Key & Compass presents:
Gone Out for Gruyère
by B F Lindsay

• Map
• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Characters, Credits, Endings, Inventory, Score
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• External links:
  • This game at IFDB, and IFWiki.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Map

• Near game's end, "Exitatious" is renamed to "Cheesy Hell".

Walkthrough

Exitatious

The premise is really quite bizarre. I make sense of it by first assuming that the player-character lives in a world that is just like ours except it also has magic. I also assume there's magical characters like imps and brownies and fairies in his world and they sometimes like to make mischief with humans. So, maybe one of those imps read your mind about going out for gruyère and decided to have fun by kidnapping you and shapeshifting itself into a cheese wheel?

> x me. (Carrying nothing)

> d. (A wheel of cheese blocks the hole!)

> x cheese. (It laughs at you!)

You can't really do anything about the cheese just yet, but you should at least try:

> eat cheese. ask cheese about itself.

> hit cheese. search cheese. take cheese.

> push cheese. pull cheese. turn cheese.

> climb cheese. sit on cheese. open cheese. smell cheese.

Okay, let's explore:

> n.

Saloon Front

You just need to wait until everyone leaves, then get the rope from the tree:

> x man —or— x horse —or— x tree.

> x crowd. (You see a dark man in a loft over a stable to the east.)

> x dark man —or— x loft. (Has poncho, cowboy hat, cigar.)

> x mayor. (Accused is Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez.)

> x saloon. (Looks closed.)

A mayor finishes speaking and a man with a riding crop steps forward.

> z.

The dark man shoots the rope and he and the accused make a getaway with the town in pursuit.

> d.

Town Center

> climb tree.

Up a Tree

> untie rope. (+1; you escape back to...)

Exitatious

...and the north exit is gone.

> i. x rope. (It's about 7 feet long.)

> ne.

Sunny Park (in the thicket)

Again, watch and wait until everyone's gone. The prize here is a fuseless firecracker.

> x blue boy. x red boy. x firecrackers.

The boys throw the firecrackers near you! They're loud! The boys run.

> x dark spot. (You take a firecracker that didn't pop.)

> x firecracker. (Missing a fuse.)

> ne. (+1. You see a police officer as you walk casually back to...)

Exitatious

> e.

Stone Bridge

> x man. x bridge. (The man is a bridge gnome.)

> x stone bridge. x stream. ask man about bridge.

> e. (He asks a riddle.)

> say hole. (+1; he gives you a hole as a prize and you return to...)

Exitatious

> x hole.

> w.

Foggy Street Corner

> x man. x machine.

> look under machine. (You get a red matchbook.)

> x matchbook. (Only one match remains.)

> e. (+1)

Exitatious

> se.

Basement Lab

The machine here can enlarge things or restore things that were previously enlarged. Although you can enlarge the rope and the matchbook, it's only useful to enlarge the firecracker.

> read notebook. x device. x case. x large switch. (three settings)

> open case. put firecracker in case.

> close case. set switch to multiply.

> x firework. (3 feet long and 6 inches wide.)

> open case. take firework. close case.

> put rope in firework. (The frayed rope won't go in.)

> nw. (+1; the exit back to the lab is gone.)

Exitatious

> nw.

Keg Room

> x casks. x barrel. open barrel. look in it. (brandy)

> taste brandy. (can't)

> put rope in barrel. (It's now soaked in brandy.)

> close barrel.

> se. (+1)

Exitatious

You need to refer to the big hole (the portable one) instead of the gaping hole (in the floor).

> put rope in firework. (Yes, you can do that now.)

> put big hole on cheese.

> put firecracker in big hole.

> s.

Mysterious Blackness

This location is the other side of the portable hole. My apologies for skipping all the fumbling experimentation you can do with the hole that would help you figure that out.

Currently, because you put the firework in the hole, you see it dangling above.

> x me. (You are void of form here.)

> x net. take net. (Something about transdimensional power transference?)

> put net on firework. (+1. That works and you're back in...)

Exitatious

> light firework. (using the matchbook)

> sw.

Annex

Wait for the explosion.

> z. z. SPACESPACESPACESPACE (+1)

> x wrap. take it. ne.

Cheesy Hell (formerly Exitatious)

> x cheese. take cheese. eat cheese.

> put hunk in wrap. (+1)

> i.

> d.

Turns out Natalie wanted mozzarella. Oops.

*** At least you beat the cheese. ***

Extras

Characters

• A huge cheese wheel in the exitatious location blocks a gaping hole in the floor. It laughs insanely at you and insults your every move when its presence. There is no backstory that explains where this talking cheese wheel came from, how it can talk, or why it shanghied you to a weird location outside of normal space and time. All you can do is accept the bizarre situation it puts you in and deal with it as best you can.
• A hanging man with tied hands and a noose around his neck is on a black horse in the western town center. He's accused of many crimes and you learn his name is Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez.
• A mayor and a crowd of people have gathered at the western town square to execute the hanging man.
• A dark stranger is on a stable loft, east of the western town center.
• Frankie is the taller boy, in red, with the pack of firecrackers in the sunny park. He's about age 13.
• Johnny is the smaller boy, in blue, with the lighter. He's about age 10.
• A police officer can be briefly seen if you venture into the park with the firecracker.
• A bridge gnome, who looks like an old man, will ask you a riddle on the stone bridge.
• A shady character in a dark trenchcoat is lurking on the foggy street corner.
• A cab driver takes the shady character away in their cab.
• Someone opens the door to the keg room soon after you've obtained your brandy-soaked rope, but you retreat before seeing who it is.
• Natalie is your girlfriend. She's mentioned in the prologue as your reason for going out for gruyère, and she's in the epilogue when you return home with it.

Mentioned:

• Robbie is another boy that Frankie mentions.
• The lab diary's author mentions Tippy, a turtle.
• You may hear bees in the sunny park.
• You may see a wasp (or mayfly?) on the stone bridge.
• You may hear crickets outside the lab's double-doors.

Credits

From the Credits menu accessed via the ABOUT or HELP commands:

I would like to thank Brian Rushton for his encouragement to create this short game, and his patience in testing it. I would also like to thank Roger Durrant, Stian Rødven Eide, Mike Carletta and Mike Spivey for their diligence and persistence in testing this game, and their valuable comments.

Also thanks to my girlfriend for putting up with my goofs and my intermittent burying of the head in my projects, like this one.

And thanks to any and all of you for trying this work of IF!

Endings

• With a whole lot of cheese.
• if the explosion has no effect on the giant cheese.
• You're all cheesed out.
• if you're in the giant firework's location when it explodes.
• At least you beat the cheese.
• if you return home with a hunk of cheese wrapped in plastic.

Inventory

Note that whenever you visit the Mysterious Blackness, you lose your body and all your material possessions, but you get them all back when you leave the Blackness and return to the Exitatious.

• a frayed rope.
• Acquire it in the cowboy western scenario by untying the rope when up a tree.
• In the keg room, put the rope into the barrel to make a frayed rope, soaked in brandy.
• Put the soaked rope into the giant firecracker so the rope can be its fuse.
• a fuseless firecracker.
• Acquire it in the sunny park by examining the dark spot after the boys light their firecrackers.
• In the lab, put the firework into the case and set the switch to "multiply" to transform the firework into a giant firecracker.
• Put the frayed rope, soaked in brandy, into the giant firecracker to make a giant firecracker, with a brandy-soaked rope stuck into one end.
• In the exitatious, put your big hole on the cheese then put the firework in the big hole. (Don't just say "hole" or the game will think you mean the gaping hole in the floor.)
• In the mysterious darkness, put the yellow net on the firework. This somehow makes the firework able to effect the cheese.
• Back in the exitatious, light the firework with the matchbook, then immediately retreat to the annex and wait for the explosion there.
• When you return to the exitatious, the cheese will have been blown up and the exitatious is now a cheese hell.
• a red matchbook.
• Acquire it on the foggy street corner by looking under the cigarette vending machine. It only has one match, so don't waste it.
• When the firecracker is fully prepared and properly placed in the exitatious, light the firecracker with the matchbook.
• your big hole.
• Acquire it on the stone bridge by attempting to go east then correctly answering the bridge gnome's riddle: say hole.
• The hole is portable. It's only six inches wide, so you can't enter it. Also, since it's not material, the lab's device cannot enlargen the hole.
• The other side of the hole is always the Mysterious Blackness. Things you put into the hole appear there.
• Put your big hole on the cheese and put the giant firecracker in the hole. But don't light it just yet!
• While the firework is in the hole, go to the mysterious blackness and put the net on the firework.
• a yellow net.
• It's in the mysterious blackness and it's the only inventory item you can have there. You also can't carry the net out from the blackness.
• Put the net on the giant firecracker; see firecracker on how to get it into the mysterious blackness. The net will merge with the firework somehow and make the firework capable of damaging the taunting cheese wheel.
• some plastic wrap.
• Found in the annex after you explode the cheese with a giant firecracker.
• Put a hunk of cheese in the plastic wrap to protect it for the trip home.
• a hunk of cheese.
• Take some cheese in the new Cheese Hell, after you explode the giant cheese with a giant firecracker.
• Put the hunk into some plastic wrap to make a hunk of cheese wrapped in plastic. Now you can go home.

Score

You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 9, in several turns.

• 1 point for obtaining a frayed rope.
• 1 point for obtaining a fuseless firecracker.
• 1 point for obtaining a red matchbook.
• 1 point for obtaining a portable hole.
• 1 point for hugely enlarging the firecracker.
• 1 point for soaking the rope in brandy.
• 1 point for wrapping the firecracker in a mysterious yellow net.
• 1 point for blowing up the taunting cheese into bits.
• 1 point for wrapping up a chunk of cheese in plastic wrap.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough is provided free of charge since the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations. Please consider it a thank you for your support!

I create larger walkthroughs too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.