"The Algophilists' Penury" by Jon Stall

Include Custom Library Messages by Ron Newcomb.
Use no scoring.

Release along with cover art. Release along with source text.

The story tense is past tense. The story viewpoint is first person plural.
 

The description of the player is "We [if something is worn by the player]donned each only [a list of things worn by the player], though wearing nought oft seemed meretricious[otherwise]revelled in slatternly solipsism, wearing nothing for we cared of nothing[end if].".

Our Miserable Abode is a room. "We were algophilists, and this was our miserable abode. On the occidental periphery of our hovel a portal led into domains more tenebrous." Algo is a region. Abode is in Algo. The printed name of Algo is "The Algophilists' Penury".

After waiting in the algo:
say "Though prone to jactation we were not, our capacity for quiescence could never be hyperbolised no matter how much we pleonastically perorated."

West of our miserable abode is the portal. West of the portal is Our Seraglio. Our Seraglio is a dark room. The portal is an open, unopenable door. The portal is scenery. The description of the portal is "The sorrel timber was once encrusted with curiously pellucid chalcedony, each a coplanar point in a series of quincunxes, with each quincunxe arranged around a resplendent margarite. These we sold for thrift to distribute [italic type]pari passu[roman type] amongst us, to fund our anacreontic revelries. This was before we were algophilists."

Ignorance is a stored action that varies.

Every turn when the player is in our seraglio and the noun is not the sound:
now ignorance is the action of listening;
	if the current action is not ignorance, say "From the aphotic depths of our seraglio, [one of]a hircine whimper[or]croaking crepitus[or]a plangent stertor[or]insipid lachrymosity[in random order] resounded."
	
The seraglio is in algo.

Before listening when the player is in our seraglio:
say "We were obdurate in our trenchant anaudia to all pleas, mercilessly devoid of all opprobrium. We knew ours was the septentrional path." instead.

Understand "whimper", "hircine whimper", "croak", "crepitus", "croaking crepitus", "plangent stertor", "stertor", "insipid lachrymosity", "sounds", "lachrymosity" and "noise" as the sound. The sound is scenery in our seraglio.

Instead of doing anything other than listening when the noun is the sound:
say "We could only listen to the sound, and barely did we do that."

Instead of singing in algo:
say "Our voices wail in disunity as we revel in our precipitious cacophony, blocking out all that is mellifluous."

After deciding the scope of the player:
if the player is in the seraglio, place the sound in scope.

The wadmal is worn by the player. The description of the wadmal is "Once [we] [if the story viewpoint is first person]was[otherwise]were[end if] embroiled in the arts sartorial and daily did [we] opine on the value of efflugent raiments, but that was before [we] commenced the vitiation of all that once [we] held hallowed. Henceforth, [we] wore vestments of incondite hessian.". Understand "sack", "sackcloth", "vestiments", "vestiment", "hessian" and "cloth" as wadmal.

The stele is a supporter in the miserable abode. "In the midst of our abode stood the stele, the locus of our lascivious longuer.". It is fixed in place. The description of the stele is "The stele, a stolen section of a doleful dolmen, inscribed with an etching of a laciniate conch and the soubriquets of our more sequacious brethren, was the site of our equivocal unctions, where we perorated on mortifications morbific and foremostly supplicated ourselves in inversely quixotic rogations, futilely beseeching nameless powers for palliations they could never offer.". Understand "locus", "monument", "dolmen" and "altar" as the stele.


The sobriquets of our more sequacious brethren are a part of the stele. The description of the sobriquets is "The colloquial signatures of our slavish kin, the ones who comported themselves more lugubriously than the rest, who with baleful assiduity submitted to our sanguinary turpitudes. We had since instigated a moratorium on further depravities, not out of any rash eschewment of the exacratory but rather with renascent alacrity for abnegation, for the pleasures of penury and the merriment in mendicancy militate for less vicarious algophily. No more did we indulge in outward maleficence, for we became sagacious enough to find greater pain in abstinence, and those paltry sobriquets reminded us that their loss was ours." Understand "signatures" and "colloquial signatures" as the sobriquets.

The laciniate conch etching is a part of the stele. Understand "image", "shell" and "carving" as the conch. The description of the conch is "The razor ribbed shell symbolised the beauty of aphonic lucunae, its inner emptiness echoing our own.".

Praying is an action applying to nothing. Understand "pray", "supplicate" and "rogate" as praying.

Check praying:
	if the player is in the location of the stele:
		say "We importune ourselves[one of][or] again,[stopping] beneath the great granite monument, genuflecting in the silence that follows.";
	otherwise:
		say "[Our] prayers [if the player is in algo]went[otherwise]go[end if] unanswered."

North of seraglio is Our Quirtorium. The description of our quirtorium is "The sand of our Quirtorium was rubescent from our penultimate scourging. This was to be the ultimate.".

The sand is scenery in our quirtorium. The description is "The sand was [one of]pearlescent[or]iridescent[or]nacreous[at random] with [one of]unctuous[or]sebaceous[or]oleaginous[at random] [one of]coagulations[or]grumose gore[or]heamal vestiges[cycling]."

Understand "blood", "coagulations", "gore", "grumose gore", "grumous gore", "vestiges" and "haemal vestiges" as the sand. Instead of taking the sand, say "The sand slipped through our acerose digits."

The scouring block is in our quirtorium. "Yede we did must to the scouring block, wherethrough verily we were such that we would receive our meed."

The description of the block is "An isometric structure bound in rugose leathers, formed from the sectile dewlaps of our predecessors.".

The block is an an enterable supporter. Understand "whipping block" as the block.

Before entering the block:
	if something is worn by the player:
		say "Wary were we where the whipping block was for we swore to only wander whither as once were we whelped: our integument our only arraiment." instead.
		
Carry out entering the block:
	say "Repugn not did we the scouring block: for trenchant algophilists were we. No moue nor mawkish glower upon our faces did we construe: for obdurate algophilists were we. When the whips flensed forth we wept not at the climacteric: for eyes directed more stygian than welkin-wise, in our penury we were unrepentant!";
	end the story finally saying "More invidious than avuncular we endured until we didn't.".

Our quirtorium is in the algo.