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Key & Compass presents:
And the Waves Choke the Wind
by Gunther Schmidl

And the Waves Choke the Wind is a Z-machine interactive fiction game written with Inform 6 and is © 1999–2000 by Gunther Schmidl. It was an entry in IF Comp 2000 where it took 16th place. This is a preview version of the game and, unfortunately, the only version; the complete game was never released.

The year is 1696. You play as Ranil Kuami, a young black man who, until recently, was a sailor on the pirate ship "Dagon". Because you dared to speak out about something strange you saw in the sea, Captain Davids ordered you tied up and set adrift in a lifeboat. What did you see? What is Davids' secret? And how will you survive this?

This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the game.


Map

(carried) d u d d (DIE) up / x mass u n swim u HotTunnel DarkTunnel DarkTunnel GiganticCave Reefformation Ship'sHold Cliff ShallowWater Reefside HighPlateau Plateau SandyBeach SteepDrop PathDown ScenicView Land'sEnd VolcanoRim NarrowGap SteepClimb RockyTrail Shore Shore Ocean Lifeboat

Walkthrough

Prologue: The Madness from the Sea

Lifeboat

You wake, bound and gagged in a lifeboat. It's raining.

> about. (+1)

> manual. (Press 'N' several times to page through the manual; press 'Q' when you're done.)

> xyzzy. (For the credits sequence.)

During the next few turns, your attempts to act are ignored as you begin to remember what happened.

> z. z. z. (A small island appears.)

> x island. x me. note 1. (Knife in boot!)

> x boots. x knife.

> i. who am i. (Flashback: How you became a sailor.)

> note 2. note 3.

> x rope. x gag. x cloth. x rain.

Okay, let's get serious about escaping our bondage. Note that while your arms are tied, you can only hold one item at a time.

> remove boots. take right boot.

> empty right bootorshake right boot.

> drop right boot. take knife. (+1)

> cut rope with knife. g. g. (+1)

> remove cloth. remove gag.

> x gull. x mist.

There's no oars or paddles, so you'll have to swim for it. To reach the island safely, you must travel light. Keep only your knife and talisman.

> x clothes. remove clothes. drop clothes.

> jump in waterorswim.

Ocean

CAUTION: If you try to swim to shore with either your clothes or boots, you'll drown.

> n. (+3)


Chapter One: Of Dark Things and Midnight Places

Shore (east end)

Cutscene: Dreaming on the Island shore.

> take knife. x talisman. (Flashback: How you got the Talisman.)

> touch talisman. (Cutscene: The Vision from the Talisman; lose some Sanity.)

> note 4.

Check yourself out:

> x me. x ring.

> x hair. x dreadlocks. x pubic hair.

> x head. x face. x eyes. x nose. x mouth. x ears. x neck.

> x body. x skin. x arms. x hands. x legs. x feet.

> x genitals. x ass. x nipples.

And look around you before you go explore the island:

> x sand. x rock. x sea.

> ne.

Rocky Trail

> x spires. n.

Narrow Gap

> x gap. ne.

Scenic View

> x waterfall. enter waterfall. (Cutscene: The Search for Ranil.)

> nw.

Sandy Beach

The waves aren't touching the sand; lose some Sanity.

> x sand. w. n. n.

Reef formation

> x reef. x water. d.

Reef side

> x tunnel. in. (A current prevents you.)

> u. s. s. w.

High Plateau

> x lava. n.

Cliff

> x hole.

Let's backtrack:

> s. e. e. se. sw. s. sw. w.

Shore (west end)

> nw. u.

Volcano Rim

The sun hasn't moved in an hour; lose some Sanity.

> x sun. x lava. x bridge. w.

Land's End

> x crab. x spire. e. n.

Sheer Drop

> x ocean. x crack. e. d. ne.

Hot Tunnel

CAUTION: Don't go northwest from here; you'll fall into lava and die.

> sw. nw. nw.

Gigantic Cave

> x altar. x blood. x pool.

> touch mass. eat mass. note 5.

> uporx mass.

A giant eye looks at you; lose some Sanity. Panicking, you dive into the pool, swim to the end of a tunnel to where the "Dagon" is anchored.

Sandy Beach

Quartermaster Jones is charging at you. Run!

As far as I know, you can't escape Jones. You can't fight him. You can't hide from him. And there's nowhere you can run to where Jones can't follow. But run anyway.

> se. sw. s. sw. w. nw.

Steep Climb

> u. (That would take too long!)

Jones catches you, ties you up, then starts to carry you back to the ship.

> x Jones. talk to Jones. x rope. z. z. z. z. z. z.

Reef formation

When Jones reaches here, he stops to hogtie you. Cutscene: At Quartermaster Jones' mercy.


Chapter Two: A Rough Whimper of Insanity

Cutscene: In the Hold; +4 points. Then you dream...

Island shore

You have no real agency in this dream setting. Try whatever actions you want.

> w. x clouds. x rock. z. z. z. z. z.

Eventually a tentacle grabs your throat.

> x tentacle. (You lose some Sanity; the dream ends.)

Hold?

Someone's given you air, and you're lying down now. You hear Davids ask you to talk to him.

> talk to Davids. (Davids removes your blindfold and gives you some water.)

Ship's Hold

> x Davids. talk to Davids. (This opens a conversation menu.)

"I'm alright." "Untie me...!" "What the ...?" "Stop that!" You sigh. You moan. "You were not!" "You saved ...!" You moan. "I respect ..." "After what ...!" "I love ..." "What are ...!" "Don't stop ..." "I would feel ..." You answer ... You let it ... You turn ... Kissed!Then Whipped! Untied!Jones Falls!

The menu items aren't numbered. Press N or the down-arrow key to change the focus to the next menu item. Press P or the up-arrow key to go to the previous item. Select an item by pressing ENTER.

You have two possible endings; I'll list one possible conversation traversal for each.

> "What the hell were you doing?"

> "You were not! You were kissing me!"

> "I love you too, Patrik."

> You answer his kiss.

Unfortunately, Jones and two other seamen see this. Jones knocks out Davids and you with a cosh. Cutscene: Davids gets a whipping. Now Jones starts to whip you.

*** You have completed the preview ***

> undo

> talk to Davids.

> "Untie me right now, damn you!"

> "Stop that! Stop fondling me!"

> "After what you've done to me? Ha!"

He unties you and gets clothes for you. As you dress, Jones jumps on Davids, but you warn Davids in time. Davids sidesteps, Jones falls, and you kick Jones unconscious.

*** You have completed the preview ***


Extras

Boxquotes


Characters

Seen in flashbacks:

Mentioned:


Endings


Footnotes

Footnotes are unlocked/referenced by the following actions:

Footnote Redisplay can be toggled on and off via the SETUP menu.


Inventory

Although not mentioned by the inventory command, you also have:


Movies

Cutscene sequences can be triggered by your actions and in-game events. You can rewatch these sequences via the command MOVIE or MOVIES. Movie Autoplay and Movie Replay can be toggled on and off via the SETUP menu.


Sanity

Sanity is reported in the status bar. You begin with 100 Sanity. Disturbing events reduce your Sanity; how much you lose seems to be randomly determined.

I can only speculate what happens when you lose all your Sanity. There aren't enough disturbing events in this preview game to reduce your Sanity to zero.

I also note that attempts at suidical actions are negated throughout the game, on the grounds that you don't really want to do such things. I speculate that in the complete game, if your Sanity gets quite low, perhaps suidical actions would then be permitted.

Sanity notification can be toggled on and off. Use the SETUP command to display the setup menu.


Score

You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 100, in several turns.

As far as I can tell, only 10 points can be earned in this preview version.


Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with