I collected the four dog tags, but every time I try to use them to open the study door, it's Game Over. I can't figure out what to do. Can anyone help?

meschlum
Fri Oct 9 07:51:51 2020
Star - optimum ending reached

Possible, but there is a tendency for the dog tags to behave unpredictably if all are not collected.

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MPerera
Fri Oct 9 16:55:00 2020

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meschlum
Sat Oct 10 07:43:24 2020

There are indeed!

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MPerera
Sat Oct 10 16:03:11 2020

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meschlum
Sat Oct 10 23:46:53 2020

You should have everything at that point.

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MPerera
Sun Oct 11 00:07:45 2020

Thanks! I thought the belladonna was in the room with the complicated lock.

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MPerera
Sun Oct 11 03:13:33 2020

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meschlum
Sun Oct 11 07:07:46 2020

You've reached the point where the book's implementation is harder to predict.

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MPerera
Sun Oct 11 07:10:00 2020

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MPerera
Sun Oct 11 07:48:14 2020

I don't believe this. I actually won!

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Thanks very much for your help! This was super difficult, so I wouldn't have completed it on my own.

meschlum
Mon Oct 12 06:12:12 2020

Well...

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MPerera
Mon Oct 12 07:40:23 2020

Oh no, your hints were clear.

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MPerera
Mon Oct 12 08:23:16 2020

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Liam burgandy
Thu Jan 21 19:49:06 2021
Skull - non-optimum ending reached

Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe sh1t

BB
Tue Feb 16 12:27:25 2021
Skull - non-optimum ending reached

Dying to being unlucky with no choice given to escape a room is not great. A lot of this one seems to rely heavily on luck, there no hints to help.

YARD
Sun Aug 13 11:53:19 2023

(It seems like some of my comments might have gotten caught in a word filter or something again. If there are any duplicate submissions, just delete them.)

As for the actual typos, I found the following.

229
"The model is fancy and rare; you've seen in a movie about its head moving, slowly you push the head and it partially separates at the neck revealing a red button underneath. Pushing the button causes one of the bookshelves to move aside. Hesitantly, you go down the stone descending stairwell. You arrive in the basement in some dungeon of sort where there are shackles on the wall, benches and dried blood smeared across the walls."

I don't quite understand what the part about the movie is meant to say, but I think "stone descending stairwell" should be in a different order? The last sentence would likely be better with benches placed last, but besides that, I think it needs to be "of sorts"?

5
"kneel down you her" ? Plus, "when you turn around to peer at her for one last time" ?

241
"from its owners shoulders" should have an apostrophe somewhere?

114
"with course black thread."

259
"his hair is deshelled"

164
"all you need do"

203

"Examine the the mould of Benjamin Franklin?"

165

"Before your innards start mush from nausea"

188

Missing space. " but they don't.The narrow path soon opens up"

258

"and grans hold of your hind leg."

YARD
Sun Aug 13 12:35:28 2023
Star - optimum ending reached

Also, 49

"shriekeng"

63

" the candlestick phone on one the tables start to ring." (Both a missing word and a lack of an "s".)

220

"an anomalous necklace with a jade pendent"

and 240

"The letters were written on (what?) with what appears to be an old ink pen or quill."

"There is nothing else of interest in the letters; wit's just a bunch of "

I'll probably find some more if I decide to throw away a dozen or so runs to investigate the trap options in the final stretch.

I think that the structure is quite flawed as well. It's one thing that there's an unskippable luck check that can instantly fail you early on: this is a horror story, and it's so early you barely lose any progress, so I'm fine with it. That another luck check closer to midway also outright fails your run, with no option to retake it (unlike another check a little earlier that's ultimately completely meaningless) and no way to find out until much later on is not the best, but it's also nothing I haven't seen before. You may or may not have to pass several checks in rapid succession near the end to win: that's what I did, but perhaps an alternate path would have obviated it.

What I really object to is how many things appear to be outright useless. Sometimes, they really are (i.e. the letters seem to do nothing according to the comments) and sometimes they only seem that way. For instance, I didn't recognize that the butcher's knife is actually useful until replaying, because the game doesn't explicitly inform you that its presence is the reason you no longer suffer -2 to Skill in combat. Given the creatures you face early on, I was convinced it's because you fight ethereal beings (the first one while your legs are pinned to the ground as well!) It doesn't help that the game doesn't even bother to acknowledge if you picked it up before fighting the ghouls, as those grating jokes about picking up the forks make no sense if you had already entered the place with a butcher's knife.

It similarly doesn't help that pick cannot be used as a weapon, for no apparent reason, and is limited to just one thing. For whatever reason, you can't use it on the wraith (still get that stupid message about grabbing an endtable), can't charge the gargoyles with it even though a mining tool with an occult reference would seem like the perfect tool for the job, and can't try to bring down the burgundy doors with it. Seriously, is there even any way of going through those doors? That would seem to be a job for the skeleton key, but it's either completely useless, or is at most needed in a path you do not have to take to escape.

It doesn't help that the writing for the burgundy doors is quite confusing.

178
"The doors are locked and the hallway continues further down but a large iron gate blocks your way."

Which hallway? Is that the hallway past the doors? If so, how can you even see it to the gate through the locked doors? Or is the gate in front of the doors, or somewhere to the side of them? Then why don't you see it from the starting position itself?

YARD
Sun Aug 13 12:36:31 2023

Oh, and I really wouldn't have guessed that according to the comments here

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Since not only do you find one of the letters there, but that fight is honestly the best one in the game (even with that rather unfair special feature they have) and discovering it's best to just ignore it outright feels sad.

As it was, I just tried the combinations one by one until hitting the right one. If some of the refs were meant to explain which would be the decoy and which would be real, I clearly missed the hint, but I suspect there weren't any.

Either way, I wish you actually needed those letters

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for the final confrontation, because the actual item which wins you the game is so ludicrously silly that even the ref introducing it has to acknowledge what an out-of-place deus ex machina it is. It makes the lack of context behind half the encounters (half are obviously connected to the "Background", and the others are completely random and could have been in any horror story.)

Some refs also have one of those things I really hate in playable stories, and that is sudden "auto-choices". Like that ref where the character just pulls a red lever without our input and predictably suffers for it. Like the neighbouring ref 5 - possibly the longest one in the game, and ludicrously non-interactive - several things which are treated as choices/skill checks/combat encounters elsewhere are suddenly carried through on "cutscene power". Not even a good cutscene either, as the player character seems to forget all about the other undead he encountered moments earlier. The "schooner" room has a similar, though less blatant, issue.

Lastly, there is the weird inconsistency in what does and doesn't damage you. Apparently, getting nauseated by smell of a decaying corpse/murderous feast is enough to do physical damage, but actually getting stabbed with a knife in the thigh or in the face is not. Who knew!

Sorry for the tone of all this. I actually really like the part where you finally make it out to the garden, and everything preceding to it was quite close to being great with only a few different choices but that's what it is.

YARD
Sun Aug 13 12:40:03 2023
Star - optimum ending reached

I am not sure if my first message got caught in a filter or just never went through because of wordcount, so trying again. The key reason why I wasn't really a fan of this one is because I think it has the weakest writing style of all the gamebooks I have seen here. (And I have completed 12 so far.) While the events described are often interesting enough, the way they are described too often kills all the mood. Consider the very first ref.

1

"Strangely, from inside everything looks polished and lived in. Nothing has a speck of dust upon it. The grey granite and scarlet tiled floor is waxed and has the most beautiful mosaic of a pentagram and goat's face worked into it, there are long Turkish weaves on either side of the grand Peruvian marble stairwell and the colossal brass chandelier has nearly a hundred lit candles in it. The home has no obvious electricity only candles, lanterns, and lamps which give the luxurious foyer an ominous yet soothing atmosphere. Nice sight but it's still eerie, even the smirking gargoyles that are perched on their spot at the base of the stairwell watch your every move. Their eyes seem to be made out of rubies and sparkle lifelike in the candlelight.

35

Just as you're pondering which one to investigate the chandelier above starts to rotate slowly as if some breeze is coming in from somewhere, is it a gentle wind or is it something else moving it? There is an unnerving feeling about this place and you wonder if the belladonna is really that important, but do you really want to live your life as a werewolf? Quietly you step into the center of the room and speculate where you're going to search first.

The door swings open at the exact time you go to ram it again and fly head-first back out into the lit foyer, tripping to the floor, carrying the chair and all! The dragon doors close again all by themselves behind you. Not sure if you're spooked by now but you decide if staying in this house is such a good idea, it's haunted that's for sure. But who would believe you? Well, at least you're no longer in the parlour. You get back to your feet and brush yourself off."

What's with all those run-on sentences?! What's with the way they suddenly break the train of thought and turn to another topic?! It's the writing style of a casual conversation, and it totally kills the mood. And sadly, it's far from the only example.

201
"When you open the glass doors of the curio the dried up old bones all come toppling out and cascade onto your feet. You do find a steel key though and your heart takes a leap, you have found the key to get out of this parlour. However upon trying the key you discover that it does not in fact open the door to the room."

I feel that better-written gamebooks would have devoted three paragraphs to this whole event, be they long or short. One to convey your shock at the grizzly discovery, one to show where you actually found the key, and the last one for your joy turning to despair. Here, it's condensed to a jumbled mess. The character's heart may take a leap, but it's hard to feel anything.

203
"A majority of the papers date back to the year 1910. The owner of this house is in arrears. He has crudely scribbled over the amounts he's in debt with. Then there are some letters dating to the current times of the 21st century and you wonder what this could mean? The guy is obviously not a vampire and couldn't live that long? Perhaps you wonder since the same name is on each letter that perhaps his father was called by the same name? The first name is scratched out and all that remains is the surname Crimson. There is a letter written by this so called Crimson as well addressed to his wife."

Besides the same terrible run-on sentences, there's the added absurdity of a guy who knows beyond doubt that he himself is a werewolf, and who had just dealt with another undead disregarding the existence of vampires for no apparent reason.

I think the worst run-on sentence is actually here.

30
"You enter the combination and the portcullis painfully lifts on its rusty gears and goes back down once you're through, now you find yourself in the unfinished basement of the house. After your experience, you really want out of this house and the light switch doesn't work down here so you rely on your mini flashlight."

What is this?! Perhaps the author is not a native English speaker, but then again, neither am I. Further, I believe apps/websites like Hemingway were already around by the time this story was written.

Even the final few refs on the way to the intended ending can have rough sentences like this (non-spoilery) one.

232

"Just as you're checking what contents you still have on
you you hear the distinct crude noise of a chainsaw behind you, glancing over your shoulder, your heart takes a leap."

YARD
Sun Aug 13 13:13:50 2023
Star - optimum ending reached

A couple more things.

"231"

"in a loud course voice. " That, and I am sure

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Secondly, if

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then you are thrown back to reference 154 instead of 305.

YARD
Mon Aug 14 12:21:21 2023
Star - optimum ending reached

So, I have now gone through what should have been nearly all refs. Now that I now how many refs can be ignored outright, I can afford to throw away runs on the really obvious trap options. (Though still not going for the three "get yourself infected/cursed and then try to heal back from it" just yet, since there is literally no benefit at all to exposing yourself to those in the first place, yet a lot of steps involved afterwards.)

10
"Ths just won't do,"

69

"You will not go be going back out there again, that's for sure."

130

"You realise you might not be able to break out this house."

143
There doesn't seem to be any hidden doors or corridors to get to this other part of the house.

15
"and then it fades.Now you are certain"

16
Insane times calls for desperate measures

161
".. In its claw" (double period.)

189
"but can't see where's she is" (Also, ref 25 makes no sense after this.)

254
"looking at your befuddled." (There's also an unneeded paragraph break between "you're" and "not the one".)

I did find a use for the skeleton key now: however, it's again tied to the apparently useless letters. I see that the silver dagger is in fact a weapon too: the reason I was confused is because not only does the game not tell you how it'll affect your combat power (same as with the Butcher's Knife), but also because while Butcher's Knife gets auto-equipped when you pick it up, Silver Dagger doesn't - regardless of whether you wield that knife or are currently bare-handed. It's a strange mechanical inconsistency. Similarly

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I also now understand why the burgundy doors are always locked

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Though I still find this plotline to be serviceable at best, and find that this explanation could have been conveyed in a more apparent manner once you enter the final stretch in all pathways, not just some of them.

I still have no idea about the meaning of the Rolex Watch, besides the fact that

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I also have no idea if

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And I remain disappointed that

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At the same time, the final stretch is something I like more and more the more I play it. It does make for some nice contrast with the rest of the game when you can make almost any choice there and still win.

Thanks for the bug report, I've fixed them now apart for one or two that would need a bit more thought.

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