Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

(Continued from my last post.)

As is tradition with one of these gigantic cave-delving based games — and there is cave-delving, even though it wasn’t clear at first — let’s spend some time outside first.

To recap from last time, the game starts with you in a parking lot with little direction. Nearby is a dowel rod, a charm with triremes, two disks that allegedly allow teleportation (when magically charged), and a $10 bill. Going west from the road with the bill (and the two to the north) gets you lost in a forest.

The lost-in-forest part that I didn’t map before turned out to be unmappable. You just alternate between “you are hopelessly lost in the woods” and “you are lost hopelessly in the woods” no matter which directions you go, and then you get pulled out by a ground keeper. That doesn’t mean it is necessarily a red herring — maybe there’s some magical item that applies while there — but it could be. I don’t know how similar this game is to Ferret yet in that sense.

Going east leads to the white house from Zork, but with the stairs rotted away and only a can opener and a parchment left behind. The parchment indicates a great evil to be defeated (which I’ll explore the lore of in a later post) and that we need to find a magical flute.

WARNING: We may never reach the flute. Rob played this last year and was not able to visit all the rooms (based on the exploration counter) but there are bugs that need working around and possible some puzzles obtuse enough that we’ll need the crowd here to help out. Assuming no endgame, the goal is to simply get as high a “knowledge” score as possible.

Colorized version of the Zork I map with the “white” house. Atari User April 1987, from Atarimania.

What I hadn’t realized when I first encountered it (I hadn’t thoroughly tested exits yet) is that the forest behind the house (and even, to an extent, the waterfall) is copied off of Zork as well. This means there is a whole new outside section attached to the house. I’ll break it up into South Side Forest and East Side Forest.

The South Side Forest is fairly uneventful, but it’s worth noting that when you try to go to the far west, there’s a fence and the parking lot seen past it; this is a game which tries to form connectivity across its landscape (and isn’t afraid to put down a whole grid of “filler” rooms to make things match up).

To the south there’s a cliff; if you follow the cliff you can get to a waterfall.

There is a set of rock steps leading down onto a narrow ledge below which passes under the waterfall caused by the river Dipestia (to your east) falling over the cliff. The sound of the fall is almost deafening here.

D
Small ledge on the cliff
You are standing on a narrow ledge. The ledge leads east from here and passes directly under the waterfall. Although you may get wet, it appears safe to pass along.

E
Directly under the waterfall
Here the ledge passes directly under the waterfall and continues east. The wall of the cliff and the ground beneath your feet are damp. The sound of the waterfall is almost deafening.

E
Middle of nowhere
You are standing on a small obtrusion sticking out of the cliff. To the east is the narrow path from where you came. Behind you is the cliff. In all other directions is nothing but open air. Looking out from the cliff there is nothing, and looking down reveals no bottom to the base of the cliff.
On the ground is a oak pendant with the image of a cloud carved on the front surface.

The oak pendant with the image of a cloud carved on the front surface goes with the triremes charm, most likely; any bets if we’ll find a fire necklace and a rock on a ring?

Aragain Falls postcard, Zork User Group, via the Zork Wiki. The waterfall is southeast of the house just like Zork; there’s no obvious waterfall or other secret exit in Thissala.

The East Side forest is mostly also “filler” rooms, although it has the ground keeper’s hut and a henhouse.

There’s some corn near the henhouse and you might think to feed the corn to the hen, but the hen is “too nervous”. I assume there’s a puzzle here; there’s no obvious golden egg to steal or the like, though.

Clearing in the woods
Lying on the ground here, is a small pile of dried out corn.

GET CORN
Taken.

E
Outside of the Hen House
You are standing outside of a small shack which is used as a hen house. There is a ramp leading up into the building, which has no door to allow the hens to come in and go out. The place is obviously still being used for it has a certain air about it to indicate so.

IN
Inside the hen house
There are two windows in the hen house, one looking east, one looking north, both overlooking the river, and a long ledge along the south wall
Sitting on the shelf is a small nest
It contains:
A large hen, quietly staring at you.

FEED HEN
The hen does not trust you, and refuses the food.

The keeper’s hut is empty, and that’s even after the rescue from getting lost. Again not sure what kind of game we’re dealing with here, but I at least get the sense this is just for environmental flavor (and to motivate a person suddenly showing up).

Ground keeper’s hut
Directly in front of you to the north is the ground keeper’s hut. Because the weather is so warm, there is no door covering the doorway

N
Inside the ground keeper’s hut
You are standing inside of the keeper’s hut. There is one window to the north that overlooks the great Dipestia river. Beyond the river you can see a large mountain. There is a doorway to the south

Barring any secret exits or ways to fly past the cliff (which wouldn’t be surprising) that leaves the original dirt path as the only way to go. It leads to a “Y” in the path: “One leg leads northeast, another northwest, and the path also heads south.” Northwest leads to a town and mountains after, so let’s deal with northeast first.

Non-descript building
You are standing in front of a rather non-descript building made of brick. There are many small windows along each side of the building.
There is an open doorway into the building to the north, from which you can hear a dull hum.

The building is mostly a maze.

The interesting part is (if you consult the map) you can make it to the center of the maze just by going north, but you can’t get out by just going south. Originally I thought I might have been trapped in by a “hum” sound that permeates throughout, but it’s just a classical maze that can be mapped by dropping objects.

You are in a hall way of the non-descript building.
There is a dull humming noise that appears to come from everywhere.

N
You are in a hallway of the non-descript building.
The humming noise is louder than normal here, and appears to be coming from the room to the north.

N
Strange room
You are in the eastern part of a large, strange room. There is nothing here except the doorway out to the east. The humming is intense here.
A murder of crows fly overhead, appearing from the north and vanishing to the south

(The murder of crows can show up anywhere — the game does not recognize outside vs. inside.)

W
Silver Cube
This is the western half of the strange room. Directly in front of you is a large silver cube, with each side approximately 10 feet long. The humming is coming from the cube, although not from the inside … the actual cube is humming. There are no openings in the cube, no handles, and no writings on the cube.

The cube has no obvious entrances and can’t be taken. I’m not sure yet what to do here. It’s the most blatantly magical aspect to the game so far.

Returning back to the Y junction and heading northwest leads to “T” junction, with a branch that seems intended to invoke the Volcano View from Crowther/Woods.

Riverview
You are standing on a small peninsula that juts out into the swift river “Dipestia” (loosely translated it means division protecting from pestiferous spirits). As far as the eye can see, in either direction, the river is uncrossable. The far north bank is edged by a heavily overgrown field dense in timothy and flora unlike any other. The field is in the shadow of a great snow capped mountain which causes a crepuscular glow to illuminate the ground. Upstream to the west, the field narrows as the river curls around the mountain. Downstream, the field abruptly ends at a forest which, unlike the forest on the southern bank, with its trees of bole and fawn, consists of an incredible blend of color, surpassing even that of deciduous trees in autumn, adding blue and white, and colors that are indescribeable. Directly across the river various wild animals graze insouciantly on the riparian plants. To the southwest is a dirt path. Through a clearing in the trees on the southern bank, in the distance, can be seen an unaturally straight edge of reddish-brown.

I don’t think the game is filled with descriptions like this; in Crowther/Woods this is a reward of sorts for getting deep enough into the caves, whereas here it serves more to build the initial atmosphere. I appreciate the game gives a source for “Dipestia” even though the etymology is imaginary (it could be adjacent to something real, of course, if anyone has a suggestion).

Past the view is the town, where the map is very messy and I can’t promise this is 100% free of errors.

My guess is the authors (or single author responsible for this spot) had a “real” map they were trying to render into text-adventure form but it naturally came out messy; I still don’t know what’s with the weird swerve around the Restaurant, going southwest to end up on a road to the “east”, though. It could be a simple error that was never fixed, but there’s enough strange paths I would say at least some of it has to be intentional.

I should also emphasize — and it is easy to miss this because some games stick solely with compass directions — that in/out are directions in play, and you can’t enter most of the buildings without those two directions.

Hardware Store
The old village hardware store stands much the way it did 50 years ago. The building is made of wood planks, painted red. There are no windows visible from where you stand, however there is a doorway in directly in front of you.

IN
Inside the hardware store
The old hardware store has a plank and peg floor. All of the original furniture has been removed. There is only one door in the room, and that leads outside
Lying here is a long rope with knots tied in it at regular intervals.
There is a copper key here
Resting on the counter is a miner’s helmet. The helmet has a powerful light on the top.

The buildings have a curious abandoned-but-not-abandoned feel going on with them; clearly the groundskeeper is around (and we’ll run into a gnome in a second) so the owner of the hardware store is just fine with us taking things? Or maybe we’re just being very bold in stealing?

The copper key incidentally goes to a “modern” building in the southwest part of town which is still cryptic, even though I’ve solved what may be the only puzzle associated with it.

Modern building
You are standing outside of an comparitively modern building. There is a sign on the building above the door that reads “Bura di change”.
The door into the Bura is closed

UNLOCK DOOR
Click.

OPEN DOOR
The door is now open.

IN
Inside the Bura di change
The room is completely devoid of furniture. There is a small slot cut out in the north wall. Above it is written “IN”. A door leads out.
The door is currently open

The $10 bill fits in the slot. If you make the deposit, you get a “strange looking coin” with no further description.

There is a strange whirling sound from within the wall, which is followed by a short grinding noise. Then from the slot in which you put the dollar, a strange looking coin drops out, and falls to the floor by your feet

Next to the modern building is an “old church”. It has a box with its own slot; opening the box reveals a key marked CHEVY (which I would presume goes to a car, but I haven’t seen a car). The restaurant with the confused exits includes a couple items waiting for you to snatch:

Inside the restaurant
The resturant furniture has for the most part been removed. There is, however, a small counter and a stool left; these were not removed because they are attached firmly to the floor
Resting on a shelf in the corner is a full bottle of Brador
On the shelf is a full bottle of Grolsch
On the shelf is a tuna syrian with everything (hold the mushrooms)

(Both bottles have beer.)

The food (“tuna syrian with everything”) just lets you eat it, which brings up the softlock-or-not question: are we supposed to eat the food, or are we supposed to save it for later? I of course always save it, but every once in a while I’ve hit a puzzle where eating a consumable gives extra energy (The Hobbit being the most notable game where not eating food led to trouble).

Finally there’s a post office (with a single deposit box I haven’t been able to unlock)…

Inside the Old Post Office
You are standing inside of the old post office. Against one wall is a counter. This is was at one time a very busy post office (according to local lore) but now it is deserted. All of the postboxes have been destroyed except for one, which has a set of buttons on the front with a large brass faceplate around them, and a hinge on the left side.
The post office box is securly closed.

open box
The box is apparently locked.

…and a bank.

Inside the local small bank
Fastened against the wall in the corner is a set of chairs. Secured to the floor is a small counter that was at one time used by townfolk to fill out deposit and withdrawl slips. On the north wall is a button marked in letters now barely visible “Ring bell for service”. In the corner of the room is a staircase going down.
Surrounding the stairway down, is a metal cage, with a closed door
in the front

IN
A little gnome pops out and says “Sorry … you cannot enter without the appropriate withdrawl form”

The gnome makes me think we are again dealing with the ghost-geography of Zork making itself felt.

From the gamebook Zork 2: The Malifestro Quest. Image from Internet Archive.

That’s nearly everything outside (at least nearly everything until I find I accidentally missed an exit, leading to another 50 rooms or so) but at the northwest side of town we can go further, eventually to the mountains.

Along the way up to the mountains there’s a “shack” with some signal flags.

Path through a field
You are walking throught a large field, along a winding path heading southeast and north. The field seems to extend forever to the west, but to the east you can see a very large mountain. There is also the sound of water coming from the east.

N
Outside of the old shack
You are standing outside of an old, rundown shack with no windows visible from where you stand. There is a doorway in facing you, but the door has obviously fallen off of its hinges and is no where to be seen.

E
Inside the little shack
Although there are no lamps, there is enough light from the eastern window to see. On the wall, written in ink, is a message that says “Peter Mac slept here”. The place smells of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey.
Propped up against one wall in the shack is a pair of large signal flags.

The signal flags get used shortly after: there’s a climb up the mountain, but at top top there’s a drawbridge controlled by a gnome.

Highest plateau
You are on the highest plateau, which is considerably larger than the two lower ones. Directly below you you can see the Dipestia which flows from the NE to the SW where it curls around Major mountain, to south. Across, but higher up the northern face of other mountain, there is an observation booth with what appears to be a small gnome looking out at you using binoculars. Directly below the observation booth, at the level of the ledge you are on, is a wooden drawbridge.
The drawbridge is in the open position, making it impossible to cross over to Major mountain

WAVE FLAGS
It is obvious that the little gnome saw you waving the flags for he waves back at you. He then disappears into his observation hut. A second later, there is the sound of great motors turning and slowly the drawbridge lowers into place.

S
Major mountain ledge
You are standing on a ledge on major mountain. The ledge is about eight feed wide, and heads east around the mountain. Above you you can see a small observation booth. Accross the river is Minor mountain.
There is a drawbridge here, anchored into the face of Major mountain.
The drawbridge is in the closed position, forming a path accross to Minor mountain

E
Cave entrance
You are standing on a ledge on major mountain. The ledge is about six feet wide here and heads west around the mountain. There is a cave cut into the side of the mountain.

S
Sloping tunnel
You are in a long sloping tunnel that heads south into the depths of the cave

The cave that follows is dark; the game warns of danger if you don’t have a light source. This leads to the first time I’ve died in the game. (The game is much gentler than Ferret in general, telling you about falling down a cliff being a bad idea rather than describing a grim plummet.)

You were warned. Without the light you seem to have gotten yourself killed.

As the darkness of death fades, and the light intensifies, you find yourself falling quickly at first then slower, then slower still until you find yourself looking down on a strange land. Below is a river, a long river, so long that even at this height the river stretches forever. About 1 mile from each bank of the river is a tall mountain range. You slow more until you are about 1 foot from the ground, and then you lite gently on the surface of an eerie world.

Thick mist
The ground, and the river, are almost undistiguishible here due to the dense fog that surrounds you. Upstream, you can barely make out what appears to be a bridge heading to the other side of the river.

The main thing I’m not clear on yet is if this is a “Treasure Hunt” in the capitalized sense, where the goal is to gather specific items and if you find 50 of the right ones you open you reach the endgame (…presuming it works). More exploration next time! And maybe a few more substantial puzzles; so far getting the strange coin and getting the drawbridge to move have been my only wins.