Dead Man's Chest is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 6 and PunyInform and is © 2026 by Garry Francis. It was an entry in ParserComp 2026, placement to be determined.
In this game, you play as a nerd who, while doomscrolling old newspapers in the library, read that the treasure chest of the notorious pirate, Captain Cutter, is hidden somewhere in or near his now-abandoned Scottish mansion. This is your chance to be the treasure hunter you always wanted to be! You plan to break in and find that dead man's chest for yourself.
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.
Outside Mansion
> x me. i. read article. ("key to the treasure [is] reading")
> x fog. x mansion.
> x door. (The lock is broken.)
> open door. n.
Entry Hallway
> close front door.
> x panelling. x carpet. look under it. (no)
> open closet door. w.
Large Closet
> x marks. read marks. (It's a limerick.)
> x toys. search toys. x ladder. take it.
Although the game claims the ladder is heavy, you can actually carry it as easily as any other item.
> e. e.
Lounge Room
The window is something of a red herring. It never opens.
> x lock. x porthole.
> x items. x fireplace.
> x window. open it. (no: stuck)
> w. n.
Northern End of Hallway
> x archway. nw.
Dining Room
> x table. x chairs.
> x north window. (ocean view)
> x west window. (fog blocks the view)
> e.
Kitchen
> x board. x diagram.
It's a map of a square room with west, east, and south doors. "NB" is at the north edge, "O" is in the northeast corner, and "X" is in the southeast corner.
It's actually a map of this room. The east door is a hidden door, "NB" means "notice board", "O" means "oven", and "X" means something interesting.
> x floor. x clay. x block.
> push block. (A hidden door opens to the east.)
> x oven. open oven. (nothing)
> e.
Pantry
The can and bottle top are useless to you, so just leave them here. You have an inventory limit of ten items, so you have to be a little bit choosy in what you carry.
> x can. x top. x lantern. take lantern.
> x shelving. x grooves. x north wall.
Pushing or pulling the shelving fail, but this works:
> slide shelving. (A dark passage leading down is revealed.)
It's too dark to go down into without light, and you have nothing to light the lantern with.
> w. s. u.
Landing at Top of Staircase
> drop ladder.
> x portrait. (of captain on island)
Let's check out the rooms going clockwise starting with the room to the west.
> w.
Western Bedroom
> x toys. x furniture. x mattress.
> e. nw.
Northwest Bedroom
> x bed. x table. x window.
> se. n.
Bathroom
> x blood. x basin. x pipe.
> x bath. x water. (The green filth is opaque.)
> x mirror. x shards. (sharp)
> take shard. (no: not without a glove)
Don't let the lack of a glove stop you from searching the bath.
> empty bath. (You pull the plug and the water drains, revealing a brass key.)
> take key.
> s. ne.
Northeast Bedroom
> x hammock. x corpse. x wounds. (killed by a sword?)
> x blood. x clothes. (Are these the captain's clothes refered to in the closet's poem?)
> x curtain. open it.
> x window. (You see an island; you should try to get there.)
> sw. e.
Eastern Bedroom
CAUTION: Don't touch or move anything in this room or the gun will shoot and kill you.
> x corpse. x chair. x gun.
> w. d. w.
Study
> smell. x paintings. look behind them.
> x chair. x desk. open desk. (no: locked)
> sit on chair. (not comfortable)
> unlock desk with key. open desk. x items.
> x matchbox. take it. open it.
> e. n. e.
Pantry
> light match. light lantern.
> d.
Cellar
> x rack. x bottles.
> search bottles. (You find a pair of bolt cutters.)
> take cutters. x them.
> e.
Dank Tunnel (Dank Tunnel 1)
Note the out-of-reach hole in the ceiling, but don't bother bringing the ladder here. The hole is much too far for the ladder.
> x hole.
> ne. ne. e.
Dank Tunnel (Dank Tunnel 4)
> x glint. search floor. x cutlass. take it.
> x blade. x guard. x handle.
Retrace your way back into the house and go upstairs.
> w. sw. sw. w. u. w. s. u.
Landing at Top of Staircase
After fetching the ladder:
> get on ladder.
> open trapdoor. u.
Attic
> x posts. x beams. x rope. x roof.
> untie rope. (wrong approach)
> cut rope. (with cutlass)
> take rope.
> d. d. d. n. e. d.
Cellar
> e. ne. n.
Dank Tunnel (Dank Tunnel 6)
> x hole. x spur.
> tie rope to spur.
> d. n.
Dark Tunnel (below trapdoor)
> x trapdoor. open it. (locked)
> slide bolt. (no: too rusty)
> cut bolt. (with cutters)
> open door. u.
Rustic Hut
> x floor. x hut. x roof.
> w.
Timber Stockade (west side)
> x stockade. x hut. se.
Timber Stockade (south side)
> x shoreline. x house. x cliff.
> ne. nw.
Timber Stockade (north side)
> x gate. x beam.
> lift beam. (The gate is now unlocked.)
> open gate.
The next few locations have little to look at.
> e. se. s. e.
Southern Beach
> x beach. (black sand)
> n. nw.
Lagoon
> x reeds. x ship.
> e. d.
Ship's Galley
> x barrel. (empty)
> e.
Captain's Cabin
> x desk. open drawer. (locked)
> unlock drawer with key. (It works for both desks!)
> open drawer. take book.
> x book. read it. ("The Rime of the Ancient Mariner")
> x albatross.
> open book. (A map falls out.)
> x map. read map. (More ASCII art.)
> x map. (Looks like the ground floor of the mansion. The marked room is the one north of the lounge.)
> read book. (A mariner shoots an albatross to clear a storm, but he is also cursed for his cruelty.)
> close book.
> w. d.
Cargo Hold
> x trunk. x padlock. (rusty)
> cut padlock. (with cutters)
> open trunk. x shovel. take it.
Carry the shovel to a sandy cave in the northwest corner of the island.
> u. u. w. se. w. nw. nw. d. s.
Sandy Cave
> dig sand. (with shovel)
> take copper key. x it.
> dig sand. (You find a passage leading down.)
> d. (You take a one-way slide down to...)
Dank Tunnel (Dank Tunnel 6)
This is where you tied the rope to the spur. Return to the lounge room.
> s. sw. w. u. w. s. s. e.
Lounge Room
> unlock door with copper key.
> open door. n.
Library
> x desk. x chair. x bookcase. (room for one more book)
> x door. x plaque. read it. ("Black Raven")
You did bring the book from the ship, yes?
> put book in slot. (The room descends?)
> x door. (It's changed.)
> read plaque. ('The sailor's riddle: Afore it or against it, be it fair or foul, a sailor's life is one of misery without it. What am I?')
> x porthole. (There seems to the treasure on the other side.)
> say wind.
The bookcase slides open. Wind pulls the book out of the bookcase. You are tipped into the new opening, slide down a chute and land at...
Small Cave
> take gold key. x it.
> d.
Dank Tunnel (Dank Tunnel 1)
Ah, you fell out of that out-of-reach hole. It's an exit. Return to the library.
> w. u. w. s. s. e. n.
Library
> put book in slot. (The room descends again.)
> unlock door with gold key.
> open door. s.
Secret Room
> read message.
> x chest. x bands.
> open chest. x treasure. take it.
*** You have won ***
This game uses ASCII art for two maps.
+----------+ | NB O | | | \ / | | | / x | +---- ----+
This is the diagram on the notice board in the kitchen. EXAMINE DIAGRAM to see the ASCII art in-game. It shows a square room with three open doorways on the west, east, and south sides. The letters "NB" are in the north side of the room. There's an "O" in the northeast corner, and there's an "x" in the southeast corner.
+--+--+--+ / | | | |- +--+--+--+ | | |**| +--+ +--+ | | | | +--+--+--+
This is the map that fell out of the book that you found in the shipwreck. READ MAP to see the ASCII art in-game. It shows a three-by-three grid of squares with two asterisks in the middle-east square. Also, on the east side of the top-east square, there's a bent line going east then northeast.
Found dead:
Mentioned:
This is the response to ABOUT:
In 1986, I tested a game called 'Pirate's Booty' written by Steve Bradbury using Adventure Master for the Atari 8-bit computer. I don't know whether it was ever published, but I haven't been able to find it.
30 years later, I decided to recreate the game from scratch based on my original hand-drawn map and playing notes. This version was written in Inform 6, though never finished and promptly forgotten.
Another 10 years later, I rediscovered the unfinished Inform 6 code, ported it to PunyInform and expanded it to create 'Dead Man's Chest' for ParserComp 2026. The story for the new game was inspired by 'Captain Cutter's Treasure', which was my first PunyInform game.
Concept by Steve Bradbury.
Game design and coding by Garry Francis.
Play testing by Charles Moore Jr, Gianluca Girelli and Philip Richmond.
Items are listed in the order acquired (or found) in this walkthrough.
You have a carrying capacity limit of ten items, so I recommend discarding some items after you're done with them.
This is the response to XYZZY, PLUGH, PLOVER, or YOHO:
You utter an ancient magic word, expecting to summon a wizard, but instead, you're confronted by the ghost of a pirate. He wears a tricorn and an over-sized earring in one ear. His curly black beard exaggerates the deathly pallor of his skin. His lifeless eyes look straight through you, as though you're not there, and he points to the ground, as if to show you something...or somewhere. Before you can ask the ghost what this means, he fades into oblivion.
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