After losing control of your car during a blizzard in the mountains of British Columbia, you make your way to rundown shack and sleep. You wake up elsewhere and soon encounter a mouse, a pair of drawing compasses, a tin robot, a pirate monkey, and a pocketwatch — all human-sized, alive, drinking tea, and telling stories. They need you to lead them away from the Darkness.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Version 1.0, Serial number 990930-21 of the game.
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.
> open wallet. x license. x loonie. x bill. x quarter.
> take car key.
> look. take phone.(no signal, retracted antenna)
> x lever. x handbrake. x gearshift. x steering lever.(unattached)
> x glove compartment. open it.
> take flashlight. x tape. x papers. close compartment.
> put wallet and house keys in jeans pocket.
> put cell phone in jacket pocket.
> close jacket. out.
Outside your Car
> close car. x car. x snow. x trees.
> unlock trunk. open trunk. x spare tire. close trunk.
> u. u. u.
Still further up the road from your car
> x gap. in.
Outside Shack
> x shack. x plywood. x bell. in.
Shack
> close outer door.
> x lamp. x table. x fireplace. x chair.
> x box. x mouse. x compasses. x robot.
> x monkey. x pocketwatch.(stopped at 2:14)
> in.
In the dark / Kitchen
> turn on flashlight.
> x oven. open it.(empty)
> x sink. x cupboard. open it.(empty)
> turn off flashlight. out.
Shack
> sit on chair. sleep.
Panelled Room
> forward. left. right.
Candlelit room
> sit. yes. x mouse. x my teacup. x teapot. x Fugit.
Fugit tells a story, then gives you a stone.
> x stone. x Alethea.
Alethea tells a story, then gives you a wineglass.
> x wineglass. x monkey. drink tea.
Croatoan tells a story, then gives you a canteen.
> x canteen. x Taro.
Taro tells a story, then gives you a sewing needle.
> x needle.
The mouse tells a story, then gives you a leaf.
> x leaf.
Assemble your present into a homemade compass:
> open canteen. pour water into wineglass.
> put leaf on water. rub needle on stone.
> put needle on leaf.(The needle points north.)
The mouse says to head north through the woods.
> stand. n.
Panelled Room
The mouse says the Darkness has awakened!
> n.(You may need to go north more than once.)
Hall of Time
The pocketwatch is home.
> enter blue door.
Garden
The robot is home.
> x pond. x lantern. nw.
Outside Teahouse
The robot will stay here.
> in.
Ship in a Bottle
The monkey is home.
> n.
Neck of the Bottle
> in.
Cave
The compasses will stay.
> e.
Outside a Derelict House
The mouse is home and puts a silver ring on your finger.
> x ring. x house. in.
Outside your Car
> enter car.
Inside your car
> put car key in ignition. turn car key.
You're on your way home. The credits roll.
Extras
Artwork
These are thumbnails of the artwork in the game. Please play the game to see this artwork in their actual sizes. Not shown here are background patterns (blue-and-black, white-and-yellow, light brown).
Six Stories logo
Tela Design logo
Side rearview mirror (prologue)
British Columbia mountain (prologue)
British Columbia road (prologue)
Nightfall (prologue)
Snow-covered road (prologue)
Truck's headlights (prologue)
Dashboard glows dimly green (prologue)
Inside your car
Your flashlight
Your insurance papers
Your spectacles
Your wristwatch
Your house keys
Your car key
Your wallet
Your driver's license
Your money
Your cellphone
Outside your car
On the road
Outside the shack
A bell with a card
An armchair
In the dark
A swirl of colors
A panelled room
Two toys: a pirate monkey and a robot
A ceramic teacup
A Japanese teapot
A starry night sky
White mountains (1st story)
A smooth stone, dark and silvery
Yellow mountains (2nd story)
A wineglass
The ocean (3rd story)
Toy robot's face (4th story)
A sewing needle
A forest clearing (5th story)
A small green leaf
The Hall of Time
A Japanese garden
Outside a teahouse
Aboard a ship in a bottle
At the bottle's neck
In a dark cave
Outside a derelict house
TADSVISION STEREO logo
Characters
Mrs. Wilkinson is an elderly grey mouse.
Alethea is a pair of drawing compasses.
Croatoan is a monkey pirate.
Fugit is a pocketwatch.
Taro is a sushi robot.
A nurse greets you if you wake up in the hospital.
Mentioned in the stories:
Jack was the son of an English captain and a wealthy Jamaican merchant's daughter. He climbed mountains, looking for something.
A young woman on the moon gifts Jack with the stone.
Two lovers who lived forever apart, joined only in dreams.
The monkey's friends all left for jobs at sea.
Men in the tavern got the monkey drunk, and he woke on a ship.
An old man freed a white crane from a hunter's snare. The crane returns to the old man and his wife as a little girl, skilled at weaving.
A bitter goblin once built a wall around his forest clearing that kept out everyone, including summer.
A wood nymph invited the goblin for tea both before the wall was built and after the goblin tore the wall down.
Mentioned elsewhere:
The Darkness is something horrible that your companions in the candlelit room are eager to avoid.
The Mounties found you, the nurse tells you, if you wake up in the hospital.
Credits
This is the response to CREDITS:
[Six Stories logo]
Words, pictures, sound, music, programming and production: N.K. Guy
The Text Adventure Development System: Michael J. Roberts
Voice of Taro the Robot: Ralph Alfonso
Voice of Croatoan the Monkey Pirate: Steve Daniels
Voice of Alethea the Compasses: Cathryn France
Voice of Fugit the Pocketwatch: John Guy
Voice of Mrs. Wilkinson the Mouse: Crystal Heald
Opening narration: N.K. Guy
Testing: Liza Daly
David Dyte
Iain Merrick
Michael J. Roberts
<DaN sH10v!t2>
Special thanks: David Dyte for puzzle generosity.
Volker Blasius, David Kinder and GMD for the IF Archive.
Artwerks Design, Nettwerk Productions and Nettwerk Management
for kind use of gear — in particular, Tim Oberthier, Mark Jowett,
Geoff Goddard, John Rummen, Ric Arboit, Terry McBride.
Iain Merrick with Andrew Pontious for HyperTADS,
Chris Nebel for TADS for Mac,
Andrew Plotkin for MaxTADS, Stephen Granade for WinTADS, David Kinder for
TADS for Amiga and Bob Newell for TADS for Linux.
Neil deMause, Stephen Granade and Mike Roberts, for several lines of helpful code.
The Vancouver Maritime Museum.
Christina Dunkley, Armand Sebris, Catherine McLaren and Tracy Harvey.
Location photography: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Cypress Bowl Provincial Park, BC, Canada
Mount Seymour Provincial Park, BC, Canada
Richmond, BC, Canada
Nitobe Gardens, University of British Columbia, Canada
Osoyoos, BC, Canada
Whistler, BC, Canada
Nek Chand’s Rock Garden, Chandigarh, India
Somewhere near Leh, Ladakh, India
Black Rock City, Nevada, USA
Death Valley National Park, California, USA
For Gwyn Jones
1936-1997
Endings
There are two endings:
You return to your car with the silver ring and drive home. This is the winning ending.
The Darkness catches up to you and you wake up in the hospital. The nurse says the Mounties found you. This is the losing ending.
Inventory
a white T-shirt, a heavy sweater, a red ski jacket, a pair of blue jeans, a pair of winter boots, metal-framed spectacles, a digital watch, ski gloves and a woolly toque. You're wearing them all.
Leave them all on. It's too cold to remove any clothing. If you take your spectacles off, you can't read anything including your wristwatch because you're far-sighted.
Both your jacket and pants have pockets. Your jacket pocket is empty, but you have house keys and a wallet in your jeans pocket.
The jacket is unzipped. You should close it before going outside.
a car key. It's in the ignition key switch of your car.
It locks and unlocks the car door and the car's trunk.
When you get back to your car, put the car key back in the ignition, then turn the car key while wearing the silver ring to start your car.
house keys. They're in your jeans pocket.
Leave them in your pocket.
a wallet. It's in your jeans pocket.
If you open your wallet, you can examine what's inside: a driver's license, a loonie, a ten dollar bill, and a quarter. But neither the wallet nor its contents are used in any puzzles.
a cell phone. It's on the seat inside your car.
There's no signal.
a steering column lever. It's on the seat inside your car.
Leave it where it is.
a flashlight. It's in your car's glove compartment.
You can turn it on for light to see in the unlit kitchen, or you can use the lamp instead.
a cassette tape. It's in your car's glove compartment.
Leave the tape in the glove compartment.
some insurance papers. They're in your car's glove compartment.
Leave the papers in the glove compartment.
a lamp. It's on the table in the shack.
You can use its light to see in the unlit kitchen. Or use the flashlight if you have it.
a wooden box. It's on the table in the shack.
Leave it where it is. You can't open it. If you have it when you sleep, you no longer have it when you find yourself in the panelled room.
your teacup containing some tea. In the candlelit room, Mrs. Wilkinson gives it to you if you answer yes when she asks if you'd like a cup of tea.
Feel free to smell, drink, or ignore the tea.
a blue-black stone. Fugit the pocketwatch gives the stone to you after he tells his story.
a crystal goblet. Alethea the compasses gives this wineglass to you after she tells her story.
Open the canteen and pour its water into the goblet.
a canteen containing some water. Croatoan the monkey pirate gives this canteen to you after he tells his story.
Open the canteen and pour its water into the goblet.
a small leaf. Mrs. Wilkinson the mouse gives this leaf to you after she tells her story.
Put the leaf in the goblet of water, then put the magnitized needle on the leaf.
a needle. Taro the robot gives the needle to you have he tells his story.
Rub the needle on the stone to magnitize it, then put the needle on the floating leaf. The needle will turn to point north. You can now use your makeshift compass to escape the Darkness.
a silver ring. Mrs. Wilkinson puts this ring on your finger when you arrive outside the derelict house.
Leave the ring on. While you wear it, you can start your car again; see car key.
