Friday, December 21, 2018

Chapter 23: Up, Up and Away (The 5th Dimension, 1967)

>board

You are now in the basket.

If this is a balloon, we need some hot air. Good thing you're along! Ha ha ha...I crack myself up. Perhaps burning something will get us moving.

>open receptacle

Opened.

>put guidebook in receptacle

Done.

>light match

One of the matches starts to burn.


>light guidebook with match

The tour guidebook burns inside the receptacle. The balloon inflates as it fills with hot air. The match has gone out.

Almost anything that is flammable can be burned. Leaflets, labels, brochures, the US NEWS & DUNGEON REPORT, etc. The guidebook is the largest of them all, and will burn long enough for us to complete our mission. You will need a back-up if you use something besides the guidebook. You also have a finite number of matches, which we will need later, so using the guidebook also conserves that resource.

Unlike the inflatable raft that, despite being on a river with current required you to provide directional commands (down), the balloon does what you would expect a balloon to do on its own: rise. Waiting is all you need to do.

>wait

Time passes...

The balloon rises slowly from the ground.


[Volcano Core] You are about one hundred feet above the bottom of the volcano. The top of the volcano is clearly visible here. You are in the basket.


>wait

Time passes...

The balloon ascends.

[Volcano near small ledge] You are about two hundred feet above the volcano floor. Looming above is the rim of the volcano. There is a small ledge on the west side. You are in the basket.


Seems like as good a place as any to stop for a while.

>land

[Narrow Ledge] You are on a narrow ledge overlooking the inside of an old dormant volcano. This ledge appears to be about in the middle between the floor below and the rim above. There is an exit here to the south. You are in the basket. There is a small hook attached to the rock here. On the floor is a gold zorkmid coin (a valuable collector's item).


If you walk away from the balloon, it will eventually float away, carried by the underground wind that apparently blows from here to the Tiny Cave. After watching it head up and over the rim, a Volcano Gnome will seem to walk straight out of the wall and offer you a way out. He is impatient ("I have a busy appointment schedule and little time to waste on trespassers") and wants a fee, much like the Bank Gnome. Giving him a treasure will please him and he will make a door appear on the west end of the ledge, and then bails. Through the door you can see a narrow chimney sloping steeply downward, which will take you to the Volcano Bottom. Just like at the Bank, offering up a treasure is a fool's game, as we'll never get that treasure back.

You cannot tie the braided wire (i.e., rope) to the hook while you are in the basket. Interestingly enough, you can untie the rope from the hook while in the basket. Disembarking from the basket and then securing the balloon to the hook works.

>disembark

You are on your own feet again.


>tie rope to hook

The balloon is fastened to the hook.


>take coin

Taken.
 
 
>look at coin
              /      Gold Zorkmid        \\
             /  T e n   T h o u s a n d   \\
            /        Z O R K M I D S       \\
           /                                \\
          /        ||||||||||||||||||        \\
         /        !||||          ||||!        \\
        |          |||   ^^  ^^   |||          |
        |          |||   OO  OO   |||          |
        | In Frobs  |||    <<    |||  We Trust |
        |            || (______) ||            |
        |             |          |             |
        |             |__________|             |
         \\                                   /
          \\    -- Lord Dimwit Flathead --    /
           \\    -- Beloved of Zorkers --    /
            \\                             /
             \\      * 722 G.U.E. *       /
              \\                         /
               --------------------------
 
>south

[Library] You are in a room which must have been a large library, probably for the royal family. All of the shelves appear to have been gnawed to pieces by unfriendly gnomes. To the north is an exit.

There is a blue book here.
There is a green book here.
There is a purple book here.
There is a white book here.


>read purple book

Taken. This book is written in a tongue with which I am unfamiliar.

This is an example of a ridiculous puzzle. You know the books are here for a reason, and while you can look at them they cannot be read. Apparently reading (or trying to read) the books does not presume they were opened. That's right, you must tell the game to actually look inside them. I'll save you some time and let you know only the purple book is worth opening. The others can't be read, either.

>open purple book

Opening the purple book reveals:

A stamp.


>take stamp

Taken.

 
>look at stamp


---v----v----v----v----v----v----v----v---
|                                        |
|          ||||||||||        LORD        |
>         !||||      |      DIMWIT       <
|         ||||    ---|     FLATHEAD      |
|         |||C     CC \\                 |
>          ||||       _\\                <
|           ||| (____|                   |
|            ||      |                   |
>             |______|       Our         <
|               /   \\    Excessive      |
|              /     \\     Leader       |
>             |       |                  <
|             |       |                  |
|                                        |
>    G.U.E. POSTAGE        3 Zorkmids    <
|                                        |
---^----^----^----^----^----^----^----^---


>drop purple book

Done.

>north

Narrow Ledge

>board

You are now in the basket.

>untie rope

The wire falls off the hook.

>wait

Time passes...

[Volcano near small ledge] The balloon leaves the ledge. You are about two hundred feet above the volcano floor. Looming above is the rim of the volcano. There is a small ledge on the west side. You are in the basket.


>wait

Time passes...

[Volcano near viewing ledge] The balloon ascends. You are high above the floor of the volcano. From here the rim of the volcano looks very narrow, and you are very near it. To the east is what appears to be a viewing ledge, too thin to land on. You are in the basket.


This is the viewing ledge we stood on earlier after being in the Egyptian Room.

>save

Saved.


No comments:

Post a Comment