I do not recommend volunteering to be that person. :)
6 Likes
Actually on a smaller scale that might be interesting - ImprovComp: people send in room/puzzle ideas and authors draw five out of a hat to somehow make them work together.
5 Likes
If you want a big list of locations, items, and people, âCardinal Teulbachsâ solicited a bunch of ideas for such a game back in '96. He assembled a group of people and they got partway through it, but it never quite materialized.
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.int-fiction/c/KanrSxxVAEw/m/AEAYHNaNZRgJ
(Also, a lot of SpeedIFâs are basically what youâre suggesting on an individual basis. Itâs a fun idea!)
5 Likes
(Chapter the Twenty-Third, done and done)
The Observatory (Joey Jones)
The observatory is a cramped domed room cluttered with all manner of mechanical contrivance. The way out is northwest.At the top of the dome is a large telescope. Immediately beneath it is a vast projector, bristling with obscure controls.
To one side of the dome is a worn wooden lectern, set before a large chalk circle.
The device is projecting a star sign upon the walls of the dome.
The book was quite clear about what must be done:
Now you can flick through the yellowing pages of the grimoire, you learn that to open a way to your lost husband, you must:
blow the horn of the black goat,
while the stars are reflecting upon the grimoire,
with the stars falling under his true star sign,
and his most treasured memento,
and a divine pustule,
placed in a chalk circle beneath the raised grimoire.Only then will the way open.
Weâve already got Peterâs star sign dialed in.
>put photo in chalk circle
(the photograph of a memory (smelling faintly of mildew) in the chalk circle)
You put the photograph of a memory (smelling faintly of mildew) into the chalk circle.
This is a much mildewier ritual than is standard, but hopefully that wonât knock things off too badly.
>put cyst in chalk circle
You put the Cyst (smelling faintly of mildew) into the chalk circle.>put de vermibus on lectern
You place the grimoire on the lectern and it falls to the page of the ritual. The stars from the projector dance across its pages.
Everythingâs in place.
>blow horn
You try to draw some sound from the horn, putting it to your lips. It lets out a low shuddering sound, like a thousand goats crying out in slow motion.The grimoire shakes upon the lectern.
The chalk circle glows.
The cyst starts to bubble.
The stars shine brighter upon the observatoryâs walls, and the whole room ripples.
The horn cracks and crumbles to dust in your hands. The cyst bursts and evaporates into the ruin in a greasy haze. The photograph in the chalk circle burns to ash. Something perpendicular to this plane of existence worms its way through into the observatory.There is a crack in existence; a portal taking up the space in the center of the room where the device once stood.
Thereâs the shiny glowy effects-heavy shots!
>x portal
Peering through you catch brief glimpses of impossible geography beyond. If the ritual has worked, entering the portal will be the way to reach your husband at last.
Er, what do you mean, âifâ?
Still, nothing venturedâŚ
>enter portal
You take a deep breath and step outside of the world. Your senses curdle. You see yourself outside of yourself, as if you were a second person. Your memories of the last day (or night? or season? or year?) shuffle like the star signs across the observatory, with dozens of competing possible versions of yourself juxtaposed incoherently.You try to grasp at what the true memory was. A woman, searching a house for her husband? A trip to the library to return overdue books? But now in your mind you only have a patchwork of impossible moments. Of bizarre creatures, unlikely tasks and glimpses at the precipice of madness.
You arrive somewhere else.
There are still some echoes of all those variations we experienced in the shack â different versions of us, different versions of Peterâs memory, even different versions of what weâve been up to (I seem to recall Nitocris dying a whole whole bunch, but that canât be right, can it?) But the wave-function is starting to collapse into a single state as we come now to the end.
Where are we?
Gulf of Nehilim (Nobody)
That doesnât really clear things up! Nehilim sure seems like a typo for Nephilim â you know, the giants in the earth of those obscure verses in Genesis, popularly interpreted as a race of half-angelic people â but why would this be a gulf? What are we standing between?
Can we get any more detail:
>l
Gulf of Nehilim (Nobody)
Guess not.
>x me
As good-looking as ever.You bear the trauma of a woman who has been eye to eye with an eburnean pond kraken.
Still Nitocris, at least!
>i
You are carrying nothing.
Ooof â somewhere floating in extradimensional space, thereâs a giant mass of keys, books, pamphlets, clothing, perfumes, knives, tools, and other impedimenta, all suffused with a stubborn and metastatic mildewy scent. Heaven help the poor Dreamlands traveler who stumbles across that shoal!
But to the matter at hand, where exactly are we, and more to the point, shouldnât there be at least some iteration of Peter here?
>fly
That verb doesnât work here, or, at least, not right now, but it might work somewhere later.
Hey, it worked in Photopia.
>e
You canât go that way.>w
You canât go that way.>l
Whatever.The Great Purple Unknown (Adri)
The world around you is purple. So much purple. The immediate area is bright enough to see, but you donât see any obvious light source, and then there is darkness. Purple darkness. The ground seems to be some sort of dark stone. There is a gate here, an ornate wrought-iron one with an arch over it, but it doesnât connect to any sort of fence. In fact, you can walk around the gate without any problem, and through it, you see only more purple. Above the gate, secured to the metal arch, are a set of masks.In the center of the lit area is Peter. He kneels on the ground, staring off into nothingness.
Oh, here we are!
I havenât been keeping close count, but this must be the last room. Adri is â oh, you know, I was all set to tag @ArdiMaster but just took a closer look and realized my brain was doing one of those inadvertent transpositions it sometimes does (I was like 500 pages into The Magic Mountain before I realized the doctorâs name was Settembrini, not Settembriti). Adri is another prolific early-teens author Iâve totally missed out on, with a wide variety of what look like cute, funny games to (I think her?) name!
At the end of all things, we have many questions, but one is more immediately important than any others: how do we look?
>x me
Youâve looked better. You could really use a nice warm shower when all this is over.
Where weâre going, Iâm not sure there are showers.
Weâre also still empty-handed, so whatever weâre going to do here, weâll have to manage with our wits alone.
>x gate
A pair of closed metal gates, the sort that should swing open, if only you could figure out how they worked. The bars are too decorative and entwined to squeeze through, and the gate is too high to climb over, not that you think it would take you anywhere if you did. You can walk right around it, and the other side is near identical, minus the masks on the arch.
Huh â Iâm guessing weâll need to open and pass through that gate, ideally with Peter at our side (we made our way to a Dreamlands gate via the magic we learned in the Workroom â is this another such portal? And how did Peter get here?)
>x masks
Itâs a set of those tragedy and comedy masks youâve seen on theatre playbills. You think theyâre named Sock and Buskin.
Sock and Buskin? From some quick Wikipediaing, yup, checks out, derived from the different footwear Classical actors would wear in comedy and tragedy respectively.
>x sock
This silver mask depicts a gleeful face. It makes you want to laugh, despite yourself.>x buskin
The face depicted in this gold mask is so sad, it makes you feel like crying.
Well, why not?
>laugh
You laugh. At first it feels forced, but soon youâre laughing hysterically, albeit silently.The world seems a little brighter.
I donât think weâre being quiet intentionally â there may be something about this place that silences sound?
>cry
You break down into tears, sobbing heavily, all without making a sound.
Yeah, that must be whatâs going on.
Your heart feels a little lighter.
Seems counterintuitive but guess Aristotle was onto something with his whole catharsis angle.
Suddenly Peter looks up at you. He stands up and walks over to you, taking your hand.
Oh! At long, long, long last.
>x peter
Itâs your husband, Peter. He looks as handsome as everâŚ
Hereâs hoping thatâs a good thing!
>ask peter about this place
Your lips form words, but no sound comes out.>tell peter about parallel worlds
Your lips form words, but no sound comes out.
Without being able to talk, we wonât easily be able to tell how different this Peter is from our Peter â given the photo of his deepest memory, heâs presumably almost a century out of time, but beyond that who knows?
Actions speak louder than words anyway.
>kiss peter
You kiss Peter. He kisses you back and holds you tightly for a moment.>hold hand
You give Peterâs hand a quick squeeze.
Thereâll be time later to learn more about what he was trying to accomplish when he came here, and how that fits into our own plans. First we need to make our way home (probably also best not to contemplate which version of Backwater weâll be coming back to).
Those masks seem important:
>climb gate
You make it all the way to the top of the gate, when your foot slips and you fall across the top of the gate, impaling yourself on a rather sharp spike you hadnât noticed before. Your death comes slowly, but it does come.*** You have died ***
Ooops! One last death for old timeâs sake (hopefully).
>laugh
You look at Peter, and you laugh. Heâs here, heâs really here.>cry
You look at Peter, and you cry, this time from happiness and relief.
Doesnât seem to impact the world, or Peter, this time.
>open gate
You pull and push on the bars to no avail. It must be locked, but thereâs no latch or keyhole.>take mask
Which do you mean, the sock mask or the buskin mask?>sock
Itâs just too high for you to reach, even standing on your toes.>jump
You jump, but the gravity here seems heavier than normal.
Thatâs not going to work! Though when we look now, we see a new line:
Peter is here. He towers over you, refusing to leave your side.
So that suggests something obvious:
>climb peter
Peter helps you climb onto his shoulders. As you reach for the masks, he stumbles under your weight, causing you to fall against the gate. A particularly sharp bit of decoration pierces your chest, killing you instantly.*** You have died ***
FFS.
As is my wont when momentarily stymied, I spend some time flailing around now, and note a new detail:
>x gate
A pair of closed metal gates, the sort that should swing open, if only you could figure out how they worked. The bars are too decorative and entwined to squeeze through, and the gate is too high to climb over, not that you think it would take you anywhere if you did. You can walk right around it, and the other side is near identical, minus the masks on the arch.Looking more closely, you see a set of dials hidden in the decoration of the gate.
Ugh, itâs my least-favorite mechanic again! Though I suppose in our worry about whether Peter was all right, we werenât looking at the gate that carefully.
>x dials
There are two dials here, like those found on a combination lock, one on each gate.>x right
Itâs a tiny dial. It can be turned to any number. It currently reads 0.>x left
Itâs a tiny dial. It can be turned to any number. It currently reads 0.>turn right to 99
The dial only goes from 0 to 9.
Only a hundred possible combinations, so thatâs manageable, but hopefully thereâs a clue somewhere so weâre not reduced to brute-forcing the last puzzle!
At first I wonder whether the combo is tied to the number of times weâve laughed or cried, but that doesnât seem to line up. Maybe Peter knows?
>show left dial to peter
You point at the left dial. Peter shrugs.>show right dial to peter
You point at the right dial. Peter shrugs.
No help there, but this gives me an idea:
>show gate to peter
You point at the gate. Peter shrugs.>show sock to peter
You gesture at the sock mask. Peter nods and retrieves both masks for you.
Oh, that was easy! I had in my head that they were further up, though it did clearly say they were just out of reach when we were on tiptoe.
>x sock
This silver mask depicts a gleeful face. It makes you want to laugh, despite yourself. Now that youâre holding it, you can look inside of it.>look in sock
You wipe away some dirt, revealing the number 4.>look in buskin
Itâs been scratched out, but you think you can make out the number 7.
Aha, that looks like our combo, though there are two permutations!
>wear sock
You slip the sock mask over your face.
Why not?
>l
The Great Green Unknown (Adri)
The world around you is green. So much green. The immediate area is bright enough to see, but you donât see any obvious light source, and then there is darkness. Green darkness. The ground seems to be some sort of dark stone. There is a gate here, an ornate wrought-iron one with an arch over it, but it doesnât connect to any sort of fence. In fact, you can walk around the gate without any problem, and through it, you see only more green.Peter is here. He towers over you, refusing to leave your side.
Guess there are like colored lenses in this thing? The other mask makes everything orange, but nothing substantively changes as far as I can tell.
>peter, wear buskin
(Peter first taking the buskin mask)
Your lips form words, but no sound comes out.>put buskin on peter
Peter shakes his head.
Aw.
>wear buskin
You hold the other mask in front of your face and look through the eyes, and your vision goes black. You take the mask away.
Guess itâs just a one at a time kind of thing.
We have a fifty-fifty shot and there doesnât seem to be any penalty for failureâŚ
>turn left dial to 4
You turn the left dial to 4.>turn right dial to 7
You turn the right dial to 7.The gate suddenly swings open.
Thatâs it!
>enter gate
You take Peterâs hand and walk forward, through the gate and into the night.*** You have won ***
Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, QUIT, UNDO the last command or TAKE BACK the action that sealed your fate (for when UNDO is not enough)?
âŚthatâs it.
Where are we headed? Who exactly is this person at our side, and did he come here of his own volition or did his family stash him here to be out of the way? Where did all the Cragnes vanish to? And just what is Nitocris planning next? We have no shortage of hints and suppositions â most having to do with what Vaadignephod is trying to do with us, or, perhaps more importantly, what weâre trying to do with it.
But one thing is pellucidly clear: we have at last left behind the unhallowed precincts of
CRAGNE MANOR
[roll credits]
Final inventory -- before we entered the portal
You are carrying:
a black horn (smelling faintly of mildew)
the second candle (smelling faintly of mildew)
a box of Nilla Wafers (smelling faintly of mildew)
a slip of paper (smelling faintly of mildew)
a clipped newspaper article (smelling faintly of mildew)
the slithering vomit bladder of Katallakh (smelling faintly of mildew)
a round white wall clock (smelling faintly of mildew)
a little stoppered vial of blue liquid (smelling faintly of mildew)
an a worn out, decaying picture (smelling faintly of mildew)
a copper amulet (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pull-string doll (smelling faintly of mildew)
a plastic bubble (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a glass jar containing an insect (smelling faintly of mildew)
a silver mirror (smelling faintly of mildew)
a yellow sticky-note (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pointer thingy (extended) (smelling faintly of mildew)
a bag of peanut (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
an old iron key (smelling faintly of mildew)
an ancient key (smelling faintly of mildew)
Jesseniaâs receipt (smelling faintly of mildew)
a slimy key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a long wooden key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a white key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a thin steel key (smelling faintly of mildew)
an Allen key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a small rusty iron key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a small desk key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a Red Triangle Key (smelling faintly of mildew)
an ornate bronze key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a sinister iron key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a sturdy key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a creased square of paper (smelling faintly of mildew)
a silver and ivory key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a brass winding key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a large brass key (smelling faintly of mildew)
an aluminum key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a bronze key green from age (smelling faintly of mildew)
a key from an urn (smelling faintly of mildew)
a nasty-looking key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a jar of old keys (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
sketches of your face (smelling faintly of mildew)
photos of you (smelling faintly of mildew)
a familiar gold wristwatch (smelling faintly of mildew)
a teapot (smelling faintly of mildew)
a library note (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pile of underwear (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pile of pants (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pile of shirts (smelling faintly of mildew)
a copper urn (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a jar of screws (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a broken silver amulet (smelling faintly of mildew)
a mildewy carpet (smelling faintly of mildew)
a filthy rug (smelling faintly of mildew)
a rusty meat cleaver (smelling faintly of mildew)
a secret menu (smelling faintly of mildew)
a dark grey whetstone (smelling faintly of mildew)
a cardboard box (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a Carfax gig poster (smelling faintly of mildew)
a tarnished brass key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a folded up note (smelling faintly of mildew)
a bottle of Pepto-Bismol (smelling faintly of mildew)
Daniel Bakerâs note (smelling faintly of mildew)
an ominous-looking painting (smelling faintly of mildew)
a golden eyepiece (smelling faintly of mildew)
some Nilla wafers (smelling faintly of mildew)
a silver urn (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a pair of stone earplugs (smelling faintly of mildew)
a newspaper clipping (âRumors of Decapitationsâ) (smelling faintly of mildew)
an Italian magazine cutting (smelling faintly of mildew)
a spray bottle of fungicide (smelling faintly of mildew)
Mama Hydraâs Deep Fried Ones (smelling faintly of mildew)
a box of vials (smelling faintly of mildew)
a vial of cedarwood extract
a vial of frankincense
a vial of tuberose extract
a vial of geosmin
a vial of musk
a spray decant vial
a vial of vanilla extract
an unmarked clear vial
an unmarked teal vial
an unmarked pale blue vial
a trolley schedule (smelling faintly of mildew)
a backpack features guide (smelling faintly of mildew)
Peterâs jacket (smelling faintly of mildew)
a library card (smelling faintly of mildew)
a grimy rock (smelling faintly of mildew)
a long hooked pole (smelling faintly of mildew)
an employee ID card (smelling faintly of mildew)
a shard of shattered carapace (smelling faintly of mildew)
a clipboard (smelling faintly of mildew)
loose bricks (smelling faintly of mildew)
a black business card (smelling faintly of mildew)
a glass shard (smelling faintly of mildew)
a trophy for a dog race (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pair of blue cloth slippers (smelling faintly of mildew)
a rusty flathead screwdriver (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pair of garden shears (smelling faintly of mildew)
a gallon jug of white vinegar (smelling faintly of mildew)
some mildewed leather gloves
a bronze urn (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a big slice of cold pizza (smelling faintly of mildew)
a wad of cash (smelling faintly of mildew)
a vial of rose extract (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pair of leather boots
a tiny brass key (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pewter box (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a golden apple (smelling faintly of mildew)
a note from a seesaw (smelling faintly of mildew)
a vintage Black Sabbath tee shirt (smelling faintly of mildew)
a gold jacket (smelling faintly of mildew)
a wine bottle (smelling faintly of mildew)
a police report (âFrancine Cragneâ) (smelling faintly of mildew)
a can of salt (smelling faintly of mildew)
a rusty piece of metal (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pamphlet of home listings (smelling faintly of mildew)
a metal flask (smelling faintly of mildew)
a piece of yellowed newsprint (smelling faintly of mildew)
a brass nameplate (smelling faintly of mildew)
a pistachio ice cream cone (smelling faintly of mildew)
the first candle (smelling faintly of mildew)
a black box (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
some assorted teeth (smelling faintly of mildew)
Limerickus Dirtius (smelling faintly of mildew)
a torn notebook (smelling faintly of mildew)
a Jansport backpack (smelling faintly of mildew) (open)
a hidden pocket (open but empty)
a key pocket (open but empty)
a book pocket (open)
a pocket-sized notebook (smelling faintly of mildew)
a small blue journal (which you know is a journal because it says âMein Journalâ on the front) (smelling faintly of mildew)
The Modern Girlâs Divination Handbook â Volume Three (smelling faintly of mildew)
a tiny leather journal (smelling faintly of mildew)
a moldy, waterlogged journal (smelling faintly of mildew)
an old newspaper (smelling faintly of mildew)
a faded delivery note (smelling faintly of mildew)
Between God and Madness, by Hiram Strangecraft (smelling faintly of mildew)
Reading the Sky, by Roberto Vasquez (smelling faintly of mildew)
Tatooine 1: Anchorhead (smelling faintly of mildew)
a soggy tome (smelling faintly of mildew)
the diary of Phyllis Cragne (smelling faintly of mildew)
a postcard of Big Ben (smelling faintly of mildew)
In Defense of Reason, by Scott Andersen (smelling faintly of mildew)
Hyper-Gastronomy, Exactness, and String Theory: a Theoretical Subdiscipline of Cooking and Baking by Chef Wheldrake (smelling faintly of mildew)
A Culinary Overview of Superstitions in the Miskaton Valley Region by S. Jarret Zornwharf (smelling faintly of mildew)
a side pocket (closed)
a trash pocket (closed)
a rusted toolbox (smelling faintly of mildew) (open but empty)
a sharp machete (smelling faintly of mildew)
a mallet (smelling faintly of mildew)
some rotten flowers (smelling faintly of mildew)
a cast iron spire (smelling faintly of mildew)
an enormous dessicated rat corpse (smelling faintly of mildew)
a whole large reddish-orange pumpkin (smelling faintly of mildew)
red-rimmed porcelain plates (smelling faintly of mildew)
red-rimmed porcelain cups (smelling faintly of mildew)
a shard (smelling faintly of mildew)
a jar of peaches (smelling faintly of mildew) (open)
some golden peach liquid
some pickled peaches
a broken knife handle (smelling faintly of mildew)
a black fountain pen (smelling faintly of mildew)
a stubby pencil (smelling faintly of mildew)
a waterproof flashlight (smelling faintly of mildew)
a piece of chalk (smelling faintly of mildew)
a half-full styrofoam coffee cup (smelling faintly of mildew)
a leather cord and pendant (being worn)
a pair of reading glasses (smelling faintly of mildew) (being worn)
a battered yellow JogMaster (being worn)
a label (smelling faintly of mildew) (being worn)
a giant milkweed leaf (smelling faintly of mildew) (being worn as a mask)
a calfskin coat (being worn)
a trolley pass (being worn)
Edâs coveralls (being worn)
Final maps:
West Backwater
East Backwater
Cragne Manor - Ground Floor
Cragne Manor - Basement
Cragne Manor - Second Story
Cragne Manor - Attic and points beyond
Transcript:
cragne session 23.txt (59.3 KB)
Save (immediately before blowing the horn):
cragne session 23 save.txt (100.6 KB)
Unfinished Locations:
- Gulf of Nehilim: oh come on thereâs clearly like a secret ending or something if we do something here, right?
13 Likes
There it is. CONGRATULATIONS!
This has been an incredible journey, and Iâm excited to see what other secrets your additional efforts will uncover!
7 Likes
As if a cyst can get any worse-smelling. Iâve seen enough episodes of Dr. Pimple Popper.
âŚin a Jansport backpackâŚ
âŚand why he had so gosh darn many unreturned library books!
NeeeeearâŚ
Farrrrrr
Where everâs the bar
4 Likes
I mean think how I feel! Though there will be those bonus updates to look forward to â and Iâm going to try to wrangle my wild and wooly thoughts into a review so I can be the first person who isnât an author or tester to write an IFDB review of Cragne Manor! (Itâll also be my 300th IFDB review, so thatâs a fun personal milestone too). Iâm going to put the bonus updates on pause for the time being, though, so I donât have to worry about trying to run them before the Comp takes over my life. But the thread will be back in November with the commentary/XYZZY post, the source-code diving, and the speedrunning.
(Speaking of, does anyone know the easiest way to write only player actions to a text file, and then use that to replay the game? I think thatâll be helpful for the speedrun. You can obviously do this via the IDE if you have the source code, but I assume thereâs some kind of interpreter-side solution too. I use Gargoyle but open to other solutions too!)
Yeah, thatâs fair â of necessity, it clearly leaves a whole lot open. In my mind itâs the shack sequence thatâs really the climax, since itâs obviously quite a set piece, and it also knits together all the chaos of the game to date while throwing up all sorts of pregnant implications about whatâs actually going on. I think it combines well with the understated conclusion, actually, though per my last note I feel like thereâs gotta be something in that Gulf locationâŚ
Thanks Brian! Hopefully the prospect of the bonus updates eases the blow a little 
You know, part of me thinks it wouldnât be too hard â thatâs kind of what weâve done together in this thread, and beyond ironing out a few small details like the er underground bridge in the middle of town, the multiple-reality conceit at the end (and positioning Naomi as someone with a secret agenda and no compunctions about misleading others, even if sheâs not a full-on supervillain as in the thread) goes a long way towards allowing multiple inconsistent threads to coexist.
Ha, this is great, both the concept and some of the specific ideas (the Beckett play!)
Thanks so much! Iâm saving my valedictory remarks and thanks for after the bonus updates (of course I have a speech in preparation, I feel like yâall know me well enough to guess that by now) but in this little informal, ad-hoc way, let me just say that Iâve really enjoyed the insights, encouragements, and jokes you and others have added along the way, which have really fleshed out my sometimes bare-bones thoughts about stuff.
Haha, I actually have major project wrapping up at my work tomorrow too, so I will be raising a celebratory glass soon â Iâll spare a thought for the thread as I do!
4 Likes
Weâve done it! Nitocrisâs part in the great work is complete!
Though I recommend she stay away from the manor for a while. Given the lack of cohesion on the Court, itâs going to take them a long while to coordinate enough to close the rift and re-summon that horn. Not to mention finding another CystâŚand Konstantin is going to be pissed when he finds out what happened to his apprenticeâŚ
Itâs another Anchorhead reference. If you directly encounter Ialdabaoloth you end up âencysted in the necrotic folds of the Womb of Nehilimâ, which Iâm guessing is a riff on Lovecraft taking vaguely ancient terms and changing the spelling a bit.
Oh hey, maybe thatâs where the Court gets their cysts from!
The Z-machine has this feature, so Inform (used to?) have RECORD and REPLAY verbs to do that. But they donât work in Cragne Manor so they might have gotten removed at some point.
Yeah, Iâm still trying to wrap my mind around the Shack. Iâm glad that one came near the end in this run.
Plot twist: the bridge is from the one reality where Peter married Nitocris rather than Naomi. And also the Cragnes are her blood-family rather than Peterâs. Thatâs just (un)life in
Manor.
5 Likes
I am so, so glad you played that so I donât have to. Just looking at that final inventory gives me serious ennui. Thanks for doing all that work for us.
7 Likes
I think heâs going to be even more pissed when he finds out what happened to his familiar!
That sounds right - but still, the â(Nobody)â sure seems intriguing. All the other little sub-locations weâve seen have still had authorial attribution, I think. And - slight spoiler - both the Observatory and Purple Place source codes are on Zarfâs site and neither to my eyes mention this place. Also the Purple Place has room code END2 meaning Iâm pretty sure the Gulf must be END1. I definitely suspect shenanigans!
Yeah that was my memory too, and itâs listed in the Inform 6 documentation, but seems like they might have fallen by the wayside at some point. Guess I might need to do things all at once, by hand, which I guess is more in keeping with the speed running ethos but way more stressful!
(For comparison, I finished at around 10,500 turns - Iâm guessing I can get that down to 1.5k or so but weâll see!)
The exact details of whatâs going on there are a little obfuscated, yeah - there appears to have been some bargain struck whereby all the different like eigen-Naomis and eigen-Peters were sold to Vaadignephod but what was given in exchange is unclear to me.
That would be a neat way to tie things up! My other thought on a potential twist riffed off the gate at the end - Iâve never heard of a gate with the masks of comedy and tragedy atop it, but you know what does have a big opening where those might be featured? A stage. Ending on a meta conceit like that seemed unsatisfying though, so I didnât run with that idea though I thought it was clever
Oh man now the pronunciation fights are really going to get confusing!
Yay, glad to have provided the service! Though actually it wasnât too too much work - most of the rooms are quite self-contained and where they need an additional item, the coffee and the structure of the game usually meant it wasnât too hard to figure out what I needed. I actually mostly didnât pay attention to my inventory for the back half of the game except when dealing with disambiguation issues - you could ditch pretty much everything except books, keys, the coffee and dolls, and maybe like 3-4 misc. items and do fine. I just enjoyed trying to collect as much as I could, including inappropriately-unflagged scenery!
6 Likes
I was surprised by the final inventory, since taking the cyst was supposed to stain all of the clothes you were wearing with dark fluid. I bet it was a simple bug, when I look at the source code.
Edit: I see, I only changed the description, and by that point thereâs not really any reason to examine old clothes!
4 Likes
Ha, yeah, I just went back to check this and found this entertaining juxtaposition:
> x coat
A thigh-length belted calfskin coat, clean as if itâs never been outside.The calfskin coat has been fouled with a black stain.
I guess we technically werenât outside when the cyst-ichor splurted all over us!
4 Likes
A nice bit of deadpan snark from Nitocris there!
2 Likes
This is a clearly Odysseus. However the punch line eludes me.
1 Like
Congratulations and thanks again, Mike.
I had hoped your mammoth effort would inspire me to come at the game anew. I found it boosted me to continue from where I got to before (about the halfway mark) and then, bizarrely(?) my brain started falling apart trying to follow from the three quarter mark. Still, I reckon Iâll get there eventually⌠and this topic will be a great help atop the walkthroughs.
-Wade
5 Likes
Iâve been lurking here a lot. Oh, also, congrats on the whole âfinishing everythingâ thing. I used a walkthrough very heavily to get through, even after Iâd tested a lot of the rooms (there was a lot of âWHY DONT I HAVE THIS ITEM YET, I REMEMBER HAVING THIS ITEM, oh wait the rooms are [one of][or]still [stopping]interconnected, duhâ)
So this, and peopleâs commentaries on small side facts, was an eye opener.
One thing on the librarian âŚ
My arc was from seeing this implemented and thinking, hey, this is strong, while hoping there werenât too many such messages that crossed each other up. Theyâre good messages to have, of course.
As it turns out, yes, it did play extremely well with other rooms.
5 Likes
âŚMaybe Iâm going down a rabbit hole that doesnât exist, but this Gulf of Nehilim thing has been itching around in the back of my head since I wrapped up. Itâs such a signposted oddity with its missing authorial attribution, its complete lack of anything, and the terminal âWhateverâ seeming like a Ryan-Veeder-y kiss-off that surely means something.
Anyway, modest brainwave: I figured that if there was some kind of bonus ending or secret spliced in between the Observatory and the Great Purple Unknown, clearly that would have been done by the organizers, so there might be clues in Ryanâs and Jenniâs rooms. Nothing really jumped out in the Court, but when I zoomed back for a chat with Bethany, I found something interesting â sheâs got nothing to say about Gulf of the Nehilim or Nehilim, but if you ask about âgulfâ:
>ask bethany about gulf
âAsk me again if youâre sure you want to know,â Bethany says. âI can really get going when I talk about gulf streams.â>ask bethany about gulf
She takes a deep breath. âOkay. The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward accelerating current off the east coast of North America. At about 40°0?N 30°0?W, it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current, recirculating off West Africa.ââThe Gulf Stream influences the climate of the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland, and the west coast of Europe. Although there has been recent debate, there is consensus that the climate of Western Europe and Northern Europe is warmer than it would otherwise be due to the North Atlantic drift which is the northeastern section of the Gulf Stream. It is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. Its presence has led to the development of strong cyclones of all types, both within the atmosphere and within the ocean. The Gulf Stream is also a significant potential source of renewable power generation. The Gulf Stream may be slowing down as a result of climate change.â
âThe Gulf Stream is typically 100 kilometres (62 mi) wide and 800 metres (2,600 ft) to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) deep. The current velocity is fastest near the surface, with the maximum speed typically about 2.5 metres per second (9 kph; 5.6 mph).â
âEuropean discovery of the Gulf Stream dates to the 1512 expedition of Juan Ponce de LeĂłn, after which it became widely used by Spanish ships sailing from the Caribbean to Spain. A summary of Ponce de LeĂłnâs voyage log, on April 22, 1513, noted, âA current such that, although they had great wind, they could not proceed forward, but backward and it seems that they were proceeding well; at the end it was known that the current was more powerful than the wind.â Its existence was also known to Peter Martyr dâAnghiera. If you donât know who that is, we donât have time to get into it right now, because weâre busy talking about gulf streams.â
âBenjamin Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. In 1768, while in England, Franklin heard a curious complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs: Why did it take British packets several weeks longer to reach New York from England than it took an average American merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island, despite the merchant ships leaving from London and having to sail down the River Thames and then the length of the English Channel before they sailed across the Atlantic, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall? (A packet is a kind of boat.)â
âFranklin asked Timothy Folger, his cousin twice removed (according to the Nantucket Historical Society) and a Nantucket Island whaling captain, for an answer. Folger explained that merchant ships routinely crossed the then-unnamed Gulf Stream-identifying it by whale behavior, measurement of the waterâs temperature, and changes in the waterâs color-while the mail packet captains ran against it. Franklin had Folger sketch the path of the Gulf Stream on an old chart of the Atlantic and add written notes on how to avoid the Stream when sailing from England to America.â
âFranklin then forwarded the chart to Anthony Todd, secretary of the British Post Office. Franklinâs Gulf Stream chart was printed in 1769 in London, but it was mostly ignored by British sea captains. A copy of the chart was printed in Paris circa 1770-1773, and a third version was published by Franklin in Philadelphia in 1786. The inset in the upper left part of the 1786 chart is an illustration of the migration pattern of herring and not an ocean current. That sounds like a Monty Python gag but Iâm completely serious. Herring. For real.â
âThe Gulf Stream proper is a western-intensified current, driven largely by wind stress. The North Atlantic Drift, in contrast, is largely thermohaline circulation-driven. In 1958 the oceanographer Henry Stommel noted that âvery little water from the Gulf of Mexico is actually in the Streamâ. By carrying warm water northeast across the Atlantic, it makes Western and especially Northern Europe warmer than it otherwise would be, and New England colder and more miserable.â
âHowever, the extent of its contribution to the actual temperature differential between North America and Europe is a matter of dispute, as there is a recent minority opinion within the science community that this temperature difference (beyond that caused by contrasting maritime and continental climates) is mainly due to atmospheric waves created by the Rocky Mountains. The science community really gets into it sometimes. Like, you think historians are bad, but scientists go full on West Side Story. I once saw a chemist break the neck off a graduated cylinder and stab a microbiologist in the kidney.â
âThe jet stream throws all of the storms towards America, which I personally consider a real dick move. A river of sea water, called the Atlantic North Equatorial Current, flows westward off the coast of Central Africa. When this current interacts with the northeastern coast of South America, the current forks into two branches. One passes into the Caribbean Sea, while a second, the Antilles Current, flows north and east of the West Indies. These two branches rejoin north of the Straits of Florida. I can loan you a notebook if youâd like to write this down. No? You sure? Okay.â
âThe trade winds blow westward in the tropics, and the westerlies blow eastward at mid-latitudes. This wind pattern applies a stress to the subtropical ocean surface with negative curl across the north Atlantic Ocean. The resulting Sverdrup transport is equatorward. I enjoy saying the word âSverdrup.â Sverdrup.â
âBecause of conservation of potential vorticity caused by the northward-moving winds on the subtropical ridgeâs western periphery and the increased relative vorticity of northward moving water, transport is balanced by a narrow, accelerating poleward current, which flows along the western boundary of the ocean basin, outweighing the effects of friction with the western boundary current, known as the Labrador current. The conservation of potential vorticity also causes bends along the Gulf Stream, which occasionally break off due to a shift in the Gulf Streamâs position, forming separate warm and cold eddies. You gotta separate the eddies or they fight. This overall process, known as western intensification, causes currents on the western boundary of an ocean basin, such as the Gulf Stream, to be stronger than those on the eastern boundary.â
âAs a consequence, the resulting Gulf Stream is a strong ocean current. It transports water at a rate of 30 million cubic meters per second (30 sverdrups â there are those sverdrups again) through the Florida Straits. As it passes south of Newfoundland, this rate increases to 150 million cubic metres per second. The volume of the Gulf Stream dwarfs all rivers that empty into the Atlantic combined, which barely total 0.6 million cubic metres per second. It is weaker, however, than the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Given the strength and proximity of the Gulf Stream, beaches along the East Coast of the United States may be more vulnerable to large sea-level anomalies, which significantly impact rates of coastal erosion, although not nearly as much as a kraken does.â
âWant me to keep going?â Bethany asks.
âSilly question! Of course you do!â she responds before you can answer.
âThe Gulf Stream is typically 100 kilometres (62 mi) wide and 800 metres (2,600 ft) to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) deep. The current velocity is fastest near the surface, with the maximum speed typically about 2.5 metres per second (5.6 mph). As it travels north, the warm water transported by the Gulf Stream undergoes evaporative cooling. The cooling is wind-driven: Wind moving over the water causes evaporation, cooling the water and increasing its salinity and density. When sea ice forms, salts are left out of the ice, a process known as brine exclusion. These two processes produce water that is denser and colder (or, more precisely, water that is still liquid at a lower temperature). In the North Atlantic Ocean, the water becomes so dense that it begins to sink down through less salty and less dense water. (The convective action is not unlike that of a lava lamp, if youâre groovy.) This downdraft of cold, dense water becomes a part of the North Atlantic Deep Water, a southgoing stream. Very little seaweed lies within the current, although seaweed lies in clusters to its east.â
âThe Gulf Stream is influential on the climate of the Florida peninsula. The portion off the Florida coast, referred to as the Florida current, maintains an average water temperature at or above 24 °C (75 °F) during the winter. East winds moving over this warm water move warm air from over the Gulf Stream inland, helping to keep temperatures milder across the state than elsewhere across the Southeast during the winter. Also, the Gulf Streamâs proximity to Nantucket, Massachusetts adds to its biodiversity, as it is the northern limit for southern varieties of plant life, and the southern limit for northern plant species, Nantucket being warmer during winter than the mainland. I once knew a guy from Nantucket. I wonder how heâs doing.â
âThe North Atlantic Current of the Gulf Stream, along with similar warm air currents, helps keep Ireland and the western coast of Great Britain a couple of degrees warmer than the east. However, the difference is most dramatic in the western coastal islands of Scotland. A noticeable effect of the Gulf Stream and the strong westerly winds (driven by the warm water of the Gulf Stream) on Europe occurs along the Norwegian coast. Northern parts of Norway lie close to the Arctic zone, most of which is covered with ice and snow in winter. However, almost all of Norwayâs coast remains free of ice and snow throughout the year. Weather systems warmed by the Gulf Stream drift into Northern Europe, also warming the climate behind the Scandinavian mountains. I hope that what youâre getting from all of this is that the Gulf Stream is a way better deal for Europe than it is for North America and we should consider renegotiating that trade agreement.â
âThe warm water and temperature contrast along the edge of the Gulf Stream often increase the intensity of cyclones, tropical or otherwise. Tropical cyclone generation normally requires water temperatures in excess of 26.5 °C (79.7 °F). Tropical cyclone formation is common over the Gulf Stream, especially in the month of July. Storms travel westward through the Caribbean and then either move in a northward direction and curve toward the eastern coast of the United States or stay on a north-westward track and enter the Gulf of Mexico. Such storms have the potential to create strong winds and extensive damage to the United Statesâ Southeast Coastal Areas. See what Iâm talking about? Weâre really getting hosed on this deal.â
âStrong extratropical cyclones have been shown to deepen significantly along a shallow frontal zone, forced by the Gulf Stream itself, during the cold season. Subtropical cyclones also tend to generate near the Gulf Stream. 75 percent of such systems documented between 1951 and 2000 formed near this warm water current, with two annual peaks of activity occurring during the months of May and October. Cyclones within the ocean form under the Gulf Stream, extending as deep as 3,500 metres (11,500 ft) beneath the oceanâs surface.â
âThe theoretical maximum energy dissipation from Gulf Stream by turbines is in the range of 20-60 GW. One suggestion, which could theoretically supply power comparable to several nuclear power plants, would deploy a field of underwater turbines placed 300 meters (980 ft) under the center of the core of the Gulf Stream. Ocean thermal energy could also be harnessed to produce electricity using the temperature difference between cold deep water and warm surface water. Also, itâd be a great place for an underwater villainâs lair.â
âSome of the RMS Titanicâs victims, whose bodies were buoyed by lifebelts but were never found by rescue or recovery ships sent to find them, are surmised to have been carried away in the Gulf Stream. I feel like thatâs a great note to end on, when youâre talking about gulf streams. Sverdrup.â
âCitation: Wikipedia contributors. âGulf Stream.â Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, with additions by the incredibly talented and physically attractive author Jennifer A. Polodna. This has been my report about gulf streams. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day in the real estate office. Not that it matters, but I still donât understand what youâre doing here and Iâm starting to suspect that neither do you.â
âŚthat is obviously a whole whole lot, with some fun facts â I appreciate the digression on Ben Franklinâs Nantucket cousins, I actually ran an RPG one-shot where the baddy was the patriarch of the islandâs other leading family, the Coffins â but Iâm not sure itâs prompted by anything other than the endgame location. In fact I just did a search of the thread for âgulfâ and thereâs not much there.
Iâm not sure what itâs pointing towards, though that âsverdrupâ word sure gets a lot of emphasis. I tried saying it in the Gulf (both SVERDRUP and SAY SVERDRUP) but no joy; similarly, due to the emphasis on transport I tried going to a trolley stop and doing WAIT FOR SVERDRUP but that didnât do anything either.
The other thing thatâs been bugging me is that there were a couple places where we got points â picking up the otherwise-useless pencil in the Chapel, feeding the peanut to Doctor Peanut, and (off-screen since I summarized the Rec Room) getting the rusty cleaver. Maybe thereâs something about those three items thatâs important? Your inventory of course goes away when you enter the portal, but I noticed that you can put things into the portal â which might be a fun bug, but does mean you can do this:
> look in portal
In the portal are a rusty meat cleaver (smelling faintly of mildew), a stubby pencil
(smelling faintly of mildew) and Dr. Peanut (smelling faintly of mildew).
But that doesnât seem to change anything either (I entered again, SVERDRUPâd, etc.)
Again, this might all be a big bundle of nothing, but figured Iâd share this as I chewed things over in case it sparks anyone elseâs thoughts.
5 Likes
I decompiled the game (with glulx-strings) after reading this to find out more about it and deeply regret it; the text strings are so random and complex that I felt like I was reading one of those tomes that drives you mad.
It started with Dr Peanut stuff; I skipped a big chunk and it was still Dr Peanut. Then there were tons of pages of Carol/Christabel stuff but none of it was coherent because the text was split up mid-sentence (probably due to some formatting choices). âNehilimâ doesnât even appear in the dump, since room names arenât automatically included in the list of strings, and âgulfâ brought up the entire gulf stream Bethany quote.
The whole thing is incomprehensible and weird, 10/10 would decompile again. Also its huge and semi-freezes the window I had the text dump in.
Edit: As a sample of whatâs in the dump, hereâs roughly 6000 lines of âinstead ofâ or âafterâ rules, a part of text dumps that usually takes up less than a single page in most games Iâve written:
rulestxt.txt (311.7 KB)
5 Likes
Oh my god, this is even more amazing than the game itself! Just browsing at random through the full dump, I found this:
Iâm gonna get real with you for a second: sometimes the code we implemented to handle library books causes weird errors, and itâs too late to change it now because everyoneâs already written their rooms.
Iâve included specific workarounds so that all of the commands you
need to use in this room will work, but if youâre typing something like âEAT LIBRARY,â youâre gonna see this message â which is currently overriding a âThat verb wonât work with multiple objectsâ message â and I am not gonna feel bad about it, because there is so much very good content I wrote that no one will ever engage with, even though itâs a completely reasonable thing to try, and here you are typing shit like âEAT LIBRARY??â Why? Why are IF players like this? Iâm gonna go gnaw on my own arm.Guess what, youâve hit that weird error again. Please stop typing things like âEAT LIBRARY.â I have no guidance to offer you beyond this. Namaste.
So now the first bonus update will have three parts: 1) say the magic word(s); 2) push the walkie-talkie button; 3) EAT LIBRARY everywhere so we can figure out where this magnificent error is from!
EDIT: sverdrup is just in the gulf stream dialogue here, too â doesnât mean itâs not a command somewhere though, based on my understanding of what gets left out of the string dumps, right?
6 Likes
I donât suppose you can use the Mysterious Pencil to write âSverdrupâ somewhere, can you?
3 Likes