Thinking back, I did know that a grouper was an ocean fish, though in landlocked Arkansas that usually meant a filet rather than a live animal.
“Grouper” does sound like it could have been an invention by Lebling or, perhaps, LGOP Meretzky.
Great thought. I’ll try between now and the next update.
Not a shark, to my knowledge—I believe it’s a type of sea bass. Outside the Americas, it’s known as a “groper” instead, though it has nothing to do with either categorizing or reaching blindly for something: it’s borrowed from Portuguese garoupa.
Back at it again! Before we get going, @borg323 had a suggestion: SNAVIG the roc from the guard tower! Seems worth a shot. I probably have a cube that goes there, but we’ll have to take the ice elevator up again. Once there:
->snavig bird
The mother roc hears you preparing the spell and squawks at you so raucously that your concentration is destroyed, and the spell misfires.
Rats! Still, it’s good to have everyone but the Hermit out of the way (for now). Let’s review our to-do list.
The compass rose cube won the poll, so let’s get after it. If it’s a dead end, we’ll move down the to-do list until we find a good one. Here goes.
->blorple “rose”
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.No Place
There is nothing here. You are here, but there is no here where you are. You see nothing. Your senses are vainly trying to find something, anything to work on. You can know your body is there, but you can’t truly sense it to confirm the suspicion. Your mind is alternately drawn in three “directions” (or at least what seem like directions): east, west and south. There is something slightly different about the nothing in those directions.
Interesting description! I’ll try east first.
->e
You slowly drift “eastward,” and the nothing attenuates. Something begins to break through the nothing.As you leave, the “rose” cube reappears in your hand.
Inner Vault
This is a bare concrete chamber that looks like the inside of a vault. The room is filled with unimaginable treasure. Gold and jewels are strewn everywhere. Coffers burst with coins, and stacks of rare paintings lean against the walls. Beautifully ornamented vases and glassware are carelessly stacked in corners. There is a door on the north side of the room whose lock mechanism is visible. The door is closed and locked.
“Something begins to break through the nothing,” is pleasantly strange. We all know that treasure is only good for bribing adventurers (see Enchanter), so our protagonist isn’t tempted by it.
->examine treasure
On closer examination, the treasure is even richer than you thought.->jindak
Nothing in the vicinity glows. Apparently there is no magic nearby.
I expected the treasure to glow! Let’s try to open the vault.
->rezrov door
The mechanisms try vainly to turn, but your spell is just not powerful enough.
Curious. Sorcerer had the YONK spell, which could strengthen a single casting of a spell. We used it to MALYON a carving of a dragon. We have yet to encounter the YONK spell here, though. The response to REZROV makes it pretty clear that some kind of magic would work on it. I think we should move on, but I’ll check the spell book first.
My Spell Book
The snavig spell (shape change).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing).
The espnis spell (sleep).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object’s mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind).
I don’t feel desperate to MALYON the treasure just yet. The cube should have another workable exit.
Plain
This is a flat plain punctuated by boulders. The boulders are all identical and slide to and fro on the eerie surface, propelled by an unknown mechanism. The ground is scratched by many intersecting lines which seem to have a regular pattern. From where you are standing you can see lines radiating north, east, west and south. There is a large green eyed rock here. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back some distance to the east. Far in the distance are mountains which quiver itchily as they belch forth purple fire.->examine green rock
This is a rather large boulder with a flat bottom. Something prevents it from touching the ground, as it moves about quite nimbly, watching you with lovely green eyes.
“Lovely eyes.” What a curious detail. Let’s go get that cube!
->n
You find that the surface is too smooth. Your feet slip out from under you, and you crash to the ground.
I see! Well, let’s see if we can climb the rock.
The rock spins in place, preventing you from getting on. “What’s in it for me? For example, if you had some food, that might be nice. Then you could ride on top and admire me from that angle. It’s a rare privilege.”
Wow, this rock is something else. What do rocks eat? The smoked fish, perhaps.
“What’s that? Dead animal or vegetable matter! You won’t fool me! Horrible! It would ruin my complexion!”
The box, perhaps.
->give it to rock
“That doesn’t look very appetizing.”
The old guessing game is “animal, vegetable, or mineral?” Since animal and vegetable matter is out, perhaps this a rock that eats… rocks? I don’t think we’ve seen any, other than the landslide on the cliff, and those were boulders. I don’t have any sort of mineral thing, even though I have lots of inorganic items. The cubes, for instance, but that gets the not “very appetizing” response, too. Let’s go to the cliff bottom; it isn’t far.
->get rocks
None of the rocks look interesting enough to take.
“Interesting enough…” Perhaps we are meant to find a gemstone. Whatever the case, I think we need either a more powerful REZROV or else an interesting rock before proceeding in the No Place region. Tied for second place on the poll are the Grouper and Roc’s nest cubes. I’ll try Grouper next, just because that’s the order of appearance in the poll results.
Light Room
This place is bright and glaring. The very materials of which it is made blaze with light so bright that their forms are obscured. There are glowing archways to the west and south.
We know from experience that only one exit will be passable. This time, it’s to the west.
Volcano Base
You are partway up the base of an active volcano. All around you is a stream of glowing, molten lava, bubbling and spitting. Clumps of red-hot lava fly through the air, narrowly missing you. Your vantage point is a small point of rock that hasn’t been remelted by the flow.
There isn’t much here beyond the dramatic geography, but something happens after one turn.
One fragment of molten lava explodes out of the flow and drops right at your feet! It sizzles and hisses.
->get fragment
It’s too hot to touch. You burn yourself slightly just getting near it.
Hm… I know, we can freeze it!
->tinsot fragment
The fragment is cool enough to touch.->get fragment
Taken.->examine fragment
You see nothing special about the lava fragment.
Is that interesting enough to take? It must be, even if it isn’t interesting enough to describe. Let’s head back to the charismatic rock.
->give fragment to rock
“Mmm. That looks good. Just the right size, too.” It slides happily over the piece of lava and settles comfortably to the ground. You hear a sound like a rasp for a while. The rock blinks contentedly and rises into the air again.
Nice! Perhaps we can climb the rock now.
->climb rock
You climb the rock and perch precariously on top. From here you can see that the long scratches in the ground form a rectangular grid that fills a rather small valley. “My back is the most hemispheric of all my friends’,” remarks the rock.
Quite a vain rock! This is already giving off maze vibes (or some other spatial problem) with the rectangular grid. Time to get out the pen and paper.
Alright. I’ve mapped it. The brown-eyed rock is constantly attempting to move away from us. If we look at the map, there’s a clearly differentiated area in the northwest corner. Perhaps we can trip up our quarry if we chase them there…
Oh my goodness, everyone! I had a terrible time trapping that rock. I knew what I needed to do, but I struggled to visualize the movements of the other rock. I even used tokens on the hand-drawn map. In the end, this puzzle is a bit like the mirror box/Guardians of Zork puzzle from Zork III in that the chief difficulty seems to be the interface itself. A graphical representation of the plain would have been much easier to confront. At least, it would have been for me.
Oh, well, it’s done now. I’ve scrubbed the transcript a bit just to spare you the boredom (and me the embarrassment!) of reading my seemingly interminable wanderings.
->rock, s
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. “Yum!” it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating north, east and west. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back here. The brown eyed rock, mesmerized by the looming presence of the green eyed rock, does not move.->jump on brown rock
You leap gracefully to the brown eyed rock, almost slide off, and finally settle yourself carefully on top. Right in front of you is a featureless white cube. The rock grumbles in irritation. “Go away,” it says.->get white cube
Taken.
This was a long session for me, though probably shorter for you. Still, in the end, we got our cube. This is our updated to-do list:
I think that’s it! Here’s the usual goods–not a whole lot of new rooms on the map this time.
Spellbreaker Day 8 Save for Sharing.sav (1.6 KB)
Spellbreaker Day 8 Transcript.txt (26.7 KB)
I think you should write “rock” on one cube and “roc” on the other, to avoid any confusion.
Huh, which interpreter uses that blue background? Looks kind of cool.
I think that’s Windows Frotz’s default. I used to use it for everything before I switched to Gargoyle.
I used to use Gargoyle for almost everything, but my new laptop has a higher resolution. After the change, I’m not happy with my config file anymore! I haven’t wanted to tinker with it.
In this case, though, I specifically chose Frotz for the interpreter level undo, which I thought I might want to abuse. If Gargoyle has this feature, it uses a different key combination. I haven’t really looked into it.
E: I usually prefer a green on black screen for a nostalgic look.
The sliding rocks puzzle is one of the more mathematical moments of Spellbreaker. It would be unwinnable for parity reasons except for the one diagonal move available at the corner, which is a really elegant trick of Lebling’s, I think. So even though it’s kind of a mini-game unconvincingly spliced into the middle of Spellbreaker (really? world’s greatest wizard can’t walk across slightly slippery floor?), gotta admire.
Yeah, out of the classic six Zork games, Spellbreaker definitely suffers the most from “puzzles for the sake of puzzles”: little set pieces that don’t really fit into the world and have awkward explanations for why the rules of the setting have to change for this one area (like not being able to just walk across the grid). The moving rocks puzzle, the compass rose maze, and an especially infamous one we have yet to run into here all stand out from the rest.
At least it never makes you deal with inexplicable Towers of Hanoi.
There is also the snake.
Back again! Our poll winner is the “rock” cube, and the runner up is the homophonic “roc” cube. I’ll attempt to fully explore the first, but if we hit a wall, I’ll try the second. Here’s the current to-do list.
I should also say that, since I won’t be diving too deeply into Spellbreaker’s puzzles over at Gold Machine (I want to focus on its place as the last of a six-game cycle), I may editorialize here regarding a few of them. Maybe it won’t be tonight. I don’t think anyone will be surprsied when the time comes.
First things first:
How quickly I forget! I’ll head over now.
->snavig snake
The spell strains to change you into a serpent, but you’re just too small. Finally, you snap back to your normal appearance, and you feel very, very tired.
Interesting. Do we really feel tired?
->diagnose
You are so tired you can barely concentrate, and in good health.
Cool. Nice follow through from Lebling, there. After a nap, we’ll see what’s inside the “rock” cube.
->blorple “rock”
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.Dark Room
This room is totally black, so black that you see nothing when you look around it. All light is absorbed by the substance of the place. You can tell it is physical, because you can feel your feet touching the floor, but your eyes tell you nothing.
Yet another enjoyably surreal locale. Since we can’t see any exits, I’ll start with north, as always. It doesn’t pan out. The exits are not where one might expect:
->u
Oddly, although there appears to be an exit there, you can’t seem to force your way through it.->d
As you leave, the “rock” cube reappears in your hand.Dark Cave
This is a large cave with a rough floor. You can tell little about the surroundings, because your frotz spell doesn’t seem to be working normally here and produces only a wan and sickly glow. The light coming from the zipper has been reduced to a thin, barely glowing stream of tiny blobs that drips, spurts and sputters uselessly to the ground. There it collects into a small pile which is slowly disappearing, perhaps by evaporation.
Another strong description by Lebling, and the rare exception in which the “real” world is stranger than the interior of its relevant cube. Since we’ve already encountered grues in Spellbreaker, it seems wise to save our game.
After bumbling around for a few turns, it’s clear that the only possible exit is down.
->d
You make your way carefully in the almost non-existent light down to an area filled with dim shapes. They move about purposefully, making horrible gurgling noises. The floor is rough and jumbled near the walls, so you haven’t been noticed yet.Grue Cave
This is a large underground chamber filled with nightmarish, barely visible shapes. There is very dim light issuing from somewhere near the center of the room.
Hm. This doesn’t sound so good. Since I saved, I’m just going to go learn a little from death:
->d
The shapes are coming closer. They have noticed the zipper.
They approach you warily, avoiding the tiny drips of light. They grab you, overwhelm you, and devour you, grunting, gurgling, and snapping at each other as they fight over the best parts.
Thoughts:
The first thing I want to try is crossing the darkness without light. I’ll drop the zipper, then try to walk down. I got the same death message after one turn (when I dropped the zipper). As an experiment, I’ll go back up, drop the zipper, then return.
We get a new death message. As anyone who enjoyed Starcross can attest, Lebling really seems to have fun writing death messages. This time:
->d
Scrabbling and scratching claws are approaching in the dark. The last sound you hear is the gurgling of the pack of grues that devours you with unmentionable enjoyment.
“Unmentionable enjoyment!” It looks like we’ve got to try the SNAVIG. Sounds fun, actually. First, I’ll do some logistical work but extinguishing the zipper and frotzing the compass rose. I probably shouldn’t head into danger without my bag of holding. It’s hard to imagine needing the compass rose.
->snavig grue
You feel yourself changing in a very unpleasant way. Your claws feel odd, and you have an uncontrollable tendency to slaver. You gurgle vilely to yourself, worrying about the presence of light. Directly in front of you, a horrific creature recoils with a look of shocked surprise. It scuttles off, perplexed.Grue Cave
A natural amphitheater carved out of the underground rock opens from several small passages. The cave is crowded with grues of all shapes and sizes. At the lowest point of the cave a small pool of light has gathered, glowing very dimly (from a human point of view). The grues avoid it, and in fact it hurts your eyes to look at it for very long. In the middle of the pool is a short, squat pillar with something on top of it. This is the object of all the attention. The grues seem to regard the pillar or its contents with awe.
Now, this is the exciting end-of-the-Zork-saga content I came for. After a new save, there’s something I’d like to try:
->slaver
You do that very well for such an inexperienced grue.
Excellent.
->examine grue
The grues look exactly as you would expect, only worse.
Not bad, though I think “seeing” grues is a bad idea, craft-wise. I prefer Dave Lebling’s GDC Post-Mortem refusal to describe grues, saying that if he knew what one looked like, “I’d be dead.” Much better than Steve Meretzky’s tragically anticlimactic encounter with “mutant grues”:
->examine grue
You see nothing special about the pack of mutated grues.
Yikes. Meanwhile, if we approach the pillar of light as a grue, we die in one turn. Perhaps we have to time our visit perfectly? It looks like we revert on the fourth turn. During our research, we encounter another death message:
You have become yourself again. You are immediately noticed by the startled grues. The one drawback of this essentially light-free environment is that it is also adventurer-free. The grues are overjoyed to find this deficiency remedied. You are probably less so.
OK. I’m going to do this. Snavig. Count to three. Walk to the pillar. See what happens.
You have become yourself again.
->l
Light Pool
This is a small pool or pond of light, very dim by human standards, but painful for a grue to even look at. In the center of the pool is a pillar which sticks up out of the light.
Nice. I’m assuming that since this pillar killed the grue version of the Enchanter, it will keep the grues away.
->u
Oh, no! Something lurking nearby snuck up and devoured you!
Ok, so I’ll need a light source here. I should have mentioned this earlier, but it doesn’t seem possible to cast frotz here. I’ve tried maybe five or six times. I think what I need is a frotzed item in the zipper that I can zip away until I get here. I’ll return once I’ve done the prep work.
->climb pillar
On Pillar
You are on top of a short marble pillar surrounded by a pool of light. Squinting through the intolerable glare, you can see that the other grues are staring at you with a mixture of amazement and fear.
A white cube is here.->open zipper
Opening the zipper reveals a brightly lit hole. Enough rays escape to dimly light the area.->examine pillar
This is the stump of a marble pillar covered with eroded glyphs. It barely projects out of the pool of light. The grues seem awed by it.->read pillar
The only readable ones say “D.L. 1985.”
Cute. OK, there’s a cube here. The, we can just blorple out. I’ll go back for my knife, because I’m constitutionally incapable of leaving it behind. Since that went quickly, let’s take a look at the “roc” cube.
String Room
This is the nexus of a web of multicolored strings and threads of light. They come in from the far distance in graceful curves or tangled, jagged paths. In the center of the room they tie together into a ball that looks like gossamer yarn or glowing cotton candy. One bright set of threads points south to a gap in the weave and another points east to a similar gap.
Another room within one usable exit. My first choice, east, is another impassable exit. South it is!
Enchanters’ Retreat
The Enchanters’ Retreat is an old stone structure perched high in the mountains. For generations, retired (or even burnt-out) enchanters have come here to breathe the clean mountain air, watch the stars, and rest from their exertions. The appointments are simple, the fare is unsophisticated, but those here have a look of quiet contentment that is easy for you to envy.
Belboz is meditating here.
Ah-ha! Our old friend and mentor, Belbox. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see us!
->hello, belboz
“Hello.” Belboz doesn’t seem pleased to see you.
Oh. What’s the deal with that. [NOTE: I’ve been mostly winging it this playthrough, but I decided to look up everything that we can ask Belboz about. I think this conversation will interest everyone, and I don’t want to miss anything.]
->ask belboz about magic
Belboz looks at you suspiciously. “You were here a few days ago, or rather someone who resembled you strongly enough to be your twin was here. This being betrayed its true nature, however, as it did not know facts which would be trifles to even the rawest apprentice. It fled before I could capture it. Prove to me that you are truly yourself, and answer me a question. Who invented the golmac spell?”
Ah. First some copy protection. We’ll need our collectible enchanter cards to continue. The answer is Barbel of Gurth. I always get nervous here. Should I type “barbel” or “barbel of gurth?” I’m sure both are accepted. I only worry because this is one of those copy protection challenges that doesn’t immediately stop your game; it just makes your game unwinnable. I’m going with “barbel of gurth.”
->barbel of gurth
“Good! I knew it was you all along. What may I do for you?” He fumbles in his pouch for a moment. “First, let me give you this.” He hands you a wrought iron key. “It may prove useful.”
We find out when we use the key. OK, let’s get back to talking about important stuff.
->ask belboz about magic
“I can tell you nothing which you do not already know. We live in perilous times.”
Not much there. Moving on:
->ask belboz about the key
“It was left nearby.”
By the shadow?
->ask belboz about the snake
“This serpent brings to mind the great Ouroboros, said to encircle the world.”
So it does! Now to business.
->ask belboz about the cubes
Belboz looks at the cube for a while, turning it over and over in his hands. “There is a legend about cubes. When the foundations of the world were laid down, it is said that the elemental powers and forces were symbolized during the making by small cubes. The cubes and the forces were merged in a way that our knowledge no longer comprehends. When the making was done, the cubes were hidden away where their powers could not be tampered with. If someone has gained access to them, or rediscovered the knowledge of their making, we are in terrible danger. One who had power over these cubes could change the very structure of our universe. Such a one would have powers I do not care to contemplate.” Belboz gives back the cube.
We’ve been playing a while to be discovering this now. I think this is the only Zorkian creation myth we’ve heard. Come to think of it, we haven’t heard a lot of mythology in general during these six games, besides the borrowed Greek from Zork I.
->ask belboz about shadow
“I have encountered such creatures, but this one is unfamiliar to me. They are sometimes spirits of the dead, or demons, or even illusory sendings.”
Less revelatory, that one. According the Invisiclues, that’s all that Belboz will discuss. The big payoff is receiving a key and hearing the legend of the cubes. That’s in addition to the cube from the grue cave. Let’s revise our to-do list.
The moment of truth approaches for the mysterious box! If you don’t know what it is for and would like to guess, now is the time!
Our score is currently 420 out of 600. This puts us in the class of Expert Sorcerer
Spellbreaker Transcript Day 9.txt (60.9 KB)
Spellbreaker Day 9 for Sharing.sav (1.7 KB)
No poll today! Tomorrow, we are going to use that box. This is it!
Ah yes, the fundamental elements, including soft, nothing, and string. (Though I suppose some theoretical physicists would defend that last one in particular as being far more fundamental than earth, air, fire, and water.)
It feels like he ran out of elemental gas along the way. The string room (spider) is supposed to embody “connections” according to the Invisiclues, which he all but certainly wrote. Your physics suggestion makes a great deal more sense! The nothing is “mind,” if you can believe that. Well, that is my mind most mornings, but I’m sure that’s not what Lebling intended.
Yeah; I’ll have more to say on this when we get to the end and find out why there’s a specific number of elements in the system, but some of them are a lot more tangible than others!
I’ve always assumed that the strings room was related to the mid-80s wave of optimism that string theory was going to be a universal physical truth - it was just starting to hit Scientific American-like magazines around that time. But maybe not.
I also wonder if Lebling ever watched Doctor Who on his local PBS affiliate station. The 1978-79 season is one long arc, described by Wikipedia thus:
A figure calling himself the White Guardian commissions the Doctor and K9, assisted by a new companion, the Time Lady Romana, to find the six segments of the Key to Time, a cosmic artefact resembling a perfect cube that maintains the equilibrium of the universe. Since it is too powerful for any single being to possess, it has been split into six different segments and scattered across space and time, disguised by the raw elemental power within them into any shape or size. However, since the forces balancing the universe are so upset, the White Guardian needs to recover the segments of the Key to stop the universe so that he can restore the balance. The White Guardian also warns the Doctor of the Black Guardian, who also wishes to obtain the Key to Time for his own purposes.
The Dr. Who connections are compelling enough to merit a string room all their own.
On another note:
I’ve just realized that I need to write something for Gold Machine tomorrow, so this next update will be a short one. Just enough for the box (if we’re going where I think we are).
I hope you’ll have the time to also try snavig with Belboz.
Yes, of course! I’ll have it in the next update.
Back again. First,
Here goes…
Belboz stops you with a word of power.
“Ah! Now I have you, charlatan! Fool me twice? Never!” He rises to his feet, makes a threatening gesture, and you find yourself transported to a tiny cell deep beneath the earth, all belongings stripped from you. In time, though it takes years and you are mad long since, you starve.**** You have died ****You are floating in a dark, silent realm of nothingness. You don’t know how much time passes, but eventually you hear the sound of soft footsteps. A figure in a dark cloak comes near. In a voice like ashes, it speaks: “You’re obviously not the right choice. What a waste. I’ll have to start all over with someone else. All this effort, too.”
You find yourself falling down a deep well of darkness, as the figure recedes into infinite distances, and mocking laughter haunts you for eternity.
The Belboz thing is startling enough, but the death message is new, too. This is a permadeath. The shadow gives up on the enchanter as a… well, whatever it is the shadow has in mind. This is the character’s first death, so there must be a trigger after the player reaches a certain point. Very interesting!
Let’s review the to-do list:
I’m fairly certain the box is next. Which means this will be a short play session with some metacommentary. We’ll start by using the cave from the grue cave.
Fire Room
In this room, the walls are brick and glow a deep red. The floor itself radiates heat, and in fact the entire room is hot, oppressive and smokey. Searing heat radiates from openings in the north, east and south walls.
Two valid exits. As always, I’ll try north first.
Volcano
You are at the edge of a lava vent in an active volcano. The lava glows red and yellow, and there is a stench of sulphur in the air. A lake of lava bubbles and steams before you, molten rock roiling from unseen disturbances. To the west, in the middle of the tumult, is a small outcropping of something with a higher melting point than rock. It is undisturbed by the heat.
What a curious outcropping!
->examine outcropping
The outcropping is made of some hard, heat-resistant substance. It sticks up about three feet out of the lava about twenty feet from you. It has a flat top about four feet across which is roughly square. Sitting in the very center of the outcropping is something small, white, and cubical.
Another cube. There can’t be many more left, can there? How will we get there?
_>sit on rug
You are now sitting on the beautiful blue carpet. At first nothing happens. Then the fringe of the carpet starts to ruffle expectantly._>u
You begin to rise, but you notice that the fringe of the carpet is starting to singe and turn brown from the heat. Just as you are about to turn back, the label catches fire and burns to a crisp. You plummet into the lava and are seen no more.
No, that’s not it.
_>tinsot lava
A small patch of lava cools, but it is swept away.
Shoot. How are we supposed to get past that lava?
My Spell Book
The snavig spell (shape change).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing).
The espnis spell (sleep).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object’s mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind).
Perhaps wind could cool the lava. I think I’ve seen that done on Saturday morning cartoons.
_>lesoch lava
Slowly, teasingly, a small puff of wind begins to blow. It quickly builds to gale force, then hurricane force, and just as you feel you are about to be swept away, it subsides.
No. I could go fill the bottle with water and come back, but I don’t see that accomplishing anything. I’ll go back to the cube for now. There’s another working exit there.
Cliff Top
This is the upper end of a narrow, winding path up a sheer cliff. From here you can see that any further extension of the path was destroyed by a rock slide at some relatively recent time. There are many rocks precariously balanced above you. It looks like the slightest disturbance could bring them down on you. The hermit’s hut is above.Something you’ve done has disturbed the rocks above! Dirt and small stones are trickling down. It looks like the whole dike is about to give way!
What? We’re back on the cliff top, seconds before a landslide. That’s not going to work. Restoring.
How about the dungeon cube, which I have rather appropriately named the “dung” cube?
Boneyard
This is a room of bones. Shoulder blades make up the floor, skulls the walls and leg bones the door frames. The west exit leads into darkness, but the doorway to the north opens onto a seemingly normal street scene.
That’s the repawn location following a player death. The only working exit leads back to Belwit Square, in front of the Guild Hall. Returning to the newts and such, I see no apparent thing to do. Let’s look at our updated to-do list:
We haven’t made progress on the vault problem–there’s no apparent way to strengthen our magic as of yet. That leaves the volcano, the box, and the impassable exits. Imagine me during my first playthrough, a sophomore in college. I’m doubtlessly pleased with myself for making it so far in the infamously difficult Spellbreaker without consulting the hint booklet included with my copy of The Lost Treasures of Infocom.
And then this. Casting every spell, no matter how ridiculous. Attempting to use every item, no matter how illogical. Nothing. What is the secret of the outcropping? I decided to be patient. Spellbreaker was the first game I played in the collection. I played Planetfall, then came back afterward.
Nothing.
Lurking Horror, Planetfall, Starcross.
Still no ideas. Since the Lost Treasures hint book isn’t invisiclues, I used a strip of paper to prevent me from seeing more than one hint at a time.
Q: How do I get to the outcropping?
A1: You do have a magic carpet; you could try to fly there.
I already tried that, so I’ll look again.
A2: But be sure to SAVE before you try it.
I already knew that, too.
A3: The magic carpet isn’t the answer.
I think we’ve covered that!
A4: Have you tried to build a bridge from all the cubes you’ve collected? You might be able to freeze them together…
Oh, come on.
A5: It won’t work! You’re a magician, not an engineer! Bridges aren’t the answer!
That wasn’t a great experience! Maybe there’s another helpful question.
Q: How do I avoid the heat of the lava?
A1: Any sufficiently arcane magic is indistinguishable from technology.
0_o
A2: There must be a magic item or spell that would help.
Probably so! I toss aside my cover sheet and just read.
A3: Have you ever wondered about those exits from the cube rooms that don’t seem to be open?
A4: You should figure out how you can use the gold box. It does have an interesting property that you might be able to use. Try leaving it behind.
A5: Try this sequence: Get your favorite cube. Put it into the box. Remove the cube from the box.
A6: Toss the box onto the outcropping. Now BLORPLE the cube you just removed from the box. Try something different: go through the cube room exit that you couldn’t go through before. (For example, the East exit is the magical exit from the Water Room.)
Mind you, this isn’t the first portable teleportation device that Lebling has written about. Starcross featured those perfectly sensible disks. I don’t know what about the box would have clued me in on its ability to act as a transporter. I’m trying to imagine it working. Do I emerge, growing, from inside the box? Am I really throwing a gold box at a ledge?
Collegiate Drew sighed. I don’t think I ever would have figured that out. I think Lebling must have realized I wouldn’t, too, because instead of incremental hints, the Invisiclues just blurts out the solution as if it were an embarrassing secret. I remain confused over this bit of the game. Lebling is an experienced developer at his peak (in my opinion), and he does this. I think about Infocom’s testing team, who famously convinced Steve Meretzky to spare Floyd’s life. Did they all figure out the box? This is just a very strange thing to find in a game of this caliber. At least the Bank of Zork could be solved by accident.
Very well, we have our answer, now:
_>put “earth” in box
When you insert the “earth” cube into the box, there is a brief burst of light, and the decorations on the box change subtly. They now depict moles._>get “earth”
Taken.throw box at outcropping
The gold box sails smoothly through the air, bounces on the outcropping and ends up perched on the very edge of the far side._>blorple “earth”
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.Packed Earth
This is a small room crudely constructed of packed earth, mud, and sod. Crudely framed openings of wood tied with leather thongs lead off in each of the four cardinal directions, and a muddy hole leads down._>n
As you leave, the “earth” cube reappears in your hand.Outcropping
You are on a very small outcropping of some material that is impervious to heat. All around you lava bubbles and steams, flowing down the side of the mountain in a relentless stream. There is solid ground out of reach to the east.
There is a gold box here.
A white cube is here.
And there it is. However…
_>get cube
As you take the cube, you are nearly blinded by a blast of power. It rolls out from the cube, up your arm and all over your body. Every hair stands on end, every muscle is tense. You feel more powerful, as though a weight had been lifted from your body and a veil drawn from before you. The very stuff of magic crackles from your fingertips.
Wow! This cube seems different from the rest. We have gained considerable power! I wonder if that means we can now REZROV the vault?
_>rezrov door
The mechanisms whirr madly for a few moments, and then the door swings ponderously open. That’s some cube!
I can’t believe how easy that is, with this new cube.
_>n
As you enter the outer vault, the vault door swings inexorably shut.
Uh-oh.
Outer Vault
You are in a large, bare concrete room. There are two piles on the floor. The first contains the “x1” cube, the “x2” cube, the “x3” cube, the “x4” cube, the “x5” cube and the “x6” cube. The second contains the “x7” cube, the “x8” cube, the “x9” cube, the “x10” cube, the “x11” cube and the “x12” cube. An exit is to the north. It is a closed iron door. To the south is the inner vault. Its steel door is closed.
What in the world is this? We’ve got twelve cubes on two piles. Let’s do a JINDAK.
_>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. However, the first pile is glowing more brightly.
Nothing else is glowing.
While it’s possible that the brighter pile could be composed of cubes that are, collectively, more magical than those in the other pile, it is probably most reasonable to assume that one of these cubes in one of these piles is different. Let’s experiment further. I’ll cut the number of cubes in half, then Jindak again.
_>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. However, the first pile is glowing more brightly.
The “x7” cube is glowing with a faint blue glow.
The “x8” cube is glowing with a faint blue glow.
The “x9” cube is glowing with a faint blue glow.
The “x10” cube is glowing with a faint blue glow.
The “x11” cube is glowing with a faint blue glow.
The “x12” cube is glowing with a faint blue glow.Suddenly an alarm fairy appears in the Treasury. It carries a big gong which it begins to pound incessantly, and it yells at the top of its lungs.
“There’s a thief here! Hey, guards! Thief! Nasty thieving thief’s here! Come capture the thief!” The din is tremendous.
That doesn’t sound so good. I’ve got a recent save, though, so let’s keep at it. I’ll leave the first pile alone, and put inert cubes on the second. Or that’s the plan, anyway. I get interrupted.
_>drop x4,x5,x6
the “x4” cube: Dropped.
the “x5” cube: Dropped.
the “x6” cube: Dropped.All at once the door bursts in and five burly guards crowd into the Treasury. They look at you with extreme disapproval, tinged with a certain sadistic anticipation of what is to come. The alarm fairy twitters about near the ceiling, jeering at you. “Told you so, nyaah, nyaah!” it chants. In the interest of taste, we will gloss over what happens next, but at the end of it you are dead.
I must have tipped them off too early. I had to frotz up a light source after closing the zipper. That must be it. OK, I’ll fix that and go back.
I’m back. This puzzle seems familiar, doesn’t it? It’s a puzzle so old and well-known that it has its own Wikipedia article: Balance puzzle - Wikipedia. The goal is to figure out which cube is different from all the others. There are two gimmicks here. The first is that we don’t know whether our cube will be brighter or softer when JINDAK’d. The second is that I think we have three casts before the guards show up, so we have to be very efficient.
I’m going to start by only weighing half of the cubes. I’ll put three on one pile and three on the other.
_>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. However, the first pile is glowing more brightly.
So we know the cube is among 1-6. To determine which pile has the cube, I’ll take 4, 5, and 6, then replace them with cubes that I know aren’t the right ones.
_>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. Both piles seem to glow with identical brightness.
OK. Since these are equal, we know that the cube is either 4, 5, or 6. Since 1, 2, and 3 glowed more brightly, we know that we will want the least bright out of 4, 5, and 6. I’ll put 4 on the first pile and 5 on the second. If either is less bright, I’ll take it and blorple it. I’ll hold 6 in my hand. If 4 and 5 are equal, I’ll blorple 6. Let’s see if I got it right!
_>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. However, the second pile is glowing more brightly.
Suddenly an alarm fairy appears in the Treasury. It carries a big gong which it begins to pound incessantly, and it yells at the top of its lungs.“There’s a thief here! Hey, guards! Thief! Nasty thieving thief’s here! Come capture the thief!” The din is tremendous.
_>get x4
Taken.You can hear a key being inserted in the lock from outside. The alarm fairy thumbs its nose at you derisively.
“There’s a thief here! Hey, guards! Thief! Nasty thieving thief’s here! Come capture the thief!” The din is tremendous.
_>blorple x4
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.Sand Room
A thin trickle of sand flows down from an exit in the ceiling of this circular room to a pile of sand on the floor. The walls of the room are glass, but you can see nothing through them. In the sand is a hole through which, oddly enough, no sand is pouring out.
While this puzzle is a bit tired, the tension at the end makes for an exciting escape. Like the box puzzle, it’s a step or two below Spellbreaker’s best moments, but I can at least solve this one myself. After decades, I still don’t get the box puzzle. I know people who have solved it themselves, so obviously it isn’t impossible, but I’m really bothered by it.
We’re in the endgame now, with two utterly classic puzzle sequences ahead of us. I count both among Infocom’s very best and look forward to discussing them!
Here’s the new to-do list:
A very short list. Let me know if you have questions about the game to this point, think I’m wrong about the box, etc.
I orginally planned to use Frotz’s alt-U “undo” to bypass Lebling’s disabled undo in the vault. I changed my mind because I haven’t solved the vault puzzle in a while. It sounded like fun.
Spellbreaker Day 10 Transcript.txt (35.9 KB)
Spellbreaker Day 10 for Sharing.sav (1.9 KB)
