The Reliques of Tolti-Aph — 27 of 57

Section S(f) - The Marshes

A marsh room is a kind of room. Marshy Hollow and Log Pontoon are marsh rooms.

The Marshy Hollow is southeast of Icefinger Ford. "Even the wall-sized slabs and boulders of the ruined city are disturbed here, hanging at crazy angles in a marshy, dangerously festooned swamp-hollow. The only possible safe route out of here is back upriver, to the northwest. Although a sort of pontoon of logs lies east, there's something you really, really don't like about the look of it."

The pontoon of logs is scenery in the Marshy Hollow. Instead of doing something to the pontoon of logs, say "The pontoon lies further east."

Before going up in the Marshy Hollow, try going northwest instead.

Instead of going nowhere from a marsh room:

say "The marsh swirls as it sucks you into its turbulent belly.";

end the story saying "You have drowned in marsh".

The Log Pontoon is east of the Marshy Hollow. "This platform - who built it, and why? - is like a log raft adrift on a river; but it is static in the midst of a deadly marsh, which if anything deepens on every side except to the west." Instead of praying in the Log Pontoon, say "The gods of such a place as this are - well, not the talkative kind."

In the Log Pontoon is a marsh spectre. A platinum pyramid is in the Log Pontoon. "Balanced on the pontoon, and straining its load-bearing capacity to the uttermost, is a waist-high pyramid of what looks like solid platinum." Instead of doing something to the platinum pyramid when combat proceeds, say "You cannot even get a good look at the pyramid so long as the spectre is haunting you." The platinum pyramid is fixed in place. The description of the platinum pyramid is "It seems to be some sort of altar, consecrated here to the hideous gods of the undead marshes. It is scrawled all over with incomprehensible sigils and glyphs, not at all well written." Understand "sigil", "sigils", "glyph" and "glyphs" as the platinum pyramid. The platinum pyramid is metal.

The platinum pyramid is inscribable. Carry out writing "begone bleak days of drowning time" on platinum pyramid: if the player does not know dragon sleep, increase the score by 12; now the player knows dragon sleep;[1] say "After you scrawl these sacred words onto the pyramid with the feather, you step one (but only one) pace back. Communing in this special place with the hideous shadows of the dead - but was this not, a moment before, a deserted marsh - you feel seized with a sense of purpose and ability." instead. Understand "begone bleak days of drowning time" as a mistake ("Nice try, but nothing happens."). Carry out writing it on: if the second noun is the platinum pyramid, say "Even as you scrawl that on the platinum face of the pyramid, it seems the wrong thing to say, and your hand falters."