Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(Continued from my previous posts.)

Some progress, although I confess to looking at the source code for one puzzle; I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever based on what I found.

The 1984 Norwegian translation of Lord of the Rings, considered a superior version to the 70s one. Via Reddit. There’s a third translation called Ringdrotten from 2006 which adds more dialectical flair.

Just to clear up an issue I had last time, I somehow translated “en skitten striesekk” as a “pile” rather than a “sack”; I was reinforced in this by trying to “ta striesekk” (ta=take) and being denied, leading me to think it was an item that was not meant to be taken. You have to refer to the noun as a “sekk”, and then holding it will passively increase your inventory limit. (I should have done my image search.)

Regarding the cylinder (“sylinder”) I wasn’t sure about, I hadn’t randomly done “bruk sylinder” with it anywhere

Sylinderen utvider seg svært raskt. Snart er den helt oppblåst, og det viser seg til slutt at den har blitt til ei stor og sikker plastflåte.

The cylinder expands very quickly. Soon it is fully inflated, and has turned into a large, secure plastic raft.

“Plastic”, eh? In any case, it meant this was a “you’ll know where to use it when you see it” type item, not something where (I originally had in my head) I need to find a matching sphere and pyramid, or I need to find a hole in a door that it becomes a key for.

The magic staff similarly reacts to “bruk”, and creates a burst of light. If you’re being chased by trolls (from off the area to the north, say) they’ll scatter. The only problem is you can’t use the staff to assault their position because they just keep respawning in the same turn.

Finally, a fun encounter after getting the mithril armor gifted by the elves (which again, like, the sack, gets used passively, you don’t specify you wear it):

En liten flokk med småtroll kom nettopp gående ut av en sidegang. De bråstopper da de får øye på deg.
Med et triumferende rop støter den ene et spyd rett i magen din !!
Spydet skrenser av, og det faller ned brukket.
`Han må være en trollmann !’, skriker den ene hest, og alle trollene forsvinner forsvinner i ei voldsom fart.

A small group of trolls come out of a side passage and stop suddenly when they see you.
With a triumphant shout, one of them thrusts a spear right into your stomach!
The spear snaps, falling to the ground broken.
“He must be a wizard!” shouts one of the trolls, and they all quickly disappear.

This left me with a magnifying glass and a knife unused. I tried a restart and found that items were shifted a bit — placement of some things are randomized (like treasures) but others are not (seemingly the “practical” items like the magnifying glass and the raft). I found some stones (which turn out to be flint and can make sparks, but don’t light anything I can find) and Boromir’s horn (which you can play, bringing your spirits up, but doesn’t do anything useful I’ve found).

From art by Donato Giancola.

One last random-position item is some rope, which breaks the practical/treasure dichotomy, but seems to be purely optional. On the far north of the big corridor (with the trolls guarding making any progress farther) there’s a branch to the east leading to a “star room” (“covered with deep-blue silk walls and glittering stars”) followed by an otherwise-undescribed “wizard’s room”. The Star Room includes a hole with a hook next to it, and if you use the rope there you can climb down to the troll dungeon (the same area that you can get tossed into involuntarily by being chased). I think the only reason to do this is there’s a random chance the trolls will kill rather than capture, so the rope is a sure thing, but sometimes the rope is randomized to be out of reach anyway.

You may notice a very important item mentioned on the map. It can’t be reached from the dungeon (I think); I’ll get back to it.

After either being tossed in the prison or entered via rope, there’s a message below giving a hint how to escape.

The lower dungeon.
This is a small hole roughly carved out of the rock. An exit is up. On the dirty and dusty wall is a sign: “I, Gloin, was here. There is a secret exit from here, which the trolls do not know about, made by us dwarves. Just say the name of the legendary Bilbo’s nephew, son of Drogo, and you will escape — but watch out for trolls!”

FRODO works here. You can then go south and east to find what the game describes as a climbable wall, except nothing I’ve thrown at it works (trying to actually use the verb climb has the game respond if you mean up or down, suggesting that the directions up and down are overriding, but neither works anyway).

Veien mot øst er blokkert av en mistenkelig glatt og skitten steinvegg. Det virker som om det skal være mulig å forsere denne.

The route to the east is blocked by a suspiciously smooth and dirty stone wall. It seems as if it should be possible to climb over it.

I threw a ton of verbs out here with no luck, but since I’m using an English-Norwegian dictionary, I could be missing something totally obvious.

If you go south a bit from here there’s a “stone table” which seems like it might be moved over to the wall (so you can get high enough to climb). No verbs here work either and the noun isn’t even recognized, suggesting to me I’m wrong here, but given the wall has completely stumped me I can’t discard anything.

With the aforementioned wall (probably stuck by a verb), the “maze” which might just be a trap in the undergrowth, the trolls, and the witch with the riddles being my only real obstacles, I cracked at each one for a while alternating but just had no luck at all. The trolls seemed the most promising since you can pull them away from their guard spot and they have lots of reactions, but there seems to be an endless supply of them so it doesn’t matter. I started to suspect (especially on the wall) I was having a verb issue, so decided to dive into the source code.

I ran across this in the opening lines:

1160 NA$=”VDSRZKB”:NA$=MID$(NA$,INT(RND(1)*7)+1,1)+”icci”

That’s making a set of names (vicci, dicci, sicci, etc.) by random choice. I decided to try them out on the Huldra (“Witch and sorceress, what is my name?”) and got lucky my first try: “‘Correct — and never come back!’ A hole opens up in the floor.”

The hole leads down to the One Ring, behind the trolls.

Trollenes skattekammer!!
Ei stor, flat steinhelle dekker mesteparten av gulvet. I et hjørne er det ei sjakt hvor det stiger opp råtten stank. Går du ned dit vil du ikke komme opp igjen samme veien. Det er ei dør mot sør.
Du ser:
En liten gullring uten inskripsjoner. Dette er Herskerringen, Den Ene.

The Trolls’ Treasury!
A large, flat slab of stone covers most of the floor. In one corner is a shaft with a rotten stench. If you go down, you can’t come up the same way. There is a door to the south.
You see:
A small gold ring with no inscription. This is the Ring of Power, The One.

While the ring is often depicted with the Black Speech on it, by default the One Ring is plain, and the words only appear when the ring is heated up. This is depicted in the Peter Jackson movie:

From here you can drop into the prison or just use invisibility to saunter away. Note that wearing the ring for too long will cause Doom so you should take it off again once safe (“If you wear it too long, Sauron will be able to capture you in his power”).

After getting the ring, an earthquake hits and a new exit in the long hall busts open, leading to the east. In my play sequence I explored that first before looping back, but let me explain how you were supposed to find the witch’s name (Vicci / Dicci / etc.) in the first place. I needed the source code again.

There’s a scene with a wizard — back at the Star Room — where the wizard appears and tells you some information.

You are looking for the ring you have lost, but it is well hidden in the trolls’ treasury. There is no way you can get past the guards alone, but there is a person in Moria who can help you. somewhere in the mountains lives an old witch who knows an entrance to the treasure chamber.

He then tells you the name, based on the random choice at the start of the game.

I spent a long time (without checking the code) trying to get this scene but never could. Eventually — after about two hours of effort — I gave in:

5410 IF RN%=20 AND NOT(TB%) AND SC%>200 THEN 6420

SC is referring to the score. You need 200 points for the scene to trigger.

(… incomprehensible yelling goes here …)

If this was a low threshold, this moment might be semi-acceptable, but 200 is a tough score to hit: you need to visit all the rooms (visiting a room gets a point), and you need to get somewhat lucky in the layout of the items (some which can land in the post-ring area which you are about to see). You only get points for items if you’re holding them so you need to shuffle your inventory to high-value items even if you aren’t using them. If you wander into the Star Room with these conditions you’ll trigger the wizard.

It’s one thing to know that as a goal you need score, but prior to this, there was no indication that score was anything more than a progress marker. I was storing all the items in a central chamber as there was no obvious “treasure bonus spot” and because I was reloading after dying, I wasn’t necessarily including “explore every side room” in my save file — after all why would you expect a stop by a Rose Garden would cause a wizard to appear all the way across the map?

I can’t be sure but I think it’s possible to simply get unlucky with item placement and have it be impossible to reach 200 points. After figuring all this out I ended up going back to guessing the name randomly (and saving right beforehand) because it was so much easier.

Going back to the newly created hole (post-Ring finding) and going east:

To the north is an opening, while the main corridor continues from east to west. In one corner is a dirty, heavy stone slab; impossible to carry. In the middle is an area which appears to have writing, but it is so small you can’t decipher it.

This is where the magnifying glass comes in handy.

Jeg, Filur, risset dette.
Durins øks i menneskehender
skal en gang beseire
den grusomme Balrogen.
Ild skal sprute og glør fyke
når mennesket i trollham
ødelegger det uhyret
som har kuet Durins barn,
og jagde dem vekk fra minene
de en gang for lenge siden bygde
med sine egne hender.

I, Filur, carved this.
Durin’s axe in human hands
shall one day vanquish
the cruel Balrog.
Fire shall burst and embers blaze
when the man in troll-skin
destroys the monster
that has subjugated Durin’s children,
and driven them from the mines
they once built long ago
with their own hands.

“Trollham” which I currently have as “troll-skin” is a curious word and the translation may be important for the final puzzle of defeating the Balrog. (Does the Mithril count?) It does seem like us (Frodo) will be the one doing the killing/wounding, but we’re not human? (Can “mennesket” refer to a Hobbit rather than full-on Human? Does this depend on which translation of Lord of the Rings you’re using?) I did run into Legolas later so rather than doing the deed ourselves we may be handing the sacred axe (the one the “scary dwarf” kills us over) off to someone else. This conflicts with another piece of information later, though.

While in this area, almost inevitably, Gollum shows up and steals the ring. I bet you can figure out what “min dyrebare” means.

Ååååhh, min dyrebare !! Min egen Ring, endelig !

I have not found where he ends up to get the Ring back (my guess he somehow lands in prison, which I haven’t checked, or he still keeps eyes on you — there’s still a “shadow” that appears once in a while, although I’m at a 25% chance of that being Sauron instead).

Just exploring without the ring — you can drop down into a Great Hall, and then off a side passage reaching a Secret Chamber (so-named because of an unmentioned exit to reach there); going north then goes to an Even More Secret Chamber and the palantir.

This is the palantir of Orthanc.
This ball, and three like it, were made long ago by the elves.
With such a palantir you can see things that are happening far away, and things that will happen in the future.

Use this too many times and Sauron gets you, but you can get a few hints. Notably Aragon says something about “the key” being in the blackest depths (there’s a key later just lying around, so maybe he doesn’t mean a literal key)? Gimli, more helpfully, has a palantir appearance where he says…

The dwarves only accept the Ringbearer touching Durin’s axe! If you have it, you will be fine!

…meaning ring + axe is safe. (I need to get the ring back from Gollum first, though!)

From the LOTR card game, art by Nino Vecia.

Incidentally, near here is where I ran into Legolas, and unfortunately it’s another cryptic trigger like the wizard so I don’t know the exact conditions.

Towards you comes a tall, sturdy figure dressed in white elven clothing.
It’s your dear companion Legolas who is finally here to help! He hugs you with a friendly embrace, and says in a low voice:

‘I will try to help you out of here, but first I will try to find our mutual friend Gandalf. In the meantime, help yourself the best you can. Fortunately, I have found your dear sword, Sting. Take your magic weapon, and you will have something to defend yourself with! We’ll meet again soon!’

With long, firm steps, Legolas walks away down a hall and disappears.

I have not put Sting in action yet. There’s another, more regular encounter in the same area: a “pawnbroker” dwarf who says something about trading treasures. (I have thrown out many verbs with no luck, and this even includes checking for verbs in the source code.)

We accept all valuables and give good prices!
Have a good trade with Thorin!

Across from the pawnbroker is a lake; if you remember way back 2000 or so words ago, I mentioned the cylinder was really an inflatable raft, so it can apply here…

You set out on your raft. Just before you reach the other side, the raft hits a sharp stone and flips over!
The raft drifts away, but you make it to land safely.

…leading to what I assume is the last section of the game.

I found a gold key on the other side, followed by a dead dwarf with a fairly unhelpful message:

Couldn’t …. the great monster … cruel … 20 feet high … no chance … while I am still alive … Listen … my last words … not pr … the balrog out…. by … !!

Balin.

The letters cut off (“pr”) might represent some sort of Norwegian word puzzle, and if that’s the case, I would prefer someone who knows the language well just tell me because that’s past my skill.

ikke pr … balrogen ute

There’s a “secret chamber” with a door where it says you need to people to open it — maybe we get Gollum along for the trip? — a cave with an exit so burdened with cobwebs the game says to not bother (hard to know if that’s serious or not) and then of course the Bridge of Khazad-dum. Rather than chasing us up to the bridge, the Balrog is lurking at the end.

Like this, but the sides are reversed, and also it’s just Frodo. Via coolminiornot.

Keep in mind this is being done without the One Ring on, I’m just mapping ahead:

Mot øst er det en svart og bunnløs avgrunn!! Ei smal og spinkel steinbru buer seg over denne til østsida. Dette er Khazad-dum, dvergenes forsvarsverk mot øst. Brua er så smal at bare en angriper vil kunne passere over i bredden – og vil derfor være lett sårbar.

>ø
Ok.
Du er på steinbrua Khazad-dum!
Dette er ei spinkel steinbru over ei bunnløs kløft. Under deg kan du bare se mørke. Mot øst de første salene som fører ut i friheta!!
Føttene til den enorme Balrogen tårner opp over deg !!
Det stygge uhyret løfter ei meterstor hånd for å fjerne det ekle, lille krypet som rekker han til knærne !

Balrogen ser hånlig på deg. Før du får gjort noe har han knust deg som et egg under de svære labbene !!

To the east is a black, bottomless abyss! A narrow, thin stone bridge arches over to the east side. This is Khazad-dum,
the dwarves’ defenses to the east. The bridge is so narrow that only a single attacker can cross — so will therefore be vulnerable.

>e
Ok.
You are on the stone bridge of Khazad-dum!
This is a thin stone bridge over a bottomless chasm. Below you you can only see darkness. To the east are the halls that lead to freedom!
The giant Balrog towers above you!
The hideous monster raises a meter-long hand to remove the nasty little creature that reaches his knees!

The Balrog looks at you with a sneer. Before you can do anything, he has crushed you like an egg with his giant hands!

It certainly feels like I’m close to the end; I need the ring back, mainly, although I suspect I’ll need to do something other than just be wearing the ring and holding the axe in order to win.