Tapestries in Interactive Fiction

Advent Door (2020)

> x northwest tapestry (@ An Octagonal Room)

The northwest tapestry shows a gathering of elegant gentlefolk in an elegant ballroom. Skirts whirl and tailcoats swing in the dance. But outside, seen through the tall windows, flames rise against the night.

> x northeast tapestry (@ An Octagonal Room)

The northeast tapestry shows a high tower of golden stone silhouetted by a setting sun. The tower has neither door nor window, and no banner flies above it.

> x southwest tapestry (@ An Octagonal Room)

The southwest tapestry shows a castle of golden stone on a distant hill. Dark tents are encamped at the wall; they wreath the scene in dirty smoke. Oddly, the castle seems to have no front gate or door.

> x east tapestry (@ An Octagonal Room)

The eastern tapestry shows a ballroom in disarray. Servants carry hastily-packed bags through the room, pursued by battered soldiers. The walls are bare and windowless.

Augmented Fourth (2000)

> x west wall tapestry (@ Upper Balcony)

The tapestry hangs over the entrance to the volcano shaft and portrays the massive visage of the current King Goosen.

A Beauty Cold and Austere (2017)

> x sumptuous tapestry (@ Solar)

This is a beautiful tapestry, consisting of several mathematical symbols woven together in an intricate pattern.

The Chinese Room (2007)

> x tapestry (@ Church)

A monumental effort. It must have taken weeks of work to weave such a weight of white.

Citizen of Nowhere (2019)

> x tapestries (@ Inside the Wooden Shack)

Various tapestries with Middle Eastern and Indian designs are hung from the walls.

Clusterflux (2019)

> x thin tapestries (@ Second Floor Bedroom)

These aren't tie-dyed, but they still have quite a psychedelic flavor. The designs are artistic prints of figures like marching ceremonial elephants and stylized gazelles.

Crocodracula: The Beginning (2020)

> x tapestry (@ Gallery)

The tapestry depicted [random scene]. Most of the details have rotted away.

The scene is randomized at start of play. An example of a scene is "a girl in a billowy dress conversing with a dour-faced older woman".

Dr Who and the Ribos Operation (2017)

> x tapestries (@ Entrance to Treasure Chamber)

Hunting scenes, not to your taste at all.

Eat Me (2017)

> x tapestry (@ Eastern Tapestry)

Never were battles fought with gore and glory more than the battle threaded into this tapestry. Beheaded knights heaped high as hills, fools to have sworn their fealty to a traitor queen. Fancied herself a sorceress, thought that she'd hold the castle with a charm, as though mortal enchantments could entrap a race older than human blood. She's flown there, in the tapestry's corner, upon a chariot, expelled by the same hosts she'd sought to make her slaves. Ignorant witch, shame even to the lowly title witch. She might have ruled a hundred years, but centuries slip through this castle quicker than sands in a glass.

> x tapestry (@ Western Tapestry)

All larders attract vermin, and the more well stocked the larder, the more vicious the vermin. You'd never fathom what waves were repulsed from this castle, what rodents swarmed the walls, until one midnight when the chimes were ringing came the mouse king with his seven heads to the vanguard. He'll die forever in this tapestry, slain by a golden virge in nobler combat, by a truer monarch, than vermin ever deserved to fight. Judge for yourself, darling, the portrait's faithfulness, how excellent its threads capture such fey beauty.

The Enchanted Castle (2019)

> x tapestry (@ Stairway)

The tapestry is finely crafted out of the best fabric at the time of the king.

The Erudition Chamber (2003)

> x tapestry (@ War Room)

The tapestry shows the legendary Battle of Barnet, the decisive and final blow to the ancient House of York. As the legend goes, there was a thick fog covering the field as the armies prepared for battle and they badly misjudged each other’s position resulting in battle lines overlapping on each side. It is generally thought by today’s historians that this fog may have indeed changed the outcome of the battle had it stayed afield, but alas a stiff wind blew in from the north, clearing the mist and spelling the doom of everyone who wore the colors of York save one. Richard of Gloucester was the only man to escape with his life.

Soon after, being virtually unopposed, the Lancastrians took a firm hand to the Kingdom and turned their greedy eye toward France. The rest is, as they say, history. Richard fled north to more familiar country and it was his grandson who later founded the Maester’s Keep. England, in the name of Empire, soon conquered all the known world. From Russia to the north of Africa they rule without question and have for near on five hundred years now.

Escape from the Arboretum (2002)

> x tapestry (@ in a church)

The tapestry is large and ancient and firmly attached to the wall.
It depicts a scene of a biblical temple with a trader hawking his wares.
Strange arcane symbols border the scene.
[if unpushed:]You are aware of a slight waft of damp air from behind the tapestry.
[else:]You can taste the dampness in the air from the opening leading downwards.

Foo Foo (2016)

> x faded tapestry (@ Inside Feckless Pawn)

It's a picture of a rat getting speared by a human. Possibly religious, definitely weird.

The Holy Grail (1989)

> x tapestries (@ Bedroom)

In the corner of one tapestry is a label - "ACME TAPESTRY COMPANY."

King Arthur's Night Out (1999)

> x tapestries (@ Entrance Hall)

The tapestries depict great battles and stuff. You could spend hours looking at them, but right now you only want to get to the pub.

The King of Shreds and Patches (2007)

> x van der Wyck's tapestries (@ van der Wyck's Bedroom)

These hangings are well-made and pleasantly patterned in their way, but hardly make a bold statement. Much like, you are beginning to suspect, their owner -- at least to the eyes of the outside world.

> x left tapestry (@ Barker's Entry Hall)

This tapestry depicts a group of hunters gathered around the corpse of a pure white unicorn that they have apparently just felled. Bright blood dribbles from an ugly gash on the unicorn's side, and a cruel-looking man is stepping forward armed with a gleaming silver dagger, apparently to administer the coup de grace. The subject matter of the piece is not that unusual, but this one is executed with a cruelly intense attention to detail that sets it apart from the usual stylized depictions of the hunt.

> x right tapestry (@ Barker's Entry Hall)

This tapestry depicts a knight and a beautiful young damsel in white bowing down before an altar. You want to see it as a portrait of Christian piety, but the details are all off. The knight's right hand seems to hold the girl much more tightly than he needs to, and the altar is crenelated in odd patterns that look almost like tentacles. And why does the knight's left hand seem to be reaching for the wicked-looking knife that gleams in his belt?

> x additional tapestries (@ Barker's Entry Hall)

The tapestries that cover virtually every inch of exposed wall are as finely-made as the rugs on the floor. The brilliant colors that make up their abstract designs glint and flicker in the dim light. Mixed in with the solids are gold and silver threads, even occasional pearls and precious stones.

> x huge tapestry (@ Chamber of the King)

A huge tapestry depicting a stylized but vivid mythological scene completely covers the north wall of the chamber. A Greek ship ploughs through stormy seas. On one side of it is a churning whirlpool; on the other, a vile, amorphous, tentacled beast emerges from a deep fissure in a sheer, chalky cliff face. You remember the Doctor Faustus manuscript and its mention of the legend of Scylla and Charybdis.

> x bright tapestry (@ Byward Upper Floor)

This large, bright tapestry shows a panorama of an idyllic English village on a perfect autumn day. Men thresh wheat with smiling faces, women cook and wash and gossip, and children toss a ball about. One woman in a bottom corner catches your eye, for she seems somehow separate from the rest of the village's healthy life.

The Lost Islands of Alabaz (2011)

> x tapestries (@ Throne Room)

The tapestries are deep, royal blue, the same color as the flag of Alabaz.

Muggle Studies (2012)

> x tapestries (@ Gryffindor Tower)

Tapestries from floor to ceiling, depicting shifting and ever-changing scenes of battle and bravery.

Old King Nebb (2020)

> x tapestries (@ Nebb's Room)

Hanging untidily over the walls, they are a bit jumbled, but it seems that the tapestries depict scenes in the life of a long-bearded man. In some he sits in a red throne, in others he crouches in a cave, and in still others he is surrounded by the snouts, claws, hides, tails, and wings of peaceable beasts.

Save the Cheshire Cat! (2014)

> x tapestry (@ Back section of the fur coats shop)

Nothing of interest.
Concealed behind the tapestry of the north wall of the room, you can see a secret door.

Several Other Tales from Castle Balderstone (2020)

> x tapestry (@ Master Bedroom)

The tapestry depicts the Battle of Noyes, albeit in highly romanticized manner. The towers of the Château are visible above the trees, though in fact the forest of Noyes is miles away from the castle. Further, the forces of the (former) Marquis Semix and the bandit captain Elandrique as woven here are shown to be evenly matched; in truth, Elandrique was hopelessly outnumbered, and some contemporaneous sources report that she offered surrender.

Shades of Gray: An Adventure in Black and White (1992)

> x curtain (@ Castle Great Hall)

The curtain is actually a section of the Bayeux tapestry, which depicts the Norman invasion of Britain.

Take (2016)

> x tapestries (@ Agora)

Autumnal shades of paisley or whatever. You're half impressed, half wondering whether they'd look right on an actual floor.

Tapestry (1996)

> x tapestry (@ White Room)

A large, intricately woven tapestry which depicts three tableaus on three different panels.

Thorfinn's Realm (1999)

> x tapestries (@ Great Hall)

Though darkened with the age, you can make out what seem to be various battle scenes; riders on horses, fallen warriors, men with swords exchanging blows.