The Man in the Rain is a TADS 2 interactive fiction game and is © 2010 by Karl Adamson.
In this adventure game which is also a tribute to the music of Mike Oldfield, you play as a young warrior on a quest. Your tribe's queen is dying. Go to peak of Mount U'huru, far to the north, and ask the Wise Man who lives there for his aid.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Version 1.1 of the game. (If it matters, I played the .gam storyfile (that I downloaded years ago) on a TADS interpreter. I did not play the Windows executable version.)
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.
Campsite
The prompt notation "E:15/15" means that your current endurance is 15 out of a maximum of 15. This is used in combat, but in this walkthrough, you won't be fighting much.
> help.
> x me. i. x scroll. read it.
> x tent. in.
Tent
> x chest. open it. x bread. take it.
> out. n. n.
Copse
CAUTION: Don't eat the berry; it's poisonous.
> x berry. take it.
> n. n.
Faerie clearing
BUG: All attempts to ask anyone about the Wise Man or the old man are misinterpreted as questions about the Piltdown Man instead.
> x Misi. (A tiny fairy with 26 endurance.)
> ask Misi about me.
> ask Misi about quest. (Find the Piltdown Man.)
> ask Misi about Piltdown Man. (Go north to Boreliad and ask there.)
> n. e.
Small clearing
> x sword. take it. wield it.
> w. n. n.
Plain
> x rock. (Boreliad is ten miles to the north.)
> e.
Old man's hut.
The old man can't help you at all.
> x old man. (Blind with 6 endurance.)
> ask man about me.
> ask man about quest.
> ask man about Piltdown Man. ("That's a myth")
> ask man about faerie. ("tricksters")
> ask man about Boreliad. (It's north.)
> w. n. e. e.
Cave
CAUTION: If you just take the disc without putting the rock on the pedestal first, you'll die!
> x paintings. (Gold disc is put on a pedestal next to a blue rock.)
> x rock. x disc.
> put rock on pedestal. take disc.
> w. w. w. w.
Lake shore
> x hut. x boat. (no oars)
> in.
Boatkeeper's hut
> x net. take it.
> out. e. n. n. n. w.
Farm
> x windmill. in.
Farmhouse
> x farmer. (Kind with 12 endurance.)
> x wife. (Attractive with 5 endurance.)
> ask farmer about quest.
> ask farmer about man.
> ask wife about man. (Find Timothy in Boreliad.)
> ask wife about Boreliad.
> ask wife about Timothy. (Her secret love!)
> out. e. n.
Boreliad - outskirts
> x guard. (Tough with 17 endurance.)
> ask guard about Timothy.
> ask guard about quest.
> ask guard about Boreliad.
> n. n. in.
The Lucky Anvil
> x Timothy. (Unsettling with 17 endurance.)
> ask Timothy about man. (Piltdown Man is on an island; he gives you an oar.)
> x oar.
> ask Timothy about wife.
> out. e.
Boreliad - east
> x barrel. open it. take apple. x it.
> w. w.
Boreliad - west
This walkthrough will avoid entering the arena to the north. There is no profit to fighting the gladiators in there.
> read sign. ("ARENA: DO NOT ENTER UNLESS YOU WANT TO FIGHT!")
> in.
Blue saloon.
> x Cara. (Most beautiful with 5 endurance.)
> ask Cara about Timothy. ("slimeball")
> ask Cara about quest. (Wise man is on the very peak of a dangerous mountain.)
> ask Cara about Piltdown man. (It scares her.)
Return to the lake shore:
> out. e. s. s. s. s. s. s. w.
Lake shore
While you have the oar, using the boat is as simple as walking.
> w. w. w. n.
Ruined Monastery
> x man. (Huge with massive club and 25 endurance.)
> ask man about quest. (He gives you something.)
> i. x staff.
Head back to Boreliad central:
> s. e. e. e. e. n. n. n. n. n. n.
Boreliad - central
Make sure your sword is wielded before continuing. You may wish to save your game here.
> wield sword.
> n. n. n. n.
Mountain - base.
A skeleton with 15 endurance attacks you! Kill it with your sword. If you die, UNDO and try again. The O in "O:15/15" means Opponent.
> kill skeleton. (Repeat until it is dead.)
> u.
Mountain - sentinel
> x sentinel. put disc in slot.
> n. n.
Mountain - wall
> x holes. u.
Mountain - top
> x altar. x hole. put staff in hole.
With the staff in the altar's hole, a forcefield blocking the cave entrance to the north is removed.
> n.
Mountain - cave
> x man. (He has 100 endurance!)
Let's hear some of that wisdom:
> ask man about Piltdown Man.
> ask man about Cara.
> ask man about Timothy.
> ask man about Boreliad.
But this is all you need to do here:
> ask man about quest. (+100)
Wise Man gives you a cup of rainwater to heal your queen.
Then you are treated to some lyrics by Mike Oldfield and your final score.
*** Thanks for playing! ***
You will mostly be asking characters about various topics, but combat is possible too.
Mentioned:
Wield the sword as soon as you obtain it. The sword, oar, and staff are your only weapons. You can only wield one weapon at a time. The opposite of WIELD is UNWIELD, if for some reason you wish to fight barehanded.
Every character in the game has a current endurance and maximum endurance. Your endurance is only 15, so (in general) if you attack someone with greater endurance than 15, they're more likely to kill you than you them. However, many characters are passive and unarmed, so you can often vanquish opponents that look stronger than you. Also, you're the hero, so perhaps luck favors you?
Lost endurance can be regained over time. With every turn, there is a random chance that you will regain some of your lost endurance back. However, you can't just WAIT to get your endurance back; you have to be doing something a bit more active like walking around. Note that your opponents can also regain their lost endurance too, the same way.
I don't know any way to increase (or decrease) your maximum endurance.
You don't need to attack and kill anyone but the skeleton at the mountain base, and it attacks you on sight.
If you do attack someone, they now consider you an enemy and will start attacking you back as best they can, and they won't stop attacking you while you remain in the same location with them. There is no way to call off a fight except by retreating; no one follows you, but the combat will resume when you see them again. You cannot turn an enemy back into a friend or neutral character.
The general public ignores all combat. For example, if you attack and kill the guard at the Boreliad gate, no other guards arrive to help him or to persue you. If you attack and kill Timothy, no one in the Lucky Anvil reacts in any way.
If you like, use the arena to test combat. Note that you will not gain anything by killing gladiators or anyone else. The thrill of the combat alone is your only reward.
Killing random characters doesn't afford you anything. The farmer, for example, wields a sickle if you attack him, but the sickle isn't dropped when he dies. All dead bodies are removed immediately from the game by clouds of smoke. You don't gain any experience points.
Killing innocents or even attacking the Wise Man himself does not forefit your win. Even if the Wise Man is punching you, you can still ask him about the quest, and if his next punch doesn't kill you, he'll give you the cure for your queen.
If there are any magic words or combat cheats in this game, I never discovered any.
The response to INFO is:
This game is entirely inspired by the music of Mike Oldfield. I came up with the basic concept trying to put a story to the first part of the first Tubular Bells album.
It is not intended to be a rip-off, but a tribute. There are references to his music throughout, and a key quote is unlocked by completing the game.
The response to SCORE is:
In a total of several turns, you have achieved a score of your-score points out of a possible 100.
You current endurance is current-endurance out of 15.
Points are awarded as follows:
This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with
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