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Heroic. Chivalrous. Rescuer of Damsels. Words you would like to use to describe yourself. Well, now is your chance to prove that you can, for today you are confronted by...
The Damsel and the Dragon
A tale of Mythical Creatures and High Romance
(c) 2000 Richard Bos
(Type 'about' for the usual wibble.)
Release 1 / Serial number 000414 / Inform v6.15 Library 6/7
Library
This is apparently somebody's personal library. The east and south walls are covered in bookshelves; against the north wall, between two curtained windows, stands a large desk. On the desk, a small computer sits in the light that falls, filtered to a soft, book-friendly haze, through the curtains. The only exit is a door in the west wall, which is otherwise bare except for a large painting.
A Damsel, who introduced herself as Elise, is here, in obvious Distress. "Oh," she says, "please, will you help me with my Dragon? It's been giving me so much trouble, and now it won't even turn off. Could you do that for me?"
>about
This is my entry for Jarb's Dragon competition. It's barely worth the title "Game" - hell, even the word "Vignette" would only glorify this one-puzzle, one- room, one-NPC joke - but hey, it's good and amusing practice. My next attempt will be a bit more substantial. Promise.
Still, this game contains a Dragon, a Damsel, a Castle, and a lot of Fantasy, so it should do very well, shouldn't it?
>x Elise
Beautiful, deep brown hair that reaches to the small of her back, eyes of glowing gold, a faultless complexion, and a completely vacant braincase: Elise is a textbook specimen of the species Damsel.
>x books
The shelves contain a most magnificent collection of books.
The east wall is all but invisible behind a great variety of styles and subjects, ranging from the inevitable dictionaries and other reference works, via a shelf or two of programming and computer books and another two of popular science, through the great classics - Shakespeare, Milton and Joyce as well as Dante, Kafka and Ceasar himself - to rows of detectives, adventure books, horror, and rather a lot of science fiction.
The south wall, however, is taken up by only one subject: fantasy. It's all here: from Tolkien and Eddison to McCaffrey and Holt, from Leiber and Pratchett (including a rare unsigned first edition of "Carpe Jugulum") to Moorcock and Peake. One anomaly catches your eye: a single volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, shelved incongruously between the books of Edgar Allen Poe.
>x painting
It's a masterpiece! The main subject is a mediaeval castle, perched high on a mountain top towering over sheer rock walls and narrow mountain paths, all turrets and narrow windows, blood-painted flags and rough, almost cyclopean walls; but what really gives the impression of Hye Phantasye is the incredible amount of detail in the background and the additional figures.
From the small army threading its way up a mountain path through a pass, its pennants (not, you notice, the same as those on the castle itself) flying in the biting wind against which the soldiers are battling their way forward while their vanguard is fighting a fierce and desperate struggle with a band of marauders; to the flocks of ravens, eagles and vultures - fighting one another yet ready to fall, as some have already done, on the dead and wounded below - against the backdrop of a wild, cloud-torn sky in which a Sun the colour of dark Bourgogne fails to illuminate a grey, misty Moon; to even the minutest details such as the eerie light streaming from a window in one of the towers, the savage creatures preying on the wildlife of the mountain forests (and, in one case, on an unfortunate traveller, strayed from his path), and the river in one of the gorges, a decripit, almost desolate village clinging to the little nourishment this disturbed water offers; everything is designed, and expertly executed, to paint a picture of a horrible, yet weirdly heroic, environment.
The painting is signed, you notice, in the bottom right corner: Mevrian.
>look behind painting
Behind a painting that size you'd expect a hidden safe, but all you find is bare wall.
>x desk
A beautiful mahogany desk stands against the North wall, between the windows. It is inlaid with the most careful, well-crafted walnut veneer you have ever seen outside of a museum, and a drawer is set in its front.
The only things on the desk at the moment are a small computer and a stack of papers.
>x papers
It seems to be a complete solution to "Pick Up The Phone Booth And Die", with maps and everything.
>x drawer
A simple yet functional drawer is set in the front of the desk. It is closed.
>open it
You open the drawer, revealing a Dragon Owner's Manual.
>x manual
A book claiming to be the "Dragon Owner's Manual".
>take it
Taken.
>read manual
Blech, who read manuals? Clerics. Wizard. Dorks. Certainly not heroes.
>x dragon
A small computer apparently called a "Dragon", which is connected to a small TV set and, through a power cord, to a wall socket. The TV's screen is blank, except for an OK prompt in the top-left corner.
The power switch appears to be broken.
>x cord
A power cord has been plugged into the back of the computer, and the other end into the nearest wall socket.
>x socket
An ordinary wall socket.
>turn off switch
You toggle the power switch. Nothing happens. Again. Nothing happens. Hm. Looking closer, you can see that the power switch has, in fact, broken off on the inside, and doesn't do a thing.
>type quit on computer
You type some text on the computer, which duly appears on the screen.
"Oh, come on," says Elise, "don't you think I tried that?"
>open computer
"Oh, don't worry, leave the repairs until tomorrow. If you could just turn it off, that'd be perfect for tonight."
>x window
The tall windows have been hung with gauze curtains. This way, light can get in, but not enough to discolour the books, and nobody can look in.
>open curtain
As you move to open the curtains, Elise says: "Please, don't open the curtains. It is better for the books to keep the light down a bit."
>x door
It's a plain wooden door. It is currently closed.
>ask Elise about dragon
"It's my dear Dragon," says Elise. "I use it to play games. I've just discovered adventures, but they're really difficult, you know. But I've had enough of it for tonight, so I tried to turn it off, but it wouldn't! Could you try to turn it off for me?
>ask Elise about adventures
"I was trying to solve this adventure game, but it's so hard, I gave up. Tomorrow, I'm going to try again, but I really think I'll need the solutions."
>ask Elise about library
"It's my father's library, really. I only come here to play games", says Elise, pointing at the computer.
>ask Elise about encyclopaedia
"Oh", says the damsel, laughing, "that's one of my father's gizmos. I don't think he ever got it to work, really."
>ask Elise about me
"You'd be my hero if you would deal with my Dragon!"
>ask Elise about herself
"Me? Oh, I'm just this damsel, you know, fooling around in here with my Dragon."
>take computer
"No, don't walk off with it," says Elise, "just turn it off!"
>hit computer
Well, yes, that would work, but I don't think Elise would be very happy with your "heroic" treatment of her Dragon.
>ask Elise about plug
"Oh, don't go all technical on me! I don't understand it anyway."
>pull plug
As you pull the plug from its socket, the screen, with a blip, goes blank. "My Hero!", Elise says, bouncing with joy. "My Rescuer! Now I can leave without worrying about my poor little Dragon. Oh, how can I ever thank you?"
*** You have proved yourself a Hero ***
In that game you scored 1 out of a possible 1, in 31 turns, making you a winner.
Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game, see some suggestions for AMUSING things to do or QUIT?
> amusing
Not really amusing, but:
Why Elise? Nobody knows. I just liked the name. I don't even know an Elise. I did briefly consider calling her Eliza, but rejected that as being a bit too obvious.
If I've misrepresented anyone's favourite micro, let me apologise here. I must confess to never having owned a Dragon myself; I downloaded the manuals from the 'net to make sure the thing had a power switch to begin with, but I'm sure I made a mistake somewhere.
Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game, see some suggestions for AMUSING things to do or QUIT?
> full
In that game you scored 1 out of a possible 1, in 31 turns, making you a winner.
The score was made up as follows:
1 Defeating the Dragon
1 total (out of 1)
Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, give the FULL score for that game, see some suggestions for AMUSING things to do or QUIT?
> quit
This transcript was created based on my walkthrough for The Damsel and the Dragon which I created for free for my generous patrons at Patreon. This transcript is also intended as an extra "Thank You" to those wonderful patrons. Please consider becoming a new patron and help me write more interactive fiction walkthroughs and extras like these!
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