Yes, more Zork-related death and failure! Since I’m currently writing about Zork III, I’ve been thinking about death and zombification there. I’m sure I am missing some actions that lead to dead games, so please chime in if you can think of any.
Throwing important items in the ocean or pit
Messing up all your light sources in the lake
Killing the hooded figure
killing the man at the cliff
refusing to tie the chest to the rope
Wasting the grue repellant (repeatedly moving in the wrong direction)
The infamous key/earthquake issue
Putting the book in the slot
telling the Dungeon Master to send you to the wrong cell location
The deaths are similar to those in Zork I (a few are the same). I’m not completely clear on how the multiple grue messages are triggered since I am not a programmer. I do think there is a unique message when getting grued south of the lake. Unsurprisingly there a multiple ways to die with the Guardians of Zork–there’s a whole lot going on there.
Surprisingly, you can’t jump in or otherwise enter the flaming pit:
>enter pit
You hit your head against the flaming pit as you attempt this feat.
If there’s something you want to know ie “why, from a code perspective, this happens” then I’m happy to delve into the code and try to work it out for you. 
