Key & Compass presents:
The job
by Fredrik Ramsberg

• Map
• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Amusing, Characters, Credits, Endings, Inventory
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• Support me on Ko-Fi
• External links:
  • This game at Homepage, IFDB, and IFWiki.
  • Follow me at Bluesky, Ko-Fi, Mastodon, Patreon, and Wordpress.

Map

Walkthrough

Ricky ordered you to do a job, and because you borrowed money from him, you owe him. While searching a broom closet, you were pushed. And they left a message.

Broom Closet

Ignore the appliances and fabric; they're unimportant and you don't have infinite time.

> x me. x suit. i. x flashlight.

> x note. ("Return with the necklace!")

> take knife. x it.

> e.

Pub

> turn on switch. (nothing happens,... of course?)

> x tables. x stools. x counter.

> e.

Gym

> x locker. open it. (seven kettlebells with different weights)

The individual weights aren't worth examining. Trust that they are the weights they say they are.

Grab the fifty while you're here.

> take fifty.

> w. n. w.

Office

> x photo.

Paul lost 40 kg, a third of his original weight. So his current weight is 80 kg, and his original weight was 120 kg.

> x mat. x dartboard. ("Propriete du Capitane Lou!")

> x desk. look under desk. (You find and take a paper.)

> x paper. ("XIW" in ASCII art)

> turn paper. x it. ("MIX")

> take dartboard. (attached to the wall at its center?)

> turn it. (a handle is revealed)

> x handle.

> push handle. (only moves a little)

> put fifty on mat. (metallic rattle)

> push handle. (only moves a little)

> e. s. e.

Gym

> take forty and five. w. n. w.

Office

> put forty on mat.

> put five on mat.

With 95 or 97 kg on the mat, pushing the handle opens a secret room to the north. Logically, it should be 80 kg that does the trick, but the mechanism isn't working quite right and needs more weight.

You can min-max the weights until you get something that works. When there's too little weight, pushing the handle moves it a little, but when there's too much weight, the handle doesn't move at all.

> push handle. (a doorway opens)

> n.

Secret Room

> x dials. (currently at 0000)

"MIX" in Roman numerals is 1009.

> set dials to 1009.

> open safe. take necklace. x it.

> s. e. s. s.

Street

> x church. x library.

If you're here long enough, you see a fish swim by.

> u.

Boat

*** You have won ***

> amusing

Extras

Amusing

This is the response to AMUSING after you've won the game:

Hints you may or may not have seen that you're a diver and the entire game happens under water:

• You have a knife with a stainless steel blade, which is a good choice for a diver but not for a burglar.
• "examine me", "examine suit" (or diving suit). The colour of your suit is normal for a diver, but not for a burglar.
• Try to take off your suit. (With increasing water pressure comes the risk of "nitrogen narcosis", which makes it hard to think straight.)
• The door is heavy to open.
• The electricity doesn't work, and you're not surprised.
• Examine the tables.
• Type "swim", or "swim east".
• Try examining, pushing or drinking the water.
• Try smelling something.
• Try throwing something at the dartboard.
• You lose your consciousness if you take too long, since you run out of air.
• The only reason the piece of paper has lasted is that it happens to be laminated.
• If you drop the note or the piece of paper and go to the pub, the item will appear there after a while, due to the current.
• If you load Paul's weight on the mat, it's not enough. The lock mechanism is flawed, so you can figure out the needed weight by reading the message you get when pushing down the door handle, and it's 95-99 kg (97 kg of iron under water weighs like 80 kg at the surface.)
• Standing on the mat doesn't change anything since you have neutral buoyancy, unless you are carrying weights of course.

Characters

This is a solo adventure, so this list is just mentions and cameos.

• Paul, the owner of the pub, is a good friend of yours. Notably, he lost 40 kg and kept it off.
• Captaine Lou owned the dartboard.
• Paul's wife owned the necklace.
• Ricky loaned you money and now you owe him this favor.
• Other divers had their own jobs to do.
• Police race towards Ricky's boat, but they're too late and too slow to catch anyone.
• A fish might swim by you when you're on the street.

Credits

For the in-game credits, type ABOUT, type select and option the "Game credits" menu-item:

The Job was created by Fredrik Ramsberg. It uses the PunyInform library, created by Fredrik Ramsberg and Johan Berntsson. PunyInform is based on the Inform 6 standard library and uses the Inform 6 programming language, both by Graham Nelson.

This game was betatested by Johan Berntsson, Rickard Nobel and Gaston Noblia.

RetroFan made the font PXLfont, used in the Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Commodore Plus/4 and MEGA65 versions of the game.

Many thanks to the people who contributed.

Endings

• You have died
• if you haven't found the necklace by 12:01 am. It's not said explicitly, but you run out of air and drown.
• You have won
• if you return to the boat with the necklace.

Inventory

• a flashlight. You're carrying it. It's already on.
• Just keep it. You won't turn it off and you don't need to. Its batteries were fully charged when you left home with it.
• a knife. It's stuck into the closet door, used to pin the note there.
• It's your knife, so take it and keep it, but you don't need to cut anything with it during this job.
• a note. It's pinned to the closet door with your knife.
• Read the note to learn that Ricky wants you to return with the necklace.
• a two kilogram kettlebell, a five kilogram kettlebell, a ten kilogram kettlebell, a twenty kilogram kettlebell, a thirty kilogram kettlebell, a forty kilogram kettlebell and a fifty kilogram kettlebell. They're all in the gym's locker.
• Turn the dartboard to reveal a handle. Put either 95 or 97 kg of weight on the mat in the office, then pull the handle to open the door to the secret room.
• The weights can be heavy, so make two trips. Fetch the fifty first, then the forty and the five on the second trip.
• Normally, Paul would stand on the mat himself, and his 80 kg weight would be correct. But since you're underwater and perhaps the mechanism is a little bit broken, the mat now requires 95 to 99 kg of weight to be correct.
• a photo. It's on the desk in the office.
• Examine the photo on the desk to remind yourself that Paul weighs 80 kg. You have no need to take the photo.
• a piece of paper. Acquire it by looking under the desk in the office.
• Examine the paper to read "XIW" in large letters.
• Turn the paper and examine it again. It's "MIX" which means 1009 in Roman numerals. The is the number to set the safe's dials to.
• a necklace. It's in the safe in the secret room. Set the dials to 1009 (as per the paper) to unlock the safe.
• Take the necklace out and up to the boat above the street before your air runs out.
• Honorable mention: your suit. Examine yourself to note that you're in a suit.
• Examine the suit to note that it's orange and you've had it for years. This is one of your clues that you're underwater. You won't willingly remove it.

Thank You to my Patreon supporters

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