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From: ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Christopher E. Forman)
Subject: Re: Spellbreaker bug!! (SPOILERS)
Message-ID: <1994Nov29.180208.132396@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 1994 18:02:08 GMT
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Andrew C. Plotkin (ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu) wrote:

  [STUFF DELETED]

: What happens if you just Girgol, walk in, and wait for it to wear off?

The Ogre realized what you've done, storms in, and kills you.

: I've been assuming that you can do that, and then get out somehow (say
: via Blorple.) If that worked, it would be a valid partial solution (and
: I would not expect any particular indication that it was or was not
: *the* solution; it just follows from game physics.) And that would not
: constitute an unfair plot design; even if you can get all the way to the
: endgame without getting the cube from the hut, well, you should
: certainly have figured out that missing a cube is bad.

You can't open the gold box until the GIRGOL wears off, at which point the
ogre finds you.

: On reflection, since the original poster mentioned the Nondescript Room,
: I guess that it doesn't work (maybe the ogre comes in as soon as the
: Girgol wears off?) In that case, it is clearly a bug, and I apologize
: for being confused. But I still don't think the possibility of doing
: this makes the plot unfair.

Perhaps not for someone who realized the cliff solution beforehand, but I
personally didn't realize you could use GIRGOL to get up the cliff at
first.  I had tried using GIRGOL when the rocks were tumbling down after
me, but I'd moved down the cliff before the rocks began falling, as I
assumed they'd crush me immediately.  Then, when I did cast the spill,
the rocks above me were too cluttered for me to make the climb.  Thus I
assumed (erroneously, I admit) that there was no way to use GIRGOL to get
up the cliff, and thus assumed that getting by the ogre was the only
correct way to use it.  Hence my confusion.  That's why I always found
it particularly unfair.

: What about the other obvious way of "hiding" -- getting into the zipper?
: Can you do that until the Girgol wears off and then get the cube, or is
: there a special encoding for that?

If I remember correctly, the ogre still kills you if you use the zipper.
(Can't figure that one out, since you're supposed to be in another
dimension!)
