Dark and Deep is a Glulx interactive fiction story written with Inform 7 and is © 2024 by Amanda Walker. This game was an entry in the Le Grand Guignol (English) division of Ectocomp 2024, placement to be determined.
In this disturbing story based on the poems of Robert Frost, you play as Reverend Odlin. It's January 1922 in Coös, New Hampshire. You've come to give what comfort you can to Mrs Lajway on her dying day, despite her unsavory reputation as a witch and despite the doubts that grow in your own heart.
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.
Yard
> about —or— credits.
> x me. x doubt. drop doubt. (can't)
> i. x clothes. x cross.
> x barn. x eaves. (A bird flies out into the woods.)
> x house. w.
Cottage
> x Mrs. x afghan.
> x fire. x counters. x cabinets.
> x table. x chairs.
> sit.
> a herself.
> a health —or— a doctor —or— a heart.
> a fire.
> a witch.
> a sins. a bones. (graves nearby)
> a husband. a grief.
> a child. (Both buried under the big tree.)
> a graveyard. (Just up the path.)
> e. n.
Graveyard
> x stones.
> x small stone. clean it. ("June Lajway / 1862")
> x large stone. clean it. ("William Lajway / 1863-1875")
> x tree. x fence. x vines.
> s. w.
Cottage
> a June. (She touches your forehead. You can now SENSE things. She suggests sensing the graveyard wall to see what happened.)
> e. n.
Graveyard
> sense wall.
You briefly experience, as Mrs Lajway, the burial of your daughter and the growth of something else inside her.
> s. w.
Cottage
> a William. (Her heart withered with his death. Another touch. Go sense the evil in the barn.)
> e. e.
Barn
> x horse. x bells. pet horse. x web.
> x saw. sense saw.
You see how Willy's hand was eaten by the buzz saw. He dies after the doctor comes. The marriage is now poisoned, both she and Toffile blaming each other.
> w. w.
Cottage
> a saw. (Something happened in the cellar next.)
> a hate.
> a sense —or— a eye.
> a magic. a ghosts.
> a bones. (She asks you to fetch a photo of Toffile from the cellar.)
> a photograph. (You need a candle from the kitchen.)
> a candle. (It's in the cabinet.)
> open cabinet. take candle. x it.
> light candle with fire.
> w.
Cellar
> x shelves. x goods.
> x photograph. take it.
> x depression. x doors.
> x toolchest. open it. x hammer.
> u.
Cottage
> give photograph. (Another touch. Go through the cellar and sense the tree in the yard. She burns the photograph.)
> a Engelo. a forgiveness.
> w. n.
Back yard
> x brick. x tree.
> sense tree.
You see yourself as Mrs Lajway, naked against the tree, rutting with Engelo, deliberately making enough noise to summon Toffile and cause violence.
> s. u.
Cottage
> a Engelo.
Toffile killed him instead of her. They dug his grave together. Another touch. Sense in the cellar.
> w.
Cellar
> sense depression.
You see how they buried Engelo together.
> u.
Cottage
> a depression. (Twenty years later, she says his bones climbed out of the cellar. Then she asks you to fetch her button box from upstairs.)
> u.
Bedroom
> x bed. x door. x window. x pine. listen.
> x table. x boxes. x bottles.
> x sewing. x button. x jewelry.
> x sundries. x stationery.
> take button. d.
Cottage
> give box. (She tells you she kept the finger bones.)
> a buttons. ("Take my hand and see")
> take hand.
Cottage (on the armchair)
You're now playing as her, intending to stay here and punish Toffile with your absence until Toffile is asleep.
> x me. i. x nightgown.
You hear the bones come up the cellar stairs, stopping behind the door.
> listen. stand. open door.
The bones stand there. You strike its hand off. The rest of the bones continue up the stairs.
> x bones. take bones. (not yet)
Everything is quiet upstairs.
> u.
Bedroom
You scream. Toffile wakes and asks why.
> t bones.
He doesn't see them. You suggest trapping them in the attic. Toffile agrees, humoring you.
> open door.
You declare the bones are trapped, convince Toffile to nail the door shut and push the bed against the door.
The extended vision ends.
Cottage
> a attic.
She cannot find the finger bones. She forgives Toffile. She asks you to move the bones to somewhere cruel and terrible, and hopes your God will keep you safe.
If you try to ask her anything further, she just mumbles.
> d.
Cellar
> take hammer. u. u.
Bedroom
> open window. (You won't do it.)
> move bed. (instead of "pull bed" which gives a default and misleading "fixed in place" message)
> x door. remove nails. (using the hammer)
> open door. u.
Attic
> x trunks. open trunks. move trunks.
> x boxes. open boxes. move boxes.
> x ceiling.
You find nothing.
> d. (You spot a finger bone.)
> x bone. take it.
> d. d.
Cottage
Mrs Lajway is dead. You must tell the doctor.
> x Mrs.
> e.
You leave on your horse. A white figure follows you.
*** The End ***
...read the author's notes? > yes
Seen in flashback:
Mentioned:
This is the response to CREDITS:
This game was written in Inform 7 for the 2024 Ectocomp, and is based on multiple poems by a famous poet. If you want that information at any time, type POET, or you can wait for the endnotes.
Thanks to my testers: AM Ruf, Drew Cook, Zed Lopez, Manonamora, and Tabitha. All the thanks to my sweetheart Tom, who is the best person I know.
And this is the response to POET:
This game is based on the poems of Robert Frost (American, 1874-1963). The main story comes from The Witch of Coös, although I have altered the scenario significantly.
I've also drawn a great deal from the very depressing poems Out, Out and Home Burial.
The game begins with snippets of The Road Not Taken and ends with snippets from Stopping by Woods On Snowy Evening. I also stole lines and images from Ghost House, Love and a Question, Revelation, Mending Wall, Design, Putting In the Seed, The Hill Wife, Bereft, The Thatch. And there's a general theft of themes and vibes from many other Frost poems.
Here are links to those poems (on various websites):
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