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Key & Compass presents:
Germania
by Vicente Muñoz

Germania is a TADS 3 interactive fiction game and is © 2008 by Vicente Muñoz. Billed as Episode 1 of The Matrix of Warriors, it was an entry in IFBeginnersComp where it took 5th place. The game was also an entry in the Interactive Short Fiction Contest.

You play as a Roman soldier. Your task is to explore a cave for the source of a reported disturbance — maybe it's wild animals, maybe it's Germanic tribe activity — then report back to the camp centurion.

This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Version 1.9 Beta of the game.


Walkthrough

in u enterarch takeshard out d d repairmirror s Insidethe MainGate DarkTunnel The Gate GuardRoom WoodenBridge Tunnel LiftEntrance StoneHallway Fork Hall ofTruth Hall ofMirrors Hole(top) Hole(bottom) Insidethe Cave Opening CaveMouth Outsidethe CaveEntrance

Outside the Cave Entrance

The legionary won't let you go south and avoid your mission.

> about. credits.

> x me. i. (Carrying nothing, but wearing a lot.)

> x legionary. (He's wearing mostly the same items except for galea, sheath, and pouch.)

> x galea. x tunic. x pouch. open pouch. x coins.

> x lorica. x sheath. x gladius. x scutum. x sandals.

> x mud. x footsteps.

> n. (Saw something shine.)

Cave Mouth

> smell. x shine. take glass. (You put it in your pouch.)

> x pyramid. x paint. (Raising the dead? Wolf eating someone?)

> x trail. x bush.

> n. (The wind reveals a hole in the ground.)

Inside the Cave

> smell. x hole. (square) x shadows.

> put pyramid on hole (+5. A pedestal rises, light fills the room, and red eyes cower into the darkness.)

> take sword. x eyes. (You can't see them.)

> x pedestal. x pyramid. look. x trail.

Oddly, the game doesn't seem to implement the "series of drawings" mentioned here. But although it doesn't know "shards", it does know glass:

> x glass. search glass. x shard. take it.

Hall of Truth

> x pedestal. x arch. x disc. take disc. (+5)

TL;DR: They're putting minds into a single entity called a nexus.

> enter arch.

Inside the Cave

> n.

Hole (top of)

> x shadow. take cloth. (+20. Mirror revealed. This room is now lit.)

> x cloth. x mirror.

> look. x rope. read words.

By "Gift of the Gods", they mean sunlight. That's important.

> d. (The rope breaks. You fall. Scutum broken.)

Hole (bottom of)

Caution: "take mirror" causes a minor runtime error.

> take rope. move scutum. x mirror. (broken)

> x scutum. smell. (It's south.)

> s.

Opening

> x bulge. take bulge. pull bulge.

Hole

It's the body of a germanic tribesman.

> x body. search body. (+5. You find a glass sphere.)

> x sphere. n.

Fork

> x mirror. x north mirror. (It faces south.)

> x left mirror. (It faces northeast.)

> x right mirror. (It faces northwest.)

> nw.

Tunnel

> x rock. move rock (+5. Door revealed.)

> open door. n. (+5)

A whisper warns you of creatures older than the world lurking in the dark. It calls the sphere an "eye". It offers to fix things for you here, regardless of space and time constraints.

[REPAIR COMMAND ENABLED]

Guard Room

> x eye. x large. (It was the door; now it covers the floor.)

> x basket. open it. (empty) smell it.

> x shelf. x candle. (Too short to be of any use.)

> x fur. move fur. (Find a broken spear.)

> take spear. x it. repair spear. (+5. It was the eye that spoke to you?)

> x spear. s. se. s.

Hole (bottom of)

> repair body. (The eye cannot restore the dead, or as it puts it, bring back from the Nexus.)

> put cloth on bodyorput coins on body. (+5)

> repair scutum. (+5. You take it, better than ever.)

> x scutum. (The eye is now part of the scutum.)

> repair mirror. (+5. Eye warns of evil lurking here.)

You're somewhere else now?

The Room of Mirrors

> x south mirror. touch it.

> x image. (Your reflection looks decayed.)

> push image. (+10)

The image stabs you with a dagger. The eye shines. The image and mirror explodes. Your wound heals. The eye bids you take the key and enter the Nexus.

> i. x dagger. (I guess that's the "key"?)

> s.

Hole (bottom of)

> x mirror. (It's whole and reflecting light north.)

> n. ne.

Lift Entrance

> x hole. x crank. (It's turning by itself.)

> listen to crank.

This action is impossible to guess, in my humble opinion, even knowing that ABOUT suggests ATTACH TO as a command:

> attach spear to crank. attach rope to crank. (+5)

> d.

Stone Hallway

> x wood. x metal.

> repair woodorrepair metal. (No need, says the eye.)

> n.

Wooden Bridge

> x shield. (It's now silver! Nice trick.)

> x bridge. x sunlight. x eyes.

Another impossible to guess command, no other equivalent phrasing:

> use sunlight. (+5)

The Guardian, a giant albino snake, is repelled, but it also destroys the bridge, which collapses after you've crossed.

> n.

The Gate

When I first played, I mistakenly thought "in" from here just meant "north". Uh-uh.

> in.

Dark Tunnel

> x slime. search slime.

> take disc. (+5)

TL;DR: The eye of truth is a weapon of war made by the Nexus.

> out.

The Gate

> x gate. x figures. x lock.

> unlock gate with dagger. n. (+10)

Inside the Main Gate

*** You have made it into the Temple! But there is more, what lays inside this ancient structure? Why are there so many unnatural creatures and who is helping you? Sadly enough the only way to find out is to wait for the next installment. ***

Unfortunately for us, there is no next installment in this series.


Extras

Characters

Also mentioned:


Credits

Programmed by Vicente "Vico Surge" Munoz. Testers: Admiral Dread, StormEagle and Metaldrummer. Special Thanks to: Admiral Dread and StormEagle for all the crazy stuff, making me procrastinate and all the small little details I left out.


Inventory

Note that most of your initial inventory isn't used except for the coins and scutum. There's no reason to remove any of your clothing.


Score

In several moves, you have scored your-score of a possible 100 points.


Thank You to my Patreon supporters

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