Cloud 
Cow 
Fairy 
Figurine 
Flowers 
Frog 
Horse 
Kite 
Lion 
Moon 
Mountain 
Owl 
Pedestal 
Scroll 
Snake 
Sun 
Tree 
Urn 
Wolf
The Temple of Shorgil is a Glulx interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2018 by Arthur DiBianca. It was an entry in IF Comp 2018 where it tied for 20th place.
In this game, you are a Pirothologist, ie: someone who studies the ancient Pirothians. You have discovered the Temple of Shorgil, built about 1600 years ago by the famous Kitral and dedicated to the legendary hero Shorgil. Records say at sunset on the equinox, the light will reveal what the temple guards, and you have all day to explore before that happens.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.
Portico
> about. x me. i. x lantern. x notebook.
> x pedestal. (1 depression)
> x figurine. take it. (Door opens.)
> e.
West End of Hall
New commands: MAP, MAP HELP, PEDESTALS, and LEGEND.
> map. map help. pedestals.
> x pedestal. (2 depressions.)
> x plaque. legend. (re: Queen)
> e.
Middle of Hall
> x pedestal. (4 depressions)
> e.
East End of Hall
New command: PLAQUES.
> x pedestal. (7 depressions)
> x plaque. (re: Gnome)
> w. w. n.
Blue Room (first)
> x pedestal. (1 depression)
> x plaque. (re: Boatman)
> put. (Nothing happens.)
> take. (North door opens.)
> n.
Blue Room (second)
The south door closes behind you!
> x pedestal. (1 depression)
> put. take. (West opens.)
> w.
Blue Room (third)
The east door closes behind you.
New command: P (as an abbreviation for EXAMINE PEDESTAL).
> x bird. x pedestal. (1 depression)
> take. (South opens.)
You now have 2 figurines.
> s.
Blue Room (fourth)
The north door closes behind you.
> p. (1 depression)
> put. take. (East opens.)
> e.
Blue Room (first)
The west door closes behind you.
So, we went counterclockwise through the blue rooms, saw a bird and acquired a second figurine.
> s.
West End of Hall
New commands: TAKE 2 or PUT 2.
> put 2. (South opens.)
> take 2. s.
Frog Room
New commands: SKETCHES and VIEW something.
> x frog. view frog.
> x pedestal. view pedestal.
> x figurine. view figurine. sketches.
> p. (1 depression)
> x plaque. (re: Frog)
For these doors, we'll need to sorta play leapfrog with the figurines.
> put. (West opens.)
> w.
Green Room (first)
> p. (1 depression)
> put. (South opens.)
> e.
Frog Room
> take. w. s.
Green Room (second)
> p. (1 depression.)
> put. (East opens)
> e.
Bronze Room
> x plates. p. (3 depressions)
> s.
Kite Room
> x kite. view kite. p. (1 depression)
> x plaque.
> take. (Door shuts!)
Now, if you put the figurine back, the door will open, but you want this figurine! The trick is to heed the story and WAIT. After twelve turns of waiting, the door will finally open!
> z. z. z. z. z. z.
> z. z. z. z. z. z. (Door opens.)
> n. w. n.
Green Room (first)
> take. s.
Green Room (second)
> take. e.
Bronze Room
You should now have three figurines.
> put 3. (East opens.)
> take 3. e.
Statue Chamber (Northwest)
> x lion. view lion.
> x plaque. (Lion's story.)
> p. (3 depressions.)
> put. (Eyes begin to glint.)
> s.
Statue Chamber (Southwest)
Lion rotates to face you.
> p. (3 depressions)
> put. (Eyes get brighter.)
> e.
Statue Chamber (Southeast)
Lion rotates to face you.
> p. (3 depressions)
> put. (Eyes bright. Door to northeast opens.)
> n.
Statue Chamber (Northeast)
When there's one figurine in the other three corners, the door in this corner opens.
Now gather up your figurines:
> w. take. s. take. e. take. n. n.
Silver Room
> p. (6 depressions.)
> w.
Cloud Room
> x cloud. view cloud.
> p. (1 depression)
> take. (North opens. You now have four figurines.)
> n.
Middle of Hall
> put 4. (North opens.)
> take 4. n.
Disk Room
> x disk. (Notch pointing up. No sketch?)
> p. (1 depression)
> x plaque. (On hilltop, hero turns west, southwest, north.)
> put. (The disk's notch points to up-right.)
The disk will continue to turn clockwise:
> z. z. z. z. z. (Now pointing left.)
> take. (The disk begins turning counterclockwise!)
> z. z. (Now pointing down-right.)
> put. (Now turning clockwise again.)
> z. z. z. z. (Now pointing up. North and east open.)
> take.
The notch does a counterclockwise full rotation over the next few turns, but the doors are uneffected. When the notch points up again, it will stop.
> e.
Urn Room
> p. (4 depressions)
> x urns. view urn.
For this door, put the figurines one at a time, not all at once:
> put. (East opens slightly.)
> put. (A bit more.)
> put. (A bit more.)
> put. (And opens all the way.)
> take 4. e.
Tree Room
> x tree. view tree. p. (4 depressions)
> x plaque. (re: Poet)
For this door, heed the poet's advice, putting four figurines at once, but taking them back one at a time.
> put 4. take. take. take. take. (East door opens.)
> e.
Cow Room
> x cow. view cow. p. (4 depressions)
> x plaque. (re: Farmer)
Again, follow the directions suggested by the story:
> put 3. take 2. put 3. take 2. take 2. (All doors open.)
> s.
Mountain Room
> x mountain. view mountain. p. (1 depression.)
> take. (You now have 5 figurines.)
> n. e.
Wolf Room
> x wolf. view wolf. p. (7 depressions.)
> x plaque. (re: Wolf)
> w. n.
Panel Room
> x panel. p. (5 depressions)
> x plaque. (re: Vendor)
Regardless of what number figurines you put on or take from this pedestal, it's the current number of figurines on the pedestal that determines what animal shows up next.
From 0 goes to bird; from 1 goes to cow; from 2 goes to fish; from 3 goes to frog; from 4 goes to horse; from 5 goes to lion.
From 0 figurines on the pedestal, do this:
> put 3. (Shows bird, but now that there's 3, frog will be next.)
> take 2. (Shows frog, but now that there's 1, cow will be next.)
> put 4. (Shows cow, but now that there's 5, lion will be next.)
> take 1. (Shows lion, but now that there's 4, horse will be next.)
> take 4. (Shows horse. North door opens. And you have all 5 figurines.)
> n.
Room of Four Panels
> p. (4 depressions.)
> x red. (urn)
> x blue. (key)
> x white. (moon)
> x green. (tree)
While any figurines are on the pedestal, the panel corresponding to the number will rotate. One figurine for rotating the white panel; two for red; three for green; four for blue. You want keys on all four panels and the blue panel already shows a key.
> put. (white key). take.
> put 2. z. z. z. (red key) take 2.
> put 3. z. z. (green key)
When all four panels are keys, a hidden plaque is revealed.
> take 3. x plaque. (re: Fairy)
Two stones in bronze, four stones in steel, eh? Remember that.
> s. s. w. w. w. n.
Steel Room
> p. (5 depressions)
> put 5. (East opens.)
> take 5. e.
Message Chamber (West)
The default message is "The child laughed heartily."
> p. (4 depressions)
The number of figurines on the west pedestal determines what the second half of the message is:
> put. ("The child pointed to a map.")
> put. ("The child burped loudly.")
> put. ("The child did not return." A door to the east opens slightly.)
> put. ("The child was amazed.")
> take 4. (The door to the east shuts.)
> e.
Message Chamber (East)
> p. (4 depressions)
Cycle through the possibilities here too:
> put. ("The farmer laughed heartily." The door opens slightly.)
> put. ("The frog laughed heartily.")
> put. ("The hero laughed heartily." The door shuts.)
> put. ("The queen laughed heartily.")
> take 4.
Review the Legend. You need to recreate the following four combos from the plaques without having two incorrect combos in a row:
Note that "The hero was amazed." (3 east, 4 west) requires 7 figurines, so you can't do that one yet.
From 0 on both pedestals, starting in East Chamber:
> put. ("The farmer laughed heartily"; door opens a little.)
> put 3. w. put. ("The queen pointed to a map"; door opens more.)
> e. take 2. w. put. ("The frog burped loudly"; door opens more.)
> put. e. take 2. ("The child did not return"; door opens fully.)
> n.
Room of Stars
> p. (1 depression)
> take. s. w.
Message Chamber (West)
> take 3. (You now have 6 figurines.)
Although the Silver Room now beckons, let's return to the lion statue first.
> w. s. s. s. e. s.
Statue Chamber (Northeast)
To get the lion to stop spinning, put 2 figurines in each of three of the corners. The lion won't face any corner that has two or more figurines on its pedestal.
> put 2. w. put 2. s. put 2. n.
Statue Chamber (Northwest)
> x lion.
The lion's back has a pattern of spots in a square: 1 spot, upper left; 2 spots, upper right; 3 spots, lower left; 1 spot, lower right. This suggests that something interesting may happen if you arrange seven figurines in the corners of this chamber that way. Hmmm.
> s. take 2. n. take 2. e. take 2. n.
Silver Room
> put 6. take 6. e.
Long Chamber (West)
> p. (3 depressions)
> x plaque. (re: Old man)
> e.
Long Chamber (East)
> p. (3 depressions)
> w.
Long Chamber (West)
The pedestals in these two rooms act like pans of pair of scales. When you put a figurine on one pedestal, it sinks and the other one goes up and quickly out of reach!
The trick is to put a figurine on a pedestal and wait until it reaches the floor. Then quickly, take the figurine back, put the figurine on the other pedestal, then put a second figurine onto the original pedestal so the two sides balance. Do this three times!
> put. z. z. take. e. put. w. put. (One on each!)
> put. z. z. take. e. put. w. put. (Two on each!)
> put. z. z. take. e. put. w. put. (Three on each! Doors open!)
> take 3. e. take 3. e.
Horse Room
> x horse. view horse. p. (7 depressions)
> x plaque. (re: Old woman)
> w. s.
Fairy Room
> x fairy. view fairy. p. (1 depression)
> take. (It won't budge!)
Do you remember the fairy's story from the Room of Four Panels? You need to put two figurines in the Bronze Room and four figurines in the Steel Room.
> n. w. w. s. w. w.
Bronze Room
> put 2.
> e. e. n. w. n. n. n.
Steel Room
> put 4.
> s. s. s. e. e. e. s.
Fairy Room
> take. (This works!)
> n. w. w. s. w. w.
Bronze Room
> take 2.
> e. e. n. w. n. n. n.
Steel Room
> take 4. (You now have 7 figurines!)
With seven figurines, you'll be able to access the rest of the temple. Let's start with what's past East End of Hall:
> s. s. e.
East End of Hall
> put 7. take 7. e.
Inner Chamber
New command: to wait for sunset, type SUNSET.
> x sun. view sun. x plaque. (re: Temple)
> sunset.
You find a note from Nylosian, gloating how he used external tools to bypass the puzzles entirely and took a gold statuette away.
*** You have explored the Temple of Shorgil ***
> undo
Oh, you can do much better than that. Horse Room, next:
> w. w. s. e. e. e. e.
Horse Room
> put 7. (South opens)
> take 7. s.
Room of Squares
> x squares. x marker.
Wolf Room, next:
> n. w. w. w. w. n. n. e. e. e. e.
Wolf Room
> put 7. (North opens)
> take 7. n.
Room of Swirls
> x swirls. x marker.
Message Chambers, next:
> s. w. w. w. w. n. e.
Message Chamber (West)
> put 4. e. put 3. (A secret door opens north of the west side!)
> take 3. w. take 4. n.
Unadorned Room (first)
> p. (Four depressions)
> put 4. (West opens)
If you take them back, the west door closes again.
> w.
Unadorned Room (second)
> p. (Two depressions)
> put 2. w.
Unadorned Room (third)
> p. (One depression)
> put. w.
Pillar Room (northwest)
> x owl. view owl. x pillar.
> x plaque. (re: Dream)
All five characters have given directions on other plaques: farmer, SOUTH; frog, NORTHEAST; old woman, SOUTHWEST; fairy, EAST; and boatman, NORTH.
Reproduce these directions on the Disk Room's disk!
> e. take. e. take 2. e. take 4. s. w. s.
Disk Room
> put. z. z. z. (pointing down)
> take. z. z. (pointing up-right)
> put. z. z. z. (pointing down-left)
> take. z. z. (pointing right)
> put. z. z. z. z. z. (pointing up. Hear a door open.)
> take.
> s. s. e. s. w. w. s.
Kite Room
Secret door opened in west wall!
> w.
Pillar Room (southwest)
> x flowers. view flowers.
> x plaque. (re: Flower-children)
Puzzle out that story later. Go next to the Statue Chambers:
> e. n. e.
Statue Chamber (four locations)
Reproduce the dot-pattern you saw earlier on the lion's back, starting from the northwest corner:
> put. s. put 3. e. put. n. put 2. (A secret door opens!)
Grab all the figurines and see where it goes:
> take 2. w. take. s. take 3. e. take. n. e.
Unadorned Room (fourth)
> p. (4 depressions)
> put 4. s.
Unadorned Room (fifth)
> p. (2 depressions)
> put 2. e.
Unadorned Room (sixth)
> p. (1 depression)
> put. e.
Pillar Room (southeast)
> x snake. view snake.
> x plaque. (re: Sorcerer)
Keep this story in mind and head back to the Room of Four Panels:
> w. take. w. take 2. n. take 4.
> w. n. w. n. n. e. e. e. n. n.
Room of Four Panels
Let's assume that the sorcerer's story is about setting the panels in the Room of Four Panels to items associated with the four people mentioned.
Starting with everything at keys:
> put. z. z. (White kite; the child had a kite.)
> put. z. z. z. (Red cow; the farmer's story was in the Cow Room.)
> put. z. (Green tree; the poet was under a tree.)
> put. (Blue scales; the old man had scales.)
A secret door opens to the east!
> take 4. e.
Pillar Room (northeast)
> x scroll. view scroll. x plaque.
You now know the proper order of the legend:
> legend.
With the legend in its proper order, reconsider the story of the flower-children that you read in the southwestern Pillar Room. Guess that the thirsty flowers stopped anywhere that water was alluded to anywhere in the hero's tale:
So let's do all that, and yes, you must place them in the legend's order:
> w. s. s. w. w. w. s. s. e. e. e. e.
Horse Room
> put.
> w. w. w. w. n. w. n.
Blue Room (first)
> put.
> s. s.
Frog Room
> put.
> n. e. s. e. s. w.
Statue Chamber (Northwest)
> put.
> e. n. w. n. n. e. e. e. e.
Wolf Room
> put 2.
> w. w. w. w. s. s. e. e.
Long Chamber (West)
> put. (You hear a door opening somewhere east)
> e. e.
Horse Room
A secret door has opened to the north!
> n.
Treasure Room
> x moon. view moon. sketches. (19 in total)
> x statue. x scroll. (Entire Legend of Shorgil!)
> x urns. x stones.
> x plaque. (re: Secret)
You may now use SUNSET anywhere.
> sunset.
(You recorded all 20 parts of the legend, and you made all 19 sketches! Well done!)
*** Congratulations! You have discovered the secrets of the Temple of Shorgil! ***
> notes
Characters contemporary to the protagonist:
Human and human-like characters in the Legend of Shorgil:
Animals in the Legend of Shorgil:
Ancient Pirothians that were mentioned by name:
- You can always SAVE, RESTORE, RESTART, or QUIT.
- You can move around with N, W, E, S.
- You can LOOK (L) or WAIT (Z).
- You can EXAMINE things (abbreviation X).
- You can TAKE or PUT a number of figurines (e.g., TAKE 1 or PUT 2).
- Type LEGEND to read the parts of the legend you have collected.
- Type SKETCHES to see a list of the sketches you have made.
- Type VIEW [name] to look at one of your sketches. (Type VIEW HELP for more info.)
- Type MAP (M) to check your map. (You can type PEDESTALS or PLAQUES to see other versions of the map. Type MAP HELP for more info.)
- Type INVENTORY (I) to see what you're carrying.
- Type BACKGROUND to learn a little about what brought you here.
- Type SUNSET in the Inner Chamber to wait for sunset.
There are nineteen sketches you can make. You don't need to make any sketches, but if you do, you get to VIEW them. The sketches are:
Also, note that the bird in the northwestern Blue Room is too small and vague to sketch.
Here are thumbnails of the sketches. Please play the game to view them in their original larger sizes.
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