Let's Play: Inside Woman by Andy Phillips

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

Part 12 - Dying in the trenches

So we’d just managed to hang a cable (which we got from destroying the model of the Golden Gate Bridge) from the maglev track somewhere over our heads:

>X CABLE
Ten metres long, very thin, and highly flexible – qualities that make this cable more than mere decoration.

>TAKE IT
The steel cable is beyond reach.

>LOOK

San Francisco (in the polluted seawater)
Addendum: after the Great Flood. Polluted seawater has come to America’s west coast by the gallon load, drowning Silicon Valley, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz Island and numerous other landmarks now consigned to the history books. Though it pains you to say it, Utopia’s downscaled recreation of the landscape pre-Arcology is quite astounding in accuracy and attention to detail. From down here, you see something you couldn’t before: a ventilation duct high up in the west wall.

A makeshift grappling hook dangles from the maglev track above Coit Tower, the end of its cable a good ten metres above you.

It turns out I was visualising this wrong; getting the correct mental image across to the player for physical puzzles like this one is really hard. As will become clear in a moment, the end of the cable is nearly touching the tower, the top of which is also therefore nearly ten metres above us.

Still above water, Coit Tower occupies the high ground on Telegraph Hill.

The wreckage of the Golden Gate Bridge spans the bay.

At the suggestion of @DeusIrae, let’s try flooding the bay again:

>TURN WHEEL
You reach under the surface, grab hold of the valve wheel, and turn it to the open position. Water pours in through the inlet pipe, submerging the Golden Gate Bridge once more.

>LOOK

San Francisco (in the polluted seawater)
Addendum: after the Great Flood. Polluted seawater has come to America’s west coast by the gallon load, drowning Silicon Valley, Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz Island and numerous other landmarks now consigned to the history books. Though it pains you to say it, Utopia’s downscaled recreation of the landscape pre-Arcology is quite astounding in accuracy and attention to detail. From down here, you see something you couldn’t before: a ventilation duct high up in the west wall.

A makeshift grappling hook dangles from the maglev track above Coit Tower, the end of its cable a few centimetres above the water’s surface.

Still above water, Coit Tower occupies the high ground on Telegraph Hill.

Or maybe the cable is hanging down so that it’s just next to the tower? Anyway, the important part is what we’re now able to do:

>TAKE CABLE
You grab hold of the steel cable and pull yourself out of the water. The surface is very slippery, and it’s hard to get a good grip.

>CLIMB CABLE
You attempt to climb higher, but your hands slide down the wet cable.

If we can’t go up, can we go sideways?

>SWING
What do you want to swing?

>CABLE
You attempt to swing the cable, but it’s hard to build up momentum.

Having realised that the part of the cable we’re hanging from is within reach of the tower:

>PUSH TOWER
You give Coit Tower a hefty kick, pushing yourself back. The cable swings to and fro with you on it.

It’s Tarzan Jane! How high can she go?

Ok, now can we grab the track?

>TAKE TRACK
You can’t reach the maglev rail from down here!

Or can we just go for broke?

>ENTER DUCT
At the height of the cable’s swing, you leap westwards. Somersaulting to position yourself, you grab the ventilation duct and heave yourself up. Inside, it’s a downward slope. You try to stall your slide as best you can, but the surface is just too smooth to get a good grip. Unable to reduce speed, you tumble into the gas filled trenches of Colombia.

Darkness
It is pitch dark, and you can’t see a thing.

What happened? Everything just went black!

Your wristwatch display glows blue, a colour that casts the room in a whole different light – ocean, azure and cyan amongst others. Still, you shouldn’t complain; it’s ample enough illumination to see what you’re doing.

The cable has lost its momentum, and dangles vertically once more.

I think this part of the message is probably a minor bug: it appears a couple of turns after you set the cable swinging, but we probably shouldn’t be seeing it here given that we’re no longer in the room with the cable.

Colombian Wasteland (in the trenches)
And you still can’t see a thing. Mustard yellow, gaseous smoke clouds your vision. This is no special effect; your skin feels like it’s on fire, ready to melt clean off your bones. Robbed of eyesight and lost in a maze of corpse filled mudpits, your only weapons are instinct, perserverance and blind luck.

[Your score has just gone up by three points.]

Wait, as if the real polluted seawater in the previous exhibit wasn’t bad enough, the trenches in this one are filled with real mustard gas?

>W
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

The view we had of the trenches from upon the maglev car suggested that the exits are in the southeast and northwest corners, so let’s see if we can head either west or north.

>W
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

Sweat drips from your face; it’s unbearably hot in the trenches.

>W
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>W
A mountain of dirt bars your path.

Your face is covered in perspiration now, and you’re having difficulty breathing.

>N
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

>N
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

Time’s running out, and fast.

We might have a problem here.

>N
There’s a wall of mud in that direction.

>W
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

Heated to the point of exhaustion, you collapse in the mud. In desperation, you search for an exit – a way out you never find. Without protection from the mustard gas, you don’t stand a chance. Another human corpse joins those already rotting in the Colombian trenches.

*** You have died ***

In that game you scored 123 out of a possible 400, in 980 turns, and attained the rank of intelligence officer.

Uh oh. Looks like we’re going to have to find a way out of the trenches under a fairly short time limit. Unfortunately, the trenches appear to be a maze.

A few retries allow us to ascertain the following: the maze is fixed; the mustard gas always kills us after exactly eight turns; trying to go in a blocked direction does use up one of our turns; only the cardinal directions work. The first five moves have to be W, W, W, N, N, after which we can go either west again or east, but going west puts us in a dead end with nowhere to go but back east. After going east, various combinations of north, east and west appear to be available for the final two moves, but none of them get us out of trouble before we succumb:

>W
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

The cable has lost its momentum, and dangles vertically once more.

>W
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

Sweat drips from your face; it’s unbearably hot in the trenches.

>W
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>N
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

Your face is covered in perspiration now, and you’re having difficulty breathing.

>N
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>E
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

Time’s running out, and fast.

>N
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

>N
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

Heated to the point of exhaustion, you collapse in the mud. In desperation, you search for an exit – a way out you never find. Without protection from the mustard gas, you don’t stand a chance. Another human corpse joins those already rotting in the Colombian trenches.

*** You have died ***

In that game you scored 123 out of a possible 400, in 973 turns, and attained the rank of intelligence officer.

That final message (“without protection from the mustard gas …”) seems to suggest that we ought to be doing something to allow ourselves to breathe, but we don’t have anything that seems particularly relevant, so I’m wondering if we do need to return here after obtaining something elsewhere.

What if we restore to an earlier save and try to jump out of the capsule in the Columbia room rather than in flooded San Francisco?

The time capsule continues along the maglev track.

Colombian Wasteland (in the time capsule)
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. An old proverb, but humanity’s darkest hour – the Ricardo Zavor virus and the subsequent conflict that wiped out four billion lives – was World War I for the twenty first century. In spite of the intended audience, nothing is dumbed down or trivialised in this reconstruction: gas filled trenches, burnt down rain forests, corpse upon corpse piled in the mud. This is how your grandparents died, fighting a lost cause in a foreign land.

“April 2081. Resources grow increasingly scarce, especially in South America. Ricardo Zavor, a Colombian dictator, threatens world leaders with a newly developed biologal virus. Refusing to capitulate, the Western-Eastern alliance establishes a blockade. Zavor refuses to back down. Instead, he releases the virus, which quickly spreads beyond his borders. With the world densely populated, all attempts to quarantine the outbreak fail, and the Colombian war begins.”

Isn’t this supposed to be a kid’s ride? Geez. Lighten up a little.

>OUT
That’s a very dangerous thing to do without good reason.

Well, given that we know the exhibit below is filled with poison gas, I can’t really fault that assessment, but it’s a bit weird that Alice was willing to jump out in the previous area even though it leads to us ending up choking to death in the trenches anyway.

And it’s particularly weird that the game tells us it’s too dangerous to jump out in the second area, but if we try it in the third:

California Archipelago (in the time capsule)
Things have changed quite a bit since 2065: the coastline has moved further east and the islands have shrunk to tiny patches of land surrounded by the oily black waters of the Pacific. Construction of the Utopia Technologies Arcology is complete, and the huge towering, megastructure casts a shadow that reaches the faraway mainland. It’s exactly the same view you saw from the transport shuttle – that seems like months ago, now.

“Thanks to the efforts of Utopia’s biological research, the Zavor virus is contained and eventually eliminated. To reclaim lost territory and restore humanity to its former glory, the Director begins a project of unprecedented magnitude. In 2128, the Arcology is completed, reducing overcrowding and providing a much needed beacon of hope.”

Yeah, yeah. Enough of the Utopia saves the world nonsense, okay?

>OUT
Unconstrained by the safety harness, you climb onto the edge of the time capsule. Bending your legs to prepare yourself for the fall, you jump down. Well trained you may be, but statistics show ninety five percent of people don’t survive a hundred metre drop onto hard ground. And you’re not in the other five percent, a fact you discover when you break your neck upon landing.

*** You have died ***

So I guess we have to go the long way around after all, but how do we avoid getting killed by the gas?

[DeusIrae (Mike Russo)]

Can we search the corpses and or the mud? Maybe they put a gas mask somewhere in the exhibit?

(Wait… are the corpses real too???)

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

@DeusIrae

Can we search the corpses and or the mud?

>X CORPSES
What part of “can’t see a thing” don’t you understand?

The cable has lost its momentum, and dangles vertically once more.

>FOCUS CORPSES
What part of “can’t see a thing” don’t you understand?

Sweat drips from your face; it’s unbearably hot in the trenches.

>FEEL CORPSES
You rifle through the uniform of the nearest body you can find, but come up empty handed.

>SEARCH CORPSES
You rifle through the uniform of the nearest body you can find, but come up empty handed.

Your face is covered in perspiration now, and you’re having difficulty breathing.

>X MUD
What part of “can’t see a thing” don’t you understand?

>FEEL MUD
Soggy mud falls off your gloves.

Time’s running out, and fast.

>SEARCH MUD
You come up empty handed, apart from several handfuls of dirt which you quickly discard.

>DIG MUD
You’ll only dig yourself in deeper.

Heated to the point of exhaustion, you collapse in the mud. In desperation, you search for an exit – a way out you never find. Without protection from the mustard gas, you don’t stand a chance. Another human corpse joins those already rotting in the Colombian trenches.

As to whether the corpses are real, that final message conspicuously doesn’t say anything to the effect of “your real human corpse joins the fake ones from the exhibit”. Maybe this is where Sebastian Rickard ended up. Although I guess they’d have to periodically remove the oldest corpses before they became too decomposed to be realistic casualties?

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

I wonder if you do have to go somewhere else to find a way to block out the gas?

I was going to text dump the game to try and remember how it works, but I figure that wouldn’t be in the spirit of the let’s play (I’m probably still going to do it, but I wanted to wait until after I posted this so I don’t influence you!)

[DeusIrae (Mike Russo)]

Maybe - the prompting really, really seems like you’re meant to find a gas mask, though, so I’m a bit crestfallen that searching the corpses didn’t work.

…though now that I’m reading this again, I’m noticing that the response just talked about you rifling through uniforms and pockets, while presumably they’d be wearing their gas masks. Is the game sufficiently pixelbitchy that you need to guess there’s a mask there (TAKE MASK/TOUCH MASK) or specify that you’re feeling the heads of the corpses (TOUCH/SEARCH HEAD)?

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

I did take a peek at the text dump, so I’ll spoiler everything after this. It seems like it is just a command issue and is just like you said. Specifically, there is text saying that you take the gas mask off a dead woman, whom I presume is in this area.

[DeusIrae (Mike Russo)]

Oof, I guess that’s eventually guessable given that you’re stuck in a single room and there are strong indications you don’t need any inventory items from elsewhere, but I sure don’t love this puzzle.

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

Part 13 - A long way for a photograph

Before I saw the last couple of posts from @mathbrush and @DeusIrae, I decided to take a peek at the hints in the name of keeping things moving. The first hint for how to avoid dying in the Columbian trenches suggests taking a careful look at the scene from a place of safety first. So we rewind to before our current predicament and take another look:

Colombian Wasteland (in the time capsule)
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. An old proverb, but humanity’s darkest hour – the Ricardo Zavor virus and the subsequent conflict that wiped out four billion lives – was World War I for the twenty first century. In spite of the intended audience, nothing is dumbed down or trivialised in this reconstruction: gas filled trenches, burnt down rain forests, corpse upon corpse piled in the mud. This is how your grandparents died, fighting a lost cause in a foreign land.

“April 2081. Resources grow increasingly scarce, especially in South America. Ricardo Zavor, a Colombian dictator, threatens world leaders with a newly developed biologal virus. Refusing to capitulate, the Western-Eastern alliance establishes a blockade. Zavor refuses to back down. Instead, he releases the virus, which quickly spreads beyond his borders. With the world densely populated, all attempts to quarantine the outbreak fail, and the Colombian war begins.”

Isn’t this supposed to be a kid’s ride? Geez. Lighten up a little.

>X TRENCHES
The trenches extend across the entire wasteland, forming a maze of dug out, distinctly unnatural pits. Through the smoke, you see an exit to the southeast and another in the opposite corner.

That’s what we saw before, which is how we knew to aim for the northwest corner. But is there anything else pertinent that we didn’t spot?

>X FORESTS
That’s not important to your mission.

>X CORPSES
Obscured by mist, the bodies are faint silhouettes. Their uniforms are military: Chinese, American, European – what country didn’t lose thousands of its men and women in the Columbian war? Most of the fallen soldiers wore gas masks to protect themselves from the fumes, but they couldn’t stop bullets or plasma fire.

Well, if most of the fallen soldiers wore gas masks, it sure would have been nice to come across one while we were dying horribly from all of that mustard gas.

Let’s reload back to our furthest point of progress, just after we enter the Columbia area at trench level:

Colombian Wasteland (in the trenches)
And you still can’t see a thing. Mustard yellow, gaseous smoke clouds your vision. This is no special effect; your skin feels like it’s on fire, ready to melt clean off your bones. Robbed of eyesight and lost in a maze of corpse filled mudpits, your only weapons are instinct, perserverance and blind luck.

>SEARCH CORPSES
You rifle through the uniform of the nearest body you can find, but come up empty handed.

Sweat drips from your face; it’s unbearably hot in the trenches.

This message says that we searched the unfortunate victim’s uniform, but is there anything on their face?

>FEEL CORPSES
You rifle through the uniform of the nearest body you can find, but come up empty handed.

Do we just need to …

>FEEL MASKS
You rob a dead woman of her gas mask. Disrepectful? Yes, but save apologies for later – you need it more.

Your face is covered in perspiration now, and you’re having difficulty breathing.

[Your score has just gone up by three points.]

So all of those bodies we were desperately searching while dying from the poison gas were wearing gas masks, but I guess the game figured that this was so obvious that it didn’t even bear mentioning!

Anyway, we’ve got our hands on a mask now, which should hopefully increase our life expectancy significantly.

>WEAR MASK
(the gas mask)
You slip the gas mask over your head, tightening its hood around your neck. Finally! You can breathe again.

>LOOK

Colombian Wasteland (in the trenches)
And you still can’t see a thing. Mustard yellow, gaseous smoke clouds your vision. This is no special effect; your skin feels like it’s on fire, ready to melt clean off your bones. Robbed of eyesight and lost in a maze of corpse filled mudpits, your only weapons are instinct, perserverance and blind luck.

Still can’t see anything, which makes sense since it’s not like gas masks do anything to help in that regard. But we’ve already mapped most of the trench maze, at the cost of only a few dozen dead Alice Wei Lings from discarded timelines:

>W
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>W
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

>W
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

>N
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>N
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>E
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

>N
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

>N
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>W
You crawl along through the mud, encountering no obstacles.

>W
You crawl past some more corpses, but are able to progress.

>W
Yes! There’s light at the end of this tunnel. The trench ends at a ventilation duct. You never thought you’d be so happy to touch Utopian metal. Crawling through the vent, you come out in the…

California Archipelago
Things have changed quite a bit since 2065: the coastline has moved further east and the islands have shrunk to tiny patches of land surrounded by the oily black waters of the Pacific. Construction of the Utopia Technologies Arcology is complete, and the huge towering, megastructure casts a shadow that reaches the faraway mainland. It’s exactly the same view you saw from the transport shuttle – that seems like months ago, now.

There’s an emergency exit to the west, opposite the way you came in.

The Utopia Techonologies Arcology! What the-- Oh, it’s just a model. Whew! For a moment there, I thought you’d been knocked out, kidnapped, and shipped out on a shuttle.

No longer required as a light source, your wristwatch display fades until only the time remains.

[Your score has just gone up by three points.]

>X ARCOLOGY
How can you not recognise it? A scale model of the mammoth building you’re in, with all the bells and whistles included: foundation pillars, the USF Black Tower, a millimetre high replica of Alice Wei Ling looking back at you – only kidding.

>FOCUS IT
Rather pointless, since you have to come to the Arcology in the first place to visit this museum. Unless you were born here and have never been outside-- yeah, this is one for the kids I suppose.

Ok, so this is where we were expecting to end up—where does that door to the west lead? I was expecting to find an emergency exit leading east.

>W
You can’t, since the emergency exit is in the way.

>OPEN EXIT
You open the emergency exit.

>W
The emergency exit connects to a tunnel that curves around to the east.

Oh, it’s just a non-standard map connection.

Ride Through Time

Encouragingly – or not, depending on your viewpoint – there’s an emergency exit door to the west.

A single person, open topped carriage christened “The Time Capsule” is ready for boarding.

Ok, so looks like all of that effort was to get us into the area with the model of the Arcology at floor level, outside of the time capsule. This seems consistent with the theory that the goal we’re meant to be pursuing in this area is to get a photo of the model Arcology.

We’ll need the camera pen from Pete’s swap shop, so let’s head down to the Free Market to get it:

>N

Museum Of Utopian Achievement

An armed security guard stands by the entrance, holding a portable gamma ray scanner.

“Ecoterrorist!” exclaims one of the USF guards. “Take her down!”

Her colleagues are only too happy to oblige, burning several holes through your bodysuit with plasma bolts. They don’t stop firing until your perforated corpse lies smoking on the floor. The security troops thought a woman wandering about in public wearing a gas mask was a mite suspicious. Wouldn’t you?

*** You gave yourself away ***

In that game you scored 129 out of a possible 400, in 988 turns, and attained the rank of intelligence officer.

Oh, hm, I guess that was a little unsubtle. I’m intrigued that the guards immediately called us out as an ecoterrorist, rather than any other kind of terrorist—is that what the biggest source of violent unrest in Utopia is?

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, UNDO your last move, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT?
> UNDO
Ride Through Time
[Previous turn undone.]

>REMOVE MASK
You take off the gas mask.

>N

Museum Of Utopian Achievement

An armed security guard stands by the entrance, holding a portable gamma ray scanner.

Seeing you with the gas mask, a USF trooper raises the alarm.

“What have you got there? Arrest this woman immediately! Take her to holding.”

The guard and her fellow squaddies close in. You attempt to fight them off, but there are too many. One can only endure so much pain, and you inevitably succumb to their repeated blows. When you awake, you find yourself in a containment field with no hope of completing your mission.

*** You gave yourself away ***

In that game you scored 129 out of a possible 400, in 989 turns, and attained the rank of intelligence officer.

Look, I don’t know why you’re all getting so upset about one teensy little wartime relic. At least we didn’t actually die that time.

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, UNDO your last move, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT?
> UNDO
Ride Through Time
[Previous turn undone.]

>DROP MASK
Dropped.

>N

Museum Of Utopian Achievement

An armed security guard stands by the entrance, holding a portable gamma ray scanner.

Chastened by two awkward encounters with the USF, I even remember that we should check our inventory before using the transporter ring:

>I
You are carrying:
 a datastick
 a fake antiviral inhaler (which is open)
  two cyberjacks:
   a circular headed cyberjack
   an octagonal headed cyberjack
 a cashcard
 a carrier bag
  a Waterline Club member’s pass
  this year’s calendar
  a painted steel rose
 a hi-tech digital wristwatch (being worn)
 a Utopia Technologies bodysuit (being worn)

>CLOSE INHALER
You close the fake antiviral inhaler.

>N
The guard scans you with his gamma ray sensor. Finding nothing amiss, he lets you pass.

Ok, that does seem to confirm that this is a separate guard watching the exit from the lobby back to the transporter ring, and we’ll have to evade both if we end up needing to steal something from the museum.

In any case, we make it back to Pete’s Swapshop without further incident, and give him our octagonal headed cyberjack in exchange for the camera pen, before returning to:

Ride Through Time

Encouragingly – or not, depending on your viewpoint – there’s an emergency exit door to the west.

A single person, open topped carriage christened “The Time Capsule” is ready for boarding.

You can also see a military issue gas mask here.

So let’s get ready to go through the whole rigmarole again, but this time with camera in hand.

>TAKE MASK
(putting the fake antiviral inhaler into the carrier bag to make room)
Taken.

>WEAR IT
You put on the gas mask.

>ENTER CAPSULE
A trip through time? Why bother, when you have a shortcut?

We do? Oh, wait—is the emergency exit door still open? I assumed that it opened from the other side and then closed itself afterwards, like a fire door.

Well, if we’re not going to have to ride the capsule again, let’s not forget that our morphtool is still lodged in the safety harness:

>TAKE TOOL
Taken.

>W
The emergency exit connects to a tunnel that curves around to the east.

California Archipelago

There’s an emergency exit to the west, opposite the way you came in.

Ok, let’s take that photo we went to all this effort for!

>PUT DATA STICK IN CAMERA
You install the datastick in the camera pen. Some pictures have already been taken, if you want to have a look.

Oooh, anything interesting?

>X CAMERA
While not as useful as it sounds – there is no pen, or anything to write with at all – this nifty device can still take high detail digital photographs and store images to a datastick for viewing or use at a later time. Whatever its drawbacks, every good spy needs a camera, and with its officially endorsed, restriction free status in the Utopia Arcology, this model will do nicely.

The installed datastick holds photographic images of the Arcology’s transport tube network, an university campus holomap and a group of students.

I guess it makes sense that there would have to be some pictures on the datastick already, but it doesn’t look like we can actually make out any details about them:

>X PICTURES
A circular edged, lipstick sized tube for storing electronic data. There’s a multipronged connector on one end of the aluminium casing.

>X HOLOMAP
You can’t see any such thing.

So, let’s do what we came to do:

>PHOTOGRAPH ARCOLOGY
Using the camera pen, you take a picture of the Utopia Technologies Arcology.

>W
The emergency exit connects to a tunnel that curves around to the east.

Ride Through Time

Encouragingly – or not, depending on your viewpoint – there’s an emergency exit door to the west.

A single person, open topped carriage christened “The Time Capsule” is ready for boarding.

We’ll leave the gas mask here for now, since bringing it with us will get us killed and we don’t currently have any further use for it anyway:

>DROP MASK
(first taking the gas mask off)
You take off the gas mask.
Dropped.

>N

Museum Of Utopian Achievement

An armed security guard stands by the entrance, holding a portable gamma ray scanner.

We’re done with our immediate goal for this area, but there’s something I want to try.

>E

Exhibit Hall
Note the singular – whereas the museums you’ve visited previously have featured multiple rooms, Utopia’s entire collection is showcased within this one chamber. The marble pillared hall stretches on for two kilometres or more, with aisles between the exhibits to accommodate citizens gawping at relics from Old San Francisco, wartime correspondence datacubes, the Director’s childhood toys, or whatever happens to be on display.

There’s a thief about, hence the empty marble pedestal.

Who needs cameras, laser tripwires or pressure plates when you’ve got a gamma ray sensor? With top of the line security, the USF trooper on watch can afford to take it easy.

You can also see a Janie Rourke subbuteo piece here.

(The piece is currently lying on the floor because we left it there when we tried to steal it last time.)

>TAKE JANIE
Taken.

>X IT
It’s a subbuteo piece, part of a set from a table soccer game. The five centimetre tall player is a very lifelike woman wearing a royal blue swimsuit. She’s Janie Rourke from the Utopia Freedom according to the text inscribed on the base.

>X DOOR
The only way out is through a doorway lined with radiation sensors, and you know the reason why. Each and every museum exhibit is coated in a thin layer of radioactive chemicals. The dose is insufficient to kill a person but enough to set off the alarm – even through shielding.

>FOCUS IT
Gamma rays have extreme penetration. Your inhaler won’t help you here.

We asked Nanci about this earlier and he told us the same thing. But I’m becoming increasingly sceptical that Nanci actually really knows what he’s talking about, so let’s try it anyway:

>TAKE JANIE
(putting the camera pen into the carrier bag to make room)
Taken.

>PUT JANIE IN INHALER
You put the Janie Rourke subbuteo piece into the fake antiviral inhaler.

>CLOSE INHALER
You close the fake antiviral inhaler.

>W
The gamma ray sensor emits a loud ping as you pass underneath. Alerted, the guard looks up and scans the exhibits. The empty pedestal stands out like a sore marble thumb.

“Put the item back immediately,” instructs the trooper. Once he’s satisfied you’re a safe distance away, he goes back to sleep.

Ok, so the guard pays no attention to what’s going on in the room, but he can spot that the pedestal is empty when the sensor wakes him up. But what if … it wasn’t empty?

We take a quick diversion back to the Free Market (after removing the Janie Rourke piece from the inhaler and closing it again), and swap our remaining cyberjack for the Natalia subbuteo piece from Pete’s Swapshop. Remarkably, this all goes off without a single incident of trying to walk past a USF guard while carrying contraband in plain view. Once we’re back in the exhibit hall, we hide the Janie Rourke piece back inside the inhaler and deploy the decoy:

>PUT NATALIA ON PEDESTAL
You put the Natalia subbuteo piece on the marble pedestal.

The idea is that once we smuggle the Janie Rourke piece out, using the Natalia piece as a decoy, we can return and grab the Natalia piece—which won’t set off the gamma ray sensor—and just walk out with it.

>W
The gamma ray sensor emits a loud ping as you pass underneath. Alerted, the guard looks up and scans the exhibits. Your switch hasn’t fooled him.

“Put the item back immediately,” instructs the trooper. Once he’s satisfied you’re a safe distance away, he goes back to sleep.

Well, drat. I was sure that was going to be the solution, but apparently the guard, despite being barely awake, can spot the difference between two five-centimetre-tall, identically-dressed plastic figurines from a distance of fifty metres?

Since we don’t actually have any reason to try to steal the Janie Rourke piece yet, I’m going to leave this puzzle for now. This whole escapade has only taken a few hours, so the cafeteria at the university is still open; let’s go and report our success to the student who gave us our current quest.

>OPEN INHALER
You open the fake antiviral inhaler, revealing a Janie Rourke subbuteo piece.

>TAKE JANIE THEN PUT IT ON PEDESTAL
Taken.
The pedestal is small, and can only hold one item at a time.

>TAKE NATALIA
Taken.

>PUT JANIE ON PEDESTAL
You put the Janie Rourke subbuteo piece on the marble pedestal.

>W
The alarm remains silent as you leave the hall.

Having been playing with the inhaler so much recently, I am actually thinking about what we’re carrying for once, and avoid getting us arrested on the way to …

University Of Utopia Campus

The campus is itself a maze within the maze that is the Utopia Arcology. Holomaps are provided at every junction for the benefit of UoU students – and yourself.

>W

The Chill Zone

One especially laid back student sits alone, talking to his computer.

>SHOW CAMERA TO SLACKER
(first taking the camera pen)
The student takes your camera pen, excitedly removes the datastick, and plugs it into his computer. After a few seconds, he reloads the camera and hands it back.

“Thanks a lot, lady. This’ll work swell. Remember, I still need photographs of Utopia’s subsidiary companies and the Director.”

Alright! One out of three down. We haven’t had a score update for a while, so before I break off, let’s review our accomplishments so far:

>FULL
You have so far scored 129 out of a possible 400, in 1053 turns, and attained the rank of intelligence officer.

The score is made up as follows:

 2 arriving at the Arcology
 2 learning to focus
 3 passing Utopia’s security check
 2 opening the smuggler’s inhaler
 4 finding your apartment unit
 2 learning about the morphtool
 1 keeping track of time
 2 finding the red button
 4 acquiring a power cell
 3 attaining inductee status
 2 making a complaint
 2 getting a job
 2 serving a customer
 4 doing a good night’s work
 3 making a purchase at the free market
 2 adjusting the grandfather clock
 1 listening to Old Bruce
 2 straightening the walkway
 4 placing the steel sculpture
 4 attaining class three citizen status
 2 obtaining a kill program
 1 slaying a dragon
 4 recovering the student’s data
 2 lowering the water level
 3 leaving San Francisco
 3 navigating the trenches
 51 acquiring various items
 12 visiting various places

 129 total (out of 400)

We still need to find a photograph of the Director and one of “Utopia’s subsidiary companies”—the latter of which I’m not entirely sure how to represent in a photograph in any case. We still have two floors we haven’t explored at all, and it’s a long time since the previous poll, so I’m going to open up another one. Where next?

• Level 21 (Sylvia’s Boarding School)
• Level 24 (Holy Citadel)

[Doug_Egan]

Somehow I managed to figure out this puzzle without hints (which made me proud, because there were so many others I needed the hints) but I didn’t think it was especially fair. gas masks are mentioned when you take the overhead tour, and examine the scenery carefully. They are not mentioned when you are on the ground, and they are not uncovered by merely examining corpses or searching corpses.

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

Yeah, I think there’s a lesson here about inferring player intent. A player who expects the corpses to be wearing gas masks is likely to come up with the command SEARCH CORPSES; they’re unlikely to type TAKE MASK if a mask hasn’t been mentioned in the preceding text, even if that’s what they expect to uncover by searching.

(Do we need spoiler text here? I figure anyone who has got to this point in the thread knows the solution to the puzzle by now, or am I missing something?)

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

Part 14 - Give me a child until the age of seven

Transporter Ring

In case you get lost – a strong possibility in such a mammoth construction – information points are located every hundred metres.

When I started this segment, the boarding school was leading in the poll against the Holy Citadel. It’s since levelled, but spoilers, we’re visiting both in this update anyway.

>ENTER 21
As you approach the access tunnel for level 21, a USF guard scans you with an electronic handheld device. After a series of beeps, an LED on the scanner turns green, and the trooper waves you through into the elevator tube. A short and exhilerating ride later, you arrive at your destination.

>S

School Lane
There’s no shortage of self-indulgent advertising for Utopia’s childcare centre. When there’s no communication with the outside world, describing academic results as the “Best on the Planet” is the epitome of hollow statements. To make things worse, there’s a collage photograph of former students who’ve gone on to become holovideo stars, UTN reporters and security force troops. Failures and common citizens? They’re not worth a mention.

A trophy cabinet honours school sports stars past and present.

A closed security barrier bars passage south.

One almost wonders why they need to bother advertising, given that this is apparently the only school in the Arcology (which means that it ought to be freaking huge, if the age distribution of the population is anywhere near what it would naturally be, but it’s possible that the Arcology gains the majority of its citizens as adult immigrants. One might ask, given that most citizens have no personal space whatsoever and not even a proper bed, exactly how the population goes about sustaining itself, but as they say, life finds a way).

>X PHOTOGRAPH
A circular edged, lipstick sized tube for storing electronic data. There’s a multipronged connector on one end of the aluminium casing.

We were looking to examine the collage photograph, but this is the description of the data stick storing our digital photos.

>X COLLAGE
That’s not important to your mission.

>X CABINET
A toughened glass case for showing off cups, medals, certificates and other prestigious awards bestowed on students of Sylvia’s school – all for sporting achievements, naturally. The cabinet is protected with a magnetic lock. Inspecting it more closely, you notice an infrared sensor and some scratched text: USE THE KEY.

Looking at the items on display, you see an Ehizoge Symons subbuteo piece.

Trying to examine the sensor just repeats the description of the trophy cabinet. Trying to examine the lock gives “you can’t see any such thing.”

>X SYMONS
It’s a subbuteo piece, part of a set from a table soccer game. The five centimetre tall player is a very lifelike woman wearing a royal blue swimsuit. She’s Ehizoge Symons from the Utopia Freedom according to the text inscribed on the base.

I really am looking forward to finding out why we keep finding these apparently significant Subbuteo pieces in random locations all around the Arcology.

>BREAK CABINET
The glass is armour plated.

>LOOK UNDER IT
You find nothing of interest.

I’m not totally sure what’s up with the combination of magnetic lock and infrared sensor, but the message seems to suggest fairly clearly that we need a key, so let’s look into this further once we’ve found one.

>X BARRIER
A centimetre thick, reinforced steel barricade, resembling a blast door in a missile silo. Appropriate, since it would take a nuclear warhead to breach it. No guards are posted, and from what you can tell, the gate operates on a daily timed loop. There’s a sign on the adjacent wall that reads:

SYLVIA’S BOARDING SCHOOL

Protecting your children, protecting you.

NURSERY OPENING HOURS 09:00 to 15:00

NOTE: MAIN BUILDING OFF LIMITS TO NON STUDENTS - TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

It’s currently still the middle of the night, but I’m sure no-one will have a problem with a lone woman standing outside the gates of the school until it opens in the morning. So, once again, we type:

>WAIT 30 MINUTES
Time passes.

Followed by an awful lot of >G. (Weirdly, trying to enter >WAIT 30 MINUTES.G.G.G on a single line doesn’t work. I assume there is some parsing trickery taking place to handle the waiting duration?)

Eventually …

With a loud creak, the security barrier raises into its open position.

>S

Nursery
The only section of Sylvia’s School open to the public is this baby play centre; the classrooms and dorms opposite the northern entrance are restricted to students, staff and patrolling prefects. As for the little ones-- they may still crawl on all fours but the corporation gets its hooks in early. Its here children first learn to spell UTOPIA, count to forty on level plans, and build model Arcologies out of plastic bricks.

Watching over proceedings is a poker faced, uniformed matron. Nothing escapes her glare: children, parents, toys or the arched window to the east.

A baby toddler looks at you despairingly through the bars of his cot. No, make that a steel cage.

Seems a little unusual that the nursery is open-access while the rest of the school is locked down—unless maybe the nursery kids are only here during the day, whereas the boarding school students are fully isolated from the rest of the Arcology so that they can be indoctrinated without seeing any inconvenient reality?

>X MATRON
The old woman’s a USF trooper with a matron’s uniform over her black jewelled bodysuit – just as sharp, just as well trained, and just as nasty.

>ASK MATRON ABOUT NURSERY
You’d rather not attract her attention.

The children are “not important to your mission”, while trying to interact with “parents” or “toys” gives “you can’t see any such thing,” so it looks like there are two things of importance here.

>X WINDOW
The window begins at waist level and arches up to a point a few centimetres above your head. It’s refreshingly quaint and traditional, with star shaped glass panes set in a hardwood frame. Security is never ignored it seems – there’s a latch on the inside.

Outside, it’s a beautiful summer day in the meadow with clear, blue skies. That’s got to be an optical illusion.

>OPEN WINDOW
The matron would spot you before you came within five metres of the arched window.

>X TODDLER
The poor thing can’t be more than a year old, yet that doesn’t excuse him from the Arcology’s draconian rules. He’s wearing an infant sized bodysuit with clear jewels. Welcome to Utopia, kid.

Locking the baby in a cage is cruel enough, but giving him the passkey to play with amounts to sadistic torture.

I’m pretty sure that the “being locked in a cage” part is quite a lot worse than giving him the passkey, the irony of which is going to go entirely unnoticed by a toddler. Unless what the second paragraph is getting it is the fact that the passkey is the only thing he has to play with—after all, plenty of toddlers are happy inside a playpen for at least a little while if they have enough toys in there with them.

>X CAGE
Cruelty to children must be a job requirement to work here. This is an animal cage adapted for babies, a metre wide box with solid steel top and bottom, barred sides too narrow to fit a hand through, and an electronic lock and passcard reader to secure the door in place.

Examining the lock or the passcard reader just repeats the description of the cage.

>X KEY
Your basic low security passkey, a plastic card with information precoded on a magnetic strip. The printed images on front are akin to those in a child’s sketch pad: farmyard animals and smiley faces in vibrant colours.

>TAKE KEY
The cage bars prevent you reaching the magnetic passkey.

>ASK TODDLER FOR KEY
The baby gives you a quizzical look, then opens and closes his mouth several times.

>ASK MATRON ABOUT TODDLER
You’d rather not attract her attention.

This looks like it might be a puzzle, but let’s just check there’s nowhere else to go first:

>S
Even if you avoid the staff, you have no idea of the layout on the other side and would surely be caught trespassing.

>W
You can’t go that way.

>E
You can’t, since the arched window is in the way.

My guess is that if we can let the toddler out of his cage, it might distract the matron briefly and allow us to do something with that window, like figure out what’s on the other side?

>PLAY WITH TODDLER
That’s not a verb I recognise.

>TODDLER, HI
The baby gives you a quizzical look, then opens and closes his mouth several times.

>ASK TODDLER ABOUT KEY
The baby gives you a quizzical look, then opens and closes his mouth several times.

>PUT HAND IN CAGE
You feel nothing unexpected.

>SEARCH CAGE
A baby toddler plays in the cage.

>TAKE KEY
The cage bars prevent you reaching the magnetic passkey.

Ok, superficial attempts to extract the key don’t seem to have succeeded; maybe we could give the toddler something else to play with instead and see if we can get hold of the key? The only thing we have that’s vaguely toy-like isn’t really suitable for a child this age, but let’s see what happens anyway if we …

>GIVE NATALIA PIECE TO TODDLER
You hold out the Natalia subbuteo piece, enticing the toddler to take it. He responds by sticking the magnetic passkey through the bars on the opposite side. There must be some way to get him to swap items, but this isn’t it.

Putting the Natalia piece inside the cage or on the passcard reader gives the same response as trying to give it to the toddler.

>SHOW NATALIA PIECE TO TODDLER
The baby shows you the magnetic passkey he’s holding.

>DROP NATALIA PIECE
Dropped.

The toddler drops the magnetic passkey he’s holding, then picks it up again.

>TAKE NATALIA PIECE
Taken.

Trying to throw the piece has the same effect as dropping it, since by default Inform treats THROW as a synonym for DROP.

>WAVE NATALIA PIECE
The toddler waves the magnetic passkey he’s holding, mimicing your movements.

It seems fairly clear that the toddler is copying what we do, so presumably there’s some action we can take which, when he copies it, will end up with him giving us the passkey. But trying to put another item inside the cage isn’t working, and neither is dropping it outside it.

>PUT NATALIA PIECE THROUGH BARS
I didn’t understand that sentence.

>GIVE NATALIA PIECE TO ME
You juggle the Natalia subbuteo piece for a while, but don’t achieve much.

Just to check, we test out the same with a different item:

>PUT ROSE IN CAGE
You hold out the painted steel rose, enticing the toddler to take it. He responds by sticking the magnetic passkey through the bars on the opposite side. There must be some way to get him to swap items, but this isn’t it.

>EAT ROSE
That’s plainly inedible.

>TODDLER, TAKE ROSE
The baby gives you a quizzical look, then opens and closes his mouth several times.

This has very much the feeling of a puzzle that we should be able to solve now, but I can’t figure out what we can do to get the toddler to give us the passkey. Suggestions very much welcome!

In the meantime, let’s check out the sole remaining location within the Education levels—the ominously-named Holy Citadel.

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

After an uneventful trip through the transporter ring, we arrive at:

Gates Of The Holy Citadel
And what an entrance it is. Flaming medieval style torches in iron sconces herald your arrival at said gates: enormous, hinged wooden doors at the southern end of a stone walled, triangular corridor. In fact, the whole style of the Citadel appears to be medieval, a throwback to the days of superstition, serfdom, guards in black armour, and the absolute rule of one man. Sound familiar?

The corporation has done away with the old religions and replaced them with its own bizarre, twisted path to enlightenment. If you need proof, try reading the tenets inscribed in the stonework.

I have to say, if you’d asked me at the start of the game to suggest what sort of environments we might encounter inside the Arcology, I don’t think I would have come up with this.

>X DOORS
Thick wooden planks nailed together end on end; the doors are two half triangles, a precise fit for the corridor. They’re barred shut and guarded by four USF troopers. You won’t be getting through without their say so.

A sign reads:

HOLY CITADEL

Erected by Gustav Heinrich Ernst III
The Eternal Director of Utopia Technologies
Born a quarter to four in the afternoon
He came into our world on the extra day
In the year of our saviour 1916 AD

Ceremonies in his honour held on the hour, every hour.

That information about Gustav Ernst’s date and time of birth feels exceedingly specific; I think we can be almost certain that it’s going to be relevant to a puzzle.

>X GUARDS
Your average USF thugs: strong, muscular men and women dressed in the all-black outfits reserved for Utopia’s secret police-- sorry, security force. As ever, their faces are concealed behind opaque visors.

And the room description was fairly insistent that we ought to take a proper look at the inscription:

>X TENETS
There are only six lines of text, yet they say so much about Utopia.

Do not grieve for the fallen; they were unworthy.
We shall build paradise here; and reshape the world.
Fear not the unbelievers; they shall all perish.
While we thrive; for we are superior.
Long live the Director; he is our saviour.
He built Utopia; long live the Director.

>S
The USF guards wave you back. “It’s not time for the ceremony yet, citizen.”

The sign says that ceremonies take place on the hour, and it’s currently 9:48, so:

>WAIT 12 MINUTES
Time passes.

As one hour ends and another begins, the USF troopers raise the bar and swing open the wooden doors. Citizens arrive from the north; numbering in the hundreds if not thousands, they pour through the Citadel gates.

>S
You fall in with the citizens and march through the Citadel Gates. The daily ritual is so embedded in their culture they don’t even look where they’re going. You don’t have such a luxury, having never before been within…

The Tetrahedron (in the crowd of citizens)
Okay, you admit it. Not being a Utopia religious nut, you don’t have a clue what this gigantic hall is called. All you have to go on is the shape: a three walled chamber, each face a polished black marble triangle rising to the apex a half kilometre above a central pulpit. As for furniture, pews cut from the same stone are arranged in three sets of rows facing inward. The relgious leader’s quarters are southeast, and the exit through a tunnel north.

This space is huge. I’m guessing that the Arcology’s “levels” are a convenience to aid navigation, because this space must surely span several physical levels of the Arcology?

A vertical shaft of golden-yellow light shines down on a lectern mounted book bound in red leather – must be the Utopian Bible.

The Minister of Utopia leads the ceremony from his pulpit. The old man’s not so scary, but the silver armoured, blonde woman stood beside him has eyes like an eagle. Appropriate, since there’s a ruby one on her choker.

Looks like we’ve found another of Utopia’s executives, and the theme naming continues; to recap, we’ve previously run across Amber Bear, who murders people with her bare hands, and Ivory Worm, who spends her time trolling university students by messing with their computers, so we’ll have to see which end of the spectrum Ruby Eagle occupies.

“And so we gather again,” the Minister proclaims. “To give thanks to the Director, for his life, the gift of life, and our way of life. Today we are blessed with the presence of a daughter of Eden. She will be watching closely. There are those among us whose souls are tainted by evil, men and women who would seek to destroy our society for their own ends. If they are here, she will root them out.”

In other words, be on your best behaviour, evil one.

>X MINISTER
The religious leader is a bearded, short haired blond man now in his eighties or nineties. He wears a golden braided, white silken robe over his purple jewelled bodysuit. His eyes are wide open, and his voice loud and commanding-- yep, he’s your bona fide new age preacher.

“As always, we begin by reciting the Tenets of Utopia.” The Minister pauses, then continues. “Do not grieve for the fallen…”

Like many non-churchgoers, I periodically find myself attending a service as part of a wedding or similar, and I’m pretty sure that for these bits where you’re meant to join in you can mumble along where you don’t know the words as long as you say the “amen” at the end with sufficient conviction, right?

>X WOMAN
The tall, blonde woman seems incredibly young to be an executive, yet she’s clearly someone important given how she’s dressed. Her shiny silver bodysuit reflects the light beautifully. There are no chinks in her armour; it stretches from her boots all the way to the ruby eagle adorned choker around her neck. Her eyes are intense, unblinking, and have a faint silvery glint, clear evidence of cybernetic enhancement.

Ruby Eagle is carrying an automatic plasma rifle.

Uh, ok, I’m not off-base here in saying that it’s not usual having someone with a lethal weapon overseeing a church service, right?

Ruby Eagle’s eyes fall on you. Her pupils glow white; pouncing on your mistake, she singles you out from the crowd.

“You!” she yells. “I see you woman, remaining silent over there!”

In a blur of motion, she aims her rifle and fires. The woman is so skilled she doesn’t even use the attached scope. With nowhere to run, you are cut down where you stand with a single, precise shot to the forehead.

*** You gave yourself away ***

In that game you scored 129 out of a possible 400, in 1138 turns, and attained the rank of intelligence officer.

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, UNDO your last move, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT?

I think I may have severely misjudged the importance of joining in with reciting the tents of Utopia. Fortunately, we saw them inscribed on the wall before we came in, so let’s do our best at passing as a devout member of the congregation.

> UNDO
The Tetrahedron
[Previous turn undone.]

>SAY THEY WERE UNWORTHY
(to the Minister of Utopia)
You speak the words, doing your best to look natural.

“We shall build paradise here…”

>SAY AND RESHAPE THE WORLD
(to the Minister of Utopia)
Ruby’s gaze falls on you, then moves on.

“Fear not the unbelievers…”

>SAY THEY SHALL ALL PERISH
(to the Minister of Utopia)
You speak the words, doing your best to look natural.

“While we thrive…”

>SAY FOR WE ARE SUPERIOR
(to the Minister of Utopia)
Acting all religious, you speak with utter conviction.

“Long live the Director…”

>SAY HE IS OUR SAVIOUR
(to the Minister of Utopia)
Acting all religious, you speak with utter conviction.

“He built Utopia…”

>SAY LONG LIVE THE DIRECTOR
(to the Minister of Utopia)
Long live the Director! Long live the man who enslaved us! Long live the master of the universe! Do these people believe the nonsense they’re touting?

The Minister pauses, grasping the pulpit. As he rests from his exertions, the citizen to your right hands you a solid gold, triangular shaped collection plate.

[Your score has just gone up by three points.]

>X PLATE
The collection plate is made of pure gold, its raised edges inscribed with symbols vaguely resembling Ancient Egyptian heiroglyphs. Like all things religious in Utopia, it’s triangular. A perfect equilateral, if you must know.

People have donated all sorts of mysterious curios, oddities and valuables, including a Monika Berlin subbuteo piece.

We still haven’t come across any reason for us to collect these Subbuteo pieces, but even if we had, I have a fairly clear idea what Ruby Eagle’s reaction would be to seeing us take something off the collection plate.

“Time is but a series of ever increasing triangles,” the Minister says. “So often were those words spoken by the Director as he gazed upon the diseased and dying in Colombia. There is the past, the present, and the future, three points that converge at defining moments in human history. Moments when we atone for our past sins, take action in the present, and set the course of the future.”

Ah, so that’s what it meant! Oh, sorry. I was in a lab in London once, and I saw this triangular picture of the Director dude with that same quotation. But I never understood it until now.

Not sure if this is just background colour, or if we ought to be asking more questions about what Nanci was doing in an apparently Utopia-owned lab?

>X MONIKA
It’s a subbuteo piece, part of a set from a table soccer game. The five centimetre tall player is a very lifelike woman wearing a royal blue swimsuit. She’s Monika Berlin from the Utopia Freedom according to the text inscribed on the base.

“In one such moment, the Director cured the Zavor virus and invested in this Arcology, a project which saved a million souls from the misery their lives had become. Citizens of Utopia, we are the chosen ones. It is us who will be remembered for generations to come.”

Remembered for what? Being a mindless, selfish bunch of lunatics?

While the minister is spouting propaganda, the other thing which the room description drew our attention to was the Utopian Bible on the lectern.

>X BIBLE
You can’t see or do much from here.

Ruby Eagle’s eyes fall on you. Her pupils glow white; pouncing on your mistake, she singles you out from the crowd.

“You!” she yells. “I see you woman, refusing to make a donation!”

In a blur of motion, she aims her rifle and fires. The woman is so skilled she doesn’t even use the attached scope. With nowhere to run, you are cut down where you stand with a single, precise shot to the forehead.

*** You gave yourself away ***

In that game you scored 132 out of a possible 400, in 1146 turns, and attained the rank of covert operative.

Oops, maybe we shouldn’t have stood there holding the collection plate for so long.

> UNDO
The Tetrahedron
[Previous turn undone.]

We don’t really want to part with anything that seems valuable, but hopefully even Ruby Eagle’s enhanced eyesight isn’t enough to spot that the balance display on our cashcard is currently showing a zero?

>PUT CASHCARD ON PLATE
You add the cashcard to the growing collection of donations. The woman to your left takes the plate from you, and so the cycle continues. Moments later, the gold depository for the Director’s private vault has vanished into the crowd.

“Let us celebrate the arrival of the Director,” the Minister says, walking to the Bible stand. “The arrival of the year, the arrival of the day, and the arrival of the moment in time.”

And unless I’m very much mistaken, we’ve found the relevance of that information written on the doors earlier.

As he speaks each sentence, he turns the Bible to a specific page; from the way he concentrates, you’re guessing it’s not random. The ground starts to shudder, startling you but apparently an everyday occurrence to the rest of the congregration. An aperture opens in the centre of the floor, and from it rises a two hundred metre high statue of a man in a golden bodysuit – the Director.

These dictators always have to build statues of themselves. Why are they so vain?

Because it’s easy to gloss over what numbers mean, I should point out that two hundred metres is an absolutely, insanely ridiculous size for a statue. To compare with one of the most obvious reference points, this statue of the Director is built at roughly six times the scale of the Statue of Liberty.

>X STATUE
Not quite so impressive, considering the technological advantage Utopia had over the Ancient Greeks. This two hundred metre high colossus may be gold instead of the bronze used on the isle of Rhodes, and its facial features as lifelike as the Director himself, but this overblown monument doesn’t inspire you one bit.

I’m fairly sure that it can’t be solid gold, because a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that a two-hundred-metre-high golden replica of a human being would be one of the heaviest human-made objects ever constructed and would require more gold than has so far been extracted in the entirety of human history. But right now, this obscene monument to the Director’s vanity is a welcome sight indeed, because if we can just get a photograph of it, that ticks off one of the two remaining items on our list!

“And now,” the Minister concludes. “Let us bow down and pray. After which we shall stand to recite the fourth verse of the book of Eden.”

Um… that Book of Eden he mentioned. You don’t know it, Alice. You’re about to get a good hiding unless you do something.

Never mind that, Nanci, we’ve got a photo op here!

>PHOTOGRAPH STATUE
With the crowd obstructing your view, you can’t get a good picture of the Director’s statue.

If only it were three hundred metres tall, maybe we could see it better. But unfortunately, we’ve been messing around with the camera for too long:

Ruby Eagle’s eyes fall on you. Her pupils glow white; pouncing on your mistake, she singles you out from the crowd.

“You!” she yells. “I see you woman, refusing to honour the Director!”

In a blur of motion, she aims her rifle and fires. The woman is so skilled she doesn’t even use the attached scope. With nowhere to run, you are cut down where you stand with a single, precise shot to the forehead.

Et cetera, et cetera.

> UNDO
The Tetrahedron
[Previous turn undone.]

The minister told us to “bow down and pray”. The verb BOW isn’t recognised; whereas PRAY is met with Inform’s default response (“nothing practical results from your prayer”) followed by Ruby Eagle shooting us dead again.

Presumably, Nanci is trying to clue us in that actually following the minister’s instructions this time is a bad plan because it’ll be followed by having to recite from the book of Eden, which we don’t know. So while everyone is bowing and scraping, can we …

>HIDE
What do you want to hide in?

The only furniture mentioned in the room description is the pews, so I guess:

>PEW
You sit down on the pew behind.

Ruby Eagle’s eyes fall on you. Her pupils glow white; pouncing on your mistake, she singles you out from the crowd.

“You!” she yells. “I see you woman, refusing to honour the Director!”

In a blur of motion, she aims her rifle and fires. The woman is so skilled she doesn’t even use the attached scope. With nowhere to run, you are cut down where you stand with a single, precise shot to the forehead.

Sitting down on the pew is a fairly loose definition of hiding, but I guess it beats trying to hide inside the dragon that’s attacking us, which was our previous attempt. But if we’re slightly more specific:

> UNDO
The Tetrahedron
[Previous turn undone.]

>HIDE UNDER PEW
You crouch down and crawl underneath the pew in front of you. With the rest of the congregation also bowing, your actions escape the notice of the ever watchful Ruby Eagle. Four minutes later, after several painfully long monologues from the Minister, the citizens depart. A silver booted figure follows them; apparently Utopia’s executive has seen enough.

When you come out of hiding, you see two things: the Director’s statue lower back underground and the Minister enter his quarters to the southeast.

Zzzz. Oh! It’s finally over. Thank the Director for that.

[Your score has just gone up by two points.]

Ok, we’ve made it through the most high-stakes church service I think I’ve ever come across, and the reward is that we’re finally alone inside the Holy Citadel without anyone pointing a plasma rifle at us. First things first, let’s test out whether the minister’s reference to “the arrival of the year, the day and the moment” means what we think it does:

>X BIBLE
One thousand pages of text preserved in transparent dust repellent coating, with an entry for each verse of Utopian religious beliefs. The labelling would be familiar to anyone who’d seen the “real” Christian Bible; chapters and verses use a similar nomenclature to military time. The Bible is currently open at verse twenty-eight of chapter sixteen.

The year: Gustav Ernst was born in 1916.

>TURN BIBLE TO 19:16
You turn to verse sixteen of chapter nineteen.

The day: the “extra day” is presumably the 29th February. But should that be 29:2 or 2:29?

>TURN BIBLE TO 29:2
There are only twenty-five chapters in the Bible.

Happily, that makes it unambiguous for us.

>TURN BIBLE TO 2:29
You turn to verse twenty-nine of chapter two.

And “the moment in time” is quarter to four in the afternoon:

>TURN BIBLE TO 15:45
You turn to verse forty-five of chapter fifteen.

A loud rumbling noise signals the arrival of the Director’s statue. It rises from an aperture in the ground, and soon towers high above you.

[Your score has just gone up by four points.]

>X STATUE
Not quite so impressive, considering the technological advantage Utopia had over the Ancient Greeks. This two hundred metre high colossus may be gold instead of the bronze used on the isle of Rhodes, and its facial features as lifelike as the Director himself, but this overblown monument doesn’t inspire you one bit.

>FOCUS IT
So this is how self-appointed Gods see themselves.

All this effort has led up to this moment, where we finally have the opportunity to …

>PHOTOGRAPH IT
Using the camera pen, you take a picture of the Director’s statue.

Kind of anticlimactic, but we’ll take the datastick back to the slacker in the cafeteria later and check that he’s satisfied it meets his requirements. In the meantime, there’s only one other area to explore here:

>SE

Minister’s Quarters
Delivering twenty-four, near identical regilious ceremonies per day to the brainwashed masses must take its toll. Good thing for the Minister that endlessly chanting the Director’s praises has its fair share of rewards. This private, low roofed, tent shaped extension to the main hall has a gold plated cryobed, candelit chandelier and stained glass window – much nicer than the steel box you were issued.

The Minister lies asleep in his cryobed, frozen in suspended animation.

The collection plate, overflowing with donated goodies, rests in a niche below the window. If there’s a security system, you can’t see it.

>X CRYOBED
You’re not too envious: a gold plated coffin is still a coffin, after all. Plus this cryobed is preprogrammed, and there’s now way for the Minister – or you – to alter its sleeping pattern.

>FOCUS IT
Luxury sleeping. Newsflash: religious ministers are important people.

>X CHANDELIER
One of the few precious items around the Citadel not made of gold. Silver’s nearly as expensive, though, as are wax candles.

>FOCUS IT
No response. You suspect Nanci has nothing to say about the candlelit chandelier.

>X WINDOW
The window is large, triangular (naturally), and made up of many, many multicoloured pieces of glass. There are definite shapes and images visible within the pattern: a row of six blonde haired women in silver bodysuits, and a whole zoo of monochromatic animals underneath. There’s also a single line of text engraved in archaic, upper case lettering: THE DAUGHTERS OF EDEN.

>FOCUS IT
Now, where have you seen those women before?

>X ANIMALS
There are thirty-six animals in total: bears, scorpions, eagles, crocodiles, moles and worms. Each beast comes in six different colours for good measure: clear, white, grey, orange, red and black. Obviously there’s a connection with the six women, but what?

So we’ve come across three animal-colour correspondences so far: Amber Bear, Ivory Worm and Ruby Eagle. Is this some kind of combination lock?

>X AMBER BEAR
You can’t see any such thing.

Oh, right, the game describes the colours in less poetic terms.

>X ORANGE BEAR
You see nothing special about the individual animals.

>PRESS ORANGE BEAR
You press on the orange bear.

>PRESS RED EAGLE
You press on the red eagle.

>PRESS WHITE WORM
You press on the white worm.

If all we need to do is identify the six correct combinations, it’s possible that we could do that now by brute force, but it might be a waste of effort if it turns out that the order matters or there’s some other subtlety we weren’t expecting, and besides, I’m fairly sure we can expect to meet the other three Daughters of Eden before the game is through.

>X MINISTER
The religious leader is a bearded, short haired blond man now in his eighties or nineties. He wears a golden braided, white silken robe over his purple jewelled bodysuit. His eyes are wide open, and his voice loud and commanding-- yep, he’s your bona fide new age preacher.

This is the same description as we got when we examined him while he was preaching; I guess it’s an oversight that his description doesn’t change while he’s in cryosleep.

>FOCUS HIM
Ah religion, that old preaching game. Never grows old, does it?

Anyway, the other thing of interest here is that collection plate we were handed earlier:

>X PLATE
The collection plate is made of pure gold, its raised edges inscribed with symbols vaguely resembling Ancient Egyptian heiroglyphs. Like all things religious in Utopia, it’s triangular. A perfect equilateral, if you must know.

People have donated all sorts of mysterious curios, oddities and valuables, including a cashcard and a Monika Berlin subbuteo piece.

Aha, so even if we’d parted with something valuable, looks like we have the opportunity to take it back.

>TAKE CASHCARD
You try but fail to reach the cashcard – it’s as if there’s an invisible barrier surrounding it. A forcefield?

>TAKE MONIKA
You try but fail to reach the Monika Berlin subbuteo piece – it’s as if there’s an invisible barrier surrounding it. A forcefield?

>FEEL PLATE
You try but fail to reach the collection plate – it’s as if there’s an invisible barrier surrounding it. A forcefield?

>FOCUS PLATE
No response. You suspect Nanci has nothing to say about the collection plate.

Any other attempt to interact with the plate gets the same response. The obvious guess here is that the forcefield is controlled by whatever it is that we’re meant to do with the stained glass window—which probably means that it can wait until we have need for either that Subbuteo piece or our empty cashcard, and hopefully give us a chance to find out the names of the other three executives in the meantime.

>NW

The Tetrahedron

A vertical shaft of golden-yellow light shines down on a lectern mounted book bound in red leather – must be the Utopian Bible.

The tome is literally overshadowed by the larger than life statue of Utopia’s Director.

So, can we sneak out using the same trick?

>HIDE UNDER PEW
You return to your favourite hiding place: lying underneath a cold, hard marble pew on the cold, hard marble floor. Now uncomfortable, you wait for the next ceremony to start.

You hear the Minister mumbling questions to himself. Alerted by your carelessness in covering your tracks, he takes a look around and quickly discovers you. “Alarm!” he screams. “Intruder in the Holy Citadel!”

In case nobody hears his cries for help, he activates a personal alarm attached to his wristwatch. Two fully armed USF response platoons arrive on the scene within seconds. The troopers soon locate and surround you, and against such impossible odds you’re forced to surrender. Your trial is brutal and swift, as is the execution that follows.

*** You gave yourself away ***

In that game you scored 138 out of a possible 400, in 1183 turns, and attained the rank of covert operative.

Maybe leaving the two-hundred-metre-tall statue out in the open was a little careless. (Although it now occurs to me to wonder why no-one noticed the structure shaking when we raised it up.)

> UNDO
”The Tetrahedron*
[Previous turn undone.]

I’m hoping that the minister didn’t remember exactly which page he left the Bible at, and it was more the presence of the giant gold colossus that got his attention.

>TURN BIBLE TO 1:1
You turn to verse one of chapter one.

As you change page, the Director’s statue sinks into the ground and disappears behind a closing aperture.

>HIDE UNDER PEW
You return to your favourite hiding place: lying underneath a cold, hard marble pew on the cold, hard marble floor. Now uncomfortable, you wait for the next ceremony to start.

The Minister returns on the hour. After listening to exactly the same nonsense you’ve heard before, you discreetly join a group of citizens on the way out.

Gates Of The Holy Citadel
And what an entrance it is. Flaming medieval style torches in iron sconces herald your arrival at said gates: enormous, hinged wooden doors at the southern end of a stone walled, triangular corridor. In fact, the whole style of the Citadel appears to be medieval, a throwback to the days of superstition, serfdom, guards in black armour, and the absolute rule of one man. Sound familiar?

The corporation has done away with the old religions and replaced them with its own bizarre, twisted path to enlightenment. If you need proof, try reading the tenets inscribed in the stonework.

Ok, we’ll need to come back here at a later date (once we think we know how to disable that forcefield), but in the meantime we’ve come away with one of the two remaining photos we needed:

>X CAMERA
While not as useful as it sounds – there is no pen, or anything to write with at all – this nifty device can still take high detail digital photographs and store images to a datastick for viewing or use at a later time. Whatever its drawbacks, every good spy needs a camera, and with its officially endorsed, restriction free status in the Utopia Arcology, this model will do nicely.

The installed datastick holds photographic images of the Utopia Technologies Arcology, the Director’s statue and a group of students.

It’s now mid-morning, so once we head back to the University we have to wait around for another eight hours or so before:

Looks like the student cafeteria just opened its doors.

>W

The Chill Zone

One especially laid back student sits alone, talking to his computer.

>SHOW CAMERA TO SLACKER
The student takes your camera pen, excitedly removes the datastick, and plugs it into his computer. After a few seconds, he reloads the camera and hands it back.

“Thanks a lot, lady. This’ll work swell. Remember, I still need a photograph of Utopia’s subsidiary companies.”

Where exactly we’re meant to find a photograph showing Utopia’s subsidiary companies eludes me for the moment. My best guess is that we should be working on what to do with the toddler in the nursery, hoping that that will allow us to get deeper into the school area and maybe find something useful there.

Other than that, we’ve yet to get into the Waterline Club or do anything with the printer in the Free Market, we’ve not got into the luxury apartment level or found our way any deeper into the University, we’ve not found anything useful to do in the library and there are a lot of Subbuteo pieces lying around which we could try to figure out how to get our hands on if we think there’s likely to be a need for it later.

[Draconis (Daniel Stelzer)]

@jwalrus

I have to say, if you’d asked me at the start of the game to suggest what sort of environments we might encounter inside the Arcology, I don’t think I would have come up with this.

It wouldn’t be a text adventure without some faux mediaevalism!

@jwalrus

This space is huge. I’m guessing that the Arcology’s “levels” are a convenience to aid navigation, because this space must surely span several physical levels of the Arcology?

We also know that levels can have sublevels, and a sublevel is about the height of a modern story, right?

@jwalrus

This two hundred metre high colossus may be gold instead of the bronze used on the isle of Rhodes, and its facial features as lifelike as the Director himself, but this overblown monument doesn’t inspire you one bit.

The Colossus of Rhodes being approximately thirty meters tall, for comparison. I’m not sure if we should actually be imagining the statue that tall, or just chalking it up to the usual “never trust any numbers given in a speculative fiction work”.

Given that the crowd blocks your view of it, probably the latter. The usual rule for George R R Martin’s books is to divide all numbers by ten to make them make sense; maybe in this case we should divide by 100?

@jwalrus

TURN BIBLE TO 15:45
You turn to verse forty-five of chapter fifteen.

A loud rumbling noise signals the arrival of the Director’s statue. It rises from an aperture in the ground, and soon towers high above you.

That is an absurd way to do a combination lock, but I love it. Definitely playing to parser IF’s strengths.

[mathbrush (Brian Rushton)]

@jwalrus

Not sure if this is just background colour, or if we ought to be asking more questions about what Nanci was doing in an apparently Utopia-owned lab?

This is another Time: All Things Come to an End reference:

A picture in a triangular frame, showing a man with some kind of electronic eye sitting behind a table. As you look at him, you feel that one day this man will become a problem for somebody, but not for some time yet. A caption has been written under the photograph, "Time is but a series of ever increasing triangles.

   --Gustav Ernst III."

I didn’t pick up on any connection between the two games when I first played Inside Woman. It’s just that whenever you point out something really weird, I think, “I’ve seen that before somewhere…”

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

@Draconis

Given that the crowd blocks your view of it, probably the latter. The usual rule for George R R Martin’s books is to divide all numbers by ten to make them make sense; maybe in this case we should divide by 100?

I think the statue being twenty metres tall would make sense. That’s still in wow-that’s-a-big-statue territory but doesn’t suggest that it should be tearing the Arcology apart with its sheer weight (the 200-metre version weighs the equivalent of something like twenty aircraft carriers). The game doesn’t say that we can’t see it through the crowd at all, merely that we can’t get a good picture, which seems reasonable if the crowd is densely packed, particularly if we don’t want to attract Ruby Eagle’s attention by raising the camera over our head.

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

Part 15 - Never a cross word

So in investigating the toddler in the cage at the nursery, we’d established that he’s holding the magnetic passkey which opens the cage, and he likes to copy our actions: if we wave an object, for example, he waves the passkey; if we drop something, he drops the passkey at his own feet (and then picks it up again).

We can try to give him something, which the game interprets as us holding it through the bars at him, but he copies us by pushing the passkey through the bars on the opposite side of the cage where we can’t take it. It seems as though we ought to be able to push something through the bars and then drop it, which should cause him to drop the passkey outside of the cage, but I couldn’t come up with a command which the game understood as wanting to do that.

In the end I resorted to the hints, which confirmed all of the conclusions from the previous paragraph, and revealed the actual command we need, which is:

>THROW NATALIA PIECE AT TODDLER
You wait until the matron’s looking the opposite way then toss the Natalia subbuteo piece at the baby toddler, taking care not to throw it too hard. Not to be outdone, the little boy chucks the magnetic passkey at you. His aim is a bit off, and it lands a couple of metres away.

>TAKE PASSKEY
Taken.

[Your score has just gone up by three points.]

>X IT
Your basic low security passkey, a plastic card with information precoded on a magnetic strip. The printed images on front are akin to those in a child’s sketch pad: farmyard animals and smiley faces in vibrant colours.

>OPEN CAGE WITH PASSKEY
The reader beeps as you swipe the magnetic passkey.

>OPEN CAGE
You open the steel barred cage.

It turns out that unlocking and opening the cage takes two commands, which is unfortunate because we’re going to be typing those two commands an awful lot in a moment.

The toddler needs no invitation to leave. He crawls north as fast as his little hands and feet will carry him, ditching the Natalia subbuteo piece on the way.

“Hey! Stop!” yells the matron, pursuing him out of the nursery. While you’re willing the boy to make it, the trained USF woman is both faster and more ruthless. She’ll have him back in no time.

>OPEN WINDOW
You don’t have enough time.

The matron returns with the toddler in tow. Ignoring the poor boy’s cries, the heartless woman places him in the cage, slams the steel door shut, and returns to her former position by the window.

Drat. Did we actually accomplish anything by that? At least it seems that we didn’t lose anything, because we still have the item we tempted the toddler with:

>TAKE NATALIA PIECE
Taken.

And I’m guessing that whatever we just failed to accomplish, we can have another go:

>OPEN CAGE WITH PASSKEY
The reader beeps as you swipe the magnetic passkey.

>OPEN CAGE
You open the steel barred cage.

The toddler needs no invitation to leave. He crawls north as fast as his little hands and feet will carry him

“Hey! Stop!” yells the matron, pursuing him out of the nursery. While you’re willing the boy to make it, the trained USF woman is both faster and more ruthless. She’ll have him back in no time.

>E
You can’t, since the arched window is in the way.

The matron returns with the toddler in tow. Ignoring the poor boy’s cries, the heartless woman places him in the cage, slams the steel door shut, and returns to her former position by the window.

>X WINDOW
The window begins at waist level and arches up to a point a few centimetres above your head. It’s refreshingly quaint and traditional, with star shaped glass panes set in a hardwood frame. Security is never ignored it seems – there’s a latch on the inside.

Outside, it’s a beautiful summer day in the meadow with clear, blue skies. That’s got to be an optical illusion.

It seems pretty likely that we’re meant to be doing something with the window here, because we were previously prevented from interacting with it due to the presence of the matron. But none of the obvious commands seem to work—cutting out all of the repetitions of opening the cage and the matron going after the escaping toddler, we can also try:

>BREAK WINDOW
Toughened glass. Were you expecting any less?

>OPEN LATCH
You don’t have enough time.

>LOCK CAGE WITH PASSKEY
The cage locks automatically when closed.

>JUMP THROUGH WINDOW
I only understood you as far as wanting to jump.

>GET IN CAGE
You want to lock yourself up?

Unsure of what to do here, we remember that there was a mention of a key on the trophy cabinet outside, so go back to check in case it’s referring to the passkey we’re now holding.

>N

School Lane

A trophy cabinet honours school sports stars past and present.

There’s an open security barrier to the south.

>X CABINET
A toughened glass case for showing off cups, medals, certificates and other prestigious awards bestowed on students of Sylvia’s school – all for sporting achievements, naturally. The cabinet is protected with a magnetic lock. Inspecting it more closely, you notice an infrared sensor and some scratched text: USE THE KEY.

Looking at the items on display, you see an Ehizoge Symons subbuteo piece.

>UNLOCK CABINET WITH PASSKEY
That’s not how the cabinet’s locking mechanism works.

>PUT PASSKEY ON SENSOR
Putting things on the trophy cabinet would achieve nothing.

Upon rereading, it’s the lock that’s magnetic (i.e. a magnet holding the cabinet shut), rather than needing a magnetic passkey like the one we’re holding, so this is probably a hiding to nowhere. I’m not quite sure what kind of key is needed for an infrared sensor, but hopefully it’ll be obvious once we find it.

>S

Nursery

Watching over proceedings is a poker faced, uniformed matron. Nothing escapes her glare: children, parents, toys or the arched window to the east.

A baby toddler looks at you despairingly through the bars of his cot. No, make that a steel cage.

>UNLOCK CAGE
What do you want to unlock the steel barred cage with?

>PASSKEY
The reader beeps as you swipe the magnetic passkey.

>OPEN CAGE
You open the steel barred cage.

The toddler needs no invitation to leave. He crawls north as fast as his little hands and feet will carry him

“Hey! Stop!” yells the matron, pursuing him out of the nursery. While you’re willing the boy to make it, the trained USF woman is both faster and more ruthless. She’ll have him back in no time.

Maybe we should chase him and see if we can intervene with his capture somehow?

>N
On the way out, you pass the matron. She has the toddler in her arms – back to the cage for him.

School Lane

A trophy cabinet honours school sports stars past and present.

There’s an open security barrier to the south.

No, looks like we’re not fast enough for that either.

>UNDO
Nursery
[Previous turn undone.]

>OPEN WINDOW
You don’t have enough time.

The matron returns with the toddler in tow. Ignoring the poor boy’s cries, the heartless woman places him in the cage, slams the steel door shut, and returns to her former position by the window.

At this point I finally realise that we already tried locking the cage so that the matron can’t put the toddler back inside, and the game told us that the cage locks automatically when closed. So we should probably have tried:

>UNDO
Nursery
[Previous turn undone.]

>CLOSE CAGE
You close the cage door, and the electronic lock engages automatically.

The matron returns with the toddler in tow. Seeing the cage door locked and the passkey nowhere to be found, she kicks the cage bars in frustration. The toddler starts to cry, shedding tears on the matron’s arm. Finally, she gives in and releases him. He runs off to play, causing all sorts of mischief with the other children. Occupied with the little boy, the matron is now paying little attention to the arched window.

[Your score has just gone up by three points.]

Success! And just to drive the point home for us, the game highlights that the matron is no longer guarding the window, so let’s take a look:

>OPEN WINDOW
You undo the latch and push up the window frame.

>E
Ensuring the matron has her back turned, you climb through the arched window and drop down to the ground beyond.

Between Walls
Lo and behold, the meadow and sky are fake. Utopia is up to its usual trickery, concealing the Arcology’s structural interior behind holographic scenery that creates the illusion of open terrain. The inner wall is considerably more real and solid, though. A narrow space leads northwest around the red brick building within a building.

You see two ways in: the arched window leading back to the nursery (two metres above ground) and another, square opening even further up.

Just to check we’ve understood the geography correctly:

>E
Other than the windows, the only way to go is northwest.

>X SQUARE
A square hole roughly seventy centimetres across. At a pinch, you could just about squeeze through. There’s no window; with such a drop to the ground outside, its ideal for suicide attempts.

>U
You see no way up there.

>W
There’s a good two metres between the window and the ground on this side. Even standing on tiptoes, you can’t quite reach the ledge.

Ok, so we can’t reach either of the windows which lead back into the building, which means that literally our only option is:

>NW

East Of Detention Yard
Well, you presume that’s where you are. But in a school where the people in charge are perfectly happy to lock younglings in steel cages, the brick and mortar wall topped by electrified barbed wire could be there for the benefit of everyone. Inhospitable and cramped, this is how it must have felt for your ancestors fighting in the Colombian trenches. The two walls merge into one further northwest, and there’s no way forward.

The dry mortar is crumbling in many places, leaving tiny gaps in between the bricks. One part of the wall has been breached completely by a centimetre thick, vertical crack.

>X MORTAR
The interior and exterior walls get narrower further up, closing to within a metre of one another.

>X CRACK
You see a crack in the brickwork, the result of concrete aging well past its prime. But why would Utopia care? Beyond that wall, there’s another. And beyond that, the Atlantic Ocean. The school’s detention yard is more secure than most prisons.

>FOCUS CRACK
Just right for a peeping Tom-- or Alice.

For once, Nanci actually comes up with a useful hint, because I wasn’t picturing this as a crack all the way through the wall big enough to see through.

>LOOK IN CRACK
You see a small, brown haired figure walk past on the other side of the wall. A fleeting appearance, then she’s gone.

“Who’s there? I know you’re there. I can see you. You naughty girl, peeping at me. I’ve been a naughty girl too. My name’s Gemma, and I got caught with something bad. I don’t what it is, but I’ll give it to you if you help me solve this puzzle. Miss Collins won’t let back in until I’m done. It’s stupid boxes I’m supposed to fill in with letters. I did some, but I’m not sure they’re right. Please! You have to help me!”

When Gemma tells us “you naughty girl” I can’t help but read the rest of her dialogue in the tone of a character from an Enid Blyton story.

“I’m standing on this huge grid six squares by six. I’m on the fifth row and three squares across. The square I’m stood on is white with the letter Y written on it.”

Yes, help me Alice Ling. You’re my only hope! Can’t these people do anything on their own. What’s she got? And what’s her problem?

It looks like Gemma has a puzzle for us to solve!

>GEMMA, W
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with nothing written on it.”

>G
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with nothing written on it. There’s an arrow pointing east that says fifth out of twelve in year.”

Ok, so Gemma’s detention punishment is … being made to stand on a giant crossword until she can fill in all of the clues? Let’s get her to explore a bit so we can check our understanding of the situation is correct. “Fifth out of twelve in year” is a reference to the month of May, so let’s fill that one in first:

>G
“I’ve reached the edge of the grid!”

>GEMMA, E
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with nothing written on it.”

>GEMMA, WRITE M
“All right. I’ve written the letter M in the box.”

>GEMMA, E
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with the letter Y written on it.”

>GEMMA, WRITE A
“All right. I’ve rubbed out the Y and written the letter A in the box.”

>GEMMA, E
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is black.”

Oh, oops. The square with the arrow is also the first of the squares where the answer should be written, so we’ve told her to start in the wrong place.

>GEMMA, E
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with nothing written on it.”

Presumably this bit is part of another clue.

>G
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is black.”

>GEMMA, W
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with nothing written on it.”

>G
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is black.”

>G
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with the letter A written on it.”

>GEMMA, WRITE Y
“All right. I’ve rubbed out the A and written the letter Y in the box.”

>GEMMA, W
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with the letter M written on it.”

>GEMMA, WRITE A
“All right. I’ve rubbed out the M and written the letter A in the box.”

>GEMMA, W
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with nothing written on it. There’s an arrow pointing east that says fifth out of twelve in year.”

>GEMMA, WRITE M
“All right. I’ve written the letter M in the box.”

So by asking Gemma to move around one square at a time, we can explore what’s written on the rest of the crossword. I’ll spare you from having to read through the whole process of exploring it and give the summary:

• On the first row, in the first column, there’s an arrow pointing right with a clue beginning “Arcology police …” and then a word starting “abbrev” that Gemma can’t read, with three white squares of space to fill in the answer
• On the first row, in the third column, there’s an arrow pointing down with the clue “total number of levels” and five white squares for the answer, which Gemma has already filled in with “FIFTY”
• On the first row, in the fifth column, there’s an arrow pointing down with the clue “school founder” and six white squares for the answer
• On the third row, in the first column, there’s an arrow pointing right with the clue “class one citizen colour” and six white squares for the answer
• On the fifth row, in the first column, there’s an arrow pointing right with the clue “fifth out of twelve in year” and three white squares for the answer, which we’ve just had Gemma fill in with “MAY”

Gemma said that she wasn’t certain what she’d already filled in was right, and indeed she doesn’t seem to have been paying much attention because the number of levels in the Arcology should be FORTY. The F of FORTY is also the last letter of USF, and now we’ve corrected, the R is also the third letter of the class one citizen colour, which is PURPLE.

I worry at this point that we need to figure out somewhere who the founder of the school is—it’s six letters, with the third being the L from PURPLE. It seems like the founder should be UTOPIA because, well, didn’t Utopia Technologies found everything here pretty much by definition?

Those of you who are quicker on the uptake will have remembered, though, that the name of the level we’ve currently on is “Sylvia’s Boarding School”, and SYLVIA fits perfectly with that L in the third position. So we embark on the lengthy process of navigating Gemma around the grid, filling in each square with the appropriate letter, ending on the S of SYLVIA:

>GEMMA, N
“Okay. I’ve moved! The square I’m stood on is white with nothing written on it. There’s an arrow pointing south that says school founder.”

>GEMMA, WRITE S
“All right. I’ve written the letter S in the box.”

You hear excited cheers and someone leaping with joy on the other side of the wall. “That’s it!” cries Gemma. “You’ve done it. Yay! Quick! Miss Collins is coming. Here, take this.”

The girl pushes the star headed cyberjack she was holding through the crack. It falls out your side and lands with a ping. You hear a female teacher scolding the girl; as you listen, their voices recede and eventually fade into the distance.

You do have a way with words, don’t you Alice?

[Your score has just gone up by five points.]

Oh. Well, another cyberjack is almost certainly an important thing for us to have at some point, but this isn’t quite the reward I was expecting for solving this puzzle, since we were hoping to come up with some opportunity to find a photograph of Utopia’s subsidiary companies.

>LOOK THROUGH CRACK
Gemma’s no longer there to talk to.

>CLIMB CRACK
I don’t think much is to be achieved by that.

>U
And how do you plan on doing that?

>LOOK

East Of Detention Yard
Well, you presume that’s where you are. But in a school where the people in charge are perfectly happy to lock younglings in steel cages, the brick and mortar wall topped by electrified barbed wire could be there for the benefit of everyone. Inhospitable and cramped, this is how it must have felt for your ancestors fighting in the Colombian trenches. The two walls merge into one further northwest, and there’s no way forward.

The dry mortar is crumbling in many places, leaving tiny gaps in between the bricks. One part of the wall has been breached completely by a centimetre thick, vertical crack.

You can also see a star headed cyberjack here.

>TAKE JACK
(putting the camera pen into the carrier bag to make room)
Taken.

>SE

Between Walls

You see two ways in: the arched window leading back to the nursery (two metres above ground) and another, square opening even further up.

>S
Other than the windows, the only way to go is northwest.

>JUMP
You jump, grasping at the arched window’s ledge. You’re able to reach it, but with the star headed cyberjack in your hand, you can’t get a grip.

>PUT CYBERJACK IN BAG
You put the star headed cyberjack into the carrier bag.

>JUMP
You jump, grasping at the arched window’s ledge. You’re able to reach it, but with the Natalia subbuteo piece in your hand, you can’t get a grip.

>PUT NATALIA IN BAG
You put the Natalia subbuteo piece into the carrier bag.

We repeat this process with every item in our hands in succession (the magnetic passkey and the steel rose), until everything is in the carrier bag, at which point, inevitably:

>JUMP
You jump, grasping at the arched window’s ledge. You’re able to reach it, but with the carrier bag in your hand, you can’t get a grip.

Ok, well, there’s no way we’re abandoning our entire inventory here, so hopefully we can:

>THROW BAG AT WINDOW
You throw the carrier bag through the arched window.

>JUMP
You jump, grasping at the arched window’s ledge. You’re able to reach it, pull yourself up, and climb through into the nursery.

Nursery
The only section of Sylvia’s School open to the public is this baby play centre; the classrooms and dorms opposite the northern entrance are restricted to students, staff and patrolling prefects. As for the little ones-- they may still crawl on all fours but the corporation gets its hooks in early. Its here children first learn to spell UTOPIA, count to forty on level plans, and build model Arcologies out of plastic bricks.

With the toddler freed from his steel prison, the matron’s attention is focused on him, and not the arched window to the east.

You can also see a carrier bag (in which are a painted steel rose, a magnetic passkey, a Natalia subbuteo piece, a star headed cyberjack, a camera pen, a fake antiviral inhaler (which is closed), a Waterline Club member’s pass and this year’s calendar) here.

>TAKE BAG
Taken.

Ok, so modulo some minor inconvenience, we can actually get back through the window just fine. This feels like part of the setup for a puzzle whose existence we’re going to realise later.

There’s still that square opening which we’ve not managed to do anything with yet, so we go back to take another look:

>E
Ensuring the matron has her back turned, you climb through the arched window and drop down to the ground beyond.

Between Walls

You see two ways in: the arched window leading back to the nursery (two metres above ground) and another, square opening even further up.

>X SQUARE
A square hole roughly seventy centimetres across. At a pinch, you could just about squeeze through. There’s no window; with such a drop to the ground outside, its ideal for suicide attempts.

>FOCUS IT
I bet you can squeeze through there, Alice. Go on!

Well, yes, getting through isn’t the problem, it’s reaching the thing in the first place. (Also, a square seventy centimetres across hardly needs “squeezing” through; there are doors in my house narrower than that.)

>ENTER SQUARE
You can’t reach the opening from here.

>THROW BAG THROUGH SQUARE OPENING
The opening’s out of throwing range.

>THROW BAG THROUGH ARCHED WINDOW
You throw the carrier bag through the arched window.

>CLIMB
(the arched window)
There’s a good two metres between the window and the ground on this side. Even standing on tiptoes, you can’t quite reach the ledge.

So I’m out of ideas right now. It may be that reaching this square opening isn’t the goal we need to be pursuing just at the moment, but in that case, we need to figure out where else we’re supposed to find the third photograph. Any thoughts?

[jwalrus (Adam Biltcliffe)]

Here’s the save in case anyone wants to explore:
letsplay-15.glksave.txt (7.0 KB)