To forestall further speculation, I can confirm that giving the rare book to the squirrel appears to be the correct way to proceed. Next installment will probably be a day or two.
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Part 8 - From little acorns
We ended our previous installment having acquired a rare book full of salacious pictures of lady squirrels. We’re also aiming to acquire an acorn which is currently in the possession of a male squirrel who can be found on:
South roof
The shingles are in even worse shape on this end of the house, which makes you very nervous as the ground is a long way down from the peak here, at least 30 feet. The gutter trap is to the west and continues up to the north end of the house. You can see the top opening of the drainpipe in the clogged leaves. The only exit is north.A squirrel is here.
The squirrel swishes its tail in a curling motion.
>X SQUIRREL
Definitely male, all right. He’s got a tuft of white hair on his head that almost gives him an Einstein-like appearance. In his little paws is a big, juicy acorn.The squirrel flops out flat and takes a short squirrel nap.
It’s only an assumption that this squirrel will be interested in the saucy book (Wikipedia says that gay squirrels definitely exist, plus I think not everyone would react positively to being offered porn by a stranger), but …
>ASK SQUIRREL ABOUT RARE BOOK
The squirrel leaps up and down in a state of excitement!
… looks like he’s into it after all.
>SHOW RARE BOOK TO SQUIRREL
The squirrel leaps up and down in a state of excitement!>GIVE RARE BOOK TO SQUIRREL
You give the rare book to the squirrel.The squirrel is so excited by the numerous color depictions of female squirrels in heat that he drops the acorn, which unfortunately rolls down the slope of the roof into the gutter. You hear the acorn rattle into the drainpipe and get stuck in the muck halfway down.
The squirrel runs off with the rare book.
Of course it’s never easy. We speculated that the drainpipe might be part of the solution to a puzzle, but actually it’s part of the problem.
>X DRAINPIPE
It runs from here down to a spout at the back of the house.
Can we tell what’s become of the acorn?
>LOOK IN IT
You see nothing but muck and darkness in the drainpipe.>PUT HAND IN DRAINPIPE
You can’t put yourself anywhere.>SEARCH DRAINPIPE
You feel nothing but muck and wet leaves in the drainpipe.>TAKE LEAVES
You pull out a few stray leaves, but it does nothing to unclog the drainpipe.
If only we had something very heavy that we could drop down the inside of the drainpipe to clear all this muck out of the way.
>PUT CANNONBALL IN DRAINPIPE
You drop the cannonball into the drainpipe. It barely fits, so you give it a shove. There is a disgusting vomiting noise below, as the cannonball bursts out the bottom of the spout, pushing all the muck out with it.[ Your score just went up by 3 points. ]
If that hadn’t been enough to clear the blockage, shoving a huge, heavy cannonball into the mouth of the drainpipe would quite possibly have made our problem significantly worse, but it worked, so here we are.
>N
North roof
>D
You climb gingerly down the stone wall.North of house
>SW
Behind house
You see a cannonball and a big juicy acorn here.
>TAKE ALL
drainpipe: It’s fixed in place.
cannonball: Taken.
big juicy acorn: Taken.[ Your score just went up by 8 points. ]
We already had a plan for what we’d do if we acquired the acorn, which is to plant it on the south side of the house twenty years in our past; in fact we’ve already dug a hole there for the purpose.
>SE
South of house
>SW
Path in the woods
>SW
Clearing
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, and four full jugs of miracle-grow.
>STAND ON PLATFORM
Okay, you’re now standing on the time machine platform.>SET KNOB TO 1
Okay, it’s now turned to 1.>PRESS BUTTON
You push the big red button. Click!The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A deep red light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a …
Forest
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, and four full jugs of miracle-grow.
The divining wand vibrates, pulling to the northeast.
>NE
(first getting off the platform)
Okay, you’re no longer on the time machine platform.Path in the woods
>NE
Sloping wood
You see a soft spot and a hole here.
>PUT ACORN IN HOLE
You put the acorn into the hole, and scoop the dirt over it, leaving a noticeable little mound.[ Your score just went up by 6 points. ]
I might have assumed that this would be fine, were it not for the obvious presence of the miracle-grow fertiliser which I therefore suspect we should be pouring on the mound.
>SW
Path in the woods
>SW
You push your way into the clearing, opening your usual path once again.Forest
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, and four full jugs of miracle-grow.
The divining wand vibrates, pulling to the northeast.
>TAKE JUG
You’ve already got your hands full.
For some reason, the jugs of miracle-grow are enormous, probably to necessitate using the wheelbarrow to get them out of the shed, so we have to ditch the rest of our inventory.
>PUT ALL ON PLATFORM
old pillowcase: Done.
newspaper: Done.
school pencil: Done.
crowbar: Done.
library book: Done.
tourist map: Done.
biology book: Done.
cannonball: Done.>TAKE JUG
Taken.
Can we take a couple of them along with us at least?
>TAKE JUG
You’ve already got your hands full.
Looks like a single jug of miracle-grow uses up basically our entire carrying capacity.
>NE
Path in the woods
>NE
Sloping wood
You see a little mound of dirt here.
>POUR JUG ON MOUND
The liquid seeps into the mound of dirt with a nourishing sigh.>X MOUND
The little mound of dirt marks where you planted the acorn.
Obviously, nothing happens right away. We’ll need to travel back to the present, since that’s when we’re hoping to be able to climb the tree in order to get into the house.
>SW
Path in the woods
>SW
You push your way into the clearing, opening your usual path once again.Forest
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, three full jugs of miracle-grow, an old pillowcase, a newspaper, a school pencil, a crowbar, a library book, a tourist map, a biology book, and a cannonball.
>STAND ON PLATFORM
Okay, you’re now standing on the time machine platform.>SET KNOB TO 5
Okay, it’s now turned to 5.>PRESS BUTTON
You push the big red button. Click!The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A blinding purple light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a …
Clearing
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, three full jugs of miracle-grow, an old pillowcase, a newspaper, a school pencil, a crowbar, a library book, a tourist map, a biology book, and a cannonball.
>NE
(first getting off the platform)
Okay, you’re no longer on the time machine platform.Path in the woods
>NE
South of house
One of the slightly awkward things about BRIEF/TERSE mode is that it doesn’t tell you if the description of a previously-visited location has changed, so let’s make sure:
>LOOK
South of house
The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. There is a tiny window high in the wall, about 30 feet up. A little path made by you on your many daily walks leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast.A beautiful, leafy tree is growing here next to the house, right where you always thought it should.
>X TREE
It’s a whopper!
Perfect!
>CLIMB IT
Top of tree
You are in the top of the tree. It is currently about 15 feet tall. There is nowhere to climb except back down to the ground.>X HOUSE
I don’t see any house here.
Hmm, looks like we can’t reach the window of the house from the tree. I didn’t want to use up all of our miracle-grow unnecessarily, but that conspicuous use of the word “currently” to describe the height of the tree seems to hint pretty strongly that we could get it taller.
>D
South of house
>SW
Path in the woods
>SW
Clearing
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, three full jugs of miracle-grow, an old pillowcase, a newspaper, a school pencil, a crowbar, a library book, a tourist map, a biology book, and a cannonball.
>STAND ON PLATFORM
Okay, you’re now standing on the time machine platform.>SET KNOB TO 1
Okay, it’s now turned to 1.>PRESS BUTTON
You push the big red button. Click!The time machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A deep red light envelops you. The world around you spins into a wild vortex that suddenly vanishes, leaving you to find yourself in a …
Forest
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, three full jugs of miracle-grow, an old pillowcase, a newspaper, a school pencil, a crowbar, a library book, a tourist map, a biology book, and a cannonball.
>TAKE JUG
Taken.
I note that carrying one full and one empty jug of miracle-grow doesn’t seem to be a problem for us, so I guess the issue with carrying the full jugs must be their weight rather than their size.
>NE
(first getting off the platform)
Okay, you’re no longer on the time machine platform.Path in the woods
>NE
Sloping wood
You see a little mound of dirt here.
>POUR JUG ON MOUND
The liquid seeps into the mound of dirt with a nourishing sigh.[ Your score just went up by 3 points. ]
Interesting; we didn’t score any points for pouring on the first jug, so does this mean that the second one was what we needed?
>FULL
In a total of 1289 turns, you have achieved a score of 73 points out of a possible 151, which means you are an adventurer. You have earned the following:5 points for finding the garage door opener
4 points for climbing onto the roof the first time
10 points for getting to the end of the junk in the garage
5 points for stepping onto the platform the first time
5 points for arriving in the far past the first time
5 points for arriving in the past the first time
5 points for arriving in the future the first time
3 points for cleaning out the drainpipe
4 points for making it through the maze to the stream
6 points for planting the acorn in the hole
3 points for pouring a second jug of miracle-gro
18 points for finding various items
(I note that we haven’t been to the far future yet in this playthrough; I had to restart because of losing the miracle-grow and encountering a bug with the tennis ball, so we’ll pick up those points again when we come up with a reason to go back to the sinister skyscraper.)
Anyway, we return to the present once more to check out the effects on the tree:
>SW
Path in the woods
>SW
You push your way into the clearing, opening your usual path once again.Forest
You see a time machine here. Sitting on the time machine platform is a moose head trophy, a garage door opener, a deflated soccer ball, a broken tire pump, a can-opener, a busted wheelbarrow, two full jugs of miracle-grow, an old pillowcase, a newspaper, a school pencil, a crowbar, a library book, a tourist map, a biology book, and a cannonball.
>SET KNOB TO 5
Okay, it’s now turned to 5.>PRESS BUTTON
You push the big red button. Click!The machine vibrates and heats up like a toaster oven. A blinding light envelops the machine, and it vanishes in a fancy puff of smoke, leaving only the smell of ozone behind.
Well, I said when we first read the time machine instructions that I was inevitably going to do that at some point. We UNDO, and this time get onto the platform before pressing the button. When we arrive back at the house in our present time, we find:
South of house
The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. There is a tiny window high in the wall, about 30 feet up. A little path made by you on your many daily walks leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast.A beautiful, leafy tree is growing here next to the house, right where you always thought it should.
>U
Top of tree
>LOOK
Top of tree
You are in the top of the tree. It is currently about 20 feet tall. There is nowhere to climb except back down to the ground.
To cut a long story short, we travel back to twenty years in the past again (the FULL score command describes that time period as the “far past”, so I’ll try to go with that), pour two more jugs of miracle-grow onto the little mound (not receiving any points for it either time), then return to the present and take another look:
South of house
The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. There is a tiny window high in the wall, about 30 feet up. A little path made by you on your many daily walks leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast.A beautiful, leafy tree is growing here next to the house, right where you always thought it should.
You see a tire swing here.
I love that what indicates that the tree has grown to a sufficient size is that it’s big enough for someone (our past self? the previous owner of the house?) to hang a tire swing on it.
>X TIRE SWING
It’s a black rubber tire tied to a rope that’s attached to a branch mid-way up the tree, and suitable for swinging.>CLIMB TREE
Mid-way up tree
You see a thick rope (tied to a tire swing and to a strong branch) here.
Our adventurer’s instincts kick in at the sight of something potentially portable:
>TAKE ROPE
You’ll have to untie the rope first.>UNTIE ROPE
You untie the branch from the rope, and the rope and tire fall to the ground with a thunk.
We’ll grab those on the way down. In the meantime, what’s at the top of the tree?
>U
Treetop
You’re as high in the tree as your weight will let you climb. The view from here is incredible. The window in the side of the house is right in front of you to the north.You are surprised and somewhat amused to see the rare book nestled within the branches of the tree. The squirrel must have been here recently.
I was thinking that a tree with a tire swing is a symbol of good, innocent fun, but does this imply that our new tree is where the squirrel has taken the book to enjoy his … solitary pursuits?
Also, on a meta level, I wonder if this means we’ll need the book again later. It would have made sense if it was one of the things we had to sell to the antique merchant, but we already tried that and she isn’t interested.
>TAKE BOOK
You retrieve the book from the branches.>X WINDOW
It’s tantalizingly out of reach, but if you leap for it, you might just make it.
Well, then, let’s …
>JUMP
You are too high up in the tree. If you jump you’ll break your ankle.
What we actually wanted to do was:
>JUMP THROUGH WINDOW
I don’t recognize that sentence.>ENTER WINDOW
The window is still a little too far away, I’m afraid. I bet one more jug of miracle-grow would do the trick. Maybe it’s worth checking the work shed again.
Having told us that we might just make it, the game immediately backtracks and says we’re not quite close enough. I don’t quite know why there would now be more miracle-grow in the workshed, but let’s do as we’re told and check it out.
>D
Mid-way up tree
>D
South of house
You see a thick rope (tied to a tire) and a tire here.
>UNTIE ROPE
You untie the rope from the tire.>TAKE ROPE AND TIRE
thick rope: Taken.
tire: Taken.
Having added our latest loot to our inventory, we travel through time to the past (rather than the far past), where the first thing we discover is:
South of house
You see a sapling here.
Here’s our tree, halfway through its journey from acorn to 30-foot whopper.
A sweaty, red-faced man yells, “Where are my ducts? Where are my flim-flanged ducts?”
>NW
Behind house
Someone yells, “That’s a riot! Where’s Ed? He’s gotta hear this!”
>N
Outside workshed
A nervous kid slouches by, looking like it’s his first day on the job.
>N
Inside workshed
You see a full jug of miracle-grow here.
A huge dog is sitting here.
I don’t follow the logic of how come this would happen, but there is indeed another jug here. I guess growing the sapling has changed the construction crew’s plans in some way?
>X JUG
Which jug do you mean, the empty jug, or the full jug of miracle-grow?>FULL
In the full jug of miracle-grow you see some thick liquid.>X DOG
He’s some sort of vicious doberman with greasy black fur. He’s wearing a collar with a tag, so he’s obviously not a stray.>X TAG
The dog’s collar tag says that his name is “Blackie.”
I think it’s pretty clear that Blackie is here to stop us from doing what we want to do …
>TAKE FULL JUG
Oh, bother. As you might expect, the vicious dog snaps at you as you reach for the jug.>PET DOG
Blackie growls as you attempt to pet him.Blackie scratches his ear.
… but fortunately, we already solved this puzzle by accident by triggering a bug when we threw the tennis ball in the shed before Blackie showed up. Unfortunately, we ditched our inventory a while back in order to carry the miracle-grow jugs:
>I
You are carrying:
four empty jugs of miracle-grow
a rare book
a thick rope>S
Outside workshed
A trio of men with puffy faces and scruffy chest hair stride past, telling dirty jokes.
We return to the time machine, drop off the four empty miracle-grow jugs (which we were still carrying around), pick up the pillowcase which contains most of our inventory, including the tennis ball, and head back to:
Inside workshed
You see a full jug of miracle-grow here.
Blackie is sitting here.
>THROW BALL
You throw the old tennis ball. Blackie tears off after it! You hear his playful barking disappear into the woods.>TAKE JUG
Taken.>S
Outside workshed
A man with round spectacles stares at the sky and predicts rain.
>S
Behind house
A wiry lad from the electrical crew says, “We need to wait for the plumbers.”
>SE
South of house
You see a sapling here.
There is a crashing noise and some amount of furor and muttered oaths from the construction crew.
I’m pretty sure we should just pour it on the acorn like the other jugs, but what happens if we try to:
>POUR JUG ON SAPLING
The fertilizer probably won’t help the sapling very much. You should use it on the acorn.
Well, that’s pretty clear, at least.
Someone shouts, “Nobody move! Wait, everyone get out of the way! I said, get out of the way!”
We return to the time machine, take a trip into the far past, and return to:
Sloping wood
You see a little mound of dirt here.
>POUR JUG ON MOUND
The liquid seeps into the mound of dirt with a nourishing sigh.[ Your score just went up by 5 points. ]
Hopefully that points payoff means that we’ve now fertilised the tree to the fullest possible extent?
>FULL
In a total of 1395 turns, you have achieved a score of 78 points out of a possible 151, which means you are an adventurer. You have earned the following:5 points for finding the garage door opener
4 points for climbing onto the roof the first time
10 points for getting to the end of the junk in the garage
5 points for stepping onto the platform the first time
5 points for arriving in the far past the first time
5 points for arriving in the past the first time
5 points for arriving in the future the first time
3 points for cleaning out the drainpipe
4 points for making it through the maze to the stream
6 points for planting the acorn in the hole
3 points for pouring a second jug of miracle-gro
5 points for pouring a fifth jug of miracle-gro
18 points for finding various items
I note that score-wise, we’re apparently about halfway through the game!
Anyway, one more trip back to the present, and we find:
South of house
The ground slopes down slightly here, and the wall of the house looms an extra story high because of it. There is a tiny window high in the wall, about 30 feet up. A little path made by you on your many daily walks leads southwest into the woods. You can walk around your house to the northwest and northeast.A beautiful, leafy tree is growing here next to the house, right where you always thought it should.
>U
Mid-way up tree
>U
Treetop
>LOOK
Treetop
You’re as high in the tree as your weight will let you climb. The view from here is incredible. The window in the side of the house is right in front of you to the north.
After many trials and tribulations, we should finally be able to …
>ENTER WINDOW
You make your leap of faith. Your hands find a firm grip on the sill and you pull yourself in. Unfortunately, you drop all of your possessions in the process.Attic
This is a little attic space, barely tall enough for you to stand in. Thick boards run in parallel lines along the floor, with pink insulation laid out in between. A thick brass pipe passes up from the floor next to the window and continues up through the ceiling. Cardboard packing boxes of various sizes are stacked along the walls. A folded-up ladder attached to a hatch would lead down if it were open, but it’s closed. The only exit is the little window you came in.[ Your score just went up by 10 points. ]
The fact that we just lost our inventory is presumably shortly to become puzzle-relevant. Anyway, let’s check out this attic.
>X BOARDS
I don’t see any boards here.>X INSULATION
The insulation is made of pink fiberglass.>SEARCH IT
That isn’t important.>X PIPE
It’s sturdy, all right.>FEEL PIPE
The pipe feels like a pipe.>PULL IT
Pulling the pipe doesn’t have any effect.
The pipe is too prominently mentioned not to matter somehow, but I can’t figure out what it’s for just yet. The boxes have to have something useful in them, though, right?
>X BOXES
In the cardboard boxes you see a blue pencil and a desk lamp.>TAKE PENCIL AND LAMP
blue pencil: Taken.
desk lamp: Taken.>X PENCIL
It’s a moderately sharp pencil, made for drawing blue lines.>X LAMP
This old desk lamp seems to be missing its power cord. It would fit right in with the other junk in the garage.
The game seems pretty disparaging about the lamp, but the pencil should be good for something, right? I mean, we already have one pencil, but this one is blue!
>X HATCH
I see nothing special about the closed hatch ladder.>OPEN IT
You can’t open the hatch ladder from inside the attic. You have to pull it open from below.
And of course we can’t actually get into the main part of the house from here, because that would mean our quest was over. Can we jump back out of the window?
>S
The tree is too far away to risk jumping back to.
Uh oh. Are we stuck?
>OUT
There is nowhere to go in that direction.>X WINDOW
Out the window you see the tree and the ground far below.
Are we sure we can’t get down into the house proper?
>HIT HATCH
I don’t know how to attack the hatch ladder.>I
You are carrying:
a blue pencil
a desk lamp>JUMP ON HATCH
You throw all common sense to the winds and jump forcefully onto the hatch ladder. Fortunately, it barely moves. You could have twisted your ankle or possibly broken your neck.>HIT HATCH WITH LAMP
Attacking the hatch ladder doesn’t appear productive.
So we might be in trouble here. Either there’s a clever way to get out of the attic using only the blue pencil and the desk lamp, or we should have done something else to set up our escape first and we’re now stuck in a dead end. Suggestions please!
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Woo, progress!
We did just find the handy rope. We drop everything when we jump, but maybe we can… throw stuff in the window? I dunno.
Also, the lamp being not out of place in the garage means to me that it also might be an antique.
I wonder if the reason there’s more miracle-gro in the garage is because now there’s a sapling to the side of the house, so they ordered more?
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Ok, I spent another while searching the map and I still haven’t found anywhere I hadn’t previously discovered. Can someone give me a nudge for this please?
(Edit: in an older save, obviously, rather than the one where we’re apparently trapped in the attic.)
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Unless I missed something in one of your above transcripts, there’s somewhere you can go at the construction site that, once you try it, you may be surprised you hadn’t tried it before.
Ha, got it! Hidden in plain sight, indeed!
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