(Continued from my previous posts on Cornucopia.)
The infamous “addendum rules” book from 1985, and yes, this is going to come up today. Via Chamblin Bookmine, which amusingly dates it as 2017 (the number in the corner is not a date).
Since last time I made quite a bit of progress; so much progress that this is a “I better make a post before it becomes too hard to describe everything” moment as opposed to a “I’m stuck” moment.
The first small thing that happened is that I managed to defeat the troll the “proper” way. It was by absolute luck. Let me pretend first I thought things out.
There is a game from 1998 (Enlightenment by Taro Ogawa) which is one of my favorite early IFComp games (it gets some criticism for being too hard, but I’m the sort of person that voluntarily plays Cornucopia). You’re at the end of the game, there’s a troll to get by, and you, the paranoid adventurer, have lots of light.
You are carrying:
your backpack (providing light and being worn and closed)
your sword (providing light)
your cross (providing light and being worn)
your amulet (providing light and being worn)
your lamp (providing light)
You need to ditch all of it, then get the troll’s own light source (his eyes) snuffed out. At the end the troll will get eaten by a grue.
From the Beyond Zork documentation, via the Infocom Documentation Project.
Cotton is Zork-inspired, so it makes sense he’d have grues, although the logic here doesn’t quite work the same as Ogawa’s game. The troll here lurks in the dark. The grue-like creatures seem to be tracking the player, and going by smell. So, when the player arrives at the troll and it is dark, the “abominable” smell of the troll becomes the new target. (Grues can take down pretty much anything as long as it is dark, so that part at least is consistent with Zork.)
You are in part of a trolls lair, all manner of stuff is strewn around, including parts of its previous meals. To the west is a low tunnel and to the south what looks to be a tiny cavern. A huge and hairy troll stands here blocking your way.
>TURN OFF LAMP
The battery lamp is now off.
Darkness falls, you hear a few tentative steps in the dark and then a very loud crunching and chomping, it then goes very quiet.
I wish I could say I thought all that through, but instead: I was noodling around and I accidentally wandered into the troll lair while it was dark.
I’ll take the wins where I can find them. Past the troll is a crown which counts as a treasure and I think that’s the only result.
There’s a second small thing I found early (which turned out to be big later). I found yet another spot where the levitate self spell works: at the fountain with the “goldfish”.
>CAST LEVITATE SELF
You float upwards towards the top of the fountain. You are floating near the top of a large fountain of water. The noise from the jet of water is quite loud and the spray is soaking you.
After a few turns you float back down. I thought this was something meant to be saved for later. Also, doing this uses up the levitate self spell (unlike the tower-climbing use and the fly-over-tiles use we’ve seen in previous posts).
As an aside, regarding the “burning spells in the spellbook while casting” — I mentioned this doesn’t match AD&D behavior, and it doesn’t, by standard rules. However, according to Zenopus Archives, there was an article by Gary Gygax in the June 1982 edition of Dragon which described casting spells directly from a spell book, with the spells disappearing accordingly. This later landed in the Unearthed Arcana book, which I had actively blocked from my memory.
From the cover of the aforementioned magazine, via eBay.
The upshot is Cotton could have seen this article and used it as a reference, rather than just going with his own homebrew! Still, the levitate behavior is irregular, and the preserve-in-certain-circumstance exception seems intended to help with the puzzle structure.
Put a pin in all this, I’ll get back to it later.
My big breakthrough happened at the room where the torch originally appears:
You are in a short north-south corridor. The south end leads to a spiral staircase leading down. There is a doorway to the east and on the west wall there is an iron bracket. The bracket contains a flaming torch.
>GET TORCH
Taken.>TURN BRACKET
An opening slowly appears in the wall next to the iron bracket.>W
You are in what was the reception room for the King’s Quarters. There is a small closet in the south wall.
This gets close to opening up, quite literally, a whole multiverse. We just need to kill a demon first.
The closet to the south contains an obstacle I haven’t managed to wrangle yet. Another time.
You are in a small closet which is very unwholesome with rotting clothes everywhere, basically it stinks. The centre of the closet floor seems covered in what appears to be a horrible brown mould.
>EXAMINE MOULD
As you try to do that the mould ejects a large number of spores, which completely cover you.(death message etc.)
The demon-killing part turns out to be trivial. Going west one more step leads to the King’s Bedroom, and a moment that’s more for lore-plot than it is to actively stump the player.
You are in the King’s bedroom, it was once richly furnished but only decay remains. The exception to the decay is a huge four poster bed. There are exits to the east, south and west. Sleeping on the bed is by all appearances a very beautiful woman.
>EXAMINE WOMAN
What you thought was a sleeping woman isn’t, from a closer examination you see that she has a pair of wings, horns and all the physical accoutrements one would expect a Demon to have, nasty!>KILL DEMON WITH RUNE SWORD
You strike at the Demon while she is sleeping and unable to protect herself. The power of the rune sword banishes her back to the Hell from whence she was summoned.
(Mind you, if you haven’t figured out the tile thing yet here, you won’t have the means to kill the demon, so this still counts as a puzzle.) It seems that the reason the demon-summoning circle wasn’t usable in any sense is that it already did its work, with the demon still actively summoned!
Moving the bed requires the demon is dead first, and this leads to a secret area.
>MOVE BED
Moving the huge bed reveals a secret chamber in the north wall.>N
You are in a small dusty chamber, which has lain unused for many years, a southern exit leads back to the King’s bedroom. A large full length mirror, on the north wall, dominates this small chamber. An old leather bound diary has been dropped here.>GET DIARY
Taken.>READ DIARY
The old diary’s cover, which is bound in a very high quality leather, indicates that this once belonged to a King named Fftumbol, or perhaps it means the line of Fftumbol – it is not very clear.>OPEN DIARY
The old diary opens.>READ DIARY
The old diary’s contents are all rather boring containing the trivia of the day to day running of court life. The last entry is much more interesting and has been done in a great hurry. The court Wizard, Fflluccer, has apparently summoned, for an unspecified reason, a demon. Fflluccer, the fool, has lost control of it and she is rapidly depopulating the castle. Not even the power of the sword has been of any use, what is left of the court are fleeing in all directions.
I’m guessing Fffllucer thought he could get a succubus girlfriend, and things went awry? This is AD&D, not Pathfinder!
(That was a joke. The game I’m referring to, Wrath of the Righteous, came out in 2021.)
The mirror is the important part:
You are in a small dusty chamber, which has lain unused for many years, a southern exit leads back to the King’s bedroom. A large full length mirror, on the north wall, dominates this small chamber.
>EXAMINE MIRROR
The large mirror is completely blank, no reflection at all.>CAST DETECT MAGIC ON MIRROR
The large mirror is very highly magical, it is as if the large mirror was in many places at the same time.
Trying to enter the mirror as-is causes a death reminiscent of Ferret: “The large mirror not being focussed on anything yet, spreads your molecules all over the multiverse.” I ran through my verb list and found RUB MIRROR sets a destination, rotating between six possibilities: “The large mirror shimmers and a weird reflection appears.”
- A “distorted” countryside “tinged with green” — walking in kills via arsenic
- A “swirling grey mist” — this is just a single room that loops
- An “icy waste” where you die without protection from cold (*)
- A “huge cavern” with a “low dais” which is safe to enter (*)
- A “chasm” at a ledge (*)
- A “small square room with a metal door” which traps the player without a method out (*)
For this post we’ll visit the four marked with an asterisk, starting with the “huge cavern”.
>ENTER MIRROR
You are at the narrow south end of a huge cavern which must be at least a hundred feet high, and at least two hundred in width at its widest point. The floor is littered with rubbish, mostly rotting food. There are passages leading to the south and west, the southern one is much wider than the western one which appears to lead into a small chamber.>N
You are standing on a dais which is at at the north end of the huge cavern. The dais is raised about one foot above the rest of the ground. There appears to be some sort of design carved on the dais. The dais doesn’t seem to be part of the ground, there is a very thin gap all the way around its edge where it meets the floor. There is a large weight here, with a carrying ring fixed to its top.
There’s a rope to the west attached to something out of sight (sixty feet), and if you take the weight over and tie it there will be a “grating noise”. This is the dais opening up into a pit, so you can walk over, try to go down, and die by falling into the pit. Oops. Levitate doesn’t work there, unfortunately; I still need to work out what to do.
Going south from the Huge Cavern incidentally hops back to the secret room, but that’s not true of every place; some require return via a different method.
At the chasm area, the way back seems to step out in a void, but you can answer YES to the game’s YES/NO question and arrive back to safety anyway.
>ENTER MIRROR
You are on a small crumbling ledge on the east side of a deep chasm. The sound of dripping water reaches your ears echoing up from the chasm’s depths. Along the ledge to the south is a cave like entrance into the cliff wall.>W
Are you sure you want to step out into the chasm?
>YES
You step off the ledge into the chasm and suddenly you find that….. You are in a small dusty chamber, which has lain unused for many years, a southern exit leads back to the King’s bedroom. A large full length mirror, on the north wall, dominates this small chamber.
Actually moving forward takes the player to a “cruel looking idol” with two sockets, one with a red gem and one empty. In some games this would be a cue to steal the red gem, but here we take the green gem that I had sensed was evil (but not magic!) and drop it in. The idol helpfully steps aside.
You are at the eastern end of a large cavern, which is dominated by a cruel looking idol. The idol, which is right before you, is some eight feet tall and incredibly obese. The air is thick and overpowering with the smell of incense. Its mouth is full of very sharp teeth and he has six arms all of which end in very nasty looking talons, all in all a very nasty bit of work.
>PUT GREEN GEM IN SOCKET
As you place the green gem in the socket the idol seems to grin at you, and for an instance you become dizzy and disoriented as a waft of stale air passes your face.
Inside there is a room dedicated to the High Priest, where you can snag a gold idol (a mini-version of the big one), a gold ring, and a cloak of feathers which is helpfully warm.
With the cloak on, it is possible to survive a trip to the cold.
I haven’t had much luck here yet.
>ENTER MIRROR
You are in an icy wilderness, there are ice spicules blowing all about you. To the east there is an icy plateau.>S
You are on the north side of a crevasse – there is a thin ice bridge spanning the gap. The crevasse looks very deep and dark. It sounds as though there is water at the bottom.
The bridge leads to a dead end, and there isn’t an illusion there: it just stops. There’s an igloo to the east (that reacts badly if you’re holding a torch) which contains an ice key (described as “made in Iceland”, ha ha) but I have not found a place for it to go. I am fairly certain I am missing something.
What was even worse (the first time around) is that there is no way out. No jumping into a chasm to magically go into a mirror instead.
I was thinking about the “manual” from a few entries ago…
This is not so much a manual more a diatribe on the brilliance of the inventor of a device which enables one to transport oneself virtually anywhere. This device is apparently box-shaped with a selection of dials and buttons on its upper surface. Reading between the lines it seems there was at least one prototype which was limited in its transport abilities using only a series of buttons for control.
…and that it’d be nice if I could find said device, because it seemed likely to help in these places that seemed like random traps. Additionally, one of the other worlds hinted that the prototype device would likely help.
>ENTER MIRROR
You are in a small square room, the walls of which are completely blank.
There is a gold door in the south wall.>OPEN GOLD DOOR
You open the door and a little man rushes out and says ‘Oh thank you very much, I have been stuck in there for ages’. I only came back for this, he says, waving a small box, it should have got me out of there but it seems it is not quite perfect yet. He then turns a dial, presses a button on the small box and just disappears. In his haste to depart a note slips from his pocket.
(The player is otherwise trapped in the scene above. The note hints about inserting rods in ROD order from the top down, whatever that means.)
Still with no idea where to look, I went back to the main map and started doing EXAMINE ALL everywhere. I had discovered that the button F5 actually types the phrase, and it gives descriptions of every item in a room. Many games are very hesitant about this kind of help (I’ve even seen GET ALL disabled to avoid this) but here the help has a built-in hotkey!
Perhaps you know where this is going.
>CAST LEVITATE SELF
You float upwards towards the top of the fountain. You are floating near the top of a large fountain of water. The noise from the jet of water is quite loud and the spray is soaking you.>EXAMINE ALL
transport box : The small box has five coloured buttons on its top side. They are coloured blue yellow, green, pink and black, there is no indication as to their use. The box has the distinct appearance of being extremely delicate, and probably the slightest bump would damage it.
black button : I see nothing special about black button.
blue button : I see nothing special about blue button.
green button : I see nothing special about green button.
yellow button : I see nothing special about yellow button.
pink button : I see nothing special about pink button.
aaaaaa it was right there.
This incidentally burns the “levitate self” spell, which might normally be a problem. To get at what I mean, here’s a meta-map:
You start at the cottage where treasures are stored. To get into the underground, you either levitate up to a tower (which doesn’t burn the levitate) or pass through an area with a card, an illusion, and a slot that eats up the card. So if you want to keep returning treasures to the cottage, the levitate route is needed; not only does a treasure get removed from the game, but the route can only be used once, after which there seems to be no way to the main underground section.
With this thought in mind, I went back to the icy area to test buttons, trying to return back to the mirror.
>ENTER MIRROR
You are in an icy wilderness, there are ice spicules blowing all about you. To the east there is an icy plateau.>PUSH BLACK BUTTON
You are in a small dusty chamber, which has lain unused for many years, a southern exit leads back to the King’s bedroom. A large full length mirror, on the north wall, dominates this small chamber.
The black button works, great! But what happens if I push the black button again?
>PUSH BLACK BUTTON
You are in a lit chamber about twenty feet square. The dust is very thick on the floor. The chamber is partitioned-off half way across with a transparent crystal wall. Behind the wall you can see several chairs, all but one of them has a skeleton sitting in it. A sign above the skeletons reads ‘TROPHY ROOM’. On the north side there is a closed door and beside it, at about waist height, there is a small slot. There is an inscription on the door which reads as follows:- AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
Pushing the black button yet again, from the skeleton room, returns back to the secret chamber. This means the act of inserting the gold card into the slot can be skipped, and the route via the skeleton room can be now used to re-enter the main part of the map.
The transport box simply doesn’t work in many places, although it definitely allows hopping in the gold door section I was previous trapped in; however, this is my longest entry yet for Cornucopia, so it is a good place to stop for a breather until next time.
Renga in Blue 
Alas, I’m afraid that Cotton will have to shoulder the blame for the peculiarities of his magic system, as he couldn’t have seen the above-mentioned Gygax article when he was writing Cornucopia. The first Supersoft ad for it appeared in the May, 1982 issue of Computing Today (scans available over at Flaxcottage), placing its release around April, and obviously he would have been writing it well before then.
However, not only were you right about the nature of the levitation spell, you were REALLY right! Now that I see it all laid out, it becomes obvious that its correct initial usage, combined with figuring out that particular aspect of the transport box button sequences, is the key to solving two of the biggest problems that Alex was never able to: keeping the gold card, and being able to get back underground to store the treasures in the cottage. There’s still plenty of things you’ll need to solve, and a few other possible outstanding issues, but for the first time I have some hope that this game might be able to be played through and solved in a way that at least approximates how the original was intended to be. Time will tell. But you’ll need to start considering what I mentioned previously regarding the differences between Alex’s fixed vs. unfixed version workarounds, as this will definitely have an impact on the authenticity of the experience.
A couple of more minor points on the spells: It’s interesting that you used detect evil on the gem, whereas Alex used it on the idol itself. I don’t think it really matters either way, though. On yet another scan through of the solution though, I noticed that he never actually used detect magic. He seems to have just worked out the mirror stuff on his own, but it’s obvious from the description/clue it gives you that it was intended to be used there.
You don’t need to keep the gold card anyway as it always goes back to the alcove and can be picked up when falling after entering the mushroom. I haven’t yet worked out how to enter the hole produced when the dais sinks into it after tying the weight to the rope. I also haven’t found the transporter yet. I am currently exploring the dragon as I had forgotten you just type up when in front of it to access the opening. I am also wondering if you need the transporter to get back from the square room after turning the steering wheel as you only have two moves and then either suffocate or die from arsenic inhalation. The turned wheel must do something somewhere! I have also explored the ice palace and found the magic circle and the stasis fields but have put that on hold until I have explored the dragon.
Oh, interesting! So now you’ve also solved another mystery that Alex could never figure out – the purpose of the alcove.
You still need to teleport in order to get over to the cottage with the gold card (that is, to store it as a treasure). But it’s good to know it doesn’t softlock!
Let me know if you figure out the system on the dragon, I got through via luck.
Through trial and error I worked out the dragon ok; I still haven’t found the transporter yet. I have a feeling it is something to do with the fountain. I am now being chased by an ice warrior and an ice devil. This may be more random combat as I have yet to find a way to shake them off. Smash? Surely not.
I would at least try fighting the devil with the rune sword, which clearly (based on the other scene) is enhanced against hellish creatures.
Yes I was in the thick of the action when you wrote. Unfortunately it seems any injuries you inflicv freeze over and repair themselves as well as there being two of them to fight at the same time. I thought that leading them across the thin ice bridge might cause it to collapse under their combined weight but no dice, 100 sided or otherwise. The torch doesn’t seem any use either. I tried escaping back through the ice door which leads to the throne room but they seem to follow you everywhere, even through the mirror. Maybe you can use the transporter to evade them? Shame I haven’t got it.
would you like a hint on the transporter?
Yes please. I have now got it while hovering in mid-air. The only thing I could think of was using the box itself to get away.
just wait for the spell to run out
I didn’t think of that!
Box sequence from Alex’s wakthrough:
PNFG YRIVGNGR FRYS, TRG OBK, RKNZVAR
OBK, JNVG (lbh sybng gb gur tebhaq)
Either detect evil on idol or detect evil on gem give clues, you could use either one or both together.
I already suspected some gem-to-eye-socket situation before even seeing the idol (both stereotypically adventure game — see Acheton — and stereotypically AD&D). Also it was the only thing that made sense to me as an scent-of-evil-gem-that-isn’t-magic (that is, it used to be attached to something evil).
“moving forward takes the player to a “cruel looking idol” with two sockets, one with a red gem and one empty”
Astounded that you were able to avoid the tempation to include a thumbnail of Trampier’s iconic 1978 Player’s Handbook cover here!
it’s in my folder, maybe I’ll toss it on my next post
OK I see that the area below the trap door includes a room below the dais (or actually standing on it if you lowered it to start with like I did). This room is below the one you reach by rubbing the mirror four times.
I guess Roger may have solved the dais problem, but have you tried the coat of feathers on it? My first thought on seeing the description was “Seems like we need Feather Fall.”
The transport box… is there a way to see that it’s already on the fountain once you levitate up without using EXAMINE ALL? Like by LOOK there? Or is this, in accord with the rest of the game, a hat with a brick under it?
No other way I can see to spot it.
The ground descriptions specifically says that a small object could fit on the jet of water if placed correctly. My problem was I kept trying to put items on the water (and not having it work) but the idea was that there already was an item hidden there.
I’m ok with how it went simply because “examine all” is clearly meant by the author as a central game mechanic
(btw, LOOK UNDER is a verb, but I haven’t seen it apply to anything yet)
LOOK UNDER. You need to use it very early on or you will miss an item.
After some more dais experimentation I see you cannot go through the arch in the east wall under the trap door if the weight is not tied to the rope. This precludes you from taking the diamond rod. I have no idea what the winking eye on the dais signifies.
Does anyone remember the film Carry On Screaming when John Pertwee is killed by the ear that regenerates into a monster that kills him? Well, I wonder if Brian Cotton had seen it as somehting similar happens if you take the mummified hand into the Hall Of Regeneration. In this case it is a twenty foot four armed hirsute monster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5hF80s1Qgs
Ah I have finally located the transporter box via the levitate spell. Is this the correct way to get it? I see you can’t get down again or take the coins this way though so I wonder if you have to at least transport to get to ground again.
I need to test some things hands-on here to figure out what’s really going on in a few areas, so I’m finally going into the breach rather than sitting back and playing some kind of Silent Bob dungeon master. I’ll be using the unfixed version, and plan to report back (spoiler free) later today if it proves relevant.
I also meant to add: Could you two upload copies of your maps so far for me? I want to see if there are any discrepancies with Alex’s.
trizbort 1.7.2.0
I have not gone on to map the gold door yet (I know the box works there though)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wR5jbPic9QFFMMXICNtSvCXaIqmsZpkB/view?usp=sharing
Thanks!
I spent ages trying to put various objects on the jet thinking that it would shut the water off from filling the fountain and thus reveal something. Like you I never thought it was alluding to an object that had already been placed in the jet. I am now wondering if the transporter can be used to elude the ice duo.
the black button works in multiple places in the ice world, so you should be able to warp out if you’re there back to the mirror
Funnily enough I had just worked that out and had used it to bring the gold bar back and also to turn the wheel and return alive from the cyanide room although I don’t know what this achieves. I was just about to use it to retrieve the wooden pallet as I have had an idea about possibly eluding the ice buggers.
The ice men follow you even when you use the transport box. Another observation is that the dispel magic spell can be used an infinite amount of times in the cyanide room if you keep uisng the transport box to return. This made me wonder if you are meant to make multiple visits and turn the wheel several times but if that is the case I still don’t know which area is affected by it. I wondered if the rack room with the chains around the drum might be affected but it doesn’t seem so.
I’ve managed to kill the ice devil but the warrior is proving more obstinate.
Hooray I have despatched both of the buggers. I thought Abbott and Costello were pretty horrific but they are positively comedic compared to those two.
I think I have just worked out what you need to do right at the end by trying something in the Limbo Room. Somewhat predictably I died but it mentions the horn. No, nothing to do with Derek and Clive.
I need to use the debugger in Dosbox-X, but the command you’re supposed to use to get into it (alt+pause/break) just pauses and un-pauses the main program rather than opening the debugger. Anyone know what might be going on here?
Not sure if it is the DOSBox-X version, but the debugger version I have for DOSBox is a different executable. ( dosbox-74-3-debug.exe ) When you run that, it opens the main DOSBox window along with a debugger window. Then the use of ALT+Pause should pause execution. I assume you already have a debug window open, if not, you may not be running in debug mode.
Thanks! Turns out my problem was actually a malfunctioning wireless keyboard. I dug a different one out of a box and got things running.
Everything went fine until it was time to debug, and then the game froze when I re-entered it. It’s possible I messed something up typing it in, so I’ll try again once more tomorrow.
I can’t claim to be an expert on DOSBox-X; I know how to mount drives, change the text to bold white, save config, alter the font and screen size etc. and save and load game states but that’s about it.
I have reached something of an impasse at the moment. I think I’ll leave it and come back for another bash tomorrow. I suspect that I shall be dreaming of crystal keys, steering wheels and magic trees. I have so far identified 145 locations; by comparison mainframe Zork had 191 but I think this game may be somewhat harder.
I though rather than endless one-liners I’d write a resumé of where I am. I have 395 points out of 740 which makes me a Temple Initiate. Outstanding problems are:
The compost. I cannot do anything with it.
The steering wheel and rack. I feel they are probably related but I can’t make anything move when turning the steering wheel.
The tree with the goo. I cannot climb it without being ejected and I cannot take the jewels.
The brown mould in the closet.
Uses for the whistle, rat, die, pallet, crystal key, water and magazines. I did wonder if the magazines might be useful for the last lousy point given the game’s deferential nod to tradition. The die when rolled always displays 6279 but for what reason I know not.
The RING FOR SERVICE comment written on the wall in Cell 2. I have tried manipulating the ring there to no avail.
Where to insert the four rods (there may be more).
I’m going to make another attempt with the debugger on the unfixed version later. If that still doesn’t work, I’ll go back to the fixed version and try to do a full points run through, to at least prove it’s possible, and try to work out some sequencing issues and other discrepancies.
I will just say you need to explore around the gold door area some more.
re: the water, if you pass through the gold card route (even if you teleport) you will eventually get thirsty, so the water is useful for that
I assume the dryness of the brook is more than just natural causes which is why we get thirsty
6279 is screaming “code that goes to unlock something” just I haven’t reached whatever the thing is yet
I haven’t killed the ice critters but no hints yet (I may ask later though, they’re a hassle)
I’d used the water for drinking; I’d forgotten that. I’ll try the gold door again as I have seen the man and got the folded note and gold bar but not much else.
Thanks for the nudge. I think I’ve fully covered the areas reachable from the square room. I suppose I should have worked out the fact you can travel from there given the nature of the man and the box but this game is so intricate I find covering all bases somewhat difficult. That makes five rods and 455 points now.
I can’t get Alex’s debug to work properly, despite multiple attempts and following his instructions to the letter. Once you’re done with it, exit back into the game and type LOOK, you’re still in the same room (it’s supposed to kick you south to bypass the movement bug) and then the game glitches out and freezes. I’d guess the wrong line of code is getting changed here, but who knows.
In any case, I’ll go back to the fixed version later and try my run through.
What rods are there? My guess about inserting the rods in ROD order would be something like, ruby, orichalcum, diamond, though that’s pretty obvious and the rods you mention don’t start with R or O.
I have opal and diamond (working on a post right now). Don’t have ruby yet.
The folded paper mentions SOD so I am guessing you insert them as sapphire, opal and diamond. I have the three rods but nowhere to put them.
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As of writing I have five rods – emerald, sapphire, ruby, opal and diamond but of couse there may be more.
I didn’t actually see what advantage there was in giving the whistle to the pixie other than making him happy.
if you want to spoil where the rods go you can look at my most recent post (I think everything else you’ve seen already now)
I think I’ll soldier on before I do that.