******* SOLUTION TO ADVENTURE VERSION B01 ******** by Calvin T. Richter STOP: This is a complete walkthrough of Adventure Version B01. As such, it contains ex- plicit solutions to the problems and riddles which a player will encounter therein. In order to derive the greatest pleasure from the game, it is reccommended that the reader not consult these notes until he has given sufficient effort of his own to the game. The greatest satisfaction comes from solving its many puzzles and riddles using one's own ingenuity (and luck), thus looking up the answer here should be done only as a last resort. The original Adventure, developed in 1970 by Crowther and Woods for mainframe systems, has spawned and come to symbolize an entire genre of computer gaming. It has since been released into the public domain and, as is inevitable with public domain software, has been modified extensively and now exists in many different versions. These notes apply specifically to Adventure Version B01 by Michael Goetz, a greatly expanded version of the original. However, the player of the original, and indeed any, version will find in these notes much to aid him, as Version B01 contains all of the original unmodified. In Adventure, the player assumes the role of an adventurer whose task it is to explore Colossal Cavern, a large underground cavern full of trea- sures and magic and inhabitants of many kinds. The object for the adventurer is to collect as much of the treasure as possible and to bring it home while avoiding the many snares and dangers awaiting him. Along the way he will find many objects and discover many things which will aid (and hinder) him in his quest. When Adventure is first brought up, the as- piring adventurer is greeted with those now-legen- dary words: "You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gulley." This building, it will soon be discovered, serves as the adventurer's "home base", wherein he will deposit all the treasures he discovers. Scoring in Adventure proceeds as follows: To begin, the adventurer is awarded twen- ty points simply for gaining entrance to the Ca- vern. This is done in an effort to discriminate between serious, though perhaps inexperienced, ad- venturers and the obvious rank amateurs. Once admittance to Colossal Cavern is gained, scoring continues on the following basis: fifteen points are awarded for each treasure which the adventurer successfully removes from the Cavern and deposits in the building (though these points will be sub- tracted again should the treasure ever be removed again). Sixty-nine points are awarded upon suc- cessful entry into the first part of the end game, or Master's Section, twenty for successful comple- tion of this section, and twenty for completion of the final part of the Master's Game. In addition, there are a few various and sundry other points awarded, such as awards based on the amount of Cavern explored, or successfully getting through some of the more harrowing sections. In addition to raw pointage, the game will also award a ranking, based on the number of points achieved, when the player either decides to end the game or gets killed. The rankings run as follows: 0 to 19 pts......rank amateur 20 to 129 " ......novice-class adventurer 130 to 239 " ......experienced " 240 to 349 " ......seasoned " 350 to 469 " ......Junior Master 470 to 509 " ......Master Adventurer Class C 510 to 529 " ......Master Adventurer Class B 530 to 549 " ......Master Adventurer Class A 550 " ......Adventurer Grandmaster The Cavern itself is quite extensive, consis- ting of many rooms, tunnels and other unexplored passages, much of which a player would never see were he to rely upon these notes for his sole guide. The purpose of these notes is simply to lead the reader in the quickest, most efficient manner possible to the treasures and out again. Thus the reader is strongly encouraged to explore on his own as well, apart from these notes. Of most interest to the adventurer in the Cavern are, of course, the treasures. Of these, it will suf- fice to say at the moment that there are twenty six, as follows: A bag filled with pieces of eight A massive iridium crown A large sparkling nugget of gold Diamonds Bars of silver Precious jelwelry Many coins The pirate's treasure chest A large nest, full of golden eggs A jewel-encrusted trident A gem-encrusted visorless helmet A delicate, precious, ming vase An emerald the size of a plover's egg A saphire-encrusted sceptre The ruby yacht of Omar Khayyam A platinum pyramid, 8 inches on a side A glistening pearl A persian rug Rare spices A string of ancient indian turquoise beads A golden chain A shiny ring (crafted of the finest mithril) A small spyglass carved out of whale baleen A crystalline sculpture of a moose An ancient chinese jade bracelet A casket full of rare opals In addition to the treasures, the adventurer will discover a number of other objects which may be manipulated in one manner or another. It will be discovered that all, or nearly so, of these ob- jects serve a useful purpose; it is only left up to the adventurer to discover what that purpose is. More will be said about these objects as the game progresses. Magic also works in the Cavern, and the adventurer will often discover himself using it as well to further his progress. Finally, as will be seen, the Cavern is in- habited by a wide variety of mythical and magical beasts, most of which are there solely for the purposes of thwarting the adventurer in his quest. Thus, as part of his adventure, the player must learn how properly to deal with these creatures as well. These Cavern residents will be discussed at greater length as they are encountered. Having gotten the preliminaries out of the way, then, it is time to begin the game. Before doing so, however, it will be necessary to offer a brief explanation of the notation employed below. The computer will act as a sort of guide through the Cavern and is instructed by the adventurer in what to do with one- or two-word commands. Thus, for example, if the adventurer wishes to proceed to the south, he simply gives the command GO SOUTH, or SOUTH. Often I will suggest, usually in parentheses and always in capital letters for ease of recognition, an exact command which may be given to achieve a desired result. In addition, in a separate column to the right of the text I will summarize the commands explained in the text. Thus, the experienced adventurer may bypass the verbiage and simply refer to the summary command column. Thus, the reader might read a sentence such as: "From here, proceed northwest (GO NORTH- WEST, or NORTHWEST, or simply NW)" and, in addi- tion, see to the right of the sentence of text a separate "NW". Finally, as will be seen, on occa- sion it will be necessary to repeat a command one or more times until the desired effect is achieved. In these cases, the command will be followed by an ellipsis enclosed in parentheses. Thus, for example, "SW(...)" would indicate that the adventurer is to keep trying to go southwest from the current location until he gets through to his destination. With these notes in mind then, let's begin the game. THE ADVENTURE BEGINS The adventure itself will be subdivided into a series of six excursions into the cavern, during each of which the adventurer will collect a number of treasures and then return with them to the building. Since the object of the game is the exploration of Colossal Cavern, the first excur- sion must necessarily begin with the gaining of the entrance to the Cavern. To facilitate this, you will need a couple of tools. Enter the buil- IN ding and look around. To do this, type ENTER BUILDING or IN or something similar. Once you are inside the building, you will see several objects: a bottle containing water, an electric lantern, some food, and a set of keys. Each of these objects, as will be discovered, has a specific use, and thus will be needed at some time or other in the course of the game. You cannot, however, take all the objects with you now, as you are limited in the number of items you are able to carry at any one time. In fact, as you will be returning to the building several times during the course of your adventure, it will not even be necessary to take everything now; those items which are of no immediate use may be left here to be retrieved at a future time. For the immediate future you will need only the lamp and the keys, so take these (TAKE LAMP and TAKE KEYS, or GET GET LAMP, GET KEYS LANTERN and GET KEYS, or something similar will have the desired effect). If you have these two items in hand, you are ready to begin the first excursion. FIRST EXCURSION Treasures: Golden nugget, diamonds, jewelry, rare coins, gem-encrusted visorless helmet, bars of silver, platinum pyramid. Once you have the keys and the lamp, exit the OUT building (EXIT BUILDING, LEAVE, EXIT, OUT, etc, will all get you out). The entrance to the Cavern lies to the south, so go south (GO SOUTH, or S SOUTH, or just S will do). The game will now describe what you see. Go south a second time, S and then again a third time. At this point you S should see a grate. Using the keys, unlock the OPEN grate (OPEN GRATE, UNLOCK, OPEN, or something similar). Now go down, and you will be in the D Cavern. Congratulations, you're past the first step. Wish I could say it's all down hill from here, but it's not. You now proceed west, where you will W find a small cage. Take it, as it will come in GET (cage) handy shortly. Going west again, you will disco- W ver that it has become pitch black. Though you will from time to time encounter portions of the Cavern which are lighted, the majority of it is dark, making it necessary for you to carry a source of light with you at nearly all times. This is where the lantern begins its usefulness. Turn it on (ON LAMP, or ON LANTERN or just ON). ON One thing must be noted about the lamp, however: it's battery powered and the batteries will not last forever. Thus you are constrained to finish your adventure as quickly as possible, before the batteries run out. An adventurer lost in the Cavern without a functioning lantern is doomed. There does exist within the maze another set of batteries, but to obtain them it would be necessa- ry to trade away one of the treasures (and thus points), and this you will want to avoid. To conserve battery power, then, requires that you do two things: first, all treasures must be removed from the Cavern as quickly and efficiently as possible; wasted steps must be kept to a minimum. And secondly, the lamp must be turned off at every opportunity. Here, once you have the lamp on, you will discover that you are in a Debris Room, and that there is a rusty rod lying nearby. Take the rod; GET (rod) it will be of continuing use throughout the adven- ture. Now proceed west twice. Here you will W, W discover a small bird. He too will be useful, but, as you will have noticed if you have already attempted to pick him up, he proves to be a very elusive object. The reason for this is that he is frightened by the rod, so you must first drop the DROP ROD rod, then get the bird and then pick the rod back GET BIRD, GET (rod) up. Performing an inventory now (INVENTORY, or INVENT for short) will show the bird secure in the cage; this is in fact the cage's purpose. Without it you would not be able to carry the bird, even if you could catch it. Now proceed west again, to the top of a small W pit, and then go down, to the Hall of Mists. Keep D your eyes open, because soon, now (usually within the next couple of moves though occasionally it takes longer), you will be seeing your first dwarf. Dwarves in the Cavern are not very friend- ly to Adventurers, as you will see. The first dwarf you run across will, in fact, throw an axe in your general direction, but will fortunately miss (dwarves are notoriously bad shots). Once this has happened, be sure to pick up the axe he left behind, as you will need it to protect your- self against further encounters with the crea- tures. Until further notice, you will never again want to be without this axe within the confines of the Cavern as it is almost your only defense against hostile dwarves (there are two exceptions to this rule, both of which will be discussed later). To combat a dwarf when he appears you alternately throw the axe and retrieve it until you've killed the dwarf. When you've succeeded, be sure to pick up the axe again before proceeding on. Note that you must be careful as the dwarf will also occasionally throw knives in your gene- ral direction. Generally, he misses, but on occa- sion he will get lucky and hit you. (When this happens, you're dead, and you are faced with two alternatives: quit the game, or allow yourself to be resurrected. For the purposes of this walk- through, which include the attempt to garner all of the 550 possible points, it is probably best to quit and start over, as you will have lost a point for getting killed and will also be forced to find your way back into the Cavern to the point where you were killed, which wastes battery energy which is needed to complete the adventure. On the other hand, it may be instructional to continue the game from this point even though it is no longer pos- sible to obtain all possible points. Should you in fact choose the latter option, you will find yourself back in the building, carrying nothing. The lantern may be found immediately outside the building. The rest of the items you were carrying are presumably at the spot where you expired.) As you proceed, then, through the Cavern, it will occasionally be necessary to stop and battle the dwarves that pop up. These appear somewhat at random, and I can thus never tell you exactly when one is coming; the best I can do is to warn you when one is likely to appear. You must simply be ready for them at all times. Now you will proceed to get your first trea- sure. From the Hall of Mists go south, and there S it is! A large, gold nugget!! Take it, and go GET (gold) north again. Now, I said earlier that our goal is N to take all treasure back to the building and leave it there. However, you'll notice that if you try to take the nugget back the way you came, you cannot get back up to the top of the pit. Therefore, you are forced to find a different way out. Of these, there are at least two. For now, just hang on to the gold, as you will be collect- ing other treasure along the way before returning to the building, and besides, it would be a great waste of steps to return to the building every time you discover another treasure. If you're back in the Hall of Mists, your next step is to go west again from there. Now W you've come to your first check--a large fissure too big to cross. Here, however, is where the rod makes itself useful; wave it (say WAVE ROD). Voi- WAVE ROD la, a crystal bridge (pretty neat, huh?). Cross CROSS it (CROSS, or WEST or W), and there, on the west bank of the fissure is your second treasure, a collection of diamonds. Take them and return to GET (diamonds), CROSS the east bank of the fissure. From here go east E again, back to the Hall of Mists. Now, you will proceed to the Hall of the Mountain King. To get there from the Hall of Mists, either go down or D north (they're one and the same). Did you find a large snake blocking your passage? Now it's time for Polly to earn his birdseed. Drop the bird DROP BIRD (DROP BIRD). Since you won't be needing the bird any longer (this is the only thing he's good for), just leave him where he is; as you have no further use for the bird, neither will you be needing the cage, so drop it also. You may also leave the rod DROP CAGE, DROP ROD here for the time being; it will be used again, but not for a while yet. Go south. Here, in the south side chamber S you will find a collection of jewelry. Take it, GET (jewelry) and go north, and then west. Now you should be in N, W the west side chamber, where you will find a pile of rare coins (these are the coins which could be traded for the extra batteries if necessary, but it shouldn't be). Take them, and go east back to GET (coins), E the Hall of the Mountain King, and then proceed to the northwest. At the division in the passage go NW east to the dank cubicle, where you will find a E small mushroom growing on one wall. EAT the mush- EAT room, and you will find that your muscles have bulged "unbelievably". You now have the strength to not only carry more items at a time than you could before, but also to draw the sword (coming up shortly) out of the rock in which it is embed- ded. The duration of the mushroom's effect is limited, wearing off after a while, thus you will make good use of it while it lasts. Now return south, and south again, to the Hall of the Moun- S, S tain King, then go northeast. Here, in the morion NE room, you will find a gem-encrusted visorless helmet. Take it, and return south to the Hall of GET (helmet), S the Mountain King. Now go east to the Hall of E Mists, and east again. Here you will find the E sword. Having eaten the mushroom, you now have enough strength to pull the sword from the rock. Take it, and go west and then down (or north) back GET (sword), W, D to the Hall of the Mountain King. Here I must pause to discuss another of the Cavern's residents, as it is entirely possible that he has made his initial appearance by now (though he usually waits until a bit later, and sometimes until much later). This is the Cavern's very own resident pirate, whose sole purpose, it seems, consists in following you around and pop- ping out at unexpected moments to make off with all the treasure you've got (therefore, if you ever hear any faint rustling noises behind you, be wary; it's the pirate following you). Sometimes (and this is more likely the case the earlier it occurs), his initial appearance consists simply in being spotted by you and exclaiming something about needing to hide his chest "deep in the maze", but often (and always on subsequent appear- ances), it will simply be his popping out of nowhere to make off with the treasure you are carrying. If this has happened to you (and if it hasn't yet, it will eventually, be assured) don't worry about it. The treasure is safe and sound, hidden away with the pirate's chest waiting for you to come get it. In any case, it is not pos- sible to get the chest until after the pirate has appeared and then "hied" himself off to hide it. From the Hall of the Mountain King now go southwest. What happened? More than likely, you SW(...) simply "crawled around in some rocks and ended up back in the main passage" or something to that effect. Here we have encountered another feature of the Cavern. There IS something to the south- west of the Hall of the Mountain King, but you usually don't get there on the first try (if you did get there on the first attempt, read this anyway, because it won't happen again). There are several spots like this in the Cavern, where it pays to be persistent. At such spots I will indicate that you need to keep trying until you get through by following the directions with an ellipsis enclosed in parentheses. For example, here I would say "Go southwest(...)". Now, keep going southwest until you get through. I've had to do it as many as eighteen times myself (though 5 or 6 is normally more than you will need), so keep trying! When you do get through, you will find your- self in an East-West Canyon above a tight canyon. It is possible to go down from here into the other canyon, but don't do so yet. You won't be able to get back up, and will be going that way eventual- ly, anyway. From the East-West Canyon go west. W Did you find the way blocked by a large dragon? Your next job is to get rid of the dragon somehow, as you want both the rug he's lying on and a few of his teeth, and in any case he's blocking the passage. To do this, simply kill the dragon (KILL KILL DRAGON, or KILL). When asked, "With your bare hands??" respond "yes", and there you are, one Y dead dragon! Leave the rug for now, as you will need the room to carry other things, but take his GET TEETH teeth. You will collect the rug on one of your subsequent passes through this room. Return east E to the East-West Canyon, and then east again to E the Hall of The Mountain King. Pick up the bird GET CAGE cage here. From the Hall of the Mountain King go north, N where you will discover some bars of silver. Take GET (silver) these, and go north again, to the "Y2" Room. Here, N turn off the lamp (OFF LAMP), then drop the cage. OFF, DROP CAGE You are again warned about being in the dark, but at this point that won't concern you. Here, you are about to utilize some more of the Cavern's magic to collect one more treasure and then to exit back to the building. Say PLOVER (simply PLOVER type PLOVER and press the return key) and observe the effect. You should find that you've >foofoof<) to the Large Low Room (from here, southeast would get you back to the Oriental Room). Now go southwest to the SW Sloping Corridor, and then up. You are now back U at the Troll Bridge. If you were unfortunate enough to have the pirate pop out and take your treasure at any point between the times when you got the eggs and when you got to the bridge (I myself have only had this happen once, so it is possible, though rare enough), it will be necessa- ry to retrieve the eggs from him before proceeding on, as they are essential to you for getting across the Troll Bridge. To retrieve the eggs, return to the Giant Room and then refer below, page 24. This time you do want to cross the bridge. To appease the troll throw him the golden eggs (THROW EGGS). Any treasure will satisfy the THROW EGGS troll, but you have chosen to use the eggs for reasons which will become apparent later. Now pick up the dragon's teeth which you left here GET (teeth) earlier and cross the bridge (CROSS or NE), then CROSS go northeast to a long east-west corridor, and NE east to a fork in the path. From here follow the E northeast fork to a junction with warm walls. NE Once here, drop the keys and the food, then pro- DROP KEYS, DROP FOOD ceed to the east into a chamber with boulders, E where you will find rare spices. Collect the GET (spices) spices, return west to the junction where you left W the keys and food, and then go north to Spectacu- N lar View. This is an underground volcano which you must cross somehow. It also proved to be one of the most difficult riddles for me, and one of the last to be solved. Here, once again wave the WAVE ROD rod, and you will have a lava bridge across the gulf. Now drop the rod. It will prove useful DROP ROD once more before your adventure ends, but not for the time being. Having formed the lava bridge, only half the riddle has been solved, however. When I first discovered the bridge I was so elated that I went charging right across it, whereupon I was immediately overcome by fumes and fell into the volcano. The secret, which it took me a good many more months to discover, is that you must have the mithril ring in your possession when crossing; it protects you from the effects of the fumes. With the ring firmly in hand, then, cross the CROSS bridge. You will now find yourself at the southern end of a long valley. Proceed again north to the northern end of the valley. Here you N will find yourself staring at what appears to be a blank wall. The clues to the solution of this riddle are to be found in two rooms located in the vicinity of the Hall of the Mountain King to which this walk-through does not take you. The first of these rooms is a dead end which has the message "Stand where the statue gazes and use the proper tool" scrawled on one wall. The other room is the Witt Company Tool Room--Melenkurion Division. Here, you are standing where the statue gazes. What tool, then, are you to use? Well, the "tool" is simply the name of the Tool Room. Enter the name of the Division (MELENKURION) and suddenly MELENKURION you will find three passages in the wall. You will explore each of these three passages in turn. Begin, however with the passage to the northeast, where you will find yourself in a wind- NE ing passage which proceeds on to the north. Fol- lowing it north, you will come to a chamber with N golden walls, which has passages both to the northwest and to the northeast. Go to the northwest first. Here, in the Translucent Room, NW you will discover another treasure, the chinese jade bracelet. Take it, and proceed back east to GET (bracelet), E the chamber with the golden walls. Now keep your eyes open, as at any moment you will be besieged by more of the Cavern's residents-- this time in the form of little eight inch tall goblins. These creatures can be safely ignored only for about three moves, after which they swarm all over you and rip your throat out. To dispose of the gob- lins, throw the dragon's teeth and watch what THROW TEETH happens. Having thus rid yourself of these things, it is safe to proceed. From the chamber with the golden walls go now northeast. Here you NE will find a flask. Take it, and return south, GET (flask), S south and northwest to the northern end of the S, NW valley. This time, go to the northwest, to the south- NW ern end of a foggy hall. Now go north, where you N will find yourself lost and bedazzled in the midst of a strange fog out of which you cannot get no matter how hard you try. After wandering around in this fog for a while, you will be graciously offered a clue for finding your way out, and then, should you accept the offer, just as graciously charged twenty points for it. I'll save you the twenty points. The clue runs as follows: "Ok-- what you need to do is apply a little philosophy. To wit: there is a question that you need to ask whenever you explore a new room in this cave. In most places, the answer to the question is 'yes'. In some other places, it's 'no' for an obvious reason. Right here, the answer is 'no' but the reason isn't so obvious. If you can figure out what the question is, you can get out of here easily. I can tell you this--it's always a vital question if you wish to survive." After puzzling over this clue for a while, it dawned on me that the question referred to was "Do I need to have the lantern on here?" As the clue said, the answer here is 'no', so turn the lamp off. You OFF will now see, off in one direction or another (the direction changes each time you wander into the fog), some light. Follow that light, and you will [follow light] emerge from the fog next to a large cairn. Now, from the cairn, go down. Once again, you will be D in the dark, so turn the lantern back on. Here, ON you will be in a nondescript chamber, where you will discover Omar Khayyam's toy yacht. Take it, GET (yacht) and proceed onward to the north. N Here, you will be in the Pentagram Room, where you will find a pentagram inscribed on a smooth floor. Set the flask you picked up earlier DROP FLASK in the pentagram (DROP FLASK will do nicely), and then open it (OPEN FLASK). The djinn which was OPEN FLASK sealed in the flask will escape, but will be held by the magical properties of the pentagram. If you were to open the flask anywhere else the djinn would depart immediately without giving you the two clues which you will need later. Now, the djinn is requesting that you open the pentagram and release him. Do so, and he will give you the OPEN PENTAGRAM first of the two clues, and then depart. Remember this clue, as it will not be of use to you until after you get to the end game. So that you will have a copy of it, I will reproduce it here. The clue the djinn gives is in the form of a history lesson an runs as follows: "When Ralph Witt, the architect and constructor of this cave, was very young, he became very incensed that his name was at the end of the alphabet. He felt (for some reason) that the letter W belonged near the begin- ning of the alphabet, and that all of those 'up- start letters which unfairly usurped the best places' should be forced into exile at the end of the alphabet. His instinct for matters magical and mystical led him to apply this strange belief into the cave's structure when he excavated it. You haven't yet been affected by his strange ha- bits, but you should remember this." Having thus garnered this clue, leave the flask where it is and proceed on to the north, to N a small crack at the bottom of a chimney. Be alert, as at any moment now the djinn will return with his second bit of information, and then va- nish forever. This second message describes in detail the magic word PHUGGG which I explained above. This information is of no use to you while you are on this side of the Troll Bridge as you will not encounter any dwarves over here. It is unlikely that you will need it after you cross back either, as it is very rare to encounter a dwarf again this late in the game (I myself have only once encountered one at any point after the end of the Second Excursion, and never, with the one exception noted below, on this side of the Troll Bridge; in addition, the Pirate also will never be seen on this side of the Bridge, though he will certainly be seen again once you cross back over). You will never in any case run into more than five dwarves in the course of your adventure, and by the time you have progressed to the Troll Bridge you will normally have encoun- tered your limit. This will not be true, however, should you decide to cross the Troll Bridge ear- lier in your adventure. In any case, from here go up to the top of the chimney, and then go south, U, S where you will be at the top end of a lava tube. Go down the tube and you will be back at the D southern end of the foggy hall. From here, go south back to the north end of the valley. S You are now ready to begin the final--and by all acounts the most interesting--of the three "mini-excursions" to the north of the volcano. Proceed now to the north, where you will be in the N southern end of a basilisk's den. Fortunately, the creature is sleeping, but you must be very careful not to awaken him, as it's curtains for you if you do. Very quietly, then, sneak around him to the north (NORTH). Though you did manage N to avoid waking the basilisk, you will see that you also disturbed his sleep. Should you pass this way again, you will undoubtedly awaken him. You are now in a rough passage to the north of the basilisk's den. From here, go north to a fork in N the passage. Here, drop the axe, as you will need DROP AXE the room to carry something else, and then proceed down the steps, and down a second time, where you D, D will come to an exit off the steps to the north. Take this exit and you will find you are--back at N the "Y2" Room! What a minute. Or are you? If this is the "Y2" Room, where's the bird cage you left here earlier? As it turns out, this isn't the "Y2" Room, but a duplicate of it, thus it is called the "Y2"? Room. Just for fun, and to prove this isn't really "Y2", try saying either PLUGH or PLOVER. What happened? You will find that you are perched precariously on a ledge two thousand feet above an underground volcano. This ledge is the one place where I have encountered a dwarf (actually two of them!) on this side of the Troll Bridge. You might have also, but don't worry about them. To get back to "Y2"? simply say PLUGH or PLOVER again. From "Y2"?, go west. You are now in the W Enchanted Catacombs. Whatever you do, don't move until you have read the rest of this section on the Catacombs. The Catacombs are the first of the three mazes which you will traverse in the course of your adventure. There are a total of four mazes in the Cavern, but the fourth one--the Bat- tery Maze, where you would be able to get an extra set of batteries for the lantern--it will not be necessary for the purposes of this adventure to enter. Mazes are hazardous because all parts of them look exactly like every other part, thus making it impossible to distinguish one part from another and therefore terribly easy to get lost. This particular maze is especially difficult, as it is possible to go any direction from any room. Thus, unlike the Pirate's Maze, it is not even possible to discover which room you are in by determining what directions you can and cannot go from it. If you wish to map out a maze, you must first make each room distinctive so that, if you come across it again in you wanderings, you can know whether you have been there before and also exactly which room it is. The way to do this is to drop an object in each room you visit. Now that you are in the Enchanted Catacombs, what next? The secret to the Catacombs is to realize that from any given room, every direction leads you back to the room you just came from-- every direction, that is, except the one direction which leads you forward. Thus, you must discover the one direction which leads you forward to your goal. This rule applies to every room in the Catacombs but one--the one you are currently in. That is, you cannot get back to "Y2"? from here once you have entered this room. You will need to find a different way out. You may map out the Catacombs on your own, if you so desire, but as this would take a significant amount of both time and battery power, I suggest doing the following: from where you now stand in the first room of the Catacombs go south, then southwest, then north- S, SW, NW west, then south, then down, then west, then S, D, W northwest, then north, then south, then north, and NW, N, S, N finally east. If you followed these directions E properly you will find yourself standing in the west end of the Audience Hall. Here, you may turn OFF off the lantern. From here go east to the east E end of the Hall, where you will see a throne with the remains of some strange creature. In the creature's hand is the jewel-encrusted sceptre. Take it. When you do, however, listen carefully, GET (sceptre) as the skeleton will speak one brief sentence before crumbling to dust. The sentence is simply this: "Remember--[word]!" where [word] is one of five possible magic words: knerl, blerbi, snoeze, zorton, or klaetu. Which word he speaks changes from game to game. Remember which one it was (it may help to write it down) as you will need it twice. Once you have gotten the sceptre and the word, proceed back west to the west end of the W Audience Hall. From here you will need to traverse the Catacombs once again to get out. The path back through the Catacombs runs like this: from the west end of the Audience Hall go west, turn on W, ON the lantern, then go southwest, east, southeast, SW, E, SE northeast, east, southeast, down, south and north, NE, E, SE, D, S, N whereupon you should find yourself back at "Y2"?. From "Y2"? go south back to the stairs, and S then continue down the stairs, at the bottom of D which you will discover in a storage room a pol- ished metal plate. Get it, and then climb back up GET (plate), U to the top of the stairs (UP and UP and UP), where U, U you will see the axe which you dropped earlier. This time, follow the fork in the passage to the north, and you will find yourself in the Peelgrunt N Room. What the name means (if anything) I have no idea, but you will find that one entire wall is taken up by a massive walk-in safe, the door to which is locked fast. To open the safe, repeat the magic word which you heard from the skeleton [word] on the throne. Make sure you use the word which the skeleton spoke and not one of the others, as speaking the wrong one will have disastrous conse- quences. Now that the safe is open, enter it, and IN you will discover the massive iridium crown. Do not take it. Instead, you are going to leave all DROP [all treasure but the treasures you are carrying, except the ring the ring] (which you will need to get back across the lava bridge) in the safe. After you have dropped them, exit the safe, close the door (CLOSE SAFE), and OUT, CLOSE (safe) proceed back south, to the fork in the passage. S Retrieve your axe, and proceed south again to the GET (axe), S rough passage and you will see the basilisk sleep- ing fitfully. You must get by him, so proceed south once more. This time you will awaken the S creature, but (assuming you are carrying it) he will see own reflection in the metal plate which you are carrying and be instantly turned to gra- nite. You may now discard the plate at any point DROP PLATE you choose, as it has served its purpose. Go south again to the north end of the valley, and S then south once more to the southern end and the S lava bridge. Now, again with the ring in hand, cross the bridge (CROSS or SOUTH) back to the CROSS south side of the bridge. Pick up the rod. From GET (rod) here, proceed south, pick up the keys and the S, GET KEYS food, then go south, southeast, south, and east. GET (food), S, SE, S, E You will discover yourself in the Barren Room, where a bear is chained to the far side of the wall with a golden chain. You want that chain, and also the bear (believe it or not) but in his current state you couldn't get close enough to the bear to unlock him. Now the food comes in handy. Throw it to the bear (THROW FOOD), who will eat it THROW FOOD ravenously and then tame down considerably. You are now free to unlock the chain with the keys. UNLOCK Take the chain and the bear (if you say GET BEAR GET CHAIN or TAKE BEAR, the bear will follow you around GET (bear) until you say DROP BEAR), drop the keys, which DROP KEYS have served their final purpose, and return west, W then west again, then north, west, and west once W, N, W, W more to the Troll Bridge. The troll is nowhere to be seen. Now try to cross the bridge. The troll CROSS will step out of nowhere and block your way. As you don't want to sacrifice another treasure to the troll, you must find another way to get back over the bridge. To do this, drop the bear, and DROP BEAR he will scare away the troll, who will never be seen by you again. You are now free to cross the CROSS bridge, but resist every temptation to take the bear with you, as his weight will collapse the bridge and throw you and him both into the depths of the chasm. Once you have crossed the Troll Bridge, return to the Swiss Cheese Room by going southwest, down, southeast, and southeast again, SW, D, SE, SE then back to the Hall of the Mountain King by going west, west, west, up, south, east and east. W, W, W, U, S, E, E You are now ready for the final leg of the Third Excursion, in which you will finally settle your score with that pesky pirate. If the pirate HASN'T appeared by now (I find it hard to believe, but anything is possible) your wandering around in the depths of his own maze carrying a load of treasure will prove a greater temptation than he can bear and draw him out of hiding. From the Hall of the Mountain King first proceed northwest NW and then east, back to the dank cubicle where you E earlier found the mushroom. By this time you will find that another one has grown there. Take it, GET (mushroom) but do not eat it just yet. Now go back south and S south to the Hall of the Mountain King, where you S are ready to proceed on to the pirate's maze. You have taken the mushroom because without it it's possible that there is more treasure in the pi- rate's maze than you could carry in one trip. To find the pirate's maze from the Hall of the Moun- tain King go west to the West Side Chamber, then W continue west and then west again. Here you will W, W find yourself at the East End of a Long Hall. From here go east (or up) to the West End of the Hall E of Mists. To get to the Pirate's Maze from here go south. Be certain you are at the West End of S the Hall of Mists before going south, not the West End of the Long Hall, as going south from the West End of the Long Hall will also take you into a maze; that maze, however, is not the Pirate's Maze, but the Battery Maze. Once inside the maze be extremely careful, as it is very easy to get lost in it. Once you have gone south from the West End of the Hall of Mists you are in the Pirate's Maze. Now (and be sure to follow these directions very carefully so you don't get lost) go east, south, E, S south, south, north, and east. You should now be S, S, N, E standing on the brink of a pit with an orange column down which you can climb. At the bottom of it is the Bird Chamber, where you originally found the bird. Don't climb down just yet, however; you will do that as soon as you have gotten the trea- sure from the pirate. From here proceed east and E northwest and you will find the pirate's chest, NW along with any treasure he has stolen from you. Pick up everything you can. If you find you have GET [everything] a full load before you've taken everything eat the mushroom, then pick up the rest. If you still can't get it all, you will have to leave something non-essential behind (i.e. anything except the lamp, the rod, the axe and the treasures). From this point on, you will never see the pirate again, as he goes off to some dark corner of the Cavern somewhere to nurse his wounds for the rest of the game. Now return southeast and north to the SE, N orange column and go down. D You should now be in the Bird Chamber (a "splendid chamber thirty feet high"). From here you will return to the building to drop off your load of treasures and prepare for the Fourth Excursion. Go east from the Bird Chamber, and E then east again, where you will find yourself in E the Debris Room. Here you will discover the third and final way back to the building. You noticed the magic word on the wall? This, if you haven't discovered by now, does in this room what PLUGH does in "Y2". So, turn off your lamp and repeat it OFF, XYZZY now (XYZZY) and-->foof<--you're back in the buil- ding. Now drop off everything you're carrying DROP [all but lamp and except the lamp and the axe. If you so desire you axe] may type SCORE to check your progress (you will have at this point 254 points) and then LOOK to see a description of the room and all your trea- sures. FOURTH EXCURSION Treasures: rare spices, iridium crown, sceptre, jade bracelet, toy yacht. The Fourth Excursion is by far the shortest of the six (just as the Third was by far the longest) and is in fact just a little jaunt in and out. Taking the lamp, pop into the "Y2" Room, PLUGH turn on the lantern, go south twice to the Hall of ON, S, S the Mountain King and then go down. You will now D find yourself in a large, high-ceilinged room facing another door to a massive walk-in safe (at least I think it's a different door; at any rate, as you will soon see, the safe itself is the same one as you earlier placed your treasures in). Here, once again, you will need to use the magic word you got in the Audience Hall to open the safe, and once again you must make certain you use the correct word to avoid disastrous consequences (on the other hand, if you're curious about what those consequences might be, go ahead and use the wrong word; I dare ya.). Once the safe is opened, [word], IN enter it and you will find all the treasures you left there earlier. Collect them, exit the safe, GET [all], OUT close it, and go up, north and north to "Y2", turn CLOSE (safe), U, N, N off the lamp, and return to the building. Drop OFF, PLUGH, DROP [all off everything except the lamp and the axe. but lamp and axe] Typing SCORE and LOOK now will show 319 points and nineteen treasures. FIFTH EXCURSION Treasure: golden eggs, crystal trident, cask of opals, crystalline sculpture. For the Fifth Excursion all you will need is the lamp and axe. Return to "Y2", turn on the PLUGH, ON lamp, and you are ready to return to the Giant Room. Go south, then south again to the Hall of S, S the Mountain King. From here, go northwest and NW then north, where you will discover a small vial N filled with an oily liquid. Take the vial and GET (vial) return north and south to the Hall of the Mountain N, S King. To get to the Giant Room, go southwest(...), SW(...) west (there's the dragon's carcass), north, down, W, N, D south and down, climb the plant, and go west. Now S, D, CLIMB, W it is time to reclaim the golden eggs from the troll. You have noticed the words FEE FIE FOE FOO enscribed on the wall of the room. These were undoubtedly put there by the giant himself to guard against forgetfulness (giants, as everyone knows, have notoriously short memories). Repeat FEE these words, but do so one at a time (that is, FIE type FEE, press return, then FIE, return, FOE, FOE return, and FOO, return) and the eggs will appear FOO back in the room. These are the only treasure that can be reclaimed in this manner, and they can be so retrieved from wherever they are in the Cavern (or even from the building, I believe, though I have never tried) but you must be in the Giant Room to do so. This is why it was the eggs which you threw to the troll, and not a different treasure. Taking the eggs, go north and north, to GET (eggs), N, N Breathtaking View. This time, take the trident, GET (trident) and return south and south, to the Giant Room. S, S (Note: if the trident is now back in the buil- ding--that is, if the pirate had earlier made off with it and you have retrieved it from his maze-- you may skip this little side trip to Breathtaking View.) By now you should have been informed that, despite the care that has been taken to preserve them, your batteries are running low. If not, you soon will be. Our next job will be to recharge them (you could, of course, as was suggested, go get the other batteries, but as you will see, it would be a wasted trip). From the Giant Room proceed east and north, back to where you earlier E, N found the ogre, and then go north through the N door. You will now be inside the Sorcerer's Lair, where you will see "NOSIDE SAMOHT" inscribed on one of the walls. From the Sorcerer's Lair pro- ceed east, and then east again. Here is where you E, E will recharge the batteries of your lamp. Drop DROP LAMP the lamp, then say NOSIDE SAMOHT, and there you NOSIDE SAMOHT are. Note: be certain you are not holding on to the lamp when you repeat the words, as the power surge would kill you if you were. WARNING: If you have not yet received a message about your bat- teries going dim, DON'T DO THIS yet! You will destroy your lamp and to be without a lamp in the Cavern is a fate as bad as death. Wait until you are told that your lamp is dim, and then recharge it. The procedure for doing so (dropping the lamp and then saying NOSIDE SAMOHT) can be done suc- cessfully at any point before you pass back into the Sorcerer's Lair. Once you have recharged your batteries, they will last sufficiently long to complete your adventure. Please note also that this recharging works only once. You cannot keep running back here every time your batteries run low. Now pick up the lantern and proceed on to the GET (lamp), NE northeast and the southeast. Here you will see a SE viscious-looking growth covering the walls of the tunnel through which you wish to proceed. Throw THROW VIAL the vial at it, and it will wither away to no- thing. Proceed south through the tunnel, and S south again, where you will find the cask of S opals. Take them, then go north, north, west, GET (opals), N, N, W southwest, north, west and southeast. Here you SW, N, W, SE are in the Ice Room, at the top of an ice slide. Go down the ice slide to the bottom. Here you D will find yourself in the third and final maze which you must tackle--the Ice Tunnels. To avoid getting lost, follow these directions very care- fully: go northwest, west, south, west, north, NW, W, S, W, N northwest, west, west, south, and south, where you NW, W, W, S, S will find the crystalline sculpture. Get it, then GET (sculpture) proceed north, north, northwest, west, south, N, N, NW, W, S northwest, northwest, west, west, and northwest. NW, NW, W, W, NW Now you will see a sign which says "This way out". To get out of the Ice Tunnels, say THURB. (If you THURB were to map out the Ice Tunnels in their entirety, you would find they spelled out THURB.) You should now be back in the Ice Room. Finally, it is time to return to the building with your treasures. To get there from here, go northwest, north, north, west, south, south, NW, N, N, W, S, S south, climb down the plant, go up, west, up, and S, D, U, W, U south to the dragon, and then east, east, north S, E, E, N and north to "Y2". Turn off the lamp, return to N, OFF, PLUGH the building, and drop everything you're carrying DROP [all but lamp, axe except the lamp, the axe and the trident. and trident] SIXTH EXCURSION Treasures: pearl, pieces of eight, spyglass. There is one final excursion to make to col- lect the last of the treasures. For this you will need, in addition to the lantern and the trident, the rod. Get it, and return to "Y2", turn on the GET ROD, PLUGH, ON lamp, and go south. This time, rather than going S south again to the Hall of the Mountain King, go down to the Dirty Passage. From here, go west to D, W the Dusty Rocks Room, down to Complex Junction, D and then north to the Shell Room, where you will N discover a giant clam. Open the clam (the clam OPEN (clam) can only be opened with the trident, that's why you brought it along) and the pearl will fall out (the clam turns out to be an oyster). The pearl has rolled away, so you must go after it to re- trieve it. To do so, go down and down, to the D, D cul-de-sac. Pick up the pearl and go up and up GET (pearl), U, U back to the Shell Room. From here, there are but two treasures remaining. Go up, then up again, U, U and you will see your way proceeds over a patch of damp sand. This is quicksand, and if you try to walk on it you will surely die. First, wave the WAVE ROD rod, whereupon you will be informed that nothing obvious has happened, and then it is safe to proceed. Go east, to the bend in the passage, E then north, to the fork in the corral passage, N then north again to the Fourier Passage. From N here go southwest and then down, to the Beach, SW, D where you will find a bag containing the pieces of eight. Pick it up, then return up, west and GET (bag), U, W northwest to the fork in the corral passsage. NW From here go east to the Entrance to the Jonah E Room and then proceed south to the South End of S the Jonah Room, where you will find the last of the treasures, a spyglass made of whale baleen. Get the spyglass, and you are ready to return to GET (spyglass) the building with the last of the treasures. From the south end of the Jonah Room go north, then west and south back to the fork in the N, W, S passage. Here you must once again wave the rod WAVE ROD before attempting to cross the quicksand. Now go west, west and down to the Shell Room, and then W, W, D south to the Complex Junction. Now up, east, up S, U, E, U and north will complete the trip back to "Y2". N Turn off the lamp, return to the building, and OFF, PLUGH drop everything you're carrying except the axe and DROP [all but lamp and the lamp. axe] Though you have now discovered all the treasures in the Cavern, there is yet one last point to be gained in the Cavern. With the axe and lamp in hand, return to "Y2", turn on the PLUGH, ON lamp, and go south, down, west, down, and east, S, D, W, D, E where you will find yourself in the Anteroom and will see several recent issues of "Spelunker Today" scattered about the floor. Pick these up, GET (magazines) and the proceed to the east. You are now at E Witt's End, aptly named, as you will see. Here, drop the magazines, whereupon you will receive DROP MAGAZINES that final point (i.e. you are awarded one point for dropping "Spelunker Today" at Witt's End). Now comes the hard part--getting out of Witt's End, though, as you will see, it really doesn't matter whether you actually make it out or not; it just gives you something to do. To get out of Witt's End, you must simply keep trying all directions until you find yourself N(...) back in the Anteroom. Actually, you can try any S(...) direction exept west. Keep slugging away. E(...) Sometimes it can take forty or fifty moves (make W(...) that OFTEN it can take forty or fifty moves). You etc. will, if you spend enough time mucking about in Witt's End, in all likelihood be asked at some point if you would like a hint to help you get out. Don't take it, as you will be charged 20 points for it, and the clue is simply three words: Don't go west. As I said, it really doesn't matter whether you make it out of Witt's End or not, because once you have garnered this last point your sole remaining job consists in just wandering around the Cavern until the appropriate moment. If you do get out, pick any direction you desire and wander at will. THE END GAME It is time now to proceed to the End Game. It has taken me three years to reach this part, and much more effort to complete it. As already mentioned, your final job will consists simply of wandering around the Cavern until you hear a voice [wander at will] announce that the Cavern will be closing soon. This usually takes between 30 and 35 moves (minus the moves it took you to get into Witt's End). Once you hear the voice, wander around a little [more wandering at longer (between 10 and 15 moves) until you hear will] the voice announce that the Cavern is closed. At this point you will be transported to the End Game, and discover yourself in a small, cylindri- cal room with a flat floor, flat ceiling, and no visible exits. In addition, if you type SCORE, you will see that you have been awarded 69 points for getting into this room, bringing your total to 510. You will also notice, if you take inventory, that you are not carrying anything. Since there are no manipulable objects in the room, and neith- er are you carrying any yourself, the exit from here cannot be gained in that manner. Therefore, logically, the room must be exited by speaking the proper word or words, and the problem then becomes to discover what those words might be. Perhaps you have already tried to use some of the magic words which you picked up in the Cavern, all to no avail. What then is the secret? The trick here is that you do not use any of the magic words found in the Cavern--you use all of them. The second half of the puzzle is discovering in what order they must be used. If you will now recall the words of the djinn in discussing the peculia- rities of Ralph Witt, you will remember that Witt had a fixation with "the last shall be first and the first last", at least when it came to the alphabetical orders. The secret then is this: you must speak each of the magic words, but you must do so one at a time (a la FEE FIE FOE FOO) and you must speak them in reverse alphabetical order. If you have forgotten, the magical words, which are seventeen in number, are, in alphabetical order, as follows: BLERBI KNERL SAMOHT [speak magic words] FEE MELENKURION SNOEZE FIE NOSIDE THURB FOE PHUGGG XYZZY FOO PLOVER ZORTON KLAETU PLUGH Simply enter each of these words, beginning with ZORTON and proceeding through BLERBI, and you will find that you are--"Standing at the end of a road before a small brick building." This is the same brick building (to my knowledge) wherein you began your adventure, however, if you enter it now, you will discover that it is empty--all the treasures and other objects which you placed there are gone. Typing SCORE will show that you have been awarded an additional 20 points for getting out of the cylindrical room (in my opinion, these last two pointage awards should be reversed--20 for getting into the room and 69 for getting out--for it is much easier to get into it than to get out again). A little additional exploration will discover that you cannot get back into the cave, either through the grate, which is locked again (and the keys to which you do not possess) or through the magic words, which no longer work. The answer then to this last riddle of your quest lies above ground, and is this: from where you stand in front of the building go south, and S then south once more. You will now be standing S near a 2-foot slit in the ground into which all the waters of the stream tumble. You may remember seeing this slit when you past it at the beginning of the game on your way to the grate, only then it was but 2 inches wide and much too narrow to fit through. Now it has widened considerably. It has become, in fact, the entrance to the last portion of the game. If you had tried going down this slit when you passed it before, you would have received a response something like "You don't fit through a two-inch slit!" This time, however, you will fit, so enter the slit, watch what happens, ENTER SLIT and then your adventure is done. Congratulations. All of adventuredom gives tribute to you, Adven- turer Grandmaster!