Part 1: Ensign Forsyth
Part 1: Ensign Forsyth
We sure have.
quote:
>>YES
[Great! If you need a refresher, select the "IF Reference Card" menu option. On with the show.]
That option just provides a new window with an image of a basic primer on how parser games work, not specific to Hadean Lands. This isn't our first rodeo. We'll be fine. Presumably. The game then opens properly:
quote:
You smell copal incense, machine oil, rosemary, alcohol, and blood. Creaking, bending steel beams... no, that's not an odor. Why did you think the bulkheads were crumpling in on you? What would that even smell like?
You're pretty sure it's not your own blood, anyway.
The secondary alchemy lab is your duty station this shift; where you were, before—before now. Before you woke up on the floor. Smelling copal, oil, rosemary, and—well, alcohol is right. You were scrubbing the workbench. Enjoying your shift, swabbie?
Not any more, Sarge.
The lamps shouldn't be flickering like that. And His Majesty's Marcher The Unanswerable Retort really, really shouldn't be this quiet.
Hadean Lands
Overdue Interactive Fiction by Andrew Plotkin
Copyright (c) 2014-6 by Andrew Plotkin
Release 5 / Serial number 160522 / Inform 7 build 6G60 (I6/v6.33)
Secondary Alchemy Lab
The lab is unsettlingly dim, but familiar enough: rough wooden walls, the broad stone surface of the workbench. The lab door is to the north; it's closed.
To the east is the lab's supply closet. Except... the entire east side of the room is filled with clear crystal. That's not so familiar. That's downright strange.
You notice a heap of alchemical supplies piled on a table. Next to the table, an iron panel is set in the floor.
>
Plotkin identifies it as "Overdue Interactive Fiction" because of how long it took to release this after its Kickstarter completed. He didn't technically promise a release date, though, so who's to tell for sure?
But this does not concern young Ensign Forsyth. Let's get a handle on our surroundings.
quote:
>X CRYSTAL
It's not crystal. It's more as if the air has cracked, right across the room, leaving a plane of cleavage which is visible only in refraction.
>OPEN LAB DOOR
You pull the door open. Then you nearly fall down, so sharp is your disorientation. Only your grip on the door convinces you that you are still standing upright.
A Hadean land lies outside the lab door.
I'm sure this wasn't in the regs. The east-side corridor is missing. Or most of it is missing. A foot or so of ordinary tile floor is at your feet; but beyond that, the corridor is cut away as if by a knife. Beyond is a barren grey wasteland—a Hadean land, deadly to any breathing life. Unweathered grey rocks and dead dust rest under bright, unwinking stars.
>X HADEAN LAND
Most Hadean lands look alike—dead rocks, night sky—and you can tell nothing about this one, except that it very definitely shouldn't be where the Retort's east-side corridor usually is.
>N
You might be sucked through the door into vacuum. But wouldn't the lab's atmosphere be sucked out anyway...?
You could ponder that for hours, but your hand has more curiosity or less sense than your head. You reach out—and your fingers brush another crystal-hard, slick surface. The Hadean land is blocked by a fracture, just like the supply closet.
>CLOSE DOOR
You shut the door, and resist the temptation to lean against it in relief.
This hasn't been covered by our basic alchemical training, I don't think. Let's see what we have to hand.
quote:
>X HEAP
Lying on the flimsy table are a sheet of instructions, a sprig of rosemary, two impets of essential oil (peppermint and ginger), a pair of tarnished calipers, and a brass pin.
>X INSTRUCTIONS
You pick up the sheet, and find Sergeant Brooks' familiar scrawl. "Ensign Forsyth: When you're finished scrubbing, get these calipers freshened up. You should be able to handle the ritual. See me afterwards."
The other side is printed in the familiar smudgy blackletter of Navy receipts. "FOR THE CLEANSING OF BRASS TARNISH: Prepare an atmosphere of fiery principles. Place a brass token within the bound, and seal it. Speak a word of essential nature, so that the properties of brass may be evoked. Compound the atmosphere with a resinous note. Then intone the Lesser Phlogistical Saturation to complete the token's investment. Place token directly on tarnished item."
The syllables of the Saturation formula are spelled out below. And scrawled beneath that: "Resinous note—wave the rosemary, swabbie."
You memorize the instructions, including the Lesser Phlogistical Saturation. You also pick up the sheet. Just in case.
[To list what you've memorized, type "RECALL" or "REMEMBER".]
We've just learned an alchemical ritual, and been given a thing to practice it on. Well, we're locked in this room by a shattering of reality itself. We might as well polish the instruments. This isn't a game with XP, really, but at least we'll learn something. The rest of the objects seem pretty self-explanatory, but what's with the oils?
quote:
>X PEPPERMINT
It's a standard Navy alchemical aromatic impet, designed to fill a lab with odor without spilling essential oils all over the place. The peppermint impet is closed.
>X GINGER
It's a standard Navy alchemical aromatic impet, designed to fill a lab with odor without spilling essential oils all over the place. The ginger impet is closed.
That's probably what it means about "prepare an atmosphere of fiery principles." I have no idea which of these does that, though. Let's start with the peppermint, since it was listed first.
quote:
>PUT BRASS PIN IN BOUND
(first taking the brass pin)
You put the brass pin into the workbench bound.
>OPEN PEPPERMINT
You pop open the impet, and the peppermint aroma rolls out, making your nose ache.
>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You say the word of essential nature, but nothing results.
Oh, do we have to seal it directly?
quote:
>SEAL BOUND
To begin the ritual, invoke the simple sealing word.
>INVOKE SIMPLE SEALING WORD
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the simple sealing word.
The arc begins to glow blue-white around the brass pin.
>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature. The metallic nature of the brass pin rises to the surface, though with an indistinct shimmer.
>WAVE ROSEMARY
(first taking the sprig of rosemary)
You wave the sprig, and inhale its distinct resinous aroma. The icy smell of peppermint seems to gain a more complex herbal note.
Wait, peppermint is icy? Abort! Abort!
quote:
>CANCEL RITUAL
[That's not an action I understand.]
I've been hiding one of our resources here. Available from the Game Menu is an "Alchemy Journal", and it records basically everything we learn in exhaustive detail. We in fact, being an journeyman alchemist already, already know some facts as it is. Here's the one we actually need right now:
So let's speak the unsealing mantra and do the ritual right this time, which presumably means ginger instead of peppermint.
quote:
>SPEAK UNSEALING MANTRA
You let the unsealing mantra run through your mind, clearing away the ritual energy. The bound goes dark.
>CLOSE PEPPERMINT
You snap the peppermint impet closed. Its aroma fades.
>OPEN GINGER
You pop open the impet, and the ginger aroma rolls out, stinging your nose.
>INVOKE SIMPLE SEALING WORD
You take a breath, trace the bound in your mind, and intone the simple sealing word.
The arc begins to glow orange around the brass pin.
>SPEAK WORD OF ESSENTIAL NATURE
You intone the word of essential nature. The metallic nature of the brass pin rises to the surface.
>WAVE ROSEMARY
You wave the sprig, and inhale its fresh, resinous aroma. The fiery reek of ginger seems to shift to a cleaner, more gentle scent.
>INTONE THE LESSER PHLOGISTICAL SATURATION
You begin the Lesser Phlogistical Saturation. The sounds try to bend and smear on your lips, but you are on your guard, and you hold clearly to the formula.
The energy slowly converges. The orange light flares, drawing together the blended aromas and the words that you speak.
When the light fades, a symbol shines on the surface of the brass pin.
Success!
We might as well now actually use it for what Sarge asked us to use it for.quote:
>X SYMBOL
The brass pin is charged with the alchemical sign for basic phlogistical saturation. When you touch it to something, the symbol will discharge.
>GET PIN
You pick up the brass pin, careful of its inscribed basic saturation symbol.
>GET CALIPERS
Taken.
>TOUCH PIN TO CALIPERS
You carefully lay the basic saturation symbol against the calipers. With a loud crackle, the symbol discharges. Sparks dance over the calipers; the tarnished brass flakes and vibrates. Within moments, the calipers are gleaming brightly. The alchemical energies fade, leaving a perfectly polished instrument.
Take that, Sarge, you think, with some smugness.
Gained:
Not gained: Any way of dealing with the fact that our lab door appears to lead to the Moon.
Next: We prove this isn't in fact a one-room game.
To Do And Notice: Compare our attempt to execute the ritual in an incorrect environment with our successful ritual. What was different in the environment? In our mental state?