  
ClubFloyd Transcript:
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. |
|
ClubFloyd Transcript:
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. |
|
ToyShop & Floyditorium
|
#ClubFloyd Discussion
|
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| Jacqueline says, "One more minute until I go look at the votes - if you're still voting, hurry every chance you get." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "(Please)" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Okay, let's see. One sec..." | ||
| DavidW) Jacqueline says, "We have a fifteen-way tie for first place. Thanks, guys." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Actually, there was a winner." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "And if there hadn't been, I'd have broken the tie." | ||
| maga says, "golly" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "But there *was* a winner. Bigger Than You Think, by our crazy Uncle Z." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "load sleepmask btyt" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | start Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Bigger Than You Think is a choice-based interactive Floyd | narrative. Every few paragraphs, you will have the opportunity to Floyd | decide what happens next in the story. Type one of the boldface words Floyd | to select an option. Floyd | Floyd | You may return to the beginning of the story by typing start. Floyd | (This option is always available.) Note that this game has an autosave Floyd | feature; if you quit and then start a new session, it should pick up Floyd | where you left off. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Bigger Than You Think Floyd | An interactive riff by Andrew Plotkin Floyd | Release 4 / Serial number 130101 / Inform 7 build 6G60 (I6/v6.32 lib Floyd | 6/12N) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "Good choice, but I've already played it. Also, do try to play BTYT offline, to get the best effect from it." | |
| maga says, "I voted for that without being sure that it's playable" | ||
| DavidW says, "Thanks to sleepmask, it should be." | ||
| DavidW says, "The only commands will be the words in italics." | ||
| Zach says, "Oh, I forgot that I have played this." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "I haven't played it. Anyone else playing with me?" | ||
| maga says, "yeah" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "yay" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Let's go... hm, up? I'm an optimist, and optimists look up. Or something." | ||
| maga says, "oops" | ||
| DavidW says, "oh, unrelated, but I reread your review on Myst IV the other day. Much fun.," | ||
| maga arrives, full of fun and funk. | Jacqueline says (to DW), "Heh. Yay. Glad it is still getting some readers." | |
| maga says, "(actually being in the toyshop would help)" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to maga), "Oops you mischanneled and I'm ... oh." | ||
| DavidW says, "oh, I should also warn you guys: don't save or restore." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah. You can @recap #toyshop, maga." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to DW), "On that note, I wonder how this autosave thing is going to work with Floyd, if at all." | ||
| DavidW asks, "Autosave? What autosave?" | ||
| maga says, "sure, upwards" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "upwards" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > UPWARDS Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to DW), "It mentioned it in the pre-game text." | |
| DavidW says, "A note about the status line: valid command are on the left, and inventory items (when you get them) are on the right." | ||
| maga says, "one vote for passage" | ||
| Jacqueline | Note that this game has an autosave feature; if you quit and then start a new session, it should pick up where you left off. | ||
| Jacqueline says, "f passage" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Whoops" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend: Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before. Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says (to Jacqueline), "ah, I see that now." | |
| maga says, "side" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Well, we have no rope, but I suspect maybe we get to come back here?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Side, sure." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "side" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > SIDE Floyd | Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely-- Floyd | Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above. Floyd | Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes? Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the Floyd | water? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Water." | |
| maga says, "inscriptions first, in case they say WARNING: ACID BATH" | ||
| DavidW says, "heh" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "oh okay, good point." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "inscriptions" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > INSCRIPTIONS Floyd | Floyd | The inscriptions tell, in awkward but decipherable Latin, of a Floyd | war-party of titans who were flung from the heavens during the gods' Floyd | war against Cronos. These titans sailed around the edge of the world Floyd | seven times seeking the gates of Cronos's kingdom, but they could not Floyd | be found, for all of that ur-kingdom had been sunk into the Floyd | underworld. The titans dug... but beyond this, the text is unreadable, Floyd | obliterated by the flowing water. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "water" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] start Floyd | > Floyd | > WATER Floyd | Floyd | You plunge your hand into the water. The chilly shock sends you numb, Floyd | instantly, to the elbow. You withdraw your hand -- but the skin is Floyd | blue, and the icy numbness is crawling up past your shoulder now. Not Floyd | just cold, then, you think. A pity. Your helmet-lamp grows dim, and Floyd | the stone grows distant. Floyd | Floyd | Your story will end here, unless you wish to start from the Floyd | beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "dammit, inscription, why didn't you warn me" | |
| Jacqueline says, "eep" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "Don't worry" | |
| Jacqueline asks, "D this time, or keep exploring the U branch?" | ||
| maga says, "I suspect that that was not a simple restart" | ||
| maga says, "but let's go back to the same branch, sure" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend: Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before. Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "ahead" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] forest umbrella Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > AHEAD Floyd | Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright. Floyd | Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have Floyd | sought? Floyd | Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth. Floyd | Floyd | An umbrella lies discarded, though neatly folded, at the subterranean Floyd | forest's eaves. Floyd | Floyd | Will you take the umbrella or advance into the forest? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga exclaims, "no! umbrella mimic!" | |
| DavidW says, "oh, go on, take the scary umbrella" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "heehee" | ||
| maga says, "the first time you open it it'll go SCROM down onto your head" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] forest umbrella Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You pick up the umbrella. It's a nice big sturdy one. Why someone Floyd | needed an umbrella underground, you have no notion. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to maga), "You've been playing too much Alice." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "forest" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] move stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > FOREST Floyd | Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage. Floyd | Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around Floyd | you. Floyd | Floyd | Will you move past the watchers, or stand? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "or zarf has" | |
| Jacqueline says, "heh. I don't think he liked Alice much." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Anyway, I say we stand." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "stand" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] move stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > STAND Floyd | Floyd | You freeze, but the sense of being watched only grows more Floyd | intolerable. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] move stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You pop open the umbrella and try to hide behind it. It really doesn't Floyd | work very well. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "oh good. Found my handdrawn map of this game, which might be helpful much later." | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "stand" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] move stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > STAND Floyd | Floyd | You freeze, but the sense of being watched only grows more Floyd | intolerable. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "move" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > MOVE Floyd | Floyd | You turn to run, but which way? The eyes surround you. You spin, Floyd | trying to keep your back to a tree-trunk, but it is no use: you are Floyd | seen. Floyd | Floyd | Better to cast a veil over that scene. Shall we start the story Floyd | over? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga exclaims, "engrued!" | |
| Jacqueline says, "I take it that critters with amber eyes can run sustained bursts of 35mph." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "You were right." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Yay." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Passage?" | |
| maga says, "sure" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend: Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before. Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You have no need for an umbrella here. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "but... but flimsy parachute" | |
| Jacqueline asks, "Can we use it to poke at the cold water, I wonder?" | ||
| maga says, "worth a try" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "side" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > SIDE Floyd | Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely-- Floyd | Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above. Floyd | Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes? Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the Floyd | water? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You have no need for an umbrella here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "poo" | |
| DavidW says, "Not an option." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "So, how do we go back, I wonder?" | ||
| maga says, "restart" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "back" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > BACK Floyd | Floyd | [I don't recognize "back" as an option here. Type one of the boldface Floyd | words.] Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "start, you mean" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | Jacqueline asks, "Gosh, really?" | |
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella.) Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "let's keep climbing this time" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "up" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > UP Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "OK" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "climbing" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > CLIMBING Floyd | Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your Floyd | shoulders. Floyd | Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the Floyd | knobbly floor. Floyd | Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk. Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness. Floyd | Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in Floyd | the world on the same quest? Floyd | Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our Floyd | knowledge." Floyd | Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or Floyd | Atalantë in the reaches of the sea? Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "That's a e with umlaut at the end of Atalant??." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "atalante" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > ATALANTE Floyd | Floyd | When your ship approaches Atalantë, (the monk begins), the Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see Atalantë's black-sand shores Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously. Floyd | Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home. Floyd | Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three -- Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet. Floyd | Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go Floyd | down to the bustling markets? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "ha, excellent" | |
| DavidW says, "yay. I was worried that might not" | ||
| maga asks, "down?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "One sec." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Still reading." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Okay, d." | ||
| DavidW says, "I think short forms of directions work if they're the same as standard directions." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah, so far they have." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] flare smoke Floyd | umbrella start Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You descend the curving streets to the great market of Atalantë. The Floyd | smells of street-wagon coffee and hot frying fish strike you like... Floyd | like... there is nothing that they are like; this is home. Floyd | Floyd | You look over a table of fireworks -- toys, though they would terrify Floyd | the primitive Continentals you have just spent months among. Floyd | Terrifying them, though, is not the goal. It is power that Atalantë Floyd | requires, power for the great engines and the greater ones which must Floyd | be built. Whether that power can come from rare ores, or rock-pitch, Floyd | or other sources yet unknown -- that is what you have spent your life Floyd | trying to discover. Floyd | Floyd | Perhaps the answer does not lie in the remote Continents. The Floyd | fire-dowsers have begun speaking of power from the Earth; the notion Floyd | of rekindling the volcanic fires that once built Atalantë from the sea Floyd | floor. Dangerous, surely, but if it can be done... you have become Floyd | weary of travel. Floyd | Floyd | But these are idle thoughts. Will you look at the flare or the Floyd | smoke tube in the fireworks tray? Or, if the markets are of no Floyd | more interest, you may start the story from the beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "either way" | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "flare" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] smoke umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] flare Floyd | Floyd | > FLARE Floyd | Floyd | The merchant nods. "That will burn with a clean bright light, even Floyd | underwater. Very practical." You take it, and pass over a slip of Floyd | silver. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "smoke" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > SMOKE Floyd | Floyd | "Crack that and it will create enough smoke to fill half of the Floyd | Queen's Square. Not that you should do it in the Square, of Floyd | course!" You return his wink, and purchase the tube. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Guess START?" | |
| maga says, "yup" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.) Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "then whatever the monk's other story is? or do we want to check out the Temple?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Either. And maybe the flare will work with the opaque water." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "this is pretty nice but it seems as though at least the first phase is just going to be cranking though all the available branches" | |
| Jacqueline says, "It does feel that way, but I suspect it may not be." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "And that the game may be, um, bigger than we think." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend: Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before. Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "side" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > SIDE Floyd | Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely-- Floyd | Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above. Floyd | Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes? Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the Floyd | water? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| olethros arrives, full of fun, but no funk. | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "flare" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > FLARE Floyd | Floyd | You twist the flare's cap, producing a satisfying blue-white burst of Floyd | flame. It only lasts a few seconds, though, and then you are blinking Floyd | away afterimages in the dimness. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "Weirdly, personally, I thought the game was exactly as big as I thought it would be." | |
| Jacqueline says, "hee" | ||
| maga says, "yeah, I expect it to open up once we find puzzles that work" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "So, I guess we didn't toss the flare in the water. Now when we restart, I wonder if we'll have a new flare (I suspect not)." | ||
| maga says, "hmm, maybe the flare scares off the grues" | ||
| yournamehere arrives, full of neither funk nor fun. | Jacqueline says, "Ooh - yeah." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Well, let's see if we even still have it." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.) Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "(we have no evidence that they are grues)" | |
| Jacqueline says, "It just mentioned that it works in water, is all." | ||
| maga says, "(but what do you expect, really)" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Huh. Still have a flare." | ||
| Jacqueline says (to maga), "Go try your grue theory." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "up" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > UP Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend: Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before. Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "ahead" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] forest umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > AHEAD Floyd | Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright. Floyd | Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have Floyd | sought? Floyd | Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth. Floyd | Floyd | Will you advance into the forest? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "forest" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] move stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > FOREST Floyd | Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage. Floyd | Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around Floyd | you. Floyd | Floyd | Will you move past the watchers, or stand? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "flare" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] move stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > FLARE Floyd | Floyd | You twist the flare's cap, producing a satisfying blue-white burst of Floyd | flame. The eyes around you do not flinch, however, and the flare soon Floyd | burns out. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "dammit" | |
| maga says, "nicely anticipated false solution, though" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "move" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > MOVE Floyd | Floyd | You turn to run, but which way? The eyes surround you. You spin, Floyd | trying to keep your back to a tree-trunk, but it is no use: you are Floyd | seen. Floyd | Floyd | Better to cast a veil over that scene. Shall we start the story Floyd | over? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Yeah" | |
| DavidW says (to Floyd), "seen" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > SEEN Floyd | Floyd | [I don't recognize "seen" as an option here. Type one of the boldface Floyd | words.] Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "oh, one of the few times that italics isn't a command." | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "How now, brown cow?" | |
| maga says, "okay, time for the Second Monk's Tale" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Okay" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your Floyd | shoulders. Floyd | Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the Floyd | knobbly floor. Floyd | Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk. Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness. Floyd | Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in Floyd | the world on the same quest? Floyd | Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our Floyd | knowledge." Floyd | Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or Floyd | Atalantë in the reaches of the sea? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "Uabar, or temple?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Either" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "atlante" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > ATLANTE Floyd | Floyd | [I don't recognize "atlante" as an option here. Type one of the Floyd | boldface words.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "atalante" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > ATALANTE Floyd | Floyd | When your ship approaches Atalantë, (the monk begins), the Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see Atalantë's black-sand shores Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously. Floyd | Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home. Floyd | Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three -- Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet. Floyd | Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go Floyd | down to the bustling markets? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "temple" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > TEMPLE Floyd | Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire Floyd | for change. Floyd | Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign. Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a Floyd | passing whim, after all. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "approach" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > APPROACH Floyd | Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire Floyd | for change. Floyd | Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign. Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a Floyd | passing whim, after all. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "okay, presumably some object needed here" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You have no need for an umbrella here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline exclaims (at maga), "Damn, you beat me to that!" | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "flare" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > FLARE Floyd | Floyd | Setting off fireworks in the Queen's Square would get you thrown out Floyd | on your ear. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "approach" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > APPROACH Floyd | Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire Floyd | for change. Floyd | Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign. Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a Floyd | passing whim, after all. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Oh, okay, it's pushing us back to the square afterward." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, and a smoke tube.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "So merely holding the object or having some knowledge we don't yet possess should be enough." | |
| DavidW says, "You don't know what to do at the temple yet." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "up" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > UP Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "up" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > UP Floyd | Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your Floyd | shoulders. Floyd | Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the Floyd | knobbly floor. Floyd | Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk. Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness. Floyd | Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in Floyd | the world on the same quest? Floyd | Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our Floyd | knowledge." Floyd | Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or Floyd | Atalantë in the reaches of the sea? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Uabar" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "tlon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > TLON Floyd | Floyd | [I don't recognize "tlon" as an option here. Type one of the boldface Floyd | words.] Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Tlon?" | |
| maga says (to Jacq), "[LINK],_Uqbar,_Orbis_Tertius" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "uabar" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] towers square Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] key smoke Floyd | flare Floyd | > Floyd | > UABAR Floyd | Floyd | You were born in Uabar, (the monk begins), great Uabar, city Floyd | of the towers, queen of the desert. You grew in its alleys, chasing Floyd | imaginary revolutionaries, rolling under palanquins to escape the Floyd | dreamed pursuit of djinn-lords, dodging between coaches and Floyd | lizard-beeves to delight phantom admirers. Soon you will be grown, and Floyd | stately walk the avenues with a modest headcloth and the mist of Floyd | fountain-spray brushing your face. But that day is not today. Floyd | Floyd | The men and women of Uabar crowd past you today, ignoring the slight Floyd | form of a still-child leaning on the old stone well. (The first well Floyd | of Uabar, which stood in the deep desert long before the People came Floyd | here and built fountains and avenues and towers.) You hear a commotion Floyd | in the alleys, as your playmates gather for yet another game. But your Floyd | eyes are drawn to a nearby square: the day's debates are beginning. Floyd | Floyd | A stone key lies forgotten on the lip of the well. Floyd | Floyd | Will you pick up the key, run and climb towers with your Floyd | friends, or slip into the square and hear what the citizens are Floyd | discussing? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "yoink" | |
| Jacqueline says, "yeah" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "key" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "key" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] towers square Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | Floyd | > KEY Floyd | Floyd | You toss the stone key a few times -- nicely chunky -- and then tuck Floyd | it away in your purse. Floyd | Floyd | > Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] towers square Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > KEY Floyd | Floyd | There is nothing to unlock here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "heh heh" | |
| DavidW says, "Keys aren't as scary as umbrellas, I guess." | ||
| maga exclaims, "towers! towers!" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "towers" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] towers square Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > TOWERS Floyd | Floyd | You meet your friends, but you have forgotten your climbing gear at Floyd | home today! Oh, the embarrassment. You resign yourself to an afternoon Floyd | of napping in the shade before dinner. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "meh" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "square" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > SQUARE Floyd | Floyd | You climb the low wall and sit looking into the square. The citizens Floyd | of Uabar talk, as they often talk, of metal: of steel and silver and Floyd | nickel, of quicksilver and saltlith and skylith and the rarer Floyd | alchemical metals. All the substances which are so dear in the desert, Floyd | which have forced Uabar to grow in spires of stone, with only traces Floyd | of precious metal within. Floyd | Floyd | A hortator stands and begins extolling the virtues of Starfall. You Floyd | have heard the word before, but now you begin to understand its Floyd | import: a vision of falling fire, raw ore from the sky, a bounty of Floyd | metal for Uabar to mine from the sands. It is within reach, if enough Floyd | citizens turn their hands to the project... Floyd | Floyd | You are entranced, and shout for the hortator, even though your voice Floyd | is not yet legally heard. In a few months it will be; and you will Floyd | take study with the scholars of the paths of the heavens, working to Floyd | solve the remaining intricacies of Starfall. It will not be easy, but Floyd | it will begin in your lifetime. Floyd | Floyd | That is another story, however. Will you start yours over from Floyd | the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Guess we'll find gear that will work here and possibly also in that big pit." | |
| maga says, "mmhmm" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, and a stone key.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Anything else U, or D now?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "I know we'll come back U later, but maybe it's time for D." | ||
| maga says, "I think down for now, yes" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start | ||
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] crowbar smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | A steel crowbar is caught crossways in the shaft here -- no doubt Floyd | dropped by an earlier explorer, somewhere above. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, take the crowbar, or Floyd | continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | Another stretched-step downward, groping for ledges with your toes. Floyd | Then another, then another -- until slick stone shrugs your foot away. Floyd | Floyd | Now you are plunging through the darkness, which roars at you and Floyd | blurs past your flailing hands. Floyd | Floyd | Somewhere below is the end of your journey. Such a thing should not be Floyd | spoken of, lest one decide that life has yielded up its last marvel. Floyd | Shall we instead start the story from the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Whoops - you drive. Sorry." | |
| DavidW says, "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" | ||
| maga says, "oops" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, and a stone key.) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crowbar smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] key Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | A steel crowbar is caught crossways in the shaft here -- no doubt Floyd | dropped by an earlier explorer, somewhere above. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, take the crowbar, or Floyd | continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "crowbar" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] crowbar Floyd | key Floyd | > Floyd | > CROWBAR Floyd | Floyd | You give the crowbar a tentative tug. It comes easily free. You were Floyd | wise not to put your weight on it, you suppose. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Yeah, you drive, get that crowbar on the way down, please." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Thanks." | ||
| maga asks, "so, canyon?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Sure." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "canyon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] open carvings smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] crowbar Floyd | key Floyd | > Floyd | > CANYON Floyd | Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind. Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow, Floyd | steady descent. Floyd | Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall. Lines of petroglyphs Floyd | spiral around its face. To either side of the door, smaller cracks Floyd | lead away. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, try to open the locked Floyd | door, or continue to the left or right? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "left and right, zarf? really now?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "In this game, with no turning around, it works." | ||
| DavidW says, "Caves of Time has jaded you." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "haha" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "carvings" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] open carvings smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] crowbar Floyd | key Floyd | > Floyd | > CARVINGS Floyd | Floyd | The carvings are pictorial. They show a circle of hands approaching a Floyd | larger circle, cut with intricate boundaries -- and if you had any Floyd | doubt of your mark, they are now dispelled, for those outlines are Floyd | continental. It is Earth which the circle-of-hands Floyd | approaches. The map is not precise... or, no, it is: you make Floyd | out the thickened land masses of the last Ice Age, twenty thousand Floyd | years past. Floyd | Floyd | Whatever the story, these inscriptions do not reveal the end of it. Floyd | The smaller circle shatters, and hand-outlines drift down like Floyd | snowflakes across the world. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "door?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Um, pretty. And probably a clue we won't understand for awhile." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Or possibly it's just world building." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Left?" | ||
| maga says, "I was going to try the door first" | ||
| DavidW says, "Bet it's locked." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Go for it." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "open" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] open carvings smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] crowbar Floyd | key Floyd | > Floyd | > OPEN Floyd | Floyd | You push and tug, but the door does not move at all. Upon closer Floyd | inspection, you see a keyhole by the door's edge; apparently this will Floyd | not be a matter of main force. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "there we go" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "key" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] shoes umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > KEY Floyd | Floyd | You take out the stone key that you brought down into these tunnels. Floyd | You slip it into the door's keyhole... and it turns. Click. Unlocked. Floyd | Floyd | A startling stroke of luck, this. Or -- if your theories about the Floyd | behavior of merging histories are anywhere near right -- perhaps not Floyd | luck at all. Floyd | Floyd | The door opens easily, or as easily as a ton of marble on limestone Floyd | hinges could move. The chamber beyond is mostly empty, but with clear Floyd | signs of human habitation. It appears to have been some sort of living Floyd | space; a sleeping nook, a few carved niches for storage. One blackened Floyd | recess is certainly a fireplace, with -- yes -- a connection to a Floyd | natural chimney in the rear. Floyd | Floyd | The only items that remain are two folded bits of leather, Floyd | surprisingly supple and neatly made. (Or, again... not so surprising.) Floyd | Upon closer inspection, they appear to be shoes, quite small -- Floyd | perhaps a child's? Floyd | Floyd | Will you take the shoes? Or will you leave this trove for Floyd | paleological analysis, and start the story anew? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "shoes" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > SHOES Floyd | Floyd | You pick up the leather shoes. The soles are particularly rough, Floyd | almost toothy; they might be sharkskin. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "the fireplace gives me pause" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "smoke" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > SMOKE Floyd | Floyd | You crack the tube, and smoke gushes out, filling the space. (It Floyd | smells rather nice.) Despite the stillness of the air here, the smoke Floyd | cloud soon disperses, or dissolves, or evaporates. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "crowbar" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > CROWBAR Floyd | Floyd | You can't think of anything to do with the crowbar here. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You have no need for an umbrella here. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "oh well, worth a shot" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, a handy crowbar, and a Floyd | pair of small shoes.) Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "back to where we were, try left and right?" | |
| DavidW says, "I hadn't even thought ot trying those there." | ||
| maga says, "well, I've shoved an umbrella up a flue in an IF game recently" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Sure. I'm sad the smoke + chimney thing didn't pan out." | ||
| * Doug has left the channel. | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "canyon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] open carvings smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > CANYON Floyd | Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind. Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow, Floyd | steady descent. Floyd | Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar. Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door, Floyd | or continue to the left or right? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "left" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] climb rope Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > LEFT Floyd | Floyd | The narrow passage rises slightly as it runs. You turn sideways to Floyd | slip between the limestone formations, and continue your progress. Floyd | Floyd | When green light begins seeping into the canyon, somewhere ahead, you Floyd | are disoriented: surely you have not ascended so far as the surface? Floyd | But you press forward, and the illumination soon dispels your Floyd | confusion, as you step free into wide, round space -- the bottom of a Floyd | deep sinkhole. Far above, foliage burns viridian in the distant circle Floyd | of daylight. Floyd | Floyd | A rope sprawls in ungainly coils across the floor of the sinkhole. No Floyd | doubt some explorer once descended this way, but the return route has Floyd | become dislodged. Floyd | Floyd | Will you attempt to climb, gather up the rope, or Floyd | start the story over? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline exclaims, "Rope!" | |
| DavidW says, "You wanted rope earlier." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "rope" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] climb umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd ] rope Floyd | Floyd | > ROPE Floyd | Floyd | You coil up the rope and stow it away. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says (to DW), "Yep." | |
| Jacqueline asks, "Climb?" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "climb" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] climb umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd ] rope Floyd | > Floyd | > CLIMB Floyd | Floyd | The sinkhole walls are smooth and slightly overhung. You might be able Floyd | to climb a few meters, here or there, but certainly not the sinkhole's Floyd | entire height. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "shoes" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] climb umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd ] rope Floyd | > Floyd | > SHOES Floyd | Floyd | The shoes are too small for your feet. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "good try there." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Good thought, maga." | ||
| Jacqueline exclaims, "Now, let's use the umbrella to rise out of here in Mary Poppins style!" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] climb umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd ] rope Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You have no need for an umbrella here. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Aw." | |
| maga says, "damn you, zarf" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Go down that pit with the rope?" | ||
| maga says, "yeah" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd ] rope Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, a handy crowbar, a pair of Floyd | small shoes, and a coil of rope.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Go for it, driver." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd ] rope Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd ] rope Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet, but this one is impossible to descend: Floyd | its walls are featureless. However, someone has been this way before. Floyd | A rough iron eye-bolt has been hammered into the pit's lip. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "rope" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] open history Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | Floyd | > ROPE Floyd | Floyd | You run the rope through the eye-bolt, and fasten it with a hitch that Floyd | you don't remember the name of. You wrap the rope around yourself and Floyd | ease yourself steadily down the pit. Floyd | Floyd | You have only descended a few lengths, however, when your feet hit -- Floyd | not stone, but chilly metal. The pit narrows here, and someone has Floyd | installed a heavy steel hatch, blocking the descent. Floyd | Floyd | You brace yourself on a ledge, and run your fingers over the rusty Floyd | metal. Is this modern workmanship, showing a few years of rust... or Floyd | an unknown alloy of lost history, just starting to decay after Floyd | centuries? Floyd | Floyd | Will you attempt to open the hatch, consider its relation to Floyd | history, or abandon your descent and start the story Floyd | over? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "History" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "history" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] open history Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > HISTORY Floyd | Floyd | One might imagine (you began your thesis) that the impact of Floyd | a foreign history onto ours would be comparable to the Colonial era of Floyd | our history. The shock of contact; then tribes of strangers, Floyd | perhaps with puissant arts or techne, spreading out into lands that we Floyd | previously imagined to be our birthright; then displacement, or Floyd | assimilation, or slaughter. Floyd | Floyd | It may be so. But this is only the simplest surface of intersection. Floyd | The full impact of two streams of history would be impossible for any Floyd | historic observer to judge. The ramified interactions would occur up Floyd | and down the "linear" scale of time. Legends and stories in the mythic Floyd | past; artifacts embedded in the historic record; prophecies, visions, Floyd | and dialectics of the expected future; new peoples in the present, or Floyd | nations, or even lands or seas. All would be visible (or understood, Floyd | or inferred, or presumed) by observers in every age of history. Only Floyd | the intangible, inexpressible shock of difference would mark Floyd | the moment of intersection in the now... Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "open" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] open history Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | crowbar Floyd | > Floyd | > OPEN Floyd | Floyd | You tug on the hatch, but the rusty hinges defeat you. Your fingers Floyd | slip on the damp edges -- there's nowhere to get a good grip. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Crowbar?" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "crowbar" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] descend history Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > CROWBAR Floyd | Floyd | You unship your crowbar, wedge it under the hatch's rim, and start Floyd | shoving. The hinges cough and wail, but soon the hatch has cracked Floyd | open, and it is only a few more minutes before you have enough room to Floyd | pass. Floyd | Floyd | Will you descend, or stop and consider the hatch's relation to Floyd | history? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "descend" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > DESCEND Floyd | Floyd | You continue your descent for a long while. Fortunately, the chimney Floyd | ends before your rope does, and you emerge into... Floyd | Floyd | Light -- reflecting your helmet-lamp from all directions. You blink Floyd | for a moment, but it is not truly blinding, only startling. You peer Floyd | around. Glittering light... and words! Or pictographs, or letters. Floyd | Mathematical symbols, for all you know. The crystal walls are ringed Floyd | with them, washed with them, dripping with incomprehensible runes. Floyd | Floyd | This is certainly what you have been seeking. But without further Floyd | knowledge of the Lost Peoples and their writing systems, it will take Floyd | years of study to absorb the meaning of this chamber. Floyd | Floyd | Lacking that time, we should start the story over from the Floyd | beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "meh" | |
| maga says, "bah, it's just a lost chamber of ancient pictographs" | ||
| maga says, "hardly worth getting out of bed for" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a flare, a smoke tube, and a pair of small Floyd | shoes.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "haha" | |
| DavidW says, "The porn is on the ... oh, never mind." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Now what do we do? Hm." | ||
| maga says, "so, hmm, what now" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to maga), "I just asked you that." | ||
| DavidW says, "You haven't gone left of door or descended all the way down." | ||
| maga says, "yeah, I hadn't scrolled down yet" | ||
| maga says, "right of door, but yes" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "canyon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] open carvings smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > CANYON Floyd | Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind. Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow, Floyd | steady descent. Floyd | Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar. Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door, Floyd | or continue to the left or right? Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "You also haven't gone thru the forest quite yet." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "right" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] turn flee Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] smoke Floyd | flare Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > RIGHT Floyd | Floyd | The narrow passage descends slightly as it runs, but it slowly widens Floyd | as well. Floyd | Floyd | You are lost in thought, making your way forward, when an eerie hiss Floyd | startles you nearly from your feet. You look back, but the canyon Floyd | behind you is thick with shadow. There -- an oblong shape moves, Floyd | somewhere beyond the range of your helmet lamp. It hisses again. It Floyd | glides towards you. Floyd | Floyd | Will you turn to confront the shape, or flee it? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "okay maybe *this* is the grue" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "flare" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] turn run Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | Floyd | > FLARE Floyd | Floyd | You turn, pull the flare from your belt, and twist the cap. It bursts Floyd | to life, etching the passage with blue-white light. Floyd | Floyd | The shape shrieks and falls backwards. You have no desire to wait and Floyd | see if it recovers; you drop the flare and run. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "boo-ya" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "run" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > RUN Floyd | Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't Floyd | care, as long as it stays away. Floyd | Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll. Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back Floyd | by a polished curve of metal. Floyd | Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull. Floyd | Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?) Floyd | Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand. Floyd | Floyd | Will you touch the panel? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "OF COURSE WE WILL" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "touch" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > TOUCH Floyd | Floyd | You press your hand against the outline. The metal is cave-cool -- and Floyd | then electric-hot, for just a moment. You snatch your hand back, but Floyd | you are unharmed. Floyd | Floyd | From somewhere within the saucer, a voice echoes, in no language you Floyd | have ever heard. There is a pause; the question is repeated. Floyd | Floyd | You say your name, for lack of any better idea, but it provokes no Floyd | further response. Unless you have some other notion, we will have to Floyd | start the story over. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "We have no other notion yet, I take it." | |
| maga says, "BABY SHOES, SPACE DUDE" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Given the game constraints." | ||
| DavidW says (to maga), "ha ha" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "yay" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Well, try that if you want, but I think we have to start over." | ||
| maga asks, "hmm. try again with the eyebeasts?" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "shoes" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > SHOES Floyd | Floyd | The shoes are too small for your feet. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "did we use smoke on them?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Smoke on the... the shoes" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I don't think we've successfully used the smoke anywhere." | ||
| maga says, "on the eyebeasts in the forest" | ||
| maga says, "maybe we can do a ninja getaway" | ||
| Jacqueline exclaims, "Oh. No!" | ||
| DavidW says, "You have not tried smoke there." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah." | ||
| DavidW says, "YET" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a smoke tube, and a pair of small shoes.) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] pit shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "The forest is 'ahead'" | |
| yournamehere was hungry for success, particularly new mandarin orange flavor success. | ||
| yournamehere has disconnected. | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "ahead" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] forest umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > AHEAD Floyd | Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright. Floyd | Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have Floyd | sought? Floyd | Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth. Floyd | Floyd | Will you advance into the forest? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "forest" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] move stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | smoke Floyd | > Floyd | > FOREST Floyd | Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage. Floyd | Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around Floyd | you. Floyd | Floyd | Will you move past the watchers, or stand? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "smoke" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] run stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > SMOKE Floyd | Floyd | You crack the tube, and smoke gushes everywhere -- rolling between the Floyd | trees, drifting into the foliage, and obscuring those yellow-watching Floyd | pairs of eyes. Now! You dodge forward, hunching down into the smoke, Floyd | and run for your life. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "flip out" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] run stand Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > FLIP OUT Floyd | Floyd | [This game does not accept IF-style commands such as "go north" or Floyd | "take lamp". Type a single word to select the one the boldface Floyd | options.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "run" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > RUN Floyd | Floyd | The smoke brightens, and thins, and you realize you have broken out Floyd | into an open glade. The orange light of the cavern roof slants down; Floyd | the watchers appears to have gone. Floyd | Floyd | In the center of the glade, a black crystal prism lies on a small Floyd | pedestal. Is this what the forest guardians were protecting? Floyd | Floyd | Will you take the black crystal? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "OF COURSE WE WILL" | |
| Jacqueline says, "I THINK" | ||
| DavidW says, "you better take it" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "IF MAGA IS STILL PAYING ATTENTION" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "crystal" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > CRYSTAL Floyd | Floyd | You pick up the crystal prism and turn it in your fingers. This, no Floyd | doubt, is some artifact of the Lost; you have the rest of your life to Floyd | discover its purpose. Floyd | Floyd | There is no more to be learned here. Let us start the story Floyd | anew. Floyd | Floyd | > | Zach says, "Unless you want to put a shoe on it." | |
| DavidW says, "I suspect you won't need *quite* as long as the rest of your life to use the crystal." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a pair of small shoes, and a unique black crystal.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Hm, I am missing the verb EXAMINE" | |
| maga says, "so hmm" | ||
| DavidW says, "The only way to examine something is to say its name; which is also the only way to use a thing." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Sort of, I guess." | ||
| maga says, "we need to figure out the temple, the chamber of inscriptions, the saucer" | ||
| DavidW says, "or tower" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Does the rope help us with that?" | ||
| DavidW says, "You've used the rope already," | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Things only have one use?" | ||
| DavidW says, "yup" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Since when is that true in a zarf game? Hrm. Okay." | ||
| DavidW says, "But the usage is persistant." | ||
| DavidW says, "You'll notice that the crowbar vanished when you opened the hatch with it." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "oho" | ||
| maga asks, "maybe something we've got will work at the temple? the crystal?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Maybe the monk at the temple needs a new pair of baby shoes... wait, no, the crystal is probably more likely." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah, let's try that." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your Floyd | shoulders. Floyd | Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the Floyd | knobbly floor. Floyd | Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk. Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness. Floyd | Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in Floyd | the world on the same quest? Floyd | Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our Floyd | knowledge." Floyd | Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or Floyd | Atalantë in the reaches of the sea? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "atalante" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > ATALANTE Floyd | Floyd | When your ship approaches Atalantë, (the monk begins), the Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see Atalantë's black-sand shores Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously. Floyd | Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home. Floyd | Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three -- Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet. Floyd | Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go Floyd | down to the bustling markets? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "approach" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > APPROACH Floyd | Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire Floyd | for change. Floyd | Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign. Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a Floyd | passing whim, after all. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "hrm" | |
| maga says, "oh, also the child in the desert city might be able to use the shoes to climb towers" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "crystal" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > CRYSTAL Floyd | Floyd | You are not sure what the black crystal is for. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "that seems more likely" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella, Floyd | a pair of small shoes, and a unique black crystal.) Floyd | Floyd | > | zarf asks, "drat, did I miss my game?" | |
| Jacqueline says, "I think it moves us away from the temple immediately." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| zarf arrives, full of fun, but no funk. | Jacqueline says (to zarf), "You did, but that is not your fault. We just decided to play it this morning." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your Floyd | shoulders. Floyd | Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the Floyd | knobbly floor. Floyd | Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk. Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness. Floyd | Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in Floyd | the world on the same quest? Floyd | Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our Floyd | knowledge." Floyd | Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or Floyd | Atalantë in the reaches of the sea? Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "howdy, zarf" | |
| zarf says, "and I apparently decided it sleep until 2 pm this morning" | ||
| zarf says, "hi everybody" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "uabar" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] towers square Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | shoes Floyd | > Floyd | > UABAR Floyd | Floyd | You were born in Uabar, (the monk begins), great Uabar, city Floyd | of the towers, queen of the desert. You grew in its alleys, chasing Floyd | imaginary revolutionaries, rolling under palanquins to escape the Floyd | dreamed pursuit of djinn-lords, dodging between coaches and Floyd | lizard-beeves to delight phantom admirers. Soon you will be grown, and Floyd | stately walk the avenues with a modest headcloth and the mist of Floyd | fountain-spray brushing your face. But that day is not today. Floyd | Floyd | The men and women of Uabar crowd past you today, ignoring the slight Floyd | form of a still-child leaning on the old stone well. (The first well Floyd | of Uabar, which stood in the deep desert long before the People came Floyd | here and built fountains and avenues and towers.) You hear a commotion Floyd | in the alleys, as your playmates gather for yet another game. But your Floyd | eyes are drawn to a nearby square: the day's debates are beginning. Floyd | Floyd | Will you run and climb towers with your friends, or slip into Floyd | the square and hear what the citizens are discussing? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "I'll post the transcript today." | |
| maga says, "ey oop" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "shoes" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Runes umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > SHOES Floyd | Floyd | Wait -- here are your climbing slippers! You had them in your purse Floyd | all the time; how silly. You strap them on and leap to the tower wall, Floyd | digging your toes into the seams of the stone. Floyd | Floyd | The day passes in a clamor of laughter and dizzy ascent. You swarm Floyd | rooftops with your friends, claw your way over balustrades, sit in Floyd | company and watch the sun sink over the towers of Uabar. Floyd | Floyd | What sticks in your mind, however, is a window-glimpse of a chalkboard Floyd | of runes. You cannot climb towers forever, and surely there are Floyd | secrets deeper than the best rooftop spots to hide-and-scurry. Floyd | Floyd | Will you return to speak to the Keepers of the Runes? Or shall Floyd | we start this story from the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | zarf says, "also, dammit UTF-8. That was supposed to work." | |
| Jacqueline exclaims, "Oh, right - we're a kid!" | ||
| zarf says, "have to check that with vimes" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to z), "I think it's Floyd, not the mud or your game." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Vimes has been meaning to look into it." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "runes" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] Uabar Floyd | crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > RUNES Floyd | Floyd | On your birthday, you will return and knock at the tower door. The Floyd | Keepers will hear your plea to take study in the ancient language of Floyd | the People. If you are steadfast and intent on your course, you will Floyd | finish your days among their number -- reading the runes, while Floyd | keeping an eye out for curious faces at the window. Floyd | Floyd | Shall we start this story from the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | zarf says, "ok" | |
| maga says, "aha, and that will open up the chamber of wotsits" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] Uabar Floyd | crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella Floyd | and a unique black crystal. You have memorized the runes of Floyd | Uabar.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Yep" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] Uabar Floyd | crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] pit Uabar Floyd | crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "We have yet to use the umbrella, right?" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "pit" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] descend history Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] Uabar Floyd | crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > PIT Floyd | Floyd | You wrap the rope around yourself and ease yourself steadily down the Floyd | pit. Floyd | Floyd | You have only descended a few lengths, however, when your feet hit -- Floyd | not stone, but chilly metal. The pit narrows here, and someone has Floyd | installed a heavy steel hatch, blocking the descent. Floyd | Floyd | You brace yourself on a ledge, and run your fingers over the rusty Floyd | metal. Is this modern workmanship, showing a few years of rust... or Floyd | an unknown alloy of lost history, just starting to decay after Floyd | centuries? Floyd | Floyd | You unship your crowbar, wedge it under the hatch's rim, and start Floyd | shoving. The hinges cough and wail, but soon the hatch has cracked Floyd | open, and it is only a few more minutes before you have enough room to Floyd | pass. Floyd | Floyd | Will you descend, or stop and consider the hatch's relation to Floyd | history? Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "correct" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "descend" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] Uabar Floyd | crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > DESCEND Floyd | Floyd | You continue your descent for a long while. Fortunately, the chimney Floyd | ends before your rope does, and you emerge into... Floyd | Floyd | Light -- reflecting your helmet-lamp from all directions. You blink Floyd | for a moment, but it is not truly blinding, only startling. You peer Floyd | around. Glittering light... and words! Or pictographs, or letters. Floyd | Mathematical symbols, for all you know. The crystal walls are ringed Floyd | with them, washed with them, dripping with incomprehensible runes. Floyd | Floyd | This is certainly what you have been seeking. But without further Floyd | knowledge of the Lost Peoples and their writing systems, it will take Floyd | years of study to absorb the meaning of this chamber. Floyd | Floyd | Lacking that time, we should start the story over from the Floyd | beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "ach" | |
| Jacqueline says, "We have to study first, maga." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "At the temple." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "uabar" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > UABAR Floyd | Floyd | You recognize the rune-forms of the language of Uabar! But that is not Floyd | the only writing system represented here. Half of the symbols are Floyd | unknown to you. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "do you think that opened the temple up?" | |
| DavidW says, "no" | ||
| maga says (to DW), "ssh" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "We opened the temple up, yes." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "We did that when we climbed the towers." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "It seems that way, anyway." | ||
| DavidW says, "different monk tales" | ||
| DavidW says, "The towers were in Uabar. The temple is in Atalante." | ||
| Jacqueline | On your birthday, you will return and knock at the tower door. | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hrm." | ||
| maga says, "so we probably still need to get into the temple, but don't know how yet" | ||
| DavidW says, "yes" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella Floyd | and a unique black crystal.) Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "hmm. we still haven't dealt with the glittery thing in the opaque water, right?" | |
| DavidW says, "correct" | ||
| maga says, "or the terrible fall. hm" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Right." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | You have no need for an umbrella here. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | Another stretched-step downward, groping for ledges with your toes. Floyd | Then another, then another -- until slick stone shrugs your foot away. Floyd | Floyd | Now you are plunging through the darkness, which roars at you and Floyd | blurs past your flailing hands. Floyd | Floyd | Somewhere below is the end of your journey. Such a thing should not be Floyd | spoken of, lest one decide that life has yielded up its last marvel. Floyd | Shall we instead start the story from the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with an umbrella Floyd | and a unique black crystal.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Wait, wasn't that the time for the umbrella?" | |
| maga says, "I tried." | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Possibly? While falling?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Oh, I thought you tried one turn ahead of that." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Sorry." | ||
| DavidW says, "You haven't tried while falling." | ||
| maga says, "okay, let's do that" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "But yeah, what DW said." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | umbrella start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] umbrella Floyd | start Floyd ] crystal Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | Another stretched-step downward, groping for ledges with your toes. Floyd | Then another, then another -- until slick stone shrugs your foot away. Floyd | Floyd | Now you are plunging through the darkness, which roars at you and Floyd | blurs past your flailing hands. Floyd | Floyd | Somewhere below is the end of your journey. Such a thing should not be Floyd | spoken of, lest one decide that life has yielded up its last marvel. Floyd | Shall we instead start the story from the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "umbrella" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] tablets crystal Floyd | start Floyd | Floyd | > UMBRELLA Floyd | Floyd | The notion is absurd, but do you have a better idea while plummeting Floyd | to your death? You yank out your umbrella and pop it open. Floyd | Floyd | Whump! The handle yanks you around hard. You crack your knee Floyd | and shoulder against the rushing stone... but you hang on to the Floyd | bumbershoot, and somehow the roaring in your ears is decreasing. You Floyd | cannot tell, in the dimness, how much the umbrella slows you -- but Floyd | when the bottom of the pit reaches up and smacks you, the impact is Floyd | bruising, not fatal. Floyd | Floyd | You gather yourself up from a pile of stone slabs. No, stone tablets! Floyd | Signs and diagrams are carved across their faces. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the tablets, or shall we start the Floyd | story from the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "tablets" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] tablets crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] sign Floyd | Floyd | > TABLETS Floyd | Floyd | The tablets seem to show ritual poses. If you are understanding them Floyd | correctly, they indicate different castes of a society -- priest, Floyd | merchanter, explorer, speaker-to-crowds -- and each caste has its set Floyd | of postures and hand signs, from low rank to high. Floyd | Floyd | You mull the diagrams, and commit a few to memory. They will certainly Floyd | warrant further study... but immediate problem is to extricate Floyd | yourself from this pit. That will be enough for now. Floyd | Floyd | Let us leave that climb for another telling, and start this Floyd | story from the beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "aha" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Now the temple." | ||
| maga says, "so now we can presumably go to the temple and be all 'westside'" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "heh. Yes." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] sign Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal. You have memorized a ritual sign.) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "up" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] sign Floyd | > Floyd | > UP Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "up" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] Uabar Atalantë Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] sign Floyd | > Floyd | > UP Floyd | Floyd | You push upwards, and upwards, through a shaft which is sometimes too Floyd | wide to span and occasionally -- almost -- too narrow to pass your Floyd | shoulders. Floyd | Floyd | You are nearly exhausted when something rough brushes your face -- a Floyd | rope? No, a tree root; you must be approaching the surface. You haul Floyd | yourself up into a wide root chamber, and flop full-length on the Floyd | knobbly floor. Floyd | Floyd | "Would you like to hear a story?" asks the shaven-headed young monk. Floyd | You sit up so fast you nearly knock your helmet off. The strange Floyd | figure is sitting calmly at the back of the chamber, wrapped in a Floyd | yellow robe and a sporty climbing harness. Floyd | Floyd | "I came down here to seek out the origins of the Lost Ones," the monk Floyd | adds. You open your mouth, but can get nothing out -- is everyone in Floyd | the world on the same quest? Floyd | Floyd | The monk raises an eyebrow, then continues. "I have found little of Floyd | value in this chamber. A few tablets, but I couldn't make head or tail Floyd | of them, so--" An airy gesture in the direction of the open pit behind Floyd | you. "-- I hope you weren't in the shaft when I... no? That's all Floyd | right then." (You shudder.) "Perhaps, then, we should pool our Floyd | knowledge." Floyd | Floyd | Will you ask about the lost city of Uabar in the desert, or Floyd | Atalantë in the reaches of the sea? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "atalante" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] sign Floyd | > Floyd | > ATALANTE Floyd | Floyd | When your ship approaches Atalantë, (the monk begins), the Floyd | sea appears empty -- perhaps bluer, brighter, than the remote Atlantic Floyd | depths might warrant. You will not see Atalantë's black-sand shores Floyd | unless you know the way, the tide, and the path of sunlight that leads Floyd | inward to them. The Masters of the Island have a duty of privacy to Floyd | their people, and they hold it rigorously. Floyd | Floyd | But you do know the way, and so you return home. Floyd | Floyd | Now you stand in the Queen's Square, lingering after the morning's Floyd | ritual attendance. The place will soon fill with a more cheerful crowd Floyd | -- people drifting in to sit, meet friends, eat lunch, or all three -- Floyd | but you relish the moments of quiet. Floyd | Floyd | Will you approach the sealed doors of the Temple? Or go Floyd | down to the bustling markets? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "temple" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] approach down Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] sign Floyd | > Floyd | > TEMPLE Floyd | Floyd | You hesitantly approach the great doors. You know only what every Floyd | citizen knows: those who seek higher training may knock and be Floyd | admitted -- or not. You have never considered the priesthood, but Floyd | years of travel to the Continents have knotted suddenly into a desire Floyd | for change. Floyd | Floyd | You raise your hand... and a panel opens, silently, before you can Floyd | knock. The face that peers out is bland and mild, awaiting some sign. Floyd | But you do not know what is expected of you. Perhaps this is just a Floyd | passing whim, after all. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "sign" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] follow crystal Floyd | start Floyd | Floyd | > SIGN Floyd | Floyd | You take the Postulant's Pose. The woman behind the door nods, without Floyd | a word, and closes her panel. You stand there, gazing at the great Floyd | Temple doors, unsure if they will open. Floyd | Floyd | There is a touch on your elbow. The woman is standing beside you. She Floyd | gestures for you to follow, around the side of the Temple. "The doors Floyd | are very noisy, you know. We usually use the back gate." Floyd | Floyd | Will you follow her? Or shall we start this story from Floyd | the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "follow" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] Floyd | Atalantë Floyd | Floyd | > FOLLOW Floyd | Floyd | You will pass into the Temple, and begin learning the deeper histories Floyd | of Atalantë -- its origins, its languages, its secret knowledge and Floyd | its runes. The study will fill the remainder of your life. It will be Floyd | a satisfying life -- but you will never again leave Atalantë's shores. Floyd | Floyd | Shall we start this story from the beginning? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Yes" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] Floyd | Atalantë Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal. You have memorized the runes of Atalantë.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Then the runes." | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] Floyd | Atalantë Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] pit Floyd | Atalantë Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "pit" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] descend history Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] Floyd | Atalantë Floyd | > Floyd | > PIT Floyd | Floyd | You wrap the rope around yourself and ease yourself steadily down the Floyd | pit. Floyd | Floyd | You have only descended a few lengths, however, when your feet hit -- Floyd | not stone, but chilly metal. The pit narrows here, and someone has Floyd | installed a heavy steel hatch, blocking the descent. Floyd | Floyd | You brace yourself on a ledge, and run your fingers over the rusty Floyd | metal. Is this modern workmanship, showing a few years of rust... or Floyd | an unknown alloy of lost history, just starting to decay after Floyd | centuries? Floyd | Floyd | You unship your crowbar, wedge it under the hatch's rim, and start Floyd | shoving. The hinges cough and wail, but soon the hatch has cracked Floyd | open, and it is only a few more minutes before you have enough room to Floyd | pass. Floyd | Floyd | Will you descend, or stop and consider the hatch's relation to Floyd | history? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "descen" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] descend history Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] Floyd | Atalantë Floyd | > Floyd | > DESCEN Floyd | Floyd | [I don't recognize "descen" as an option here. Type one of the Floyd | boldface words.] Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "descend" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] Floyd | Atalantë Floyd | > Floyd | > DESCEND Floyd | Floyd | You continue your descent for a long while. Fortunately, the chimney Floyd | ends before your rope does, and you emerge into... Floyd | Floyd | Light -- reflecting your helmet-lamp from all directions. You blink Floyd | for a moment, but it is not truly blinding, only startling. You peer Floyd | around. Glittering light... and words! Or pictographs, or letters. Floyd | Mathematical symbols, for all you know. The crystal walls are ringed Floyd | with them, washed with them, dripping with obscure runes. Floyd | Floyd | This is certainly what you have been seeking... and you recognize the Floyd | rune-forms of the language of Uabar! But that is not the only writing Floyd | system represented here. Half of the symbols are unknown to you. Floyd | Without further knowledge, it will take years of study to absorb the Floyd | meaning of this chamber. Floyd | Floyd | Lacking that time, we should start the story over from the Floyd | beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "atalante" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] egg crystal Floyd | start Floyd | Floyd | > ATALANTE Floyd | Floyd | You recognize the rune-forms of Uabar and Atalantë! This is certainly Floyd | what you have been seeking -- or an aspect of it, at least. Floyd | Floyd | You trace the writing across the walls. You are not fluent enough to Floyd | understand it all; you will certainly return here, in the coming Floyd | years, to absorb it all. But you grasp enough to follow the arguments, Floyd | around and around... Floyd | Floyd | ...around and down to a niche, cunningly concealed in the chamber's Floyd | floor. A glittering green glass egg rests within. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "that's a little misleading" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "egg" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | Floyd | > EGG Floyd | Floyd | You pick up the glass egg and turn it in your fingers. This, no doubt, Floyd | is some artifact of the Lost; you have the rest of your life to Floyd | discover its purpose. Floyd | Floyd | There is no more to be learned here. Let us start the story Floyd | anew. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "The... the ship?" | |
| maga says, "man, these will look awesome on the little shelf in front of the monitor on our computer desk" | ||
| maga says, "the ship seems to be what's left, but I'm not sure what we do there" | ||
| Jacqueline says (to maga), "haha" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah" | ||
| DavidW says, "There's two places besides the ship to consider." | ||
| maga says, "well, the murky pool o'death" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "hm, yeah" | ||
| DavidW says, "That's one of them." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "(I am here, and reading, but washing my face, so my hands will be too wet to type for a few.)" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] pit Floyd | egg Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "side" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > SIDE Floyd | Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely-- Floyd | Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above. Floyd | Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes? Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the Floyd | water? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "inscriptions" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > INSCRIPTIONS Floyd | Floyd | The inscriptions tell, in awkward but decipherable Latin, of a Floyd | war-party of titans who were flung from the heavens during the gods' Floyd | war against Cronos. These titans sailed around the edge of the world Floyd | seven times seeking the gates of Cronos's kingdom, but they could not Floyd | be found, for all of that ur-kingdom had been sunk into the Floyd | underworld. The titans dug... but beyond this, the text is unreadable, Floyd | obliterated by the flowing water. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "egg" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > EGG Floyd | Floyd | You toss the glass egg into the pool. It disappears with a bloop. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga asks, "well what was *that* supposed to prove?" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "crystal" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > CRYSTAL Floyd | Floyd | You are not sure what the black crystal is for. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "water" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > WATER Floyd | Floyd | You plunge your hand into the water. The chilly shock sends you numb, Floyd | instantly, to the elbow. You withdraw your hand -- but the skin is Floyd | blue, and the icy numbness is crawling up past your shoulder now. Not Floyd | just cold, then, you think. A pity. Your helmet-lamp grows dim, and Floyd | the stone grows distant. Floyd | Floyd | Your story will end here, unless you wish to start from the Floyd | beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "egg" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > EGG Floyd | Floyd | You have already destroyed the glass egg. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "okay, the egg is not an antidote to spooky water death" | |
| Jacqueline says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Did we figure out the third location to which DW was alluding?" | |
| maga says, "no" | ||
| Jacqueline thinks. | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "We've done all the stuff with the monk, right?" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "And with our childhood climbing buddies?" | ||
| DavidW says, "I think you have, yes." | ||
| DavidW says, "well, try the ship anyway." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I am wondering if having the crystal or egg in hand when we deal with the ship will make a difference, yes." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "canyon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] open carvings Floyd | egg Floyd | > Floyd | > CANYON Floyd | Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind. Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow, Floyd | steady descent. Floyd | Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar. Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door, Floyd | or continue to the left or right? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "open" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > OPEN Floyd | Floyd | The door opens easily, or as easily as a ton of marble on limestone Floyd | hinges could move. The chamber beyond is mostly empty, but with clear Floyd | signs of human habitation. It appears to have been some sort of living Floyd | space; a sleeping nook, a few carved niches for storage. One blackened Floyd | recess is certainly a fireplace, with -- yes -- a connection to a Floyd | natural chimney in the rear. Floyd | Floyd | Of personal possessions, only a few splinters of wood and flakes of Floyd | stone remain. Nonetheless, you eagerly anticipate the dating and Floyd | paleological analysis that this trove will offer. Floyd | Floyd | Shall we leave that for the future, and start the story anew? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "oops, wrong way" | |
| maga says, "but that fireplace still tickles my wotsits" | ||
| DavidW says, "try the egg here anyway" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "egg" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > EGG Floyd | Floyd | You roll the glass egg in your hand, and then fling it down on the Floyd | stone floor. It smashes satisfyingly into a heap of green glass Floyd | splinters. Floyd | Floyd | The splinters continue to roil and shift, however. The heap begins to Floyd | stretch into a sort of glass tendril, which quests around feebly. Floyd | Whatever it is seeking, it does not find; the tendril soon goes limp Floyd | and slumps back into bits of glass. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says (to DW), "just slightly less hinting would be better, I think" | |
| DavidW says, "sorry" | ||
| maga says, "and okay, what the freep was that" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "crystal" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > CRYSTAL Floyd | Floyd | You are not sure what the black crystal is for. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Well - wait. So we had this egg at the pool, and it did nothing, right?" | |
| maga says, "mrm" | ||
| maga says, "but it seems to have got us nothing here, other than being weirded out" | ||
| maga says, "it needs something to go with it" | ||
| maga says, "well, hm, we threw the egg into the pool" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "Did we?" | ||
| maga says, "yeah, it didn't accomplish anything" | ||
| maga says, "so maybe we need it to tentacle-bang the flying saucer" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Golly" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "canyon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] open carvings Floyd | egg Floyd | > Floyd | > CANYON Floyd | Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind. Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow, Floyd | steady descent. Floyd | Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar. Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door, Floyd | or continue to the left or right? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "right" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] turn run Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > RIGHT Floyd | Floyd | The narrow passage descends slightly as it runs, but it slowly widens Floyd | as well. Floyd | Floyd | You are lost in thought, making your way forward, when an eerie hiss Floyd | startles you nearly from your feet. You look back, but the canyon Floyd | behind you is thick with shadow. There -- an oblong shape moves, Floyd | somewhere beyond the range of your helmet lamp. It hisses again. It Floyd | glides towards you. Floyd | Floyd | You turn, pull the flare from your belt, and twist the cap. It bursts Floyd | to life, etching the passage with blue-white light. Floyd | Floyd | The shape shrieks and falls backwards. You have no desire to wait and Floyd | see if it recovers; you drop the flare and run. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "run" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > RUN Floyd | Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't Floyd | care, as long as it stays away. Floyd | Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll. Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back Floyd | by a polished curve of metal. Floyd | Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull. Floyd | Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?) Floyd | Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand. Floyd | Floyd | Will you touch the panel? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "egg" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > EGG Floyd | Floyd | You roll the glass egg in your hand, and then fling it down on the Floyd | stone floor. It smashes satisfyingly into a heap of green glass Floyd | splinters. Floyd | Floyd | The splinters continue to roil and shift, however. The heap begins to Floyd | stretch into a sort of glass tendril, which quests around feebly. Floyd | Whatever it is seeking, it does not find; the tendril soon goes limp Floyd | and slumps back into bits of glass. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "okay, probably a long shot given the hand-shape" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "crystal" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > CRYSTAL Floyd | Floyd | You are not sure what the black crystal is for. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "touch" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > TOUCH Floyd | Floyd | You press your hand against the outline. The metal is cave-cool -- and Floyd | then electric-hot, for just a moment. You snatch your hand back, but Floyd | you are unharmed. Floyd | Floyd | From somewhere within the saucer, a voice echoes, in no language you Floyd | have ever heard. There is a pause; the question is repeated. Floyd | Floyd | You say your name, for lack of any better idea, but it provokes no Floyd | further response. Unless you have some other notion, we will have to Floyd | start the story over. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "mrm" | |
| maga says (to Floyd), "crystal" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > CRYSTAL Floyd | Floyd | You are not sure what the black crystal is for. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "egg" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > EGG Floyd | Floyd | You have already destroyed the glass egg. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > L Floyd | Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't Floyd | care, as long as it stays away. Floyd | Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll. Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back Floyd | by a polished curve of metal. Floyd | Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull. Floyd | Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?) Floyd | Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand. Floyd | Floyd | Will you touch the panel? Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline asks, "Didn't we, in one life, only learn most of the stuff, not all of it? Should we do that again?" | |
| maga says, "hmm, that seems... out-of-character for the puzzle design here" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hm, perhaps. But you know the bit I mean" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "?" | ||
| maga asks, "which one? the towers or the temple?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "The towers." | ||
| maga asks, "or the chamber of runes itself?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Let me see if I can find it." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Hm, yeah, probably not. This was the bit I was thinking of, though:" | ||
| Jacqueline | The tablets seem to show ritual poses. If you are understanding them correctly, they indicate different castes of a society -- priest, merchanter, explorer, speaker-to-crowds -- and each caste has its set of postures and hand signs, from low rank to high. You mull the diagrams, and commit a few to memory. | ||
| maga says, "mm, yeah, I think that's done" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yeah." | ||
| DavidW says, "Those tablets were at the bottom of the umbrella-reached pit." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "I am pretty sure I could think better if I had another one of these coffee chocolate chip cookies, but sadly I only had one." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "And, like things in this game, the cookie was a one-use object." | ||
| maga says, "alas" | ||
| DavidW) CookieMonster asks, "No more cookie?" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "l" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > L Floyd | Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't Floyd | care, as long as it stays away. Floyd | Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll. Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back Floyd | by a polished curve of metal. Floyd | Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull. Floyd | Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?) Floyd | Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand. Floyd | Floyd | Will you touch the panel? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.) Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW says, "yay LOOK still working." | |
| maga says, "I'm sort of regretting not mapping at this point" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "DW has a map." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "But possibly it is spoilery." | ||
| DavidW says, "Unfortunately, my map is handdrawn and spoilery, yes." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "But if maga can't recall something, you could direct him to it." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "So there is that." | ||
| Jacqueline asks (of maga), "Why are you lamenting the lack of a map, specifically?" | ||
| maga says, "because I can't remember what's in certain places" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Wouldn't take that long to map, really." | ||
| DavidW says, "I suppose I could say which half of the geograph, upwards or downwards, is the 3rd location." | ||
| maga says, "(like, what's beyond the spooky eye things?)" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] pit Floyd | egg Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "ahead" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] forest crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > AHEAD Floyd | Floyd | The light brightens as you approach... though only in contrast to the Floyd | stone-darkness do you call it bright. Floyd | Floyd | Eventually you make out veins of crystal overhead, which shed the Floyd | slow-flaring orange glow. No such phosphorescent mineral is natural to Floyd | the Earth's geology, you are sure; is this at last the sign you have Floyd | sought? Floyd | Floyd | The crystal veins join and knot as the ceiling rises, until you walk Floyd | in a wide cavern as well-lit as your own study. But your study Floyd | contains nothing like the shadows that rise ahead: stalagmites cloaked Floyd | in shifting darkness... no, trees, growing underground in the Floyd | orange light. Surely only the arts of the Lost Peoples could nurture Floyd | such a thing, here beneath the earth. Floyd | Floyd | Will you advance into the forest? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "forest" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] run stand Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > FOREST Floyd | Floyd | You move between the trees, and the orange light -- thin-spread as it Floyd | was -- is quickly blotted out by overhanging branches. Only faint Floyd | yellow gleams penetrate the foliage. Floyd | Floyd | It takes some time, in this rediscovered gloom, to realize that the Floyd | glints among the foliage are paired. Eyes, in amber reflectance. You Floyd | glance around nervously, and the eyes blink, in unison, all around Floyd | you. Floyd | Floyd | You crack the tube, and smoke gushes everywhere -- rolling between the Floyd | trees, drifting into the foliage, and obscuring those yellow-watching Floyd | pairs of eyes. Now! You dodge forward, hunching down into the smoke, Floyd | and run for your life. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "run" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > RUN Floyd | Floyd | The smoke brightens, and thins, and you realize you have broken out Floyd | into an open glade. The orange light of the cavern roof slants down; Floyd | the watchers appears to have gone. Floyd | Floyd | In the center of the glade stands an empty pedestal. Has someone been Floyd | here before you? How frustrating! Floyd | Floyd | There is no more to be learned here. Let us start the story Floyd | anew. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "(not much, as it turns out)" | |
| Jacqueline says, "That's where we got the crystal." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal and a curious glass egg.) Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "And I'm guessing the sink hole was just there to be pretty and explain the rope, but that it also is a dead end." | |
| maga says, "hmm. maybe the tendril thing wants to find soil to grow in" | ||
| maga asks, "did we see fertile soil anywhere?" | ||
| Jacqueline asks, "In the sink hole?" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "It was all verdant and stuff." | ||
| maga says, "ah, true, and there was sun" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Yes." | ||
| maga asks, "that's... down below, right?" | ||
| DavidW says, "The sinkhole is downwards, yes" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | DavidW asks, "Do you want the rest of the directions there?" | |
| maga says, "yeah, please" | ||
| DavidW says, "canyon. left." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "canyon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] open carvings Floyd | egg Floyd | > Floyd | > CANYON Floyd | Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind. Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow, Floyd | steady descent. Floyd | Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar. Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door, Floyd | or continue to the left or right? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "left" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] climb crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] egg Floyd | > Floyd | > LEFT Floyd | Floyd | The narrow passage rises slightly as it runs. You turn sideways to Floyd | slip between the limestone formations, and continue your progress. Floyd | Floyd | When green light begins seeping into the canyon, somewhere ahead, you Floyd | are disoriented: surely you have not ascended so far as the surface? Floyd | But you press forward, and the illumination soon dispels your Floyd | confusion, as you step free into wide, round space -- the bottom of a Floyd | deep sinkhole. Far above, foliage burns viridian in the distant circle Floyd | of daylight. Floyd | Floyd | Will you attempt to climb, or start the story over? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "egg" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] climb crystal Floyd | start Floyd | Floyd | > EGG Floyd | Floyd | You roll the glass egg in your hand, and then fling it down on the Floyd | stone floor. It smashes satisfyingly into a heap of green glass Floyd | splinters. Floyd | Floyd | The splinters continue to roil and shift, however. They seem to be Floyd | stretching upwards; no, they are stretching upwards, towards Floyd | the light far above. Soon the heap of glass has grown into a vine-like Floyd | sprout -- two feet high, four feet high, higher than you can reach. Floyd | Tendrils reach out and touch the sinkhole wall; and then the thing Floyd | really gets going. Floyd | Floyd | When the crackling growth ceases, the vine runs all the way to the top Floyd | of the sinkhole. Will you climb it? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "climb" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] coin crystal Floyd | start Floyd | > Floyd | > CLIMB Floyd | Floyd | You touch the glass vine carefully. It is rough, but not glass-sharp, Floyd | and even slightly flexible -- like a real vine, though you can see Floyd | light glinting through it. Floyd | Floyd | You have plenty of time to admire the thing as you haul yourself up Floyd | the sinkhole, of course. The climb is tiring, but quite easy. Floyd | Floyd | When you reach the top, and pull your head above the lip, you are Floyd | briefly disappointed: this is not the surface. You are at the bottom Floyd | of a much larger pit, open to the sunlight and thick with foliage, but Floyd | still well below ground level. Floyd | Floyd | Then you look around, and disappointment is driven from your mind. You Floyd | are surrounded by mounds of gold! Or, if not mounds, at least thick Floyd | drifts. Shining gold coins lie everywhere -- half-buried in the mulch, Floyd | overgrown by grass and saplings. Floyd | Floyd | Somewhere above, perhaps centuries ago, some tribe or nation or Floyd | civilization must have used this crater for ritual sacrifice: not of Floyd | blood, but of treasure. Year after year, coins dropped into the Floyd | depths... Or is that your own cultural projection? It could have been Floyd | sport, or challenge, or the equivalent of a wishing well. Floyd | Floyd | One day you will know -- or have a more informed guess, at least. In Floyd | the meantime, you may take one coin as a souvenir, or Floyd | start the story from the beginning. Floyd | Floyd | > | Jacqueline says, "Not a dead end after all." | |
| Jacqueline says, "Green egg, green room filled with green light. Should have thought of that sooner." | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "coin" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] coin Floyd | Floyd | > COIN Floyd | Floyd | You select a golden coin. One face shows the face of the world, seen Floyd | from space; the other has the outline of a hand, surrounded by Floyd | geometric runes. Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "hmm. the inscriptions" | |
| maga says, "toss the coin into the murky pool" | ||
| maga says, "since we just mentioned wishing wells" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] coin Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal and an old gold coin.) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "u" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] passage climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] coin Floyd | > Floyd | > U Floyd | Floyd | You press yourself between the shoulders of stone (said Marco Floyd | Polo) and begin working your way up the shaft. Your progress is Floyd | slow, measured in the ache of your back and the strain of your thighs. Floyd | Floyd | After timeless time, you pass a hollow in the chimney wall, an opening Floyd | into a passage that stretches out of sight. Will you enter the Floyd | passage, or continue climbing? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "passage" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] ahead side Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] pit Floyd | coin Floyd | > Floyd | > PASSAGE Floyd | Floyd | You ease yourself back onto level stone. Happily, the passage is tall Floyd | enough for you to stand. Floyd | Floyd | You meander through the darkness, until the walls open up: a tall Floyd | chamber, strung with irregular columns and stalagmites. Floyd | Floyd | Another pit opens at your feet. A rough iron eye-bolt has been Floyd | hammered into the pit's lip; a rope is tied to it, and descends out of Floyd | sight. Clearly, someone has been this way before. Floyd | Floyd | Your helmet-light reflects dimly from the walls -- unless that is a Floyd | gleam of illumination coming from up ahead? But you can also Floyd | hear water trickling, somewhere off to the side. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "side" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] coin Floyd | > Floyd | > SIDE Floyd | Floyd | You follow a descending passage, with the sound of water echoing Floyd | somewhere ahead. You see nothing, but surely-- Floyd | Floyd | Ah, here: you round a final turn, and see a dark pool ahead. It lies Floyd | at the foot of a carved stone wall. Water trickles down the wall's Floyd | face, feeding the pool from some unknown source above. Floyd | Floyd | The descending stream chuckles happily to itself; but the pool is Floyd | oddly still, and opaque. But no -- your headlamp picks out a faint Floyd | gleam, somewhere below the surface. Gold? Or the eye of some Floyd | cave-fish, if they have eyes? Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the inscriptions, or reach into the Floyd | water? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "coin" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] inscription water Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] word Floyd | > Floyd | > COIN Floyd | Floyd | You pull out the old gold coin with its indecipherable markings. In Floyd | for a penny, in for a priceless artifact of the Lost, you think, and Floyd | toss the coin into the pool. Floyd | Floyd | The gold sinks, becoming only another glint in the depths. Then the Floyd | water stirs. A fish-tail slaps the surface, the fin of some long Floyd | golden carp-like creature. Then... Floyd | Floyd | ...the fish does not speak. Fish can't talk. You definitely Floyd | don't hear anything. But there is the sense of a word being Floyd | pronounced, with precision and vast intent. When it is Floyd | finished -- indeed, while it is occurring -- it is etched into your Floyd | memory. Floyd | Floyd | The fish flips once again, and disappears into the murk. That will be Floyd | all from this pool, you decide. Shall we start the story over? Floyd | Floyd | > | maga says, "okay, saucer time" | |
| Jacqueline says, "Yep" | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "start" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] upwards downwards Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] word Floyd | > Floyd | > START Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | (...You begin again.) Floyd | Floyd | After descending into the Earth (said Marco Polo to the Khan) Floyd | you seek through long, silent passages of stone. Your helmet's dim Floyd | illumination presses back the dark, but does not break it; darkness Floyd | follows in your footsteps and obliterates them. Floyd | Floyd | You descend chasms, you crawl through low chambers. Occasionally you Floyd | see a discarded scrap or a bootprint in the mud, for these tunnels are Floyd | not uninhabited, but you leave these signs undisturbed and add few of Floyd | your own. Companionship on the journey is not what you seek. Silence, Floyd | the unchanging textures of stone lull you; you push ahead into the Floyd | dark, but your mind wanders. Did the children of Atalantë explore here Floyd | as you do? Did they lose themselves, fade into shadow? Floyd | Floyd | You come to yourself at a chimney's precipitous lip. Not so peaceful Floyd | an end, had you stumbled! Will you climb upwards or Floyd | downwards? Floyd | Floyd | (You have equipped yourself for this journey with a unique black Floyd | crystal. You have memorized an untranslateable word.) Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "d" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] canyon climbing Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] word Floyd | > Floyd | > D Floyd | Floyd | You slide into the pit, and begin lowering yourself carefully from Floyd | ledge to ledge. The stone is cool and slick; a torrent must once have Floyd | poured down this chimney, though now only dripping moisture remains. Floyd | Floyd | "Caverns measureless to man?" Indeed. Floyd | Floyd | After uncounted subterranean time, you pass a gaping crack, an opening Floyd | into a twisting side canyon. The pit continues to descend, but the Floyd | walls grow wider and smoother, and you are not certain of your safety. Floyd | Floyd | Will you explore the canyon, or continue climbing down? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "canyon" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] left right Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] open carvings Floyd | word Floyd | > Floyd | > CANYON Floyd | Floyd | You lever your body through the crack, and leave the chimney behind. Floyd | The canyon doglegs wildly, but never very tightly, and with a slow, Floyd | steady descent. Floyd | Floyd | After a time, the passage stops -- at a tall, crude, but clearly Floyd | hand-carved marble door, set deep into the wall, though slightly ajar. Floyd | Lines of petroglyphs spiral around its face. To either side of the Floyd | door, smaller cracks lead away. Floyd | Floyd | Will you examine the carvings, open the unlocked door, Floyd | or continue to the left or right? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "right" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] turn run Floyd | crystal start Floyd ] word Floyd | > Floyd | > RIGHT Floyd | Floyd | The narrow passage descends slightly as it runs, but it slowly widens Floyd | as well. Floyd | Floyd | You are lost in thought, making your way forward, when an eerie hiss Floyd | startles you nearly from your feet. You look back, but the canyon Floyd | behind you is thick with shadow. There -- an oblong shape moves, Floyd | somewhere beyond the range of your helmet lamp. It hisses again. It Floyd | glides towards you. Floyd | Floyd | You turn, pull the flare from your belt, and twist the cap. It bursts Floyd | to life, etching the passage with blue-white light. Floyd | Floyd | The shape shrieks and falls backwards. You have no desire to wait and Floyd | see if it recovers; you drop the flare and run. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "run" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] word Floyd | > Floyd | > RUN Floyd | Floyd | The flare soon winks out behind you. Only the dim glow of your helmet Floyd | precedes you down the passage. The shape -- whatever it was -- does Floyd | not reappear behind you. Fled, stunned, or set on fire; you don't Floyd | care, as long as it stays away. Floyd | Floyd | The tunnel runs long, and you fall back into your meditative stroll. Floyd | And then you are startled out of it, as your lamplight is thrown back Floyd | by a polished curve of metal. Floyd | Floyd | You move forward, picking the shape out of cavernous darkness. It is Floyd | wide, lenticular -- ten feet high, perhaps fifty across -- in fact, it Floyd | is the archetypical flying saucer. Only it could never have flown, not Floyd | down here, in a natural space barely larger than the saucer's hull. Floyd | Floyd | (But is it the saucer that landed here, or the archetype...?) Floyd | Floyd | You can see the outline of a hatch, or portal, in the broad metal Floyd | underbelly. It is a thin groove, however -- barely visible. The only Floyd | possible means of access is a shape etched in the center of the Floyd | portal: the outline of a human hand. Floyd | Floyd | Will you touch the panel? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "touch" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] touch crystal Floyd | start Floyd ] word Floyd | > Floyd | > TOUCH Floyd | Floyd | You press your hand against the outline. The metal is cave-cool -- and Floyd | then electric-hot, for just a moment. You snatch your hand back, but Floyd | you are unharmed. Floyd | Floyd | From somewhere within the saucer, a voice echoes, in no language you Floyd | have ever heard. There is a pause; the question is repeated. Floyd | Floyd | You say your name, for lack of any better idea, but it provokes no Floyd | further response. Unless you have some other notion, we will have to Floyd | start the story over. Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "word" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] crystal Floyd | start Floyd | Floyd | > WORD Floyd | Floyd | You place your hand against the outline, and pronounce the Word that Floyd | you learned so long ago. Floyd | Floyd | The hatch does not open, exactly. But when you look again, it is an Floyd | open space, and a curved ramp runs down from the space to the stone at Floyd | your feet. You take it as an invitation. Floyd | Floyd | The interior of the saucer is a glass cocoon. It is difficult to focus Floyd | on any part of the structure; some aspects seem to be revolving around Floyd | you, although you cannot be sure. What is clear is the pedestal in the Floyd | center. It supports a faceted matrix of black crystal, with a single Floyd | polyhedral gap in its center. Floyd | Floyd | Is this the end of your story, or will you start again? Floyd | Floyd | > | ||
| maga says (to Floyd), "crystal" | ||
Floyd ] Bigger Than You Think Floyd ] quit Floyd | restart Floyd ] undo Floyd | Floyd | > CRYSTAL Floyd | Floyd | You slide the black crystal into the matrix. The pedestal retracts Floyd | into the floor. Floyd | Floyd | You notice then -- although you're not sure how long it's been -- that Floyd | the saucer's hatch is closed. The cocoon surrounds you entirely. Floyd | Floyd | It is not my intent (said Marco Polo to Kublai Khan) to Floyd | complete this story. No, do not turn such a glance upon me! I have Floyd | given you the necessities; you can continue the tale on your own. Floyd | Whether the saucer is a craft of travel between worlds, or a library Floyd | of learning, or some other unfathomable instrument -- I cannot presume Floyd | to guess. I did not undertake this journey, these discoveries! You Floyd | did, o Khan. Always, it was you. Floyd | Floyd | The lost cities, Uabar, Atalantë -- some would number Xanadu among Floyd | them, but do we not sit here, in your stately garden? This is your Floyd | cocoon, Great Khan, your nest, your dome. I leave you now, to make of Floyd | it what you will. Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | *** The story is over *** Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Floyd | Would you like to restart the game from the very beginning, Floyd | quit the game, or undo the last command? Floyd | > | DavidW cheers. | |
| Jacqueline says, "woo" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "That was fun." | ||
| Jacqueline says, "Thank you, Uncle Zarf." | ||
| zarf says, "you're welcome" | ||
| maga says, "yeah, nice work" | ||
| zarf says, "I left the command line in specifically for CF" | ||
| Zach says, "Hooray!" | ||
| Jacqueline says, "You da bomb." | ||
| DavidW says (to zarf), "Thank you!" | ||
| Zach says, "I nominate the game for "Best Use of Marco Polo"" | ||
| zarf says, "that bit was almost an accident" | ||
| Jacqueline smiles. | ||
| zarf says, "I had considered writing an Invisible Cities / Codex Seraphinianus crossover IF, but wound up assigned XKCD. The bits of IC that I had thought about just stuck around." | ||
