The Gorreven Papers — 17 of 23

Section 16 - That's the Breakers

The Dingy Hallway is a room. "It smells somewhat of stale beer and sweat. The dirty and worn carpet is peeling away from the floor in several places. One or two cockroaches regard you studiously. The hallway continues east and west."

The Warehouse is west of the Dingy Hallway. "A small warehouse that smells of solvents, rusty metal and oil. As you look around you can see various implements of torture. The only exit is east." A pair of thumbscrews, a coil of barbed wire, an electric cattle prod, an iron maiden, and an early American bear trap are in the Warehouse.

The bear trap is glass-smashing. The prod is glass-smashing.

The can of poison is a decanter in the Warehouse. It is filled.

[Handle a couple of otherwise confusing reactions to opening or closing the can]

Instead of opening the can of poison:

say "[The poison] can't be opened. Instead it has a spill-proof spout allowing its contents to be poured."

Instead of closing the can of poison:

say "[The poison] can't be closed. Instead it has a spill-proof spout allowing its contents to be poured."

Instead of examining the can of poison:

say "It's [if the can is filled]a can filled with liquid poison[otherwise]empty[end if]."

The description of the iron maiden is "Looks like someone is nostalgic about the Bad Old Days."

The description of the bear trap is "Yikes! Wonder what they do with this? Best to not think about it."

Instead of taking the iron maiden, say "It's too heavy." instead.

Instead of taking the barbed wire, say "Ouch! You can't pick that up." instead.

The wall panel is in the Warehouse. It is openable. It is closed. It is fixed in place. A row of power switches is a switched on device in the panel. The switches are fixed in place. The switches are switched on. The printed name of the switches is "row of power switches".

After switching off the power for the first time:

say "There is pitch darkness; then a few feeble emergency lights flicker on. 'Where's the power?' roars a distant voice. 'The spy's escaping!' shrieks another. 'Release the hounds!' bellows a commanding voice.";

now the dogs are released.

[This is from the original adventure, and it's here to avoid all the odd states that would result from the power going on and off, and because the power outage was used to imply the level of alarm. It might be fun to let it ride, especially if tied into Inform's strong handling of light, and let the entire complex have different levels of alarm and reaction based on how often the power has been switched on and off.]

Instead of switching on the power when the power is switched off:

say "Why? It's time to escape. NOW! Why else did you turn them off?"

Instead of examining the panel when the panel is closed:

say "It's a closed panel, flush with the wall, with a hinge on the side."