You ought to make the length of rope less. Otherwise one could be a spoilt sport and just tie the rope to the pick axe and swing up to the top of the pit.
It should be short enough for that not to work as is, but I'll take another couple of meters off it... Just for good measure. ;)
Besides, if you do that you will not get any votes since it's an uncreative solution.
In my version of the puzzle the rope is a standard heavy rope which is made of small strands wound around each other into larger strands, which are then again wound around each other into a sturdy rope.
Immediatley our intrepid adventurer realizes that he can take his less than 6 meters of rope, and by unwinding the 3 strands that make it into a rope and typing them end to end, he could make a rope that is at least 10 meters (he knows he'll lose some length when he knots it together)
Unfortunatley he realizes quickly that it will not be so easy, it's just too dark to reliably do anything that delicate.
Upon searching through the dead explorers possesions he finds a month old newspaper and a roll of electrical tape.
He opens his broken flashlight and removes the batteries.
He also takes out his food, a twice baked potato, and removes the aluminum foil wrapping.
he tears the foil into two pieces and twists each of those into a thin wire shape, attatching them to the batteries with the electrical tape he can now short the improvised wires and create a small spark.
Using his makeshift lighter he eventually manages to start a fire with the old newpaper. Now he can see.
He unwinds the strands of rope, and protects them from fraying with the electrical tape, just so he doesn't die in a classic Sierra 'oops, you didn't do EVERYTHING' sort of way, and ties them together to create a thinner but longer rope.
Tying this securley to the pickaxe he now has a makeshift grappeling hook, which he can use to escape the hole
In case this ends at a certain time tommorow I jut wanted to say I plan to enter, just have to finish my entry. :) It's time for this compo to get back in shape! :D
Tough one. Ok, here goes.
>look
You are at the bottom of a pit, accompanied by enough corpses and bones to keep your thoughts from straying to morbidity. The complete darkness is only broken by a faint sheen of luminescent fungus above the pit.
>inv
You have a map of the caves, a broken flashlight, some spare socks, and your lunch.
>look map
Stupid map! This pit wasn't even on there!
>climb wall
You climb a couple of meters up the sheer wall of the pit, then get too tired of the effort and fall back down.
>turn on flashlight
You can't, you broke the lamp when you fell down.
>search bodies
There's nothing much useful on the bodies, as they're mostly skeleton. The only salvageable items are an old but good-quality helmet, and a single zorkmid.
>listen
You hear the faint flutter of bats, and the occasional trip of falling water. Other than that, it's eerily quiet.
>look bat
You don't actually see any bats, you only hear them. But from the brochure you remember them to be vampire bats.
>open flashlight
You open the flashlight and take out the batteries. They seem to be intact.
>get broken glass
You take a piece of broken glass from the flashlight, taking care not to cut yourself.
>cut yourself
Well, if you insist. As you cut yourself, you hear the bats rustling closer to the smell of blood.
>get bat
You flail around wildly at the fluttering bats, but fail to reach any. As they wing off in fright, your only reward is a load of guano dumped at your feet. And hair. And other places.
>get guano
Ok. Yuck.
>look lunch
Your lunch consists of a couple of fresh eggs. Well, mostly fresh eggs. Well, they were fresh when you bought them three weeks ago.
>break egg
Yuck once more! The smell of sulphur streaks through the air as you expose the rotten inside of the egg.
>make fire
How exactly do you want to do that?
>light map with batteries
Holding the poles of the batteries together, you create enough sparks to set your stupid map on fire. It burns up rather quickly, however, leaving you with a blackened mass.
>put guano in sock
>put egg in sock
>put map in sock
>shake sock
Ok. You hope these are the correct quantities!
Spoiler
note - yes, you actually make gunpowder by mixing charcoal, sulphur and saltpeter together. Charcoal = burnt stuff, sulphur is found in rotten eggs, and saltpeter is found in batguano. Don't try this at home folks!
>put sock in helmet
You place the helmet on the floor and put the sock underneath it.
>put rope in sock
You attach the rope to the sock as a makeshift fuse
>light rope
How exactly are you going to do that?
>with the batteries
Oh yeah. Okay, you light your excessively long fuse rope with the sparks from the batteries.
>sit on helmet
Ok
>wait
Time passes
>wait
More time passes
>wait
The fuse has come to an end! A tremendous explosion from your MacGyverish bomb sends the helmet flying sky high, with you on top of it! Wheeee!
>get stalactite
With lightning reflexes, you manage to grab a stalactite before gravity reclaims its pull on you. Wow, well done, you're out of the pit!
Unfortunately, without a map or a lunch, you have no clue how to get out of here. But you have heard some stories of a Great Underground Empire nearby... who knows what elven swords, old lanterns, and speech-impaired wizards live nearby...
To be continued!
Well the competition should be over by now and voting hasn't even started... lets keep things moving along?
We only have two entrys so should we say voting till the 21st?
I vote Radiant.
No. Let's just finish this sorry excuse for a competition. ;)
Ehh... Radiant (if he promises to comment his code from now on!!! ;) )
Wow, this gives me a 75% success rate so far :)
Okay, I'll go and think of some new puzzly thingy, probably in the weekend.
Quote from: YOke on Wed 19/01/2005 19:17:42
(if he promises to comment his code from now on!!! ;) )
Ah <grin> trouble is that if I had, it would probably be in Dutch...
Well I guess seeings as no-one else voted... Radiant wins.. well done dude. Post the next one soon.