In this short horror-filled treasure hunt, you play as Jubilee Grief, the famous adventurer. Every Samhain night, for three hours before midnight, a manor materializes atop of a lonely cliff. Inside the danger-filled home are hidden the four last and worst poems that Vigilance Ghosterington ever wrote. Those horrible poems are now worth millions and you're going to find them.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 2 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.
IMPORTANT: Because there are random events that can kill you, I must first give you some strategy tips that take precedence over the walkthrough's instructions.
If both the Terror Statue and the Clockwork Girl are in a room with you, your only safe option is to run away to another room.
If the Terror Statue appears in a room with you, you should run away to another room. If your gun still has bullets, you can shoot the Statue to temporarily make it disappear.
If the clockwork girl enters the room you're in, and it's not the Plush Room, you should run away to another room. If your gun still has bullets, you can shoot her to make her temporarily leave you. But in the Plush Room, pull the rug to topple the girl.
Never enter the Golden Room in the center of the house. If you enter there three times, you die.
If you're forced to leave a room before you've done with it, of course you must return there later when your life isn't in danger.
Clifftop
> x pack. i. x shooter.
> n. n.
Eastern Way
> x pot.(You find paper A.)
> read A.(It will name a random animal, like "duck".)
> n. w.
Bedroom
> x bed. i.(You find paper B.)
> read B.(It will name a random color, like "green".)
> w.
Plush Room
Assuming the clockwork girl follows you in here, note that she's on the rug.
> pull rug.(She topples over, unable to get up.)
CAUTION: The girl is still dangerous if you try to take her axe or attack her. Leave her alone.
I'm assuming you've found and read both papers. If you had to run away from the bed or the potted plant before you could examine them, return to them and try again to examine them. Read the papers if you haven't already. When you're ready, head to the Contrition Corner in the southwest corner of the house.
> s. s.
Contrition Corner
> x painting. x mouth.(A voice whispers a poem.)
What will you say in response to this abysmal poem? > COLOR ANIMAL(as per the two papers)
If you said the correct phrase, a west passage opens up.
> w.
Ooooh, a Secret Room!
> x lever.("TERROR", in the on position.)
> pull lever.(It's now off, and the Statue will no longer appear.)
With both active threats neutralized, you can easily find all the poems.
> x chest.(+1: You find the scissors poem.)
> read poem.
> e.
Contrition Corner
> x blood.
> n.
Western Way
> x shell.(+1: You find the Thomas Hardy poem.)
> read Hardy.
> n.
Plush Room
> x desk.(+1: You find the Molecular Biology poem.)
> read Biology.
> e. e.
Pink Room
> x vanity.(+1: You find the lobster poem.)
> read lobster.
> s. s.
Vestibule
> s.
*** Congratulations! You retrieved all four poems from the manor and lived to tell the tale! When the sun comes up, Ghosterington Manor is gone, but it's truly a great day to be you, Jubilee Grief, millionaire adventurer. ***
Extras
Characters
Jubilee Grief is a famous adventurer, treasure finder, and the player-character. If you can find Ghosterington's last four poems, you'll become an even more-famous millionaire.
Vampire bats attack you as you ascend the cliff, but three shots from your six shooter send them away.
Terror Statue is a white marble statue of a robed man who induces terror from anyone who sees him. He also teleports. If you spend too long in his presence, you'll die of fright!
A clockwork girl brandishing an axe plods through the rooms. She's quite horrific to look at and she'll lop off your head if you spend too long near her.
An eldritch voice booms, "Don't say that", if you dare say XYZZY.
Mentioned:
Vigilance Ghosterington is the dead owner of the manor and author of the dreadful poems you're looking for. A painting of him can be found in the Contrition Corner, along with his dried blood on the walls.
Credits
This is the response to CREDITS:
Ghosterington Night was originally written for Ectocomp 2012 where it came first out of six games. The post competition version you are now playing, Release 2, retains the original game's design but has been significantly revised. It's better programmed and implemented, smoother and more reasonable (especially in terms of letting you look at the bad guys or do things like check your inventory without being killed) - in short, it's more playable all around. I also added a title graphic and theme music.
Andrew Schultz came up with a lot of the ideas for improvements and playtested this version. Michael Chu gave it a spin, too. Thanks also go to Jason Guest, who ran Ectocomp 2012, and to the folks who played or reviewed the original version of the game: Hulk Handsome, Jon Blask, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Emily Short, Sean M. Shore and Martin Barth.
For information on how to play, type HELP.
I've made the Inform 7 source code for this game available at Ghosterington Night's IFDB page ( http://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=6kko9va64c4o5jan ) for anyone who might be interested in its methods.
Ghosterington Manor, the game (excluding the title graphic and title song) and its source code, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)
The game's title artwork is (C) Wade Clarke 2012. The game's theme music is (P) and (C) Wade Clarke 2012.
You can contact the author Wade Clarke at email redacted
Endings
The glory that was you has become nought more than a puddle.
if you enter the Golden Room three times.
You died at the inert hands of Terror Statue.
if you spend a turn in Terror Statue's presence.
You died because you need a head to live and you have no head.
if the clockwork girl chops your head off.
You disappeared from the face of the earth.
if you're still inside the manor at midnight.
You failed spectacularly.
if midnight strikes and you never entered the manor!
You made it out alive, but you didn't retrieve any of the poems. Ghosterington Manor has triumphed for another year.
if you leave the manor with no poems.
Good work! You retrieved one of the poems from the manor, the scissors poem. Its value is one million dollars. When the sun comes up, Ghosterington Manor is gone, and it's not a bad day to be you, Jubilee Grief, millionaire adventurer.
if you leave the manor with one poem.
Great work! You retrieved two of the poems from the manor and survived! When the sun comes up, Ghosterington Manor is gone, but it's a good day to be you, Jubilee Grief, millionaire adventurer.
if you leave the manor with two poems.
Great work! You retrieved three of the poems from the manor and survived! When the sun comes up, Ghosterington Manor is gone, but it's a good day to be you, Jubilee Grief, millionaire adventurer.
if you leave the manor with three poems.
Congratulations! You retrieved all four poems from the manor and lived to tell the tale! When the sun comes up, Ghosterington Manor is gone, but it's truly a great day to be you, Jubilee Grief, millionaire adventurer.
if you leave the manor with all four poems.
Inventory
a black catsuit. You're wearing it.
Examine it, then ignore it. You may not remove it.
a six shooter. You're carrying it.
You only have three bullets, thanks to the bats in the prologue.
If you try to shoot Terror Statue, he vanishes before the bullet can hit him.
If you try to shoot the clockwork girl, your bullet does little damage, but the girl is confused enough to leave the room.
Note that you never have to use your gun. Running away to another room is always an option.
Note that if both the girl and the statue are threatening you, your only safe option is to run away. If you shoot one enemy, the other one will kill you.
paper A and paper B.
Find the papers by examining the bed in the Bedroom and the pot plant in Eastern Way. One paper is in each hiding spot.
You always find paper A first and paper B after it, whichever way you search their hiding spots.
Read the papers. Paper A names a random animal. Paper B names a random color.
In Contrition Corner, examine the mouth and answer the question using the words from the papers; for example red bear or green eagle. If your answer is correct, the painting slides away, revealing a opening to a secret room behind it.
the scissors poem, the Thomas Hardy poem, the Molecular Biology poem, and the lobster poem.
Find the poems by examining the vanity in the Pink Room, the desk in the Plush Room, the shell in the Western Way, and the chest in the Secret Room. One poem is in each hiding spot.
The poems are always found in the same order, whichever way you search their hiding spots. The scissors poem is always found first; the lobster poem is always found last.
Feel free to read the poems.
Leave the manor with all four poems before midnight to win the game.
Score
The response to SCORE is one of the following:
You haven't found any of the four poems yet.
You've found one of the four poems so far.
You've found two of the four poems so far.
You've found three of the four poems so far.
You have all four poems. It's time to get out of here!
XYZZY
The response to XYZZY is very nasty. All room-names, room-descriptions, object-names, and object-descriptions are replaced with just one word:
xyzzy
You can still refer to things by their original names, but unless you know the game by heart and you get lucky guessing the painting's password phrase, the game is rather unplayable in this mode.
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