In this game set during World War I, you play as a British sailor aboard the SS Cuttlefish. As you slept, a cargo breach of chlorine gas killed everyone else on board, and the ship is adrift. Find your gas mask, save yourself, and prevent the gas from killing anyone else.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.
If you enter here while the magnet is on, it grabs all your metal items. and holds them out of reach.
> x wire. x spanner. x container. x magnet.
> take wire and spanner.
> x door. unlock door with spanner.
> plug lamp in socket.
> open door. a.
Cargo Container
> take torch. f.
Cargo Hold 2
> close door. take lamp.
> x torch. put batteries in it.
> u. f. f.
Bow
> x lights. x bow.
> a. d.
Cargo Hold 1
> plug lamp in socket. f.
Store Room (aft end)
> x pit.(20' wide)
> x crate.(10' wide)
> x ladder.
> push crate. g.(It falls into the pit.)
> u.
Platform in Store Room
> x crate. push crate.(It falls to the floor below.)
Instead of going down, go aft:
> a.
Store Room (on the packing crate)
From here, you can go fore or aft off the crate. Go aft again. This matters.
> a.
Store Room (aft end)
You're now aft of the crate and in the proper position to push it into the pit.
> push crate. g. g. g.
With both crates in the pit, you can now easily cross it.
> f.
Store Room (fore end)
> x box. open it.(locked)
> unlock box with metal key. open box.
> x explosives. x detonator. read pamphlet.
> take explosives. take detonator.
> tie detonator to explosives.(using the strip; it's now a bomb.)
> x bomb.
> attach wire to detonator.
> a. a. u. a. a. d. p.
Crew's Quarters
> take clock. s. d.
Darkness / Boiler Room
> turn on torch.
> x boiler. a.
Engine Room
> x engine. x body. x breaker.
> search body. x screwdriver.
> make timer.(using the alarm clock and screwdriver)
> x timer. attach timer to wire.
> drop bomb. set timer.
> f. u. u.
Poop Deck
> lower boat. enter boat.
*** You have won ***
Extras
Characters
You are a sailor, hired as an electrican, but you also do odd-jobs like operating the crane.
Found dead:
Two dead bodies are in the lower deck.
More dead bodies are in the mess hall.
One body is in Crane 2.
The captain's body is in the wheel house.
A body is in the engine room. You assume he was the engineer.
Mentioned:
Hundreds of people living on the coast will die if you don't stop the ship from delivering its deadly cargo.
Credits
This is the response to ABOUT:
This game was written for PunyJam #4, 17 November to 17 December 2023. Under the rules of the jam, the player gets an indication that something is wrong at the start of the game or within the first five moves.
The idea for the game came from 'Dead in the Water' by Nicholas Mezza, which was written as an assignment for CIS 487/587 at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in Autumn 2005.
Concept by Nicholas Mezza.
Game design and coding by Garry Francis.
Play testing by Deborah Sherwood, Jade J Aincioa, Larry Horsfield, Marco Innocenti and Wade Clarke.
Endings
You have died
if you succumb to gas poisoning, either because you were unmasked for too long, or insufficiently masked for too long.
if you're still onboard the ship when the bomb explodes.
You have won
if you escape the ship after setting the bomb's timer in the Engine Room.
Inventory
You have an inventory limit of ten items, not counting items you're wearing, or things contained within other things.
Containers
a coffee mug. It's in the Wheel House.
Fill the mug with hot water from the Mess Hall. Before it cools too much, go to Main Deck and pour the hot water on the ice that's formed on the ladder to Crane 2. Now the ladder is safe to climb.
a bomb. Create it by attaching the detonator to the explosives while holding the strip the linen.
Instructions for assembling the bomb are written on the pamphlet. After assembling the bomb, attach the wire to the bomb's detonator, and then attach a timer to the wire.
In the Engine Room, drop the bomb and set the timer. Now run to the lifeboat, lower it, and enter it to escape from the doomed ship.
a strip of linen. Acquire it by tearing the sheets.
Wear the strip; when worn, it's styled as a linen mask. This makeshift mask will let you explore the ship safely for a while, but not indefinitely. Replace it with the gas mask as soon as you can.
Attach the detonator to the explosives, using the strip of linen to tie them together; together, they are now a bomb.
a gas mask. It's in your locker in Crew's Quarters; unlock it with the brass key.
Wear it as soon as possible to protect you from the chlorine gas. Leave it on for the rest of the game.
Tools
a spanner. It's out of reach, stuck to the electromagnet in Cargo Hold 2.
Push the red button in Crane 2 to turn the magnet off; the spanner falls to the floor of the hold.
In Cargo Hold 2, unlock the door with the spanner.
a screwdriver. Acquire it by searching the body in the Engine Room.
With the screwdriver in hand, make a timer from the alarm clock.
