The Queen of Swords is a Z-machine work of interactive fiction written with Inform 6 and is © 2003 by Jessica Knoch. It was an exhibit at the 2003 IF Art Show where it was awarded a Best of Show ribbon.
In this one-room art piece, you play as a woman in a reserved room at the local library where you and your husband, David, will practise using electric fencing equipment. There's quite a lot of it, and you're not sure what order to put everything on or what connects to what. David, of course, will try to help.
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.
McIntire Meeting Room, Downtown Library
> i. drop bag. open bag.
You open the fencing bag, revealing a mask, a jacket, a body cord, an electric foil, a lamé, a glove, a plastron and a chest protector.
The plastron is first.
> x plastron. (goes on under everything)
> wear plastron.
The chest protector is second.
> x chest protector. (hooks behind like a bra)
> wear chest protector.
The jacket is third, but you need to put the body cord through its sleeve first.
> x jacket. (covers torso and arms; zips in front)
> x body cord. (2-prong connector to foil; alligator clip to lamé; 3-prong to floor reel; wire goes up sleeve and down back)
> show body cord to David. (Put two-prong connector into jacket sleeve.)
> unzip jacket.
> put two-prong into jacket.
> wear jacket. zip jacket.
The lamé is fourth, but you also need to know how the lamé, the body cord, and the floor reel all interact with each other.
> x lame. (metal vest; has D-ring in back)
> unzip lame. wear lame. zip lame.
> x floor reel. (has floor cord and hook)
> x floor cord. (floor cord connects floor reels to scoring box)
> x hook. x scoring box.
> attach clip to lame. attach three-prong to floor reel.
The foil is fifth.
> x foil. (has blade, bell guard, blue pistol grip, 2-prong receptacle)
> take foil. attach two-prong to foil.
The glove is sixth.
> x glove. wear glove.
The mask is last. Take it before attaching the floor reel's hook to the lamé's D-ring, but don't wear it until after the salute. (No, I didn't figure out the hook part on my own. That stumped me.)
> x mask. take mask.
> attach hook to D-ring.
> x David.
> salute. wear mask. fence.
*** You have won ***
This is the response to ABOUT:
Finally, thanks to Andrew Plotkin for his answers on raif and advice on his website. Oh, one final note: the game refers to a "lamé," but for simplicity's sake, you may type "lame." (It's still pronounced luh-MAY!)
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