Laboratory (By the Table) Score: 0/7 Time left: 300
You are Zegrothenus, a wizard of some renown, respected for many potions and infamous for a few magical items (but those were experiments in your youth!). It was a dark and stormy night when you learned that your wizard's license would not be automatically renewed this year; the new Council bylaw required all member wizards to invent one artifact every half-decade.
You demanded an explanation. They did not have you specifically in mind, the Council said -- the Council being Faluna, Galadel the Fiery, and Jokan -- but you knew better. Jokan never liked you ("Earth wizards reek," he had informed you three years ago to this day); Galadel considered potions to be strictly amateur; and Faluna, you should have known that half-elves would take break-ups hard. They sent you to your lab, and then those -- curse them! -- "wizards" magically sealed the exits! They set up a pouring potion, as if to mock you, to illustrate how much time you had left. They even said that such measures were required by your penchant for procrastination! The swine!
Moments trickled by as you considered your options. At last, you balled your hands into fists. Very well! You would escape the fastest way possible, by whipping up a potion to startle them all. THAT would show that smirking Council!
You look around your woefully understocked lab, every step reminding you of something else missing. Heaving a deep sigh, you find consolation only in your well-stocked library and extensive glassware collection. You will make a potion, but which one should you make? The question confounds you; all you can think of doing is paging through your formulary until inspiration strikes.
* * * * * * *
Some days you make the potion, but today the potion makes you -- or breaks you.
Release 5 / Serial number 041112 / Inform v6.30 Library 6/11 S
ORLibrary release 1.3C + VCM Extensions 1 (2010.05.31)
You are standing in the center of your laboratory, by the circular chest-level table that looks like the stump of a tree. On further inspection, however, the table reveals that it is comprised of finely-corrugated steel painted and shaped to mimic natural wood. The table sprouts upwards like a mushroom, with an oak vat crouching beneath its eaves and a ceramic black cover, that at one time slid back to allow access to the hollow core. Your glassware spans the surface, and a steel band just below the surface provides hooks for tools. Suspended from the ceiling horizontally in the center of a rusty chain, a low oil lamp provides a bright yellow-gold light.
In addition to all your glassware, the lab table holds: flask one, flask two, flask three, flask four, a lead tray and a mortar.
Eri sits on her haunches, right behind you, as if expecting something.
That accursed reddish potion floats in the air, frothy-white vapors escaping. Over three-fourths remains.
[Type HELP for useful information on the main character, his world, and how this game works. Be sure to expand the playing window to see how much time remains.]
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