The end of an era...let's play Spellbreaker!

As Gerad implied in his last post, this is indeed yet another gosh-drat maze. So, mapping it out, we see that it looks like this:

Unfortunately, there are no dead ends, but I'm sure that that cut-off corner in the upper-left would probably give a good opportunity to intercept the brown-eyed rock. So, if you can figure out a way to get the brown-eyed rock through the diagonal, post it here. 'Til next time!

You have a parity problem.

Run away from it, go round the m-l diagonal yourself, then try to get on the same column/row as it, then try to force it into one of the other three corners. We're unlikely to force it around the diagonal, but we can solve the parity problem either by making it go round it, or by making us go round it.

So, time to attempt this parity problem.

First, going down to i.

>rock, go s
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. "Yum!" it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating north, east and west. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back some distance to the east.

The brown eyed rock slides gracefully north.

Seems that Brown Eyes always moves in the direction opposite ours. But anyway, off to the corner!

>rock, go s
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. "Yum!" it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating north, east and west. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back some distance to the east.

The brown eyed rock slides gracefully north.

>rock, go w
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. "Yum!" it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating north and east. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back quite a ways off to the northeast.

The brown eyed rock slides gracefully north.

>rock, go n
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. "Yum!" it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating north, east and south. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back quite a ways off to the northeast.

The brown eyed rock slides gracefully north.

>rock, go n
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. "Yum!" it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating east, south and northeast. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back quite a ways off to the northeast.

The brown eyed rock slides gracefully west.

Well, we're here...now, through the corner.

>rock, go ne
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. "Yum!" it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating east, south and southwest. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back nearby and off to the east.

The brown eyed rock slides gracefully south.

"Nearby"...always a good sign. But let's keep following it, until...

>rock, go e
The rock glides smoothly, carefully following the line on the plain. "Yum!" it remarks, parenthetically. You are on a large, green eyed rock. From where you are perched you can see lines radiating north, west and south. Also, there is a large brown eyed rock with a featureless white cube on its back here.
The brown eyed rock, mesmerized by the looming presence of the green eyed rock, does not move.

And I know what to do from here!

>get on brown rock
You leap gracefully to the brown eyed rock, almost slide off, and finally settle yourself carefully on top. Right in front of you is a featureless white cube. The rock grumbles in irritation. "Go away," it says.


Gladly, once I've got your cube.

>get cube
Taken.

>memorize blorple
Using your best study habits, you learn the blorple spell.

>blorple cube
Abruptly, your surroundings shift. The spell leaves the brown eyed rock behind.

Dark Room
This room is totally black, so black that you see nothing when you look around it. All light is absorbed by the substance of the place. You can tell it is physical, because you can feel your feet touching the floor, but your eyes tell you nothing.

And, as is traditional, I'm ending the update here so you can come up with a name for the new cube, whose element is Dark. 'Til next time! Also, as suggested a few updates ago:

>put pants in zipper
Done.

Current puzzles:
A locked vault door.
An exit that I can't force my way through in each cube room so far.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a smoked fish (providing light courtesy of the frotz spell)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins)
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent)

Our score is 415 of a possible 600, in 1048 moves. This puts us in the class of Expert Sorcerer.

Death toll: 11 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object)

You might want to check that puzzle list again, Kahran. Oh, and name the cube Roivas.

I support this.

Also, haven't we got something frotz'd to see in here?

"All light is absorbed by the substance of the place."

At least he isn't likely to be eaten by a grue in here.

Indeed. I have fixed it. And so, exploration of the Dark Room begins. It should be noted, BTW, that I actually have two frotzed things - the fish, and myself. Anyway, None of the "compass" exits work, and up is the exit-that-isn't, so let's go...

>d
As you leave, the cube reappears in your hand.

Dark Cave
This is a large cave with a rough floor. You can tell little about the surroundings, because your frotz spell doesn't seem to be working normally here and produces only a wan and sickly glow. The light coming from you has been reduced to a thin, barely glowing stream of tiny blobs that drips, spurts and sputters uselessly to the ground. There it collects into a small pile which is slowly disappearing, perhaps by evaporation.

Since we've got the Dark cube, let's name it. Both votes were for...

>write "roivas" on cube
The word "roivas" is now written on the cube.

Now, to explore this place. Might as well try the One True Direction first.

>n
You can't go that way.

Maybe in the direction that Kai Lords always go, then?

>e
You can't go that way.

In fact, again, none of the compass-direction exits work here. To proceed, we'll have to continue...

Grue Cave
This is a large underground chamber filled with nightmarish, barely visible shapes. There is very dim light issuing from somewhere near the center of the room.

Grues? Ruh-roh! But maybe there's something in there, and I have frotzed myself, so I might as well proceed...after saving, off course.

>n
The shapes are coming closer. They have noticed you.
They approach you warily, avoiding the tiny drips of light. They grab you, overwhelm you, and devour you, grunting, gurgling, and snapping at each other as they fight over the best parts.

**** You have died ****

What was going through my head? A pitch-black cave in a game set in the Zork universe. What did I think was going to happen? This seems like a good place to end this update, so...TTFN.

Current puzzles:
A locked vault door.
An exit that I can't force my way through in each cube room so far.
A pitch-black cave filled with grues, wherein Frotz doesn't work.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a smoked fish (providing light courtesy of the frotz spell)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins)
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent)

Our score is 415 of a possible 600, in 1048 moves. This puts us in the class of Expert Sorcerer.

Death toll: 12 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object, torn limb from limb by a pack of grues)

A living creature! You know what to do.

What to do:
yomin grue
snavig grue
espnis grue

snavig all the way

You have to try frotzing the grues, too.

All of the suggestions today involve the grues, so...

>yomin grue
You sense ravening hunger and a nasty, mean, and brutish disposition.
The shapes are coming closer. They have noticed you.
They approach you warily, avoiding the tiny drips of light. They grab you, overwhelm you, and devour you, grunting, gurgling, and snapping at each other as they fight over the best parts.


Well, I probably could have guessed that without Yomin, but it's nice to be certain. Next up, espnis.

>espnis grue
Nothing happens. Either there are no grues nearby, or they were able to dodge in time.

Followed by the same message about the grues eating me. Maybe a fresh frotz will work?

>frotz grue
The casting feels wrong, and sure enough, you are momentarily blinded.

Although this seems to be a standard "spell-failure" message, I should now point out that since I have the cubes of Light and Connectivity, Frotz now never normally fails. So there's something in this cave that interferes with it. Now, for the actual solution.

>snavig grue
You feel yourself changing in a very unpleasant way. Your claws feel odd, and you have an uncontrollable tendency to slaver. You gurgle vilely to yourself, worrying about the presence of light. A justified worry, as the glow from your own body fries you to a crisp!

**** You have died ****

Except that I've frotzed myself, and considering that grues aren't exactly fond of light, that was probably a mistake. Fortunately, there's a way to fix that.

>extinguish me
The magical glow fades.

>get fish then drop it
Taken.

Dropped.

>snavig grue
You feel yourself changing in a very unpleasant way. Your claws feel odd, and you have an uncontrollable tendency to slaver. You gurgle vilely to yourself, worrying about the presence of light. Directly in front of you, a horrific creature recoils with a look of shocked surprise. It scuttles off, perplexed.

Grue Cave
A natural amphitheater carved out of the underground rock opens from several small passages. The cave is crowded with grues of all shapes and sizes. At the lowest point of the cave a small pool of light has gathered, glowing very dimly (from a human point of view). The grues avoid it, and in fact it hurts your eyes to look at it for very long. In the middle of the pool is a short, squat pillar with something on top of it. This is the object of all the attention. The grues seem to regard the pillar or its contents with awe.

If you're wondering, I had to drop the fish because I'd frotzed it, and the grues would have killed me if I were still carrying it.

Anyway, what could be in that pool?

>d
You enter the pool, which is composed of the accumulated dribbles of light that have made their way to this uttermost bottom of a dark dimension. The light tickles at first, but then it begins to burn and your eyes are hurting severely.

Light Pool
This is a small pool or pond of light, very dim by human standards, but painful for a grue to even look at. In the center of the pool is a pillar which sticks up out of the light.

And what could be on this pillar?

>climb pillar
On Pillar
You are on top of a short marble pillar surrounded by a pool of light. Squinting through the intolerable glare, you can see that the other grues are staring at you with a mixture of amazement and fear.
A white cube is here.

I am the king of the grues! Oh, and there's a cube here. Might as well take it.

>take cube
Taken.

And, as much as I hate to leave my loyal subjects, I might as well see which cube this is. After waiting to turn back to a human...


>blorple cube
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Fire Room
In this room, the walls are brick and glow a deep red. The floor itself radiates heat, and in fact the entire room is hot, oppressive and smokey. Searing heat radiates from openings in the north, east and south walls.

Obviously, this cube is linked with Fire. So, what to call it, and which of the exits should I explore first?

Current puzzles:
A locked vault door.
An exit that I can't force my way through in each cube room so far.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins)
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Yomin

Our score is 440 of a possible 600, in 1069 moves. This puts us in the class of Expert Sorcerer*.

Death toll: 13 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object, torn limb from limb by a pack of grues, fried self by turning into a grue while frotzed)

*- And King of the Grues.

>slaver

Oh, wait, you're no longer a grue

I nominate "crispy"

crispy cube has a nice ring to it, yes.
And let's be contrary and go South.

Blaze, burn, blast, burst, flame

Damnit, that one is way better than any of mine.

Also, go around clockwise starting from the south.

Well, there are two votes for going south first, so let's go...

>s
As you leave, the cube reappears in your hand.

Cliff Top

This is the same clifftop below the hermit's hut. No way back up, though, so back to the cube...after naming it, of course.

>write "crispy" on cube
The word "crispy" is now written on the cube.

>memorize blorple
Using your best study habits, you learn the blorple spell.

>blorple crispy
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.


Now, to explore the other exits clockwise. The other ones are north (12:00) and east (3:00), and we just explored the 6:00 exit, so the next one would be...

>n
As you leave, the "crispy" cube reappears in your hand.

Volcano
You are at the edge of a lava vent in an active volcano. The lava glows red and yellow, and there is a stench of sulphur in the air. A lake of lava bubbles and steams before you, molten rock roiling from unseen disturbances. To the west, in the middle of the tumult, is a small outcropping of something with a higher melting point than rock. It is undisturbed by the heat.

Well, this is interesting. It also means that east is the non-exit, so let's see if we can see what's on the outcropping.

>examine outcropping
The outcropping is made of some hard, heat-resistant substance. It sticks up about three feet out of the lava about twenty feet from you. It has a flat top about four feet across which is roughly square. Sitting in the very center of the outcropping is something small, white, and cubical.

If it's small, white, and cubical, it must be a cube. So...

>up
You can't go that way.

>climb outcropping
How singularly useless.

Well, climbing doesn't work...but there must be a way up there. What do you think it is? I actually know, but be warned that it's not exactly intuitive. See you next time!

Current puzzles:
A locked vault door.
An exit that I can't force my way through in each cube room so far.
A cube on an inaccessible outcropping in a volcano.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins)
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Yomin

Our score is 440 of a possible 600, in 1077 moves. This puts us in the class of Expert Sorcerer.

Death toll: 13 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object, torn limb from limb by a pack of grues, fried self by turning into a grue while frotzed)

I suppose that if the solution isn't very intuitive, then this isn't likely to work.

Tinsot the lava to make a bridge to the cube.

Failing that, tinsot yourself and swim through the lava. What could go wrong?

Jindak that suspiciously-unmelted outcropping. Not that it'll help you reach it, but I'm curious...

Animate it, it is obviously another golem.

I don't even want to mention using lesoch in an attempt to blow the cube to you.

But really I would image freezing the lava to make a bridge would work, and since I image it it means that is wrong.

I remember being upset with the Implementors about this.

Because you should totally drop and leave behind any inventory items you haven't yet found a use for, obviously.

Please don't tell me the gold box with the dolphins are really magic lava proof dolphins?

Lots of suggestions on how to solve this puzzle, but will they work? Let's find out. First, trying to blow the cube off the outcropping. Since Lesoch is the third-most useless spell in history (dwarfed only by Yonk and Ozmoo), I don't have much faith in this, but here we go...

>memorize lesoch
Using your best study habits, you learn the lesoch spell.

>lesoch outcropping
Slowly, teasingly, a small puff of wind begins to blow. It quickly builds to gale force, then hurricane force, and just as you feel you are about to be swept away, it subsides.

As expected. But maybe the outcropping is somehow magical? I can't directly Jindak the outcropping, because it's an area-effect spell, but I'll still try it.

>jindak
Nothing in the vicinity glows. Apparently there is no magic nearby.

Well, there are magical items present, but they're all in my inventory. It also means that the outcropping isn't magical. But when there's a problem involving lava, ice usually works in some way.

>tinsot lava
A small patch of lava cools, but it is swept away.

Well, maybe if I froze myself I could enter the lava?

>tinsot me
You are covered with a thin film of ice, which shatters as soon as you move.

Not exactly promising, but maybe...

>enter lava
It's too hot to touch. You burn yourself slightly just getting near it.

Nope. At least I'm still alive. However, if I brought the outcropping to life, it might do something.

>malyon outcropping
Although you complete the spell, nothing has happened.
You are beginning to tire.

Well, darn. Guess it's not a golem. Now, the correct solution hasn't been posted yet, but namelessentity is on the right track with his mention of the gold box. As another free hint, think about what the dolphins on the box might signify. If no one has figured out the solution by tomorrow, I'll post it then.

Current puzzles:
A locked vault door.
An exit that I can't force my way through in each cube room so far.
A cube on an inaccessible outcropping in a volcano.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins)
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Yomin

Our score is 440 of a possible 600, in 1087 moves. This puts us in the class of Expert Sorcerer.

Death toll: 13 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object, torn limb from limb by a pack of grues, fried self by turning into a grue while frotzed)

Whatever happened to our magic carpet? Can't we just fly it there?

Also, dolphins are... jerks? So teasing the lava cools it!

As promised, here's the correct solution to this problem. Remember, I found the "moist" cube in the box, which is now marked with dolphins, which are linked with Water, like the "moist" cube. So, here's what to do:

>get box
Taken.

>throw box at outcropping
The gold box sails smoothly through the air, bounces on the outcropping and ends up perched on the very edge of the far side.

Now, to blorple the "moist" cube.

>blorple moist
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

It is pitch black.

That's right...I extinguished myself to avoid offending my grueish kin. But now we need light again. So...

>frotz burin
There is an almost blinding flash of light as the magic burin begins to glow! It slowly fades to a less painful level, but the magic burin is now a serviceable light source.

Water Room
This is a damp, mossy room. Its floor is mud, and its walls and ceiling are coral. In the gaps in the coral you can see a shimmering film which you realize is actually the outer edge of a huge bubble of air enclosing you. On the north, east and south sides of the room are curtains of bubbles.

Now, through the east exit!

"But, Kahran, wasn't that the exit that didn't work the last time you were here?"

Indeed, but...well, you'll see.

>e
As you leave, the "moist" cube reappears in your hand.

Outcropping
You are on a very small outcropping of some material that is impervious to heat. All around you lava bubbles and steams, flowing down the side of the mountain in a relentless stream. There is solid ground out of reach to the east.
There is a gold box here.
A white cube is here.

Yes, the non-exits actually lead to the gold box's location, assuming that it's not in your inventory and the cube in question was the last one to be in it. You can tell which cube that was by the markings on it...in this case, dolphins. It's different for every cube, and I'll show off all possibilities in the bonus update.

Now, to get out of here with our loot.

>get all
gold box: Taken.
cube: As you take the cube, you are nearly blinded by a blast of power. It rolls out from the cube, up your arm and all over your body. Every hair stands on end, every muscle is tense. You feel more powerful, as though a weight had been lifted from your body and a veil drawn from before you. The very stuff of magic crackles from your fingertips.

That's a good sign.

In fact, it means that our spells will never fail again. This cube is linked with Magic itself, by the way, as we'll see after blorpling it.

>memorize blorple
You easily learn the blorple spell.

I "easily" learned it because I have the Magic cube in my possession.

>blorple cube
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Magic Room
This place is odd indeed. Nothing that you look at is what it seems. If you look at something carefully enough it turns out to be something entirely different. The room is cluttered with objects and obviously hasn't been cleaned in a long time. The floor is overgrown with grass and weeds, and rabbits have chewed them. There are bird nests around the ceiling and droppings here and there. A very untidy and unsettling place. Much of the walls, ceiling and floor is covered in mirrors. There are empty, mirrorless square areas at north and south and a round black emptiness to the east.

So, which way to go from here first, and what should I call the Magic cube?

Current puzzles:
A locked vault door.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Yomin

Our score is 465 of a possible 600, in 1087 moves. This puts us in the class of Novice Mage.

Death toll: 13 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object, torn limb from limb by a pack of grues, fried self by turning into a grue while frotzed)

By the way, I couldn't use the magic carpet because I accidentally left it in the roc's nest. I'll try to show off the effect of crossing the lava with the carpet in the bonus updates.

Haven't "we" just solved the impassable exits from the cubes?

Also, try the dark exit first, though I assume that is going to be the impassable one.

And name it... HEX?

Indeed. Fixed!

Now, to explore the Magic Room, starting with the strange dark hole in the east.

>e
You can't push your way through.

Strange...it's a different message from normal. But now to explore the other two exits.

>n
As you leave, the cube reappears in your hand.

Meadow
There is a pair of pruning shears here.

We've been here before, so let's just blorple back to the Magic Room and check out the southern exit. First, though...

>write "hex" on cube
The word "hex" is now written on the cube.

Sorry for not seeing what other people wanted to call it, but hex is a good name, right?

>s
Oddly, although there appears to be an exit there, you can't seem to force your way through it.
You are feeling tired.

Interesting. We can't go through the eastern or southern exits. The southern exit seems to be a normal fake exit, but there's something different about the east one. Well, that's all for today. Until next time!

Current puzzles:
A locked vault door.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Yomin

Our score is 465 of a possible 600, in 1104 moves. This puts us in the class of Novice Mage.

Death toll: 13 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object, torn limb from limb by a pack of grues, fried self by turning into a grue while frotzed)

I don't know, this seems like a step down from Expert Sorcerer.

Indeed it does, but I think what they were going for was using the names of all the games of the trilogy as ranks, so you went through grades of Enchanter to grades of Sorcerer, and now grades of Mage. Why not grades of Spellbreaker, you may ask? Well, this game's development name was Mage, hence the highest class being Mage. Anyway, on with the LP. There's only one puzzle right now - that unrezrovable vault door. However, with the "hex" cube, I probably have enough power to break through. Time to find out.

>n
As you leave, the "hex" cube reappears in your hand.

Meadow
There is a pair of pruning shears here.

>memorize blorple
You easily learn the blorple spell.

>blorple mind
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

No Place

>e
You slowly drift "eastward," and the nothing attenuates. Something begins to break through the nothing.

As you leave, the "mind" cube reappears in your hand.

Inner Vault

And now, the moment of truth.

>rezrov door
The mechanisms whirr madly for a few moments, and then the door swings ponderously open.

Time to raid a vault!

>n
As you enter the outer vault, the vault door swings inexorably shut.

Outer Vault
You are in a large, bare concrete room. There are two piles on the floor. The first contains the "x1" cube, the "x2" cube, the "x3" cube, the "x4" cube, the "x5" cube and the "x6" cube. The second contains the "x7" cube, the "x8" cube, the "x9" cube, the "x10" cube, the "x11" cube and the "x12" cube. An exit is to the north. It is a closed iron door. To the south is the inner vault. Its steel door is closed.


Lots of cubes here...but are they all real? Only one way to find out!

>get x1
Taken.

>blorple x1
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Nondescript Room
This is a drab, nondescript room. The only exit leads south.

Well, that one's fake...but maybe the next one?

>blorple x2
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Nondescript Room

Nope. Once more with feeling!

>blorple x3
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Nondescript Room

Well, darn. What if all these cubes are fake? But then this room would be completely pointless, and Infocom would never include a pointless room in a game. Back to the vault, then...

>s
Outer Vault

You can hear a key being inserted in the lock from outside. The alarm fairy thumbs its nose at you derisively.

"There's a thief here! Hey, guards! Thief! Nasty thieving thief's here! Come capture the thief!" The din is tremendous.

Oh, sith. But maybe I can hide in the Nondescript Room until the heat dies down?

>get x4
Taken.

All at once the door bursts in and five burly guards crowd into the Treasury. They look at you with extreme disapproval, tinged with a certain sadistic anticipation of what is to come. The alarm fairy twitters about near the ceiling, jeering at you. "Told you so, nyaah, nyaah!" it chants. In the interest of taste, we will gloss over what happens next, but at the end of it you are dead.

**** You have died ****

Or not. Maybe there's a more logical way to go about this. Restoring and heading back to the outer vault, then...

>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. However, the second pile is glowing more brightly.
Nothing else is glowing.

This is actually based on a classic logic puzzle, but the original puzzle involves coins and weight, rather than cubes and magical aura. Can you solve it? However, I'll have to restart it fresh next time, since I can't save in the outer vault. Until next time.

Current puzzles:
Two piles of six cubes each, all of which radiate magic, but only one of which is actually magical.
An impenetrable black void.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
the "hex" cube (when blorpled, leads to Magic Room)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark Room)
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Soft Room)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Air Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to Boneyard)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to String Room)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to Changing Room)
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
a compass rose
a wrought iron key
a knife
a bottle
a gold coin (worth 500 zorkmids)

Spells (annotations in italics):
The snavig spell (shape change, cast on the thing you want to change into, requires some time to cast, apparently can only turn caster into a Medium-sized creature).
The tinsot spell (freeze).
The liskon spell (shrink a living thing, requires some time to cast).
The espnis spell (sleep, doesn't work on groupers, requires some time to cast).
The caskly spell (cause perfection).
The throck spell (cause plants to grow).
The blorple spell (explore an object's mystic connections).
The yomin spell (mind probe, doesn't work on bats).
The rezrov spell (open even locked or enchanted objects).
The frotz spell (cause something to give off light).
The gnusto spell (write a magic spell into a spell book).
The malyon spell (animate).
The jindak spell (detect magic).
The lesoch spell (gust of wind, affects an entire room).

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Yomin

Our score is 465 of a possible 600, in 1108 moves. This puts us in the class of Novice Mage.

Death toll: 14 (fell to my death, trampled to death by an angry and hayfeverish ogre, gooified by an animated basalt idol, devoured by said idol, plummeted into a glacial crevasse, eaten by a roc chick, set upon and devoured by the wild beast-men of the wilderness, magic carpet crash, crushed by shrink spell wearing off, imprisoned beneath the earth by an angry Belboz, turned self into an inanimate object, torn limb from limb by a pack of grues, fried self by turning into a grue while frotzed, brutalized by the vault guards)

Ah, right, I recall this from my algorithms class.

If I recall right, the fastest possible method involves weighing (i.e. detecting magic) both piles. You then divide the pile that weighs more (or exudes more magic) into two, and test again. With the pile remaining that has three cubes left, you take one and test the two remaining one-cube piles. Either you find which of the two piles is the magic one, or you find nothing, meaning the ones you took before testing is the magic one.