[Lee in Limbo]

Okay, this is just an idea I've had in my head, based on the fact that the threads I visit most on the AG forums are mostly on the Chit Chat forum, and generally involve people answering one another's questions. So I thought, "Wouldn't it be keen to start a thread on the Adventure forum that consisted of answering one another's questions, so I could spend more time on the Adventure forum?" But what kind of questions would be suitable for the Adventure Forum? Then it hit me: adventure gamers love adventure game logic, so why not devise a thread where we give each other adventure gamer problems to solve?

Now, I can't decide if it would be cooler to just devise one-off AG scenarios for someone to solve before posting their scenario, or if we should try to carry each scenario a step further after solving the previous step. I guess we could just let folks decide for themselves. We can always pick up an earlier thread if something sticks. No point being a fascist about it.

The only rules I'm going to insist on are that you have to solve the problem using Adventure Game logic, and that you remember to present a problem for the next person to solve in turn.

I don't know if a thread like this has been tried before my time; It's not exactly a thread idea that would be easy to search for, or to forget. It's kind of an oddball, so if the mods decide it really doesn't belong here, I'll understand.

So alright, money-where-mouth-is time:

You've been invited to spend the weekend at your friend's place to play the latest, greatest Monkey Island game, but when you arrive, your friend doesn't answer the door. You knock and ring the doorbell several times, but you can't hear anyone coming to the door.

What do you do?

Since I want people to get the idea, I'll answer the first one myself and present the next problem in the chain.

Feeling a little experimental, you try the doorknob, suspecting that your friend may have started the game without you and just gotten sidetracked (or worse! Their brain may have melted from the Awesomeness that is Monkey Island!), and lo, the front door is locked. Of course.

Fortunately, you happen to recall seeing a step ladder beside the house, and you're pretty sure you saw an open window on the first floor as well. You retrieve the step ladder and move it to the open window, which overlooks the kitchen sink. Leaning in, you call out to your friend and listen carefully for a response. No reply.

However, your friend's pet ferret has gotten out of their cage, and is scurrying across the counter top toward you, and are those flecks of froth on its lips?

What do you do next?

Remember, this is an adventure game, so you don't have a Magnum .44 or sawed-off shotgun. You probably have whatever is in your pockets now, plus whatever you normally pack in your suitcase for a short stay. If that's not good enough, you'll just have to look around and see if you can scrounge up what you need... if it's not broken or at the bottom of a conveniently-placed well.

Next!

[Bon]

You take the sleeping pills you brought in case you couldn't sleep from all the Monkey Island excitement, put them on your suitcase then grind them with a nearby rock. You pour the newly gained powderish substance onto an ounce of ham you planned to eat on your way back home (you do not eat while playing Monkey Island!) and finally, you feed the ham to the parrot. It is now incapacitated.

You decide it would be best to sneak into your friend's kitchen. As soon as you climb through the window, a sudden strike of lightning (briefly) kills all the electricity. You now can not see a thing.

[stepurhan]

You turn on your mobile phone. Groping around in the dark you use the light from the screen to identify objects you discover. Eventually you find the fuse box. Using your keys you undo the screws on the fusebox and open it. You replace the fuse that was blown by the lightning strike with the foil from some chewing gum. (Don't try this at home, yours or anyone else's) You then flip the main trip switch back on.

Power returns and the kitchen lights come on. Brief investigation shows that the window you came in through is now closed and appears to have latched shut (guess you accidentally pulled it shut when groping around. It appears a key is needed to undo the latch) The only other exit from the kitchen is the door but that won't open either when you try the handle. What do you do?

[Lee in Limbo]

Originally Posted by Bon

...and finally, you feed the ham to the parrot. It is now incapacitated.

Well good, that takes care of that pesky parrot. Now, what about the Attack Ferret we were discussing?

Originally Posted by stepurhan

What do you do?

Well, it's proving a little hard to think straight with this horribly little ferret chewing on our carotid artery, so I'm going to the bathroom to find something to hopefully remove the little bugger and bandage our throat before the blood loss incapacitates us.

In the bathroom, we find a grungy face cloth, soiled hand towels (didn't our friend clean anything prior to our coming?), individually packaged gauze bandages in a box, a large bottle of isopropyl alcohol (hmmn. Our friend must be pretty clumsy), a needle and thread (in the bathroom?), an open box of Q-Tips, a torn bag of cotton balls, a few rolls of toilet paper being sotred on the shaft of an old black plunger, a glass and toothbrush (ew. Our friend really needs to replace their toothbrush), some acetaminophen tablets (yay! The coated kind! BFF!!!), a bottle of bismuth subsalicylate liquid (you know, the pink stuff for your stomach. Who knew our friend had stomach problems? Perhaps waiting for Monkey Island to return all these years had given her an ulcer? This explains a few things...) and the plumbing seems to be in working order, with hot and cold running water.

What do you do?

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by Lee in Limbo

Well good, that takes care of that pesky parrot. Now, what about the Attack Ferret we were discussing?

I worked on the assumption that Bon meant to type Ferret (or indeed, deliberately typed parrot but solely from misreading, possibly influenced by the Monkey Island vibe) and hence the hostile animal was dealt with.

Either way, you can't just go to the bathroom. My section clearly ended with you in a sealed kitchen. It may be a sealed kitchen with an attack ferret in it. (which may not have been able to attack in the dark. I'm no expert on ferret night vision) but it's still a sealed kitchen.

[Bon]

Yeah, I misread, sorry. When I think of pets in cages, a parrot is the first thing which comes to mind.

[Lee in Limbo]

Drat. Seems I did some misreading, too. Sorry, Step.

Okay, take two:

With ferret chewing on throat, I rummage through the drawers until I find a roasting fork, an egg beater, two elastic bands and a roll of string. I use the elastics on the egg beater to create a torsion spring, and then work the roasting fork into the elastics, and tie the apparatus to the top of a chair, which I then place in front of the kitchen door. I start working the egg beater, grinding the fork into the lock until I manage to unlock the door (errm, there WAS a lock, wasn't there? If not, I may have just drilled a hole straight through the door, in which case, I use what's left of the fork to prise the latch loose and yank the door open).

Then I head for the bathroom to remove the ferret and bandage up (Please refer to previous post), assuming I haven't passed out on the kitchen floor.

[stepurhan]

Feed the remainder of the ham from Bon's post earlier to the ferret. Ferret now also incapacitated. Put both ferret and parrot in inventory since we've played Monkey Island before and are aware of the potential uses of incapacitated animals. Use needle and thread to sow up ferret wounds and bandage to protect wounded area. Use needle and thread to fix tear in bag of cotton balls and attach strap of bandage. Tip out all but 5 cotton balls (which you psychically know to be the exact number you'll need for future problems) and use the bag to carry everything else in the bathroom.

Inventory now

• Incapacitated parrot
• Incapacitated ferret
• Chewing gum (being chewed as paper used to make fuse)
• Grungy face cloth
• Soiled hand towels
• Gauze bandage, 1 (all that was left after your other activities)
• Bottle of Isopropyl alcohol
• Needle and thread
• Open box of Q-tips
• Cotton balls, 5
• Toilet paper 1 roll (seemed enough)
• Plunger
• Glass
• Toothbrush
• Acetaminophen tablets
• Bottle of bismuth subsalicylate liquid
• Mobile phone (with glowing screen)
• Keys (with scratched ends from opening fuse box)

You go back into the hallway connecting the kitchen and the bathroom. You are rather surprised to find there are no other exits from this hallway. Your friend's house wasn't like this last time you were in it. There should be doors to a living room, a dining room and a set of stairs to the upper floor. The hallway also seems much smalller than you remember it.

What do you do?