in the skin of a lion quest: caravaggio's journey is a Z-machine interactive fiction story written with Inform 7 and is © 2012 by parrishka.
This story is an incomplete, buggy, and surreal adaptation of part of the novel In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje. In this story, you play as a thief named Caravaggio who needs to escape from the roof of a jail.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the story. At the time of writing (May 2021), this story does not yet have a listing at IFDB.
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.
Note:
This story is based on Michael Ondaatje's novel In the Skin of a Lion which you will probably need to read to make any sense of this story. I have not read it. In my opinion, it's not possible to make any progress in this story without extensive cheating, which I had to do to make this particular walkthrough. The story is buggy, surreal, and severely underclued, so it's a real challenge even when you are cheating.
roof
> x me. (+1. You are Caravaggio.)
> i. (+1. You have nothing.)
> help. (Don't skip this step!)
Patrick Lewis appears to give you instructions. Your first goal is to escape from the roof.
> x Patrick.
Make sure you use the word THE:
> ask Patrick about the roof. (He gives you a bucket and a paintbrush.)
> x bucket. x paintbrush.
> ask Patrick about paint.
> look. take handkerchief. (+1)
> x handkerchief.
> ask Patrick about escape. (He gives some rope.)
> x rope.
> wear rope. escape. (You'll be seen!)
Did the story mention the word "demarcation" anywhere, suggesting it as a possible conversation topic? No. No, it did not. Aren't you glad there's a walkthrough?
> ask Patrick about demarcation.
> wear handkerchief. look. (It's covering your eyes.)
> ask patrick about demarcation. (He paints you blue.)
> remove handkerchief. x me. (You are blue.)
While blue and wearing the rope, you can finally escape.
> escape.
In case that wasn't clear, Patrick painted you blue so you're the same colour as the sky. Now camoflauged, you can climb down the rope without any jail guards spotting your escape.
Bath
> s.
Myrtle's Finery
> take shirt. wear shirt.
> take pants. wear pants.
> n. n.
railway track
> enter train.
> pull lever. again. out.
mushroom factory
It's not at all obvious what to ask Gianetta about until you try to leave her.
> x Gianetta.
> get on train. (Must eat something first.)
> ask Gianetta about food. (She gives four things.)
> x chicken. x salad. x milk. x cake.
> eat chicken. (+1)
> get on train. (You need a disguise.)
> ask Gianetta about disguise. (She gives a dress.)
> x dress.
> wear dress.
> get on train. (This time, you succeed.)
There's really not much else left to do except visit the unfinished locations in the train system. And you need to be careful not to go to undefined locations on the train, past the mushroom factory at one end and Toronto at the other end.
Remember, you can't see your current location from the train until you get off the train. And you can only get off the train where there's a destination defined for the train's current location.
There's so many unfinished rooms, I'm convinced this story isn't finishable.
> quit.
Mentioned:
This is the response to SCORE:
You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 0, in several turns.
Points are awarded as follows:
Unfortunately, the intended maximum score is unknown. My maximum score was 4.
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!
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