Key & Compass presents:
At The Bottom Of The Garden
by Adam Biltcliffe

• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Characters, Credits, Endings, Inventory, Score
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• Support me on Ko-Fi
• External links:
  • This game at IFDB, IFWiki, and ifwizz.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Walkthrough

Front path

> about. x me. i. w. e.

> n.

Garden

There's initially just one dragon, but gradually seven more will arrive. The rosebush can only support five dragons, so you must get rid of three of them.

> x dragon. x rosebush.

> x bucket. take it.

If the branch is occupied when you try to pour pitch onto it, keep trying now or later until you succeed.

> pour pitch on tree. (Eventually, a dragon on the tree will ignite itself and be gone.)

> x pond. take petals. put petals in pond. (Eventually, a dragon will dive at the floating petals and drown.)

> take petals. give petals to COLOR dragon. (The dragon will eat the petals and die soon afterwards.)

Once three dragons have been destroyed, you can relax and do whatever you like until the end.

> x ivy. x tangle. x bench. x petals. x tree.

> z. (Repeat waiting.)

Soon after the eighth dragon arrives, Martha and the wizened ancients arrive and the remaining five dragons fly away.

*** You have won ***

Extras

Characters

• A green dragon is already in the garden, on the rosebush, when you enter there.
• A black dragon arrives in the garden two turns after you enter the garden.
• A red dragon is the third dragon. It flies into the garden five turns after the black one.
• A yellow dragon is the fourth dragon. It flies into the garden five turns after the red one.
• A blue dragon is the fifth dragon. It flies into the garden five turns after the yellow one.
• An orange dragon is the sixth dragon. It flies into the garden five turns after the blue one.
• A purple dragon is the seventh dragon. It flies into the garden five turns after the orange one.
• A white dragon is the eighth dragon. It flies into the garden five turns after the purple one.
• Martha is your wife. She has a prized rosebush that you're trying to protect from all the dragons.
• The wizened ancients are Martha's horticulturally-minded friends. They arrive with Martha at the end of the game to see her rosebush.

Credits

This is the response to ABOUT:

Well, here is my humble offering to the spring 2000 Dragon-Comp. This is the first game I have ever allowed anyone else to see, and is probably full of bugs and awful design flaws. Still, I'd love to know what everyone thought of it. Unfortunately, due to time pressures, this is all I'm able to write in this little section, as I'm leaving for a week's holiday in Spain at six tomorrow morning, so I also won't be able to read the inevitable criticisms on r*if for a while. Anyway, please enjoy.

Adam

Endings

• You have some explaining to do
• if the weight of six or more dragons destroys the rosebush just before Martha and her friends arrive in the garden.
• You have won
• if the rosebush is intact when Martha and her friends arrive in the garden.

Inventory

• a bucket of pitch. It's on the bench in the garden.
• Pour some onto the tree or onto its branch, but do it when there aren't any dragons there. Later, one of the dragons that sits on the branch will manage to incinerate itself by accidentally igniting the pitch.
• a handful of rose petals. Take some petals from the carpet of petals.
• Put one handful in the pond. A dragon will eventually dive towards them and drown. Note that this trick only works once.
• Give another handful to a dragon who will eat them. It will die a turn later. This trick also only works once.

Score

The response to SCORE is one of the following, as appropriate:

• So far, you have not slain any dragons, or achieved anything else of note.
• So far, you have slain but one dragon.
• So far, you have slain a veritable brace of dragons.
• You have butchered a whole horde of dragons!

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough is provided free of charge since the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations. Please consider it a thank you for your support!

I create larger walkthroughs too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.

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