Crystal balls in Interactive Fiction

• 

  charming (2018)

  > x crystal ball (@ Pentacle Chamber)

  • As you examine the shimmering puddle, you realize to your horror that it is the crystal ball, melted!
  • The crystal ball has completely melted into a silvery liquid.
  • A perfect sphere of shimmery aether and crystal clear dragonglass, with an inner light that moves and shifts.

• Chronicle Play Torn (2004)

  > x crystal ball (@ Bedroom)

  It is polished piece of crystal about the size of a human head.

• 

  Dragon Flies Like Labradorite (2011)

  > x crystal ball (@ Merchant Guy's Specialty Minerals and Archery Supplies)

  Unless you are sorely mistaken, this crystal ball bears no enchantments.

• Lazy Gods of Earth (2002)

  > x crystal ball (@ Darkness)

  • A large crystal ball sits atop a golden pedestal. Gazing into it you see two men and a woman, playing on a beach, making a sand castle. The figures are tiny but they look very familiar. From above, the sand castle they have built looks oddly like a padlock. One of the men, wearing a black swimsuit, places a small rod in the padlock and twists. Everything goes black for an instant, then the image shows a lifeless plain stretching endlessly under a gray sky.
  • A large crystal ball sits atop a golden pedestal. Gazing into it you see a lifeless plain, stretching in all directions underneath a steel-gray sky.
  • A large crystal ball sits atop a golden pedestal. Gazing into it you see a luxurious garden floating above a green plain. Tall trees grow in the garden and you can make out small, bright specks of color moving near them - maybe birds or butterflies.
  • A large crystal ball sits atop a golden pedestal. Gazing into it you see an underwater view. Brightly colored fish swim lazily through the clear water.
  • A large crystal ball sits atop a golden pedestal. Gazing into it you see a lush forest. Every now and then bushes and tree branches move, but you can't see any animal life.
  • A large crystal ball sits atop a golden pedestal. Gazing into it you see a chain of mountains, at the edge of the plain. The peaks look tall and forbidding and their tips are coated in white.
• 

  Lovely Assistant: Magical Girl (2020)

  > x crystal ball (@ Your bedroom)

  • [1st time:] You peer into the depths of the crystal ball and, to your surprise, an image starts to materialize before your eyes. You see the head of an older woman with glowing yellow eyes and long wavy black hair tucked under a colorful head kerchief. "You have summoned the spirit of Madam Mugumba the All-Knowing," she intones in a thick Transylvanian accent. "I see all and know all! In your quest, you may encounter problems which seem insurmountable! But know that you have the knowledge of Madam Mugumba at your side! You may ask me any question... and I shall answer!"

    What luck! Madam Mugumba helped Mugwort design many of the strange architectural oddities and bizarre traps of the mansion before she passed over to the spirit realm. If you get stuck, you may be able to ask her for hints! Ask Madam Mugumba for hints by typing "Ask crystal ball about X".

  • [else:] The wizened but kindly face of Madam Mugumba appears. "Ask and ye shall know, child!" she intones.
• 

  Napier's Cache (2020)

  > x crystal ball (@ Workshop)

  About six inches in diameter, this heavy globe is your master's crystal ball. You eye it nervously.

• Rippled Flesh (1996)

  > x crystal ball (@ Fortune Room)

  • You see a bunch of freaks drinking blood from glasses.
  • You see a yourself walking through a maze of wardrobes!
  • You see some punks walking in an undetermined room.

• To Catch A Dragonfly (2011)

  > x crystal ball (@ Junk room)

  The large globe appears to be made of glass, and is quite solid.

• The Wizard's Apprentice (2013)

  > x crystal ball (@ The Study)

  • Crystal balls are commonly used for scrying, a rather advanced form of divination. The idea is that one can look at a reflective surface to see something from a remote location. How far away you can see depends on the strength of the enchantment. Rubbing it causes it to deactivate. When you look at it, you can see an image, distorted along the curvature of the crystal ball, of you looking at the crystal ball.
  • You see your reflection distorted along the curvature of the crystal ball.

• Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it (2011)

  > x crystal ball (@ Walled quadrangle)

  Escher might have contemplated one of these.

• Default response instances

  • The Crystal Palace (2011): small crystal ball @ attic.