. Well before Ash was a character. And I've dropped some significant hints about it already.

All I'll add to that now is, it wouldn't make sense for this to be something Ash asked for. It's important to Tom Eighth for his own reasons.

That brings me to the second point: where does Ash fit in?

I wanted to get this in the update, but in the final version I didn't feel like I had a good place to put it. Ash knew Eighth was working on something, and used it as an opportunity. He offered Eighth access to tools and materials he'd need to finish, in exchange for small favors. Eventually, if Tom had continued, those would have turned into large favors.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.