Scroll Thief — 18 of 138

Book I - Infocom/Non-Standard Messages

Rule for printing the description of a dark room: say "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."

Rule for printing the announcement of darkness: try looking.

Instead of attacking the player: say "If you're sure...[run paragraph on]"; record "Suicide" as an ending; end the story saying "[b]You have died[/b]".

[Instead of swearing mildly: say "Such language from a student Enchanter!"]

[Instead of swearing obscenely: say "Moral turpitude is grounds for expulsion from the Academy!"]

Instead of jumping: say "You're not particularly athletic."

Instead of sleeping: say "You aren't an expert on burglary, but you're pretty sure sleeping during a job is not recommended."

Instead of waving hands: say "You don't need to attract anyone's attention right now[if the Adventurer is visible]. The Adventurer can already see you just fine[end if]."

Instead of waving hands when the Adventurer is visible and the Adventurer is examined and the Adventurer is neutral: say "You wave, but [the Adventurer] doesn't seem to see you."; take full time.

Instead of eating a person: say "It seems highly unlikely that [the noun] would appreciate that."

Instead of eating or drinking something: say "You aren't particularly hungry at the moment. You took a [i]berzio[/i] potion last week while cramming for an exam, and it hasn't worn off yet."

Instead of rubbing the player: say "You like to improve your appearance as much as the next g[if the player is female]irl[else]uy[end if], but this isn't the time. Hopefully nobody will see you at all."

Check rubbing something (this is the block rubbing rule): say "[The noun] [are] probably clean enough. You don't have time to clean everything." instead.

Saying xyzzy is an action applying to nothing. Understand "xyzzy" as saying xyzzy.

Carry out saying xyzzy: say "That's the activation word for one of the first teleportation spells ever developed. If you recall correctly from History of Magic, it was incredibly inefficient[--]it found all the matter within a 5-foot sphere around one hardcoded point and all the matter within the same volume around another and swapped their positions.[p]Modern teleportation spells are much better...somehow. You can't really remember the details. But there was some sort of improvement. It's probably in your notes."

Report someone saying xyzzy: say "'Xyzzy.'"

Instead of the adventurer saying xyzzy: say "'Ks-izzy? Zizzy? Ksitsy?' The Adventurer struggles with the pronunciation."; now the adventurer success flag is true; take full time.

Saying plugh is an action applying to nothing. Understand "plugh" as saying plugh.

Carry out saying plugh: say "You mangle the pronunciation and nothing happens. Those stupid foreign Enchanters from the Duchy never think to give their spells pronounceable names. Anyway, that was another of the early unreliable teleportation spells."

Report someone saying plugh: say "'Plugh.'"

Instead of the adventurer saying plugh: say "The Adventurer makes a couple attempts at pronouncing the word before giving up. 'Plug? Ploog? Plookhh? Pluhf?'"; now the adventurer success flag is true; take full time.

Understand "plover" as a mistake ("Isn't that a kind of bird?").

Understand "zork" as a mistake ("Gesundheit.").

Understand "zorton" or "thurb" or "snoeze" or "noside" or "samoht" or "phuggg" or "melenkurion" or "knerl" or "klaetu" or "blerbi" or "yoho" as a mistake ("A hollow voice says, 'Wrong version.'").[1]