Headscratchers / Zork

New entries on the bottom.

Swords and grues

• Why doesn't the sword keep grues away? It should glow whenever a grue is near.
  • Good point. In Spellbreaker, it's said that even light that's very dim by human standards is painful for a grue to look at. On the other hand, some aspects of grues and their fear of light vary Depending on the Writer.
  • It could be that, while it does glow, and grues do hate even dim light, a grue approaching from behind would have the light source blocked entirely until it ripped the adventurer's head off. This is assuming the sword's even being held out in the open and not kept in Hammerspace.
  • The sword would repel grues, which would mean you wouldn't be in danger, which means it wouldn't glow, which means that it wouldn't repel grues, which means you would be in danger, which means the sword would glow, which means it would repel grues... Most likely, the enchantment that makes it glow specifically excludes grues to avoid this Logic Bomb.
  • If the sword glowed when there were grues nearby, that feature would be useless. It would just always glow whenever you weren't outside, because grues are everywhere.

Friendly Thief

• Why couldn't you make friends with the thief? He's a cool guy!
  • Well, you sorta could. It's very unlikely he'll attack you unless you enter his hideout or try to take his bag. You can even give him treasures if you want.
  • Remember, the thief steals the torch, i.e. the only light source in the game that doesn't eventually burn out. That's not cool, that's trying to get you killed by a grue.
  • Especially seeing as he can get around the G.U.E just fine, despite not carrying any source of light on him. Means he has no reason to steal it except to be a dick.
  • Well, the torch is actually one of the game's treasures, so he has that reason to steal it at least. Since he's, y'know, a thief.
  • Most importantly, you must loan him the jewel-encrusted egg so he can open it cleanly (magically).

Underground Empire

• Every dark area is likely to be filled with grues. Does that mean that residents of the Underground Empire are forced to always have lights on, lest they get eaten by grues?
  • Yes, in Return to Zork you can actually pay money to rent a room in the inn, and if you don't bring your own light source you *will* be eaten by a grue when you turn out the lights to go to sleep.
  • Makes one wonder why there's even an off-switch option at all. Never actually solved that puzzle, but I can't help but feel that that creepy innkeeper lady Molly purposely wants me to die so she can loot my body in the morning.
  • You need to at least turn off the BRIGHT light in the room and sleep by the illumynite (dim) light.
  • Zork Zero shows that before 883 and the collapse of the Empire all grues lived in bottomless pits. When you use a Frobozz Magic Anti-Pit Bomb on the course of your adventures, the grues living in the pits are driven out and have to inhabit other lightless areas.

Solved Survivor

• Why the heck does anybody in Return to Zork still play Survivor? It's a solved game. If you omit the "wizard may pass" rule, Canuk wins every time, while if you include it, Trembyle always wins. More importantly, why does Morpheus, the Big Bad of the game, use a solved game to determine his victims' fates? That's just asking for trouble.

Mages and wizards

• Return to Zork implies that there's a distinction between mages and wizards, but what is it?
  • Maybe it's kinda like Dungeons & Dragons, and it's a question of studied vs. instinctive magic? Or maybe the sources are different some other way, with wizards relying on their own abilities while mages get spirits to do the work for them? That might explain why it's the mage (Canuk) and not the wizard (Trembyle) that ends up getting possessed...

Grue appearance

• Though this troper always imagined the grues looking like the monster kirisakin from the kirby anime (found here: https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/kirby/images/c/c4/Crusade_for_the_Blade_4.png/revision/latest?cb=20100106212004&path-prefix=en ) Are they ever described in game?
  • Yes. In the Undiscovered Underground. Also, in any Zork trilogy game, ask "What is a grue?".
    • The Headscratcher is about physical appearance. "What is a grue" does not give you a physical appearance, probably because (at least theoretically) no one's ever seen one clearly and lived.
  • Zork Nemesis (the one everyone forgot because it had a *SHARP* tone-shift and was generally not-funny after the first five minutes) has a picture of a "Grue in its natural habitat." It's a black square.