Key & Compass presents:
Baretegi
by Alex Meltsner

• Map
• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Characters, Inventory
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• Support me on Ko-Fi
• External links:
  • This game at IFDB, IFWiki, and YouTube (partial playthrough).
  • Follow me at Bluesky, Ko-Fi, Mastodon, Patreon, and Wordpress.

Map

Walkthrough

Your Room

Although the player-character in a hurry, the game isn't tracking the time, so feel free to dawdle.

> x bed. x desk. x bookshelf.

> x backpack. take it. x supplies.

> n.

You slip on something, pass out, and wake up elsewhere.

Weird Cave

Your supplies are gone, but you still have your backpack.

> x werewolf. x mucus. take it. (no: gross)

> n. (no: werewolf blocks you)

> e.

Laboratory

> x orange. x table. x hole.

> take orange.

> s.

Damp Hole

> x silver. x banana. x garbage.

> take silver.

> take banana. (no: it doesn't want to come out)

> drop orange. (You now have the banana slug.)

> n. w. w.

Fly Trap

> x fly. x gun.

> give banana to fly.

> take gun. x gun. ("Slugger")

> e.

Weird Cave

Aha. The gun's called "Slugger" because it shoots slugs. Clever.

> put silver in gun.

> shoot werewolf. (It's gone.)

> n.

Sewer

> x grate. x holes. x button. ("SLUGS")

> push button.

You float up on a torrent of slugs and through the grate.

The Quad

Huh. There's no grate back down on this side.

Also, this is one of the few times it's okay to wander about a campus with a gun. There's no people in this campus. If it bothers you, put the gun into your backpack.

> s. (no: diner door is stuck)

> w. (no: math door is stuck)

> e.

Bio Building

> x blackboard. x desks. x podium.

> x Lloyd. take Lloyd.

> w. n. n.

Royal Garden

> x queen. put Lloyd in gun.

> shoot queen. (Both slugs die, leaving a crown.)

> x crown. take it. wear it.

Slugs carry you to...

Baretegi

I don't know what "Baretegi" means. Just assume it's the name of the slug queendom.

Regardless, you have a choice of destinies.

> u.

*** You choose to return to the surface, to your human life.

The slugs carry you up for many more miles, and when you reach the surface, they take the crown and recede back into the Underground.

You make your way back to the real university. That semester, you manage not to fail physics, despite having missed the exam. For whatever reason, the professor believed your story; maybe it was the fact that you were covered in mucus.

I can't tell you how your life goes from here. Maybe it's very happy and fulfilling. Maybe not. But I can tell you that no matter what, you will wonder about the choice you made that day until the day you die. What would it be like, being the Slug Queen? What untold wonders yet lie undiscovered in the depths of the Baretegi?

You will never know. ***

> undo

> n.

*** You choose to abandon your former life and begin a new one as Queen of the Slugs.

I can't tell you if you regret the decision or not. There are untold wonders in the Baretegi, but whether you miss the life of a normal human without slug powers is something only you can decide.

What I can tell you is that the crown grants immortality, and that your reign as Slug Queen lasts many thousands of years.

So, your life as Slug Queen is certainly much longer than it otherwise would have been. You never do see another human, though. And every day you will think back to this one, and the choice you made. The choice that changed your life forever.

Eventually, the cycle will repeat itself, and you will sit in your Royal Garden to await your death at the hands of the next Slug Queen. And then, you will join Lloyd in slug heaven. Poor, sweet Lloyd. If you have any regrets at all, you regret that you had to kill him. But Lloyd understands. Lloyd always understood.

Despite all the uncertainty of life as a Slug Queen, you can count on Lloyd being there at the end of it all.

See you soon, buddy. ***

Extras

Characters

• A werewolf blocks the north exit from the weird cave into the sewer. Why? We will never know.
• A silver slug is in the damp hole. Is it actually made of silver?
• A banana slug is hiding in some garbage in the damp hole. It is actually made of banana?
• An enormous fly is in the fly trap. It's so fly, its treasure is a gun that shoot slugs. Awesome.
• A torrent of slugs lift you up and out of the sewer.
• Lloyd is a black slug chilling out behind the podium in the fake Bio Building. He's immediately your best friend, even after death.
• The Slug Queen is in the royal garden. She's waiting for a determined adventurer like you to send her to slug heaven and become the new Slug Queen. This is the way it's always done. Don't mess with tradition.
• Millions of slugs carry you to Baretegi when you become the new Slug Queen. This is a slugciety.

Inventory

• a backpack containing some school supplies. It's in your room. You must take it; you won't leave your room without it.
• When you leave your room, you lose your supplies.
• Feel free to put things into the backpack, but you never need to. I suppose having a backpack is traditional.
• a rotten orange. It's on the table in the laboratory.
• In the damp hole, drop the orange to acquire the banana slug.
• a silver slug. It's in the damp hole.
• Put the silver slug into the gun.
• a banana slug. It's trying to hide inside a pile of garbage in the damp hole. Drop the rotten orange there to acquire this slug.
• In the fly trap, give the banana slug to the fly. (In classic IF logic, a fruit fly likes banana slugs because bananas are fruit.) The fly leaves, and you can now take the gun.
• a gun. It's in the fly trap, guarded by an enormous fly. Give the banana slug to the fly; it leaves, and you can now take the gun.
• Examine the gun. It's called "Slugger" because it shoots slugs.
• In the weird cave, put the silver slug into the gun, then shoot the werewolf.
• In the royal garden, put the black slug into the gun, then shoot the Slug Queen.
• a black slug. You find him behind the podium in the bio building. His name is Lloyd.
• In the royal garden, put the black slug into the gun, then shoot the Slug Queen.
• a crown. After you kill the Slug Queen (see gun), the crown is all that's left of her.
• Wear the crown to become the new Slug Queen.

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!

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