ClubFloyd Transcript:
Guess the Verb! by Leonard Richardson

As played on ifMUD on February 22, 2009

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 Guess the Verb!, written by Leonard Richardson. Guess the Verb! was originally released as part of the 2000 IF Competition, where it took eleventh place. You can learn more about the game, including how to download it, by visiting the ifWiki.

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.


ToyShop & Floyditorium
#ClubFloyd Discussion
 
Jacqueline hollers, "ClubFloyd will be playing Guess the Verb! in half an hour in the Toyshop. For a good time, call maga (as I will not be present)." Jacqueline says, "Sorry, I just wanted to say 'For a good time, call maga.'"
Jacqueline smiles.
Jacqueline says, "Man, he offers to step in and log for me, and in return I write his name on the bathroom walls of ifMUD. How cruel."
vimes says, "hee hee"
vimes says, "867-530plugh"
Jacqueline says, "hahaha"
maga says, "love you too, dearest"
Jacqueline says, "Okay, I should probably go. Thanks, maga, for logging; thanks, vimes, for the laugh; thanks, anyone who shows up, for playing. Sorry to be bailing on you all."
Bert arrives, ready to play with the toys.
Nitku arrives, full of funk, but no fun.
maga arrives, full of neither funk nor fun. maga says, "Guess the Verb starting in a few minutes."
maga says, "All right. Jacq isn't here today, so I have stepped in"
maga says, "today we're playing Guess the Verb! by Leonard Richardson"
maga says (to Floyd), "load guess"
Floyd | Welcome to the Cheap Glk Implementation, library version 0.9.0.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to start a NEW game, RESTORE a saved game, start a
Floyd | SCRIPT, or QUIT?
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "new"
Floyd |
Floyd | The smell of cotton candy, warm lemonade, and grass induces an
Floyd | exciting sort of nausea in your stomach. This year (finally!), your
Floyd | parents have decided that you're old enough to wander the midway of

Floyd | the Avogadro County Fair without adult supervision. After sitting
Floyd | through the mandatory safety lecture (a small price to pay for being
Floyd | spared the Hall of Farming Implements), you are sent off to fend for
Floyd | yourself for two glorious hours.
Floyd |
Floyd | Immediately spending three-quarters of your allotted dollar on a corn

Floyd | dog, you find yourself curiously drawn by the necessities of the plot
Floyd | to a brightly lit carnival booth that invites you to...
Floyd |
Floyd | GUESS THE VERB!
Floyd | An Effective Enumeration
Floyd | Copyright 2000 Leonard Richardson (leonardr@segfault.org)

Floyd | Web page: http://www.crummy.com/devel/if/gtv/
Floyd | Type HELP for help, CREDITS for credits, ABOUT for... about.
Floyd | Release 4 / Serial number 001210 / Inform v6.15 Library 6/10
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth

Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the

Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |

Floyd | As your fleshy eye momentarily catches Lalrry's roving, metallic one,
Floyd | you suddenly become his most important (not to mention only) potential
Floyd | customer. Lights flash on his status panel as he loads a new pitch
Floyd | into extended memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hello, little boy or girl!", bellows Lalrry in the alarming tone used

Floyd | by adults who are trying to be friendly. "Wait a minute... are you a
Floyd | boy or a girl? Are you a BOY or a GIRL?"
Floyd |
Floyd | =>
maga asks, "does anybody have a preference?"
Bert says, "I think I played as a boy."
Emily arrives, full of funk, but no fun. Bert says, "So I'd choose girl this time."
maga says, "fine by me"
maga says (to Floyd), "girl"
Floyd |
Floyd | "And what's your name, little girl?"
Floyd |
Floyd | =>
maga says, "heh heh heh"
Bert asks, "Jacqueline?"
Alex says (to Bert), "Awwwk! Word on the street is that Jacqueline is isquiesque."
Bert says, "(Or Samantha...)"
Lucea arrives, full of funk, but no fun. maga says, "never a good thing to put in the player's control"
maga says (to Floyd), "Isqui"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Well Isqui would you like to GUESS THE VERB!?!?! Just one shiny
Floyd | quarter gets you a spin of the wheel! And you can GUESS THE VERB for
Floyd | fun and prizes!"

Floyd |
Floyd | His pitch delivered, Lalrry switches back to broadcast mode and begins
Floyd | his old banter with an occasional hopeful glance in your direction.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x lalrry"
Floyd | The parser looks much the way Peter Norton would look if Peter Norton
Floyd | were made of stainless steel and had, instead of a head, an Ethernet
Floyd | hub with two small surveillance cameras attached on top and a speaker
Floyd | attached underneath. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the parser

Floyd | is wearing a shirt and a tie.
Floyd |
Floyd | He's also wearing a straw hat and a nametag that says "Hello! My name
Floyd | is LALRRY." A series of lights in his forehead monitor the traffic
Floyd | that flows through an Ethernet cable plugged into where Peter Norton's
Floyd | left cheek would be, which cable disappears down into the booth.

Floyd |
Floyd | As a natural language parser, Lalrry can deal with a reasonable subset
Floyd | of some human language (English, in his case), through some
Floyd | combination of recursive grammars and ad-hoc tricks. Most such parsers
Floyd | were created in the 1980s to answer queries and to help people find
Floyd | treasures and kill trolls. Nowadays, most parsers are working at Web

Floyd | start-ups. The fact that Lalrry is working as a carnival barker does
Floyd | not say much for his language handling capabilities.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Step right up, step right up!", says Lalrry with perfectly
Floyd | synthesized heartiness.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says, "Funky."
maga says (to Floyd), "x wheel"
Floyd | A sort of rotating pie chart, the wheel of fortune is about four feet
Floyd | in diameter and attached to a frame which, in turn, is bolted to the

Floyd | side of the booth. A plastic red arrow suspended over the top of the
Floyd | wheel indicates one of the five verbs at random (currently
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE), and will do so again when Lalrry spins the wheel. The
Floyd | verbs currently on the pie chart are SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN,
Floyd | DISEMBARK, and UNDO, each taking up an equal slice of the pie.
Floyd |

Floyd | "It's time to GUESS THE VERB!", declares Lalrry, although he offers no
Floyd | evidence to back this up.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga asks, "does anybody know if there's any timing-sensitive stuff in this?"
maga asks, "i.e. do we need a driver?"
maga says, "I don't remember any but it has been eight years"
Bert says, "I *think* you can retry stuff if you screw it up."
maga says (to Floyd), "x me"
Floyd | You are a perfectly normal eleven-year-old girl, not yet aware of
Floyd | anything more interesting than video games or dinosaurs.
Floyd |
Floyd | "One shiny quarter gets you a spin of the wheel!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a tarnished quarter
Floyd |   a corn dog
Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a tarnished quarter

Floyd |   a corn dog
Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "eat quarter"
Floyd | That's plainly lacking the "edible" flag.
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry briefly pulls you aside. "The crowned heads of Europe have
Floyd | guessed verbs at my booth," he says confidentially. "The Queen Mum was
Floyd | quite keen on PARTITION, although the King of France would hear of
Floyd | nothing but JUMP--SAUTER, rather, I should say." Somehow you doubt

Floyd | this.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x bracelet"
Floyd | A white plastic embarassment which your parents make you wear on those

Floyd | rare occasions on which you are allowed off on your own. In little red
Floyd | letters just above your wrist, it says "My name is _ISQUI_. In case of
Floyd | emergency, call my mother's cell phone at (210) 603-3999."
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry briefly pulls you aside. "The crowned heads of Europe have
Floyd | guessed verbs at my booth," he says confidentially. "The Queen Mum was

Floyd | quite keen on PARTITION, although the King of France would hear of
Floyd | nothing but JUMP--SAUTER, rather, I should say." Somehow you doubt
Floyd | this.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "give quarter to lalrry"
Floyd | Lalrry takes the quarter and scrutinizes it carefully. "Sorry, Isqui,"
Floyd | he says, handing the coin back to you. "This is not a shiny quarter."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert asks, "Is anyone else now wondering what that's the number for?"
Bert says, "It's in the San Antonio area."
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth

Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the

Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |
Floyd | Behind the Booths
Floyd | You are in a shadowy alcove, surrounded by the canvas backs of several

Floyd | carnival booths. The music and bustle of the midway seems very far
Floyd | away, and a harvest moon illuminates the wet grass of the fairgrounds
Floyd | and the makeshift walls that surround you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The glinting tip of a small metal box peeks out from beneath the verb
Floyd | guessing booth.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x box"
Floyd | The metal box is about the size of a deck of cards and is decorated
Floyd | with black plastic trim. An LED and two switches (one orange, the

Floyd | other blue) are mounted on the front of the box, and a cord runs from
Floyd | either end up into the booth.
Floyd |
Floyd | The LED is currently glowing green. Both switches are in the on
Floyd | position.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x moon"
Floyd | The light from the harvest moon seems magical tonight. If Neil Young
Floyd | were here, he would undoubtedly write a song about it.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "open box"
Floyd | That's not something you can open.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "get moon"
Floyd | You are insane.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says, "Small group this week."
maga says (to Floyd), "press orange switch"
Floyd | It is fixed in place.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert asks, "Perhaps the main driver should be someone who hasn't played yet, if there is anyone?"
maga says, "that would be ideal"
maga says, "but it doesn't look as if we have anyone"
maga says (to Floyd), "x cord"
Floyd | The cords run from either end of a metal box up into the booth.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "clean quarter"
Floyd | Your valiant attempt fails to noticeably improve the quarter's looks.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "turn off orange switch"
Floyd | You switch the orange switch off.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says, "although probably we shouldn't be playing with these until we know Lalrry's normal behaviour"
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | Behind the Booths

Floyd | You are in a shadowy alcove, surrounded by the canvas backs of several
Floyd | carnival booths. The music and bustle of the midway seems very far
Floyd | away, and a harvest moon illuminates the wet grass of the fairgrounds
Floyd | and the makeshift walls that surround you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The glinting tip of a small metal box peeks out from beneath the verb

Floyd | guessing booth.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "nw"
Floyd | You can't go that way.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "verbose"
Floyd | GUESS THE VERB! is now in its "verbose" mode, which always gives long
Floyd | descriptions of locations (even if you've been there before).

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth

Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the

Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |
Floyd | The Midway
Floyd | The lights and noise of the midway seem hollow and dull compared to

Floyd | the aura of excitement you felt at the verb guessing booth. You survey
Floyd | the sights around you as though through different eyes: the
Floyd | merry-go-round, the concession stand--they seem so pedestrian now. You
Floyd | feel a strange attraction pulling you back towards the southwest, as
Floyd | though a ham-handed author were trying to place hints into the room
Floyd | description that the game would progress a lot faster if you went back

Floyd | to the verb guessing booth already.
Floyd |
Floyd | If you really want to, though, you can go east to rejoin your parents
Floyd | and end the game.
Floyd |
Floyd | You can't help but notice a small but obtrusive quarter shining

Floyd | machine squatting here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x machine"
Floyd | The quarter shining machine sits in the middle of a line of similar

Floyd | machines which accept coins of smaller denomination, like pennies, and
Floyd | do more interesting things to them, like smush them up and imprint
Floyd | them with touristy slogans. In the face of such intense competition,
Floyd | the quarter shining machine has taken to mimicry, hoping to trap
Floyd | unsuspecting coins intended for a less boring (if also less shiny)
Floyd | fate in another machine.

Floyd |
Floyd | Its innards are exposed, an unnecessarily complicated mesh of shiny
Floyd | gears and pistons. A prominent notice on the side of the machine
Floyd | assures you with alarming urgency that the practice of quarter-shining
Floyd | is legal under federal statute BH-2510958. The coin tray has two
Floyd | quarter-shaped slots; the left one to contain payment and the right to

Floyd | contain the quarter you want shined and dropped into the receptacle
Floyd | near the bottom of the machine.
Floyd |
Floyd | The left coin slot is empty. The right coin slot is also empty. The
Floyd | receptacle is also also empty.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x left slot"
Floyd | A small, round slot in the coin tray. It would just hold a quarter.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "this is a losing proposition"
maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a tarnished quarter
Floyd |   a corn dog

Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x corn dog"
Floyd | The corn dog is a curious creature. Its life cycle begins when the

Floyd | larval corn dog is cooked and put on a stick. The corn dog is dipped
Floyd | in batter to form a cocoon and fried. Inside the batter cocoon, the
Floyd | baby corn dog metamorphoses into an adult phase which is then
Floyd | purchased, slathered with mustard, and eaten. The rumbling of your
Floyd | stomach tells you that the end is near for this particular corn dog.
Floyd | We will miss you, corn dog.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "aw. I am sad that Jacq was not here for the corn dog"
maga says (to Floyd), "eat corn dog"
Floyd | My, that was a yummy corn dog!

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "kick machine"
Floyd | Violence isn't the answer to this one.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "push machine"
Floyd | It is fixed in place.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "dammit where is my second quarter"
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | The Midway
Floyd | The lights and noise of the midway seem hollow and dull compared to

Floyd | the aura of excitement you felt at the verb guessing booth. You survey
Floyd | the sights around you as though through different eyes: the
Floyd | merry-go-round, the concession stand--they seem so pedestrian now. You
Floyd | feel a strange attraction pulling you back towards the southwest, as
Floyd | though a ham-handed author were trying to place hints into the room
Floyd | description that the game would progress a lot faster if you went back

Floyd | to the verb guessing booth already.
Floyd |
Floyd | If you really want to, though, you can go east to rejoin your parents
Floyd | and end the game.
Floyd |
Floyd | You can't help but notice a small but obtrusive quarter shining

Floyd | machine squatting here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x stand"
Floyd | The concession stand offers a variety of deep-fried and/or sugary

Floyd | items, for a price.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x merry-go-round"
Floyd | The merry-go-round does not seem as merry to you anymore.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "sw"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth

Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the

Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x booth"
Floyd | The Guess the Verb booth is small and liberally stocked with stuffed
Floyd | animals, gewgaws, jimcracks, heehaws, and spistacks, all intended as
Floyd | prizes for successful guessers of the verb. A large wheel with five

Floyd | divisions dominates the center of the booth, and it is to this wheel
Floyd | that your friend the parser gestures quite emphatically. One might
Floyd | even say spastically. "Spastically." There, I said it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "well, I don't see any obvious quarter-hiding places, and we are too puny a child for the proper solution to vending-machine puzzles"
maga says (to Floyd), "hint"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "help"
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous

Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game
Floyd |
Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:
Floyd |
Floyd |    > What is IF?

Floyd |      Introduction to IF Concepts
Floyd |      Sample Transcript
Floyd |      About This Game
Floyd |      Credits
Floyd |      License
Floyd |      Hints

Floyd |      Budget Walkthru
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!

Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game
Floyd |
Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:
Floyd |
Floyd |      What is IF?

Floyd |    > Introduction to IF Concepts
Floyd |      Sample Transcript
Floyd |      About This Game
Floyd |      Credits
Floyd |      License

Floyd |      Hints
Floyd |      Budget Walkthru
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |

Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game
Floyd |
Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:
Floyd |

Floyd |      What is IF?
Floyd |      Introduction to IF Concepts
Floyd |    > Sample Transcript
Floyd |      About This Game
Floyd |      Credits

Floyd |      License
Floyd |      Hints
Floyd |      Budget Walkthru
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game
Floyd |
Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:

Floyd |
Floyd |      What is IF?
Floyd |      Introduction to IF Concepts
Floyd |      Sample Transcript
Floyd |    > About This Game

Floyd |      Credits
Floyd |      License
Floyd |      Hints
Floyd |      Budget Walkthru
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game
Floyd |

Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:
Floyd |
Floyd |      What is IF?
Floyd |      Introduction to IF Concepts
Floyd |      Sample Transcript
Floyd |      About This Game

Floyd |    > Credits
Floyd |      License
Floyd |      Hints
Floyd |      Budget Walkthru
Floyd |

maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game

Floyd |
Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:
Floyd |
Floyd |      What is IF?
Floyd |      Introduction to IF Concepts
Floyd |      Sample Transcript

Floyd |      About This Game
Floyd |      Credits
Floyd |    > License
Floyd |      Hints
Floyd |      Budget Walkthru

Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous

Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game
Floyd |
Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:
Floyd |
Floyd |      What is IF?
Floyd |      Introduction to IF Concepts

Floyd |      Sample Transcript
Floyd |      About This Game
Floyd |      Credits
Floyd |      License
Floyd |    > Hints

Floyd |      Budget Walkthru
Floyd |
maga presses the yellow enter button.
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |                                 Clues
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                              Q = previous menu
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |    > The Carnival
Floyd |      The Scenarios in General
Floyd |      The Spaceship
Floyd |      The Laboratory
Floyd |      The College

Floyd |      The Cave
Floyd |      The Castle
Floyd |
maga presses the yellow enter button.
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |                             The Carnival
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                              Q = previous menu
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |    > What am I trying to do?
Floyd |      Why won't Lalrry accept my quarter?
Floyd |      How can I shine my tarnished quarter?
Floyd |      So how do I get to play the game?

Floyd |      So I win every time, is that your little game?
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd |                             The Carnival

Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                              Q = previous menu
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |      What am I trying to do?

Floyd |    > Why won't Lalrry accept my quarter?
Floyd |      How can I shine my tarnished quarter?
Floyd |      So how do I get to play the game?
Floyd |      So I win every time, is that your little game?
Floyd |

maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd |                             The Carnival
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                              Q = previous menu

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |      What am I trying to do?
Floyd |      Why won't Lalrry accept my quarter?
Floyd |    > How can I shine my tarnished quarter?

Floyd |      So how do I get to play the game?
Floyd |      So I win every time, is that your little game?
Floyd |
maga presses the yellow enter button.
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd | (Press H for another hint, or SPACE to return.)
Floyd |
Floyd | You need to use the quarter shining machine on the midway.
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "h"
Floyd | It costs a quarter.
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "h"
Floyd | But you only have the one quarter.

Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "h"
Floyd | In fact, at any given point in the game you will have at most one
Floyd | quarter.
Floyd |

Emily says, "rar"
maga says (to Floyd), "h"
Floyd | So you can't shine anything.
Floyd |
Floyd | [Please press SPACE.]

maga pushes the green 'space' button.
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |                             The Carnival
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous

Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                              Q = previous menu
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |      What am I trying to do?
Floyd |      Why won't Lalrry accept my quarter?

Floyd |    > How can I shine my tarnished quarter?
Floyd |      So how do I get to play the game?
Floyd |      So I win every time, is that your little game?
Floyd |
maga says, "so I guess we need to mess with the switches"
maga says (to Floyd), "q"
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |                             The Spaceship
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous

Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                              Q = previous menu
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |    > What's going on?

Floyd |      I can't leave the ship!
Floyd |      Where are my parents?
Floyd |      Is this the sort of game where hostile symbionts infect my body?
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "q"
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |                                 Clues
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                              Q = previous menu
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |    > The Carnival
Floyd |      The Scenarios in General
Floyd |      The Spaceship

Floyd |      The Laboratory
Floyd |      The College
Floyd |      The Cave
Floyd |      The Castle
Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "q"
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |                           Guess The Verb!
Floyd |  N = next subject                                        P = previous
Floyd |  RETURN = read subject                                Q = resume game

Floyd |
Floyd |  There is information provided on the following:
Floyd |
Floyd |      What is IF?
Floyd |      Introduction to IF Concepts
Floyd |      Sample Transcript

Floyd |      About This Game
Floyd |      Credits
Floyd |      License
Floyd |    > Hints
Floyd |      Budget Walkthru

Floyd |
maga says (to Floyd), "q"
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth

Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the

Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |
Floyd | Behind the Booths
Floyd | You are in a shadowy alcove, surrounded by the canvas backs of several

Floyd | carnival booths. The music and bustle of the midway seems very far
Floyd | away, and a harvest moon illuminates the wet grass of the fairgrounds
Floyd | and the makeshift walls that surround you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The glinting tip of a small metal box peeks out from beneath the verb
Floyd | guessing booth.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x box"
Floyd | The metal box is about the size of a deck of cards and is decorated
Floyd | with black plastic trim. An LED and two switches (one orange, the

Floyd | other blue) are mounted on the front of the box, and a cord runs from
Floyd | either end up into the booth.
Floyd |
Floyd | The LED is currently glowing green. The blue switch is in the on
Floyd | position, and the orange switch is in the off position.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "nw"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".

Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |

Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry babbles a bit about some computer game or other.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "give quarter to lalrry"
Floyd | "Yuck!", says Lalrry, rejecting your offer. "A tarnished!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "sw"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |
Floyd | Behind the Booths
Floyd | You are in a shadowy alcove, surrounded by the canvas backs of several
Floyd | carnival booths. The music and bustle of the midway seems very far

Floyd | away, and a harvest moon illuminates the wet grass of the fairgrounds
Floyd | and the makeshift walls that surround you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The glinting tip of a small metal box peeks out from beneath the verb
Floyd | guessing booth.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "push blue switch"
Floyd | It is fixed in place.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "turn off blue switch"
Floyd | As you flip the switch, the LED suddenly goes dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga has had his fill of playing for now, and goes back to the Lounge.
maga arrives, full of fun and funk. maga says, "oops"
maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |

Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the once-jovial natural language parser inside the booth, now
Floyd | seems oddly unable to move or speak. The rest of the carnival midway
Floyd | lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the booth to the

Floyd | southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "give quarter to lalrry"
Floyd | At the moment, Lalrry doesn't seem interested in the tarnished
Floyd | quarter, or indeed in much of anything.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |
Floyd | Behind the Booths
Floyd | You are in a shadowy alcove, surrounded by the canvas backs of several

Floyd | carnival booths. The music and bustle of the midway seems very far
Floyd | away, and a harvest moon illuminates the wet grass of the fairgrounds
Floyd | and the makeshift walls that surround you.
Floyd |
Floyd | The glinting tip of a small metal box peeks out from beneath the verb
Floyd | guessing booth.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "turn on orange switch"
Floyd | As you flip the switch, the LED suddenly lights up green.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga has had his fill of playing for now, and goes back to the Lounge.
maga arrives, full of fun and funk. maga says, "DAMMIT"
maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,

Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,

Floyd | each of its five equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, FASTEN, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |
Floyd | "It's time to GUESS THE VERB!", declares Lalrry, although he offers no
Floyd | evidence to back this up.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "give quarter to lalrry"
Floyd | Lalrry gladly takes the quarter from your outstretched palm. With the
Floyd | flair of a showman, he tosses it into the air and catches it in his
Floyd | shirt pocket. Stepping back, he indicates the wheel.

Floyd |
Floyd | [To guess a verb, use "GUESS [verb]"; for example, "GUESS DISLIKE"]
Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a verb, verb!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "any preferences?"
maga says (to Floyd), "guess disambiguate"
Floyd | "Sorry, that's not on the wheel!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a verb, verb!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "guess reconfigure"
Floyd | "Hey, guess! And so I spin the wheel..."
Floyd |

Floyd | Lalrry gives the wheel a good push and it begins rapidly rotating,
Floyd | spinning faster now, now slowly winding down until it...stops...on...
Floyd |
Floyd |                   FASTEN
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry shrugs and says "Luck next time!"

Floyd |
Floyd | You shrug too, and try to look nonchalant, but you feel a hollowness
Floyd | in the pit in your stomach which is something more than simple
Floyd | disappointment. The lights of the midway seem uncomfortably close, the
Floyd | music incessant and loud. You wonder if you aren't coming down with
Floyd | something, and blink to clear the glare from your eyes.

Floyd |
Floyd | Suddenly you are falling.
Floyd |
Floyd | You claw at the air, then at the unidentifiable blurs that race past
Floyd | you, then at your own body, which is unaccountably absent from this
Floyd | mad scene. You open your hypothetical mouth and emit a potential

Floyd | scream which never quite materializes, and then with the feeling of
Floyd | suddenly waking up from a nightmare, you are somewhere else.
Floyd |
Floyd | And a little dwarf is in the room with you.
Floyd |
Floyd | **********************************************************************

Floyd | **********
Floyd |
Floyd | He's relatively young, as dwarves go; only about a hundred or so. At
Floyd | first he starts, surprised to meet a human one-on-one, but he quickly
Floyd | remembers his manners, and, doffing his miner's helmet, bows low.
Floyd | "Duran son of Czadhan, at your service."

Floyd |
Floyd | You return the bow to the extent your heavy sack will allow. "Isqui,
Floyd | at yours."
Floyd |
Floyd | "By the load you bear," says he, indicating his own bulging backpack,
Floyd | "I see the factors that brought me to scenic Wyrmsworth Caverns have

Floyd | been at work upon you as well."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Love of the underground realms," you reply.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran nods, and, with a twinkle in his eye, acknowledges the one
Floyd | strongest commonality, so often unstated, between human and dwarf.

Floyd |
Floyd | "And greed."
Floyd |
Floyd | Slate Room
Floyd | The floor of this room is covered with shattered pieces of slate,
Floyd | peeled off from the ceiling above. The glow of your lantern is

Floyd | swallowed up by the dark material of which the ceiling, floor, and
Floyd | walls are made. There is a wide, rounded portal to the northwest, a
Floyd | narrower entrance to the south, and a passage to the north which opens
Floyd | up after a little way.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran the dwarf stands beside you.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask duran about lantern"
Floyd | "Nice brass."
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask duran about slate"
Floyd | "Fairly low-grade slate."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says, "I could go around asking Duran about everything but that might not be productive"
maga says (to Floyd), "ask duran about orthoclase"
Floyd | There is no reply.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran rests his hand momentarily on the haft of his axe.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a wristwatch with compass (being worn)

Floyd |   a canister of vintage celluloid
Floyd |   a copy of the Clamshell Book
Floyd |   a Sack of Infinite Capacity (which is open)
Floyd |     a jade idol
Floyd |     the McGuffin
Floyd |   a brass lantern (providing light)

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x wristwatch"
Floyd | A combination wristwatch and compass, indispensable for any
Floyd | adventurer. The current time is 184.50 AST.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x canister"
Floyd | A canister of celluloid, labeled "Nov. 1921 - B. Keaton." Not the sort
Floyd | of treasure one normally expects to find in a cave, but valuable

Floyd | nonetheless.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x copy"
Floyd | A white book with a blue spine, entitled "Dungeon Exploration".

Floyd | There's a picture of a giant clamshell on the cover, thus the
Floyd | nickname. Flipping through the book brings nothing to your eye that
Floyd | seems relevant to your current situation.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear echoing voices from the north.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x sack"
Floyd | The Sack of Infinite Capacity is truly a wondrous device. No matter
Floyd | how many things you put into it, it never fills or becomes too heavy
Floyd | to carry. The depressing thing is that this makes the sack much more

Floyd | valuable than just about anything you might find to put in it.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear echoing voices from the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x idol"
Floyd | A jade idol of a great and terrible god, probably once an integral
Floyd | part of some ritual ceremony. Oh well, defilement is all in a day's
Floyd | work!
Floyd |

Floyd | You hear echoing voices from the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x mcguffin"
Floyd | It seems to shift under your gaze--now an ankh-shaped amulet, now the

Floyd | deed to an orphanage, now a piece of futuristic machinery. In another
Floyd | world, perhaps, this item would complete your quest. Now, however, it
Floyd | is merely one of many treasures you wish to find.
Floyd |
Floyd | A group of tourists, led by a trollish guide, enters from the north.
Floyd |

Floyd | Duran strokes his beard a moment in thought.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x tourists"
Floyd | A group of fat, belching tourists congregates around a frazzled

Floyd | trollish tour guide who reluctantly explains the wonders of
Floyd | treasure-laden Wyrmsworth Caverns. Most of the tourists are dwarves or
Floyd | orcs, and each appears to have won his or her local Loudest Hawaiian
Floyd | Shirt competition before moving on to the regionals here in the cave.
Floyd |
Floyd | "The slate room, here, was once a mine which provided much of the

Floyd | state's slate, from 1941 until the cave complex was made a national
Floyd | park in 1973."
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x troll"
Floyd | A young bleary-eyed troll points out interesting formations to the
Floyd | spellbound tourists, occasionally dropping hints relating to the
Floyd | wondrous treasures to be found in the Wyrmsworth complex. His
Floyd | flip-flop sandals slap against the cave floor as he walks slowly
Floyd | backwards, gesturing and pointing.
Floyd |

Floyd | A dwarvish child trips over a thick slab of slate, skinning her knees.
Floyd | The guide and the child's parents help her up and dust her off.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Um, to the northwest, here," says the guide, "we have one of the most
Floyd | spectacular sights to grace Wyrmsworth Caverns."
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "z"
Floyd | Time passes.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tour leaves to the northwest.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Tourists!" Duran snorts derisively, lowering his voice. "They come to
Floyd | the caverns and what do they do? They take pictures! I don't know why
Floyd | the cave trolls put up with it. These orcs and Southern dwarves know
Floyd | nothing of a good adventure."
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "nw"
Floyd |
Floyd | Geode Room
Floyd | The large quartz crystals that cover the rounded walls of this small

Floyd | room give you the feeling of being inside an oversized geode. The
Floyd | lamplight reflects, and reflects, and reflects again from the
Floyd | glittering display that surrounds you. The crystals are clear near the
Floyd | ceiling at the far end of the room, but gradually take on a purplish
Floyd | sheen towards the exit to the southeast.
Floyd |

Floyd | A group of tourists sloughs its way through the caverns.
Floyd |
Floyd | "This is what we call the 'geode room', because it resembles the
Floyd | inside of a geode. It's not really a geode, though. The quartzite
Floyd | crystals are part of a quartz vein that runs through this area, and
Floyd | were caused by dwaeomer-oxidization as this whole section of rock was

Floyd | undergoing magical erosion about twenty thousand years ago."
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran whistles appreciatively at the crystals, even though they are
Floyd | valueless quartz. Apparently dwarves can appreciate beauty even
Floyd | unalloyed by riches.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Taleslinger arrives, full of neither funk nor fun. maga says, "hey Tale"
Lucea says (to floyd), "x crystals"
Floyd | Myriad glittering crystals cover the walls and ceiling of this room.

Floyd | An awesome sight.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I'd like to point out that the stunning beauty of the geode room is
Floyd | reminiscent of the great riches that are hidden within Wyrmsworth,
Floyd | waiting to be discovered by intrepid adventurers. In fact, as recently
Floyd | as 1996, a diamond the size of a cockatoo's egg was found near here."

Floyd | The guide pauses, searching his audience for signs of interest.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask guide about diamond"
Floyd | "The Cockatoo's Egg Diamond is a flawless blue diamond, considered

Floyd | priceless by many," says the guide. "It's indicative of the many
Floyd | treasures still to be found in the caves." He gives you a theatrical
Floyd | wink.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Well," says the guide. "This is just about the halfway point on our
Floyd | tour... follow me, please."

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Taleslinger says, "Hey, folks. Small group today."
maga says (to Floyd), "z"
Floyd | Time passes.

Floyd |
Floyd | The tour leaves to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |
Floyd | Slate Room
Floyd | The floor of this room is covered with shattered pieces of slate,
Floyd | peeled off from the ceiling above. The glow of your lantern is
Floyd | swallowed up by the dark material of which the ceiling, floor, and
Floyd | walls are made. There is a wide, rounded portal to the northwest, a

Floyd | narrower entrance to the south, and a passage to the north which opens
Floyd | up after a little way.
Floyd |
Floyd | A group of tourists sloughs its way through the caverns.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Will we be seeing any stalagmites on this tour?", asks an elderly

Floyd | orc.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask guide about stalagmites"
Floyd | "Those form on the cave floor."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Yes, of course," says the guide. "After all, what would a cave tour
Floyd | be without stalagmites? Actually, we're on our way to the stalagmites
Floyd | right now, if you'll just follow me up this slope." The guide glances

Floyd | behind him, not anxious to trip over a chunk of slate as he walks.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says, "bah, I forget which were the funny ones"
maga says (to Floyd), "take slate"
Floyd | The slate stains your fingers, and is insufficiently valuable to carry
Floyd | around anyway.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tour leaves to the south.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "s"
Floyd |
Floyd | Under the Bridge
Floyd | You are in a chasm, studded with stalagmites, running from the north
Floyd | to the southeast. A swaying rope bridge runs from west to east, far

Floyd | above your head.
Floyd |
Floyd | A group of tourists sloughs its way through the caverns.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Here are, uh, the stalagmites," says the guide, waving in their
Floyd | direction. "These were formed by gradual accretion of--"

Floyd |
Floyd | "Excuse me," says an elf, pointing a delicate finger toward a
Floyd | stalagmite nearly as tall and thin as she is, "I thought these were
Floyd | stalactites, these on the bottom."
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Taleslinger asks, "who's duran?"
maga says, "our dwarf friend"
maga says, "and fellow plunderer of treasure"
maga says (to Floyd), "x slalagmites"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x stalagmites"
Floyd | Which do you mean, the nondescript stalagmites or Stalagmite 13?
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "13"
Floyd | A particularly large stalagmite. Apart from its size and the crude
Floyd | "13" carved into it, it is unremarkable.
Floyd |
Floyd | "No, that's a common misconception," says the troll. "Stalactites are
Floyd | formations that accrete from the ceiling. Stalagmites are those that
Floyd | accrete on the cave floor, such as this one, Stalagmite 13."

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask troll about 13"
Floyd | "No one knows the real meaning of the carving. Or if they do, they're
Floyd | not telling."

Floyd |
Floyd | "This chasm we're in extends a little to the south," says the guide,
Floyd | pointing down the narrowing gulf. "Er, southeast, I suppose. But we'd
Floyd | never all fit down there, so this is as far as we'll go there. We'll
Floyd | start making our way back to the stairs, now."
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x bridge"
Floyd | Made of ropes and wood, the bridge sways high above your head.
Floyd |
Floyd | The tour leaves to the north.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Taleslinger asks, "can we sneak away?"
Taleslinger says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |

Floyd | Chasm End
Floyd | The chasm ends here, its walls narrowing to nothing. You can only
Floyd | proceed back to the northwest.
Floyd |
Floyd | There are rare stamps here!
Floyd |

Floyd | Duran follows you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "we're only following the tour because we're trying to see what they do, yeah"
maga says (to Floyd), "take stamps"
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x stamps"
Floyd | Misprints, first-day covers, you name it.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran takes a lump of coal out of his pocket and offers you a piece.
Floyd | When you decline, he shrugs and bites into it, chewing with gusto.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Taleslinger says, "oops, sorry"
maga says (to Floyd), "nw"
Floyd |
Floyd | Under the Bridge
Floyd | You are in a chasm, studded with stalagmites, running from the north

Floyd | to the southeast. A swaying rope bridge runs from west to east, far
Floyd | above your head.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd | Slate Room
Floyd | The floor of this room is covered with shattered pieces of slate,
Floyd | peeled off from the ceiling above. The glow of your lantern is

Floyd | swallowed up by the dark material of which the ceiling, floor, and
Floyd | walls are made. There is a wide, rounded portal to the northwest, a
Floyd | narrower entrance to the south, and a passage to the north which opens
Floyd | up after a little way.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "nw"
Floyd |
Floyd | Geode Room

Floyd | The large quartz crystals that cover the rounded walls of this small
Floyd | room give you the feeling of being inside an oversized geode. The
Floyd | lamplight reflects, and reflects, and reflects again from the
Floyd | glittering display that surrounds you. The crystals are clear near the
Floyd | ceiling at the far end of the room, but gradually take on a purplish
Floyd | sheen towards the exit to the southeast.

Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |
Floyd | Slate Room
Floyd | The floor of this room is covered with shattered pieces of slate,
Floyd | peeled off from the ceiling above. The glow of your lantern is
Floyd | swallowed up by the dark material of which the ceiling, floor, and
Floyd | walls are made. There is a wide, rounded portal to the northwest, a

Floyd | narrower entrance to the south, and a passage to the north which opens
Floyd | up after a little way.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd | Huge Room
Floyd | This room is so large, it makes you claustrophobic. You cannot help
Floyd | but think how far underground you must be, that a cave ceiling might

Floyd | be so impossibly high without opening to blue sky. The tremendous mass
Floyd | of empty air above you seems to press harder than mere rock ever
Floyd | could. But you cannot look away, for running down the walls are
Floyd | breathtaking waterfalls of stone, enormous calcite formations that
Floyd | seem to have been formed from the discarded candles of a million
Floyd | million visitors. Sloping arches form stone awnings over paths to the

Floyd | south and northeast, and a tight crawl leads west.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear echoing voices from the northeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | As Duran enters the room, he lets out a chuckling roar. "By the
Floyd | gods!", he murmurs. "This splendid room would make a dining hall

Floyd | worthy of the dwarves of old!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |

Floyd | Winding Stairway
Floyd | A winding stairway reaches up into the blackness here. Another natural
Floyd | chimney; about a hundred feet up, it opens up to a large room to the
Floyd | southwest (accessible to you through an arch). Far above you, you can
Floyd | hear the sounds of someone, as yet invisible, slowly rappeling down.
Floyd |

Floyd | A group of tourists sloughs its way through the caverns.
Floyd |
Floyd | As the old tour group begins to disappear into the darkness above, the
Floyd | new guide clears his throat, preparing to begin his tour.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "u"
Floyd | You and Duran climb the stairway for several minutes, but seem no
Floyd | closer to the cave exit than before. Winded, the two of you rest a

Floyd | while and come back down.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Okay," says the new guide, "here we are near the winding stair, where
Floyd | our tour of the lower levels will begin and end -- should take about
Floyd | thirty turns."
Floyd |

Floyd | Duran rests his hand momentarily on the haft of his axe.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "sw"
Floyd |

Floyd | Huge Room
Floyd | This room is so large, it makes you claustrophobic. You cannot help
Floyd | but think how far underground you must be, that a cave ceiling might
Floyd | be so impossibly high without opening to blue sky. The tremendous mass
Floyd | of empty air above you seems to press harder than mere rock ever
Floyd | could. But you cannot look away, for running down the walls are

Floyd | breathtaking waterfalls of stone, enormous calcite formations that
Floyd | seem to have been formed from the discarded candles of a million
Floyd | million visitors. Sloping arches form stone awnings over paths to the
Floyd | south and northeast, and a tight crawl leads west.
Floyd |
Floyd | You hear echoing voices from the northeast.

Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | East-West Crawl
Floyd | A stooped, gravely crawl that tightens to the west. The sloping tunnel
Floyd | at the west end would be impassable for an adult, but a determined
Floyd | eleven-year-old should be able to squeeze through it. (What luck! You
Floyd | happen to be a determined eleven-year-old!) Even if you weren't, you'd

Floyd | still be able to back out to the east, where the crawl abruptly opens
Floyd | up into a much larger room.
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a bowling trophy here!
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran follows you.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "take bowling trophy"
Floyd | (putting the rare stamps into the Sack of Infinite Capacity to make
Floyd | room)

Floyd | (putting the canister of vintage celluloid into the Sack of Infinite
Floyd | Capacity to make room)
Floyd | (putting the copy of the Clamshell Book into the Sack of Infinite
Floyd | Capacity to make room)
Floyd | (taking the rare stamps back out of the Sack of Infinite Capacity
Floyd | because we didn't really need that much room after all)

Floyd | (taking the canister of vintage celluloid back out of the Sack of
Floyd | Infinite Capacity because we didn't really need that much room after
Floyd | all)
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "ha ha oh dear"
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd | You and Duran scramble through a short crawl, and find yourselves...
Floyd |
Floyd | On The Ledge

Floyd | Few people ever visit this subterranean clifftop, since few can get
Floyd | here in the first place--the wandering children of tourists, perhaps,
Floyd | or of the trolls who inhabit these caves. Hopefully, none are too
Floyd | young to know that those who play too close to the edges of cliffs
Floyd | inevitably end up as object lessons to others.
Floyd |

Floyd | About thirty feet below, your light glints off metal. There's no way
Floyd | down there, though; only east into a tight crawl.
Floyd |
Floyd | A rusted iron hook protrudes from the wall above the cliff.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran leans over the ledge, shining his headlamp into the murky

Floyd | darkness below. "Gold!" he exclaims, rubbing his hands together.
Floyd | "Thousands of points worth!"
Floyd |
Floyd | The dwarf pulls a coil of rope from his backpack. "I knew this would
Floyd | come in handy," he says, hefting the coil in his hands.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x hook"
Floyd | Oddly enough, this hook is a completely natural iron precipitation.
Floyd | Although rusty, its fusion to the rock wall stands any test of
Floyd | strength you can think to apply to it.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Perfect!", says Duran, spotting the iron hook and gauging the
Floyd | distance between it and the cliff bottom. "I'll just tie rope to hook,
Floyd | here..." Hastily tying a loop into one end of the rope, Duran slips it
Floyd | over the hook and begins to tighten the knot.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "z"
Floyd | Time passes.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran peers at the rope in his hands, which has inexplicably slipped

Floyd | off the hook and become untied. "That's odd..." Retying the knot,
Floyd | Duran mutters the incantation "Tie rope to hook!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "z"
Floyd | Time passes.
Floyd |
Floyd | Again Duran finds himself holding an untied knot. "Okay, let's try
Floyd | another one," he mutters. "Put rope on hook!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "z"
Floyd | Time passes.
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran looks dismayed, and pokes at his ill-behaved rope. "That's
Floyd | always worked before," he mutters, "so there can't be anything wrong

Floyd | with the rope. Don't worry, I'll figure it out."
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "fasten rope to hook"
Floyd | Duran shrugs and hands you the rope. You quickly tie a rudimentary

Floyd | knot and loop it over the hook. Amazingly, the knot holds!
Floyd |
Floyd | "Astounding!" exclaims Duran. "'Fasten'--who would have thought?"
Floyd |
Floyd | Duran gestures at the rope.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "climb rope"
Floyd | You shimmy down the rope, Duran following you...
Floyd |
Floyd | Bottom of Cliff

Floyd | A cliff looms above you, here; you can ascend via a rope that dangles
Floyd | before you, or follow the pebbled path of an ancient and long dry
Floyd | waterway to the north or the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | There are many gold bars here!
Floyd |

Floyd | Duran drops off the rope and struts around, admiring the piles of
Floyd | gold. "Fabulous!", he exclaims, shaking your hand and insinuating a
Floyd | gold bar into your pack. "We make quite a team!" Excited, the young
Floyd | dwarf begins to sort the bars into two piles, but when he looks up,
Floyd | you are gone...
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd | **********************************************************************
Floyd | **********
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth

Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the

Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its four equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a candy bar
Floyd |   a shiny trophy

Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x candy bar"
Floyd | A sugar-packed Buttertonsils bar, in its characteristic golden

Floyd | wrapper. You're not sure how you got ahold of it, but they're not bad.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x trophy"
Floyd | A dented but shiny bowling trophy of bronze. Inscribed on the base are

Floyd | the words, "LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 1992".
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "give trophy to lalrry"
Floyd | "You earned that trophy, you should keep it," says Lalrry.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "eat bar"
Floyd | The candy bar slides down your throat, and your stomach quickly is
Floyd | full.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "undo"
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "give candy to lalrry"
Floyd | Lalrry politely declines your offer.
Floyd |

Floyd | Lalrry mumbles to himself.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says, "hrm. sorry; wanted to try that"
Firion arrives, full of funk, but no fun.
maga says (to Floyd), "x wrapper"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Firion says, "Experimentation is what makes these games more interesting."
maga asks, "so I suppose we need another quarter?"
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of

Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.

Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its four equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW arrives, full of fun, but no funk.
maga says (to Floyd), "eat bar"
Floyd | The candy bar slides down your throat, and your stomach quickly is
Floyd | full.
Floyd |

Floyd | "Verbs, prizes, fun!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:

Floyd |   a shiny trophy
Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Firion does a double-take. "The description of the candy bar being eaten... That's from AGT..."
maga says, "yeah, this is a game full of IF references"
DavidW says, "yay"
Gerynar arrives, full of funk, but no fun. Firion says, "Written in Inform no less I'd wager."
maga says (to Floyd), "guess undo"
Floyd | "But I need a quarter from you before you can GUESS THE VERB!",
Floyd | stutters Lalrry suddenly.
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry makes a long-winded, heartfelt speech which you can't
Floyd | understand at all.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW asks, "Sorry I overslept. Can anyone quickly recap?"
maga says, "we are at the Guess the Verb booth. we have already played the dungeon level, but now we need a quarter to do the next one"
DavidW asks, "Are we at a carnival or amusement park? Can we dance/caper/sing/panhandle for a quarter?"
maga says, "yes, and we haven't tried that yet"
DavidW asks, "And where did the previous one go? Can we steal that one back?"
maga says (to Floyd), "nw"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |
Floyd | The Midway
Floyd | The lights and noise of the midway seem hollow and dull compared to

Floyd | the aura of excitement you felt at the verb guessing booth. You survey
Floyd | the sights around you as though through different eyes: the
Floyd | merry-go-round, the concession stand--they seem so pedestrian now. You
Floyd | feel a strange attraction pulling you back towards the southwest, as
Floyd | though a ham-handed author were trying to place hints into the room
Floyd | description that the game would progress a lot faster if you went back

Floyd | to the verb guessing booth already.
Floyd |
Floyd | If you really want to, though, you can go east to rejoin your parents
Floyd | and end the game.
Floyd |
Floyd | You can't help but notice a small but obtrusive quarter shining

Floyd | machine squatting here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "dance"
Floyd | You perform a little jig. The producers of Riverdance won't be calling

Floyd | you anytime soon.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "sing"
Floyd | Your singing is abominable.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "take quarter"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "caper"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "x machine"
Floyd | The quarter shining machine sits in the middle of a line of similar
Floyd | machines which accept coins of smaller denomination, like pennies, and
Floyd | do more interesting things to them, like smush them up and imprint
Floyd | them with touristy slogans. In the face of such intense competition,

Floyd | the quarter shining machine has taken to mimicry, hoping to trap
Floyd | unsuspecting coins intended for a less boring (if also less shiny)
Floyd | fate in another machine.
Floyd |
Floyd | Its innards are exposed, an unnecessarily complicated mesh of shiny
Floyd | gears and pistons. A prominent notice on the side of the machine

Floyd | assures you with alarming urgency that the practice of quarter-shining
Floyd | is legal under federal statute BH-2510958. The coin tray has two
Floyd | quarter-shaped slots; the left one to contain payment and the right to
Floyd | contain the quarter you want shined and dropped into the receptacle
Floyd | near the bottom of the machine.
Floyd |

Floyd | The left coin slot is empty. The right coin slot is also empty. The
Floyd | receptacle is also also empty.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "kick machine"
Floyd | Violence isn't the answer to this one.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "shake machine"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "search machine"
Floyd | In the quarter shining machine are a small receptacle, a coin tray, a

Floyd | left coin slot and a right coin slot.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x coin tray"
Floyd | The coin tray has two slots for quarters. The left one contains

Floyd | payment for the shining service, the right contains the quarter to be
Floyd | shined.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "the other thing is that Lalrry has some switches on a box controlling him"
DavidW says, "oho"
maga says, "one of them makes him accept non-shiny quarters when it's switched off. we haven't figured out what the other one does"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a shiny trophy

Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x trophy"
Floyd | A dented but shiny bowling trophy of bronze. Inscribed on the base are

Floyd | the words, "LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 1992".
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says, "not going to spoil"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "look in it"
Floyd | You find nothing of interest.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x id"
Floyd | A white plastic embarassment which your parents make you wear on those
Floyd | rare occasions on which you are allowed off on your own. In little red
Floyd | letters just above your wrist, it says "My name is _ISQUI_. In case of
Floyd | emergency, call my mother's cell phone at (210) 603-3999."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea asks, "but do you want a hint?"
maga says, "maybe the other one makes him accept shiny things regardless of whether they're quarters or not"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x larrly"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says, "he did say 'ugh! a tarnished!' when we had them the other way around"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | The Midway

Floyd | The lights and noise of the midway seem hollow and dull compared to
Floyd | the aura of excitement you felt at the verb guessing booth. You survey
Floyd | the sights around you as though through different eyes: the
Floyd | merry-go-round, the concession stand--they seem so pedestrian now. You
Floyd | feel a strange attraction pulling you back towards the southwest, as
Floyd | though a ham-handed author were trying to place hints into the room

Floyd | description that the game would progress a lot faster if you went back
Floyd | to the verb guessing booth already.
Floyd |
Floyd | If you really want to, though, you can go east to rejoin your parents
Floyd | and end the game.
Floyd |

Floyd | You can't help but notice a small but obtrusive quarter shining
Floyd | machine squatting here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "sw"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for

Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its four equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:

Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |

Floyd | Behind the Booths
Floyd | You are in a shadowy alcove, surrounded by the canvas backs of several
Floyd | carnival booths. The music and bustle of the midway seems very far
Floyd | away, and a harvest moon illuminates the wet grass of the fairgrounds
Floyd | and the makeshift walls that surround you.
Floyd |

Floyd | The glinting tip of a small metal box peeks out from beneath the verb
Floyd | guessing booth.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x orange"
Floyd | It's orange.
Floyd | The orange switch is currently switched on.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "turn orange off"
Floyd | As you flip the switch, the LED suddenly goes dark.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "turn blue on"
Floyd | As you flip the switch, the LED suddenly lights up green.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "search grass"
Floyd | You find nothing of interest.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x booths"
Floyd | The canvas walls of the booths are constructed according to an ancient
Floyd | carnival ritual involving a variety of swear words and a certain

Floyd | amount of duct tape. They look a bit rickety, but they'll hold until
Floyd | the carnival moves on.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "read boots"
Floyd | (in the metal box)
Floyd | You discover nothing of interest in the metal box.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "read booths"
Floyd | The canvas walls of the booths are constructed according to an ancient
Floyd | carnival ritual involving a variety of swear words and a certain
Floyd | amount of duct tape. They look a bit rickety, but they'll hold until
Floyd | the carnival moves on.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "x box"
Floyd | The metal box is about the size of a deck of cards and is decorated
Floyd | with black plastic trim. An LED and two switches (one orange, the
Floyd | other blue) are mounted on the front of the box, and a cord runs from
Floyd | either end up into the booth.

Floyd |
Floyd | The LED is currently dark. The blue switch is in the on position, and
Floyd | the orange switch is in the off position.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cord"
Floyd | The cords run from either end of a metal box up into the booth.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x blue switch"
Floyd | It's blue.
Floyd | The blue switch is currently switched on.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".

Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |

Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its four equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "give trophy to lalrry"
Floyd | Lalrry gladly takes the trophy from your outstretched hands. With the
Floyd | flair of a showman, he tosses it into the air and fails to notice as
Floyd | it crashes to the ground inside the booth. Stepping back, Lalrry
Floyd | indicates the wheel.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a, any!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "yay, we broke his nouns"
Bert says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".

Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |

Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its four equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, RECONFIGURE, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a, any!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x trophy"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says, "let's do Undo"
Lucea says, "well, we don't have to"
DavidW asks, "We don't spin the wheel?"
maga says, "we guess, he spins"
Lucea says, "oh, right"
maga says (to Floyd), "guess undo"
Floyd | "Hey, good! And so spin the..."
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry gives the wheel a good push and it begins rapidly rotating,

Floyd | spinning faster now, now slowly winding down until it...stops...on...
Floyd |
Floyd |                   RECONFIGURE
Floyd |
Floyd | "Sorry!", says Lalrry with a shrug. "Better luck next!"
Floyd |

Floyd | You close your eyes and brace yourself for the fall you feel is
Floyd | inevitable. It isn't until your body fades away, leaving your
Floyd | consciousness without any eyelids to shield it, that you realize that
Floyd | you have been falling for quite a while. Before you have time to get
Floyd | properly panicked again, though, you are somewhere else.
Floyd |

Floyd | **********************************************************************
Floyd | **********
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | CSUA Lounge
Floyd | The UCLA Computer Science student lounge is a hacker's paradise: a

Floyd | line of Linux machines and X terminals runs parallel to the south and
Floyd | west wall, ending in a Windows machine and an old Macintosh (for
Floyd | contrarians) in the northwest corner. A couch makes the environment
Floyd | conducive to overnighters and software design bull sessions. The exit
Floyd | is to the east.
Floyd |

Floyd | Four computer geeks are here; Fred, Mark, Dan, and Leonard, by name.
Floyd |
Floyd | You can also see a rollable whiteboard here.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I have this bizarre feeling that I keep saying the same things over
Floyd | and over again," muses Dan. "And I know I've written this function

Floyd | before. Maybe there's something to Nietzsche's idea of eternal
Floyd | recurrence."
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark loads the Cruel Site of the Day into his web browser, and laughs
Floyd | hysterically.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Lucea says, "it's been a few years"
Lucea says (to floyd), "x fred"
Floyd | If a character as unlikely as Frederick Lee did not exist, it would be
Floyd | necessary to invent him. Computer science students are common enough,

Floyd | but Fred possesses that most uncommon trait among computer science
Floyd | students, a lust for free software. Indeed, he has gone so far as to
Floyd | swear eternal vengeance against any and all forms of proprietary
Floyd | code--a move previously unheard of. His thick glasses, buzz cut, and
Floyd | casual mode of dress give him a look unlike any nerd you have ever
Floyd | seen.

Floyd |
Floyd | Fred is currently logged into fire, sweating over the nameserver
Floyd | configuration.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Actually," Leonard confides to you, "this scenario setup is perfect.
Floyd | It lets me write a college game in the manner of Save Princeton

Floyd | without opening me up to charges of actually having written a college
Floyd | game."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Did I tell you about my internship with VA Linux?", asks Mark of the
Floyd | room in general. No one seems interested, and Mark soon goes back to
Floyd | his terminal.

Floyd |
Floyd | Dan toys with the idea of starting his paper on Berkeley, but decides
Floyd | against it. "It'd only disappear when I wasn't working on it," he says
Floyd | resignedly.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "x whiteboard"
Floyd | A rollable whiteboard, intended for scratch work, mounted on casters
Floyd | so as to be pushed about. It's covered with geometric diagrams on one
Floyd | side and the de facto API for a group project on the other. There is
Floyd | also a scoreboard of some sort: "DAN 7 LUG 2".

Floyd |
Floyd | "Okay, it should work now," says Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark types in a command and shakes his head. "Nope."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says (to floyd), "x leonard"
Floyd | In addition to being a sensitive yet manly human being, Leonard
Floyd | Richardson is a musical genius and a coding god. This is primarily due
Floyd | to the fact that, as the author of this game, it fell upon him to
Floyd | write the previous sentence. His T-shirt advertises the Second Annual

Floyd | Lake Arrowhead Rubber Ducky Race (1988).
Floyd |
Floyd | Leonard is currently logged into rei, and is working on a text
Floyd | adventure which he hopes to enter in the 2000 Interactive Fiction
Floyd | Competition. At the moment he is attempting to program a random
Floyd | dialogue engine for four particularly fanciful characters.

Floyd |
Floyd | "I can't figure out what's wrong with the configuration," says Fred,
Floyd | pounding on fire's keyboard.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW asks, "my. Self-reference or what?"
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask leonard about himself"
Floyd |
Floyd | Leonard shrugs. "What's to say?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "What's the volume of the intersection of a cone and a circle?", asks

Floyd | Dan, in case someone has this fact memorized. No one has.
Floyd |
Floyd | "This part of the game is a little too self-referential for my taste,"
Floyd | says Leonard, indicating an especially indulgent monologue on his
Floyd | screen. "In fact, I shouldn't be here at UCLA in the first place,
Floyd | since I graduated before I even started this game--so did Adam,

Floyd | incidentally. But authorial self-insertion is a time-honored IF trope,
Floyd | and it seemed a shame to miss such a golden opportunity to make use of
Floyd | it."
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x fire"
Floyd | fire.csua.ucla.edu is CSUA's main machine, and hosts hundreds of user
Floyd | accounts. From the way Fred keeps frantically switching between
Floyd | configuration files, you get the feeling that something is wrong with
Floyd | that machine.

Floyd |
Floyd | Dan sketches a diagram on some scratch paper.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | CSUA Lounge
Floyd | The UCLA Computer Science student lounge is a hacker's paradise: a
Floyd | line of Linux machines and X terminals runs parallel to the south and
Floyd | west wall, ending in a Windows machine and an old Macintosh (for
Floyd | contrarians) in the northwest corner. A couch makes the environment

Floyd | conducive to overnighters and software design bull sessions. The exit
Floyd | is to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | Four computer geeks are here; Fred, Mark, Dan, and Leonard, by name.
Floyd |
Floyd | You can also see a rollable whiteboard here.

Floyd |
Floyd | Leonard makes a frustrated noise. "Look at this," he says, quoting
Floyd | from his screen. "'Unlike C, Inform uses a colon to divide parts of a
Floyd | 'for' loop specification.' Why?"
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says (to floyd), "e"
Floyd |
Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter
Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by

Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. An open double
Floyd | door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA - We Make the Digital
Floyd | Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "reconfigure fire"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says, "let's explore first"
DavidW says, "fine."
Lucea says, "(sorry)"
DavidW says, "I'm still waking up anyway."
Lucea says, "(I forgot whether it can go unwinnable or not here)"
maga says (to Floyd), "x me"
Floyd | You are a perfectly normal eleven-year-old girl on a field trip to
Floyd | UCLA.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a digital watch (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "x watch"
Floyd | A basic, no-frills digital watch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter
Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by
Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. An open double

Floyd | door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA - We Make the Digital
Floyd | Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the Lab
Floyd | Somewhere, deep inside Boelter Hall, there is a hallway that passes by
Floyd | the lab for CS152B, the dreaded digital design class. Somehow you have
Floyd | found your way to this foreboding place, a place so desolate that
Floyd | there is a door leading east and a hallway leading west to the

Floyd | balcony. (I know that made no sense, but I had to tell you that
Floyd | somewhere.) The walls are covered with posterboards which detail the
Floyd | work of UCLA's computer science graduate students.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "x posterboards"
Floyd | Some are dry and technical, some flush with the thrill of discovery;
Floyd | some use flashy graphics to try to cover up the fact that the research
Floyd | in question is something a sophomore might cook up over winter break.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says (to floyd), "e"
Floyd |
Floyd | Digital Design Lab
Floyd | Tables line the walls of this room, illuminated by intrusive
Floyd | fluorescent lights on the ceiling; tables that bear twenty identical

Floyd | computers; computers that bear the Windows NT login banner, enticing
Floyd | passers-by to make use of the cut-rate circuit simulation software
Floyd | within. The only exit is to the west, and it looks quite inviting.
Floyd |
Floyd | A shiny paperclip lies unnoticed on the floor.
Floyd |

Floyd | Adam Kaplan seethingly regards the schematic on his screen.
Floyd |
Floyd | Adam curses under his breath as the circuit design software,
Floyd | predictably, does The Wrong Thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "take paperclip"
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "bend paperclip"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "x adam"
Floyd | Normally, Adam is an amiable and pleasant fellow. But now, he is at
Floyd | war. At war with a hypothetical piece of hardware, and an all-too-real
Floyd | piece of software. The workstation he has claimed is surrounded by
Floyd | empty coffee cups and apple juice bottles, and his head hangs heavy as
Floyd | he contemplates the mess of pixelated wires on the screen. He has not

Floyd | slept for a while.
Floyd |
Floyd | Adam tries to check his email, but fails. "I guess fire is still
Floyd | down," he says.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "ask adam about fire"
Floyd | "That's where I get my email," says Adam. "Usually, I mean."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Y'know," says Adam, casting his eye in your direction, "I may or may
Floyd | not have items you might find valuable which I might or might not

Floyd | trade for certain services once performed in the classic text
Floyd | adventure fashion." Somewhat embarrassed, he looks back at his screen.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says, "heh"
Lucea says (to floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a shiny paperclip
Floyd |   a digital watch (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | Adam drags some wires around with his mouse.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask adam about paperclip"
Floyd | "Yeah, it's a paperclip, all right."
Floyd |

Floyd | Adam consults a notebook filled with hand-drawn schematics.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says, "The 'shiny' paperclip. That's for back at the booth."
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask adam about leonard"
Floyd | "He's a cool dude. I've played a couple sets with him. Wish he was
Floyd | here helping me with this."
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the Lab
Floyd | Somewhere, deep inside Boelter Hall, there is a hallway that passes by
Floyd | the lab for CS152B, the dreaded digital design class. Somehow you have
Floyd | found your way to this foreboding place, a place so desolate that
Floyd | there is a door leading east and a hallway leading west to the

Floyd | balcony. (I know that made no sense, but I had to tell you that
Floyd | somewhere.) The walls are covered with posterboards which detail the
Floyd | work of UCLA's computer science graduate students.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter
Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by

Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. An open double
Floyd | door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA - We Make the Digital
Floyd | Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "d"
Floyd | I suppose you think there are stairs or something.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x trees"
inky arrives, full of fun and funk.
Floyd | The palm trees rear up into the sky like excited French poodles.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "climb trees"
Floyd | The trees are out of reach, and too thin to climb anyway.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the Lab
Floyd | Somewhere, deep inside Boelter Hall, there is a hallway that passes by
Floyd | the lab for CS152B, the dreaded digital design class. Somehow you have
Floyd | found your way to this foreboding place, a place so desolate that
Floyd | there is a door leading east and a hallway leading west to the

Floyd | balcony. (I know that made no sense, but I had to tell you that
Floyd | somewhere.) The walls are covered with posterboards which detail the
Floyd | work of UCLA's computer science graduate students.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "u"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says, "...floyd s"
Lucea says (to floyd), "s"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter
Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by
Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. An open double
Floyd | door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA - We Make the Digital

Floyd | Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "w"
Floyd |

Floyd | CSUA Lounge
Floyd | The UCLA Computer Science student lounge is a hacker's paradise: a
Floyd | line of Linux machines and X terminals runs parallel to the south and
Floyd | west wall, ending in a Windows machine and an old Macintosh (for
Floyd | contrarians) in the northwest corner. A couch makes the environment
Floyd | conducive to overnighters and software design bull sessions. The exit

Floyd | is to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | Four computer geeks are here; Fred, Mark, Dan, and Leonard, by name.
Floyd |
Floyd | You can also see a rollable whiteboard here.
Floyd |

Floyd | "You know," says Leonard, "I could write a better IF language than
Floyd | Inform."
Floyd |
Floyd | "That's the spirit!", says Dan.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says, "I still seem to remember a way up or down"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "search couch"
Floyd | There is nothing on the couch.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says, "ah well"
maga says (to Floyd), "x whiteboard"
Floyd | A rollable whiteboard, intended for scratch work, mounted on casters
Floyd | so as to be pushed about. It's covered with geometric diagrams on one
Floyd | side and the de facto API for a group project on the other. There is

Floyd | also a scoreboard of some sort: "DAN 7 LUG 2".
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark stifles a laugh.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What are you laughing at?", asks Leonard.
Floyd |

Floyd | "This post on Slashdot."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Ah yes," says Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I didn't think it was that funny," says Leonard.
Floyd |

Floyd | "It was all right," says Dan.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask mark about fire"
Floyd | "You can't get onto fire yet," says Mark. "Fred's fu--uh, messing

Floyd | around with the configuration files."
Floyd |
Floyd | "It must be something in the host configuration,", says Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark loads the Cruel Site of the Day into his web browser, and laughs
Floyd | hysterically.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "x fire"
Floyd | fire.csua.ucla.edu is CSUA's main machine, and hosts hundreds of user
Floyd | accounts. From the way Fred keeps frantically switching between

Floyd | configuration files, you get the feeling that something is wrong with
Floyd | that machine.
Floyd |
Floyd | "No, that didn't work," says Fred to himself.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What's the volume of the intersection of a cone and a circle?", asks

Floyd | Dan, in case someone has this fact memorized. No one has.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask dan about fire"
Floyd |

Floyd | "Fred's working on it," says Dan. "The stupid network is always going
Floyd | down."
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark obsesses about the next UCLA LUG meeting.
Floyd |
Floyd | "This part of the game is a little too self-referential for my taste,"

Floyd | says Leonard, indicating an especially indulgent monologue on his
Floyd | screen. "In fact, I shouldn't be here at UCLA in the first place,
Floyd | since I graduated before I even started this game--so did Adam,
Floyd | incidentally. But authorial self-insertion is a time-honored IF trope,
Floyd | and it seemed a shame to miss such a golden opportunity to make use of
Floyd | it."

Floyd |
Floyd | Dan toys with the idea of starting his paper on Berkeley, but decides
Floyd | against it. "It'd only disappear when I wasn't working on it," he says
Floyd | resignedly.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I don't understand it," says Fred. "I thought I'd set up fire's

Floyd | configuration to rid of this problem, the last time this happened."
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert exclaims, "The intersection of a cone and a circle has no volume!"
inky says, "man"
maga says (to Floyd), "ask fred about fire"
Floyd | "It'll be up in a minute," says Fred. "I just have to fix the DNS
Floyd | configuration."
Floyd |
Floyd | Dan toys with the idea of starting his paper on Berkeley, but decides

Floyd | against it. "It'd only disappear when I wasn't working on it," he says
Floyd | resignedly.
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark curses the 405 freeway, bane of his commute.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, I want to be in the game," declares a man whom you suddenly

Floyd | notice is standing in the room. "Okay," says Leonard, and the man
Floyd | abruptly disappears.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "xyzzy"
Floyd | A grown-up with curly blond hair and glasses appears out of thin air,
Floyd | shouts "I like beans!", and promptly vanishes.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x me"
Floyd | You are a perfectly normal eleven-year-old girl on a field trip to
Floyd | UCLA.
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark stifles a laugh.
Floyd |
Floyd | "What are you laughing at?", asks Leonard.

Floyd |
Floyd | "This post on Slashdot."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Ah yes," says Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I didn't think it was that funny," says Leonard.

Floyd |
Floyd | "It was all right," says Dan.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "push whiteboard"
Floyd | "Don't move that!", says Fred. "I was using it!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "read whiteboard"
Floyd | A rollable whiteboard, intended for scratch work, mounted on casters
Floyd | so as to be pushed about. It's covered with geometric diagrams on one
Floyd | side and the de facto API for a group project on the other. There is
Floyd | also a scoreboard of some sort: "DAN 7 LUG 2".
Floyd |
Floyd | "Okay, it should work now," says Fred.

Floyd |
Floyd | Mark types in a command and shakes his head. "Nope."
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a shiny paperclip
Floyd |   a digital watch (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | "This part of the game is a little too self-referential for my taste,"
Floyd | says Leonard, indicating an especially indulgent monologue on his

Floyd | screen. "In fact, I shouldn't be here at UCLA in the first place,
Floyd | since I graduated before I even started this game--so did Adam,
Floyd | incidentally. But authorial self-insertion is a time-honored IF trope,
Floyd | and it seemed a shame to miss such a golden opportunity to make use of
Floyd | it."
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "eat paperclip"
Floyd | That's plainly lacking the "edible" flag.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Stupid web browser," says Mark, killing his X session and restarting.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Use lynx," suggests Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | A confused light show erupts from xorn's monitor as Dan runs his game
Floyd | with a gravitational constant of 0.59. Dan smiles the manic grin of
Floyd | one who enjoys tormenting his data structures.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x xorn"
Floyd | xorn, aka linux.ucla.edu, is the hosting machine for the UCLA Linux
Floyd | Users Group, and for the standing LUG Nethack tournament. Green shapes

Floyd | flicker on its screen as Dan tests the latest additions to his game.
Floyd |
Floyd | "When was the last time anybody managed to get onto fire?", asks Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Last night," says Mark.
Floyd |

Floyd | "Earlier this morning," says Dan.
Floyd |
Floyd | Fred shakes his head.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x mac"
Floyd | plasma, an old Macintosh.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Did I tell you about my internship with VA Linux?", asks Mark of the
Floyd | room in general. No one seems interested, and Mark soon goes back to

Floyd | his terminal.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I wonder if something's wrong with the firewall," says Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "reconfigure paperclip"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x fore"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a shiny paperclip
Floyd |   a digital watch (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark loads the Cruel Site of the Day into his web browser, and laughs
Floyd | hysterically.

Floyd |
Floyd | "This part of the game is a little too self-referential for my taste,"
Floyd | says Leonard, indicating an especially indulgent monologue on his
Floyd | screen. "In fact, I shouldn't be here at UCLA in the first place,
Floyd | since I graduated before I even started this game--so did Adam,
Floyd | incidentally. But authorial self-insertion is a time-honored IF trope,

Floyd | and it seemed a shame to miss such a golden opportunity to make use of
Floyd | it."
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x fire"
Floyd | fire.csua.ucla.edu is CSUA's main machine, and hosts hundreds of user
Floyd | accounts. From the way Fred keeps frantically switching between
Floyd | configuration files, you get the feeling that something is wrong with
Floyd | that machine.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Oops!", says Leonard, and taps some keys. "There was no way to get

Floyd | from the balcony to the snack bar. I put in some stairs. Sorry about
Floyd | that."
Floyd |
Floyd | "No, that didn't work," says Fred to himself.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says, "We need to reconfigure fire, I think."
Bert says (to Floyd), "reboot fire"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says, "hold up, he just put in some stairs"
Bert says, "Hee."
DavidW says, "whoa"
maga says (to Floyd), "s"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I wonder if something's wrong with the firewall," says Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | CSUA Lounge
Floyd | The UCLA Computer Science student lounge is a hacker's paradise: a
Floyd | line of Linux machines and X terminals runs parallel to the south and

Floyd | west wall, ending in a Windows machine and an old Macintosh (for
Floyd | contrarians) in the northwest corner. A couch makes the environment
Floyd | conducive to overnighters and software design bull sessions. The exit
Floyd | is to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | Four computer geeks are here; Fred, Mark, Dan, and Leonard, by name.

Floyd |
Floyd | You can also see a rollable whiteboard here.
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark obsesses about the next UCLA LUG meeting.
Floyd |
Floyd | "It must be something in the host configuration,", says Fred.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says, "I missed that."
maga says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd |

Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter
Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by
Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. Stairs lead up
Floyd | here, and an open double door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA -
Floyd | We Make the Digital Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "d"
Floyd | The downwards stairs lead only to classrooms and maintenance rooms.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "u"
Floyd | You climb the stairs a bit, and end up...
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the SEAS Cafe

Floyd | The strains of punk rock emanate from the door to your west, the
Floyd | entrance to the SEAS Cafe. A bulletin board nearby is covered in
Floyd | flyers, posted by people who share the quixotic goal of making
Floyd | engineering students think about something other than classes and
Floyd | projects. A hallway to your east leads into the South Campus quad, and
Floyd | stairs lead down.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x flyers"
Floyd | The flyers on the bulletin board attempt to entice students to play
Floyd | broomball, attend a job fair, or join the Marines.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "join marines"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The Cafe is normally a busy, boisterous place, but midterms have

Floyd | brought a horde of students swarming in to lay waste to the land,
Floyd | purchasing practically everything on the large wire racks and in the
Floyd | refrigerated containers, and otherwise reducing the number of objects
Floyd | which must be implemented in this game. Only the arcade games in the
Floyd | corner and the geeky drawings on the walls bear witness to the Cafe's
Floyd | previous glory.

Floyd |
Floyd | A bottle of cola is the only item of merchandise remaining.
Floyd |
Floyd | A surly cashier sits beside the cash register, studying for her
Floyd | midterms.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x ganes"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "x games"
Floyd | This is the enumeration of the arcade games: Street Fighter, Galaga
Floyd | (in a Ms. Pac-Man casing, oddly enough), and the old favorite Bust A
Floyd | Move. All of them are currently in demo mode.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x cashier"
Floyd | She is sitting behind the counter near the cash register, reading a
Floyd | book on soil mechanics. Her primary concern right now seems to be
Floyd | passing her midterms.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "play games"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "ask cashier about soil mechanics"
Floyd | "Dull as dirt."
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says, "oh hey"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "take coke"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "hork cola"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The Cafe is normally a busy, boisterous place, but midterms have
Floyd | brought a horde of students swarming in to lay waste to the land,
Floyd | purchasing practically everything on the large wire racks and in the

Floyd | refrigerated containers, and otherwise reducing the number of objects
Floyd | which must be implemented in this game. Only the arcade games in the
Floyd | corner and the geeky drawings on the walls bear witness to the Cafe's
Floyd | previous glory.
Floyd |
Floyd | A bottle of cola is the only item of merchandise remaining.

Floyd |
Floyd | A surly cashier sits beside the cash register, studying for her
Floyd | midterms.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "take cola"
Lucea says (to floyd), "ask cashier about soda"
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Floyd | "It's cold. It's caffeinated. It's brown. It's also eighty cents," she
Floyd | responds, not looking up from her book.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "take cola"
Floyd | You already have that.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "buy cola"
Floyd | You have no money. Yet the cola is not free.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "sing"
Floyd | Your singing is abominable.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "dance"
Floyd | You perform a little jig. The producers of Riverdance won't be calling
Floyd | you anytime soon.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "sell watch"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "give watch to cashier"
Floyd | "The soda costs eighty cents," says the cashier disinterestedly.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "shrug"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x pac-man"
Floyd | This is the enumeration of the arcade games: Street Fighter, Galaga
Floyd | (in a Ms. Pac-Man casing, oddly enough), and the old favorite Bust A
Floyd | Move. All of them are currently in demo mode.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Firion goes home.
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x bust" Bert exclaims, "Curses, and all our money has gone to Lalrry!"
Floyd | This is the enumeration of the arcade games: Street Fighter, Galaga
Floyd | (in a Ms. Pac-Man casing, oddly enough), and the old favorite Bust A
Floyd | Move. All of them are currently in demo mode.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "we only had a quarter anyway"
maga says (to Floyd), "reconfigure arcade games"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert exclaims, "It could have gotten us a game of Pac-Man!"
maga says (to Floyd), "play games"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "steal cola"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Bert says (to Floyd), "play pac-man"
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The Cafe is normally a busy, boisterous place, but midterms have
Floyd | brought a horde of students swarming in to lay waste to the land,
Floyd | purchasing practically everything on the large wire racks and in the
Floyd | refrigerated containers, and otherwise reducing the number of objects

Floyd | which must be implemented in this game. Only the arcade games in the
Floyd | corner and the geeky drawings on the walls bear witness to the Cafe's
Floyd | previous glory.
Floyd |
Floyd | A surly cashier sits beside the cash register, studying for her
Floyd | midterms.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
inky says, "ha ha"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x drawings"
Floyd | Mostly renditions in marker of popular anime characters. A few

Floyd | American comic strip characters also make their appearance. Pretty
Floyd | good, artistically speaking.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert asks, "Did we try just leaving with it?"
inky says, "I assume Lalrry is a parser joke, hunh"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x racks"
Floyd | Some of the wire racks reach close to the ceiling. They normally
Floyd | contain candy bars, trail mix, muffins, potato chips, styrofoam bowls
Floyd | of ramen noodles, over-the-counter medications, and other necessities

Floyd | for studying. They are completely bare, and will be until restocking
Floyd | tomorrow.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd | The cashier blocks your way and will not let you leave! Maybe you
Floyd | should pay for that cola first.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "hit cashier with cola"
Floyd | I only understood you as far as wanting to hit the cashier.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "drop cola"
Floyd | Dropped.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd |

Floyd | Outside the SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The strains of punk rock emanate from the door to your west, the
Floyd | entrance to the SEAS Cafe. A bulletin board nearby is covered in
Floyd | flyers, posted by people who share the quixotic goal of making
Floyd | engineering students think about something other than classes and
Floyd | projects. A hallway to your east leads into the South Campus quad, and

Floyd | stairs lead down.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd | You walk briefly down the hallway for a bit, but turn back, feeling

Floyd | that you still have some important task to perform in the engineering
Floyd | building.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The Cafe is normally a busy, boisterous place, but midterms have
Floyd | brought a horde of students swarming in to lay waste to the land,
Floyd | purchasing practically everything on the large wire racks and in the
Floyd | refrigerated containers, and otherwise reducing the number of objects

Floyd | which must be implemented in this game. Only the arcade games in the
Floyd | corner and the geeky drawings on the walls bear witness to the Cafe's
Floyd | previous glory.
Floyd |
Floyd | A surly cashier sits beside the cash register, studying for her
Floyd | midterms.

Floyd |
Floyd | You can also see a bottle of cola here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x register"
Floyd | It's a thirty-two-bit register, holding multiples of four dollars.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says, "ouch"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "take cola"
Floyd | Taken.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax arrives, full of fun, but no funk.
DavidW says (to Floyd), "reconfigure register"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax says, "Sorry... just got home from church"
Bert says (to Floyd), "reconfigure pac-man"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "reconfigure games"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "reconfigure game"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The Cafe is normally a busy, boisterous place, but midterms have
Floyd | brought a horde of students swarming in to lay waste to the land,
Floyd | purchasing practically everything on the large wire racks and in the
Floyd | refrigerated containers, and otherwise reducing the number of objects

Floyd | which must be implemented in this game. Only the arcade games in the
Floyd | corner and the geeky drawings on the walls bear witness to the Cafe's
Floyd | previous glory.
Floyd |
Floyd | A surly cashier sits beside the cash register, studying for her
Floyd | midterms.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "study soil"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cashier"
Floyd | She is sitting behind the counter near the cash register, reading a
Floyd | book on soil mechanics. Her primary concern right now seems to be
Floyd | passing her midterms.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says, "The answer, as always, lies in the soil..."
DavidW says (to Floyd), "ask cashier about midterms"
Floyd | Absorbed in her reading, the cashier does not reply.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax says, "Dig that soil she's carrying"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "dig soil"
Floyd | Digging would achieve nothing here.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "maybe we need to extract money from the students"
Taleslinger has disconnected.
Taleslinger slowly disappears. DavidW says, "We could try telling Adam about the cola."
Limax asks, "Adam's here?"
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW asks, "The cola's for him anyway, yes?"
maga says (to Floyd), "s"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The Cafe is normally a busy, boisterous place, but midterms have

Floyd | brought a horde of students swarming in to lay waste to the land,
Floyd | purchasing practically everything on the large wire racks and in the
Floyd | refrigerated containers, and otherwise reducing the number of objects
Floyd | which must be implemented in this game. Only the arcade games in the
Floyd | corner and the geeky drawings on the walls bear witness to the Cafe's
Floyd | previous glory.

Floyd |
Floyd | A surly cashier sits beside the cash register, studying for her
Floyd | midterms.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax exclaims, "We're trapped in the cafe!"
Limax exclaims, "You can't check out!"
Limax says (to Floyd), "exit"
Floyd | But you aren't in anything at the moment.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "drop cola"
Floyd | Dropped.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the SEAS Cafe
Floyd | The strains of punk rock emanate from the door to your west, the
Floyd | entrance to the SEAS Cafe. A bulletin board nearby is covered in

Floyd | flyers, posted by people who share the quixotic goal of making
Floyd | engineering students think about something other than classes and
Floyd | projects. A hallway to your east leads into the South Campus quad, and
Floyd | stairs lead down.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "d"
Floyd | You take the stairs down a bit, and end up on the...
Floyd |
Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter

Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by
Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. Stairs lead up
Floyd | here, and an open double door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA -
Floyd | We Make the Digital Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the Lab
Floyd | Somewhere, deep inside Boelter Hall, there is a hallway that passes by
Floyd | the lab for CS152B, the dreaded digital design class. Somehow you have

Floyd | found your way to this foreboding place, a place so desolate that
Floyd | there is a door leading east and a hallway leading west to the
Floyd | balcony. (I know that made no sense, but I had to tell you that
Floyd | somewhere.) The walls are covered with posterboards which detail the
Floyd | work of UCLA's computer science graduate students.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd |
Floyd | Digital Design Lab
Floyd | Tables line the walls of this room, illuminated by intrusive

Floyd | fluorescent lights on the ceiling; tables that bear twenty identical
Floyd | computers; computers that bear the Windows NT login banner, enticing
Floyd | passers-by to make use of the cut-rate circuit simulation software
Floyd | within. The only exit is to the west, and it looks quite inviting.
Floyd |
Floyd | Adam Kaplan seethingly regards the schematic on his screen.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "tell adam about cola"
Floyd | Adam ignores you, preferring to click with his mouse.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "x schematic"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says (to floyd), "ask adam about cashier"
Floyd | Adam seems on the verge of losing patience.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I wonder what's wrong with fire," says Adam. "I'd really like to
Floyd | check my email."

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "ask adam about cola"
Floyd | Adam seems on the verge of losing patience.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "ask adam about cola"
Floyd | Adam seems on the verge of losing patience.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "ask adam about email"
Floyd | Adam seems on the verge of losing patience.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "annoy adam"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "kiss adam"
Floyd | Adam doesn't know how to react.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "reconfigure fire"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "check email"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea asks, "should we just reconfigure fire?"
maga says, "we can't until we get rid of Fred"
Limax asks, "How far are we from the cafe?"
DavidW says, "I could try looking up my old notes on the game."
Bert says (to Floyd), "reconfigure fred"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says, "the game contains hints but they're a bit cumbersome to use"
Bert says (to Floyd), "x fred"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | Digital Design Lab
Floyd | Tables line the walls of this room, illuminated by intrusive

Floyd | fluorescent lights on the ceiling; tables that bear twenty identical
Floyd | computers; computers that bear the Windows NT login banner, enticing
Floyd | passers-by to make use of the cut-rate circuit simulation software
Floyd | within. The only exit is to the west, and it looks quite inviting.
Floyd |
Floyd | Adam Kaplan seethingly regards the schematic on his screen.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "(on Floyd)"
Lucea asks, "His books were few but profound?"
Lucea says, "ilac"
Bert says (to Floyd), "x computers"
Floyd | The identical computers all seem to be running Windows NT. To the
Floyd | north, Bill Gates is counting his money.
Floyd |
Floyd | Adam curses under his breath as the circuit design software,

Floyd | predictably, does The Wrong Thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd | You can't go that way.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Y'know," says Adam, casting his eye in your direction, "I may or may
Floyd | not have items you might find valuable which I might or might not
Floyd | trade for certain services once performed in the classic text
Floyd | adventure fashion." Somewhat embarrassed, he looks back at his screen.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the Lab
Floyd | Somewhere, deep inside Boelter Hall, there is a hallway that passes by

Floyd | the lab for CS152B, the dreaded digital design class. Somehow you have
Floyd | found your way to this foreboding place, a place so desolate that
Floyd | there is a door leading east and a hallway leading west to the
Floyd | balcony. (I know that made no sense, but I had to tell you that
Floyd | somewhere.) The walls are covered with posterboards which detail the
Floyd | work of UCLA's computer science graduate students.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter

Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by
Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. Stairs lead up
Floyd | here, and an open double door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA -
Floyd | We Make the Digital Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "n"
Floyd |
Floyd | Outside the Lab
Floyd | Somewhere, deep inside Boelter Hall, there is a hallway that passes by
Floyd | the lab for CS152B, the dreaded digital design class. Somehow you have

Floyd | found your way to this foreboding place, a place so desolate that
Floyd | there is a door leading east and a hallway leading west to the
Floyd | balcony. (I know that made no sense, but I had to tell you that
Floyd | somewhere.) The walls are covered with posterboards which detail the
Floyd | work of UCLA's computer science graduate students.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | 3rd Floor Balcony
Floyd | A balcony to your east overlooks the garden at the center of Boelter

Floyd | Hall. Palm trees planted there reach for the sky but are dwarfed by
Floyd | the brick structure that surrounds them on all sides. Stairs lead up
Floyd | here, and an open double door to your west bears a sign saying "CSUA -
Floyd | We Make the Digital Future Happen". Another doorway lies to the north.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd |
Floyd | CSUA Lounge
Floyd | The UCLA Computer Science student lounge is a hacker's paradise: a
Floyd | line of Linux machines and X terminals runs parallel to the south and

Floyd | west wall, ending in a Windows machine and an old Macintosh (for
Floyd | contrarians) in the northwest corner. A couch makes the environment
Floyd | conducive to overnighters and software design bull sessions. The exit
Floyd | is to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | Four computer geeks are here; Fred, Mark, Dan, and Leonard, by name.

Floyd |
Floyd | You can also see a rollable whiteboard here.
Floyd |
Floyd | Mark curses the 405 freeway, bane of his commute.
Floyd |
Floyd | "This part of the game is a little too self-referential for my taste,"

Floyd | says Leonard, indicating an especially indulgent monologue on his
Floyd | screen. "In fact, I shouldn't be here at UCLA in the first place,
Floyd | since I graduated before I even started this game--so did Adam,
Floyd | incidentally. But authorial self-insertion is a time-honored IF trope,
Floyd | and it seemed a shame to miss such a golden opportunity to make use of
Floyd | it."

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "w"
Floyd | You can't go that way.
Floyd |

Floyd | Mark obsesses about the next UCLA LUG meeting.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "configure fire"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "reconfigure fire"
Floyd | Your hands seem to fly over the keys as Fred steps aside for you.
Floyd | Obscure knowledge wells up from deep inside you as you change

Floyd | configuration files left and right. When the dust clears, fire is back
Floyd | on the net!
Floyd |
Floyd | Fred offers you his congratulations, but the room has begun to spin
Floyd | and fade away. You can hear Mark say, "You know, there was a Deep
Floyd | Space Nine episode where--" and then you find yourself back at the...

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | **********************************************************************
Floyd | **********
Floyd |
Floyd |

Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for
Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the

Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its three equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:
Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.

Floyd |
Floyd | "One shiny gets you a of the!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "reconfigure fire"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a shiny paperclip
Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry mumbles to himself.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert asks, "Didn't someone suggest that about fifteen minutes ago?"
DavidW says, "yes"
Bert asks, "DId it just take us that long to get back to that room?"
Lucea says, "yeah, but we needed to get the paperclip first"
Bert says (to Lucea), "I thought we had the paperclip."
Bert says, "But someone wanted to do something with the stairs."
DavidW says, "My notes mention a chocolate donut for some reason."
Lucea says, "oh. right. that was also me"
Lucea says (to floyd), "undo"
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says (to floyd), "undo"
Floyd | [Can't "undo" twice in succession. Sorry!]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says, "oh damn it"
Bert says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | CSUA Lounge
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says, "(I don't remember that. maybe I just never solved that puzzle?)"
DavidW asks, "You ate the donut that maybe we could've given to Adam?"
Lucea says, "oh, no, I just forgot Floyd undid"
DavidW asks, "So what's going on now? Are we gonna give the shiny paperclip to Lalrry next?"
maga says (to Floyd), "that would seem to be it, yes"
Floyd | You seem to want to talk to someone, but I can't see whom.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "ilac"
maga says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | CSUA Lounge
Floyd | The UCLA Computer Science student lounge is a hacker's paradise: a
Floyd | line of Linux machines and X terminals runs parallel to the south and

Floyd | west wall, ending in a Windows machine and an old Macintosh (for
Floyd | contrarians) in the northwest corner. A couch makes the environment
Floyd | conducive to overnighters and software design bull sessions. The exit
Floyd | is to the east.
Floyd |
Floyd | Four computer geeks are here; Fred, Mark, Dan, and Leonard, by name.

Floyd |
Floyd | You can also see a rollable whiteboard here.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I wonder if something's wrong with the firewall," says Fred.
Floyd |
Floyd | Dan expresses his regret that Descartes and Hume were not

Floyd | contemporaries of the pay-per-view cage match.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "reconfigure fire"
Floyd | Your hands seem to fly over the keys as Fred steps aside for you.

Floyd | Obscure knowledge wells up from deep inside you as you change
Floyd | configuration files left and right. When the dust clears, fire is back
Floyd | on the net!
Floyd |
Floyd | Fred offers you his congratulations, but the room has begun to spin
Floyd | and fade away. You can hear Mark say, "You know, there was a Deep

Floyd | Space Nine episode where--" and then you find yourself back at the...
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | **********************************************************************
Floyd | **********
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for

Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | each of its three equally-sized divisions labeled with a single word:

Floyd | SCRUTINIZE, DISEMBARK, and UNDO.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "give paperclip to lalrry"
Floyd | Lalrry gladly takes the paperclip from your outstretched palm. With

Floyd | the flair of a showman, he tosses it into the air and catches it in
Floyd | his shirt pocket. Stepping back, he indicates the wheel.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a, any!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea asks, "wait, weren't we getting the donut?"
DavidW says, "We don't have a donut."
maga says, "the donut was a joke"
Lucea says, "ah"
DavidW asks, "Where was the donut?"
maga says (to Floyd), "guess scrutinize"
Floyd | "Hey, good! And so spin the..."
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry gives the wheel a good push and it begins rapidly rotating,

Floyd | spinning faster now, now slowly winding down until it...stops...on...
Floyd |
Floyd |                   SCRUTINIZE
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, win!" Lalrry seems genuinely excited as he hands you your
Floyd | prize--a large plush doll made in the unauthorized image of a certain

Floyd | tap-dancing animated frog.
Floyd |
Floyd | "I love that little!", Lalrry confides in you. "Always makes laugh!"
Floyd |
Floyd | "Now guess another, Isqui!"
Floyd |

Floyd | "Guess a, any!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
inky says, "ha ha isqui"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x doll"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x frog"
Floyd | A green and yellow plush copyright violation: a cartoon frog wearing a
Floyd | top hat.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a, any!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga asks, "hm. I guess that means we don't get that sequence?"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x wheel"
Floyd | A sort of rotating pie chart, the wheel of fortune is about four feet
Floyd | in diameter and attached to a frame which, in turn, is bolted to the
Floyd | side of the booth. A plastic red arrow suspended over the top of the

Floyd | wheel indicates one of the two verbs at random (currently DISEMBARK),
Floyd | and will do so again when Lalrry spins the wheel. The verbs currently
Floyd | on the pie chart are DISEMBARK and UNDO, each taking up an equal slice
Floyd | of the pie.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a, any!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "guess disembark"
Floyd | "Hey, good! And so spin the..."
Floyd |

Floyd | Lalrry gives the wheel a good push and it begins rapidly rotating,
Floyd | spinning faster now, now slowly winding down until it...stops...on...
Floyd |
Floyd |                   UNDO
Floyd |
Floyd | "Sorry!", says Lalrry with a shrug. "Better luck next!"

Floyd |
Floyd | You watch, only slightly disconcerted, as the fairgrounds waver and
Floyd | fade away. You fall, but the fall is no longer frightening; it is
Floyd | exhilarating. All the same, it is worrying just how far you are
Floyd | falling--it seems much longer than last time--just as you begin to
Floyd | wonder whether something has gone wrong, you are somewhere else.

Floyd |
Floyd | **********************************************************************
Floyd | **********
Floyd |
Floyd | Uh-oh, you can see your hands. The invisibility potion must have worn
Floyd | off! Your tactic for getting past the giant crab quickly changes from

Floyd | quietly sneaking to running like mad for the oaken door on the
Floyd | opposite side. Hearing the crunch of your sneakers against the
Floyd | shell-ridden floor, the crab frantically scuttles around toward you,
Floyd | but you have reached the door. It's unlocked! You open the door a
Floyd | crack, dart through, and slam it shut again.
Floyd |

Floyd | A dull thud echoes from the other side of the door, followed by a soft
Floyd | scratching. Breathing a sigh of relief, you turning around, noticing
Floyd | for the first time just how close you are to the end of your quest.
Floyd | For this is the...
Floyd |
Floyd | Warlock's Anteroom

Floyd | The stone walls on either side of you reach high into the darkening
Floyd | sky--the smell of fresh air is exhilarating after your travails within
Floyd | the depths of the castle. This short hallway was once covered in lush
Floyd | red carpet, but its exposure to the elements and its proximity to a
Floyd | trigger-happy warlock have scorched and rotted it, exposing the
Floyd | cobblestones beneath. Black mold grows on the few patches of carpeting

Floyd | that remain. West is the large oaken door you so recently fled
Floyd | through; east you can see into the the lighted study of the dread
Floyd | warlock Do'papoc.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a plush frog
Floyd |   a Bracelet of Citrus Resistance (being worn)
Floyd |   a school-issue spellbook

Floyd |   a manual of demonology
Floyd |   a stuffed parrot
Floyd |   a Carelka quarter (providing light)
Floyd |   a shapeless blob of brown wax
Floyd |   a book of lore
Floyd |   a bag of Eldritch Farm cookies

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says, "yow. inventory esplosion"
maga says (to Floyd), "x bracelet"
Floyd | Drawing its power from the Kinda-Sorta-Semi-Quasi-Para-Elemental Plane

Floyd | of Citrus, this magical bracelet grants you immunity to all
Floyd | citrus-based attacks. Its gemstones sparkle the color of lemons,
Floyd | grapefruits, and oranges.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x spellbook"
Floyd | This slight, spiral-bound tome has "Isqui's Spellbook" written on the
Floyd | blue cover. It contains seven spells, laboriously copied from your
Floyd | school textbook. Unfortunately, your school textbook, "Harry Potter
Floyd | and the 2000 Middle School Magical Education Standards", tends to

Floyd | focus less on the "cause mighty warlock to tremble in fear" type
Floyd | spells and more on the "subject target to sharp kick in pants" type
Floyd | spells. In fact, "subject target to sharp kick in pants" is probably
Floyd | your best spell, apart from "open even locked or enchanted objects",
Floyd | which you can't even memorize anymore, since you got strawberry jam
Floyd | all over the runes.

Floyd |
Floyd | Your spellbook contains the following spells:
Floyd | funyun spell: cause spell caster to memorize wrong spell.
Floyd | geordi spell: bring simulacrum of animal to life.
Floyd | foobar spell: make the inedible edible.
Floyd | rekn0g spell: Bj*e,ev%n.l/((-%d o(fen.na5t*d o2*l70.

Floyd | bismol spell: subject target to sharp kick in pants.
Floyd | formic spell: summon being's mother.
Floyd | eldspa spell: sharpen pencil.
Floyd |
Floyd | [For help on casting spells, type HELP SPELLS.]
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "rekn0g me"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "learn rekn0g"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the rekn0g spell to memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "rekn0g me"
Floyd |
Floyd | ** Run-time error: rekn0g_spell (object number 242)  has no property
Floyd | magic to send message **
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert asks, "That's a TADS error, isn't it?"
DavidW says, "yes, I think so"
maga says (to Floyd), "learn bismol"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the bismol spell to memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "learn funyun"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the funyun spell to memory.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x manual"
Floyd | "How To Summon Demons and Influence People" concerns itself primarily
Floyd | with powerful and dangerous fiends like the iCthulu, summonable in

Floyd | eight deadly colors. The spells of summoning have bizarre names like
Floyd | "lexyacc" and "perlsed", and are very complicated, some requiring
Floyd | material components. Only one spell near the beginning seems even
Floyd | remotely comprehensible to you:
Floyd |
Floyd | awkgrep spell: summon extremely minor demon.

Floyd |
Floyd | [For help on casting spells, type HELP SPELLS.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "learn foobar"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the foobar spell to memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "foobar frog"
Floyd | The plush frog suddenly looks edible. In fact, it looks downright
Floyd | tasty.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "eat frog"
Floyd | You eat the plush frog. Not bad.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says, "oh dear"
Bert says, "Um. Maybe I should undo that."
Bert says (to Floyd), "undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Anteroom
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "x lore"
Floyd | It looks like a normal book, "Lup's Compendium of Tales Most Ancient".
Floyd | Opening it up, however, reveals that the book is completely blank,
Floyd | except for a few lines of verse in the middle of a page near the
Floyd | beginning:

Floyd |
Floyd | YE HUNTING HOUND AND YE SNAIL
Floyd | List'n to ye Tragic Tale
Floyd | Ye Hound of Cern imprisoned be
Floyd | From now until ye End of Time
Floyd | And naught but 'tis a flaming Snail

Floyd | Will break his curse, and bring to thee
Floyd | A refreshing Splash of Lemon-Lyme
Floyd | Place Snail on Stone where Hound is kep't
Floyd | And he for whome all Nature wep't
Floyd | A Prisoner no more will rise:
Floyd | REQUIRE, BEND, and CAUTERIZE

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "ha ha ha"
maga says, "(er, to eating Kermit)"
DavidW says, "That wasn't Kermit. That was Michigan J. Frog."
Lucea is gonna get back baby bad balls to you, love, cretin.
Lucea arrives, ready to play with the toys.
Bert says (to Floyd), "x frog"
Floyd | A green and yellow plush copyright violation: a cartoon frog wearing a
Floyd | top hat.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says, "Yeah, W's right."
Bert says (to Floyd), "frog, dance"
Floyd | You can't talk to the plush frog.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "ah, okay"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x wax"
Floyd | A blob of wax about six inches in diameter, the melted remains of the

Floyd | snail candle. The wick is probably still in there somewhere.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cookies"
Floyd | It's a bag of Eldritch Farm cookies -- "Remember when the sun guttered

Floyd | out and inky slithering blackness engulfed the earth? Eldritch Farm
Floyd | remembers." The instructions on the bag indicate that the chocolatey
Floyd | cookies may be eaten, or used as spell components when summoning
Floyd | demons of unimaginable power. There are four cookies left.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a plush frog
Floyd |   a Bracelet of Citrus Resistance (being worn)
Floyd |   a school-issue spellbook

Floyd |   a manual of demonology
Floyd |   a stuffed parrot
Floyd |   a Carelka quarter (providing light)
Floyd |   a shapeless blob of brown wax
Floyd |   a book of lore
Floyd |   a bag of Eldritch Farm cookies

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x parrot"
Floyd | This parrot looks real enough to have been alive at one point, but it
Floyd | may simply be a well-crafted construction. In any event, it's not

Floyd | alive right now. Lovely plumage, though; brilliant blues, greens, and
Floyd | yellows. Now that you've separated it from its perch, it has no
Floyd | particular orientation, and dangles upside-down from your hand. Its
Floyd | glass eye stares at you balefully, blaming you for subjecting it to
Floyd | the rigors of gravity.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x lore"
Floyd | It looks like a normal book, "Lup's Compendium of Tales Most Ancient".
Floyd | Opening it up, however, reveals that the book is completely blank,
Floyd | except for a few lines of verse in the middle of a page near the

Floyd | beginning:
Floyd |
Floyd | YE HUNTING HOUND AND YE SNAIL
Floyd | List'n to ye Tragic Tale
Floyd | Ye Hound of Cern imprisoned be
Floyd | From now until ye End of Time

Floyd | And naught but 'tis a flaming Snail
Floyd | Will break his curse, and bring to thee
Floyd | A refreshing Splash of Lemon-Lyme
Floyd | Place Snail on Stone where Hound is kep't
Floyd | And he for whome all Nature wep't
Floyd | A Prisoner no more will rise:

Floyd | REQUIRE, BEND, and CAUTERIZE
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "require"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "x citrus"
Floyd | Drawing its power from the Kinda-Sorta-Semi-Quasi-Para-Elemental Plane
Floyd | of Citrus, this magical bracelet grants you immunity to all

Floyd | citrus-based attacks. Its gemstones sparkle the color of lemons,
Floyd | grapefruits, and oranges.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x quarter"
Floyd | A quarter from the sprite nation of Carelka. It glows with a magical
Floyd | light.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "l"
Floyd |
Floyd | Warlock's Anteroom
Floyd | The stone walls on either side of you reach high into the darkening
Floyd | sky--the smell of fresh air is exhilarating after your travails within
Floyd | the depths of the castle. This short hallway was once covered in lush
Floyd | red carpet, but its exposure to the elements and its proximity to a

Floyd | trigger-happy warlock have scorched and rotted it, exposing the
Floyd | cobblestones beneath. Black mold grows on the few patches of carpeting
Floyd | that remain. West is the large oaken door you so recently fled
Floyd | through; east you can see into the the lighted study of the dread
Floyd | warlock Do'papoc.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x mold"
Floyd | The black mold is in an advanced state of growth.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "x carpet"
Floyd | The surviving bits of the red carpet are covered in mold.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x cobblestones"
Floyd | The exposed cobblestones are smooth and worn by the passage of time.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "smell"
Floyd | Fresh air with a hint of ozone. Damp mold and rotting wood, the kind
Floyd | of smell found under logs.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "x logs"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd |
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | The sumptuously decorated study of Do'papoc is decorated in
Floyd | bookshelves, full of tomes radiating power. A large, bone-white candle

Floyd | drips wax onto an oaken table, shedding light on a large, ancient
Floyd | spellbook and a terribly inaccurate globe.
Floyd |
Floyd | An aged man dressed in black robes sits at the table. Looking up from
Floyd | his book, he chuckles, shaking his head.
Floyd |

Floyd | "You poor, miserable fool!", he says. "If only you had found the
Floyd | obnoxious parrot, preparing beforehand with the funyun, bismol, and
Floyd | formic spells... then you may have stood a chance against me! But now,
Floyd | the might of the brussel spell will turn you into 7,904 individually
Floyd | wrapped jawbreakers!"
Floyd |

Floyd | Before you can react, the warlock casts a spell at you! It tingles a
Floyd | bit, but its most noticeable effect is its complete and utter failure
Floyd | at turning you into so many as ten individually wrapped jawbreakers.
Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc looks extremely embarrassed and hastily consults the online
Floyd | documentation for the brussel spell. "Blast!", he spouts, tearing at

Floyd | his beard. "The brussel spell is for ages 12 and up! Local Sorcerers
Floyd | 503 was clever to send a mere child to do battle with me!" Reaching
Floyd | for his spellbook, the warlock becomes calmer and more pensive. "No
Floyd | matter," he muses with a snarl. "I'll simply make use of 'brussel
Floyd | junior', the brussel spell for the younger set!"
Floyd |

Floyd | Do'papoc turns to his book and begins furiously memorizing a spell!
Floyd | You've only got one shot at this--whatever you do, it'd better be
Floyd | good!
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says, "waah!"
maga says (to Floyd), "undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Anteroom
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "learn formic"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the formic spell to memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Limax asks, "Oh, is this one of those instances when you have to know ahead of time what to do?"
maga says, "the verb here is UNDO"
inky says, "ha ha"
Bert says (to Floyd), "spells"
Floyd | You have the formic spell, funyun spell and bismol spell memorized.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax says, "Oh"
Bert says (to Floyd), "read book"
Floyd | Which do you mean, the school-issue spellbook, the manual of
Floyd | demonology or the book of lore?
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "spellbook"
Floyd | This slight, spiral-bound tome has "Isqui's Spellbook" written on the
Floyd | blue cover. It contains seven spells, laboriously copied from your
Floyd | school textbook. Unfortunately, your school textbook, "Harry Potter
Floyd | and the 2000 Middle School Magical Education Standards", tends to
Floyd | focus less on the "cause mighty warlock to tremble in fear" type
Floyd | spells and more on the "subject target to sharp kick in pants" type

Floyd | spells. In fact, "subject target to sharp kick in pants" is probably
Floyd | your best spell, apart from "open even locked or enchanted objects",
Floyd | which you can't even memorize anymore, since you got strawberry jam
Floyd | all over the runes.
Floyd |
Floyd | Your spellbook contains the following spells:

Floyd | funyun spell: cause spell caster to memorize wrong spell.
Floyd | geordi spell: bring simulacrum of animal to life.
Floyd | foobar spell: make the inedible edible.
Floyd | rekn0g spell: Bj*e,ev%n.l/((-%d o(fen.na5t*d o2*l70.
Floyd | bismol spell: subject target to sharp kick in pants.
Floyd | formic spell: summon being's mother.

Floyd | eldspa spell: sharpen pencil.
Floyd |
Floyd | [For help on casting spells, type HELP SPELLS.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "learn geordi"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the geordi spell to memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax asks, "Isqui??"
Alex says (to Limax), "Awwwk! Word on the street is that isqui is sexy-funky-hot, also http://mountainmemoirs.com/ifMUD/isqui.html."
Bert says (to Floyd), "learn rekn0g"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the rekn0g spell to memory.
Floyd | You have so much buzzing around in your head, though, that it's likely

Floyd | something may have been forgotten in the shuffle.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
inky asks, "how can it not be the kick in pants spell?"
Bert says (to Floyd), "learn bismol"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the bismol spell to memory
Floyd | once again. You have so much buzzing around in your head, though, that
Floyd | it's likely something may have been forgotten in the shuffle.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "spells"
Floyd | You have the bismol spell (twice), formic spell and funyun spell
Floyd | memorized.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

inky says, "although I guess that is an argument for trying all the others first"
inky says (to Floyd), "forget bismol"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert asks, "Hmm, we can only learn three?"
inky says, "you have bismol twice"
Limax says, "We're a very basic enchanter"
Bert asks, "We can only learn four?"
Bert says (to Floyd), "learn eldspa"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the eldspa spell to memory.
Floyd | You have so much buzzing around in your head, though, that it's likely
Floyd | something may have been forgotten in the shuffle.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

inky says, "that seems about right"
Bert says (to Floyd), "spells"
Floyd | You have the eldspa spell, bismol spell, formic spell and funyun spell
Floyd | memorized.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
inky says, "it's like an inventory limit, but for spells"
Bert says (to Floyd), "SAVE"
Bert says (to Floyd), "cf9"
Floyd | Enter saved game to store: Ok.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "oh, and we need to geordi the parrot"
maga says (to Floyd), "learn geordi"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the geordi spell to memory.
Floyd | You have so much buzzing around in your head, though, that it's likely
Floyd | something may have been forgotten in the shuffle.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Limax asks, "Does that give it a cool visor?"
maga says (to Floyd), "geordi parrot"
Floyd | The parrot suddenly comes alive in your hands! Squawking and swearing
Floyd | in the gravelly tongue of the parrots, it wrests free from your grasp
Floyd | and perches on your head.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "x parrot"
Floyd | While a humble simulacrum, the parrot was a genteel if unwieldy
Floyd | companion. Your gift of life seems wasted on it, as the animate parrot

Floyd | is smelly, raucous, prone to shed feathers, and fond of perching on
Floyd | your head.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
inky says, "oh, right, he told us what to do"
inky says, "I didn't think he was serious"
maga says (to Floyd), "spells"
Floyd | You have the bismol spell, formic spell and funyun spell memorized.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "formic parrot"
Floyd | You're the closest thing the parrot has to a mother, and you're
Floyd | already here.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "x spellbook"
Floyd | This slight, spiral-bound tome has "Isqui's Spellbook" written on the
Floyd | blue cover. It contains seven spells, laboriously copied from your
Floyd | school textbook. Unfortunately, your school textbook, "Harry Potter
Floyd | and the 2000 Middle School Magical Education Standards", tends to

Floyd | focus less on the "cause mighty warlock to tremble in fear" type
Floyd | spells and more on the "subject target to sharp kick in pants" type
Floyd | spells. In fact, "subject target to sharp kick in pants" is probably
Floyd | your best spell, apart from "open even locked or enchanted objects",
Floyd | which you can't even memorize anymore, since you got strawberry jam
Floyd | all over the runes.

Floyd |
Floyd | Your spellbook contains the following spells:
Floyd | funyun spell: cause spell caster to memorize wrong spell.
Floyd | geordi spell: bring simulacrum of animal to life.
Floyd | foobar spell: make the inedible edible.
Floyd | rekn0g spell: Bj*e,ev%n.l/((-%d o(fen.na5t*d o2*l70.

Floyd | bismol spell: subject target to sharp kick in pants.
Floyd | formic spell: summon being's mother.
Floyd | eldspa spell: sharpen pencil.
Floyd |
Floyd | [For help on casting spells, type HELP SPELLS.]
Floyd |

Floyd | >
DavidW asks, "Should we try summoning a minor demon?"
Bert says (to Floyd), "awkgrep"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says, "okay, so memorization, pants, mother"
maga says, "why not"
Bert exclaims, "Let's try it!"
DavidW says (to Floyd), "learn awkgrep"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the awkgrep spell to memory.
Floyd | The parrot squawks woodenly.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

DavidW says (to Floyd), "awkgrep"
Floyd | There is a puff of smoke, and Tim the demon appears next to your
Floyd | shoulder. Noticing the parrot on your head, Tim buzzes frantically and
Floyd | vanishes back into his native plane.
Floyd | With a final screech, the obnoxious parrot reverts to its inanimate

Floyd | form and plummets lifeless to the ground.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
inky says, "wow"
DavidW asks, "huh. Did Tim do that, or does geordi have limited time?"
Bert says (to Floyd), "undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Anteroom
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "z"
Floyd | Time passes.
Floyd | With a final screech, the obnoxious parrot reverts to its inanimate
Floyd | form and plummets lifeless to the ground.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says, "I'm going to guess the latter."
Bert says (to Floyd), "awkgrep"
Floyd | In a puff of smoke, Tim the demon appears next to your shoulder.
Floyd | "Tim!", he says, indicating himself. He shows no sign of recognizing

Floyd | you from previous summons, but begins buzzing around your head,
Floyd | awaiting your instructions.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax says, "I would agree"
Bert says (to Floyd), "tim, hi"
Floyd | Bzzzz!
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "kiss tim"
Floyd | Kissing a demon is a federal offense.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "eat tim"
Floyd | (first taking Tim the demon)
Floyd | Tim buzzes out of your reach.
Floyd |
Floyd | Tim whistles a demonic tune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "ask tim about magic"
Floyd | There is no reply.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "ask tim about rekn0g"
Floyd | There is no reply.
Floyd |
Floyd | Tim buzzes urgently.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "tim, make me a sandwich"
Floyd | Bzzzz!
Floyd |
Floyd | There is a pop, and Tim is gone from this plane.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
DavidW says (to Floyd), "ask tim about warlord"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
Limax says, "Tim has left the building"
DavidW says, "bah"
DavidW says, "well, I know what to do. I'm casting afk and going to make a sandwich."
maga says (to Floyd), "learn geordi"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the geordi spell to memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax says, "Snrk"
maga says (to Floyd), "geordi parrot"
Floyd | The parrot suddenly comes alive! Squawking and swearing in the
Floyd | gravelly tongue of the parrots, it flaps into the air and perches on
Floyd | your head.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd |
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | The sumptuously decorated study of Do'papoc is decorated in

Floyd | bookshelves, full of tomes radiating power. A large, bone-white candle
Floyd | drips wax onto an oaken table, shedding light on a large, ancient
Floyd | spellbook and a terribly inaccurate globe.
Floyd |
Floyd | An aged man dressed in black robes sits at the table. Looking up from
Floyd | his book, he chuckles, shaking his head.

Floyd |
Floyd | "You poor, miserable fool!", he says. "If only you had found the
Floyd | obnoxious parrot, preparing beforehand with the funyun, bismol, and
Floyd | formic spells... then you may have stood a chance against me! But now,
Floyd | the might of the brussel spell will turn you into 7,904 individually
Floyd | wrapped jawbreakers!"

Floyd |
Floyd | Before you can react, the warlock casts a spell at you! It tingles a
Floyd | bit, but its most noticeable effect is its complete and utter failure
Floyd | at turning you into so many as ten individually wrapped jawbreakers.
Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc looks extremely embarrassed and hastily consults the online

Floyd | documentation for the brussel spell. "Blast!", he spouts, tearing at
Floyd | his beard. "The brussel spell is for ages 12 and up! Local Sorcerers
Floyd | 503 was clever to send a mere child to do battle with me!" Reaching
Floyd | for his spellbook, the warlock becomes calmer and more pensive. "No
Floyd | matter," he muses with a snarl. "I'll simply make use of 'brussel
Floyd | junior', the brussel spell for the younger set!"

Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc turns to his book and begins furiously memorizing a spell!
Floyd | You've only got one shot at this--whatever you do, it'd better be
Floyd | good!
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "funyun dopapoc"
Floyd | You can't see any such thing.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "funyun do'papoc"
Floyd | Do'papoc seems confused momentarily, and shakes his head as if to
Floyd | clear his eyes, then goes back to his book and finishes the
Floyd | preparations for his spell.
Floyd |

Floyd | Do'papoc points at you and utters a word of power: "bokbar!"
Floyd |
Floyd | Unsurprisingly, nothing happens. The bokbar spell is "turn human into
Floyd | parrot", and since there is already a parrot in the vicinity, the
Floyd | enchantment has no effect. (Wow, I guess those arbitrary, inconvenient
Floyd | limitations on spells cut both ways!)

Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc is not pleased, and, shamelessly disregarding the rules of
Floyd | turn-based magical combat, casts another spell at you. Suddenly, a
Floyd | sheepish-looking goblin carrying a dagger appears and cowers in the
Floyd | corner. "Kill!", demands the warlock, pointing at you, and the
Floyd | whimpering goblin begins a valiant attempt to approach you menacingly

Floyd | without ever reducing the distance between you and him.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax says, "Heh"
maga says (to Floyd), "bismol goblin"
Floyd | The goblin squeals and leaps into the air, clutching his posterior.
Floyd | Waving his knife, he flees through a side passageway into the depths
Floyd | of the keep.
Floyd | "Bah!", expectorates the warlock. "Enough of this! I will destroy you
Floyd | and your pathetic but exceedingly well-chosen spells with one mighty
Floyd | blow!"

Floyd |
Floyd | Reaching into his pocket, Do'papoc tosses a handful of magical dust
Floyd | into the air, speaking a summons of great power -- "borax!"
Floyd |
Floyd | The dust explodes, filling the air with smoke, and from the billowing
Floyd | black clouds emerges a bronzed warrior, clad in equally bronze mail

Floyd | and carrying a decidedly steely bast--er, broadsword. He looks at you
Floyd | with a smirk, and, nodding his head in acknowledgement of an unheard
Floyd | order, begins to stride purposefully towards you.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "formic warrior"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Emily has disconnected.
Emily goes home.
maga says (to Floyd), "formic warlock"
Floyd | That's not a verb I recognize.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "learn formic"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the formic spell to memory.
Floyd | The warrior bears down on you, raising his sword...
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd |     *** You have... wait a minute.  ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | **********************************************************************
Floyd | **********

Floyd |
Floyd | From beyond the valley of the dead, you hear a voice:
Floyd |
Floyd | "It's a good thing your daughter was wearing that emergency bracelet.
Floyd | Otherwise, who knows how I would have reached you."
Floyd |

Floyd | You hear another voice, your mother's. "Is she okay?"
Floyd |
Floyd | "She's right in here, ma'am."
Floyd |
Floyd | You open your eyes.
Floyd |

Floyd | Inside the Booth (on the canvas cot)
Floyd | Inside, the small booth is a mess of blinking lights and
Floyd | interconnected black boxes. There are no prizes here; only the noun
Floyd | disambiguators, verb-to-action sequencers, and speech synthesizers
Floyd | that help Lalrry make sense of the world.
Floyd |

Floyd | Your parents are standing over you, looking down with expressions of
Floyd | concern. They are greatly relieved to see your eyes open. Your father
Floyd | stoops down and, in the absence of any objection from Lalrry, lifts
Floyd | you up into a bear hug.
Floyd |
Floyd | "How's it going, sporto?", he asks. "Okay," you reply, rubbing your

Floyd | eyes. "I guess I just fainted."
Floyd |
Floyd | "Well, all's well that ends well, I suppose," says your mother
Floyd | stiffly. Come on, Isqui, let's take you home."
Floyd |
Floyd |     *** You have been reunited with your parents ***

Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | In that game, you guessed 1 verb and completed 2 scenarios, in 95
Floyd | moves.
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game or QUIT?

Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says, "huh, I was sure we'd memorised formic"
Limax says, "I thought it got pushed out of our head"
Limax says, "Too bad doing 'spells' also advances the turn counter"
maga says (to Floyd), "undo"
Floyd | [Can't "undo" twice in succession. Sorry!]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Limax says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "/undo"
Floyd | Warlock's Anteroom
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "spells"
Floyd | You have the bismol spell and funyun spell memorized.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "learn formic"
Floyd | Using your best study habits, you commit the formic spell to memory.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "e"
Floyd |

Floyd | Warlock's Study
Floyd | The sumptuously decorated study of Do'papoc is decorated in
Floyd | bookshelves, full of tomes radiating power. A large, bone-white candle
Floyd | drips wax onto an oaken table, shedding light on a large, ancient
Floyd | spellbook and a terribly inaccurate globe.
Floyd |

Floyd | An aged man dressed in black robes sits at the table. Looking up from
Floyd | his book, he chuckles, shaking his head.
Floyd |
Floyd | "You poor, miserable fool!", he says. "If only you had found the
Floyd | obnoxious parrot, preparing beforehand with the funyun, bismol, and
Floyd | formic spells... then you may have stood a chance against me! But now,

Floyd | the might of the brussel spell will turn you into 7,904 individually
Floyd | wrapped jawbreakers!"
Floyd |
Floyd | Before you can react, the warlock casts a spell at you! It tingles a
Floyd | bit, but its most noticeable effect is its complete and utter failure
Floyd | at turning you into so many as ten individually wrapped jawbreakers.

Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc looks extremely embarrassed and hastily consults the online
Floyd | documentation for the brussel spell. "Blast!", he spouts, tearing at
Floyd | his beard. "The brussel spell is for ages 12 and up! Local Sorcerers
Floyd | 503 was clever to send a mere child to do battle with me!" Reaching
Floyd | for his spellbook, the warlock becomes calmer and more pensive. "No

Floyd | matter," he muses with a snarl. "I'll simply make use of 'brussel
Floyd | junior', the brussel spell for the younger set!"
Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc turns to his book and begins furiously memorizing a spell!
Floyd | You've only got one shot at this--whatever you do, it'd better be
Floyd | good!

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "funyun do'papoc"
Floyd | Do'papoc seems confused momentarily, and shakes his head as if to
Floyd | clear his eyes, then goes back to his book and finishes the

Floyd | preparations for his spell.
Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc points at you and utters a word of power: "bokbar!"
Floyd |
Floyd | Unsurprisingly, nothing happens. The bokbar spell is "turn human into
Floyd | parrot", and since there is already a parrot in the vicinity, the

Floyd | enchantment has no effect. (Wow, I guess those arbitrary, inconvenient
Floyd | limitations on spells cut both ways!)
Floyd |
Floyd | Do'papoc is not pleased, and, shamelessly disregarding the rules of
Floyd | turn-based magical combat, casts another spell at you. Suddenly, a
Floyd | sheepish-looking goblin carrying a dagger appears and cowers in the

Floyd | corner. "Kill!", demands the warlock, pointing at you, and the
Floyd | whimpering goblin begins a valiant attempt to approach you menacingly
Floyd | without ever reducing the distance between you and him.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "bismol goblin"
Floyd | The goblin squeals and leaps into the air, clutching his posterior.
Floyd | Waving his knife, he flees through a side passageway into the depths
Floyd | of the keep.
Floyd | "Bah!", expectorates the warlock. "Enough of this! I will destroy you

Floyd | and your pathetic but exceedingly well-chosen spells with one mighty
Floyd | blow!"
Floyd |
Floyd | Reaching into his pocket, Do'papoc tosses a handful of magical dust
Floyd | into the air, speaking a summons of great power -- "borax!"
Floyd |

Floyd | The dust explodes, filling the air with smoke, and from the billowing
Floyd | black clouds emerges a bronzed warrior, clad in equally bronze mail
Floyd | and carrying a decidedly steely bast--er, broadsword. He looks at you
Floyd | with a smirk, and, nodding his head in acknowledgement of an unheard
Floyd | order, begins to stride purposefully towards you.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "formic warrior"
Floyd | "Bernie Michael Angor!" A voice from behind the warrior causes him to
Floyd | stop in his tracks. His hands drop to his sides, the weapon swinging
Floyd | uselessly as he turns around, cringing.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Look at you, young man!" The old woman, dressed in drab reds and
Floyd | flamboyant necklaces, is not pleased. "Going out without a shirt! What
Floyd | are you trying to do, die of cold? Maybe give your mother a heart
Floyd | attack? What do you think you're doing with that sword? You're going
Floyd | to kill someone with that thing, and what would your father think?

Floyd |
Floyd | "And you, Mr. Warlock! Terrorizing the countryside! Killing off the
Floyd | peasantry! Turning the land black with oppression and woe! What do you
Floyd | hope to accomplish, huh? Didn't you ever have a mother to tell you
Floyd | what's right and wrong?
Floyd |

Floyd | The aged woman grabs Do'papoc and her son in an ear lock (she may be
Floyd | short, but she's got long arms, and a strong grip), and begins to drag
Floyd | them both, painfully, into the anteroom. Passing you, she turns and
Floyd | addresses you.
Floyd |
Floyd | "You hurry home, young lady. This is no place for someone like you."

Floyd | She nods at you, and you fade away...
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | **********************************************************************
Floyd | **********
Floyd |

Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for

Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | labeled with a single word: DISEMBARK.

Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry briefly pulls you aside. "The crowned of have guessed at my,"
Floyd | he says confidentially. "The Queen was quite on, although the of would
Floyd | hear of but, rather, should say." You nod in what you hope looks like
Floyd | agreement.
Floyd |

Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "i"
Floyd | You are carrying:
Floyd |   a Canadian quarter
Floyd |   a spelling book

Floyd |   a plush frog
Floyd |   your identity bracelet (being worn)
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "x canadian"
Floyd | A newly minted millennial Canadian quarter. You're not sure how you
Floyd | ended up with it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Lucea says (to floyd), "x spelling"
Floyd | A sixth-grade spelling book, with lists of words and definitions.
Floyd | Words that are spelled oddly--one or two per lesson--are for some
Floyd | reason given the name of 'snurks'. You're not really sure how you
Floyd | ended up with the book.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Lucea says (to floyd), "x frog"
Floyd | A green and yellow plush copyright violation: a cartoon frog wearing a
Floyd | top hat.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

Bert says (to Floyd), "spells"
Floyd | Huh?
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry makes a long-winded, heartfelt speech which you can't
Floyd | understand at all.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "give quarter to lalrry"
Floyd | "I don't understand what you're trying to do," says Lalrry, rejecting
Floyd | your offer.

Floyd |
Floyd | "Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "guess disembark"
Floyd | "Sorry," says Lalrry, "but I need a shiny from before can GUESS THE!"
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry briefly pulls you aside. "The crowned of have guessed at my,"
Floyd | he says confidentially. "The Queen was quite on, although the of would
Floyd | hear of but, rather, should say." You nod in what you hope looks like
Floyd | agreement.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "okay, I guess Canadian quarters aren't shiny"
maga says (to Floyd), "se"
Floyd |

Floyd | Behind the Booths
Floyd | You are in a shadowy alcove, surrounded by the canvas backs of several
Floyd | carnival booths. The music and bustle of the midway seems very far
Floyd | away, and a harvest moon illuminates the wet grass of the fairgrounds
Floyd | and the makeshift walls that surround you.
Floyd |

Floyd | The glinting tip of a small metal box peeks out from beneath the verb
Floyd | guessing booth.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "x quarter"
Floyd | A newly minted millennial Canadian quarter. You're not sure how you
Floyd | ended up with it.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "turn on blue"
Floyd | That's already on.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "turn off blue"
Floyd | As you flip the switch, the LED suddenly goes dark.
Bert exclaims, "But they are quarters!"
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "turn on orange"
Floyd | As you flip the switch, the LED suddenly lights up green.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says (to Floyd), "ne"
Floyd |
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | The cramped, brightly-lit booth before which you stand is the field of
Floyd | play for a carnival game with the improbable name of "Guess The Verb".
Floyd | Lalrry, the jovial natural language parser inside the booth,
Floyd | broadcasts a well-rehearsed patter promising great prizes and fun for

Floyd | all ages; high adventure and unbridled kleptomania. The rest of the
Floyd | carnival midway lies to the northeast, and you can scamper behind the
Floyd | booth to the southeast.
Floyd |
Floyd | A large wheel of fortune is attached to the booth behind the counter,
Floyd | labeled with a single word: DISEMBARK.

Floyd |
Floyd | >
maga says, "technically he should have said 'we don't take Canadian'"
maga says (to Floyd), "give canadian to lalrry"
Floyd | Lalrry gladly takes the quarter from your outstretched palm. With the

Floyd | flair of a showman, he tosses it into the air and catches it in his
Floyd | shirt pocket. Stepping back, he indicates the wheel.
Floyd |
Floyd | "Guess a verb, verb!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >

maga says (to Floyd), "guess disembark"
Floyd | "Hey, guess! And so I spin the wheel..."
Floyd |
Floyd | Lalrry gives the wheel a good push and it begins rapidly rotating,
Floyd | spinning faster now, now slowly winding down until it...stops...on...

Floyd |
Floyd |                   DISEMBARK
Floyd |
Floyd | "Hey, you win!" Lalrry seems genuinely excited as he hands you your
Floyd | prize--a long rope of red licorice.
Floyd |

Floyd | Lalrry shrugs and says "Guess that's! 'Ve got to get going now--no use
Floyd | hanging around after all the are gone. Hope had."
Floyd |
Floyd | Lallry begins slowly, methodically dismantling the empty wheel. You
Floyd | stand and watch him for a while, an awkward figure working gracefully
Floyd | in silence. Then you turn away and slowly walk into the humid night,,

Floyd | clutching your prizes.
Floyd |
Floyd |     *** You have completed the game ***
Floyd |
Floyd |
Floyd | In that game, you guessed 2 verbs and completed 3 scenarios, in 110

Floyd | moves.
Floyd |
Floyd | Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, see some suggestions
Floyd | for AMUSING things to do or QUIT?
Floyd | >
maga says, "so I guess the nature of the game is that you don't get to play all of the scenarios"
Limax says, "Aw"
Bert says (to Floyd), "undo"
Floyd | Verb Guessing Booth
Floyd | [Previous turn undone.]

Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says (to Floyd), "guess xyzzy"
Floyd | "Sorry, that's not on the wheel!"
Floyd |

Floyd | "Guess a verb, verb!", says Lalrry, indicating the wheel of fortune.
Floyd |
Floyd | >
Bert says, "Aha."
Limax asks, "What is on the wheel?"
maga says, "I suppose we could restart and try and get the other two, but it'd be a crapshoot"
Bert says, "DISEMBARK"
Limax says, "Maybe it was written for many hours of play"
maga says, "I think it was a comp entry"
maga asks, "so maybe this was a way to keep the play time down?"
Limax says, "Okay... for hours of enjoyment after the comp"
maga says, "Thanks for coming, all"



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