Engineering Oikology: How to Use Mazes and Traps to Keep Pesky Adventures from Stealing your Treasure and Ruining the Library

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Remember to check your Employee Handbook!

1. About You and the Library
   1. Who am I, exactly?
      1. You are a Third Assistant Librarian in the Great Library of Xleksixnrewix!
      2. Xleksixnrewix is a dragon who hoards books; in Dungeons and Dragons, kobolds are little lizardy creatures who take care of dragons' lairs.
      3. So, you're a kobold in a dragon's lair, who is also a librarian.
   2. What am I doing?
      1. Your Employee Handbook has the details. At the moment, you're trying to deal with a party of adventurers before they harm the collections.
      2. You do this by constructing a maze, striking the gong (which lets the adventurers in but also gives you access to the traps), then sneaking around and applying those traps.
   3. Are any of these books useful in the game?
      1. No. READ BOOKS is just for fun; it's not part of any puzzle.
   4. What does the gong do?
      1. It opens the secret passage into your area of the stacks.
      2. It also opens the treasure chest in ES.
      3. You need to strike it to get access to the traps (in the treasure chest), but doing so also lets the adventurers in.
   5. Why can't I just…not let them in at all?
      1. The adventurers are currently smashing up all the art in the entrance hall. If left to their own devices, they'll destroy everything in pursuit of loot and glory!
      2. So you can leave them waiting for a few minutes to build the maze, but you need to let them in sooner or later, so that you can banish them once and for all.
      3. You also need to defeat them to gain job experience and eventually become a Second Assistant Librarian. For whatever reason, defeating enemies is the only way to gain job experience that really counts.
2. About the Map
   1. How much space do I have?
      1. You have a 6 × 5 × 3 space to work with, and can place up to 20 rooms in that space. Two of those have to be Archaic Languages (the entrance) and Engineering Sociology (the room with the treasure).
   2. Which directions can I use?
      1. The cardinal directions, north, south, east, west.
      2. The diagonal directions, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest.
      3. The vertical directions, up and down.
      4. But you certainly don't need to use all ten of these!
   3. The map doesn't look right! How do I fix it?
      1. There are four settings you can use to customize the map.
      2. SMALLER MAP makes the map take up less space on the screen. (Default: larger.)
      3. FANCY MAP draws the map with Unicode characters instead of ASCII. (Default: fancy.)
      4. PERSISTENT MAP always displays the map at the top of the screen. (Default: persistent.)
      5. MULTI-LAYER MAP displays all the layers next to each other, instead of only one at a time. This is only recommended if you have a very wide screen. (Default: single-layer.)
      6. If you turn off persistent map, you can still check the map at any time with the MAP command.
   4. What do these symbols on the map mean?
      1. The letters indicate open rooms in the collection, and the lines indicate connections between them.
      2. Dots indicate places where a room could be opened, but hasn't been.
      3. A room with a @ symbol is where you are.
      4. A room with a ! symbol is a point of interest (that is, the entrance or the treasure room).
      5. A room with a * symbol has been trapped.
      6. A room with a # symbol is where the adventurers are.
      7. A room with a . symbol has already been explored (slash ransacked) by the adventurers.
   5. There's a line on the map that doesn't lead anywhere!
      1. That indicates a connection up or down (that is, to a different layer of the map).
      2. The map at the top of the screen only shows the current layer, to save space.
      3. Use the MAP command to see all the layers, or MAP LAYER (e.g. MAP LAYER 2) to see one layer in particular.
3. About the Adventurers
   1. What are the adventurers trying to do?
      1. Once they're inside, they'll explore the library, searching for hidden treasure and monsters to slay.
      2. Unfortunately, they consider you a monster to slay.
   2. What do I need to prevent the adventurers from doing?
      1. If they get line of sight to you—that is, there's a path from your location to their location that runs in a straight line (due north, or due southeast, etc)—they'll notice you and attack.
      2. Notably, being in an adjacent room always counts as having line of sight.
      3. If they reach the treasure chest in Engineering Sociology, they'll get hold of the magic weapons there, and untold devastation will result. (Plus you'll lose your job.)
      4. If they've explored every accessible room, they'll decide to burn a new path to Engineering Sociology, and set the collections on fire in the process.
      5. So you need to defeat them without any of those three things happening.
   3. How do the adventurers explore?
      1. If they can see a room they haven't explored yet, they'll explore it.
      2. If they can see more than one unexplored room, they'll choose at random by rolling a die.
      3. Otherwise, they'll move toward the closest room that they've seen but not explored.
      4. If they've explored every room and still haven't found the treasure, they'll start burning down bookshelves in search of new paths. (See the previous question.)
4. About the Traps
   1. How do I access the traps?
      1. Once you've hit the gong in Archaic Languages, you can find them in the treasure chest in Engineering Sociology.
      2. In other words, you can't access them until the adventurers are on their way in.
   2. What traps do I have access to?
      1. You have two condensed catalogues ("barrier traps"), one psionic recommender ("hypnotic trap"), and one orb of dimensional travel ("banishing trap").
   3. How do I use a trap?
      1. Either DROP it in the current room, or THROW it into another room (e.g. THROW CUBE SOUTHWEST). It'll activate on impact.
   4. What do the condensed catalogues do?
      1. When activated, they completely fill the room, rendering it impassible.
      2. Filling the room you're currently in is not recommended.
   5. What does the psionic recommender do?
      1. It distracts anyone who sees it—anyone who's not a librarian, at least.
      2. While distracted, the adventurers won't explore, and won't attack you if you come within line of sight. (Though they'll still notice you if you move through their room.)
      3. Be warned: adventurers have no focus and will lose interest after a few minutes! You have to defeat them before then.
   6. What does the orb do?
      1. When it breaks, anyone nearby will be dragged away to hyperbolic space.
      2. Portalling the room you're currently in is not recommended.
   7. The adventurers are deactivating my traps!
      1. When they're exploring a room for the first time, they're being very cautious and checking for traps first.
      2. When they're coming back to a room they've already explored, they're a lot less prudent.
      3. If the psionic recommender is in a room they haven't visited yet, they'll notice it and shut it off. To trap them, you need to put it in a room they've already been through.
5. So how exactly do I do this?
   1. How do I get to Engineering Sociology without getting attacked?
      1. Make sure your path has a lot of twists and turns to block line of sight.
   2. How do I get the traps before the adventurers catch up?
      1. Make sure your maze has lots of branches and dead ends. You can walk right past them, but the adventurers will have to pause and check them.
      2. There's a little bit of luck involved, since there's a small chance the adventurers will randomly choose the right path at every intersection, but the more dead ends you have, the less likely this is.
   3. How do I get to a place where the psionic recommender will work?
      1. You need to get behind the adventurers.
      2. In other words, you need to include a loop somewhere.
   4. How do I make the adventurers backtrack?
      1. Block off their path with a condensed catalogue.
   5. So putting it all together…
      1. Open two paths from Archaic Languages to Engineering Sociology.
      2. Make sure both of them have lots of twists and turns, to block line of sight. (Both, because you don't know which one they'll take.)
      3. Add a bunch of branches and dead ends off those paths.
      4. Once you hit the gong, dash over to Engineering Sociology.
      5. They won't be able to catch up, since they'll waste time getting lost in dead ends.
      6. Use a condensed catalogue to block the end of path they used. Now they'll be forced to backtrack, exploring all the other dead ends in the process.
      7. Run back through the other path to get behind them.
      8. Place the psionic recommender somewhere the adventurers have already been, such as Archaic Languages.
      9. Go to an adjacent room, and wait.
      10. When the adventurers get distracted by the trap, throw the orb into their room.
6. Just for Fun
   1. Is there an easy way to see all the room descriptions and books?
      1. Use the debugging command ALLTEXT.
   2. How do you pronounce Xleksixnrewix?
      1. Khuh-leck-see-khunn-reh-wikh /xə.leq.si.xən.re(w).wix/.
      2. The "Draconic" language in this game is Proto-Indo-European, a reconstructed distant ancestor of English.
      3. The transcription system used here, with all the X's and Q's, was invented by a friend who wanted to discuss historical linguistics without pulling out a specialized keyboard, and it also coincidentally makes it look like stereotypical fantasy names.
      4. "X" here is what historical linguists call "*h₂" and nobody is entirely sure how it was pronounced, but it was probably something like the "ch" in "loch".
      5. "Xleksixnrewix" (*h₂lek-si-h₂nr-ew-ih₂) is a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European version of "Alexandria", since this is a game about preventing a huge library from getting burned down.
      6. Similarly, Xnroclewos (*h₂nro-ḱlewos) is khunn-roh-kleh-wos /xən.ro.kle.wos/, and Qdontoxom (*h₃dont-oHom) is khwuh-dohn-toh-khohm /χʷə.tʼon.to.xom/.
   3. What are the references in each of the rooms?
      1. Archaic Languages: See above about the language and transcription involved. The text in the book is the start of Schleicher's fable, a famous example of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European.
      2. Bio-Languages: There are a lot of species of beetles in the world. A lot.
      3. Demonic Languages: The story of Faust, and the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".
      4. Engineering Languages: Constructed languages (conlangs) are cool. This is specifically referencing Lojban (which aims to eliminate all ambiguity) and toki pona (which challenges people to express their thoughts with only 100-some words).
      5. Archaic Music: "Egyszemélyes Zenekar" is Hungarian for "one-man band".
      6. Bio-Music: Ada's band once made a full album inspired by a meme about "gnome music genres".
      7. Demonic Music: The Midwest Emo genre was started by an album called "American Football", which made a random house in the authors' hometown bizarrely famous.
      8. Engineering Music: There's a spell in D&D called Dissonant Whispers. Bohemian Rhapsody is a way that a capella groups show off.
      9. Archaic Numerology: The ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras allegedly forbade eating beans, because they had human souls in them. Euclid's Elements is a really famous piece of ancient mathematics (about geometry, not air, earth, water, and fire).
      10. Culinary Numerology: Jokes about the state of academic mathematics, and a pun between Ramsey theory (a thing in combinatorics) and the famous chef Gordon Ramsay. "Guarnaschellian" is a riff on math terms like "Noetherian" and the chef Alex Guarnaschelli.
      11. Demonic Numerology: There are 18 families of finite simple groups, and 26 sporadic groups that don't fit these families; the biggest of these is the Monster Group. The story of beast cohomology, and a lot of the terminology, is referencing the historical development of homological algebra. The Serpent Lemma is a riff on the Snake Lemma, an important result in that field.
      12. Engineering Numerology: The bit about experts disagreeing on the validity of a proof is a jab at Mochizuki's proof of the ABC Conjecture. It was published in a journal that he's the executive editor of, despite other experts insisting the proof is wrong.
      13. Archaic Rituals: Lots of ancient rituals are about crops and curses (and also making people fall in love with you). Having a puppy lick away the curse is from an actual ancient Hittite purification ritual. ("Nesili" is the Hittite word for their own language.)
      14. Culinary Rituals: This is Daniel's favorite cake recipe.
      15. Demonic Rituals: Some D&D spell names and a grimoire allegedly written by the pope.
      16. Engineering Rituals: Mostly a joke about the difference between computer science and computer engineering. The Little Computer 3 is a system used (locally) in CE classes but not CS ones. The table of contents is a reference to a particular electrical engineering student who stuck a loop of wire into an outlet to create a makeshift lighter.
      17. Archaic Sociology: Anthropology has a bit of a checkered history.
      18. Bio-Sociology: Mantids are cool and the authors have a history of keeping them as pets. The bit about spears is a Hollow Knight reference.
      19. Demonic Sociology: Large corporations sometimes hire sociologists for less-than-ethical purposes, like finding the most effective ways to exploit social norms and pressures for profit. That seems appropriately demonic.
      20. Engineering Sociology: Many sociologists seem to be more interested in clever wordplay than in clear titles, which makes it hard to tell what the papers are actually about.