Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(Continued from my previous posts.)

I’m gone through essentially the whole map now, with two major chunks and two minor chunks remaining I can’t reach.

The red highlights are areas I explored, although I decided not to go through the tedium of filling in every single square to the southwest, as they’re all “wandering aimlessly” rooms. The rooms to the right are roughly the same (although they do connect with the Mirkwood maze). The two columns to the southeast are actually “wraparound” rooms; you’re going east and the game switches from saying you’re wandering to the southeast to saying you’re wandering to the southwest.

You’re wandering aimlessly through south-eastern Middle-Earth.
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You’re wandering aimlessly through south-western Middle-Earth.

The missing parts are circled. For the missing minor chunks, one of them is a portion near the map of Mirkwood that the maze doesn’t quite get to, and might simply be all mountains. The second, more suspicious one, is a section at Moria which has no rooms:

The empty spaces are all adjacent to Thrain’s tomb, and since only one dwarf-ring has been located (out of seven) this suggests the rings might be in the area somehow

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.

OPEN LID
You’ll have to be more specific.

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

Of the major gaps, one is past Saruman’s army. I have not been able to summon Treebeard’s army by any means to assist, as was promised.

The last major gap is at Mount Doom itself; I have gotten past Shelob (as I’ll show off shortly) but I am only one step in further; I haven’t gotten around to experimenting yet.

My major progress (based on a hint from Rob) was based on going absolutely gonzo with using book references to try to solve puzzles. The instructions say the “Elven-rings are kept by the elven-lords” and since they know of your question you can ask for them. That doesn’t mean they’ll visibly display in a location or anything, you just have to assume they’re there (based on it being logical based on the books).

You’re standing at the foot of a slender tower.

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You’re in the Grey Havens.

ASK CIRDAN FOR RING
Cirdan knows of your quest and gives you Narya, the Ring of Fire.

Now we’re getting deep into the trivia. (And also the wildly specific phrasing; nothing else works except you can put LORD CIRDAN if you like.) Over at Rivendell, ASK ELROND FOR RING works equally well…

Elrond knows of your quest and gives you Vilya, the Ring of Air.

…and just north of where Galadriel’s Mirror gave a vision, Galadriel herself awaits (again you have to make the leap to assume that she’s there!)

ASK LADY GALADRIEL FOR RING
Galadriel knows of your quest and gives you Nenya, the Ring of Water.

That’s not all! Now that we’ve unlocked Go-Wild-With-Book-References mode, there was something else also that Galadriel gave over:

ASK LADY GALADRIEL FOR PHIAL
She might be so kind if you gave her something first.

GIVE JEWEL TO LADY GALADRIEL
Galadriel thanks you kindly .
In return she gives you a small crystal phial that radiates a bright light.

Oho! So that resolves the purpose of the jewel sitting on the road; as El Explorador de RPG points out in the comments, that means the jewel is likely the Elfstone, also known as the Stone of Eärendil, being used in a slightly different context here.

From “The Gift of Galadriel” (1991) by Greg Hildebrandt

I took the Phial all the way through Moria with no effect, but it certainly does work on Shelob.

You’ve reached the haunted city of Minas Morgul.

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You’re groping through a dark tunnel.

Suddenly you hear a rustling sound behind you!

LIGHT PHIAL
The Lady’s glass sends forth a bright light.

KILL
The dazzling light makes the monstrous creature helpless.
Your blade inflicts a mortal wound.

Notice how this is so reliant on book-references it does not even bother to describe who Shelob is!

Shelob on a cover. From the UK HarperCollins version, 2020.

Immediately after, the mail stolen from Smaug comes into play:

SE
You’ve reached the tower of Cirith Ungol.
You are surprised by a patroling band of Orcs and taken prisoner.

However, when they discover your mithril coat, they start to quarrel over it.
In the fight that follows all Orcs get killed!

Trying to leave, the game says “You’re stopped by what seems to be an invisible wall.” Then the game says “Three-headed, vulture-faced statues seem to be staring at you” followed by the player being overtaken by orcs a turn later. I’m not remembering exactly what happens here in the book (I remember Sam was involved; we are all the characters simultaneously) but I’m guessing it’s still another match to the text somehow?

Just to recap, we are missing:

a.) some method of getting the Ent army to help with Saruman; the fact getting captured isn’t an immediate game over is suspicious, but I have not gotten anything to happen

b.) all the Dwarf-rings except one, which may or may not be connected to the empty space on the map attached to Moria

c.) and some method of getting by the orcs I just mentioned.

Any and all speculation are welcome, keeping in mind the game is reliant enough on book-knowledge to require you remember who Lord Cirdan is.

Oh, and in case anyone asks:

GIVE RING TO LADY GALADRIEL
Don’t be ridiculous!