Key & Compass presents:
The Ascent of the Gothic Tower
by Ryan Veeder

In this story, you play as someone who wants to find a way into the gothic tower and get to the top. You find its architecture both graceful and severe, the most beautiful thing in this city.

This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the story.

SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction story. Please make an honest effort to play the story before reading this walkthrough.

Map 1: Tower and Grounds
Map 2: Tunnels
Walkthrough
Extras
- Characters, Credits, Inventory
Thank You to my Patreon supporters
Support me on Ko-Fi
External links:
- This story at Homepage, IFDB, and IFWiki.
- Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Map 1: Tower and Grounds

Notes:

All cardinal directions from any stairway location is treated as EXIT.
Entrance to the maintenance room is by invitation only; see nut roll.
Your character wants to be sitting down when eating food or reading the diary. There are three places to sit: the bench in Cosy Place, the bench in First Floor Hallway, and the office chair in Loft.

Map 2: Tunnels

Walkthrough

This story is essentially a walking tour with a few optional elements to it. Your main goal is to get to the top of the tower. The only required things you need to do on the way there is to read the diary, and don't annoy the custodian.

Lawn

> i. x photocopy.

> x kids. x tower. x sun.

> x streetlamps. x bridge.

> x west hill. x east hill. x ginkgo.

Do you want to talk to the kids? You don't have to, but you can.

> greet kids. ask kids about tower.

> show photocopy to kids. bye.

Let's continue.

> w.

Bridge

> x river. (The guy keeps walking and is gone.)

> x birds. x tower.

> w.

Hill

> x woman. (She cycles away.)

> x rack. x trees.

> w.

Entrance 19

> x building. x door. x window. x photograph.

> open door. (can't)

> sw.

Entrance 20

> x door. x window. (see red EXIT sign and orange rectangle)

> x bushes. (hole to what's beyond)

> open door. (can't)

> s.

Cozy Place

> x benches. sit on bench. x sky.

> x weeds. x flagstones.

> n. ne. nw.

Entrance 18

> x door. x window. (see red EXIT sign and orange rectangle)

> open door. (can't)

> n.

Parking Lot

> x tower. x rosettes.

> x fence. climb fence.

> s. sw.

Entrance 17

> take quarter. x it.

> x graffito. x sidewalk.

> x door. x window. x painting.

> open door. (can't)

> s. (no, too dark and you could get lost.)

> ne. d.

Alcove

> x butts. x sign. x door.

> s. (You hesitate.)

> s. (A couple college kids emerge before you reach the door.)

> s.

Basement Hallway

> x lights. x camera. (dusty)

> x maintenance door. x maintenance window. (see lockers)

> e. (can't)

> s.

Bottom of the Stairs

> x nook. enter nook. take dollar. x it.

> out. x stairs. x B.

> u.

First Floor Landing

> x door. x window. (see vending machine, bench)

> out.

First Floor Hallway

> x machine.

Buy a nut roll, but don't eat it.

> put dollar in machine. push D3.

> take all from hole. x roll.

> n. u.

Second Floor Landing

> take notebook. x it. ("DIARY")

> read it. (You hesitate.)

> read it. (You'd prefer to find somewhere nice to sit to read it.)

> x door. x window. (see trophy case, "HLOHOWSKYJ & ASSOCIATES")

> x case. x lamp. s. (locked)

> u.

Third Floor Landing

> x door. x window. x TV.

> u.

Fourth Floor Landing

> x door. x window. x plant.

> u.

Fifth Floor Landing

> x door. x window. x janitor.

> u.

Sixth Floor Landing

> x DRIEDOUT. x window. (dark)

> u.

Top of the Stairs

> x huge window. x pinnacles. x crockets.

> x escutcheons. x arches.

> x skinny window. (see two portraits)

> s.

Seventh Floor Hallway

> x portrait. x plaque. s.

Archway

> x arch. x keystone. x photocopy.

> x door. x window. (more stairs)

> s. (You hesitate.)

> s. (You hear footsteps approaching down the stairs.)

Wait here a few turns.

> z. z. z.

A custodian arrives, and smiles politely at you.

> greet man. (He slows down.)

> ask man about tower. ask man about beast.

> ask man about Emery. ask man about food.

> give nut roll to man.

> bye.

Follow the custodian down the stairs:

> n. in. d.

Sixth Floor Landing

The man stops to clean the graffiti.

> z. z. ask man about driedout.

> d. d. d. d. d. d. n.

Basement Hallway

> z. (Repeat waiting until the custodian arrives.)

> ask man about camera. z. z.

The custodian will invite you into the maintenance room if you gifted him the nut roll.

> SPACE

Maintenance Room

You have three turns to examine things before the custodian gives you a baseball cap and shooes you out.

> x lockers. x shelves. x desk.

> SPACE

Basement Hallway

> x cap. wear it.

Run all the away up the tower:

> s. u. u. u. u. u. u. u. s. s. s.

You reach the top room of the tower.

Loft

> x window. (blinds closed; lever in frame)

> pull lever. (It snaps off.)

> x whiteboard. (nothing on it)

> x easel. x table. x office chair. x door. (alarmed exit)

> sit on office chair. read diary.

You start reading about the author and Kerianne entering a sewer grate next to the construction site on the hill.

> SPACE

Stretch of Tunnel

My strategy for what to write with the chalk is to use three-word phrases that all begin with the same letter, using a different initial letter each time, but feel free to write whatever you like. If you backtrack, whatever you wrote will decay as it fades over time.

> x Keri. (pea coat and green scarf)

> write ask about antique.

> s.

T-intersection

> write battle brown bear.

> e.

Four-way Intersection

> write count candy corn.

> e.

T-intersection.

> write drink dainty daiquiri.

> s.

Stretch of Tunnel

> u. (That exit was locked)

> write enjoy easter egg.

> s.

T-intersection

> write find firefly forest.

> s.

Tunnel Access

> x machines. write get giant gemstone.

> e.

You hesitate because of the alarm sign, but Keri says to look closely at the door. There's no wires, only a lying sign.

> x door. open door. SPACE

You close the notebook.

Loft

> stand. x small door.

> w. (You hesitate, then remember what the notebook said.)

> w.

The Tower

Looking at the lawn heralds the arrival of the moon. Looking at the moon ends the story.

> x city. x parking lot. x river. x bridge.

> x lawn. x people. throw quarter. x moon.

*** The end. ***

Extras

Characters

A couple college kids are on the lawn.
A man crosses the bridge past you.
A woman unlocks her bike on the hill and rides east.
A janitor is mopping or sweeping on the fifth floor.
A custodian descends from the loft when you attempt to ascend the final stairs.
The diary's author and Kerianne ("Keri") explore the tunnels within the diary story sequence.

Mentioned:

Amos B. Emery designed the tower. His portrait is in the seventh floor hallway.

Credits

This is the response to CREDITS:

Thanks first of all to Amos B. Emery. Thanks to Simon Carless for commissioning this game. Thanks to beta testers Richard Bardle, Emily Boegheim, Ashley Cardamone, Mr. Carless aforementioned, Hannah Carr-Murphy, Caitlyn Harris, Caroline Hlohowskyj, Toby Ott, Heidi Poe, Jenni Polodna, Matthew Zimmermann, and Zach. Parts of this game's source were adapted from engrave.c from NetHack 3.4.3. Finally, thanks to the developers of Inform 7 and its many extensions. Good grief, you guys. Nice work.

Inventory

Food

Food items can be purchased from the vending machine on the first floor hallway. This is an optional exercise.

a roll of mints. Push E2 on the vending machine after inserting at least 50¢

Sit down somewhere, open the mints, and eat one. Your mouth now feels clean. You still have mints, but you won't be willing to eat another while you can still taste mint.

a pack of gum. Push E4 on the vending machine after inserting at least 50¢

Sit down somewhere, open the gum, and chew a stick. You won't eat more until the gum has fully dissolved or you've spit out or swallowed the gum.
If you eat the gum, you swallow a stick.

a chocolate bar. Push D1 on the vending machine after inserting at least 75¢.

Sit down somewhere, open the bar, and eat it. You stop thinking while eating the chocolate. After eating the bar, you have an empty chocolate bar wrapper.

a salted nut roll. Push D3 on the vending machine after inserting at least 75¢

Optionally, sit down somewhere, open the roll, and eat it. You take your time with it. After eating the roll, you have an empty nut roll wrapper.
Or, you could give the nut roll to the custodian. Nut rolls are his favorite. Now follow him down to the basement hallway; he'll invite you into the maintenance room and give you a baseball cap as his thank you.

a bag of cookies. Push B1 on the vending machine after inserting at least $1.20.

Sit down somewhere, open the bag, and eat them. You think some cookies may be subpar, but they're still cookies. After eating the cookies, you have an empty bag of cookies.

a bag of potato chips. Push A4 on the vending machine after inserting at least $1.20.

Sit down somewhere, open the bag, and eat them. You think of them as delicious grease. After eating the chips, you have an empty bag of potato chips.

a bag of corn nuts. Push A5 on the vending machine after inserting at least $1.20.

Sit down somewhere, open the bag, and eat them. You find them gross. After eating the nuts, you have an empty bag of corn nuts.

Money

Money can be inserted into the vending machine on the first floor hallway in order to buy one or two of the items for sale.

a quarter. Find one quarter on the sidewalk at Entrance 17.

Two more quarters may also be obtained as change from the vending machine after making a 50¢ purchase after inserting the dollar bill.

a dollar bill. Find it by entering the nook at the bottom of the stairs.
a nickel. Take it from the coin return of the vending machine after buying a $1.20 item (cookies, chips, or corn nuts) after inserting $1.25 (dollar bill plus a quarter).

The best use for the nickel is to throw it off the top of the tower. You can do that with a quarter as well.

Other items

a photocopy from the library. You're carrying it.

Examine it. It's a picture of a stone carving of a basilisk or cockatrice. You'll find the actual carving as the keystone in the Archway on the seventh floor.

a notebook. It's on the second floor landing.

Find a place to sit down and read it. After finishing the tunnels scenario and closing the diary, you'll know that signs with 'alarm will sound' warnings can sometimes be lying.

a metal lever. It's part of the tiny window in the Loft. Pull it, and it will break off in your hand.

Show it to the custodian, and he'll take it from you to fix later.

a baseball cap. In the maintenance room, the custodian will give it to you after you give him the nut roll and if you follow him to the basement hallway.

Wear it!

Diary author's items

a piece of chalk. You're carrying it.

Write a word or phrase in any tunnel location to write it on the floor. This helps you tell similar locations apart. However, over time, whatever you write will decay, where an 'e' may become a 'c', or a 'b' may become an 'l', or a letter may disappear completely. I think it's to your advantage use longer phrases rather than shorter ones.

a jacket and some grody jeans. You wearing them.

Keep them on. You may not remove them.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with

the support of Robin Johnson, Ville Lavonius, Andrew Schultz, Kenneth Hon, Carl Muckenhoupt, Mark Musante, and Phil Tatro;
the generous support of Janice M Eisen and Matthew Foxley;
the very generous support of Karl Ove Hufthammer;
the extremely generous support of Emily Short, Allen Garvin, Jesse McGrew, Jacqueline Ashwell, Marius Müller, Jennifer Rexrode, Durafen, and Rus Whang;
and the invisible support of several anonymous patrons.

Ko-Fi is a way to send me small one-time donations. Every little bit helps, and thank you!

Key & Compass presents: The Ascent of the Gothic Tower by Ryan Veeder

Map 1: Tower and Grounds

Map 2: Tunnels

Walkthrough

Extras

Characters

Credits

Inventory

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

Key & Compass presents:
The Ascent of the Gothic Tower
by Ryan Veeder