  
 
The idea behind ClubFloyd is that each week at a pre-arranged time, a group of people meet online to cooperatively play a game of interactive fiction. Below is a transcript of The Moonlit Tower, written by Yoon Ha Lee. The Moonlit Tower was originally released as part of the 2002 IF Competition, where it took fourth place. It was also nominated for Xyzzies for Best Writing, Best Story, and Best Setting; it ultimately won the Xyzzy for Best Writing. You can learn more about the game, including how to download it, by visiting Baf's Guide. WARNING! Below you will find a transcript of people playing this game, and it goes without saying that the transcript is full of spoilers. So, if you've never played this game, and think you might like to at some point, I do not recommend reading any further. Instead, you might want to return to the interactive fiction page. |
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| Toyshop and Floyditorium | ||||
| Bulging toychests make this a child's (or child-at-heart's) dream. Play all day, play all night. A small booth has been erected and is staffed by a friendly robot. The sign over it says, "INFOKOM GAMEZ 5 cents". A small notice on the door reads, "PLEASE RETURN TOYS TO THIS ROOM WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH THEM." | ||||
| You can see: green button, banana machine, faucets, toy catalogue, a crystal ball, cuddly walrus, clicker, cloak, tic-tac-toe, thermometer, yellow button, waldo whisper object, checkers board, Werewolf rules, bunny burger, signaling device, Mike Tyson, IF Programmer Barbie, IF FLOYD'S DOWN, TELL JOTA -- OR ELSE HE WON'T KNOW, Autohugger, Photocopier, basketball, midterm monster, frobozz magic dispenser, fun shiny toy, madlibs, orange, jukebox, FREE DONUTS machine, long-stemmed red rose, dfan's quest, miniature ifMUD, Pun Police Whistle, orange door, monkey guru, mind chess, the 'hey there, playerfish!' cube, apple, a zorkmid, storyharp, save button, specimen jar, soda reading 'Don't drink me!', Gene Ray, jellybean, Best of Speed?, ClubFloyd Suggested Games List, Gak | ||||
| Players: Waldo, Floyd, maga, inky, Emerald, Taleslinger, McMartin | ||||
| Visible Exits: northeast (to the Lounge) | ||||
| Jacqueline arrives, ready to play with the toys. | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "Woo" | ||||
| Jacqueline asks, "So, did anyone holler?" | ||||
| Nitku arrives, full of funk, but no fun. | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to jacq), "Please keep all chatter on the channel for logging purposes" | inky says, "ha ha" | |||
| Jacqueline says, "haha - Did you guys already start? maga said you hadn't yet." | ||||
| inky hollers, "club floyd starting now in the toyshop" | Jacqueline says, "(Which is why I just spoke in there.)" | |||
| maga says (to Floyd), "load moonlit" | ||||
Floyd | Welcome to the Cheap Glk Implementation, library version 0.9.0. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | No, not a prison, though stone stands around you, as expressionless as Floyd | a mirror awaiting face and form; and in the silence you hear no plaint Floyd | of flute or roar of gong, but instead the crash of porcelain Floyd | shattering. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | Interactive Fiction, v.1.0 Floyd | Yoon Ha Lee, copyright 2002 Floyd | Newcomers may want to type HELP or ABOUT. Floyd | Release 1 / Serial number 020927 / Inform v6.21 Library 6/10 Floyd | Floyd | Moonlit Chamber Floyd | Moonlight diffuses through the walls, tracing out unreadable sigils in Floyd | calligraphies of light and dark. Stairs adorned with bas-relief motifs Floyd | spiral downward. Floyd | Floyd | You can see a porcelain mask here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "And there's my answer." | |||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "about" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > About the Game Floyd | The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | ||||
| ParserGirl arrives, full of fun and funk. | maga says, "I emailed Yoon but I guess she's not turning up" | |||
| maga says, "although I can't get into my email to see if she replied" | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | About the Game Floyd | > The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "return" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | About the Game Floyd | > The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "space" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | About the Game Floyd | > The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | ||||
| inky pushes the green 'space' button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | About the Game Floyd | > The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | inky asks, "uh, ok, is there some way I'm forgetting?" | |||
| DavidW arrives, full of neither funk nor fun. | ||||
| Taleslinger presses the yellow enter button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | This is for people like me who type ABOUT and then realize that they Floyd | can't go back and read the introductory text without quitting out: Floyd | Floyd | No, not a prison, though stone stands around you, as expressionless as Floyd | a mirror awaiting face and form; and in the silence you hear no plaint Floyd | of flute or roar of gong, but instead the crash of porcelain Floyd | shattering. Floyd | [Please press SPACE to continue.] | inky says, "aha" | |||
| DavidW says, "(I need to eat lunch, but I'll be back shortly.)" | ||||
| inky pushes the green 'space' button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | About the Game Floyd | > The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | maga says, "(okay, she's got an RPG session that conflicts with this, but she'll be reading the transcript. wave, everybody)" | |||
| inky says (to Floyd), "push p" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > About the Game Floyd | The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | ||||
| inky presses the yellow enter button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower was written by Yoon Ha Lee, a dabbler in math, sf/f Floyd | writing, linguistics, and other things, as an entry in IFComp 2002. I Floyd | began coding it in the summer of 2002 when my sister introduced me to Floyd | the evils of Interactive Fiction with Emily Short's Pytho's Mask and Floyd | Andrew Plotkin's Shade. I've since encountered other wonderful Floyd | examples, but those were my first, and what got me hooked. Floyd | Floyd | This is my first attempt at creating Interactive Fiction if you don't Floyd | count Choose Your Own Adventure-type juvenalia written in grade Floyd | school; it's certainly my first effort programming in Inform. Floyd | Floyd | I can be reached at Floyd | Floyd | Yoon Ha Lee Floyd | 39 Montgomery St. #3 Floyd | Cambridge, MA 02140 Floyd | U.S.A. Floyd | Earth Floyd | requiescat@cityofveils.com Floyd | Floyd | for bug reports (transcripts are welcome!), comments, or constructive Floyd | or destructive criticism. And if you really, really liked the game, Floyd | donations (especially of used books) are appreciated. Floyd | [Please press SPACE to continue.] | ||||
| Gunther arrives, full of fun and funk. | * Gunther has joined the channel. | |||
| inky pushes the green 'space' button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | The Moonlit Tower Floyd | N = next option P = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > About the Game Floyd | The Opening Floyd | How to Play Interactive Fiction Floyd | Credits and Acknowledgements Floyd | License Floyd | Revision History Floyd | Hints | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "q" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Moonlit Chamber Floyd | Moonlight diffuses through the walls, tracing out unreadable sigils in Floyd | calligraphies of light and dark. Stairs adorned with bas-relief motifs Floyd | spiral downward. Floyd | Floyd | You can see a porcelain mask here. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "x mask" | ||||
Floyd | The half-mask is the pale, almost bluish color of the finest celadon, Floyd | cracked with uncanny precision down its axis of symmetry. The face in Floyd | its blank, sculpted features has no more personality than new-forged Floyd | steel. Half a mask, though--that must mean the left half is-- Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks (of Alex), "celadon?" | |||
| Alex asks (of maga), "Um, seven?" | ||||
| inky | The term "celadon" for the pottery's pale jade-green glaze was first applied by European connoisseurs of the wares. One theory is that the name first appeared in France in the 17th century and is named after the shepherd Celadon in Honor? d'Urf?'s French pastoral romance, L'Astr?e (1627), who wore pale green ribbons. (D'Urfe, in turn, borrowed his character from Ovid's Metamorphoses.) | ||||
| maga says, "D'Urfe is the best French surname ever" | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "take mask" | ||||
Floyd | Taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "x sigils" | ||||
Floyd | A curious thing, that the walls' stones should admit moonlight. A half Floyd | moon, you think, from the level of illumination: a moment's memory Floyd | suggests nights spent campaigning beneath open sky, but is soon gone. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "x moonlight" | ||||
Floyd | A curious thing, that the walls' stones should admit moonlight. A half Floyd | moon, you think, from the level of illumination: a moment's memory Floyd | suggests nights spent campaigning beneath open sky, but is soon gone. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "wear mask" | ||||
Floyd | The thought of putting this mask on suggests to you a disturbing Floyd | question: how long have you been wearing porcelain as a face? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "x motifs" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor and the breath of silk are familiar. Your face, Floyd | though--when you reach up, it is porcelain that meets your touch on Floyd | the left side, and you cannot remove it, though neither does it impede Floyd | your senses. It seems the left half is a part of you, perhaps no more Floyd | a mask than a hand is a glove... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x hand" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x face" | ||||
Floyd | The half-mask is the pale, almost bluish color of the finest celadon, Floyd | cracked with uncanny precision down its axis of symmetry. The face in Floyd | its blank, sculpted features has no more personality than new-forged Floyd | steel. Half a mask, though--that must mean the left half is-- Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "wear mask" | ||||
Floyd | The thought of putting this mask on suggests to you a disturbing Floyd | question: how long have you been wearing porcelain as a face? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "touch face" | ||||
Floyd | Save for the jagged edge, the mask is cool and glazed-smooth. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "take off mask" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "break mask" | ||||
Floyd | This mask shattered once, and only once, in a terrible clean fracture. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "talk to mask" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "ask mask about me" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "i" | ||||
Floyd | You can only do that to something animate. Floyd | Floyd | > Floyd | You are carrying: Floyd | half a porcelain mask Floyd | armor and silks (worn) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "d" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | Shadows gather around you. For a moment, dregs of light defined by the Floyd | negative space take on the shapes of maple leaf, kite, comb, and other Floyd | shapes that flicker across the walls too rapidly for you to interpret. Floyd | Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I can see why she later did an IF Art Show entry." | |||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "w" | ||||
Floyd | The shapes of light you saw as you entered fade irrevocably. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Silent Symphony Floyd | A single bronze gong hangs from its wooden frame in the room's center. Floyd | There are also silk cushions arranged around the floor in a court Floyd | ensemble's traditional half-circle, but no bamboo flutes or clay Floyd | ocarinas, nine-stringed zithers or singers' unfolding fans, are in Floyd | evidence. A mural that touches each wall in turn gives the room an Floyd | illusion of greater depth. Floyd | Floyd | Two entrances, one east, one north; the former is wrapped in shadow, Floyd | the latter in light. Floyd | Floyd | > | inky says, "yeah, I'd forgotten how, uh, stylized this was" | |||
| Taleslinger asks, "Oops, 'irrevocably', should we undo?" | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "It's vague and dreamy, yeah." | ||||
| inky says, "sure" | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||||
Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "reset save" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| inky clears the save counter. | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "SAVE" | ||||
| inky says (to Floyd), "cf1" | ||||
Floyd | Enter saved game to store: Ok. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x shapes" | ||||
Floyd | Traced in light are leaf, comb, kite: a strange triad. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take leaf" | ||||
Floyd | Improbable, despite the claims of certain scholars. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x leaf" | ||||
Floyd | Autumn is the maple's season, when all things die but fire and sun, Floyd | pine and moon, last guardians before the door into winter and winter's Floyd | snowlocked court. Once you knew a dark-haired woman who always wore Floyd | red, gold and black, the maple's colors, even at the emperor's winter Floyd | court, steadfast against the encroaching fashions of indigo or palest Floyd | blue. She had a low ironic laugh, but she is lost to you.... Floyd | Floyd | Here, surrounded by stone, shadow, light, there is no indication of Floyd | the season. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x comb" | ||||
Floyd | The comb has the curved, tortoise-shell shape that you have seen in Floyd | years past--but is one of the teeth broken? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "yes" | ||||
Floyd | That was a rhetorical question. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "comb hair" | ||||
Floyd | With what comb? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take comb" | ||||
Floyd | Improbable, despite the claims of certain scholars. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x kite" | ||||
Floyd | There should be two kites, not one: brothers and sisters fly them as Floyd | pairs during the kite-fighting auguries of spring. Alas, no wind stirs Floyd | in this dustless place. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | The shapes of light you saw as you entered fade irrevocably. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Barren branches and pines suggest winter's quiet. Metal and wood, Floyd | painted and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of harvest, drought Floyd | or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | You can see a tortoise-shell comb here. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take comb" | ||||
Floyd | Taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "comb hair" | ||||
Floyd | It is a comb for taming a lady's hair, not untangling it--or other Floyd | things. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "compass" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x compass" | ||||
Floyd | The compass is carved from a single piece of jade in which violet and Floyd | green intermingle delicately; the cardinal directions--if such they Floyd | be--are marked by hawk, swallow, crane and feather. More curiously Floyd | still, the needle is of glass, suggesting that it homes to something Floyd | other than the north. Perhaps you can set it yourself? Floyd | Floyd | The needle points to the feather. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep arrives, full of neither funk nor fun. | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "turn needle" | ||||
Floyd | You spin the needle, which settles at a random position. A tasseled Floyd | fan appears upon the compass' surface. The needle points to the crane Floyd | now. You hear a clear chiming sound as the garden's trees and flowers Floyd | move subtly, obedient to this new season. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| ParserGirl says, "Neat." | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Summer's heady blooms are much in evidence. Metal and wood, painted Floyd | and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of harvest, drought or Floyd | rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | On the jade compass is a tasseled fan. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take fan" | ||||
Floyd | Taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x fan" | ||||
Floyd | More remarkable than the fan's intricate designs is the long blue Floyd | tassel that trails from it. It is the kind of fan a lady might carry Floyd | to cool herself during the summer's heat. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "cool myself" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "wave fan" | ||||
Floyd | You look ridiculous waving the tasseled fan. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "(back)" | |||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "fan" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Ghogg arrives, full of fun, but no funk. | inky says, "lame" | |||
| Jacqueline says, "I remember really loving this section." | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "open fan" | ||||
Floyd | The fan itself is fixed, but as you look upon the tassel, it evokes Floyd | the improbable memory of a kitestring tugging against your hand. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "throw fan" | ||||
Floyd | Dropped. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take fan" | ||||
Floyd | Taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "fly fan" | ||||
Floyd | Upon what wings? Floyd | Floyd | > | Taleslinger says, "This feels somewhat old-skoolish. Can't say why," | |||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "Welcome back - and thanks, as ever, to both you and maga for picking up the slack and keeping ClubFloyd up when work is demeanding more of me." | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "remember kitestring" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "think" | ||||
Floyd | What a good idea. Floyd | Floyd | > | schep says, "demeanding is a good word" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "turn over fan" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||||
Floyd | Upon what wings? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "xyzzy" | ||||
Floyd | (No Garden of Unearthly Delights, alas.) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "plugh" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says (to Taleslinger), "iirc, every room has it's own xyzzy message in this game." | |||
| DavidW says, "er, its." | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Summer's heady blooms are much in evidence. Metal and wood, painted Floyd | and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of harvest, drought or Floyd | rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | Taleslinger says, "Wow." | |||
| Taleslinger asks, "Should we explore more?" | ||||
| schep has played this before and half-remembers, so will only half-participate | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "heh. That's me, too, schep." | ||||
| DavidW says (to schep), "I'm kinda in the same boat. I remember some of it." | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "I love it even when we play games I've played and I have to sit out, because it's fun to revisit them through other people's eyes." | ||||
| DavidW says (to Taleslinger), "yeah, you probably should explore a bit. Although not for xyzzy responses." | ||||
| Taleslinger asks, "Wait, who else hasn't played this?" | ||||
| Emerald says, "I haven't." | ||||
| Taleslinger says, "Because I am only here for about 1/2 hour from now." | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Summer's heady blooms are much in evidence. Metal and wood, painted Floyd | and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of harvest, drought or Floyd | rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "w" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table are a banquet of bones and some ivory chopsticks. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "xyzzy" | ||||
Floyd | (Itadakimasu!) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x banquet" | ||||
Floyd | The feast before you seems a mockery, for everywhere upon the plates Floyd | and bowls there is nothing but skeletons artfully pieced together to Floyd | create grotesqueries from ordinary game. A creature half-bird, Floyd | half-rabbit, for one, or a pheasant with extra legs. Yet it is perhaps Floyd | no more grotesque than some of the intrigues that poisoned the Floyd | emperor's court, at times. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x chopsticks" | ||||
Floyd | The chopsticks are pale, almost too slender for practical use, and Floyd | perfectly matched, though one is carved with a dragon, the other with Floyd | a phoenix. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take chopsticks" | ||||
Floyd | Taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Silent Symphony Floyd | A single bronze gong hangs from its wooden frame in the room's center. Floyd | There are also silk cushions arranged around the floor in a court Floyd | ensemble's traditional half-circle, but no bamboo flutes or clay Floyd | ocarinas, nine-stringed zithers or singers' unfolding fans, are in Floyd | evidence. A mural that touches each wall in turn gives the room an Floyd | illusion of greater depth. Floyd | Floyd | Two entrances, one east, one north; the former is wrapped in shadow, Floyd | the latter in light. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x mura?l" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x mural" | ||||
Floyd | The mural shows court ladies whispering to each other in a garden; men Floyd | kneel to float folded-paper poems down the brook for them to read. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "hit gong" | ||||
Floyd | It rings a sonorous note. A faint shiver of music fades, awaiting Floyd | instruction as to the proper piece to play. In the end, nothing Floyd | remains but silence. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "e" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Summer's heady blooms are much in evidence. Metal and wood, painted Floyd | and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of harvest, drought or Floyd | rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "w" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "d" | ||||
Floyd | As your feet meet that first step, a sudden vertigo overtakes you, as Floyd | though you journeyed through skies beyond imagining, across hollow and Floyd | infinite distances. You emerge back where you started: it seems the Floyd | night's hold is too strong here, and you must find some guide-star to Floyd | anchor your way. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x bones" | ||||
Floyd | The feast before you seems a mockery, for everywhere upon the plates Floyd | and bowls there is nothing but skeletons artfully pieced together to Floyd | create grotesqueries from ordinary game. A creature half-bird, Floyd | half-rabbit, for one, or a pheasant with extra legs. Yet it is perhaps Floyd | no more grotesque than some of the intrigues that poisoned the Floyd | emperor's court, at times. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "search bones" | ||||
Floyd | You find nothing of interest. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x constellations" | ||||
Floyd | The arrangement is in the shape of the constellation known as the Floyd | White Archer. Legend says that he shot his love, the Sun, out of the Floyd | sky while hunting. For ten days and nights, the Sun hid her face from Floyd | the world, and ever after, in penance, he exiled himself to the night, Floyd | unable to see her; his faithful horse, the Moon, travels between them, Floyd | bearing messages between the parted lovers. Floyd | Floyd | As to how the Sun was brought back to the world by the phoenix--that Floyd | is another tale. Floyd | Floyd | This seems an ill-fortuned constellation to complement an ill-fortuned Floyd | feast. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "rearrange constellations" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | Taleslinger says, "we still haven't set the dial to the other two seasons" | |||
| DavidW says, "feel free" | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "e" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Summer's heady blooms are much in evidence. Metal and wood, painted Floyd | and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of harvest, drought or Floyd | rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x compass" | ||||
Floyd | The compass is carved from a single piece of jade in which violet and Floyd | green intermingle delicately; the cardinal directions--if such they Floyd | be--are marked by hawk, swallow, crane and feather. More curiously Floyd | still, the needle is of glass, suggesting that it homes to something Floyd | other than the north. Perhaps you can set it yourself? Floyd | Floyd | The needle points to the crane. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "set compass to hawk" | ||||
Floyd | The needle points to the hawk now. You hear a clear chiming sound as Floyd | the garden's trees and flowers move subtly, obedient to this new Floyd | season. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Autumn's fiery colors are evident in the trees and flowers around you. Floyd | Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of Floyd | harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | On the unliving trees is a folded maple leaf. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take leaf" | ||||
Floyd | Taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x leaf" | ||||
Floyd | This cleverly-folded leaf stirs as though, in its secret paper dreams, Floyd | it yearns to fly. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "unfold leaf" | ||||
Floyd | You now have a sheet of red paper. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "fold leaf" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "fold paper" | ||||
Floyd | You now have a folded maple leaf. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "fan leaf" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "put leaf on fan" | ||||
Floyd | Putting things on the tasseled fan would achieve nothing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "unfold leaf. fold paper into crane" | ||||
Floyd | You now have a sheet of red paper. Floyd | I only understood you as far as wanting to fold the sheet of red Floyd | paper. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "make crane" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fold crane" | ||||
Floyd | The crane: unlikely to yield in such a fashion. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "oh well" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "read paper" | ||||
Floyd | It is hard to believe that this sheet of red-dyed mulberry paper can Floyd | take upon the shape of a leaf with folding. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "unfold paper" | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "x paper" | ||||
Floyd | The paper cannot unfold any further. Floyd | Floyd | > Floyd | It is hard to believe that this sheet of red-dyed mulberry paper can Floyd | take upon the shape of a leaf with folding. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "attach chopsticks to paper" | ||||
Floyd | Carefully, you fold the paper and pierce it with the ivory chopsticks Floyd | to form a delicate, string-less kite no larger than your hand. Floyd | Floyd | > | Taleslinger asks (of dw), "Oh?" | |||
| schep says (to Floyd), "x tassel" | ||||
Floyd | The silken strands are longer than your arm. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Nitku was translated with Google. Sorry. | DavidW says, "An earlier response mentioned kites." | |||
| aash29 arrives, ready to play with the toys. | DavidW says, "Perhaps there's a string somewhere." | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly kite" | ||||
Floyd | Without a string, it will dance from your hands with no more care than Floyd | spring's first swallows. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "x fan" | ||||
Floyd | More remarkable than the fan's intricate designs is the long blue Floyd | tassel that trails from it. It is the kind of fan a lady might carry Floyd | to cool herself during the summer's heat. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "oh, the tassel, perhaps?" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x tassel" | ||||
Floyd | The silken strands are longer than your arm. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take tassel" | ||||
Floyd | The tassel is too firmly attached. A knife might serve you better. Floyd | Floyd | > | schep says, "something about the fan suggested its tassel reminded us of a kite string" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "i" | ||||
Floyd | You are carrying: Floyd | a red paper kite with no string Floyd | a tasseled fan Floyd | a lady's tortoise-shell comb Floyd | half a porcelain mask Floyd | armor and silks (worn) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "x comb" | ||||
Floyd | The comb is curved like a smile, though it seems fragile, easily Floyd | broken by a chance hand. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "no knife as yet, I guess" | |||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "set compass to hawk" | ||||
Floyd | The needle points to the hawk now. You hear a clear chiming sound as Floyd | the garden's trees and flowers move subtly, obedient to this new Floyd | season. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Autumn's fiery colors are evident in the trees and flowers around you. Floyd | Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of Floyd | harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks (of Taleslinger), "you realize that probably all these rooms change subtly with the seasons?" | |||
| DavidW says, "The mural and constellations, for example, might be different." | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x hawk" | ||||
Floyd | It was autumn when last you went hawking with the emperor's justiciar. Floyd | Freed of court robes, she soared as surely as the kestrel that raced Floyd | before her; her hair was black and scandalously unbound as the Floyd | red-and-gold ribbons tore away in the wind to land in your waiting Floyd | hand. Autumn... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x crane" | ||||
Floyd | The most auspicious of all birds, save the imperial phoenix. Many a Floyd | summer morning have you gazed upon cranes in flight, whether Floyd | silhouetted against the setting sun or set in abalone-shell upon a Floyd | fine lacquered cabinet, a cloisonne hairpin. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x phoenix" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x swallow" | ||||
Floyd | Spring is the swallows' season, when they return from their sojourn in Floyd | distant lands and signal the kite-flying auguries. If only an augury Floyd | could help you now... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x feather" | ||||
Floyd | Even for the emperor's winter court, the only birds that remain in the Floyd | gardens are the jeweled nightingales, which sing dainty mechanical Floyd | tunes when they are stroked with a feather. Your brother hated them Floyd | passionately, but he listened to them readily enough whenever the Floyd | justiciar asked, with that smile that lit her eyes, though it never Floyd | reached her mouth. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "who is the justiciar" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | Taleslinger says (to dw), "Yeah, interesting thought." | |||
| Jacqueline says, "Reading all this is making me want to write." | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "w" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x bones" | ||||
Floyd | The feast before you seems a mockery, for everywhere upon the plates Floyd | and bowls there is nothing but skeletons artfully pieced together to Floyd | create grotesqueries from ordinary game. A creature half-bird, Floyd | half-rabbit, for one, or a pheasant with extra legs. Yet it is perhaps Floyd | no more grotesque than some of the intrigues that poisoned the Floyd | emperor's court, at times. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x constellations" | ||||
Floyd | The arrangement is in the shape of the constellation known as the Floyd | White Archer. Legend says that he shot his love, the Sun, out of the Floyd | sky while hunting. For ten days and nights, the Sun hid her face from Floyd | the world, and ever after, in penance, he exiled himself to the night, Floyd | unable to see her; his faithful horse, the Moon, travels between them, Floyd | bearing messages between the parted lovers. Floyd | Floyd | As to how the Sun was brought back to the world by the phoenix--that Floyd | is another tale. Floyd | Floyd | This seems an ill-fortuned constellation to complement an ill-fortuned Floyd | feast. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "hm. Were we at 'hawk' earlier?" | |||
| Emerald says, "I don't think so - it's autumn now, and it was summer before." | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Silent Symphony Floyd | A single bronze gong hangs from its wooden frame in the room's center. Floyd | There are also silk cushions arranged around the floor in a court Floyd | ensemble's traditional half-circle, but no bamboo flutes or clay Floyd | ocarinas, nine-stringed zithers or singers' unfolding fans, are in Floyd | evidence. A mural that touches each wall in turn gives the room an Floyd | illusion of greater depth. Floyd | Floyd | Two entrances, one east, one north; the former is wrapped in shadow, Floyd | the latter in light. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x mural" | ||||
Floyd | The mural shows court ladies whispering to each other in a garden; men Floyd | kneel to float folded-paper poems down the brook for them to read. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cushions" | ||||
Floyd | The cushions are dyed in summer colors and embroidered with gold Floyd | thread. You remember finding your brother's terse poetry, written on a Floyd | slip of pale paper, under such a cushion. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "look under cushions" | ||||
Floyd | Beneath one of the cushions you find an ocarina, as though it had been Floyd | left by a careless musician. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x ocarina" | ||||
Floyd | The ocarina is round, tapering at both ends, with eight finger-holes Floyd | and one thumb-hole, a mouthpiece and a hole from which the sound Floyd | emerges. You have seen musicians carry such instruments with them, as Floyd | they are forgiving of the chance accidents that sometimes happen Floyd | outside the sedate confines of a symphony chamber. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play it" | ||||
Floyd | The ocarina's notes are high and sweet. Floyd | Floyd | In this place, they remind you of that first court dance, when you and Floyd | you brother first saw the justiciar, a vision of red and black, a Floyd | flash of gold. Someone played an ocarina that time, too. Flutes, Floyd | zithers and lutes join in the cheerful clamor of instruments being Floyd | tuned, though none of them are to be seen. You hear among the Floyd | instruments the low, melancholy tones of an autumn dirge. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "e" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | > | schep says, "'In this place'..." | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play ocarina" | ||||
Floyd | The ocarina's notes are high and sweet. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Autumn's fiery colors are evident in the trees and flowers around you. Floyd | Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of Floyd | harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play ocarina" | ||||
Floyd | The ocarina's notes are high and sweet. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "w" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play ocarina" | ||||
Floyd | The ocarina's notes are high and sweet. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "take bones" | ||||
Floyd | Uncannily, the bones edge away, suggesting that another approach will Floyd | be necessary. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "dance" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "huh. Make using the chopsticks? We could take the kite apart." | |||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "eat bones" | ||||
Floyd | (first taking the banquet of bones) Floyd | Uncannily, the bones edge away, suggesting that another approach will Floyd | be necessary. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "er, Maybe using [etc}?" | |||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take bones with sticks" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "take banquet with chopsticks" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take chopsticks from kite" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take kite apart" | ||||
Floyd | I only understood you as far as wanting to take the red paper kite. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "disassemble kite" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "split kite" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x kite" | ||||
Floyd | A delicate kite no larger than your hand, though it lacks a string. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "hm. Maybe it can't be taken apart." | |||
| DavidW says, "hope I didn't ruin a puzzle." | ||||
| Emerald says, "If you want to check you could save and restore our first save game." | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x knives" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x table" | ||||
Floyd | The table is lacquered in red and black, carved in elaborate motifs. Floyd | The justiciar would have liked the colors. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x motifs" | ||||
Floyd | The motifs suggest leaf, vine and blossom before retreating into the Floyd | uneasy shapes of abstraction. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "look under table" | ||||
Floyd | You find nothing of interest. Floyd | Floyd | > | Emerald asks, "There's still a season on the compass that we haven't seen, isn't there?" | |||
| DavidW says, "I dunno. I missed the early stuff." | ||||
| Taleslinger says (to em), "I was set to one, we've set it to three others, iirc." | ||||
| Emerald says, "Looking back, we haven't seen spring yet." | ||||
| DavidW asks, "also, what was upstairs?" | ||||
| Taleslinger says, "I must admit I am not really getting into this." | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "e" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Autumn's fiery colors are evident in the trees and flowers around you. Floyd | Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of Floyd | harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x compass" | ||||
Floyd | The compass is carved from a single piece of jade in which violet and Floyd | green intermingle delicately; the cardinal directions--if such they Floyd | be--are marked by hawk, swallow, crane and feather. More curiously Floyd | still, the needle is of glass, suggesting that it homes to something Floyd | other than the north. Perhaps you can set it yourself? Floyd | Floyd | The needle points to the hawk. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "set compass to swallow" | ||||
Floyd | The needle points to the swallow now. You hear a clear chiming sound Floyd | as the garden's trees and flowers move subtly, obedient to this new Floyd | season. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Spring's blossoms and budding trees are here in profusion. Metal and Floyd | wood, painted and sculpted, the false garden is heedless of harvest, Floyd | drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says (to Taleslinger), "My feeling when I played it the first time that it was all really pretty and everything, but it wasn't very clear on what any of it meant." | |||
| schep says (to Floyd), "i" | ||||
Floyd | You are carrying: Floyd | a clay ocarina Floyd | a red paper kite with no string Floyd | a tasseled fan Floyd | a lady's tortoise-shell comb Floyd | half a porcelain mask Floyd | armor and silks (worn) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "x comb" | ||||
Floyd | The comb is curved like a smile, though it seems fragile, easily Floyd | broken by a chance hand. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "break comb" | ||||
Floyd | Three of the long central teeth flex, then snap in your fingers. The Floyd | justiciar wore a comb long-broken as a memento; it proved an uneasy Floyd | prophecy of waking passion and breaking promises. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says, "(undo?)" | schep says, "I don't think it can be made unwinnable" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play comb" | ||||
Floyd | The teeth make a faint, almost musical plucking sound as you run your Floyd | thumb down the comb. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x teeth" | ||||
Floyd | They are of tortoise-shell, like the comb from which they came, and Floyd | span the palm of your hand. Too light for hairpins, too dainty for Floyd | weapons. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "cut silk with teeth" | ||||
Floyd | That seems an unlikely way to cut anything. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "hm. Maybe the teeth are the 'other' chopsticks." | |||
| DavidW says, "try taking the bones with them." | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "dance" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "sing" | ||||
Floyd | A hundred poems set to music suggest themselves to you, an evening's Floyd | pastime among friends and lovers. It is with difficulty that you Floyd | choose one, and too soon it is done. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "w" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take bones with teeth" | ||||
Floyd | Uncannily, the bones edge away, suggesting that another approach will Floyd | be necessary. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "attach teeth to kite" | ||||
Floyd | You would achieve nothing by this. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Silent Symphony Floyd | A single bronze gong hangs from its wooden frame in the room's center. Floyd | There are also silk cushions arranged around the floor in a court Floyd | ensemble's traditional half-circle, but no bamboo flutes or clay Floyd | ocarinas, nine-stringed zithers or singers' unfolding fans, are in Floyd | evidence. A mural that touches each wall in turn gives the room an Floyd | illusion of greater depth. Floyd | Floyd | Two entrances, one east, one north; the former is wrapped in shadow, Floyd | the latter in light. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play teeth" | ||||
Floyd | The comb's teeth seems an unlikely instrument. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play comb" | ||||
Floyd | The teeth make a faint, almost musical plucking sound as you run your Floyd | thumb down the comb. In response, you hear a woman's soft sigh, then Floyd | the businesslike cacophony of instruments being tuned to a new mode. Floyd | Floyd | > | Taleslinger says, "Okay, gotta run." | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x woman" | ||||
Floyd | The ladies wear the fine trailing silks of summer court, and though Floyd | their faces are all but hidden by their fans, the cant of their eyes Floyd | suggests laughter. Floyd | Floyd | > | Taleslinger says, "Have fun." | |||
| Taleslinger bows and closes the door behind him. | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x gong" | ||||
Floyd | The gong stands taller than a man, and its rim is etched with faint Floyd | characters. The surface has no patina; there is no mallet with which Floyd | to strike it and signal the absent musicians to begin. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Bye, Taleslinger." | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x mural" | ||||
Floyd | The mural shows court ladies whispering to each other in a garden; men Floyd | kneel to float folded-paper poems down the brook for them to read. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "touch mural" | ||||
Floyd | The walls seem to ripple at your touch, as though echoing the eddies Floyd | and flow of a brook. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x men" | ||||
Floyd | They wear somber colors in contrast to the ladies, though their Floyd | expressions are amused rather than grave. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "strike gong" | ||||
Floyd | It rings a sonorous note. In the delicate layering of sound you can Floyd | hear the lutes, the plaint of flutes like the cries of wild geese. The Floyd | music fades note by note, like the best of autumn nights. The mural Floyd | appears to have shifted subtly, like a hand seen beneath the surface Floyd | of water. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x poems" | ||||
Floyd | The poets' sentiments are written on sheets of paper in faded colors, Floyd | but the details were known to the painter alone. You know poems of Floyd | your own, though, written in past pain and longing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x mural" | ||||
Floyd | The mural shows court ladies reading folded-paper poems that they have Floyd | just fished from the brook; men stand upstream, watching their faces. Floyd | In the northeast, a passageway stands open to the court beyond. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| maga says (to Floyd), "take poems" | ||||
Floyd | The walls seem to ripple at your touch, as though echoing the eddies Floyd | and flow of a brook. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "oh. northeast passage open" | |||
| maga says (to Floyd), "recite poem" | ||||
Floyd | ("Walk silently in the shadow of the sunrise,
Floyd | knowing the warmth of days, of words and whispers,
Floyd | shall never touch you again.")
Floyd |
Floyd | >
| ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "play ocarina" | ||||
Floyd | The ocarina's notes are high and sweet. Floyd | Floyd | In this place, they remind you of that first court dance, when you and Floyd | you brother first saw the justiciar, a vision of red and black, a Floyd | flash of gold. Someone played an ocarina that time, too. Flutes, Floyd | zithers and lutes join in the cheerful clamor of instruments being Floyd | tuned, though none of them are to be seen. One of the flutes runs Floyd | through a storm of arpeggios, suggesting the spring's wild winds. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "shall we go northeast?" | |||
| schep says (to Floyd), "strike gong" | ||||
Floyd | It rings a sonorous note. In the end, nothing remains but silence. Floyd | Floyd | > | Emerald says, "I vote yes" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Silent Symphony Floyd | A single bronze gong hangs from its wooden frame in the room's center. Floyd | There are also silk cushions arranged around the floor in a court Floyd | ensemble's traditional half-circle, but no bamboo flutes or clay Floyd | ocarinas, nine-stringed zithers or singers' unfolding fans, are in Floyd | evidence. A mural that touches each wall in turn gives the room an Floyd | illusion of greater depth. Floyd | Floyd | Two entrances, one east, one north; the former is wrapped in shadow, Floyd | the latter in light. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "ne" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Court of Lanterns Floyd | Lanterns hang from the ceiling in a constellation of soft and shining Floyd | stars. Tapestries on the wall promise tales of splendor and grace, Floyd | while folding screens partition the room, if incompletely, as they are Floyd | no real barrier to eye or foot. Floyd | Floyd | > | Ghogg says, "I remember simply clinging to the walkthrough the whole way." | |||
| maga says, "me too" | ||||
| DavidW asks, "But aren't there multiple endings to this one?" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x tapestries" | ||||
Floyd | The tapestries show, in no particular sequence, the legend of the Sun Floyd | in hiding. The dragon and the phoenix, both brothers, see her where Floyd | she hides: the dragon glories in the untamed sky while the phoenix Floyd | sings to soothe the Sun, and at last carries her on his back to the Floyd | waiting world. Floyd | Floyd | As to why the Sun went into hiding, and the injury done to her--that Floyd | is another tale. Floyd | Floyd | Mysteriously, a passage is woven into the tapestries, suggesting that Floyd | southwest lies a way out of the legend. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "I thought it'd be nice to see some puzzle-minded people tackle it" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play ocarina" | ||||
Floyd | The ocarina's notes are high and sweet. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "play comb" | ||||
Floyd | The teeth make a faint, almost musical plucking sound as you run your Floyd | thumb down the comb. Floyd | Floyd | > | Ghogg says, "it's odd. sometimes I can solve a really tough puzzle game, but mind has to get in the perfect groove" | |||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x screens" | ||||
Floyd | The screens are of paper over bamboo, and their arrangement seems Floyd | intended to allow fleeting moments of privacy rather than to serve as Floyd | any real barrier. The brushstroke paintings show cats frolicking among Floyd | flowers and butterflies. Floyd | Floyd | Before your parents died, you and your brother used to run among the Floyd | screens as though they were a labyrinth, tripping over hems and Floyd | searching for abandoned letters. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x sun" | ||||
Floyd | The weavers suggested the Sun's shape indistinctly within a nimbus of Floyd | light. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "x phoenix" | ||||
Floyd | With its fanciful plumage in the colors of fire and sun, the phoenix Floyd | looks like a figure of legend indeed. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "open screens" | ||||
Floyd | They're not something you can open. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "move screens" | ||||
Floyd | The folding screens already has a place in the world's reckoning. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "x dragon" | ||||
Floyd | With its pearly scales and sinuous twinings, the dragon looks like a Floyd | figure of legend indeed. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "search screens" | ||||
Floyd | Following the elusive smell of plum blossoms, you find a strangely Floyd | insubstantial lantern half-fallen beyond one of the screens. It hovers Floyd | near your shoulder like an errant star. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x lantern" | ||||
Floyd | (the paper lanterns) Floyd | The lanterns are hung in an artful scattering, hinting at unseen Floyd | constellations. Their glow is warmer than the moonlight slanting Floyd | through the walls. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x insubstantial lantern" | ||||
Floyd | The lantern floats behind you, following you almost apologetically. Floyd | Its glow flickers gently. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take it" | ||||
Floyd | Though the lantern follows you like an errant star, it refuses to be Floyd | touched. Floyd | Floyd | > | Emerald says, "maybe we can go downstairs now" | |||
| DavidW says, "hm. yes. Just thinking that." | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "i" | ||||
Floyd | You are carrying: Floyd | an insubstantial lantern (floating behind your shoulder) Floyd | three comb's teeth Floyd | a clay ocarina Floyd | a red paper kite with no string Floyd | a tasseled fan Floyd | a lady's tortoise-shell comb (broken) Floyd | half a porcelain mask Floyd | armor and silks (worn) Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "It said we needed a guide-star." | |||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "enter screens" | ||||
Floyd | They're not something you can enter. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "follow screens" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "sw" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Silent Symphony Floyd | A single bronze gong hangs from its wooden frame in the room's center. Floyd | There are also silk cushions arranged around the floor in a court Floyd | ensemble's traditional half-circle, but no bamboo flutes or clay Floyd | ocarinas, nine-stringed zithers or singers' unfolding fans, are in Floyd | evidence. A mural that touches each wall in turn gives the room an Floyd | illusion of greater depth. Floyd | Floyd | Two entrances, one east, one north; the former is wrapped in shadow, Floyd | the latter in light. Floyd | Floyd | > | schep says, "the exit was sw, if that's what you want" | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "d" | ||||
Floyd | The lantern behind you brightens as you approach the stairs, anchoring Floyd | a path for you through the sea of stars. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | Memory overtakes you as you enter: you and your brother speaking to Floyd | each other in low, tense voices (not shouting, never shouting before Floyd | her) until the justiciar bids you leave, curtly. The next day, when Floyd | the emperor stripped her of her rank, and neither you nor your brother Floyd | had the influence to free her from the court's machinations--you have Floyd | lived that day over and over, more than any man ought. Floyd | Floyd | You see silhouettes out of the corner of your eye: blade, hand, a Floyd | woman's hair floating long and free; they elude any attempt to view Floyd | them directly, as though they ceased to dance across the walls when Floyd | you do so. Floyd | Floyd | Hawks painted in gold and brown soar along the walls. It is strangely Floyd | warm here, as though fires lived just beyond your perception. The Floyd | entire hall is open to the wind and warmth, unobstructed except by Floyd | your presence. Floyd | Floyd | Stairs of darkest marble circle upward. A passageway leads south into Floyd | clear, colorless light. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "hm. Would this be the Hall of Cranes/Feathers/Swallows in other seasons?" | |||
| Emerald says, "We're on swallows now, so I guess not" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x hawks" | ||||
Floyd | A splendor of hawks in flight, each feather meticulously painted. Each Floyd | one has a woman's dark eyes instead of a raptor's golden gaze. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x silhouettes" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x blade" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x light" | ||||
Floyd | Subtle gradations characterize the light in this room, as though it Floyd | were filtered by great wings. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | As you approach, you realize that the shadows split the passageway in Floyd | a terrible clean fracture, and your face aches unbearably; only when Floyd | you move away does the pain ease. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x m" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor and the breath of silk are familiar. Your face, Floyd | though--when you reach up, it is porcelain that meets your touch on Floyd | the left side, and you cannot remove it, though neither does it impede Floyd | your senses. It seems the left half is a part of you, perhaps no more Floyd | a mask than a hand is a glove... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "wear mask" | ||||
Floyd | Suddenly and disturbingly inspired by the riven passage to the south, Floyd | you lift the mask to your face, momentarily shadowing your vision. Floyd | When you can see clearly again, the mask has been rejoined Floyd | flawlessly--and the shadows close around the passageway. Yours is the Floyd | dragon's perfection, the dark journey skyward, as you have chosen. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x mask" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x passageway" | ||||
Floyd | If you look south, this passage leads into clear, colorless light, Floyd | though you cannot see what lies beyond it. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | The shadows hold no more place for you. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "i" | ||||
Floyd | You are carrying: Floyd | an insubstantial lantern (floating behind your shoulder) Floyd | three comb's teeth Floyd | a clay ocarina Floyd | a red paper kite with no string Floyd | a tasseled fan Floyd | a lady's tortoise-shell comb (broken) Floyd | armor and silks (worn) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor, the breath of silk, and now the chill perfection Floyd | of porcelain that serves you as a face, and shall forevermore. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "yeah, we've chosen dragon over phoenix. So we have to go to the ending that isn't here." | |||
| Emerald asks, "should we go back and save so we can see the other ending?" | ||||
| DavidW says, "er, the wearing of the mask was the critical step." | ||||
| Emerald says (to DavidW), "I guessed that" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||||
Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||||
Floyd | [Can't "undo" twice in succession. Sorry!] Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "I suppose you can /undo until that is undone, then save." | |||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "undo" | ||||
Floyd | [Can't "undo" twice in succession. Sorry!] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Gunther has had his fill of playing for now, and goes back to the Lounge. | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor, the breath of silk, and now the chill perfection Floyd | of porcelain that serves you as a face, and shall forevermore. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "/undo" | ||||
Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | [Previous turn undone.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor and the breath of silk are familiar. Your face, Floyd | though--when you reach up, it is porcelain that meets your touch on Floyd | the left side, and you cannot remove it, though neither does it impede Floyd | your senses. It seems the left half is a part of you, perhaps no more Floyd | a mask than a hand is a glove... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "save" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "cf2" | ||||
Floyd | Enter saved game to store: Ok. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "wear mask" | ||||
Floyd | Suddenly and disturbingly inspired by the riven passage to the south, Floyd | you lift the mask to your face, momentarily shadowing your vision. Floyd | When you can see clearly again, the mask has been rejoined Floyd | flawlessly--and the shadows close around the passageway. Yours is the Floyd | dragon's perfection, the dark journey skyward, as you have chosen. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | Hawks painted in gold and brown soar along the walls. It is strangely Floyd | warm here, as though fires lived just beyond your perception. The Floyd | entire hall is open and unobstructed except by your presence. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "up" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Passage of Storms Floyd | Cherry blossoms and lilacs, kite-flying auguries and newly-budding Floyd | leaves: the trappings of spring are far beneath you now, though the Floyd | kite is a red speck dancing in the storm. The moonlit tower lays open Floyd | beneath you, and lightning and storm clouds gather around you. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x clouds" | ||||
Floyd | It is night, now and always, with the storm clouds and lightning your Floyd | constant companions. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x kite" | ||||
Floyd | (the red kite) Floyd | Caught in the grip of gale and rain, the kite dances, a last reminder Floyd | of the human things you are leaving behind. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x tower" | ||||
Floyd | In its way the moonlit tower is like any other tower, despite the Floyd | strange things trapped within; you are part of them no longer. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "maybe you can fly now?" | |||
| DavidW asks, "or go up again?" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "fly" | ||||
Floyd | The sky is yours, in a dance unending, and you have shed your past Floyd | (her eyes, the hand upon the blade, the blood, your brother's white Floyd | and anguished face) as you ascend to your place in the zodiac. Floyd | Floyd | *** You have won *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | In that game you scored 0 out of a possible 0, in 166 turns. Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, see some suggestions Floyd | for AMUSING things to do or QUIT? Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "woo" | |||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "amusing" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Some Final Words Floyd | N = next optionP = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > Amusing Things to Try Floyd | For the Copyright-Conscious Sonnet-Reciter Floyd | Notes on Development and Setting (Long) Floyd | A Last Apology | ||||
| Emerald presses the yellow enter button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Have you... Floyd | Floyd | ...been meeped at? Floyd | ...found the game's one Easter Egg? Floyd | ...discovered what XYZZY does (or doesn't do) for you? Floyd | ...tried to take off your armor? Floyd | ...examined yourself at various points in the game? Floyd | ...played the comb? Floyd | ...unfolded the sheet of red paper? Floyd | ...folded the leaf? Floyd | ...touched the compass' various symbols? Floyd | ...climbed the compass? Floyd | ...climbed the bronze gong? Floyd | ...investigated the compass' repercussions outside the garden? Floyd | ...bathed? (One hopes so...) Floyd | ...recited a sonnet? Floyd | ...found all the game's variant endings? Floyd | Floyd | (Yes, I admit it: only the custom(ized) verbs actually needed to get Floyd | through the meat of the game are listed in the ABOUT/HELP menu.) Floyd | [Please press SPACE to continue.] | ||||
| Emerald pushes the green 'space' button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Some Final Words Floyd | N = next optionP = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > Amusing Things to Try Floyd | For the Copyright-Conscious Sonnet-Reciter Floyd | Notes on Development and Setting (Long) Floyd | A Last Apology | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "q" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, see some suggestions Floyd | for AMUSING things to do or QUIT? Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "restore" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "cf2" | ||||
Floyd | Enter saved game to load: Ok. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "This time, break the mask." | |||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "break mask" | ||||
Floyd | Suddenly and terribly inspired by the shadowed passage to the south, Floyd | you smash the half-mask upon your own face. The pain nearly blinds Floyd | you. When you can see again, both halves of the mask are gone--and the Floyd | passageway stands open, free of shadow. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x passageway" | ||||
Floyd | If you look south, this passage leads into clear, colorless light, Floyd | though you cannot see what lies beyond it. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Hall of Doors Floyd | At first, this place of polished surfaces seems like a profusion of Floyd | mirrors and a kaleidoscope of doors. Looking more closely, though, all Floyd | doors are one, save the one you came from. The peculiar translucence Floyd | of the walls suggests that it is growing light out. Floyd | Floyd | Northward, a passageway no longer riven by shadow returns to the rest Floyd | of the tower; across from it stands a door to the south. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor, the breath of silk, and now the strangeness of Floyd | flesh, fully freed from its prison of porcelain, from now until the Floyd | end of your story. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x doors" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "remove armor" | ||||
Floyd | This would not be proper. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x light" | ||||
Floyd | The light here has a clarity rarely found except in dreams or Floyd | childhood, through which everyone must pass eventually. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x walls" | ||||
Floyd | The walls are smooth and polished, reflecting every chance movement. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x door" | ||||
Floyd | The door is of the same strange stone that characterizes the tower. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "feel walls" | ||||
Floyd | The silent, smooth perfection of stone. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| schep says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor, the breath of silk, and now the strangeness of Floyd | flesh, fully freed from its prison of porcelain, from now until the Floyd | end of your story. Floyd | Floyd | > | Emerald asks, "Go through the door?" | |||
| DavidW says, "I guess so, yeah" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "open door" | ||||
Floyd | Swallows soaring and tumbling, the flowerfall of cherry blossom Floyd | petals, a wind that needs no kites to augur good fortune. The paths Floyd | you take are your own, now, no matter what jealousies you and your Floyd | brother exchanged, knotted too deeply to be disentangled in past Floyd | dreams. Floyd | Floyd | You leave the tower behind you, no longer trapped by the tyranny of Floyd | moonlight. The rest of your story is your own to tell and cherish, as Floyd | you walk past the tower's broken boundaries and into the rest of your Floyd | awakening. Floyd | Floyd | *** You have won *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | In that game you scored 0 out of a possible 0, in 170 turns. Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, see some suggestions Floyd | for AMUSING things to do or QUIT? Floyd | > | Emerald asks, "is it possible to get the bones, and fly the kite?" | |||
| Jacqueline asks (of Emerald), "Is this your first time playing this?" | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "I'm looking at my old notes, and yes, flying the kite is possible." | ||||
Floyd | Please give one of the answers above. Floyd | > | schep says, "I think I did fly the kite" | |||
| DavidW says, "I'm looking at my old notes, and yes, flying the kite is possible." | ||||
| schep says, "dunno about the bones" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Jacq), "yes" | ||||
| Jacqueline says (to Emerald), "I'm just curious what you think of it, having just played it for the first time." | ||||
| DavidW says, "We need to cut the tassel with the dagger to get the string." | ||||
| schep asks, "what dagger?" | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "Though feel free to wait and answer after you've tried to explore another ending, Emerald." | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "If that's what you're going to try to do." | ||||
| DavidW says (to schep), "I think it's in the armory." | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "restore" | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cf2" | ||||
Floyd | Enter saved game to load: Ok. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "u" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "e" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Spring's blossoms and budding trees are here in profusion. Your Floyd | lantern gives the chamber a quality of sharp angles at odds with the Floyd | careful arrangements. Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false Floyd | garden is heedless of harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | The lantern seems to have no effect on the shadows that reside here, Floyd | which remind you of long nights standing sentry, straining your eyes Floyd | against the darkness. Floyd | Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x shadow" | ||||
Floyd | Weapons line the walls, writ in shadow--yet you know their heft and Floyd | balance, the patterns of movement that make one deadly in attack and Floyd | another impenetrable in defense. If only you knew, as well, the Floyd | histories of blood, patronage and betrayal--or loyalty--that they Floyd | represent. Floyd | Floyd | One of the weapons is more substantial than you realized at first, a Floyd | bronze-hilted dagger with a tassel hanging from the pommel. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "take dagger" | ||||
Floyd | Taken. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x dagger" | ||||
Floyd | Such daggers rarely leave the hands of the justiciars who wield them Floyd | as their symbol of office. A white tassel hangs from the pommel of the Floyd | hilt. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x white tassel" | ||||
Floyd | The silken strands are white, for death. The justiciar's last resort, Floyd | someone said to you once--or did you say it? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x tassel" | ||||
Floyd | The silken strands are white, for death. The justiciar's last resort, Floyd | someone said to you once--or did you say it? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cut it with dagger" | ||||
Floyd | The fan's blue tassel may serve you better. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "cut blue tassel with dagger" | ||||
Floyd | A few neat cuts free some strands from the tassel, and tying them Floyd | together results in--a kitestring? Floyd | Floyd | For a second there is a dark-eyed boy beside you, whose laugh is Floyd | yours, but wilder; whose smile is yours, but wider. If only you Floyd | remembered the augury that you and your brother cast that spring in Floyd | the kite-flying ritual, years before either of you met the woman who Floyd | wore black and red and gold... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "tie string to kite" | ||||
Floyd | Though it takes some patience, you tie the kitestring to the kite. Floyd | Surely a season of gales and newborn blossoms awaits you, even in this Floyd | skyless tower. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Spring's blossoms and budding trees are here in profusion. Your Floyd | lantern gives the chamber a quality of sharp angles at odds with the Floyd | careful arrangements. Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false Floyd | garden is heedless of harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x swallow" | ||||
Floyd | Spring is the swallows' season, when they return from their sojourn in Floyd | distant lands and signal the kite-flying auguries. If only an augury Floyd | could help you now... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "turn compass to swallow" | ||||
Floyd | The needle points to the swallow now. You hear a clear chiming sound Floyd | as the garden's trees and flowers move subtly, obedient to this new Floyd | season. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "fly kite" | ||||
Floyd | Spring: the season of augury. Red and black and gold, maple colors, Floyd | kite colors; you no longer know which. A breeze stirs through the Floyd | room, though the trees and flowers are no more affected by it than Floyd | they would be by the sun's earnest light or a plague of locusts. Floyd | Nevertheless, you hear the hollow sound of something being dislodged Floyd | from one of the trees. Floyd | Floyd | It was spring when your kite and your brother's became too entangled Floyd | for one glass-edged string to cut the other's, for one to conquer the Floyd | other, though entangled they flew yet; and spring when you were first Floyd | parted from your brother on his first campaign and yours, two Floyd | fatherless boys entering the emperor's service as adults. Floyd | Floyd | The kite tugs from your hand, as impatient as a hawk winning free of Floyd | hood; dances perilously upward upon the wings of this nowhere breeze; Floyd | and disappears. Floyd | Floyd | The breeze swells to a gale that rears southward and upward, seeking Floyd | the sky in this enclosed and skyless room. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Spring's blossoms and budding trees are here in profusion. Your Floyd | lantern gives the chamber a quality of sharp angles at odds with the Floyd | careful arrangements. Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false Floyd | garden is heedless of harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x trees" | ||||
Floyd | Bamboo groves, graceful though ungrowing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x breeze" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "hm. Guess we have to go south and up to see what got dislodged." | |||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | The lantern seems to have no effect on the shadows that reside here, Floyd | which remind you of long nights standing sentry, straining your eyes Floyd | against the darkness. Floyd | Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | A wind gallops toward the stairs, seeking the sky. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "u" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Moonlit Chamber Floyd | Moonlight diffuses through the walls, tracing out unreadable sigils in Floyd | calligraphies of light and dark. Upwards, the sky is open to your Floyd | eyes. The lantern brightens slightly, like a star as the night grows Floyd | deeper. Stairs adorned with bas-relief motifs spiral downward. Floyd | Floyd | Wind flings itself up the walls and toward the sky; you have but to Floyd | look up. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "look up" | ||||
Floyd | The night spreads her wings above you, and shows no sign of welcoming Floyd | her sister of the sunborn day. Constellations jewel the sky, Floyd | half-hidden by clouds like nestling feathers: the Heavenly Horse and Floyd | the Imperial Chrysanthemum. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x horse" | ||||
Floyd | The star-stallion rears like the chargers you once rode. The justiciar Floyd | herself preferred such spirited mounts. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "x chrysanthemum" | ||||
Floyd | It is the first among constellations, open to the eyes of all people Floyd | unlike the emperor himself. You and your brother saw him only once, Floyd | when he called on you to stand together for your family's name. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "ride horse" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x motifs" | ||||
Floyd | You can't see any such thing. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x stairs" | ||||
Floyd | Each step is carved upon the side in bas-relief, though the design is Floyd | abstract. Floyd | Floyd | > | schep says, "I think that story may have been it" | |||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "d" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | The lantern seems to have no effect on the shadows that reside here, Floyd | which remind you of long nights standing sentry, straining your eyes Floyd | against the darkness. Floyd | Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Spring's blossoms and budding trees are here in profusion. Your Floyd | lantern gives the chamber a quality of sharp angles at odds with the Floyd | careful arrangements. Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false Floyd | garden is heedless of harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "search trees" | ||||
Floyd | You find nothing of interest. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x me" | ||||
Floyd | The weight of armor and the breath of silk are familiar. Your face, Floyd | though--when you reach up, it is porcelain that meets your touch on Floyd | the left side, and you cannot remove it, though neither does it impede Floyd | your senses. It seems the left half is a part of you, perhaps no more Floyd | a mask than a hand is a glove... Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "I'm not sure what good it does to get the horse and chrysanthemum constellations." | |||
| DavidW says, "My notes have nothing about the banquet of bones, but I seem to remember that something can be done with them." | ||||
| vimes arrives, ready to play with the toys. | Emerald asks, "What about the thing "disloged from one of the trees"?" | |||
| Emerald asks, "Is it findable?" | ||||
| DavidW says, "We found it. It was the horse and chrysanthemum." | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "save" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "cf3" | ||||
Floyd | Enter saved game to store: Ok. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "restore" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "cf1" | ||||
Floyd | Enter saved game to load: Ok. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Shadow Armory Floyd | Curiously, the only weapons here live amid light and cannot be worn: Floyd | they are silhouettes flung against the walls. Stairs carved with Floyd | bas-reliefs spiral upward. Floyd | Floyd | Northward and westward lie passageways unhindered by door or folding Floyd | screen. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "u" | ||||
Floyd | The shapes of light you saw as you entered fade irrevocably. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Moonlit Chamber Floyd | Moonlight diffuses through the walls, tracing out unreadable sigils in Floyd | calligraphies of light and dark. Stairs adorned with bas-relief motifs Floyd | spiral downward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "moonlight" | ||||
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognise. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x moonlight" | ||||
Floyd | A curious thing, that the walls' stones should admit moonlight. A half Floyd | moon, you think, from the level of illumination: a moment's memory Floyd | suggests nights spent campaigning beneath open sky, but is soon gone. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "look up" | ||||
Floyd | The ceiling above is only a ceiling. Floyd | Floyd | > | Emerald says, "I don't remember whether we even came up here while we were exploring at the beginning." | |||
| DavidW says, "The kite 'ritual' is supposedly an augury, but I'm not sure what to think about an augury that leaves one more puzzled and confused." | ||||
| schep asks, "is that where the game starts?" | ||||
| DavidW says, "yeah, the game starts in this room." | ||||
| Emerald says, "Oh, that's right" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "x armor" | ||||
Floyd | Both armor and silk are in black and gold, night and sun, skins Floyd | without sensation. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "restore" | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "cf3" | ||||
Floyd | Enter saved game to load: Ok. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "l" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Undying Garden Floyd | Spring's blossoms and budding trees are here in profusion. Your Floyd | lantern gives the chamber a quality of sharp angles at odds with the Floyd | careful arrangements. Metal and wood, painted and sculpted, the false Floyd | garden is heedless of harvest, drought or rain. Floyd | Floyd | A jade compass rests at the garden's metaphysical center, between Floyd | translucence and opacity, curve and line, and other dichotomies too Floyd | subtle for your eye. A gentle warmth from the surface invites touch. Floyd | Floyd | Transactions of light show other rooms southward and westward. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "w" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Skeletal Banquet Floyd | It seems this is a banquet room, if a banquet had no especial place Floyd | for people to dine. Glassware and stoneware are arranged in deliberate Floyd | shapes, as though they are constellations. Floyd | Floyd | South lies a chamber of brooding silence, and a vague, sweet fragrance Floyd | comes from the east. Stairs of blackest marble lead downward. Floyd | Floyd | On the table is a banquet of bones. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "d" | ||||
Floyd | The lantern behind you brightens as you approach the stairs, anchoring Floyd | a path for you through the sea of stars. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Hall of Hawks Floyd | You see silhouettes out of the corner of your eye: blade, hand, a Floyd | woman's hair floating long and free; they elude any attempt to view Floyd | them directly, as though they ceased to dance across the walls when Floyd | you do so. Floyd | Floyd | Hawks painted in gold and brown soar along the walls. It is strangely Floyd | warm here, as though fires lived just beyond your perception. The Floyd | entire hall is open to the wind and warmth, unobstructed except by Floyd | your presence. Floyd | Floyd | Stairs of darkest marble circle upward. A passageway leads south into Floyd | clear, colorless light. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "break mask" | ||||
Floyd | Suddenly and terribly inspired by the shadowed passage to the south, Floyd | you smash the half-mask upon your own face. The pain nearly blinds Floyd | you. When you can see again, both halves of the mask are gone--and the Floyd | passageway stands open, free of shadow. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Hall of Doors Floyd | At first, this place of polished surfaces seems like a profusion of Floyd | mirrors and a kaleidoscope of doors. Looking more closely, though, all Floyd | doors are one, save the one you came from. The peculiar translucence Floyd | of the walls suggests that it is growing light out. Floyd | Floyd | Northward, a passageway no longer riven by shadow returns to the rest Floyd | of the tower; across from it stands a door to the south. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "s" | ||||
Floyd | You can't, since the door is in the way. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "open door" | ||||
Floyd | Swallows soaring and tumbling, the flowerfall of cherry blossom Floyd | petals, a wind that needs no kites to augur good fortune. The paths Floyd | you take are your own, now, no matter what jealousies you and your Floyd | brother exchanged, knotted too deeply to be disentangled in past Floyd | dreams. Floyd | Floyd | You leave the tower behind you, no longer trapped by the tyranny of Floyd | moonlight. The rest of your story is your own to tell and cherish, as Floyd | you walk past the tower's broken boundaries and into the rest of your Floyd | awakening. Floyd | Floyd | *** You have won *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | In that game you scored 0 out of a possible 0, in 193 turns. Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, see some suggestions Floyd | for AMUSING things to do or QUIT? Floyd | > | Emerald says, "I guess it doesn't really matter whether you fly the kite or not." | |||
| DavidW says, "yeah, it's an extra." | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "amusing" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Some Final Words Floyd | N = next optionP = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | > Amusing Things to Try Floyd | For the Copyright-Conscious Sonnet-Reciter Floyd | Notes on Development and Setting (Long) Floyd | A Last Apology | ||||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Some Final Words Floyd | N = next optionP = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Amusing Things to Try Floyd | > For the Copyright-Conscious Sonnet-Reciter Floyd | Notes on Development and Setting (Long) Floyd | A Last Apology | ||||
| Emerald presses the yellow enter button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | If you've found some of the various poetry fragments in the game, rest Floyd | assured that anything you don't recognize immediately is by yours Floyd | truly. In particular, one of the fragments is from my short story Floyd | "Alas, Lirette," in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Floyd | January 2001. Chalk it down to a moment of hubris. Plus, it amused me. Floyd | And you may safely conclude that I am easily amused. Floyd | [Please press SPACE to continue.] | ||||
| Emerald pushes the green 'space' button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Some Final Words Floyd | N = next optionP = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Amusing Things to Try Floyd | > For the Copyright-Conscious Sonnet-Reciter Floyd | Notes on Development and Setting (Long) Floyd | A Last Apology | DavidW says, "I think the barebones of the game is just find the lantern, see the split light in the Hall, wear or break the mask, then go up and fly or south and out." | |||
| Emerald says (to Floyd), "n" | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Some Final Words Floyd | N = next optionP = previous Floyd | RETURN = select option Q = resume game Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Amusing Things to Try Floyd | For the Copyright-Conscious Sonnet-Reciter Floyd | > Notes on Development and Setting (Long) Floyd | A Last Apology | ||||
| Emerald presses the yellow enter button. | ||||
Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | This game's genesis can be blamed on two things: my sister's sudden Floyd | discovery of and addiction to Interactive Fiction (IF), and my Floyd | fascination with myth and symbol. Floyd | Floyd | For the first, it's probably several kinds of insane to enter one's Floyd | first work of IF in the IFComp. (I'm told that "this is my first game" Floyd | is a bad way to start an entry...?) I found it to be several kinds of Floyd | educational, though--I knew beta-testers were helpful and generous Floyd | souls, but I hadn't realized how helpful and generous they were!--and Floyd | the deadline encouraged me to finish the project instead of leaving it Floyd | to float in limbo. Floyd | Floyd | The fact that this is my first game also led to certain design Floyd | decisions. For one thing, no NPCs. I admire the depth of conversation Floyd | available in games like Emily Short's Pytho's Mask, but I peeked at Floyd | the coding necessary to implement the most basic ASK/TELL system and Floyd | concluded there was no way I was going to learn enough Inform to do a Floyd | convincing job with one NPC, let alone several, within the time frame Floyd | available. Implementing the inanimate jade compass and its associated Floyd | seasonal changes turned out to be enough of a headache. I thought of Floyd | having the player wake up in a tomb (generally a good reason for other Floyd | people to be absent), the opening lines "No, not a prison..." came to Floyd | me, and I was off and running. Floyd | Floyd | (Aside: For an idea of the time I had available: I started learning Floyd | Inform sometime in July. I got married on 3 August 2002, which was Floyd | rather more of a priority, and moved from Ithaca, NY to Boston in Floyd | mid-August. And my husband is already resigned to the fact that he's Floyd | going to hear me muttering arcanely about "forgot to give it Floyd | pluralname" and "you should be scenery" when I'm at my computer.) Floyd | Floyd | For another, the tower was a deliberately extensible (or collapsible) Floyd | design in that I figured I could add as many "levels" or floors as I Floyd | had time for, with a small number of rooms per level. Hence, a wimpy Floyd | three-storey tower with only half-a-dozen rooms. And no, I don't plan Floyd | on adding more floors. I think I'm burned out on towers. Floyd | Floyd | I also made the mistake of making up puzzles as I went along, which Floyd | will not happen again. The only reason I got away with it (or not, as Floyd | the case may be) was the small size of the game. It has, however, Floyd | gotten me thinking about modular puzzle design, which might be a good Floyd | thing, though unfortunately it isn't immediately useful to you. Floyd | Floyd | The setting itself draws loosely from Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Floyd | Mongolian sources, though you won't find any isomorphisms. I took Floyd | considerable liberty with the phoenix and dragon; the Heavenly Horse, Floyd | which appears in a famous Shilla (Korean) tomb, was co-opted into a Floyd | Moon-figure. The tale of the White Archer was adapted from "The Legend Floyd | of Erkhii Mergen, the Archer," which you can find in Hillary Roe Floyd | Metternich's Mongolian Folktales, but I collided it with the Japanese Floyd | and Chinese tales of the sun going into hiding and having to be sung Floyd | back into the world. The chrysanthemum is a familiar Japanese symbol, Floyd | and some of the earliest ocarinas were found in China. Kite-flying Floyd | (and sometimes fighting, as well as various militant uses) were Floyd | recorded from early times in China, Korea, and/or Japan. And for Floyd | seasonal motifs I drew freely on my years in Korea, where my parents Floyd | were born. Floyd | Floyd | One element had nothing to do with mythology, and came from a homebrew Floyd | roleplaying setting: the Brixten Shanai, a tower whose starry stairs Floyd | stretched endlessly into the void. A minor thing, perhaps, but it has Floyd | some nostalgia value for me and my sister. Floyd | Floyd | Finally, one of the attractions of this medium for me is that it Floyd | allows me both to exercise rusty computer programming skills (though Floyd | arguably Andrew Plotkin's Lists and Lists would do that too!) and my Floyd | writing skills. After getting used to linear storytelling, it was an Floyd | interesting exercise trying to find some way of conveying a sense of Floyd | story and setting without "railroading" the player overmuch. I've also Floyd | been on a crusade for non-visual sensory details ever since I read Floyd | Poul Anderson's rule of thumb for at least one non-visual detail per Floyd | page. I don't know if I succeeded entirely--puzzle design in Floyd | particular is going to be an Achilles heel for some time--but now I Floyd | have a better idea of how to go about it. Floyd | Floyd | Now that you've heard more than you ever wanted to know about the Floyd | game, it's time to send you on your way so I can start working on my Floyd | next crazy project! Floyd | Floyd | Yoon Ha Lee [requiescat@cityofveils.com] Floyd | http://pegasus.cityofveils.com/if.phtml Floyd | [Please press SPACE to continue.] | ||||
| ParserGirl goes home. | Jacqueline says, "Heh." | |||
| Jacqueline | And no, I don't plan on adding more floors. I think I'm burned out on towers. | ||||
| DavidW says, "The Fire Tower: Now With More Floors" | ||||
| vimes says, "Fire Towerer" | ||||
| Emerald says, "I laughed at "wimpy three-storey tower"" | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "Heehee. That might be a good collaborative project for Yoon and I." | ||||
| Jacqueline asks (of Emerald), "So, now... what did you think?" | ||||
| Emerald says, "I liked it. The writing was beautiful - just occasionally a word or two felt off, but it really worked for me." | ||||
| Emerald says, "The setting reminded me of Metamorphoses, which is one of the first IF I played and still a favourite." | ||||
| Jacqueline says, "Mine too." | ||||
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