"L: A MATHEMAGICAL ADVENTURE"... THE SOLUTION ============================================= (SeDi, vmgsedi@msn.com) Well, I finally found the time to solve "L: A Mathemagical Adventure." Herewith the solution! As usual, moves north, south, east, west, etc. are abbreviated N S E W NE NW SE SW U D (up/down!). Yes and No responses are abbreviated Y and N. Other words in CAPITALS are normally commands to type. Hopefully there aren't any typos or mistakes in here. Before we start properly, I'd just like to recommend that you follow what's going on quite carefully, as the Drogos tend to materialise at random, and you may accidentally get sidetracked. If you do meet a Drogo Robot Guard, just type the square root of the number on his chest. For example, if you meet a Drogo with 64 on his chest, simply type 8 and press return. He will wail in terror and disappear. Also, by climbing up the chimney from the "half & half" room, you will find yourself in the Drogo's attic-based jail area. Simply move E and play the pig-catching game as described below. You may also find it amusing to be captured by a Drogo at least once, if only to escape from Drogo jail "for real". This is the full sequence for such occasions:- You find yourself in an attic room with some square numbers written on the wall. Just LOOK, or try to move E a few times, and a Drogo will enter with some food. Say his square root, then E, E, GET PIG. You will be asked if you want to capture the pig. Answer Y, and ALLOW THE PIG TO MOVE FIRST! (The puzzle is a classic parity-based game, and if you move first you'll never be able to capture it.) Catching the pig won't take long - try these moves: U, R, R. Then you'll be told what the pig's label says: "NEUMANN." Simply type NEUMANN and press return, and you'll be magically transported back to the Old Kitchen (just inside the hallway where you entered the palace at the start of the game). Bingo, you've escaped from jail. (Once you know the NEUMANN trick, you can type it as soon as you enter the pig room.) So now let's solve "L: A Mathemagical Adventure." You start outside the palace. FOLLOW ABBOT, N, E. The abbot asks you for help, reply Y. Reply Y again when he asks if you want him to continue. Reply Y when he asks you for help again. The abbot vanishes. LOOK. You should now be in the store room. W, W, GET TETRAHEDRON, E, N, W, GET CUBE, E, E, U, E, E, E, (should be in the music room now). PLAY PIANO. PLAY EWQEWQ. The piano then plays Three Blind Mice, some mice appear and leave a bottle and a phial on the ground. GET BOTTLE, GET PHIAL. E, E, GET CUE, HIT BALL. Give 30 as the angle (in fact, in this geometrical puzzle, the number isn't really very important - 30 works though). S, W. Be careful here - not only is the room description in code, but you can't see what you're typing! GET SPECTACLES, LOOK, DROP SPECTACLES. W, GET DODECAHEDRON, E, E, N, E, U, E. You're now in the electrician's box. The electrician asks you for help, reply Y. Just for your info, the switches work like this:- 1. swaps the left two lights 2. rotates the right three lights to the left 3. does nothing 4. swaps the right two lights Type the following numbers to solve the puzzle: 4, 2, 1, 2. GET OAR. W, D, D. You're in a large kitchen. The cook asks for help, reply Y. The following amounts of ingredients will solve the puzzle:- TOLT: 6 grams. FIMA: 10 grams. MUOT: 10 grams. After solving the puzzle, the cook will give you an icosahedron. U, W, W, W, W, W, W, D, D and then E, E. Now you're in the oak door room. GET BLANKS. Reply Y. You have to file a key to fit all four locks in the door simultaneously. Type these commands to file the key blank correctly:- F, R, F, R, F, R, F, R, F, D, F, U, R, F, R, F, R, R, F, D, D, F, L, F, L, F, L, L, L, L, F, L, F, UNLOCK. Purely for information: the correct key shape looks like this:- # #### ##### # ### The east door then swings open. E, GET OCTAHEDRON, N, N, N. You're now next to the rusty bath. To plug its holes, USE TETRAHEDRON, USE CUBE, USE ICOSAHEDRON, USE OCTAHEDRON, USE DODECAHEDRON. To make yourself light enough, DROP BOTTLE, DROP PHIAL. Now LOOK BATH to traverse the river. You're at the north bank of the river. NE, and reply Y to the gardener. The following instructions solve the puzzle:- T, U, T, D, D, T, L, L, D, T, U, U, T, U, U, T, R, R, R, R, T, D, D, T, D, D, T. As ever, for information, what you're aiming for is this pattern:- T . . . T . . T . . T . T . T . . T . . T . . . T The gardener gives you a rope ladder. SW, LOOK BATH. An ape approaches you. Reply Y to his two questions. The following word sequence solves his puzzle. Type each word in turn, pressing return after each one. AWE, OWE, OWL. The ape turns into an owl and flies off with your rope-ladder. In fact, he's taken it to the creeper room, where we shall now go in the following manner: LOOK BATH, GET PHIAL, GET BOTTLE, S, S, S, W, W, W, W, D, W, S, W, S. GET LADDER. From the creeper room, move W, N, N, E. (The telephone you see here is unimportant. However, by dialling the Fibonacci numbers between 000 and 999 you can hear various messages, none of them particularly useful.) You need to move the chest, and to do that you musn't be carrying anything. So DROP BOTTLE, DROP PHIAL, DROP OAR, DROP LADDER. MOVE CHEST. This reveals a trap-door. GET BOTTLE, GET PHIAL, GET OAR, GET LADDER. D. Rather than explaining the maze layout, just follow these instructions. N, E, E, E, S, E, N. You're now outside the palace. U. You're on a courtyard with a snail. For every move you make in a given direction, the snail makes two. To make him meet you, make the following moves: W, S, S, W, W, W, W, W, S, S. He gives you a rusty key. D. It's time to go back through the maze. ENTER, S, W, W, GET SPHERE, W, N, W, S, U. You should now be back in the telephone room. W, S, E, E, N, E, U, E. You should be in the pool room. D. To fit into the 20cm hole, DRINK PHIAL, DRINK BOTTLE. These two combine to make you 75% of your original height. You're now small enough to fit inside the hole, but still tall enough to reach it. ENTER HOLE, D, EXIT, UNLOCK DOOR, S, U, GET HAIR, ENTER DOOR. You are in a circular room with an elderly janitor in the middle. LOOK JANITOR. The janitor leaves. N. GET CALCULATOR. You must operate the calculator to display 11, and thus terrify the Drogo; however, the calculator is faulty. This sequence will give you 11, although I'm sure a shorter sequence is possible. Firstly, type 11 and press return to show the calculator controls. Then type the following operations as shown, pressing return where you see a # symbol. 7-4 # *7 # -7-4 # *4 # -7-7-7-4-4 # The guard smashes the calculator and leaves. Move S, E. For info, the plaque decoded reads "CROWTHER WOODS." Move SW. You're in the bat room. The large bat will accept any triangular number between 20 and 90. 21 is ideal. Go S, GET TICKET, READ TICKET, N, NW. I'll quickly explain about the other rooms accessible from the circular room. Go NW. This is the "half & half" room. W. This is the mirror room. E, N. Don't go up now, but if you were to go up from here, you'd find yourself in the attic passage leading to the pig room and the Drogo jail (see top of file). S, SE, SW. This is the microcomputer room. Reply Y to the question. Note how the screen changes colour... in fact, this screen IS the contents of the computer screen in the micro room - the idea being that your own computer has become part of the adventure. It's possible to get into all sorts of messes here. When the computer asks you if you want to see the screen, reply N. Then type QUIT to return to the "real" game. NE. There's only a couple more puzzles to solve at this point. NE. Now you're in the safe room. To unlock the door, type 4096. Go N, N, and ENTER. Reply Y to the spider's question. The spider's puzzle is a hard one. To solve it, follow these instructions:- START, R, R, L, R, R, R, L, R, R, R, L, L, R, L, R, R, R, L, R, R, R, L, R. GET RING. You're now invisible, and the game is nearly over. S, S, S, SW, S, S, W. And there's Princess Runia! DROP RING. (see note below.) You and Runia escape through the window using the ladder. Reply Y to the computer's question, and it will give you the story epilogue. Room for a sequel there? Perhaps, but this adventure is over and what remains is for your imagination. Congratulations, you've completed the game! NOTE: I've played "L" through to the end several times, testing this solution. Sometimes, when you do the final DROP RING, Runia points out you've forgotten the ladder. Sure enough, the ladder's vanished! The Drogos then capture you and confiscate all your possessions. If that happens to you, here's what to do:- Escape from jail as explained at the beginning of this file. W, S. GET LADDER. N, E, N, W. You're in the linen cupboard, and so are all your possessions! GET them all - although you only really need the ring and the ladder. E, E, U, E, D, ENTER HOLE, D, EXIT, S, U, ENTER, S, S, W. There's Princess Runia again. DROP RING. Success! --SeDi