Nine Lives is a Z-machine work of interactive fiction written with Inform 7 and is © 2015 by Elizabeth Heller (as "Merlin Fisher"). This was an entry for Ectocomp 2015 in its Le Grand Guignol division where it took 3rd place.
In this game, you play as a newly-dead housecat. Kittygoddess tells you have eight lives left. Kiss her to return to life, but your home is very dangerous to cats. When you have no lives left, Kittygoddess gives you a final choice.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the work.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of a work of interactive fiction. Please make an honest effort to play the work before reading this walkthrough.
Death's Chamber
> about. lives. (You have 8 lives left.)
> x me. (The goddess of cats tells you to kiss her to be restored to life.)
> x goddess. ask goddess about life. (You merely meow. Oh well.)
> kiss cat.
Playroom
> x basket. x cushion. get on cushion. sleep. (Not drowsy.)
> smell cushion. out. out.
The box is a quantum box, so sometimes you die when you enter it, and sometimes you don't. If you don't die right away, leave it and enter it over and over until you do die.
> x box. enter box.
*** You have died / You have not died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> x box. (It's flattened.)
> s.
Kitchen
> x fridge. open it. (can't)
> x freezer. x thing. smell thing.
> enter freezer. (The thing closes the door!)
Darkness
> z. z. z. (The thing strangles you with a tentacle.)
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
It's implied that the goddess ate the tentacled thing soon after you arrive.
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s.
Kitchen
> look in freezer. (Empty.)
> enter freezer. (The freezer shuts again!)
Darkness
> open freezer. (can't!)
> z. z. (You freeze!)
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s.
Kitchen
> x freezer. (firmly shut now)
> w. s.
Guest Bedroom
> x dog. smell dog.
> x catnip. smell catnip. (Ooo, trippy.)
Pinkroom
> x giraffe. hit giraffe.
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s. w. s.
Guest Bedroom
The catnip is gone.
> n. n.
Bathroom
Although you can enter the litterbox, you can't use it. Nor can you play with the toy.
> x cabinet. x toy. x sink.
> x litterbox. x litter.
> search litterbox. (A scorpion crawls out!)
> x scorpion.
> z. (Repeat waiting until it stings you.)
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
You can safely assume there's no longer a scorpion in the bathroom.
> s. e.
Back Hall
> x door. open door (can't)
> n.
Den
> x sigil. enter sigil.
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s. e. n.
Den
The sigil is covered by a new rug.
> rug. stand on rug. (no)
> x desk. x tome. g. (repeat looking at the tome until...)
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s. e. n.
Den
> x tome. (closed, chained, and locked)
> s. s.
Master Bedroom
> x robot. x bed. x blankets.
> hit robot.
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1)
Kittygoddess asks you to pick one of three new portals.
> x portal. (flowery, watery, or grassy?)
> x flowery. (You see a house.)
> x watery. (You see an alien world with liquid atmosphere.)
> x grassy. (You see a broad plain.)
Choose one portal to enter:
*** The End ***
> anykey
***FIN***
> anykey
Unfortunately, the AMUSING text can never be read, assuming it even exists. Your interpreter shuts down before you have any chance of typing the word.
Restart the game, and find the remaining deaths you didn't see the first time through.
Death's Chamber
> z. kiss cat.
Playroom
> s. e. n. d.
Basement
> x eyes. z. z. (Rats kill you.)
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s. e. n. d.
Basement
> x rat. eat rat. (Poisoned!)
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
You can safely assume the dead rat is no longer in the basement.
> s. e. s. w.
Master Bath
> x tub. x toilet. x offal. smell offal.
> eat offal.
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s. e. u.
Attic
> x coil. touch coil.
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1) kiss cat.
Playroom
> s. e. u.
Attic
I didn't find any 'death by scientist' despite the implied threat that staying here too long is dangerous.
> x scientist. x skylight.
> u.
Roof
I'm sure there's supposed to be a squirrel and a death-by-jumping here, but I assume a bug is here preventing both.
> x branch.
> jump —or— get on branch. (Null message)
> x squirrel. (It's not here.)
> meow. purr.
> cry —or— yowl —or— scream —or— sing.
> d. d. w. w. w.
Foyer
> x door. open door. (can't)
That's everywhere in the house. Time to use the secret death:
> yzzyx.
*** You have died ***
> anykey
Death's Chamber
> z. (+1)
That's all the ways to die that I found. If you feel like it, repeat some of the deaths from the prior session, or reuse YZZYX until Kittygoddess offers three portals and then enter one to end the game as before.
But this walkthrough will now end things in a more traditional way.
> quit.
This is the response to CREDITS:
Nine Lives was created by me, Elizabeth Heller, and submitted under the pen name "Merlin Fisher." You may distribute this game as you please, provided you charge no money for it and the form is not changed. Please no altering, selling, or mangling without my express written consent. kthx.
Thanks to Jason Guest for organizing EctoComp 2015 and judging all the entries, including this.
I hope you enjoyed it! Comments welcome at:
email redactedThis game is still in need of more beta testing. It was finished too late to recruit testers before the contest deadline. Please send me bug reports and/or tips on improvement, and your names will be splashed here with my gratitude all over them. It's nicer than it sounds, trust me. :)
Thanks to Graham Nelson and all the others who have worked on, updated, and maintained Inform 7. Without I7 this game could not have been written. In particular thanks to Emily Short for Basic Screen Effects and more.
Thanks to Andrea for suggesting the Schroedinger box trap. Thanks to David for preliminary testing.
All other endings are not final. Instead, you return to Death's Chamber.
Note, there are some buggy situations where you might get stuck:
This is the response to SCORE:
In that game you scored your-score out of a possible 8, in several turns, earching you the rank of your-rank.
Points are awarded as follows, but the point is delayed until you spend a turn in Death's Chamber:
There should be a 14th way of dying, by jumping from the roof, but there's a null response to JUMP there.
The known ranks are:
This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with
Ko-Fi is a way to send me small one-time donations. Every little bit helps, and thank you!