fn DOOR.PT2 *** CHAPTER TWO *** OF *** 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 GO-START-GAME * GO-START-GAME Having chosen to search for the Bloody Key to the Bloody Door into Delos (to escape becoming the decorative Face on a cross-bow carved by the Gnome whose Troll-Hill you fell into), you have come to a Dip in the Main Passage where there is an odd, un-wholesome smell and walls and ceiling show dark streaks. Ahead, where the passage slants back upwards, you see a small glowing point of light, like a jewel. So far, the jagged, winding passage (which has been roughly cut through flint rocks) has been lit by dim, dusty cracks of sunlight through the roof. In the Dip ahead, it grows totally dark. Examining the walls at the edge of the dark, smelly area, you find that they are made of the same, normal flinty stone as the rest of the Dungeon. The black streaks on them are smoke burns. Something crunches under your feet! It is bones.... Peering into the darkness, you see just a few feet ahead, something metallic lying on the floor. It might be a pair of Boots.... But you are not the only creature crunching these brittle bones under your feet! You hear other footsteps from the darkness: scurrying beasts of all sizes.... To: Search for GO- Strike a light STRIKE-A-LIGHT Try to grab the "boots" and examine them GET-BOOTS Walk straight down the corridor with no boots nor light WALK-PLAIN GO-WALK-PLAIN * GO-WALK-PLAIN Disdaining caution and ignoring the metallic "boots" (IF that is what they really are), you stride straight down the corridor toward the far-off, shining "jewel". Bones crunch under your feet! The (odd, mineral, sickly) smell gets stronger, so you hurry along! In the total darkness you hear small (and NOT so small) creatures scurrying away! Little whistly squeaking and retreating) voices say: "It must be the Cycycal Hero!... How brave this one is!... Maybe he will succeed!... Go tell the Rats... Tell the Rat- King...." Then CLANK! you trip on something! It is a Sword on the ground, which rattles against the rough, flinty floor, striking tiny silver sparks. Picking it up, you feel that the Sword is well-made, rather heavy, and feels like solid steel. To: Search for GO- Carry the Sword along CARRY-ON in darkness Strike a light and examine it STRIKE-A-LIGHT GO-CARRY-ON * GO-CARRY-ON Scarcely taking your eyes from the tiny glowing "jewel" far ahead, you crunch on down the passage. The Sword swings reassuringly at your side. The smell grows stronger, almost suffocating. "It's a smell of something that shouldn't exist," you find yourself thinking. "Something is wrong, it is dangerous, it should be reported to somebody...." But who do you report a Public Danger to in a Dungeon? The Rat-King - whoever HE is? The Smell is making you light-headed, making you think nonsense... Then it happens! You hear a ROAAARRR! and out of nowhere - where a moment before there was nothing but rough flint-stone wall! - a Dragon's head appears, preparing to attack you! In the total darkness, his eyes glow like searchlights, his nostrils and mouth like a furnace with smoke drooling out! His spiny ears are back, his eyes flash, he hisses and roars and is breathing up fire and smoke, about to BLAASSSTTT! you! To: Search for GO- Attack him with your sword ATTACK-DRAGON Try to run past him RUN-PAST GO-ATTACK-DRAGON * GO-ATTACK-DRAGON You swing your Sword ud over, to hit the Dragon with the edge of the erect, heavy blade.... And your Sword crashes right THROUGH him - to impact with its full length against the jagged, flinty wall! The Dragon was Illusion! - and vanishes with your blow! You have a clear view of the storm of big bright Sparks which your Sword strikes! Very clear - and very short! Then comes the enormous - Blue- flaming - WHOOOMMMPPPING explosion! In the instant before the explosion throws you against the wall and ignites your clothes, you recognize the colour of the flame! Blue - just like in a cigarette lighter! Now, too late, you recognize the smell as well - natural gas! Flint, steel and gas.... Someone should really report this Publick Danger to the Rat-King.... But YOU can't report it, because... YOU ARE DEAD AND THE GAME IS OVER! GO-GET-BOOTS * GO-GET-BOOTS You dart into the darkness, grab the cold metal objects, and dart back out - raising nothing worse than a cloud of white ashes. The animal scurrying increases - but they are all scurrying away from YOU! The metal objects really ARE boots! Low boots made of steel and decorated with Moorish arabesques. They look like they belong with a set of plate armour. Like the walls, the tops of the Boots are streaked with black smoke marks. Only the metal soles are unburnt, and show normal scratches, wear and tear. The Boots are of a size to fit comfortably (more or less!) over your own shoes, like a pair of galoshes. To: Search for GO- Put the Boots on and proceed PUT-ON Walk straight down the corridor with no boots nor light WALK-PLAIN Strike a light STRIKE-A-LIGHT GO-PUT-ON * GO-PUT-ON As you walk in them, the Boots scrape and ring on the rough, flinty stone floor - occasionally producing tiny silver sparks which you can see in the total darkness. Then it happens! WHOOOMP, HEAT, CONCUSSION!!! You are thrown sideways by a blast of wind and flame, hit your head on the wall! You never really quite know WHAT happened, because... YOU ARE DEAD AND THE GAME IS OVER! GO-STRIKE-A-LIGHT * GO-STRIKE-A-LIGHT You never know what hit you! Cave-in? A black-jack from behind? Explosion? All you know is sudden shock, impact, concussion! And that's all you ever will know! Because... YOU ARE DEAD AND THE GAME IS OVER! GO-RUN-PAST * GO-RUN-PAST You never know how - but you make it! Stumbling through bones, raising clouds of ashes, with just the tiny glowing star ahead to give your direction - you get past safely. At each moment you expect a booming blast of flame - but there is none! Sooner than you expect, you are almost stepping on the bright little star. You grab it and run on! Finally, gasping for breath, you stop and look back. There is no sign of the Dragon! It seems to have vanished as suddenly as it appeared. Your head spinning with sudden exhaustion, you sink to the floor for a much-needed breather while you examine the "bright little star". In fact it is a Ring which keeps changing colour: violet, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.... By its own changing light you can almost make out the inscription inside it: B GTF N Putting the Ring on your finger, you proceed along the corridor. The ashes and bones thin and soon you are walking on bare, natural, undressed stone. The Ring keeps up its rainbow changes - until you reach a large crack in the corridor wall, which offers a narrow path upward. Here the Ring begins to glow a ruddy, maroon-burgandy colour, the colour of Garnet. As you start past the crack, the Garnet-glow fades back to Rainbow. Back-tracking, you find that the Garnet-glow increases as you tend toward the upward crack. Peering into the crack, you see a faint, white light and smell humidity, ozone and chorophyll. To: Search for GO- Follow the Garnet- glow into the crack FOLLOW-GARNET Ignore the glow and follow the main corridor down RETURN-MAIN GO-FOLLOW-GARNET * GO-FOLLOW-GARNET Following in the direction the Garnet-Glow in the Ring leads, you take the rising crack-passage. Soon the flinty rock, elsewhere prevalent in this Dungeon, changes to limestone. The air smells sweet, like a garden after a gentle spring rain. Ahead you see a diffused, mottled green light. The passage dead-ends with a hole above, from which comes a dazzle of green and silver light! You are looking up into a canopy of forest leaves, with silvery-white light shining down through them. But there is no wind to move the leaves. The air is sweet, warm, damp, and very still.... Climbing into the room above, you see that it really is a "forest"! Trees are growing around a limestone pool, sending their roots into the water and into the limestone gravel and rubble that covers the floor. The pool is full of brilliant yellow-green, luminous moss. Above (where you might expect a low, cloudy sky) - are clear-white pointed crystals! This whole "forest" is growing inside a giant geode! - just like a greenhouse. Light is coming from outside, filtered and diffused through the crystalline "roof". Following the Garnet-glow in the Ring, you quietly tiptoe between the trees, careful not to touch or disturb. The trees seem rapt, asleep.... All except the Tree that holds a REAL Garnet! This is a young Beech Tree, golden- green, with a slender white trunk. All Her leaves are trembling, like a Quivering Aspen's - even though there is not a breath of wind to move them! High on an upper branch is the Garnet - brightly glowing, about the size of a walnut - and firmly lashed into a silver, dew-spangled spider- web! The graceful, swaying white trunk of the Tree looks too delicate to climb or bend. But somehow you have a feeling that Garnet may be important.... To: Search for GO- Chop the tree down with your sword CHOP-TREE Forget the Garnet and return to the Main Corridor RETURN-MAIN Talk to the Tree TALK-TO-TREE GO-TALK-TO-TREE * GO-TALK-TO-TREE It feels very strange to hear your voice speaking all alone in this quiet, silver-misted forest. But in such a magickal place, it seems the right thing to do. "Er, hello," you say. "Can you, er, talk? Are you, ah, keeping that Garnet for anything special?" The Tree shivers all over - and answers you! In a shivery, rustling, silvery voice, She says: "Oh, YOU can talk! How wonderful! So many of the Cycycal Heroes can do nothing but swing their silly swords!" "Er, yes, I can talk.... But what is a Cycycal Hero? And who are you?" Her leaves quiver with laughter. "YOU are a Cycycal Hero - I HOPE! That's someone who has fallen into the Troll-Hill and is seeking the Key to the Bloody Door. After you find it and enter Delos, the Key will find its way back to the Dungeon to wait for the next Hero to fall in, and then another Cycle will begin. It's all according to Delian Law in the Domesday Book...." "But who are you?" Her leaves droop in sad memory. "I was once such a Moving Two-Trunk as yourself," She says. "I fell down the Troll-Hill and became the Cycycal Heroine. I saw the Garnet, grasped the Branch to break it off - and instead became as you see me! Next Cycle the spiders webbed the Garnet into my own hair...." "But since then you have seen many Heroes come and go.... How can I win the Garnet? ... And is there any way I can help YOU?" She shakes all her leaves. "You can win it - AND help me - only by playing my Riddle-Game (as the Domesday Book commands). If you can solve my Riddle, I may give you the Garnet. And the Game will warm my solitude with your company for a while...." "Is there, er, a penalty if I CAN'T solve it?" "O-Cautious-Hero!" She laughs again. "Only that you must stay with me longer while I give you a hint - or return to the Main Corridor empty- handed. - Hear the Riddle, O- Cautious-Hero, and then accept or decline the Game. The Riddle says: 'Built, I stand not; Hit, I resist not; Stabbed, I bleed not; Dry, I destroy.' "Now," says the Tree, What do you think the Riddle is talking about?" To: Search for GO- Decline the Game DECLINE-RIDDLE Ask for a hint TREE-HINT-1 Make a guess: Search for GO-*YOUR-ANSWER < For example, if you think the < answer is "beer", search for GO-*BEER < If your editor can't find that, < it was the wrong answer! < If a "Not Found" would leave you < someplace wierd, make a note to < search for "O-Cautious-Hero!" to get < back here. < At any point in this sequence, < you can also GO- LEAVE * ATTACK-TREE * or *YOUR-ANSWER GO-TREE-HINT-1 * GO-TREE-HINT-1 "I want to help you in as MANY ways as I can," the Tree says. "Let's see if I can tune in on some Augary...." Her leaves stand straight out, rapt with attention. Then they flutter and hang limp. "I don't know what it means, but here's what I got: 'The Riddle might add: "I live in the belly of the Friend who can be your best aid in this Dungeon."'" To: Search for GO- Ask for another hint TREE-HINT-2 < < At any point in this sequence, you can also GO- LEAVE * ATTACK-TREE * or *YOUR-ANSWER GO-TREE-HINT-2 * GO-TREE-HINT-2 Again She holds out her leaves for an Augary, then recites: 'The Riddle might also say: "I am your True Peril in the place of bones and dark ... where the help of your best Friend would be your greatest danger." "And now, my Friend," She says, "by Delian Law I can give no more Hints. You must either give me the true answer or leave now...." ******* You are finished with file DOOR.PT2. To continue your adventure, use your text editor to call up file DOOR.PT3. If you don't have DOOR.PT3, or if you would like to read other stories of mine, please write to: Mary Ezzell 1085 - 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. Now, let's get on with the game! See you in Chapter 3!