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

Is the alarm fairy tied to the blorple-ing, to entering the room, or the number of times you touch a cube, or any other wackiness? In short, how many moves do we have to solve this puzzle (though I think Kalir has the answer already)

Ah, a classic puzzle indeed. Kalir should have the right answer, I believe.

Kalir does, I believe, have the right answer. BTW, Kala, the alarm fairy and his/her/its goon squad show up after one casting of Rezrov or three of any other spell. If you're carrying the treasure from the outer vault, though, you only have two castings. So, here we go!

>put all but book in zipper
the "mind" cube: Done.
the "hex" cube: Done.
gold box: Done.
the "moist" cube: Done.
the "crispy" cube: Done.
the "pants" cube: Done.
magic burin: Done.

>memorize jindak
You easily learn the jindak spell.

>g
You easily learn the jindak spell yet another time.

>g
You easily learn the jindak spell yet another time.

>memorize blorple
You easily learn the blorple spell.

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

>put book in zipper
Done.

>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.

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

The second pile is brighter, so...

>get x7, x8, x9
the "x7" cube: Taken.
the "x8" cube: Taken.
the "x9" cube: Taken.

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


Hmm, now the first pile is glowing more brightly? Something I forgot to mention, BTW, is that the real cube will glow either more or less intensely than the fakes. Sorry I forgot to mention that, but it just slipped my mind somehow. Anyway...

>get x1, x2, x3
the "x1" cube: Taken.
the "x2" cube: Taken.
the "x3" cube: Taken.

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

Suddenly an alarm fairy appears in the Treasury. It carries a big gong which it begins to pound incessantly, and it yells at the top of its lungs.

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

And now it's the first pile. Darn. Might as well pray to the Goddess of Fortune, and...

>blorple x9
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

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

Rats. Anyway, with the information that I forgot to include last time, can you solve the puzzle? Again, sorry for spacing on it. See you next time.


Current puzzles:
Two piles of six cubes each, all of which radiate magic, but only one of which is actually magical. The magical one radiates either more or less than the fakes, but whether it's more or less is unknown. We have only three Jindak spells to figure out which it is.
An impenetrable black void.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "hex" cube (when blorpled, leads to Magic Room, boosts the power of all spells)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark 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, Jindak 3x, Yomin

Our score is 465 of a possible 600, in 1116 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)

Ok. I'm not sure what you did above; you seemed to jindak twice in a row, pick up three cubes, and jindak again, which didn't seem to be what was suggested.

If we don't know whether the real cube glows more or less brightly, there's no point to jindaking the original two piles. I think we should first divide each pile in half, then jindak the resulting four piles. One of the four piles will glow more or less brightly than the others; this is the pile with the real cube, and whether it glows more or less brightly than the others will tell you the glowing status of the real cube.

All that remains is to divide the pile with the real cube in three (by picking up one cube and separating the other two), jindaking, and using the resulting information to blorple the real cube.

Fun fact: If you don't use a strategy that guarantees you can figure out which cube is foundational in three jindaks, but leave some of it up to luck instead, the game will notice and screw you over.

Hint: If you have eliminated all but N cubes as possibilities, and have K jindaks remaining, and know nothing else about the cubes, what's the largest N for which you can be sure to figure it out for K=1, then K=2? For K=3, the answer is 12. This is not a strict induction problem, because sometimes you do have other information about the cubes in intermediate steps.

Actually, it was.

I did that with the first Jindak.

I took the cubes off the more magically-intense pile, then tested again with the second Jindak. Unfortunately, the intensity of the piles reversed polarity, so I panicked and blorpled out. Apparently, I transcribed that entry wrong, but it does show pretty much what happened. Whoopsy-doodle. Real update coming tomorrow!

EDIT: Also corrected the update in question to make it more clear what exactly I'm doing. Hope that that's allowed.

Actually, now that I think about it, you do need three jindaks if you restrict yourself to two piles at a time. If the game would let you scatter the cubes around the room, you could do it in one.

Here's my revised suggestion:

Jindak the piles.

Of the more brightly glowing pile, put three of the cubes in the other pile. Replace them with any three cubes from the other pile.

Jindak the piles.

Of the more brightly glowing pile, pick up one of the three viable cubes. Put one of the other viable cubes in the other pile. To even out the piles, put one random cube from the dead pile into the alive pile and pick up another from the dead pile.

Jindak the piles.

If one is more brightly glowing, pick up the viable cube from that pile and blorple it. If they are evenly glowing, blorple the viable cube you have.

Note that the above assumes the pile with the real cube glows more brightly, and that the "could glow brighter or dimmer" bit you mentioned is due to the piles not being even. If the brightness or lack thereof of the real cube is actually random, I think you need at least four jindaks to solve it.

Edit: Ah ok, your update makes a lot more sense now. I think the problem was that you didn't even out the piles, so 6 fakes > 2 fakes and 1 real. If so, the method above should work.

...I don't believe I asked you anything, Kahran. ^^;

Also, I now don't follow this puzzle at all.

It's really not that hard to follow, all you need to know is... it's magic!

Yeah, I don't get it either.

You're right. You didn't...it was namelessentity who asked the question in question. My bad. Anyway, let's try Gerad's solution to this puzzle.
Step 1: Jindak the piles.

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

Step 2: Move x1, x2, and x3 to the second pile and x7, x8, and x9 to the first pile, then use Jindak again.

>get x1, x2, x3
the "x1" cube: Taken.
the "x2" cube: Taken.
the "x3" cube: Taken.

>get x7, x8, x9
the "x7" cube: Taken.
the "x8" cube: Taken.
the "x9" cube: Taken.

>put x7, x8, x9 in first pile
the "x7" cube: Done.
the "x8" cube: Done.
the "x9" cube: Done.

>put x1, x2, x3 in second pile
the "x1" cube: Done.
the "x2" cube: Done.
the "x3" cube: Done.

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

Step 3: I'm not sure what you mean by "viable" cubes, but I'm assuming ones that could make the glow brighter? In this case, I'm guessing x1-x3, so...

>get x1
Taken.

>get x2
Taken.

>put x2 in first pile
Done.

Step 4: Even out the piles.

>get x4
Taken.

>put x4 in second pile
Done.

>get x10
Taken.

>put x10 in first pile
Done.

Step 5: Jindak again.

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

Suddenly an alarm fairy appears in the Treasury. It carries a big gong which it begins to pound incessantly, and it yells at the top of its lungs.

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

The first pile is glowing more brightly, so that means that the viable cube is x2. So...

>get x2
Taken.

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.

>blorple x2
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

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

Well, darn. That didn't work out so well, but then it's probably my fault for not knowing what Gerad meant by "viable" cubes. If there's no clarification or if no other solutions are given by tomorrow, I'll just show off the solution from the hint booklet. I can't blame you for having trouble with this, though - it is a very complex puzzle.

Puzzles:
That infernal cube puzzle.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "hex" cube (when blorpled, leads to Magic Room, boosts the power of all spells)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark 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, Jindak 3x, Blorple, Yomin

Our score is 465 of a possible 600, in 1119 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)

Nope, that was what I meant by viable cubes (cubes that could be the real one and therefore glow brighter than the others). I'm probably on the wrong track here, but I think you did things a little differently than I would have.

I'm with you through the first two steps:

1 2 3 4 5 6 || 7 8 9 10 11 12 (bold means brighter, italics means could be the real one)

4 5 6 7 8 9 || 1 2 3 10 11 12

However, you then made the piles like so:

2 5 6 7 8 9 10 || 3 4 11 12

They're still uneven here; my theory is that 3 could be the real cube even though the first pile is brighter because the first pile has 7 cubes versus 4 in pile 2. I would have left 10 in pile 2 and picked up, say, 9, leaving the following piles:

2 5 6 7 8 || 3 4 10 11 12

Now the piles are even. If the first pile glows more brightly, 2 is the real cube; if the second pile glows more brightly, 3 is the real cube; if both glow equally brightly, 1 is the real cube.

If that doesn't work or you can't figure out my tortured logic, I'm tapped out of ideas.

Is the "brighter or dimmer" consistent per attempt, or does it shift each time a spell is cast? I'm going to assume they are consistent, and we have three jindak and a blorple to use.

We have essentially three piles: pile one, pile two, and our hands.

Jindak once, showing which one is brighter.

Take two cubes from pile one and two cubes from pile two. Then take two different cubes from pile one and put them in pile two, and take two different cubes from pile two and put them in pile one.

Jindak again.
If the same pile is bright, that means the cube hasn't changed piles and it is one of the four cubes that hasn't moved.
If it is the other pile, it is one of the four cubes you moved from pile to pile.
If both piles are the same, it is one of the four cubes in your hand.

Of the four cubes we have decide, put one in pile one, one in pile two, and put the other two in your hand, switching piles as best you can.

Jindak again.
If the piles are different, it is one of the two cubes in the piles.
If the piles are the same, it is one of the cubes in your hand.

Then take a wild guess and blorple one of them.

I'm just working this out as I go, but it doesn't appear to work. Am I even on the right track, can anybody fill in the gaps?

I think namelessentity may be on the right track. How about first picking up three cubes from each pile? This will give you one of two results:

A) One pile is brighter. The real cube is one of the six in the piles.
B) The piles glow equally. The real cube is one of the six in your hands.

Then set up the piles so Pile 1 has three of the possible real cubes and Pile 2 has three definite fakes. This will provide the following information:

A) One pile is brighter. The real cube is one of the three possibles in Pile 1.
b) The piles glow equally. The real cube is one of the three possibles you are still holding.

Now you've narrowed it down to three possible cubes; I can't find a way to see which is the real one without knowing if the real one is brighter or dimmer, though. You can use your last jindak to find either the brighter or dimmer cube (by putting one of the possibles in each pile and holding the other), but not necessarily the one that's different from the others. If you're lucky, the last attempt will show the piles glowing equally, and you'll know it's the possible cube in your hand, but that doesn't seem likely.

Having set this exact 12 cubes, 2 piles, 3 castings puzzle for a competition myself:

Start off with four cubes in each pile (x1/x2/x3/x4, x5/x6/x7/x8), and four in your inventory (x9/x10/x11/x12). If I say "jindak a/b/c against d/e/f", I mean that the two piles should contain a/b/c and d/e/f respectively, with the other cubes in your inventory. (Presumably you'll need to use the zipper to free up inventory space.)

If the game doesn't let you put that many cubes in the zipper, you'll need to modify the strategy by adding extra neutral cubes to each pile (a neutral cube is a cube that was jindaked with the two piles equal, or wasn't with the two piles different).

If the two piles glow equally:

Jindak x1/x2/x3 against x9/x10/x11.

If they are equal, blorple x12.
If the first pile is brighter, jindak x9 against x10 and blorple the brighter one, or x11 if neither is brighter.
If the first pile is dimmer, jindak x9 against x10 and blorple the dimmer one, or x11 if neither is dimmer.

If the two piles are not equal, call "lower" the result that x1/x2/x3/x4 gave (i.e. "brighter" if the first pile was brighter, "dimmer" if the second pile was brighter):

Jindak x1/x2/x5 against x3/x4/x6.

If they were equal, jindak x7 against x8, and blorple the higher.

If the first pile was lower, jindak x1 against x2, and blorple the lower, or x6 if they were equal.

If the second pile was lower, jindak x3 against x4, and blorple the lower, or x5 if they were equal.

This strategy actually works up to thirteen cubes. x13 can be added in by omitting it from both piles initially, and instead of blindly blorpling x12 after two no-results, instead jindak x12 against x1 and blorple x12 with a difference or x13 if they're the same.

I take off my hat to you, good sir; you are a better man than I.

One clarification on a tiny bit of your wording:

I think where you say "first pile" in this bit, you really mean second pile. For example: if x9/x10/x11 is brighter, you know the real cube is brighter than the rest and should be blorpling a brighter cube. You've worded this the opposite way, I think.

There are two possible solutions given, so I'll give them both a try. First, namelessentity's.

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

>take x1, x2, x7, x8
the "x1" cube: Taken.
the "x2" cube: Taken.
the "x7" cube: Taken.
the "x8" cube: Taken.

>take x3, x4
the "x3" cube: Taken.
the "x4" cube: Taken.

>put x3, x4 in second pile
the "x3" cube: Done.
the "x4" cube: Done.

>take x9, x10
the "x9" cube: Taken.
the "x10" cube: Taken.

>put x9, x10 in first pile
the "x9" cube: Done.
the "x10" cube: Done.

>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. Both piles seem to glow with identical brightness.
Nothing else is glowing.

This means that it's either x1, x2, x7, or x8. So...

>put x1 in second pile
Done.

>put x7 in first pile
Done.

>jindak
Both piles of cubes glow with a faint blue glow. Both piles seem to glow with identical brightness.
Nothing else is glowing.

Suddenly an alarm fairy appears in the Treasury. It carries a big gong which it begins to pound incessantly, and it yells at the top of its lungs.

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

And it's 50/50 from here, so...

>blorple x2
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

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

Guess it was x8. But maybe ais523 and Gerad's solution will be able to narrow it down further?

>restore

Please supply a filename for restore
Okay.

>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.

If you're wondering, I saved outside the vault because you can't save inside it.
Anyway, after building up the piles that ais523 suggested...

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

Since the first pile is brighter, this means that "lower" is brighter. So after cube-juggling to get x1/x2/x5 and x3/x4/x6...

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

This means that the first pile is "lower." So after juggling the cubes again to get x1 and x2 by themselves in separate piles of one...

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

Suddenly an alarm fairy appears in the Treasury. It carries a big gong which it begins to pound incessantly, and it yells at the top of its lungs.

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

So it's x2!

>blorple x2
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Sand Room
A thin trickle of sand flows down from an exit in the ceiling of this circular room to a pile of sand on the floor. The walls of the room are glass, but you can see nothing through them. In the sand is a hole through which, oddly enough, no sand is pouring out.

And we're home and dry. Next time, should I go up or down first? By the way, since this cube is already called x2, we won't need a name for it, but it's linked with Time, if anyone's wondering. ais523, Gerad, congratulations on solving this mother-loving puzzle, and everyone else who submitted a solution for that puzzle, thanks for trying.

Inventory (annotations in italic):
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "hex" cube (when blorpled, leads to Magic Room, boosts the power of all spells)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark 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)

If you're wondering what happened to the fake cubes I had to put in the zipper while cube-juggling, they apparently vanished when I blorpled out of the vault.

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 490 of a possible 600, in 1147 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)

I feel that without knowing that the cube wasn't "brighter" but instead "different" I never would have figured this out on my own. With that hint, I probably could have gotten it, but that is one big brain teaser. I like it!

Anyway, I would name the cube LINK, because I'm a zelda nerd (get it, link to time travel, and Link can time travel). Feel free to completely ignore this suggestion.

Err, right. Sorry about that; I wrote it in a hurry.

EDIT: I hope they didn't somehow retroactively timetravel copy any of my other puzzles. They were rather harder, and I'm not entirely convinced I have the solution memorized for all of them.

SECOND EDIT: Oh no, are we about to come up against the puzzle that lead to the developers actually apologizing to the people that bought the game? I fear we are.

...This does not bode well. On the other hand, now I'm even more curious.

Due to nobody voting for a direction to go, I will go...up.


>u
As you leave, the "x2" cube reappears in your hand.

Ruins Room
This is the south end of a vast chamber filled with partially ruined structures. Here the portico of a building is collapsing. The pillars holding it up are starting to crumble. One has recently fallen and smashed the pavement. The fall exposed and the rubble blocked a small channel filled with swiftly rushing water which is rapidly inundating the area. You are in a small area not yet flooded.
There is a sack here.

Haven't we been in a Ruins Room before, with a similar description to this? Oh, well. I'll see if it's possible to rename the vault cubes, although I don't think so.

>write "link" on x2
You replace the word "x2" with the word "link".

The water has left only a tiny area dry.

So, we can. But let's get that sack and blorple out of here before it floods!

>blorple link
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

As you leave, your consciousness is wrenched as though your memories were being torn apart. You feel that you are being pummelled by huge rocks and boulders, again and again. Finally, you succumb.

**** You have died ****

Wha...? Well, maybe going down would have a more favorable result.

>d
As you leave, the "x2" cube reappears in your hand.

Dungeon Cell
This is a luxurious cell, obviously for the imprisonment of a highborn or powerful person. Its rich hangings and heavily ornamented furniture speak of a prisoner whose comfort is important even during imprisonment. A massive oak cabinet dominates one wall. The massive cabinet is closed.
The cell door is closed.

And another familiar room. I wonder if there's anything in that cabinet?

>open cabinet
The cabinet is locked.

Fortunately, we've got a key...and by "key," I mean "spell."

>rezrov cabinet
The cabinet bursts open, revealing a vellum scroll!

What new spell could this be?

>read scroll
This scroll is blank.

Well, before setting out on this quest, I got a fortune cookie that said "A blank scroll is like a blank check." So it'll come in handy. Now to get out of here, and...

>blorple x2
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

As you leave, your consciousness is wrenched as though your memories were being torn apart. You feel that you are being devoured by monsters and pulled screaming beneath the water simultaneously, again and again. Finally, you succumb.

**** You have died ****

Hmm, considering that this is the Time cube, perchance those exits led back in time, and so my deaths when I left were caused by a paradox like in the coal mine in my last adventure. So I'll have to set up those rooms so I'll find them properly in the future. So, what should I do to make the dungeon cell and Ruins Room look like they did when I first found them in the present? I await your responses for next time.

Puzzles:
Two rooms that have to have their past established so that returning to the present doesn't erase me from existence. Specifically, the Ruins Room and the Dungeon Cell.
A blank scroll...but what to write on it?

Inventory (annotations in italic):
a zipper (waterproof when closed)
The zipper contains:
a spell book
a magic burin, used to engrave things on cubes
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to Light Room)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to Fire Room)
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to Water Room)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "hex" cube (when blorpled, leads to Magic Room, boosts the power of all spells)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to Dark 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 490 of a possible 600, in 1147 moves. This puts us in the class of Novice Mage.

Death toll: 15 (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, TIME PARADOX)

That's... pretty cool, actually.

You have to clear the channel so that the room doesn't fill with water so you don't drown the next time you try to get here.

I suggested animating the rubble and commanding it to dance away.

Or I suppose you could rezrov it open.

Or you could be boring and just move the rubble by hand, but that would be boring.

Or you could tackle the Dungeon Cell, in which it appears you have to...rezrov the cell door? Put your spellbook in the cabinet? Lesoch to tear the curtain and break things? Try them all, I say.

There was a sack on the ground, and you didn't look in it or even at it. It might be important.

A reminder: when you first found the Ruins Room, there was a zipper on the ground, containing a girgol scroll.

I rather like this puzzle.

For reference, when we're trying to match the previous descriptions of the room.

I assume that we need to place the zipper in the water while it's still rushing, from the description, or we won't manage to complete the time loop. I note that the sack in the Ruins Room wasn't there in the future (Douglas Adams was so right when he complained about the lack of sensible grammar for time travel…), so presumably we need to remove that; I wonder if it's large enough to hold all our items?

The cabinet in Dungeon Cell contained a moldy spellbook, on which the only readable spell was snavig. We no longer have the spellbook (it crumbled to dust upon gnustoing it; perhaps we should have memorized it directly from the spellbook instead? Or perhaps we have to use our own spellbook, moldifying it, in which case we need all the spells for the rest of the game memorized before we can solve this puzzle). I also don't know how we're meant to make the room and book moldy; we may be missing a spell.

The zipper contained nothing but a flimsy scroll, with girgol on it. I agree with the suggestion that we probably have to, if we can, write girgol onto the blank scroll, as I don't see where else we could get a girgol scroll from.

EDIT: Some other points: Can we blorple out of x2/link itself to avoid being time-paradoxed (in order to take the cube independently of solving the time-travel puzzle), or does that not work? What happens if we put x2/link in the gold box, throw it somewhere, and blorple it? (It'd be hilarious, as well as massively confusing, if that actually let us go back in time anywhere, but it doesn't have an impassable exit, so it probably doesn't.) Is it possible to lock things with rezrov, or do we have to find a key for that purpose? Can we go to the other parts of the dungeon from the past Dungeon Cell?

Blorple doesn't work in cube rooms, unfortunately, so no.

Indeed, that is the case.

Rezrov can't lock things, but we do indeed have a key. We got it from Belboz for passing his little test.

Let's give it a try...

>d
As you leave, the "x2" cube reappears in your hand.

Dungeon Cell
This is a luxurious cell, obviously for the imprisonment of a highborn or powerful person. Its rich hangings and heavily ornamented furniture speak of a prisoner whose comfort is important even during imprisonment. A massive oak cabinet dominates one wall. The massive cabinet is closed.
The cell door is closed.

>open door
The door is locked.

>rezrov door
The door bursts outward in an explosion of power! Immediately, you hear the shouts of guards and the rattle of weapons.

>s
You exit into a tangle of guards, who promptly dispatch you for escaping and resisting arrest.

Apparently not. This is going on the death toll, despite technically being an experiment. Anyway, my apprentices have solved this puzzle in a piecewise manner, so let's go. First of all, ais523 implied that I'd have to sacrifice my spellbook to correct the Dungeon Cell, so I'll have to memorize every spell I'll need, which amounts to a lot of blorples. So, after restoring...

>memorize blorple
You easily learn the blorple spell.

>g
You easily learn the blorple spell yet another time.

>g
You easily learn the blorple spell yet another time.

I'll also need the "hex" cube, since after this, I'll have everything I need to get through that black void, and the key, to unlock and lock the cabinet.

>get hex
Taken.

>get key
Taken.

And now, into the dungeon.

>d
As you leave, the "x2" cube reappears in your hand.

Dungeon Cell
This is a luxurious cell, obviously for the imprisonment of a highborn or powerful person. Its rich hangings and heavily ornamented furniture speak of a prisoner whose comfort is important even during imprisonment. A massive oak cabinet dominates one wall. The massive cabinet is closed.
The cell door is closed.

>unlock cabinet
What do you want to unlock the cabinet with?

>key
Unlocked.

>open cabinet
Opening the massive cabinet reveals a vellum scroll.

>get vellum
Taken.

>put book in cabinet
Done.

We don't have to moldify the book; it will get that way on its own.

>close cabinet
Closed.

>lock cabinet
What do you want to lock the cabinet with?

>key
Locked.

>blorple x2
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

As you leave, your consciousness is wrenched as though your memories were being torn apart. You feel that you are being devoured by monsters and pulled screaming beneath the water simultaneously, again and again. Finally, you succumb.

**** You have died ****

Wha...? I did something wrong? Wait a minute...

Aha! After restoring and getting the cabinet as I'll find it in the present...

>rezrov door
The door bursts outward in an explosion of power! Immediately, you hear the shouts of guards and the rattle of weapons.

>blorple x2
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Sand Room

Now for the ruins.

>u
As you leave, the "x2" cube reappears in your hand.

Ruins Room
This is the south end of a vast chamber filled with partially ruined structures. Here the portico of a building is collapsing. The pillars holding it up are starting to crumble. One has recently fallen and smashed the pavement. The fall exposed and the rubble blocked a small channel filled with swiftly rushing water which is rapidly inundating the area. You are in a small area not yet flooded.
There is a sack here.

That sack is top priority, so let's get rid of it...and what better way than to swipe it?

>get sack
Taken.

>open sack
Opening the sack reveals a flimsy scroll.

The water has left only a tiny area dry.

So that's where the Girgol scroll comes from! However, why should we get rid of it without making a copy first? Also, we'll need to have nothing but the flimsy scroll in the zipper when we leave, otherwise we'll cease to be. So...

>empty zipper into sack
magic burin: Done.
the "pants" cube: Done.
the "crispy" cube: Done.
the "moist" cube: Done.
gold box: Done.
the "mind" cube: Done.
the "roivas" cube: Done.
the "hermy" cube: Done.
the "gusty" cube: Done.
the "morty" cube: Done.
the "polly" cube: Done.
the "flux" cube: Done.
the "rocky" cube: Done.
compass rose: Done.
knife: Done.
bottle: Done.
gold coin: Done.

The water has covered the entire floor. Your feet are wet.

And now, after numerous turns of item-juggling...

>write girgol on vellum
Copied.

>drop zipper
Dropped.

>get hex
Taken.

>girgol hex
The vellum scroll is unreadable.

The nearly freezing water has overcome you. You die of hypothermia.

**** You have died ****

Yes, this is a timing puzzle. So, after doing the stupid Dungeon Cell AGAIN...

>SAVE

Please supply a filename for save
Okay.

>put key in zipper
Done.

>get burin
Taken.

>u
As you leave, the "x2" cube reappears in your hand.

Ruins Room
This is the south end of a vast chamber filled with partially ruined structures. Here the portico of a building is collapsing. The pillars holding it up are starting to crumble. One has recently fallen and smashed the pavement. The fall exposed and the rubble blocked a small channel filled with swiftly rushing water which is rapidly inundating the area. You are in a small area not yet flooded.
There is a sack here.

>get sack
Taken.

>open sack
Opening the sack reveals a flimsy scroll.

The water has left only a tiny area dry.

>get flimsy
Taken.

>empty zipper into sack
wrought iron key: Done.
the "pants" cube: Done.
the "crispy" cube: Done.
the "moist" cube: Done.
gold box: Done.
the "hex" cube: Done.
the "mind" cube: Done.
the "roivas" cube: Done.
the "hermy" cube: Done.
the "gusty" cube: Done.
the "morty" cube: Done.
the "polly" cube: Done.
the "flux" cube: Done.
the "rocky" cube: Done.
compass rose: Done.
knife: Done.
bottle: Done.
gold coin: Done.

>write girgol on vellum
Copied.

>put flimsy in zipper
Done.

The water has covered the entire floor. Your feet are wet.

>close zipper
The zipper now looks like an ordinary zipper.

>drop zipper
Dropped.

>get hex
Taken.

>blorple hex
Abruptly, your surroundings shift.

Magic Room

And now, it's time for the endgame. I've got everything I need, including all 13 cubes, and every spell in the game, including the only über-spell. So, this seems like a good place to end this. Next time on "The end of an era...let's play Spellbreaker!", we head through the black void for the final battle. Now the legend evolves.

Inventory (annotations in italic)
You are carrying:
a sack
The sack contains:
a gold coin
a bottle
a knife
a compass rose
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Changing Room)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to the String Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Boneyard)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Air Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Soft Room)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Water Room)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Fire Room)
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Light Room)
a wrought iron key
the "x2" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Sand Room)
a magic burin (providing light courtesy of the Frotz spell)
a vellum scroll (the girgol spell)

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Blorple, Yomin, as well as one casting of Girgol.

Our score is 550 of a possible 600, in 1173 moves. This puts us in the class of Archimage (sic).

Death toll: 17 (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, TIME PARADOX, killed for escaping and resisting arrest, died of hypothermia in freezing water)

Also, I know I didn't really have any interactivity in this particular update, but I just couldn't resist ending it on a cliffhanger. Sorry.

WHOO, coming to the end. We are awesome! though we haven't actually solved any of the problems we were sent out to complete... yet.

But you didn't mention what the girgol spell does

Is it the time-stoppy one?

Yes it is.

The peculiar magical zipper surprises us once again: it seems to only exist in a stable time loop.

And so, we enter the darkness for the final battle...

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

Mocking laughter echoes around you.

Castle
This is the audience chamber. It is high and spacious, and every proportion and decoration is intended to highlight the throne that looms before you. The throne itself is bathed in light, but only featureless gray may be seen through the windows and skylights.

It's quiet...too quiet. Hey, maybe I can be the king of this castle!

>sit on throne
That would be a waste of time.

Around the throne a dark mist begins to coalesce. It thickens into the outline of a human figure sitting nonchalantly on the throne. You can see the ghost of a cloak and hood as well.

It's that guy who turned everyone into newts! Maybe we can find out what exactly has been going on!

>z
Time passes...

The figure speaks. "It's been such a pleasure to follow your progress. I'm so glad I could be of assistance when you had trouble. It made me feel useful. Thank you for collecting the cubes."

>z
Time passes...

The figure waves its arms in the air. Before you, rolling and tumbling in a bath of light, are four cubes. "When I gathered these and the "rocky" cube, after searching old tomes and questioning the wise about their whereabouts, I conceived my plan. I could not gather the remainder of the cubes, but to achieve my desire, they had to be brought together. Who better than you to act in my stead?"

Hey, he's got cubes of his own! I wonder what elements they're linked with?

>z
Time passes...

"It was a simple matter to perturb the cubes I had to make your simple magics flicker or fail. I knew this would set you on a quest. For I know you well!" The four cubes disappear. The figure sits straight on its throne and removes its hood. You are looking at a shadowy, dark and transparent version of yourself!

"Magic is a powerful force, the most powerful in the universe, but its exercise has its price. Each time a great mage performs a spell, some part of the power in that spell is lost in shadow. A great mage ultimately creates a shadow-self that is dimly aware." The figure grins. "You have become the most powerful wizard of all, for I, your shadow, have become very nearly as powerful as you!"

Oh, tish.

>z
Time passes...

"But why, you ask, am I collecting the elemental cubes? It's easy to answer. I am not powerful enough. My existence is still but a shadow of your own. My desires are unfulfilled. I wish power over all creation! I wish to remold the universe in my own image, and rule it. In such a universe, my merest whim would smash a star or slay a butterfly. You have brought me the tools of the remaking!"

"Now for a small precaution." The shadow gestures, and you are frozen in place, unable to move even your littlest finger.

The shadowy figure deftly takes the "rocky" cube from the sack and sets it in the air between you, where it hangs motionless.

Well, now I don't have any choice but to watch.

>z
Time passes...

The shadowy figure deftly takes the "gusty" cube from the sack and places it next to the "rocky" cube. They disappear into a glowing line which appears between them. The shadowy figure places the "crispy" cube and the "moist" cube in the air, creating a square of glowing light.

I wonder if there's anything special about the square?

>examine square
It floats in front of you, glowing and tumbling.

Your little finger is full of pins and needles. You could move it if you wanted.

Four more cubes are placed above the square: the "hermy" cube, the "morty" cube, the "pants" cube and the "roivas" cube. A cube of light shimmers before you. The shadow is growing more excited, hopping around the structure to place the cubes.

Really? Well, if I can...

>move little finger
I don't know the word "little."

>move finger
I don't know the word "finger."

Why tell me I can if I can't? Gently caress you, parser.

>z
Time passes...

Your feet and hands feel as if they've been asleep, but you can move them.

All the remaining cubes save one, the "hex" cube, build another square, then the shadow adds its own four cubes to make a second cube of light, which hangs next to the first.

Maybe if I can move my hands, I can cast a spell?

>girgol
You are frozen.

Your arms and legs are free, but you still cannot speak or move your head.

The shadow grabs the first cube of light, and twisting, chanting, squeezing, the cube is compressed and thrust inside the second cube. The points of the inner and outer cube connect, and it begins to tumble, seeming to twist and distort as one face, then another, presents itself to you. The figure capers madly in front of its construction, laughing and giggling. It ignores you.

Guess not. But then, apparently I couldn't speak then, either, so I guess I shouldn't have expected to be able to cast a spell.

>z
Time passes...

You feel almost thawed, but your mouth feels full of cotton.

The shadowy figure deftly takes the "hex" cube from you and raising it high, thrusts it into the center of the tesseract! Cascades of light pour forth, blindingly bright, but you can still see the "hex" cube at the center. The shadow is growing more solid, no longer transparent and dark! Chortling gleefully, it prepares to jump into the hypercube!

Maybe I can cast a spell now?

>girgol
You clumsily attempt to cast the spell. The shadow notices you. "You force me to take precautions." The shadow gestures, and you are frozen in place, unable to move even your littlest finger.

Your little finger is full of pins and needles. You could move it if you wanted.

The shadow, now as solid as a real person, performs a back flip into the tesseract, laughing triumphantly. Now glowing as brightly as the construction it made, the figure approaches the center. It dwindles in size and grows in brightness at the same time, until you are almost blinded by a light so bright it fills the world. A voice like honey and ashes speaks in your mind. "I am the All, I am the Will, I am the Power. The universe is Mine! Begone, insect!" You and all you hold dear are abolished in an instant, and the reign of the shadow begins.
Your score is -99 of a possible 600, in 1182 moves. This puts you in the class of Menace to Society.

And so, the ultimate failure rank appears in all three games of the trilogy. How can I stop this nightmarish creature from annihilating everything? I leave that as an exercise for you, my loyal viewers.

Puzzles:
Preventing the shadow from destroying the universe and reshaping it in its own image.

Inventory (annotations in italic)
You are carrying:
a sack
The sack contains:
a gold coin
a bottle
a knife
a compass rose
the "rocky" cube (when blorpled, leads to Packed Earth)
the "flux" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Changing Room)
the "polly" cube (when blorpled, leads to the String Room)
the "morty" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Boneyard)
the "gusty" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Air Room)
the "hermy" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Soft Room)
the "roivas" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Dark Room)
the "mind" cube (when blorpled, leads to No Place)
a gold box (ornamented with dolphins, makes the unusable exit from cube rooms usable based on ornamentation)
the "moist" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Water Room)
the "crispy" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Fire Room)
the "pants" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Light Room)
a wrought iron key
the "x2" cube (when blorpled, leads to the Sand Room)
a magic burin (providing light courtesy of the Frotz spell)
a vellum scroll (the girgol spell)

Spells memorized:
Gnusto (permanent), Rezrov (permanent), Frotz (permanent), Espnis, Blorple, Yomin, as well as one casting of Girgol.

Our score is -99 of a possible 600, in 1182 moves. This puts us in the class of Menace to Society.

Death toll: 18 (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, TIME PARADOX, killed for escaping and resisting arrest, died of hypothermia in freezing water, annihilated as the shadow recreated the universe in its own image)

By the way, reading the hintbook for this game on an Infocom tribute site was the first place I ever heard of a tessarect/hypercube. And now you know.