Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(Continued from my previous posts.)

I have the One Ring to rule them all, that means the rest of this ought to be easy, right? My count otherwise is unchanged: 4 out of 9 Man-Rings, 0 out of 3 Elf-Rings, and 0 out of 7 Dwarf Rings.

The game gives some general help about the rings, noting that

a.) the Elven-rings are kept by the Elven-lords, and “will yield their treasure if you ask for it”

b.) the Dwarf-rings are hidden in Moria

c.) the Nazgul have the Man-rings (I’ve killed four, I just need to find the other five); the instructions say that they’re easy to find “by those who have read The Lord of the Rings thoroughly”

My map so far.

Before plowing ahead, I should also mention something about the specific port I’m playing: it does not, in a technical sense, have a save game feature. It has a log feature. That means it keeps track of what commands you’ve put, and you can have it store those in a log, and then recollect it to have what is functionally a save game; in practice, my gameplay has a lot of testing useless exits to find out they’re blocked so I feel strange making a log until I have “clean” progress. The end result is that “insta-testing” is a bit harder; I’ve found a Balrog, for example, but haven’t tried all the different possible ways of defeating him yet because I don’t have a log file there.

(Also — and this reflects a general characteristic of this game allowing some flexibility in pathing — I approached the Balrog from the east side of Moria. I’ll explain later.)

The Trolls, art by Tolkien, based off art by Jennie Harbour for Hansel and Gretel.

Remember, this game is mashing together scenes from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. One encounter early (near where the jewel and the glowing staff are) is a tableau of trolls, already pre-frozen:

Three large Trolls are standing motionless before you!

One of them seems to have something in his pocket.

I had enormous trouble getting the thing out of the pocket. SEARCH POCKET, LOOK POCKET, LOOK IN POCKET, EXAMINE POCKET, EMPTY POCKET, TAKE POCKET, TAKE SOMETHING, OPEN TROLL’S POCKET, and EXAMINE TROLL’S POCKET were all unproductive. I finally gave up and only hit on a later pass-through PICK POCKET, and that’s the only method that works.

In the Troll’s pocket you find a tiny key.

Subsequently I went ahead and made my verb list to help with further troubles.

It’s a four letter parser, so LISTEN is interpreted as LIST which lists the inventory.

Note that some of the verbs give different messages; MAKE (which was used in MAKE FIRE) says “you’ll have to be more specific” but LEAVE says “Please use directions to move.” The latter is deceptive as (for example) the cave that had the staff wants the player to LEAVE CAVE to get out. Thus I am treating this entire list “neutrally” even if the message seems to indicate the verb won’t get used; the game says “What?” when a verb is truly not understood, like QWKAVWEE.

Serena Malyon, from the author’s post on r/lotr.

With the tiny key in hand, let’s take a trip back to Smaug.

You’re facing a grey wall of rock.
In it you discover a small hole.

This is where going west gets our hero spotted and killed.

USE KEY
The lock clicks open.

OPEN DOOR
Which door?

LOOK
You’re facing a grey wall of rock.
In it you discover a small hole.

ENTER HOLE
A huge pile of gold shimmers at your feet!

On top of it lies a glowing Dragon, sound asleep.

SHOOT
Your arrow whizzes and dispatches the sleeping dragon.

Trying to get the gold indicates there’s too much to take along, but there’s a “precious coat of mail” made of mithril in the hoard you can nab. (No WEAR verb, which is kind of weird in a game about rings.)

Incidentally, you don’t have to actually pass through either the snow mountain or the underground to get to Lonely Mountain; you can backtrack to a gap in the mountains and go through a bunch of rooms described as

You’re wandering aimlessly through north-western Middle-Earth.

which the author clearly intended as an explicit shortcut, even though it short-circuits the scene where you burn wood for heat.

One last observation about that “wandering aimlessly” message before we start getting into more adventures; at a certain point going west to east the message switches from “north-western Middle-Earth” to “north-eastern Middle-Earth”. Similarly, there’s a change while going from north to south where “north-western” turns into “south-western”. This marks the exact middle of the map and it helped me make sure the color grid above follows the exact layout of the game; there’s some parts (especially “foreign shores”) that wrap around and otherwise go in tangled directions so I was uncertain until I confirmed it with these messages.

For more mischief, going from Smaug and backtracking slightly, you can find Mirkwood.

You’re lost among the dark trees of Mirkwood.

SE
You’re lost among the dark trees of Mirkwood.

SW
The trees are too dense here.

This is another maze that breaks the grid (and remember, no item dropping!) and I was unable to map it out precisely, but I did find what seems to be the reason for going in.

You’re lost among the dark trees of Mirkwood.

SW
You’ve reached the black fortress of Dol Guldur.
The entrance is strongly guarded.

ENTER FORTRESS
The guards leap up as they see you.

Backtracking even farther — right before the Caradhras pass — there’s a very long path going to the south leading to a new area, at the eastern side of Moria.

Sure, the Balrog doesn’t have any reason to hang out right at the entrance, but remember this is Alternate Reality Tolkien.

W
You’re standing on the bridge of Khazad-dum, facing the mountains.
A huge black shadow with a heart of fire materializes in front of you!

KILL
The Balrog lashes out with his whip of flame.
Its ends curl around your legs and drag you into the abyss.

BECOME WHITE WIZARD hmm, I guess that method didn’t work. Now, given how easily Smaug was felled, there might be just as simple a method here, but as I already indicated earlier, I haven’t wrangled the log system to land a “save” here yet.

Less fatal is the Mirror of Galadriel, but Galadriel herself is a no-show.

Upon a low pedestal carved like a branching tree stands
a basin of silver, wide and shallow, filled with water.
This is the Mirror of Galadriel.

LOOK MIRROR
At first, all you see is your own reflection.
Then the mirror clears.
You see a dark tower, surrounded by a forest of dark trees.
You seem to come closer, passing the guards, who fail to notice you.

The mirror darkens, revealing a deep dungeon.
As you try to make out what’s shimmering among the dust and
bones, the picture fades…

I’m guessing this changes to give hints on the current situation (and assuming some continuity with 1975 HOBBIT, matches the Oracle from that game); this indicates we need the One Ring to get inside Dol Guldur.

There’s also a small scene with a boat and I am not sure why it is there given you can just walk around the path the other direction to end up at the same place.

You’re standing in a small clearing.

There’s a boat here.

In it lies a long rope.

GET BOAT
You push the boat off the shore and jump in.

You’re travelling in a boat on the river Anduin.

Just a bit south further is a very short conversation with an Ent…

You’re wandering through Fangorn forest.

Here you meet Treebeard, Master of the forest.

The Ent promises to help you against Saruman, if necessary.

…and through the forest you can get captured and stuck. I don’t know if this is a “loss” here or not.

You’re crossing the fords of the Isen.

A company of Uruk-hai bearing the White Hand of Isengard overtakes you.
Saruman takes all the rings from you.

You’re set alone on the pinnacle of Orthanc.

Let’s rewind now back to right before entering the snowy route, skip by the Moria route (again) and just try to wrap around south. This turns out not to be a great idea as you get captured by Saruman again, although there’s a slight divergence where you can make it to the Tower of Orthanc without being taken prisoner.

Tolkien’s own illustration.

You’re standing at the foot of the Tower of Orthanc.

Suddenly something heavy passes close to your head!
It appears to be a dark crystal globe.

You can’t take the globe; I’m not sure what it is for. (I realize, writing this, I never tried my verb list against it; an assignment for next time.)

One more thing to mention before tackling Moria proper: early on there’s a room that calls itself Rivendell. I use that phrasing because it seems remarkably underwhelming and I have yet to get to communicate with any elves that might be about. I’m not taking any hints from people playing along for this right now, but if someone wants to speculate “blind” based just on the books I am happy to hear suggestions.

You’ve reached Rivendell.

GO IN
You can’t do that.

IN
You can’t do that.

ENTER
You can’t do that.

CALL ELVES
Don’t be ridiculous!

(Also attempted: FIND ELROND, where the game responds “That would be too easy!” Harumph.)

Finally, it’s time to SAY FRIEND and enter.

Towards the east you see stairs hewn out of rock.

E
You’re standing in front of the Gate of Moria.

Strange runes are engraved on the smooth surface.

SAY FRIEND
Slowly the gates swing open.
As you enter the mines, the gates are closed behind you with tremendous power!

You’re lost in the dark mines of Moria.

While the game is still on a grid, it drops having every direction work to turn it into a maze (without random jumping around).

The Tomb of the Lord of Moria first:

You’re standing in a dimly lit chamber.
In the center you see a stone tomb.

On top of it lies an old, dusty book.

READ BOOK
Among many sad tales is the story of Thrain, once Lord of Moria.
After hiding the seven Dwarf-rings, he departed to seek vengeance
upon the Dark Lord.
Nothing was heard of him ever since.

GET BOOK
The book crumples to dust when you touch it.

OPEN TOMB
In it you discover the skeleton of a noble Dwarf.

I have no idea how to find the rings. I assume they lurk in the maze; maybe we need more light? Or maybe we just need to shake the poor corpse open somehow because he swallowed them all in one swig (nothing I’ve worked tried)?

The One Ring is, perhaps appropriately, easier to find: wander into the right room and simply GET RING.

You’re lost in the dark mines of Moria.

Groping through the dark you suddenly touch a golden ring.

GET RING
It’s yours now.

Gollum lurks nearby, and he wants to play his riddle game with you in the exact same manner as The Hobbit (as opposed to this being Lord of the Rings Gollum).

Deep down here by the dark water lives the old Gollum, a small slimy creature.

Gollum seems afraid of you and proposes a riddle game:
if you know the answer to his three questions, he’ll lead you
out of the mountains. If you fail however, you’ll serve him for lunch.
Do you agree?

YES
This is his first riddle:

What has roots that nobody sees,
Is taller than trees,
Up, up it goes,
And yet never grows?

MOUNTAIN
You found the answer!

His second riddle is:

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt,
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.

DARK
You found the answer!

Gollum has one more riddle for you:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

TIME
You found the answer!

The light of Gollum’s eyes has become a green fire,
and it’s coming swiftly nearer.

NE
Your opponent does not let you pass.

In a flash Gollum grabs the One Ring from your pocket!

Suddenly Gollum vanishes from sight.
Next thing you feel are two strong, slimy hands around your neck!

He kills you even if you don’t have the ring; with the ring, you have time here to KILL GOLLUM but there isn’t any benefit from his corpse. I have some ideas on what to try; it is possible we might be able to skip Gollum altogether by entering Moria from the “wrong way” and figuring out the path.