The WadeWars Book II: Niksa is a Z-machine interactive fiction demo written with Inform 6 and is © 2000 by Jim Fisher. It's the very incomplete prequel to The WadeWars Book III: Askin. Yes, the trilogy is meant to be played in reverse numerical order; twisted reflections are a shared theme.
In this buggy fantasy demo, you play as Noric Gooddeed, a Viking. Your constant companion is E. Pinke Kim, an annoying lip-reading minstrel who sings about your every action. Crackling energy splits the air, and you see a strange man step out (then back into) the glowing doorway. Kim sings, "Odin has summoned you! Now enter the door!"
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 0 of the demo.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction demo. Please make an honest effort to play the demo before reading this walkthrough.
The mud beds are a 10 by 10 grid of locations. From Muddy Trail, you can go west seven times, then south to "The Nihtru Mud Beds (Parched, Crusted Rubber)"; you can go down from there to "Underground Tunnel (Of Parched, Crusted Rubber)" and vice-versa.
Snowy Hillside
> enter doorway. (Kim follows you.)
Maxxio's Pizza Palace/Closed Garage: Basement
"Odin" is pushing buttons on a huge box. A man on the floor needs heart pills. Odin steps through the glowing door.
> x man. enter door.
Odin's with a man who's drawing water from a well. A red dragon swoops in! The man runs for the forest, dropping a bandana. The dragon snaps up Odin in his beak and flies south.
Green Hillside
> x bandana. take it.
> x vial. take it.
> x bottle. take it.
> x well.
Don't pull the rope up yet.
> e. e.
Intersection
This village is barely sketched in. I'm guessing the street names are just placeholders (H for horizontal, V for vertical).
> n. s. s. n. e. e. e. s.
Entrance to Steam Baths
> x plaque. (The steam has anti-aging properties. Nothing may be taken in and out of the caves.)
> x troll. ("Magik")
> drop all. s.
Steam Baths
> x troll. ("Antimagik")
> d. w. w. w. w. w.
Bottom of Well
> x coin. take it. put it in bucket.
> w. w. w. w. u.
The Nihtru Mud Beds (Parched, Crusted Rubber)
You're now near the center of a 10-by-10 grid of mud beds all alike (except this one); see map 2. To get out of the mud beds from here, go north once, then east seven times.
> n. e. e. e. e. e. e. e.
Muddy Trail
The well is only a few steps east.
> e. e. e.
Green Hillside
> pull rope. take coin. put bucket in well.
Return to the steam bath entrance and get your stuff back:
> e. e. e. e. e. s.
Entrance to Steam Baths
> take all.
Return to the well:
> n. w. w. w. w. w.
Green Hillside
Head down the south path.
> s. s. s. s.
Side of Cottage
> x window.
You see Odin bound with rope in a large cauldron. An angry hag is cutting vegetables and adding them to the cauldron.
Kim reads the witch's lips and sings. She wants to defeat Wade Sibad, and found the power in the Rubber Beds of Niwh-Tru. She had to flee because of a bottle. She sent her dragon to punish the man who sold that power to Sibad, but because Odin let him escape the dragon, she will punish Odin. You need to rescue Odin.
> s. e.
Entrance to Cottage
CAUTION: If you open the gate, the dragon pulls you inside and you die three turns later. I don't know of any way to interact with the dragon and live.
> x cage.
> open cottage door. n.
Witch's Cottage
The witch points at you, her finger glowing red.
> open bottle. (The witch flees!)
And that's all you can reasonably do. You can't do anything with Odin. He says nothing, you can't untie him, the cauldron isn't implemented, and he doesn't follow you. If you return to the window, you still see the witch inside.
Mentioned:
There is, of course, no winning ending, since the game is very incomplete.
In this incomplete demo, I didn't find anything useful to do with any of the inventory items. Note that you're not allowed to take anything into (or out of) the Steam Baths.
Dishonorable mention:
This is the response to SCORE:
You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 100, in several turns.
But no points are awarded yet.
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