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Level Three: My Dad, The Whale

We were last shown three stick puzzles by the man with the kayak, and it seems clear enough what they spell out.

"Red, yes, that's the word," says the man. He leans close, until you can smell his breath, and says, "Red is the wizard's robe."

"So?" you say.

He shrugs embarrassedly. "The shaman told me to tell you that. Here, I will show you how to use the kayak." It takes a few minutes, but soon you are proficient with the craft.

Nothing left to do but launch, I suppose.

Out onto the frigid sea you paddle. Seals play around you; terns wheel overhead. You skirt iceflow after iceflow.

The beast is of tremendous size. It floats along side you, and rolls so that one of its comparatively tiny eyes may see you. It expels a breath from its blowhole with a spray of seawater.

I guess we'll say hello.

"Greetings, Father Whale," you say. "Can you tell me..."

He returns your greetings with a series of bass booms, high-pitched squeaks, and painful moans. It occurs to you that verbal communication may be difficult.

Hah! I'm not fooled this time, MadMaze. I've got a magic talisman for just this sort of thing. Let's see... maybe Spirit?

You feel Father Whale's spirit. It glows brightly; it is a great one. You feel that he is kindly disposed to you; but that is all. Spiritual communication does not permit the exchange of information. Perhaps a different form of magic would work?

There are two options here to talk with Father Whale. The most obvious is Mind, to establish a psychic link:

You feel Father Whale's mind. It is slow, vast, different from yours; but through the power of the Talisman, you establish a kind of communion. "Greetings, landling," he says.

The other is to use the power of Air again. Quite a versatile little element thus far.

In any event, we can talk to Father Whale now. Let's see what he knows of the maze.

"I do not understand," says Father Whale. And no matter how you try, you cannot get him to understand the notion of a walled corridor, or twists, or turns. As far as Father Whale knows, the world is the ocean, and the ocean is vast. There are no mazes. Land is little bits of deadness, where landlings live. That is all.

So much for that. Hopefully he'll be more understanding about our quest.

Father Whale listens patiently, and then he says, "I do not fully understand. But you wish to gain Star Woman's favor?"

We do. Or at least, it appears that we do.

You have a long and fascinating conversation with Father Whale. You learn much about the life of the sea. At last, you take your leave.

Thanks, dad! Back to the maze then, and let's keep climbing. I feel ready for anything the MadMaze can throw at us.

Except choice. Options are scary.

Alternate Solutions & Deaths

If we decide to kill kayak guy...

Luckily, the game has no sense of permanence, so Star Woman completely ignores this! Eat shit, kayak guy.

When we meet Father Whale, we can do an impromptu Moby-Dick on him for no clear reason.

You plunge Valterre into the whale's blubber. It arches its spine in pain; then, its flukes hit the water with a tremendous crash. It begins to move rapidly away from you.

Huh, I guess Father Whale was a carnivore the whole time. A man always learns new things about his parents.

But just you wait, we're not done trying to kill Father Whale just yet. No, no: We have the Talisman. Let's try freezing this sucker with Cold first.

Not quite. He got away. But he won't get away from Fire or Lightning, which produce the same effect with slightly different descriptions:

You know what we must do.

I sure hope Star Woman doesn't get too upset about this. At least we ate what we killed?