Adventure Gamers - Forums

>ask man about trinket
“You know,” the proprietor says, scratching his head, “I honestly don’t remember what it was. I’m sure it’s around here somewhere.”

>x amulet
It’s an unassuming silver pendant hanging from a thin leather thong, fashioned in the shape of a tiny, upturned hand with a triangle inscribed within the palm. It reminds you a little of one of those cast pewter game pieces from Monopoly.

>x tarot cards
A beautiful set of cards in a velvet-lined box. The top card, “The Tower”, has been turned up, allowing you to see the exquisitely detailed artwork. In this representation, the tower has been painted to resemble a lighthouse, broken by a bolt of lightning emanating from a great, red-rimmed eye. Two figures, a man and a woman, tumble from the tower’s summit, cast lifelessly into the sea.

>x geode
A hemisphere of rough, gray stone, about the size and shape of a halved cantaloupe. Its center is a glittering cavity of violet crystals, thousands of sparkling, faceted stalactites and stalagmites inside a cave of colored glass.

>ask him about amulet
“Now there’s a fancy little thing,” remarks the proprietor. “A humble charm against evil. A ward against the Eye, you might say. Young chap brought that in some twenty years ago, said he had no more use for superstitious baubles.”

The proprietor reaches in through the back of the case and takes out the amulet. It spins slowly as he holds it up to the light.

“I think, perhaps, that he eventually found different. And I think, perhaps, that you will, too.” He leans forward and, before you can react, slips the leather thong around your neck. “But you won’t make the same mistake, will you, Miss? No. You go on and keep that, now. My treat. You may find it useful soon.”

The proprietor pulls a rag from his back pocket and polishes the top of the display case.

Your score has just gone up by five points.

>ask him about tarot cards
“Mmm, yes, a rare piece of work. The cards are actually very delicate, thinly sliced ivory. Almost transparent. The box is walnut.” He leans toward you, offering you a salesman’s conspiratorial wink. “They say,” he whispers, “that this very deck was used and endorsed by the infamous medium—” he frowns. “Not Blavatski; the other one. What was her name? Anyway, it is said that by shining a light through the cards and projecting the image onto a wall, you may open gateways to other worlds. Frankly, I don’t buy it.”

>ask him about geode
“Nice, isn’t it?” beams the proprietor. “I chanced upon it while rock-hunting in the Cascades last summer.”

>ask him about old friend
The proprietor waves your question away lightly. “No one important,” he says.

About the tarot cards (in purple): A cool hommage to the classic text adventure Curses and its developer Graham Nelson. The shopkeeper is wrong, the projected image of a Tarot card does indeed open a portal to other worlds in Curses. 

I suspect the entire shop is paying homage to other text adventures, but I don’t recognize the geode and the violin doesn’t ring a bell. Maybe eriktorbjorn or Oscar knows? Anybody?

>ask him about julia
“Terrible, isn’t it? Edward’s wife, children,” the old proprietor whispers. “Such a horrible thing for the children, especially. And yet…” he looks away sadly. “And yet, it might have been so much worse…”

>ask him about university
Which do you mean, Miskaton University or the university library?

>miskaton
The old man smiles and shrugs. “Can’t tell you much about that, I’m afraid.”

>ask him about asylum
The old man smiles and shrugs. “Can’t tell you much about that, I’m afraid.”

>ask him about courthouse
You can’t think of anything to say about that for the moment.

>ask him about pub
You can’t think of anything to say about that for the moment.

>ask about anna
You won’t get much of a response.

>ask about william
You won’t get much of a response.

>show him lockets
You can’t see any such thing.

>show him silver locket
(first taking the silver locket)
(slipping the slip of paper into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
The proprietor looks the silver locket over carefully, then hands it back to you. “Fascinating,” he says, nodding. “Truly fascinating.”

>show him gold locket
(first taking the gold locket)
(slipping the family album into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
The proprietor looks the gold locket over carefully, then hands it back to you. “Fascinating,” he says, nodding. “Truly fascinating.”

>show him flute
(the strange metal flute)
(first taking the strange metal flute)
(slipping the lantern into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
The proprietor looks the strange metal flute over carefully, then hands it back to you. “Fascinating,” he says, nodding. “Truly fascinating.”

Well, that was useful…
Don’t give up.

>show man cryptical haermoniacon
(first taking the Cryptical Haermoniacon)
(slipping the silver locket into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
The proprietor looks the Cryptical Haermoniacon over carefully, then hands it back to you. “Fascinating,” he says, nodding. “Truly fascinating.”

>show him newspaper
(first taking the newspaper)
(slipping the gold locket into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
The old proprietor’s eyes grow sad. “The poor boy. The poor, poor boy. We can only pray that there is enough time.” And he gives you a strange, penetrating look.

>show man the compleat manual of wardes and seales
You can’t use multiple objects with that verb. 

>show man puzzle box
(first taking the puzzle box)
(slipping the strange metal flute into the pocket of your trenchcoat to get a hand free)
The proprietor takes the puzzle box and turns it over in his hands carefully. “Now, this is a tricky one,” he says. “They don’t make them like this anymore. Frightfully difficult, unless you know the catch of course.” His fingers flicker dexterously over the box, sliding a panel here, pressing a corner in there. Suddenly the lid pops open with a faint snick.

He places the box on top of the display case. “And there you have it,” he says. “A present for you.”

Your score has just gone up by two points.

I’ll throw in a bonus…

>ask man about michael
“I guessed that you were married; you had a certain look about you,” he says triumphantly. Suddenly he gives you a serious look and pitches his voice low. “He is headed for some dark times, Miss; he’ll need all the help you can give him!”

>get puzzle box
Taken.

>look in puzzle box
In the puzzle box is a strange black disk.

>x disk
It’s a dark, glassy circle, about the width of your hand in diameter and half an inch thick in the middle, tapering off to thinness toward the edge like a convex lens. Its color is the deep, oily black of obsidian, though you fancy you can see faint swirls of color inside it like the rainbow sheen of oil on water. Its curved surface is cool and perfectly smooth. Although incredibly hard, the material does not feel like stone; there is an odd, yielding quality to it, almost like something organic… almost, you realize with disquiet, like skin.

giom - 06 October 2016 05:59 PM

Edward mentions an amulet in his journal and talks about the twisting lane, so that was the trinket he sold

Karlok - 01 October 2016 09:45 PM

Desperate. Went back to the old twisting lane and found only a blank wall. Without the amulet, how can I resist—

...bottles, bottles…

Giom, can you turn off your italics? 

Here we are.

Storage
Old crates and boxes piled high against the walls make this room seem even smaller and dingier than it actually is, which is saying a lot. A doorway lies north; the other walls contain nothing but shadows and dirt-filled corners.

>x crates
The accumulated junk of almost four centuries’ worth of one family’s strangeness. Most of it is old linens, moth-eaten clothes, newspaper clippings—exciting stuff like that. There’s far more here than you could ever go through, even if you had the inclination to.