Adventure Gamers - Forums

Luhr28 - 24 March 2021 07:52 AM

I’m not sure I get the legend thing. Aren’t we just converting one type of map legend to another? How is that a homonym? It would have made sense if the legend turned into Elvis or something…

Well, it was a story about Iphis and someone else first.

>look inside niche

And I’d like to try the lime with the paddle at some stage. Maybe it will give us chemical lime.

>look inside niche
The shrine is empty.

>show lime to bartender
“Check this out,” we say, holding out the lime for inspection.

She shrugs good-naturedly, hits the lime with the paddle, and grins at us. We look down at what we’re holding: A heap of dry chalky powder.

The bartender is cleaning her homonym paddle for future use.

Something else I didn’t think of. I’m glad you’re participating, Luhr.

>rub gel on shrine
We give the tub a place of solemn honor above the relief of frolicking ladies.

Huh?

>get gel
We acquire the tub.

>go to palm square
We make the drive to Long Street South. There we pull easily into one of the available parking spots, since many people have now gone home.

Palm Square
Now this is my part of town: Palm Square is the beginning of the university district. To the southeast, through the iron gate, is the university campus proper; and that unobtrusive little doorway directly south of us leads into the Babel Café.

I live in the apartment complex that runs along the west side of the square — in fact, my apartment door is immediately to the southwest.

>wear monocle
(first taking the monocle)
(opening the backpack)
Everything turns computer-monitor green when viewed through our right eye. And staring fixedly at anything will turn up its authenticity status.

>x shrine
There’s a niche dug into the stone of the wall, above a low relief of three ladies. It’s not very good work to start with, and has been eroded by a lot of weather, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this weren’t its original location; it probably stood somewhere else and was brought here.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the shrine with the crosshairs.

—

Palm Square
Now this is my part of town: Palm Square is the beginning of the university district. To the southeast, through the iron gate, is the university campus proper; and that unobtrusive little doorway directly south of us leads into the Babel Café.

I live in the apartment complex that runs along the west side of the square — in fact, my apartment door is immediately to the southwest.

>se
We lack a key that fits the sturdy iron gate to the university.

giom - 24 March 2021 09:40 AM

Finally caught up. Was really looking forward to play this but, alas, ended up having a work emergency to deal with last week and spent my time fighting fires. Finally have some time today.

That’s quite alright, work is much more important anyway. Glad you’re here!

I really like that game, somehow it reminds me a bit of a Jasper Fforde. Thanks Karlok leading it and sorry I didn’t participate more so far.

Now I simply had to look up Jasper Ffords. I like detectives, don’t read them much anymore. I take it he’s good?

Karlok - 17 March 2021 07:33 PM

PS: It dawned on me just now that we are three non-native speakers: Swedish, Belgian, and Dutch. How about giom, Luhr, Cicerone? At least two of you are native English speakers, right? Might be important in a game that has language at its core.

I’m French, but I’m also extremely bad at word games and puns no matter the language I don’t think I could have found the Sage -> Sag -> Gas that TimovieMan found

I didn’t think of that one either, only the sag.

>wave r-remover at shrine
We reset the device to r. It won’t do any good, you see: this is an artifact of another time and language, and it has never been neutralized by authorities, so it won’t respond to English-language tools. Quite likely it’s in a language so old that it can’t be manipulated at all.

I wonder why it hasn’t been removed, or fixed; but I’d guess the reason is that very few people come this way.

Babel Café
Through many changes of management, this institution has fed the denizens of the university and ignored their semi-sedition.

A clerk in a white apron stands behind the long glass case. In the long glass case are a pocket-bread, a wrap, and a honey pastry triangle.

The tables are square wooden things painted dark blue (not the vibrant blue of the Bureau, but something closer to midnight), and the upper surfaces are découpaged with antique travel postcards.

A blue plaque is mounted on the wall.

The clerk grins at us in a welcoming way.

>x clerk
A smooth-faced young man. He has the cheery demeanor of one earning substantial overtime pay.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the clerk with the crosshairs.

>x plaque
On this site in 1969 the theoretical groundwork for Q-insertion was laid by James Elias and Milford Higgate using five drinking straws and a bowl of oatmeal.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the blue plaque with the crosshairs.

>x wrap
It’s a construction of flat bread wrapped around rice, chickpeas, and sauce.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the wrap with the crosshairs.

>x triangle
Despite its enforced linguistic transformation, it still looks delicious: fine layers of crisp filo with nuts and honey between.

There is a dismissive blatt from the monocle, and transposed over the honey pastry triangle is a faint, greenish image of some baklava.

>x bread
It’s round, flat bread suitable for eating with dips.

There is a dismissive blatt from the monocle, and transposed over the pocket-bread is a faint, greenish image of a pita.

>wave b-remover at tables
We reset the device to b. The device buzzes, puzzled. It has tried to create a “découpaged tales”: evidently “tables” are too tightly bound to their modifiers and can’t be manipulated separately. Or perhaps it just doesn’t have sufficient power to handle the découpaged tables.

>wave r-remover at bread
We reset the device to r. The device buzzes, puzzled. It is unable to create anything recognizable called “pocket-bead”.

>ask clerk about university
That doesn’t seem to be a topic of conversation at the moment.

>topics
We can think of no valid conversation topics at the moment.

>goals
Here’s what we think we need to do:
  Speak to Professor Waterstone and get his invitation to see the T-inserter
  Gain entrance to the Bureau
  Find Brock

>n

Palm Square
Palm Square is the beginning of the university district. To the southeast, through the iron gate, is the university campus proper; and that unobtrusive little doorway directly south of us leads into the Babel Café.

I live in the apartment complex that runs along the west side of the square — in fact, my apartment door is immediately to the southwest.

>sw
You had me leave my keys behind, remember?

But if you insist, my apartment is actually pitifully easy to break into. That window there opens onto the bathroom, and you can force it from the outside without much effort.

>enter window
The window slides open with a hideous protesting shriek.

“Halt! You! Young person!”

It’s my neighbor, Mrs. Parsnip, leaning out from her apartment above us. Mrs. Parsnip and I don’t interact except about once a month when she comes around to ask for my spare change for bus fare or the laundry.

“Clear off or I’ll call the police!” she shouts.

>
...No, don’t worry, I’ll handle this.

I step us back and stare up at her. “I’m a friend of Alex,” I say. “He called and asked me to stop by because he thought he left the stove on. Said he climbs in the window all the time when he gets locked out.”

“That’s true,” she says. “Shouldn’t be allowed out by himself. Okay, go ahead.”

In a mutter she adds, “Not like he has anything worth stealing anyway.” She vanishes from view.

The window is uncomfortably high and it takes a little scramble to get in, but soon we are inside.

Apartment Bathroom
An antique nightstand of my mother’s, which does not actually fit anywhere near my bed, is jammed into one corner of the bathroom. There are a key and a ring on the nightstand.

The bathroom window gives some weak sunlight.

We could climb back out the window, or we could go south into the rest of my apartment.

>get all
key: We get the key.
ring: We take the ring.

>x key
It’s made of an extremely ordinary blank.

The key unlocks the apartment door.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the key with the crosshairs.

>x ring
A gold-toned ring that from a distance would look like a signet. In fact the face of it is figured with the symbol of the university, an owl biting the letter A in its beak. Embedded in this face is the tiny RFID tag that opens generic university security.

It is the perfect combination of technical paranoia and old-fashioned pretentiousness, and one is assigned to every new student with great pomp on the day of orientation.

The ring unlocks the sturdy iron gate.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the ring with the crosshairs.

>x nightstand
It is wobbly, scratched, and chipped, which is the state in which my mother likes her antiques.

The monocle pings happily as we sight the nightstand with the crosshairs.

>open nightstand
It isn’t something we can open.

>s

My Apartment
I should point out my copy of The Problem of Adjectives. I should have taken it back to the library — I meant to take it back to the library — but there just wasn’t time. The last couple of hours before I came to meet you were frantic. The way I figured it, my parents or someone will come looking for me and they’ll take it back for me. I think.

I’d apologize for the mess, but should we really be here? I’m reconciled to leaving all my things behind, you know. You made me promise that I didn’t mind.

>l
My Apartment
My futon is on the floor in the opposite corner.  On top is The Problem of Adjectives.

It’s an efficiency: note the kitchen area, with all the usual appliances, in one corner. My mother attempted to provide a microwave, rice cooker, toaster, waffle iron, and julienne-fry-maker, but I pointed out that these objects would triple-populate the two square feet of available counter space.

There are Journal of Third-World Economics and Studies in Primary Language Acquisition on the counter.