While searching through old newspapers in your local library, you came across an interview with a descendant of Captain Cutter, a notorious pirate from the golden age of piracy.
In the interview, the descendant, a Ms Claire Cutter, claimed that Captain Cutter retired from piracy and settled in a large mansion on the west coast of Scotland. Captain Cutter’s family lived in the mansion for many generations and the interviewee was the last of the descendants, for she had never married and had no children. She said that the family believed that Captain Cutter’s treasure was hidden in a chest somewhere in the mansion, or on the grounds surrounding the mansion, but they had never been able to find it. Captain Cutter had taken the secret of the treasure to his grave.
The name ‘Claire Cutter’ rang a bell for some reason, so you did a Google search and found an obituary in an old Scottish newspaper. It turns out that Claire had passed away some years ago. She was mourned at the time as a great friend to many in the community and was well-known as a volunteer to several charitable causes.
After a little further research, you found that Claire had died intestate, so no one had a legal claim to the old mansion and it had been left abandoned. This was your opportunity! If you could break into the mansion, you might be able to find the dead man’s chest.
This is a traditional text adventure (or parser-based interactive fiction) that was written in Inform 6 using the PunyInform library and entered in ParserComp 2026. You can play it online or download it at Dead Man’s Chest.
Just keep in mind that generations of the Cutter family have not been able to find the dead man’s chest, so you’re going to have to look pretty hard to find it. Examine everything you find and follow the clues and you won’t have any trouble. If you ignore this advice, you can always resort to the HINT command, but that’s cheating.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, this is not a sequel, but the story was inspired by Captain Cutter’s Treasure.
As this is an entry in ParserComp 2026, I’m obliged to encourage you to play and rate all the other games, as well.
Anyway, here is a link to the review: