Oh Gordon you are a scream! Did you lock the wife up? Poor lass that she is......stuck with a man addicted to games.
Not even going to try to make a rhyme, we're busy doing homework here and I'm too tired to make the time.
See you on the boards.

Sue

Welcome to Boomers, Gordon the brave,
As to your troubles - go back to a save.
But if you persist on attacking the door,
Please think of something new and more,
Than the sheet underneath or the rat chilled to key,
In return, your welcome will hearty be.

Welcome Gordon. I enjoyed the whole thread. Come to the diner when you get a chance and say howdy to everyone. Joe makes the best coffee.

Midgie

I've been seeing this thread as a truly "interactive" text adventure game. However, it turns out there is one big flaw in that notion: Not too many are interested in interacting, are they? So be it.

I just now took some time to read this long thread.

Welcome Gordon!

What a fun adventure. I would like to find out how it ends.

So you're at the locked door with no way out. Could we review your inventory? Is there anything else in the room that can be picked up?

I'm with you sierramindy, this is great.

Hi zookeeper,
Yeah, I would like to know more about the room and anything else that Gordon can come up with!

Ooooh Kaaay! It seems there's a little life left here yet.

Sierramindys got it just right, that's where I intended it to go after the good response to the initial e-mail. This is supposed to be an adventurers forum after all!

Recap for new passengers.

Backpack contains: Two empty buckets (Thanks SM!), oil lamp, matches, three rocks, 20 foot ladder, several exotic plants (now wilting somewhat), a metal lever and a spade. The stick has now mysteriously disappeared as all good, used items do.

Lets explore. I examine the door, but cannot see much.
I use the matches with the lamp, and the lit lamp with the door. I can see a key in the other side of the lock (Isn't there always?) How to get it?

I find an apron on a hook by the door. I "click" on this and begin wearing it.

I check out the freezer - Cold, but empty.
I check the first drawer - It's empty
I check the second drawer - It's empty
This is just wasting time!

I check all the drawers and cupboards, and find: Two empty cereal boxes with teeth marks on them - "Breakfast of Champions" (that rat will eat anything. It even has a Government health warning on it!) and "Shredded Wit" (something I could do with now)

Possibly of more use is: a kitchen knife, a ball of twine, an electrical extension cord, a large plastic bag, a half empty container of cooking oil, and a cook book with nice large pages. (Hint I think! Don't be disappointed yet Nickie!)

There is also a 14 pound sack of rotting potatoes which I also put in my pack. (No use whatsoever to my quest, but you can never carry enough ballast in your backpack!)

I see my reflection in the steel door of the freezer and decide that with the frilly apron on I do not look in any way butch enough to be a fearless adventurer, so I take it off again and consign it to the rats bin where it thankfully does the decent thing and disappears.

Back to the door. Nothing I have will go into the keyhole as its too narrow, except for the twine. However this is too flexible to dislodge the key.

Time for us all to think!

All advice welcome - All contributions gratefully accepted - All aboard - All together now - All's well that ends well - and any other All's you can think of.

Cheers
Gordon24







)

If the locked room is in an old house, there might be a transom above the door. Use that trusty ladder that intrepid adventurers all seem to have in inventory, climb to the transom, push or pull to open it. If it has a lock it will be on the inside, like on windows, so easy to open. Climb out the opening and use the sack of rotten potatoes to cushion your fall. Happy landing!
However, the chances are that I'm just wishful thinking about that transom, which means I haven't been much help, doesn't it, but no one can say I didn't try!

Can you whittle something with the kitchen knife out of a potato to push the key out of the lock. And slip a page from the cookbook under the door for the key to land on. Then pull the page with the key back under the door to your side. Use the key to open the door....FREEDOM!

Great stuff! Now we're starting to cook. (No not the potatoes!)

Sorry sierramindy but no transom, but keep the ladder in mind!

As far as the potatoes are concerned they are too rotten and soft to be whittled into anything. They don't smell too great either!

I take a page from the cookbook and try to slide it under the door, but the floor is too wet with all the spilled water. I need some way to get the floor dry.

I'm also becoming dizzy through lack of sustainance.

Hint -- Maybe I can solve two problems at once.

Keep on working on it.

Cheers
Gordon24

Why not cut a piece of string, dip it in the oil then freeze it to make a stick to poke out the key? Will the plastic bag slide under the door?

Hi Gordon!

At this point in the adventure I'd log onto GameBoomers pull up the walkthrough, and be done with it. Guess I'm no fun huh? Well good luck on getting out of the locked room.


thracia

Usually my style too thracia. If there was one I'd be peeking right now.

But since there's not....I have some ideas but they're not very pleasant. Are you talking about using the rat somehow Gordon? I mean, you could lure it out with those rotton potatos and, assuming it came out with the apron, you could use that to dry the floor. Then after that, along the lines of needing to eat, surely you're not talking about eating the rat, huh? But if you did eat the rat you could use one of the its bones to push the key through. If this is the case, then this game must fall into the horror category.

What about the man with one leg called Pete? Does he come back maybe?
I think you have a good idea, zookeeper, about eating the rat. Use the matches to light the cook book pages and roast the rat after killing it and skinning it with the knife. In these dire circumstances it might even be tasty!

Probably tastes like chicken.

What sort of a strange group of people have I joined?

I thought "Last Half of Darkness" was scary but eating rats! -- Ughh!
I bet dinner parties at your houses are a gastronomic delight.

We are making progress however.
The rat and the apron have departed to the great backpack in the sky, and are no longer available, and the man with one leg called Pete has hopped it.

The plastic bag will also not slide under the door due to the wet floor. We must work out how to dry it, with the apron being gone. What have we in the backpack that is gasping to soak up water?

I like old lady's idea, and use the knife on the twine and soak a length in the oil as suggested. I put it in the freezer but the oil only turns to grease when it gets cold and the twine is still too flexible to move the key.

What else can we soak the twine with that will freeze hard?

Keep it coming we're getting close.

Cheers
Champion of the rodent free diet. Gordon24

So do you have enough twine to soak up the water? Then a piece of that could be frozen and pushed through the keyhole.

Now wait a cotton-picking minute here, our hero Gordon24, according to his own words, was "becoming dizzy through lack of sustainance" (page 6) and then, weak with hunger he throws out a valuable source of protein? Not me, but then my favorite foods are chocolate and peanut butter so what would I know? I'm also lucky enough to have a husband who does the cooking except when we eat out, but he doesn't play adventure games so I can't get him to help us out.

Hi

A very belated "Welcome" to you Gordon24

I have only just waded through this thread but along with other Adventurers here am intrigued as to how you might resolve your dilemma.

Hope it's not one of those DEAD ENDS !!

Weeeeell, you're OK for water

Food though ....
What about holding some pages of your cookbook under the dripping tap, mush them up and then roll them into tiny pellets.
Ration yourself to eating only one at a time of course !!

A tool ....
Cut some twine, hold it under the dripping tap, then freeze it.
Poke the key out of the door with that ??
It will fall onto a cookbook page deftly slipped under the door first ??
[Nah !! Much too easy ]

Devious exits ....
Does this old kitchen not have a pantry with a "secret" trapdoor (hidden under that cupboard on the back wall) that will take you down to the cellar ??
[Beware the Demon down there, of course ]

Or an ancient "secret" dumbwaiter - skillfully concealed behind a bit of wood panelling next to the sink. [Be very wary of the nearly frayed through pull ropes ??]

Pull ropes ?? Even frayed, lots of scope there ....

I presume there isn't a window so there MUST be a ventilation shaft (leading to a maze of course - once you have prised off the cover off and removed the fan) ??

That's my contribution for now

I'll peek here again soon to see whether you kick the bucket and have to re-load
[One of your empty buckets - so handy to have around, aren't they ??]

Or whether you make your escape and move on to Chapter Two

Cheers.

Mad

I looove this thread. Lets be radical here and put everything that is flamable eg cook book etc by door pour on oil set it alight and hid in freezer, being careful not to get locked in, while the door burns down. Freedom!

What I'd really like to know...Where is your grappling hook? No inventory is complete without one! What kind of adventure game is this anyway?

Wheres the rubber chicken and the parrot???

Right let's catch up.

I click on the twine and on the water on the floor.
"I can't use that here" says a voice (Thanks for that ramona! A good way to dispose of a sensible suggestion that doesn't fit my devious plot) However I like the frozen string bit.

Back to the rejected rodent diet. I have a soft spot for rats since I spent several miles on the "Road to India" with one once. I got to quite like him, and the beggar was very hard to catch anyway.
Now if it had been a nice fluffy bunny or a puppy dog instead of a rat, then bring me my knife and fork. (There I hope that has sickened you off the rat once and for all!)

Eating the cookbook? A novel meal! (sorry thats an awful joke - even for me!)
I can imagine -- RECIPE 1 -- Take this book and simmer gently for two hours. There would be no need for a recipe 2 as you would have eaten it making recipe 1.

Sorry no dumb waiters, (just me the dumb writer). No secret passages, trap doors, or anything else other than what has already been noted.

I DO NOT carry grappling hooks anymore. I always used to carry one in my copious trouser pockets until I sat down carelessly one day. -- Say no more.

Despite groans of disappointment I will return eventually to the frozen twine, but I must get the floor dry first so I can catch the key on the other side.

I take another look through my inventory. Everything is in order except for the exotic plants they really are beginning to look worse for wear. I wonder what would help them recover (Large hint!)

So?

Cheers
Gordon24

I know, I know, but I'm not going to say, I'm still hung up on the rat, which I bet does taste like chicken. However, one can't eat a friend, I reckon. So, I'll expand on the hint and just say that exotic plants need water.

Ta Raaa! A fanfare of trumpets for sierramindy.

I use the plants with the water on the floor. They are so thirsty that they avidly suck up all the water until the surface is bone dry. Refreshed they immediately bloom and produce the most succulent of fruit. I take and use this and am hungry no more.

I tear a page from the cookbook and slide it under the door and use the knife to cut a length of twine.

I use the twine with the dripping tap, and the wet twine with the freezer.

I take the frozen twine to the door and -- Oh! By the time I get to the door the twine has melted again and is no use in pushing out the key.

I try this several times but no matter how fast I run I cannot get more than halfway across the (very large) kitchen before the twine thaws out.

What now?

Gordon24