Key & Compass presents:
The Lonely Troll
by Amanda Walker

• Map
• Walkthrough
• Extras
  • Artwork, Characters, Credits, Inventory
• Thank You to my Patreon supporters
• Support me on Ko-Fi
• External links:
  • This game at Homepage, IFDB, and IFWiki.
  • Tweet about this walkthrough on Twitter.

Map

• A tenth location, "Inside House", is visited only at the end of the game.

Walkthrough

...turn on tutorial mode?

> no

Home

> x house. x me. x trees. x yard.

> take apple.

After four or five turns, you find a strange object.

> x object. take it.

> s.

Desert

> x sphinx. talk.

> give apple. (She's now willing to talk.)

> talk.

Are you ready for the riddle?

> yes

> say question mark

The sphinx tells you that the strange object is a dragon egg, and she gives you a book.

> x egg. x book.

> find 1. (Cyclops grow carrots and have weak eyes.)

> find 2. (Dragon eggs need fire to hatch. Baby dragons need a pearl, a heartblossom flower, and a fairy wand's touch to grow to an adult.)

> find 3. (Sing to fairies. Fairy wands use griffin feathers.)

> find 4. (Griffin eat bubbleberries to shed feathers. Bubbleberries need unicorn poop.)

> find 5. (Mermaids love jewels.)

> find 6. (Dragon eggs improve phoenix fires. Phoenix tears form opals.)

> find 7. (Trolls are nearly extinct!)

> find 8. (Unicorns love carrots.)

> e.

Rocky Ledge

> x phoenix. x fire. x opal. talk.

> put egg in fire. (It hatches.)

> x dragon. take it. pet it. take opal.

> w. w.

Ruins

> x ruins. x bush. x glass. take glass.

> e.

You acknowledge that you are having an adventure and you are now willing to visit the rest of the map.

Desert

> n. e.

Ocean

> x mermaid. x pearl. x water. x jellyfish.

> talk. give opal to mermaid. (You get the pearl.)

> clean glass.

> give pearl to dragon.

> w. n.

Forest

> x tree. x sing. (The fairy appears.)

> x fairy. x wand. talk.

> e.

Field

> x cyclops. x carrots. talk.

> give glass to cyclops. (He gives you a carrot.)

> x carrot.

> w. s. w.

Garden

> x unicorn. x trees. talk.

> give carrot to unicorn.

> take flower. x it. give it to dragon.

> take poop. x it.

> e. s. w.

Ruins

> put poop on bush.

> take berries. x berries.

> e. n. n. w.

Cave

> x griffin. x feather. talk.

> give berries to griffin. take feather.

> e.

Forest

> give feather to fairy.

The fairy repairs her wand, then zaps the baby dragon into an adult. It flies away.

> s.

Inside House

> open door.

The dragon is back! The griffin, cyclops, and sphinx also arrive. They are your new friends.

*** The End ***

Would you like to read the author's end notes? > yes

Do you want more information on how to make ASCII art? > yes

*** The End ***

Extras

Artwork

This game is enhanced with several ASCII art pieces. These are their thumbnails. Please play the game to view the artwork in its intended sizes.

Cover art, locations, and scenery

Characters

Inventory items

Characters

• A sphinx in the desert will help you if you can answer her question.
• A baby dragon is born when you put its egg into the phoenix's fire. One of the main goals of the game is to mature the dragon into an adult dragon.
• A phoenix on the rocky ledge wants a hotter fire so he can be reborn.
• A mermaid in the ocean loves jewels, but she's tired of pearls.
• Some jellyfish protect the mermaid.
• A mean fairy lives in the giant tree in the forest. She's particularly upset because her wand won't work.
• A cyclops is growing carrots in his field. He'd like help with his eyesight.
• A unicorn is aggressively guarding his garden.
• A griffin in the cave is eager to shed a bothersome feather.

Mentioned:

• Other trolls moved away years ago. No one knows where they are now.

Credits

This is the response to CREDITS:

This game was made for the 2022 Text Adventure Literacy Project (TALP). It's my third work of interactive fiction and my first one with images.

Thanks to Emily Short for her extensions Basic Screen Effects and Glulx Image Centering, and to Gavin Lambert for his extension Exit Lister.

Thanks to my wonderful beta testers: Dee Cooke, Garry Francis, Nils Fagerburg, Jade, Eva Radke, and Andrew Schultz.

Abiding gratitude to everyone at the intfiction.org forums for all their patient help.

Thanks always most of all to Tom. I made all the images out of keyboard symbols (this is called ASCII art). You can make ASCII art, too. And you may feel free to copy my art and use it any way you wish. Do want more information on how to make ASCII art? >

Inventory

• an apple. Take one from your apple trees outside your home.
• In the desert, give the apple to the sphinx. Now she will talk to you.
• a strange object. You find it a few turns after the game begins.
• In the desert, after giving the apple to the sphinx, answer her riddle with SAY QUESTION MARK. She tells you that the object is a dragon egg and gives you a book.
• On the rocky ledge, put the egg into the fire. The egg hatches into a baby dragon.
• a book. In the desert, the sphinx gives the book to you after you correctly answer her riddle with SAY QUESTION MARK.
• Examine the book, then read all eight pages by using the command FIND number, where the number is from 1 to 8. The book tells you a lot of information about the various creatures you'll meet.
• a baby dragon. On the rocky ledge, the baby dragont hatches from its egg when you put the egg into the fire.
• Give the pearl and the heartblossom flower to the dragon, then give the feather to the fairy. These actions will mature the baby dragon into an adult.
• an opal. It's on the rocky ledge, created by the phoenix's tears.
• At the ocean, give the opal to the mermaid. She gives you the pearl in exchange.
• a magnifying glass. It's at the ruins.
• The glass is dirty. At the ocean, after giving the opal to the mermaid, clean the magnifying glass. If you try to do it before, the jellyfish block you from getting near the water.
• In the field, give the glass to the cyclops. He gives you a carrot in exchange.
• a pearl. The mermaid in the ocean is carrying it.
• Give the opal to the mermaid. She gives the pearl to you in exchange.
• Give the pearl to the baby dragon. This is the first step to mature him into an adult.
• a carrot. In the field, the cyclops gives a carrot to you in exchange for the clean magnifying glass.
• In the garden, give the carrot to the unicorn. You can now take a heartblossom flower and some unicorn poop.
• a heartblossom flower. They are growing in the unicorn's garden.
• Give a carrot to the unicorn. He will let you take a flower now.
• Give the flower to the baby dragon. This is the second step to mature him into an adult.
• some poop. In the garden, the unicorn produces it after you give him a carrot.
• At the ruins, put the poop on the bush. The bush's pods ripen into berries.
• some bubbleberries. At the ruins, put the poop on the bush to make its pods ripen into berries.
• In the cave, give the berries to the griffin. This helps him shed a gold feather that was bothering him.
• a gold feather. It's on the griffin in the cave.
• Give the bubbleberries to the griffin. He'll shed the feather, which you can now take.
• In the forest, give the feather to the fairy. She'll zap the baby dragon which is the final step towards maturing him into an adult dragon.

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.

Ko-Fi is a way to send me small one-time donations. Every little bit helps, and thank you!