Scroll Thief — 119 of 138

Section B - The Snake

Snake-puzzle is a puzzling scene with puzzle description "finding a way past the snake". Snake-puzzle begins when the snake is seen. Snake-puzzle ends when the Hall of the Mountain King is visited or the snake is off-stage. When snake-puzzle ends: award points for "avoiding a snake".

A black snake is an animal in the Misty Cavern. "An angry-looking black snake is slithering across the rocks in front of the [if the location of the snake is the Misty Cavern]down[else]up[end if]ward passage." Understand "angry" or "angry-looking" or "angry looking" as the snake. The description of the snake is "It's almost four feet long, with thin white stripes across its back."

First effect of casting a spell at the snake when hard mode is true: say "Your [i][spell understood][/i] spell seems to dissipate without effect."

Effect of casting vaxum at the snake:

if the snake is not affected by nitfol:

say "The snake doesn't seem particularly affected.";

otherwise:

say "The snake pauses for a moment, then looks at you inquisitively, tasting the air. It nods slightly.[p]The spell doesn't feel quite right, though. It doesn't seem designed to work on animals, and you suspect it might wear off before too long.";

affect the snake with vaxum for 5 turns.

Instead of going from the Misty Cavern to the Hall of the Mountain King when the snake is on-stage:

if the snake is in the Hall of the Mountain King:

try the snake going south;

if the snake is not in the Misty Cavern, continue the action;

abide by the snake passage rule;

continue the action.

Instead of an actor going from the Hall of the Mountain King to the Misty Cavern when the snake is on-stage:

if the snake is in the Misty Cavern:

try the snake going north;

if the snake is not in the Hall of the Mountain King, continue the action;

abide by the snake passage rule;

continue the action.

This is the snake passage rule:

if the snake is affected by vaxum and the person asked is the player:

say "The snake backs off to let you pass.[if the snake is affected by nitfol] 'Pass, friend.'";

continue the action;

if the player can see the person asked, say "The snake rears up as [you or the person asked] [approach][if the snake is affected by nitfol]. 'Don't come any closer!' it hisses angrily[else], and [she] [back] off. It looks dangerous[end if].";

take full time;

stop the action.

Before an actor doing anything when the snake must be touched (this is the don't touch the snake rule):

if the player can see the actor, say "The snake rears up as [you or the actor] [try] to touch it, and [they] [step] back hurriedly.";

stop the action.

Every turn when the bird can touch the snake (this is the bird attacks the snake rule):

if the player can see the bird, say "The bird, seeing the black snake, dives toward it angrily in an astounding flurry of wingbeats! The snake retreats, slithering back between the rocks and out of sight.";

remove the snake from play.

The bird attacks the snake rule is listed before the bird activity rule in the every turn rulebook.