*** THE BLOODY DOOR TO DELOS *** *A CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-DUNGEON ADVENTURE* by Mary Ezzell ******** Here is something new! - a public- domain text adventure which can be played on * ANY COMPUTER! * Because it runs as a TEXT FILE under your OWN text editor. You just use the 'Search' function of your editor to search for your choice. The format to enter is GO-YOUR-CHOICE. (If your editor can't find it by 'searching forward', try searching backward.) To: Search for GO- Begin play START-GAME Read more info INFO GO-INFO * GO-INFO This story is copyrighted by me, Mary Ezzell, September 1986. You are welcome to copy this story for your friends, upload it to Bulletin Boards, etc. Or to adapt the traps to use in your own FRP dungeon. Just don't make mass reprints or sell it or use it for any commercial purpose without my permission. All the files for this game will be named DOOR.PT1, DOOR.PT2, etc. If you don't have all the files, or if you would like to read other stories of mine, please write to: Mary Ezzell 1805 - 14th St, # 1502 Boulder, CO 80302 P. S. I can't get E-Mail! Please write by the Post Office. And please enclose stamps for reply, otherwise I can't promise to reply. Happy gaming to you! GO-START-GAME * GO-START-GAME While hiking in the American Rockies, you notice an odd, pointed Hill covered thickly with old, twist-rooted pines. The ground ferns which grow in the lichen-covered rocks are unusually green (especially for so late in the summer). The air is strangely clear around the Hill and seems to shimmer - almost like heat waves, except that near the Hill it feels much COOLER than the surrounding meadows. From the top of the Hill you see a thin, blue column of smoke rising. But instead of slowly spreading in the air like smoke, it just goes up and vanishes - like steam. As you climb the Hill to investigate, you hear faint noises coming from inside(!) the Hill. Rhythmic noises, tapping... At the top you find the smoke and the noises are both coming from a tall, narrow crevice (taller than YOU are!) in a rock that sticks above the soil of the hill. The smoke smells of honey, spices, hay and flowers ... and of something like pipe tobacco, but MUCH nicer.... Very slowly and carefully you step into the crevice - but not slowly enough! The debris was spread over a thin netting that suddenly "gives" - and you fall (in a shower of fragrant rotted leaf-mold and pine needles) to land in dusty dimness far below! Luckily your fall is broken by a pile of pine-wood shavings. Through the swirling dust, you see that you are in an underground chamber, partly excavated and supported by timbers, partly natural gray flinty rock. All around there seem to be faces! Strange, funny, distorted, shrunken, little faces.... Knotty little faces.... Blinking, you see that the faces are all carved on objects hung on the wall, or piled in boxes or heaps. Meerschaum pipes with faces on them, big beer mugs with faces on them, cookoo clocks with faces, bed-steads with faces, cross-bows and long-bows with faces.... Dust is swirling, all of the clocks are ticking, their cookoos peeping and pendulums swinging in all different rhythms. The 'tapping' noise is coming from behind a swinging door (made of shutters), which is also swinging from the vibration of the whole place. Suddenly the tapping stops and the door swings open and a little Gnome trots in. He is wearing a carpenter's apron and carrying a chisel in one hand and a half-carved cross-bow in the other. He trots all around the pile of shavings you are in, staring at you. Then he falls down on his knees and starts to pray! "Oh, thankee, thankee, Lord Vulcan, thankee! This 'un he looks just about right, thankee Sir! Very well 'e will do to decorate me new cross-bow, thankee, very well! So young and strong too, 'twill be a bow to last many years aweel, thankee!" To: Search for GO- Jump up and run away JUMP-AND-RUN Explain that you do not want to be a face on a cross-bow EXPLAIN GO-JUMP-AND-RUN * GO-JUMP-AND-RUN You don't get very far! Muttering about the name of Vulcan, the Gnome grabs a measuring tape from his belt, twirls it like a lasso, and ropes you with it! The thin tape is obviously magickal! The Gnome lets go of it, and it keeps wrapping itself till you are tightly bound as in a strait-jacket. To: Search for GO- Continue game GNOME-SAYS GO-EXPLAIN * GO-EXPLAIN GO-GNOME-SAYS * GO-GNOME-SAYS "Tk-Tk," the Gnome clicks his tongue, pulls out a new tape-measure (in a carved wood case with a face on it) and starts to measure your face. "Weel, tis too bad, but fortunately ye have no say in the matter. Tis me hereditary Troll- Hill ye have fallen into (me being 1/3 Troll on me Mother's side, ye see). And by Delian Law whoever falls into me Troll-Hill falls into me clutches, ye see. Tis all according to Law writ in the Domesday Book! So befell it to all the faces ye see here, ye see, mighty kings and princes and programmers they were in the strange Techno world above. But they fell into me power, ye see, so here they be as ye see them, em-bedded and em-bowled and em-bowed and em- mugged!" "But I don't want to be, er, em- bowed!" you protest. "Tis no choice ye have! Tis mine ye are by the Domesday Book! -- Unless ye be foolish enough to choose t' Ordeal!" "What is the Ordeal, then?" "By Delian Law all who fall into me Troll-Hill must have one small chance t' escape me power. 'Tis tax me family must pay to the Delian for power of t' Troll-Hill, belike. All who fall into me domain I may use, except for those few fools who choose t' try t' Ordeal o' t' Bloody Door!" "What happens to them?" "Eaten, most-like! Or lost in t' Dungeon t' neer be seen again, ye see! Tis fates far worse than em-bowment or em-bowlment, ye see! (Such as dis- embowelment, fer one!) An' very slight few Fools 'tis who Win through t' Ordeal...." He falls silent, measuring the distance from your ear-lobe to the top of your ear. "Demned short round ears ye Humans have...." "What happens to those who win?" you ask, scratching your short round ear. All this is beginning to seem too real to be a dream or a hallucination caused by concussion.... "Escape to Delos, of course! To t' Real world, o' which t' Earth be just a Shadow. T' world of rich Mana and Magick and Gods. T' world o' t' Hesperides an' t' Forests o' t' Night an' so forth an' so on. Tis a DANGEROUS world, Delos is, tis better ye be to see 't f'm t' safety of being em-bedded in this Cross-bow. Tis fates worse FAR than em-bowment...." To: Search for GO- Agree to be the face on the bow AGREE Demand the Ordeal ORDEAL GO-AGREE * GO-AGREE The Gnome beams with kindness. "I knew ye'd see reason! Gud-by an' gud luck, lad! An' don't be too cross, now!!!" From a pocket in his leather apron he pulls a squirt-bottle and "mists" you with something that smells like horse- sweat and feels like shellac. You stiffen, shrink, lose consciousness.... Your next sensation is of a rag soaked in pine-oil being rubbed on your (stiff and wooden!) face. "A bit green behind the ears," a weapons-merchant is saying, "but a good Bow for the price...." In the hands of the doughty Barbarian who has bought you, you see many interesting oddities of the World of Delos... till finally he wins such reknown that you are placed in the Graf Posvalsky's Museum, where many of the interesting oddities of Delos can see YOU! But always you wonder what it would have been like to adventure Delos for yourself, and you always do feel rather cross, because YOU ARE EM-BOWED AND THE GAME IS OVER! GO-ORDEAL * GO-ORDEAL "Aweel, aweel," the Gnome sighs. "If ye so demand, tis yer Right f'm t' Domesday Book. --Now, what ye mun do, ye see, is find the Key to t' Bloody Door, an' get all it needs to work, an' afterward Win your way through t' Door. Fer if ye return to t' Door but canna Open it, then ye be Mine w' no more discussion!" "And if I Win through the Door--?" "Then ye be Free Citzen o' Delos! Tis reward worth a'winnin', gorgeous place tis the Real World. But safer ye'd be to see it f'm solid mount in me Bow, well an' tight I'll glue ye, I vow...." You say firmly: "I'll try the Ordeal!" "Aweel, aweel!" says the Gnome. "Sooner started, sooner failed an' back t' me! Come ye on, then!" He leads you thru the swinging door into a hallway of undressed gray flinty stone. You pass the door to his Workroom, filled with antique tools and flickering with hearth-fire, hazy with sweet-smelling pipe smoke. At the dark end of the hall a big wrought-iron Grill-gate (shaped into faces) is standing open. Just before the gate hangs a wrought-iron Bird-cage with a black Mynah-Bird preening itself inside. Beyond the Grill you hear the rush and feel the mist of falling water (rather warm and smelling faintly of sulphur). "Borborigmi," the Gnome says to the Mynah, "here be a Fool fer t' Bloody Door. Watch 'im weel, ye see, an' squawk t' me when he returns." The Bird nods his long neck and squawks in agreement, and the Gnome steps back and gives you a kick in the rear of your knees! This sends you stumbling through the open gate, past a dimly-seen waterfall and down a flinty slope. Finally the slope levels and you are able to gain your balance and look around. To: Search for GO- Continue game DOOR-CHAMBER GO-DOOR-CHAMBER * GO-DOOR-CHAMBER You are in a large chamber with a sandy floor, lit by feverishly flickering torches mounted on the wall. The chamber is full of giant uncut flinty rocks. Into the largest, solidest boulder by the east wall, is set a massive black iron door! It is enormous, ornate, clumsy. The designs on it are sophisticated, with some influence of Celtic, some of Renaissance/Baroque. The construction is totally primitive! The Door looks like something out of a bad movie about the Spanish Inquisition.... In the center of the Door is one handle (a massive black ring), a large keyhole, and a small plaque with something written on it in ornate, flowing, Italinate script. Except the iron gate you were kicked through, the only two exits from this area are a dark, open passage leading South and the black iron Door leading East (if indeed it IS an exit....). To: Search for GO- Examine Iron Door EXAMINE-IRON-DOOR Try to open Iron Door TRY-IRON-DOOR Exit by South passage SOUTH-PASSAGE GO-TRY-IRON-DOOR * GO-TRY-IRON-DOOR The Door is totally tight, massive and solid. It feels MORE solid than matter - as though some magickal force of immobility is holding it closed. You realize there is NO HOPE of opening it except by using its own Key. To: Search for GO- Continue game DOOR-CHAMBER GO-EXAMINE-IRON-DOOR * GO-EXAMINE-IRON-DOOR Trying to read the fine Italianate script on the plaque twists your eyes (and mind!) in a strange, morbid manner. But you finally make out at least part of the inscription: THOSE WHO WISH TO PASS THROUGH ME THEY MUST USE MY BLOODY KEY BLOODY THOSE WHO PASS THROUGH ME BRIGHTFIND SEEKS MY BLOODY KEY BLOODY THOSE WHO PASS THROUGH ME Trying to look through the Keyhole you see nothing but blackness! A warm, damp draft comes out of it, and a smell of - garlic?!? Putred meat?!? To: Search for GO- Continue game DOOR-CHAMBER GO-SOUTH-PASSAGE * GO-SOUTH-PASSAGE The passage leads downward and then upwards and winds. It is rough natural stone, and in most places the floor is covered with sand which muffles your footsteps. It gets darker, but by using your cigarette lighter you are able to make your way along. Soon, at a steep slope up, you come to a heavy stone door that opens away from you. Or, rather, that almost does NOT open! There is no lock, but the door is so heavy that you must lean your back against it and use all the strength of your legs to push it open. Ooofff! You barely squeeze through the door before it falls shut again with a crash! From the uphill side, where you are now, it is impossible to lift the door open again. There is no going back now! From the winding passage ahead you hear a rhythmic, "creaking" kind of noise. As you approach a bend to the right, you see a door leading to your left, from which the noise comes. The noise gets louder, uneven - and you recognize it as SNORING! Someone - or SOMETHING! - is sleeping behind that door.... Closer, you see a large sign over the door, which says: "THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS"* As you approach the door your footsteps ring on solid stone! The snoring noise ceases, and from behind the door an indistinct voice calls: "What do I hear? Is it the Cycycal Hero? Help me, I'm trapped, to my assistance, please!" To: Search for GO- Explore side passage where voice is calling FOLLOW-VOICE Ignore voice and continue along main corridor MAIN-CORRIDOR GO-FOLLOW-VOICE * GO-FOLLOW-VOICE The door from which the voice is calling is unlocked. The side passage behind it is muddy and slopes sharply downward - so sharply that you slip and slide and finally land on your butt in a small room that is dimly lit by dusty sunshine coming through cracks in the roof. Besides the steep passage you just slid down, there are two doors out of this room (both closed). One door (which leads in the same general direction you just came from) is un-marked. The other door, on the far side of the room, has a big sign over it saying: "EGRESS". "Ah, you have come, Cycycal Hero!" says the creaking Voice - from somewhere near your feet! "Careful where you step! One of the Illusions may be covering me!" "What Illusions?" you ask, looking for the source of the Voice. The floor of this room is covered with smooth, unmarked mud - your own footprints show up plainly! - and mostly uncluttered... There is a rusty Techno machine in one corner, miscellaneous Techno equipment hanging from the ceiling (including a still-working acetyline lamp that brightly illuminates the whole room). All the equipment is in disrepair, and a big bird-nest has been built on top of a bank of computers. The floor is littered with broken Techno artifacts, sticks and feathers. "The Illusions which P. T. Barnum put here as part of the Ordeal of the Intelligence.... Careful, careful!" creaks the Voice - and at last you see its source - a little wooden Face mostly buried in the mud, as though water had receeded and left the mud to settle around it. Gently you remove the mud from around the Face - and find it is part of a miniature Meerschaum Pipe. He is obviously a previous victim of the Gnome! The Face on the Pipe looks sardonically intelligent.... But you have no time for conversation! No sooner have you taken the Pipe from the mud, than you hear behind you a belligerent "SQUAWWWWWKKKK!" A giant Eagle has just appeared in front of the unmarked door! It is shrieking, waving its wings and menacing you with its claws and beak! You would obviously be no match for it in a fight.... To take the unmarked door would mean walking straight into the Eagle's raking claws and beak! But as you turn toward the door marked "EGRESS", the Pipe shouts: "NO, you fool, that way Madness lies...!" To: Search for GO- Run for the door marked "EGRESS" EGRESS-DOOR Run for the unmarked door UNMARKED-DOOR GO-EGRESS-DOOR * GO-EGRESS-DOOR You run away from the Bird, straight to the door marked "EGRESS". It isn't locked! You throw it open, dash through, and slam it behind you. Only then do you take time to look around.... For a moment it is too bright to see anything. Then your eyes adjust and you recognize - a gravel parking lot at a trailhead in the Rockies. You are back in America in the 80's! From this side, the door you just exited leads to a Port-a-Potty - and has just locked itself behind you! "You Fool!" says a hoarse, slow voice from the Pipe. "The Bird was just an illusion.... The REAL danger was the EGRESS.... Don't you know .. that EGRESS ... just means .... "EXIT" .....?" Like a tape recorder running out of battery power, the voice slows and stops. The Face on the Pipe freezes into a dry, disgusted grimace, forever immobile in this mana-poor world of Terra, where you are now trapped, and... THE GAME IS OVER! GO-UNMARKED-DOOR * GO-UNMARKED-DOOR Surprised at your own trust of this unknown Face in the Pipe, you find yourself following his advice! Confidently you walk straight toward the Eagle! And straight THROUGH it! The Eagle is illusion! The lights and shadows that make up its flapping wings continue to play on your hands as you fumble with the latch on the unmarked door, just like walking into a hologram or the beam of a movie projector. Soon the door opens and you go through, into a cool, quiet stone passage littered with clean sandstone boulders. "Ah!" says your new companion. "Just the appropriate location for bit of a smoke, wouldn't you say?" Hastily you remove the Pipe from your pocket, as it has just begun to burn and sputter, all of its own accord! "My appreciation," the Face says. "Ah, tis well to return to the dry air! --Now, my companion, let us sit upon this convenient boulder and converse. How may I assist you?" You tell the Pipe your story so far, and ask for his advice. "Ah, yes, the Gnome! --I failed the Ordeal, you know. Searched but found no Key, so here I am as you see me. But since then I have picked up a few scraps of information, the unlikely augary here and there...." He puffs rapidly in concentration.... "Ah, yes! It has come to me in a dream, too late for my own use, of course. USE THE DEMON TO ESCAPE THE GNOME, THE GNOME TO ESCAPE THE DEMON. If that's any help to you!" You thank him politely. After several puffs the Pipe continues: "Did you read the poem on the Bloody Door? BRIGHTFIND SEEKS MY BLOODY KEY, and all that? I've heard talk of something by that name - 'a self-glowing star that glows through all the 13 colors of the Delian rainbow....'" The Pipe's coals grow dim, and he begins to snore again. Stowing him carefully, you proceed along this passage, which soon rejoins the main corridor you left earlier. To: Search for GO- Continue game MAIN-CORRIDOR GO-MAIN-CORRIDOR * GO-MAIN-CORRIDOR The main corridor rises, dips, darkens. You notice a strange smell.... Or perhaps it is an ABSENCE of smell? Because this is one of the few places in the Dungeon that does NOT smell of sulplhur-water.... The walls are strangely blackened - but far ahead you see a tiny light that seems to change from one Rainbow-colour to another.... < to be continued > ******* You are finished with file DOOR.PT1. To continue your adventure, use your text editor to call up file DOOR.PT2. If you don't have DOOR.PT2, or if you would like to read other stories of mine, please write to: Mary Ezzell 1805 - 14th St, # 1502 Boulder, CO 80302 P.S. I can't receive E-Mail! Please use the Post Office. And please enclose stamps for reply, otherwise I can't promise to reply. For more information Search for GO- INFO Now, let's get on with the game! See you in Chapter 2!