Renga in Blue   Interactive fiction and the All the Adventures project

I posted long ago about what I thought was a general instant-death:

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YOU ARE IN AN INCLINED SHAFT WHICH STEEPENS AT THIS POINT. THE WALLS ARE COVERED IN A THIN LAYER OF SLIME MAKING IT VERY SLIPPERY. BELOW YOU THE SHAFT IS FILLED WITH DARK WATER WHICH SURGES RHYTHMICALLY. THE SMELL OF THE SEA IS MINGLED WITH AN ALTOGETHER MORE UNPLEASANT ODOUR.

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YOU HAVE DROWNED HORRIBLY IN A MIXTURE OF SEA-WATER AND SEWAGE!

However, it turns out this fluctuates, and entering and returning can yield something different.

YOU ARE IN AN INCLINED SHAFT WHICH STEEPENS AT THIS POINT. THE WALLS OF THE SHAFT ARE COVERED IN A THIN LAYER OF SLIME MAKING IT VERY SLIPPERY. BELOW YOU THE SHAFT STEEPENS AND ENTERS A N/S CULVERT PARTIALLY FILLED WITH A BRACKISH EVIL SMELLING LIQUID. YOU COULD SLIDE DOWN HERE BUT YOU COULD NOT CLIMB BACK UP.

Entering when the water is lower leads to, alas, another maze. (Click for a larger view.)

I see the authors of Adventure II had sort of a repeated fractal design in mind, which is slightly interesting, but … no, this is not a worthy addition to the 350-point original.

It let me escape with another treasure (an ivory horn), so technically this was a puzzle, but it certainly didn’t feel like I solved one. I wandered into the “low tide” by accident, and mapping the maze didn’t involve any creativity at all; the only new element was that the tide would start to rise and kill the player, forcing a reload of a saved game to continue exploring. This is not would I would call a “feature”.

Unfortunately, I have scooped up all the treasures I can find and my lamp light is running low and I don’t seem to have triggered any sort of endgame. I still have some characters (like a giant and an owl) I haven’t interacted much yet and I’ll discuss them in my next post. If the game goes for too much longer I’ll need to work on optimizing my walkthrough to the limit, though.