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Key & Compass presents:
Founder's Mercy
by Thomas Insel

Founder's Mercy is a Glulx interactive fiction game written with Inform 7 and is © 2019 by Thomas Insel. It was an entry in Spring Thing 2019's Main Festival where it won Best Worldbuilding, Best Puzzles, and Best Implementation participation ribbons.

In this game, you are the last person on the agricultural spacestation RWSS Founder's Mercy. Everyone else has left or died. Your parents were the last. You feel so alone. But today, you will leave this place and find people on another world.

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

SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of an interactive fiction game. Please make an honest effort to play the game before reading this walkthrough.


Map of the RWSS Founder's Mercy

p p u asw sw d asw p d asw asw sw in asw u p out sw asw sw in in u s s d sw asw d d sw u s u sw out sw d out s asw sw asw out out d Pond AntennaControl Airlock Insidethe Hub Platform 1 Platform 5 Platform 3 Pod Bay PodControl Sector 1:Crops Sector 2:Aqua-culture Barn Sector 6:Hydro-ponics SupplyVault Church Sector 3:Forest House Sector 5:Forest Sector 4:Crops SchoolHouse Home Cellar

Walkthrough

Home

> x me. i. x scanner. x jumpsuit.

> x blanket. take it.

> d.

Cellar

> x shelves. x jars.

> x mask. take it. scan mask.

> u. out.

Sector 4: Crops

Note: You can abbreviate spinward to SW and antispinward to ASW.

> x crops. x walls. x hub. x platform. x pylons.

> x panels. x mirrors. x stars.

> sw.

Sector 5: Forest

> x house. x trees. x pylon.

> in.

School House

> x machine. x power. scan it. (functional)

> x instruction. scan it. (faulty)

> take power. take faulty. drop it.

> x chalkboard. x desk. x eraser. take it.

> erase board. (Eraser is now dusty.)

> out. sw.

Sector 6: Hydroponics

> x machines. scan machines.

> d.

Supply Vault

> x boots. wear boots.

> x crate. look in crate. (You take two modules.)

> scan pressure. scan instruction.

> u. (A laser scan stops you.)

> clap eraser. (The dust reveals where the laser is.)

> u. (+1. You bypass the laser.)

Sector 6: Hydroponics

> sw.

Sector 1: Crops

> x crops. x graveyard. x barn.

> in.

Barn

> x plow. scan it. x hoe. take it.

> out. d.

Pod Control

> x brass plate. x pressure suit.

> x pump. x unscanned power. scan it. (faulty)

> x unscanned pressure. scan it. (faulty)

> take all faulty.

> x display. (Three problems to fix.)

> u. sw.

Sector 2: Aquaculture

> x pond. x fish.

> drop all faulty. (just to lighten the load)

> remove boots. wear mask. enter pond. (+1)

> remove mask. wear boots. scan mask.

> sw.

Sector 3: Forest

> x house. x church. x red pylon.

> p.

Church

> x altar. x book. x organ. x cable. x unit.

> scan unscanned power. (faulty)

> take it. drop it.

> put functional power in unit.

> play organ.

> unplug cable from organ.

> take unit. take cable.

> out. s.

House

> x doll. (You don't need it.)

> out.

Sector 3: Forest

You must have the boots on to be able to climb the red pylon.

> u.

Platform 3

> x breaker. scan it. turn it on. (+1)

> sw.

Platform 5

The pigeons are unimportant but try to interact with them anyway.

> x pigeons. take pigeons. search pigeons. scan pigeons.

> d. in.

School House

> take power. put it in machine.

> put functional instruction in machine.

A hologram appears. A history lesson begins.

> z. z. z. z. z. z. z.

Crop rotation lesson begins.

> z. z. z. z. z.

Hard work lesson begins.

> z. z. z. z. z.

The history lesson begins again.

> take power.

> out. sw. sw. d.

Pod Control

> x display. put power in pump.

> put functional pressure in pump. (+1)

> close hatch. p. (+1)

Pod Bay

Hey, where's my car? Guess you'll need to call a taxi.

> x berths. x pile.

> x sensor. take it. scan it.

> x comms. scan it. take it.

> s.

Pod Control

> take power.

> close port. u. sw. sw.

Sector 3: Forest

> u. asw. u.

Inside the Hub

> wear blanket. (because it's cold up here)

> p.

Airlock

> close starboard. wear mask.

> turn handle. (air rushes out)

> port. (+2)

Antenna Control

First, get some air in here:

> x sensor. (It's flashing red.)

> x window. x panels. x antennas.

> x lever. push it. put hoe in it. (+1)

> push lever. (Air rushes in.)

> x sensor. (amber)

> remove mask. scan sensor.

Next, calibrate the antenna. The PDF feelie that comes with the game tells you these non-randomized calibration values:

> x panel. x display.

Epsilon/Lime > type 3

Delta/Plum > type 8

Gamma/Banana > type 5

Beta/Cherry > type 2 (+1)

> x dish.

Finally, connect up your comm unit:

> put power in audio.

> plug gray into comms.

> plug yellow into comms. (+1)

> z.

Someone at OV-random-number answers your call.

*** You are not alone. ***


Extras

Characters


Credits

About Founder's Mercy

This is my second released Inform project, conceived and implemented in the last months of 2018.

Thanks to everyone contributed to the Inform and Glulx ecosystem. Thanks also Juhana Leinonen for the Object Response Tests extension, Erik Temple for the Real-Time Delays extension, and Sean Turner for the Plugs and Sockets extension. Exit listing code is inspired by Eric Eve's Exit Lister and keypad code is inspired by Emily Short's Computers.

The cover art is adapted from Figure 1.1 from NASA SP-413, Space Settlements: A Design Study, edited by Richard D. Johnson and Charles Holbrow, and available from The Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/SpaceSettlementsADesignStudy1977 .

Please send your feedback, bug reports, and requests for help to email redacted. You can always find the current version of this story at http://tinsel.org/IF/ .

This work is Copyright © 2019 Thomas Insel but may be freely shared according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).


Endings


Inventory

Clothing
Modules

Modules are initially described as unscanned. Scan all of them with your scanner to learn if they are functional or faulty.

Everything else

Score

The response to SCORE is:

You have so far scored your-score out of a possible 10, in some turns.

How points are awarded:


Thank You to my Patreon supporters

This walkthrough was funded via Patreon with