The Reliques of Tolti-Aph

An interactive fiction by Graham Nelson (2005) - the Inform 7 source text

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Part II - The Reliques of Tolti-Aph Scenario

Use undo prevention.^[1]

When play begins, say "It used to be said that there are two kinds of magic-user: those who have been to Tolti-Aph, and charlatans. It used to be generally understood that the attempt to prove oneself in the unforgiving society of Tolti-Aph was a bid for rapid level advancement or else romantic, thin-young-mage-in-midnight-black-robes death. The closer you get to the wilderness island vaguely marked 'Tholtaff' on the agate globe in your great-great-grandfather's study, the better the alternative sounds: settling down in some coastal village, perhaps, a little weathermongering, some polymancy, and helping out with the nets after a bad storm. Retire at maybe level 3, with most of your experience points gained from observing rare fish-based poisons carry off those villagers careless about gutting. Publish an awesomely tedious monograph on the correct usage of the 'untangle rigging' spell. You know, the good life."

[The ruined city is divided into four quarters, north, south, east and west of a central Ziggurat: those five zones form the five chapters of the scenario. The player begins at the southernmost tip of the southern quarter, so that chapter comes first.]

Note

[1]. Oh my, this was unpopular. The trouble was that play-testers would get into battle with some monster, then UNDO on every turn in which they didn't roll a hit. So I withdrew UNDO, though in fact on some interpreters there are ways to UNDO even if the game does not want to: but a majority of the testers felt that to UNDO was an inalienable right. I'm not sure whether I should capitulate or not, but it makes a better example of unusual game mechanics to leave this in, so that might as well be the deciding factor.