Sardoria is an ALAN 2 interactive fiction game and is © 2003 by Anssi Räisänen. It was entered in the 2003 Annual Interactive Fiction Competition where it took 13th place.
You play as a young villager who is attempting to warn the king about an imminent attack at nightfall. The castle guards, not believing your tale, have imprisoned you in the castle's wine cellar. You must escape and get to the king!
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on version 1.0 of the game.
Note: ALAN doesn't permit multiple commands on one line as shown here; commands must be entered one at a time.
Wine Cellar
The opening puzzle, where you must search a ceiling to find a key, sets the tone for the rest of the game.
> x me. x bottles (or racks). x torch. x steps. x door.
> x ceiling. x floor. x cobwebs. take cobwebs. x walls.
> search ceiling. x key. take bottle. x it. x cork. u.
Wine Cellar (at the top of the steps)
> listen. x door. x keyhole. look through it. x steps. put bottle on steps.
> unlock door with key. open door.
Kitchen
Hmph. You're too busy to eat the soup, and you can't arm yourself with a knife, or even a fork.
> x panelled door. x kettle (or soup). x cupboards. open cupboards.
> x table. open drawer. x knives. x forks. x spoons.
> x saucepans. x lids. take lid. x pots. x ham. x string.
> turn pot. stand on pot. take lid. down. s.
Dining Room
> n.
Kitchen
Hmph again. The ham isn't edible, and I can't take the sword.
> throw lid at string. x guard. x sword. x shield. s.
Dining Room
> x twin doors. w.
> x table. x chairs. x cloth. look under it. x drawer. push it.
> x parchment. (The clues: the night, the wind, the wisdom.)
> close drawer.
> x arms. x paintings. x painting. x knight. x horse. x moonlight.
> look behind painting. x tiles. (The tiles: ring, eagle, arrow, hand, snake, eye, owl, quill, and sword.)
The connection between the parchment's hints and the tile markings requires a smidge of read-author's-mind. I would normally associate owls with wisdom or eagles with wind (see Domicile for an example of the latter).
You are meant to associate owls with the night, arrows with the wind, and quills with wisdom.
> push owl. push arrow. push quill.
> x dark doorway. e.
Dark Corridor (beyond the secret door)
> e.
A Crossing In The Dark Corridor
The reverse writing suggests to interpret the directions in mirror-form; in other words, "twice to the right, once to the left".
> e. touch wall. ("Thgir eht ot ecno, tfel eht ot eciwt")
> s.
A Crossing In The Dark Corridor, With Dripping Water
> listen. w.
A Crossing In The Dark Corridor, With A Current Of Air
> x current. s.
End Of The Dark Corridor
> x ladder. u.
The Wizard's Laboratory
Careful: DON'T LOOK at the window until the wizard has finished talking. You'll get moved into the window's location, and you'll miss the wizard's instructions.
> x wizard. x workbench. x ball. x red potion. x blue potion.
> ask wizard about red potion. take red potion.
> ask wizard about blue potion. take blue potion.
> x bookshelf. x books. x bed. look under bed. x table. x juice. take it. x staff. take it.
> ask wizard about juice. ask wizard about staff. ask wizard about castle.
> ask wizard about wizard. ask wizard about me. ask wizard about king.
> ask wizard about green potion. ask wizard about dust.
> x window.
A View To The Royal Garden
> x leaves. (or trees, flowers) x bag. x string. take bag.
> pour red potion on staff. take bag with staff. e.
The Wizard's Laboratory
> give bag to wizard. pour juice in blue potion.
The wizard instantly makes the potion of invisibility, applies it to you and instructs you to go through his door, which you do automatically.
Then, he wants you to go through three doors: green, then brown, then red. But he's wrong. Instead of green-brown-red, he should've said brown-green-red.
Southern End Of Red Corridor
> n.
Northern End of Red Corridor
You see: red door northwest, green door north, brown door northeast.
> ne.
Southwestern End Of Grey Corridor
> ne.
Northeastern End Of Grey Corridor
You see: green door west, red door north, and brown door east.
> w.
Eastern End of White Corridor
> w.
Western End of White Corridor
You see: red door northwest, green door west, brown door southwest.
> nw.
The Base Of The Tower
> u
The First Landing
> x gate. x boy. (1st, 4th, 6th holes indicated)
> x tubes.
> blow first tube. blow fourth tube. blow sixth tube. u.
The Second Landing
> x gate. x bird. x box. open box.
The box contains jeweled version of: fish, violin, flower, seahorse, egg, dragonfly, comb, turtle, trident, and dagger. I assume that the dragonfly is the correct one because that's the most likely thing that a songbird would eat.
> take dragonfly. put dragonfly in beak. turn dragonfly. u.
The Top Of The Tower
> x king. x bed. x windows. wake king.
*** Sardoria has been saved ***
This walkthrough is provided free of charge since I wrote this walkthrough prior to January 2015 when I began my Patreon account. I've since reformatted this walkthrough to use my currently preferred style. I hope you enjoy it!
I'm still creating new walkthroughs! 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.